Sailing12Away

Vote for Le Bistro from me as well. I was a bit nervous on our most recent cruise as the menu changed a bit from the last time we visited and is more 'foo-foo' than I'm used to. It wasn't an issue at all, I had the Cote de Veau Roti, but swapped the veal chop with the filet instead. I don't eat baby cows, so they had no problem giving me mamma moo instead. And since I also don't eat mushrooms or foie gras, it was an easy swap to just get the meal with most stuff I do like and just swap out the protein.

For my upcoming trip out of LA in February they're charging us $100 per person for transfers (incoming is through LA, going home is through Miami - so I'm guessing $50 because I find it hard to believe Miami would be more expensive than LA). Which reminds me, I need to go and cancel those...

We're on a different sailing than you, our stop in St. John is on a Monday. I don't need the tour per se, just give me a few flights and let me find my favorite 🙂

If you're a wine person, you can also order a bottle with lunch and bring that back to your room so you can sip on it at your leisure before dinner.

You can absolutely decline the transfers and save some money. Either on the first half, back half, or both. Just give them enough notice.

Nope. But the 3br garden villa is out of this world. One of the biggest private decks of any of the ships. No need for a Haven courtyard when you have your own private hot tub and enormous deck.

Why is your nose so long though? That looks quite silly, same with the fin tail on the back. I honestly think the bottom one looks way more weird.

Sometimes it happens... Last trip we bought an expensive bottle at La Cucina. Rather than trying to force it all down before heading to the show, we had the butler bring the rest to our villa with our leftover pizza for a snack later on in the room. Despite what a certain someone on here thinks, I do have enough money to splurge $300 on a bottle of fine wine and have stayed in not only the Haven, but the garden villa. Oooh la la, look at me, I'm so fancy and you're not. /sarcasm https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/premium-plus-beverage-package.pdf As for the 'free' corkage fee... not sure if it's the new norm, but on our trip in May we had bought a bunch of bottles of wine in Bordeaux during an excursion and they stopped us when we got back on the ship. All we had to do was show our room key that said we had the drink package, and they let us go. No confiscating of bottles, no corkage fees. It was actually quite pleasant, so I hope that's the new norm.

For $120/person, seems like it may be close enough to walk to and just visit on our own without the formal tour. Do you recall how many samples you got to try?

Haven't missed the ship yet thankfully, but we came close. Had NCL booked air to fly from JFK to Miami, a simple short nonstop flight that should have been no problem. Original flight was supposed to get us in around 11am-12pm ish for a 4pm departure. Flight was delayed. Then we boarded, only to be kicked off because they wanted to use our plane to go to Colorado instead because it could handle the higher altitude that some other plane scheduled to go there couldn't. So everyone was off and back in the JFK terminal. I'm guessing at least 60% of the flight were cruise passengers for various ships, as everyone was on the phone trying to reach their cruise to find out what would happen if we didn't get there in time. Phone agents were horrible and giving wrong info creating a bigger panic. We eventually landed in Miami shortly before 3pm. Mad dash of everyone fighting each other for space on the monorail to be the first to baggage claim and the first to the cab lines. At baggage claim, there were at least 4 NCL agents there waiting for us (not sure about the folks on non-NCL cruises), and they assured us that if they were still there, we were fine and the ship was waiting for us but we did need to hurry. They piled us all into a van/bus thingy, stopped at the Breakaway first for those folks, and then onto the Jade for us. Only 2 people in the terminal, and we walked onto the ship at 3:55 and were pulling away from the dock before I even made it to our room. If we had missed the ship I would of just asked for a refund since it was a short 5 day cruise and the first day was a sea day. So no point sitting in a Miami hotel for 2 nights to catch the ship in Belize and be back in Miami 2 days later.

I'm on a similar cruise in September, but reverse order almost. Just go to google maps and search for 'cruise port' + port name. Then you can see how much there is to do and if the walk to get there is doable for you. We only booked 2 official excursions so far, planning on doing a bunch just on our own to wander. For Boston we're hoping to just catch a cab over to Sam Adams for the day. They've got a bunch of stuff on tap that we can't get locally here that I want to try.

If you have the upgraded drink package, then select bottles of wine are included for free. You can 'buy' at dinner or the bars and take it back to your room. Any bottle you purchase can be brought back to the room if you don't finish it. But in terms of outright buying a bottle to be delivered to the room, there's a cost for that even with the drink package. They have some options where you can request to have your room stocked with a bottle or 2 upon embarkation, but there's a fee for that service. Best thing to do is order a bottle with your meal, and take the leftover back with you.

What is this "gym" that you speak of? In all my cruises I don't think I've even found where the gym is let alone stepped inside of it.

Huge amounts.... literally all the things I mentioned fit into the inner flap of the suitcase lid. I'd rather have them if I need them then to spend 20+ minutes searching for a store that sells them in a random port I've never been to before and paying 10x what it cost me on Amazon. But to each their own. We've got those portable luggage scales at home and our bags have never been more than 30lbs each going on a trip. Coming home is a different story since we always bring back bottles of booze or wine from our adventures. But that's why we splurge for business class when we can and pack a folding duffle bag in the case. On the way home that gets filled with dirty laundry making extra room for the liquor in the harder cases.

There's tons of debate about this on the FB groups related to buying/selling them. When we sailed last month we asked the cruise next folks about buying some and applying them to an existing cruise. The only way we could do that was if we rebooked our cruise and applied them to the new booking. We could keep our existing cabin number, but our perks would have changed so we said no.

No worries, just start it off with a double 😉

Some more photos from our trip last month on the Star. We were in the garden villa, and the food was excessive. Just left post-it notes some days to say - "no snacks today please, we've got an early dinner booked". Top left is PB&J, top right is BLT with no mayo (that's what the post-it says on there), assorted truffles and chocolate/pistachio pastry bites, and a bowl of potato chips that was refilled daily until I was busting and told them to stop. Smoked salmon sandwiches Pastry snacks and chocolates Grilled cheese one day for a lunch snack Nachos with fixings (salsa, guac) and the best cheese on the ship - manchego

Bottom picture was the BLT sandwiches. Cheese & charcuterie plates above that, and various assorted chocolate sweets in between.

Lightweight, foldable backpack. Takes up no room in the suitcase and is great for excursions. Can safely pack away the room key, wallet, passports (if needed), water bottle and some snacks. Search for lightweight hiking backpack on Amazon, we have 2 different ones and they're both great. If we're going somewhere warm where snorkeling is involved, we bring our own towels. Search for microfiber quick dry beach towel. They're really thin and roll up tight in a pouch, but do a good job of wiping the water off without taking up the entire backpack like the cruise line towels do. They're not fluffy, but for the purpose of drying off they're perfect. The cruise beach towels stay sopping soaking wet and are hard to transport back without getting everything gross - these are perfect for excursions - keep the cruise pool towels on the ship at the pool. Last thing is a mini travel umbrella. Again, fits in the palm of your hand so takes up no room in the backpack and is good to have just in case of sun showers or unexpected rain.

Not just butlers, but concierge's too. When we were on the Star last month, the concierge came and introduced herself to us. Star doesn't have a Haven, but we were in the garden villa so we had lots of visitors making sure we had everything we could possibly want. We had never met her before, but she knew exactly who we were. Told us the name of our butler on the Jade and even knew certain things about that trip which didn't go well for us. It was a little creepy honestly, and we're not sure if we're just memorable folks or if they truly have a book or something they share with people about past guests. Thankfully we've never been bad guests so if there's anything in there about us at all it probably just says "fat lazy Americans who eat way more junk food than they should and don't wake up until noon on sea days". But yeah... just like we share names of good/bad staff, they're doing the same about us....🥴

If you're able, can you post some photos of the dailies? I have a friend sailing next month who is interested, and I'll be on Joy in September.

At no point did I say that by spending 3 weeks I would have seen every nook & cranny that is to be found in both countries. Australia is roughly the same size as the US, so I equate it to visiting 3 major cities in a weeks time, and spending 10 days driving both North & South island. A real feel for everything it has to offer - not at all, but a good taste of the places most important for me to see before they no longer exist. I'm about 20+ years from retirement age, so that's out of the question. And in the states when we say we only get 3 weeks' vacation, it's 3 work weeks (15 days off) - not 21 days off. So for me to devote 21 total days to just one single vacation, that is a LOT of time for me even if it's a waste to you. Time away from my dog, and finding a sitter willing to take her for 21 days. Assuming my job would allow me to take all that time off in a row. Assuming hubby's job also lets him do the same. Etc, etc. If I stuck with your logic of having to devote 6+ weeks at once I would never get there. Or by the time I got there the great barrier reef would no longer exist. I'll take my taste of the land down under over nothing for 20+ years any day of the week.

I think the first question is where are you located? Huge difference in trip experiences and length of total trip when you're talking about 2 places that are nearly the complete opposite side of the world from each other. Australia/NZ is high on our bucket list - but we need to give ourselves a full 3 weeks to do it right due to the 20+ hours in the air alone to get there. Europe... we can be there in 7 hrs, so no biggie - can head there this weekend if I found a cheap flight and was bored. Also a huge factor is timing - when are you looking to sail? Again, complete opposite ends of the world, so when one is in winter the other is in summer. Plus Australia/NZ is just barely coming out of hiding... we've tried planning trips there 2 years in a row and they keep being cancelled. So unless you're looking at late 2023 or 2024, I think you're gambling a bit with Australia/NZ right now.

Yes, only owners suites and garden villas get free bottled water/soda in the cabin. No other suites, Haven or otherwise, get free mini bar items. If your reservation does not have the words "Owners" or "Garden Villa" in there... you have to walk your own soda and glass of sparkling whatever to your room yourself by using your drink package at the bar outside of your room.

Seems a bit extreme, no? How about you just choose to not use their air promo in the future since that's what you have an issue with and not the cruise itself?