nimbex1970

my own private pool. I don't do people soup.

Thanks, I am so wrong on this, I looked at my booking. the 19 night was comped. We paid for the administration fee, the taxes, the FAS taxes on the drink package and the gratuity, plus we paid 1k for a cabin upgrade that I didn't realize we were charged for!

Best recollection was 3200 points. This was our first NCL sailing and only 9 nights, so we will be something like bronze.

I couldn't agree more! Oh I do miss those midnight buffets with the carvings and late-night parties on deck as well. We are researching more "upscale" cruise lines to meet what I consider dining preferences and service expectations. If I'm paying for all specialty restaurants, I'm figuring that cost into my overall cruise, plus RCL drink package is pricey. It's opened up some alternatives that I initially thought were out of budget. Also has opened up some new places to visit. Unless I'm bringing the grandkids, my days with RCL are numbered and that's sad. Saying that, my expectations no longer coincide with the RCL experience, so it's time to move on and it's not RCL's fault. I simply expect something they don't provide and I have to find a new line to cruise with. The best memories on RCL and I'm thankful for that.

I found less service available. For example, I love to sit out at the pool and be served drinks. On the WOS, my lazy behind had to get up several times for a water or a drink. Well more than several times. Alcoholic drinks at the main dining took much longer than previous to be delivered. More folks at the bars getting their drinks caused lines and waiting... no one remembered my drink at the bars, lost that special, "I'm being spoilt" feeling. I ate more room service and pizza after the MDR than in the history of my cruising. Returned an over-cooked shrimp dinner twice. First time I paid for the upscale restaurants as I was so unsatisfied with the quality of food in the MDR. (service there was top-notch). I tried NCL after this and had similar food issues however the service on NCL was impeccable. Still booked another RCL, just paying for the food upgrades now.

I just went through this on the sky. I had to enter a seperate line where they reviewed my docs, then a picture and off we went to wait. Our pre-arranged check in time didn't mean anything as we were a bit late and were given a number (14). We waited about 20 minutes and it went fast enough.

Walk me through this. We are new to Casino at sea. Husband "won" a free cruise. We have three booked in one "free" room. What are we charged if he has to be a no-show, I mean very last minute. We have Alianz insurance, so that may cover his cancellation if his health isn't straightened out. But how does Casino at sea handle this please and thanks. Yes, I will call the booking agent through CAS, but wanted an idea beforehand.

Just off the Sky and there was no additional players card. We simply used the room card. We used both the ATM and withdrew from the account on file (have to sign a form). The room card worked in all the machines I tried, no issues. The fees have been covered here and are accurate. We did not sign up before hand, just asked a casino host for help activating the room key which took seconds. I'm not sure how many points to a free cruise, but husband was "gifted" one. Then casino at sea contacted us and gave us $5k off a 19 nighter we had already booked. I believe 8 nights is the max for a free cruise. So good luck! We did great on craps and three card poker.

We are headed from San Jan to Lisbon in April. As the title suggests, is there a better side of the ship for a balcony room?

Just off a cruise in the port of Miami (NCL) no drug sniffing dogs pre or post cruise.

I understand! We just sailed our first NCL, and getting used to the website and navigating dining and such was a challenge. I spent time on the NCL boards here reading each post and asking questions to help me acclimate. I also watched youtube videos of the ship I was going to sail on. NCL anytime dining is excellent. The vibe is more casual, although this is true for Alaska sailings in general. The RCCL ship will have better activities for your almost teen. Consider this though, you will likely have excursions every port day and be quite tired from a full day of activity, but wearing out those kiddos is harder, lol.. so your son will likely love the activities at night on RCCL. I think your choice is excellent if you are satisfied with the itinerary, thats all that Alaska is about anyway. It takes time to get adjusted with a new line, hang in there and have a great trip!

Can the shareholder benefit be used with all sales and comps like a casino at sea pricing? We have a 19 day repo in April, so this would give us 250 OBC? Thanks in advance.

We recently used NCL transfer (we were driving) by finding a flight number online and inputting it. No issues. Now this was port of Miami and it was quite busy. I would put a 30-minute load in the bus time, plus drive time to help you plan.

Thanks for explaining!!!

I wanted to thank you, you provided vital information about getting our laundry done!

IMHO, packing 'em full of folks and staffing cuts has led to decreased service. Still not against these giants.. they have their time and place.

please get some good trip protection, not just from the cruise line. We have flight interruption through Alianz or Aligenz, Can't recall the name, but we bought a one year policy as we cruise several times a year plus do flights for a land vacy. when you compare the yearly cost, it's a no brainer, for us anyway. Give them a look.

I booked the BOGO airfare for a cruise in April. As we have only one room for the two of us, I didn't realize this was a policy. I see your point that with this many days out, surely they can make an accommodation. It does seem to be a reasonable request. I have no knowledge of how the fights are booked though and all you can do is try again and go up the chain. PS, get a new hobby as you wait on hold, it's going to take some time. Know that a policy exists that NCL can stand behind and you may still not get what you are requesting.

Help me understand, why is a room upgrade going to change the FAS offer the OP had with the initial booking? It seems like the booking was canceled and rebooked without the prior offers. I think I'm missing something here

Well hello NCL friends. Wow, what a new experience with NCL. Wish to share some RCL comparisons and opinions on NCL and its smallest ship, the Sky. My husband is 62, I’m 53 and this is my 20th sailing. We have three more cruises booked with NCL. One was cancelled but will book the 2025 French Polynesian back-to-back when it comes out. We sailed November 9th. I chose the small ship after sailing RCL Wonder of the Seas in May. It was everything I wanted for the grandkids, but for two older folks, we were missing the small ship experience, didn’t need the bells and whistles, and wanted the port-intensive 9-night Caribbean experience. Embarkation. Well, we were late, missed our early arrival time of 10am (didn’t get there until after noon), and were handed a #14 ticket. So we sat on the benches in the port about 25 minutes before our number was called. My photo also didn’t go through somehow, so that was another line to re-do it, but that happens, maybe 10 minutes at the most to do this. Everything was organized, I simply misunderstood that our early boarding time would be honored. We were excited to board. Equal boarding time for NCL and WOS. Woot, on board, and went right to the muster station, two minutes, checked in and time to explore. I had watched many videos on YouTube about the ship before sailing, which helped me with the layout. Know that we are smokers, so we chose deck 12 for a smoke and a much needed adult beverage to start the party! Great bar service, and a small smoking area. Here we met many wonderful folks who throughout the cruise shared tables and stories with us as well as having a riot with our gambling buddies from California. With wind/rain, they open a temporary smoking area directly below the bar on deck 11. Everyone says skip the buffet lines on day one, and I say this as well. but it wasn’t that bad of a wait as we wanted to eat out back on deck 11. What’s different from RCL is that there are two lines, and each has different offerings. Yes, the buffet is smaller, but it’s enough choices to find something. What’s great? ICE CREAM at the inside and outside buffet. The food was mediocre, but it was lunch/pre-dinner and was “fine”. It was on par with RCL. Room We did an inside room 10021 as It was port intensive and we only slept in the room. The room steward was amazing. We need very little, like only want service every three days and he was begging us to get in the room, lol. We reused towels and didn’t need him more than that. I can make my own bed. The room was great as it’s not under the pool, but it was a fair walk to the elevator, which I chose and am not complaining about. It’s small… I knew there was only one plug going into this.. and I made it work as I didn’t do my hair as much as I expected, We simply rotated the phone charging… forgot the multi-prong plug-in. Temperature control on point. To compare RCCL’s oldest ship isn’t situated much better than this for electronics, space, or showering, so equal there. Casino We hit the casino as it opened, this is our thing. The casino staff was excellent, helped set up my card and account, cleaned machines, chatted, and helped. They were simply excellent. Bar service if you were not at a table could be slower, but they did their best and we were pleased with them. My husband hit enough to “win”, cough.. spent enough for a free cruise and I was close. We play craps, three card poker and I play slots. We both also play slot poker. Total together put in $15k, lost a total of $4k, but had a blast. So those wondering about free cruises, yeah… $4k down, but we allotted for this, had no intentions to work for a free cruise, it’s our gambling budget. The casino is smoky, for non-smokers, I don’t know how you put up with it. If there was a non-smoking section, I never came across it. Entertainment. For such a small ship there was always something to do. We didn’t care for the piano/singer Jamison at the atrium as he couldn’t hit the notes. His tribute to Billy Joel should be scrapped. In comparison, Leo at the atrium lounge was excellent! There was trivia every day at Sugarcane Lounge (Mojitos!) They only use half the lounge for the screen setup so get there early. The casino held several tournaments and raffles, didn’t win. Music at night was excellent, the band Sonata played everything from easy listening to Led Zepplin, what a treat!. Latin music with mango Duo had folks out dancing and was very enjoyable. We never made bingo, as we were always running late. There is a library with limited posted hours, but it was open much longer than advertised. There are main production shows, which fellow travelers raved about, but that’s not our thing. To compare (aside from production shows), the NCL Sky held its own to RCL Wonder of the Seas! Ports 1. Dominican Republic had a private excursion to take us to two beaches for 6 hours which included water, chairs/umbrellas but not lunch. This was $90pp private vehicle as we prefer to manage our own time. It was slightly drizzling on and off but a beautiful day. 2. San Juan we’ve been here many times and just enjoy walking around town. The ship arrived on the weekend so there were many vendors set up on the walkway to the fort along the waterline. We sampled local foods, walked for about two hours, and returned to the ship for a nap. (It was very hot for us as we came from Alaska). 3. Saint Marteen we booked a ship tour for the sailboat regatta. This was so much fun helping to work a replica of the grand sailboats while racing. No prior experience was needed and we were racing for over an hour, lovely. High on safety and a great time. Drinks are included. Ends up at their “store” for free rum punch and items to buy, no high pressure, we never went in. We returned to the water taxi spot. 4. St. Thomas We have been here and did a land vacay for 2 weeks in the past, so we just caught a taxi to coki beach and did some sun and snorkeling. This was a brief port from about 7am to 1pm, so not much time was allotted. 5. Antiqua Our favorite spot never re-opened at Loves beach after covid. So Husband booked a beach escape with lunch through the cruise ship and this one tanked. The beach they brought us to had a steep decline into the water and umbrellas were an extra $10. No problem. The building, however, was dilapidated and dirty. The bathroom was the worst I have encountered in the Caribbean, the water trickled, no soap to clean your hands before eating. A toilet had overflowed, and a man was in the next stall trying to unclog it as I was doing my business. The food was buffet style which included chicken, pork, mac-n-cheese, veggies, and slaw with no dressing on it. It was average. The ladies running the excursion didn’t seem to know what to do and argued loudly amongst themselves. For example, some folks didn’t have their wrist bands marked for the buffet and the tour ladies were arguing with people that they couldn’t go to the buffet twice when some poor person was stating they hadn’t gone through yet. Transfer back had a mix-up with vehicles and it became so frustrating that a fellow passenger started yelling at the ladies to get it straightened out. This resulted in more excursion leaders yelling at each other. Not a great time. NCL needs to vet this excursion and see if there is an alternative to this group. 6. Private Island The ship missed it as it does on occasion, we had sea swells that made it unsafe. Plus it was going to rain and the Sky was rocking, so hard pass on a tender. AN announcement from the captain had us heading to the Bahamas instead. The next day the weather was worse, so that was cancelled as well. 7. Cancelled port day. Well for having little time to plan, a new daily was provided to us. The cruise director did her best to have things to do for passengers, but nothing to our liking though. We just took a nap hit the casino and packed. Food Always subjective and here I have issues. I was NOT pleased with the food changes in RCCL, so decided to try another line. Our issues with the declining quality of the buffet and dining room of RCCL were similar to the SKY. So we bought upscale dining for three nights. Cagneys was incredible. I had blue cheese ravioli with a filet, yummy. The head chef went table by table to obtain feedback and I politely gave mine. LaCucina for Italian was my favorite and we ate there twice. No three times, as on our last night we couldn’t get reservations for any of them, my husband went to Cagneys and they wouldn’t do take away but LaCucina would! So we enjoyed our last meal in our rooms which was fine by us!. We thought we would love the freestyle dining, the theory worked as we don’t like to live by a clock. The food though seemed to take forever (we did tell the waitress we wished for a “speedy diner”), and 90 minutes later.. no different in timing than RCL, plus not a fan of the food, it was ok and we never left hungry. So I guess we are upcharge dining folks and will book them for our NCL repo cruise in April. Service Yet another area where NCL wins. I can’t say enough praise to everyone we came across on this lovely ship. Not a single moment where we were not spoiled, smiled at, or cared for. Our room steward was always present practically begging to make up our room each day. Closing To finish up, we LOVED our first NCL experience. If we didn’t have a family to visit during the holiday, we would have added on a back-to-back so we could have stayed for another sail. Excited to sail with NCL again in April for 19 nights and yes we have a RCCL booked as well.

I live in Alaska. April is a rough month, hence it will be cheapest, as Alaska is a very expensive cruise, let alone the excursion prices. It is foggy, rains and still snows. So it's damp, wet AND cold all in one. Nothing wrong with this, if you know this, don't expect the sun and know that the fog will limit several excursion viewings. The ice in the water can be an issue for excursions as well. Personally, I don't think the season here really starts until May, I would choose may rather than July because of the lack of bugs.

We are waiting to book this, the NCL BOGO is much cheaper for us, than to book flights by ourselves. Tahiti is an expensive flight for us, from Alaska. So price them out and consider waiting for a BOGO. Also request the 2 day variance.

It's $12pp each way, have fun!

We were there this past may with the grandchildren. There were police officers present. Wink Wink, nod nod from our server, "If I can get you anything off the menu, let me know". Other than that, there was a "DJ", who was high as a kite, but not bothering anyone. I'm going back next week, so it was the usual coki for me.

I know, watching the news tonight and thought about this. An announcement should be made soon.