hillbilly73

Blue_Water, the Summit cruise we are on docks on Sunday I read some where that a lot of locals go over to JVD on Sunday. Will it be more crowded on Sunday?

Looks like this time around 6:00 AM eastern it really does vary. Hope you get a good fare for your destination.

Al

Thanks for posting so far we have not received any notification of our reservation being cancelled. Our stay is 9 months out, still they should be notifying customers. Hopefully folks with a stay coming up soon have been informed.

I sat with a lady and her grown daughter at breakfast and the lady was complaining that all the passengers "were just so middle class."

 

I thought that was hilarious.

 

I think I was insulted!

Oh I could of had so much fun with them I have a hillbilly tourist accent that I break out on occasion that would send chills down their spines.;)

Just back from the NCL Dawn checked 24 pack of water and 12 pack of coke no problem. Started to carry them with us and the porter asked "why you doing that just check them with me". Not sure that works all the time but it wouldn'y hurt to ask if you have a sailing out of New Orleans coming up. Both got to the room no problem.

Al

Don't let this ruin your cruise. If you get in a bad mood now, you will convince yourself to not have a good time.

Silver lining: Do a $50 OBC dance

 

As others have stated, the promo is to get new bookings. If everyone was allowed to get the promo who already booked, that means the entire ship would have the UBP. And NCL would lose a ton of money on alcohol sales.

Actually since only sailings inside the 75 day window aren't allowed to rebook and get the promo your wrong. In theory a ship could sail with everyone except insides getting UBP as long as they sailed 75 days after the promo start.

Thanks omeinv that is perfect thanks.

Has anyone did the NCL dive excursion? Since they pick up and drop off at the ship what time do they get you back to the boat? We are on the Dawn 6 PM sail away and was wondering if there was time for a quick tender and a drink or two.

Al

Yes, it took 3 weeks and many,many emails but we are confirmed.

Supposed to snorkel with them on Feb.11. If you post something on the 12th or 13th to remind me I'll come back and report how it went.

Actually they are booked for the 10th.

We are signed up (I think) for this in February.

I'm having problems communicating with the owner. I think his wife is very ill.

They seem to have 2 websites and 2 VERY similar sounding snorkel excursions on each site.

 

 

http://www.snorkelingincozumel.com/index.html

 

http://cozumelcruiseexcursions.net/

 

:confused: ... :confused: ... :confused:

Did you ever hear from them our daughter is booked with them in a couple of weeks and is having trouble contacting them?

Understand you can't check a soda 12 pack. A few years ago in NOLA we checked two twelve packs in a carry on size bag and sent it through made it to the cabin with a couple of cans rolling around in the bag after being checked for booze. You can't do that now right? Also can you just put the cans in a soft sided cooler no rule they have to be carried on in the original packaging?

We have used early bird many times on return flights. We are usually checking bags anyway never had any issues waiting until the airport to print boarding passes. Like it was said earlier you have to go to the Kiosk anyway if checking bags.

Most hotels near a cruise port know the routine we once had a new person working the desk when checking out. One of the training employees told him to make sure he had at least two out every morning and at least one stayed at the counter and didn't go to guest rooms.

We were on the Jewel last week and dived in both Belize and Roatan, arranged through the ship. I would assume NCL uses the same outfits for all of their ships. Both were very professional. In Belize there was one divemaster for each four divers; they were happy to set up the rigs if you wanted them to do so; they triple checked everyone. In Roatan (Anthony's Key Resort), there were two divemasters for six or eight divers, with the captain helping out as a deckhand. Both were combination reef and wall dives; in Roatan, one of the dives was a drift dive, which was nice. Depths were generally 45-80. Getting the equipment was fast and easy at each site; everything seemed fairly new, clean, and well maintained. They were meticulous about checking everyone's certification cards; in Roatan, they were able to look up the PADI number of someone who left the card home, but mentioned that the internet connection sometimes goes out, and in that case you would not be able to dive. Would happily dive with each outfit again.

Belize did the operator use weight belts or integrated BCDs? Thanks for the good report on the ship excursion for Belize we are booked and worried about over crowding and hurried dives.

Just booked a Caribbean cruise on the Dawn as a Christmas gift for my son and husband. They're both certified scuba divers but haven't been on a dive within the last twelve months which is the requirement for many of the excursions they're considering. This will be a scuba intensive trip for them so I want to make sure they don't miss out because I didn't do my homework. I'm trying to find out if NCL Dawn has a pool refresher course onboard on sea day and if it fulfills the requirement. Anyone have experience with this? They won't want to waste time or money on a certification excursion since they're already certified. Thanks for any insight!!

 

 

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Just go to your dive shop and let them know you need a refresher. Should be easy and done in a afternoon. Take care of it now and have it checked of your list before going then no worries.

We have a large Celtic music group on our NCL Dawn cruise in February found it like it was said earlier by searching our cruise date on google. My wife called NCL and spoke with a customer service supervisor after she pointed them to the web page they acknowledged the group but said quote “ they will probably take up one venue on the night of their ball that is all”. Yea we see that as not possible but will see when we get on the ship. Just guessing but my bet is they park them in the spinnaker lounge and we don’t see it all week.

Moral of this story is front line customer services probably won’t even know if there is a group and probably won’t know how to respond if you ask. Seems they will play it down if at all possible. There is no substitute for doing online research and making your own judgment call.

Now with a screen name like hillbilly you know I am Scots Irish and love Celtic music along with pretty dancing ladies that have very curly hair so looking for ideas how to sneak in without paying their rate.;)

I already did, but there is nothing. (I arrive Saturday night, and leave Sunday)

 

 

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Sorry didn't see your post about final payment never mind. Hope it works out well for you.

Don't put to much stock in first day temps now if you are sailing in 5 weeks they probably will be cooler. Check the averages for Tampa and Key West those might give you some idea since the ship will be passing parallel to those locations on the first day. Even if is a little cooler than you like when you wake up by the afternoon it should be nice. Also remember the days are very short in January so don't be disappointed if you have very little sail time down the river before it gets dark.

FomulaRacer, Patti and Jose are off the ship, not back on until March 8th according to their website. Disappointed they won't be on when we sail in February.

We cruising 2/8/15 out of New Orleans. TA gave us a quote of $23 a person from the port back to the airport for when we debark. Is this a good choice or is it easier/cheaper to just do a taxi?

 

 

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As others have said it looks like the taxi is less expensive and easy to get. Another thing to keep in mind the uptown parades start at 11:00 AM so traffic will be picking up early in the morning downtown. Shared rides can have some long wait times on occasion. We are getting off the Dawn next door at the same time and plan on getting a taxi as soon as we can. You probably will get to MSY with plenty of time to spare either way but that Sunday I wouldn't do anything that could slow me down. What time is your flight?

Thanks everyone - sad thing is - I am already booked on a 9:25 am flight home. Just wondering if I should change now or just go with the flow and see what happens that day?

If possible to change I would to many things can go wrong. Also do you really want to spend time on the cruise worrying about making your flight home? The days of I'll just catch a later flight are pretty much gone the airlines fly so full now if you don't make yours don't count on gettimg a later flight so easy. You do catch one break the Saints have a Monday night game out of town the weekend you get back. The flu can hit the port area at any US departure port on game day.;)

It seems odd... I haven't seen it many times where the mini suites are actually cheaper than regular balconies before, but they are on the cruise for the 14th of December ... I wonder if things will adjust once you have passed final payment date.

Looking at the Dawn deck plan most of the Minis are below the Pool or some other noisy area. We decided that a balcony on deck 10 was a better location and booked a balcony instead of the mini suite others may have thought the same.

To the OP we are on the Dawn in February and noticed shortly after we booked the price was much higher than sailing the week before or after. A little google search showed a Celtic Music group booked on the Dawn that week you might want to look and see if you have a large group onboard.

I don't mind people talking about pricing here on this forum, especially if it's done in time that others can take advantage of a sale while it's still going on.

 

However, it's rude to talk about pricing once you're on the ship. This can hurt feelings, if, say you got a great deal and your tablemates paid rack rate.

Best reply to this question I have seen. We have saved money on several cruises from pricing posts on CC. I have made posts to alert people of price drops on here myself usually in general rounded numbers not specific price quotes. As a compulsive planner I constantly look at pricing but once on ship the price is something we forget after a couple of drinks and just enjoy.

Yesterday morning I checked when I woke up and the new dates were not available. Went popped in a couple pieces of bread in the toaster walked back to the computer and they were available but several options for the route we were looking at came up with "Want to get Away" unavailable. Looks like there were no getaway rates in the bucket at turn up unless there are multiple servers and we weren’t hitting one that had the new dates.

While we were looking at our return route my darling wife who has been a corporate TA or airline employee for over 30 years was doing the booking while I had the route pulled up on my phone. She kept saying return was 233 dollars I kept saying no its 200 she had it pulled up as two passengers I had it pulled up as one. Word of advice never tell someone that books up to 25 Southwest flights a day they are wrong especially if you are married to that person. All this occurred within 5 minutes of the routes being available to us. So there must of been one ticket left at the 200 dollar fare. That is how quickly it changes when inputs are done at the speed of light.

Southwest is now open through March 6th 2015 they opened about 5:30 CDT this morning.