rupert5

12 hours ago, aring75 said:

After dinner we headed back to the stateroom for a few minutes and noticed we had Captain’s Club flowers. 
 

 

 

And we opened up the curtains and we saw the first sunshine we’ve seen all day! Tomorrow is supposed to be great weather in Ketchikan!

 

This view is just stunning!!

1 hour ago, cruisinsusin said:

We were on the August 12-19 Solstice. For tendering in Skagway: the passenger had to be able to walk down, and on return, back up an outside flight of about 10-15 stairs and be able to climb onto and off the tender. The amount of tender movement is dependent on the movement of the seas- it wasnt too bad the day we were there.

My mom had a stroke so it’s very difficult for her to walk long distances. She should be able to do the steps and get on the tender with assistance. My concern is she won’t be able to bring her scooter to do the excursion. No way she could do that whole day without it 🙁

4 minutes ago, aring75 said:

 

I will try to give as much detailed information about the tendering process in Skagway as I can. If I can find someone to ask, I’ll see if they’ve put any plans in place for passengers with mobility issues. I’ll let you know what I find. 

Oh my, thank you, that would be wonderful! I am going to reach out to Celebrity, too and will keep everyone posted on what I find, too. 

6 minutes ago, cmoore5524 said:

Isn’t the Lumberjack show in Ketchikan?  The tendering is in Skagway. 

You're right! I'm getting myself so confused...

But now I realize it's even worse. We're supposed to do a gold panning, sled dogs, and railway excursion. I'd be so much better with canceling the lumber jack than this one. Such a bummer. 

18 hours ago, trvllr said:

Just got back today from this cruise. The walking distance from the tender port to the train is about the same, if not lesser than the aft-railroad dock. There is a ramp that takes you (climb up) from the tender port to the train station. I didn't see any golf carts.

If you are on an excursion with Celebrity, they tell you where and when to assemble ( for us it was in the theater) and then you will be escorted to the tender. 

This concerns me. We have bought the Lumber Jack show and my mom requires a mobility scooter. We've gotten no information from X yet about the change to the disembark situation in this port. Looks like I've got to make a call...

On 5/31/2021 at 8:34 AM, shipshape sam said:

Have a great cruise.  We sailed to Alaska in late August 2019 and it was a fun cruise.  We got to see the Northern Lights on our 2nd night out from Seattle.  That was unexpected and neat.  

 

Hope you too make some great memories!

This makes me SO happy to hear that it’s at least possible to see the aurora at this time of year! I’m going Sept ‘22 and hoping we might have the same luck! 🤞

Has anyone tried and successfully got CCL to waive a single supplement? I haven't given them a ring yet but just wanted to get other people's perspective. I wish I could find a good travel agent that could help me with this, but I can't seem to find anyone!

Not too shabby! Were you traveling solo? I imagine not with that price...

Just got back from a 7 day Bermuda cruise $399pp IX GTY

Did you find them to be a good deal?

I have booked a lot of last minute cruises 2/3 days out.

We have booked NCL Thursday night and sailed the next morning.:cool:

This is great to know, thanks!

On Carnival you can book in the morning and sail in the afternoon. But you have to call, can't do it online, and you will not be able to do online checkin. Final manifest goes in 60 min. before sailing. EM

Thanks! This makes a lot of sense...I think I will just watch and see if anything pops. Otherwise, I guess I can just sit on the beach by my house hahaha :p

Unless a sailing is selling very poorly you will not get a break on the solo supplement whether you book one year or one day in advance.

 

You cannot book at the pier.

 

If there is space available, you may be able to book directly with the cruise line by telephone the day before. By then they have already given their 72hr manifest to Homeland Security. Only crappy cabin locations that nobody wanted will be available. The prices may be higher than they were one week previous.

 

And if you have to fly to the embarkation port, you are really rolling the dice if your ticket is only good on a space available basis. Suppose the previous flight was cancelled and the only one that will get you to the port in time is full? You're screwed.

 

Everything would have to go right for you to pull together a literal last minute air/cruise vacation. Some people love this excitement but this sounds far too risky.

Has anyone ever booked their cruise the day before/day of? I have a lot of flexibility and am hoping that means I can find a good deal.

I have a free voucher for a flight anywhere in the U.S. I am hoping to use it to fly somewhere to catch a cruise. There are no restrictions on the voucher, I can fly on any flight I want so long as there is a seat.

Has anyone booked like this before? Was it a good deal? I am traveling solo, so it has been somewhat cost prohibitive for me to book something in advance.

Am I crazy to pack a bag and wait & watch the prices? I always thought that they lower the price significantly just before sailing, am I completely wrong?

TIA!

ahhh i dont know about "intense" im kind of a wimp...and its my 68 year old mom that really wants to do it lol. it looks cool, though--for the more adventurous! :eek:

Check out Loterie Farm. http://loteriefarm.com/ There should be no problem getting taxi there and back.

thanks SnorkelAway! I will check them out!

can anyone recommend a company that offers ziplining that is good for first timers and a short route? TIA! :)

can anyone recommend a company that offers ziplining that is good for first timers and a short route? TIA! :)

We are sailing on the Gem out of New York on November 13th. Sailing to the Caribbean on a 10 day cruised. Fingers crossed that the ship will be ready after this week's dry dock.

apparently she has left Freeport and is on her way to NYC! Saw some pictures on here of the new updates--looked amazing! I sail her on 12/3...can't wait! Enjoy your cruise and break all her new changes in for us :D

So, just to be clear, it was this question about what the TA would do if the upsell fairy called them to offer you a deal to which the TA responded with their "we have nothing in place" comment? Yet, they were fully cooperative, and apparently successfull, in following through on your request to call NCL about an upsell? This does not even make sense.

 

If a TA flat out told me that if the cruiseline called them to offer me a free upgrade or an upsell offer they would simply ignore them and the offer would not immediately be passed on to me, I would complain my way right to the top of that agency, and I would probably make a complaint to NCL as well. Frankly, I have never found an agency who had that policy.

 

Not to irritate you further, but are you sure you did not misunderstand the agent, or vice versa? If true, I would never book with them again, and I would make sure they knew why.

no irritation--that's why i started the thread, to get other people's perspective!

i think the rep that replied to my email was confused in what question she was answering...i don't think she understood i was asking about upsells rather than upgrades (since i used the "upsell" language in my original question and she used "upgrade") and just believed i was asking about upgrades (for which i would not expect them to monitor price drops etc), which then i would understand that they do not have anything in place.

from my experience with this TA, i don't think i will use them again simply because every time i reach out to someone i get an answer from someone else. i prefer to have a dedicated person to deal with. my sister planned this one, verrrrrrry differently than i would have lol.

i suppose the onus is just on me to do my due diligence and keep track...keeps me busy! :)

What your TA was trying to tell you with their "they have nothing in place" comment was that they are not constantly calling the various cruise lines on a daily basis to see if there are any upgrades/upsells available for a myriad of cabin categories and then calling thousands of booked customers to see if they are possibly interested. You can see how this would take up a lot of time.

 

That does not mean that if NCL initiates an upgrade/upsell call to a TA that they will not immediately call you about it. I don't know about you, but we have an agent listed who is our contact person. We book with a TA to get the extra perks worth hundreds of $$. It is well worth it. And even if you had booked direct with NCL, do you really think they would call to inform you that cabin prices have dropped considerably and you would be eligible for an upgrade or cheap upsell? Very few get those calls. The ones who manage to snag them are the ones who monitor prices and then initiate the calls themselves, like you eventually did, either to NCL or to the TA.

Just to be clear (in case it helps anyone else), I specifically asked my TA about "upsells" not "upgrades". Meaning--if the upsell fairy called, would they reach out to me. I would never expect them or NCL to monitor price drops (that's just absurd, they have to make money). All I was trying to convey was that I was interested in case NCL contacts them (since they won't contact me directly) regarding an upsell, that I would be interested.

My sail date is Dec. 3 and I called two weeks ago and it was $600 to upgrade. I called late last week and they made this upsell happen. Not sure if that is how it usually works, but I called as soon as I saw a price drop to see what they could do for me.

thanks everyone! i initiated an upsell myself the other day and was able to have the rep from my TA get NCL on the line and agree to an upgrade from a regular balcony room to a minisuite for $25. so, needless to say, we are very happy with what we have now (was happy with the balcony room, tbh)!

wish we had booked direct with NCL, but i let my sister take the reins on this vacation and this is the way she went lol.

i will keep monitoring & hope that something moves around. there aren't many suites still available so i doubt we would be the recipient of an upsell call/email, regardless of if our TA gets the email or not. i get a different rep every time i call the TA, so you guys are probably right that even if they did get something they wouldn't think to send along etc.

I just sent my TA an email letting her know that if there are any upsells offered closer to my sail date, I would be interested in being informed. My understanding is that since I booked through a TA, they would get the email/call from the upsell department and would then pass that along to me.

The TA told me that they do not "have anything in place to alert us if any upgrades become available" meaning that NCL doesn't send them the information. Could this be right? I'm not sure if I just got a un-knowledgeable Customer Service Rep or if they are correct. I want to make sure that if there are any upsells being offered, I am aware of them. Anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? Can I call NCL and tell them what my rep said and will they then work with me? Or, should I just be proactive and reach back out to my TA as we get closer to the sail date?

TIA for any insight! :)

Thanks everyone for your comments & insight! I wanted to give an update...I noticed an even bigger drop (I think I might be getting obsessed with tracking these things lol) so I called my TA back. She was super helpful and called ncl for me. She was able to negotiate an upgrade to a minisuite with balcony for only $25!!!! Total...not per person! I'm almost shocked how lucky we are!! I'm happy I kept an eye on it, and super grateful for the good help of my TA. I was very nervous about working with one, but my sister booked it and even though I'm usually the one that handles vacations, I let her do this one (maybe not if I'm still doing some of the work haha).

48 days and counting!!!

Well...they called back lol. They offered me an upgrade to the B2 category--family balcony. Since we aren't traveling with kids and don't necessarily want to be any closer to the splash academy, I decided to decline their offer. They told me to upgrade to a minisuite it would be about $900 more...so definitely not what I would consider "reasonable". They told me to keep trying back if I see any other changes, or to just give them a ring as we get closer and they might have other options for me, which is appreciated.

Thanks everyone for the help and tips!!

I would take a mini suite any day. The bathrooms are much larger - not just the additional of a tub. The balconies are larger. And, in my view, the location is usually better.

 

terry

oh wow, I didn't know the bathrooms/balconies were larger....that kinda changes everything. Thanks! :)