vswan

I've booked a solo cruise for January on the Jade. I am platinum, so get two specialty dinings for that and two for booking a balcony. Even though reservations have opened, I haven't booked anything yet. Know I would book for 2, 1 is not an option. For those that have cruised solo prior, are you better off booking now or waiting until onboard and meeting others at the solo gatherings that also have specialty dining vouchers to make reservations with? I suppose I could book for 2 now and offer another solo onboard the extra slot. I had originally booked a OV cabin because the balcony was just so out of what I was comfortable booking at double the cost. Today I looked and they had opened up the solo balcony cabins, so I called my PCC and upgraded - reduced cost by over $1000 with this option versus paying double for the balcony. He said that I would have access to the solo lounge, which I was pleased to here.

Just redeemed my points and it took just a couple of days. The question that I had was - how long does it take to go from charges, to payments to points that can be redeemed. If you are charging one month, paying the next month when do the points show for redemption. Is there a lag time between payment and points?

One other thing that could be going on. There are some cruises that offer extra latitude points for latitude members. If you booked one of those at the right time you might have gotten the original points and two or three times the points added to it depending on what the promo was at the time. It's my understanding you keep that "promo" if winning an upgrade bid, but if the price drops and you call and pay for an upgrade that "promo" falls off and you lose the points - happened to me..

Perhaps I'm just cheap. More often than not, if we had OBC we had to scramble to use it on any ship/cruise lie we have been on. We don't generally pay for the extras, just not something we felt was important. I do like the drink package on NCL. Yes, I pay for the gratuities, but it's an economical way to drink what I want, when I want without thinking about what it's costing. On the last cruise I took in August I realized that I probably didn't even drink enough to cover the gratuities, but I'm okay with that. All cruise lines are working to get as much income as they can. No need to join in on their plan unless you want to.

The people in the cabin you are bidding on may have put a bid on another category of cabin. If they can upgrade that opens up their cabin for someone else.

Seems like every cruise line has a private island port stop of some type. I know they have spent money to purchase and improve these and understand that they want to get some of those funds back. These are easy stops for them to add to a cruise, fitting in as many of their ships as they can. I like beach days. To me, it's an easy off and on which includes a free lounge chair, beautiful view, food, sometimes a nice walk, etc. I don't pay for any of the extras and am amazed at the prices I'm currently seeing for them - but if they can get the prices, more power to them. For me, at some of the other stops I struggle with whether I should go to the beach and miss seeing something else on the island. At a private island I can just enjoy the beach.

I think it depends on the ship. The smaller, older ships (which I love to sail on) do not have as many balconies. Couple that with the high occupancy rates they currently have and they can fill the smaller number of balconies at the higher price. I ran into the same thing on the Jade, and although I would have loved a balcony, just couldn't justify the price difference.

I have to defend HAL on this. The music walk is wonderful with full jazz bands and other great bands playing, not old music. Although I was never a fan of the classical, but think that is gone. Food can be subjective, but have always had quite good food on HAL, better than many other lines. Where they excel is the naturalists that come onboard and the itineraries. If you are looking for go karts and water slides this is probably not your line. Have done Alaska on HAL (twice), Princess, Celebrity and NCL (on Bliss). I will say that you can't go wrong with any of them. Look at the ports/times, the embark/debark ports, and be sure you have a glacier stop.

I sent mine an email on Sunday with basic instructions on what I was looking for. Figured he would get back to me on Monday or Tuesday, probably by email. My phone rang not an hour later. Was pleasantly surprised. He already had the figures for the questions I asked and he had me booked shortly thereafter.

I am currently struggling with this. Just booked the Jade this weekend for Jan 24. Going solo so whichever cabin I booked was double occupancy. Wanted a balcony just to have my own outside space, but they only had sailaway (no free at sea) or aft balcony at more than double the price of the OV. Decided to go with the OV, but will be keeping an eye on things if a balcony opens up at a more reasonable price. I figured I could always place a bid for upgrade, but with a pretty full ship the odds are not good. The problem with the smaller ships is that they do not have as many balcony cabins so they can get premium prices. I will say that I have always been pretty fiscally conservative, so having a hard time opening up the wallet at twice the price. Especially when traveling solo but having to pay for double.

Don't see deodorant on your list. Maybe you don't need it...

I know I'm getting old when I see a string of letters and have to google them to figure out what someone is trying to say.

LOL, I doubt if it's that much since we switched to 2 people instead of 4 very early on, but I'm sure it does add up to a lot. Pretty sure we would have taken some form of vacations at least part of the time anyway so the saving wouldn't have been that high. In fact, if you add in the other vacations we DID take, that number would be higher. Since I lost my DH this past year, I can also say that I don't regret spending one dime of that money on cruises or vacation memories.

I'm a three star mariner on HAL and just reached platinum on NCL, so have traveled both quite a bit. (also other lines) NCL - I'm not a big party person but do like the energy of NCL, don't like the lines or crowds. Love the District Brew House, the drink package for the price of gratuities and The Local/O'Sheehans. I would not pay for specialty dining on most cruise lines, but since 2 nights are included with my room, have found I really enjoyed them. Food can be hit or miss in MDR, but that is true with all cruise lines. HAL - much more laid back. Enjoy the total relaxation and quieter areas of the ship, but enjoy their music walk for the evening entertainment. My favorite thing about HAL is some of their itineraries which are available on some of their smaller ships. Would rather be on a smaller ship with fewer passengers and lines - and don't mind if it's older as long as it's kept up.

In 1996, I went to a TA and told him I wanted to do a family vacation and gave him an all in budget of $1000 PP for a family of 4, $4000 total. He asked if I had ever considered a cruise and we booked on HAL, an inside cabin ad air for under that amount. Had a complimentary OV upgrade. Have continued cruising at least once per year since then - except for covid. Over the years we went from expecting air and cruise for $1000 pp to as close as we could get to $1000 and eventually to cruise only, we also upgraded to a balcony, but not until about 5 years ago. We were not loyal to any cruiseline, looked at dates, ports and price. My last Alaskan cruise was more than $6000 for 2, but that included air, daily service charge and trip insurance. Balcony cabin on NCL. Have a RC cruise booked for early November. I thought the prices were horrible when I booked, but when I actually did the math the base price - not counting tips, air, insurance -was about $1150pp for an outside facing balcony on the Oasis. And, I don't think I could get an inside cabin now at that price. Drink package has been running $73 to $78pppd. Skipping that. I would be interested to know what type of increase that actually is. In 25 years if the price doubled I would be way ahead going from inside to balcony. I know air is at least twice the cost it used to be. I love to cruise. As long as my budget allows and I am able to do it, I will. But, I will compare prices and look for deals, have been doing it all along. Not getting a balcony might be a deal breaker for me though.

Unlike many other cruise lines, this is not a auction or bidding process - unless things have changed that I'm not aware of. There is a phone number you call and you are assigned a cabin while on the phone, there may be a number of choices. If you don't like the cabins available, keep what you have. Sometimes you may be able to switch to a "different" class of upgrade, example an upgrade from interior to OV could be one price and inside to balcony a different price. Not sure if this is still the case, and it probably depends on how full the ships are at this point, but I started receiving upgrade offers nearly as soon as I booked (we generally book close to sailing) and the offers went down in price the closer we got to sailing.

Perhaps this would be more important to someone who is an extrovert and cruises a lot. I could not name one cruise director - or any other cruise employee - on any of more than 30 cruises. I will say that we have had some good CDs, who made some of the entertainment more enjoyable.

DD and I are going RCI in November. Currently have hip strip-bliss beach booked, but when I looked at the price of each drink at Margaritaville - and the distance to get there - think the beach, lunch and drinks at either Blue Waters or Bamboo Beach might be better. Looks like Bamboo is a further drive, is it worth the drive? Neither has a pool as far as I can figure so it's comparing beach to beach with lunch and drinks. We are beach people. I looked into a resort for a day pass but they were gone for the property I was interested in. I also feel more comfortable booking this port directly through RCI for two woman. I'm not opposed to keeping what we have booked if Bliss Beach is great, but looking for input.

Thanks. Was wondering the same thing. Have a day pass through resorts for a day and need transport to get there.

Early on in one of these threads - he/she has/had two, this one and one asking about taking bottles of liquor home off the ship - I decided that this person must be trolling to see what type of responses he received. Everything anyone tried to tell them was argued with and he blatantly insulted a number of responders. Since then, I've just been chuckling at the way he manages to stir things up and how people are responding. If he/she really isn't a troll, I wouldn't want to be on the same cruise either.

Been to all of these stops and usually try to have a beach day at every stop. If I had to "get rid" of one of the beach days, I would pick Curacao. We walked to the swinging bridge and all of the colorful buildings. Really enjoyed the walk and the atmosphere. Have also been to the beach "in town," but think most of the better beaches are a drive from the port and depending on your time in port I would rather do the walk. Aruba - beautiful beaches, quite expensive for chairs and umbrellas. Grand Cayman - seven mile beach is stunning, our last trip they had transportation for a couple dollars pp back and forth. Bonaire - only been once and didn't get to the snorkeling area, if I get back there I will go snorkeling. Could see fish right from the pier the ships dock at.

Did I miss it or did St. Greg not do a wrap up of his thoughts on NCL vs Carnival? Just wondering what he felt were the good and bad of both lines and if he would choose one over the other for future sailings, or if they were about even. Some good, some bad on each line.

Since it's San Juan versus St. Thomas, you can either have a beach day or historical day - of course your could do neither at either stop. Both have shopping and sight seeing. I agree, check to see what your port times would be. Some stops are very short.

On my last cruise with my grandson, we approached the luggage porter area where partially full luggage carts were sitting. I had the tip in my hand, but not visible. When we got close (first in line) the porter never acknowledged us and very obviously ignored us in favor of a larger group approaching. They must have looked like better tippers - maybe more luggage? We loaded our bags on one of the carts and walked away.

This is a free option.