Shattered__minds

On 1/3/2024 at 2:24 PM, zqvol said:

You are probably stressing too much, the complaints are from the people who complain all the time 

After 7 cruises with NCL, the VIVA (and Prima Class) are "Pigs with lips stick" the designers should be demoted back to Legos.

After excursion dining sucked- long, longs lines or wait times and cranky people everyday !!

Pools: lacking and crowded

Entertainment: crowded, booked-full early, lacking variety, music was not very good- closesr to high school karaoke.

Excursions- you get what you pay for more $$ better them seem.

Ship: creaked, rattled, and poorly assembled. This could have easily been resolved but many corners were cut, or so it seems.

my 2c 

after the most recent request by the lines to resume was denied, a letter MAY have been sent threatening international legal action against the US for "discrimination" against the lines, which prompted this change by the CDC. I could definitely see something very messy happen if cruising is not permitted to resume as a whole from the US soon.

um but how would canada enforce this if someone didnt want to play nice? Do they have a Navy? and does it consist of anything more then a couple canoes? sorry just something to lighten the mood.

I can finmd where to change my email address, i can change passowrd, but not email address. Any help? or is it todays issues ?

Awesome thanks:)

I was able to accrue enough points from my NCL CC to redeem for 250.00 obc. We were hoping to purchase 2 250$ cruise next certs on our cruise. When you purchase 2 250.00 CNC they provide you with 250$ OBC (aka buy one get one free). My question can the obc from the cc (250.00) be used to offset the 250.00 that will be charged to the on board account for the certs? basically getting 500.00 for free? I don't see any reason why they couldn't be but thought i would confirm here before calling NCL.

we do the "frugal" method and get a guaranteed room super cheap and order a bottle of vodka for the room. gonna make our own cocktails.

Has anyone brought on a small blender for use in their room?

We are traveling on the Breakaway.

15 hours ago, aero777 said:

That’s just the short list...priority embark/disembark, priority to tenders, in suite dining, etc. 

That is what I thought Aero777. Don't feel like the Haven perks will be worth it to us then, especially when the cost (for us) is a bit high. Maybe one day. I think for this one we will just spend that extra upgrade money on a few drinks or in the casino. If the haven included some kind of included drinks or other perks that we would use then maybe. Thanks for your reply i just wanted to be sure i wasn't missing something in the fine print. 

I got through the first 25 pages and didn't see my question. I wasn't going to wade through 140 more pages.

Sorry.

I have a SailAway Balcony booked on the Breakaway in late Jan. ( i know we are no where close to upgrade offer time).

When we booked we were luck enough to actually chose our cabin #8110 (super huge balc room).

When and if the upgrade offer comes we would only be interested in the Haven class options due to already having a larger balcony than most Mini suites and I am not really interested in a larger bathroom, honestly.

So my ? is......

Since we have a Sailaway (NO PERKS) what if anything would be included as "extras" with the upgrade to Haven?

I understand they have a private pool, hot tub, dining area, butler, concierge. But would we be eligible for anything else?

Just trying to see if it would be worth it to upgrade to the Haven or not. I am thinking not just based on the price we paid for the room we have but wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything that would make it "worth it".

TIA

Thanks all!!

I have only booked a dive through the ship once due to time restrictions in Bonaire. There were 20 of us on one boat and 2 DM's/ needless to say i didn't even get on the boat. Plus so much better one on one service through a private op. They "get to know you" in the first 10 minutes for your safety and theirs so i will always go the indi route or not at all.

I will look into all the recommendations you have provided. Again thank you all!

Do you recommend diving at the following and if so with whom?

Ocho Rios (think i may not haven't heard good things about diving in Jamaica in general)

Grand Cayman (100% for sure on this one unless there are tender issues)

Roatan (100% for sure on this one) Used Coconut diving last time but conditions were Horrible.

Coz (on the fence have dove 2x already) Used H2O but looking for other op this time.

Also anyone know how the private islands work when trying to set up outside dive's? We stop at Great stirrup Cay and Harvest Cay. I am thinking those 2 may be a wash if i cant get a private vendor.

TIA 🙂

Awesome review thank you

I dived with bas a few years back and really enjoyed it. He and his staff make it a really great experience. 

i am wondering when NCL "opens" the booking option for sail away rooms? I am looking at a cruise for end of Jan 2020 on the Breakaway. The Sail Away's are listed but all sold out. thinking they are holding them back and will open them at a later time but when? i am also wondering if the Next cruise certs can be used to purchase a sail away class cabin. TIA everyone

We chose the Dining and the 50$ excursion credit. We also had a 50$ excursion credit for it being a "distinctive voyage" when we booked (making in 100/port credit) so we were easily able to find beach breaks for @ 50$/person through the ship. if you figure they are giving you 50$ a day on an 11 port stop cruise that is like them giving you 550$ to spend. granted the choices are limited most times through the ship but it was what worked best for us in our situation. Good luck choosing!

The bold doesn't show up on all devises or platforms. I would just type it out CRUCON.

Here is my upgrade data:

Sailing out of San juan 1/27 Dawn

Orig booked Obstructed ocean view with a ton of "perks" (free tax day, distinctive voyages, etc etc) 1249 guest fare 1265 out the door.

offer to upgrade to Balc or Mini suite. Chose mini suite bid at low fair range, still under the going guaranteed rate for mini on the site now w. the 20% latitudes reward promo. (1549 guest fare 1710 out the door)

Considered rebooking but would lose all the "perks" so we cant do that bit.

Question to you all is with all the things NCL may or may not consider when granting upgrade bids....do you think the bonus perks you select have a bearing? ie since we didn't chose the Unlimited drinks would that make a difference? or is the consensus that they go on base fare?

Sorry but what is the site i must be missing the bold? any addtl clues would be appreciated :)

You might want to read Jane's book It Helps to Be Crazy -- The story of Maya Chan Beach.

Kel:D

Well, been awhile, but bought the book while we where in February- love that we were there for 2 parts of the book - The painkiller (one of my favorite drinks, made them our first trip in 2013.), and the CATFIGHT, they were there the day we came in on the NCL dawn Jan of 2014 -- the where causing havoc on the ship back to Tampa, multiple times

Add note: With SO MANY cruises going to western and many ships stopping in Costa Maya, I'd booked Maya Chan sooner than later. First time reading so many sold-out stories. Once you've been there, you'll know why.

I believe their deposit is $10-20 per person, balance due 45-30 days prior to arrival. We've have been there now 5 times since 2013 and just returned from there last Friday. This is MY go-to place, as long a GF books western, it must go to Costa Maya - Maya Chan anything/place else she wants, she can have ;)

The one shop that the cruise lines used is no longer in business in Belize City. You have a few options but they are independent opp's. I personally dove with SeaSports Belize last year. They are the only shop that I know of that you can use in Belize city. All the other's are out at the Cay's which require either a ferry ride or plane ride to get to.

I was happy with the diving at SeaSports and would recommend them.

We made our sixth visit to Maya Chan last month and it was better than ever! Road is still bumpy and after a very wet month of December, all of the pot holes were filled with water -- not to worry, as we had a brand new taxi van with great A/C and suspension. No sea grass to speak of.

 

By the way: Jane wrote a book about the history and building of Maya Chan. I just ordered my copy off of Amazon; should be a fun read!

 

https://www.amazon.com/Helps-Crazy-Story-Maya-Beach/dp/1432794566/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515453810&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=building+of+maya+chan

 

Enjoy!

Kel:D

I see you are a frequent flyer too. We made our 3rd, 4th (2017) and 5th coming in 3 weeks. In our humble opinion, the only to do is Maya Chan in Costa Maya. Catch of the day normally Sea Bass, food is to die for. I always hate leaving you miss them like family.

-Mike and Becky

Hi Bill,

I used DiveGrenada in 2016 for a 2 tank dive. We dove Purple Rain and the sculpture park. The Sculpture park was phenomenal and there were snorkelers with us on that part. I really liked the owners and the story of the place. Its on a BEAUTIFUL beach and has all the basic amenities. They provided transportation back and forth and we had plenty of time. Fun and relaxed group of folks. Hope you have a great time. Plan on doing another stop with them in 2019.