MeHeartCruising

I'd be on a plane the day after your get out of school in June. The further you get into summer, the more heat you have to endure and the more summer vacationers you will get. Lots of people take these cruises all summer, so you can too. But just be prepared for heat and crowds of tourists.

Look at the promo codes listed in the upper right corner of your Confirmation PDF that is sent to you after booking and after any changes. There will be codes there to indicate any additional points.

I'm pretty certain each of the Platinum coupons are for the Platinum member plus their guest. Unless your parents are Platinum, letting them use the coupon would not meet that requirement. Would they permit it, perhaps. But I would not bet on it. When I was checking in at one of the restaurants on my September cruise, the woman at the desk was able to see how many of my coupons were used and not used and which of my speciality meal promotion perks was used and not. They do appear to track it down to the individual passenger. I hope it works for you. I wouldn't count no it.

The Terms and Conditions page for promotions contains the answers to most of your questions. Scroll down to the sections about "Airfare". https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions

No. But the previous week. Sept 5 Southampton to Amsterdam.

I have no idea if it’s required. I just do it that way. Based on other responses, it apparently is not. I did forget to add to my post above that I also write “Platinum” on the bag and the slip. Just to cover all the bases.

By the way, the vouchers are contained in a small, folded cardboard "Latitudes Welcome" letter to you. It will usually be on the desk when you first get to the room. You unfold the letter and there are 3 detachable "coupons". One for each of your 2 Platinum meals and one for your free bag of laundry. Tear them off and use them when desired. For the dinners, take the coupon with you to the restaurant and give it to them when you check in at the front desk. For the free laundry, I put the coupon in the paper bag with the dirty clothes. I also still filled out the laundry receipt with the counts for each type of clothing. I put that in the bag too. The bags and count receipt can be found hanging in your closet.

Noticed my Covid symptoms on disembarkation day of my September 10-day British Isles cruise. So, PROBABLY caught it on the cruise, but could have caught it in port or elsewhere. The coughing woman behind me on an excursion vehicle is a suspected cause, but who knows. On the last night of the cruise, I could hear people in the cabins on both side of me coughing all night. So I'm guessing they had it too. I was fully vaccinated and had 2 booster shots (most recently in early June). My symptoms were obvious, but mild. You can catch it anywhere, anytime. It won't stop me from cruising. Next up... Mexican Riviera in February.

When I booked a cruise a few months ago, their web interface let me apply a $250 Cruise Next certificate AND a $300 Cruise First certificate. Since it let me try it, I did it. And it actually processed the transaction accurately. A couple weeks later, they sent me an email indicating this was not permitted and they removed one of them. I can't recall which one they removed. But at least they notified me about it.

Nothing has changed in that regard. Drink your wine anywhere you wish.

The Terrace Houses are an optional (and additionally priced) location at Ephesus. They are an excavated area that is enclosed in a modern structure off to the side from the Main Street of Ephesus that protects it from the elements. It is located on a sloping hillside. You enter the structure at the bottom of the hill and walk along raised metal walkways that look down into the archeological excavations below. You walk up metal steps between the various levels. This gradually takes you up the hill. At the top, you exit the structure and walk down a path back into the Main Street of Ephesus. And then continue thru the rest of your walKing tour. The Terrace Houses are considered the crown jewel of Ephesus. You should try to include them if your plans permit. They are very interesting. it is interesting that the tour with the Houses is shorter than the other tour. I would wonder if that is actually accurate. You will likely spend 30-45-60 minutes in the enclosed structure unless they are rushing you. Is NCL still only doing 1/2 day in Kusadasi? That would explain the short durations of both tours. And it’s barely enough time. But it’s better than not going at all, I suppose.

Worst case, I would taxi to the airport and then ride the transit train to the rental car center and pick up your car. The taxi may be able to take you directly to the rental car center, but I'm not sure. Should be about a $30 taxi ride.

Note that all the free drinks mentioned above are pretty much only available in the buffet and in restaurants. About all you can get from a bar is a glass of water.

In my experience, IF they are properly staffed, security will notice the bottle as you go through the screening process in the terminal. They will ask you to take your bottle over to a table at the side. A person at that table will inspect the bottle and determine wether it is permitted on board and if the corkage fee applies. If it does apply, they will write up a slip of paper with your name and cabin number on it. They will put a sticker on the bottle to indicate corkage has been paid. You then proceed on to the ship with your bottle. If the bottle is not permitted, they will likely confiscated it and you will get it back at the end of your cruise. A day or 2 into your cruise (it has varied for us), a charge for the corkage will appear on your on-board account. It usually shows as coming from a particular bar or a specialty restaurant. So sometimes you might wonder what that charge is for. But it should match the amount of the corkage fee. They seem to process all the corkage receipts at one time in one of the bar/restaurant locations and then run the charges through that location. IF they are NOT staffed properly at security, they may not even care to check your bottle out, in which case you just proceed onward to the ship with it. Don't bring it up if they don't.

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It is definitely walkable to the museum. I did it a several years ago. It wasn't a bad walk, but it is through busy city streets. I walked back to the ship too. I didn't investigate public transit options since I wanted to do the walking. Looking at Google maps now, it looks like you could ride the Metro (subway) from the Municipio station (very near the port) 2 stops to the Museo station, which is near the museum.

Real ID https://www.dhs.gov/real-id

Not necessarily just the cruising season, but June starts the very popular tourist season in Europe. VERY popular. Barcelona is a major tourist destination. Prices will be higher in June through August every year. And likely to go higher as it gets closer to June.

I was able to use non-refundable OBC as extra tip money in the specialty restaurants. I usually add $10 to my bill if I feel the experience was a nice one. It came out of my OBC on my last cruise. I ended up buying crap I didn’t want at the stores with the rest of it.

I just came off a solo cruise. I pe-booked 4 restaurants for 2 people. I did not pick any restaurant that required me to pay money. I had a 2-meal dining package plus 2 Platinum meal coupons. Upon arrival on the ship, I went to the reservation desk to change them all to one person. The worker tried to do that but apparently didn’t know how. She then said “let’s just leave them, it’s not a problem.” Later that evening I reviewed them on my cabin TV and she had deleted my first reservation entirely while trying to change it. I ended up having to rebook it and my original day/time was no longer available. Anyway, my other reservations were all for 2 people and I just told them the correct number when I checked in for the meal. Never an issue. You’re going to get a 2-top table anyway.

Yes, our Ireland stops were great with the exception of rain in Cobh. However, I still got out and enjoyed it. And it didn't rain all day. Just heavy now and then. In fact, all our other stops were great. Good weather and good sightseeing. My Covid symptoms are also quite mild and I seem to almost be over them entirely now. Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

@KeithJenner I was on the Dawn sailing just before yours. Yes, we arrived an Amsterdam a day earlier than originally planned due to changes needed to get through the canal locks when assigned. We found out about 1/2 way through our cruise about the change. This meant that our stop in Zee Brugge needed to be skipped entirely. We also ended up missing our stop in Edinburgh due to the Queen's services in town that day. So we had 2 sea days to end our cruise. We crawled across the North Sea from Invergordon to Amsterdam, which fortunately was relatively calm. Your changes were much more significant. That's a lot of reworking to plans. Glad you're still seeming to be having a good time. I enjoyed the Dawn quite a bit. I did pick up Covid on the cruise, however. I could hear both cabins on either side of me coughing on the last couple days of the cruise. My symptoms arose on the flight back to the US. I hope you stay clear of it.

I am Platinum and was in a balcony cabin (not a suite, however) and didn't get anything special on the Dawn earlier this month. Just the regular shampoo and body wash in the shower dispenser and a soap dispenser by the sink.

Look down thru the pages of NCL posts. There are numerous posts about people’s experiences. Some of the threads are several pages long. Here’s one for example

Im well aware of NCL’s current policy. I just sailed. Read the article details. Or better yet, look at NCL’s current written policy. It doesn’t say they have fully dropped testing requirements. And it depends on whether you are vaccinated or not. https://www.ncl.com/sail-safe