kona_wahine

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

Almost always that way at any home port.

We usually take the carnival shuttle and have never had issues but the Manhattan terminal no one, including the bus driver, knew what was going on. They never did take our tickets. 🤣

Personally, after taking the carnival bus from port to JFK, I would probably pay an extra few dollars and take a taxi back. It was a hot mess. 

Thank you! NCL sent us a letter a while back about the Mexico citizenship but then this new letter came and didn’t say anything about the Mexico citizenship, so it was confusing. 

A birth certificate is ok, and they sent a letter a while back about Mexican citizenship requirements. We don’t even plan to get off the ship for the short stop in Victoria. 

We have a large group cruising NCL in July and we all got a letter today from NCL as follows:

On behalf of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), we thank you for your loyalty and for making us your vacation of choice. We have important information regarding your upcoming voyage.
In advance of your cruise vacation, we want to ensure that you are fully aware of the local travel requirements for entry into Canada.
If arriving to, or transiting through, Canada by plane many nationalities need an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) or Visitor Visa that must be applied for in advance of arrival.
For guests arriving to Canada by cruise ship, only a Visitor Visa is required of many nationalities.
To check requirements for individual nationalities, and for further information, we strongly recommend all guests visit
https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.asp as soon as possible, in order to allow enough time for any required applications.
Failure to provide the required visas and documentation will result in denial of boarding for your cruise and the inability to extend
any refund of your cruise fare.
For more information on the required documentation to sail, please visit www.ncl.com/traveldocs. As a reminder it is your responsibility to ensure you have the necessary documentation and/or visas for your itinerary. (END)

Most of us have passports but a couple in our group are using their government ID and birth certificate. I’ve looked at the website and am totally confused. We are all US citizens. A couple years ago it was the ArriveCAN and now this letter. Do we need a travel visa? When I put in the info it asks what doc we are using for travel and BC isn’t listed. We leave July 21 so exactly 2 months out. 

38 minutes ago, Jeafl said:

We are staying at the Comfort Inn as well.  Is it really only a 2-minute walk as well?  We will have my mother with us who has a bad knee and cannot walk very far.  We planned on using an Uber, but if it is that close walking may be doable, even with luggage.

The one on W 48th street. The Venezia was about 2 blocks away. Super close and easy to walk to. The hotel has very small rooms, but it is NYC. 

We cruised the Venezia in October and flew in two days before, and picked JFK as it was the least expensive with flights that fit us best. We stayed at the comfort inn which was about a two minute walk to the ship. We were able to walk to Central Park and Times Square the day before and did a harbor lights cruise. We had never been to NYC before so did the touristy stuff. We took the carnival shuttle back got the airport after the cruise. It was a bit of a 💩 show at port as that poor bus driver was totally overwhelmed and had no one to help him, but we made it back just fine. We had a later flight. 

Thanks everyone. I called the group specialists this morning and spoke to a different person who seemed to know more and was more helpful. He checked and of course there was nothing left. He said to keep checking in case something opens up, but I’m not counting on that. He did explain to me to have one reservation book a 4 top and another book a 5 top and they will combine them. I wish the first person had told me that. We will just book as soon as we are on the ship and hope for the best. 

I’ve only cruised a couple times with NCL and we have a group cruising Alaska in July.  Specialty dining opened up 5 minutes ago and everything is just about gone except super late. Is that the norm? We have 5 cabins booked so I’ll try calling that department tomorrow and hopefully they can help us, as we we want to dine together as it’s a family vacation. There are 9 passengers so I couldn’t do it online anyway, I had to call tomorrow when the group NCL people are open.  I was just checking to see what was available.

I guess i don’t understand why they advertise the cruise with the free at sea and then you don’t end up getting the specialty dining????

We cruise Sunday on the Pride, and had an inside on deck 8 booked. I was worried because I wasn’t thinking when I booked and it’s right under pool area, so I was worried about the noise when they move chairs. I Got a call yesterday for an extended balcony on deck 8 for $300. I took it! 

I was getting terrific casino offers, but they are sadly gone. I think they are sailing at capacity now, since covid over, and the amount of offers have dwindled. I’m not a big gambler, maybe a couple hundred per cruise, but sailed 2x with free offers last year. Been a year since I’ve received a decent offer. 

On 1/19/2024 at 11:50 AM, wsb225 said:

Hi.  Was this a cruise sponsored excursion or an independent operator?  How long was the excursion and how much was it per person.  Thanks

We booked it thru Carnival. It was 4-5 hours. I really don’t remember the cost. 

https://caymanresident.com/live/transportation/public-buses

We did a Havana cabana on the Vista. Loved the Havana area but thought the cabana was kinda waste of money. I’d definitely do an interior in the Havana area if there is a next time on that ship. But I probably wouldn’t book on the ships without a pool area. 

Thank you for the bus link Vettebuff! We will be there in a couple weeks and this is super helpful. Do they announce stops? I’m thinking we might go to Hell (🤣) first and then back to public beach for the rest of the day. Or would Governors Beach be better? We would like somewhere where we can get something to drink, (soda water maybe a beer). Knowing we want the yellow bus makes it less worrisome. 

On 12/31/2023 at 2:34 AM, mickey89 said:

Why or why do people go to Harbour Lights Beach bar, it's a rip off......

They charge $60 per couple and everyone are packed together like sardines.  

Just walk the beach, most other places offer 2 sun loungers with umbrella for $20 and you get a front row seat.  Is it worth $40 extra at Harbour Lights, believe me it isn't.  Their loungers and umbrella are just as worn out as the rest

 

Just 50yards further along the beach near the Yellow Lifeguard Tower is the main car park with good public free toilets and easy access to your Taxi back to the ship for $5pp and plenty of venders selling buckets of beer for a lot less than Harbour Lights. 

I’ll tell you why. Because I’m 62 and sitting on the sand would just plain hurt. I got off the ship, grabbed a cab and knew exactly where I was going and knew I would have a front row seat. Worth every single penny we paid. And there you have it. 

On 12/27/2023 at 11:59 AM, Cruising to Retirement said:

How was your experience

It’s posted above 

We cruised end of October and had pretty much same experience. People on  this cruise were very nice OR extremely rude. That was quite a turn off for me, but I was warned on TripAdvisor before hand that NY’ers have a tend to be rude, just the way of life there. 🤷‍♀️ casino smoke was horrible and worse when they tried to clean it with an overwhelming smell of air freshener. Yuck. Embarkation was actually pretty good for us, debarking was a bit ridiculous. We had the shuttle to JFK and what a mess out there trying to find the bus! That poor bus driver, I felt so bad for him. Rude, rude, entitled people. 

10 hours ago, PATRLR said:

just curious, where in St Maarten?

We were at Big Bastards at great bay. We were the only ship in port so I think that had something to do with it. 

We had 18 rolls of TP on our Oct 28th cruise. I counted. LOL we had a great cruise, no real complaints. Carola was the BEST bartender ever. Casino was definitely bad for smoke. I figured I saved $ by staying away. We had great service in MDR, all courses were served quickly, food was great. Sorry you had such a disappointing time. (Idk why the picture loaded upside down)

That picture is accurate for the Nov 28 sailing. More games than books. 

We did a catamaran up the coast to the pitons, including Marigot Bay cruise thru. Several people on our ship said they took land shuttle and said it was horrible. Windy road and very slow. I’m glad we went by sea. 

It’s quite an experience! 

We did the bar\peddle boat thing out to honeymoon beach. We had about 2 hours at 5he beach, had a great time. 

We were just there. We booked big bastards before hand. Got right off the Venezia (only ship in port that day) and caught the first water taxi. There was a total of 4 of us on it! 🤣 big bastards was sold out, we had reserved front row. Drinks and food were great, service impeccable. Highly recommend, but getting chairs anywhere along there wouldn’t be a problem unless more ships in port. Beach vendors are relentless, and that probably had to do with so few people that day. Beach was nice, calm.