Booking
When I booked this cruise I was looking for a mid to late February cruise with ports that were new to me. In this case I had not been to Tortola, St. Thomas, or Great Stirrup Cay. Peurto Plata will be a different look since I normally stay in Amber Cove with Carnival. I did hire a driver to take me on a tour of Puerta Plata six or seven years ago so I have seen it before.
I was also interested in trying Norwegian Encore since it is relatively new and Norwegian’s largest ship.
I paid about $1,350 for this cruise. That’s for a solo cabin using the 10% military discount and it includes the Free at Sea drink package and specialty dining gratuities. I have since booked several other cruises with Norwegian. All of them are coming right around this price. My Prima cruise is about $100 less and my Getaway cruise is about $75 more. I’m trying several different locations in the solo area trying to figure out which spot I like the best.
Actually I paid $1,100 because I saved $250 with a $500 Cruise First Certificate. I always keep one of those on my account. If I use it I wait until they go on sale again and buy another.
With Carnival I would frequently put a cruise on hold, call Carnival to set a PIN number, then send that to the travel agent to book it at their convenience. I found out the hard way the Norwegian is more difficult. You have to fill out a transfer form and send it in. It’s not a quick process. I heard back from them about two weeks after I sent in the transfer request. They denied it because I paid for my cruise in full.
Now I just let the travel agent make the booking. I use two different agencies now. If one is too slow, I book with the other. If both give me a quote in a reasonable amount of time, I go with the higher onboard credit offer. The agency I had been using let their service slip a couple years ago. I stuck with them because they were the best for onboard credit. Last year they started lowballing me with some of the onboard credit offers so they no longer get all of my bookings.
Norwegian always has upgrade bidding months in advance. I usually submit a little over the minimum for a balcony room. This time in addition to that, they opened up live bidding two weeks out. I could increase my bid and instantly know it wasn’t enough. They got me to double my bid that way before I gave up. I am anxious to try the solo rooms but I would’ve taken a balcony if I could’ve gotten a good deal on it.
Itinerary Change
I received this itinerary change six months out. We are leaving Miami an hour and a half early, losing an hour in Puerto Plata and Great Stirrup Cay, and gaining an hour and a half in St. Thomas and 15 minutes in Tortola. I like getting to St. Thomas at 9:30 instead of 11am and I like pushing Tortola departure back an hour because I’m not getting off the ship at 6am.
Flight
Spirit opened up flights for February in September and the price was about right so I went ahead and booked. This is my first booking with them since they started their bundle packages. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it because I’ve been used to upgrading to their equivalent of a first class seat for $50-$100 each way. Now to do that I have to bundle it with a bunch of extras I don’t usually pay for. I decided to evaluate all options.
The basic price is Go which is just the ticket.
Then they have Go Savvy which is the ticket plus and additional $50 and includes a checked or carry on bag. Checked bags used to cost me $35 but last year they went up to $50 so that’s probably breaking even if you were going to check a bag.
Next they have Go Comfy which has the middle seat blocked off. So it’s basically a two person row with an empty seat in the middle. This was only for three rows of the plane starting on row 4 or 5. That price also included N/A Beverage and a snack.
Finally they have Go Big which is the front seats I normally upgrade to. I always called them first class seats without the first class service but now I think it’s basically first class without the curtain. You get a checked bag, carry on, personal item, Wi-Fi, priority boarding, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and a snack.
I was thinking about trying Go Comfy. But I’m thinking those are standard legroom which isn’t great on Spirit. I searched all over for photos or videos of this new seat class but couldn’t find anything. They just started it two weeks prior to me booking.
I was looking at the price and the total for Go Big was about what I’ve been paying. $200 over the base price. I’ve been paying about $35-50 for the checked bag each way and $50-100 for the seat upgrade each way.
I had points to spend with Spirit. It was enough to cover about three one-way flights. For points they only let you pay for the base ticket. Upgrades you have to pay for yourself. Using points the difference between Comfy and Big is less. It’s only $25 each way more for Big over Comfy now where before it was $50 more.
I ended up booking the Go Big. $216 out of pocket and 17,500 of my 25,000 points. If I had paid it all cash it would’ve been $433 which is close to what I paid in the past but I get a lot more with drinks, snacks, WiFi and I could bring another bag. Looking back last year flying into Ft. Lauderdale and out of Miami I paid $367 for this seat with a checked bag. This time I’m flying into Miami and out of Fort Lauderdale.
I noticed checked bags on Spirit can now be up to 50lbs like most airlines where they used to be 40lbs.
Miami Accommodations
Ever since I spent that day in Little Havana I knew the next time I was able to spend time in Miami I wanted to check out South Beach. But I wasn’t going to force it. I waited until it worked into my schedule to spend an extra day in Miami. That is this time. Decent hotels in South Beach were quite expensive. I started looking at Airbnb. I found a one bedroom condo with the location I wanted, good reviews and a good price of $186.
The scary part about this one is it became 50% non-refundable 48 hours after booking and 100% non-refundable a week from the trip. That was a bit of a risk. But being a single person with no kids the only time non-refundable has bit me was the time we were held over on Panorama due to a COVID scare in 2020. I do try to avoid it when possible and my prior Airbnb stays have had a better cancellation policy.
Onboard Purchases
I purchased the basic WiFi plan for $109. I’m going to try that out first and see if it suits my needs before considering their high end plan which is about $170 for the week and includes streaming.
Ports
Puerto Plata
I decided to take advantage of the $50 off of excursions NCL offers and book the waterfalls tour. I have been trying to book it for awhile. It kept saying my card was invalid then sending me a booking confirmation saying I owe $59. It doesn’t show up on my Itinerary. I think it may have been a problem with the app because I was able to book it on the computer.
St. Thomas
In St. Thomas they have a Skyride that is a $35 excursion so I was able to get a ticket for free. I also wanted to get up to Mountaintop. Research says you pretty much need to be on a tour for that. I found a $69 tour that gets me to mountaintop and downtown for $69. With the discount that one costs $19.
Tortola
In Tortola there weren’t many options. From what I’ve read the port area is mostly a financial district with a couple of places you can walk to. An island tour is recommended so I booked Discover Tortola for $79 which costs me $29 after the discount.
Great Stirrup Cay
This is a private island and will be a beach day for me. They have a stand-up paddle board rental option for $42. I would think I could get that for free with the $50 off of excursions deal. But for some reason it doesn’t give me the discount on this one. I’d be interested in trying it if I can do it for free. Otherwise I’m just going to get a swim in and check out the port area.
