The Traveling Man

We haven't paid for laundry on NCL for several years now, so my recollection may be a bit fuzzy. Back when we did have to pay, though, I seem to remember asking our stateroom attendant on the second day of a cruise when the "all in one bag" deal would be available. He said not to worry about it, but that we could submit one full bag any day during the cruise and still receive the fixed price. It was $19.95 back then. The price has gone up two or three times since that time, of course, and I'm not sure that NCL is as lax with the rules today as they once were, but that's my two cents worth on the subject.

That's true, but that really isn't the subject area of this discussion. Rather than an "oops, I missed my ship" issue, the main thrust of this discussion has been the possibility of planning in advance to depart a cruise prior to its final destination. If you simply fail to return to the pier by the "all on board" time, most of your belongings will still be in your stateroom, although the ship's crew will attempt to retrieve your passport and turn it over to the harbor master. If you plan to disembark early, though, the assumption is that you will pack your bags and take all your belongings with you, an entirely different kettle of fish.

I thought it was supposed to be a word picture. Who knew?

Glad to hear that it all worked out for you. She was very helpful to us two years ago under similar circumstances.

You can turn in laundry as soon as you're on the ship, although they may not get to it at once, so it might take a day longer than usual to get it back to you. If you submit it on day two, you should get it back by day three. Hope that helps you with your planning.

The top thread in this forum has thousands of posts on the subject of earning and redeeming points with the NCL Master Card. The long and the short of it is this, your rate of return is many times greater if instead of cashing in 10,000 points for $100 OBC, you hold on until you have 30,000 points and then use them to upgrade from an Inside to an Ocean View or an Ocean View to a Balcony. Depending on the price differential between the cabin categories on your cruise, your ROI can be 30% or more. That sure beats the 3% return on your money when you get OBC.

I think we may have sufficiently flogged this deceased equine.

And there were tons of Irish folks on our cruise, literally tons of them.

I'm not defending either NCL or the disappointed passengers, but just saying that NCL might have done a better job of studying the demographics of the passengers on that particular cruise and provisioning appropriately. After all, they do stock up extra hot dogs and soda on cruises that have lots of kids on board. They probably have the statistics down to a fine science about how much Bratwurst to stock when there's a travel group from Chicago, etc., etc. It would be like sailing in late November with a predominately American crowd and not stocking extra turkeys. Yes, the "Guinness Day" celebration probably was made up by the folks at the brewery in order to sell more beer, but apparently it is a semi-official holiday well known and widely celebrated in the UK. NCL knew in advance that the cruise included an inordinately large percentage of folks from the UK, so it truly is unfortunate that the ship was not provisioned with an extra lading of Guinness beer. Watching those folks go bonkers over NCL's running out of their favorite beer, however, was a sight to behold.

I had a great cruise. As I said, I rarely drink Guinness, so its absence didn't impact me. Actually, the entertainment level of the cruise was quite enhanced by observing the antics of the hundreds of other passengers who were so distraught about missing out on their Guinness.

I rarely drink Guinness myself, only a couple of times when we were in Ireland. As they say, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." My point was that almost 1000 persons on a 2000 passenger ship were ardent consumers of a particular brand of spirits. Not only did the ship run out of their beverage of choice, they did so a day or two prior to the annual day set aside to celebrate the creation of their brew. Now, if you've ever had a Guinness, you know that Coors Light doesn't even come close to taking its place. Maybe a California Cabernet will do in a pinch when what you really wanted was an Argentinian Malbec, but those folks were royally P.O.ed about not having a Guinness beer on Guinness Day!

We have done that as well. Once or twice we even ended up taking the bottle with us when we disembarked, and enjoyed the wine later during our travels or once we returned home.

For every cruise of sufficient duration. As I recall, the break point is five days or longer.

How about being on a cruise on the NCL Star in the Med where almost half the passengers were from Ireland, Scotland, or England and the ship's bars ran out of Guinness beer on the fourth day of an 11 day cruise. And that was two days before "Guinness Day", an annual celebration honoring the creation of that golden elixir.

Or chair hogs?

Or like Flat Stanley?

And yet @OrcaGirl seemed to have a great time on the same cruise, at least according to her posts on another thread.

Is glamping when you stay at the Marriott instead of the Radisson?

Your information is out of date. NCL changed the policy regarding Cruise Next Certificates some time ago. They no longer have an expiration date.

Yes, but there still are plenty of things that you can purchase with the shareholder OBC. These include shore excursions that you book while on board, wine tastings, specialty dining beyond what is covered by any coupons you may have, laundry services, photos, and purchases from any of the shops on board the ship.

NCL has done that on a couple of cruises we have taken where things went South.

Yes, but you get what you pay for. We have taken several trips with the WW II Museum travel department. You might be able to save a little money on some other tour, but you can savor the wonderful memories from the WW II tours.

Okay, I'll nudge it up to a nine😄

We traveled with the WWII Museum tour group for the 75th Anniversary. Possibly the best trip of my life! It's a bit pricey, but absolutely worth every penny.

No reservations needed, but we just paid straight up, usually at lunch time.