IronRobi

Those would both be battery operated. At least I've never seen an electric toothbrush that needs to be plugged in to run LOL Battery operated is different because the load is run off the battery and the power just charges the battery. It would be exactly the same thing with battery operated fans, but then they get into having to inspect and make a judgement call on each and every fan that gets brought on board which would take a significant amount of time and manpower. Plus if they confiscate one that should have been allowed then it negatively impacts guest experience, etc. etc. etc. So it would just be easier to ban them all unfortunately.

Fans run on motors which do make them different from other electrical devices. It's possible that the ship's electrical systems aren't rated to safely handle the inductive load from X number of cabins. The battery and USB powered fan is probably just collateral damage because it's easier to ban all fans than it is to allow certain types and slow everything down because they have to inspect and make a judgement call.

I would think no because they book by the key card. So the system would already know the other cabins had their 2 reservations. The major shows had 4 showtimes each. An early/late show on 2 different nights. The comedians had all ages and 18+ shows again on 2 different nights.... Limit reservations to 1 showtime per show, don't limit reservations to 2/16 shows which is 2/50+ showtimes.

Exactly what was in ours late Nov.

We booked our last check-in time for noon. Figured we could sleep in a little, have a nice breakfast, and make the hour drive from Orlando to the Port without much stress. Dropped off the rental car to budget, hopped on the shuttle, got to the port and the lineup for security was wrapped right around the building. Hundreds of people just lined up outside in the sun. I felt defeated. Gave the porters a decent tip ($20 for 4 bags, not huge but fair) because those guys work hard, and I think we were the only ones on our little shuttle that did. The guy said "come with me" and walked right up to the NCL security guy at the front of that huge line, gave him a nod, and they opened the little divider and sent us up the escalator and into the building. 20 minute or so line inside for security, walked right up to the counter to get our ship cards then walked straight onto the ship. Moral of the story.... noon may be a little late, I'll try 11 next time. And good things come from tipping the porters!

Just off the escape a few weeks back. They would only allow you to book 2 shows out of all the theatre shows, comedy shows and supper club. Not 2 from each category, but 2 total. They want to "ensure space for all guests". I was disappointed when we could no longer do this pre-cruise, and even more disappointed when I was told this once boarding. Ultimately we were able to get in to any venue we wanted via the standby line. But that involved showing up 30mins prior and standing in line for 15+ minutes before every show.

We take a cruise to relax. But we always end up more active on vacation than we are in our every day life. We don't typically book the excursion where we just park ourselves on a lounger at the beach. Just recently off the Escape, and one day my watch logged 58,000 steps for the day. I don't even know how many miles that is, but it's a lot. The thermal suite is incredible for those sore muscles. Going from the steam room to the snow room just feels amazing. Relaxing in the sauna or sanarium. I've never been a huge fan of the salt room. I've been on some ships where they've had private hot tubs and lounging areas outside only accessible for thermal suite pass holders.

The Howl at the Moon dueling piano's is one of our favorite entertainment options on NCL ships. Typically they're incredibly talented musicians and will often hop from the piano to a set of drums or a guitar. They usually play for 4-5hrs taking requests from the audience so the number of songs they know must be huge. What I like most about it though is how they engage the crowd and they're usually quite funny in doing so. I've been to some shows where I've laughed harder at the piano guys than I did at the comedians! You may have just gotten a bad team. If you come across them on another ship, it's an awesome venue to just pop in and out of to kill time between other shows.

Sorry, but no. If the salary portion was meant as an independent clause there would have been the comma after the word salary and before the word AND. I agree it initially looks out of place however there are 2 common scenarios when placing a comma before the word and is acceptable. When you have a list greater than 3 items it's acceptable to put a comma before the final item if it fits your writing style. The other is when there are 2 independent clauses. So if salary were not funded by the DSC, it would read "Certain members of Carrier’s crew are compensated by a combination of salary, and incentive programs that are funded in part by the service charge paid by each Guest." Placing the comma after the word programs is not proper grammar, and you can freely verify this yourself using Grammarly. (Note that this sentence is another independent clause where the comma before and is acceptable). EDIT: Also remember that this is from a legal document of a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company. Improper placement of a comma (or lack of one) would alter the meaning of the document and could result in lawsuits or even jailtime.

REMOVING

Not ignoring at all. The fact that they use the word ARE means it is speaking of multiple nouns, otherwise a singular noun would be phrased with the word IS. So in this case both the salary and incentive programs ARE funded in part by the service charge, exactly as it says. Now one could try to argue that since the word programs is plural, that are would be an appropriate use there as well. Which is correct. However if this were the case there would be some sort of distinction to single out incentive programs from salary, exactly how they did with the wellness program. Think of it in a simpler example.... "My brother and sisters are coming home for Christmas". One would not take from this that only my sisters are coming home for Christmas right?

The use of "are" suggests both salary and incentive programs.

Section 3(C) starting at the bottom of page 1. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Guests are advised to carefully read the terms and conditions of the Guest Ticket Contract set forth below which affect your legal rights and are binding (ncl.com) NCL does state in your cruise contract that the DSC is used to support salaries, incentive programs and a fleet-wide wellness program. So while it may not be legal to include it in general revenues, if it does indeed fund the crew's salaries as they state it does in the contract, then you no longer have the salaries going against the bottom line and it achieves the same effect. Think this through.... You have 100k in revenue. 30k for salaries, you are left with 70k. Now you collect 30k in DSC that can't be added to general revenues, so that number still sits at 70k instead of going back to 100k. Now you have 100k in revenue. 30k for salaries but these salaries are paid from another fund (DSC). So you are left with 100k. It didn't get added to your general revenues but you still get the same final number as if you had. It's really pretty simple.

Interesting that Cruise Mapper does list it in port that day, along with 3 other ships. Puerto Plata-Amber Cove (Dominicana) cruise port schedule | CruiseMapper But the Amber Cove website does not list them on the schedule. Port Schedule (ambercove.com) Nor does the Taino Bay port. Taino Bay, Puerto Plata (porttainobay.com) Also note Amber Cove had both a Carnival and NCL ship in port the day before on the 5th.

It's really not needed. You can just request they be removed and no need to even tell them why. They won't shame you, make you feel bad, or even question it any further. Your fellow cruisecritic members though..... prepare to be made to feel like you just committed mass murder.

Are you seriously choosing to ignore the fact that it also says SALARY and incentive programs THAT YOUR SERVICE CHARGE SUPPORTS. This is exactly what I've been saying is wrong with this situation. If the DSC is a tip, why the hell is it supporting paying their salary?

It's not about believing some people on here or not. It's in black and white in your cruise contract as well as on the NCL website. It funds their salary, an incentive program, and a company-wide wellness program. What percentage goes where, and what exactly the incentive program entails is all that's left for speculation. This is not an opinion. See the link below, or the image pasted above. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Guests are advised to carefully read the terms and conditions of the Guest Ticket Contract set forth below which affect your legal rights and are binding (ncl.com) Section 3(C) of your cruise contract. (c) Service Charges: Certain members of Carrier’s crew are compensated by a combination of salary and incentive programs that are funded in part by the service charge paid by each Guest. The charge , which is automatically added to your onboard account and subject to adjustment at your discretion, is intended to reward service provided in all departments and job categories and is distributed to employees 07/2011 according to Carrier's evaluation of job performance. A portion of the service charge collected by Carrier is also used for fleet-wide crew welfare programs.

The cruise contract states the DSC is used to fund the crew's base salaries, incentive programs and a company-wide wellness program. So unless they're also changing how it's being used, then yes the increase would be going to the crew in some way (just not as tips). Whether that be an increase in base wages, an extra day off each month, or to pay the increased costs of the wellness program there's no way to really tell.

Just did this last week. They will apply $125 credit towards the price of the unlimited package. I also had OBC to use so waited until I was on board to purchase. I did the same with excursions. I had calculated everything beforehand based off the prices listed pre-cruise, I would have had around $80 OBC left over after upgrading the internet and 2 excursions. We were going to use it towards some starbucks. Once on board and the upgrade completed and the 2 excursions booked, I had actually used the entirety of my OBC and had a $40 charge. So I believe that NCL does discount things slightly pre-cruise. As a point of reference, I was charged $279.93USD for the premium internet with streaming and received a credit of $125USD. So total cost was $154.93USD.

Interesting you say this because my recent experience on the Escape was pretty much the opposite (Sailed Nov 26). The breakfast at the Garden Cafe was practically inedible. Unless getting a freshly made omelet cooked in front of you, the hottest food items you could find were room temperature at best! The food in the MDR was decent, but I find the budget cuts could be felt. The meals felt more generic when compared to pre-pandemic sailings and there were some evenings where there was nothing that really jumped out as a "wow I need to try this" compared to before it was always a debate between 2 or 3 items. Late night buffet for snacks looked like whatever was left from the supper buffet. They didn't even have cookies out daily which I found odd. Cagneys was hit and miss. First visit was absolutely perfect, I'd have put it on par with any high-end steakhouse on land. Second visit was the complete opposite. Steaks cooked incorrectly and served cold and a server who did not even check in once. Overall I'd still rate the food higher than other lines I've been on, but I feel the gap may be closing.

Was on the Escape sailing 11/26-12/03 and also missed GSC due to rough waters. 13ft swells, so understandable even though some people were quite upset about it. We were automatically refunded port fees of $15. It was applied to our ship account as Refundable OBC the same day.

100% this!! I honestly can't believe there are people on here that not only defend this practice, but actively try to shame people who disagree with it.

Would you still love it if your employer withheld a portion of your tips to "pay for" your base salary? Because that is what NCL does. You can continue to say "tips aren't base salary" all you want, what you should be saying is "tips should not be covering the base salary".

Done it twice. Once on NCL once on Carnival. On Carnival it was due to a price dispute at the spa caused by a price increase over what was already arranged. They wouldn't budge and actually advised me to remove the $40 or whatever it was from the DSC. But Guest Services would not remove only a portion and took the entire DSC off instead. I felt it a strange policy. With both times, guest services were very pleasant and polite, didn't ask many questions or pose any argument about it at all. I wasn't shamed, wasn't made to feel bad, nothing. Both needed a small form filled out that gave you the opportunity to express an issue, but you weren't required to put anything in there at all.

The fact that their cruise contract states employees are paid a combination of salaries (aka base wages) plus incentive programs. And that it states those salaries and incentive programs are partly funded by the DSC with the remainder to a company-wide wellness program. Now they don't specify how much of the DSC goes where, so for arguments sake let's assume it's split evenly between the 3. So that would mean up to 1/3 of what everybody argues is "tips" goes towards paying the employees base salary! With another 1/3 funding a low-cost bonus like a day off through an incentive program they likely have to work their asses off to achieve.