yoolykeme

When I went this year, my hotel had American -style outlets, so assuming that you stay at a nice enough place, you should be good.

Cabo is one port that I've been to where the hawkers weren't too irritating, and their prices weren't too elevated.  I would be very comfortable with walking the pier and seeing which excursions were available, and picking from one of them.  You could check the cruise line website for ideas, and then just pick a vendor when you get to port.

Personally, I'd suggest parasailing from the boat 😉

Assuming that you're American and have USA Tmobile, you'll be fine.  Whenever you get to a new country, you get a text message saying what the rates are.  See the picture.

It's funny.  Most people that aren't American give out their phone number using the + system, as if they are used to it.

If there is anything that I would worry about, it's battery life.  Your phone works harder when roaming.  I'd invest in a power bank, since random electrical outlets aren't as prevalent in Asian countries.

011 and + are the exact same thing. 

+ is universal. You can even put a +1 in front of your American area code and it will work when calling in America. 

When People give your their phone numbers to use WhatsApp or viber, the standard is to use +countrycode. 

Your American phone number = +1 area code, phone number. 

1 is your country code. You probably just never learned that. 

Conversely,  everyone else's phone number is:

+ their country code, phone number. 

+ works when calling in your country, when calling out of the country, when calling from any country to any country, with any mobile phone. You only need 01, 011 on analog and touch tone phones. 

If you just learn that all phones in the world can be called using the + system, and learn which numbers go after, you'll have a universal understanding. 

Easy way to do it:

If you are going to use your USA phone to call either from the USA or in Indonesia, dial +62 and then the rest of the number

If you are in Indonesia and want to call the USA, dial +1 (which happens to be the country code of the USA) and then the area code and the phone number.  If you dialed +1 in America, it would work also.

Many countries have a 0 as the first number.  When calling those numbers, just drop the 0 and dial +62 (or whatever country code) and then the rest of the number

All Mexican pharmacies have the same thing.  CM is more expensive than most ports.  I would suggest buying in a different Mexican port

V Hotel Lavender is very inexpensive, is right on top of a metro station, and has a food court right next door, where you can get traditional Singaporean breakfast for $2.  They also give you a free mobile phone to use.  I stayed there pre-cruise, and it was pretty cool.  Cruise port is an easy taxi or Grab ride away.

More like a 3-star USA property, but fits the bill.

17 hours ago, Fatcat604 said:

Hello Yoolykeme, im curious is it $20 per person or for all the seat? I understand taxi would fare would be higher. I forgot which port have the taxi fare by zone. Thank you. 

It should be for the entire vehicle, but again, you can bargain, depending on the situation. 

When you first get out of the port, you don't have to agree with the first driver that you encounter.  Keep walking and more will find you. What I did was go to the Oxxo (their version on 7-11), buy some water and waited for more drivers to come along. 

Also, things change at the end of the day. Drivers might be willing to take less for a makeshift tour on your way back to the ship. 

My experience was that from the cruise ship, it costs $5 to get to get to another point of interest, like the cathedral/market area, or the Golden Zone.  They will also try to get you to hire them for an hour or so for $20+, and they will take you to various points of interest.

Do you want a private cruise closed off to your group, or want to join other people?

There are multiple price points for this, from $35pp - $200pp

I took Swan Cruises with my mom for like $70, and there were only 5 other people on the boat.

You should know that these junk cruises are mostly marketed to visitors in Hanoi who get picked up at their hotels, have a guide, and then get taken back to the hotel.  What this means is that you have to be smart about getting to the harbor from the ship, finding the appropriate office, and getting back to the hotel.

Getting to the harbor was easy enough.  There were cabs and Grab cars available.  

When you get to the harbor, there are multiple offices for all the different companies.  Problem is that no one speaks english, and you have to kinda work to fine the right office and the right group.  There are multiple junks departing at any given time.  Even when you find the right office, the person there might not speak english, and really, you will have the wait until the tour group from Hanoi gets in, and they will call you and then you join them.  Once you find them, it'll be fine.

Now, if your cruise ends at night, know that the harbor will be empty.  The tour group will get in their van and go back to the city, and you are there alone.  For some reason, no one was driving Grab at 7pm, and I had to wait for a cab for 30 mins to come around.

I don't mean to scare you, bc it isn't scary.  Just some logistical stuff to take into consideration

What watch did you get?

I did it in Mazatlan for $35 off the beach.  It can be had for cheaper in Cabo, where you do it off the boat.  I didn't try that, but that seems more fun.  You'll have touts all over you when you walk off the ship advertising, so no worry, they will find you.

On 7/19/2019 at 6:29 AM, harv2015 said:

Do you remember if NCL had a HCMC transfer option? We would like to pay for ship transfer to ensure we make it back on time. We want to do our own thing in HCMC.

Yes they did, but it wasn't for very long (I think that it's like 10 hours in port, but the ship excursion was only 5 hours).  Plus, when you get to HCMC, you're going to have to find a way to get to the different destinations that you want to visit.  Of course, you can use Grab or taxis, but I found that having a private driver helped navigate the intangibles, like driving up directly into the entrances of the museums and into the ticketing lines, and being able to park inside the attractions for free and being ready to go when we were ready.

Went there on NCL in March.  Yes, there was a shuttle to the gate.  HCMC is about an hour away, so you'll want to pre-book a tour.   I used VN Rent a car.  They have private tours.  I bought one that took me around HCMC for 6 hours.

well, in that case, I've been going to the aquarium for free for the last 8 years lol.

Are we talking about the same thing?  Downstairs from the main lobby are the fish displays.  You can walk through the cave-like area and see the fish and lobsters.  In the middle is a gift shop.   This has always been open for me to walk through, and I've done it like 8 times, both on cruise days and when I've flown to Nassau, and I've never stayed at Atlantis.  

The only thing that you will see when you go to Atlantis is the Marina, which is a collection of tourist trap shops and some nice yachts that are docked, and the public part of the aquarium that is inside the hotel, which is a decent attraction. The casino is unremarkable, and that's about it.

 When you walk out of the cruise port and you see a bunch of touts trying to get you in to a cab, as mentioned, shared vans are $5 per person to Atlantis. There's also the option of the water taxi which takes you closer to the Marina entrance, which I probly would prefer. That way you can walk through the Marina, enter into the hotel and see the aquarium, and then exit the front of the hotel and go back to the port where the straw market is.

Here's the email that they sent me about the whole deal.  Don't know if I can post their contact info, but you can Google it.....

$135/day for the whole car was really cheap, and if you can get more people to participate, then you can all share the cost.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phu My is HCMC.  I would hire a car to take me to and around Saigon, to whatever sites that you're interested in.

I used VN rent a car.  They were really cheap.  someone picked me up, drove Mom and me for like 6 hours to all the usual places that I asked, then brought us back to the ship with a lot of time to spare.

I don't see why you wouldn't want to maximize your time on shore.

IMO, the only 2 options are to either spend both nights in Bangkok or Pattaya, and return to the ship when it's about to leave.

BKK is 2 hours north of LC, Pattaya is like 1.5 south.  Pick a city to spend both nights in and enjoy.  There's nothing to do in LC, really.

On 5/20/2019 at 8:18 AM, Mike_DeA said:

I agree with you, but a few clarifications.

 

$2-5NL is on all of NCL ships, not just the bigger ones.  Guest ages run the gamut, I've seen both young and old. 

 

The rake is always taken on any pot, chops included, in all casinos, not just NCL ships.  Chopping the blinds is the one difference, I've never seen it done like NCL does with a $1 minimum rake, so it's best just not to chop the blinds, or the SB just surrenders their $1.

 

Tournaments start with 2,000 in chips and blinds of 100/200 so it's 10BB starting stack, a short stack turbo tournament basically.

I find that the bigger the ship, and the younger the average age, the bigger the game.  Ships like the Breakaway and Epic will likely have 2-5.  Canada and Alaska cruises on ships like the Jewel are likely 1-2.  Cruises longer than 7 days likely have older patrons and less casino interest, therefore 1-2.

Also, you can buy the tournament add on, which effectively doubles your stack in the beginning.

Either way, the number sucks, and you have to play what they give you.  We haven't even started talking about dealer competency, which is another story in itself.

The train is the best option on the way back.

When I went, we booked a car to take us to the Trevi fountain, then went to the Vatican to see the Pope, museums, and stuff, then just walked a couple of block behind the museum to the train.

It's super clean and quick.  Someone here should tell you how to get back to your ship from the Civ station.  I wasn't paying attention, and ended up walking back to the ship from the train station, which a realllllllyyyyy long walk that you don't want to do.

I think that there is a shuttle from the train station into the port, that's a couple of bucks.

All aboard will probably be at 4:30.  As long as you are on a taxi by 3:45p leaving Atlantis, you should be fine, and that's at the absolute latest assuming that the dolphin encounter ends on time, you are in good health, can walk quickly to the ship, the bridge doesn't blow up, and all that.  

I'm big on getting in at the last minute, and love being the last one on the ship lol.

There are cash games.  2-5NL on bigger ships with younger guests.  Rake is 10%, max $25,  So you can both go all-in for $300 each, chop the pot, and they still take the rake lol.  You can't chop the blinds, so if SB folds, they still take $1.  

25% rake on tournaments is correct.  You also start the tournaments with 20BB.

I also bring 100 $1 bills when going on a cruise, but mainly to tip and sprinkle around.  The people on cruises work really hard and, I find, appreciate a couple of bucks when given.  We tip a lot more for a lot less in America, so that's just something that I do.  I'll also tip random workers at ports and in some situations, give some to the poor.