RedwingHockeyFan

You get stateroom upgrades within the same category. I'm only familiar with Balconies but when we book on the ship we will get a balcony on a higher floor midship but pay the lowest fare which would be lower floor and front or rear.

It does the same thing if you do mock bookings online while logged in to your account.

Sure, many people prefer the smaller ships but there are still many that prefer the larger ships with the extra amenities that they offer. I don't think anyone can provide any actual values that shows one outweighing the other. If the Symphony and Harmony weren't sailing at near full capacity all the time, I doubt they would have built the Icon. The airline industry is a poor comparison since it is common practice to overbook flights and then have to bump passengers when they don't accept offers to take a different flight. People don't book flights based on the vessel, which is common in the cruise industry. And in the instance that Southwest did purchase a 757 for flights that are more popular you could bet that the flight would always be at full capacity.

You can do it via the app or on one of the screens near the stairs/elevators.

NCL Encore is the largest in the fleet and stands at 26th largest in the industry. The large ships being built now seem very popular and it only makes sense that NCL would follow suit in building some. I myself am really curious to see what the deck plans are going to look like.

The kind really does outnumber the rude, but it is the rude that will get remembered.

Ever had bad weather cause you to miss a connecting flight? Even the airlines won't wait for their own passengers.

Sorry, maybe I wasn't 100% clear on what I meant. Normally there is a 100% guarantee or... You cannot guarantee returning to the port on time in 100% of circumstances because there are always circumstances out of their control. So what happens in those circumstances was what I was curious about.

Interesting. I would like to hear about one of the success stories from that. This could be quite an expensive proposition for a tour company to make that type of a guarantee.

And I have never seen an independent tour company put any guarantee on getting you back to the port on time, yet they are not receiving any of the blame. Had this been the embarkation port in the US and there was an issue with the independent shuttle they booked to get them to the port would NCL have waited for them then?

I've used the NCL air program my last 4 cruises and never had an issue. I've also done a 1 or 2 day deviation each time. Anyone comfortable with NCL booking their flight without a deviation has to be comfortable flying in the day of the cruise and accept the risk of any delays. I'm curious to know if any other cruise ships had passengers miss their cruises due to these delays. It seems unlikely that only NCL passengers were affected by the delays and all of them had NCL book their flights.

I've always wondered why people who choose to go on vacation with 4000 other people on a moving vessel can behave like they are the only ones there. I once witnessed an elderly man punch another elderly man in the face because he bumped him with his mobility scooter. My last cruise I witnessed a family of four cutting their way down the stairs in a shoulder-to-shoulder line waiting to disembark at port. I once had an older Indian immigrant woman from New York block me from getting Indian food at the buffet. lol I once had a man pounding on the stall door in a public restroom wanting me to hurry up, as if one can. Countless times I've seen people rush to an open elevator when there was clearly a line there before them. And then there are the people who decide to sunbathe on the pool benches when there are people who want to sit there. We got her back though by telling everyone they cannot enter the pool unless it is via a cannonball 😄

The excursion through NCL was called Beach Getaway at Beach Escape and the club was the Beach Escape Mahahual. Like I said, live and learn. I wasn't necessarily posting to complain as much as I was to warn others. I tried to look up this special Mayan jewel that changes colors and it really doesn't exist anyway.

I booked this excursion on an NCL cruise last month. I usually enjoy the beach getaway type excursions, but this one was awful. Besides the current seaweed problem, the beach was fine other than it being rocky for the first 15 feet or so and on the small side. The problem I had is with the vendors, these guys are relentless. If I left my beach chair to go anywhere, I was hounded by every one of them. I try to be nice and take a look around to see if there is anything I might want to buy but it became evident almost instantly that they are trying to rip you off. Anything I showed interest in was easily inflated by double to start and maybe more. I tasted some Tequilla that I thought was really good and the first price was $380! Eventually after several "No thanks'" it was down to $200 but I still wasn't paying that much for it. Then they started showing me this jewelry that had a special gem that was only available in Costa Maya that changed colors in the rain/sun/dark but wasn't a mood ring. My wife liked a ring that had this jewel and few diamonds that was set in gold. They took the time to test everything to show us it was all real. The price started at $800! and eventually my wife bought it for $350. It wasn't her size, so they told her they were taking it to the jewelry store at the port to have it sized and got it back to her about 30 min later. When we got home, she checked her credit card statement, and they charged her $800 anyway. The receipt they gave her was in pesos, so she didn't catch it at the time. She immediately challenged the charge with her credit card company. I wasn't sure there would be anything that could be done about that since she accepted the charge at the time regardless of what they told her. But now it gets worse. She went to have the ring appraised and they told her it was fake, everything, the diamonds, the gold and even the main jewel. So, either they were just putting on a show when they tested it, or they swapped it for costume jewelry when it was supposedly getting sized. Good news for us is that the vendor was unresponsive to the inquiry and the credit card company removed the charge. The excursion was fine overall with the free drinks with bad liquor, but I would be careful of the vendors if you wanted some souvenirs. Live and learn.

My wife is not a TA but she helps a woman she knows make travel arrangements for cruises. If that woman's flight got cancelled and she had to book another flight that was more expensive, do you think it is logical to force my wife to pay that difference? All NCL is doing is providing a service for booking your flights. Once the tickets are issued the flights are now in the hands of the airlines. NCL has no decision-making abilities when it comes to cancelling or delaying flights so why would they ever be expected to cover the costs associated with them?

I looked at the deck plans too because my only experience with the spa was on the Breakaway. The Breakaway has the spa and the Haven in the front of the ship. But the Encore has the Haven in the front and the spa in the back, so those rooms were never collocated with the Haven.

If I recall correctly, there wasn't much difference between a regular balcony, a spa balcony and a Haven spa balcony room. The differences were that for the spa balcony you had access to the spa and the Haven spa balcony you had access to the spa and the Haven amenities. But now since they have eliminated the spa balcony category rooms I wonder if the issue was somehow due to booking prior to the change?

I had just gotten back from a cruise on the Breakaway. I remember that they were no longer letting passengers on board that had come from China, basically the first steps I recall to battle the outbreak. We started hearing about the diamond Princess that had to quarantine the passengers and the ship that wasn't even allowed to dock. We had also booked a cruise for January 2021 on the Joy and waited until the last minute to cancel it right before NCL eventually cancelled it.

Interesting, I wasn't even paying attention to that. The topic is so often brought up though.

There are a lot of factors here when trying to figure out arrival time vs boarding time. Personally, I like to get on the ship as early as possible to have some lunch, get a drink and chill. Also, take care of any booking we may want to do, buy cruisenext certs, etc. I have noticed that there is a sweet spot on when you arrive and how long you may have to wait in the queue lines or the waiting area to board. So, either you check in early and wait in the waiting area or you wait in the extra-long queue lines and board a little later. If you arrive after 11 your chances of waiting in the queue lines goes up quite a bit. If you show up closer to 2pm the lines will be shorter, but you have lost about 2-3 hours of total on ship time. It is not exact science, just what I have observed.

I bet bacon IN a Bloody Mary would be fantastic!

They have the gold on a roll but I would advise against buying that. On my first cruise I bought a necklace that was supposed to be solid gold but after some wear you could see it was actually gold-plated copper.

Is there still coffee?

I've had tilapia before and it is an okay fish. My favorite by far is Mahi Mahi, but it is a bit more expensive and totally worth it. Unfortunately, I haven't come across it much on a cruise.

I'm on the Joy starting 02 March, but I have sailed on all the other BA and BA+ ships and I totally agree. The difference in the BA class was that they put the pool bars between the two pools which limited the amount of deck space. On the Bliss and Encore the bars are in the corners and there is much more deck space.