MAPCruises

Just wanted to say thank you for the great trip report.  We are taking this same cruise on the Sky June 15th of this year.  Your posts were very informative.

11 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

I’m on the Joy this Saturday, I really don’t care where we go.  
 

They took Costa Maya off our schedule in Jan…GSC now is on deck. Actually, I hope we make that one.  Cabana Time. 🙂

I am on this Saturday cruise as well and we may not even get off the ship as the two private islands. Just wanna chill and relax and 🍷🥃🍸🍺🍹🧉

We will be on the Joy in the Haven on April 1,  I am upset to hear about the haven bar situation.  That was one of the main selling points to get my husband when I told him I got the haven. 

I wore my keens last week on Getaway and had no problems - you should be fine..

Found one more as I was going through Receipts - Wine Lovers the Musical Menu and Wine List.

We really enjoyed this show.  The female singer for this show is from the Burn The Floor show.   And you got 9 glasses of wine with it.    We also signed up for the Circus Dreams show Night 8 and enjoyed that one as well - the meal for that show was excellent.  My one remark to NCL - they book great lunch shows on sea days but the Splash Academy is not open during lunch on sea days to watch the kids.   :-(.

2019-11-08 Wine Lovers Musical.pdf

We ate at the landshark while we were there, right by the pool.  My husband and I had the chicken wrap, our son had the shrimp, and nachos and salsa.  With 2 beers and 1 virgin drink I think it was about $70 total.  The food was decent (better than I expected) they did not take our room card - you have to use a credit card.    On a Harvest Caye note our son wanted to do the zip line and it was $90 per person.. YIKES!!

Just now, calizona said:

I see a notice on the Day 1 daily about an additional tax for food & beverage items while in LA territorial waters.  Did you notice any charge with the beverage package or dinning package while sailing that night?  From my understand the ship does not hit international water till after midnight on day 1.

Yes - we paid tax on beverages on day 1 and on beverages and dinner add on's at Cagney's on Day 9 (that was a surprise).  So yes - you will pay tax on any purchases while sailing in the US. I think it was around 9:30 - 10:00 PM on the last night when we left International waters.

So many have asked for Dailies and info from past Cruises.  I thought I would scan in and post for all. 

Attached are Dailies, Splash, Entourage, Fitness, Casino and other misc info from the cruise.  The dailies include all paper we got for each day.

These are from the November 8, 2019 - 9 Day Western Caribbean on the Getaway

Schedule was

1 - Embark

2 - Sea

3 - Sea

4 - Falmouth, Jamaica

5 - Grand Cayman

6 - Roatan, Hondorus

7 - Harvest Caye, Belize

8 - Costa Maya, Mexico

9 - Sea

We had an amazing cruise (minus the tendering process in Roatan).  

I did not take pics of the menus - But I will post some food pics later.

2019-11-08 Casino Flyer.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 1.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 2 Sea.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 3 Sea.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 4 Falmouth.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 5 Grand Cayman.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 6 Roatan.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 7 Harvest Caye.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 8 Costa Maya.pdf 2019-11-08 Daily Day 9 Sea.pdf 2019-11-08 Entourage 13-17.pdf 2019-11-08 Fitness Schedule.pdf 2019-11-08 Mandara Spa Price List.pdf 2019-11-08 Ship Staff.pdf 2019-11-08 Shore Excursion Order Form.pdf 2019-11-08 Splash Dolphins 10-12.pdf 2019-11-08 Splash Seals 6-9.pdf 2019-11-08 Future Cruise List.pdf

And the only excursion is 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon - which still puts us at airport at least 4 hours early..

Note to self - NEVER BUY the NCL transfers...

Has anyone had luck canceling transfers after final payment? 

Just called and they told me no dice.  the only thing I can do is apply $80 towards a post cruise New Orleans Shore excursion.

We are on the Getaway November 8th.  We too are super excited!!  

We did the free air with NCL for our November cruise out of New Orleans and are generally happy with our flights, really the best option that could have been booked.  However, our flight arrives at MSY at 8:39 AM and our flight home is at 6:09 PM.  When we booked we got the transfers included. 

Does anyone know how the NCL transfer service works?  My fear is we will be waiting at airport for a couple hours until bus fills up to take to the cruise terminal.  And on way home.  I do not want to go to airport and wait for 8 hours, we want to explore New Orleans for a couple hours. I am thinking about just calling and canceling our NCL transfers ($40 / person and family of 4)  But wonder what is best way to handle luggage while we explore.  keep transfer and go check in luggage early then explore,  or store luggage somewhere and do tour?

If anyone has experience in New Orleans any insight would be appreciated. 

It is back working now.  Whew..  I was scared there for a couple hours..

Is anyone else getting this error message today?  I have tried 2 different browsers.

Plus when I log into my NCL account the "Lets Get You Upgraded" screen doesn't pop up.

I am hoping this doesn't mean no more bids for our cruise  😞  We sail 11/08.

I have been getting all morning.

As someone who cruises with my kids,  (mostly well behaved, but they are kids and they do get excited easily).

I can tell you my kids are much more behaved that a lot of the "adults" we have seen on cruises.

I also like the person who posted "I'll join them".  Don't knock it until you try it,  kids are carefree and fun loving, and mine love talking to adults.  Some adults need more carefree and fun loving time - maybe dislodge the big stick they got implanted years ago..🙂

we are in 7202 for our July 7th cruise to alaska cant wait!!! Congrats on the upgrade.

We used Native Choice in Costa Maya and were super happy with our tour. We went to Disbanche (?). Guide was super knowledgeable and we learned a lot about the Mexican interior as we traveled along. We got back to ship with plenty of time to spare. I would highly recommend them.

Make sure you click through the various pages on the websites. We are going in July and I have been able to find 10% - 25% discounts on almost all of our excursions for booking (and sometimes) paying early. Like the bus from Seward to Anchorage - there is a 25% discount if you book by end of November. With a party of 8 traveling I have saved thousands by doing homework and booking early. And like some posters said several of the time slots I wanted with smaller vendors are already filled. Good Luck.. And also if they dont have anything on their website about a code. call and see if they have a discount for booking early, or in our case taking whole plane or boat..

It never hurts to ask.

We are doing Halibut fishing excursion here with Hooked Adventures.

http://hookedadventures.com/charter-fishing/

Looking forward to it!!

I just booked this tour for July 11th as well. Can't wait!!! It looks awesome!

I did not like that I had to pay 100% in advance - But I did save 20% on a party of 4 every little bit helps.

I have found 10% - 25% off coupons for almost all our excursions, as long as i book before nov 31 - Jan 15 (different vendors vary on date).

I can not speak to Alaska. But we have traveled on both HAL and NCL in the past. With kids in tow hands down NCL. I would definitely cruise HAL again but not with my kids.

I like this site as gives you a calendar view for 30 days. And you can easily check rates for ranges of dates.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

Well after extensive excursion research and really wanting to do Emerald Lake and Yukon trail in Skagway I found a Glacier Bay flying trip out of Icy Strait. Since we are in port from 10:00 - 8:00 and there really isn't anything there I wanted to do except walk around town. This was an awesome find. If anyone is interested I am booking through Wings of Alaska: http://www.wingsofalaska.com/?page_id=45

Their rate is $500 per hour for entire plane and the lady I spoke with recommended 2 HR tour of glacier bay with 15 minute flight to and from bay entrance from Hoonah for a total of 2.5 hrs. The cost to rent plan is $500 / hr so $1,250 for 5 people or $250 each person. Less than what I was finding in Skagway (+/- $400pp for a 2 hr flight). So happy!! Now I get to see Glacier Bay and Emerald Lake!!!

There are a lot cabins booked in a block at this time. At some point these blocked cabins are released back to the cruise line.

That is what I am hoping. (fingers crossed) closer to final payment time i would like to move my sister to a balcony room closer to ours.

We are going in May and have rented a Green Jeep. We did the train a few years ago. We are taking our teenage granddaughters this time and the cost was a fraction to rent the jeep. They give you a guide to use. I think it will be a much better option for us.

We are going in July Party of 8 - so we would have to rent 2 jeeps. If we could fit in 1 this would be optimal. If we do guided looking at Dyea Dave - 11 passenger van. http://www.******************/tours.htm I just bought Murrays Guide http://*****************/ hoping that will help me decide. all drive or train up. OR my original plan fly trip of glacier bay with Fly Drake http://www.flydrake.com/glacier-bay-flightseeing-from-skagway.html. I am having lots of trouble with this port to many options and not enough time to do them all!!