julig22

I've never booked interior, probably never will.  I like to, at the very least, see outside when I'm in my room. And I'm a home-body, so I do spend time in my room. Balcony depends more on the itinerary, not the incremental cost. But I also use my NCL credit card points to upgrade to a balcony, from an OV - so my "cost" is only the $300 in statement credit, regardless of the length of the cruise.

28 minutes ago, UKstages said:

i don't think the problem will be finding available space on the bus. the real issue is whether or not they accept "walk-ups." i don't know that they have any capacity to charge your friends. they are not in the habit of accommodating people who haven't prebooked transfers.

I'm not sure how they handle walk-ups but I know they have taken them in the past.  I suspect they take your cabin # and let NCL know and it gets charged to your onboard account.  In fact, I've been told by NCL to just be a walk-up more than once, when I was wanting to book a transfer even though I was arriving the day before, planning to return to the airport. I said absolutely not, I wanted a guarantee they had room.

But it might also depend on the port.

It just depends - they charter as many busses as they think they need, there is usually space for a few extras. So there is a good chance it will be OK - but be prepared to come up with a plan B if necessary.

Nope

46 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

This is a very annoying NCL thing.  I understand they don't want people booking overlapping excursions (are we really that dumb?) but there must be a better way.  On the one hand, you feel pressure to book a popular excursion well in advance but I think most of us still want to be able to see if something we would have preferred pops up later.

Yes, a very annoying "feature" of the software.  And I just recently found another "feature" LOL. If NCL happens to change the times of something you have booked, so that you now have overlapping excursions, you get an error message anytime you try to book anything else.  But they don't bother to let you know that they've made any changes.

But as to booking overlapping excursions, if they didn't limit it people would book everything, then decide later what they wanted to keep.  So I understand not allowing it BUT they certainly could (and should) allow you to see everything that's offered - especially since they now have the bad habit of adding new excursions anytime along the way.

4 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Just throw the tags away after you claim them in the baggage hall. No tag. First bus available. There would be several dozen buses associated with people disembarking with a brown tag.

No tag, no getting on the bus LOL. Tags pretty much serve as your ticket. Yes, I know you can also board with your letter if you choose to self-carry but note the letter I posted also indicated the tag color. So you do so at your own risk.  Just because there are several dozen busses waiting doesn't mean that those busses have space over and above the number of passengers that booked for that time.

I love how people think that following instructions is just for the next guy. Just like showing up whenever you want to board - instead of the time you chose when you registered. Then all the complaints about long lines from the people who showed up on time. Or from the people who booked an early bus but had to wait because people not scheduled for the earlier busses took an early bus anyway.

1 hour ago, Sailing12Away said:

The flight deal depends on the specific cruise you're looking to book - it's not offered on all of them.

 

If you have specifics about what trip you were curious about and the cabin you're interested, I don't mind price checking it for you. 

Current homepage of the US site with the miniscule *** to show that nothing in life is ever actually free.

 

645 cruise options with no filters applied, if I apply the 'free airfare' filter then it drops down to only 509 options. So most, but not all qualify.

 

Cruises less than 110 days out do not generally qualify for the BOGO airfare offer - which should more or less explain the different #s.

14 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Can’t see on what was posted where there is anything specifying which bus they are to get on, 

Um, the one for people with brown tags, as opposed to the one designated for green as opposed to orange as opposed to light blue. The bus (or busses) where there is a rep with a sign that says "Brown" - or some other identifying signage.

I sure hope that you really aren't that clueless and do understand the meaning of "which bus". 

Have a nice day.

18 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Sorry, but the letter for the bus doesn’t specify which bus you are on, just that you have paid for the transfer. 

Good try LOL. Some ships yes, some ships, maybe not.

Current US deals are same as always, so BOGO airfare.

If you can access VPN on your device, you can use that to bypass the default to "local" websites while onboard. Otherwise you have to depend on the CN folks for US pricing and promos.

28 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Not really. Many carry their own bags off the ship and there is no tag color. it is first come first serve. 

They still have to have a tag and/or the letter confirming they have paid for the transfer. And that specifies which bus they should be on. Whether it's enforced is a different matter.

19 minutes ago, Wulfwyn said:

This also helps when at SeaTac.  I use it alot.

https://www.portseattle.org/SEAspotsaver

Not necessary if you have TSA pre-check. If you use spotsaver you don't get your pre-check benefits, so will have to remove shoes, electronics etc.

28 minutes ago, shanefm3 said:

No , i can explain it to you but i can’t understand it for you . If you think booking an excursion and having to physically walk and ask for your discount is acceptable , then you should work for ncl 

It's not a matter of whether or not someone agrees with a company policy - NCL or otherwise. They are following their written policy.

If it's too much trouble to book prior to your cruise (when the discounts are automatically applied) - then you get what you get. It would be just as easy for NCL to decide that it's too much trouble to apply discounts on board - and only offer a discount if you pre-buy. Guess that would be tacky too.

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

There are no assigned bus times. NCL does not "put you on a bus". Transfer buses are first-come-first-serve.

Not necessarily true. They often load the busses by tag color. So first-come, first served IF you have the correct luggage tag for the busses that are loading. And I have definitely seen it enforced, to make sure that those with earlier flights are on the busses first.

Last time I was in Seattle there were some issues with the port workers and they were only letting people into the various sections of the luggage area until the next color had been called.

When you book your transfer with NCL they will ask for your flight information. They will put you on the bus that best meets your flight time.

Last time I was on the Bliss, the busses were 8:15 for flights before 1:30, 8:45 for flights between 1:30 and 3pm, 9:30 for flights after 3pm.

5 hours ago, shanefm3 said:

If you book onboard thru app, room or tv monitors throughout ship  , you have to go to desk to get discount 

Correct. Exactly as stated in the FAQs.

Current NCL policy seems to be to post the post-cruise excursions at day 50.

I've been told by numerous CruiseNext managers that you can go to the same venue. There seems to be some wiggle-room with respect to certain latitudes benefits. And while it appears that their system might be tracking your use of coupons, it's fairly unlikely that the host/hostess will say no. Heck, some people report that they've been able to use an "extra" coupon (#3, leftover from a previous cruise), others have been turned away. Your mileage may vary.

3 hours ago, bladerunner6 said:

We just did the Total Solar Eclipse on the Discovery Princess and are booked for Egypt in 2027 so it is time to start thinking about the next one after that.

This eclipse is a possibility:

 

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2030_GoogleMapFull.html?Lat=-34.96819&Lng=42.28699&Zoom=6&LC=1

 

I noticed NCL has this cruise in about the right time of year.

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruises/12-day-africa-from-cape-town-to-mauritius-south-africa-and-madagascar-DAWN12CPTMOSLIZRICNOSDIEPDGLUI?destinations=4294949304&numberOfGuests=4294949461&sortBy=featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=DAWN12CPTMOSLIZRICNOSDIEPDGLUI

 

Is this a new cruise for them or have they being doing it a while?

 

Thanks.

They have been sailing from Capetown for a couple of seasons - I did the Capetown RT in December 2022, not 100% sure but I think that might have been the first season for SA. They've done various modifications since then, impossible to say what they'll be doing in 2030. If they're still doing any kind of route in the area, it's entirely possible they'll do an "eclipse" sailing.  Maybe they'll read this and get on it LOL.

check you spam folder - some of my NCL notices get marked as spam

4 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Right, but doesn't NCL get to pick and choose which ports they use? If they consistently have issues with poor customer experience at a particular port for whatever reason (not talking the one off due to mother nature or weirdo things), isn't it in their best interest to stop using that port to avoid the complaints they know will come from guests?

NCL stopped cruising from San Diego several years ago, moved most departures to San Pedro, rumor at that time the decision was made due to various issues with the port.

@njhorseman who says they have to sail from NYC at all? From the complaints I've seen regarding the lack of upcoming cruises, maybe they've already made that decision. 

37 minutes ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Still confused about CN versus CF.  We used CN for our August 2024 cruise. We have 2 cruises booked for 2025 with deposits and did not use CN or CF for deposit.   Can I buy CNs in August and apply them towards the balances on the 2 cruises? Or can I do the same with CF?  These 2025  bookings are CAS inside cabins. 

Current posted rules say no, they are deposits for NEW bookings. But NCL doesn't always follow their own rules, especially with respect to CN - which they seem to allow you to add anytime. CF, not so much.

You'd be better off asking CAS what they allow.

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

I could be wrong, but I think the pier workers are mostly union workers.  NCL couldn't motivate them either way even if they wanted to because they aren't NCL employees.  

 

I can't imagine NCL trying to get them to work smarter, better, etc and the pier workers  taking direction from an outside source very well.

 

Thought I read one time even the baggage porters/handlers are union.

 

Nothing against unions, but forcing the pier workers to be more efficient is probably a lost cause.

AFAIK, the dock workers that take your luggage are unionized. So when they decide to have a work slow-down (happened in Seattle last year) - not much NCL can do.

Not sure about the contracted staff inside the terminal doing the check-in. 

Doesn't appear to be a mistake if you look at the actual itineraries. The early one overnights on day 1, the 2nd one overnights on the last day.

43 minutes ago, AllHandsAstern said:

I manually set my phone time to ship time to avoid this problem.

You're missing the point.  Not everyone understands how their phone clock works. And it varies, depending on the settings and your location.  Plus, if you set your phone to ship time before you get into port, it's not unheard of to have it change to local time, if it happens to be different.

I simply set my cheapie watch to ship time to avoid the problem.