hallux

Lucky you I guess? I used my assigned PCC over the summer to book my cruise, by the time my friend called her to book she had been promoted. I now have a different PCC, whom I haven't heard from yet, even as a follow-up to my recent cruise.

They'll do it anywhere. On my cruise it was done in Guatemala...

I did a 15-day Panama Canal cruise earlier this month, once we got through the canal and made the first port stop after Panama the comedians from the first half of the cruise left the ship and 2 new ones came on for the second half of the cruise.

THIS. The ship's water is as good as, if not better than, the water you gt from most municipalities. If you drink that much, a refillable bottle is the better option...

That would probably depend on how you book the cruise. If you book through the UK site (or call the UK phone number to book) or a UK TA it would follow the UK pricing and policies. If you book through a US-based TA, use the US site or call the US number for NCL you would get the US pricing/policies.

forgive the silly question - what's the difference between down and feather? Isn't down feathers?

On my cruise on the Joy 2 years ago I chatted with a woman and her nieces while waiting to board, ended up being their '4th' for meals and hung around with them much of the cruise otherwise...

Boarding time, even on other lines, can't be guaranteed. On my last cruise they could have given me an 11AM boarding time but they would have missed the mark as the previous cruise was still disembarking the ship. As noted - you could have picked a later time.

and if there's a roll-call going they may have a M&G in the works (it's kind of early to be setting one up, but I guess it's possible someone contacted the ship already). By the way, OP - no need to shout, I can hear you fine (all caps on the internet is considered shouting and generally disliked in forums in addition to being a little more difficult to read). Looking at the Breakaway roll calls board, it seems one may NOT be started for your cruise, OP. You could start it (or maybe a host will move this and make it the Roll Call for your sailing). Here- I've done the hard work for you, for finding a roll call on the BA in January - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&nodes=626&q=Jan January

Then book them as desired.

You're contradicting yourself, Bird. The online reservation system DOES care, a little bit. The second quote indicates that. If the passenger does not have enough FAS credits to cover a fixed-price reservation based on other specialty restaurants being booked before it, the pre-trip reservation system will try to charge the cover charge. If the reservation system actually didn't care how you were going to pay (as you indicate in the first quote) this wouldn't be an issue.

The problem you run into when booking the dinners pre-cruise is if you try booking flat-fee restaurants. If you have the free-at-sea meals you will need to book any flat-fee places FIRST so they accounted for as free-at-sea meals. The system doesn't recognize status for the purposes of booking meals so if you book a-la-carte first then try to book flat-fee it's going to try charging you since the system doesn't think you have credits to use.

Nothing is assured, the ship could rotate while anchored (it did when I was there in 2019) so you may not always face the arch. When I was there earlier this month the port side of the ship kind of faced the arch when I was able to see (when I wasn't on my excursion)

For the record - you mean the side that faces the port itself will have these views. Port side of the ship (using the nautical port/starboard) could have either that view or a view in the other direction.

On my recent cruise they ASKED so they could be sure they gave the right direction for ordering. Granted - I was dining as part of a larger group of solos...

I suppose they might need to be reminded of their own T&C's - https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions Specifically, this part - All guests booked within a singular reservation will be booked on the same flight. If they expect the guests to abide by the T&C's, why shouldn't they?

For the people that worship the sun and can't afford to pay for Vibe access it's very FORTUNATE that the Vibe on Escape is only on one side. For a warm-weather itinerary for someone on a budget, the Escape is a GREAT ship for this very reason - HUGE free-to-use sundeck...

as a clarification - ALL NCL ships have 'solo' cabins, starting with Jan 2, 2024 sailings. They're re-classed cabins in their respective categories, but they're called solo cabins nonetheless...

Yes it does cost extra. It was on the first page I saw when I opened the FAQ page of NCL's website - https://www.ncl.com/faq You'll want to visit the Accessible Cruising section of NCL's page and fill out the form to notify them of the needs. https://www.ncl.com/about/accessible-cruising On embarkation day you'll want to get someone from the F&B side of things to talk to about the need. You will have someone meeting you at your chosen restaurant for the evening, every evening, that will manage the food for the person with the dietary restriction. Others can go into more/exact detail on the process, but that person should be allowed to order their meal for the next night from the next night's menu when you're sitting for dinner.

Are there more than the two of you in the room? If not, he should have his own SDP meals...

It's probably like those companies now offering 'unlimited' vacation time. I, at times, struggle to use all my vacation time, often not working a full 5-day week starting in November just to use up the last of the days. If the time was not tracked, I probably wouldn't use those days and they'd get more worked days from me than they do now. Similarly - offer free unlimited drinks with a nominal visible cost to the package (the $21.80 pp/pd) and the only 'focus' by the patron is to get 2 drinks a day to cover the cost so they feel like they got their money's worth from the deal. Unlike on Carnival with the 15 drinks/day limit and you know people are going to make the effort to get everything they're allowed since they paid for the drink package in full.

No, that's different. In the case of the OP, or anyone else losing the certificate because they used it to put a deposit on a cruise they cancelled, they attempted to get the full value of the certificate from its intended use. In the case of selling, the seller is trying to at least recover SOME of the money paid to buy them as they've decided they have no ability or desire to use them, and the intent of selling the certificates to someone else is to help them save even a little bit on a future cruise while the seller also doesn't lose any out of pocket money on the transaction. If the seller of the CN's didn't understand the promo and 'used' the OBC given when buying the CND, that's on them, not on the buyer. I have two $250 certificates on my account right now, with a net cost to me of $125 each, I could sell them for $150 each, get a little extra and the buyer is still getting a savings of $200, a win for both of us.

@SeaShark the value of the certificates if they're returned is $500, that is what I would file for...

No I didn't. Maybe they didn't anticipate the popularity of solo cruising when those ships were designed? When they started out I believe they DID host the nightly meet there, but it outgrew the space. The Bliss, Escape and Encore can easily accommodate 50+ in the lounge (but some will need to stand), with 86 Studio cabins on each ship. My last cruise had 70-120 on the first 2 nights, the meeting got moved to American Diner for more space. My cruise on the Escape last year had 30+ on the largest night, it was in the Studio Lounge every night. Did you check at the RIGHT times? Were you there between 5 and 7?

If there was a bartender they would only be there during the solo meet. There's no 'announcement', it's an activity listed among the rest of the activities, usually 5 or 5:30 PM...