Christmas 2018 – Cruise Planning

Cruises were a completely new thing for us. We had to do a lot of research to find out about different cruise lines, different destinations and room types.

In the end, since we were restricted to leaving from NYC, there was only one itinerary that fit our schedule. There were many more options leaving from Florida but we just getting there would cost almost as much as the cruise itself.

Our itinerary had us sailing on a 7 day cruise on the Norwegian Escape. We would go from NYC to Port Canaveral in Florida before heading to Norwegian’s private island Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. From there we’d go to Nassau, Bahamas on Christmas Day before heading home for NYC. While a 7 day cruise was longer than we would have preferred for a first cruise in case we didn’t like it, the length wasn’t a deal breaker. It’s only a couple days longer than a 5 day cruise we would have preferred.

While we had the itinerary, we still needed to make certain this is really what we wanted to do before we made the actual booking. There is vast amount of information online about the different ships and cruise lines as you would expect. YouTube has countless video tours of the ships and rooms, some of which are useful.

Rooms

There are approximately 12 bazillion different room options available on any given cruise ship and the Norwegian Escape is no different. While we didn’t know if any of us would be sensitive to seasickness, we decided to try to book a room lower on the ship and towards the middle to reduce the amount of motion we would feel based on recommendations we read online. We wanted a room with some sort of window but weren’t set on a balcony as we suspected the days in the beginning and end would be too cold to use it anyways. NYC at the end of December isn’t shorts and T-shirt weather after all.

The cheapest options on our ship were located on the lowest floors at the extreme front or back of the ship. For about $300 more we could get us a similar room mid-ship but still on the lowest level of the ship. The room was called a Family Oceanview with Large Picture Window and said it sleeps up to 5 instead of 4 for the lower priced rooms. There is a king size bed, a couch that turns into a double bed and a third bed that comes out of the ceiling over the double bed making for a sort of bunk bed. Separate beds for the boys… priceless!

Package Options

As if deciding which room to use wasn’t enough, the current booking offer was to choose to of the “free” extras on offer:

• Free 250 minutes of internet access

• Free specialty dining plan for 3 meals for 2 adults

• Free Ultimate Beverage plan for 2 adults

• Free $150 excursion credit

We ended up choosing the first two options as we would need some basic level of connectivity during the trip. Since I don’t drink the, beverage plan wasn’t worthwhile. The excursion perk was such that you got $25 max per person (up to two people) at each port. Since we weren’t planning an excursion at every port we wouldn’t get full value out of that. The specialty dining plan was the other option that made sense.

With these packages there is a LOT of fine print. The internet sounds like a great option, though it’s limited to 250 minutes and further research shows there’s also a cap on the amount of data, so if you’re downloading/uploading large files, you could blow through your limit in much less than 250 minutes. You can only have one device connected at a time. The excursion credit has to be used for an excursion at every port which limits it’s value. With the free drinks, the plan is free, but there is a 20% gratuity tacked onto the final bill and at $99 a day per person, that’s still a hefty bill.

The way these cruises are marketed you need to read the fine print. It can be very deceiving and you MUST do your research to understand what’s included and isn’t or else you’ll end up paying a lot more than you expect at the end of the trip. I’m used to digging into the fine print and found much of this quite difficult to follow. Buyer beware!

That said, if you know what you’re entitled to and can ask the right questions on the things you’re not clear on you can still have a great time without a surprise bill at the end of the trip.

Booking

I could have booked directly with Norwegian Cruise Lines, though I found other online travel agencies were offering the same price on the cruise as well as more free options. From Travelocity, in addition to the choice of the two packages, I was also able to get a $195 in on-board spending credit. This is to help offset some or all of the expenses that arise from the fine print or anything you buy onboard. I also found that Ebates.com was offering 7% cash back on cruises purchased through Travelocity. If I booked through Travelocity, after we go on the cruise I will get several hundred dollars back in cash from Ebates.com.

After booking with Travelocity, picking the room we were interested in, selecting the packages we wanted, and paying the deposit, I got a confirmation email from Travelocity that also had the Norwegian Cruise Line confirmation number. I promptly created a user account on the Norwegian website and linked it to that confirmation number and ensured everything was in order.

I had to pay the balance on the trip within about a month of booking which Travelocity kindly reminded me of via email.