Travelicious

Meanwhile, on the preparation front, pool school sessions completed, pool cleaned, yard mowed, Snake Away distributed.

If you want a super detailed review of everything about and leading up to the transatlantic cruise on the Prima, the port, NYC tips, see @mking8288's review. Henry came onboard a little later than some and had to get our roll call whipped in to shape. Much appreciated and we are all the better for it. I’m not nearly as detail-oriented, and don't have any local knowledge, so I’m just going to try to relay our plans and experiences. Here is what our Prima cruise is looking like. We will have $745 in OBC. Being a 15 day cruise, the NCL shareholder credit is $250. We are in a balcony, so will have $200 from Amex. $100 is from NCL and $195 is from the TA. I believe the only refundable credit will be the $195 from the TA. If that is, in fact, refundable, I’ll likely gamble it away in the slots. For the rest, we’ll use to pay for unlimited internet, which we’ll share when the FAS 300 minutes each runs out. We will use it to pay taxes for drinks while in port, for upcharges for drinks not included in the regular FAS, maybe for a lobster tail addition. Maybe pick up a cheap NCL shuttle or excursion, if any exist. We’ll see how it all play out. I don’t like owing anything on the back end, so DSCs are prepaid on this cruise. We will have 6 specialty dinners. 3 are from FAS, 2 from being Latitudes Platinum or above, and 1 from Amex to Le Bistro. We have not been on a ship with Onda or Palomar, so we are doing each twice on this cruise, and also doing Los Lobos twice, as it is not on most of the ships we’ve been on. I ate at Los Lobos on a solo cruise and loved it. Pookie has not yet eaten there. We were supposed to sail from NYC at 4:00, and I booked Onda for the first night at 5:30, thinking that would give us sufficient time to enjoy the sailaway. When we sailed from NYC the other time, there was a Nor’easter in NY and also some sort of medical emergency on the prior cruise, and it was very late getting in. By the time we boarded, after midnight, we were worn out. I crawled into bed around 2:00 a.m. and was just about to doze off when the announcement came of the mandatory muster drill. Seriously. Needless to say, we missed the sights of sailing out of NYC. Anyhoo, NCL recently notified us that we would actually not sail until 6:00 on embarkation day. So, I’m going to have to reschedule Onda for another night. We don’t want to miss the sights again because we are sitting in a restaurant. We’ll take care of it once we board. The earliest check-in time is noon, and we are not sure what time we will actually be able to board. Sure hope we can still get lunch in one of the dining rooms, as is our custom. But whatever happens, we’ll work it out and make the best of it.

I want to share a bit about the benefits of chasing credit card points and miles. Many of you probably already know, but maybe it can be helpful to some of the younger folks who are just starting out on their lives of travel. Our first cruise was in 2004. We were still pretty poor back then. Not poor poor, but certainly didn’t have much disposable income. We figured it would probably be the only one we took for a very long time. In 2008, my brother invited me on a Med cruise. Of course, I would have to pay my own way, and it seemed like an exorbitant amount to me. However, I decided to go, as it might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Who knew I would ever being able to travel overseas? It was on that trip that I caught the travel bug. But I digress. The point is that my brother, who was an avid traveler, advised me to get an American Airlines branded card so I would earn points/miles for the flight and also get a sign-up bonus. I did so, and soon after Pookie did the same. We began charging groceries, gas, etc., on the cards, and paying them off every month. This part is important, because if carrying a balance and paying interest, you really aren’t getting much of a benefit. We first used the points to fly round trip to Hawaii in economy for about $10 each. Being about an 8 hour flight, it was somewhat miserable. As points accumulated and we became more financially able to travel, we began booking long-distance flights in business class using points. We have flown business class round trip to Europe twice (this next trip will be one-way), and to South America. Of course, the amount of points necessary to do this has increased substantially over the years. To preserve points, we have booked some on British Airways, which requires several hundred dollars in addition to points. But, the cash is still much less than paying for even an economy seat without points. Over the years, we have expanded to other credit cards, and use those points primarily for hotels. On this trip, we will have at least one-night stays at 5 different hotels. Of those, 3 stays will be paid for with points. This includes the 4-night stay in Manhattan at an Intercontinental hotel. This alone is a huge savings, as that hotel is currently running over $400 per night. We’ll only have to pay a $40 per night “amenity fee.” I can’t even count the number of nights we’ve booked with points on hotels, but it has been plenty. I also got the American Express Platinum about 6 years ago. I was primarily interested in this card for access to the Centurion Lounges. However, it has many other benefits, including a Cruise Privileges Program which offers OBC and certain other benefits on most of the mainstream cruise lines. On NCL, you get $100 for an inside, $200 for a balcony, and $300 for a suite, plus a dinner at Le Bistro. If you are cruising 2 or 3 times per year, you can easily get back the very high annual fee (which certainly makes it not for everyone). But you don’t have to get the high dollar cards to save a ton of money just buying what you would buy anyway. An airline branded card, maybe a hotel group branded card or one of the many other cards that will allow you to transfer to hotel groups or book directly through the issuer’s travel portal, will eventually net you great savings. Or, at least, it has for us.

That's what I want to know. I do so enjoy my embarkation lunch with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Plus, I need to cancel my 5:30 dinner at Onda so I can watch sailaway, which was missed last time we sailed from NYC.

Yes, it will be the only thing to mitigate 48 days of eating and drinking!

I shall do my best!

So many great suggestions! I can't eat at them all, but I am definitely taking notes. Unfortunately, I failed in my pre-cruise weight loss efforts, so I am a bit overwhelmed just thinking of all of that food before I even step foot on a ship!

Thanks for sharing!

I call it a "thingy."

Thanks so much! I'm making additions to my list.

As far as plans for the cruise ports, we don't have a ton of things pre-planned. We enjoy just wondering around when the port is close to a town. I'll be utilizing AT&T's $10 per day international data plan for those days, primarily for GPS functions. We currently only have one NCL excursion, and that is an "on your own" transfer from Tilbury to London. On the first of 3 stops in Amsterdam, we will go to Keukenhof to see the tulips with some members of the roll call, one of which got a great deal for 8 people. I think it is with Get Your Guide. We will be in Zeebrugge 3 times. The first is the shortest day, so we will take the shuttle to the nearby town of Blankenberge. The second and third we will take trains to Ghent and Bruges, respectively. Of the 3 times we will be in Le Havre, we will take the Le Havre Bee bus to Honfleur and will take a D-Day tour with Overlord Tours, which comes highly recommended. I put the latter private tour together for 8. We still have one seat available, but I'm okay paying the extra $137 for that if we can sit in the front. 🙂 The last time in Le Havre is boarding day for the Dawn, so just taking the train from Paris to get onboard. I believe that is all we have booked. As of now, we are freestyling everywhere else. Suggestions welcome!

We will spend 4 nights in NYC pre-cruise. This will be our second time there. The first time, we were unable to make it to Central Park, so that is one of the main goals. Otherwise, I want to check out Chelsea Market, walk the Brooklyn Bridge, visit the Dumbo area and Dekalb Market Hall, and hopefully make it to Coney Island. We'll see how the weather holds out for us getting all of this accomplished. We like to walk a lot while on vacation, so plan to get around mainly by walking while in Manhattan. Obviously, we won't walk to Coney Island, but will either take the bus or subway, or both. We are booked for Gallagher's Steakhouse one night, and I hope to make it to Katz Deli one day for lunch. Besides that, we'll add in some cheap eats, like $.99 pizza and Mama Jo's Breakfast Cart. I'm pretty sure the cost of the hotel does not include breakfast. 😞 We are staying in Midtown, so "must eat at" recommendations are welcome.

Two pool school sessions down, one to go. We are at the point now that I am figuring out what we need to have for meals to get the refrigerator emptied of fresh foods before we leave, without waste. I think it will work out just right. I plan to add a bit about our port plans a little later today or tomorrow.

A trip of this length requires some preparation beyond the norm. Sadly, I currently do not have pets, so nothing to line up there, unlike past trips. It is the first time since 7th grade (and I'm now 60) that I have had not a single dog. I miss having one, but with this trip and another, even longer one we have scheduled in 2 years, it is for the best right now. But bills still have to be paid, and it has become increasingly difficult to access online bank accounts while traveling. I mean, not too difficult as long as you have good wifi or cell service to receive a code for two-factor identification, but you don't always have that in the middle of the Atlantic. So I've set up auto withdrawals, which is something I have been resistant to until now. I don't really like giving corporations access to my bank account, but it seems like the simplest solution. I set it up a couple of months ago to make sure everything went smoothly. So far, so good. I'm sure I'll turn it off when I get back as I like to feel more in control. The other thing is that we had an inground pool installed a few years ago. We usually open it around the middle of May, and I've read if you wait until it gets very hot to open (mid-June in the south can be pretty warm), you wind up with lots of algae. Otherwise, the water is clear. So we solicited commitments from my brother-in-law and a couple of friends to help take care of it, clean it, etc., in exchange for its use while we are gone. We have these three people coming over the next couple of days for a "pool school" session. I also just completed a "how to" list. Hopefully, they will also mow at least the back yard. I mean, it wouldn't be much fun to use the pool with knee-high grass all around, now would it? Anyway, we won't book another trip during pool season. Lesson learned there.

Good thing we are retired so we can rest when we get home!