brookie848

Is St. John's the island or the port in Antigua? My next question/piece of advice is to look at your time in port. If one has better times in port, I would choose that one. We did Aruba and Curacao this year and would be happy to return to both. We've been to Martinique once -- it was our "slow" day on a very port-intensive schedule, so we just walked around town. There may be a paperwork/passport requirement for this island, so double-check on that. We like St. Kitts -- not a ton of beaches, but the people are nice and it is a beautiful island. When we go to Tortola, we always take a trip to Jost Van Dyke. The Baths at Virgin Gorda are also a popular excursion. Barbados is good for beaches. We are not fans of St. Lucia, but that is just our preference. We have not been to Guadeloupe. We haven't been to St. John's the island, but we have been to Antigua. If this itinerary includes Antigua, I would choose it simply because that's my favorite island. There are 365 beaches on the island and I can't wait to go back!

I have bought this from them. It is beyond awesome. Now I want to buy it again. I wish they sold it in smaller packages.

We are sailing on the Viva in February and were offered the airfare. We declined because there is no way we are giving up control of our air tickets. Flight to Puerto Rico was immediately purchased and the flight home will be bought next week when Southwest opens up their fares. We'll get the times/connections we want.

Which ship? The Prima/Viva second bedrooms are larger than those on other ship and feature a true Queen bed as opposed to a convertible sofa.

We got cans of soda on the Epic and we had the regular beverage package. We never asked for them unopened, though.

Posh is part of Haven. There is a bar, but no hot tubs. The Courtyard Grill is a bar and open-air restaurant area that is part of the Haven. No extra charge for either.

We've been on the Escape twice and Epic three times. If I had to choose between the two, I would choose the Escape -- no hesitation. The Escape has the wine bar, District Brewhouse and the waterfront. There are also more indoor bar options than the Epic. The waterfront makes you feel connected to the sea -- the Epic is closed-in. Good things about the Epic -- the Haven is pretty awesome with Posh and the Courtyard Grill. Spice H20 is very nice with the tiered seating and pool. The Ice Bar can be a fun experience to drink an insane amount of vodka in 30 minutes. Along with price, look at port times and whether or not you have to tender as well. These things will often sway me towards one ship over the other.

Great review! As an FYI, NCL will provide mattress toppers/egg crates if you request one from your steward.

Just found this thread! My husband has a good friend on the sailing with you. And my 10-year-old niece would have LOVED the tostada. She eats just about everything. When my brother takes her to a local candy store, one of her choices is boxes of crickets. She ate her first one last year on a food tour we went on and is now oddly obsessed with them.

I'm assuming if you have non-NCL insurance it will cover the flights? We're booked for next year on the Viva and already have our trip down and hotel booked. We estimated the cost for the flights when we got the insurance.

I hope not. We're booked on the Viva out of San Juan. I doubt NCL is going to run two large ships out of San Juan right now.

We'll be Sapphire after nine cruises. This was helped along by the fact that all of our cruises were in the Haven/suites and that a chunk of them were booked more than nine months out back when they offered an extra point per night for booking early. Our favorite perk is the laundry and we like have the extra dinners (we don't always use them). We've done the behind the scenes tour twice, but skipped it on our last cruise. I'm not sure if we'll do it on our next or not -- there are no sea days on our next cruise, so some of that will depend on timing. I'd be interested trying the dinner with officers and the tastings, but there are other things I would probably appreciate as well. Sometimes things like that are just something else to schedule.

True. I'm not a morning person, but I appreciate the 5:00 departure. We've done the early arrival and departure at Tortola twice now. I'm looking forward to having a more relaxed day at Jost Van Dyke!

We're on the Viva next year and our Tortola stop is 7-4. I'm really looking forward to having more time at this port -- your 6-5 stop is even better.

We were on the ship in February. We stay in the Haven and the ship proper was definitely crowded. Our biggest (pleasant) surprise was how good the food/protein was throughout the ship. The one that we weren't expecting much from was Moderno and our filet had that melt-in-your-mouth quality. Our food was overall good throughout the week. Enjoy the trip!

I want them to come to the house and pack everything and make sure I don't forget something. We are so good at forgetting things that any hotel I book pre-cruise it chosen by how close it is to a CVS or other such store. I've not booked really awesome looking hotels that fit our budget simply because the nearest place to buy what we forgot is too far away.

Definitely this -- checking time in port is very important when choosing between cruises.

This is us as well. We had four specialty dinners on our last cruise (two FAS and two Platinum), but only used three. We probably wouldn't have even done that many, but my brother was with us and I knew he would enjoy Moderno. We always have great service in the Haven restaurant and the limited dinner menu doesn't bother us. We aren't huge fans of the lunch menu, though, so we do try to venture out if we are on the ship.

Yep. Definitely are and people are not happy about it over on that board, either.

If you're talking about the train ride that tours the island, yes...it is back. It was available on our February cruise.

Yeah...I don't think my husband would go for Elegant Resort Casual style. He wants to wear shorts to dinner on a Caribbean cruise. He wouldn't bring long pants at all if it wasn't for the fact that we leave from the northeast in the winter. NCL works for us and we'll stick with it for now.

We are not luxury cruise people, but we want the perks of the Haven. We don't want to have to dress up at all, we don't want the fancy food. We like skipping some lines and we love having our own restaurant and pool area. We like exploring what is available on the ship and talking to all the different kinds of people we meet on NCL ships. I'm not saying we would never do a luxury cruise, but we would have to drastically change some things that make cruising fun for us and we're not ready to do that yet.

I believe this still won't let you see all the available cabins. I think NCL only loads a certain amount in each category to show as available. If you want a particular cabin, your best bet is to call. That's our preference.

Again...this is just my opinion. Not really based on the island, but our experience there. The roads in St. Lucia are pretty notorious for making people car sick. They are very hilly and twisty. If you want to get to the Pitons, I believe it is a 45-minute ride from port. A lot of people end up sick. You can also take a boat to the Pitons, which is what we did on our first trip there. Rather than join the masses, we decided this was going to be our big excursion and we chartered a boat. For three of us. It was supposed to be awesome. And it was awesome...just not in the way we were hoping. It was awesomely bad. Instead of getting car sick, we got sea sick. Like throwing up everywhere sea sick. And the weather...in the four to five hours on the boat, we experienced sunny and beautiful 80 degree weather and cold and rainy 60 degree weather -- the last hour was all 60 degree rainy weather. And when you are sea sick, the best option is to lay flat and look at the horizon. So, that's what we did -- shivering in the pouring rain on the catamaran netting while our stomachs rolled. Even if we wanted to go to the back of the catamaran, it was too dangerous. The boat was small and it was slippery going from front to back with only a rope between you and the Caribbean. We were stuck. There were a few other "funny" things that happened, but after that day St. Lucia became an island non-grata for us. When we stopped there on our last cruise, we did get off the ship and go to Vigie Beach, but that was only because we were with someone who had never been there before, so we felt compelled to get off and do something. Next year it will just be a sea day for us. We'll be on the Viva, so we will have plenty to explore.

St. Lucia is our least favorite port. I would have been okay with missing it when we were on this itinerary. Our sailing next year has zero sea days, but we are stopping in St. Lucia, so that will be our sea day. Enjoy the last couple days of your cruise!