lixogab

On 3/5/2022 at 8:21 PM, bup1224 said:

He meets you at the port

Yep. Had a very nice experience with Celestino.

He met me at the gate, the car was right there, the paperwork took less than 5 minutes. 
Paying cash was not a big deal since the insurance is included with 0 deductible.

We are taking  a roundtrip cruise from San Juan and our flight leaves after 4pm.

We can leave our bags in some storage (barrachina or some paid storage) and either walk Old San Juan or go to a beach.

But instead we'd like to go to some beach club.

Is there a beach club or beach bar in San Juan that would provide chairs/umbrella and store our bags for 2-4 hours?

On 2/17/2022 at 4:55 PM, Trish Traveler said:

My husband is gold level like myself, but they listed him as new (first time).  I saw no where to put the number in for him when booking online.  Mine came up automatically.  I called NCL and they said too late, I should have booked over the phone instead of online.  They can't add it to the reservation!  They just automatically gave him a new newbie number.  But now, he will miss out on the perks of gold.  Makes no sense to me.  It is a last minute cruise (8 days out) and edocs are ready.  But it still seems odd.  Anybody know if this sounds legit or should I ask for a supervisor.  I don't have a specific travel planner at NCL.

Try following:

Login to NCL as your husband. You will not see the reservation as it’s tied to new latitude number.

Go to My account ( or click on the suitcase icon).

At the left bottom side you’ll the “ Don’t see your reservation?” form.

Provide the ship name, date and reservation number. It should find the reservation and associate it to your husband lattitude number.

Hope it helps.

-Do they deliver the car to the cruise port or you have to go somewhere?

-What about the insurance ?

Cruising on Epic on 2/27. 
Glad the masks are not enforced because we usually try to avoid elevators and use stairs instead. Plus 10k steps per day minimum. This way we can work out at least part of what we overeat. 
Going upstairs 10 floors (even 5)  masked is impossible. So going maskless is healthy choice for us.

14 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

where is Turquoise Bay?  I have sailed a lot but have not heard of this one

Roatan, Honduras.

We were on NCL excursion to Turquoise bay back in November.

It’s a private resort with no public beach access so unless you arrange a pass with them ( not sure if they sell)  you can’t get a private taxi.

As for the place itself I would not recommend it. The beach is small and divided in several areas separates by ropes: VIP ( resort guests and more expensive tours), NCL +RCCL and CCL. Overall the beach is less than 100m so each area is about 30m. The water is murky, the food is just ok, they serve local beer ( typical pilsener /lager). 
West bay is closer has more choices and better beach.
 

There is one thing that drives me crazy:

We are sailing on Feb 27th. So the ship will be still fully vaccinated and everybody will be tested at the port.

Still we will have to wear masks.

A hypothetical Mar 1st sailing would have unvaccinated people and less reliable 48 hours testing but  not forced to wear masks.

Where is the logic?

21 hours ago, GALSews said:

We've been to both. The NCL tour we took in Malta was interesting - we went to a museum where we saw a pygmy elephant and then went to another site where we saw prehistoric structures. Of course, Dubrovnik has the castle in Game of Thrones. 

Malta has several GOT locations as well, starting with Mdina gate.

Malta is pretty interesting place to visit. You can spend couple of hours just wandering Valetta streets. Then you take a city bus and visit the medieval city of Mdina. With excursions you have even more places to visit.

From what I remember the DF liquor prices are kind of comparable to any other (i.e. airport) DF shop and local liquor stores. 
In any case they are way cheaper than charged in bars. 
 

We booked on Feb 27th and Pricsilla doesn't show up on the show list. Hope it's just a glitch

I remember I saw it pre-covid. But on my latest cruise ( Breakaway Nov 21) I didn’t recall seeing it. May be I just missed it.

I’m planning my next cruise and it looks that $500 for the “free” unlimited drink package is too much for two of us. We are mostly wine drinkers.

If viva vino is still there it could be a good option. Otherwise we can bring our wine and pay $15 corkage.

Is vivo vino still there?
If yes, what wines are offered?
 

We got couple of drinks at the sailaway party and the barman “forgot” to scan the card. Then we got drinks at the less crowded Vibe bar and the tax was around $1 - $1.50 per drink. Similar, glass of wine at Manhattan was around $1 or so. 

7 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

so, i'm guessing that if i have tickets to see the 8 PM showing of "west side story" and there is a terrorist attack at the 5 PM showing, that's also none of my business?

 

 

who is panicking? a request for information is not generally a sign of "panic" or "fear." rather, it shows careful thought and planning focused on mutually beneficial problem resolution. accurate and timely information helps each member of the traveling public make the best decision for them individually.

 

a request for information is also not a request for a refund, although if the company you've chosen to do business with is not releasing the information its customers need to make educated decisions, a refund certainly could be justified... especially if NCL intends to offer a refund at the pier.

 

look, i get it. the forum contributors here are highly motivated and - by and large - experienced cruisers. i can certainly appreciate the passion and the desire to cruise. i share that passion. but i also believe in science and data and evaluating compliance and risk factors on an evolving basis. we know a lot more about the omicron variant today than we did a week ago. we know very little about the current conditions on the breakaway because NCL has not been transparent. that's just a simple fact.

 

COVID-19 exposure on board a ship is a lot like a war. most cruisers believe it's not relevant to them... until they personally have a friend or family member come home in a box,  that war is just static and noise on the evening news. i had refrigerated trucks with dead bodies in them two blocks from my home and a makeshift morgue in a tent a mile and a half or so away.  and i've lost family members and colleagues.

 

so i have more than a passing interest in how many additional crew members and passengers are infected on a ship that i am supposed to board in less than 48 hours.

 

also, for the record, airlines are indeed REQUIRED to report all known or suspected illnesses onboard their aircraft... specifically "ill travelers who have certain signs and symptoms during flight." that includes COVID-19... see [42 CFR 70.11 and 71.21] of u.s. federal regulations pertaining to onboard illness or death. 

 

additionally... the TSA, unlike NCL, believes in transparency and posts data about the number of its infected employees. to date there have been over 11,000 infected TSA employees, with over 300 current cases. a list, broken down by airport, can be found online at the TSA site for anybody who is interested.... in case you're traveling to your cruise by air.

NCL already reports all Covid cases to CDC. Would I like to get the detailed information? Definitely yes. Do I need this information beyond curiosity? Probably, no.

We all already know that Covid is extremely dangerous and people die from Covid. We know exactly what are the policies of every cruise line and many of us choose the cruise line based on that policies.

And we all know there is a risk of getting Covid on a cruise and are free to not go there. 

However comparing an outbreak of Covid on a previous cruise to a terrorist arrack is at least unfair. NCL has protocols to mitigate an outbreak by isolating the infected people and their contacts. Notice that Breakaway had a case of Omicron but nobody got infected so the mitigation protocols work. So an outbreak on Breakaway one or two weeks ago is hardly affecting the current passengers except a little bit tighter protocol (masks wearing) and a delay on departure ( NCL generously compensated with 200 OBC pp).

From I heard from a crew member (Breakaway) crew doesn’t have shore leave. At all. So the only crew members you could see were the ones where working. 
It doesn’t make any sense to wear mask outside unless you are in a very crowded place ( think Times Square).

With that I think NCL policy is pretty good. May be they can tighten it little bit by setting expiration on last vaccination and doing more frequent tests.

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

We just hit platinum after six cruises.  Not a big deal.  We get two extra specialty meals and that's really about it.

What about priority embarkation and disembarkation?
Does it really work?

9 minutes ago, seaman11 said:

Opps you are right deck 4.  I picked that because only rooms above. 

Deck 4 on the back is close to the medical center, a.k.a. Covidarium.

But yes, I don’t get the NCL position. Your original cabin is either OV or Interior. With almost empty ship it costs zero to them to move you to a balcony.

27 minutes ago, seaman11 said:

Thank you great  advice.  👍🏼  deck 3 btw.  

Wait a sec… there are no guest rooms on Gem deck 3.

If you plan to continue with NCL those 14 points bring you 2 cruises closer to Platinum, meaning you’ll enjoy additional  2 cruises x 2 additional speciality dinings x 2 people . The MSRP of that is $400, but your personal value could be lower. Also you get some free laundry on those 2 cruises and some other minor perks.

The price of those points is $88 ( difference between bidding $75pp = 150 and the balcony price difference for two).

Actually if you decide to keep the points and bid, may also consider club balcony suite and/or spa balcony/spa CBS. 

Does NCL allow you export St. Petersburg on your own or you need to buy an excursion from them (US passport holder)?

You don’t have to drop bags in order to get tested. 
The only potential issue I see that the test may be delayed and you’ll have to rush to the hotel.

Didn’t see any transportation but saw that people with limited mobility were assisted either by NCL or Eurofin employees. Not sure how it worked exactly. Could be good idea to contact NCL with this question.

For me the biggest risk is Covid.

As Sputnik is not recognized in the US, Pfizer , Moderna and Jansen are not recognized in Russia. Currently there are some limitations for foreign visitors. And now they are imposing mandatory QR codes to enter restaurants, malls, museums and any other public space. To get one you need to have a Russian vaccination or a recent PCR test and be registered on a government website (gosuslugi.ru) that works for Russian residents.

Hopefully all that will improve by summer but so far it looks to be pretty unlikely to happen.

1 hour ago, marktwothousand said:

Anyone know if cruisenext doubleup is back for all categories on bookings within six months? I started a mock booking in January 2022 for a studio and it lets me add two separate payments as cruisenext’s and then credit card for the remaining balance. I didn’t go through with the payment but I was wondering if this is normal behaviour? or if maybe cruisenext is now allowing doubleup unrestricted for all categories again like the old days? Thanks. 

It’s a glitch on their website. The website will initially accept 2 certificates but then apply only one. Be careful with that.

Back in September when I booked my Thanksgiving cruise I didn’t read the offer details and just provided 2 certificates and paid the rest using a credit card. The website allowed me to enter 2 certificates for an oceanview and calculated the remaining payment correctly.

Then… I don’t  remember if it threw an error after I clicked the submit button or simply showed that everything was ok, but I realized soon that I owe them $250.

Initially I assumed it was some issue accepting one of certificates so I started a chat with NCL representative and the lady stated it has to be balcony and up. At that point I re-read the offer and understood my mistake. Ended up repricing to balcony as the difference was slightly higher than $250.