VideoTech

Do they still at the host's discretion give you a larger credit off of your onboard credit than what your points were worth.

Yes, credit against your final bill is at the discretion of the casino manager. They have a formula they work from, but they can and do give more credit if they want to.

The obvious difference between the 2 balconies and the penthouse is that you will get all of NCL's wonderful suite perqs with the penthouse - you won't get them with the 2 balconies.

So, if the 4 of you can get along in a Penthouse, with one couple in the bedroom, and the other two on the fold out sofa - and only one bathroom - then go for the penthouse. But if privacy, more space, and two full size beds and two bathrooms are more important, then stay with the balcony cabins.

You may be aware of this, but the casino drink card is only good IN the casino. It won't help you ordering drinks anywhere else on the ship. So you'd have to go to the casino each time you wanted a drink, and of course, as you mentioned, there are many times when the casino is not open.

Just in case you haven't mapped it, please be aware that Metairie is about 15 to 20 minutes from downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter.

If you're just looking for a quick pre/post cruise stay, you'll be fine. But if you're intending to spend a day or more doing New Orleans before or after, and don't have a car, you'll want to find a hotel closer in.

There are hotels in the "Warehouse District," near the cruise terminal and convention center, that also have cruise parking packages. Search this forum for more info if you need.

Thanks. We did think of that, but were hoping to take some Champagne for New Years Eve. Not sure if it will be allowed in hand luggage, or how it would behave. Don't want it exploding! :eek:

Check with your airline about Champagne in your carry-on. If they allow it, your carry-on would be best, as you can treat it fairly gently.

Don't waste your time trying this. It's not all that convenient, as pointed out above, and you could spend the time more productively in Miami.

The IC may be able to check you in mid-morning - it's worth it to ask, as even if they were full the night before they may have had early check out rooms that are already cleaned and available. If they have no rooms ready, then stash your baggage with the bell stand and head out and see the sights.

Port or Starboard makes absolutely no difference in many ports, primarily because you cannot anticipate where & how the ship will be docked. Specifically for those ports:

Cozumel: You could be at one of three cruise piers, each one docking multiple ships in different configurations depending on arrival time, and the directions of the port authority.

Roatan: There is only one dock. Ships tie up either port or starboard..been there many times and have been docked either way. If you're not the one ship at the dock you're anchored out in the harbor and will be tendered in to the dock.

Belize: No cruise ship docks at all. All ships anchor some distance out from the port and passengers are tendered in.

There is a wine bar called "Le Grand Comptoir" listed in one of the terminals at IAH. Their menu offers wine by the bottle - however, the question is, would liquor laws allow you to take away an unopened bottle? I'm guessing probably not...but you could contact them and ask. Here's the link:

http://www.le-grandcomptoir.com/

Here are a couple of other threads from these forums asking much the same thing:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1797422

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1804352

Another thought: Perhaps you could find a nearby wine & liquor store that would deliver to the hotel?

Hope that all helps some..good luck!

New to NCL. We are planning a friends and family cruise on the Pride. We are trying to decide on 2 2 bedroom suites or 4 midship balconies. The price is basically the same per person. Looking for suggestions, pro, cons on which to choose.

 

Thanks for your help.

If everyone gets along, go for the suites. As mentioned above, NCL's Suite Life really spoils you for any other cabins on NCL, or any other cruise line, IMO.

Hello,

 

My DW and I will be leaving on the Jewel next week and we will not being getting off the ship in Costa Maya. My wife wants to do a spa day, dont they usually have discounts on port days? If so does anyone have any dailies for port days showing what they offer and the price.

My DW does the spa on port days all the time. Her experience is that they'll often do discounts on spa treatments on port days, usually more towards the end of the cruise.

Easiest thing is just to go ask them at the spa, right at the beginning of the cruise. They'll tell you what specials they're going to be running and when.

Somebody help me out here. We are a family of four that will be flying into Hobby. I think I am in the same post as the original poster. For us the $179 ($200 with tax) seems to be the cheapest route to get to and from Galveston. The Carnival shuttle is considerably more than this. We could rent a car and park at a Galveston hotel for free, but by the time we do a one week rental and pay for gas, plus the hotel room it's obviously going to be more than $200. If we pay for a taxi or a car from what I can see it's going to be at a minimum $100 each way and that is without the expense of a hotel. So, for families that are flying into Hobby, this sure seems to be the cheapest way unless I am missing something obvious..... any thoughts? Am I missing something?

If you're flying into Hobby, then this is probably a good deal. You've pretty much got the options nailed, and I don't think you're missing anything.

The only thing I'll warn you about the location of this hotel - there's not much in the way of restaurants right nearby (just a few fast food joints), so you'll have to ask the hotel if they'll shuttle you to a restaurant (or take a taxi) for dinner. But you do get a breakfast before your shuttle to the port.

The hotel is a La Quinta...nothing fancy, but it will be comfortable for the one night.

Wow...not good news, as we're headed out on the Jewel at the end of December.

We've been CAS cruisers for a long time, and generally been very pleased with the points system, and the casino staff. But admittedly, we haven't cruised since the system changed.

If you're driving from Austin to the cruise port anyway, then you have your choice of where to stay the night before, and I wouldn't pick the Hobby airport area. Plenty of other better areas to stay in around Houston, or, as suggested, just head on down to Galveston.

if you search this forum, you'll find other discussions of Houston area hotels with cruise parking arrangements.

Bottom line is that excursions booked through the ship will always be marked up. That's how they make their portion of the money.

The only real reason to do excursions through the ship is that when you are booked through the ship, if for some reason you are late returning, the ship will wait for you. If you book on your own, and miss the sailing, you're on your own to catch up with the ship at the next port.

As mentioned above, booking through the ship can be an asset in tender ports such as Belize. In addition, the ship will know what excursion you're on, and will know how to get in touch with the tour operator to find out where you are, and when you'll be back at the ship.

All that being said, I suspect very few tour/excursion operators will have you late back to the ship, because they depend on their reputation with the cruise lines to stay in business. So you're pretty safe booking independently through the established tour/excursion operators, and you'll save that markup fee.

What makes you like forward compared to AFT??? I would think u feel the movement more in fwd but I've never cruised so I don't know lol

The forward suites are our favorites, and we've done both forward and aft.

Reasons:

1. Most of the forward suites on the NCL ships have HUGE balconies.

2. The views from those balconies are incredible. You can stand there and forget you've even got a cruise ship behind you.

3. Prefer to see where we're going, rather than where we've been.

4. You can sit in the lounge chairs toward the back of the balcony and have a nice windbreak & sunbreak from the steel balcony rails around you, or move forward for a nice sunny seat.

5. No issues of noise or debris from the garden cafe that's usually above the aft suites.

6. Love watching the ship enter each port.

Well...that's a few of the reasons...as far as the ship's movement is concerned, yes, you can feel the movement more at bow and stern of the ship. But we've never found it uncomfortable, even during a windy, high seas crossing to the Inside Passage.

Hi

My husband Marty and I will be on this sailing. 35th cruise. 4th on NCL. Can't wait to get out of the terribly cold weather. Sign us up for the meet and greet.

You probably meant to post this on the roll call for whichever cruise you're on....

I would second the many recommendations for you to try one of NCL's smaller ships. We've done Epic, and one of the big RC ships, and will always take a smaller ship over a bigger one any day.

If you can spring for it, try one of the suites (Penthouse or higher, "mini-suites" are not suites in this case) on a smaller NCL ship. Lots of perks, including gracious and unhurried breakfast and lunch in Cagney's. In ports, you usually get priority disembarkation, which avoids those long lines waiting to get off the ship. Many other perks too...NCL has some of the best suite cruising in the business IMO.

I don't know the specifics of Vancouver (distance from the port to the airport, traffic, etc), but it's been my experience on all our cruises that any flight after noon on the disembarkation day is usually fine.

Hopefully someone with specific Vancouver knowledge can confirm that.

What is your favorite slot machine?

 

The one that just paid me a jackpot!! :D

Seriously, I like machines with tumbling reels and locking wilds...video slots, as opposed to reel slots, obviously. "Oriental Beauties" is an example, but you don't find that one very often and I've never seen it on a ship.

....

3. You're on vacation... com'on relax, enjoy your cruise. :D

THAT is what I wish so many people would remember. It's the terrible curse of our 24/7 connected technology...we've forgotten how to relax and enjoy TIME OFF!! Have you seen the surveys of how many people work when they're on vacation? Everyone's so concerned about not missing a single email, text or phone message...but you know, somehow the world does go on even if you don't read that last CC or BCC....and if you're a manager, and your staff can't do the work without you constantly riding herd on them, shame on you!

Ok...done with my rant!! Feel better now:D

Biggest difference right off the bat: Pearl carries 2,394 passengers, Explorer carries 3,114 (3,835 according to some websites). Of course, that also means the Explorer at 138,000 tons, is much larger than the Pearl at 93,000 tons.

Having sailed the Pearl many times, we're biased because it's one of our favorite NCL ships. But we also prefer smaller ships, and fewer passengers, and for that reason alone, would take the Pearl over the Explorer.

We're also big fans of the "suite life" on NCL, and have always felt it was much better than the perks we received from our suite on Freedom.

I think in the end it comes down to what you like from a cruise. For instance, the Pearl does not have a wave rider, zip line, or rock climbing wall on the ship. I'm sure Explorer has all those things and more. So, if you want lots of dining choices, plenty of organized activities and lots of different activity spaces, take the larger ship. If you prefer a slower pace (not that there aren't plenty of organized activities on a smaller ship), take the smaller ship.

Or, look at it this way: You've done Royal Caribbean, so why not try NCL? Make your own decision after the cruise.

Mostly agree with Roger001. Either side is fine, sometimes you'll face the land in port, sometimes you'll face the sea.

However, I'm always amazed at the number of school age kids there are on cruise ships when you think they really shouldn't be there. My feeling is that parents aren't as concerned about pulling their kids out of school for a week these days....?

Closed Loop = Ship originates from and returns to country of origin (i.e. in this case, Tampa to Tampa) and no one permanently disembarks the ship or embarks he ship in the intermediate port stops.

Open Loop = Generally speaking, when a cruise ship doesn't originate from and return to the country of origin, such as on a trans-Atlantic cruise, or a cruise that might originate in Seattle and terminate in Vancouver. Or, in this case, if some of the passengers disembark for an extended stay at one of the port stops.

The airport is a 30 minute cab ride from the port. If Carnival is similar to NCL, the ship docks early in the morning, and disembarkation begins around 8am. Those who can carry off their own suitcases are usually allowed to disembark first.

SO: assuming no problems with the ship clearing port authorities, assuming no delays in your party disembarking, getting luggage, and clearing customs, you could be on the dock, ready to jump in a cab, by 8:30 or 9:00 am.

However, unless it's absolutely important to get that early flight, I wouldn't subject myself to the stress and strain of worrying about something going wrong and possibly missing the flight...particularly now that airplanes fly full and missing your flight might mean waiting on a standby seat all day, with no assurance of getting one.

I always book flights at noon or later. Never had a problem making those flights from our cruises from New Orleans, and you can take your time getting off the ship.

I should start off by saying that we were only on the Epic once, shortly after she first started cruising...so that's been a while, and things might have changed.

The show had its moments, most notably the acrobats balancing against the roll of the ship. The humor was fairly obvious and fell kind of flat. Show grade: B-

The dinner was very average...didn't seem much different from what you could get in the MDR. Dinner grade: C

But as mentioned above, all this is very subjective, particularly food quality!