Cruise-mom

I used a PCC for the first time for our next cruise as we had a 10% discount from a cancelled Baltic cruise and I couldn't do it online. I had got a few calls from her in the last couple of years asking was I interested in booking a cruise. She was very nice and helpful but she did get a name spelling incorrect and a postcode. A couple of emails later it was sorted. I didn't realise they get credit for bookings, I thought they were just like regular customer service.

Does it help them also if you call to pay final balance and add on any extras; soda package, water, cake & decorations etc? Or is it just getting the initial booking? 

Can you check out recent freestyle dailies to see if they show an 18-20 event? We are sailing on the Epic in July with dd 19 and recent dailies show that most nights in Bliss there is an 18-20 get together. Dd is also very social and now too old for Entourage, so I'm hoping she will meet some new friends. 

10 hours ago, jls pebbles said:

More dailies, Shore Excursion list and Farewell for now.

freestyle daily Thursdays .pdf 1.8 MB · 9 downloads freestyle daily Friday .pdf 1.78 MB · 14 downloads freestyle daily Saturday .pdf 1.84 MB · 7 downloads shore excursions form.pdf 2.07 MB · 8 downloads farewell for now.pdf 1.75 MB · 11 downloads

Thank you so much for these 🙂

38 minutes ago, dexddd said:

DW and DD did that excursion with NCL years ago and loved it.  Rest of Russia we did independent tours which were great if they still allow those.

Hopefully by the time we sail we will be able to. 

1 hour ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 

The bus you go on isn't determined at time of purchase or at the time the tickets are printed and left in your cabins on embarkation day.   On the day of the excursion, everyone with a ticket for the "8:15 Excursion XXXX" goes to the designated meeting location -- usually the theatre or a restaurant.  Upon arrival at that location, you show your ticket and they give you a sticker to wear on your shirt.  That sticker has a number on it.  Make sure everyone in your party is there at the same time to get the same sticker number.   At 8:15, they will say "everyone on Excursion XXXX with sticker number 1 follow Sam.  He will take you to your bus."  So you should all be together on the same bus.  I don't think seat numbers for the ballet would be printed on the ticket.  I've never gone to a seating event like that.  But I suspect they would just let you all find seats in a reserved section.

Perfect, thank you so much!

8 minutes ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 

When booking excursions, it won't matter if you're one party or not as long as you book the same excursion and time from both accounts.  I suppose there is a slight chance your purchase from the first room could "fill up the tour" and then the second room would not be able to purchase the matching excursion.  If that happens, then I would contact NCL for a refund and book a different excursion.  

 

For Dining reservations, use the room that has the most people in it.  Make the reservation but when it asks for the number of people, indicate your total party size.  Dining party size does not need to match the number of people in the cabin doing the booking.  If you have 5 people in your total party, make a reservation for 6 and change it 5 once you get on board.

Hi thanks for the info, that sounds good about dining reservations. Do NCL generally just have one bus per excursion? I was concerned about us being split. And in particular we are looking at an evening show/ballet tickets in St Petersburg where we would want to be sure we are seated together. I'm sure I can call closer to the time (sailing July '22) and they can try group us?  

We had the same issue so I created a new account for the second room. I have to log out of one to log into the other, I'm okay with that. I'm just a little concerned now that when we come to book excursions and dining etc, will they realise we are one party? 

5 minutes ago, amelia3171 said:

Hi Cruise-mom, thank you!

 

I have the dallies, I will scan them tomorrow at work.

 

We have thought about Dublin but for various reasons it would be more hassle than Belfast.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

I understand what you mean, do whatever works best for you. I never mind an in-direct flight on the way out but can be hard on the way home. We often do it to the US as it's well worth the savings.

Great, thank you, no rush with the dailies. This is our 1st Med/European cruise, only even done Caribbean cruises so I'm interested to see how things are scheduled etc.

Thanks again! 

Hi, love your report thanks. We are booked for Oct 25th this year so nice to hear the weather was good etc. If you still have them, I would love to see the dailies?

Shame about all the travelling, have you looked at flying from Dublin? We've done DUB to BCN a few times, we are in the south east, if we go from Cork we would have to do in-direct (most days) so easier spend a little more time on the road to get to Dublin for a direct flight.

Thanks again for sharing 🙂

9 hours ago, carnival03 said:

 

So, I assume this included three loungers? Someone mentioned they had everything set up in sets of two.

This was the row in front of us! Yes everything is set up as 2 loungers with a small table between them, under an umbrella. But there is almost an equal amount of space (lounger to lounger) between the next set of 2 loungers.

There is a walking path between the hotel and the beach and there is an attendant there to set you up etc. We were the 1st in our row and took the first 3 in from 1 side. A group of 6 people took the loungers from the other side, leaving the 1 lounger free beside us (row of 10 loungers). If there had been someone on that spare lounger it wouldn't have affected us. If it bothered you, you could just pull your lounger closer to your other 2.

HTH

Thanks for your review, we are considering a Med cruise on the Epic for next year. Lots of good info here :)

Thanks for the input. I'm assuming the price above not only included drinks, but chairs as well? We have a party of three also...

Of course and umbrellas :)

We were there last week. Holland House have the nicest set-up on that beach. There were others that looked like they had the nice thick cushions etc but the beds were on top of each other, we were glad we chose Holland House.

There were 3 of us so it cost $37.50 with 6 drinks, we got 2 rum punches for 4 drinks and 2 sodas. Nice clean toilets, easy access wi-fi and a shower to use. The usual vendors passing by asking if you want massages, hair braids etc but a firm 'no thank you' is enough to keep them moving.

From the ship and/or the dock if you look across to the beach you will recognise Holland House by the white umbrellas. When you get off the water taxi ($7 return/all day access), turn right and it's about a 2 or 3 minute walk.

You can go into the tall building that has souvenirs. It is where you turn right to take the road to Columbus Beach. You can look around and buy in there and no one will bother you.

 

We only shop in that building. And we usually buy something because we want to spend money-in poor countries but we absolutely cannot stand the behavior of the vendors on the hillsides. I’ve been to other areas of Jamaica (and all over the Caribbean) but I’ve never seen that over the top aggression in other parts of Jamaica. Way past just being pushy to get your attention.

 

When you walk to Columbus Beach (our favorite), stay in the middle of the road and talk only to each other. Don’t make eye contact with those shouting at you and you won’t have to worry about saying no to any of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks, we are planning to go to Columbus Cove.

Hi, we will be in Labadee in a few weeks. I am looking at the map, Town Square, Artisan's Village - number 20 on the map, is this the market area to avoid if we don't want to encounter these pushy vendors?

We would like to buy a couple of souvenirs without being hounded, is it any better at Artisan's Market/Showcase - 21/22 on the map?

Also someone on this thread mentioned a similar experience on the Kayak excursion, my 2 teen girls are doing this and didn't even think they would need/want to bring cash with them. Any advice for them appreciated!

Thanks

Really enjoyed your review, thanks :)

I meant to choose (or request for Guest Services) a luggage tag time that would be around 8:30am.

Great, we will try request luggage tags for this time so.

Thank you

I'd shoot for an 8:30am walk off time.

Can you walk off this late? I thought you could only do walk off until about 7:30-45am and after that it was timed tickets (or similar).

Hi, our flight time got moved to 11:30am from FLL after our Allure cruise next month. If we aim to be at the airport for 9:30am, what time should we try leave the ship?

I have read about early walk off but it always says to get there super early. I have 2 teens who would appreciate any last bit of sleep they can manage ;) Should we try get an early timed ticket number, is this even possible? Or should we do self assist walk off? What is the latest time to do this?

Thank you!

Following along, love your review, thanks. We will be on the Allure in a few weeks :)

Thanks for reading. Where does your Eastern take you? We are doing Eastern on Harmony, and the ports are Labadee, San Juan, and Saint Martin.

 

 

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Same ports, reverse order; St Martin, San Juan & Labadee. It can't come quick enough for us!

I enjoyed your review, thanks so much.

I'm still enjoying your review, we will be on Allure in June on the Eastern itinerary, thank you.

Loved reading your updates, thanks for taking the time to do this review.

Great read, thanks. Looking forward to following along. Have a great cruise :)