Things to know before you go cruising

December 10th, 2006

My last blog was almost a month ago, I was on the road for more than three weeks! it was just too tiring to sit in front of computer at the end of each exciting day. The most exciting part that I have to share with you is my first cruise experience, as you read in my prevoius blog, to east carribbean via NCL Jewel.

Overall the “Freestyle” is by no means just a brand of NCL, there is indeed a lot of freedom on the ship, and even with my parents who are in their 60’s, we all have a lot of fun on the ship. Being a first timer, there are for sure a lot of bummers, such as things forget to bring with you, so let me summarize what I have learned and hope that is useful to you, especially to those who will take NCL ships.

Things to do before boarding:

• Make internet searches and book excursion trips by yourself, it usually save $10-25/pp for each excursion trip. Internet on the ship is available but it is expensive. Once you have made reservation, suggest you write down the contact info and where to meet near your cruise ship. Notice sometimes booking excursion trips may give you early disembark advantage. Plan to return to the ship at least 1 hour before the embarkation time, so that you can accommodate unplanned events such as traffic jams if you use a rental car. 
• Board early: usually boarding started around 1pm, so get there early to beat the crowd.

Things to do immediately after boarding:

• Reserve special restaurant for dinner first: notice there are three restaurants charges cover charges (Chin-chin:$10, Le Bistro: $10, Cagney:$15), but first day has ½ price on the cover charge, and then early dinner time (5:30-6:30) has ½ price too. The rest of restaurants are free of charges. Check map first to be familiar with the location of the reservation desk. Be sure to check itinerary so that you don’t book a restaurant for a time slot when you are still off the ship.

Stuff you shouldn’t forget

• Large water bottles to carry water, NCL charges fee for bottled water on board, but they do offer water for free in buffet restaurant where you can fill your bottle without spending a penny. Also soft drinks (coke etc) are not free, so bring your own if you want to save some dollars.
• Medicine for your medication, check the information desk if you have common problems such as cold or headache as they have things like Tylenol for free.
• Sunscreen, deodorant etc. Otherwise, you will suffer some serious sun burn.
• Snorkeling gears (include a life jacket if you are note a big swimmer) if you plan to take a snorkeling trip, the price to rent the gears on ship is about the same when you purchase a new one in store.
• Photography things: such as water-proof camera. If you do have DSLR, bring both telescope lens and wide lens.
  If you use DSLR and wants to changes lens on the road, make sure you bring a CMOS cleaner because the chance of dirt went into your camera body is much higher when you are near the ocean.
• A portable printer is nice to print post card to mail to home from a location.
  Beach bag, it is handy to have it and put things in an organized way.
• Personal spare time killer: Mp3 player/video game console/books, there are lots of things to do while onboard so you won’t easily get board unless you are interested in nothing. The ship gym is very nice; easily spend some quality personal time over there with your favorite music.

Entry Filed under: Travel