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I notice that the port of Baltimore is not an option on NCL's website this morning. Did they have a ship cruising out of that port?

Contemplating a cruise later in the year on the Getaway out of New Orleans. Can anyone who's been on the ship fairly recently let us know what entertainment (shows, comedians, other acts, etc) is currently available?

Asking because we just completed a cruise on the Prima and found that the entertainment seems to have been scaled way back. Wondering if that's true fleet wide, and particularly on the Getaway.

Thanks!

My DW just came off a Prima cruise. She said there was a "White Hot Night" (NCL tradition), but wasn't even sure there was a "Dress Up or Not Night"

On 11/25/2023 at 10:14 AM, BirdTravels said:

Yes.

 

The ship arrives at 7:00 am. The ship departs San Juan at 8:30 pm. The late departure allows for more day-of-cruise flight arrivals (especially connections in Miami).

Actually, it's also a matter of geography. Cruising out of San Juan, the ship is already in the Caribbean, and the distances to the next ports are much shorter than from Miami or other Florida ports. So no need to leave earlier in the day.

For your future reference: Consider that a flight departing at 10 am means you actually need to be at the airport at least an hour before that, and preferably more. So you're really wanting to be at the airport at 8:30 to 8:45 am.

While that is technically possible, you would want to be in the first walk-off disembarkation group, carrying all your own luggage. You would want immediate transportation to the airport (cab or uber, lyft). You would be hoping for no delays in the start of disembarkation. The ship will dock at 5am to 6am, but won't usually begin disembarkation until around 7:00 am

The good news is that the Miami airport is about 15 minutes from the pier. The bad news is that Miami airport (under normal, non-coronavirus conditions) is almost always a crowded mess with long lines for baggage check and security clearance. You would be helped if you had status with the airline you were using, and if you had TSA Pre-check.

In any case, I wouldn't suggest a 10am flight. If you miss it, you're looking a long day of trying to get home. Why put yourself in that situation after a nice relaxing vacation? Next time, take a flight at noon or later.

I would suggest any Brickell area hotel. Far more options for good dining and shopping, most within easy walking distance. Bayside market is just a tourist spot with the usual chain restaurants.

Hampton inn and suites Brickell is very popular with cruisers. 

Since you mentioned Mayan ruins specifically, you should be aware of the following:

First, do not take the Mayan ruins excursion from Cozumel. There are no ruins on the island, and the excursion actually involves a long ferry crossing to the mainland, and then a bus ride to and from the ruins, and of course the long ferry ride back again. This is an all day excursion for (IMO) minimal time at the ruins and a maximum of time getting to and from.

You can see Chacchoben ruins from the Costa Maya port stop. There is a fairly lengthy bus ride involved, but many people feel the tour is a good value.

If you're doing a longer Western Caribbean itinerary that includes Belize, consider the ruins at Lamanai (spl?) in Belize. This too is an all day tour involving a river trip and bus ride, but the ruins are far more impressive than any of the two offered from the Mexico ports. 

As to cruise line choices, I would always prefer Royal over Carnival. But the mainstream cruise lines all offer the same basic product, and in the end a cruise is what you choose to make of it.

Just wanted to put up another good word for Celestino at Advance Car Rental in Willemstad, Curacao. We couldn't have been happier with our one day rental during an NCL Epic cruise stop in Curacao. 

All the preliminaries were handled promptly and efficiently by email. Celestino meets you at the port with your car, gives you a programmed GPS unit to use in the car (and he'll enter any destinations you're interested in if they are not already in the GPS). He also gives you a pre-programmed cell phone that can be used to call him if you should happen to need it. He'll give you a nice map, and discuss your tour plans with you, making recommendations as to the order you might want to visit them, and tips about things you may not know, such as early closing times. The car (a recent model Nissan Versa) was clean and well maintained. 

Driving in Curacao (and indeed in all the ABC's) is easy, particularly if you're from the U.S. as they drive on the right hand side of the road. Signage is clear and easy to decipher, and all the other drivers are uncommonly courteous. The GPS (or Maps.Me running on your cell phone) is definitely needed, as many of the secondary roads do not have signs. 

Perhaps the only hitch in the whole process is refilling the car before you return it. There is a gas station near the port that only takes credit cards, but I could not get any of my credit cards to work in the reader. I ended up paying $US at another station, and of course got the change back in the Netherlands Antilles coins. But they'll make a nice souvenir. 

I highly recommend Celestino and Advance Carrentals if you're looking to do your own thing on a cruise stop or vacation in Curacao.

Not much difference between the mainstream cruise lines. All three have several kids clubs organized by age group, and they keep them busy.

You might want to look at it from the point of view of the ship size at those ports. NCL has Getaway at New Orleans right now, a large ship with tons of activities to keep kids busy. RCCL sails a large ship out of Galveston, I believe. I don't think Carnival has their large new ships at either of those ports.

The larger, newer ships tend to have more outdoor activities (rock walls, rope courses, multiple water slides, etc) then the older smaller ships. So if your kids need or like that sort of thing, you'd want to go on a large newer ship. 

1 hour ago, motherland15 said:

Wow, confused. lol  I'd like to purchase independent excursions. So, for example, Puerto Vallarta is 2 hours ahead of LA, docks 8-5 pm (stated on itinerary).

 

What does that mean? If I schedule an excursion for 9 am and it docks at 8 am ship time, it's 10 am local time, so I'd miss that excursion. Is that correct? I'd need to then book an excursion around 11 am local (9 am ship).

If you're booking through the ship, they will coordinate the excursion time no matter what.

If you're booking independently, just discuss this with your excursion operator. Most of them are very familiar with the various ship's port times, and would not remain in business for very long if they ignored those times.

On 2/23/2020 at 8:30 AM, esm54687 said:

You also have the ability to go to the casino and download the OBC to a machine and cash out (minus the 3% fee)......... quick and easy. 

AFAIK, Non-refundable OBC cannot be used in the casino. Refundable OBC can be used (and cashed out as you've indicated).

If you purchase OBC, then it's basically your money, in your account to spend as you please. If you are *given* OBC by NCL you cannot use that money for casino charges.

However: There is a 3% casino fee each time you charge money against your cabin cabin account, so I would not recommend using your purchased OBC for this purpose - you're basically giving up 3% of your money each time, for the convenience of them holding your money for you. Just bring that same amount in cash for use in the casino.

Note that the 3% fee is waved for CAS Sapphire and higher members.

The "pull the card, money goes in your account" routine really confused me at first. But then I realized it's for your own protection...the assumption is that you've pulled your card and walked away, possibly before collecting your ticket, which may be printed out and sitting in the machine for anyone to take....although what gambler would do that? But as a protection for the gambler, it makes sense.

Yes, you can and the system works, although at peak dining hours it can take some time to get your bottle retrieved from the last restaurant. I don't believe they store them centrally anywhere, but just in the last restaurant where you drank from the bottle.

I used to do this all the time on cruises, but now my practice is to take the bottle back to the cabin and store it there. Since I typically only drink about a serving and a half of wine with any meal, I'll just pour myself a large glass in the cabin and carry that to the restaurant. No different than bringing a glass of wine into the restaurant from a bar.

On our recent Getaway cruise, there were endless announcements in the casino that non-playing smokers were not allowed. They did little good. I only witnessed one instance of a casino employee asking two non-playing smokers to move on to a designated smoking area. 

IMO, NCL's policy is a halfway attempt doomed to failure. They either need to make the casino non-smoking (with a smoking room on those ships that have them), or just let it go. There are now many non-smoking casinos on land, and several cruise lines have non-smoking casinos. It can be done, but it requires a complete commitment to the policy, no halfway measures.

1 point for every $5 in ($10 in when playing Video Poker).

You can use your cabin key to play with, or get a CAS players club card from the casino desk once they open (if there's not one already in your room when you board). Definitely use one or the other when playing in the casino. Slot play is tracked electronically to your account, table play is mostly tracked by the pit boss as usual in casinos (although some ships and some table games are now being converted to tracking chips).

There is an ATM in the casino, or you get money as a charge against your room account. There is a 3% fee for doing this, each time you do it. You can also setup a line of credit with CAS in advance of your cruise, or just bring your money on board. Slots are money or ticket in, ticket out.

NCL CAS comps work a little differently than other lines. After your cruise with tracked play, you can contact CAS in Miami and ask about a comp on any cruise you like. They will tell you what you'd be eligible for on that cruise. Comps vary with the ship and itinerary...the more popular the cruise, the lower the value of the comp. There is no fixed relationship of points earned to level of comp earned. Your comps are based on your ADT, just as with any land casino.

Here is the NCL CAS web page: https://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/casino-cruise

Notice no one has replied to this - I'm researching for our upcoming trip and plan on renting a car (we have a full day in Curacao. 

Shete Boka is open from 9am to 4pm and the entrance fee is U.S. $10 per person. You must leave the park by 4:30 pm. It takes about 40 minutes to drive there from the cruise port, per google maps. Here's the official park website: http://www.christoffelpark.org/opening-hours-fees/

The ship's internet is fine for sending and receiving emails. If you have a limited minutes package, I would suggest using an email client. Sign on, download your new emails, sign off. Then compose your replies, sign on, send, and sign off again. That's the best way to preserve your minutes. Sign on / Sign off is simple via the "logon.com" and "Logoff.com" pages. 

Text messaging is a different animal. You will not be able to use SMS messaging, as that is done via cell data. You can text via Facebook Messenger, or any other texting program that uses wifi and internet, not cell data. The issue again, is minutes. If you sign on and leave it on for texting, you'll use up your minutes quickly. If you plan to do a lot of texting, I would recommend upgrading to an unlimited package. You can do this on the ship...typically they offer discounts on the second day of the cruise.

There's really no good answer to this question. Every port has cruise line airport transfers, taxis, ubers, lyft, and shuttles. 

If by easy you mean the shortest transfer time, I'd say New Orleans or maybe Mobile for Western (sorry, never cruised out of Mobile so don't know for sure). Galveston is an easy port to cruise out of, but it's a long ways from the two Houston airports.

On 1/30/2020 at 9:42 PM, LaCal said:

I guess it depends on the casino host 🤔

A correction - DW told me they did comp off her service charges in the end, after telling her they couldn't do it.

On 1/29/2020 at 5:48 PM, jeffndallas said:

I’m guessing only open when on international waters so not going to be every day. 

On all our NCL Alaska cruises, the casino usually opened about 30 minutes after leaving a port, and was open when the ship was sailing between ports.  It closed for good before docking at Vancouver and did not open between Vancouver and Seattle.

On 1/27/2020 at 5:48 PM, LaCal said:

Yup. I’m Pearl and on the last night they Comped me all the 3% transactions fees and other small purchases I made on the ship 

 

Total deducted was $190.....not bad and a lot of people don’t know if you don’t ask they won’t give you anything....So ask on the last night for sure 👍🏻

On our recent Getaway cruise, my DW was starting over at Pearl due to not having cruised for a while. She asked about waiving the 3% fee and they would not do it. This in spite of the fact that they comped off all our other charges and gave us added OBC to spend on the ship. 

I've never seen a cruise line check in at the New Orleans airport. However, they just opened a new terminal and I've only been to it twice. 

Of course, all the cruise lines offer airport transfers - they don't usually check you in at the airport but it can make handling the luggage easier if you don't want to arrange your own transfer to the pier.

The Julia St. Marriott courtyard is excellently placed if you're cruising NCL or any other line that uses the Julia St. Terminal. You are on the street (Julia street) that leads right to the terminal entrance. A short walk down the street takes you right there, easy unless you can't manage your luggage.

If you're cruising Carnival or any line that uses the Erato Street terminal, the walk would be quite a long one...not impossible but if you have a lot of large luggage, you'd probably want to arrange transportation. 

Seas in the Gulf of Mexico, assuming no large storms nearby, are almost always calm to moderate. Unless you are very sensitive to it, you shouldn't feel any effects.

On 1/20/2020 at 6:09 PM, smplybcause said:

 

Yea, I know it's something to do with how the app/device is set up. I just disliked that I could check my steps on the app. Though what was more of a pain was I couldn't change the time on my Fitbit without internet too. So I had to remember that my watch was actually an hour or two ahead of time until I got internet while on shore to update it. 

The time change issue is one reason I stopped using my fitbit. I travel all the time and it seemed like a waste of time always having to jump through hoops to get my fit bit into the right time zone.

That's another reason I always recommend that people not rely on their cell phones for the correct time when on shore excursions. Cell phones don't get their time from the internet, they get it from the cell service they are connected to.