Binks240

Exact same question just a few threads down the board:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2550439

I was asking for NCL since the royal ship says docks at 6:00 am. Even though NCL says docks st 7 some people say won’t get off till at least 8:00 so if that’s true that’s a 2 hour difference and can change things plus I’m flying out over holiday weekend so that could make difference. That’s the only reason I’m asking questions

I’ve read some threads regarding flight times but wanted to get opinions on a 11:56 flight. I’ll be traveling May 2018 on NCL Pearl and it looks like another ship will be docked as well. It is a Sunday over Memorial Day Weekend. I’m I pushing it thinking 11:56am is doable and if so, is my only option self walk off with luggage? Thanks for your opinions!

I was on the Breakaway (sister ship) last year and I liked the ship. It was pretty big but manageable. I think you will like deck 8. We found that to be the least crowded trying to go from front to back of the ship. Deck 6 is where the Atrium is located and that was crowded with some of the games/shows going on. Deck 7 was same issue, people hovering over the railing watching the shows plus O'Sheenan's and then you have the casino. Once we realized deck 8 wasn't bad, we used that most of the time.

As others have said the outside Waterfront is a nice area to relax or walk around without being very crowded.

Enjoy your cruise!

What ship are you on? Some ships are pretty lax. Find two large bottles of beer and pass them off as wine. ;)

 

FWIW, the actual wine rules are a little strict.

Two 750 ml bottles.

Not one 1.5 L bottle

No wine boxes

 

An equivalent amount of beer is generally less potent than wine.

Empress on Dec. 16th.

You can also bring two bottles of wine per cabin when you board. :D

Thank you. I thought I read that on their site. I wish they had just a beer package!!

No alcohol other than wine can be pre ordered and you can't have it delivered on the ship either other than through room service.

Thank you!

I've only been on 2 RCCL's cruises and they were back in 2009/2010 so I know a lot has changed but on other lines you can order beer/alcohol prior to your cruise and have it delivered to your cabin. Does RCCL offer this? I did see through their gifts where you can order wine but I didn't see anything else.

I'm considering a short 4 day cruise and thought it might be worth having something delivered rather than doing the drink package.

thank you.

Thanks! Yeah I totally agree with you that people would just cancel and cancel. I'm ok with what we paid at the time. I guess just seeing what I "could" get now vs what I have is what gets me!:)

There are some weird cases of people talking past each other on these boards, because there are two very distinct concepts going on here. Usually, these are accounted for on these boards by using "upgrade" for one concept and "upsell" for the other, but if you don't understand the underlying situation, you can stay confused.

 

After final payment, your cruise is nonrefundable. NCL does this for obvious reasons. If they didn't, then people could just wait and wait and wait and continually cancel and rebook if prices go down. If NCL had a ship that was not going to sail full, everyone on the ship would change to the lower price as they dropped prices to sell the cabins. And, over time, people would wait longer and longer to book if they thought they could wait it out. It's not good for NCL and would ultimately raise the cost of the cruises for all of us.

 

So, once NCL has your money, you are locked in. They are not going to give you any option makes it so you pay less. If they have a number of unsold rooms as the cruise approaches, they will start to lower prices. (They won't lower them too much, though - there's a point at which they'd rather not sell them, because they don't want to cannibalize their own business.) These price drops are to try to get more people to book, not to move people who already are booked around to better cabins that they are hoping to sell to new customers. That's why you're getting the reaction you're getting. There are some who report they may be able to wrangle a bit of OBC out of NCL in this circumstance, but that's mostly a goodwill gesture to make you not angry and not something to count on.

 

Ok, so that's concept 1. Concept 2 is that there comes a time when the cruise is getting close, and they realize that cabins are going to be empty. They have data that shows them how many new customers book within X days of sailing, and their data show they are likely to only sell 10 more cabins at most, but they have 50 free, then they may be inclined to wheel and deal a little more. At this point, they'll take whatever additional revenue they can get. If they can get you to pony up more money by moving you, they might -- this is called an upsell and to get it you either need to call or they contact you and it has to be relatively close to the sailing date for the reasons above. (I don't know the number. Never done it. It's posted on these boards frequently.) Again, this isn't a sure thing. In some contexts, NCL would rather sail with empty cabins than to have your extra $500 or whatever because they have to take a long view of the business. NCL wants to sell Haven cabins for $5000. If word gets around that you can usually get one by booking a $2500 cabin and then paying another $1000, people will do this instead and they will stop selling Haven cabins at the price they prefer. So, NCL walks a balance -- between the desire to get short term revenue but only to the extent it doesn't hurt their future business. How they make these determinations is anyone's guess. You can get a little bit of a sense by reading people's upsell experiences here. But ultimately it's a formula known only to them.

 

So, anyway, you're probably trying to "upgrade." You might have better luck with an upsell.

Traveling on Gem on April 30th and noticed obstructed window is currently cheaper than inside and guarantee balcony price was $168.00 more than original price of the inside cabin. Called to see what they can do and they said because the inside cabin is currently at a higher rate than originally booked at, they can't offer me anything. They said to upgrade to the guarantee balcony it would be well over $1,000 to do so and the price currently listed online is only for new customers.

I see on CC that people are always getting free or paying a little more for an upgrade. I guess we just weren't lucky. I've only cruised once with Norwegian so I'm not familiar with how they do their upgrades.

Thanks

when you indicate upgrade for $11.50 a person, is that$11.50 a day or just a one time fee of $11.50 for the upgrade?

Looking to book and will take the Classic offer but will upgrade once on the ship.

thanks

We've had both the classic and premium packages on different cruises. We were satisfied with the classic package ... but once we had the premium package, we kind of missed being able to get the better wines and martinis.

I understand that the upgrade cost is $11.50 pp ... but you only have to upgrade one of them if the other passenger is happy enough with the classic options. Is this correct?

Also, if you do decide to upgrade, are you allowed to do so halfway through the cruise and if so, is it prorated so you only pay for the day you upgrade and for those days up through until the end of the cruise? Is there a cutoff date on when upgrades are no longer available?

I'm on the Breakaway leaving on Sunday November 15th. Looking forward to seeing the ship!

I booked my November cruise while they had a great promotion going on. We got an ocean view room that included the drink package and free excursion as well as KSF. Didn't need the KSF but still a nice option.

I was pricing Carnival Pride out of Baltimore vs. Norwegian Breakaway out of NY for the same week and just about same itinerary. Maybe because I wanted the drink package it was a good deal to me but if I went with Carnival and paid for an ocean view and then paid their drink package price on top vs what I got with Norwegian, Carnival would have been $300 more.

I'm thrilled with my price and my perks. I'm looking to do another Norwegian in 2016 and will wait to see what promotions come down the line.

Thanks for the info!

Yes, you can, keeping in mind what Demonyte explained. The app does work on any device that is WiFi capable-some better than others from reports I've received. We use the app successfully on Epic (iPhone and Android), but the system on Epic doesn't seem to be the updated, faster version GA and BA have.

 

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

I have an Ipod touch I would like to try and use with this app, especially the texting. I don't have 3g/4g on the Ipod but can connect to wifi if it's available.

If I'm understanding how it works, I would pay the $7.95 and connect my wifi through the ship's internet. Does that seem right?

thanks!

thanks for the info. I couldn't see the other 2 loungers in the pics. I think we'll be fine then.

Hi, we were in a large cabana in December 2014. There was a table, 4 chairs and 4 lounges. So you have seating for 8. There is a hammock in the back along with cold water shower. The large cabana is on a platform and you can sit on the edge of the platform. You also get several water floats. There is electricity with a fan over the table and a refrigerator.

These dailies are great! i printed them out so I can plan out our upcoming cruise.

thanks for positing them.:)

I read and reread your posted dailies all the time JoAnn!!

Looking at picures of the large cabana, it looks like there's a table with 4 chairs and 2 loungers. is that correct? that doesn't seem like enough if they rent the cabana for 8 people and you have the ability to pay for 2 exta. We have a large group going and I'm concerned there won't be enough seating. I know the whole group won't be in there all the time but there could be times when everyone is.

thanks

My family did this cruise last September and loved it. We had fantasic weather all week and loved the ship. I don't know how many are in your group but we hired a guy in St. John for a private tour and it was great. it was a 5 to 6 hour tour but he took us everywhere and was inexpensive. His vans only hold 6 people but personally 6 was tight. I would only recommend 5 adults to 1 van. the name is Roy's Tours.

I am thinking of booking the Carnival Splendor out of NYC to New England and Canada in September.

 

I am a NYer who has transplanted to the Midwest for the past 5 years, so I am very familiar with NYC.

 

I am wondering if anyone has done this itinerary and if you would recommend it? How is embarkation in NYC? I imagine it would be a bit difficult to manage with luggage. I would probably be staying right in the city and taking a cab to the port and then taking a cab to the airport afterwards too. Is it crazy crowded and stressful, long lines, etc?

 

The ports of call are Boston, Portland, Maine, St. John and Halifax. Has anyone been to these ports and enjoyed them? Was Boston too busy to get off the ship and enjoy the sights? I just want a lobster roll in Maine and I assume I can get that right at the pier. I am very interested in Canada though and would splurge on excursions for those 2 ports. Any suggestions on what we should see?

 

We have only been on the Liberty and the Fascination and we LOVE both ships, but I've read good things about the Splendor here.

 

One last question - We have always booked the GS cabins, but for this trip, which is pricier than most, we are considering an AFT extended balcony on the Empress deck. I've never had that type of room before and wondered if anyone has good things to say about it? I don't care about the room so much, but my husband spends A LOT of time on the balcony so it's important to him and since I like cruising more than he does, I like to keep him happy with his balcony. :)

 

Really, any advice/suggestions you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

 

My back up idea is Alaska in August, but I really hate the Tuesday to Tuesday itinerary. Too complicated with work schedules.

I was just on the Splendor last week and purchased the Cheers package and loved it! I was told that in NY you can't purchase the package till 6:00 pm on day of embarkation but your purchases up till you get the package will be credited. I was stupid when I bought my first couple rounds before I had the package, I should have used both my card and husbands. Instead I gave my card for both drinks so because 2 were bought at the same time they weren't credited back. Oh well, at least it was only 2 rounds of beer.

Enjoy the package and enjoy the Splendor!

Can you come back after your cruise and give us an update? I'm curious to find out when you are able to purchase on 1st day. There were 2 cruises on an August 12th Splendor sailing and both said they couldn't purchase till after 6:00 pm but they were credited back the next day for the drinks they bought prior to 6:00 pm.

I'm thinking this was an issue because it was one of the 1st cruises after the new price announcement... at least that's what I'm hoping.

thanks.

Looking forward to trying it out on our cruise, setting sail in 11 days! My son's first cruise and my 5th. Will see how it works out for us! Looking forward to trying different drinks and having a nice time without the worry of how much the drinks are costing us! A few drinks a day this plan will more than pay for itself! Looking forward to cruise time baby! Cheers! :D

You and another cruiser from this cruise both indicated you couldn't purchase until 6:00 (she said 7:00) but they credited you back for all your drinks you had. Do you know if that's how it always is or was it because this was one of the 1st sailings with the new price?

We are purchasing our our September 13th cruise and I don't want to have to worry about checking or dealing with guest services on getting reimbursed.

thanks!

Cheers: We purchased it, for 8 days...$1035.00, you can not purchase it until 6PM but they credit you back for what you bought that day. Well worth it for us. I think I averaged 5 or 6 drinks a day.

thanks did not see that so it is the same bull just worded differently.

tha'ts how I read it. I will be so pissed if I get on and it's more than $37.50 (base rate).

their website has changed but if you look a little further down in the description is now says this... So based on the hightlighted part does it suggest they can still change the price the day you board??

3 day $55 per person/per day

4 day $45 per person/per day

5 and 6 day $42.50 per person/per day

7 days and longer $37.50 per person/per day

Prices are subject to change and price adjustments (up or down) implemented on the day of sailing will replace any previously advertised price

I was on the Pride this past week also and every bar said the same thing... no more Captain Morgan. Starry Nights was the only bar that had a full bottle and said once it's gone, it's gone.

Maybe the crew have it wrong but they absoultely said this was the last cruise offering it.

John Heald wrote: "its not so mate - please post this on the cruise critic site because I spoke to the VP of Bars and he confimed that we serve and will continue to two spiced rums, Bacardi Oakheart and Captain Morgan. Whoever said we are not is wrong. The end. cheers"

Thanks. that's what I thought. It was never an issue on any of my other cruises. I'll probably have the wine package for dinner anyway but may come into the dining room with a drink from a previous bar.