Other Thoughts...

About the Perception of a Cruise Being All-Inclusive

When we first started looking into a cruise, I had an impression that the cost included most things.

And, to an extent, it can. The cost pays for your room, meals [if eaten at the two main dining rooms -

Liberty and Skyline, the Cadillac Grill, the Aloha Cafe, the Key West Bar and Grill, and room service], and onboard entertainment.

However, if you want to eat at one of the specialty restaurants, you'll pay a cover charge that ranges from $10 - $25 each.

The cruise cost doesn't include the $12 per person per day service charge that covers the service you receive from the

"restaurant staff, stateroom stewards, and behind-the-scenes support staff".

If you want something to drink other than milk, water, coffee, and juices, you can purchase

individual Pepsi-related soft drinks / alcoholic beverages or the unlimited soft drink package.

There's no charge to get off the ship at the ports, but you do have to pay for shore excursions (NCL's or any you book on your own).

Obviously, all of the onboard shopping is extra

(including the canned soft drinks at the gift shops; they are not included in the soft drink package).

Any photos that NCL takes - like when you get on the ship, eat at the restaurants,

when you disembark at a port, at the Luau, the professional portraits, etc - are available for sale.

In conclusion: It just wasn't reasonable to assume that we would only stick with the included activities.

We wanted to eat at some of the specialty restaurants, do some of the shore excursions, drink soft drinks, etc.

So, I would recommend that you plan for expenses in addition to the cost of the cruise.

About Booking Airfare

Even though you can book airfare through NCL along with your cruise, I wouldn't recommend it.

We decided to fly first class to and from Hawaii. In order to book first class tickets through NCL with our cruise,

we were going to have to go through their Premium Travel Department, which was going to charge us a fee

for their services. Furthermore, tickets they quoted us were overpriced.

When Jason did his own research, we found a non-stop Continental flight where the cost of

two first class tickets was almost the same as what NCL was going to charge us for one first class ticket.

Needless to say, we decided to book our own airfare.

About an Internal Stateroom

Yes, reserving an internal stateroom is cheaper, and it doesn't affect the service you receive nor which restaurants you can eat at.

However, after our experience with one, I wouldn't recommend it.

You don't think about how much the sun affects your internal clock,

and staying in an internal stateroom was like being in a closet.

We had no perception of what time it was; it was dark when we went to bed and dark when we woke up.

The only way we could tell whether it was day or night was to turn on the TV to the channel that showed the bow camera.

On our next cruise we'll definitely spend the money for an external stateroom.

An added bonus will be to watch the ship docking / leaving the port whenever our room is on the land side.

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