Sarahellen

This problem is not unique to cruises. I have seen it happen at many land based resorts as well.

I came here to say this too. My family has a timeshare down in Cancun and we have been going once a year for 28 years. Prime beach loungers have always been a hot commodity but in recent years it has gotten so bad that if you aren't down there by 5am you are out of luck for the rest of the day.

My dad takes his beach lounging very seriously lol. He has gotten into the habit of waking up at 5am to go claim his favorite chairs for the family then he falls right back asleep in his coveted beach chair until the rest of us join him at a reasonable hour. I appreciate his dedication but I'm waiting for the day when he gives up on the hotel room entirely and just sets up camp down at the beach smh

I wouldn't worry about bringing gifts for your neighbors, nice gesture, but it is unnecessary. Kids will be kids and they will make some noise, not to mention that NCL is a family cruise line that welcomes little ones.

I completely agree with this statement. My husband and I went on our first cruise a few months ago. We don't have children but we full well knew that NCL is geared towards families so we knew what we were getting into. I personally loved having all the kids on board because their sense of wonder and fun is contagious and never fails to put a smile on my face. Looking back, I can't remember being bothered by any noisy/rambunctious children but there definitely were a few adults that I could have used a gift bag for having to deal with lol

I wouldn't worry about giving any gifts to your neighbors right off the bat because there is no reason to draw attention to something that most likely won't be a problem at all. You could always bring some gifts with you to hand out in case of a meltdown emergency.

I didn;t know that about the TV access - thanks for the tip!

The iConcierge app is an even more convenient tool to access information like restaurant/show info, all current and upcoming dailies, maps of each deck, a real time accounting of your bill and excursion info. It is free to use all of those features and even allows you to make or change dinner/show/excursion reservations. For a one time additional fee of $7.95 you can also use it to make texts/calls to other passengers while on board the ship.

We loved being able to track all of our on-board spending to see where we stood with on-board credits and such.

Just be sure to download the app before you board the ship since you would have to pay for Internet access to download it once you are on board. Once you get on board, put your phone on airplane mode and turn on the wifi option and viola! It works for no additional charge at all unless you want the text/call feature.

More useful information - thanks again!

Now, at the risk of pushing my luck (lol) can you explain the key card / lights / air conditioner thing I've been reading about. I've seen posters mention to leave a card in the room (or switch?) to keep the ac on but not sure what they mean. I've only been on the dawn & Gem & they didn't have those things.

Thanks again for the info!

It doesn't have to have a magnetic strip or anything. My husband and I used a regular old business card in the slot and it worked perfectly. As long as it is the shape of a key card, you are good to go.

I have cruised on several lines before, but this will be my first on Norwegian.

 

I don't understand this about keeping a card in a slot to keep the fridge and the air conditioner running???? You have got to be kidding! :eek::confused:

I think they might have been a bit confused as to what is controlled by the key slot. You are supposed to put your cruise card in the slot while you are in the room and take it out when you leave. When you take it out, the lights and the one available plug passengers can access shut off as a way to conserve energy on the ship.

The only time this was a problem for us was if we wanted to leave our electronics charging while we were out of the room. The solution is to put another card or even a paper business card in the slot while you are out to keep the power on.

After reading some of the recent BA reviews, it's reassuring to know that the ship will be slightly less crowded on the way back to NYC. :D

Haha yeah, the buffet felt downright deserted for the trip home ;)

Sarahellin, some of us were just BORN TO CRUISE. Welcome to the club!

I suppose I'm just a late cruise bloomer lol better late than never!

We lost power for at least two day with all of the lines down due to trees coming down. Full leaves and snow equal disaster! Halloween was cancelled (not even delayed) that year.

Yup!! I think we lost power for about the same amount of time. My husband was at work while it was getting really bad he made it most of the way home but the roads were impassable once he got about 2 miles from our house so he had to spend almost 6 hours stuck in his car before they cleared enough of the snow and downed trees for hi to make it home. As if that weren't enough, my parents were supposed to be flying home from Columbia that day and wound up stuck in Mexico City for 2 days until flights were back on schedule. No matter how I explained it they couldn't figure out how bad a snow storm in October could possibly have been haha.

If I remember correctly there were 3 Halloweens cancelled back to back to back because of a snow storm one year, (I think the local news named it the Halloweenicane) hurricane Irene another year then superstorm Sandy the year after that. I felt so bad for the kids that must have forgotten how to trick or treat lol

Lots of people do it and lots of people don't. I think more people fly in the day of than before but not here on CC.

 

 

 

At least in October you shouldn't have snow storms or summer thunderstorms to worry about...shouldn't not won't. Storms always happen

 

 

 

Personally my travel days don't feel like a vacation day. I want to enjoy my cruise as long as I can.

 

 

 

Have you asked your sister what she wants? maybe a extra day is what she needs to unwind and relax from her stressful life. Maybe everyday she is gone the more stress she will be under. I have a friend with a disabled son (MD)and when we took a trip to Florida she drove down with another friend and said that time allowed her to leave it behind and stop worrying so by the time we all met in Florida she was ready to enjoy herself.

You kid about there being no chance of snow in October in the northeast but I have horrible vivid memories of a freak snow storm that hit us here in NY (about an hour north of the city) at the very end of October a few years back. Seeing as this only happened once in my 35 years of being alive I'd say the chances of it happening again are probably around .00027% but it is still higher than zero lol

It was crazy because it was something like 50 degrees the day before then 60 degrees the day after the storm. We ended up with about 3 feet of snow that day and about 99% of it was melted by sundown the next day. We can usually handle any amount of snow up here without any major travel issues but this storm caught everyone off guard so they didn't even have enough plows ready to keep up with the snow and the towns hadn't stockpiled salt for the winter either so almost every major road was shut down.

My poor cousin got married that day at what was supposed to be a beautiful B&B in the woods to take advantage of the fall foliage but she ended up having to settle for a winter wonderland that lost electricity halfway through the ceremony.

Ok this was way too long of a story just to say that it can snow in October hahaha

I was on the Getaway in a balcony cabin in late June, and we slept with the balcony door open almost every night. The sound of the water was delightful - like ocean waves!

 

 

 

The only potential problem is that the air conditioning turns off when the balcony door is open, so you might get warm. I didn't generally find that enough of a negative to close the balcony door, however.

 

 

 

OP, try to get a cabin that has the bed next to the balcony. I believe these rooms have the "indentation" going into the room on the deck plan. My cabin, 11158, was one of these.

 

 

 

-Stacey

Sleeping with that door open was like heaven for us. I can definitely see your point about the AC during the summer. That was one perk about sailing in late April was that, if anything, it was a bit cool at night which was perfect sleeping temperature for us.

I concur with your advice to book a room with the bed next to the balcony. We had a room like that and loved it.

This conversation is very interesting, and I will share with my DH. I actually was not going to bring our passport off ship, and my DH argued the point. Then when the Captain made it clear- I had to agree.

 

It just goes to show how every person's experience can be a little different on each cruise and ship. Thanks!

My husband and I sailed the Breakaway from NYC to Bermuda back in April and we never took them out of the safe when we got off the ship in Bermuda. All we needed was our NCL cruise card and our valid NY drivers license.

We had a balcony facing port back in April and it was a beautiful view. I will put a few pictures we took from our balcony on deck 13 at the end of this post.

As for noise, our only problem was that there was a bar/club on a pirate ship (the name was something involving Jolly Roger I think) docked a few hundred yards from our ship at the dockyard. It played really loud music into the wee hours with a ton of bass. You couldn't hear it at all as long as you kept the balcony door closed and locked but we liked sleeping with the door open so that was a bit disappointing. I have no clue if it just happened to be docked there while we were there or if it is permanently there. In the last picture you can see the pirate bar halfway down the photo on the right hand side.

Is not being able to sleep with the balcony door open a Getaway specific thing? We had a balcony on the Breakaway to Bermuda in April and we slept with the balcony door open every night. I don't remember seeing anything that said it wasn't allowed. Did I miss that rule?

Boy, is that the truth or what? You are right on point with this...we are also 2 hours from NYC, and cruising out of there is wonderful. We can get from our driveway to the port in 2 hours, and after that, we let NCL do the rest of the driving. It's so relaxing, and you get so much more extra time.

Now I just feel silly for not thinking of taking a cruise out of NYC much earlier in my life. When my Husband and I got home after the cruise we definitely had a forehead slap moment for not thinking of this option earlier.

When we go the 'traditional' vacation route we don't really reach a relaxed state until about Wednesday because it takes those few days for our mind and bodies to adjust to the fact that we don't have to be at work the next morning. At that point we only have about 2 days to actually enjoy the relaxation.

Just the thought of having to drive 2 hours to get to the airport (that is with no traffic which I have never experienced in my life driving to JFK or LGA), go through the nightmare that is finding parking, checking in, braving the lines to go through security, waiting for at least two hours at the gate, surviving the stampede once boarding starts, sitting on a plane for 3+ hours, then going through Mexican customs and immigration, waiting for (and hoping to find) your luggage, finding a cab, a 30 minute drive to the hotel and however long it takes to check into your hotel is insanity!! (Holy crap! Just typing all of this out made me tired haha)

Compare that to a two hour drive, parking literally right next to the ship and about 30 minutes to get checked in and the choice couldn't be any easier for me lol

"If a ship is scheduled for 3, no they won't wait for latecomers unless they are on a NCL excursion that has gotten delayed."

This was definitely the case when we sailed to Bermuda back in April.

We had a balcony cabin overlooking the walkway to the ship so we thought it would be entertaining to see how many people were scrambling to get back to the ship before the doors closed. We were definitely entertained and so were most of the passengers in the other balcony cabins because I'd say about 75% of those balconies had someone watching just as we were lol. I almost kinda felt bad for some of the people running back to the ship because they had at least 100 people yelling down at them to run faster.

Most people made it back in the nick of time but we saw at least 2 groups running toward the ship once everything was sealed and the ropes were dropped. They made an announcement with about 10 different names and asked them to go to guest services so we assume those were the people that were left behind.

The fridge is always on and I believe the AC stays on too. You can put a business card in the key slot to keep the electricity on in your cabin. It doesn't need to have a magnetic strip or even be made of plastic for that matter. This comes in handy when you want to keep electronics charging while you are out of the room.

If you are in a balcony room, keep in mind that any time you open the door the AC will shut off. I believe you have to manually turn the AC back on every time you close the balcony door.

In the spirit of positivity (and the fact that I don't know when my next cruise will be...) I'm going to list my favorite parts of the first cruise my Husband and I ever took back in April. (Breakaway NY to Bermuda) Some things are NCL specific and some are just things I loved about being a first time cruiser. Now that we have experienced the glory of cruising, it will be very hard to ever choose a 'traditional' vacation over another NCL cruise.

- I have done a lot of traveling in my life and most of it has required way too much time and energy just getting to and from my destination. I never realized how much it sucks to take a week long vacation and pretty much lose two days of the seven due to transportation. Our minds were blown when we were standing on the balcony of our cabin overlooking NYC less than 2 hours after we pulled out of our driveway at home and it took even less time getting back home once we left the ship. I can't believe how much longer and more relaxing this vacation felt as compared to past trips like flying down to Mexico and staying at a resort for a week.

- I have lived an hour north of NYC for all of my 35 years and my Husband was born and raised in Brooklyn. I'm in the city quite a bit but I have never been able to experience the beauty of NYC like I did on this ship while entering and exiting the port. It gives you such a good vantage point to see the amazing architecture and iconic buildings up close. Being on the top deck as we sailed underneath the Verrazano Bridge was an experience I won't soon forget. The most beautiful thing we got to experience was waking up just in time to sit out on our balcony as we passed the sunrise behind the Statue of Liberty on our way back to the pier.

- The Ultimate Dining Package. Specifically, Le Bistro. We loved it so much that we wound up eating there 3 times. Their vanilla creme brûlée is what my dreams are made of. There aren't many moments of pure excitement and happiness in life but I definitely had one of those moments when our waitress told us it was perfectly acceptable and even somewhat common to order every dessert on the menu to share between the two of us. Even on the nights we ate at different restaurants, we always stopped at Le Bistro for dessert. If that cruise had been any longer than a week I fear we would have fallen into a sugar coma haha.

- Rock of Ages and Burn the Floor. We are big fans of Broadway and go to a few shows a year in NYC so our expectations were about as low as they could get before we had a chance to see them on the ship. I don't know why but in my head I imagined they would be about on par with a community theater production. I was so happy I was proven wrong here. The talent and energy involved with both of these shows completely impressed me. I would have paid extra to see either of these shows but the fact that they were included as part of the cruise fare was yet another of the many times my mind was blown on the Breakaway.

- The Breakaway staff. Everyone was welcoming, warm, kind and it genuinely felt like they wanted to go above and beyond to make sure everyone had an amazing cruise. There didn't seem to be a bad apple in the bunch which is exceedingly rare in the world today.

- Being able to sleep with the balcony door open while at sea. Who needs a white noise machine when you can fall asleep to the sounds of the ocean outside your door? I definitely got some of the best sleep of my life while we were at sea because the ocean just rocked me to sleep.

- Having 3 days docked at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda. We chose the Bermuda itinerary mainly because of the dates we could travel and because we wanted to leave from NYC. We knew nothing about Bermuda before the cruise and that made it all the more fun to have 3 days to explore all of the amazingly beautiful island. It was just enough time to really see and experience all Bermuda has to offer.

- Sea days. I never thought I would enjoy sea days as much as I did. I think my favorite thing to do on the sea days was to order room service and have a complimentary continental breakfast in bed.

- Pretzel rolls

- soft serve ice cream all day, every day. It is so funny to watch how many adults walk past you enjoying the unlimited soft serve as much as the 6 year olds haha.

- Going up to the buffet right before bed (already wearing PJs) to grab a bowl of warm cookies and cold milk as a midnight snack.

- Giggling every time we heard the cruise director JC Sanchez say his own name. 'Hi, I'm JC Saaaaaaanchez!'

- Exploring the ship on our own while most people were at the glow party. It was around 11PM so we decided to go check out the sports area since we hadn't been up there yet. We had way too much fun playing air hockey in the arcade and then playing a round of mini golf since we had the course to ourselves.

- Watching the fireworks from the top deck. Mind blown yet again knowing we were watching fireworks out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

There are so many more things we loved about our first NCL cruise but these were definitely the highlights!

Here are a few of our highlights that we captured on film:

My husband and I went on this cruise in April and loved every minute of it and I'm sure you will love it too :)

We went to Crystal Caves and it was pretty cool to see. There are two different caves you can tour. If I remember correctly, one takes about 20 minutes and the other is around 45 minutes. We weren't traveling with any kids so you might want to google Crystal Caves to see what their policy is for kids. I don't see why it would be a problem but there are a lot of stairs involved so that could be tricky. I remember seeing a few little ones on our tour and they could navigate the stairs better than most of us adults haha. We didn't book it through the ship and we are glad we didn't because it was super easy to get there via the local bus. (And SO much cheaper) There is a bus stop right by the dock and a stop at the entrance to the caves. That way you only have to pay for the bus ride and admission which was so much cheaper than the excursion NCL offered. Another perk is that you aren't wasting any time and can stop at some of the awesome beaches on your way back to the ship since the bus stops at all of them. Be sure to stop for some lunch and/or rum swizzles at The Swizzle Inn if you go to the caves because it is right across the street from the caves and those swizzles are way too yummy to pass up.

We aren't into scuba so I don't have any advice on that topic but from what we read there are a bunch of places on the island that looked perfect for scuba enthusiasts.

The best thing we did was get a 3 day bus/ferry pass right after we got off the boat rather than book any excursions. It was $44 for adults and you had unlimited bus and ferry rides. We used the list of ship excursions to find places we thought would be cool to see and had no problems getting anywhere via bus or ferry. The only downside is that the busses and ferries get super crowded on days when there is more than one ship in port so always plan extra time in case you have to wait for the next bus or ferry.

I hope you have an amazing trip!!

Greetings -

 

 

 

I have a request to help me have some yummy drink experiences on my Alaska Pearl cruise next month. By best friend and I have Unlimited Beverage packages partly because our husbands wanted them. However, neither my friend nor I drink alcohol, so we are asking for alcohol free drink suggestions. I know about "virgin" bloody Marys and non-alcoholic pina coladas but I am hoping to experience a broader range of tastes since I have this rare opportunity to experiment as long as the drink is totally non-alcoholic.

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing your recommendations. Happy Day - Joanne

I have always been a big fan of the good ol' Shirley Temple myself.

Anyone recently off that can advise any "extras" I should pack?? I have white outfits and snorkel gear.

Anything else I should try and get?? My travel agent mentioned a pirate party- should I get pirate gear as well??

If you have a Dollar Tree store close to your home, they just put out a ton of Glow accessories (necklaces, bracelets, headbands, etc.) for July 4th that would be a lot of fun to have for the GLOW/White party.

The 'extras' we packed as first time cruisers on the Breakaway in April that actually came in handy were; a power strip for charging electronics, a few cases of Coke/Sprite to have in the room to cut down on soda spending, a couple random business cards (no magnetic strip needed) to put in the slot by the door so the power stays on when you exit the room and a cheap travel mug to fill with water or juice from the buffet. We also picked up some ID badge clips/lanyard at Dollar Tree so we could keep track of our keys when pockets weren't possible.

Hi Folks,

 

 

 

As much as I have tried I have been unable to keep up with the many changes in policies and promos and how they work. We just booked our next cruise and chose the Specialty Dining as the promo offered. I know that we pay the Service Fees upfront (which is about $20.00 per person) and that is fine but the following are the questions that I have:

 

 

 

Are we limited to only doing individual restaurants once? Or is it possible to repeat any of them?

 

 

 

In the past I believe that the Cirque could be done as part of the package *if* it was the first night..is that still true or not?

 

 

 

Can reservations be made through MY NCL in advance? Or must it be done once onboard? If they can be done in advance approximately when does the window open to do that?

 

 

 

TIA :)

We had the UDP on the Breakaway last month and there were no restrictions on how many times you could go to any of the restaurants. You could even go to two different restaurants in one night although I think you would go into a food coma from so much food haha. We went to Le Bistro on the first night and fell in love with the vanilla creme brûlée and chocolate fondue so much that we would have dinner at one of the other restaurants then swing by Le Bistro just to have dessert :)

My family really liked the pay for part of the app also. Although, we would have liked for it to have a ship map. Especially an interactive one, but even a simple map would have been a big help.

 

Now for the money generating idea…NCL should include some free games with their app. They could get people hooked on the games while they are onboard and then charge for the game if people want to continue to play it after the cruise is over. Kind of like Candy Crush. It's free to start, but people pay lots of money to continue to play and add levels. This would be another way for NCL to generate funds that could in return keep cruise rates (or at least the iconcierge app rates) stable for everyone.

Good call about the map! I loved that you could make dinner and show reservations through the app but I wish it had the menus from the specialty restaurants and a way to see a list of what dinner/shows you had reserved for each night along with the reservation time.

We didn't use the messaging/phone since it was just my husband and I but I loved being able to look up all of the charges/credits to our account so we could keep track of expenses. I also liked that you could look up all of the Freestyle Daily schedules for the week to see what was coming up.

Is only water, tea and cofee available on board for free? Soda card would be useful for my DH but our boys would much prefer juice and I prefer Iced tea. Do we have to get a soda card for these drinks?

I was on the Breakaway last month and they had free lemonade, iced tea, water, tea, coffee, milk and two flavored waters (kiwi strawberry and mango I believe) available all day up at the buffet in the Garden Cafe. During breakfast they would also have a couple different fruit juices (Apple, pineapple, etc.) but that varied each day.

This was my first cruise so I didn't know what to expect but I figured I would see what was offered before I bought the soda package. I took the advice of people here and brought a carry-on suitcase with a 12 pack of Coke, a 12 pack of Sprite and a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper. Between that and the free lemonade/iced tea that was available from 6am-midnight I had more than enough to last for the 7 day cruise.

I have a question for anyone who might know:

We had the Ultimate Dining Package and only ate at the specialty restaurants each night. Every night I would order one or two glasses of Pepsi with dinner (knowing it should have been an extra charge) and 90% of the time they didn't charge me anything for them. Is this something they normally do at the specialty restaurants or did I just get lucky?

Where do you find the best deals for shore excursions in Bermuda, is it cheaper to book on ship or on shore

 

 

 

Thanks MJBJSV:)

My husband and I just did Bermuda for the first time a couple weeks ago and we found getting the multi-day bus/ferry pass was a MUCH better idea than any of the excursions. We were there for 3 days so the pass was $44 per person.

We went to a presentation on the ship about the excursions they offered in Bermuda to get an idea of what the main attractions were that we wanted to see. We aren't scuba/snorkel people so most of the land excursions seemed very overpriced and were quite limited when it came to what you could do.

We went to the visitors center at the dock (there was one set up in the terminal but the line was super long and they only accepted cash so we walked to the visitors center closer to the shops and could pay with a credit card without too much of a wait) on the first day to get the bus/ferry passes. We hopped on the bus at the dockyard and rode it until the last possible stop in St. Georges stopping along the way at places that seemed fun or that locals on the bus told us we would enjoy.

It worked perfectly for us because we were able to get the lay of the land and scope out places we wanted to spend more time exploring for the next two days we were in Bermuda. We took the ferry back to the dockyard once we were in St. George.

Our favorite places were St.Georges, Tobacco Bay and Crystal Caves. Honorable mention goes to the swizzles at the Swizzle Inn across from Crystal Caves.

A few tips -

-stay away from the mopeds unless you have experience with them. The roads are not moped friendly to begin with but add in a ton of US tourists not used to driving on the opposite side of the road and it is a recipe for disaster. We witnessed 2 moped pile-ups and one of our fellow cruise passengers took a hard spill and ended up with severe road rash on the entire right side of his body.

-If there is more than one ship docked at the dockyard, the busses and ferries will be packed. Our ship was the only one at the dockyard on day one and we had no overcrowding problems but a second ship was with us for the last two days and there were times you would have wait quite a while for a bus that wasn't filled to capacity. Same with the ferry from St. Georges. The line started forming 2 hours before it was scheduled to leave and since the boat only holds 350, many of the people that had waited hours to get on the boat were denied so plan accordingly.

I heard that you should bring an old key card to keep in your room so your electricity will stay on when you're out of the room!!

My husband and I figured out business cards will do the trick as well. It doesn't have to be plastic or have a magnetic strip, it just has to be the size of a standard credit card.