Bocadude85

The Village Pub in Wilton Manors is a fun place... if your looking for an actual club experience then The Manor would be the place to go.

Hardly a fair comparison: if you are able to pick you seats without paying extra on AA you are a very frequent flyer, not just an occasional vacation traveler. We also fly AA almost exclusively but we also have to pay extra because we do not have enough miles to be gold or anything near.

I do not fly enough to be Gold by any means. I go to AA.com and I log into my AA advantage account and book my flights. Once the flight is paid for I go back to my advantage account and click my trips and then select the flight I booked. Then there is a link you can click that says change seats, a seating map comes up and you pick the seats you want. The only thing I could think of that would be any different from anyone else is that I have the Citi AA credit card but I seriously doubt that has anything to do with it.

American Airlines flat out markets this way. I had to pay for "choice" and that choice was to pick my seat. I think it was at least $20 and the throw in some other "perks" with it. I am claustrophobic (I am the only person that didn't love the studio room on the Epic) so I will not sit on the inside of a row/middle/window so it was worth it to me, but you used to be able to choose your seat with your fare.

I fly exclusively with AA and have always been able to choose my own seat without paying a extra fee. I just booked my airfare to Barcelona and was able to choose my own seats without any issues or extra fees.

We love Turkey, it is one of our favorite countries to visit. The people there are so friendly and not once did we feel unsafe.

We never see price decreases I guess because we always book aft suits. Our Panama Cruise 2015 is up $900 pp.

We never see price drops either.... our up coming Spirit cruise is up $400

Thanks for the responses Crystalkrt and Yurita.

 

We are leaning towards the Oasis. To be honest, I don't know why I can't shake the Getaway. Every time I think we have made a decision I start looking at the virtual photos of the NCL ship again and move back to undecided. Something about the style of the ship appeals to my gay genes I think. LOL

 

Yurita- I will admit that the mixed reviews of the Breakaway, the sister ship to the Getaway, has been the main thing keeping me from going that route. I sure hope the Getaway has some of those issues worked out....whether we sail on it or not.

 

Plus I love the wide open spaces on Oasis.

 

I loved your quote, "If you want an 'out-of-this-world' experience, where romantic meets fun, fun meets awesome, and awesome meets UNBELIEVABLE!!, the Oasis is the one for you."

 

Is that on a brochure somewhere??? If it isn't, it definitely should be!

If you want to splurge a little then I would suggest you book a suite with NCL. The suite experience with NCL is the best their is. A suite on NCL will give you a "out of this world experience". My partner and I got engaged on the NCL Jade and let me tell you the staff went out of their way to make it a special day. We had a couples massage and when we got back into our room the concierge had chocolate covered strawberries and champagne waiting, she also sprinkled rose petals in the shape of a heart on the bed and had a bubble bath waiting for us, and to top if all off we had a wonderful dinner served to us on our balcony.... it was a very special and unforgettable night.

We decided to do the Barcelona to Venice route. The main reason we decided on the Barcelona to Venice route was because we could get a direct flight from Miami to Barcelona. Were going in late April before all the crowds arrive. We did a Med cruise in January a few years ago and had wonderful weather and calm seas.

Food is very subjective and while one person may say the food is horrible you can have the person next to them think the food was wonderful. I have never had any problems with the food or service on NCL. But on my last cruise which was with Royal Caribbean I thought the food and service were horrible.. so all I can say is to each their own.

I have never sailed on the Oasis but have been on a few RCI cruises and have been disappointed every time. I have also sailed with NCL 4 times and in my opinion the NCL cruises were much much better then the RCI cruises. I think the food,service & entertainment on NCL are much better then RCI. This is of course just my opinion and I am sure you will have a wonderful honeymoon no matter what cruise you choose.

We usually try and book our flights about 6 months in advance but sometimes we will book 8 months in advance, we always seem to get the best prices that way. Also I usually try and look for direct flights as they are generally cheaper then those that have multiple connections. The direct flights also make it less stressful when traveling overseas since you won't have to worry about missing connections or navigating a unfamiliar airport. Also I would advise you to fly in a day or two before your cruise departs.

We always plan our own vacations, I planned our up coming trip to Europe on my own. Its relatively easy to book your own hotels and arrange transportation to and from the airport and cruise port. All you really need to do is use all the great resources you can find online. As far as shore excursions go you can use the ports of call boards on here to find lots of great private tour companies.

Would love NCL to go back to South America. We never got the opportunity to cruise that itinerary. South America and Antarctica are the only two continents we have not visited and I would love to check them off my list.

The limitations that could affect Spirit will come in effect already Jan 1st 2014.

 

The total ban for mega ships in Nov 2014 will not affect NCL's itineraries in any way because both Jade and Spirit are under 96 000 GT.

Yes as of January they will reduce cruise ship traffic by 20% and will not allow anymore then 5 ships in port at any one time. I am hoping our cruise will be unaffected since we will not be traveling in the high season. Venice is our port of disembarkation and we have already purchased our airfare so hopefully we do not have any problems.

I read this article yesterday. We have a cruise booked on the Spirit this spring and the main reason we chose this cruise was because of the stop in Venice. Im glad we are sailing this spring because it sounds like that by fall of 2014 Venice will be limiting the ships it allows into port.

We are in our Mid 20's and love NCL. Were doing a Med cruise in late April next year. NCL may not be as upscale in the common areas of the ship as some of the other lines are, but if you book a suite like we do then there is plenty of luxury. We did a Med cruise in January a few years ago and had wonderful weather. Temps were mostly in the 60's to low 70's.

My partner and I are doing the Mediterranean on the NCL Spirit 4-24-2014. Were sailing out of Barcelona and going to France, Italy,Greece and Turkey ending in Venice. My mother just beat breast cancer so we are surprising her with this trip as she has never been to Europe.

We have been on the Jade and we loved the ship. We were in a owners suite so the room was huge, but we have also stayed in inside cabins on other Norwegian ships and had no problem with the size or decor. Our last cruise was on Royal Caribbean and I was very disappointed with the ship, service and food. I would take Norwegian over Royal Caribbean anyday.

You can fly to Cuba from Miami, you just have to bring some school supplies with you and then go to one of the local schools and donate them. I have family members who have done this several times.You need to obtain a cultural visa to do this. There are also a few tour companies that offer trips to Cuba from Florida via charter flights. The last one I saw was $2,999 for a week including flights and hotel and a few meals.

I could not resist the extremely low prices of this cruise, so I went ahead and booked it just now! Im very excited for this itinerary.

This is for those of us that were wanting more interesting itineraries from NCL. I have found an 11 day cruise out of Rome that leaves October 26th 2013 that goes to

Ports of Call: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy, Monte Carlo, Monaco, Provence (Toulon), France, Barcelona, Spain, Valencia, Spain, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, Carthage, Tunisia, Palermo, Sicily, Naples, Italy

I have never seen this itinerary offered before and am seriously considering booking this cruise.

Just booked the NCL Jade for October 2013!! Going to the Greek Islands, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. Also heading to New Zealand, Australia and Tahiti in February 2013.

To long!

Thanks for condensing the info! To clarify is the twilight only offered once a month? Is scheduling this the morning after a long flight be an issue? I am picturing that I'm getting a good nights sleep the night before....but don't really understand jet lag. Is this an issue?

 

Off topic Terry I have some Ohio flight info that may be helpful. I'm a planner and booked flights early (Cinti to Dallas to Brisbane to Sydney) for $2100 economy. Those flights just went on sale for $1150 pp! Hindsight I may have waited. I'm waiting on booking the hotels! Hope that helps.

Karen....from Ohio

We booked our flight back in June. Miami to Los Angeles to Auckland and then a few days later Auckland to Sydney. We got ours for $1296 a person round trip and now the same flight is over $3,000 pp. Sometimes it helps to book early... I guess its just depends on how in demand the flight is.

We have always found NCL to be very gay friendly. We have never had a problem with anyone on any of our cruises with NCL. The staff on NCL are very gay friendly from my experience. On our last cruise with NCL our butler thought we were on our honeymoon for some reason and surprised us one day with balloons and banners. He also had drawn a warm bath and had a bottle of chilled champagne by the tub. It was a wonderful surprise.

My partner and I have a 11 night Australia cruise booked for Feb 18th 2013. We are spending a week in New Zealand before the cruise and then spending a week in Tahiti after the cruise. Can't wait for Feb!!!