austinetc

I have never heard of an Included excursion that has been locked out (two ocean; five river cruises). They may at times be listed as "Sold Out" online due to some tech hitch, but once you're on board the excursion is available. The downside is that reality dictates that a large number of participants interrupts the pleasure of the excursion. One excursion we did in France had an overwhelming number of 40-person groups, all doing the same walking tour along the same narrow streets. It was madness. But it was Included.

I'd appreciate it if you could give specifics. Name, vintage, price of glass/bottle. What confused me on our cruise was that most, if not all of the bottles listed had a asterisk denoting them as "not eligible for SSBG pricing". The staff would not open any of these to give me just a glass. All the wines with a per glass fee were about $6, not close to the $15 (now $18) max. I'm not going to consider a $6 glass of wine as "premium".

Some cruise ships now have the equivalent of a cell tower on board. So it's important to turn off your cellular connection as soon as the ship leaves port. Otherwise you risk having the phone default to cell service vice wifi and then being charged the international cellular rate. Even eSims probably charge a lot for international usage. I don't think any Viking ship has a cell tower, but the technology is certainly on the way.

Question and comment. We're booked in a penthouse veranda for the first time. What alcohol is/can be stocked in the fridge? I'm partial to bourbon. I was on a Med cruise with Viking last year and bought the SSBP. But I was extremely disappointed in the wine selection that was available. The selling point for the SSBP was and is "Any drinks up to $18.00 USD including premium wines by the glass." But NO glass of wine cost more than $10 on the menu. All their bottles of wine were similarly low priced. When I'm pricing out the value of the SSBP, I'm assuming I'll be able to factor in truly premium wine (i.e., something substantially better than the swill they pour for free). Thankfully, they did have a truly impressive selection of premium whiskey. Has anyone else experienced the same situation?

I am admittedly spoiled. Our cruise line of choice is Viking, Ocean and Rivers. But my wife has no interest in the Caribbean and Norwegian has singles with no supplement at a really good price. So I pulled the trigger on a 7 night cruise. It'll be what it will be. Hopefully the string of complaints is just a coincidence.

Thanks for all the advice so far. Normally I ignore poor reviews, but the Epic's are going through an unusually consistent stream of negatives. I'd love to book the spa, but the pre-cruise cost worked out to $50 per day. To much for me. I'll drown my sorrows in the Premium Plus Drinks package.

I'm booked on the Epic, mostly (95%) for the ports. First time Norwegian cruiser and first time on a megaship. That the ship holds 4,100+ passengers and the most recent (largely negative) reviews fixate on crowds, I wonder if anyone could give me heads up on the least attended locations on board. Also on when some of the more popular spots are least crowded. Thank you.