Pearl 2/3 sailing...missed the ship (long review)

[BelizePlease]

I play a little roulette in the casino, the cool one where you put your money in the slot and make your bets on the touch screen.

 

Thanks for the review!

 

Is this called Rapid Roulette!? Is there still someone standing there with an actual roulette wheel? LOVE this is Vegas! I'll be so excited if it is!! :D :D :D

[angldancer2]

A group of us are going on the 3/2/08 Pearl. We are flying with AirTran Airways from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale the day of the cruise. Not so long a distance, so I'm not too worried about being late. We are set to arrive at 10am. Even if we are delayed hopefully it's not more than 6 hours!

 

We called AirTran and informed them ahead of time that we are traveling on a cruise. They have noted our records and if any delays happen with our plane, they will notify NCL we are late or they will make sure we get on another flight.

 

Not sure if all airlines do this, but if you have a flight scheduled the day of the cruise it wouldn't hurt to try.

[rainman013]

Thanks for your very amusing review! You need to consider a side career in journalism.

 

Thanks for noticing ehogan! I was a journalism major in college.

[rainman013]

Thanks for the review!

 

Is this called Rapid Roulette!? Is there still someone standing there with an actual roulette wheel? LOVE this is Vegas! I'll be so excited if it is!! :D :D :D

 

BilezePlease....it's an actual roulette wheel but nobody operates it. It's under a glass dome and you have about a minute to make your touch screen bets and then the ball comes out and starts spinning. There are maybe eight separate player stations where you make your own bets. It's fun because nobody sees what you bet, so you can do dumb things without ridicule...I think you'll like it. Never saw this machine before and I've been to Vegas a lot....must be fairly new.

[sundercruiser]

Thanks for the great review. It's one of the very few reviews I've read on here where the poster admits to actually losing money while gambling! I think casinos benefit from the reluctance of "losers" to admit they lost -- it helps to make winning seem like the "usual" outcome, when of course it's completely the opposite. :)

[slotaddict]

BilezePlease....it's an actual roulette wheel but nobody operates it. It's under a glass dome and you have about a minute to make your touch screen bets and then the ball comes out and starts spinning. There are maybe eight separate player stations where you make your own bets. It's fun because nobody sees what you bet, so you can do dumb things without ridicule...I think you'll like it. Never saw this machine before and I've been to Vegas a lot....must be fairly new.

 

They have them in Vegas, I played them at the Rio about 3 years ago.

[odblnt]

Just curious... How was your room (10666)? Any good pictures?

 

We're in that room on the repo in September and are really looking forward to it.

 

Pete

[rainman013]

Just curious... How was your room (10666)? Any good pictures?

 

We're in that room on the repo in September and are really looking forward to it.

 

Pete

 

Pete,

Room 10666 is really nice. Not huge but not small either as cruise ship rooms go. Small couch & chair, small table with four chairs, large plasma TV on the wall, nice bathroom with separate makeup table for the ladies. Nice big balcony. Oh yeah, and and a big giant coffee maker that grinds it's own beans and took my wife almost the whole time we were there to finally figure out how to use it. It's not as big as some of the other suites but very comfortable. Say hi to it for me.

[garycarla]

Outstanding report.

 

Congrats to you for taking it all in stride.

 

I know some people would have spent most of the night chewing out the airline and anyone else they could find.

 

You do what you have to do.

[Seago2]

What a nightmare! I'm sweating bullets because we're flying in from Buffalo- ONLY a day early! I'm trying to think of how many hours prior to embarkation we pull the kill switch and just decide to DRIVE to FLL.

 

Flying has become such a nightmare:mad: .

 

Thanks for your very well written review. I'm glad you managed to have such a good time.

[rainman013]

What a nightmare! I'm sweating bullets because we're flying in from Buffalo- ONLY a day early! I'm trying to think of how many hours prior to embarkation we pull the kill switch and just decide to DRIVE to FLL.

 

Flying has become such a nightmare:mad: .

 

Thanks for your very well written review. I'm glad you managed to have such a good time.

 

Thanks for the kind words Carla....The funny thing is I knew for weeks that I made a mistake and called AA several times to either get on the 6:15 or better yet the day before, but every time I tried they wanted a ridiculous amount of money...not just a change fee but the difference between what the flight cost when I booked it and what it cost when I tried to change it ,which was several hundred dollars. Haven't been able to figure out why they are so inflexible. I thought of driving down myself, but in the end I figured American could make it within three hours of the scheuled time, but they didn't. I wouldn't want others to go the route I did, but I had some unique experiences and new stories to tell, extra time in Cozumel and made some new friends, these things wouldn't have happend if i made it on time...but I wouldnt want to try that again...once was enough

[garycarla]

What a nightmare! I'm sweating bullets because we're flying in from Buffalo- ONLY a day early! I'm trying to think of how many hours prior to embarkation we pull the kill switch and just decide to DRIVE to FLL....

 

Though the original poster points out what could happen, don't get too wound up over this. Just about EVERYONE makes it okay, and you are way ahead of the pack by going a day early. If you can not fly, you probably can not drive either, other than maybe going to Rochester for an alternate flight if the lake hammers you bad enough.

[scopewest]

OP, thanks for the review. My view is that all airports are bad these days, we've looked at every option to get to whatever port (take the train! drive! go Greyhound!) but alas, flying is the least expensive and fastest way for anything east of us.

 

We found Ft. Lauderdale to be a nightmare, but what do you expect when you arrive the day after New Years along with a million other ships?! Now that was good planning on our part :) But it was nice to see all the ships, esp. as that's the closest I'll ever get to a Seabourne ship.

 

You still have great memories, thanks to your great attitude. I almost choked over the whole Amazing Race commentary. I think I'll use that as our motto in the future: "Team Scottsdale makes it onto the plane. They don't see the other cruise teams and hope they're in first place." Thanks for the laughs!

[foursum]

What a nightmare! I'm sweating bullets because we're flying in from Buffalo- ONLY a day early! I'm trying to think of how many hours prior to embarkation we pull the kill switch and just decide to DRIVE to FLL.

 

Flying has become such a nightmare:mad: .

 

Thanks for your very well written review. I'm glad you managed to have such a good time.

 

We flew from Rochester in Oct to Miami for a 14 day on the Pearl and were concerned that 2 days wasn't enough. We had AAA maps and books and had set a deadline to start driving to be sure we didn't miss the boat. Worked out well as we arrived about on time. Same day flites don't make any sense to me.

[jemingway]

We locals try to avoid Miami every day.:D Not just the airport, the city, too.;)

[coka]

A group of us are going on the 3/2/08 Pearl. We are flying with AirTran Airways from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale the day of the cruise. Not so long a distance, so I'm not too worried about being late. We are set to arrive at 10am. Even if we are delayed hopefully it's not more than 6 hours!

 

We called AirTran and informed them ahead of time that we are traveling on a cruise. They have noted our records and if any delays happen with our plane, they will notify NCL we are late or they will make sure we get on another flight.

 

Not sure if all airlines do this, but if you have a flight scheduled the day of the cruise it wouldn't hurt to try.

 

 

Angeldancer2, come join our roll call board! Click on Roll Calls for Norwegian Cruise Line, the Pearl, then search for 3/2/08!

 

Coka

[jeffs55]

I think you're OK. Atlanta is AirTran's home base, if there's a problem they should be able to just roll out another plane. (We fly from Newark and have had nothing but good experience with AirTran.)

I would think our friend Carla can make it down from Buffalo by air within 24 hours.

Maybe 30 hours drive time if it came to that (LOL).

Jeff

[Seago2]

AirTran is pretty new to Buffalo- but.... aren't they the carrier that had the plane blow up into a million pieces because they stowed oxygen aboard improperly? Hmmmm.... that's all I can think of.

 

Well, a day before SHOULD be sufficient.

 

Did you go on your cruise yet? Were'nt you going on the Dawn again?

[jeffs55]

Yeah, they were known as ValueJet then.

I'll be on Dawn May 11 with my Mom

We were on RCI Enchantment in January.

Not for us.

Enjoy your Feb cruise

Jeff

[Seago2]

Yeah, they were known as ValueJet then.

I'll be on Dawn May 11 with my Mom

We were on RCI Enchantment in January.

Not for us.

Enjoy your Feb cruise

Jeff

 

 

Do tell.

[dprcan]

No need to apologize. We went by the Sky Bar with our beads and we did not ran into a fellow CCer. It was crowded up there, but we did nt san ayone else with beads. A few days later we were wearing our CC lanyard and ran into MOMOFKATIE at the Garden Cafe.

 

We saw a couple of people pulling the luggage at Cozumel, but we thought that is was people reuniting with their luggage. It happened to us in June on our Alaska cruise, we flew the same day to Anchorage and we were delayed. We made it to the ship, but the luggage made it to the ship 3 days later.

 

We and the kids really enjoyed the Pearl. It was fun watching the Superbowl on the bigscreen. Nachi Cocom was beautiful and great food.

[Math teacher]

I'm just curious, but if you missed the ship for two days, do they still charge you the mandatory tip charge for those missed days?

 

Also, if you buy your airfare in the package at the same time as the cruise, it doesn't appear that you have any control over the time or day that you leave. Does anyone have experience with this?

[bamabobb]

thanks for the review and the heads up. i plan to learn from your mistake...i've always wondered if it was worth it to pay the hotel room the night before a cruise. I'll wonder no more!

[rainman013]

thanks for the review and the heads up. i plan to learn from your mistake...i've always wondered if it was worth it to pay the hotel room the night before a cruise. I'll wonder no more!

 

Bamabobb...the worst part of missing the first two days was not meeting up with you....although maybe I did and you were into one of your other "personas", and I didn't know it was you....Your review was a hoot...you were also one of the ones I was supposed to meet at the cc meet and greet at the Sky Hi, but you never mentioned that in your review. I wonder if you made it?

[rainman013]

I'm just curious, but if you missed the ship for two days, do they still charge you the mandatory tip charge for those missed days?

 

Math tacher,

As far as the daily tip charge, NCL did not charge us for the missed days.