Meanee

I chatted with my TA, since I have that "$something off air package" thing. And apparently, there's like a flat fee of $1400 per person and you don't know your dates or airline you are flying until it's 90 days to your sailing. I am travelling from JFK to CPH. This pricing better be for some business class or whatever. Needless to say, even after their discount, this seemed to be a huge ripoff. I booked Delta for $730/pp, almost half the price of NCL's offering. I know which airline I am flying, what seat I am in, and I get miles for it too.

It's unfortunate. When I used Princess EZAir, I paid $150/pp for roundtrip tickets between JFK and FLL, while directly from airline, same flight was $250. Also I saved a ton with Princess EZAir on a flight from JFK to ATH and BCN to JFK earlier last year, including a nice 8 hour layover in Rome which we used to get a quick tour of the city.

Dear NCL, please be like Princess in terms of air arrangements. Otherwise your discount doesn't mean crap. Same way how hotel discount only has 2-3 hotels, extremely expensive, and apparently charge PER PERSON. I booked AirBNB for a lot cheaper.

Kind of sad when NCL makes a discount package and charges arm and a leg even after discounts.

Where did you get the idea that Honolulu city water is ---untreated???

 

I would put my portfolio against any claim that any western civilized city provides its peoples with "raw" water.

Unless your in California, then all bets are off. Those people pay $15 a gallon for the privilege of getting sick, or worse.

Yeah, of Honolulu's water was untreated, they will get swarmed by California hipsters and their "Raw Water" bullpoop.

I believe every cruise line has this surcharge. But I am yet to be charged anywhere for it. And I cruised when it was 100+ per barrel.

This is one thing I miss from Princess. You can bring a bottle of wine per passenger onboard for free. And you can buy their water at around 63 cents per bottle, delivered to stateroom.

I was on the Epic last week. I asked at the internet desk about upgrading to unlimited and I could for $85. I ended up not doing it, but it was definitely an option last week.

What did you try to upgrade to unlimited? I have a free 250 min package. Can that be upgraded to unlimited? My company is paying for it, so why not.

I am on this cruise on May 29th. Definitely got some pointers on what to do.

Thanks! Just to be clear, I can schedule my dining and excursions through NCL's website myself, right?

I am a NCL newbie, but I believe you are correct. I booked through TA so I can't sneeze without TA's permissions. However, all onboard reservations are available through NCL's web site.

I do have that "$50 discount per port of call for Shore Excursion" benefit, and to use that I have to call NCL directly, not to book it through the website.

I just got a reply from NCL regarding the situation in Jamaica:

 

"Thanks for getting in touch with us. The safety and security of our guests and crew is our top priority. We have strict safety protocols in place and communicate and cooperate with local authorities regarding security matters at the destinations our ships visit. In the event of any developing safety concerns in the areas we visit, we have the flexibility to alter our itineraries as needed to avoid such areas. While this warning is specific to certain zones, we always communicate with our guests before going into port of call to use caution, be safe and be alert when going ashore, no matter the destination. There are currently no reports of concern in tourist areas, HOWEVER we will continue to monitor the situation. At this time, we are not planning to alter any existing itineraries."

You can't expect a response any different than this, no matter how they feel. Saying too much will open them to liability. Either from people cancelling reservations thinking things will change, to people getting hurt and suing NCL because NCL had info that Jamaica is not safe and still went there. Or from Jamaica government, if they have some sort of contract to supply the country with tourists for certain benefits.

Wow, according to their FB page, there is a reason some were thrown out of their beds. Someone told someone who told someone that a crew member said that the ship had not closed the water pump drains on one side of the ship and that it had frozen. Since they could not drain it, it could not roll back and tilted to a 45 degree angle. Where is our knowledgeable Chief Engineer when we need him to explain this. I can't wait for the survivors to come up with more!!

Wait what? They claimed ship listed 45 degrees? That would be some major damage.

Some "awesome" weather to arrive to NYC. I had to walk one city block to office and got soaked.

To be fair there are isolated parts of some US cities where it is probably as bad as Jamaica.

Sure. Those spots are very rare though. There are some places where people who are lost are given police escorts (like Camden, NJ) to get out. But when it comes to Jamaica, most of the island is like this. There are some areas where it's safe, while in USA it's other way around. And unlike some other places with high crime rate, criminals in Jamaica don't care if you are tourist or not, you are a target. In other high-crime nations, tourists are usually left alone, not to scare them away.

You could have a port change as late as the day you arrive on the ship, or even after you sail. The problems are over blown, so the odds of a port change are slim.

 

 

It is no worse there than in New York or Chicago. Stay in the tourist areas, and stay with your group and you will be fine.

That's one hell of a statement to make. In 2017, some areas of Jamaica seen 1100% murder rate increase. In 2005, Jamaica had the "honor" of having highest murder rate in the world. In 2015, murder rate was 42.3 per 100,000 people. Compare to New York, NYC, in 2016, had 3.91 per 100,000 people. in 2016, NYC had 334 homicides. Less than one a day. Jamaica averages 100 homicides monthly. That is with population of 2.8 million people, about third of New York City population.

In short, you are more than 10 times likely to get killed in Jamaica than in New York City based on data from 2015 and 2016.

Let's think before we talk, ok?

As long as you have decent credit card, there should be no transaction fee. Some "starter" credit cards, that give you $400 initial credit line will have one. Plenty of cards, like Capital One, American Express, Chase, will have none. My Chase debit card has no foreign transaction fee. Keep in mind, charges are always done in local currency, at bank's exchange rage, which may be just a little bit skewed towards their end. That is offset by lack of transaction fees.

Always call your bank, add countries to the list where charges should be approved, tell them your travel dates. After these dates, they won't approve charges, eliminating chance of fraud.

As for how much to bring, it's totally up to you. With everything pretty much prepaid, you can walk off the ship without paying a single cent. Or you can splurge at shops, specialty dining, shore excursions, etc. You will need some money in the port for cabs, local entertainment, etc. Doubt there's an easy formula since everyone does things differently.

Still, make sure you have cash on hand. I am yet to see a cab on the islands that will take a card. Plus, in case of emergency, you may need few dollars on hand too. I usually bring $1000 with me. I do not spend all of it most of the time, but I know it's available, if I need it.

131. 9 Day Scandinavia on Breakaway. Second NCL cruise, so total NCL newbie.

Nice. I was on Crown on December 1st sailing, still had to drag lifevests. Glad it's no longer needed.

or book a Princess transfer , so if for some reason the ship is late/ customs / traffic, etc. they will hold the plane until you arrive

LOL that will never happen. If you are with EZAir, you will be rebooked on a different flight. No airline will ever hold the plane for more than few minutes.

If airline holds the plane, the entire flight plan goes out of the window. They need to re-file it with ATC, because planes are given strict departure windows. Also, plane you are flying to XYZ airport is due to fly from XYZ airport to ABC airport pretty much as soon as they can. So holding a plane will throw a huge wrench into entire system, causing a domino effect. To prevent this from happening, airline will have to pull another plane and air crew to continue that route.

So yeah, it won't happen.

Forget the smart phone. The minute you swipe a debit or credit card you are on the grid.

Or even driving around. Toll collectors use RFID to charge your toll account. Toll lanes take a photo of your license plate. Police license plate readers will record your license plate and location/time.

There.

Is.

No.

Privacy.

The ***** comes close to this kind of invasion of privacy and is why I won't use it.

Hahahaha you actually believe that?

***** tracks where you are on a ship and where you spend most of the time on the ship. The very same technology is used by a lot of places. God forbid you ever walk into Apple store, where they use bluetooth beacons to track exactly where each visitor is and what they are looking at.

If Princess wanted to track your every move, they still can. It will just take security personnel following you on camera. And they are very good at it. Every part of every ship has a camera. With *****, it's just simpler.

It's definitely a great ship.

Here is a link to a previous post that showed the various plans offered on the Grand in October. It includes both loyalty plans and the new social/Surf/premium plans. We had something similar on our trip on the Emerald in Oct. and Nov. Neither of those are ***** ready ships, so it was not limited by that. I do think this may have been a trial program, perhaps limited to just certain ships to see how it went over. No way to tell if it will be common in the future or when/if it will be available on the Ruby.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=54315469&postcount=1

Grand was refurbished in December 2016. They could've installed high speed networking equipment required to use these plans back then. Ruby's refurbishment was in December 2015. Doubt they had the equipment installed back then. But hey, I may be wrong.

Thank you! I hope that the Ruby has the $9.99 special per day.

 

 

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Doubt it. That's *****-equipped ships only. Crown Princess is not *****-ready and when I was on my last cruise a week ago, we still had pay-per-minute.

i was impressed to NOT see one passenger out and about Not one.

Night time can be awesome. Either you get nobody, or you get some characters.

I was on Norwegian Epic on a European cruise. On cruises, jet lag kicks my ass. So I am often wandering around the ship in a middle of a night. So on that cruise, when I sat down at NCL's version of IC to watch some movies on my laptop in a middle of a night, a very drunk dude from Ireland was convinced I am a secret agent, sent to kill him. After I told him about bazillion times that I am not, he persisted. So in my best Russian accent (not hard for me, born in Ukraine), I said "Well well well, looks like we finally found you, sir. KGB sends their regards"

Guy instantly shat a brick and sat there, eyes wide open, until his wife collected him. As she dragged him off to his room, he kept pointing at me, trying to convince her that I am a secret agent.

It has been a while since we have sailed on Princess. We will be on the Crown for Christmas. In the "old" days, if you showed up to breakfast in the dining room wearing workout clothes, you were turned away. Does anyone know the current policy please?

Policy is published somewhere on the website. However, it's not really enforced. If you show up in workout clothes, sure, they will turn you away. But if you wear nice jeans, shirt, and normal sneakers, you can still get in with no issues.

I stayed inside, but girlfriend went out on formal night. Said that people were going to a dining room wearing slacks and polo shirts.

Nice video tour of the ship. Looked like most of the ship was asleep except for the crew cleaning. Thanks.

Correct. I was out and about for about an hour, did not encounter any passengers. So for video shots aiming to showcase the ship, this time will be the best.

Except for the Christmas decor, none has changed since our last time this year. Nice video tour!

 

 

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I actually appreciated that decor. It's not overwhelming in-your-face, and at the same time is a bit festive. Tastefully done.