Amster12345

I'm set up to go on a NCL cruise in Japan leaving March 31st of 2024. This is my first time on Norwegian.  On the other lines, Princess, Holland, RCCL you can do your checkins and reservations months in advance of your sailing date.  But for this cruise, I can't check in until 21 days before sailing date.  Is this standard for NCL?  It seems kind of strange to me.

10 hours ago, WESTEAST said:

Been in contact with GoWithGuide for tour in Kyoto. They reply quickly and will customize to your preferences.  In process of navigating train travel info from Kobe to Kyoto and return - approximately 30 minutes distance before we finalize.

Good to know.  I will contact them and see what I can set up.  It looks like we dock at 7am.  Ideally I'd like a long tour day in Kyoto and return to Kobe that evening.  Maybe get a tour in Osaka the next day.

On 10/6/2023 at 12:39 PM, WESTEAST said:

Will do. We are on Oceania and have an overnight as well.

Are you spending the night in Kyoto?

Now that I'm looking into it further, NCL Jewel, which I'm on, also docks in Kobe.  Which is a considerable distance from Kyoto.  The good thing is that we overnight there, so getting back to the ship on time the first day isn't a concern.  Westeast, let me know what you find out.

I'm looking into hiring a private English speaking guide for a day in Kyoto for a small group.  There are quite a few companies that do this.  Viator, GoWithGuide, ToursByLocals, and many more.  Does anyone have a recommendation of who to go with?

This is a concern for me too. I have a Cal coast cruise booked the end of March, so the final payment is due in December. When I booked it three weeks ago, the only Covid requirement was full vaccination, which we are, so no problems there. But we have no desire to cruise with the new protocols in place. It would not feel like a vacation to us if we have to wear masks around the ship. 
I called the Princess rep and asked if I could cancel the cruise after final payment because of a new set of rules from Princess, and get a refund. She said no.  I would only get a partial refund or partial credit for future cruise.  I'll wait till December to see what's up, but I may end up cancelling.  Which is too bad, that was sort of my birthday present. It doesn't seem right to change rules on their side, but not change payment rules - but there's probably some small print somewhere I didn't read.

CarelessAndConfused, your assumptions are partially correct.  I'm Platinum, my son is not.  But it's been five or six years since we sailed on Princess.  At that time, you had to pay for Wifi by the hour and my son was still under 21.  And I had no idea what current costs are, which is why I was asking.

He'll want a soda package, so I don't know what's available now that he's 21. He doesn't drink alcohol, but does go thru a few sodas every day.  I like a coffee in the morning and maybe one drink a day.  We'd both want internet, so I guess that's $5 and $10.  I'm probably right at the tipping point between the two.  

Thanks for the info.

I'm looking at a California Coast cruise on Majestic next March.  There would be two adults.  There's a $280 difference between the regular price and the Value price that includes drinks and Wi-Fi and crew incentive.  I'm trying to figure out if it is worth it, because I can't find the price of these things individually.   Does anyone know?  I know once you have a cruise booked you can get to the menu to add extras like that, but I don't think I can get to it before I book the cruise.

I'm so excited to actually be asking questions about a cruise again!!

For some situations they are perfect.  I had connecting cabins on my last RCCL cruise and loved them.  It was me and my 14 yr old son in one room, my brother in the connecting one.  Normally we all share a larger cabin, but get in each other's way a bit.  My brother loved the extra privacy he got this way.  Of course we'd knock or call before going into the other room.  And we all liked not having to go out into the hallway if we did want to talk to each other. 

If there were people I didn't know in the other room, then not having a door would definitely be preferable.  So ideally, the connecting cabins are left for large families.

Thanks for the info.  There are two of us.  We'll just grab a taxi!

I'm flying into Singapore a couple days before my cruise.  I'm staying at the Marina Mandarin.  The hotel wants $117 SGD, about $86 in USD, to pick us up at the airport and bring us to the hotel.  According to GoogleMaps, it's about a 19km drive.  That sounds really expensive to me.  Is it?  How much do taxis there cost?  Or Uber if people use that there? 

My doctor said that I should get Hepatis and Tetanus.  He said to bring insect repellant with 20 to 30% DEET for skin protection and Permethrin to spray on clothing.  He said if you sticking to cities and the places most tourists go, malaria wasn't a real risk.  

Standard minutes as shown in Captains Club information. Depends on length of cruise.

Thanks!

I'm just curious, are there any included minute for Platinum level cruisers on Princess? I'm on the Sapphire next February and I'm trying to decide which package to get. That ship still seems to have the packages based on number of minutes.

We did the escape room on the Sapphire Princess, it was really good, highly recommend it. We signed up at the beginning of the cruise, it is free, and they send you an invitation to meet somewhere and lead you to the room.

Which cruise was this on and when? I'm on the Sapphire next February. I'd love to do this. I've done them at home in San Diego, as well as a really fun scavenger hunt/mystery, where you didn't escape, but you walked around for a few hours finding clues and solving a murder mystery. I've looked through the sign-ups and haven't seen anything about this. Would you know before the cruise or do you have to sign up on board?

Having been on my first Princess cruise 35 years ago, I can definitely concur. We don't want to pay the surcharge and only eat in the MDR or the buffet. The food offerings are not up to the standard they were back then. It's been a gradual decline, but definitely a decline. I remember lobsters and prime rib on formal nights, baked alaskas with waiters slicing it at the table, tasty midnight buffets. They had better cuts of meat in the MDR, since they weren't looking to sell them in the "fee" restaurants.

I took a break from Princess and did a RCCL cruise two years ago, but was on Princess in summer 2014. I'll have to see how next February compares.

Soda runs $2-3usd plus 15% gratuity. Mocktails run about $5USD plus gratuity. Juices in the same range.. Soda and More does not include bottled water (ship's water is perfectly clean and safe to drink, reusable water bottle is a great Idea), and doesn't include specialty coffees and.. Also doesn't include canned sodas, just the fountain stuff. They're supposed to pour a glass of the canned ones that aren't available ad fountain, such as root beer or orange sods - YMMV

Mocktails can be virtually anything from the bar, as long as they have the ingredients. Virgin mudslide, pina colada, daiquiris, nojito, and so on..

2 sodas and a mocktail a day cover the cost. Or two mocktails

Or 3-4 sodas.

Thanks!

We are on a cruise next February and are looking at packages. We don't drink a lot of alcohol, so we're not worried about that one. I'm trying to decide if the "Sodas and more" is worth $8.05 a day. How much does a soda cost? A mocktail? A juice? What other drinks are included?

Interesting. I just checked my reservation on Sapphire for February, and they still have the internet packages by the minute. I was hoping for the new packages.

I have one booked for my upcoming cruise. It is a new thing, the last time I sailed with Princess they didn't exist. I ended up booking it because the price for a mini-suite only covered one at the very front or very back of the ship. My travel partner wanted to be closer to the middle, so the price went up. At that point, it wasn't that much extra to get the Club Class mini. On Sapphire, all the central mini-suites are designated club class. I think it is a way to make extra money, like the airlines charging more for the seats they know people will want.

Thanks everyone. Looks like some sort of changes may be happening. Let's hope they are positive! I love the unlimited packages on Royal Caribbean so would be very happy with something like that ;p

My last cruise was on Royal Caribbean. (I had to do the Mediterranean on that line because it had an overnight stop in Venice.) I really liked the daily fee for unlimited internet instead of the pay by minute packages that Princess normally has. Hopefully the price will be reasonable. On Royal, they had two packages - regular and high-speed. I was happy with the regular. I got the high-speed for my son, a friend of mine also got high speed, for gaming and streaming movies. Neither one thought the speed was high enough for that kind of activity.

My last cruise was with RCCL. They had two internet packages, one equivalent to the surf and one to the premium. They don't have packages with specific amounts of minutes. I was happy with the surf package. People who paid for the higher packages and expected to stream or online game with the speed they have at home were a little disappointed.

I have a question. When I was looking at cabin choices for the next cruise, I noticed this new cabin choice. Has anyone stayed in one? It looks like it's a regular mini-suite, but you get to go to dinner without waiting in lines. Is there anything else? Is it worth the extra money?

Thanks!

I've been on quite a few cruises, maybe 16 or so. For the majority of those, we flew in the day of the cruise. Arrived late morning, boarded the ship in the afternoon. Then we ran into the one time it almost all fell apart. We were running around LAX trying to get standby on another flight since ours was going to be four hours late, late enough to miss the cruise. The people who had used PrincessAir were definitely more relaxed than we were. We got another flight and made the cruise, but it was close. After that we started flying in the day before, especially if we had to go overseas, just for our own peace of mind. That being said, we never had the same problem again. So I think most of the time, it is a safe thing to do. Definitely use the Princess EZ Air. You should be safe with that.

I had done so many cruises on Princess that I thought that was the norm. Internet availability, but very SLOW and very expensive. I always buy a package for 150 minutes and use it sparingly to check email every day. The last cruise we did was on Royal Caribbean. They do it completely differently. In a way more expensive, but also much more available. Instead of paying about $1/minute, you pay $25 per day. So for a ten day cruise, it's a lot. But it is available 24/7. Use it as much or as little as you want. It's not the fastest, but it's much faster than Princess. For $35 per day, they had a quicker speed for streaming video, but honestly we didn't notice that big a difference between the two.