v3cruiser

Love the Star and it's size and it's interior design is well done. Boarding the Star for 2nd time in July and looking forward to it. The Star seems to get some pretty strong itineraries Haven't sailed on many large ships. Epic being the biggest. Many times we find best deal and unique itinerary on smaller ships. The Star and it's sisters are also faster and are from a brief period where ships were made to get to ports quicker for longer port times.

Usually the 2023 cruises are cheaper than the 2024. Its pretty common for NCL current year cruises cheaper than next year. Prices do come down but not always.

NCL just sent me a letter for our upcoming panel canal cruise out of fuerte armador and it did say to go the Panama convention center. Whew.

We checked in not too long after it was available and its still showing 85%. We were able to print out our edocs and luggage tags but still no email from NCL. Its been awhile since our last cruise and we are not familiar with some of these matters.

oh boy. looks like when we board on the 22nd it ought to be fun. LOL. Still no documents or email from NCL where the meeting point is to be bussed to board the ship. If its the panama convention center that is not bad as it is right up the Amador causeway that leads to port. hopefully this is it. We are staying at the radisson not too far north of there. Thanks for update!

Hi everybody. is there an app(s) for taxi service in panama city? any recommendations? thank you!

This is interesting. When we went to Nicaragua we stopped in Puerto Corinto on the Star in 2019.. The people there were quite welcoming. Prior to our arrival there was some political unrest in the months prior I think further south around the capital Managua but we still went ported as this port was further north. Its odd the cruise line is booking excursions and cancelling last minute. Who knows these days. I know we had a great guide for the excursion we took. it lasted all day. I think we were last group back on the ship. He had a lot of interesting things to say about where things were going. One thing he talked about was how the railroads we being sold and how the trains didnt work in nicaragua but started working again in the country they were sold to.

I thought the Jewel and another ship was in Marseille, France around October 2021 getting work done.

Ok cool. Im going to bring a refillable bottle and order 12 1 liters just in case.! LOL. yes. I will be getting the posts about just drinking tap water. sorry everybody LOL. last time we cruised they had the nice plastic 1 liters.

Hey everybody. is it a good idea to buy bottled water from ncl before your cruise? My wife can be a little picky and I like have a bottle when i go to shore but i usually refill once back on the ship. Does bottled water come free with the drink package? I dont think they let us bring it on anymore but boy is the price high compared to market price. I can get a 12 pack of 1 liter essentia water for $20 Im debating buying twelve or twenty four 1 liter bottles if need be.

That is good to know. We are traveling with ncl. It appears the cruise line needs the info at the time of embarkation so that they meet colombias requirements if they were to check passenger records before allowing ship to disembark in port. whether or not that happens is anyones guess. There were a few people being denied boarding in the past but i cannot remember the cruise line nor the port of call.

Yup, especially sea days. On port days its tougher to get to 15 drinks/day on average - - -at least for us. Especially when we may be getting back on ship between 6-9pm.

Good to know. I thought we had to have our wine/champagne in carry on only while boarding.

We primarily cruise for itinerary. I still like how i can get a whole cost for cruise with NCL. Im not surprised at all of the cutbacks as im sure ncl is trying to improve their balance sheet and get a hold of the debt they had to create because of forced government shutdowns and health policies. As long as we can get to where we are going and have food and drink and our own room/bath, we are good.

Sounds like you learned a lot from this sub par experience. Having a vacation get cancelled last minute is no fun and a big let down. I went with ncl air for our upcoming cruise as it is considered an international flight. Not sure what we will do if weather effects our initial departure. We couldnt have booked better flights ourselves and if we did we would have been a lot more money. We do not have high expectations, but being cautiously optimistic and realistic all the while trying to have all the details worked out. Hopefully we will finally be back on a ship after 3 years of not being able to. For hawaii there are many great domestic options to get there and back if booked enough in advance. Booking ncl air is a great hedge in case you cant find anything better and want to stay in your budget. It seems problems with POA have been posted here and on youtube for quite some time covering personal issues as its a US flagged ship. Best of luck on your next cruise and hopefully you get reimbursed for your troubles.

If they are moved indoors that is better than being lined up military style, breast to back on promenade deck for a half hour right after getting on the ship from clearing health and safety standards.

Yes same issue here. I called and they said my account was still paid in full. i went from owing 82$ to now 361$ today even though my account has been paid in full for quite some time. lol. still makes me nervous being 31 days out from sailing and ncl booked our airfare.

Fantastic to know!

did you know of may cruisers who just took a taxi to and from the old city? Last time we visited cartegena there was a water taxi from port to the old city but that is no longer offered. we want to do our own thing and afraid HOPO tour would limit our time in places.

Oh boy, that looks like fun. LOL.

wow. it seems like getting a better than life bargain on a cruise ship is going away. I couldnt believe the cost of the brazilian steakhouse moderno chiarascurra.. it has doubled per person since our last cruise.

I can only see flights in email notin account or app. we got our flights about 70 days to sail date. We made our request for 2 day flight deviation when we booked last July. We are very happy with the flights they picked for us!

How often does the tide move in and out? Ive seen pictures of the area around french square and the cinta costera road that loops out and its pretty fascinating. Hopefully they get more done at the terminal and embarking goes smooth for the circumstances.

it looks like the jewel feb 4th may be first sail date out of there by ncl. its a 9 day. Atleast when I type in panama canal panama city at embarking port.

We took the free flight promotion on our upcoming cruise out of panama city and are happy with our flights provided we can get out of our home town without delay. we knew going in we may get bad flights or red eye flights. We are thankful for what we got as the flights they assigned to us would have been very expensive if we bought on our own. We have a two hour layover coming and going back. hopefully that is enough. Ncl did not let us do a 2 day deviation for a Mediterranean cruise we booked in 2025 which we are uneasy about. They said its too early. BUT, once again, we know the risk of getting bad flights with this promo and would never chose this promo for domestic flights within us or canada. even though we did use this promo to get to seward for an upcoming alaskan cruise. We know the risk and are willing to take it to go to extraordinary places.