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My family was on the Bliss the week of 4.15.23.  We booked our excursion through NCL and our meet time was 7:30 am on the ship. Our tour was scheduled to leave the parking lot at 8:30 a.m.  They had all of the early morning excursions in the theater and dismissed from there through the staff walkways to exit to the shuttle.  There is a bit of a walk on the pier inside shipping containers and then you are loaded onto the shuttle.  They did board to full capacity with people standing in the aisle.  They were using smaller shuttle type buses as well as one or two larger charter type buses to move people along the pier.  We were given stickers to make visible we were with an NCL tour group after disembarking the shuttle. This shuttle was free but only took you to the end of the pier.  The shuttle into Skagway from the parking lot had a fee. 

NCL announced the day before that if you were not on an NCL excursion and wanted off the ship prior to 11 a.m. you needed to obtain a shuttle ticket and groups would be announced.  Similar to a port where you need a tender ticket. 

We left the parking lot around 8:45 a.m. on our tour as we were waiting to see if a few missing people showed.  It looked like at the time it was still NCL booked groups arriving on the shuttles as most everyone had stickers.  

If your cruise line also gives priority to excursions booked through the ship it could be a bit of a gamble trying to get a shuttle ticket/ off the ship within the first hour or two.  

I am just off the NCL Getaway cruising with my four year old twins. One of which has severe food allergies (peanut, tree nut, dairy). We have also cruised NCL Epic when they were three and Disney Dream when they were two.

For the kids club, we informed the staff of our son's food allergies at registration. They then print each child a wrist band. The band lists all of the food allergies and had a special sticker. When we dropped off the boys we left an epi pen. They did not require any paperwork. However, it was in its original box with prescription on it. When we cruised Disney we misplaced the original box and they accepted his allergy action plan as it was signed by the doctor in order to leave the epi. For NCL they will attach a sticker to further identify which child it belongs to. The staff assigned to my son's group carried the epi around where ever he was. The kids club was two levels on Getaway and they do parades on ship and a performance. The epi went with the staff where ever he went. The staff told me that they were trained to use it. At drop off we were given a pager to alert us if they needed us to return.

They only fed the children during port days and it was an extra fee. We did not participate in this.

We have only done Splash Turtles on NCL, but did the nursery on Disney. They did give snacks/milk to kids, but I believe that they had to approve anything brought in, and there were no nuts allowed.

Before cruising we contact special needs and send in a form. Once on board, we get a call/ letter about speaking with a supervisor in the main dining room when ordering. We pre ordered all of his meals as there can be a wait for the food to be prepared. We also bring lots of safe snacks and treats to have on hand as the buffet is not safe for our son beyond boxed cereal.

On NCL just let the staff at whatever dining venue you are eating at know you have a preorder for your child and they will bring it.

Always ask to order with the supervisor or special diets assigned wait staff. We have found the average waiter does not understand the seriousness of the issue and at times there can be language issues.

We cruised last January with our 3 1/2 year old twin boys on the Epic. We had them sleep in Kidco peapods. The peapod dimensions are 46" x 18" x 28". We were in a balcony on the Epic. We cruised previously on the Jade in a mini suite, prior to kids. From what I remember of the Jade, the floor space between the couch and storage cabinet is huge compared to the floor space on the Epic balcony rooms. We easily fit the two peapod tents on the Epic, and I imagine there won't be any issues fitting the air mattress in the minisuite.

Just let your room steward know not to set up the extra bed, and that you are using something else for your daughter.

The cash account system seems to update in real time on the ship. If your account is at zero the card is "frozen" and won't work to purchase anything on the ship. Your purchases will show up on the account screen on the cabin TV and you can keep track of your purchases/balances. The guest service desk will also print off your account information.

My husband and I always use cash accounts on our cruises, three so far, and have never gone to zero. Granted we use the cash account as a budgeting tool for on board spending. We tend to book and pay for everything prior to sailing so we have limited on board expenses.

The only issue we've had with using a cash account was on the Epic in January of 2017. There had been technical issues with the account system showing charges from the private island (Great Stirrup Cay?). They did not want to refund the balance of any cash accounts due to concerns of spending that could have occurred and not accounted for. We had over 500 dollars left in the account ,and I was unwilling to allow them to sit on it for who knows how long before mailing a check refund. After a few rounds with the on board accounts staff I agreed to a refund of all but 50 dollars, which was later mailed to me (we had not made any purchases on GSC). However, it was a week or more before the check arrived.

So from now on we will not be as generous with our cash account up front and will deposit money as we go to prevent a battle over refunding the balance at the end.