Firstin87

Hi,

My husband and I are considering going to Cuba next fall (Oct. to Nov.) and are trying to decide what week would be best. We'd do a 4 day cruise on NCL Sun (it will be our 5th or 6th NCL cruise) that runs each week from Mon. to Fri. The week of Oct. 29-Nov. 2 puts us in Cuba on Oct. 31, Halloween. Does anyone know if and to what extent Cuba celebrates Halloween? I'm wondering if Havana will be more crowded that day, are there parades or anything that will make it harder to get around the city, will it just be a gigantic block party (like Mardi Gras in New Orleans) or will it pretty much be a day like any other?

Thanks for the help!

Cyndy

Firstin87

Thank you so much for taking the time to create and post this! We're going to Costa Maya in March and this is so helpful!!

Thank you for writing such a complete history of what we'll see. So thoughtful of you to take the time to post this. We're sailing from NOLA in March and are spending a few days exploring the city (mostly the French Quarter) before we sail. I'll print this to take with us.

We are sailing from NOLA in March and are also staying at the Hilton Riverside. There's a threads about this hotel and getting to the cruise terminal in both the Gulf Coast Departures forum and the New Orleans forum. I asked about taking the Riverfront streetcar from the Hilton Riverside to the port and was told that it is only one stop away. Another poster said that you can bring your luggage without being a disruption to other passengers on the streetcar, too (I'm glad someone thought to ask that). So, if you don't want to walk, the streetcar at $1.25 would be less expensive than a cab.

Enjoy your trip!!

The Omni is a bit further away from the French Quarter than the Hilton Riverside. The Hotwire discount is around $20 a night, so we'd just book direct with the hotel for that little savings. According to the map, we'd have to walk 2.5 blocks to the same streetcar stop that is right outside the Hilton Riverside. But the Omni is about $75 less per night, so....now we've got more thinking to do....

One thing I noticed about the Omni hotel chain is that they publicize a "good night's rest" policy that the hotel is to be quiet from 10:30 p.m. on. Great idea.

Thank you so much. Once again, you live up to being a "saint". Really appreciate your helpfulness.

Will look at the Omni Riverfront now.

After thinking it over, my DH and I have decided the Hilton Riverside would be the best choice for our 3 pre-cruise days in NOLA. We looked on Hotwiere, Hot Rates, for our dates and see $119 per night. That is $101 less than the best rate we've found for the Hilton Riverside - $220 with our AAA discount for a room with a king bed.

Such a large discount sounds great, but also makes us a bit leery. Since there are no refunds and no changes, we want to be sure we get the Hilton Riverside when we choose the "4* hotel near French Quarter and Mississippi River with 90% recommended." Has anyone ever gotten a different hotel booking that description? Aside from the "no refunds, no changes", what other trade offs are we making? How do we get a room with a queen or king bed?

Thanks for all your help.

Hi,

We're sailing on NCL from NOLA in March 2018 and I'm trying to figure out transportation from our hotel to the ship. Does NCL sail from Julia St. or Erata? Looking at the streetcar map, it looks like the Riverfront streetcar line takes you to the pier. Is that correct?

Thank you!

Saint Greg,

Thank you so very much for the list of hotels. I appreciate knowing that you've stayed there as that's a definitely honest endorsement. You're very generous with your time and sure live up to being a saint.

Your cruise sounds great. What line is it? Our 5 day cruise ports are Cozumel and Costa Maya. Looks like there is quite a lot to do in both places. I hope you have a wonderful time!

I had forgotten that 2019 was a Winter Olympics year. Thanks for the reminder. We love watching the skiing events. A cruise sounds like a good break between two such time consuming sports events. I like that March Madness is shorter than the NBA Playoff season - it took forever for our Warriors to win again.

Thank you for looking up those hotels. Since Hotwire could be a hassle if our plans change, it would probably be better if I booked through someplace else. We usually use Expedia and sometimes find the best rate through the hotel's site.

Can you tell me a few hotel names or the street names bordering the area that is best for us to stay? I'm not sure if we're better off being in the French Quarter or along the edge of the French Quarter and downtown. On one hand, we'll be spending our time in the French Quarter and going to the river for two excursions (Creole Queen and a swamp boat tour); on the other hand, are there more restaurants closer to downtown that have more menu options for me. Not that it would hurt me to eat less during our three days in NO - I'll easily make up for it on the ship!

If in the French Quarter, does it get loud at night? I thought I read that somewhere.

You are so helpful! Thank you so much.

BTW, where are you cruising to on Feb. 25?

I've never used Hotwire, but don't have an issue with trying them. Can you not cancel hotels booked through them? We have no intention of cancelling this trip, however, you never know what might happen and we've got trip insurance just in case. Right now we'd like to narrow down the area we'd stay, make a list of hotels in that area, and keep an eye on prices. We'd like to make a reservation now (if we find a good deal) or later this year. We don't want to be deciding at the last minute.

We'd like to keep the price below $200 a night.

Thank you for the info on feed, as well!

Hi Saint Greg and Drifter42,

Thanks for getting this thread moved back to the top of the forum. Saint Greg, you are so helpful and knowledgeable - I've read your posts on this and have written down hotel names to look into. Taking so much time to help everyone else is very kind of you. There's only so much someone can figure out from guidebooks, websites, and CC (which is the biggest help!) and getting a sense of distance and transportation is always tricky for me.

My DH and I are doing NCL's 5 day Western Caribbean cruise from NOLA March 2-7, 2018. We plan on arriving in NO on Mon., Feb. 26, to spend 3 days sightseeing, then boarding the ship Fri., March 2. I'm hoping Saint Greg can give me some hotels that are in the right area for our needs. We will not have a car.

We plan on walking around the French Quarter, doing a swamp and plantation tour, doing the Creole Queen battlefield tour, and riding the St. Charles streetcar along its entire line to see the garden district and other areas of NO. We're still deciding what else to do. I know the Creole Queen leaves from the FQ and the swamp tour (provider unknown until I book it through Viator on TripAdvisor, but I'm trying to figure out who the provider is) says it "picks up from downtown and French Quarter hotels".

It looks like streetcars will get us to the FQ and we'd want to be within an easy walking distance to a streetcar stop. From my research, I think we want to be near the FQ and downtown. Being near the port to board teh cruise ship is not a high priority.

One of my challenges is eating, which relates to whether or not we stay at a larger "chain" hotel that has a restaurant inside or at a smaller "boutique" hotel. I am allergic to iodine and do not eat anything that comes from the ocean - no seafood of any kind. Yes, I've found that makes eating in NO a bit tricky.

What hotels do you recommend I research?

Also, are there any safety concerns with walking back to our hotel in the evening? We won't be out very late, probably returning to our hotel by 8:00 p.m.

Thank you so much for your help!

Thank you so much. That's very helpful.

We always stay at the Embassy Suites. We have walked to the port the next day . It is a few blocks away and takes about 10-minutes. You head a few blocks to the Outlet at Riverwalk then take a right an follow the Port of New Orleans walk. Just put it in your GPS and it will take you right to the ship. We found that the happy hour of free apps and drinks the night before and the free breakfast with mimosas and bloody marys plus the no cab fee to the port make this hotel an economical place to stay before our cruise out of NOLA.

We are on an NCL cruise departing from NOLA in March of 2018 and plan to spend 2-3 days pre-cruise in NOLA. We like Embassy Suites and I thank you for giving such a good description of its location to the port. Is it also close enough to walk to the French Quarter?

Thanks!

The butler is the suite perk that makes transitioning back to "real life" difficult. On our Hawaii cruise on the POA last April, I bought a sarong, but could not figure out how to tie it. No worries - I knew our female butler would be able to show me.

Butlers give you individual attention. As others have noted, they bring you afternoon snacks, which are delicious and can be items you don't find anywhere else on the ship. On POA, our butler brought us cookies one afternoon and I never saw cookies anywhere else on the ship. I have a food allergy, so some days she would being separate snacks for my husband and I so that he would not be limited by my allergy.

We've had butlers three times and they are always wonderful - helpful, very thoughtful, good sense of humor. They make you feel like you are the only people they have to take care of and I can't stress enough how much they are missed when you return home.

Hoopics - Sorry that you were in such pain throughout the trip. Glad you're doing better,and I hope AIG sends a check quickly. You've got a great writing style. I agree with a previous poster that you'd be a hoot to cruise with. Sounds like you can make any situation a funny story.

This is a great reminder about having travel insurance. Luckily, neither my DH nor I have had to go to the doctor's office onboard and it's interesting to hear about that part of your experience, as well as what the costs were for your procedure. Doubt your health insurance plan covers any of it.

DH and I have been on 4 cruises from 1987 to 2009 and did not buy insurance for any of them. Lucked out and had no problems. Now that we're empty nesters, we're traveling more and buy insurance every time. You never know what may happen and you can find policies that include "cancel for any reason" (expensive) and ones that are less expensive and cover such a long list of possibilities that they may as well be "any reason" - illness of immediate family member (get that if you've got elderly parents or have kids), losing your job (don't assume you can't get laid off - your company can get bought by another and you can lose your job regardless of how good you are at it), as well as the usual medical and trip change expenses.

Our travel insurance covers all costs - airfare, hotels, excursions, as well as the cruise itself. DH researched various plans and found that you can buy a more inclusive policy for far less than what NCL will sell you.

Insulin is not injected via a "big hypodermic needle", either. As stated by others, blood does not shoot out or go anywhere but on the test strip when the sugar level is being checked. There is no "contamination" of anything nearby when a diabetic is checking their blood sugar or getting their insulin injected.

I get that needles may be disturbing to the OP. However, in the time it took you to see the woman's diabetes being treated, you could also have simply looked away. And while you look away and go about eating, be grateful that you can do that without a second thought. For a diabetic, everything, every little thing, every bite, of anything, has to be calculated for carbohydrates and whether or not an insulin injection is needed.

A finger prick with a blood glucose meter maybe? She maybe was diabetic and needed an insulin injection in an emergency.

That's got to be it. My son is a diabetic and checks his blood sugar level and takes his insulin shot at the table. He's been so discrete about it that others at the table haven't even noticed he's done it.

Going to the bathroom to do this is not only inconvenient for the diabetic (and, believe me, that disease is "inconvenient" enough for them), but also less sanitary than doing it at the table.

We are doing the Panama Canal in Jan. of 2019 on NCL's Star. I'm curious what you did not like about the ship.

From my research, NCL's ships that do the Panama Canal transit are the Sun and the Star. There may be others in their fleet that do this cruise, as well, and you can check their website to get more information on the ships.

Whatever line you cruise, hope you enjoy your trip!

Keep in mind that the national park service now requires reservations at Haleakala if you want to be up top at sunrise. so you might want to do the ships excursion for that... or if you're going to diy it, make your reservations up to 60 days in advance at the NPS website.

 

As others have already said, Hawaii is very easy to DIY with a rental car.

 

have fun, whatever you do

We were on POA April 29-May 6. Although we did not do sunrise at Heleakala, I do recall seeing this information during my research . This would be one of the few/the only excursion I would recommend booking through NCL.

As many others have posted, it is easy and far less expensive to book excursions yourself in Hawaii. Many of the excursions we saw available through NCL we booked ourselves and the price difference was incredible - sometimes as much as $100 more through NCL - and there is no differences at all in the excursion.

We rented a car on most islands and explored on our own. We drove to LeHaina on Maui and it was a cute tourist town. One thing I did not want on our vacation was for my husband to do a lot of driving (he does enough of that on his work commute), but the drive to LeHaina took less than an hour and was beautiful. You're not on a freeway, you're driving through the beauty of Hawaii, so it is an enjoyable trip.

On Maui, we did the Skyline Eco Adventures zipline in Haleakala. It was a lot of fun. If you're interested in something adventurous, that's a good activity to do - great for first timers like us.

You'll have a wonderful trip! POA is a lovely ship, service was great, restaurants were good. My only "complaint" would be that the buffet was very limited, both with food options and closing time. At 9:30 one night we wanted ice cream or a quick snack and figured we'd drop into the buffet, but they were closed. Also, their dessert selection was poor. Ended up at Cadillac Grill (great! disappointed we only got to eat there once) and despite ice cream not being on the menu, our waiter brought it. He was great - funny, friendly, we had a nice visit with him as the Grill was basically empty.

Downside to this cruise is that you come home afterwards. Readjusting to "real life" is hard.

We just got off the POA in May and were in an Owner's Suite. The butler will keep your fridge stocked with bottled water and the sodas of your choice. They will also deliver your room service order. Being in a suite, you have an additional room service menu which will be in your suite. No charge for room service in suites.

POA only tenders in Kona and, yes, you do get priority tendering. The concierge, Thomas, will escort you through a crew area and you go to the front of the line for the next tender. Our timing was great and we got right on the tender, but that was just the luck of timing.

Other perks:

Cagney's for breakfast and lunch.

Priority embarkation - no waiting in a long line; pastries and juice while you check in; escorted right to Cagney's for lunch (if you board early).

Priority disembarkation.

You should have received or will soon receive an email from NCL asking for cabin amenity choices - pillows, for example.

I recommend booking your specialty restaurants online as early as possible. You can make changes once onboard via your butler or the concierge, but we were glad to have one less thing to do once onboard.

I'll be posting my review of our cruise in the next day or two, but feel free to ask any questions you have. You'll have a wonderful time!!!

We sailed on POA from April 29-May 6 (still need to post a review) and stayed in an Owner's Suite. We had the pre-night hotel, which transported us to the pier the morning of the cruise. We left the hotel around noon, had priority embarkation (which you probably have as a suite guest, as well), and were ushered to Cagney's for lunch after we checked in. Rooms are ready by deck and are not done in numerical order. They announce when guests have access to each deck. We were on Deck 10 and our suite was available around 3:00, but I doubt there is any consistency to the time decks are opened.

You'll have a wonderful time!

We just booked the Panama Canal cruise for Jan., 2019 on the Star in the exact type of room you described. OS with a front and side balcony - looks amazing! The side balcony has an overhang and should be in the shade all/most of the time. The front will be perfect for the transit through the Canal.

I know just how you feel booking another cruise right away. We got off the Pride of America to Hawaii earlier this month (review in process) and not only booked the Panama Canal (on my husband's bucket list), but are also considering a British Isles cruise (on my bucket list). You get soooo spoiled in an OS that returning to "real life" is hard!

Captain Canuck,

Sorry you had the same problem. Alamo's customer service is very poor. They've got the contact information for customers, so sending a mass email is quick and easy. Pity they don't bother. Hope you had a wonderful time on Maui.

I'm curious how a company loses their permit to send a shuttle to the port. I would guess if the loss was because Alamo did not pay a fee in time, that would be straightened out quickly, so I'm thinking Alamo must have broken some rules.

We were on the POA from April 29-May 6 and rented a car on Maui from Alamo. When we made the reservation, Alamo did pick ups and drop offs at the ship, but when we got off the POA, Alamo did not have a shuttle. We took another company's shuttle to the Lihue Airport and walked to Alamo. We were told that the previous week Alamo lost their permit to send a shuttle to the port, so no longer offer that service. This left us with no free transportation back to the ship. We took a taxi for $15.

The customer service at Alamo was very poor. When we rented the car, the clerk did not offer to reduce our rate or have any concept that the lack of shuttle service was a problem. She just talked to a co-worker about whether or not they had emailed customers about the change. There was another group from the ship with the same problem, so Alamo either did not notify customers or they missed both of us. Either way, the clerk should have been more understanding of the problem.

When we dropped the car off, we told that clerk about the problem and she reduced the car rate by $15, thereby comping us for the taxi ride.

Don't rent from Alamo on Maui! It's not worth the hassle, especially when there are so many other options - Dollar, Hertz, Thrifty, etc.