The Traveling Man

Have you compared the costs of the two separate rooms with that of a two bedroom suite? Your daughter would have the privacy of having her own separate bedroom, you would not need to try to bend NCL's rules about having at least one adult booked in each room, it likely would be more convenient for you all, and you might be able to do it at a reasonable price. On top of all that, you might enjoy the additional perks which are afforded to suite guests.

I agree completely. Unlike some other cruise lines, though, NCL does not offer any round trip TA cruises. They tend to sail East in the Spring and West in the Fall. The OP asked about a round trip TA, and this was the closest thing I could find.

We have done it more than a half-dozen times. We've only been shut out a couple of times. As they say in the Hunger Games, "may the odds be ever in your favor." Stop by the Excursions Desk as soon as you get on board and put in your request. You may be put on a waiting list, but someone with a reservation may cancel or NCL may be able to add capacity to the tour.

The Encore will be sailing from Miami to Southampton this November, then return to Miami after a couple of weeks in dry dock. Not quite a B2B, but close.

You can re-book your reservation at the new, lower price at any point up until the date the final payment is due. This option may not be available to persons who booked their cruise through a foreign office, but it is guaranteed to those booking in the US. Call your travel agent or NCL's reservations department.

There have been changes, to be sure. Most of them seem to be cost-cutting efforts. Given the massive amount of additional debt NCL took on during the pandemic, that is lamentable but understandable. There have been fewer entertainment options on board the nine NCL cruises that I have taken post-quarantine. Those that remain have been somewhat less entertaining than the ones they replaced. There are fewer of the truly memorable menu offerings which I used to enjoy and look forward to savoring. Several of the cruises since COVID have omitted certain Latitudes benefits which I have come to enjoy, such as dinner with an officer, complementary wine tasting event, behind the scenes tour, and even the Latitudes party. Occasionally some of the staff have seemed to be less capable or interested in their jobs, but remember that NCL and other cruise lines lost many employees who did not return after the shutdown. It may take some time for the newbies to get up to speed. In general, however, despite an occasional disappointment, The crew members I have encountered are kind, thoughtful, friendly, enthusiastic and quite able to do their jobs well. I have found a need to be a bit more selective in my food choices, as not as many mouth-watering selections jump off the menu page as they once did. I have had a really so-so meal on NCL a couple of times since the return to sailing in 2021, plus several that were edible but not remarkable. Nonetheless, many of the dinners, especially in the specialty restaurants, were outstanding. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe I've just selected the one thing in each restaurant that they still can do well. I would prefer that they raise the price and return to the quality of yesteryear rather than cheapen the experience, but I am sufficiently happy to keep sailing with them. NCL does many things very well, so I'll put up with a few hiccups every now and then.

It wasn't available the last time I went to La Cucina , about a year ago, but it may be back now. Not sure. YMMV.

I only had it once before it was removed from the menu. It was delicious.

And some of the best seafood I've had on an NCL ship was in Cagney's. My best NCL steak was in La Cucina on the Epic, while the five-pepper steak in Le Bistro (no longer on the menu) ranks a close second. Cagney's is a bit further down the list.

That should not be a concern. Virtually all the seafood brought on board arrives frozen. It is thawed one day at a time.

Sorry, sometimes I remember to look over my text before submitting it, but sometimes I get my tongue caught in front of my eye teeth so I can't see what I'm saying. Yes, of course I meant La Cucina, not Le Bistro. Thanks for catching that.

We were booked on the cruise immediately following yours on the Pearl's TA. We read the reports on the CC roll call about the severity of the Norovirus outbreak. Discretion being the better part of valor, we cancelled our cruise at the last minute and booked a substitute cruise with HAL. We already were in Europe when we heard about the Pearl's difficulties. NCL went ahead with the cruise we were supposed to take, but I don't know if that cruise also experienced Norovirus. NCL did not provide us any compensation for our last minute cancellation (I really didn't expect any}, so we lost a bit of money that wasn't covered by travel insurance. Fortunately by booking the HAL cruise at the last minute, we got a very good price and were able to continue our tour of Europe. I'm really sorry to hear about the problems the passengers on the current and next cruise on the Dawn are experiencing. At least NCL is offering some assistance with the costs of changing flights.

Food preferences are subjective, but here's my two cents worth. I don't care for the food served in Q restaurant. Good BBQ needs to be smoked slowly over low heat. NCL cooks it hot and quick, so the flavor and texture just aren't the same. Teppanyaki lost a lot of patrons when they cut the quality of the steak, but I'm still a fan because I usually order shrimp, scallops, and calamari. They do a great job with those, the food could not be served any fresher, and the chefs put on an entertaining show. Le Bistro used to be my go to choice on every NCL cruise. I still go their sometimes, but it no longer is my first choice. They used to offer a great pepper steak as well as rack of lamb. I always chose the Napoleon for dessert. They have either eliminated or changed so many menu items that it's tough to find something I like. About the only things left which I like are the Dover Sole and Lobster Thermidor, which are delicious, but the Lobster costs extra. There's plenty to choose in Ocean Blue if you enjoy seafood. I've cut back on my visits to Moderno lately, mostly because the chefs seem to think that garlic is the only spice in their pantry. A little garlic is fine, but I think they overuse it. We did dine there a couple of nights ago on the Pearl. The Filet Mignon was perfect, but several other cuts of meat were overcooked, some were actually burned to a crisp. The salad bar, though, is absolutely the best on the ship. It might even be worth to price for a vegetarian. Skip the meat and enjoy the salad. I had a couple of bad experiences in Cagney's with poor service and less than sterling quality food. Then I tried their Grilled Fisherman's Platter. I haven't bothered ordering steak in Cagney's since then. A couple of years ago they changed the menus in most of the restaurants, which meant that Cagney's now offers the lamb chops that I used to love in Le Bistro. Le Bistro has often been compared to Olive Garden. The pasta offerings leave much to be desired, but once on the Epic I had the best steak I've ever had (at least on board a ship) in La Cucina.

As noted by @BirdTravels there could be a problem because England is no longer in the EU, so the customs regulations may be different. Also, ports such as Southampton and Barcelona are frequently used as ports of embarkation or debarkation. So far as I know, while Le Havre is often an intermediate port of call, it may not have the facilities in place to handle a passenger terminating their cruise there.

You are correct about gratuities with the Celebrity drink package, but the upper price limit per drink of the basic package is just $10. I’m not sure about the price of mixed drinks, but it’s tough finding a good wine for that price per glass.

You can check the menus on the NCL website to get an idea of what you might pay if you spent cash or some of your on board credit instead of using a dining credit. If you find more specialty restaurants that you want to visit than you have credits, obviously the most economical approach would be to use your credits in the more expensive restaurants.

Same here. We were on two legs of the Star’s ill fated “around the world” itinerary of winter 2016 through spring 2017. We boarded in Sydney in February, 2017 and got off 38 days later in Singapore. Thanks to checking the Cruise Critic roll calls for several of the previous cruises, we were aware of the problems they were having with the Azipods starting in early December. Because of the problems, NCL had already decided to offer 100% FCC to anyone who chose not to board. We decided to go ahead anyway, but many of our fellow passengers never got the memo and were completely unaware of the problems the Star was having. For two months, from early December until early February, the Star ran on just one of its two Azipods, usually at about half speed, missing about half its planned port stops, arriving late to others, and reaching some on a different day than planned. We accepted NCL’s alternate offer of 50% FCC and climbed on board. On the fourth day of our 19 day cruise, the ship lost all propulsion power and we had to be towed back to Melbourne for repairs. At that time, NCL must have decided to throw in the towel. They offered 100% FCC to all, plus several hundreds of dollars to help with the cost of airfare or hotels to any who chose to jump ship. They also offered 100% FCC to everyone booked on the following segment, Auckland to Singapore. Essentially a no questions asked full refund for any who wanted a last minute cancellation. We stayed on board for that leg, got that part of our cruise for free, and made every port on time. The Azipods were fixed, at least for the time being. When we got off in Singapore, I swore I would never sail on the Star again, so I haven’t kept up with any of its recent travails. There’s a lot more fish in the ocean, and a lot more cruise ships at sea, so I find no need for sailing on the Star ever again, no matter where it’s going (or planned to be going).

The Star has missed more ports and either cancelled or delayed more cruises because of problems with propulsion than all of the other ships currently in NCL’s entire fleet combined.

This subject may be similar to other questions about bending the rules. NCL specifies a dress code for certain areas of the ship, for example. Those rules may seem objectionable to some, who may wish to skirt them. The ship’s crew may be reluctant to antagonize the customer, so they may let it slide. The rules exist, but they may not be enforced uniformly.

Sammie Jo is terrific. We've sailed with her several times, mostly on the Epic. Her sister Stephanie is also with NCL Cruise Next. Stephanie was recently promoted to Manager. We have sailed with her several times, as well. Most of the time she was part of the staff, but she was CN Manager for our most recent cruise on the Dawn. They each are very personable, helpful, and fun to sail with.

There are several officers we know from previous cruises who go out of their way to make our cruise feel special. It's also great fun to meet someone new who can be added to our list of special people. We truly enjoy getting to know the folks with whom we do business, whether it's a bank officer, an executive at one of my company's vendors, or one of the senior officers on a cruise ship. Over more than a decade of sailing with NCL, we have had the opportunity to have dinner with 34 different officers. Some of these dinners were with a group of several couples and one or two officers, but many times, especially recently, it has been just one or two officers, my wife, and me, usually in one of the specialty restaurants. So, not only is there an opportunity for us to really get to know someone from the ship, we usually get treated to an additional specialty restaurant dinner on each cruise. That's a few of the reasons we like to know which officers will be on board our sailings. So, anyone know who the senior officers on the Pearl will be toward the end of this month?

The consensus here seems to be that the dead time in the schedule is for a dry dock. While that may be true in this case, there are other times when a ship is taken out of service for refurbishment or repairs which do not require a dry dock, but which do require work crews to have access to the ship without interfering with normal passenger activities. Replacing carpets, furniture, or communications wiring, as well as painting, replacing floor tiles, or other construction work can be done more effectively if there are no passengers on board and the ship remains tied up to the same pier for the duration of the work. Regardless of whether the Encore is due for a dry dock, or is scheduled for a dry dock, it seems reasonable that if NCL plans to sail the ship from Florida to England, leave a couple of weeks with no scheduled cruises, then immediately sail back to Florida, then that down time has been set aside for some type of repair or refurbishment work.

The same can be said about our experience getting off the Sky in Miami last Spring. It took us more than 90 minutes from the time we stepped onto the gangway until we cleared customs and immigration checks and were able to catch a taxi. Most of that time was spent standing in one spot just after entering the terminal. The line then started moving ever so slowly. Just like @Sailing12Away we have Global Entry cards, but it made no difference at the Miami Cruise Terminal. All roads lead to Rome, and everyone gets to wait in line. After about the 80th minute in line, we had advanced far enough to see the point where the line split into four or five lines, one for each of the agents checking passports. The truly frustrating thing was that as we got closer, we could see that one of the lines had signage indicating that it was an "express lane" for Global Entry passengers. We moved to that line, but when we got to the agent, he said that Global Entry status makes no difference at the Port of Miami. In short, expect a LONG wait at disembarkation in Miami if your cruise stops in Panama. Ours was a round trip from Miami. I can only imagine the delays on a cruise from the West Coast to Miami with a stop in Panama.

We have done that several times. Both the Holiday Inn Express and the Comfort Inn on 48th are just a couple of blocks from the terminal, and the walk is slightly downhill all the way. Each is fairly inexpensive, offers a breakfast buffet, and are close to Times Square and many nice restaurants. Easy peasy.

Yes, it's a bit more than a quarter-mile, actually about 600 yards, but almost all of that is through a mall and all of it is under a roof. There are escalators and elevators, so no stair climbing is required, just your typical day of mall walking.