podaz1

On 7/21/2022 at 5:13 AM, Ixtoras said:

Thats a bummer that they canceled Corfu.  Re porting to Bar for crew replenishment makes sense. IIRC, NCL used Bar City for staging crew during the restart and was often the last port before a ship came online.  Think things are still a bit wonky with crew contracts all ending around the same t8mes.  Some of the crew on the Encore were talking about an upcoming rotation, and that staff were getting offers to extend a couple months.

 

Three questions:

Malevo was the second show in the main theater.  Did you see it and was it any good?

Dueling pianos - same question.  Have fond memories of the howl at the moon group on the getaway in 2019.

Last - the supper club....  looks like maybe variety acts?  Did you catch any of those?

 

Thanks 

Jeff

 

Jeff, we enjoyed Malevo very much but not everyone seemed as impressed. A little noisy and a bit repetitive after a while but definitely worth checking out! Choir of Man was a favourite amongst our group ranging from 1 to 82  , everybody loved it!

The Supper club had some good musical acts, Lifford Shillingford has an amazing voice and there was a female trio there one night who were excellent and also appeared in Headliners another night. The comedy magician was very good and was in both the supper club and the main theater.

I found the supper club a little lacking in atmosphere though  , they no longer serve food and there is no bar. Drinks can be ordered but only before the show starts and service was very slow.

The Duelling pianos were on every second night in Headliners and we really enjoyed going to that! Great atmosphere there 🥳

On 7/21/2022 at 3:09 AM, marktwothousand said:

 did you notice if smoking was allowed in the casino thank you 

Yes there was smoking in casino I notices as we walked through, at least while out at sea when casino was opened 

2 hours ago, jcann4444 said:

Back to Corfu today makes me think the unavoidable shift to Bar was not done in good spirit..

That is very interesting about the staff changeover in Bar. It's certainly suspicious that they could arrange that with such a last minute change. Some of my family had Corfu as they're top spot to visit so it was very disappointing 😞 

I missed a few days but it gives an idea. This was a seven day and Choir of man and Malevo were on twice. The comedy magician was very funny and he was on 3 different nights and in supper club and theatre. I think howl at the moon was every second night. Attraction from Britain's got Talent had one night in Theatre. I found the entertainment brilliant 👏 👌 

Here are a couple of dailies from the app that I screenshotted 

5 hours ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

The official terminology is called "downline". 

 

Before the pandemic, cruise lines may allow you to do so. You need to make the downline request in advance (prior to departure) and complete some paperwork. Cruise lines may charge a fee (for example, Royal Caribbean / Celebrity Cruises was USD 65 per person).

 

After the pandemic, some cruise lines no longer approve downline, even if you are willing to pay for a fee. 

 

Here is the reply from NCL previously:

 

Approval to embark or disembark mid-cruise may be allowed ONLY in cases of emergencies, for example:

1.     Guests miss the ship and wished to embark in the next port of call.

2.     Once onboard, a guest becomes ill or has a family emergency and needs to disembark the vessel.

No refunds or adjustments will be made for unused portions of a cruise. If any of our guests for any reason wish to not conclude their cruise, they may address this onboard.

 

With valid reason(s), you may embark or disembark at ports of call other than original ones. Please note that you MUST have valid travel document or Visa required for the country that you would like to embark/ disembark. Norwegian Cruise Line will not be responsible for any loss associated with itinerary change such as hotel, transportation or entertainment onshore which is not arranged by NCL directly.

 

And also be aware that even NCL approves it immediately on Day 1 of your cruise, there may be a chance that the ship cannot enter the port of Naples on Day 5 because of various unforseen situations (e.g. bad weather). If you have booked any hotels or air tickets from Naples, NCL will not be responsible for your loss.

Thanks a million. That's so helpful to know and I'd never heard that terminology before "downline " . I'd never even thought of the possibility of bad weather or the like meaning we couldn't dock there. That would certainly throw the plans. But they really can't change their other plans so if they can't disembark early then they just can't go 🤷 😭

10 hours ago, UKstages said:

the CC is passing the buck and just doesn't want to - or doesn't know how to -  handle this or to whom to refer you. this question gets asked from time to time here in the forum and the answer is never "see somebody on board and they may be able to make it happen." the answer - on NCL - is almost always...no.

 

there are a variety of reasons, but it basically boils down to an extra cost incurred by NCL and lots of extra paperwork and fiddling with the ship's manifest as it relates to a closed loop cruise. if two people get off in naples, it's no longer a "closed loop" cruise for customs and immigration purposes. at least that's the way it works in the USA... not sure if italy has similar C/I restrictions.

 

in any case, if two people in your party have a hard exit after five days, you really need to confirm that this can be done before you set sail. 

Thank you so much for explaining that, I never fully understood the meaning of closed loop. Makes a lot of sense about customs and immigration ! Ideally we would have all approved in advance but my worry is asking for permission and not getting it! 

5 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

You will need permission ahead of time from NCL. 

Thank you. The CC said I could only get permission for this once we are on board so do you know how I can go about this? It would be ideal if we could have all arranged prior to our trip but it didn't sound possible according to CC. 

I'm sorry if this is asked a lot but looking for some recent advice. We are taking a family trip on the Escape in July. It has been impossible to get dates to suit everyone so the best we can do is have some family members leave ship 2 days early due to other commitments. The cruise starts and ends in Rome and they would disembark in Naples on day 5 of a 7 day cruise after having stopped in ports outside of Italy. The NCL CC said they can't guarantee it as it can't be arranged until we are on board.  There would be 5 people and an infant departing early in total.

Another  concern is that my sister and nephew need to leave early but my 13 year old niece would remain in their cabin and travel back with us, leaving her as the only person in their booking. She would be able to stay in another of our cabins so that's not a problem but I wondered if it would be an issue from the cruiselines perspective? Hope this question makes sense ! Thanks in advance.

Impressive video skills ! What a great zoom on your camera. Loved the slide cam! Looks like you had a fab time :)

Hi, We upgraded from OV gty to balcony last week 4 weeks from saildate. The balcony went down to less than we payed for ov so TA advised that we had to change to a more expensive category, only worked out at €20 more per cabin so we're very pleased !

So even if they won't change you over at no cost you may be able to take the next Minisuite category for a little extra. Many passengers on here have been able to change over with no extra cost once the price has dropped so give them a call and see what you can get, worth a shot :D

Yes, gratuities are included on both packages from what I have read here and drinks are included on UBP up to $11. If more than 2 x pax per room the additional pax recieve the soda package instead of the UBP. We are travelling next month so have yet to avail of these offers but I have been doing my homework on here :D

Hi, sorry if I'm repeating the same question but just wanted to check I have this right. If I book a FCC on board our sailing next month is the $100 OBC applied to that sailing? Or to the booking that we make using the FCC? And is one purchased per cabin or per person travelling? Thank you, really hoping to do this :)

No walking in the port. They stop you, we tried on the way in. On the B2B talk I asked if we could walk out and the NCL staff said, "no, absolutely not" The shuttle bus takes you to a parking lot outside the port. From there you can get a cab or city bus or walk(about 20 minutes) to the train station or vice versa.

 

Also, if you are going to Livorno, you are REQUIRED to take a shuttle which NCL charged $12 pp for, just a heads up, so you will be prepared.

 

Have fun!

Thank you, that is good to know to help with timings. Not stopping at Livorno,doing the repositioning cruise to Venice. So looking forward to it,thanks for all the info.

We were just on a 21 day cruise from Civitavecchia. We were able to board at about 11 am, no problem even though our documents said 12.

On the turn over day, when some people get off and some stay on, we went to Rome and we wanted to take the 2 pm train back, which was broken or running late. We ended up on the 2:30pm train. That train ride (unless it is the more expensive one which only takes 35 minutes) takes about 1:30 hours. We barely made it back on the ship by 4:30 and there were some people on that train with lots of luggage, so we knew they were just boarding the ship and still needed to check in.

We actually helped someone get to the ship because it was a nightmare at the train station with people trying to get cabs and get on the small public bus. We just helped them with luggage and walked. Several people missed the ship that day, as we saw them boarding the next day in Livirno.

I am sure if you are IN Civitavecchia by 2 pm, you will be fine, but I would not cut it any closer than that. Even getting from the train station to the port takes a little time because you are required to take a port shuttle.

Happy sailing

Sounds eventful on both occasions level six. So I'm just wondering when you say required to take the port shuttle does that mean that we do not have the option of walking ? We will have luggage and would prefer take shuttle anyway but just thinking if there is a wait for a shuttle could we not go ahead and walk?

Thank you all for your replies,really appreciate the advice. We booked through ********** so our only confirmation docs so far are the invoices with no mention of boarding time.

We'd really like a couple of hours in Rome in the morning so I think we will take our chances and keep our fingers crossed for no major delays. :cool:

Thank you very much, we cannot access our cruise docs yet to see the boarding time as final payment is next week but I thought I would chance booking the train as I found a very good deal.

Hoping we can rely on the Italian trains or our good deal may end up being a very bad one :eek: Thank you for the advice.

I have booked train to Civitavecchia that gets us in at 13.15, allowing for any delay and walking to port I would guess 2pm would be our latest arrival at ship, should this be ok for a 5pm departure or should we look at an earlier train? Thanks in advance, sorry if this has been asked,I can find lots of info on how early we can board but nothing on later boarding.

Hi, Sorry if this has been asked recently but I can't find any current info on this, are the karaoke rooms still available on the Jade and is there a charge? I seen somewhere that it was free to hire and somewhere else that it is $20 pp but includes open bar? We have UBP anyway so open bar not a selling point.

It's definitely worth it, I think. You are not only getting the free UBP and more OBC, but the room is usually a bit bigger and you will have some kind of view. But if you upgrade to GTY OV there is still no way to be sure that your cabins will be near one another. You can try to pass along whatever requests and preferences you have, but I suspect that NCL completely ignores those requests and just lets their computers do the assignments based on what's best for them, not what's best for you.

 

On the Jade if you book an oceanview GTY it is likely you will end up with a porthole cabin on deck 4 or 5.

Hi, thank you for your advice, you were right about the GTY room assignment, we have been given 2 porthole cabins on 4th deck, just one door between our cabins too thankfully.

Hi, thanks for all that information. We are going to chance an outside cabin and avail of the freestyle package. Thanks for your help, much appreciated :)

Thanks a million for your helpful responses. At the moment the difference between inside and outside is about €550 but my feeling is that the outside price will reduce after the offer ends and perhaps the balcony price too? To us having a more spacious cabin is more tempting than having a drinks package as we are travelling with toddlers so won't be making the most of all inc drinks :confused: Sorry not sure what I'm even asking, thinking out loud really!

Hi, I have booked 2 x inside cabins on the Jade in April.

Our TA has told us that we can rebook to an OV by today and avail of the freestyle package which expires today.

I am waiting to see how our finances are in next few weeks to decide if a balcony is within our budget but If I upgrade in a couple of weeks after the offer has expired will it then be rebooked like a new booking and without the freestyle package offer or can I just pay the difference to upgrade and keep our UBP and OBC?

Thank you for you help, my head is in a spin trying to decide :rolleyes:

Thank you for your reply, I just realised after I sent question that there are different forums for asking questions so I have moved it there now, thank you for that :-)

Hello, I have booked a 7 night cruise on the Jade - 2 x inside gty cabins with 2 adults & 1 child(aged2) per cabin.

We are not fussy about where we are located but requested to have the cabins located nearby to each other but I have just checked and we have been assigned 10005 and 11647, different floors and opposite ends of the ship. There are many other available cabins in the category so I just wondered if it is possible to request a change in cabin with a GTY once the room number has been assigned? I do realise it is the risk that is taken in booking a GTY cabin so if not we will accept no problem.

However I am considering upgrading us all to a gty outside cabin to avail of the UBP and OBC. The difference is roughly $600 dollars, so $200 obc leaves $200pp for ubp which seems reasonable except that it is unlikely that we will be drinking very much with toddlers to run after ! It says that the package does not include bottled water but how is free water served as I see that water, tea and coffee are included in the cruise fare anyway?

Sorry for all the questions but just one more, If we go for an outside are the curtains likely to be blackout? When we previously cruised on the pearl we had a balcony with blackout windows but we didn't have children so weren't to bothered by the daylight or the free water etc!

Thank you for your help :D