LindaRochdale

Thank you all for your comments. I now feel confident that I can source my allowed allowance. 

We are flying into Schiphol Airport and have the RCL shuttle directly to the cruise terminal to board Jewel of the Sea. Does anyone know if there is a shop we would be able to walk to so that we can buy the allowance of wine and non alcoholic drinks. Obviously as we are flying we are limited with luggage and we are a couple of cruises short of Diamond so we need all the help we can get. I appreciate any advice, cheers🍾

We booked this cruise just a couple of months before the sail date as a pre Christmas chill out. We then spent a lot of time organizing our tours for Boston and New York and were gutted to be told a few days prior to departure that we were unable to visit these ports. Like the OP we had spent £700 each on flights, hotels and transport, all of which would have been non refundable. However, unlike the OP, we felt that RC would not make a decision like this lightly. After much discussion and soul searching, our party of 4 made the decision to continue with the cruise. What a great decision that was! From the moment we went to book in at the terminal in Southampton it was obvious that the staff were pulling out all the stops to make our cruise special. There was still a great deal of whinging and whining on the ship but senior staff made themselves available to discuss individual issues. The food, entertainment and crew were amazing,  with a much higher standard of service than we received on our 4 previous RC cruises. The ship sailed with only 2/3rds of the passengers and the opportunity to upgrade our accommodation for $150 per cabin was a real bonus. (Especially as we received $100 OBC per cabin for the disappointment) We were refunded our pre booked tours and the port taxes for Boston and New York. After an absolutely brilliant holiday we returned home relaxed and refreshed with a 25% FCC, in our case only £98, but hey, better than nothing. We might not have got to New York but we had a wonderful time. It’s a shame that a 1000+ passengers chose not to travel and missed out on this experience and an even bigger shame that some of those people are continuing to get themselves worked up over this event.

Linda Collins

MKMC... There are no transfers any more on thebus. All day pass is only $5.50 and if you have a Medicare card it is only $2.00. Lots of buses to lots of places via thebus. Would not mess with a car, parking in many places is a "pain". Don't have to park the bus.

Is the Medicare card used to prove your age or do they have an agreement with that company? I am 65+ From the UK and wondering if I would qualify for reduced rates. Thank you.

We have never gotten an email...........always have to check. Join your roll call and someone will post.

Are you saying then that all passengers on a specific cruise will be offered the same discount on the same day.

I am not due to pay the full price until December, could I be offered a discount before I have paid in full?

Also I only have a guarantee cabin, do I have to pay in full before I get it allocated?

Thanks for any information, I'm not well up on booking so far ahead, usually do a last minute thing.

Thank you, this is a new one for me. Really looking forward to the cruise.

Arrival time is for checking-in and has little to do with boarding time. NCL tries to spread out the check-in load by scheduling specific times throughout the morning. Since many passengers are arriving in taxis straight from a flight, they have little choice on their arrival times.

 

 

The boarding process itself on NCL is really pretty simple. No one is allowed to board the ship until all previous guests are off and the ship is certified as empty. That is generally about 11 am. Sometimes you get lucky and the ship is cleared by 10:30 am but it can often be as late as 11 or 11:30 am. Once the ship is cleared, suite guests will be the first to board. After suite guests, it is Latitude members, Platinum and above by level and finally the the check-in folks in the waiting areas. If you choose to arrive and check-in at 8:30 am, you will join a group of passengers in a waiting area until all of this has occurred. If the waiting areas are your idea of getting an early start...go for it. Most of the more experienced cruisers arrive after 12 or 1 pm when both check-in and boarding are much quicker..

How does this work when there are 2 embarkation ports? We are boarding in Rome so all the passengers who got on the ship in Barcelona will still be onboard. Some of these passengers will be getting off to go on excursions and others will be leaving to return home?

I wonder what the chances are of it being offered on the Pacific Princes for a 17 day transatlantic.

 

I guess I will pick up a couple of bottles in Rome to take on at embarkation, just in case. Since there's a port day in Barcelona, and there's a wine shop in the cruise terminal there, that could be another opportunity if the package isn't offered.

You shouldn't have a problem getting wine in Rome or Barcelona. I think we may have a problem as our ship sails from Southhampton to Sydney but we only get on in Singapore. The wine onboard may be a bit depleted by then, I may need to come up with a plan B too. Does anyone know if there is a wine shop at the cruise terminal in Singapore?

Love this web site, so many people helping complete strangers to enjoy their holidays. Thank you all.

Our cruise is 18 nights from Singapore to Sydney. As we are flying from UK, I doubt that we will be able to buy wine at a reasonable cost in Singapore to take on the ship. It will be much easier to get the package on the ship and especially nice if our waiters can benefit from our purchase.

Here's a wine list and anything up to $29 is for the Silver package & up to $45 for Gold.

 

You can pay the difference for a bottle over $29 without adding an additional tip...you'd pay $2 extra for a $31 bottle of wine.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=372694&d=1452007348

 

The 12 bottle Gold package with wines up to $45 for $28 per bottle is my best option.

Thank you for your speedy, helpful reply, I will consider both packages.

I believe that I can buy a package of 12 bottles of wine for $240 plus %15. How can I find out which wines are included?

Thanks Fishywood for your response. Perhaps I did not make it clear but we did not receive the 100 % cash on our used future cruise credit. Indeed we did not expect to but we did expect a future cruise credit. The letter from the company said that we would receive the credits in the way that we had paid the cost of the cruise. We paid £330 cruise credit and £370 for the cruise. We have only been credited with the 100% refund and 50 % FCC on the cash portion.

We also paid over £1000 in flights and hotels for both cruises only to visit 1 port on the itinerary in Japan and 1 in Hawaii. Perhaps we should stick to Mediterranean cruises from now on.

Has anyone ever used a future cruise credit, (given for a disrupted cruise) then had the next cruise disrupted and compensation awarded. We used a cruise credit of £330 given from a disrupted cruise in Japan towards a cruise to Hawaii. There was a fire onboard the ship which caused severe disruption to the itinerary and considerable concen as to the safety of the ship. We were given letters onboard the ship stating that the cost of the cruise would be refunded %100 in cash and we would also receive a future cruise credit of %50 of the cost. Princess are now saying that the original cruise credit of £330 has been used and are only entitled to compensation on the cash part of the cruise. This means that we have not actually had any benefit from our Japan cruise. Surely we are not the only cruisers that this has happened to?