SouthLyonCruiser

One of the responders asked when we were going. 

I have made it a habit to never give a date when we are going on vacation.

Making information available when we will not be home, no matter how remote the risk may be, may not be a good idea.

I can see by many of the responses that I am one of those people to whom these types of things would leave me less stressed.

1. I always use a travel agent and make my communications to the cruise line through her. It eliminates the chances of getting different answers from different employees of the cruise line. The travel agent works for me, not the company.

2. I always spend the big bucks with travel insurance and have used it once with satisfying results.

With the problems noted by the review it just confirms for the good thing about always using a travel agent. If I have any problems, I never call the cruise line, that is the travel agents job. 

I just email her and await the answer.

We are going on the Getaway soon and would like to know if teen aged children are allowed to use the equipment in the fitness center.

Make the reservation portion of the site more like Princess when it comes to specific cabin reservations. Princess allows you to see cabins that are not sold. That way you can contact your travel agent, if you have one, and specify a particular cabin.

I know that it can be a problem travelling with a convicted felon through foreign ports but, we have person who wants to go on an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle and the person has a non violent felony on the record from 2001. No problems of any kind since. Does anyone else have an experience with this problem and is it something to worry about?

We stopped using the NCL shuttle some time ago when we discovered that we could take a cab for less money and didn't have to wait in a stuffy bus until it was full.

This applies to Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tampa.

For other ports I would do a little research first to determine prices.

We went on a cruise that came back Dec. 23. That same cruise following ours for Christmas was 2 1/2 times the price that we paid. Christmas cruises will not go down in price. They sell out because so many people have made this their Christmas tradition.

If you don't have any children you may want to skip this time of year (Christmas and New Years) as the ship will be crawling with children, many of which will not be escorted or well behaved. Just sayin'

This is the best and most complete review of the food I have ever read. I am retired and have had plenty of time to read posts and reviews. I only wish that I could figure a way to post this to facebook.

Smuggling the substance on board and getting caught is not like that bottle of wine in your luggage. They will not just confiscate it, they may report you to the authorities and you will not be using your cruise voucher; and, by the way, no refund.

Is it worth the risk????

On our last cruise on the Escape I was told that they no longer do the buckets. One of the things that has begun to be annoying that Norwegian has done.

Sorry about this question but I am so illiterate when it comes to looking up answers to questions on Cruise Critic.

This is about the use of walkie talkies on board. I am putting this here because our next cruise is on Norwegian.

We are going with our daughter and family. There is a four year old going and some of the things that her family are doing on board are iffy when it comes to taking our four year old grandson and they are things that we will not be doing.

We want them to be able to get a hold of us if he acts up and is not interested in staying. Will walkie talkies work on board. We are not interested in using our flip phones to contact us even if it were possible.

Anyone with any experience?

In January we are cruising out of Miami. Never before flew into and out of FLL. Usually used Delta and went directly into Miami, but much better prices thru FLL with Southwest. Is it possible to get to FLL for a 10:30 AM flight??? :confused:��

I don't gamble in the casino and I don't take chances on missing my flight home.

If you miss the flight plan on staying overnight at the airport. All of the flights out will probably be full, except, of course, the flight you missed which will have a couple of empty seats.

We are thinking of going to the Cirque Dreams and Steam dinner show and would like to know the difference between the banquet seating and the floor seating.

Keep in mind that part of the reason for asking is that we will have a four year old with us that we may have to take out of the show if he starts acting up and would like to do so, if necessary, with as little disruption as possible so as not to interfere with the enjoyment of the show by others.

We are about 50 days out from our Bliss sailing and there a number of cabins showing as available that would be an upgrade for us, so been watching daily for our "bid" option to pop up. No luck. Today I called up our TA (the travel arm of a warehouse club out of Seattle) and was informed that they do not participate in the program. The rep was trying to be helpful as we worked through options; he got a supervisor involved and said he contacted NCL. We were on the phone for quite a while.

 

 

Final result was that I was told that they do not have the technological infrastructure of offer/monitor the program. No "manual' way to work directly with NCL. Basically, nothing that could be done other than booking with another TA in the future (yeah, we went there). We are happy with the cabin we have, so can live with this, but always hate to leave a option unexplored.

 

 

Questioning if maybe I didn't push hard enough or maybe got the wrong rep, and should keep trying? Anyone else run into this solution and find a resolution?

 

Maybe the price on those other cabins will keep dropping and we can do a paid upgrade, but expect that others will win with successful bids before that happens.

 

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like you need a new travel agent. I have been using the same one for almost 20 years and have never had a problem that she could not solve.

Going through a warehouse club or NCL directly you have no personal connection and the person you deal with is not always the same due to turnover rate.

Been hearing there is flooding in Skagway? And nothing but rain at every port? And excursions are being cancelled? Anyone recently off cruise with first hand information on this?[/quo

We have been on three Alaska cruises. All three were in July and we had rain only once in all that time (total of 24 days, including one cruisetour).

That being said, time of year does matter but we always made sure to have clothing that would accommodate whatever weather we get.

It seems that since they instituted the UBP that the bucket of beer offer has disappeared.

Hate that.

I tend to read reviews of ships prior to cruising for tips and used to be able to "click" on previous reviews of a reviewer. I can no longer do that. Someone who has only written one review tends to be someone who loved or hated their cruise and I like to see someone who has written several reviews to get a better idea of how my upcoming cruise on a particular ship might be.

When I emailed Cruise Critic I got no response as to why they have eliminated this ability.

Thoughts?

Currently on deck 15. Was thinking of bidding for Mini, 150 pp.

 

What do you recommend? First time on NCL!

If you like to spend time on your balcony keep the angled balcony, it is way bigger than the standard balcony.

If you prefer a bigger bathroom, get the mini suite.

Best Western Plus, hands down. Free shuttle from the airport, for $10 each they arrange a shuttle to the cruise port and a pretty good free breakfast in the morning.

I tried to search for this answer, but had no luck...sorry if it has been covered. Will our cruise cards be accepted on Harvest Cay or is everything on a cash basis? Thanks.

When in doubt, and there seems to be quite a bit of it on this subject, just have cash, it's never a problem.

I booked with an NCL agent. He has booked me in the past and I am more than thrilled with his help. I would be happy to pass along his name and number.

An NCL agent is looking out for NCL. A reliable travel agent will look out for you. Same price, better service.

I find this to be another wonderful and free perk in using a travel agent.

When I inquired about the same thing she informed me that when the reservations opened up to contact her and she would make the reservations for us and make sure that we would be seated together.

I don't know about anyone else but we are Platinum and, from what I can see, Platinum Plus offers nothing extra that I find worth the trouble of getting more points to get there.

Thanks for all of the discussion, suggestions and expectation setting. I'm glad to know i'm not alone in my experience with NCL customer service.

 

I have an update to report -- yesterday, in my frustration and desire to resolve this matter, i did two things. I came here and posted to ask your strategies with customer service, and I emailed my travel agent to ask if she has any connections or way to escalate. I had an email from her this morning saying that she spoke to customer service, that the case manager had heard back from the ship yesterday and that i should expect an email today. Lo and behold, my digital photos arrived today from the "Assistant Photo Manager" on the Norwegian Escape.

 

I don't believe for a second that the ship responded coincidentally yesterday, at the same time my TA contacted NCL to escalate, but I'm grateful that she was able to get some traction for my issue. It's disappointing that customer service doesn't really care to do the right thing for customers who are genuinely looking for NCL to make something right. Why should it take a TA inquiry to get real support! I learned my lesson to ask for help from my TA for post-cruise issues instead of expecting the process to work. I'm at a loss to answer why I didn't try that sooner, but better late than never!

 

I'm also noting your experience, BirdTravels that this probably would have taken around the 3 month mark to work itself out through the normal process.

 

Thanks again, everyone!

Your type of experience is one of the many reasons why I am loyal and always book through the same travel agent. She has always gotten back to me with answers to questions that I would have been on the phone for an extended period with the cruise line and also gets problems quickly resolved.