jasoneats

We are just returned from the reverse run of this itinerary (Buenos Aires to Santiago). A few days into the cruise, we were offered a choice of four different day long excursions in Santiago which all ended at the airport. We chose one that included Bicentennial Park and the Bahai Temple. We disembarked about 8:30 am and proceeded through customs and passport control.  We identified our luggage in the terminal and handed it off to porters who secured it in a locked truck for the day. 

We then boarded a coach for an all day tour of Santiago.  Our guide was knowledgeable and engaging.  We were fed a delicious lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking the Bicentennial Park.  Around 5 pm, were dropped off at the airport where we reclaimed our luggage. The cost was $249 per person, IIRC. 

Our flight was not until 11:20 pm, so we still had several hours to kill in the airport.  The biggest downside was that we could not check in until 3 hours before our departure, so we spent a few hours sitting with our bags.  We had some dinner and people watched for a bit and then it was time to check in. In my opinion, it was better than spending 14 hours at the airport.  

Viking did offer a "hospitality room" at a hotel in Santiago for those pax with late flights. I am not sure what this looked like as we chose the other option. 

I hope this helps. 

Thanks TayanaLorna!  This is super helpful.  😀

We will be on our first ocean sailing on Viking in February from Buenos Aires to Santiago. Does anyone know if VO ships stock memory foam pillows?  I have trouble sleeping on any other kind of pillow, so I always travel with my own.    My Viking rep said that his information shows they can be requested, but they are not listed in the Onboard Preferences section of MVJ.  Given how long this trip is, I would love to leave my pillow at home and free up some valuable luggage space.  Can anyone confirm whether or not I can rely on finding one onboard?  Thanks in advance!

We (2 guys, early 60's) have been on 15+ cruises on NCL and we have met many, many wonderful people through these meetups.  Both men and women, almost always couples, from all over the world.  While they have mostly skewed older (over 40), there have also been some younger folks.  This may be because we tend to choose longer itineraries.  On some sailings, we have become fast friends with just one other couple on board, while other times there has been a large, gregarious group. Give it a try the first couple nights, as sometimes people don't make it on embarkation day.  We have also found that once you meet others, you can adjust the meetup time and place to suit your needs.  Don't miss out on the chance to meet some really great people!

59 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Yes, NCL will do antigen testing on board for those who need it in order to fly home. 

FYI,  the answer to this and many other COVID related questions are given on ncl.com on the SailSafe web page. 

Thanks @njhorseman!  I see it now.  I have been over and over these pages so many times that it must have gotten past me.  I am grateful for the valuable help that Cruise Critic always offers!!

I am sorry if this has been covered, but my search was not successful.

We are on the Gem's Transatlantic itinerary from NYC to Rome on 4/24/22. My question is about testing ahead of our return flight to the US.  We are going directly from the ship to the airport in Rome, using NCL's shuttle.  (We purchased our air through NCL when it was really cheap.) Will there be testing available on the ship the day before we disembark?  We have to show proof of a negative Covid test just one day before we fly.  I'm hoping someone has already faced this scenario and can help us out.

Also, I understand that it could all change before we end our cruise on 5/9...  Thanks!!

11 hours ago, Von & John said:

 

Your description of Miami Customs sounds suspiciously familiar...
Were you perhaps on the Getaway - Copenhagen to New Orleans cruise?

Yes...that was the one!  I'm sure you can understand why I want more information up front this time around.  

We are US citizens.  

We stop in Portugal, Spain, France and Italy...so all Schengen.

On our westbound trip, our passports were initially collected and held.  British officials came on board ahead of our UK stop and met with us face to face, returning our documents to us at that time.  

We booked our air through NCL (I know, I know) and we must return the same day we dock (again, I know, I know. Unfortunately, time constraints mean we must do it this way.)  I am hoping that it will be smooth sailing out of the terminal and off to Fiumicino when we disembark.  

Thanks for the info!

Forgive me if this has been covered already.  My search turned up nothing.

How might customs and passport control be handled on our eastbound TA on NCL in April?  We leave from NYC and our first stop is the Azores (if we are, in fact, able to dock) and then Lisbon.  We finish in Rome. Will we all have to go through the process at our initial port or might there be officials onboard during the crossing to make it happen?  

I only ask because during our westbound crossing in 2019, we did the process in Miami, our first US port.  It was a nightmare!  We were all required to disembark and we were held in an overcrowded terminal with no food or water for many hours.  There were not enough seats for everyone and we were not warned that this would be the scenario.  There were many unhappy cruisers that day! I am hoping to go into this cruise with more information.

Thanks in advance for any and all insights you might offer.  We can't wait to get back to cruising after more than two years of being stuck on the land!

It’s Lobster Night at our house. Now you KNOW you’re not on NCL!

😉

Thanks CarolinaMamma for posting this. I called just now. The agent originally said I could not subtract anything from my account after final payment. I was clear with him that other people in my same position had done the same thing today. He checked with his supervisor and came back on the line to tell me that, in fact, yes I could do that!  He did clarify that I would be paying a higher DSC if/when we do actually sail. 
 

it will be great to have these funds back in my bank account , especially if it ends up being many months before we do sail. 

We were on this cruise as well.  I would agree with almost everything that everyone has said above.  (FWIW, we thought the food in the MDR was good and we had a great cabin steward.) But all the rest of it is true.  There was a pervasive lack of communication between the officers/managers and the staff.  We complained repeatedly and directly to the maitre'd in Taste and yet we faced the same problems day after day.  Tables with bread but no butter, or no candles, or no jam at breakfast.  Trying to get your water glass or coffee cup refilled most times involved at least two requests.  And don't even start with me about the coffee creamer situation.

Of course none of these things by itself makes for a "terrible" cruise or the "worst cruise ever."  But when the main topic in the elevators day in and day out is what a joke the service is onboard, then you know something is up.  I work in customer service.  I tried to make the point to the people running the dining room that I didn't think that they wanted the customers to be having this bad experience.  They would not even look me in the eye when I was talking to them.  That was on day 10 and things did not improve.  

The days in Miami and at GSC were wasted days for many people. The above accounts of the Miami terminal situation are completely accurate.  I will add that when they did call for boarding, there was no one to direct us to the right doorway.  We wasted ten minutes standing in front of the wrong door.  As for GSC, we never dreamed we would need to book a tender ticket. The Freestyle Daily suggested that you might want to book a ticket if you wanted to get off early.  We figured open tendering would start at 11:00 or 11:30.  WRONG!  Open tendering started at 2:30 pm with an all aboard time of 5:00.  This is completely unacceptable.  We ended up just staying on board.  When you add those days to the nine sea days already planned and the extra sea day we got for missing the Azores...well, you get the point.  

We also had bookkeeping issues.  Each time that money was owed back to us, we had to go to "Customer Service" and request it.  Why was this not done automatically?  Why did I have to stand in line?  

There WERE good things about this cruise.  The ship was very clean.  They opened up the specialty restaurants on sea days for people to read and play cards.  The ports in Europe were beautiful.  We had swift embarkation and disembarkation, but that may just be because we are Platinum.  That was about it.  We promised ourselves that we would laugh about this at some point in the future.  I sure hope so, because right now I am very disenchanted with NCL.

P.S. They did not have a Farewell Show with the officers and staff.  We guessed that they were afraid of getting booed off of the stage.

We have found on our last few cruises (16 on NCL) that they have been hosted. As noted above, sometimes the turnout is big, sometimes just a few people. We have met some really wonderful people through these events. We are still in touch with some of them many years later. Only once was there one oddball trio and they ended up being quite entertaining after all. 😮

My  one rule for these get togethers is to not talk about work!  I’m on vacation and I don’t want to think about it. If someone asks what I do for a living, I just change the subject. There are plenty of other things to talk about!  (I guess this is true for shipboard life in general, not just these meetups.)

1 hour ago, vicpylon said:

Though I am not striving to get the next level I am at Gold and had a question. I always stay in the Haven and I notice many of the Latitude benefits seem to overlap. What is the main thing about Platinum that really makes it worth it (excluding the free cruise)? I am not seeing much beyond what I get in the Haven.

 

Vic

For our money, the best perk is the free laundry.  This makes it possible to go on longer cruises without having to pack endless clothes.  We are over the chocolate covered strawberries; the free wine is TERRIBLE; we have never purchased photos so that discount is useless.  But the laundry really rocks our Platinum world!

I have learned to just step up to the bar and order what I would like. I keep it simple (like a Ketel One on the rocks) and drop a tip on the bar. They have always made time to accommodate me. I generally cruise without the Beverage Package. 

Once on a four day itinerary (as part of a back to back with a ten day), we were among a very small number of Platinum cruisers on board. We actually got invited to the Captains cocktail party that was mostly for Haven guests. We had a nice chat with the head of Guest Services. This turned out to be a godsend when we ran into some issues on the ten day and contacted him directly to get the problem solved. 

So would I go to a party for ALL the Latitudes levels? Probably not, at this point. But a Platinum and above event?  Absolutely!

WOW!  Thanks to cruisinsc1, we just saved over $725!  

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Does anyone have any current info on the Jade?  Thanks!!!

Any current info on the Jade?  This will be our third time on her and we have had some wonderful interactions with several of the officers. I’d love it if anyone knew who was onboard currently, as we sail in February. 

Thanks!

We are (very) early risers on the ships. We have found that sometimes O’Sheehan’s will close for an hour around 4am for cleaning. They still have coffee and tea available, but the kitchen won’t serve food for a short time.

Will it be easier to get into the Specialty Dining venues on a longer itinerary? On our last two cruises, we found it very difficult to get a reservation in a specialty restaurant once we had boarded. I know, I know...I can make these reservations long before we leave. We are not big on structuring things in that way and like to go with the flow. We were stuck with either 5:30 or 9:00 slots for our two Platinum perk dinners as well as the other nights we chose to eat in Cagneys and Le Bistro.

Our next cruise is a 19 day TA on the Getaway. Can anyone chime in on their recent experience on this class of ship on a longer sailing? My thinking is this: Even if everyone picks the Dining Package (4 meals) as their perk, plus the majority of those have their Platinum perk (2 meals), that still means only 6 nights out of 19. Might it be true that there are more slots open at prime times on such a long sailing? I would love to hear people's thoughts on this. :confused:

OK, I hate to bump this thread back up (yeah, right ;p), but there is one item that is sorely missing from the list.

 

 

FOUNTAINS

 

 

 

Those who have experienced it . . . will understand. :D

It was always the “World Premiere of Fountains!”

Thanks for the replies, everyone! We know we can take our porcelain cups with us, but we were hoping for something with a lid that would be a little more transportable. I guess we'll be bringing along some paper cups of our own. Happy Sailing!

Are there paper coffee cups at O’Sheehans so you can take a cup with you? We like to get up very early and roam around the ship with coffee before everyone else is up and about. We’ve gotten “to go” cups at the Atrium Cafe, but has anyone seen them at the 24 hour venues? We’ll be on the Jade in January. Thanks for your help!:hot-beverage::hot-beverage::hot-beverage:

Thanks for your contributions!

There is both, and lots of toppings.

Thanks so much! Now we're even more excited!:)