cmh

43 minutes ago, tartana said:

I am quite familiar with another cruiseline where there are sales once in a while; however, I am helping my parents out with a Europe Norwegian Cruise next fall.  I am just wondering if there are occasionally discounts on the shore ex. prices in the cruise planner, or do they always stay the same price until departure?  Thanks in advance. 

I have seen excursions increase in price the closer it get to the sailing date.

4 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Yes.
 

Almost all ships have changed to the single serve in the picture. The old machines use to be 4-cup Mr Coffee. your room steward will keep you supplied. Or order a pot from room service for free during breakfast hours. 

Thanks BirdTravels for the info.  I always love reading your posts.  You supply us with so much information!!

6 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

No K-cups on NCL. Nespresso machines in suites. Hamilton Beach in steerage. Single serve round filters. 
 

Thanks for the info.  Do you know if there are coffee machines in balcony rooms?

On 10/29/2019 at 3:29 PM, BirdTravels said:

80 days prior to departure, upgrades are available. 

 

If you log on to your MyNCL account, the home screen will change to "Let's Get You Upgraded"

 

Great!  Tomorrow will be 80 days prior to my 3 week cruise, so I will be looking for that upgrade bid!!

On 9/30/2019 at 4:47 AM, Belle said:

New door handles, no slots for keys. Hold key to screen by the door

TV is on demand now

Escape room is now $8 pp

Still have Heist game

Computers work, slow some times but fast at other times ...Luck of the draw

No balloons starting in Oct.

At IC coffee lids and cups are paper

Straws are paper now most times you have to ask for them

Sabatini's new menu is good

Alfredo's good as ever

To me and others the Crown Grill not as good as use to be

Salty Dog is good

Dining room and buffet..OK

Times..The ship has put the Dining, Buffet and Elite lounge starting an half hour earlier..so then they close earlier. Just in case your use to the old hours

Formal night..Some really dressed up others looked nice. Smart Casual..lets say it means a lot of different things to people  Being hot it's been more casual I would say

Blue Brothers show is a good one to see (new with Steve and Lee)

Still lots of music around the ship

Trivia and other games still played

Some elevators and bathroom stalls out at different time....and they didn't build a center stair case...so just go with it...Relax..Enjoy!

John Smith is Captain now

Steve still CD

All the crew around the ship are friendly and helpful

 

If doing next cruise Mexico it's hot and the humidity makes it seem hotter.

1st formal night 2nd sea day...2nd formal night sea day after Cabo

A hint if you have an inside cabin..if you split the beds with night stand in the middle it makes your room so much bigger and more room to walk in.

 

I've been on the Grand since 9-13, getting off 10-13 (plus sailed Grand many times) If you have any question I'll answer if I can.

Thanks for the info.  We are sailing on the Grand on Sunday.  What time are the appetizers in the Elite lounge at One 5?  It used to be 5 o'clock.

22 hours ago, km3045 said:

The itinerary of Nov 8 Panama canal cruise on the NCL Joy was changed today.  No explanation given, but Costa Rica has been changed to Acapulco, meaning there are now 4 ports in Mexico on this cruise.  The website hasn't been updated to reflect the change, so no shore excursions showing yet.  Looking for info and tips on what to do in Acapulco and how safe you felt, while there.

 

Thanks.

Just read online there is a strike of public unions which could have blockages on roads causing delays in shore excursions and delays in ship leaving the port.

12 hours ago, pompeii said:

I saw on the Princess website this morning that deposits under 3 for Free are now only $100 and are refundable.  I know there was already a refundable option available by calling Princess, but it looks like they are automatically refundable now, and only $100.  Good time to book for those who have been holding off.

 

 

Gee, I just booked a cruise this week to Alaska in 2020 using the 3 for free promo and was told my deposit in "non refundable".

2 hours ago, railman said:

This has never happened to us.  Another couple has just decided to book the same cruise with us.  They are new to Princess but not new to cruising.  I was wondering if we will be able to bring them to the evening cocktail lounge as our guests?

 

Has anyone else done this?

My sister shares a room with us and she is not Platinum or Elite, but she always goes with us.  No one has ever said anything to her about it.

11 hours ago, Suzzanne said:

Hello All,

 

I am writing this for info of others and to see if anyone has any advice. 

 

I was naive and thought I was doing everything right.  I booked early in the year, paid in full to my travel agent and then took out two insurance policies.  I really don't know what else we could have done.  Then 5 weeks ago, my partner received a cancer diagnosis. We discussed the cruise dates and his Doctor advised to start treatment and not travel.  His Doctor wrote a letter to support us and asked for assistance in changing the arrangements.  All parties from hotels, airlines, tours, and car rentals were incredibly helpful and offered refunds, credit vouchers or change of date.  All except NCL.  Our travel agent refunded 25% for which we are very grateful (a big thank you to Clean Cruising in Australia) but we are still $6,300 out of pocket. We would have happily changed to a different cruise date as it would've given us something positive to look forward to. NCL had 9 weeks' notice. The cruise leaves the UK on 27 September and there is still time to sell the room.   Unfortunately,  neither insurance policy covers us in this situation due to a pre-existing medical condition - having had cancer once before our claim was denied.  

 

I do understand the need for NCL to have a cancellation policy, however I believe it's inequitable, inflexible and unreasonable. NCL has not responded to any of our email requests.  I am hoping that a) in sharing this, others will not end up in our position - I'm aware that most people won't be in our shoes and if this had of been any other diagnosis we would have been covered - perhaps this will only help others in making an informed decision - the way a company deals with you when things go wrong tells you a lot about their corporate ethics -  and    b) I have not yet given up and will persist - if anyone has any advice or experience in how to pursue this successfully, please let me know! 

 

NCL were great when we booked and had questions - the call centre helped book tours and make dinner reservations onboard - I'm disappointed at how quiet and unresponsive they are now - hang on....  I think that's just me being naive again!

Suzzanne

My Mom and Dad canceled a cruise when she needed surgery for cancer, and she received a total refund from the insurance plan that she purchased.

16 hours ago, cmh said:

It is a transatlantic cruise on the Sky Princess from Florida to Copenhagen.  Our port is Le Harve and it is in the middle of our itinerary.  I was interested in taking one of the two shore excursions I listed above.  I am leaning towards the tour with the cruise on the Seine because I thought you would see more, but waiting to see if anyone has taken the bus tour The Best of Paris to compare.

Thanks everyone for your input.  I just booked the tour that includes the cruise down the Seine.

It is a transatlantic cruise on the Sky Princess from Florida to Copenhagen.  Our port is Le Harve and it is in the middle of our itinerary.  I was interested in taking one of the two shore excursions I listed above.  I am leaning towards the tour with the cruise on the Seine because I thought you would see more, but waiting to see if anyone has taken the bus tour The Best of Paris to compare.

I cannot decide between two shore excursions to Paris.  I know most of the excursion will be spent driving to and from Paris, but this is my first time there and would just like to get a taste of Paris.  One is the Best of Paris and the other is the scenic cruise on the Seine.  Both are 10 1/2 hours.  Has anyone taken either of these two excursions?  I would appreciate your input.  

On 7/27/2019 at 1:50 PM, Imalismom said:

I did try to do a search and although this may have been asked and answered, I could not find it.  Do I have to have my cruise paid in full prior to booking excursions?

 

Thank you in advance for your answer

 

Gale

We always book the excursions once they become available.  We have also noticed that you should book early, because NCL has a tendency to increase the cost of the excursions the closer you get to the sailing date.

On 6/13/2019 at 9:31 AM, stitchcreek said:

So we have this included as part of our package deal, and I’m told we don’t have to use all 60 mins in one go...

Is it fairly straight forward to see how to connect and then disconnect to save the minutes for another day?

i was just on the Spirit and had free minutes.  You sign on with your last name and date of birth.  From there you click on go explore which brings you to the internet.  It worked fine for us but remember to log out each time so you will not lose minutes.  When you log out, the screen will show how many minutes you used and how many you have left.

20 hours ago, katesmarma said:

Recently read that Castro talked of fuel shortages and its  affecting Classic cars and other tours etc. Did anyone feel this was a problem with the last few sailing? We sail On Sun May 27h

We took a cruise which included two days in Havana last month and had no problems with our excursions.

On 2/24/2019 at 4:13 AM, Sharon1927 said:

Just wondering if anyone has received a confirmation on a upgrade bid for May 2019 sailings.

We are sailing on the Spirit May 31st and got an invitation to bid.  We were in an inside cabin and bid the max $450 per person ($900) for a balcony and got it within a week.  We are three adults in the room, so it was only $300 per person to upgrade from an inside to a balcony.  What a deal!!

On 3/24/2019 at 3:13 PM, pomegranate22 said:

 I was on the Norwegian Gem for its 19-night cruise from Los Angeles to New York City through the Panama Canal (27 January 2018 – 15 February 2018). This review is both quite late and WAY too long, but I thought I’d post it anyway. NCL is running a similar trip next year on the Gem, so maybe those thinking of booking next year might be interested.

 

 

A little background about me to give the review some context:

 

I’m in my late 20s and took the cruise with my partner and parents. I live a long way away from my parents, so it was a chance for us to see each other again and spend some quality time together. In 2017 we went on a seven-night cruise in the Mediterranean on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas, which was a great experience. I also went on two cruises as a child on P&O Australia, and my parents have done one or two more cruise than I have. So, it was our first time on NCL, and we immediately signed up for 19 nights...

 

We all enjoy the onboard cruise life, and really get into trivia, gameshows and pretty much any other silly competitions they have going onboard. The lack of mini golf course on this ship was a serious cause for pause when considering booking the cruise - I’m not joking. However, we are all big travellers, especially me, so the ports are also very important. I did a lot of research in advance to decide what to do in each port.

 

 

The Ship

 

 

The Norwegian Gem doesn’t have a ‘wow’ atrium or central area like so many other ships do, which was noticeable when first walking onto the ship. The two-storey Atrium area is quite humdrum. However, what the ship lacks in initial wow, it makes up in general good design and some excellent spaces throughout the ship (the Spinnaker lounge and the Great Outdoors buffet area in particular). I enjoyed the Art Nouveau/ old ocean liner design elements throughout the ship, particularly in the Grand Pacific dining room and Magnum’s Champagne & Wine Bar. It was a step above the usual campy, tacky cruise ship designs (which I also appreciate for what they are). The pool deck was very plasticky and colourful, with the silly palm tree shaped lights, but it had some charm to it.

 

 

 

I don’t really like the big painted gemstones on the bow of the ship. At every port we stopped at, I consistently thought our ship looked the tackiest of the bunch. However, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and overall, I think the NCL Gem is an excellently designed ship.

 

 

 

The Food

 

 

First up - I have no photos of onboard food, sadly. We ate in the Grand Pacific dining room most nights, finding the atmosphere a lot nicer than the boring Magenta’s. The MDR food surprised me – after reading a lot about NCL, I thought it wouldn’t be enjoyable, but nearly all the meals we had were nice, and we found some of them very tasty. Overall, I think I preferred the Royal Caribbean MDR just a touch (I like the cold soups and escargot on RCCL), but I don’t have complaints about the MDR food we had on the Gem.

 

We had one specialty dinner, at Teppanyaki. It was nice food, and the chef put on a good show, but I was expecting more meat and shrimp. Maybe our stomachs had expanded after 18 days onboard… We aren’t really specialty dining people, and I was concerned NCL would make the MDR food particularly bad to push everyone into the specialty restaurants. I’m glad this wasn’t the case (such behaviour would really put me off a cruise line).

 

The Topsiders poolside buffet/grill was a nice touch, especially when they brought the big grills out on deck and cooked something up for lunch. One annoying note was that it was often hard to find a poolside table, as a lot of people sat at the tables to just have a drink or play cards. (It was also sometimes hard to find free pool loungers due to the fact so many people claimed a lounger all day with their towel, despite being absent for hours on end…)

 

 

 

It was remarkably easy to find a seat at the Great Outdoors when having a bite to eat at the buffet (it seems a lot of people preferred to eat indoors at the buffet, to my great surprise). I didn’t like the fact the breakfast buffet had pretty much the same food every day – there were a lot of options, but the same-sameness is noticeable on a 19-day cruise. Sadly, one of my favourite options, the breakfast noodles, seemed to be one of the only things that didn’t appear every day (it rotated with the rice). We sometimes wandered through the buffet for a sneaky pre-dinner snack, and we found that the dinner food did have variety to it. The Indian food was particularly nice.

 

 

The Great Outdoors

 

We had breakfast in the MDR on some sea days, and it was much nicer than the buffet version. Lunch in the MDR on sea days always has the same menu as well, but we only had it twice, so that didn’t matter.

 

We really enjoyed some of O’Sheehan’s offerings, particularly the buffalo wings. Orchid Garden, the free Asian restaurant, was also nice for a change. We found service in O’Sheehan’s and Orchid Garden to not be as good as in other spots on the ship – I’m not really sure why.

 

The Activities and Entertainment

 

As I said above, we love trivia, shuffleboard competitions and other silly cruise activities. I was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough to do onboard, but those worries were soon put aside. We had a pretty full schedule of activities that we wanted to do on most sea days.

 

One of the cruise staff, Aris, was truly excellent at his job. He put a lot of passion into his work and knew how to handle a crowd. There were issues with some of the other cruise staff, who didn’t always understand us due to language/cultural differences. If you’re going to run a shuffleboard tournament, you should know the rules. You should know that Roosevelt is a US president if you’re running a game show that asks people to name US Presidents. Some activities descended into true chaos, which didn’t reflect that well on NCL. However, the activities are all in good fun, and we mostly just laughed about the situation later.

 

 

I really liked the NCL system of ‘activity cards’, where all participants in an activity get a signature on a card instead of just giving out lame prizes after every activity to the winner. The winner gets two signatures. These signatures can be redeemed at the end for (also lame) prizes. I think this system got more people involved in activities. There were often insufficient seats in the atrium for all the people who wanted to play trivia, and we would sometimes have to sit up at O’Sheehan’s.

 

The shows at night were usually enjoyable as well. There was one superstar ‘comedian juggler’ and one not-so-great one, plenty of guest singers of different kinds, a pianist, and a hypnotist. One thing I really found strange was the low number of full production shows with the cast of singers and dancers. They only performed three times for the entire 19-night cruise, including the welcome aboard show! Surely, they perform more than once on a seven-night cruise?! Maybe they only know three shows.

 

East to West or West to East?

 

Well, seeing as I’ve only taken this trip from LA to NYC, I can’t definitively say if one direction is better than the others. I will say the following things:

 

• We lost four hours throughout the trip, and then gained one back on the last sea day (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are on Venezuela time, one hour before NYC). Given you only gain or lose one hour each time, it didn’t make much of an impact on me.
• The direction we took in the Panama Canal (technically east to west, given the geography of the Canal), meant that the sun was behind us the whole day. I wouldn’t have liked to be heading into the sun all day (would hurt the eyes somewhat), but it’s not a big deal.
• I liked having the three sea days at the end of the journey – it gave me time to relax and reflect on the trip, instead of still being filled with adrenaline about what was to come.
• Arriving into NYC was a lot more scenic than leaving LA (container ports have never been the most beautiful places)

 

Ultimately though, I don’t think either direction will make or break your cruise.

 

I have attached the Freestyle Dailies, Shore Excursion Lists and Fitness Schedule for anyone interested.

 

Tomorrow I will post the other part of my review, which is about all the ports. Brace yourselves, it is much longer than this one! I'm happy to answer any questions, so fire away.

 

 

 

Shore Excursion List - Norwegian Gem 27 January 2019 - Panama Canal.pdf 9.62 MB · 9 downloads Freestyle Dailies - Norwegian Gem 27 January 2019 - Panama Canal.pdf 14.13 MB · 33 downloads Fitness Schedule - Norwegian Gem 27 January 2019 - Panama Canal.pdf 146.44 kB · 9 downloads

Thanks for posting so much information.  We are taking this cruise next year on the Gem but leaving from SF to NY.  

We are leaving in 3 weeks for Cuba on the Empress of the Seas.  Which ship were you on?  Empress got some bad reviews in the month of March.

18 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Usually $20-$30 on top of prepaid gratuities

They work hard and I always leave $25 for 7 day cruise.  I was recently on a 3 week cruise and left $75. Who knows how much of that daily gratuity they actually get?

18 hours ago, tennislvr8 said:

Yes, I do. I bid and was accepted for my April 13 cruise. There two lengthy threads about it, I don't know how to post them. 

I bid also for my Aprll 13th cruise but have not heard anything yet.  Are you on the Empress?

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

 

You can add your AAdvantage number. I get the record locator number to use on the airline website and add it myself if the RC air people fail to. I also make sure my TSA number is added. Change my seat too. Some airlines RC can do it, on other you need to do it yourself with the record locator. 

I do exactly the same thing and I get notifications when the flight times change.  I also select my seats as soon as possible.

On 1/15/2019 at 10:56 AM, Robkat said:

We've just booked a cruise on the Bliss, which is us coming back to NCL for the first time in 3 years.

 

When we cruised NCL last, there was a system where, if you had an upcoming cruise, certain people got phone calls from 

NCL's inventory department, asking them if they'd want to pay an extra amount to receive an upgrade.

 

In scanning through the threads, I saw a huge one about bidding for upgrades, where it looks like there is now 

a particular place you can go, if you want to make a bid for an upgrade.  It looks like you can even bid on multiple categories.

 

Can someone explain how this new system works, and where we would find the correct place go to see what was available to bid on.

Thanks.

When you bid on an upgrade, do you get to keep all the perks that you currently have?  I would to lose all my perks just to upgrade.

23 hours ago, PAGA said:

I was logging on to begin our Check-in Process for our April 13 8-night Cuba cruise, for which I made final payment in December...It appears our 3 Cuba-port cruise is now 2 Cuba ports & Cozumel. I had already booked a ship excursion for the canceled Cuba port, but so far have received no refund or notification about the itinerary change. The website will also not allow me to access the Cruise Planner (says website page can't be found) or the Check-in pages. Anyone have any insight if there is a glitch with the RCCL website or if the issues I'm facing with Trip Planner/Check-in may be unique to the situation with the itinerary change? Or any insight as to why Santiago de Cuba was replaced with Cozumel? We specifically chose this itinerary because it had 3 Cuba ports, so definitely bummed...Obviously I'll be calling Royal Caribbean if the website issues continue, but don't want to waste time on hold if everyone else is calling to report the same issues. Thanks!

Just saw this on our roll call, so I check our itinerary and it has changed.  I booked this cruise for the Cuban itinerary.  I called the shore excursion desk and asked about the excursion I booked for Santiago de Cuba and was told our credit card would be refunded in 10 to 12 days.

On 12/27/2018 at 3:38 PM, kevmoley said:

Does anyone have experience with the Free Choice of Shore Excursions with NCL in the amount of $50.00 per cabin/per port? I am being told that you can only use this credit WHEN you are actually onboard the ship and you cannot use it to purchase excursions before your sailing? This doesn't seem to make much sense to me. I have been on sailings where shore excursions sell out before you go on your trip. *****!

I have this credit on my May cruise and I just booked a couple of shore excursions.  Call the NCL number 1-866-234-7350.  They will book your excursions but not charge you for them in advance.  They will show on your final statement you get onboard and the $50 will be deducted.  You will only be responsible for the difference.

On 11/2/2018 at 8:13 PM, ebslcc said:

I saw this in an Azamara Roll Call posted by Azamara's "Chief Blogging Officer"

 

Yes, the cruise dock in Santiago de Cuba is currently out of commission. We are continuing with our planned calls to Santiago De Cuba because there is another dock primarily used for cargo. We won't know if it is confirmed for us to use until a few days before our upcoming calls, and if not available, we will tender our guests ashore.  Our ships are small enough to use this cargo pier and/or tender close enough to shore. The larger ships do not have this option in this particular port of call. In the meantime, Cuba is working to repair the cruise dock in Santiago.

 

Does anyone who has taken a cruise recently know if this cruise dock has been reopened?