wil e coyote

@cruiseny4life, you may well be right! Let the debate begin!

And it would seem we have found the most controversial cruise opinion - at least by counting posts containing the word "Haven"! 🤣

You can also do essentially the same excursion with NCL - but the Native Choice excursion was cheaper (by quite a bit) and we were in a bus of 15 instead of 60. I never like being in the big coaches, even without COVID. The guide arranged for a couple of local stops that the big buses didn't do, so we thought it was much better all around!

We also went to Chacchoben with Native Choice and loved it. Highly recommend!

We have done both of these itineraries. Both were great the first time, but very different. The Western itinerary is awesome if you are really into history and want to see Mayan ruins. The Eastern itinerary is more of what I would consider a classic Caribbean cruise, but that is not to put it down at all. We really liked the DR and Tortola, especially. Now that we have done both, we would choose the Eastern itinerary to do again, but we are glad we did both. So, short answer - you probably can't go wrong. After all, it's a cruise! 😀

Most (maybe all) of the available shore excursions on Harvest Caye have to be booked through NCL - ziplining, the waverunners, etc. So you can use your $50 excursion credit for that.

I'm sorry - but every time I see the title of this thread, I envision real ducks stowing away on cruise ships - now that would be a problem! 🤪

If that is true, then I agree it is likely a good deal. But I've never seen anything in writing that says it is 10% off of the current offers. So my naturally suspicious nature wonders whether, if I were cruising today, the discount would be 10% off of the current offer of "40% off all cruises" (from the NCL website), or whether it is 10% off of the base price before the 40% off, or 10% off some other price. All of those are legitimately a 10% discount, but some are much better deals than others. I also react poorly to "Act now for the best deal!" marketing. In my experience, sometimes you're getting the best deal in those situations, and sometime you're not. Happy cruising!

@suev1, I am sorry to hear of the stress this is causing you and your family. I don't think there is anything that can be done by the folks on this forum - it sounds like you are very well versed in the challenges that the airlines are dealing with right now. At this point, I think your only options are to book your own flights and seek a refund from NCL for the airfare, or to gut it out and take the flights you get from NCL. There a chance that you all could end up on the same flights. Cruise well, and good luck!

We've never booked while on board. I like to do lots of research on pricing before I book. My question about those 10% discount offers while on a cruise has always been, "10% off of what?" Seems like NCL (and the other lines too) are constantly changing their "MSRP" so 10% off of an unknown number is 100% meaningless to me. If someone has done the research and has determined that booking on board really is a better deal, I'd love to hear it, and I will consider booking while sailing next time... Happy cruising!

The thing I hate that others love: The casino in the middle of the ship. Just have never gotten into gambling, so to me it is a big waste of space (I know it is a big money-maker for the cruise line). Plus many of the ship designs are such that the smoke from the casino takes over a large part of the common areas of the ship. No judgement here on those who like the casino, and/or like smoking. They just aren't for me. The thing I love that others hate: Dressing for dinner and having assigned dinner seating and wait staff. I know, we're all free to dress up if we choose to, and my DW and I actually do get dressy at least once a cruise. But I really miss sitting with the same people every night for dinner and getting to know the wait staff, and them getting to know us. The Haven dining room gives some amount of that - it is small enough that we get to know the staff and the other Haven guests. At the same time, I like the flexibility of Freestyle Dining - I just want everything! 🤪

Welcome to NCL! I am sure you will get all sorts of opinions on this board. We've never been on the Pearl, so I will keep my advice to using NCL Air. If you look on this forum you will see many strong opinions on using the NCL flight service. Without going into all of that, I will simply say that most everyone recommends that you fly in the day before your cruise is departing, if at all possible. This has always been a good idea, but is doubly recommended in light of all the issues the airlines are having lately. Besides, Boston is a great town, so spend a day there first! The NCL-specific thing about this is that you have to let NCL know well in advance that you want to fly in early, rather than the day of the cruise. I believe you have to tell them 75 days before departure - which is probably almost upon you for an October sailing. Happy sailing!

I can't speak directly to Epic, but I tried to plug into the HDMI ports on the TVs in our cabins on both Getaway and Breakaway earlier this year, and the TV did not recognize the new connection. I could not find a way to switch to that port using either the remote or the TV buttons. It seemed they had disabled the ports. Hope that is helpful.

We stayed in a Haven Spa Penthouse on deck 14 on the Breakaway (carbon copy of Getaway) last month. It was on the starboard side, and directly under the fitness center. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised NOT to hear lots of noise from the gym above us. There were a few times when we could just make out the sound of someone on a treadmill, but only when the cabin was very quiet. It wasn't enough to disturb us, even when going to sleep. (Note, your mileage may vary...) As others have said, it was kind of nice to take the two flights up to the Haven area to get a little exercise in before meals. We thought it was worth the $$$ we saved vs. being in the Haven Zone proper. Happy cruising!

@Sthrngary, another great post! Maybe CC should make this post sticky and title it something like "Info for anyone new to cruising"...

Same experience here. Note that you need to go to the airline's website or app to select your seats or to change them. As far as I know, you can't do it through NCL.

There is no federal requirement, but local governments/businesses/establishments can still choose to enact their own protocols. So it's still a bit of a patchwork quilt of rules.

Yes, I think you are reading it correctly. The entire Cruise Ship Guidance section of the CDC website now has a banner that says :As of July 18, 2022, CDC’s COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships is no longer in effect and this page will no longer be updated." NCL hasn't updated their Sail Safe web page yet, but they probably need some time to figure out what this all means for them.

This does look like it could be a good deal in certain circumstances, but I do have to laugh a bit at the name - "Free at Sea - PLUS"... So, while "Free at Sea" is a good deal, it isn't really free if you take the drink package and/or the specialty restaurants, Now with "Free at Sea Plus" it is even more not free...🙃🙃🙃

We used NCL to book our flights for a cruise out of Miami in June. We flew out of a mid-sized (non-hub) airport. Flights to Miami were on Delta, with one connection. Flights back were on American, and direct. On both airlines we were economy class, which meant that we could take two carry-ons (one roll-aboard and one personal item). We could reserve seats, but we had to pay to check luggage on both airlines. We could have upgraded to "Economy-plus" for a fee (paid to the airlines), but we didn't do that. This is pretty typical for most airline economy classes these days. Most have a "sub-economy" class where you can only carry on a personal item and you cannot select a seat - we were NOT in this class. Our flights did not change once they had been assigned, and aside from a slight delay on the second leg of our flight to Miami which didn't affect getting to the ship, everything went as planned. Hope that helps.

The Free at Sea beverage package also includes soda. I believe if you opt out of the FAS package, you need to pay-as-you-go for soda, or buy the soda package which is $9.95 per person per day.

@putums, @projecthandbag, and all others who have to deal with this - I sincerely hope it all works out. I know for me, "taking care" of the flights is something I do at the same time I am booking the cruise - either by booking through NCL or by doing it myself (we've done both.) It's unsettling to think the flights are all set and then find out they aren't - or at least aren't what you expected. I think you're correct that beating the NCL price may be tough, but it certainly doesn't hurt to try.

Given all the flight and airline issues these days, I guess this is not too surprising. I doubt there is anything you can do to change NCL's position. They are just as much at the mercy of the airlines as the rest of us. My suggestion would be something like this: 1. Check with your traveling companions and compare reservations. Are you all OK with the flights NCL has reserved? (Note, "OK" - not "happy." Happy would be if you were all traveling together.) If you all can live with the flights you have, I'd keep them if it were me. 2. If the answer to #1 is No, see if you can find flights yourself (or with the help of a TA) that you like better. Since everyone's balance of schedule/route/price is different, only you and your companions can determine what "better" means for you all. 3. If you are able to find better flights than NCL has provided, book them, THEN call NCL and cancel your NCL-arranged flights. I would not cancel the NCL-arranged flights until I had alternate flights reserved and paid for. Good luck. Hope it all works out.

We were on Breakaway in mid-June. I didn't experience (or hear of) BA running out of any brand of spirits, much less an entire type.

This. We used NCL Air in June, and had no problems at all. Remember that the industry-wide on-time rate right now is only about 77%. That is the worst it's been since 2014, but it has never been better than 82%. But for whatever reason, the media has latched onto the story of "terrible air travel," so we all hear a lot about it. No matter who books your flights, there is a roughly 1 in 5 chance you'll have some sort of delay, unless you really research the flights and routes and pick the ones with fewer issues. Of course, this is a good argument for direct flights - the fewer flights the better! Enjoy your trip!