RaiderDuck

The Holiday Inn Port of Miami or the Intercontinental near the port.

When looking at a cruise, I'll check both the cruise line's direct website and our favorite online TA's website. If the TA offers us something more (like extra room cash or free prepaid gratuities or whatever), we'll use them. If not, we'll just use the cruise line's website.

For example, on our upcoming 15-day NCL cruise, booking through NCL directly would have given us two perks and $60 cruise cash. Booking through the TA gave us the exact same cabin at the exact same price with three perks and $240 cruise cash.

Does it really make that big a difference on a 3 day cruise? The highlight of our 4 stops in Ensenada was watching a passenger be detained for trying to smuggle tequila through security at the port, and talking back to the authorities who were armed with automatic weapons.

What possible reason would someone have for not declaring a bottle of tequila??? It's not illegal to buy it or bring it across as long as you declare it.

It was mentioned that they try to steer you to the buffet and that has been our experience as well. We still find the MDR that is open. Another mentioned the hassle of dragging around the carry-ons. All ships we have sailed have a bar area that has a checked bag service. For free, tagged and staffed. We find that area first, check our carry-ons and head for lunch or a quick walk of the ship. Pick them up once room availability is announced.

Thank you! I had no idea and plan to take advantage of that on the Sun.

Do you recall your embarkation port?

Yes. The cruise ran from LA to Puerto Vallarta to Mazatlan to Cabo San Lucas back to LA.

2016 Mexican Riviera aboard the Jewel. The food and specialty restaurants were great, we loved the shows, and Iain Bagshaw (who's now with Marella) was an awesome CD with a droll sense of humor. The weather and itinerary were both awesome, with the highlight being our bar-hopping shore excursion in Mazatlan, which ended with the tour guides pouring out multiple shots of tequila for everyone on the moving the bus whilst we all caroused and sang all manner of songs badly. We normally NEVER tip tour guides, but those guys got $20 from us as were getting off the bus. They made a nice-but-routine shore excursion into a total blast.

Don't know what category you are in but the balcony cabins on the SUN are the large. The minis are special and the suites are the best.

We're currently booked into a Oslo Deck Window cabin (category OD) but would be amenable to bidding on a Balcony cabin when that opens up.

This November, my wife and I will be spending our first anniversary on a 15-night cruise on the Sun. We've previously spent two weeks on the Star and one week on the Jewel. Are there any major differences we should know about?

Yes, the Spirit's buffet is quite nice and well laid out. Sun, not so much.

Slightly off-topic, but what's wrong with the Sun's buffet? We were planning on eating breakfast there most port days. If it sucks, we may eat breakfast in the MDRs or the Sports Bar (O'Sheehan's Sun replacement) instead.

NOTE TO U.S.A. CITIZENS: Persons travelling on a US passport do not require a visa to enter Cuba for tourism purposes for a period not exceeding thirty (30) days. Cuba welcomes US tourists. Cuban immigration officials do not stamp passports, so there is no record of entry to or exit from Cuba recorded in the passport. US law forbids US citizens to freely travel to Cuba and to spend any money.

This may be a recent change. When we sailed to Cuba in 2017, RCCL charged everyone $75 for a visa to enter the country. It would be nice to not have to pay it again.

We've never had a "bad" (or even mediocre) cruise, but two stick out as really outstanding:

1) Carnival Splendor in 2016. Big ship, lots to do, a nice variety of ports, and a dynamic ball of positive energy in Cruise Director Chloe Loddo. It was our first week-long cruise.

2) Norwegian Jewel in 2016 as well. Not as big, but a bunch of specialty restaurants, a droll and very funny CD in Iain Bagshaw (who's now with Marella) and a tequila shore excursion in Mazatlan that ended with the tour guides pouring out multiple shots of Jose Cuervo for all the passengers on the bus whilst it was driving around Mazatlan. We NEVER tip tour guides, but those guys got $20 from us as we stepped off the bus. Just a blast.

Tip's prepaid...when do they offer that?

Some online TAs will offer it, particularly on the Mini-Suites and above. And the cruise lines themselves will very occasionally offer it as part of a promotion.

Question: If we book the shore excursions online and take the $50/port credit as OBC, can that OBC then be applied towards the DSC?

The Jewel has several specialty restaurants. Chin-Chin (Asian) and O'Sheehan's (pub food) are free. Cagney's (steak), Le Bistro (French), La Cucina (Italian), Teppanyaki (Japanese), the sushi bar, and Moderno (Brazilian steakhouse/churascurria) are all extra cost.

I know the Jewel has a spa but have no idea how good it is. Expect it to be pricey (as is the norm with cruise ship spas).

It's kind of weird: the TOS for the Shore Excursion Credit clearly says you have to book the excursions over the phone or on the ship, but there's also a big splash page on MyNCL telling me to use the credit and book the excursions online. So I guess you can do it either way...?

Muster drills are a briefly annoying, but necessary, part of the cruise experience. In our opinion, NCL handles them MUCH better than Carnival (which makes you stand out on the deck for a 1/2 hour or more staring at the lifeboats).

In our case, picking a cabin was $300 pp more than the OX guarantee. Why did we spend that to pick our cabin? Because OX's base (i.e. what you'll probably get) is an obstructed view porthole. We don't want an obstructed view ANYTHING, and aren't that crazy about a porthole. So we'll pay the extra $$$ to pick the room we want. The benefits are nice and everything, but they're not the reason we went up in price.

Strangely enough, we were allowed to book Teppanyaki yesterday for our cruise on the Sun in November. Maybe it's because our cruise is so far in the future and they do carry a limited number of book-ahead seats?

This will be our first time on the Sun, but based on our previous experiences onboard the Star and Jewel, your best bets will be Le Bistro, Cagney's and Teppanyaki.

That ain't necessarily so.

 

We've sailed like 50 days+ on the Sun and love everything about it. We despise the mega ships with a passion. Will never do another sailing on any mega ship--whether NCL, RCCL, MSC, etc.

What did you not like about the megaships? I ask because we're wondering if we're missing out on anything only sailing medium and smaller-sized vessels (not by choice necessarily, but because the ships with our preferred itineraries have been that size).

Who pays full price for the drink package?

Even at "free," it's still not worth it for us. The "free" price (which means you're still paying the Service Charge) for our upcoming 15-night cruise was $288/person. On a 15-night cruise, that means each of us would have to buy an average of two drinks every night just to break even. Simply don't plan on boozing that much.

Most of the drinks will be more like $10-12 per. Even at those prices, you'll still have to REALLY hammer them back to get the UBP to pay for itself.

If you liked the Sun, wait till you try one of the Breakaway Plus class ships. You're going to be blown away.

 

 

Welcome to the NCL family!

Are the megaships really that much better? I've read they have massive crowding problems because they don't expand the eating/entertainment areas enough to match the greater number of passengers.

(Keep in mind that the largest ships we've sailed on are the Jewel and the Carnival Splendor, both of which are medium-sized at best.)

You do understand that when it goes in the garbage it can still end up in the ocean? the whole point is to eliminate palstic straws altogether just like the movement to eliminate plastic bags. Reusable everything is so much better than disposable everything!

Pat

Reusable shopping bags have been scientifically shown to promote the spread of diseases. Plastic bags all the way.