IronRobi

Actually, in post #7 (as well as in your cruise contract) NCL clearly states the crew is paid a combination of salary and incentive programs. Funding for this comes partly from the DSC. The cruise contract expands on this by saying the remaining portion of the DSC is used to fund a company-wide wellness program. So the DSC covers: 1) Staff salary 2) Incentive programs of an unknown structure 3) Company-wide wellness program An incentive program is used to incentivize performance. It's not something that is just handed out. I would assume this is based on achieving certain KPI's, whether that be based on guest feedback, profitability, or some other measurement. Speaking with a few crew members last week, they mentioned they can "earn" things like days off or free internet based on reaching a certain number of positive guest comment cards. The DSC is certainly not a tip or gratuity in any way. I personally have no issue with #2 and 3 on the list, but I don't feel these fees should be going to pay the base wages of the staff. That's where I draw the line.

They don't really do different types. It's the standards cheese, pepperoni, veggie and works.

I would say the very large majority of people stick to themselves or their group and ignore people around them. But there's always social butterflies on every ship and you'll find some people that will happily be your best friends for the week. Just avoid MSC cruises if you're worried about people being social LOL So many different cultures on their line and they often clash. People screaming at each other in different languages, people shoving, I've seen things escalate to the point I was sure fists were getting thrown. NCL is much more laid back.

Then be prepared to be disappointed lol Not that the pizza is terrible, I just find it bland and generic.

I completed my check-in and the option is still there to upgrade.

I can upgrade from Free at Sea internet to unlimited streaming for $149.91 CAD for a 7 day cruise. This makes it roughly $21.42/day Canadian. Over 15 days that would work out to $321.23CAD. Convert that to your local currency and it may not give you the exact dollar amount but it will give you a good idea of how much it would cost.

We've always shared 1 connection by having 1 device signed in at a time.

Doing a room changeover, especially with COVID protocols, takes a lot more time than just the daily cleanup of the rooms. There's only a limited number of staff available to do this. Some individual rooms may be ready if your area happens to be first on that staff member's list.

I have to say, I'm a little excited for this change. But mainly because I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I order the steak. Every single time. And we all know the steak in the MDR is decent, it's a striploin, but it's not a Cagney's level steak. My wife on the other hand likes the variety. On Carnival, their MDR steak is a flat iron steak which really isn't that great. But what I have always loved about Carnival's MDR is that I can order a nice 14oz NY Strip from their steakhouse selection for $20! A trip to their steakhouse costs us around $100 and we may go once per cruise. But I order that $20 upcharge steak in the MDR every night without hesitation. If NCL is going to start offering some specialty restaurant selections in their MDR menu and I can order that better quality steak while my wife can still have her variety every night, this is a huge improvement for us!

Not a troll, just honestly don't see how people see this as such a massive deal. If some rules may be bent, how does one choose which ones are OK to bend and which ones aren't? My opinion would be the ones that if broken cause no harm to anybody and aren't broken by a large amount, would be the ones that are OK to bend. And in the example this person posted of the quiet 14 year old sitting with mom and dad... that's not really affecting anybody. To be very clear, my opinion is entirely different if said 14yr old sneaks up alone. Or is playing music or causing any sort of disturbance. Bringing friends with them. The deck area is completely full. etc... etc... I'm happy that NCL also seems to have a bit of leniency on this because they only seem to enforce it when it's absolutely needed.

Sounds very discriminatory of you. Since you clearly discriminate against age, do you also discriminate against gender and race? Discrimination - Noun: the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. I don't think this is who you truly are as a person, however when you make statements such as "I just don't like kids for no specific reason", this is how you come across.

They weren't wrong if they were willing to apply all 4 towards it. Let's use some simple hypothetical numbers for easy math purposes. Let's say the booked cruise was $5,000 even. On board it's $400 more so $5,000 + $400 = $5,400. Then if you bought those 4 CN certificates. You'd be looking at $500 ($1,000 - $500 OBC which can be applied towards the $1,000) for 4 CN certificates. So $5,400 + $500 = $5,900. Now from how this is worded I'm assuming they're willing to apply those 4 certificates towards the cruise. Those 4 certificates would apply $1,000 in credits towards the cruise. $5,900 - $1,000 = $4,900. So you'd have been ahead by $100. Add the category upgrade to the mix and it MIGHT actually be worth all the hassle of doing it depending on any differences in benefits or add-ons.

Most of the complaints you'll see around the Epic are because of the weird bathroom layout. There's not much privacy there which is fine if you're a couple... but if you're sailing with parents or friends or any combination other than a couple.... it can be a little awkward. The Epic has pretty much all the same restaurants as most of the fleet, so you'll get lots of personal opinions on which are favorites and I bet they all get named at least once. I'm a huge Cagneys fan, but I did have issues with the cook on my steaks each of the 3 visits I went while on board. It got to the point where I didn't even have to ask to send it back because they'd check the temperature right at the table and seeing my medium rare steak was cooked to 155. They'd just apologize and leave with it. The chef looked embarrassed but the MaitreD was extremely rude and even tried arguing that even if the temperature was in the medium well to well range that it could still be medium rare. Because of his attitude I wrote a letter of complaint and NCL made it right. The only other time I've ran into continuous cook issues was on a carnival ship and the MaitreD gave the most incredible service I've ever gotten anywhere. To the point where he would personally deliver or check in on my order every single night regardless of which restaurant we were in. I also wrote a letter here but to express how incredible his service was. I know his superior complimented him for it because he found me on the ship to thank me and comped a meal in the steak house and a bottle of wine on our final night to express his gratitude. Night and day difference in service.

Honestly, this is the first and only reasonable argument I've seen for this and an angle I have never considered. I would say pretty much all of these are rules that are likely broken on a regular basis except maybe the gambling one since it is regulated by federal law in the country the ship is registered under and in a high security area. But I would bet money that at least 1 parent on the ship slips their teenage kid at least 1 drink while they're on board, or someone sneaks into spiceh20, and don't even get me started on chair hogs! LOL Don't forget about the ones that cut in line or the ones that don't wash their hands before entering the buffet. OH or the ones that use their own bottles in the water dispenser instead of using the provided cups and filling their bottle on the side. Point is, tons of rules are broken on a daily basis and for the most part they have little to no effect on our enjoyment of our vacation. So where does one draw the line on reporting everyone?

No. Creating a space for 16+ to relax would be the purpose of the rule. To get to the spirit you have to look at why no children around? And that's simple, it's because most kids run around and yell and scream and have no real concept of sitting and relaxing. So by removing children from the space, you end up with a more peaceful and relaxing area (mostly only because some adults act worse than these children after a few beverages LOL), which is why I believe that is the spirit of the rule. You are absolutely right though when you say they absolutely rigorously enforce the rule if someone reports the infraction. However if the kid is close in age, and not bothering anybody else, they will let it slide if unreported. If "the rules are the rules" why do you think they'd let it slide? NOBODY will convince me that a 14yr old doing absolutely nothing but sitting quietly in a 16+ area will detract from anybody's vacation in any way simply because they're existing in the space.

Is there a speed limit when driving on the roads? Yes. Can a single person in this thread say they've never even traveled 1km/h or 1mph over that speed limit? I doubt it. When dealing with laws/rules there's typically 2 approaches. The letter of the law and the spirit of the law. The letter of the law states that if the speed limit is 60mph and you are traveling 60.1mph, you are breaking the law and deserve to be ticketed for doing so. I would argue that travelling 60.1mph is following the spirit of the law even though you are not following the letter of the law and I would bet every police officer would agree and not pull somebody over for 0.1mph (assuming good/safe weather conditions). But as some have pointed out here, the law is the law right? Let's start calling in and reporting all of these drivers so they can really pump out those tickets!! I see this as no different. Yes, the letter of the rule states no children under 16. But I believe the spirit of the rule is to create a peaceful and relaxing area. It is clear that NCL does not rigorously enforce the rule unless given a reason to do so, just as officers will not ticket someone doing 60.1mph. Someone who is close to the age and respecting the spirit of the rules is doing absolutely no harm to anybody. There is no need for the rule police to jump in and try to enforce everything to the letter. It's a vacation, relax a little and enjoy yourself and stop worrying about what other people are doing. Once you stop worrying about what others are doing, you will be infinitely happier in life. I promise you.

If you can give me a reasonable explanation as to how a 14 year old child, sitting on the opposite end of the deck, sitting with their mom and dad and not making a single sound will affect your ability to relax in any way then I will happily retract my statement. All of these hypothetical situations of "what if" other parents bring their screaming toddlers is not the same situation we're discussing here. And everybody knows that no rule is fully black/white, if it were we'd all be sitting in jail. You likely wouldn't be able to tell if this kid is 14 or 16 just by looking at them and without approaching them and asking their age (not our place to do). And if you happen to not look that way, you'd probably never even realize they are there if they are truly behaving as the parents stated. So the big question is.... WHY does it bother you so much if it has absolutely NO effect on your ability to relax? And for the record, I'm a father that leaves his kids at home because I also want time away from kids to relax. So I completely understand the want/need to get away from the screaming kids. But this is not the specific situation we are discussing here. This family wants to bring their slightly underage teenage child onto the sun deck with them, and stating the child is very well mannered and behaved. 2 different stories here.

I'd pick the thermal spa every single time. The heated loungers are great and usually offer an amazing view. And I thoroughly enjoy the hot tubs, sauna's, steam room etc... to relax the muscles after a full day of excursion. We will typically board the ship, head straight to the thermal spa to unwind and relax, then shower up and head out for dinner.

This is the perfect example of the point I was making. If you have a 14yr old kid who is sitting with their parents reading a book with headphones in not making a single sound..... who are they bothering? Nobody! Except for this person who will place a complaint about it and lessen somebody else's family vacation simply out of principle. This kid is doing nothing to affect your vacation, but you are certainly making a mark on theirs. Well done, you should be proud! To be clear, I'm talking about well behaved older children here. Primarily teens. I'm not talking somebody's toddler or a kid blasting their music on their phone and causing a disturbance.

This is exactly what I was going to say as well. If your son is as respectful and quiet as you say, the staff won't have any issues with it and the other haven guests shouldn't either. I say shouldn't because you will always run into the people who follow every rule to the letter and will take every opportunity to complain and point out when somebody doesn't. So if this happens, staff will be forced to enforce it, just try not to put up a giant fuss about it since it is against the rules.

Yes, but several users here have already pointed out that it is significantly more dangerous than cigarettes. And we all know random cruise critic members trump all medical authorities worldwide right? 🙄hehehe A tincture is essentially an edible in liquid form. And still against the rules unfortunately. Although either are very unlikely to be noticed on a ship, if caught one could still face several consequences.

Took about 48hrs for me a few weeks back. Also got 2x $50 credits added.

Good on you for using the glasses to fill the bottle! But why back and forth to a table? That's just making it way more work than it needs to be.

Whether the thermal pass is worth it or not is up to the user. Personally, we get it on every cruise because we love going down and just relaxing before a night out, or after a big excursion, etc.. No you would not be able to buy one pass for the cabin. The pass gets tied to your sail card, and when you arrive you turn it in at the spa desk. So they'll have your picture up on the screen when you check in. And it is always cheaper to buy in advance. One thing you could weigh out would be upgrading to a spa balcony. In our situation for our next cruise, it was cheaper to book a spa balcony than a regular balcony + thermal pass. For the WiFi, pricing should be the same to upgrade on board I believe. You may be able to save some by not using the WiFi on day 1 and then upgrading on day 2 since you'll have the same credit applied but 1 less day of unlimited to pay for. Doing it on board is the only way to use your OBC towards the upgrade. Cannot be used prior.

It's not logical though. They have identified over 7,000 chemicals from the 600some ingredients in a cigarette and over 70 of them directly cause cancer. I get what you're saying about the particle size, but you're relating that to just 1 of the 600 ingredients in a cigarette. And this is not contradicting science, because the science says it's safer! (but still not safe). The director of Public Health England pretty much said it best. "If you don't smoke, don't vape. But if you do smoke, there is no situation where it would be better for your health to continue smoking rather than switching completely to vaping."