Middleager

We always keep checking our flights no matter who we booked them with.

We had booked with NCL, and so far they've turned out fine.  We've had airlines change/cancel flights often.  One just happened a few days ago, while we were on the first segment, the connecting flight got cancelled and we got rescheduled.

Another time we left home in early afternoon for a flight with Air Canada.  We visited a family member on the way, and while there I checked and found out that evening AC flight was cancelled, no reason given.  We drove home and I spent close to two house just waiting to eventually talk to someone, and eventually they got us on the same flight time the next day.  (I also had to rearrange the hotel and car rental bookings)

There are numerous stories, so we're not surprised if there are flight time changes/cancellations.  Ship happens and we got to deal with them and move on.

5 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

You can order different currencies online from CIBC ( other banks are probably the same )and have delivered to house so why wait in line 🤔😁

https://www.cibc.com/en/personal-banking/international/exchange-currency-online.html#:~:text=Here's how to order%3A,up at any banking centre

I don't like to pay more for CIBC or bank rates, while the FX shops offer better rates.  And banks don't carry that many currencies (try South Africa, Jordan, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc.)

We try to use credit cards that doesn't charge the foreign currency conversion fee (2.5% for most banks, and for Amex they convert to USD first then to CAD) when abroad.

If needing to get foreign cash, we go to a local currency exchange shop.  We live in Toronto, and there are at least a dozen such exchange places within 10 minutes drive, and a few within walking distance.  The lines at those FX shops are always shorten than lines at banks.  There are also currencies the banks don't carry, so it is those FX shops.  Oh, with many of those FX shops you can check for their rates online before going.

If we are taking a longer trip and going to several countries using different currencies, we'd get a bunch of crisp new US$100 bills, and use those for exchanges in those countries.  Would need to do some research on what's the best place to exchange in those countries, and sometimes hiring a driver who knows, will help.

In the last few months, my wife and I, and other friends have flown several times.  No problem with non-AC flights.  But with AC flights there were almost always delays, and even cancellation (flight 3 days ago).

Last month my wife took Westjet to Vancouver for a conference, no problem.  Her friends booked AC flights in the morning that got cancelled, and got rebooked to a flight later that evening, that got delayed.  By the time the friends got to Vancouver it was past midnight.  Their original flight was supposed to get to Vancouver at noon.

Could just be our luck, but AC hasn't been too reliable or punctual in the last year.

9 hours ago, paddy1112 said:

What possibilities are there on the ship to refill water bottles apart from the tap in the cabin?

And tab water in many public washrooms.

The NCL buffets are pretty good, certainly not undersized.

I don't mind seeing 😁, but I don't remember seeing ladies wearing bikinis with crochet/knit see-though coverups in MDRs.  Maybe other ladies don't wear that to go into MDRs or they are not allowed.

14 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Luckily they don’t included my replacement parts as a pre-existing condition 🤣

spouses? 🤪

We got Nexus a few years ago.  So for pre-clearance to US on the way out,

or coming back to a Canadian entry point, Nexus has helped to get to the shorter line.  It works when driving too.

Then again, in the last few trips, in YYZ, we found the non-Nexus lines are also not too long and people to get through US pre-clearance, or Canadian immigration on return pretty fast.

There are many credit cards that would rebate Nexus application fees, so for years I've been telling friends and relatives to get Nexus.

18 hours ago, Ellis1138 said:

I thought it was called early bird. I don't usually keep all my FS dailies, but here's an example of the "get off during an early window with no ticket", and there was something similar on the Escape when I went. 

free-style-daily-5 (3).pdf 745.27 kB · 16 downloads

In that example, the ship's time in Kona is 7am - 5pm.  Most excursions in Kona don't start that early, and from experience most people don't get off the ship when it begins to tender at 7am.  From their experience, it'll be closer to 8am when people will start to want to get off, so from 7:45am they start with ticketed tendering.  The tendering from ship to shore isn't too long.
 

In Kona's, 7am is the earliest.  There is no special treatment or "Early Bird" that is 90minutes before everyone else.  It's everyone, not everyone else, starting at 7am.
 

We've been on NCL cruises to Hawaii twice, and we did remember the tendering process there.

14 hours ago, Ellis1138 said:

 

So on just about every NCL sailing I've been on, for tendering, it goes like this:

The first lifeboats/tenders are dropped and crew goes over to the land to set up the security area and where people get on and off the tenders. (Edited to add: I remember there was a post from someone who got to over with the crew, due to a super early excursion. That was dependent on the crew being really nice, though.)

 

Next, there is a 90 minute window, called Early Bird, where you don't need any tickets. You go down to the deck where the tendering will take place and just get on. 

 

After that Early Bird window is done, now starts the ticket parts, with Groups 1 to whatever. Never having been Gold or above, I have no idea how the ticketed groups work, since I always go early bird. I assume that I would have had to go to the assigned place to ask for my tickets and hope that I get a good time. High level Latitudes might be able to just get on, I don't know... someone with high Lat status can chime in.

We've been on several NCL cruises, including 6 since Covid.  Never heard of "Early Bird" window for tendering.

Before we became Gold/Platinum, we always had to either get a tender ticket or an excursion.  For excursion, we'd go to a specific area and are given/assigned tender tickets there, and basically followed the group as we're called.

For Gold/Plat and up, we were told to wait in a (different than the excursions) specific area.  While waiting there, we don't need tender tickets and we're just escorted to get on a tender.  There's usually not that many people, and we thought we were on the first tender going out, for guests.

Never heard of "Early Bird" tendering, for all of the NCL cruises we had been on.

I have seen excursions I booked, disappear.  My friends couldn't book any more, because they are sold out.

I've also encountered an excursion that shows up, but when I tried to book, I found there's only one spot.  After talking to NCL, I booked that one spot and kept checking to see if a spot come up (it did, and my wife and I were able to get on that excursion).

Wait till you guys travel to many other airports.  In some other airports there's no heating in the winter.  In some others there's no A/C in the summer.  In many airports there's no place to buy any food, and definitely not finding charging stations.   Many airports don't provide wifi (try Cairo).

At Pearson at least they seem to have improved in getting people through immigration, and the luggages are coming out fast enough.  We've travelled quite a bit since Covid, and have seen so many airports where luggages come out much much slower.

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

They pay their own way home.

Do they need to wait for the next turn-around port to get off, or they can get off at any upcoming port? 

Before getting to the port where they can get off, are they then charged the room & board for those days they don't work?  If it happens to be a long cruise, that could be many days from the time they said they quit.

5 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Over the years, I  have seen so many crew members not surviving the first few weeks of a contract.

What happens when they don't survive the first few weeks of a contract?

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

lately, Latitudes has been escorting their people to the front of the line at some ports. I have no idea what they will do at Cannes. 

Ever since we became Platinum two years ago, we were told to wait at a certain place, and they'd escort us to the tender, usually the first tender.

This can go to Hawaii port forum.  But it's better you book the Pearl Harbour Arizona Memorial tender ticket yourself, 8 weeks before.  That way you have a confirmed tender time/ticket.

The policy for the Arizona Memorial tender ticket has been changing.  In the past you can still go there on site and see if you can get a ticket (taking your chance there may still be ticket available), but they've changed that no more tickets to be handed out on site.  It may still change, but it's just best that you book that ticket yourself.

For Hawaii, I find it's easiest to rent a car, so you can get around yourself.

I wouldn't chance not getting back on ship by the all aboard time.

37 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

They don’t show the fee as a separate item on a bill. It is built into the exchange rate they give you. If you have ever had to correct a charge immediately, you can tell. If there is no fee, there is almost no difference between the charges. If there is a fee of 2.5% say, the reversal will be about 5% less than the original charge. 
 

I can’t believe that AMEX goes through a conversion to US$ and then to CAD$. I have never had that with Visa ans Mastercard. 

That's why I suggester water_baby to check again, because s/he apparently didn't know of the charge.

And yes Amex is awful, to charge more if it's different foreign currency than USD.  And again that's hidden into the rate they use.

5 minutes ago, Water_Baby_ said:

I have a Cobalt card. Haven't been charged FX fees - ever. 

You better check again.  Every other Cobalt cards, including my wife's and my supplementary card, got charged the extra 2.5% if spending in USD, or if in other currencies it'll be 2.5% extra to USD then another 2.5% to Cad.
Check the rates you got charged, vs the mid market rate.

On 4/19/2024 at 10:26 AM, buddy1755 said:

I got flights thru NCL for my upcoming transatlantic,  on the return leg of the trip we were booked out of Gatwick with Air Transat.  I went on to their site and booked our seat selection and paid for our luggage.  WELL NCL just changed everything,  I now fly out of Heathrow with Brittish Airway.  I was told by NCL AND Airtransat that that monies are not refundable.  So in the future I quess I would wait till last minute to choose seats I I will never pay for luggage until I get on the aircraft. 

This is really rough.

Just curious how many days till the flight were the changes made?  We don't know the reasons and which airlines.

We've bought air through NCL in the past when the savings were substantial. 

We are commoners, so we fly economy, and sometimes we'd pay for seat selections, and sometimes take a chance especially for short flight segments.  For luggages, if we need to pay, we'd try to wait till just before getting on to buy ahead if there's discount, or wait till airport check-in.

There's pros and cons for buying air through NCL, but this is a bad negative to consider for the future.

--

For changing from Canadian dollars, there are lots of money exchange places that give better rates than the banks, even bank's Private Banking rates.  There was a time I went across the street to buy US$ from a money exchange place, then back to a bank to buy money order (about $1800), saving about $45.  Some people wouldn't bother and just buy from bank.  For me, that extra half hour, saved me $45.

On 4/17/2024 at 12:16 PM, Nikita4 said:

The ship really needs some maitenance.

 

This will be our first and last NCL cruise, also the pax are special, many drunken elderly people on the ship. We never see things like this on a cruise.

Our  teen son was shoked after the first night after a old lady invited him to come with her in her cabin….

Do you know of any cruise ship that doesn't need maintenance?

You've never seen many drunken elderly people on a cruise, where have you sailed?

Maybe your son will be hooked on cruising.

We've been on several cruises.  Ship happens, with all ships.  Cancelled or changed itineraries.  Shortened port of calls.  Services/shows cancelled.  We may or may not like the compensations, sometimes zero compensation.  But we always get pampered on cruises, I get to be on vacation with my wife.  Life is short, we make the best of it and enjoy it.

1 minute ago, Fouremco said:

The Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card charges no foreign exchange fees.

Ok, that's a special one, of Scotiabank/Amex partnership.  You apply for that card through Scotiabank, not Amex.  Amex doesn't list that as a card you can apply through them, or show that card in Amex websites.

I don't know of Amex Amex card with no FX fee.

For the immigration/border agents, those IDs may suffice.

But the cruiseline may still require you to show passport. 

22 hours ago, Water_Baby_ said:

I use an American Express when we're outside of Canada and pay no foreign exchange fees. 

Which Amex card?  Most of the Amex cards we know of, charge foreign exchange fees.  If paying USD, it's 2.5%.  If other countries, they charge 2.5% to convert to USD, then another 2.5% converting to Cad.

It had happened to us before.  After booking, NCL came up with an offer of double points, but went up in price a bit.

For you, if the price went up, you'd have to evaluate whether the double points is important to you that you'd like to rebook at the slightly higher price. 

If the price is the same or lower, then it's a no brainer to rebook.