Granny DI

Mykonos and Santorini are like St Maarten and Cozumel...wall to wall ships and people. Luckily we visited these ports before they were discovered so we know how beautiful they were.

Just happened to check my itinerary for the Jade out of Venice on October 3rd only to find that our time in Mykonos has been shortened again! Can't help but notice that they waited until the day after final payment to do it. When I first booked this cruise we were to leave Mykonos at 6 PM. Then just recently it was cut to 5 PM. Now it's down to 4 PM. Not cool, NCL.

We missed Mykonos due to high winds...we didn't learn about it until the Captain tried to pull into the port. I think it's a tender port so high winds create big problems with tenders.

Thanks for the info. That is a great deal. Just emailed my TA and we have an SG. Such a nice trip. Thanks for the info.

I heard about this cruise on cc but suites weren't available yet...jumped all over it when the suites came online. My TA didn't know a thing about the cruise. Thank you CC!

We have friends who love to sail in the "high end" suites on other lines... aka 17k per person. They sailed with us on the Breakaway in a Haven AFT suite without the goodies and they can't wait to go back. They are also sailing on this cruise with us in the best suite because it was a real bargain for them.

I can overlook a lot of things if I'm sailing at a bargain price...if I think I paid too much then I can be a little "fussy".

Is this cruise stopping at a foreign port? If not, is NCL violating some law regarding the transport of passengers from one US port to another one without stopping at a foreign port.

The POA transports passengers every Sat from HNL to HNL without stopping at a foreign port. That's why the POA has no casino and strange liquor rules. It's been doing this for at least 10 years.

Not even close to the Jade. The POA was originally being built for Hawaiian American Cruises in Pascagoula, MS, but when that company went bankrupt, NCL stepped in and took the unfinished hull off the US taxpayers' hands (US federal loan guarantees to the shipyard), completed it in Germany, and named it the POA. It is a design unique to itself (actually there was originally to be two ships, but the second one only got as far as steel cutting).

Thanks for the info. There were originally 3 ships that NCL planned to sail Hawaii...the Jade was one of them. NCL decided to just keep POA in Hawaii. Always lots of rumors the Jade will be redeployed to Hawaii. The POA had a big problem when being built in Germany...it sunk, so NCL had to scramble to bring another ship to Hawaii. I think it was the present day Sun. I think the name was Pride of Hawaii...anyway we sailed on that ship in Jan 2005. I don't remember when the POA finally arrived in Hawaii. We have never sailed on the POA. We've only sailed the Norwegian Crown, Pride of Hawaii?, Epic and Breakaway.

We've cruised on almost every line. We are suite people now and NOTHING compares to the Haven on the Breakaway. This includes the Royal Suite on the Celebrity Millennium! We have our 3rd cruise booked in an Haven AFt penthouse for May. We have $300 OBC, drinks package, specialty restaurants package and gratuities for about 1/3 of the cost of an equivalent suite on Celebrity, RCL etc.....We have a HAL cruise in a Neptune Suite booked for 2017 and it is double the cost of a Haven suite with no GOODIES!!! Chose it for the itinerary and the new ship. The other thing we love about the suite life on NCL is that it isn't stuffy like so many of the lines. No formal wear needed!

I have never sailed on the POA so can't tell you anything about the ship but look forward to this special cruise out of SF. It's never been done before so it will be an adventure. I have been looking for a one way cruise to Hawaii for at least 10 years. We are spending an extra week in Kauai so this is perfect for us. We did the NCL Hawaiian Island cruise in 2006 on a ship that was substituted for the POA. We loved the cruise.

I know absolutely nothing about SE's or SG's on the POA but the ratings are very good. We are very excited..even my DH who hates sea days!

What are the real perks of the SG suite is it decent??

Google it and see if there are reviews and YouTube videos. We booked the SE for the price. Not expecting a Haven suite but not paying Haven prices. I also read some of the cabins and restaurants were going to be updated in the dry dock. We chose deck 13 as that is as close to a Haven as we'll get on this ship. I think this ship is the sister ship of the Jade.

Just checked the NCL website and the SE's are sold out. There are 5 SG's left. The availability seems to change by the hour! So glad we booked when I first heard about the cruise. We have our plane tickets so it's a go for us!

We booked this cruise two weeks ago. We got a screaming deal. If you want a suite I wouldn't think about it much longer. Last time I looked there was only one SE left. We booked a SE on deck 13. This cruise has never been done before...it's a one of a kind! Dry dock was to be done in Pearl Harbor but contract was cancelled so NCL scrambled to get SF.

I wrote a post about this two weeks ago. I was flying from Charlottesville, VA to DFW. This involved one connection. I needed to be in Dallas that evening. To make a long story short there was a terror incident. The airport was shut down for 5 hours. All flights were diverted so nothing coming in or out! My flights were changed 3 times. I made it to DFW just before midnight!! The return from DFW wasn't much better...United had a computer problem which effected flights nation wide and the FAA shut down the runway in Charlotte. I will not fly the "day of" for anything. The flights are full so if you miss a connection good luck!

We always use the casino as an ATM. I get what I need each day. Play the 3% and get points when i pay my ship charges at the end of the cruise. We feel it's a win win for us. We've been doing this for years.

I have been reading ( and reading …. )(and reading ….) all of the negative rants/reviews/posts/threads/threats about the changes occurring at NCL over the past few months.

 

As some background, my partner and I are just slightly on the wrong side of 50 and have been lucky and fortunate enough in life to travel around a lot of the world on many different ships and many different lines over the past 20+ years. We have sailed on everything from inside cabins on Chandris Fantasy (look it up) up to and including Oceania, Celebrity Xpedition, Travel Dynamics, Ponant, Azamara and The Haven.

 

We used to be complete Celebrity addicts until about two years ago when after three cruises in a row that drove us slightly crazy, we decided that we would become “free agents”. This is, we wouldn’t be slaves to loyalty programs with their free drinks and internet and see what else was out there.

 

We returned to NCL last year and were hooked. However, in the past two years we have also sailed on HAL, RCI, Celebrity, Oceania and Azamara.

 

People … you have NO clue how good you have it on NCL and the spectacular value that is provided. To all those who say they are cancelling their reservations and going somewhere else, I say: “Off you go”!

 

Go on Royal Caribbean and go to the buffet where fried starchy food goes to die, where the varieties of fresh fruit can be counted on four fingers, where smoked salmon doesn’t swim, where roast “turkey” is a strange compressed protinaceous turkoid blob and have the privilege of paying a premium over NCL.

 

Go on Celebrity (where I’ve sailed about 250 nights) and return to the ship at 3:30 and try to get a decent snack without standing in a buffet line serviced by, oh, one server manning the pasta station and one person doing … well, I’m not sure what she was doing. Enjoy the evening “entertainment” and after you’ve woken up, go back to your cabin for a proper sleep.

 

Look at what you’re paying for what you’re getting. I paid $700 for an inside cabin on Celebrity’s Zenith in 1992 and couldn't understand how they could make ANY money providing what they did. That’s about $1400 in 2015 dollars for an inside cabin. Celebrity actually didn’t make any money and that’s why they were ultimately acquired by RCI. Could you imagine paying $1400 for an inside cabin today?! I’d be laughed and ridiculed off of these boards.

 

NCL is cutting back wherever they can … and so is everyone else. Trust me. I’ve been on everyone else and many of them recently. The same economic realities are faced by all of the cruise lines - it’s a fine line between keeping everyone happy while providing shareholder value.

 

Perhaps NCL made a fatal error in actually telling people that they were cutting back as opposed to Royal Caribbean/Celebrity where the on board product was noticeably worse each time you sailed on them without them actually announcing the cutbacks. (As an FYI, Celebrity cut back their entertainment staff to one or two people - trivia, hosts, ambassadors - all gone for the most part - again, look it up)(oh, and by the way, most of their specialty restaurants are now $50(!!!) per person cover charge.

 

Those brand spanking new ships cost a LOT of money and have to be paid for. While it’s fantastic they we’ve all been spoiled and have frankly received more than our dollar’s worth in the past, those days are over. My room at the Hilton before my last Breakaway cruise cost $330 a night with nothing included, or $2300 for the week before meals. What did you spend for the last dinner you went out for at home and how does that compare to per diem that you are paying for a night on a ship that included your room, meals and entertainment?

 

People have to be realistic … it truly is a privilege to have the means, ability and health to go on a cruise but ultimately, it’s still a business that has to make money.

Thank you!!!!

We've cruised just about every line in the last 17 years. The food and service has declined on every line but so has the price. We are not loyal to any ship or line. We choose our cruises based on itinerary, size of cabin and price. We have the POA booked for March 2016, Breakaway for May 2016, and The Koningsdam for Feb 2017. The NCL cruises were both screaming deals and the Koningsdam was chosen for itinerary. Cruiselines are more alike than different. The changes on NCL have been happening on all the other lines. I can remember great displeasure in 1999 when the port times were changed on a Celebrity Galaxzy cruise. We booked the cruise for the particular port that was changed.

Just discovered another one! Add this to the list of "port shortages": Just checked my Jade itinerary out of Venice in October and, sure enough, we are now leaving Mykonos at 5 PM rather than the 6 PM departure that I booked it at. Just an hour but I do feel cheated. I'll likely only be on Mykonos once in my life so that hour really matters to me.

We missed Mykonos because of the winds. We've also missed Stockholm and Dublin because of weather conditions.

Booked for 2/19/17 with a confirmed cabin. Or did you really mean spring which I think would just be the last cruise announced, 3/22/17?

 

Roy

We are also booked for Feb 19, 2017. We have a confirmed Neptune suite. The price has gone up $800 pp since we booked!

No way. Every cruiseline is doing the same thing. Cruising is so much cheaper than when we started in 1998. I have the POA booked for March 2016 and the Breakaway May 2016. I don't like the MDR experience anymore so only book ships with multiple restaurants. I have cruised the "upper tier" lines and didn't like the experience...too stuffy for me.

Hello friends,

 

We debark the Azamara Journey in Istanbul and don't need to be at the airport until 2 PM for a 4 PM flight. The ship offers a Land Discovery with airport transfer, but only for those with flights leaving after 5 PM. Do any of you have experience booking a tour like this, and will they let you leave early with your luggage and taxi to the airport on own? Or, does anyone have suggestions for a day hotel or luggage storage option while we explore Istanbul on our own? We have been advised we will be off the ship by 9:30 at the latest.

 

Many thanks,

Lauren

You are not allowing enough time. Your airline will tell you 3 hours in advance. Our flight was 6:00 am and we were there at 3:30. There are 3 levels of security and you are going to the airport at the busiest times of the day. The traffic is beyond horrendous. We walked and took the tram. Cars don't move in Istanbul. Our cab ride at 2:30 in the morning took over 30 minutes with no traffic. I would hire a private guide and car to store your luggage so you can see a few things. The guide will have a driver so he/she will guide you while the driver keeps your luggage. You really don't have much time to see much. We stayed 4 days after the cruise to see as much as we could see.

We are booked on the POA SF to HNL. There are screaming deals on this cruise. Suites WERE $2300 pp. A normal 7 day cruise on the POA for a suite is $3400pp. If you are thinking about booking this cruise don't think too long. The studios remaining are NOT a good deal on this cruise.

I guess sooner or later our luck runs out and we get a big surprise when traveling. I was thankful I wasn't on the plane with the incident. All passengers were questioned by the FBI etc. They were still in the holding room when I finally left. The airport workers were really frightened and frazzled but the travelers were amazing!

It effects everyone differently. My DH wasn't bothered but I had insomnia! Probably from the coco leaves! If you get it it only last a short time. One member of our tour group came down with it. The doctors in Cuzco know how to take care of the problem. Machu Pichhu is the most amazing place I've ever been. Do it before you can't. We were in our 50's when we did it...couldn't do it now even though we're in much better shape.

I've been flying for many years all over the world. Yesterday was to be simple trip to DFW via Philadelphia. Thirty minutes before departure the delayed sign began flashing. Then all the flights were flashing. Walked to the windows at my gate and saw 16 fire trucks, police, ambulances and black helicopters. They was a plane that was returning to the airport after a short flight. At this point we're all thinking plane crash. The plane landed safely at the end of the airport but the airport was immediately shut down. All flights diverted and we had to go back outside of security because every flight was cancelled. This was a terror incident.

The airport finally reopened about 4 hours later. I had new tickets to DFW via Charlotte. We were delayed another hour but pilot made up time....just to sit on the Tarmac for 45 minutes in Charlotte. It was a 20 minute RUN to my gate but I made the plane. I arrived in DFW about 10. I guess this is to be expected in our crazy world. I needed to be in Dallas yesterday, so from now on I'm going a day early. It's not worth the stress!

Go to tripadvisor.com. You will be able to find a tour that suits your needs. We paid nothing until the end of the tour. We paid in euros. The guide changed the order of things because of the crowds. Saturday is also protest day so we went to that area first before the crowds began to assemble. Our days were full..usually 9 to 6.

We were in Istanbul during EID last year. The Spice market is closed for the entire time. We hired a guide so he planned our tour around the holiday hours. I would never go again during this holiday because Istanbul was so crowded! It seemed all of Turkey was in Istanbul for the holiday. Everything was open but crowded. Our guide bought our tickets in advance so we didn't have to stand in long lines. We saw everything but the Spice Market. We were in Istanbul from Friday to Tuesday.

NCL is starting to alter their med cruises. First one posted is July 20.

The police used tear gas and water cannons on the Gay Pride parade in Istanbul today. The parade has been held for 13 years without incident.

We were in Istanbul in October. We hired a private tour guide for 3 days. He kept us away from the protests. I felt very uncomfortable and wished we had visited years ago when things were calm. Google Turkey, Kurds and ISIS. Make your own decisions.

BTW Machu Picchu was a 1000 times better than Istanbul. There are many places in the world that will still give you culture with a wow.