weloverunning

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What a kind service to post this.  I made the mistake of asking on FB cruise pages and no one answered. Hopefully, you saved someone the heartbreak.

We are a family of 8 going to Alaska on June 10th. Our son's fiance is on a visitors US visa from Brazil.  We knew nothing about this until of PCP mentioned it in passing.  I had said "Oh, Amanda is from Brazil". PCP asked if she's an american citizen. Well, no. She's on a visitor's visa. She point out said, "She will not be able to cruise with you" What??? She said she has had people turned away at the port without a Canadian Visitor's Visa EVEN if you have no intentions of getting off the ship in Canada.

Amanda was in Brazil at the time and after jumping through all the hoops (paperwork, finger printing, etc.)I believe everything is in order.  We will all hold our breaths until she is able to board.

I’m sorry to drag this subject out but I have one final question for you “electrical” people. If I buy a rechargeable flat iron, do you think it’s possible the outlet can handle charging a lithium battery versus a plug in flat iron? 

I am looking to pull the trigger on a once-in-a-lifetime cruise. Looking for pros and cons of front facing  versus aft facing.  The only things that comes to mind is whether the front facing is very windy and/or the aft facing is very hot in tropical weather. 

We have always booked inside.  Time to spend the rotten kids inheritance!!!

We received our upgrade notice today.  We are on the Epic 12/5-12/15.  Surprised we got it 29 days out. They accepted our balcony upgrade at $135 per person.  That is a good deal for a 10 day cruise.  $399 inside plus $135 for balcony pp.  So we saved at least $130 for two by not booking a balcony sailaway from the start. I had also put in bids for mini-suite and spa balcony.  I can no longer see these bids. Does that mean that once they accept the balcony, the bidding is over?

Thanks Princess.

If we bid on mini suite spa balcony and it is rejected, do we then have a chance to bid on a spa balcony, mini suite balcony or balcony  as offered on the email?

I've read 100s of responses but need a quick answer please.

We booked a cruise on Friday for 12/5.  Today I received 4 upgrade offers.  If I bid on all four, how do they decide which one to offer me?  I don't want to accept the balcony if they are going to approve my mini suite or spa balcony? Thanks for any input.

Received email today from NCL. They accepted our bid of $105 pp to upgrade from inside to balcony on Getaway 11/27. The only issue is cabin is right near stairs and elevators which might be a little noisy but we had only paid $459 for inside .

I would like your opinion. Looking to book Getaway for November. Inside is $330 less than balcony. If I understand correctly, if you accept an upgrade you do NOT receive the second free perk. We are not interested in any of the second free perks (we will not be getting off the ship to use the excursion perk, definitely no internet usage, we are platinum so we get two free LeBistro dinners. and there will not be any third person). So I don’t want to pay for any of these. (Unless they suddenly add the prepaid service charge as a perk down the line.)

The only other difference I see is $50 OBC for inside versus $100 OBC for balcony. We really don’t have a preference on cabin since we have been on 36 cruises.

Would we be better off paying the $1617 for inside versus $1997 and bid up to $100 per person for the balcony (if the offer should arise)?

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Thanks for any opinions.

Host Anne- I am usually so on top of these excursions but life got in the way. We are interested in hiking in St. John national park after being in St. Thomas many many times. My son came up with this scenario. Can it work? There are 8 of us. Can we grab a larger cab for 8 instead of two smaller ones?

We are on the NCL Escape arriving in CharlotteAmalie Jan.3rd 8:00-6:00 PM.

I would prefer to avoid the 45 boat ride from Charlotte to Red Hook. I would rather take a cab ride then ferry ride to Cruz Bay just in case conditions are rough after two sea days!!

Sail into Charlotte Amalie, we are there from 8am til 6pm

Cab ride from Boat to Red Hook – 7 miles 22 mins

9am ferry - $6 per person (one way)

Cab ride from Cruz Bay dock to Johnny Horn Trailhead-8 miles 25 minutes

Hike Johnny Horn Trail to Watermelon Cay- 1.5 miles (Moderate)

Beach/snorkel/lunch

Hike from Watermelon Cay to Annaberg Sugar Plantation 1 mile (easy)

Check out plantation- ruin type thing, looks cool

Cab from Annaberg Sugar Plantation to Cruz Bay- 7 miles 21 mins

Ferry from Cruz bay to either Red Hook (20 mins + 20 min cab ride to ship

Cruz Bay to Red Hook leaves every hour on the hour, thinking we aim to catch the 4:00, this way if we miss it we still have the 5:00, we’ll just cut it close getting to the boat right at 6:00.

The Cruz Bay to Charlotte Amalie ferry last boat leaves at 3:45 ($12 one way)

Ferry Schedule

http://www.usvi.net/information/transportation/ferry-schedules/st-thomas-to-st-john-ferry-schedule/

Hiking Trails

http://www.alltrails.com/explore?b_tl_lat=18.372202346461265&b_tl_lng=-64.75341796875&b_br_lat=18.326825495077223&b_br_lng=-64.68320846557617

I would so appreciate your help so I can get on with more important things like packing!!

Muesli/Mueslix every morning for breakfast. Just add some mixed berries and slivered almonds (in bowls right next to mueslix). Wonderful. Had it 14 days straight on our last cruise!

That's odd. We sail on Saturday also and all seven reservations for MDQ are still in place for 9:30.

We use cable ties. They work great on the towel hooks. We keep them in our outside suitcase zipper anyway to lock up our suitcases when we travel.

I don't know what you mean about the points. Does points have anything to do with OBC? We have been platinum for a few years and all of our kids have sailed NCL at least 5 times each. So we aren't worrying about getting to 250 points.

The codes are easyfare and latitude and on the same confirmation it says

Latitude- US $50 On-Board Credit per Stateroom. Nothing was changed on our reservations since the original booking date of 2/27/15.

Are there any worthwhile perks with Latitudes? Seems that RCCL is much better!

Priority boarding (special room), priority tender, dinner for 2 in LeBistro including a bottle of wine, strawberries, behind the scene tour, free laundry service, bottle of wine, priority dinner reservations, and a few other things. We consider them worthwhile perks.

We are leaving on the Escape in three weeks. I don't want to deal with any discrepancies on the ship so I requested amenity confirmation on our three reservations. I wanted to verify NCL showed 6 UBP including tips, 1 Soda package including tips, 7 prepaid service charges, $100 OBC for being a shareholder and two $50 Latitude OBC as listed on our original booking date of Feb. 27th.

When I sent an email to my PCC, she told me we do not qualify for the Latitude OBC's because we have the UBP. They are listed on my original confirmation. Has anyone else been told this after the initial booking? Did they make a mistake at the booking or is my PCC wrong?

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Gerry: They added the $250 OBC for cruises of 14 days or more the week after we got back from our 14 day cruise.:mad:

SJB: We already get two free dinners for being platinum so we took the $100.

We were not able to use our AARP discount with it. The AARP was $24 so we gave that up to get the $100. We had a choice to keep the AARP, give up the Shareholders, and they would give us dinner at Cagneys. Didn't think the dinner was worth the $76 difference.

Never a problem. However, the OBC cannot be used for daily service charge or casino.

Newcastlemam: Here is the link. There are a number of tours. We did a tour since it was our first time SUP and we had no idea where to go. We went along the coast along several resorts. Stopped for a beer at one resort. Super nice people. Didn't try to sell you pictures, just put them on facebook for you to see later on. Picked us up and dropped us off at the ship. Don't think it cost more than $50 or so. You can also check them out on trip advisor.

http://supcuracao.com/

We chose the "smallest" trike since our driver was 5'5" and we had to use the one with a back cushion sewn in to move the driver forward to be sure to reach the pedals. Look at some of the pictures in their gallery. Some people look like they have to stretch to reach the pedals. When I just looked, I looked at January2014. The people on the top row far right look pretty tall to me. It was great fun and something we never saw offered.

P.S. They post all pictures on Facebook and don't try to sell you anything!!

Last cruise we tried Trikes Aruba. One of the best excursions we have done in 28 cruises. We also did SUP Curacao. (Stand up paddleboarding). We booked both of these excursions on our own and was very impressed with the professionalism and wonderful communication with both of them.

I received my first upgrade email today after 26 cruises on various cruislines. It must be a slow cruising week starting Feb. 1st.

The offer was $30 total to upgrade from an inside Riviera deck to oceanview on Main deck. Turned down the main deck because it was across from the cabin stewards closet and it was under the lobby. Took them up on the oceanview but chose to stay on Riviera Deck. If I had booked an oceanview even today, it would cost $200 more for the same cabin!

I was two-three weeks out from my last half-marathon when we were on a two-week NCL cruise in November. I NEVER vary from my schedule. Therefore, we had to run 10 miles on a treadmill one day as it was raining and the seas were high. OMG. It was not fun trying to run and not fall off the treadmill. You can use your GPS watch as long as the ship is in port. We ran 8 miles one day while in port. It was hot but doable. Lots of laps. People will stop in the middle of the track, take pictures, look out at the sea, etc. Its just like the walkers who start at the front of a race with no intention of going fast. LOL. We use polka chips/rubber bands or just about anything to try to keep track of laps. Just move rubber bands from one wrist to another after each lap and then start putting them back to the other wrist after first mile. Good luck to you in your race!

We were asked 6 of 7 nights if we would like/mind sharing a table with others. We always said yes and were sat at a table for 4 (once) and a table for 6 or 8 the other nights. Its always nice to meet new people and the advantage is that if you don't feel comfortable with someone, you aren't obligated to sit with them the entire time like set dining times.