FredZiffle

Sorry, I should have explained my calculations a bit better. Look at it from the standpoint of booking a cruise on a main-stream line. Assuming I had booked this cruise for $1,500, I would be paying for my own air ($1,200 minimum at current prices), transfers ($100), grats ($280), drink package upgrade ($500) and $900 in shore excursions. Since $500 of that $900 is refundable OBC, I don't even have to spend all of it. That's an additional $3,000 on top of my base fare of $1,500, which equals what I'm paying pp for this luxury line.

Just an FYI. There is a well-known TA (I assume I can't mention the name) that is staging what they call an "Ambassador Cruise" on the Vista for Nov. 19, 2025. In additional to the current perks offered by Oceania (free air, transfers, $400 ShoreEx credit, etc.), they're offering 5% back in OBC, free gratuities, free upgrade to Prestige Beverage Package, and several private events on board. It's a transatlantic out of Barcelona. After subtracting out the value of the perks, I figure we're paying around $1,500 pp for the actual 14 day cruise. Sale ends on 2/9/24.

No discount, just additional OBC with the amount depending on the length of the cruise.

What is an NCL Club Balcony Suite? — Freestyle Travelers

I thought it was just a couple of Haven suites. Check out images of the ship's exterior, and you can see where the slides are.

Oh, I agree, but when you book a month out, there are very few dining times still available for early booking. NCL always holds back a significant number of slots for booking on the ship, so if you have priority boarding, you can usually snag your choice of dining by being one of the first in line.

On embarkation day, the Getaway has tables set up in Headliners for passengers to book specialty restaurants. So much easier and quicker than using the one line next to Guest Services. Is there a similar setup on the Breakaway?

Gilligan's Island reference. 😄

We've sailed on the Getaway three times. IMO, it's a great warm weather ship. We love the Waterfront where you can sit outside and read while watching the ocean. There are not a lot of inside areas other than bars where you can just sit and relax.

I can't believe the Getaway is still offering that silly Brazilian Portuguese lecture. It was bad enough that we had it heading to Portugal since Brazilian Portuguese has numerous differences from the language spoken in Portugal. The class was also pretty useless because she taught things like the names of various colors instead of phrases we could use ashore. NCL has one staff member from Brazil, and I guess she is still on board.

Exactly. It also doesn't really matter if you've been outbid on your upgrade. What matters is the progression of upgrades. If I'm already in the Haven and bid $1,000 on an upgrade to the owner's suite, I expect to win over someone who is in a balcony and bids $2,000 for the same owner's suite. That's because, hypothetically, NCL could have another bid for my Haven cabin, and the total amount of my bid plus the bid for my cabin could be greater than $2,000.

In the Horizon Lounge on the Bliss, there is a high end coffee machine that dispenses lattes or cappuccinos, etc. Does anybody know if you can also get regular coffee like Americano from it?

NCL Holdings is not something I want in my portfolio. It fluctuates over a narrow range and does not seem to have growth potential in the near future. I will buy it before a cruise, but as soon as I get the credit for OBC, I am looking to sell it. If it's down at that point, I'll sit on it until it recovers, but as soon as it's in positive territory, I dump it.

It's not as bad as it sounds. Assuming you arrive relatively early (say 10:00 or so), you may have a 30 minute wait from when they start boarding. You will almost always be on board by noon.

And, as we all know, arrival times mean nothing. No one cares or checks on most sailings.

If they schedule bridge play on a sea day, they will usually hold it in Moderno. I've seen several folks use tables during that time for other games.

Which would be fine since it's refundable OBC. I'd then turn around and rebook using my non-refundable, which is always used up first before refundable.

Am I correct that if I want to use OBC to pay for a ship excursion, I have to wait until I'm onboard to book? I've already watched one excursion fill up. What about booking and paying cash now, then cancelling once onboard and immediately rebooking the excursion using OBC?

It's not required for our identical Bliss cruise next month.

The difference here though is that we're talking specifically about the Upgrade Advantage. The TA receives no commission on an upgrade bid and is not involved to my knowledge.

No experience, but I can think of no reason it wouldn't work. Even if you originally booked through a TA, I believe Upgrade Advantage bypasses the TA and is billed directly by NCL.

I haven't seen duplicate bridge on NCL in a long time. We're lucky if it's even mentioned in the Daily as an informal gathering. The last cruise listed in the Freestyle Daily with a start time of 12 noon on sea days and located it in the internet cafe where space was at a premium and always filled. They had no cards and, needless to say, no games materialized.

I struggled with coming up with a title for this post. I'm trying to find out the email address for whoever on the Bliss would be responsible for giving a group of 12-16 people a location to play bridge on sea days. Too often, left to their own devices, the ships either ignore this completely, schedule it in an already filled library or game room, or schedule it over lunch hour. The times it's been done right, they put an announcement every sea day in the Freestyle Daily and schedule it for an unused restaurant. I just need the correct email to contact them.

If anything, entertainment quality will decrease in 2024 rather than get better. Many ships are discontinuing the large production shows and replacing them with game shows.

I can sympathize with your experience. We took a transatlantic on the Getaway just before the pandemic. The food was so bad that we were ready to give up cruising. I started counting the number of individual dishes we had at dinner, and only 2 out of 65 dishes were at least average - a hot wings appetizer and a souffle dessert. The 63 below average included a steak that was uniformly gray both inside and out and a mixed green salad that had exactly one leaf on it. Fortunately, we already had another cruise booked which was quite enjoyable and restored our faith. We've since sailed two more times on the Getaway and never repeated that bad experience.