Know THIS Before Sailing Norwegian Cruise Line | Norwegian Cruise Tips

hi this is Lynne and Erin with traveling flamingos and today we're gonna be talking to you guys about everything you need to know before sailing with Norwegian Cruise Line we've broken it down into five main categories and look forward to sharing that with you so you've got all the information you need before you start your cruise coming right up so we have five main categories that we're going to go through and that's dining and drinks entertainment the staterooms and ship features and specific things for Norwegian so this would be stuff like their policies and procedures or offers that they have that are specific to their Cruise Line so let's start this with dining and drinks Norwegian Cruise Lines has what's called freestyle cruising this means you can cruise your way you there are no set dining times and you don't need to dine with the same people like you do on other cruises where you're always with the same table group you decide where and when you want to eat and you just book it very much like a restaurant on land you go ahead and either book it for an krater reservation or you can just show up at the podium and ask to be seated and if there's availability they'll seat you this means there's no formal nights and you're welcome to dress up any day of the cruise or no days on your cruise it's completely up to you there are only a few select restaurants that do have a dress code on the Norwegian Breakaway there were three and they all require only long pants one thing in Ciel is known for is having a variety of restaurant options onboard we were on the breakaway as Aaron said and there are two over twenty-two restaurants and bars available however not all of them are free there are complimentary restaurants and specialty restaurants where you'll have to pay for the specialty ones they do also offer dining packages so you can check those out some are set price to pay for three specialty restaurants and you can save a little bit of money but you want to make sure that you do plan on eating at those restaurants we also found that many of the restaurants were worth the up charge some cruise lines they're not always quite as worthwhile the main dining rooms are sometimes really good and that isn't to say that the main dining rooms were not good on Norwegian but we did find that you know you had more alcohol in the tiramisu or the stakes were a lot better at Cagney's for example and there was good value in going to those more expensive restaurants that said the buffet was pretty good probably not our favorite buffet on on a ship however the main dining room was also really good but those specialty restaurants were just amazing so the three main dining rooms are savor taste and the Manhattan room there all have the exact same kitchen and menu so if on your trip you don't get into one of them don't worry you haven't missed too much the only difference is in the Manhattan room they will sometimes have live music playing in the evening as well just to wrap up our section on dining and drinks we have always found it very helpful to bring a reusable water bottle and a travel mug not only for the environmental impacts but also for the financial as well water can be very expensive and you're wasting all those plastic bottles they do have all-inclusive drink packages but those don't include water or specialty coffee at the buffet though you can get coffee and tea as well as lemonade iced tea and some select favorite flavored waters for free so we found bringing your own water bottle going to the buffet you get a clean cup you refill your water bottle and Aaron also enjoyed using the travel mug because he could put some lemonade and ice in it and have a drink that would stay cooler a little bit longer than the Caribbean heat but again you don't fill your drink directly you just fill it into a clean cup and then pour it in a great way to save a little bit of money stay hydrated and save the environment - our second category of tips is entertainment so always remember to participate there's lots of different shows that you can join and be part of and have a lot of fun with like the newlywed not so newlywed show there's a glow party which is like an outdoor disco there's bingo nights and these things will always add a lot of fun to your trip the Broadway shows are amazing but remember there are some entertainment that is adult only some of the comedian's or magicians and so forth can be adults only and not family-friendly so watch out for those signs when you enter the theatre they'll let you know whether or not they are for all ages NCL is fairly known for its water slides and aqua parks on their ships so whatever ship you're on you can pretty much guarantee they'll be a water slide they also have a lot of industry first entertainment such as go-karts on the NCL bliss and we also tried the rock climbing in high ropes course so there's a lot of entertainment on the ships for people of all ages don't forget that some of this entertainment is an additional charge in some isn't but it can be very well worth it for those additional charge entertainment venues for instance we watched wine lovers the musical which was a musical where they provide you with a meal and they also give you seven you know quote unquote free glasses of wine with your meal it was about 39 dollars for us to go on that however you know that's what you're gonna pay for for a specialty meal on the ship generally anyways so definitely made sense and was a lot of fun to have a show with that there's also stuff like escape rooms those escape rooms are free and you know be sure to book that early it does get very busy and it does fill out our last point about entertainment has to do with excursions so there it's relatively easy to research excursions and compare them online we found this really helpful to do before we went away because we could see what we were interested in read and here's some of the feedback from other travelers you always have the option of booking with NCL or a lot of the ports you also have third-party vendors there that you can be purchasing your excursions from as well but that's something you're gonna want to spend a little bit of time looking into before you leave on your trip some of those excursions do book up very very fast so you'll want to get in there online before your trip and make sure anything you really want to do you go ahead and book if there's things you're not too sure about you may or may not want to feel free to leave those or even do them on the do them when you get to the dock and you know find one of the excursion groups but if there's something you really really want to do book it ahead of time our next category is staterooms we only really have one tip in this category so it should go pretty quick the power outlets in your room are very limited motion only have about 2 us power plugs but there's also two additional EU travel plugs that you can use we highly suggest a multi-port USB charger so you can max the number of outlets you have in the room otherwise you can only really plug in two or three devices at once without using the European adapter so remember to travel with a universal power adapter because you can then optimize those two you can actually use those two ports there is also a outlet in the bathroom that you can use for shavers however that is usually connected to the power switch so if you turn the light off at night and you're trying to use that to charge something it won't charge that said your outlets are also connected to that key card that goes in your room to turn on the lights so if you turn off the lights in the room by taking out the card you will stop charging whatever you have in those plugs so do remember charging is links to those switches and you can't just have it charge forever we'll put a link to the charger that we use in the description below if you're interested in picking it up go ahead and do that it will be affiliated with Amazon but of course you don't have to if you don't want to okay on to our fourth category the ship features NCL is very family friendly it has a lot of stuff for the kids they've got Splash Academy which is for ages three to twelve Entourage which is ages 13 to 17 in there they've got theme nights activities video games and we've already talked about the pool and the slides for kids they do also have what they call the Guppies which is the nursery for 6 months to 3 years old there is an additional charge for that but from what we saw and heard they have a lot of great activities for the kids on the ship there is also the highest cost rooms which is called the Haven Suites on Norwegian cruise lines and they do have a private pool restaurant and bar as well as pre reserved seating at many of the shows and they also get priority Embarq Asian and disembarkation if this is in your budget we highly recommend you opt for this because you do get that private pool and that private pool is very important on some of these ships because when you're using a lot of the surface area for slides and so forth you really only have one pool that's left for people who didn't opt for the Haven that said you can also choose the thermal spa or the spa rooms and a lot of the ships do have an indoor pool a body temperature pool that you can use again it is indoor so you're not going to be sunbathing in there however you will get a pool and it's a bit less costly than the Haven Suites but if you can manage the Haven Suites you do get that extra pool which is very useful especially on some of those Caribbean or hotter trips another good option for a quiet and relaxing area is the thermal spa so when you get that thermal spa package you get access to an indoor pool sauna scenario steam room and salt rooms they do also have additional loungers as well as a lounger made of tile which is heated a thermal lounger and it's very nice on your sore muscles so again this is just a nice quiet area that you can go to you can't suntan but it's not as busy as the main pool and great for relaxing some of the newer ships also have a great area called the waterfront this goes all the way around to the middle of the ship around deck six or seven and it gives you a place about midway up the ship to sit you can eat dinner out there it's kind of where your lack cocina your Cagney's Steakhouse a bunch of little bars and so forth are they've got large chairs they've got loungers and it gives you a second place to relax other than the Lido decks these tend to be pretty quiet so highly suggest if you want to get away from some of the busyness on the higher decks you go ahead head to the waterfront nice little area to relax when we were there you didn't really have that many people out there on our Caribbean cruise it's a bit hotter so guessing a lot of people probably don't want to eat dinner out there in the heat but it was a great place to just relax at the end of the night we'd go down there and we'd watch the waves go by NCL do not have any laundry rooms that are available to guests however they do offer laundry service where you can get a bag and fill it for $20 they also have a embarkation deal so you can look out for that but then they will do their laundry for you so it's all about relaxing so our next category and last category is norwegian specific thing so these are things that they do from a policy perspective or a process perspective or a marketing perspective so one thing that we noticed about norwegian is it really places itself in the middle of the cruise market it's now trying to be a high-end luxury ship like Cunard or even princess and it's not sort of a low-end booze cruise or you can just go out with and have unlimited alcohol it is sort of competing mid-market they've got a bunch of stuff for your kids they've got a bunch of stuff for adults they've got adult comedy and so forth as well and they've also got things you know all the way in between you can expect the prices to be a bit cheaper on average however there are a lot of up charges on the ships itself from ala carte and fixed phrase dining restaurants to additional charges for some of the entertainment and shows that we talked about before so Norwegian has what they call free for all packages which includes a lot of things that you might want but that's only available for specific room types for example some of the lower-cost ones like the sail away cabins which are non guaranteed rooms non-guaranteed means that within the category you've purchased so for example balconies they will place you on the ship somewhere so you could be under pool you could have an obstructed balcony but it is cheaper so you won't get the sail away free for all packages on sail away rooms what those sail away is include is a free open bar shore excursions usually a discount like $50 specialty dining free Wi-Fi so you get a certain amount of time friends and family can sail free and free or reduced airfare that said when you look at the fine print the offers are only available for balcony staterooms and above 20% gratuities apply on unlimited open bar and specialty dining friends and families free sailing are only available on select sailings and free or reduced airfare from select gateways on select sailings for ocean view rooms or above so there are quite a number of restrictions here however you can for the most part get free open bar a discount on shore excursions specialty dining included some Wi-Fi and you can get that depending on the type of cruise that you have so you'll see here as we show you what it looks like when you book it'll highlight what's available for you but again it's only on the more expensive rooms if you want to do a sail away which is the lowest price you usually won't get those discounts so just something to keep in mind that said we did book a sail away cabin and on the Norwegian Breakaway we were more than happy there really aren't any obstructed balconies on that she and we were we did upgrade to a spa room which we'll talk about shortly and you know it was great we did find that due to the number of people who are picking the free for all packages you can expect a fair number of people to be enjoying the open bar drink package it was a bit of a joke on the ship a couple times to 50% of the adults actually had that package so the first night we noticed quite a bit of people drinking pretty liberally but it did calm down as the trip went on and we even heard another young couple saying you know we're not starting before five because I don't want to be in bed by 9:00 again so you know people you're gonna enjoy it but you've got it you got a trip ahead of you as well something else that's really cool the NCL allows you to do is bid to upgrade your room so we had paid for the sail away balcony and decided to participate in this bid so you can specify the amount of money you would be willing to spend to upgrade and NCL will decide if they want you to do that so we bid $100 to upgrade our balcony to a spa balcony room and it was accepted so it was only a hundred dollars Canadian each for the whole trip and we had access to that thermal spa and thoroughly enjoyed being able to go in there to relax it was very easy to upgrade as well so online you just put in your bid the lowest we could go was a hundred dollars Canadian and we thought hey you know why not who knows if we're gonna get it and again it was accepted and we did get that room so we got access to the thermal suite for the entirety of our cruise which was very nice continuing on that theme they're digital tools and website were really really pretty good not all of these not all of these different cruise lines have great digital tools to help you sort of plan and organize however this was was pretty good it's pretty acceptable I wouldn't say it's the world's greatest but you know you could use it fairly easily you could research your excursions you could select the packages that you wanted before you got on the ship and when you did get on the ship they do have a mobile app and that same mobile app that you can use before you're on the ship is doubles as your itinerary and your planner they do have a paper planner they do have the Freestyle daily I believe they call it however there's a digital version of that as well in case you forget it in the room you can book your your rooms in there you can so book different entertainment the one thing that I think you should be aware of before you go is if you do want to message on board guests so using the Wi-Fi there's a $10 u.s. fee to do that which I thought was was interesting that said though the app is pretty good be sure to download that app before you get on board the last tip that I have before I hand it over to Linda to take us home is about the Wi-Fi and the internet onboard so a lot of the time the internet onboard is slow a lot of people do have that free-for-all package which does also include some amounts of internet and just to let you know it was slow it was very intermittent it took us about 20 minutes just to check in for a flight we did it's it's per minute cost speed wasn't great if you want to do you know maybe posting a couple videos to Instagram or pictures to Instagram or some social media stuff you can probably get along doing that fairly well however again not great not as good as some of the more modern stuff like the like it's ob2 or o to be networks that's on the Royal Caribbean ships however it wasn't horrible it wasn't consistently slow you could get your stuff done it just did you know take a little bit of extra time just as a slight side note I did find that the smoking areas on the ship were in really high traffic areas so one of them is in the casino and there's this beautiful three-story chandelier right in the middle of the ship and the casino is on the second story of it and it's all open so in those areas in the noodle bar restaurant upstairs you can really have that presence of the smoke there and if you're a non smoker have allergies to smoke you are aware of that in some of these high-traffic areas on the ship and as for our last point we're going to talk about gratuity so as many other cruises in North America gratuity is not included in your cruise fees so you're going to be expecting to pay for that either in advance of your cruise or afterwards it's a 20% gratuity also if you order the drink package you'll pay 20% of the cost of the package however this does mean that you don't have to worry about tipping onboard unless you want to give a little bit extra where you would like we usually do it for our room so it steward and anywhere we get exceptional service on the ship we also like to pay for hours in advance so that way afterwards you're not having to worry about a large bill at the end too we I would also keep in mind that gratuity does not cover anything that you do off the ship so such as excursions or meals so make sure you do tip your tour guides and bus drivers because they do a fantastic job and always remember to tip for great service these employees work very hard they're away from their family for a very long time and they do try to make your trip as great as they can so you know we had a great room steward Dennis who was really really helpful and very very attentive and we would just like to thank everybody who was on our cruise who was so amazing from the ship stewards all the way to the activities directors and the activity employees the chef's everybody who goes above and beyond to make these types of things an amazing never to forget vacation so a big thank you to the staff of NC l and the staff of the Norwegian Breakaway for all that they did while we were there I would also like to take the opportunity to thank everybody who's watching and who have subscribed to our little channel we're so excited to be over 600 subscribers I mean we remember getting excited when we had 25 people and you know to have subscribers who aren't just our family members who really enjoy watching you know it means a lot to us that you guys have take the time to be watching and subscribing to our videos we also really appreciate all the comments that we are getting on our videos and the discussion that's happening some people are asking us great great questions and are sharing their own feedback and experiences from their cruises and activities that they've done and it really means a lot to us to be active in this community as well I think that we can all be learning and enjoying and experiencing from each other all together so thanks again for watching we really hope that you enjoyed this video and got some helpful tips for planning your own trip with Norwegian or maybe you've been on a cruise with the region already and are looking back over it remembering some of the wonderful places that you've been to eat so thanks again for watching and happy travels [Music]

Channel: Traveling Flamingo

Views: 391,267

Keywords: norwegian breakaway, Norwegian breakaway 2019, Norwegian breakaway 2020, norwegian breakaway balcony room, norwegian breakaway buffet, norwegian breakaway cruise ship, norwegian breakaway food, norwegian breakaway review, norwegian breakaway tour, norwegian breakaway tour 2019, norwegian cruise line, norwegian cruise line 2019, norwegian cruise line 2020, norwegian cruise line bliss, norwegian cruise line breakaway, norwegian cruise tips, first time cruise tips norwegian

Id: tkEKc-Gv9UU

Length: 20min 3sec (1203 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 21 2019