KeithJenner

I believe that this is an angled balcony, but I would always just check before booking, as you are doing here, and googling the room number doesn't give a conclusive answer. So, yes, I think that is is an angled balcony, but I can't say for sure. Sometimes the NCL deck plans aren't totally correct. Are there any others available on different decks? If not then personally I would go for it because it is most likely angled whereas another is certainly not.

What ship? The Breakaway is in Naples today isn’t it? Edit - the sign says Breakaway, ignore the question. 🙂

If you book onboard then they will often upgrade you to a higher category cabin (within the same type, so you don’t upgrade from balcony to club suite, for example). It also doesn’t apply for things like aft or large balcony rooms. We’ve done it a couple of times, but I don’t know if it is an always available thing, or just an occasional offer. It is available to anyone, regardless of latitudes status.

That was an early theory last year, but I don’t think that’s the case. You never know though.

Ok, thanks for clearing that up, you had me worried that they had changed something else. 🙂 Yeah, taking bottles on is an option for people without the package. Not ideal for people to have to worry about that sort of thing though.

Were you not able to bring wine onboard? As far as I am aware NCL are still allowing people to bring wine onboard with a corkage fee (only payable if you don’t have a beverage package). Was your experience different? Maybe you are talking about different drinks. That would be an issue as they only allow wine to be brought onboard.

You’d think so wouldn’t you,

Yeah, I think I've mentioned somewhere on this thread that I think this is an NCL issue (in my opinion, others may disagree). 🙂

Last year there was the situation in Santorini where two NCL ships were both there and one was serving whilst the other wasn’t. We don’t know why this was, and staff on the ship that wasn’t serving suggested to a passenger that it was because the other ship was breaking the rules, but it may suggest that this is a per ship thing, Also backing that up is that we had the problem for the first two cruises of the season on the Jade and then it was the Gem on their first cruise that had a problem later in the year. Of course that was Greece and this is the UK so it may be different, but the balance of the evidence (in my opinion, others may disagree) seems to be that it is done by each ship separately,

Both of them will be 30 minutes before departure.

Well, I’m obviously not going to argue against any of those points, but I suspect that others may. 🙂

Yes, that seems to be standard now for some ports. It has applied in Greece for about a year and seems to be in some (if not all) Italian ports now. Potentially a problem for people who just buy a glass of wine with meals and have late departures.

You can see the angled balconies on the deck plans. For example, on the attached picture cabins 12180 and 12780 are angled. It’s best to Google the cabin number to check, as some NCL deck plans aren’t 100% accurate. Large balconies are stated as such on the cabin selection page. There are some on deck 9 and club suites with large balconies on deck 8 (those balconies are huge). You pay a premium for these, but sometimes it isn’t much extra. Finally, aft balconies are bigger than standard. The standard balconies are so small on Breakaway/Getaway that if I can’t get one of the options mentioned above then I would stay in an Oceanview instead. The standard ones offer any benefit at all for us.

I can’t help with whether those drinks are included, but yes they just charge the difference if not.

We didn't get it free in this situation. We were charged 1p each for the excursions. 🙂

Couldn't have said it better myself. I'm very critical of NCL on this issue, because (in my opinion, and others are free to disagree) they have repeatedly messed up something that (in my opinion, and others are free to disagree) the other cruise lines are managing to deal with without causing frustration to their customers. NCL are my cruise line of choice, and I have by 26th, 27th and 28th cruises with them booked. I really enjoy what they offer on the ships and there are some great itineraries offered which we haven't done yet. However much I like the product, they also do some things very badly, and this (in my opinion, others are free to disagree) is probably the worst mess that they make, both ending up in this position and their communications with their customers. It really is very disappointing, and I will continue to discuss it for as long as it continues to happen.

I was just going to reply with the same point. I absolutely am suggesting that they should have known in advance that they needed to do this stuff. Theyve been doing this for decades.

Don’t worry too much about delays at customs. On a British Isles cruise there shouldn’t be any customs at all in Southampton. I assume that The Travelling Man was on a cruise from outside the UK (maybe a transatlantic) where there will be customs, but on a normal round UK cruise time to get off the ship is based on how quick you can walk.

I absolutely agree, frustration is the correct word. We knew in advance on the Jade, but many didn’t and there was real frustration amongst other customers. We said it last year as well. How you deal with these things can make a big difference, and NCL have never dealt with it well.

I agree with the “accept it and move on” thought, and that is exactly what ziggyuk and we did last year when we couldn’t drink on embarkation day. It has now happened to ziggyuk again, and there were the further issues in Greece after our cruises, plus in Gibraltar and Italy. I can absolutely understand companies getting caught out once or even twice, but there seems to be something wrong when it happens so many times, especially as the other cruise companies don’t seem to be having the same issues. Just frustration for people when they should be getting on with enjoying their holidays. I’m sure we can all agree that NCL just need to resolve whatever the problem is that keeps causing this for the sake of their customers.

I honestly don’t think that anyone is suggesting that NCL are making this up. As for why we are discussing it, well it is something that is affecting NCL and this is a forum about NCL, so discussing it seems appropriate. Discussing doesn’t necessarily mean complaining. The discussion may even help others to plan and set expectations when they cruise. This would be a very quiet forum if we didn’t discuss things relating to NCL. 🙂

Maybe they sacked them for messing it up last year. 🙂

Gatwick recommend checking in two hours before the flight, so you should be fine there if you make the trains, even allowing for the travel to the airport from the station, unless your airline has more specific requirements. However, Chapham Junction is huge and will be busy at that time during the week. You will almost certainly have to go up and down stairs and walk a way. I would want more than 11 minutes. Add to that that the train from Southampton is very likely to be late arriving at Clapham. It will be extremely stressful and there is a very good chance of you missing your connection and therefore your flight. My advice is get an earlier train or later flight:

If anyone is interested in a bit of history on this, here is the thread from last year.

From memory some phone staff went as far as accusing Cruise Critic posters of lying about this previously, so that message hasn’t got to everyone. 🙂