NoahtheRed

2 hours ago, Linda the Book Lover said:

Let us know when we check in if you get the surprise of a new cabin. 

Will do. 

It'd have been nice to get an upgrade earlier just so we could budget around that better, but meh, we'll see what happens 😛

3 minutes ago, LongIsland-Cruiser said:

For what it’s worth, I sail in two days and I have not received any word on my bids being accepted.  But all the haven cabins showed as sold out this morning, and others on here have stated their bids for the same sailing were accepted……so it seems that NCL does NOT always inform you that your bids aren’t accepted.  YMMV.

Same deal here. We sail out on Sunday. Only difference is there appears to be 1 or 2 haven cabins left still....and I've got a pretty solid bid...so we'll see what happens. 

Now that we're inside the 2 day window though, the chances of last minute cancellations has gone up as people get their pre-cruise covid tests. Also, the weather in Florida seems to be throwing off air travel all the way to the Rockies right now, so weather related cancellations might be on the menu as well.

Most likely, yes...for one person.

Correct. NCL does online check-in 21 days in advance. I don't know that it makes much difference really.

Unless your cruise has a pretty wildly late departure, you'd be fine just heading to the port terminal. It'll take you some time to get from the airport to the terminal anyway.

5 hours ago, pythia said:

Just off the Breakaway.  Playoff hockey was on in every bar with a tv and in the cabin.  

Good. Time to bug the cruise director at the M&G and see if I can get some of the games on the Atrium screen 😛

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Let's just both hope it is a great and entertaining series. Both teams took down the #1 seed in their respective divisions. And both have truly outstanding goaltenders.

Yeah, but only one of them has Reavo......so......

(I'm a VGK fan first, a Predators fan second, and in the absence of them...I'm chasing former knights :P)

We're cruising on the Encore next week and last I heard (late last week), the ship was hovering around 60-70% 

 

It's got a Humidor Cigar Lounge on deck 6 near the casino

Hi, 

We're heading out aboard the Encore on June 5th....which means we'll be smack dab in the middle of the Stanley Cup Conference finals. Does anyone know if any of the onboard venues can air the games live?

20 minutes ago, SpacemanSpiff said:

A silly question -- and I did try to search for it, but couldn't find it.

 

If one gets an upgrade, does one get a new set of luggage tags?  If so, and they don't assign it until the day before sailing, what does one do without a printer handy to print them (i.e., at a hotel in port)?  

It may have changed, but they'll handwrite luggage tags at the port as long as you've got the cabin # on your boarding docs. 

2 hours ago, Montanagirlalways said:

So NCL uses Jet Blue now for the free air they advertise?

It varies depending on the markets. Some friends of ours are on Delta for their flight to Honolulu while my wife and I are on Alaskan to Seattle. 

1 hour ago, HappilyTravelin said:

Well, my bid now says “pending” and I can I longer modify it. On the page to enter new bids, it now says “not eligible for upgrade”.  My sister is still able to modify her bid. 
—Does this mean I did not get it? 
 My stateroom number is the same on the app and I did not receive an email. 
 

I apologize if this has been asked before. I scanned the thread and didn’t see anything, but I did not read all 60 pages. 

If you don't mind me asking, when/where is your cruise?

1 hour ago, MidCitiesMan said:

I filed a BBB complaint a bit ago. 

I fully support holding NCL accountable (and really, business in general), but BBB might be the most meaningless rating possible. Frankly, I'd consider a chargeback with your CC at this point.

17 minutes ago, ljrfrm said:

We used NCL's free air a few years ago and easily upgraded directly through the airline once we got our flight information from NCL about 45 days out.  We used a mixture of points/money one direction on United and all money on Lufthansa on the way home.

Yup, upgraded to business in our Alaskan flight from Vegas to Seattle without any issue whatesover. Folks, check your airlines and see if they'll let you upgrade. They probably will. 

1 hour ago, JandC_Cruising said:

You can typically find the Thermal Spa passes available to pre purchase when you go online into your reservation.  It will be listed in the “Plan and Explore” section.   You can pre buy just like you could pre book and buy excursions. 

That was indeed news to me. I called up NCL and managed to secure some for my upcoming cruise though, so that's a win 🙂 Saves some stress on Day 1. 

Generally, the boarding times are kind of superficial. They're mostly just to try and artificially space guests out so they don't get rushed at 9am or whatever. Realistically, it'll be around lunchtime before you're able to actually board anyway. 

2 minutes ago, CrazyTrain2 said:

Get the product managers at HQ drunk and they might divulge.

Lol, been doing product management for nearly a decade now and I bet if you had 4 drunk PM brains to pick, you'd end up with 4 different sets of (conflicting) business rules 😛

Wait, how are y'all pre-purchasing thermal spa passes? I've been under the impression it's still a "Can only be purchased on-board" thing?

9 hours ago, alibabaxx said:

Oh yes I know you only get one... I'm just wondering if you choose more than one to bid on does that lessen your chances of getting the one you want?  Anyway we've decided to bid on two as we would like either one (haven) but left the club balcony

Honestly, the mechanics of how it all works are probably only known to a couple product managers and business stakeholders at the third-party that runs it. I'd go as far as to say it's probably proprietary and not even NCL knows the exact business logic. NCL just contracts with this company to fill empty cabins at reduced rates closer to the sail date and there's probably certain controls NCL has, but it's otherwise a grey box system with some kind of contractual obligation for certain performance metrics.

If there is a specific cabin type you're trying to get, I'd recommend having that be your 'best' bid of the lot....but it generally depends on the availability and demand more than anything. 
 

9 hours ago, alibabaxx said:

So my cruise is 83 days out and got an offer to bid for upgrade.... wonder why when the date is 3 months away?

It's a big number crunch, basically. NCL obviously wants to maximize their capacity aboard the ship and getting the 'potential upgrade' numbers early lets them adjust pricing on the lower level cabins as necessary. If they're at 50% capacity 3 months out, knowing their capacity to top fill the higher level cabins helps them get a better idea of A. what sorts of thresholds they want to place for those cabins and B. how many of the vacated cabins will be available closer to sailing. 

So to get a short answer, they've calculated that there is a point of criticality in each sailing where opening up the bidding lets them forecast the departure day supply and demand ratio. 

By the end of our last 7 day on NCL, we were probably 40-50% Raspberry Guava Mojito by weight. 

15 hours ago, TonyFred said:

Consider bidding on a Spa balcony room. I think most folks are successful even with low bids these days. Of course that will change as capacity opens up. NCL has the best thermal spas at sea in my opinion. At least on the Breakaway class ships.

Agreed. We've habitually gotten the spa pass at the recommendation another CC member and it's probably the best money you can spend on a cruise. On our last cruise on the Escape, I think we spent more time in the thermal suite than any other part of the ship....even the mojito bar. 

 

12 hours ago, Middleager said:

Can you please explain?  We'll be on Jewel 3/29 Panama cruise.

It's a long cruise. Being able to escape the crowd and relax is gonna make the voyage that much more relaxing and incredible. 

If you watch the prices, sometimes you can score a spa suite for cheaper than the price of a normal balcony + spa pass. However, beyond that, it's really no different other than location. That said, the Mandara Spa is totally worth the cost and it's always a first stop for us when we cruise on a ship with it.

Just got off the Grandeur a few hours ago. We stayed in suite 3517, an inside cabin far towards the bow just off the main hallway.

Interior vs Oceanview - I'd take an Oceanview over an Interior 8 ways from Sunday now. Don't get me wrong, ours was nice and comfortable and we mostly just slept in it, but there's something jarring when you wake up and there's no quick way to know if you overslept or if it's raining outside. The oceanviews have a little more room from what I remember of our friend's OV cabin.

Cabin Location? - I feel like this might be personal preference. Like I said, we were in the bow area on deck 3, so most things were a bit of a walk. Additionally, there's a good bit of equipment noise a deck or two above so light sleepers might want something a few rows back. The buffet is 6 decks up, but most of the other dining options are towards the aft so again, a walk. Whats your preference?

Rust bucket? - She's showing some age. I wouldn't call her a rust bucket, but there's no doubt that she's pushing 25 years old iirc. She's got a few minor modern touches, but she's still got a distinctly '90s cruise ship' feel to her. If you are used to the more modern ships (last 10 years or so), you may find some of her charming quirks a little less charming.

Getting on the Grandeur in a few weeks. Anyone know if their bars at least have Guinness? Otherwise I guess it's gonna be a week of whiskey :P