FredZiffle

I'm not one to sugarcoat problems on a ship, but having sailed on the Getaway three times, the most recent earlier this year, I can tell you my experience.  Yes, there are lines sometimes, which is not uncommon on any megaship on any cruise line.  The line to disembark at the end of the cruise is always long, but it moves very quickly.  I doubt we've waited more than 15 minutes.  We have never had to wait in a line to eat dinner in the MDR, but I have seen some lines when we leave around 7:00 or so.  If you know to go to Headliners when you board the ship, you can usually score your preferred times for specialty restaurants.  We always go there first, because the excursions desk usually opens a bit later.  Regardless, we're first in line for excursions when it opens.  Some excursions are completely booked up, but often some have opened up that were showing full online.  You can also get on a wait list in case something opens up later (it does happen).  Catching a tender in a popular port can be tough if you're trying to get off early, but sometimes the very first tender of the day goes off half empty because people who booked don't get moving that early.  I've heard announcements telling passengers that spaces are available without reservations.  Speaking of reservations, since you have no latitudes status, you'll have to get a tender ticket the day before if you want to get off early.  If time is no issue, don't bother with a ticket because usually by 10 or 11, everything opens up and you no longer need tickets.  Of course, if you're on a ship excursion, you don't need a ticket.

The buffet, like on every ship, can get crowded at peak times.  We've never not been able to find seats, but sometimes you have to wander a bit and be ready to grab a spot that opens up.  As far as a quiet place to read, if the weather is nice, the waterfront is awesome.  If you want to sit indoors, check out the bars during the morning and early afternoons.  They are virtually empty with comfortable seats.  HTH

Excursions in Iceland are prohibitively expensive.  Consider renting a car in Akuryeri and driving to the sites.  Roads are better than most in the US.  We had no problem just using a map (back in the days before widespread use of GPS).  We just walked around Alta and Longyearbyen.  Not much in either port, although the museum in Longyearbyen was interesting.  

I always use a TA and have always received my stockholders benefit, including one I received last month for a cruise this December.

47 minutes ago, Clashed said:

does this look like it would work?
if i combine Prepaid Service Charges, add specialty dining nights & OBC will this trigger the bonus?

PPSC  $520
Specialty Dining $166 
and then buy $325 On-Board Credit Certificate

i have to pay the PPSC anyway, so this way if i cash out the OBC i get 2 "free" specialty dining

Why not keep it simple and just buy $1000 in OBC and then use it for the items you mention?  

20 minutes ago, smokeykat said:

If my final payment isn't until May 2024 and I want to charge Amex $1000.00 towards payment for the cruise fare to get the $200 back deal, what happens if I cancel the cruise before the final payment is due? Anyone know?

Check with NCL to see what their process is.  If they credit the OBC back to the AMEX card, you might have an issue (but maybe not since the Amex system is likely not set up to catch a credit several months later.).  If they write you a check, you'll absolutely be fine.

35 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

I thought they added a 3% fee if you do that.  I know they do on the tables.  Is it not the same on the slots?  

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is any fee for charging slot play to your room account.  Since technically you're not supposed to be able to use OBC in the casino, I usually do a $10 test to make sure it still works.

2 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

Thanks.  I’m fine with getting it cash.  Do you know how soon in the trip you can do this?  I’d just as soon take it take out in cash in the beginning of the trip and use it for the casino.  Is that doable?  (I understand if you pull cash from your account in the casino, they still charge 3%.  I’d rather just cash out the OBC.

You can charge casino play to your account rather than pulling cash out.  If you don't want to play with it, load it into your account on a slot machine and then cash out.

56 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

It’s my understanding that they refund it in cash on the last day.  If they do just credit the folio, it’s my NCL card that will be on file with the ship, not the Amex.

Took advantage of a similar AMEX offer earlier this year.  I think it was $250 credit for a $1000 charge.  I purchased OBC for a cruise on the Getaway.  At the end of the cruise, I asked if they could just credit the card on file and was told no.  I wasn't keen on walking around Europe with $1,000 of cash in my pocket, but there was no other option.

ETA:  Just checked my Amex account, and I've got this new offer as well.  Guess I'll be buying some more OBC for my December cruise.

21 minutes ago, hallux said:

Unless you're sailing with people besides your wife (meaning booking all of you in one room would add guests 3 and 4), booking you and your wife in your own cabins adds nothing for the FAS meals.

You're correct.  I should have said double the Latitudes meals.  We'll each get two vouchers for 2 people due to our status, so four meals for the two of us.  If we were in the same cabin, we'd only get one set of vouchers, so only two meals. 

I have a question regarding the 2nd bedroom.  In looking at videos, the bed appears to be something like a futon.  Is the mattress reasonably comfortable and large enough for an adult, or is the adult better off using the sofa bed in the main area?  Or are both so bad that we should look at other options?  This is on a Breakaway + ship if it matters.

13 hours ago, Host Kat said:

 

@FredZiffle

 

If your email address of choice has changed, be sure to have your Cruise Critic email address of record changed too. That is where Cruise Critic emails are sent to you. Please click the following: How To: Update your Cruise Critic Email Address

 

Please make sure you have the email address cruisecritic@invisioncloudcommunity.com whitelisted and/or on your safe senders list & in your Address Book contacts.

 

Perhaps you accidently marked one of the Cruise Critic emails as Spam. If so, I suggest you contact your email provider to see if that can be corrected.

 

Not sure how many email notifications you are receiving per day or at a time, but it could be your email provider is aggressive to prevent spam. Thinking that multiple emails in a row from Cruise Critic would be spam, they bounce one of the Cruise Critic emails back to Cruise Critic. Once one of the Cruise Critic notification emails to you is bounced back to Cruise Critic, then the Cruise Critic software stops sending you any further notification emails. 

 

Please email help@cruisecritic.com from your Cruise Critic email address of record and be sure to mention your user name. This is so your membership can be verified, and reply sent to your Cruise Critic email address of record. Explain the above possible bounce back situation and ask if the situation applies to your Cruise Critic account. IIRC, CC Help Michell can possibly investigate for the bounce back situation and possibly correct.

 

Regarding Notifications from your Followed threads, first make sure you are logged in with your user name & password. Click your user name located upper right over the small Search bubble in the blue bar. Next, click Account Settings. Under Other Settings, click Notification Settings. On the next page to appear, click Mentions & My Content and Followed Content. Click the little down arrow to open each section and make sure each item is set for your preference. 

 

Also, click this link:  Manage Followed Content You will see a list for Topics I Follow.

• To the right of each topic you can select the light blue Change Preference bar. You can make changes to your choice and then click the dark blue Update preferences bar. OR you can completely Unfollow the topic.  
• You can also check the boxes next to each topic to make changes to multiple topic notification preferences at once.

 

Personally, I no longer use email for Cruise Critic notifications. I have all mine set to Notification List. I just click the Notifications Bell to the left of my user name over the small Search bubble. Then scroll down the pop-up that appears and click View all notifications. A new screen opens listing all my Notifications. I then click each one that takes me directly to the post. That way I am not drowning in emails!

 

If you want to set yours that way, click your user name located upper right over the small Search bubble in the blue bar. Next, click Account Settings. Under Other Settings, click Notification Settings. Click the down arrows and set each as Notification List Only.

 

Hope something in this reply will be helpful! 🤞

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

 

Thank you for such a detailed reply.  I double-checked everything you mentioned, and all settings appear correct.  I have repeatedly checked my spam folder to see if messages are being routed there, but I do not see any.  I do get push notifications for replies to my posts when I open the CC site, but do not receive such for followed content.  I receive no email notifications for any posts, but I do regularly receive emails from CC advertising cruise sales.

On 7/24/2023 at 8:47 PM, ajtraveler66 said:

Below is a link to a list of NCL shore excursions for Acapulco.  We'll be there in January on a Panama Canal cruise.

 

Because Acapulco is "iffy" we ARE going to take the ship's excursion, and we want to do one that includes cliff diving.  So many of these excursions include cliff divers so we don't know which way to turn.  If you have taken any of these excursions or know a little bit about them, please offer your recommendations on which one to do?  Thanks.

 

 

https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/search?Mnr=4096&printfriendly=1&port=ACA

 

 

Are you aware that the cliff divers are less than 2 miles away from the port?  I was also considering an excursion, but even the cheapest would be over $200 for the three of us.  We plan to catch an Uber from the port and back.  I'm a bit wary of the taxis because I can't tell the good ones from the bad, but Uber vets its drivers, so I feel more secure.  BTW, if you want to tour the fort that is generously included by NCL in some of their cliff diving excursions, just do it on your own and save the extra charges.  The fort is literally across the street from the port.

1 hour ago, broberts said:

Check this pinned thread to see if any of it helps. Follow and notifications are a non-trivial subject 🙂.

 

 

Appreciate it, but this was the first thing I checked to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong.  Follow always worked for me in the past.  It's just been the last couple of roll calls that haven't worked.

The last two roll calls I have followed have not been sending notifications to my email.  Messages are not going to my spam folder - they are simply not being received at all.  I have double-checked, and Follow has been set up correctly just like I've always done.

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

I'm sure the OP isn't worried because their cruise was in November of 2022.

lol.  I know, but since posts stick around forever, others will read this thread like I did.

I wouldn't worry about traffic delays getting back if you're on a private excursion.  You can bet that the buses from the ship are stuck in the same traffic.  Just time your departure so that you're leaving Antigua around the same time that the ship excursions are leaving.

It would be extremely helpful when you post these deals, you include the ship, the date, the cabin category, and the price.  I'm seeing too many screen grabs that are lacking enough information for someone to follow up if they're interested.

You might want to include the ship name and embarkation port in your title.  

We were on the Getaway last month, and I was surprised at how much the utilization of the Illusionarium had changed since our last cruise 5 years ago on this ship.  As I recall, back them they had the pseudo escape room activity in there and used it as a staging area for some excursions, but not much else.  Last month they had several musical performances in the evenings.  They set up around 6 rows of folding chairs around the stage, and, together with the existing booths, the venue holds more than Headliners.

We just spent 4 days in Portugal after disembarking in Lisbon.  I found great rental car rates (under $100 for 4 days), and we planned to spend a couple of days in Lisbon and the same in Porto.  I have driven in many different countries, both left and right side, and am comfortable with a stick shift.  Nothing prepared me for driving in Portugal.  Whoever designed their roadway system should be drawn and quartered.  There was never, not once, an occasion where we traveled more than a couple of miles from point A to point B that did not include numerous round-abouts, U-turns, and at least a dozen different roads.  Sometimes they didn't seem to be roads at all - more like alleyways and through parking lots.  We used two different GPS systems, often simultaneously, and still made wrong turns quite frequently (and a wrong turn could easily add another half dozen turns and ten minutes to your journey).  Parking near tourist attractions was difficult, if not impossible to find, and often involved parallel parking on the street in a space only a few feet longer than our car.  Parking decks were rare.  Don't even think about driving to Sintra unless you just want to drive through it without stopping. 

I consider myself a pretty safe driver with no accidents since I was a teenager (a long time ago), but I literally came within inches of hitting two cars.  I was an absolute basket case after every trip.  The tolls will also eat you alive.  We had close to $100 in tolls during our four days there which pretty much balanced out the cheap rental car rates.

We've been home for a week, and I'm still suffering from PTSD from this trip.

I received a free upgrade at the pier on Escape in 2022.  My bags did not follow.  Around 7:00 that night I walked down to my original cabin assignment and found my luggage still sitting outside the door.

Thanks.  Just bought $1,000 in OBC.  I'd be surprised if they give it back in cash at the end of the cruise.  I'll ask for a check to be mailed if they do try to give it back because I don't particularly want to be carrying around that amount of money.

If you enjoy riding around in a stuffed motorcoach for several hours, then ship excursions are exactly what you're looking for.  For entertainment, they will even make sure that every bus has at least one couple who can't be bothered to get back on time at the stops, so you'll end up waiting on them which will, of course, shorten your time elsewhere.  We're actually going on a couple of ship excursions on a cruise next month, but there is actually a good reason.  We're in separate cabins, so each of us has the $50 excursion credit.  The ports are nothing special, so just riding around looking at scenery is fine with us.  Since the excursions are less than $50, they'll be free after the credit.

Just got off the Getaway, and the vouchers were not good at any of the specialty restaurants other than the same 4 they've always worked at.  I had packed my slacks planning on Ocean Blue, so we ended up eating there anyway and just using OBC.  Blah.  I would never eat there again even if it were free, and I feel taken advantage of for actually paying for my meal.  The damn $38 fisherman's platter came with two shrimp, two scallops, and a piece of fish.  Asked for tarter sauce as well as the remoulade sauce it came with.  They forgot it, so I asked again.  After a good ten minutes, they brought something out which the waiter said was tarter sauce even though, as he said,  it looked just like the remoulade.  Funny thing was it tasted just like the remoulade as well.  My wife got one of the fresh fish and said it was unremarkable at best.  Honestly, I would rank Ocean Blue right alongside La Cuccina at the very bottom of the specialty restaurants.

I read somewhere in this forum that NCL had started allowing Latitudes vouchers to be used in other specialty restaurants beyond the Cagney's/Le Bistro and Moderno/La Cucina.  Is this true across the fleet or just on certain ships/sailings?  I'm on the Getaway in another week and am wondering whether to throw in a pair of slacks so I can eat at Ocean Blue.