KeithJenner

Calling is very likely to cause more confusion, as people apparently often get told that you can’t book latitudes meals in advance. That is nonsense, you can book whatever meals you want regardless of how they are being paid for. It is quite simple though. Ignore the reasons why if that helps, but just go online and book the meals that you want, making sure that you book any with a fixed charge first.

The only thing that matters is to book any meals at fixed price places (Teppanyaki, Moderno) first. The link in my signature is a bit out of date, but it explains the reason for this.

The value of the meals that people receive from free at sea, or latitudes, is whatever the cost would be to buy an equivalent meal package for the number of meals received. For example, we are getting 6 meals on our next cruise (2 free at sea, 2 latitudes and 2 free at sea plus). The cost of a 6 meal package is £209.16. Whether we would have purchased that many meals otherwise is another consideration. Maybe we would have just purchased 4 meals, in which case you could argue that the value is just the cost of a 4 meal package. The a la carte menu prices are irrelevant for us, as we would never pay that amount for those meals. If all the deals and packages weren’t there so a typical meal would cost nearly $100 per person then we would just eat at the complementary places all week.

Some people have reported things like being escorted off the ship etc, but the general consensus is that this is rare. I have never tried things like that, so couldn’t talk from experience. I’ve generally worked out the way off the ship by that point all by myself. 🙂 Anyway, for us what the latitudes disembarkation means is that you get coloured luggage tags which are one of the first to be available after disembarkation starts (usually just after haven), and you can get off the ship early, before all the other colours are called. It is useful if you need to get off the ship early, and it is usually fairly easy to find your bags as there are less of them than other colour tags. If you don’t want to leave until later then you can do so, your bags will still be waiting for you. You still have to find your way off by yourself though.

As a rule I would imagine that not making final payment will cancel your cruise, but not return your deposit. However, these things depend a lot on where you booked. Your profile suggests that you may have booked in Europe, which means that the majority of experiences that people on here have had may not apply. For example, are deposits refundable for you regardless? They certainly aren’t for us in the UK and I thought that EU terms were similar.

Yes, you still have two meals for two, so you can bring someone else with you. As you state, the restriction is that you can’t split the vouchers to give yourself 4 meals for one.

No, the area where Syds is on other Breakaway or Breakaway plus ships is the Cavern on the Encore.

“Real music” is being played every night in small venues around the world. Unfortunately hardly anyone notices it because the media is telling everyone to look the wrong way.

It isn't charged per day. It is a fixed fee based on the number of days and that includes all the free at sea offers. There is an offer on at the moment, which completes things, but I think these are the usual prices: 3-5 days £149 6-8 days £199 9-11 days £249 12-14 days £299 It carries on increasing like that for longer cruises. The actual costs usually ends up not being far from the gratuities paid in the US.

I don’t have recent first hand experience of being in France during public holidays, but I think your biggest issue would be around transportation as services are likely to be running on reduced levels. Usually Public holiday services are similar to Sundays. Most services should be running but they will likely be a lot less regular (ie services that may run every 30 minutes usually may only be one an hour). It is possible that some less used services may not run at all. Most tourist areas are likely to be open, but may be busier due to locals being off work. Shops are likely to be a bit hit and miss, with those in tourist areas more likely to be open for the same reason as those places are busy, if there is something you specifically want to do then check whether it is open, whether they are holding any special holiday events that may make them particularly busy, and what your transport services are running. Basically, planning is more important. You are much more likely to run into reduced services or bigger crowds, and you don’t want to find that the train that would normally get you back to the ship just in time isn’t running.

Still working fine for me. I just went into a reservation, selected an excursion at random. Price £62 each. When I added it to the basket the total is £105.50. That is a 15% latitudes discount.

You are sorted then. It would take a major issue for there to be any risk of you not getting an 11.50 flight.

As you have seen, excursions are added at various times in the lead up to a cruise, and those times can differ by port. So it is not unusual for there to be some ports with excursions listed and others where they aren’t. However, it does seem strange that none are listed yet at this stage. We are visiting Villefranche (which I assume is the port you are visiting for Nice) in April and excursions have been on there for ages. Similarly, we went to Kusadasi a couple of years ago and excursions there were posted a long time out. I would be surprised (although I suppose it’s possible) that they have all sold out, as I find they tend to add more as tours fill up. So I would say that it is unusual for no tours to have been available at this point. Many would suggest calling to enquire, but you aren’t guaranteed to get a sensible answer (I suspect that many phone reps will just say that they must have sold out without actually doing any checking). It may be worth making that call and taking any answer with a pinch of salt. What would really surprise me would be if you got onboard and still found that nothing was offered, so I think your chances of finding something once onboard are very good.

I’ve just gone back to look at your times. You have plenty of time, and then a bit to spare. If you re due in at 6.30am and you are carrying your bags off then you should easily be off the ship by 7.15. That is loads of time to get to FCO for a 11.50 flight. Most likely when you get to the airport you will be waiting for check in to open. As a comparison we have flights at 12.55 and we have arranged our transfer for 9am. We had similar timings last year when we ended up waiting for ages. Just make sure that you have a transfer booked, and that it is picking you up from the ship. If you are using the shuttle buses, or queueing for a taxi then things could go wrong, but a booked transfer will give you loads of time.

We flew out of Rome last September and got there just under three hours before our flight. Check in and security were very quick and we had about two hours waiting. I know that there can be delays at airports, but I’ve always found Rome to be OK.

NCL is all freestyle, so there are no tables set aside for people to have in a traditional style. The closest that you can do would be to book a restaurant for the same time every night. That wouldn't give you the same table though. I believe that some people have spoken to the staff and requested the same table each night, so that may work. I'm not sure you would get the same staff serving you each time though, if that is what you are after.

This. Even though someone may have free at sea credits doesn't mean that they will be using them for any meal. They could have been planning to pay a la carte and use their credits elsewhere.

Doesn't to me. The poster who I quoted was saying that they seemed to be new here, and I was just clarifying, so perhaps you should ask them. Looking at the post that The Travelling Man was responded to, it looks like they misread it, as say in that the OP was "not new to CC" whereas I think that the "not" was actually the end of the previous statement. I suspect that caused some confusion.

Joined Tuesday 9.01am apparently.

If three separate people quoted 20% then that is remarkable consistency for NCL phone staff. People fairly regularly post on here saying the various percentages that they have been told are made available for booking, and it is anywhere between the 20% you were told and about 75%. I have absolutely no idea what the actual amount it, and I suspect neither do the phone staff. My guess, based on seeing what availability is like both before and once onboard is that it is quite a bit more than 20%.

In my experience it has never been a sure thing. Certainly there more often than not, but there have definitely been times that they weren’t there. I’ve only been on a ship with a waterfront once since Covid, and I never checked as we had the upgraded beverage package so I went to Starbucks instead. I hope it is there for you on the Escape. It’s a nice place to sit and have a coffee and pastry. 🙂

The 120 day restriction does not apply to excursions at all. You can book them whenever they are listed, which can be anywhere between a couple of years to a couple of weeks before departure. Meals are on a set schedule for booking (generally 120 days, but 125 or 130 days for certain room types and latitudes levels). The OP is trying to book at 125 days due to cabin type. The biggest issue with dining is that sometimes glitches mean that there may be delays in everything opening up. I have never seen them become available to book early.

They often have a small breakfast set up at one of the outside bars on ships with a waterfront. Just some pastries and big coffee jugs. It isn’t guaranteed though. Many times they haven’t been there. I suppose it depends on the crew on your sailing.

Yes, it is an upgrade to the next category. The issue is that you don't get much choice in the actual cabin you are moved to, so it is likely to be the lowest of that category. For example, our other upgrade was from an Oceanview to a Balcony on the Dawn. We have been upgraded to a Hull Balcony. Not a particular problem to us as we saved a lot on that one, but there doesn't seem to be any benefit in booking a better room within the category, as you will still get a very basic room as the upgrade. I think that some early reports had people reporting better luck in having a say in the room they were upgraded to, but more recent reports suggest that NCL are not doing that these days.

Apologies, I have just checked the dailies from the Breakaway last September and it does appear that the parties did happen on that ship. They didn't seem to happen on the smaller ships when we were onboard post Covid though. They also don't seem to do things like Norwegian Night Out any more though. Not sure whether that is everywhere or just Europe.