Search the Community

Hello all, There's only 33 days until our cruise to Hawaii. Anyone else sailing and is it your first time visiting Hawaii or you first cruise? This will be my second cruise to Hawaii the first time was 2004, same ship.

In eager anticipation of your next cruise, you've logged into Norwegian Cruise Line's online cruise planner, and you're greeted by words in big bold letters: "LET'S GET YOU UPGRADED!" Those first four words grab your attention with a promise of a better cabin than the one you've already booked. Then your eyes move on to the words "Submit an Offer ... " and you realize that you'll have to shell out some money for that upgrade. The big question is, should you submit an offer to upgrade your stateroom, and then ask yourself a second question - is it worth it? Norwegian's Upgrade Advantage guest bidding process is simple. Click the offer link, view the cabin categories available for upgrade, the minimum and maximum bids, and place a bid on one or more categories. As long as your bid has not yet been accepted, you can change or remove it any time. If NCL accepts your bid, the upgraded cabin becomes yours, and your credit card charged immediately. There is no changing your mind, it's non-refundable, and you can't pick the cabin location. In other words, you'll take what they give you. If your bid is not accepted, then you lose nothing and you retain your current cabin. So, how do you decide what amount to bid? First, go to the NCL website and pretend to book the same cruise and cabin you want. What is the current per person price? Then, look at the bidding price for that cabin in your cruise planner. If you really, really want that mini-suite, is your bid going to cost more than what it would cost to buy that cabin outright? The dollar amount slider will indicate your chances of winning, "poor" up to "excellent". Surprisingly, the one time I bid on the next class up, from balcony to mini, I won with the lowest possible bid. Unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly what cabin we wound up with because we had to cancel the cruise. Keep in mind that you are bidding on a class of cabin. So, if you're looking to move up from an ocean-view to a balcony, you could win a balcony cabin in anycategory of that class - even an obstructed cabin. Also remember that you may have chosen your existing cabin based on a great location - for us that means mid-ship with easy access to everything on board. Your upgraded cabin could be anywhere - first cabin forward, last cabin aft, under a noisy club or any one of a number of unfavorable locations. Your upgraded cabin could end up feeling like a downgrade. The most likely factor in deciding which bids are accepted and for how much may very well be how certain categories are or aren't selling and how much space they need to fill before the ship sails. Getting back to the original questions: Should you bid: Are you perfectly happy with your present cabin? Probably not. If you are aren't fussy about cabin location or absolutely would love THE HAVEN, and don't mind spending the extra money, sure, give it a go. How much should you bid? What can you afford and will you be getting a better cabin for what you're willing to bid? For more information about the bidding process, see Norwegian's Upgrade Advantage FAQ.

Hey, y'all! Thanks for coming back this week to get the full 411 as to why I picked Carnival Breeze and Norwegian Epic as my two favorite cruise ships afloat. I was reading some of your comments from last week's post and saw an overwhelming love and support for ships in the Princess Cruises fleet. So is it safe to assume that 1.) Many of you are happy I'm gonna be sailing Grand Princess for the holidays and 2.) Many of you are experts at "Escaping Completely" and can help a brotha out? I'll definitely be asking for your input as I prepare to sail with Princess in just less than two months... stay tuned, y'all! Alright, so here's why I picked Carnival Breeze and Norwegian Epic... it boils down to two words: food and entertainment. It seems these two things get the most hype when sailing the high seas now-a-days, right? Let's see... which ship should I start with? I'll keep things in ABC order, so Carnival Breeze is on deck first. Between Breeze and Epic, I'd have to give the food award to Breeze and the entertainment honor to Epic. On Carnival Breeze, you've got so many options to pick from (dare I say this), it has a Norwegian Cruise Line feel (I know, I felt the Earth stop spinning for a second too). There's the Blue Iguana Cantina serving up some great burritos, Guy's Burger Joint dishing out the best burgers I've ever had (which is by far my fave aboard), freshly made sushi, and of course the Carnival staples of 24/7 pizza and ice cream. They've got stations for salads, Asian favorites and even tandoori cuisine on lido; but the reason I love lido on Carnival Breeze so much is because they have a special area just for deserts (perfect for my fellow sweet teeth cruisers). In addition to the two dining rooms aboard -- Sapphire and Blush -- you'll also find palate satisfaction at SeaDogs (hot dogs) and Fat Jimmy's (BBQ)! When it comes to the entertainment capital of the high seas (which is what many refer to Epic as), The Blue Man Group, Second City Comedy Troupe, Legends Live in Concert, and many other entertainment acts head-line every night on-board keeping passengers of all ages asking for more. Norwegian Epic also sails with Nickelodeon at Sea on-board! This is a great addition allowing kids of all ages to see some of their favorite cartoon characters. Norwegian Epic does require something other ships within the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet do not, and that is reservations in excessive amounts. In order to attend any of the fabulous shows I mentioned above, dine in one of the specialty restaurants, attend the circus, or chill-out in the 17 degree ice bar, reservations are needed. And that is why I named this blog post as, 'Carnival Epic or Norwegian Breeze' because for me, the perfect cruise ship would be a hybrid of the two. Have any of you sailed on either of these ships? Do you have two ships you like a lot and would love to sail if a hybrid version existed? Which ones are they? Feel free to tweet me or post your thoughts in a comment below! Until we talk ship again, keep cruising and grooving!

"Winter escape" View full cruise review

I think royal Caribbean and carnival are the best cruise lines in my opinion.... carnival has a wide rang of things to do. royal Caribbean also has a wide rang of things to do like ice skating and rock climbing walls.

Today a fire leading to significant smoke formation broke out on a cruise ship newbuilding (the Norwegian Getaway) in the covered building dock II at the Meyer Werft shipyard, according to a prepared statement from the yard. At present the shipyard’s fire brigade and members of the Papenburg fire department are still in operation at the yard. The affected production areas and the shipyard’s visitors center were evacuated. As of now there are no detailed indications as the reason for the fire. “In general we install large-size safety and detection systems on our ships as early as in the construction period. Hence we could react very quickly,” explained the yard’s safety manager, Markus Wähler. As it stands at present nobody was injured. In the current situation nothing can be said in regard to material damage. Completion of the newbuilding in 2014 is not at risk according to information currently available, and construction is set to resume on Wednesday March 6. SOURCE: CruiseIndustryNews

We booked our cruise today! Yay! Very excited!! Sailing out of NY - never done that before! Boarding NCL Jewel - going through the Panama Canal. 17 day cruise. :) Has anyone done this cruise? Any tips or advice is welcome!