VideoTech

The level and number of comps available from CAS is always tied to the popularity of the ship, the itinerary, and the cruise dates. Bliss is a brand new ship, with plenty of interest from cruisers, which means NCL won't have to work hard at all to fill the ship for the next few years. It's much like trying to get an airline seat with your frequent flier miles...mileage seats to Paris or London are few and far between and cost a ton of miles.

Just booked Bliss for 9/2018 to Alaska through CAS for 2! We were comped ocean view and we upgraded to a handicapped balcony category BD (I have MS). We received 2 free offers -approx. cost is $1650 with insurances, taxes and admin fees.

 

I am wondering if this is a decent deal for a new ship with a later sailing? I know this is a subjective question. Online NCL booking showed about 4k. Just new to casino offers and I am comfortable with what I booked but looking for feedback/comments.

 

This booking didn't include any OBC. This will be my 3rd NCL cruise, only one with no OBC. Is this because of the Alaskan tour or is this common with CAS?

 

Thanks-

One more question...we are booked in stateroom 14860 and the current diagrams show a white blank behind this cabin. Any ideas what would be there?

 

link to deck plan: http://www.cruisemapper.com/deckplans/Norwegian-Bliss-1454/deck14-4278

I was wondering how NCL was before the Freestyle Concept. Were all cruise lines basically alike with not much differences? When NCL did adapt the Freestyle Concept, were the ships in the fleet revamped or did they have the new builds come out with the new type of cruising and retire their old ships?

We cruised on several other lines before the advent of "Freestyle." All of them were essentially the same when it came to dining..you were assigned a table and a dining time. If you liked meeting people, and if you got along with the others at your table you could have a very enjoyable cruise. If you didn't.......

The change to Freestyle didn't really require revamping the ships. It mostly meant new planning methods for the kitchens and wait staff. Since passengers might arrive for meals at any time during the hours the dining rooms were open, the service had to shift to more of a restaurant style staffing and planning. Of course, it was still obvious that certain times would be more popular than others, depending on where the ship was cruising. I suspect that the biggest impact was on the hotel managers and their allocation of staff around the ship.

If this were me, I would skip High Tea at Empress. Near The Empress is The World of Miniature Museum-- very interesting.

 

In Ketchikan might want to look at the Lumberjack Show.

 

Since you will be traveling through Glacier Bay, I am not sure I would spend the money on Mendanhall Glacier.

Agree with most of the the OP's original thoughts except the high tea, and the added suggestion of the Lumberjack show in Ketchikan.

White Pass and Yukon Railway in Skagway is pretty impressive, but the trip is long-ish and might not hold the kid's attention after the ride up to the pass.

There used to be a "Deadliest Catch" style crab catching excursion in Ketchikan....not sure if that's still offered or not. (Edit, just read your post more closely and saw you've already ruled this out). There are floatplane tours available out of Ketchikan, but these might be somewhat expensive for a large family group.

Whale watching in Juneau can be phenomenal, or it can be a complete dud. It totally depends on the whales, of course. The good whale watching tour operators will try to work in other wildlife spotting if the whales are not being very cooperative on your particular tour.

Victoria is a real problem. The arrival and departure time, as well as the location itself, don't leave a lot of room for kid-friendly activities. Butchart Gardens has fireworks shows on some summer evenings...if you're there for one, they are very good, but fair warning: you won't be back at the ship until just before it sails at midnight. Do this excursion through the ship if you do it.

Hi. We love Celebrity. The food, the ambience etc. We always do a reg balcony.

I've read NCL has a really good suite experience with specialty dining included. We are foodies and love Celebrities specialty restaurants. If you done both, can you can compare or give your opinion? Also concerned about the number of kids on NCL. I love kids, but on vaca I need a break.

We have done both Celebrity and NCL suites. In our opinion (except for one area) NCL suite life is far better than Celebrity. The Haven on the larger NCL ships is wonderful, with it's own plunge pool, private sundeck, hot tubs and available spa treatments. The Concierge and Butler service is second to none, and will truly spoil you.

We also feel that most NCL suites are more comfortable than the comparable Celebrity suites.

So, the one area where Celebrity beats NCL? You already mentioned it: Food. Celebrity's suite restaurant beats the NCL Haven restaurants hands down. It's not that the Haven restaurant food isn't good...it is uniformly excellent. But the biggest issue is that the NCL Haven restaurant does not change their menu at all during a 7 day cruise. That's ok for breakfast, not too bad for lunch, but it can mean you will run out of dinner choices on a 7 day cruise unless you mix in some of the NCL specialty restaurants. There's nothing wrong with that...but we were totally impressed with the Celebrity suite restaurant and the wide ranging menus it provides. NCL needs to take note.

We came away with the same conclusion you've expressed: Celebrity suite life is a "foodie" cruise.

As for the number of kids, I didn't find Celebrity and NCL to be any different. All the mainstream cruise lines cater to families and family vacations, and on any given cruise, there will be a lot of kids. Perhaps this is another area where the NCL Haven facilities win out over Celebrity: The Haven usually tends to be more quiet, adult retreat, particularly on the larger NCL ships. Of course, there can always be unruly kids in the Haven too...but in all our Haven cruises that's usually the exception, not the rule.

We had foggy, cool weather in Venice in mid October 2017. The weather for the cruise portion to Athens and back was lovely--sunny and warm everywhere we went. The fog in Venice, however, delayed our cruise and consequently changed our itinerary, much to our disappointment.

Thanks Everyone. I'm not dismissing the historical data, just looking to fill it in with trip reports and personal experiences, which is one of the valuable things about CC. Good point about fall flooding in Venice...hadn't thought about that, although I know it happens.

Thanks again.

There is historical weather data available on many of the weather sites, such as this one, wunderground.com.

Just plug in the name of each port you will visit and look at the past several yrs to get an idea of what you MAY expect. It will take 5 minutes ....

https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LGAT/2017/11/3/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Athens&req_state=I&req_statename=Greece&reqdb.zip=00000&reqdb.magic=10&reqdb.wmo=16716

Thanks Mapleleaves. I'm aware of that, have done that. But that's just the historical numbers. Looking for experiences from cruisers who've done the Adriatic at that time of year.

Currently have the NCL 7 day Venice - Greece - Venice booked for this June, but will likely have to cancel and reschedule.

What is the weather like for that cruise in late October or perhaps the first week of November? Anyone have any experience with that cruise at that time of year?

Thanks!

Currently have the NCL 7 day Venice - Greece - Venice booked for this June, but will likely have to cancel and reschedule.

What is the weather like for that cruise in late October or perhaps the first week of November? Anyone have any experience with that cruise at that time of year?

Thanks!

.... There is no sundeck since all of the loungers are in the pool courtyard but we never found it crowded. ....

Actually, on our Epic cruise I did find a private sundeck for Haven only. It's not easy to find...as I recall you had to go in past the sauna and up steps to a spot that overlooked the Haven courtyard, then find a door from there onto the private sundeck. There was hardly ever anyone up there, as it was so hard to find and not well marked.

However, our Epic cruise was many years ago, and it's possible they've changed the layout of the ship since then.

I can only give you an informed opinion. Cruise ship cabins are priced the same way that airline seats are priced, using much the same software & algorithms.

I’m looking a a few individual weeks in the haven, all the weeks are now within 60 days.

 

Week A has 33 Available rooms

 

Week B has 44 Available rooms

 

Week C has 17 Available rooms

 

One question would be, on week C, why is the room category I want the cheapest, there are only 2 left compared to 7+ on weeks A and B.

 

It seems to me after looking for quite a while that the price algorithms might be from historical data and not necessarily from inventory based data. Not to say that it may be updated closer to sailing or just all the remaining rooms can be thrown in to the “bidding inventory”. If they do it this way, they can protect their prices by not going lower than their preset minimums.

 

Can anyone chime in with their opinions or logic. Maybe some first hand experiences when it comes to price drops.

 

 

 

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Further re: iConcierge. This app does not give you a new phone number. It is only used on the ship, using the ship's wifi (NOT the internet). It allows texting between other phones running the iConcierge app (you enter them in the iConcierge app contacts) and calling from your iConcierge phone to the cabin phone numbers of your contacts.

It also allows you to check your reservations, make new reservations, and it will deliver a lot of NCL promotional messages to your phone.

Hello! My husband and I are going on our first ever cruise this Saturday - SO excited! When leaving a contact number for our families in case of emergency, what is the best number to leave? Is there a general number, and then they just need our ship name and stateroom number?

 

AND/OR - would it be better to give them our personal number from the iConcierge app? I just downloaded the app and it seems like it will be useful. Am I understanding correctly that we won't know our phone number through the app until we get on the ship and access their Wifi? So we would need to text that number to our families once already on board the ship? Also am I understanding correctly that it is free to use the app, you are just charged by the minute to make calls incoming or outgoing to the mainland? And then there is around a $10 fee for each person if we want to use the app to text/call each other while on the cruise?

 

Thanks for any help/advice on this! :):):)

iConcierge will NOT work for this purpose. It only works on the ship, between phones running iConcierge.

Every ship has a land based phone number you can give out as an emergency number. This allows someone on land to call your ship directly and at least get a message through to you. This is typically given somewhere in your Edocs and I think it's also on the website.

Hello! My husband and I are going on our first ever cruise this Saturday - SO excited! When leaving a contact number for our families in case of emergency, what is the best number to leave? Is there a general number, and then they just need our ship name and stateroom number?

 

AND/OR - would it be better to give them our personal number from the iConcierge app? I just downloaded the app and it seems like it will be useful. Am I understanding correctly that we won't know our phone number through the app until we get on the ship and access their Wifi? So we would need to text that number to our families once already on board the ship? Also am I understanding correctly that it is free to use the app, you are just charged by the minute to make calls incoming or outgoing to the mainland? And then there is around a $10 fee for each person if we want to use the app to text/call each other while on the cruise?

 

Thanks for any help/advice on this! :):):)

We have done this cruise a few times and if there is no lava flow they will go in opposite direction, so I would keep an eye on the volcano to see if it is flowing close to your date.

 

Whatever I wouldn't sweat it as the ship will do a turn around so all can see.

The question was about the cruise by the Na Pali coast off of Kauai, not the cruise by the lava flows at the Big Island.

However, you are correct: If the lava is not flowing to sea at the Big Island, the ship will go north-around. You can check this website which will tell you if there is lava activity or not:

https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm

Thanks everyone. I seriously don't understand why NCL can't be specific on their site.

Because their website is awful.

When we did the POA, we left port and sailed up the coast with the coast off the port side of the ship. Then we turned around and sailed back again with the coast off the starboard side of the ship.

The coast was considerably closer on the port side then on the starboard side.

Thanks for all the info. I have another question. So sometimes I play two machines at the same time, how do you think that timed played is calculated?

 

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Also, and this is important: If you can afford to play two machines at the same time, but are playing less than max bet on each one, you are not doing yourself any favors. You should always play max bet to maximize any jackpots you might receive. Better to play one machine at max bet, than two machines at less than max.

Thanks for all the info. I have another question. So sometimes I play two machines at the same time, how do you think that timed played is calculated?

 

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Your "coin in" goes up (i.e. you are doubling your bets) but your time played remains the same.

I sometimes get balconies sometimes inside rooms. I have no idea.

 

 

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Your play history on your previous cruise is one thing that determines this. But the comps also vary based on the popularity of the cruise ship and itinerary. There are fewer cabins available to CAS on more popular cruises.

"Now our only problem is that DW wants to go back to Maui, I want to go back to Kauai."

VideoTech, what did you guys do in each port? We have an idea of Maui, but still working on Kauai. There's too much I want to do on Kauai!!! Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

If you look in the signature on my post, there are links to my review of the POA and to the Hawaii rental car information I posted.

However, I didn't write a lot about what we specifically did in each island - here's a brief recap:

Maui: First day - drove to Lahaina. Spent some time there, then drove on around the NW shoreline back around to Kahului, stopping at a blow hole and some other scenic points. Second Day: Road to Hana. Had intended to drive on around the island, possibly stopping at the Sacred Pools, but found the road to Hana took longer than we thought (very twisty and slow due to traffic) so we ended up going back the way we came. Did find the most beautiful little place off the road though, Waialohe point.

Hilo, Hawaii: drove and toured Volcanoes National Park.

Kona, Hawaii: Visited the National Historic Park, then DW took it easy on the ship and I did some snorkeling.

Kauai day one: Drove Waimea Canyon, did Smith's Family Luau in the evening. Day two, shopping and beach day.

Of course, since we were in our own car everywhere, there was plenty of shopping, stops for Shave Ice, and some great meals. There were many other places on the islands that we would have loved to have gone (including either a sunrise or sunset up at Haleakala on Maui) but we simply didn't have the time...thus the discussion about which island we want to go back to!

We have a mid-ship BA on the Getaway. I would like to get into a Balcony Spa, MiniSuite Spa, Aft Balcony, or anything Haven. At two weeks out, there seems to be a good number of such cabins available (some more so than others).

 

CAS told me to call back the week of sailing, which I think I will do regardless. I can also put a low bid in on an MX. Will my upgrade possibilities be noticeably better (in options and/or expense) if we are starting from MX vs BA? If we get "stuck" in an MX we won't like, is it possible to change the cabin # in the same category after the cabin has been assigned?

 

Also, can one take advantage of cancellations during check in?

 

Many thanks for your advice! We are about to have an amazing time regardless of which balcony you find us on!

Are you saying you already have a comped room from CAS? And they told you to call back the week of sailing? That's strange. As pointed out, CAS will simply tell you the price difference between your comped cabin and the cabin you want, and if you choose to do it, you pay that difference.

Are smaller ships going to be a thing of the past in a few short years? I've never been on a megaship, and really don't have any desire to be on one. Maybe I just think the ship shouldn't be the destination, just like a hotel shouldn't be. The experience should be where you are going not how you get there. I'm probably alone in this but I think it would be a huge mistake for the smaller ships to be phased out of service.

Megaships are likely to be the future for many reasons, but one of the major reasons is economy of scale. My feeling is the "middle sized ships" (that were the big ships 10 years ago), are going to be phased out as they reach their end of life. They will be replaced by megaships.

But..there will always be a market for higher-end specialty cruises, going to places the megaships can't go. Those will be done with smaller ships, just as they are done now.

I was on the MSC seaside last week and the 2nd night in there was a 15,000 winner on a quick hit machine on there free spin bonus there were a total of 6 winners on the quick hits ranging from 15k-3k and other winners on other machines however a gentleman I met said he was on the same ship only a week prior and didn't see 1 person hit a jackpot all week

 

 

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And that's exactly normal for slot machines.

With this cabin, are there restrictions about when you can use the balcony and rules regarding lights from your cabin that may mess with the bridge?

If you're asking about the forward balcony suites on the smaller ships - these are some of our favorite cabins. Love the huge balcony and great views.

They can be windy when the ship is underway (it depends on the wind direction), but you can easily step back and get out of the wind. The front and side walls of the balcony are solid steel.

You are asked not to have the balcony light on at night, or to have your cabin lights on and then leave your window curtains or balcony door open, because the light from your cabin can interfere with the night vision of the crew on the bridge. However, as long as you are careful about the lights, there's no restriction on when you can use your balcony.

Be careful, though, about the large steel weather door that closes outside of the cabin balcony door. The wind can catch this door and it's HEAVY and can hurt you. The cabin steward will often close this door at night when he/she turns down your cabin, but there's no reason you can't open it again. Just make sure it latches on the hook in the wall outside the cabin to stay open. You'll want to close it before you go to sleep, or the wind will whistle through the edges of the cabin balcony door.

Looking forward to cruising the Hawaiian Islands for the first time!

POA is a great cruise. We prefer doing our own thing so we rented a car in every port. We were off the ship every day from after breakfast through the rest of the day...often didn't come back until after dinner for sail away.

Now our only problem is that DW wants to go back to Maui, I want to go back to Kauai.

People can be so judgmental. You know the maturity levels of your twins, and you're their parent -- practice what you feel is right.

 

I agree with the poster that said to just use basic SMS text messaging. Much cheaper. And, if you all have iPhones, iMessage works for free with the free ship wifi (at least it did for me on both the Getaway and Breakaway while using the ship wifi to connect to the IConcierge app).

The Apple iMessage work-around has been blocked on most of the NCL ships, or at least the ones with the upgraded internet systems.

NCL's iConcierge app is the easiest and best way. No need to buy an internet minutes package. Load the app before you leave. On the ship, activate the app on each phone for $9.95 each device. Texting between devices works reasonably well, although there can be delays in delivering texts...just be aware of that possibility.

The problem with any texting solution that uses an internet package is that only one device at a time can be signed into a single internet account. Therefore, to provide real time texting functionality between two or more devices on the ship, you'd have to buy multiple internet packages, one for each person.

If you go the route of using SMS messaging, then you have to have your cell phone on. Now you may start incurring cell charges if someone calls one of your phones on board. Also, your young ladies may be tempted to continue their normal texting habits with all their friends back on shore, which even at SMS rates will rack up the charges.

DH hates having a large bill waiting after a vacation. As a result, we always pre-book (and pre-pay) if we are taking a cruise line excursion. To each their own. Hopefully we won't have anything to worry about with the $50 credits. And hopefully someone will post about their experience in getting the $50 back if they booked online.

Just to repeat: We always book online. We always pre-pay because we're booking on line. And we always see the $50 per shore excursion as a credit on our final on-board bill. It's not an issue, folks. You can do it either way: Call and book, in which case your price is reduced by $50, or book on line, pay full price, and see the credit on your bill at the end.