Ed

First time cruiser on Carnival ships.  Booked on Elation for September 2019 5 night Amber Cove and Grand Turks.  Booked a Grand Suite with extended balcony.  Does anyone know if the extended balcony has loungers or just chairs.  Platinum Plus on NCL and when there are no loungers I will ask the cabin steward to get us 2.   Anyone done this on Carnival with success?  $$$ talk?

I have booked the 5 day NCL Sun with a stop in Cuba.  I have been on a number of NCL ships but never the Sun.  I know it has been recently been refurbished but I can not get any updated information on aft cabin 9078 either pictures or videos.  If anyone has something they can share either pictures, videos, or just details about the cabin after refurb would appreciate it, especially if the toilet is separate from the rest of the bathroom with a door.

I maybe wrong in my understanding of the medjet vs others policies but if I am I apologize. I understand Medjet will get you from a hospital to a hospital of your choice for example back to your home town, where evacuation insurance will get you to the nearest medical facility where you will receive care there and not get transported back to your home town hospital.

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How many days in advance can you book dining if you are in the Spa Mini Suite or Haven

We are booked two nights arriving in to Marco Polo airport Oct 25, 2017 at about 9:00AM and going to the JW Marriott. Going to book a water taxi direct from airport to JW Marriott at about 120 euro. If anyone is arriving on Oct 25 and going to JW Marriott and wanted to share a water taxi just drop a post or email to trybski@aol.com

Local artist here in Miami, David " Lebo" Le Batard did the design for the Getaway. Since NCL is out of Miami it is nice to have a local artist connected with a ship.

We like the colorful designs and certainly make the ships stand out. Great marketing to draw attention to the brand name.

We weren't onboard when this happen but did have a similiar incident last year on the TA from Barcelona to Miami on the Epic. We were about 10 hours from Portugal when at about 6:00am the windows, slider, room, bed etc started shaking. We thought we had a vibrating bed, when I opened the slider and felt like I was going to be sucked out. Drapes got sucked out on the balcony when I opened the slider and when I looked out there was a helicopter hovering over the upper deck. We were on deck 16, in the Haven, and they were trying to air lift someone in a basket off deck 18. Was pretty amazing to watch but sad to think what was wrong with the poor person. They also lifted the hushand up secured by an emergency person, non basket lift.

Personally I would investigate travel insurance outside of NCL. We have found it to be cheaper and more coverage with outside companies. Try squaremouth.

Good luck

Loved the Potato soap in Cagney's as well. Hopefully someone can get it. Mushroom soap in Le Bistro was excellent as well

Nice Pictures.

We were on that cruise. What terrible weather in Kectikan. Our floatplane trip to Traitors Cover with Island Wings was cancelled. Pouring rain and very low cloud cover. Well we will have book again in the future.

Otherwise weather in all the other ports was fantastic.

We have stayed in the Haven for two TA cruises on the Epic and are looking to do another cruise booking in the Haven but have gotten mixed reviews on which ship has the best Haven as it relates to amenities and experience. We love the courtyard on the Epic and have heard that the other ships have smaller courtyards. The Epic courtyard is well layed out, lots of places to sit, lay and relax, except for that constant noise from the blowers. The fact you can walk out of your room to the courtyard is nice and the bar, restaurant, etc are all there.

People said Jade has a very small courtyard and Breakaway was small as well.

Anyones feedback would helpful.

Thanks

Why don't you switch mid week so both couples get to get the benefit of the master bedroom. Just have the cabin steward change the sheets. Unless your friends are paying the bigger part of the cruise I would try to do a switch.

Just back from Alaska cruise and we had two vouchers in our cabin. Wife and I went two different nights and got a bottle of wine both nights. Be careful when you get the complimentary wine list that all the pages are there. We were missing a whole page of red wines missing from our wine list. It only showed 3 reds and I questioned that because the night before there were two pages with about 15 different reds.

Just back from Alaska on the Pearl which is a fun ship and medium size but will have to admit that Le Bistro on the Pearl did not impress me like Le Bistro on the Epic. How can that be you will ask and I don't have the full answer but staff for one on the Epic was far superior to those on the Pearl. Food quality for Le Bistro on the Pearl was good and I would recommend the Lamb and not the Duck but all dishes for Le Bistro on Epic were outstanding. Different chef? Is that what makes the difference? Even with our two free dinners and wine as Platinum is was not convincing it was a do again.

Cagneys on the other hand was overall our favorite now on the Pearl. It was also our favorite on the Epic unless we are in the Haven in which case we don't go out of the Epic Club much for eats.

Just ones opinion

After future review and everyone's thoughts and where it comes with the price of the room as a promo I think we will go with the UBP package based on $$ dollars only. The UDP plan for the 11 nights, since we get two nights in Le Bistro for being Platinum, works out to approximately $ 17/PP per day, which if we book Cagneys many of the nights is the bigger bang for the bucks as they say. Since this is TA and 13 days and we are stuck on the ship more than 8 sea days we should be able to drink up me hardies.

Thanks for all the input.

Booked a 2016 transatlantic on the Epic back to Orlando and had the option of picking one of the following:

Unlimited Dining Package

Unlimited Beverage Package

$50 on board credit

250 Minutes of Wifi

We went with UDP only because don't see us getting the full benefit of UBP, $ 50 onboard credit doesn't compare, and Wifi minutes maybe useless when out at sea for 6 start days and connections can't be good in the middle of the Atantic.

What would you go with?

Thanks

We are departing Seattle on the NCL Pearl on Sunday and was curious from those that just returned as to what types of wildlife you have seen from the ship while traveling the inside passage and Glacier Bay? Is it to late in the season to see whales from the ship? We have a floatplane to Traitors Cove schedule so hoping to see some bears and salmon running.

While in Ketchikan we booked with Island Wings to do bear viewing at Traitors Cove. How many other float planes will be there at the same time and how many people between all tours are on the viewing platform at once. There are 6 in our plane so trying to anticipate how many others will be there and will it be difficult to get a spot to watch from?

For those that are familiar with LLBean boots, rubber bottoms leather uppers, little above ankle high, would these be over kill? We are doing float plane to Traitors Cove so wasn't sure of condition of the trails.

Thanks

Uber SUV and Uber XL are allowed to pick up at SeaTac for a higher fee than Uber X. In order to get UberX you pull up the Uber app once at SeaTac then move the pin outside the airport and when you communicate with the Uber driver advise you are at the airport and where you are. They will hopefully accommodate your request and come to the airport since the pin point you moved is just around the airport.

I seem to know all the tricks to get Uber from SeaTac airport to go downtown to the hotel. Has any one used Uber from downtown hotel to port but more importantly from the port after getting off the ship to the airport. Is there a good place to meet up with Uber at the port in Seattle to go back to Seatac airport?

We booked a float plane excursion for 6 directly with the company and not through the ship in Ketchikan. The excursion is from 8am- noon and our ship is departing at 1:30pm. Company claims they will have us back by 12:15. Are we cutting this to close and risking missing the ship which will not wait for us since it is not one of their excursions?

Anyone have any experience with this close timeline?

We have been Platinum for awhile and have done the behind scenes tour a number of times. We will be on the Pearl for Alaska in August and will be getting another invitation i assume for the behind the scenes tour. We will be traveling with another couple. Do you think if I ask the latitudes desk if I could give our invitation to our guest they will be ok with it?

We are booked with Island Wings to fly to Traitors Cover mid August out of Ketchikan and was wondering how close you will get to see the bears? Will a point and shot camera with a zoom lense be sufficient enough to get some good pictures. Not that I want to go out and invest in a new camera with telephoto lenses etc. For those that have been what are your thoughts?

Thanks

A balcony is the perfect way to go when in Alaska. You will be able to navigate the room much better than the inside cabin you showed in the picture and will have more room. you see if you can get the fold our sleeper sofa and the ceiling drop down bed in your cabin. No question you will have more room.