BirdTravels

The ship has a lot of pillows. Leave yours at home.

If you are accustomed to eating at "traditional fixed dining times" (i.e., either early or late), there would normally be only a short wait for a table, if any. We are old,,, growing up with traditional, fixed time, large table dining. Today, we avoid it at all costs on all of our cruises. We greatly prefer to eat when we are hungry and when it fits our schedule. We don't want to be a slave to the cruise line schedule. Especially on a Med cruise where port times vary and sometimes are very early or very late. So, we do NCL Freestyle Dining, Royal Caribbean My Time dining, MSC My Choice dining. Time to try something different.

Pull them aside and advise them not to give up their day jobs

Yes. NCL still uses door tags. There is a $4.95+gratuity delivery charge (regardless of the size of the order) = $5.94. Earliest delivery time is 6:30-7:00. Also consider that there is very limited counter/desk space in a standard Getaway room. Buffet will be busy. But you can always get in to grab a quick bite. If you get there at/before advertised opening time, it is fine. Always walk toward the back of the buffet to minimize crowds.

When you arrive at the restaurant, you tell the hostess how you would like to pay. You can pay with your Free at Sea Specialty Dining Package (you have 2 dinners each), a purchased Specialty Dining Package, Latitudes voucher (platinum and above), other vouchers (from various organizations), or an onboard charge (cash). General reservations opened 120 days prior to departure (130 for suites, 125 for top-tier Latitudes and Club Balcony rooms). You can book a table for 4, but it would be "good" to have that updated on embarkation day at the restaurant reservation location. Many/most of the restaurant tables are 2-tops. NCL holds table for embarkation day reservations, so if the restaurant of your choice is not available, go to the restaurant reservation desk as soon as you embark.

From a cybersecurity perspective, you should never, ever plug a device into a USB outlet that you do not personally own. Don't do it at the mall. Don't do it at the airport. Don't do it on a cruise ship.

There is a shaver outlet above the mirror. It should work for a nightlight. Note: This is designed for a shaver. If, for some odd reason, your nightlight has a polarized plug (one prong is wider than the other), you will need an adaptor.

Does RCCL still do that? I don't remember seeing it on the app any longer on our March cruise.

This is the way it has been a couple of times we have left Miami after a cruise this year. Times vary greatly. There is also a MyTSA app that provides realtime wait times. Checkpoint 1 is for those who have TSA Precheck. Checkpoints 2 and 3 (listed on right) are for those without precheck

A couple of weeks ago at GSC, we were told by the ShoreEx desk that clam shell could no longer be pre-reserved and that you had to do it on the island. "o.k." says The Bird. When we got to the island, there were people with their yellow ShoreEx tickets for clam shells there.

Hmmm.... a sudden turn of health is one thing. A baby would have been well known at time of final payment when you could have canceled with no loss of money.

This is business. They are trained to make a sale. By placing a courtesy hold, they create a sense of urgency... which is Marketing 101. I had a courtesy hold resulting from an inquiry last week. I paid my deposit and booked the cruise resulting from the courtesy hold.

The website is working correctly. Not a glitch. The $50 is for shore excursions. The Kayak or a Clam Shell is considered a rental and the $50 does not apply to rentals. That change was made after the pandemic.

Yup. We have been through bag searches disembarking in Bermuda multiple times. And there are always piles of contraband foods sitting there. Cartons of milk. Piles of fresh fruit. Piles of half-eaten breakfast. Imagine if they decided to arrest and fine everyone carrying prohibited items off the ship. And there is always a big pile of bags and bottles of pink sand at the bottom of the gangway in Bermuda from people trying to carry it back onto the ship. When we were in Tortola a couple of weeks ago, the lady in front of us was stopped with a bag full of rocks she was trying to take home with her. Cozumel is another port where they frequently search for contraband food.

Do you think that the terminal will be completed on time? Both the new RCCL and NCL terminals were [significantly] late.

It is really simple. Don't log on to NCL.COM when doing random searches. You are inviting calls to help you finalize your booking. It your action that results in NCL calling you. Just search anonymously and they have no way of contacting you.

The theater staging is very organized. The purpose is to hold people inside, out of the elements and not crowding the dock until their tour buses are available and the local tour guides are ready for them. There are many small ports where there is not enough space for all of the buses for all of the tours to be there at the same time. If your meeting point is in the Theater, there is no, zero, none benefit being in the HAVEN. You still have to stage in the theater with the steerage class passengers. You get no preferential treatment. You will still need to follow the ShoreEx guides from the theater to the gangway and out onto the dock. You have a meeting time. Be there at your meeting time. Don't be in the toilet at your meeting time. That is a no brainer. I used to tell my kids that if they need a toilet, use it before leaving the room. It is really sad that some adults don't do the same... and they expect the entire tour to wait for them because they are too important to use the toilet before their meeting time.

What did your email say? Maybe you should take it at face value.

Carnival does what NCL should have done: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2023/11/16/cbd-gummies-carnival-cruise-lifetime-ban/71611590007/ Royal Caribbean: https://www.royalgazette.com/court/news/article/20181005/american-woman-has-cannabis-on-cruise-ship/

Carnival provides a bit more rationale behind drug prohibition: Carnival recognizes that some states in the U.S. have legalized the use of recreational and/or medical marijuana. However, cruise lines are required to follow U.S. federal law, which strictly prohibits possession and use of marijuana and other illegal substances. Consequently, marijuana, including marijuana for medical purposes is not allowed on board. Under U.S. federal law, all cruise terminals in the U.S. are federal facilities and, along with our ships, are drug-free zones. Customs and law enforcement authorities in U.S. homeports and foreign destinations are present and have the right to conduct routine and random inspections with the assistance of narcotics-sniffing dogs. There is zero tolerance for possession of narcotics (which includes marijuana, even in those states where marijuana has been decriminalized). All guests and their personal items may be subject to screening by law enforcement and any guest found in possession of illegal drugs and other prohibited items may be subject to fines, arrest, and denial of boarding without refund or compensation. This is beyond Carnival’s control. Furthermore, Carnival reserves the right to deploy narcotics-sniffing dogs in terminals and on board our ships in order to enforce our obligations to uphold federal law.

Whether or not the guy was a cancer patient is totally irrelevant. It is against the law (cancer or not) and against the cruise line rules (cancer or not). The guy was fined and should have been thrown off the ship and should have been deported from the country.

As they should... since it is against the law.

Seascape

I am always one to "help improve" service on a ship. And I am never shy about going directly to the Hotel Director should their be an issue such as the "miscommunication". I would have asked the YC Director for a meeting with the Hotel Director immediately. And if they did not comply (you gave them a chance) go directly to the Hotel Director. I would add that we are MSC Diamond, Royal Caribbean Diamond, NCL Diamond, and Cunard Platinum level. So, we do a fair amount of cruising (6-7 cruises a year). And don't want to go home angry.

They are not basically a passport. They are useless (other than a form of ID) unless you are crossing the Canadian or Mexican border by land. If you got stranded in a Caribbean country, you could not use them to fly home to the US. If you got stranded in Canada, you could not use them to fly home to the US.