DocLC

From what I've read, you'll likely get a better exchange rate through your credit card company. As an aside, how does this apply to European cruises? Are charges in USD? The reason I ask is that years ago on the Legend out of Tampa, we came across something in the shops that was mark with a tag with he price in a foreign currency, so I wasn't sure how they handle the European cruises and onboard expenses.

For most ports that are close to the airport, flights leaving at noon or later are usually a safe bet unless flying internationally.

In most cases, it's best to book as far out as possible as you can usually get a price adjustment if the price decreases up to final payment.

While I liked the Aqua Duck, I personally thought it was overrated. Once during the day and once at night was sufficient for me. My son on the other hand loved it and wanted to jump onboard the Disney Fantasy when we were in St. Marten on the Jewel just to ride it.

I like the idea and we're already getting close to it with the Aqua Duck water coaster and Sky Trax on Carnival Vista. The only problem I see is that anything hanging off the side of the ship would impede docking. Vibration might be another issue.

Mini-suite is the most overused and meaningless term used in the cruise industry. Outside of double cruise points on RCI and Holland American, there's not a single cruise line that I know of that offers suite perks for a mini-suite; this, I wish they'd just drop "suite" from the name. While the cabins are larger, you won't receive any suite perks.

I've never had a port cancelled due to weather in over 20 cruises; however, I have heard of Coco Cay being missed on occasion as are many of the other cruise lines' private islands in the winter. If this is a concern for you, I would consider looking at another ship with a fuller itinerary. For example, the Jewel and Adventure out of San Juan visit a port nearly every day on their itineraries. Also, remember that the Freedom has a lot to do onboard, so you'll have plenty to do even if you miss the island.

I tend to agree with Matt. Over the past two to three years, regardless of the cruise line, I haven't noticed substantial price changes. Maybe a couple of hundred dollars, a few percentage, but it has usually been offset by an onboard credit and thus reducing the net savings. In addition, Disney, Carnival, and Royal have all publicly stated that they're changing their pricing models to encourage early booking and discourages those who were accustomed to last minute sales to book. Therefore, it would be in the interest of all cruise lines to offer their best pricing far out, regardless of any sale or promotion, for this paradigm shift to take place.

Marc, It was the Century just before they announced it was leaving the fleet as speculated before the announcement. It was a great cruise. However, it was very port intensive--not a single sea day--so the features of the ship were less important overall.

After cruising th flag ships of Disney and Carnival, we said we'd never go smaller. Then, a couple of months later, we found an incredible rate on a California coastal cruise on Celebrity's oldest ship. While she didn't have the amenities that the newer ships had, we realized then that the itinerary was the most important to us. Hence, we ended up on the Jewel out of San Juan and have also sailed on one of Holland America's older ships from Montreal to Boston. And while we could have cruised Allure this summer in Europe, we realized that we wouldn't be able to enjoy the ship, plus we liked the Brilliance's itinerary better. We are sailing the Liberty in January and that cruise is all about the ship.

I haven't yet been on a ship large enough to require reservation. However, for specialty restaraunts, I always make them in advance regardless of the cruise line or size of the ship.

The website does support promo codes. It can be found under your cruise on the rates page after you entered the number of passengers, state of residence, etc. in my case, the promo code resulted in a $1300 increase per person for the first and second passenger. The "Europeair" didn't offer any savings either.

There are haters out there and most seem to be focused on NCL and MSC on most of the boards. However, I think if you go in with the right expectations, you'll have a great experience. In 21 cruises, I've never had a bad one. I've had great cruises, good cruises, and okay cruises, but never a bad cruise. And before dynamic dining, NCL was my wife's favorite cruise line because of the freestyle experience. Now, she states Disney is her absolute favorite cruise line if price were no object even though she's no a Disney fan. However, she'll also readily admit that Disney is over priced and has limited itineraries.

Don, Going with itinerary first has never led me wrong. While I've ended up on cruise lines I wouldn't have ordinarily cruised on again, I had enjoyable experiences overall and given us experiences we wouldn't have otherwise had. Mike, The staterooms on NCL are noticeably smaller, about 20 to 30 square feet if memory serves. The cabins tend to be the smallest of the major cruise lines although acceptable for two. I'm not sure I want to cruise with my son in one of the cabins. Although to be honest, we had a penthouse on our last NCL cruise, so space wasn't an issue. Regarding nickel and dining, after cruising Disney, every cruise line seems to do this to some degree. Holland American and Celebrity the least, Royal and Princess, then Carnival, and finally NCL in my opinion. This is based on what's included, costs of drinks, cost of specialty restaurants, etc. Again, my opinion. While I found the food more than acceptable on NCL, there were dishes that you won't find in abundance in the MDR such as lobster, although many due comment on the poor quality of the lobster served on other lines. For better quality meals, you will need to go to the specialty restaurants; however, I found them to be more moderately priced than on the other lines. You will not be compelled to spend more money on NCL; you will just find more opportunities to do so. In addition, I think you may find the drink prices to be more expensive overall, but perhaps not a problem if you have a drink package. NCL still can't be beat if you're traveling in a suite, however.

Most of the cruises I've been on, the pools have been heated. The most notable were on Disney where they were heated to somewhere between 81 and 83 degrees, which was needed during our January sailing out of California. I've also found heated pools on both Carnival and Holland America on cooler itineraries (e.g., Alaska and New England/Canada). It is probably less likely to find them heated on Caribbean itineraries. And in all honesty, I don't remember ever using the pools on a Royal ship.

It may not be a change. This is my first European cruise. However, with domestic cruises, I know they recently unbundled the gratuity and then add it in separately at checkout.

In my experience, NCL's rack rate is always cheaper. However, I've found that I've tended to spend more onboard with my two NCL cruises than on other lines, although it depends on your spending habits and priorities. Of the 21 cruises I've done, the MDR food was my least favorite, although still good. Yet I found myself desiring specialty restaurants more on NCL than on the other lines.

Glad you enjoyed the trip and congrats on the medal. Still trying to earn mine. My best man won one on his first cruise on RCI with me as did my son; I'm still waiting to win one of my own, but it doesn't seem to be in the cards for me. ;)

Just noticed that in the Cruise Planner, all beverage packages have the gratuities built in to the price of the package rather than added on separately. Royal Refreshment - $8 Royal Replenish - $22 Select - $42 Water - $47 Premium - $57 Ultimate - $67 All the above are in USD. Just thought I'd share.

It makes sense that Quantum has a roof over the solarium given that it was planned from the start to sail out of NYC. I don't think that RCI ever considered that the Voyager or Freedom classes would be sailing out of NYC in the winter like they are now.

Carnival Vista will have an onboard brewery. However, I think they may only be brewing their Thirsty Frog Red, which is their signature beer. I haven't heard of anything else being offered as of yet. I'll admit that it's the only cruise line that I actually drink beer on as the Thirsty Frog Red is exceptional. Not a fan of most "ordinary" beers.

Yes, they are great cabins given the size of the balcony. The real only downside, as mentioned, is the noise from the Centrum and the sofa bed location/layout. Fortunately, the later downside is on non-issue on the Brilliance with the pull down berth. I guess I should consider this an expensive "free" upgrade since we got a great deal on the airfare. That savings is now paying for the balcony; thus, the overall budget for the trip has remained the same. As for being a balcony snob, we've had everything from the largest suites/penthouses to the smallest insides and we find now that we don't use the balcony as much with an 8 year old compared to in the past. However, given that this is a longer and more scenic itinerary, I'm sure that it will be enjoyed as much as we enjoyed balconies on our Alaska cruises.

The only exception I should note is if your country of residence has different rules for deposits compared to the US. For example, as Matt stated, you can cancel without penalty up to 75-90 days before the cruise and still get your deposit back. However, in some countries, the terms are different and thus the deposit is non-refundable, so double-check the terms first. Carnival Cruise Line is also a tricky exception to the general rule as they offer fares where the deposit is not refundable, although it is transferable, which differs from other lines, so you need to be careful if ever booking on another line.

We were in 7094, which is the same cabin we grabbed on the Brilliance mainly because it's a midship location (a necessity for my wife) and on the lowest deck possible (I think) for a balcony cabin. The Centrum noise was pretty bad. Fortunately, my wife uses a white noise app, so that helped quite a bit. You also can't go wrong with the large balcony and being so close to the Centrum, making it easy to get anywhere quickly, especially if using the center staircase. The downside on the Jewel is that we only had a sofa bed as an option for my son. On the Brilliance, the cabin has a pullman bunk, so that will make the room more useable as it was nearly impossible to pass the sofa bed when it was unfolded as it butted up to the desk area.

On Episode 52 of the podcast and on this board, we debated balcony or not. My stance has always been they're nice, but only if reasonably priced compared to lower category cabins. My general rule is if they're $100 or so more per person, it's worth it. If more, then not. Applying this same logic to longer cruises would simply be to double the above stated amounts. However, my wife, who does none of the cruise planning, has vetoed this logic for our upcoming Norwegian Fjords/Iceland cruise. After showing her some YouTube videos--Thanks Matt for the suggestion in another post ;)--she has declared that we MUST have a balcony because of the scenic nature of the cruise. Her logic is that I justified a balcony on our two Alaska cruises, so this proves an exception to the rule. To add to the hypocrisy, we're in the same cabin as on the Jewel because it is the best midship cabin available even though I complained about the noise from the centrum previously. The plus side is that this cabin has a Pullman, which the same cabin on the Jewel did not have. Off to Hypocritics Annonymous . . .