pghflyer

I definitely think a real cyclist will die of boredom on the tour. My port schedule is 2 half-days basically, so not very conducive to the whole rental transaction and return and all aboard time. Generally the reviews say a lot of the trail is covered, somewhat unmarked, and has sections where you have to lift your bike and walk apparently. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147255-d148021-Reviews-Bermuda_Railway_Trail-Bermuda.html https://www.alltrails.com/trail/bermuda/smith-s/bermuda-railway-trail

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/shore-excursions/kwb/royal-naval-dockyard-bermuda/railway-trail-bike-beach-swim/bkn8 Seems it is handled by this company: https://kswatersports.com/fantasea-tours/bike-railway-and-beach-tour/ Anyone done this recently? While the description from RCL says 5-8 miles of biking, a lot of reviews say it is more 3-4 of slow biking and the rest is bus ride/ walking tour stops/ beach time? It seems you don't even pick up the bikes until Ely's Harbour, which is right near the fort.

Same as @crystalspin I just had my TA run an updated booking confirmation for me and they produced a new one with the updated total I expected for OBC (but had not told them) - honestly my TA has no idea what extra stuff I have going on, they just see it when it refreshes. What I get from my TA does not break down the individual OBC but just has one overall OBC total from Holland and one over OBC total from the TA.

I have (1) Holland Early Booking and (2) Holland Future Cruise Deposit and (3) AARP and (4) Healthcare and (5) TA OBC all on a single booking right now. Plan to add (6) Shareholder OBC before we cruise. I did get things lined up BEFORE booking, but I do hear it sometimes works after too.

We just got off the Star and our group agreed it was the worst food variety and quality we have had on NCL (not comparing to other lines). No cookies, no hash browns, lower quality buffet options and mains........but still perfectly acceptable, never was hungry, and we had a great time. I take it some cruise just for the food, but that is just a means to a destination for us.

We used BOGO air for BWI-JFK-ATH on Delta (same route on return) and it was not much different than I would have booked myself and saved many hundreds of $$. Also if you deviate 1 or 2 days on the inbound or outbound, you can get $25 credit (discount) for each deviation. You aren't obligated to use the bus transportation from the airport and can just ask for that to be removed. You can also book it and then monitor for prices yourself (ex. Google Flights) and as long as you remove it before they book you (I think around 120 days out but don't quote me there), no harm no foul. As long as you are flexible, it is a reasonable gamble for decent savings.

I am assuming it is your or you are a joint owner of the account.....I understand your monthly statement may not have generated yet....but every broker generates trade confirmations. I always use those for my shareholder credits with all the lines, I don't want to share my whole statement or spend all the time blacking out all of it.

This is why I find the cruise I am interested in and then set a price alert on a monitoring site like cruiseplum

I am shocked they actually admitted fault, still rubbing my eyes on that one!! I feel bad you missed a part of your cruise you were really looking forward to, that stinks regardless. The cruise industry does take advantage of their liberal contract terms and we all have learned to accept it, but it doesn't make it a customer friendly practice. That said, I think the 10% offer is very fair and generous, relative to the industry. I mean it isn't exactly the same - but United airlines doesn't issue flight credits when they skip flying over the Grand Canyon from LA - NYC, even if it is their normal flight path and everyone looks forward to it. Anyhow, sorry it happened, but the most productive thing will be to be thankful is that your only travel mishap and look forward to new adventures (at a 10% discount!).

Wish I could convince my SO to follow along with these very logic based, financial decision making discussion ha ha ha

I will say that when you do the "cancel" and "rebook" as discussed here....make doubly sure they remember to re-apply your Latitudes Discount on the rebook as they forgot this for myself and another travel family on two different ships. I have never experienced the loss of an excursion myself on NCL....BUT I was behind in line of someone who WAS told they would not be able to rebook a cancel because of the waitlist on Holland America, so seems in the realm of possiblity.

Very little discussion on this topic. So it sounds like you just have to refer someone BEFORE they book and have them complete the form..........but they can book through a TA and not required to book direct. Any recent reports?

100% of my TA OBCs from many different agencies has always been refundable and can be taken as cash towards the end of the cruise. You have to get creative now that some NCL issued OBC can't be used for CN certificates or gratuities and cannot be used for pre-booking excursions....and you have already obtained your drinks, specialty dining, and WIFI in your package. I mean, if you aren't a ship shopper or spa or gambling person, not sure where you would use that OBC. Normally, I am left with the excursion workaround others have mentioned and I have cancelled and rebooked pre-booked excursions with no problem (just make sure it is still open and accepting bookings).

Just off the STAR and have VZ carrier and Android phone....using my 150 FAS WIFI minutes, I could not receive texts and could not do WIFI calls. The minute I stepped off the ship and connected to a port WIFI, those features worked instantly.

Just off Star....definitely no video meetings will work on the regular FAS minutes.....I did notice discount offers almost every day but didn't pay attention to how they changed. Don't forget if you are Platinum or higher, you get 15%+ discount on Unlimited Internet Package (not sure if that works on Premium though).

Just off the Star and FWIW, I couldn't receive any texts over WIFI or do WIFI calling using my 150 minutes (VZ is my carrier on my Android phone). However, I could make WIFI calls and receive WIFI texts in ports connected WIFI. So something about the NCL basic WIFI minutes was blocking me - I went to the Internet desk and the guy just said some apps don't work on the non-premium WIFI and he couldn't help me. If you have an Apple product, I heard the experience is much better (ex. some stuff works without even logging into your minutes).

Even though I am not eligible, I am happy to see this - the world would be a better place if we all valued educating our children more. Still, kind of interesting for a global company to only support teachers from two of the wealthiest countries in the world.

I appreciate quiet and simple and high quality so have enjoyed HAL but I also know a lot of people in their 20's-50's who won't cruise HAL due to the lack of formal entertainment and variety of onboard activities, I can't imagine being a (for example) 12-year old who is not a reader and needs activities to keep entertained and being stuck on the average HAL ship for multiple days on end. I do think others have GREAT points about the schedule though - if you have a lot of long port days and will be off-ship most the time, probably not a factor.

NCL has a bad habit of doing this recently for non-weather and non-safety related reasons...well covered in a few long threads.....

Back to the math on the whole AARP purchase - I am curious since I have not done it, what merchant and MCC (credit card) category does the purchase of the AARP cards show up under when you buy the cards?

@HUNKY and @Gail & Marty sailing away I use the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) which gives 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points for Travel / Restaurants. Depending on what you value their transfer options as (ex. 1 point to any airline mile minimum, often 20-40% bonus to select rotating partners every quarter)....it could be worth anywhere from 3-6+% in "value". For example, a few years ago I got 30% transfer for British Airways last year. See the whole history of past bonuses: https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/complete-history-credit-card-transfer-bonuses/ For simplicity, I didn't factor in that you can get 5-10 points (they often do promotions) per $ if you book in the Chase Travel Portal. Of course the decision to get a CSR card is a big calculation on your spending habits and value since it has a $550 annual fee. It works for me as I instantly use the $300 annual travel credit, the Global Entry membership credit, the $5 a month DoorDash credits, the Priority Pass Lounge Membership, and the enhanced Travel Insurance. Not to mention I got a big chunk of points as a sign-up bonus. Obviously, my math and use case may not work the same for others.

Perhaps this was a joke (hard to tell online sometimes) but I actually kind of agree with this. I get 4-5% back on Travel category purchases on my credit card....and with 5% interest rates right now for my free cash.....tying that free cash up in Gift Cards that takes a little effort to redeem (I use a travel agent) and keep track of (in case of cancellations)....does start making me scratch my head on the effort for an extra 3% discount. Plus there is the whole thing of how much I trust my travel credit card to honor my travel insurance when I make partial payment with a gift card (I have not seen anyone that has actually needed to use their credit card travel insurance in this circumstance yet with multiple payment methods).

Thanks for sharing! Just the fact their preferred redemption technology is TELEPHONE, kind of tells me a lot about this company.

Just off the Star.....the free-at-sea Internet is pretty restrictive and doesn't even permit delivery of SMS/MMS/RCS (WIFI enabled) text messages to Android phones and you would have to purchase Premium (someone on board had done this). If you have iPhone, seems text messages still come through without using minutes as long as connected to ship WIFI. They do offer the in-ship only texting in the NCL app for $10, but that just feels like nickel/ diming. Anyhow, this ended up being a pretty big problem for me (Android user expecting to use WIFI SMS) as many things I use require text secondary authentication, and those never came in for me in spite of my having the NCL "free" internet.

Just saying thanks for this thread and the contributors. We have never cruised Viking and recently started getting snail mail flyers but usually end up throwing them away... only to find (ha ha) a few days later we want to price something out and don't remember the code. This thread is very helpful for that - cheers!