ryarger

On 6/11/2024 at 1:12 PM, SherRay6840 said:

Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast

I see on their website that this tour does not include the entrance fee for Pompeii. Did you have to wait long in line to buy tickets at Pompeii before you got in?

2 hours ago, z4ltw said:

how exactly do you change the app to a different cruise?

Click on the person icon in the top row, then under your cruise you should see “select a different cruise”. Pick that then “browse our ships” and pick the ship and date you want to see.

If you want the cruising experience of the ‘90s I think your best bet is to look upmarket. NCL’s sister brands Oceania and Regent are much closer to that classic cruising vibe.

They’re expensive, but so was NCL 30-40 years ago. Mass market cruising is much cheaper now than it has ever been. Adjusting for inflation, a luxury cruise now is in the same ballpark as a “regular” cruise back then.

As someone already mentioned, a key difference about PoA specifically is its largely American crew. This is a requirement due to being a US-flagged vessel (which is a requirement to sail exclusively in US waters).

The mix is somewhere between 60-80% US citizen. They lean heavily towards college students and other younger folk.

Many people see this is as a downside, saying that the crew is lazier and less deferential than a typical cruise.

That was not at all our experience. I thought they were wonderful. We got to know several young people working their way through college and we thought their service was terrific.

i do love getting to meet people from all over the world on a typical cruise, but having most of the crew be native American English speakers was a fine trade off.

They will also have some local Hawaiian “ambassadors” on board that give port talks and even some performances and demonstrations. My wife did a lei making activity that was a blast.

Some cruise lines frequently have experts and educational port talks but this is the only NCL cruise we’ve done that had this and we appreciated it.

1 minute ago, Billy Baltic said:

Can you have a WOW band and a regular sea pass card? I can see a use for the band when at the pool or slides and the card the rest of the time. 

Yes, your sea pass card still works normally when you get the WOW band.

We’ll be at Civitavecchia on Thursday, July 11th.

We’ve been to Rome before but my wife has not been inside the Colosseum so we decided to make that our focus this time.

If we buy the official tickets, what kind of wait are we looking at?

if we buy the official tickets with a timed entry to the Arena/Underground/Attic do we need to account for waiting in the normal entry line before our scheduled time or can we show up shortly before the scheduled time?

It looks like the you can get tickets for one of the Arena, Underground or Attic but not all three or any combination of them. Which do folks recommend (we’re thinking the Arena would be the most interesting)?

Second the idea of the eSIM. We did that in Scotland last year and it was so easy. Load the eSIMs into the iPhone before leaving the US, then while in airplane mode during the flight, switch them to active.

On landing, we had full service and data.

Reverse the process on the way home and you’re back on your US carrier when you land.

4 hours ago, Wayward Son said:

The year we decide to try October, we'll probably miss it late.

We did Oct 23-30th in ‘22 and just missed peak. There were a handful of trees that had super vibrant colors so it was still absolutely worth it, but 80%+ were bare.

If your sailing offers PortValet service, you may want to look into that and then DIY your tour. They’ll take your bags for you and leave you free to explore.

It’s not far from the cruise terminal to the Space Needle and other attractions surrounding it. It’s a nice walk, or a short taxi/uber ride.

34 minutes ago, Jcol5786 said:

Just wondering why you need to tag these cups? They all will work the same in the Free Style machines.

So you don’t get them mixed up and drink someone else’s spit and crazy freestyle concoction.

2 hours ago, sargemrs said:

But for clarification, are you saying the butler will deliver from the MDR dinners to our cabin?

I’ve only done it for specialty but I’m sure they’d do MDR. It’s just not something they like to do more than one or twice per suite because it’s very time consuming.

But as you say you’re traveling as multi-suite group, it won’t be as useful for you. I suppose you could all dine on your balconies and shout across the barriers at each other. 🙂

1 hour ago, erisajd said:

Hey - does anyone know if we have FAS+ if we can get water in the Haven room?   My guess is no - since everything in the room is charged AFAIK . . . except coffee, ice, cream and juices

They won’t deliver it to the room, but we would pick up 2-4 boxes of water every time we left a bar with our FAS+ and we had a good stash built up quickly.

Wines by the glass under $14 (which is most of them) are indeed included with the package.

Corona is definitely available, the British pub will definitely have it and most other bars should too. I don’t recall seeing Modelo.

Table minimums vary by time of day. The lowest I’ve seen is $10 but it’ll get higher during peak times

8 minutes ago, vaindioux said:

I read that the package is lowest at $75

Drinks start at $8

 

So 5x8 = $40

If your drink of choice is Bud Light then sure.

Cocktails are almost all $14, with a few specials here and there ($11 or $12). There will be a token wine under $10 but pretty much all others are $10+.

5 per day is definitely a solid guideline unless you’re only drinking beer then it’s more.

Even though there is no Haven restaurant, don’t forget that your butler will deliver supper to your room on request.

It’s not something most butlers like to do more than once or twice per cabin because they’re so busy but it’s worth taking advantage of.

We had La Cucina delivered to our balcony while in Kona. Eating good Italian while watching the sun set over Kona bay was magical.

Since you’re paying for a suite already, I’d consider adding several nights of specialty dining. It’s not that much more and will solve the issue of not having a Haven restaurant.

4 hours ago, cooncat_mom said:

I got one of those emails too and our Joy trip isn't till October! Do they still do an email for the Haven folks with the pillow menu and that stuff? We don't have many requests -at all! We're terrible Haven people! - but I do better with email than with the phone now 👵🏻! 

We received the email also for our sailing next May, so I suspect they did a mass mailing to all open Haven bookings.

The email for OS+ suites contains a link to the preference site where you can pick your pillow, drinks, etc. Except for that link it looks identical to the email shared above.

Since you’ll be in the Haven, also be aware of the option to enjoy your special dining meal in your cabin. Your butler can arrange to have the entire meal brought in to your cabin and will set up your table for the experience.

The only downside is that the entire meal arrives at once so the entree can cool while you’re enjoying the early courses but it’s still a fantastic experience.

Just to be totally clear, that charge is per order, not per item.

So you could order a huge five course feast for both of you, or order a single basket of French fries and the cost would be $7.95+18% either way.

So it’s a great deal when you’re ordering a lot, and not so much if you’re ordering a little.

The Ice Queen (Frozen) for sure.

Not too long ago someone in the same situation posted and what they ended up doing was this:

* Get in the no reservation line early the first not. They got in within 15 minutes.

* At the end of the meal, talk to the waiter about how you have no reservations but enjoyed their service (assuming you did) and would like to have them the rest of the cruise. A little tip at this point might help things, also.

The waiter may then be able to arrange you have a table in their section each night.

Great live report, thank you!

If Laser Tag is not open, then it’s generally allowed to use the space however you want.

If it’s open, you can’t go back there without paying for the session (and then only for the length of the session).

5 hours ago, roddy good boy said:

Am I remembering this correctly? I recall when we first starting sailing in the Haven (2013 or so) Haven passengers didn’t have to pay gratuities on the beverage package or specialty restaurants. They also included 5 nights of specialty restaurants. For that reason, during that period we only ate in the Haven a few nights each cruise! 

Not to mention how reasonable the prices were then… 

You are remembering correctly. Haven was exempted from the gratuity charge on the FAS package plus at that time, FAS had 4 specialty dinners for a 7-night sailing.

Our 2014 sailing was one of the last ones where the dining package was truly “unlimited”. You could go to any specialty as many times as you wanted. They’d even hawk it with the idea of going to one restaurant for your appetizer, another for main, and then a third for dessert; or having two (or more) full meals.

Those were the days!

We’ll be on OOTS this summer from Barcelona and I’m reading about how the ship only boards half the pax in Barcelona and the other half in Rome, creating effectively overlapping itineraries.

So what’s it like on the ship those embarkation days? We’ll probably get off in Rome because, well, Rome, but if we didn’t would it be a like a typical port day on the ship or would it be more hectic like an embarkation day?

Does Barcelona or Rome get the Welcome Aboard menu in the MDR? Both?

Are there midnight sail away parties leaving both ports?

Any other unusualness caused by the overlap?

I wonder if anyone’s tried to stow away after their week since they don’t empty the ship and live in the solarium for an extra few days. 😂

The main dining room accepts reservations (at least on some ships) but American Diner and O’Sheehan’s/The Local do not - they are strictly first come/first serve.

American Diner is rarely busy because many aren’t aware of it, or that it’s complementary (it used to be upcharge).