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I have been on four NCL cruises since March of this year (writing this on November 21, 2022) and have another in a few weeks. I agree with most of what you've shared here except dinner reservations. Make them online ahead of time. Personally I make them as far in advance as possible. I'm platinum so I make mine 125 days out. If you're not you can still make them 120 days out. For example, I will be on the NCL Bliss the week of Valentine's day 2024 and I made my dinner reservations for that cruise in mid-October 2022... and I'm already hearing on social media there is little to no availability for Le Bistro (the French restaurant) for Valentine's Day. YES, they do keep some slots open for people to book on board, but I think you're much better off booking ahead. Also, print the confirmation you're emailed and bring it with you.
That's all fine and dandy but what about us voyagers who booked 70 or less days out? Not all of us cruisers can book trips so far in advance. As it is I just booked an NCL Escape to Canada and New England, 60 days out, and all the specialty restaurants are booked up. My travel agent says not to worry because I can book as soon as I get on board. Also most of the NCL-offered excursions are also booked up so we'll be doing privately-booked excursions or doing things on our own.
Awesone video! I have an upcoming cruise with NCL in the coming weeks, my first cruise vacation in a long while. So embarkation tips are essential. Your tips are truly valuable and your channel has some of the best cruise-related content I've viewed. Many, many thanks.
Thank you for all the helpful tips. My Sister and I are going to cruise in April on the Dawn NCL. Will try some of your tips, Thanks again. Happy Cruising to you...
Your videos are great. When booking restaurants (comp and speciality) online, what if there are no longer reservations available on the app prior to cruising. Will the cruise line hold back a portion of reservations for in person reservations. Or are we just out of luck?
I'm a big fan of Your video. It's very helpful to me. ❤ But after watching this video, I have a question. As a I know ncl cruise can't bring water on board... but the man in the sky blue t-shirt at 5:51 Is shown carrying a water bottle. Can I bring water on board?🤔🤔
Leaving in 5 hours headed over to Seattle to board Norwegian Encore on Sunday- Alaska bound. It's our very first cruise ever and oh man the prep work can be daunting but we are so excited, fingers crossed for smooth times!
Having cruised on Norwegian, over a dozen times, my embarcation day tradition used to be going directly to O’Sheehan’s. Back in 2016-18 it was easy nobody was there. But after the pandemic it has been incredibly crowded on embarcation day (people have caught on). So now, it’s better to go to one of the main dining rooms.(as you have suggested)
I haven't experienced a NCL cruise yet that didn't include a "holding time" before embarking. In May we sailed from Miami and we were held in the terminal until 1 p.m. There was about 3000 people waiting with us. In July we sailed from Vancouver and we were held until 11. We made reservations for specialty dinner before our cruise. The people at the box office desk were so helpful when we booked our show times! They knew what days were sea days and port days so they guided my family to making the best choice. I love sailing with NCL! Their freestyle cruising mantra is perfect for me!
Perfect timing! In 34 days We embark on our first ever cruise. And it’s a Mediterranean cruise with NCL! Your videos have been so helpful and this one is no exception. Thank you!
@@carriecastagnino9596 it was SPECTACULAR! we were on the Epic - the staff and service were exceptional, the entire ship was squeaky clean and the ports were beautiful. We are not night owls, so I can’t comment on the late night fun or the even the shows (I hear everyone’s gasps). The guests were diverse and happy! I have to share this - we went in mid October and the ports were hot as heck. Linen pants, white tops and my slip on Keds were my best friends. The ship’s decks in early morning and evening were cool and breezy so sweaters or jackets were great to have. Ileana’s videos are so helpful. I wish you safe travels and the best memories to come home with!
I liked embarkation day on Celebrity: they gave us a time to arrive at the port, later than I would have liked but there wasn't a line. I tend to reserve specialty dining and all excursions online in advance. That way I get what I want. Great video Ilana, thank you.
You can book your restaurant reservations 120 days out. Same for the shows. I did my pre-boarding 21 days out. It's easy and boarding is easy. 9 NCL cruises so far.
We were not able to reserve our specialty dining before the cruise. I sure tried. We are waiting, as we were told by our Casinos at Sea rep, that we must do so when we board the ship. Maybe thats a Casinos at Sea thing.
We have been able to make specialty dining reservations online ahead of time as well as NCL excursion reservations ahead of time. I highly suggest that so there’s not so much busy work to do on day one! I have not needed to make reservations for the shows however. I do not see that as an option to do ahead of time for the Epic next week. And we did not need to make reservations in July on the Spirit but that was a smaller ship. Enjoy your trip!!
I booked my excursions in advance, however I didn’t see a way to book my shows and dining times in advance on the app. Perhaps I missed it, but I also recall doing so in the past
Ilana I was not able to book specialty dining in the app but when I signed in to the NCL website under my reservation I was able to do it there. Unfortunately not able to book shows though
I've watched this video twice before and, since I'm sailing on NCL Breakaway on 2/19, I'm watching it again and it is still as helpful as before. Thank you for all of your hard work, Ilana ❤️
@@julias2855 I had a very good time and have only a few issues. The biggest disappointment by far was the food. It was good but certainly not great. The buffet was a zoo with too few drinks stations. The JDR was okay but I never got a hot dinner z everything came out kyje warm. The lunches however were fabulous. O'Sheehan's was good and Shanghai was also quite good although always crowded. I think my single biggest issue with the food was the fact that the buffet closed at 9:30PM, leaving only O'Sheehan's as the only place to grab a late bite and good luck getting a table.....they wouldn't serve good to the bar. This was stupid and poorly thought out. The Waterfrontt was a definite highlight and was where I spent the bulk of my time. Overall, I enjoyed the Breakaway and, in spire of the food issues, would happily sail on her again.
Hi Ilana! Greetings from Panama 🇵🇦 Thanks so much for all the love you have put into your Life Well Cruised project, it really does show 💕 Visiting your website, IG account and this RU-vid channel I could evidence how much you love cruising and how you care to share all those savvy tips with the world 🌍. I feel there's information no one could have ever told me 😅 and I feel more prepared and less anxious for my first cruise thanks to you 💪🏻. I'm a little sorry to say this... but you have been more informative and thoughtful than my cruiseline website or representative to be honest! 🤐 Thanks so much for being an amazing content creator 🤗 I'm wishing you tons of happy cruising and sunny beach days on this 2023 ✨😎🍹🌺🏖️
I will be sailing on the Joy out of NYC in 29 days!!! We are driving and would appreciate any tips on parking especially as you mentioned in the video you would have allocated an additional 45 minutes. Thank you and as always love the videos!
As you go to park, if you drop your luggage first, you’ll need to go back on the road, start again to go to the parking lot on the top the port. It’s safe, but it’s more of a process. If you can easily bring your luggage with you and drop them off after parking it may be easier. Expect traffic on weekday mornings. Have a great cruise!
It's so fun reading the comments from people about to go on their first cruise! (Y'all have fun!!) I am sailing on an NCL ship in November, but it's a music cruise so lots of entertainment included 😉 I pretty much have my bag packed, just have to remember where I stashed the magnet hooks. Treated myself to a new outfit for a theme night, and making the trousers work with other tops for the other nights. So it will be a cinch getting it all in a carry-on. I just hit a snag with my flight: I booked it back in February and the airline totally redid the times. I had to buy a new flight. Lesson learned, pay a little more to get a flight you can change. I always stay positive though, now I have time to visit someone and grab a bottle of proseco for a cabin treat.
We cruised NCL Break away 8/28 - 9/4/2022 to RI, ME and Canada and your tips made our trip so much better. The magnetic hooks, power strip and USB hub made us really more comfortable. All the info in your videos helped us plan and be ready for what to expect. Thank you for all of your posts and the time you put into them. Howl at the Moon was so much fun. Hope your trip is also great.
Thank you! As usual very informative, we have an NCL Cruise coming up, have done NCL in over 25 years, all these years it has been Celebrity, Royal and Princess. Thank you again!
I always make my reservation on line in their app. Boarded early last time. This time I’ll do it at 12. Every time I cruise I learn something new. Thank you Lana for all your helpful hints.
Thanks for this - I will be going on my first time NCL cruise so appreciate all information I can have. I thought I would mention that I have 3 specialty dinners - once I decided when and where my Travel Agent reserved for us. One less thing to think about. I booked my excursions in advance myself but so happy to know that it maybe possible to make adjustments on the ship.🙂 Enjoy your cruise!
DO NOT check on cabin upgrades. Once onboard you CANNOT upgrade your cabin. Period. The only exception is if something is wrong with your cabin, flooded, ants, non-working plumbing etc. In that case you will probably change rooms, possibly a better room.
Sounds like your Embarkation onto the ship was a whole lot smoother than ours. We just came back from sailing on the NCL Pearl. Had a check in time at 1 but apparently so do the other 1800 guests as the line was Huge.
We cruise with NCL and this will be our 4th 14-day cruise with them. We are flying to Buenos Aires and doing the Antarctica cruise this time. This video is helpful as our last cruise was out of Australia and ended right when COVID started. Thank you for the new updates. Also, we love your site and I subscribe to it. So helpful. This will be our 9th cruise but still learn things. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Great information, especially checking in early. Just returned from my cruise after 22 years, so many upgrades in tech now. It may be helpful to do a video on how to turn on the lights, really. I was on MSC and I couldn’t figure that one out, or the shower.
Travelling from the UK in July to join NCL Encore in Seattle. First time cruiser with NCL. Do you have to drop your luggage off first, then complete the embarkation process?? Or can I simply carry it on with me??
I have heard that with the 21 day checkin ….if you have more than one person traveling together ..and one has trouble with the picture for check in you could end up with different times for embarkation? How can I avoid that as I am travelling with a special needs person?
I sailed to Bermuda on Norwegian a couple weeks ago. Embarkation and debarkation in Boston was barely organized chaos. Even though you're given a boarding time, you spend a lot of time in a seemingly endless line like cattle heading for the stockyard. The terminal is obviously a very old warehouse or something that was repurposed for the least amount of money they could spend. It was thoroughly exhausting both ways.
We've sailed Boston to Bermuda three times. We find that reserving a port arrival time for about 11 or later makes for less time on your feet waiting in line. We also reserve whatever we can, including excursions, online, as soon as possible. I hope your next cruise is a better experience.
Based on my last cruise this April, it seems NCL is just going through the motions. It is bad when the first thought you have after a cruise is let's book with someone else next time. It could not be worse.
Thank you for this wonderful video! It’s my second cruise, first on NCL. Getting ready and excited for our cruise soon… heading to Bermuda from Boston!!!
Can you tell me anything about tenders? We are going to Cannes and talking the train by ourselves to Nice. This is a tender port and was wondering about the process.
Love all your videos🤗 We're getting ready to sail the Norwegian Epic out of Barcelona on October 2nd for a long Mediterranean Vacation. Even though we cruise alot you always have some great info. Thanks for all tips and tricks. Happy Sailing 🥳🥳🥳
We just booked an Alaskan cruise on Encore for September leaving out of Seattle. We are really looking forward to it. This will be our first Norwegian cruise. Thanks for the tips!
We did a Canada New England cruise in September 2022 which was about the same time as you. We were on the Breakaway, which is slightly smaller than the ship you were on. Your tips for cruising on Norwegian were spot on. Because the Breakaway class is pretty big you do have to be pretty patient on embarcation day.
Thank you so much for this video. It’s super helpful. I haven’t been on a cruise in like 6 years so I feel kind of new again to it lol I’ve never done NCL! Super excited, I leave in a week!
Will be doing the exact same cruise in a month. I'm so excited!!! Thank you so much for the info. I've learned so much. Would you happen to know if they serve breakfast on the day of disembarkation? (Not sure if I'm using the proper words/ phrases 😅😉)
We were just on NCL and booked our shore excursions online and also made our dinner reservations before we left so we had everything planned. Loved the freestyle dining on NCL. Also I loved the app as I could count down the days til we sailed.
Book your shore excursions first, then your dining reservations. Some shore excursions may extend to the evening (such as Istanbul), and that allows you to avoid a conflict if you want an earlyish specialty dining time.
Were you able to easily book the shows? We booked our shore excursions and dining on the app. We usually do late seating on traditional cruises, so I booked some dining at 8:00 and others at 8:30. I called NCL to inquire about the show times and the rep wasn’t helpful at all. She only said this or that show may start at 7:00 or at 9:00, yada yada… and that they last 1.5-2 hrs. That seems long for shows! But then our dining will overlap so I’m not sure how we’re going to do this. We prefer to have a few drinks, see a show, eat and then drink some more and gamble a bit. Any insight you can share with me would be so appreciated! Thank you! We sail on the Bliss on December 31, 2023 from LA.
Does Norwegian allow you to make the various reservations in advance. I would much prefer doing it at home on my laptop rather than wait in several lines. Thanks, Ilana for your excellent content!
It depends on your booking. I have an MB class (Club Balcony) but apparently I booked a Getaway package or something? It won't let me choose my specific cabin and I can't reserve shows etc ahead of time... even though their literature says that the MB class of cabin can do it well in advance. We leave in 3 weeks and when I called NCL, they said I won't be able to do anything but shore excursions ahead of time.
Thank you for all your videos and especially this one! I am going to be on the Joy in a few short days doing the same itinerary. I can’t wait! I loved the Encore and the Joy is a sister ship. I have never been to any of these ports either so it will be great!
Hi there thank you for your videos. My wife and I our doing our first cruise :) on Norwegian I believe it says no bottles of water but 6 1 litter cartons are aloud per cabin is this correct?
@@LifeWellCruised ok great thank you. I find the gratuities to be confusing. Do you tip the staff that serve you the buffet food as well? I know that we tip for drinks, table service, cabin staff and luggage guys/girls. I must be leaving someone out.
Love your channel. Very helpful. I especially love that it appears that you are using current video clips. I really dislike watching clips from archives that are used over and over.
Going on the GETAWAY out of New York City on January 2nd. Does anyone know if this cruise typically goes out full. My family and myself first time on this NCL ship and just wondering if there are any tips or suggestions. 😊 Thanks
Oh lady, such half and half correct advices, really don’t help. The app of NCL works from the moment you insert your booking number 😂, so even two years beforehand. You should really update your information
It would be helpful to know what time of year you are traveling in your videos. And in the Bermuda/Bar Harbor trip...knowing the difference in weather might be helpful, too.
When you boarded in Manhattan did you park at the terminal? We will be doing a cruise in March from there and are driving to NYC. I’m really wondering how much extra time we needed for parking for thank you for the 45 minute info!
Thank you for very great video. Next week are sailing on NCL Getaway March 26 also from NY. This will be our first NCL cruise We love Celebrity we cruise with Carnival lot of time but not any more, this line is not good any more. We driving from Niagara falls Canada to NY. Can you please tell me if we have to drop off our luggage before parking the car .And what is your opinion about parking in cruise terminal is very expensive?
I'm on the Oct 2nd Canada/NE sailing out of NYC. But our ship is the Breakaway. I didn't know the Joy did the same route. I'm super happy you are doing this route, bc there's a real shortage of info about cruises to this part of the world. But we live in a hot & sunny area, so the last thing we wanted to do was go someplace sunny. 😆 Super excited for your videos of this route... esp any shore excursion reviews. Thank you for doing the most helpful, most informative and to-the-point videos!
Hi!!! We are avid NCL cruisers!!! We love having a Mojito when we board!! That seems to be our tradition for when we get on the ship!! Can't v wait for Prima April 30th!! Begrudgingly going out of NY. We went out of NY years ago and said we wouldn't again cuz it definitely is not as steam lined and quick as what we have experienced in Miami!!
Being in the Haven, our embarking will be quite different from yours, right down to your butler will unpack your bags while your exploring the ship. That said, I still found your video as always to be informative and helpful 👍
