firstcarib

Ther is a village a couple of miles south of Livorno called Montenero. You can get the number 2 bus there. Your ticket include the ride up to the Monestary on a funicular. Once up there you can take in fab views. There are lots of posts about it on TA

Ta for the info...i am soooo excited, just booked Epic for our family of 10 inc 4 teenagers & Nanna /Grandad...celebrating my 65th. Looking for any info re WMed ports/self excursions as we are too many to book expensive trips with NCL . No idea how to start a roll call so hoping others more savvy than me will do it soon. :mad::D

If you are booking through the NCL UK website, they don't let you choose your perks. You get assigned something automatically (you should see this on your confirmation), but if you want something different, you have to contact them to adjust the booking.

Can I book on ncl.com(US site?) from UK? When I log in with my Latitudes number I get put thru to NCL.com, even though Im in UK. The Free at Sea Latitud special offers at present are a choice of 5 different things on the US site, whereas UK agents only offer a choice of 4... Id like the "3rd& 4th person free" benefit as am travelling with hubbie & 2 teenagers. This " perk" is not on offer in UK it seems. Any help appreciated . Thanks :) Jane

Hi, we are only bronze Latitudes members( will be silver after our October T/A cruise) so have not travelled often with ncl(yet!!) Ive been looking at my forthcoming cruise on the website, I checked in with my Latitudes number & ended up on ncl.com. There were excellent offers there, for Latitudes members, & Im tempted to book for my family, 10 of us in total. But it asks me which state we are from, with no option to put" non USA" So has anyone from UK booked via ncl.com? I have spoken to a UK travel agent who couldnt match the ncl offers & tried to tell me f I booked n the USA site I could be refused boarding as Im not a US citizen!!!???:eek: Any comments welcome please. Jane

You can pre-purchase at 90 days (100 days for suites). So that should be just about now, check your MyNCL.

Is there a decent sized hot tub in the Spa....or is there a good one in the gym? We had a greatbig hot tub in the gym on a recent cruise with RCCL Navigator, not many knew it was there!

Kids are kids.

You guys have no right to judge which country had the worst kids! Get a life!

This is exactly the reason some peoples kds are badly behaved!😖😱Badly behaved parents!!!!

Can you say hi to the Cruise Director Steve from Cindy. We know each other very well!

Steve was very good, much better than we thought he would be when we first met him! He & his staff work so hard.

The Radiance is a good ship, but a bit like an older lady needing a face lift!!

The staff are great though...well done to them all!:p

Ridiculous. google empathy.

 

for example, if I read about someone who has tortured a dog, it does not affect me at all, but I feel bad for the dog, and that there are people who do that. I do donate money to organizations that help abused animals but still wish it wasn't necessary.

 

Obviously that is orders of magnitude worse than not tipping but it's the same concept. People like me genuinely feel bad that workers get stiffed on tips and resent the people who do it. Perhaps it's because I used to be a waiter.

 

I'm sorry you can't or won't understand this basic human emotion.

My basic human emotion tells me cruise ship companies should pay all their staff a better living wage!!! Then it would not be such an emotional issue about tipping. We could tip who & where we please without incurring the wrath of those folk from countries where tipping is not just expected, it is demanded. I speak of the US of A...I have never seen such rude, greedy servers in restaurants in all my world of travelling. Indifferent, disgraceful service staff still expect rewarding with at least a 20% tip. Give me the honest good natured service in Australia, New Zealand ...or even UK. Tipping is not a foregone conclusion designed to bolster shabby wages. It is an extra Thank you for great service, with a smile:rolleyes:

After our Queen Mary 2 cruise, we got 10 days in Singapore before our Sun Princess Cruise.

 

We know its expense to stay in Singapore, especially for that long.

 

We are looking at place to stay in Singapore and around Singapore and outland areas / islands.

 

We are also looking at maybe staying in Langkawi, Malaysia.

 

Has anyone stayed in/around Singapore or in Langkawi?, if so can anyone recommend anywhere to stay for 7 - 8 days?

We are in Singapore at the moment, en route to Sydney from UK, we take a RCC cruise from Sydney 25/2. Its really worth splashing out on 1 night at the Marina Bay Sands, just for the experience. Its wow! Huge but wow!

We spent the previous 3 nights at a boutiquey small hotel(26rooms) at Sentosa Cove Marina. ONE15 Marina. Lovely room with view over all the boats, lots of restaurants nearby, even a supermarket. Not as expensive as many other large group style hotels, but perhaps still too much for more than a few days.

Australia too.

Yep, Aussies, Kiwis, Brits....we all feel people should work for a decent minimum wage & not have to be supported by gratuities..or even gratitudes. If someone makes a personal decision to pay extra for exceptional service, thats great. But not just because a guy in a bar has taken the top off a bottle of Bud...that is not exceptional service, its his job & he should be paid an acceptable rate by his employer to do this. End of tipping rant...sorry. But drinks prices on X are ludicrous.:eek:

Same here' date=' that's why I needed smelling salts when I first saw the prices[emoji6']

 

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Yep, we nearly had heart attacks also....Eclipse charged ridiculous drinks prices on board, we also thought about going teetotal, but on a T/A crossing drinks are really a necessity!:eek:. Even though the standard drinks package cost nearly 1000$ pp we still couldn't get a martini at the martini bar! Just ludicrous!!

Bye Bye Celebrity, you have becomevtoo greedy by far. Better to go with Siversea or Regent....you know what you will get...quality with no one trying to upsell you cr..p all the time. The fee restaurants also are incredibly overpriced. Vote with your feet:p

I would like to add as a local resident that when there are delays due to accidents on the road or to bridges on the road a local transportation company would be your best bet for having an experienced driver get you to the Orlando Airport.

 

Alternate routes can add more than an hour depending where the accident occurs. Just a word to the wise for those who must catch flights at noon or before.

As a Local, can you advise me if its possible for my friend who has a holiday home near Orlando to come anywhere into the port area to collect us when we disembark next month. We plan to stay on post cruise in her house.

I agree. The ongoing problems with the IT depart. are unacceptable. Why are these people being paid a salary they clearly aren't earning.: :mad:

I agree, the whole issue is mow beyond a joke....total incompetence. Ive been trying to print express passes & luggage tags for days now, keep getting stupid messages about returning in 20 mins, website being improved...all purporting to be for my convenience!!! No, no, no...:mad::mad::mad:this is not convenient...except perhaps for Celebrity. I never understand why online printing of luggage tags etc is accepted by customers anyway. We use our time, our paper & our ink, they save lots of money...who is that convenient for?? When we cruised with Silversea we had a dinky upmarket folder with all our documents, including very nice luggage labels, sent to us. We still use the folder...now to hold our pathetic print outs from Celebrity.

By the way....Its true, 6* all-inc cruiselines work out around the same price as the 4* ones...Ive just worked out the potential cost of a 17 night T/Acrossing bar bill with Celebrity!:eek: No brainer next booking!!

Once on ship you can get a pkg for only one if you wish. Both is only required if you buy pre-cruise.

Thanks for that info. We may be tempted after a few AFDs:eek: A TA cruise may pass slowly without a glass or three of something.:D

BevMo charges $3.99 for the White Zinfandel, Beringer, California

Yeah, but I still wouldnt drink it!!:eek::eek:Cant believe Celebrity even have it on a wine list, its pop! Looks like we wont be drinkng much on our next cruise, we really hate being ripped off on wine prices. :mad:

Yes the package can be added any time up to 3 days left in the cruise. Enjoy!

 

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Thanks, we were wondering that too. We are going to try to be rather abstemious as we are on a TA cruise next week & thought we would try to give our livers a rest. But somehow I feel by day 4 or 5 our halos will slip:D & we will be needing alcohol. If one of us decides not to indulge in alcohol:eek::eek:, can we buy 1 drinks package & 1 soda/ coffee package? I understand both cabin occupants must buy.

The cruise that seems to be causing the problems of the "open/closed loop" bit is booked from UK via Virgin holidays, Cozumel to Cozumel. Blame Richard Branson...but he is probably on Necker Island so is not going to be too bothered.

We were on the Dawn over Christmas, Tampa to WCaribbean. After reading all the pretty dismal reviews, including one from someone who had actually CANCELLED their Dawn cruise due to all this negativity, we were more than pleasantly surprised by most things we found on board.

Embarkation was not too bad at all, although I realse this was made much better by the fact that our cruise date did not include pick ups in Cozumel. However, it was made worse by a bizarre situation at the cruise checkin desks, where non US citizens such as us from UK( although we had obviously already been admitted into the US via strict border control, ESTAs granted etc etc) still had to have their passports re-entered into some computer by someone slowly using "one-finger" typing for each passenger. This led to long queues at his workstation, holding up every other passenger in every check in queue! Surely, if this is necessary, it would be better to have a check-in desk, or two, just for non-US passengers. This would allow the others to board more quickly. I am sure the US passengers would be very happy!

Our balcony cabin, 9192, was fine. Smallish, but lots of storage space. Bathroom tiny, separate wc behind a screen was miniscule! Looking at the size of some of the passengers, I can only imagine they were in large suites...no way would they get in the wc!

Food..we ate mainly in Venetian, we cannot stand the "Zoo" that is the buffet, although the food selection looked good, specially at breakfast, to see fellow passengers pushing & shoving to pile their plates with bizarre food combinations is not my idea of a good time! This does not reflect on NCL, only on the passengers!! What greed some have.

Freetime dining did not work well over Xmas, due to herds of people all wanting to eat at the same time. Lots of vouchers for free bubbly were given out by patient staff at the Venetian check in desk(Well done Gen!!) & buzzers used to the max.

Teppanyaki was great, best steak all cruise(worst steak was Prime rib in Venetian, just inedible, although all other meals good there) Coffee & tea was poor (to our taste) everywhere, take your own & use the equipment provided in cabin!

Le Bistro was adequate...no more, no less. We dine in France often..believe me,Le Bistro is not good standard French cuisine! No-one eats al-dente potatoes!! But the chef for Le Bistro obviously thinks they do!! Wouldnt go there again for a surcharge.

Service was mainly good, especially in the Venetian, although we did feel it was a little false, with expectations of further tipping. Some were surly, but I suppose thats life, & happens anywhere!

The Spa was great, well worth the extra cost. The jacuzzis were great, the pool a little cool, but welcome to escape the children. The on-deck hot-tub at the front of the ship, behind the Bimini Bar, was also a good find, really quiet most days, plus lots of sunbeds available there.

Entertainment was good, Paul, the cruise director(a fellow Brit!) was excellent, although we felt sometimes his British humour may have gone straight over the heads of some passengers. We got totally fed up with the "shopping woman" wittering on constantly about buying diamonds, watches etc etc. We went to what we though would be an informative presentation about some ports, to find it was a Diamond Hard Sell...Thanks, but No Thanks!

A little disappointed by the comedian Tim Kaminski, he relied very much on audience participation, but if that was poor(Wizard of Oz nigh!!!) then the whole show dragged on & was very flat. Second City were much better...impro at its cleverest.

Bollywood was glitzy, we enjoyed it more than we had expected.

So, all-in-all...a great value Xmas cruise! Well done NCL..this was our first cruise with you, we may well return!

:eek:

We are in the same boat (pardon the pun) and have chosen to drive the 3hrs to NYC and pay the $25/day parking (2 blocks away) instead of just having family bring us in town. We just got off Breakaway and its night and day compared to the Dawn. Much more to do, more places to relax and a larger ship so if you hit a storm, its much more calm. I would NEVER bring first timers on the Dawn to Bermuda (I've told many people not to do it for their first, they ignored me and said they'll never cruise again because of rough weather). If you like them and want them to cruise again, take the Breakaway.

Just about to board the Dawn today! Help! Seen some really bad reviews.:confused:

At least there will be no turkey to cook, or washing up to do!!:D

I will post my impressions once we return...that is, if Im not still being seasick, or traumatised from all the other awful things that folk think happen on the Dawn. Should have booked with Crystal or Silversea, but they get bad press too.

We have booked a fly cruise from the UK for January.We have 1 nights hotel stay in Tampa before joining the Dawn on Jan.19th.We booked directly with NCL but they couldnt give us the name of the Hotel in Tampa when booking.Has anyone else done the same thing and if so what was the name of the Hotel?

Hi, we are here from UK also, taking a Xmas W Caribbean cruise on the Dawn today 22/12. We had a glorious week first on Anna Maria Island/Bradenton Beach, then came back to Tampa yesterday & stayed near the port(6$ cab ride away??)at Westin Harbour Island. We booked with booking.com but actually the price went down after we booked so Im trying to claim a reund from them! However, we have a great view of the bay, & ships, from our room on 11th floor.

On our October Gem cruise' date=' just my husband and myself, we chose "shared table" every evening for dinner in the main dining room. Since the others being seated at that table had also asked for "shared table" we were all open to the idea of dining with people we had never met prior to being seated. :)

 

We had the BEST time and met the most wonderful people! Dinner every night was truly an adventure! ;)[/quote']

 

Totally agree...we did this on both of our cruises so far. Met some great folk...mainly! The very elderly couple with Alzeimers were a bit of a challenge one night on HAL, as they both forgot what meals they had ordered, but we all survived, & it made an interesting evening, hopefully for them too. Its great to talk to folk from other countries/ cultures. Besides, as much as we do love each other, we can get fed up with our own company.:rolleyes:

Just wondering what we can do in Belize port on Xmas Day if we do not go on a ship excursion? We were planning to stay on board but feel we should at least make the effort to see Belize Town for a short visit. Any suggestions welcome please, even if just the name of a local bar or restaurant...but appreciate on Xmas Day it could be difficult!

Soooo pleased to hear that...we are on the 22 Dec Dawn sailing too & I was worried about standing in line in the Hot Sun( thats why we came here from UK..but still...)I brought an umbrella with me to use as a sunshade ;) but now Ive seen the weather forecast for 24/12 for Roatan & I might need it for the rain :(

Spell check got me: .....the dressmaking issues... should be the disembarking issues...

I just love these bloopers! I was just wondering where the "dressmaking" was on the Dawn...thoughts of running up a little number to wear at the Captains Table made me smile..then I realised we were not on Silverseas this time, & probably will not get an invite to the Captains Table on NCL. Oh well, never mind, we didn't pack the Posh Frocks anyway.:D

I am SERIOUSLY concerned about these boarding stories. We are due to take the Dawn on Sunday 22nd December for a Xmas WCaribbean cruise. Surely by now both NCL and the Tampa Port authorities must have looked at this dire situation & made some forward planning to alleviate this awful start (& end) to folks specal cruise holidays. This is appalling publicity for both NCL & Port of Tampa. Do neither care that they are getting such bad reviews...people easily vote with their feet & have a huge choice of ports & cruise lines. If this was my business, I would seriously get it sorted out...NOW!

Thanks...great insight! We are sailing from Tampa on her 22nd Dec over Xmas...looking forward to those lobsters!