itsnotjustme

There was a company in the U.S. that got into legal trouble for advertising as a sale something that was always at the lower price. Some guy named Mike with a pillow company agreed to pay $1M in fines for deceptive advertising. Mike is now bankrupt.

Having eaten all three multiple times, I can assure you they are not the same.

I truly enjoy French onion soup. I do find a difference. In the main dining room, it is like heated soup and they drop a piece of toast with cheese on top. I know they do it this way as once ours came without the bread and cheese and the waiter said "they forgot to put the crouton on top". Cagney's is much better than the MDR. Clearly it is baked or broiled with the bread/cheese on top. Le Bistro is best of the three. Also cooked with the bread and cheese present. I am looking forward to enjoying a bowl of this one week from Monday at Le Bistro!

I would think locking up a specialty dining location for the whole cruise would make it difficult to accommodate all the Platinum+, FAS, and purchased dining package meals.

On Carnival, in Puerto Rico, we checked in then left the ship.

Where were you when you saw the whales? I have only seen them on an Alaska cruise. One must have known he was being watched - remained about 100 yards off the port side for a good 20 minutes showing off.

Following. Same cruise later this month. This is an easy relaxed cruise for us. We have been to all the ports before, and just want to enjoy time away from work, entertainment, sights, food, and someone else doing the cooking, cleaning, and "driving".

It makes the point that 26 is a really high number of bookings. Sorry I have not read that thread.

I suspect that the small number is 1. I have my most ever book cruises right now, and that is 3, spread across the next 13 months.

They do not give FCC for price drops within 14 days of sailing. From a business perspective, this makes sense. They want to lower the price of remaining empty cabins to get something, but not at the expense of given refunds/FCC on all the already booked cabins.

Yesterday I booked a 10-day cruise on the Star for an excellent itinerary (7 ports of call and 2 sea days) in an MA Club Balcony Suite at a little over $6,100 ($308/person/day) including all the port fees, taxes, FAS gratuities, and the daily service charge. This also has the 10% military discount. I will receive 50,000 United FF miles through the travel agent. worth about $700, and used the $500 CruiseFirst Credit for a $250 savings. I will also have $175 OBC ($100 Share Holder, $75 Casino), reducing the effective cost to under $250/person/day. Plus we will have the extra perks of Saphire level like two extra specialty dining & 15% ShoreEx discount. In my book that is not unreasonable. Admittedly, this cruise was the least expensive out of four we considered with similar itineraries and dates.

If you are in relatively good physical condition, do the volcano hike excursion. When we did it last year, we tendered to the old port below Fira, then boarded another boat to the island in the caldera. After the volcano hike, they took us to another area with hot springs, and those who wished to could swim from the boat to the hot springs near the shore. The boat then returned us to the old port, and we tendered back to the ship. Of course we didn't visit any of the towns, beaches, or archeological sites, but we have been to Santorini at least 4 times now and done much of that. p.s. Akrotiri is a really cool archeological site. Once up into Fira, it is easy public transportation to and from. It is also close the the red beach, but that requires a hike on rough terrain to reach.

There likely are many factors affecting the decision. The ship cannot just show up places. Things like berths and pilots must be scheduled, tides can affect when ports can be entered/exited, etc. I am not claiming there were not other options, but I suspect NCL and the ship's captain had more information critical to the decision than the passengers.

Can you pay for the cheapest suite, and get the best suite? That could be a many thousand dollar advantage.

In my experience, I see no advantage. Also, you would be presumably book with NCL. I get better deals through a TA.

So you have seen and heard it. Do you think this was a straight-forward fall, or was the victim doing something wrong like climbing above or on the railing?

I am on a similar itinerary with NCL, staying 2 nights before & 2 nights after. I have just started looking at local transportation, hotels, and things to do before & after. We land in Incheon at roughly 4AM. Transportation from the airport to downtown Seoul looks easy - one train. Super information available here: https://english.visitseoul.net/transportation, There are some hotels right at Seoul Station, which is appealing for the ease of getting there, but the station is not in a prime tourism part of town. But it is on a subway station that will get us where we want to go. Given we are only there two nights, I might just do this. We'll basically sleep and store our luggage in the hotel. Given our likely arrival at the hotel before 8 AM, we may just pay for an additional night to check in immediately. I have not figured out transportation to the cruise terminal. Writing this post is making me go find info like this: http://www.ipfc.or.kr/eng/content/view.do?menuKey=696&contentKey=187 So now I know where the terminal is! It is still confusing, they indicate three different locations cruie ships may dock, and each has a different set of directions for which you use different subways stops and have possibly significant distance remaining (most not walkable with luggage). And I have not even looked at Tokyo yet. If you have found good info, please share. There are probably additional posts here on CC with info - yours was the first I found.

I have always been able to change these reservations with the host/hostess at any restaurant.

In my limited experience of 3 DWOs, all have been late in the cruise - last or second to last night. What I do is I book my specialty dinners when it makes sense based on itinerary and any other known factors. In that plan, I always keep a backup night available later in the cruise in case I cannot make one of the scheduled nights. A DWO would be one potential reason to have to reschedule one of the planned nights. Do not count on them being able to tell you on day one when it will be. The CruiseNext staff will tell you they will contact you when the date is set, We have normally received no more than 2-days notice via written invitation and sometimes a follow-up phone call/message.

I am not seeing that. Two ports have more time (+1 and +2) Two ports have less time (-1 and -4) While still a net loss, it is not decreases in all but one.

Remind me, on a typical 7-day cruise, how many days will "treats" be delivered to a club balcony cabin?

Same here.

We have mixed views on the big ships - our experience is on Escape and Joy. Positive: Both ships had a wide variety of entertainment/bar/club/dining venues from which to choose. Negative: Escape was a nearly full ship. Even though the elevators are large, there was not enough capacity. This resulted in stops at every floor, with room for no one or almost no one to get on yet making the trip lake longer. This is a vicious cycle that further reduces capacity. Negative: The main theater requires reservations. We initially did not know this, and when we learned it, the shows were all booked. With a lot of effort, we managed to get in, but it was needless stress during what is supposed to be a vacation. Negative: Anywhere you go about 4,000 of your shipmates go also. I know some ports have multiple ships anyhow, but for smaller ports, 4,000 is too many on top of the land travelers who are present.

First, I am sorry you did not get what you were expecting. Second, always look at the deck plan to see your cabin location, including what is above, below, and beside it. And read the keys to see just what those symbols mean. I will admit I searched the term PrivaSea on NCL.com and it came back with nothing. But a Google search on PrivaSea NCL comes up with loads of results including videos, photos, and CC threads which clearly show what a PrivaSea balcony is. I have had one, and it was fine. From the Epic Deck Plan:

What time zone? Webcam shows you are still in port.