chiefy_mom
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Posts posted by chiefy_mom
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When I booked my cruise, the price NCL was charging for BOGO was the same I would pay for one ticket - I expected there to be a premium. So BOGO for 3 people would still be a true savings of one plane ticket.
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On 8/4/2023 at 2:07 PM, Hunny15602 said:
I'm 119 days out as of today, so at worst, I'll need to wait 29-59 days before knowing for sure. I've got a rental car reserved too, so that's probably going to be my contingency for the outbound if airfare becomes crazy.
We received our flights 30 days out from our cruise - so at worst you are 90 days out from knowing for sure.
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On 8/7/2023 at 8:26 PM, 1threadshort said:
Going on Alaska cruise: I understand its a matter of preference, but do you think a balcony is worth the xtra money vs ocean view considering you are not in your room that long?It annoys me when this is always stated as a fact. How do YOU cruise and how long will YOU reasonably use the balcony.
for me, on land vacations, I don’t just book oceanfront resorts, I book oceanfront rooms. I usually wake up before the rest of the family and love sitting on the balcony watching the waves and reading/relaxing. When coming back from port I also want to relax on the balcony without other people. I don’t want to have to fight for a space.
I did do Alaska with just an ocean view a long time ago, but I wouldn’t do it that way again. How people-y are you? And how important is private outdoor space to you?
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Super-mundane question - what do they print on the freestyle dailies with an itinerary like this? Do they skip printing “Day 1”? Or does it say “Day 1/4”? Or something like that?
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No reservation is needed for the MDR, however if you choose to make them, you have more time options before you board, once on ship the only times you can reserve are 5:30 and 8:30 (at least my experience on the Getaway)
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We used the BOGO for travel between US East Coast and Italy.
Pros
saved $3k
neutral
we had excellent layovers/ timing
all 3 cabins were on same flights
I put these both as neutral because they are NOT guaranteed
CONS
flights were not assigned until 30 days out
would I do it again? Yes, for similar savings. Probably not for minor savings.
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On 7/1/2023 at 11:51 AM, The Traveling Man said:I used to always look forward to prime rib night at O'Sheehan's, but I haven't seen that since about 2019.
Our last night on the Getaway in July O’sheehan’s had prime rib.
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On 7/18/2023 at 1:08 PM, puddle said:
Hi, we have Free at Sea, but not the soda package. Does this mean I can get coke/pepsi or maybe Fanta from the 'gun' included in my Free at Sea? I won't want any alcohol with it, I'm teetotal 😊 Thank you
If you don’t drink alcohol, you should consider declining the FAS drink package. The gratuity you pay on the package translates to ~2 alcoholic drinks per day to break even. If you only drink soda, you might be better off buying the soda package instead.
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On 7/25/2023 at 8:19 AM, trish1c said:
No you can't bring bottled water on period. If your refillable drink containers still contain liquid when you get back aboard ship in a port you will have to pour them out. There will be huge rain barrels for the dumping.
YMMV on this. We were just on the Getaway in the Mediterranean and there was absolutely no dumping of any liquid at all. And we always had an assortment of partially full water bottles in our group.
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On 7/23/2023 at 3:55 PM, brer111 said:
chefy_mom Did you have only one day deviation for your cruise? I agree my frustration right now is to book transfers but I did book some tours that I did not have to pay upfront . Did you fly home the day you got off your cruise or did you deviate?
We did one-day deviations pre and post.
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1 hour ago, Ellen495 said:
11 PORTS OF CALL
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Copenhagen,Denmark
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Berlin (Warnemünde),Germany
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Gothenburg,Sweden
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Oslo,Norway
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Kristiansand,Norway
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Edinburgh (Newhaven),Scotland
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Newcastle (Tyne),England
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Amsterdam,Netherlands
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Brussels / Bruges (Zeebrugge),Belgium
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Paris (Le Havre),France
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London (Southampton),United Kingdom
You have to recognize that by definition, cruising gives you a "taste" of each stop and is NOT in-depth exploration like it sounds like you are used to. The benefit is getting a broader taste of areas so you can maybe decide to go again later OR hitting up spots that you wouldn't want to spend multiple days in, so you're only committing to one.
For me, the concern with your itinerary is several ports are far away from the cities you're supposedly visiting - like Paris and Berlin. I just did a Med Cruise that thankfully started in Rome (Civitivecchia) and ended in Venice (Trieste) so I was able to add extra nights and actually see those cities (still not fully doing them justice, but I'm okay with that). Doing either of those as a port day would have been horrible.
So, test out what your excursions would be in each port and decide from there.
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On 6/19/2023 at 4:51 PM, brer111 said:
Let me start out that we know all about NCL AIR including pros and cons.. Just wondering what anyone's experience was flying with 2 day deviation was like? We will be flying out of Phoenix to Rome and just wondered what others have experienced. TIA
Ellen
We had a great experience from east coast to Rome and back from Venice. All 3 cabins were actually booked on the same flights. Connections were a little tight, but I’d be stupid enough to book the same on my own, so no real complaint there. Saving $3k was totally worth it. Unlike others, we had the option to upgrade our seats on our flights, but chose not to. We flew Delta/KLM out and Air France/Delta on the return. We arrived in Rome 9:30AM the day before our cruise.
tip for others considering using NCL Air is to really know thyself. It stressed me out more than I expected to have to wait until 30 days out to get the flights. I couldn’t book transfers or tours without it, so waiting was hard.
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On 7/12/2023 at 11:17 PM, cusematt4 said:
Hi All,
We used to really enjoy cruising with NCL for their entertainment.
We had loved the multiple nightly options of shows (fly on acts and production), in addition to multiple different bands.A few years ago, there were 3 full bands, in addition to 3 duos plus 3 different piano players.
Our cruise on the Getaway a few months ago was incredibly disappointing regarding all aspects of entertainment.
There was 1 band (reggae + all - they were awesome), 2 duos and the dueling pianos (no seprate painists as usual) Others weren't sick or on leave according to the onboard team but were just cut. This is half of what was advertised and what we had previously seen with NCL.
There were multiple nights of no professional entertainment. The show in the Illusionariam was eliminated and the rock band at Syds that was very heavily promoted was eliminted.
On an 8 night cruise, there were
-2 "braodway" shows which were really well done but which we heard are being eliminated for the most part across NCL.
-1 fly on magician who was awful and did some card tricks shown on a broken out of focus screen in the theater
-2 of the worst comedians we've ever seen who did the same show every night they performed
*4 nights of no professional entertainment
We voiced our entertainment concerns and disappointments to the cruise director who agreed with us and said it was completley out of their team's control as the budgeting and scheduling cuts were all being done by corporate.
Does anyone have any insight as to why NCL is ruining what helped distinguish them from other lines. RCL seems to be overtaking them in entertainment from the braodway shows to the multiple fly on acts and plethora of live music.I hope NCL reconsiders these entertainment cutbacks and they are noticable and many are frustrated at the decreased product from NCL. I know we can stick with other lines, but we enjoy the variety that RCL and NCL each provided.
Thanks.
We were on the Getaway for 9 days in June and had “professional entertainment” as you call it, every night. There was something in headliners, the illusionarium, theater and Sydney Norman’s every night. Plus multiple musicians scattered throughout the bars nightly.
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On 7/16/2023 at 9:43 AM, Seminole1975 said:
My son and DIL are in MDQ on the Getaway currently. They say MDQ is safe for now. We are going to see them in August. They tell me they get their exact schedule for the shows week to week. I too wanted to make dinner ressies around the show and they said it was too soon to know what nights they would be performing. They did say MDQ is usually performed towards the latter part of the cruise. They are also in Broadway Unplugged and have to cover for Burn the Floor as the singers sometimes.
I saw them on the June 24th sailing. MDQ was great, but I have to say I REALLY loved Broadway Unplugged.
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Does the Getaway have Powerade (or other sports, not energy drink)? If so, where? And is it included in the kids soda package?
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On 6/12/2023 at 8:50 AM, mugtech said:
Saw a woman on one cruise wear the same polka dot dress every day. It always seemed clean. I saw her leave the last day with no luggage, I figured she probably had a portable tooth brush, washed and hung her dress up to dry overnight. I dubbed her the Jack Reacher of cruising.
It’s a popular challenge to wear the same dress for 100 days and just accessorize it differently! Usually it’s a solid color though, because a pattern is too distinctive.
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I reached out to them with their “contact” form this week about an airport transfer. They got back to me very quickly and clarified they have limited resources after COVID and no longer do transfers.
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I’m a newbie. Do you choose a specific check-in TIME? And what happens if you miss that time?
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I received the email from NCL with my flight information, but another member of my travelling party (different room, so different reservation) did NOT receive the email. Our Travel Agent confirmed we're all on the same flight. I checked the app and I checked my account online, I don't see any other form of communication/verification of our flight info.
Am I missing it? Or is one email the only way this info is communicated?
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Were you able to fit in ONE golf cart?
We are a group of 6 and are trying to figure out an easy tour.
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Is it possible to get the specific entertainment schedule in advance of the cruise? I’d like to plan dinner reservations around the shows, but I don’t know what’s on which night….
specifically I’m on the Getaway out of Rome in June.
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How much does the arcade package typically cost? I’ll be on the Getaway for 9 days. And can two kids effectively pass the card back and forth? (They are staying in different rooms and I really doubt I’ll want to buy 2x the package.
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On 3/5/2023 at 12:52 PM, melday said:
We have 5 cabins booked with the "free at sea" package. Our snafu we all put in for traveling a day early. We got our flight info this week. No-one is on the same flight, 3 out of the 5 were booked 2 days early and one is taking them allover Europe with layovers. The rest of us are flying direct. They've called NCL but are not getting much resolution. Shouldn't NCL fix this since it was their error? Anyone else have this experience or any input welcome. Thank you
The # days deviation does seem to be a problem, but when I booked my cruise my travel agent asked NCL about keeping multiple cabins on the same flight and they said it’s absolutely not guaranteed. So we split the guests up in a way that made sense for all the travel.
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We took advantage of the BOGO flight to Rome and are waiting for our flight assignments. NCL charged $1,429 for the flight which is the going rate for a single ticket, so we are saving $3k (family of 4) with the offer. We’ll suck it up and deal with whatever flight they give us for that kind of savings.
they are allowed to book you with up to 2 stops, but I’m not sure if there was any guideline on layover time. I’m anxiously awaiting how many of our 3 cabins will be on the same flight.
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NCL AIR
in Norwegian Cruise Line
Posted
We got our flight at exactly 30 days for our June cruise out of Rome. They had the 1-day eviction we requested, so can’t speak to changes after that.