KeithJenner

It will almost certainly be cheaper to get it at an ATM on shore if you can,

He’s 19 next month. Was out on the town last night with friends from University, where he has just finished his first year.

Happy Freedom Day. Somehow, despite seeing the date mentioned many times, I never spotted that we were here on the 25th of April, which is the anniversary of the “Carnation Revolution” when the fascist dictatorship was overthrown. It is the 50th anniversary this year, and there seem to be quite a few events planned. I’m not sure how this will effect our plans today but we will carry on and be flexible as required. We are staying at the Emerald House hotel, to the west of the centre, with a good view of the bridge (Ponte de 25 Abril - another clue that I missed) and the Santuario Nacional do Christo Rei monument across the river. It is a couple of miles from here to Alfama (the old city) and we plan to head there first thing and then work our way back. Hopefully it should be a good day.

Absolutely, regarding getting to know the servers and getting good service. We do tend to tip per drink, not in order to get better service, but just because I want to give something extra to these people who work so hard for us. However we often get to know others who treat the staff the same way bit don’t tip extra (sometimes they tip at the end, but the staff don’t know that). They get exactly the same treatment that we do, Tipping probably does have an effect on the service, but in my experience, the way you interact with the staff is much more important.

Hi everyone. Another one of my live reports is incoming. As usual I’m not sure how regularly I will be posting but I will try to get on every day if I can. A bit of background for those who don’t know us. I am travelling with my wife (our third cruise by ourselves after a few years of cruising with our son, who would rather stay at home these days. We have been NCL regulars for over 10 years now, most often in the Med, but there are a few new ports for us this time. We haven’t sailed on a Prima class yet (we were booked on the first Prima Amsterdam to Reykjavik cruise that was cancelled), so are interested to see how we get on with these ships. We usually book free at sea plus and have done so again this time. In addition we have booked Vibe passes. I’ve never really considered these before, but it made sense to us due to concerns about finding quiet bars outside. Whether it will be worth the cost is very debatable, but we will give it a go. Having free at sea plus makes some shore excursions very good value, so we have booked 5 in total. Some are full tours but we have also booked the hop on hop off in Majorca (for free) and a transfer to Florence. We have two days where we aren’t planning on going ashore (Ibiza and Marseille) but have plans on most days. Currently we are at Heathrow waiting for our flight to Lisbon, we have a day there tomorrow before boarding on Friday, More to follow from Lisbon,

Disembarkation will actually start at around 6am. It starts with haven guests, higher latitudes levels and people with MCL transfers, before others are called, but that shouldn’t take too long. If you are willing to carry your bags off yourself then you will be able to get off soon after 6. So it depends on how keen you are to get into Rome and how much effort you are willing to put into getting off early. We usually go for somewhere between 8 and 9 to make for a fairly relaxed morning.

Thanks for reporting back.

These offers vary a lot. I didn’t get it on my platinum but did on a different card.

Please report back whether it automatically credits the cashback for you. This issue has come up before, as these charges are regularly split, but I don’t recall whether it causes a problem with the cash back. I usually get an email or notification to say the offer has been used so hopefully you will get that soon.

You can make partial payments on the app. I did it yesterday to pay £750 off of a cruise. It can sometimes be a bit buggy and in the past I’ve had to phone because the app wouldn’t process a payment, but it it certainly possible. On the website there is no option to select a part payment.

I have booked a couple of these. On one I was charged a penny and the other was free.

The same way as they leave from Paris (Le Havre), London (Southampton) and Rome (Civitavecchia) to give a few examples. Venice (Trieste) is a new entry to this with a distance of about 100 miles.

The full list of priority access is: Club Suites 125 days Full Suites/Haven 130 days Platinum/Sapphire/Diamond 125 days Ambassador 130 days

If you want to eat at any of the speciality restaurants then I would advise booking them In advance. Bookings open at 120 days. They do hold spaces back for onboard booking, but I prefer to have things organised. On the newer ships there may be some entertainment that can also be booked in advance. I think this opens at 21 days (not sure as I don’t book entertainment).

NCL have worked out that people are grown up enough to decide for themselves how they want to dress. That means that you can dress up as much as you want without having to make me do the same. It’s great. If you want to dress up do so and enjoy yourself. You won’t be the only one.

I’ve received the cash back in the past when paying by either method.

I have just had £150 back on a £760 spend appear on one of my cards. Time to check your offers. 🙂

It was probably a typo, but that isn’t correct. If you buy four $250’s you get $1,000 CNC and pay $500. The best way to deal with this is to ignore all the promo stuff that NCL use, don’t talk to the cruise next staff about it and just remember this: 1 CruiseNext (worth $250) costs $150 2 CruiseNext (worth $500) costs $250 3 CruiseNext (worth $750) costs $375 each additional $250 CruiseNext after that costs an additional $125 Thats it. Forget talk of OBC and money to spend. It is a simple discount, nothing more than that.

It’s available to book for my Joy cruise in September (139 days out).

Yes, there are quite a few categories that don’t qualify. As well as studios, the offer excludes suites and ones like aft balconies or large balcony rooms. I may be wrong, but I think that as a general rule categories that end with a number are excluded.

120 days out (slightly longer if you are booked in a club suite or higher or higher latitudes status) you will be able to reserve restaurants on the website or the app.

What they promote onboard more prominently are cruisenext vouchers, which can be used on future cruises however booked (onboard, online or via a travel agent). These are half price (as long as you buy two or more, the discount for one is lower), so year there is a real advantage to getting them. Depending on the cabin you book you can use one or two of them (sometimes three if there is a promo running), which means a discount of between $125 and $375 on your cruise. They do offer benefits with booking, as mentioned above, but those discounts often aren’t much as it is just moving up one level and they can’t be used on all cabin types. We have made a small saving a couple of times by using that, but have saved thousands over the years on cruise next.

My guess is that the server just assumed that the two people dining were the two sharing the room. I don’t know whether you making the reservation would make any difference as that bit would have been dealt with by the person who welcomed you rather than the server. They may have made an error, or they may have just arranged things in a way that helped you. These things can happen and sometimes they do charge things to the wrong accounts, but it can’t be relied upon. More often than not, in my experience, they ask for everyone’s card when they do the bills, and often everyone gets their own to sign, so this sort of thing wouldn’t accidentally happen in those cases. The key thing is that they didn’t charge two credits from the same meal to one account. Many of the sharing questions on this board are where people re asking if four people can turn up and use both dining credits for two of those people. I’m not even sure whether the system would allow this to happen even if they tried to. Whilst the credits are not transferable, it is certainly possible for things like you experienced to happen, and people could arrange things to try to get them to happen that way, but it is certainly not guaranteed.

That’s correct.

It will certainly open up at 130 days (barring standard NCL website glitches). This is a common question and it always works out ok. Our bookings always say the date 120 days out and have never failed to actually open at the correct time.