donutcop

2 hours ago, Homosassa said:

Port fees (Taxes) are the fees that the ports charge the ship using their facilities.  taxes are whatever taxes are applicable to your sailing.

 

In the UK, port fees and taxes (and the on board service charge) are included in the price quited for the cruise. 

 

In the US (and Canada?), the price listed may only be the fare for the cruise. Port fees and taxes are added at the time of booking for the total price.  On Board Service fees are added daily to your account on the ship.

Thank you!  I was starting to worry port fees get added once on-board. 

9 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

MSC prices follow European school holidays, so the price goes up extremely in main season and also goes down extremely in off season. That is the same for all European cruise companies. 

 

As you are from Canada, they will probably add harbour taxes and stuff like this to the price. 

Please explain the harbour taxes?  When do they get added?

We have boardwalk balconies for our upcoming cruise and I’m debating whether or not to get the kids the refreshment package. We sailed on NCL a couple years ago and they had the soda package there which included Shirley Temples (well, it was sprite with grenadine).  Does anyone know if Royal’s soda package includes Shirley Temples? 

3 hours ago, gatour said:

Are you stopping at Labadee or Coco Caye?  I can't recall, but they may have "beach" wheelchairs.  If so they could wheel you to a lounger so you can sit with your family.  That way you wouldn't have to navigate the sand on crutches, and still enjoy the beach your family.

 

Hopefully someone can confirm or deny that they have seen beach wheelchairs on either private island.

Thanks for this idea.  We have a beach bungalow rented so if I can at least get there I’d be able to enjoy some beach time with the family.

My husband and I are taking our four children (17,15,14,12) on a cruise in three weeks from today. The oasis of the Seas. Unfortunately today I took a spill and broke my fibula, my calf bone. Right now I’m in an air cast min six weeks and using crutches but also plan to get a knee scooter for the ship. Is there anyone I need to call at Royal to advise them of this or does that matter? Does anyone have any advice for me and what to expect or tips to make the trip a little more enjoyable? I just want my kids to have a fun time. I’m ok with missing their beach days, my husband can do that with them.  Thanks for any advice!

Not sure how to word the title, but I'm booked on the Allure on the October 27-November 4 sailing. Then I notice the following cruise is a 6 night cruise departing on the 5th. Does anyone have any idea why there'd be a delay between cruises?

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What is the price differential? It will cost you about $125 to get to LGA by car service and about $40 for 2 people to get to EWR. Price out the total costs of airfare, hotel and transportation before you book any flights.

Flying into LGA is about $600 cheaper total.... so quite a difference

I tried doing a search but couldn't find an answer. I'm sailing on the Anthem in March 2018. We disembark on a Saturday and when pricing flights the cheapest airport by far is Laguardia. In saying that what time is the earliest I should book a flight? We'd plan to take a taxi to the airport.

Thank you :)

This is the first time I'm cruising with our four children so packing has taken on a whole new light when trying to figure out what I need and don't need. When it's been just DH and me alone I pack everything if I am on the fence about needing it or not. This time the suitcases are getting overfull!

So one question that's popped up is does NCL have shampoo and condtioner dispensers in their showers? What about body wash?

I'm sure more questions will pop up as I continue to pack....

If you book with an online company, can you still get price drops and cabin upgrades? Or are you locked in at whichever price you book with?

You can still get those benefits. You just have to go through the agent vs calling the cruise line directly is my understanding

By chance did you book the Canada at Par deal with no promotions?

No, I don't think the at par promotion was offered for the sailing i was booking. I did get the promotions though. (well, promotion because we booked interiors so could only get one promotion)

The site i'm talking about priced out to be $2039Cdn per room (interior with 3 people) and the NCL website was $2200USD. It might pay to play around with that site as Getaway, Epic and Escape had a few sailings for around that price. It just so happened that the date that worked best for us was the Escape sailing.

Just to confirm, you booked a cruise in February, 2016 for next February, 2017 and was given an exchange rate of $1.10 for OBC? That's a great rate for that BUT the exchange rate on the cruise of $1.40 is quite high! I would think you would have made off better, if the rates were the other way around. I be interested to know, what that same cruise might price out today at, considering our dollar is now trading at just under .30 cents on the dollar. You might want to look into that. Just an FYI, you will be capped at purchasing OBC at a certain dollar amount.:rolleyes:

No. I booked on a canadian travel site in Canadian funds and the price for my cruise ended up being cheaper than the NCL website. The exchange rate i'm speaking of is between the two rooms I have booked. One has a $1.10 exchange for OBC and the other room has $1.40 for OBC (no idea why the difference as both rooms were booked at same time/phone call). I'm confused myself as to why that's the case but i'm worried if I call NCL to find out they'll adjust my cheaper exchange rate to meet the more expensive one lol

Can't private message, try just obscuring the name of the travel website a bit :)

(Hello from BC)

 

 

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Not sure how cryptic I need to be lol but try AC Vacations.

How long ago did you book your cabins?

February

Thanks! I just added you as a friend on CC...I think that is how I can send a message?

I'm not sure how it works! I just tried looking for a way to send a message and don't see anything! Maybe you can figure it out. Otherwise I'll just post my email

We have two rooms booked for the Escape in January 2017. One room has an exchange rate of $1.10 for OBC and the other room has $1.40 exchange. Not sure why the difference but I'm thinking I should take it and run and just buy my OBC all with the cheaper rooms exchange rate.

Hi! Thanks for your reply. I'm thinking I'll buy lots of OBC under the first room and then hope we can link reservations once we check in. If not, I think we can withdraw money from the account then just pay it towards the second room. Either way the $1.10 exchange rate is pretty sweet even if we only get it for one room.

I booked on a Canadian travel website so paid in Canadian from the get go. However, the price on this website was actually cheaper than the price on the NCL site even in US funds. I thought it might be a pricing error on the website but the prices are still there and we booked a couple months ago. I don't think I can post the website but if you're interested send me a message.

Ok so hopefully I can explain this without being too confusing as I'm confused myself...

I booked two interior rooms for me, DH and our four children. Both rooms booked at the same time however have different reservation numbers. I booked in Canadian funds. I was playing around with the reservations and noticed that I can buy on board credit for an exchange rate of $1.10. So a $500 OBC will cost me $550 Canadian. However on the second reservation the exchange rate is at $1.40. So a $500 OBC is showing as $700! No idea why such differing rates when both reservations were made on the same phone call....

I'd like to take advantage of the better exchange rate so would prefer to buy all my OBC under that one reservation. So my question is this.... Can I use OBC from one room to pay for my second rooms charges? I worry about calling NCL to point out the difference that they would choose to raise the better exchange rate and I'd loose out completely.

What does BCH stand for? Google isn't helping me lol

It is a great thing to see people going to great lengths for their spouse! We are going on a cruise for our 10th anniversary in October. It will be me, my DW & 2 sons (6 & 8). We booked an ocean view stateroom because there were no 4 person balconies. What she doesn't know is that I called NCL & upgraded to a suite. I have told no one except my father, but it is difficult to contain the excitement! It blesses me to hear about your plans for your husband, and I hope you have an amazing time!

Thanks :) In all honesty I am totally benefitting from this surprise as well lol. So we got our passport pics done today. Off to the passport office in the morning. Then there won't be anything left for him to do.

The passport office downtown at the Maritime Centre is pretty good at getting things done quickly. I know once you drop everything off it goes elsewhere and is out of their control but we always have ours back in about 3 weeks. I guess what I am trying to say is I recommend you take the application right to the passport office and not a Canada Post office as that just slows down the process. If time isn't an issue then any drop off spot will do. Remember this, if you do drop it off at a secondary location and everything on the application isn't correct they will send it back for you to correct the error. Since you are doing a name change I would suggest the office downtown as they will be able to point out any errors and get you underway faster.

 

We just (8 months ago) renewed ours and we went to the Maritime Centre to drop the applications off and we had them back in about 3 weeks. we had made a mistake and were able to correct it on the spot without having to wait for it to come back in the back. When we first got our previous passports 5 years ago we had the same turn around time. That was very impressive as my DW and DS never had a passport before and mine had been expired for about 20 years.

 

Good luck on the secret keeping. Your secret is safe with me ;) Unless he pulls me over some night and I have to use the info to avoid a ticket.....lol

 

Have a great time on your secret cruise!

LMAO! No worries with getting pulled over....Neither one of us are cops who like giving tickets.

Good point about going direct to Martime Centre. I had figured we'd just drop off at the place in Bedford, but maybe we'll make a day of it and take the kids to Point Pleasant Park after hitting Maritime Centre.

You absolutely NEED to get that done. Often they won't let you leave the country if your passport is set to expire within 6 months.

I'm hoping to get the passport pictures done tomorrow and applications done Friday. I have to change my name on my passport which requires a brand new application so might take longer to process than a simple renewal.

A few weeks ago we were on the Dawn, Boston to Bermuda. I booked the trip 9 months out via NCL and switched the reservation to a local TA. All the materials from NCL were mailed to the TA, who had my cell # only and I was called when the paperwork came in, no paper mail to the house. I contacted NCL and had them change our contact number to the cell number.

I told DW were were going to Maine for an ocean front vacation with dining out at a few pretty good place.(hence she packed herself for sun and sand).

To get her to the dock, I told her that we had been invited to a travel Agent entertainment demo in Boston (told here that Jose and Patty were to be there). I said that we would get to see some NCL acts. The location I gave her was across from the terminal.

On that Friday am we went into Boston, got near the terminal instead of a right , took a left and stopped in front of the luggage drop off area, turned to her and handed her the tickets and her passport.

 

It was a complete surprise. Nine months, family, knew, her friends knew and co-workers knew and no one spilled the beans.

That sounds awesome!!! I bet your wife was excited!! I can't imagine trying to keep the secret for 9 months!

I think there are more early morning departures than arrivals - you better check first or your DH might be too smart??

 

I vote for you telling him that he's on vacation when you both get ready for your "night shift" - perhaps drive out of house for a mile and then turn back to house saying you forgot something - and then present him with air tickets for the next morning. Then enjoy the evening getting ready and panicking for the flight out. This way, the last minute things your husband might have can be ironed out of the way.

Good idea....Maybe that's how i'll have him find out.... hmmmm.... my wheels are spinning. I have been trying to figure out how i'll get the dog to the dogsitter's place. My husband takes care of the dog and would notice the dog missing if I took her over too soon. However if i expand on your plan and we get ready for work and then leave only for me to remember something and turn back to get it.... however i'll run in the house and come out with the dog.... My husband will be confused which is when i'll spring the surprise on him! (so many ideas!)