commission1

we have booked 6 cruises in 4 years, we are flexible, if we get a great deal we go if not we doing something else, we have always booked less than three weeks before departure. All sorts of reasons for this, on year ncl had to much capacity in hawaii, we got a balcony for 499, Right now there are a few good deals one ncl sun jan8th 5 day 429 balcony, feb 5th baltimore celebrity 9 days 499 window, good luck.

In Santorini you can rent a little four wheel drive all terrain vehicle for very cheap, best way to see the island and explore, For Rome you can get an all day BIRG train, bus, metro ticket for less than 10 euros, in Barcelona you can get a shuttle bus to the city then walk and subway the most popluar places, We did all of the above.

I have sailed on ncl 5 times, celebrity once in early dec on the solstice, celebrity let us take two bottles of wine on board the ship, as long as we drank in our room and not the restaurant there was no corkage charge, I also brought a 12 pack of soda for a 7 day cruise, we told the room guy to empty the mini fridge so we used it to keep the wine and soda cold. The food on celebrity was much superior to that of ncl

Man this board is great, I wish I could cruise with you people, the cruise I am going on people are talking about what type of tux and gowns they will wear, nothing wrong with that, to each their own, not just what I am interesting in, I just want to know what I can get away with wearing so they dont send me away from dinner. Have a great cruise.

What do you mean by "Beware of the EPIC, it is not a typical cruise experience?" Also, what, to you, is a typical cruise experience. (Not being a smart alec, just truly curious.)

BTW, I envy your ability to "pack" light.

I just mean do your research about this ship just because something is new does not mean it it better, it is a very smoky ship, even though the epic holds over 4000 people it is only 200 feet longer than the ncl dawn which holds about 2000, there is no promenade deck on the epic, it looks like a container ship people jam packed together even ncl decided not to make a sister ship, thank god it is one of a kind, we will not book this ship even though we enjoy the ncl product, although we just booked a celebrity solstice for dec 5th.

There were a few minor issues with our last ncl cruise, so we figure this is our disposable income and if ncl does not want to address our concerns we will try someone else. We learned that we are not going to get married to a cruise line but instead try to get the overall best deal and cruise experience.

Well we have been on five cruises, we like the freestyle concept of NCL, if other cruiselines start more of a eat when you want with who you want concept and the price is right we will use any cruise line.

Our vacation does not have to be a cruise we book last minute IF a great deal pops up, otherwise we are prepared do something else. By last minute, I mean within the last two weeks before departure, we have always found a deal.

We do all shore excursions on our own, we never buy anything on board, no specialty meals, we dont buy alcohol on board, we dont buy soda on board. If it is a safe country we take public transportation (Aruba - round trip to eagle beach and back five bucks for the both of us on the bus) We figure we already paid for an all inclusive, why would we pay more.

We bring everything in one rollerboard and one bag pack, (last cruise was 12 days) we do laundry by hand in the sink.

We have had balcony, window, and dungeon rooms. In warm weather for us the balcony is the way to go, if it is cold a balcony is just an uneeded expense.

Good Luck with your travels, do your research, watch out for reviews that try to impress, some folk will say that they loved something just because that is what everyone else is saying, or because they paid a boat load for it and they want you to know how much money they have. Beware of the EPIC, it is not a typical cruise experience.