pr0pel

Just got back to NY after our Getaway cruise. Just to share what we did:

We started the cruise with 4 luggages and ended with 5:') I had prebooked Air Luggage in advance to take out bags to the airport. A few days before the cruise ended, I emailed them to add 1 more to the haul which was not a problem. Upon disembarking at 9AM, there wasn't a person waiting at the cruise terminal like the instructions said but I walked around and saw the van parked along side the terminal. I knocked on the window, gave him our bags and we were on our way.

Our flight was at 5:45pm so we chose to hop on the 25/27 bus by Unicef (tickets can be purchased at the visitor info desk which looks like 2 shipping containers). The bus came, we asked the driver where to get off to hop on the train to the central terminal.. he said Osterport St. even though everyone here says Norrenport. I listened to him anyway and got off at Osterport St which was a metro stop. I somehow figured out what metro to take by looking at the ending stops and off we were in central station 10 min later.

Now, we left at 9AM and there was a huge line for taxis with not many taxis waiting. There are a few options for people to get to central station

1. Book NCL transfer at $15pp but you bring your luggage with you.

2. Taxis

3. Air Luggage + 25/27

4. HOHO which had a few buses waiting

5. There was another charter bus at the terminal with a banner on the window advertising a trip to central station for I think $8/pp. When this bus filled out, another took its place.

Sorry if this was asked before -- Does the 72 hr city pass has to be used all at once (3 consecutive days) or can they be used in 3 different 24 hour time periods? Like 2 days before cruise and 1 day after.

Another cruiser just came back and has info here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2532473

In short, it's $19.95 and you get it on Day 5.

I just booked an angled balcony, 14862, on the Gateway. Has anybody ever stayed in this room? Does anyone have pictures? Do you guys like angled balconies? Tell me all about it!

 

 

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Thanks for the info. I don't think I will go to the library if I want quiet. I've cruised 19 times and never had to go to the library on a ship to get quiet time. But' maybe that is NCL. Sorry for asking a question I thought was reasonable.

No need to be sorry.. your question was perfectly reasonable. I was giving the obvious response by going to the library for "real" quiet time. There are plenty of quiet spaces if you catch them at times when there's no activity. For example, when I was on the Jade last year, Bliss lounge had tons of loungers and chairs for relaxing/reading. It was always 'dead' there when there was no scheduled activity. This probably is the same for all ships. You can also go to the theater as well.

Not only is cashing points out for cash a horrible redemption rate, to get hit with another 3% on top of that is ludicrous. Of course if you don't care about this, then feel free :)

Naive question but I thought tips aren't really necessary in the Baltics ports, especially at restaurants.

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Thank you all for your responses. According to my searches for my dates, United and Delta have connecting flights, some of which are too short (less than 2 hrs) or too long (5+ hrs). Also, the price for two is $3600 compared to the others which are less that $2000 total. In addition, Norwegian is around $1100 total, but you have to fly on certain days to get nonstop and I cannot find on the website how to fly into one city and out of another. We wanted to go to Oslo before or after Copenhagen. Maybe I have to book one way flights?

 

Propel, can you come back here after your trip and review Norwegian air or even a trip report on the main NCL forum. Thanks.

Will do. Book 2 separate 1 way flights. No harm in doing that as that's how airfare is priced anyway.

We missed no ports and even made it all the way to Stockholm, sailing on the archipelago. That really was one of the high points of our trip. It was so beautiful and there were so many little red cabins. It made for a wonderful afternoon.

Thank you. Can you tell me when you start seeing the archipelago and when it stops? We have a balcony and don't want to miss the action. We dock in Stockholm at 8AM and leave at 4PM.

Thanks for checking in. Did you miss any ports?

A flight is what you make out of it. If you're one to complain about every single thing, most likely you will find something to complain about no matter what airline you fly. Every day, tens of thousands of people are flying all the carriers you mentioned, yet you say the last review is from 2015. As we all know, only the unsatisfied will go online and post a review. Just like at a restaurant or store, do you ask to speak to a manager when you have superior service?

With that said, you will get from point A to point B no matter which airline you fly so choose with your wallet. If money is of no concern to you and you prefer to fly with the legacy US carriers, do that. Otherwise, pick what route will get you to your embarkation port and/or stop over. I'm flying direct JFK-CPH in a few weeks on Norwegian and picked the LowFare+ (includes meal and baggage) for $500/pp -- can't beat that even if I get a rude flight attendant, print my own boarding pass, 2 sq ft less lavatory space, no headphones, no blanket, and get turbulence.

Thank you for your review. We are considering a cruise on the Getaway. To be honest, I've seen posts on my cruise line of choice from people who say they would never cruise NCL again. I'm not too sure if we will book.

 

My question is about your comment about the ship being crowded and noisy. How crowded and noisy? Are there spots on the ship to get away from the crowds and noise? How is it in the atrium area?

Everyone is different so you can't base your future judgement on people's past experiences. Only you will know if you like cruising on NCL or not and you may get 2 different experiences on 2 different sailings. With that said, my first cruise was on NCL 10 years ago and I have only ever sailed NCL since .. so to each his own. As for the Getaway, since the Breakaway is the sister ship, my family prefers the mega ships after sailing the Dawn and Gem. The atrium is loud during events and since it's in the middle of the ship, is quite busy when there's an activity but when there isn't, there is plenty of seating and enjoyable to relax and people watch. If you want a quiet area, go to the library -- it is always quiet there. There are also loungers in a lot of public places where people walk and is very quiet as well. And BTW, we will be on the Getaway on this itinerary in 3 weeks, woohoo.

As I previously mentioned, I am looking at other places before or after my cruise next May. In researching air prices, the only two airlines that seem reasonable are SAS and Icelanair, which both got scathing reviews on Trip Advisor and other online review sites. How did you find Icelandair to be? Many reviews said they are so terrible, hours of delays, crowded terminal, boarding & debarking on tarmack and having to wait for a bus to terminal in the cold, cancelled flights, no seating with others in family, no food, indifferent employees, etc. I've never booked air with a foreign airline before and this seems scary. But United, Delta, etc. are double the price. Do you get what you pay for?

Did you check out Norwegian Air Shuttle? I paid about $500 RT and direct from JFK.

Can you reserve it online and pay the upcharge online when reservations become available online?

Yes, once you have the SDP, you can buy the discounted 'tickets' online. I bought the SDP and I see a price of $11.80 and $17.70 for the 2 seating selections.

It is answered here:

https://www.ncl.com/specialty-dining-package/faq

• Cirque Dreams/Illusionarium - $10 USD regular seats/$15 USD premium seats/$35 USD VIP seating on Breakaway
  

I did not tip the porter as he more seemed like the first customer service person in the chain. He was less like the traditional porter at the airport and in fact we moved our luggage to the conveyer belt. Hard to describe but he didn't feel "tipable" and more seemed like the next people in the process.

 

We did try to tip her (Day 2) and she denied it, unsure why. The tour guide in Sweden was denying people before we got there so we didn't have the exact same circumstance.

 

I also did not tip the drivers that took us to the airport, or Helsinki. Again, it didn't seem like a tipping situation.

The pier porters in the US hardly do anything either -- other than roll a cart full of luggage to the belt. In fact, we've always had to put our own luggage on the carts and they still expect a tip. Anyway... good to know about how it is in Copenhagen.

As for the tour guides,I would just find it strange if they refuse the tips as every single site says it's about 10% of the tour, plus a smaller fee for the driver. Plus, who would really turn down $100+ in cash but we'll see!

Tipping: on the ship we did prepaid tips. I'd rather have it paid in advance. As for each individual drink they charge 18% already. Our service was great, don't get me wrong but I was fine with just the 18% that was included and didn't tip any more. Tipping in the various countries is tricky, most will take loose change etc. and honestly many don't take or accept tips. In Russia we had two tours, one accepted a tip at the end of the day, the other handed it right back. In Sweden he wasn't accepting tips. If you see a tip jar put in a little. In Helsinki I gave the bartender a few coins as thanks and he seemed grateful. Tipping overall however is not expected like it is in the US. The theory is that most make a livable wage and don't require the tips to live. Some say that is why service is less attentive however I disagree with that as I had great service everywhere I went.

Thanks for this. I asked in a different thread but to get a final verdict, did you tip your porter when embarking? It's funny about tipping in SPB since all the tour companies mention that tipping the guide and driver is not included and goes to great lengths to tell you how much to tip.

Thanks for the post. You might want to include future posts in the original one rather than create new threads to make it easier to read.

We'll be going on the same cruise in a month so thank yo for the review!

Did you tip the porters while dropping off the luggage? Are there porters there like there are stateside where they pretty much expect a tip?

We had some rubles with us in case we needed them, but we were able to use credit cards everywhere, so we ended up using our rubles as part of the tips for the guide and driver. We offered to pay for our guide's lunch, but she refused and bought her own.

Thank you, good to know. Did you get your rubles from an ATM upon disembarking SPB or did you get it state side prior?

Thanks for the info. Did you use your CC all the time in SPB? Did you also pay for the guide's lunch or did she cover her own?

What's a wolfskin jacket? Is it literally a wolf skin jacket or a local brand of winter coats sort of like north face?

As long as you see obc online, you can use it for booking excursions or dining on ship. I don't believe obc can be used online prior to sailing. As for coffee, it is available at all meals and 24/7 at the buffet. It is not your "italian" like coffee but pretty good. If you want gourmet coffee, you have to pay for it at various venues on board.

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I had a porthole on the Jade last year and did not have a sofa. We had 4 people -- the 2 beds, a trundle, and a pull out bed from the ceiling. What you see in the above picture is what you get. I believe mini suites have sofa's in them -- at least ours did on the Dawn/Breakaway IIRC.

We just got off the ship & are sitting at CPH now. We have a 10am Lufthansa flight with a layover intra Europe so no customs just yet.

 

It's true that there are very few taxis at the terminal; <10 = 3 vans & maybe 5 or so cars at 7am.

 

Self walk off people were able to leave the ship I saw as early as 6:45am and be picked up by private transfer. This is a good option and likely one I would have chosen since we have 5 in my party. Instead, not knowing the transportation situation, we booked the NCL transfer while on the ship (they push this option hard with literature each day) at $30 per person. We arrived in the atrium at 6:45am, were permitted to get off at 7am, and we got the first bus to the airport which arrived at 7:50.

 

Airport directional signage is atrocious and helpful staff is lacking. Passengers are required to self service scan their own passports first and the machine's scanner was finicky. SAS flight passengers could print their own luggage tags but because we were flying Lufthansa, we had to take the bags to drop off. However, the only signage states SAS which come to find out doubles for all Star Alliance airlines.

 

The line moved fairly quickly. The security bag check line moved just as quickly and we were sitting at the gate ready to board by 9.

 

Hope this helps.

Did they push city transfers? If so, how much were they?