saxgirl84

Make sure you show up on the 1st night for the Solo Gathering to find out who from the cruise staff is "in charge" of the solo cruisers, and make friends with them! If you see them around the ship, ask them what the plans are for that night, and make your decision that way... they sometimes have "ice breaker" type games to get people comfortable with each other the first couple of nights, and then they get a feeling of how many people will participate. It's one of the better "Solo" cruise lines I've been on, and I recommend it for all of my single/solo friends who are looking for a cruise.

Oh, and your daughter will more than likely LOVE the teen club too! I haven't heard many complaints about that program either, NCL knows what they are doing!

Were you on the Feb 16-26th sailing? I was on then and had a great time! The staff was great and I also enjoyed Project 5, they were amazing! I loved the sound of the Steel Pan as well, and enjoyed the lesson he gave during the week.

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Not sure you can do that when it's part of the Princess hotel package.

 

We couldn't.

We didn't book the hotel through Princess, just our flight...I'll call and ask, the worst they can say is no, I just wasn't sure if they would have had us booked at a specific time to leave the ship because we had the shuttle...

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Looks like you figured out what you are doing on disembarkation day. Call your T.A. or Princess to cancel the Princess transfer. No point paying for non use.

During your voyage you will receive a questionnaire to complete where you request your disembarkation time. To make a 9am appointment you probably will have to request 8:30am or early independent arrangements. If for some reason you don't receive the time you require then just visit Passenger Services to request a change.

Thanks for the info, exactly what I was searching for. I'll give Princess a call to take the shuttle off our booking and that'll pay for the car and then some since it was $35 a person!

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I see rates that are low however.......

 

I find after the fees it's quite a bit more then $50 though at least for us.

I just booked a midsize for $44.80 for the day through Alamo, picking up at 9am and dropping off at 4pm at FLL.

$32.21 base rate then with fees included it came out to $44.80. Decided to go with them because they are located at the airport, the $25 car I had found was from Fox Rent a Car and you need to take a shuttle to get to their cars...

And I never get the rental insurance because both my personal insurance and the insurance offered by my credit card cover more than the rental car companies. I used to pay more in insurance coverage than the cost for the actual car until my insurance agent told me to stop!

Let me know if you ever need help finding the "deals"!

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If you can rent a car for $25 per day better grab it.

 

I have not heard prices that cheap.

I have found rates are pretty low in the Ft Lauderdale and Miami area I think the most I've paid after a cruise is around $50 for the day...

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if you book an excursion from Princess (they have a bunch of them), the bus will take you and your luggage to the airport later in the day, and no need to have that shuttle that someone sold you.

We don't have an excursion booked but it does state "transfer: ship to airport Ft Lauderdale (possibly because we booked air through Princess as well?!) we do not have a transfer to the ship since we fly in the night before (I'm assuming) I know in Miami there is a shuttle for renal car companies that run from POM to MIA and we usually use those, but we sail NCL for those and you pick the time you disembark. I wasn't sure if Princess would assign us a time for the perceived shuttle to the airport...

Thanks for the update!

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I've only sailed on Princess one time before, in Alaska with a ground tour immediately after, so we were off the ship extremely early and onboard the train. We have an upcoming Panama Canal partial transit booked in a few weeks. We are trying to make arrangements for the day we disembark, as our flight does not leave until 6pm and I don't want to sit at the airport the whole time.

How does Princess handle disembarking passengers? I know we were sold a shuttle service to the airport, however what time would that be? Can we choose the time? We are thinking of renting a car for the day, as they are around $25 for the day.

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I think we're going to stick with a ship based excursion for the snorkeling, just to make sure, and the others are just going to wait until we get there to decide what they want to do.

I was so excited to get to go to Aruba, but then saw we only get to be there for 5 hours and got bummed...Although it'll make it easier to decide if I want to go back in the future!

Happy Holidays everyone!! :)

We will only be in port from 7am - 12:30pm (which I guess means we will need to be back on board by 12pm at the latest.)

What is one thing you would recommend we do while in Aruba?

There is a group of 11 of us going, some want to snorkel, others don't really care what we do.

I was thinking it would be best to stick with a ships tour, just because of the short port visit, however there aren't very many tours that are jumping out at us.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

We did a whale watch tour and then they dropped us off at the glacier. We were supposed to be back within 45 minutes to get the bus ride back to the ship, but we knew we would never make it down to the waterfall and back, and actually have time to enjoy the scenery, so we asked around, and there were several busses available to take us back to the ship. I think we ended up giving the bus driver $10 per person for the trip back.

I would highly recommend stopping, especially if you're going to be in port for most of the day...I think we were in port for around 11 hours...

The walk was just under a mile- the sign says 3/4 of a mile, but it felt like it was a bit further...

Here are a few shots from last June when we were there, to give you an idea of what you would see both from the visitor center area, as well as after the hike to the waterfall (which was spectacular!)

View of the glacier from the visitor center look out area:

Zoomed in shot of the glacier alone...

This one gives you a bit of an idea on what kind of trail it is... for the most part, it was easy to navigate. there were a few steep spots on the trail, but if you take your time, you shouldn't have a problem:

If you're looking for a "beach" this is about as close as you're going to get in Juneau... You could wade right out into the water, however it was COLD, as it was from the glacier... there were a few kayaks in the area, but I didn't get any pictures of them...

this picture shows the glacier in relation to the waterfall... I would say it's probably about 200 yards away from the base of the waterfall:

We have always traveled on Carnival and my son would get chocolate covered strawberries and a milkshake. For our November trip on the Escape is there someplace on baord to get this?

 

Thank you

You will have to order the chocolate covered strawberries through the gifts sections prior to the cruise, as they don't sell them anywhere on board. One of the biggest disappointments I find with NCL, and one of the few perks I found on my Carnival trip... You may want to plan on ordering them to be delivered at the beginning and then the middle of your trip, as they deliver them on a plate (with a lid) but there really wasn't any place to store them...

with the humidity in the Caribbean, the strawberries were not looking too tasty by day 3-4 even with storing them in the fridge...

We went the same week last year. The weather was amazing! Wore shorts and t-shirts most of the trip, except for glacier bay... We had very little rain, and very little darkness since we were there during the longest day of the year. It makes it a bit more difficult to pack because you really have to be prepared for anything... We did a 7 day cruise and 5 day land tour and only had rain twice, one of our land tour days and then the day we left.

Most of the locals we spoke with kept telling us how lucky we were with the weather, and how abnormal it was.

I would take a fleece jacket and a rain coat just to be safe...

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So you cannot pre-pay the service charge if you are within 60 days of cruising?

I believe you can pay it up to 24 hours before boarding, but I'm not 100% sure on that. We paid ours off about a month ago for our cruise tomorrow, so I know you can absolutely pay it if you are wishing 60 days...

well, I just booked a cruise for this November.

 

Will it be cheaper if I pre pay gratuities now than on the ship in November?

Unless the price of the DSC goes up again before your cruise, then no. If it gets raised again, you will be able to pay before you board at the lower rate...

A fellow cruiser told me recently that she pre paid her gratuities because it was cheaper then paying on the ship. Is this true?? I never heard/did this before.

 

Thank you in advance

If you booked your cruise before they raised the prices, then you would save money by prepaying at the previous rate. If you waited to pay until you cruised, you pay the current day rate. We booked our cruise last Feb, when the charges were lower, so we prepaid and saved a few dollars.

All of them are docked ports.

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Great review and I'm glad you had what seems like a wonderful experience! I am getting excited for my turn back on the Getaway this weekend!

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I had to cancel a cruise I had booked for next April, and was told 7-10 business days for it to be sent back to the card it was charged to... In my case, after I got through talking with the Rep and hung up, I realized that the card I had used last Feb to charge it was cancelled and a new card was assigned to my account, so I'm now "patiently" waiting on the 10th business day to get here and hope that the bank figured out that it is MY $$. As soon as I realized it, I called NCL back but the woman I spoke with said she couldn't even pull up my cancelled reservation to note it (that was about 10 min later due to the hold time...) I'm really hoping I don't have to play "phone tag" with anyone to get my deposit back...

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I've read several reviews about the Blue Hole and choosing if you want to jump or not. So my first question is:

1. Can you get in the water without jumping? How deep is it?

 

2. Are there restrooms available?

 

3. Do any of the tour operators provide drinks or do we need to bring our own snacks and drinks?

 

Thanks!

I went last Jan, so things may be a bit different now, but when I was there, you did NOT have to jump in the water, but that did limit the # of "pools" you could get in... I was not brave enough to jump off of a couple of the "cliffs", but still had an amazing time! The guides were amazing, and made sure you were comfortable with doing the jumps... they were very encouraging as well.

There were bathrooms available, but I would recommend using them before you start your treck up the waterfalls, or right before you leave, as you're quite a ways away from anywhere, so it may be a while before you're able to find another place to go... and the road is NOT smooth, so it may not be easy to "hold it" ;)

This was one of my all time favorite places I have been, but seeing some of the more recent reviews, it looks like it may no longer be a "secret"...

ZZ, DH & I are confirmed with Winston Gayle on our port stop in OR this summer. So far we have scheduled BH, lunch, and tour of OR, may also do DRF. I have been trying to find out how much I need to tip everyone. Seems like every time I turn around I realize there will be someone else who expects a tip. I want to be prepared and I don't want to 'short-change' anyone as I know we are all just trying to make a living. We also plan on offering to buy Winston's lunch. So, would you mind telling me how much you tipped Winston and also the guides at Blue Hole? Thank you for any info you feel comfortable in sharing. Janie

I went last Jan ('15) with a group of about 12 and at Blue Hole, we each chipped in $20, since we had 2 guides there, and they were fabulous! we were there for a little over 2 hours, and the guys were awesome. They were starting to get busier as we were leaving, so you may end up only having 1 guide, if they are too busy to double up...

We went with Travel Jamaica, and had Erol as our tour guide for the day. he took us all around the island, dropping people from our group here and there and picking them back up throughout the day. he did a fantastic job, took us to some "out of the way" places, took us shopping and got us some nice discounts (although I'm sure most of the tours have their "Shops" that they get discounts at too...) and he definitely earned his $$. I think we each put in $20 for the tip, which was almost 50% of our per person cost, but I personally felt he deserved it all.

Honestly, even after the tips, food for the day, and shopping, I think I may have spent a total of $100 the whole day, but I bought quite a few souvenirs that I normally don't buy.

Can you give the guides at the Blue Hole a good DSLR Camera like Canon EOS Rebel to take pics of us jumping in the water?

I would not recommend taking a camera that nice to the Blue Hole... I took my under water camera, and the guides would take it, dive in and take videos for me. Since you are literally climbing THROUGH the water, I wouldn't trust that your DSLR wouldn't get ruined.

Here are a few pics from 9318...

When we first got on the ship, they had the loungers/chairs set up like this...

We moved things around a bit to see what worked for us...

Early evening reading on the balcony

View from inside the room looking out while we were in port in Miami

the best part of having an aft balcony is enjoying the sound of the wake!

We are booked in 9920 (aft balcony), but some complained about noise coming from the MDR on deck 8. Just wondering if you found it a problem in the evening hours.

 

 

 

Thanks, R

We heard absolutely nothing from below. As someone mentioned, we could hear music from Spice H2O one night, but that happened to be the same night they did the fireworks (which they no longer do) so they turned up the volume to be heard over those, and never turned it back down. We didn't mind it so much though.

We are booked in 9320 for our trip in April'17, I'm hoping the layout is the same as 9318 (bed by the balcony) because that worked out well for the 3 of us!

Enjoy your trip!

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We had an aft balcony on floor 9 and depending on what time of day, the sun was shining on the balcony, but it was almost complete covered. I also worried about it feeling like a tunnel, but was pleasantly surprised at the open feeling. We loved the location/ balcony so much we are booked in the same room in April (9318) and the room next door in April 2017...

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