FitchburgWIFamily

Wow. I have a much lower bar. - Don’t ask me to plan for, cook or clean up after any meal. - Serve me a leisurely multi-course lunch and cocktails on embarkation day. - And, if you can, do some small things to make me feel special: maybe it’s someone remembering my drink order, or handing me a cold treat when I am in a tender line, or maybe it’s an officer stopping to ask if I am enjoying myself. Did you ever wonder what NCL’s expectations of us are? Like don’t expect cabins to be ready early on embarkation day when there are so many variables that can disrupt the process. They let us on the ship early, let’s be happy with that. Or understand that if NCL has to price match to the lowest fare, everyone would be paying fire-sale prices for every cruise. Also, if the fare you paid had a lot of “perks” and a later fare doesn’t include those perks, understand that NCL can’t give you high-fare perks at low-fare prices. Everyone has a choice in how they spend their vacation dollars. Just don’t choose NCL if you want Viking voyages level of service.

First of all....I took the OP's post as a "if you get hurt on an excursion...do this" not as a "please act like my mom and tell me to wear shoes after I stubbed my toe" On a NCL cruise with my mother years ago, she got hurt on an excursion. Medical care was provided free of charge. Ship security staff did come to the medical center to have us fill out some paper work. Like OP, they asked for the names of witnesses other than our sailing party...so gather names as OP suggested. They also subjected us to a pretty extensive inquisition. My mom's incident was also a fall...and they asked how much she had had to drink, if she was wearing her glasses, if she uses a walking aid did she have her walking aid, etc. The questions had a very "lawyer trying to protect us from liability" feeling. Like if we ever were to sue, they would come back at us and say "but you admitted you were wearing espadrilles instead of hiking boots on the city tour." We had no intention of suing anyone...but they asked me enough questions that I was starting to think I shouldn't answer them without a lawyer present. So thank you OP for your helpful notes on what to be prepared for if you are hurt on a ship's excursion.

Indeed I was. Thank you for clarifying.

I have purchased Cruise Next certificates on-board ship and used them on future cruises...but I don't remember exactly how the math worked. I recently booked 3 cruises, all more than 4 months out with my Personal Cruise Consultant....all inside cabins. She offered to let me purchase $150 cruise next certificates which she "matched". The result was I have a $300.00 down payments on my cruises and I only paid out of pocket for $150 each one. So...for those of you who do the Cruise Next all the time...is this just as good as buying them on the ship? Or is there an even better deal if I purchase them on board? Because I personally kind of like not buying them until I use them, just in case I ... I don't know..give up cruising? Switch to a different line?

"Free" at Sea: - free drink package comes out to $20 pp pd. If you drink more than 3 drinks a day, you come out ahead. You'll have no problem finding cocktails at less than $15.00 but the wine selection at <15.00 isn't great. If you order an $18.00 glass of wine you are charged $3.00 plus 20% tip or $3.60. - I have also purchased a bottle of wine...I'll enjoy one glass a night, and then have them bring it to me the next night in whatever dining room I am in. Helps make the wine price a little better. - I definitely drink more when I have the package: a mimosa at breakfast? Sure! margarita at lunch? Of course. Cocktail during trivia? Makes me sharper. Pre dinner drink? Why not. After dinner drink? Have to keep it balanced. I definitely get my money's worth out of the "free" package. - free specialty dining is a dinner in a specialty restaurant for shorter cruises or less expensive staterooms or up to 3 dinners for 12+ nights in balcony and above above. NCL ships have multiple options for free sit down menu based dining, but you should take advantage of this promo to try out one of their high-end specialty dinging rooms. - free Wi-Fi: onboard wifi is notoriously slow, so 150 land minutes is like 50 on board minutes. Once you are on board and connect to the wi-fi, you can upgrade to unlimited and they'll credit you the cost of the 150 minutess free. We do not get the multiple device wi-fi...we just get one package and kick each other off when needed. - free shore excursion: this is the biggest lie...I don't know if they have any shore excursions less than $50. What you get is $50 off a shore excursion for one person per port. A little bit of a savings...but not much. Welcome to NCL: hope you enjoy your cruise.

There has been some chatter on this thread about whether or not you will be offered an opportunity to bid for an upgrade or not and some people believe it is just luck of the draw. I don't believe it is luck of the draw. If you book your cruise directly with NCL you will get an offer. If you book with some travel partners, you will. But if you book with some travel partners (like Costco) you will not. Costco reservations are not eligible for the updrade program. Hope this helps.

Just got email my bid was accepted from inside to club balcony suite (mini-suite) for the 9/4 Breakaway Maine/Canada cruise. My all-in (what I paid for inside + upgrade bid) fare is about $350 less than if I tried to book the same cabin right now online. so a deal, but not an amazing deal.

That’s 3500 per room for an 8 day cruise in a high demand week? What fare were you expecting? That’s less than $500 a night, right? Less than $250 per night per person? Is that with or without FAS? It doesn’t seem that high to me when a room at an Embassy Suites is about $280 a night. And all inclusive sun Mexico are considerably more than that over Christmas. We just got off a 7 day on the Getaway and are about to get on the Breakaway in a week. Inside state rooms. $2500 for one and $2100 for the other. Obviously I am happy with the price point or I wouldn’t have booked them.

We just came off the Getaway, we had the 1 dinner spd and 2 (Cagneys/LeBisto and Cucinna/Moderno) Latitudes meals. We used our SPD for Ocean Blue. We loved it. I had the scallops and the salmon. My husband had the shrimp (they were huge) and a steak. My daughter had a soup and the salmon. We could all have a side as well: I had the asparagus with hollandaise, my husband the steamed broccoli and my daughter skipped the side. We had desserts as well...but they didn't wow as much as the apps and entrees did. My scallop appetizer was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life, and my salmon was excellent and a huge portion. I would definitely say it is worth it.

Hello...does anyone know a quick way to get to IT? .I have two reservations for a sailing 4 days away. I had us all checked in more than 2 weeks ago as soon as check in opened up. Waited for message saying edocs were ready. Checked back in and one of the reservations wasn't complete. Assumed I messed up and finished the check in. Tried to get edocs a few days later and the other reservation wasn't complete! Pretty sus at this point but I finished it again. Still no edocs Thursday, I went in and there were edocs for the first reservation! Yay! But port arrival times were 5 hours apart. Called and spend 20 minutes of my life getting that straitened out. Monday...checked for edocs and both reservations needed me to complete check-in. Completed both for the I-don't-know-how-many times and waited for e docs. Called this morning, no edocs. Called 1-800-327-7030, waited 15 minutes on hold and was told I needed to talk to IT. But they weren't open yet so I needed to call back. I don't want wait for a long time to talk to one person to have them transfer me to IT... does anyone know a way to get to them directly? Thanks in advance

Sorry...typed up what I thought was a really good question... Which I then figured out the answer to all by myself...because Math. Now I can't delete my really good question. So I am just editing it to be an admission that I asked before I did the math. Sorry.

This might be more itinerary based than ship based. I have only ever seen the cold fruit soups on NCL on summer European cruises...never on the US based ones.

We have sailed in the family suite and loved it. The bedrooms are not equal...and with your family grouping it might be a little awkward... we had a different group: I had two almost adult teen girls: they shared the small bedroom. It had its own bathroom, and a twin berth with a bunk above it. It had its own closet and dresser, and was plenty big for the two of them. My mother slept on the fold out in the living room: it was a single fold out, and was pretty comfortable. One nice thing was there was closet space and drawer space for her in the living room so she could keep her stuff there. My husband and I used the master bedroom: we had a bathroom off our bedroom, but we needed to share that with my mother. The "virtual balcony" is just a tv screen, but it is nice to give you an idea of weather and time of day...better than just a small tv in an interior. The room is very spacious...a table big enough for 4 to sit at, and plenty of room to move around unlike a normal interior stateroom. If you can make the sleeping and bathroom situation work...I would strongly recommend it.