It’s working for me now everywhere - the site and the app 👍

6 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Ooooo... 

 

During the pandemic shutdown, that was the message you got when your cruise was being cancelled. Brings back bad memories. 

She said she did see my reservation on my account so… fingers crossed 😊

This is what I got from their support:

6 minutes ago, fredflint said:

Use this site to check if sites are down.

https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ncl.com.html

I dont’t think it’s down, but it does have trouble connecting to and retrieving reservations (database connection issues?)

Same thing here. Can’t get in through the app. Was able to kinda login through the browser but it doesnt really show my reservation details 

Another question. The 150 minutes of free Wifi we get as part of FAS - is that per person or per room/reservation?

Thank you for all your responses, a couple more questions.

1. Luggage tags - do I print those out after I complete the check in?

2. Dailies…. something (Cruise Compass in Royal lingo 😜) - I understand that the hard copy is placed in my room the night before. Is the schedule of activities also available in the app?

2 hours ago, genealogyfan said:

We sailed on the Pearl in September 2022. We enjoyed eating lunch at the "Summer Palace" the day of embarkation. It was quiet, less crazy and less stressful. We always like to eat at a sit down restaurant on that day. While we were eating lunch, they announced all cabins were available.

 

If you do eat at the Summer Palace, ask if Cherry is working. She was a waitress there for breakfast, and we ate there for breakfast each day. She didn't work the lunch shift, but her schedule may have changed. We weren't the only ones asking to sit in her section at breakfast. We never ate at the buffet, but ate at the free sit down restaurants and specialty ones, as we had the 2 specialty dining package.

 

If you have a specialty dining option, go eat at Le Bistro. It was the best food of all the restaurants and Cherry happened to work there during dinner. 

 

The entertainment wasn't the greatest on the Pearl, so don't expect much. Are you booking excursions through the ship or privately?

 

We did the excursions through the ship, as the $50 discount made it affordable. Although when we sailed to Bermuda, which I think you are doing, I booked a private tour of the island on the first day and after the guy never showed, we caught another private tour with another couple on the dock. We really enjoyed it. We did book the beach excursion through the ship, as it was the last day and I didn't want to take the chance and miss the ship.

 

 

Thank you, yes, I was going to ask about entertainment, kinda figured I shouldn’t expect much on a smaller ship like that. 

We do have one excursion booked through NCL just to burn the FAS credit. Yes, it is Bermuda, we have been there before, as of right now the plan is to just head to Horseshoe bay the rest of the days. 

3 minutes ago, thespiritmovesme said:

If you are arriving on Sunday, especially Easter Sunday, the shops in Hamilton may not be opened & there may be less transportation available. 

Yeah, we are actually the weekend after that. 👍

18 minutes ago, cruiserbear55 said:

 

     2.    You pick your check-in time, not your embarkation time. Everyone embarks at the same time

             ( when the ship sails). If you're late for your check-in time, not a problem

 

Silly question then - what happens between the check-in and the embarkation? You just sit and wait at the terminal? And when does the embarkation usually start?

16 minutes ago, cruisinmeme said:

you can check in online at 21 days eastern standard time (whatever time it is for you) I used my iPad .  Only problem is I didn’t read full directions for the picture you need . CAN NOT have glasses on.  So have a picture ready to use or will need to do a selfie at that time. 

Thank you! So that’s actually another question I had - am I required to take my picture through the app right when I am checking in or can I upload one? The reason I’m asking is because I wanted to do the check in for both of us myself to make sure we are able to get the same time slot. 

17 minutes ago, hallux said:

Usually sometime after 1 PM.  My suggestion is to only carry on what you can comfortably carry for a couple hours.

You can, but those times are not strictly enforced.

Not that I've seen.

 

Did you get the Free At Sea promo?  If you haven't booked your dining yet you're probably going to have to have someone make a bee-line to the reservation desk for specialty dining as soon as you get on board.  The reservations available online are usually only about 30% of the total available, with the rest opening up on embarkation day.

Thank you for your response, that really helps. Yes, I did get FAS promo and yes, I do have all the dining booked for all 7 nights 👍 

Hi, all. 

Royal cruiser here, brand new to NCL, going on Pearl from Boston in less than 6 weeks. Here are my questions:

1. When will the rooms be ready on embarkation day?

2. When we do our online check in through the app, I guess we would be able to pick our embarkation time slot (similar to Royal). What if we are late for that time slot (but not late to the ship ;))?

3. Any recommendations for lunch on Pearl on embarkation day, other than the buffet?

4. Do package/excursion prices ever go down? Probably not for this sailing because it's too close, but in general? With Royal I am used to booking stuff then cancelling and re-booking if the price goes down, is that a thing with NCL?

5. At this point will there be more excursions added for our sailing? Again, we are a little over 5 weeks out.

I may have more questions, but this is it for now. Any other tips and information from those who sailed both Royal and NCL, may be compare and contrast would really help. I did do my search on here but I would like some post-COVID info, may be from 6 months ago or less. Thank you in advance!

On 2/23/2023 at 11:33 AM, oracer said:

I am going on the Pearl 7 day cruise in May 2023 to Bermuda. We got an inside room. We are hoping to upgrade to balcony. Any recently on the smaller ships been upgraded?  I think in March we will get the notices, but wanted to see if success would be and the fair or lower price would work. Thanks!!!

I am on the same cruise in April, also inside, LITERALLY IN THE SAME BOAT 😜 but I am hesitant to upgrade because my room while inside, has an ok location. If I upgrade to a balcony thats under a pool deck or some other noisy venue - is that really an upgrade? 😏 I am new to NCL, so I may not know everything, any input is appreciated here. 

9 minutes ago, Rob_H said:

It's like dial-up: you have to log in at the start, and log off when you're finished.  The minutes between login and logoff are deducted from your 150 total, until you have none left.

 

It's like dial-up another way as well: speed (or lack of).

That’s great 😜👎 is there a way to check my minutes balance throughout the cruise? what happens if I go over 150? do they charge me some ridiculous amount per extra minute or will I not be able to connect at all then?

Visitors

2 hours ago, cruisinmeme said:

Yes you can use for sushi.  My daughter and granddaughter did it and you get choice of 4 things. They nearly blew up eating so much. Lol

by the way you cant make a reservation.

Thank you! It’s the fact that it’s a la carte + no reservations that probably threw me off. No worries, I am pretty sure my daughter can handle it 🍣🍱👍🤣

Sorry to piggy back on this post here but I don’t think my question is big enough to justify a separate post. Royal cruiser here, going for the first time on Norwegian Pearl in April. Can specialty dining credit I got when I booked this cruise be used in the Sushi place? It’s a la carte so I am pretty sure the answer is no, but I just wanted to be sure. 

Again, sorry if I am hijacking this post. 

2 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Not true. United States has the largest Jewish population in the world.

Correct. Israel has higher ratio of Jews but its total population is a lot smaller. 

3 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

Exactly.  I didn't mean that I was totally ignorant of the Jewish Event/holiday.  I just didn't know of it's effects on the cruise industry and some of their activities/venues.  I have no problem with religious holidays, not at all.  I just would rather be on a cruise that has as few children (young and adult) on it as possible. 

 

That's why I try not to cruise on major U.S. holidays/U.S. summer and South American holidays and summers.  Not always easy and successful.  LOL

I am Jewish and am fully aware of the holidays. This was not a holiday. Just happens to be when those Jewish schools have their break. I know all it takes to have a Glatt Kosher kitchen and I can see why they would want the whole venue to themselves with Rabbi present and no bacon in that kitchen and all. But I also saw people eating their kosher meals out of boxes in MDR as well as Windjammer. Not judging just making an observation. 

On 1/27/2023 at 12:21 PM, Ret MP said:

Totally agree.  But, you know it ain't gonna happen.  RCCL, et al, are in the business of selling cruises, not giving people excuses not to cruise.

 

The only answer is "live and learn".  For the amount of years I've cruised, I didn't now about this special holiday period and how it effected cruising, until now.  Now, I know and I won't book during that time frame and locations.  One of many reasons to be a member of board(s) like this.  I'm only surprised I didn't know or hear about this until now, this thread.

There’s an old trick of googling your ship name + sail date to see what special group(s)/event(s) may also be there. Which may or may not help of course. I probably wouldn’t have thought of Solarium Bistro being closed for the entirety of the cruise if I saw that add even.  

17 hours ago, melbur said:

Yes I am on Oasis also right now and it's yeshiva. Solarium is the designated kosher kitchen. And tons of kids which shocked me as well so soon after the holidays. 

Note to self.... never again. It feels so over crowded.

We are here on Oasis as well right now. A lot of unhappy people because of Solarium Bistro and yes, it does feel like spring break all over again, someone said anywhere between 1300 and 1500 kids on board right now. Would be nice to know about all this ahead of time when booking, especially Solarium Bistro not being available for the entirety of the cruise. 

On 1/4/2023 at 7:52 AM, Dina7 said:

Though I haven’t been on the Oasis yet, the Solarium Bistro on Anthem of the Seas is open to all ages for dining. (Even though kids would need to walk through the Solarium to get there.)

 

Loved this review & your sense of humor!😄

This was true for us on Oasis but probably like 7? years ago? We walked into Solarium Bistro with a kid just not the Solarium. 

We are sailing this weekend and Coco Cay is one of the stops and yes, I do see Scuba under Excursions as well as Wave Jet (similar to Jet Ski?), snorkeling, most are sold out of course. But yes, they did add more and more excursions in Coco Cay as well as other ports as we got closer to our sail date. 

Does anyone know where/if I can download older versions of Royal Caribbean app for Android? My Samsung tablet is ~2 years old and it says my device isn't compatible with this version. :-(.