Venus4NU

I am bummed.  Booked an inside cabin which was free through Casino-At-Sea.  (Free if you call $650 in taxes and administration fees as free).  Submitted my offer for upgrade to an ocean view, balcony and spa balcony a month ago.  Depart next Saturday and called today to switch to a balcany and skip the whole bidding processes only to find out the ship is sold out except for inside cabins.  The whole bidding process won't even be an option now.  Kicking myself because I meant to call the week of Christmas and upgrade to the balcony for a Christmas present to my husband.    Also, I should have booked the cruise for the week after.  I thought sailing the week of Valentines day would be romantic.  I think every other person thought that too!  

Going to spend the next week convincing myself that everything will be ok and I can take the extra money and spend it on excursions or whatnots.   

Some day I will learn my lesson on procrastinating!

In regards to free cruise comps with the casino.  I am one who gets them all the time.  Nearly every other cruise I go on is a free comp cruise.  I pay the taxes and an ad fee.  I booked one on Wednesday on the Breakaway selling in February.  We paid $324 per person for an inside room.  Got assigned the worst room possible BUT I just got the chance to bid for an upgrade so I did that and hope to get moved to an ocean view or balcany.  I am hitting about 50/50 on past cruises when bidding.  Always get notified about 2 to 3 days before selling.

Regarding the comp cruises.  I budge $20 a day for the casino.  IF I win I keep playing.  Sometimes playing for 10 minutes and other times 3 or 4 hours.  Mostly in the 10 minute area.  The free offers always comes through Harrah's.  We have 3 Harrah properties near us and we visit them MAYBE once a year but I have their players card.  I get a post card in the mail about once a year to go swipe my card and pick up my free cruise.  And, when I book a free cruise I ALWAYS get the unlimited drinks in the casino with it.  We are not big drinkers - maybe one or two a day so I don't buy the drink package - I will just slip in the casino order a dink and tip the bartender good.

We are looking at doing something different when we stop in Tortola.  On our bucket list is to visit all the National Parks.  Virgin Islands National Park is on St. John's and it looks like a very short ferry ride (12 miles).   Has anyone done this?  Best transportation to use?  If at all possible we would like to piggy back Virgin Gorda too BUT the National Park is the top priority. 

This will be in February on NCL Breakaway.  We are in port on a Tuesday 8am to 6pm.

We have been to Tortola two other times but both times we were in port only 5 hours so didn't venture off the island and instead did CGB and an island tour.  We booked this cruise because it is a full 10 hours on Tortola.     

Played it on the Jewel, Sky and Pearl (x3) for a total of 5 times. Each time the quests are a little different. Took first place on last weeks sailing of the Pearl. We received NCL coffee cups as our prize. I kinda suspected what some of the quest would be so I showed up with some things (freestyle daily, bra, lipstick and a sock). We had a straggler join our team at last minute (20 year old girl). She had the energy to run up and show everything to the judge.

THe funny part was when they asked for a tatoo not on arm. She had one on her belly but was wearing a dress and didn't hesitate to lift it to show the tatoo. She out did herself when they asked to see a piercing not in the ear. She had a NIPPLE pierced and ran up to flashed it to the judge (sharkbaits Max). After a few minutes she said "Oh I just remembered, I have my nose pierced and could have shown that."

Connecting cabins is our only choice now.

 

I called NCL and spoke with someone who told me that their max occupancy in cabins (other than suites) is now 4. I guess that just recently changed.

 

That stinks. I was hoping to sail with NCL more often, but with CCL having some cabins where I can still put 5 of us in ONE (less expensive) then we may still be choosing them.

 

Nonetheless.......

 

Thank you for your help, everyone.

You may still want to check with NCL for connecting cabins. We did this in November on the Jewel. Our rooms were ocean view rooms. Both cabins together cost just under $1000 and that was for 4 adults.

When you talked with NCL did you let them know the ages of the children? Sometimes this makes a difference.