The Traveling Man

"Westbound" is actually kind of south, while "Eastbound" is mostly north. I wonder if the position of the sun, and hence the direction of shadows, played a part in his recommendation.

Doug, Don't forget that if you booked your stateroom with the Free at Sea (FAS) option, you also will get one or more meals in a specialty restaurant. The number depends on the length of your cruise and your cabin category. So, you will have the opportunity to visit specialty restaurants three or perhaps four times on your cruise without additional charge. Check your eDocs for the promo codes near the top right of the document or look for your amenity confirmation to see how many specialty dining nights you have been comped.

Sorry, I never have read the original work, so put the blame for my error squarely on Mr. Google's shoulders.

"and more bitter than Hell itself."

Pho Shizzle!

NCL, like many other cruise lines, recently has been sailing most itineraries at capacity or very near it. Many of these cruise start filling up well in advance, such as the ones you mentioned. Just after the return to sailing in 2021, though, the ships were much less full and bargain shopping frequently paid off. Occasionally, though, you may still encounter a cruise which, for some reason, just doesn't attract as many early bookings as typical. There are still last-minute bargains to be had, they're just fewer and further between.

Yes, it takes 30,000 points for a single meta upgrade. That would be Inside to Ocean View or OV to Balcony. These upgrade privileges do not include Studio cabins or anything beyond Balconies. Going from Inside to Balcony in one fell swoop would require 60,000 points. As noted previously, all purchases from NCL using the BOA NCL World Points Master Card earn three points per dollar spent. Any purchases from other vendors earn just one point per dollar. If you only use this card exclusively for NCL expenses, those 30,000 points will cost you $10,000.00. If the price difference between stateroom types is more than $150.00 pr person, or $300.00 total, it makes more sense to use the card for an upgrade rather than cashing it in for OBC. At $300.00 value for $10,000.00 spent, that works out to a 3% return. On longer cruises, though, we frequently have found prices where a Balcony was going for as much as $2,000.00 per person more than an OV. We prefer Balconies, so we saved $4,000.00 on our cruise by spending $10,000.00 on previous NCL expenses. That's a 40% return on money spent. What's in your wallet?

Amazing photos!

I think the point of the post is that if you are footloose and fancy free, live near an active cruise port, and have money to burn, so to speak, then "why take a cruise?" becomes "why not?" You may not want to plan in June to take a September cruise that will cost you $4,000.00 for a couple, but if that same cruise is still available in September for just $2,000.00, WHY NOT? Even though we live hundreds of miles from the nearest cruise port and more than a thousand miles from the nearest port that routinely embarks more than a dozen ships a week, we still keep our eyes open for last minute bargains. We may not be able to take advantage of day-before-sailing bargains, but if a week before sailing counts as "last minute" we're open to considering it.

Prior to the COVID suspension of sailing NCL definitely had last minute mark-downs. I haven't noticed it so much lately, but I would expect that if you were to pore over all the prices for all of their cruises until you found a cruise about to sail with a bunch of empty staterooms, you probably could find a bargain or two.

Yes, it's common practice to use all nines in the date field to represent a lifetime membership or a benefit that has no expiration date. If the computer programmer who set up the data field expected there to be a date in that field, you sometimes have to trick the computer into realizing that the date is effectively infinity.

We have done that several times when the "Double Up" offer became available after we had originally booked but before we had made our final payment. NCL may sometimes impose other requirements for eligibility, but we haven't had problems doing this several times in the past. No re-booking was required.

We only have sailed in a Balcony stateroom which had a fold down Pullman style bunk bed a couple of times, and neither of those were on the Pearl. However, in each case the sliding door access to the balcony was on the opposite side from the Pullman bed, so the bed did not block access to the balcony. YMMV.

The OP's question concerned Future Cruise Credit, not Cruise Next Deposits. The terms and conditions of use are different for those two different means of payment.

They would be worth $3.00, but only after your purchases accumulate to $3,333,34, which will add up to 10,000 points. Then you can redeem them in a block for $100.00.

Built in the early 1950s, steam powered and designed to run at 35 knots, interior spaces laid out to 1950s era standards, little to no room for possible addition of modern conveniences - yes, most likely headed for the scrap heap.

As others have said, YMMV. We have done the canal three times. The first was15 days on the Bliss from Miami to Los Angeles. That one went through the new locks which are less interesting than the original ones. Next was 21 days on the Gem from San Francisco to New York through the old locks. The most recent was 11 days on the Sky from Miami to Miami. That's right, down and back. The advantage of the last one was that we took a tender to shore right after we passed through the first of the three sets of locks. We went to the canal information center / museum which overlooks the first lock. Very informative and impressive views of the canal. Then we took a train from the Atlantic side of Panama to the Pacific, with a bus back to the ship, which by then had docked in Colon. The Sky did not transit the canal, just went through one set of locks in the morning and back out the same way that evening. Since the trip on the Jade that you're considering begins in Panama, you could travel a day early and make your own arrangements to see the canal visitor center, as well as the city itself, which looked like it would be very interesting. You likely would only pass through one set of locks, but it would be the older, more interesting locks. Depending upon how easy vs. how costly it would be to get a flight to Panama, I'd recommend the Jade's itinerary.

We booked our tour of Denali independently when we were there following a cruise a few years ago. We were able to spend a bit more time in the park than we would have if we had booked the tour through NCL. Even so, parts of the park were closed because of road issues, herds of moose, or who knows what. We still had a fabulous time there.

Please tell us more about this "Chefs Making Waves" cruise. What's the date, where's the itinerary taking the ship? Inquiring minds want to know.

Yes, you will. There is a thread on this subject which is pinned near the top of this NCL forum. Several thousand posts on all aspects of the BOA NCL World Points Master Card should be able to answer any and all questions on this subject.

Thank you. She has been my "go to" when I have coordinated M&Gs in the past.

We've never experienced any chaos upon embarkation at Southampton. Perhaps that is because we usually have arrived around 11:00 or 11:30. Debarkation is another story, though. On the Pr1ma's first visit to Southampton (it was only the ship's second revenue cruise), only one Customs / Immigration officer was assigned for the 3000+ passengers on board. He stationed himself in the ship's atrium. We were in line for about 90 minutes before he got to us and we were able to proceed to the gangway. Lot's of people missed their connections because of the delay.

We experienced something similar once with a "diligent" cruise terminal employee. He seemed ready to go to fist city with me when I informed him that, yes indeed, we were qualified to board early. Fortunately I noticed a ship's officer who had entered the arrivals hall. I called to him, he politely informed the terminal employee "how the cow ate the cabbage," and we were on our way to the gangway.

Color me surprised. As often as you seem to cruise, I had assumed that you would have made Platinum long ago. I figured you to at least be Diamond by now.