hallux

Yup - my next cruise went up $100 over the course of a week (two $50 increases) before I decided I'd seen enough increases and put it on hold at that price. It hasn't moved since I put the deposit down 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Try again. It may depend on some other factors but if a comparable cabin with comparable perks can be booked you should be able to get a one-time adjustment in the form of a future cruise credit. Don't expect to get another adjustment once you've gotten one. To be fair, though - you booked the cruise at a price you were happy with, NCL doesn't REALLY owe you anything. If the roles were reversed and the price had gone up would you be happy if NCL came to you asking for more money?

I, on the other hand, don't mind eating dinner at 5:30 or 6 so the meetings are perfect. Nothing says you HAVE to have dinner with the group at that early time. You could even mingle with the other solos and see if others are like-minded and plan your own dinner time.

and just to note - if you need VPN you need to get the streaming plan...

Because Encore doesn't have Spice, where the outdoor smoking area is on the Bliss and Joy...

There's a market and valid reason for it, though. I'm particularly hirsute (look it up, I'm trying to be couth), it takes me a good 20 minutes or more to fully apply cream-type sunscreens, especially reef-safe ones that are particularly thick. spray-on is MUCH quicker to apply. Yes, I realize there's still some effort to rub it down to the skin but there's still a significant time savings...

Actually, the Oasis class is simply not designed with tender platforms AT ALL. At CoCo Cay Royal had tenders similar to those at GSC (or maybe the ones now at GSC WERE the ones Royal owned) up until the pier was constructed. I was there in 2014, before the pier. Until the pier at CoCo Cay was completed an Oasis-class ship had never ported there because the ships were never designed for tendering operations. Royal could never send an Oasis ship to Cabo - that's a tender port. Prima at least has the ability to use those boats, lifeboats as tenders not withstanding.

For what it's worth - Royal's Oasis-class (and probably Icon as well) are not even designed for tendering, which is why they built a pier at CoCo Cay. Prima can at least tender as she stops at GSC...

Neighbors of my parents are sailing the Escape in August on a Bermuda trip - Aug. 22 is the first New York departure...

Here is the thread on the "Westernization" You can actually see in that thumbnail and in the first couple pictures how much smaller the OL was, on both sides of the ship.

That thread and this one are referring to the NCL-branded Mastercard issued through BOA. It's a specific card with points earned toward statement credit or OBC/cabin upgrades on the ship. The NCL card earns points, not miles.

That's mentioned here - https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program

The offer is 20,000 bonus points (when the requirement is met), redeemable for $200 OBC. One just needs to go to the site to see this is the offer, no guessing - https://www.ncl.com/world-points

I just hope the change to the OL doesn't trickle down to the Bliss. I have a feeling they're doing this to the Joy because of the previous configuration and services possibly still being in place for cabins, to some extent, while the Bliss won't have that and would take more work to add the cabins in that space. I suppose I could lump the Encore into that wish, though with the lack of Spice on that ship I may not sail on her so I don't deserve an opinion.

The Joy is definitely a good ship. Some of the spaces are a little 'quirky' compared to her sister ships as they had to work with what they had when they 'converted' her to the US market but I still enjoyed the trip.

I wonder if that FB post originated from a post here - one of those "I heard from someone who heard from someone that spoke to a chef that has family that works near the drydock" type of deals. Though that origination might have been during a dinner with the officers on board, but until someone can post the technical drawings or show the work being done it's all speculation. I find it hard to believe that an officer would be cleared to make such statements this far in advance of the scheduled drydock. I also find it unusual that they're removing, arguably, some of the best space for Alaska scenery observation just in time for deploying the ship to... ALASKA. That makes me just as suspect about the claims. They're actually returning the ship partially to as-built - she originally had cabins in some or all of the OL space when she was in Asia, the OL was added or expanded when she was reconfigured for the US in 2019. There's another thread here where this was discussed...

From NCL - Bliss and Encore were pretty much designed with Alaska in mind, Joy can maybe count as well (it was originally designed/decorated for the Asia market). The gorgeous Observation Lounge (all 3 have it) is a great place to take in scenery. The Waterfront has heaters in the ceiling over the dining (and maybe sitting) areas. Royal Caribbean has ships with enclosed solariums, which may make them more desirable to some for cold weather itineraries. I guess it depends on if you want to just sit inside or if you want to be in your swimwear, inside, near a swimming feature.

Unless that cruise starts in NY and visits Orlando (Royal has a route that does this, not sure if NCL does). NCL HAS had Bermuda routes that stopped in Norfolk, or the Canada/NE routes that leave NY and call in Boston, Portland and Bar Harbor. Pacific Coastal cruises that leave LA and stop in San Francisco. Alaska cruises that leave Seattle or Vancouver and stop in many places in Alaska. Are you saying that when in all of those ports NCL doesn't charge/collect taxes on beverages?

IF you pre-pay the DSC. If you wait until the cruise and let it bill to your on-board account you would pay the extra. At least that's how it worked last time.

Yes, and the wind was so strong as to be too much load on the mooring lines causing them to break. Could they have used more lines? Sure. One way to avoid this entirely is to have good weather reports and decide not to call at the port if the winds will be so strong as to be a possible hazard like this.

This is probably the most important point. People asking these kinds of questions need to consider that others are more likely to come on these boards and complain so just because they read a couple 'down' threads here they think they'll hate sailing NCL. Are NCL and Royal different? In some ways. But they're probably more similar than different.

Yes they will. Or go to the buffet and use the provided glasses to transfer ice and water to your container(s). I've even filled right from the sink in my room, no problem.

I've sailed in Studio cabins twice, both were good experiences. The cabin is enough for sleeping, dressing, showering and doing your "business", it's not well-suited for lounging around. However - on the ships that have the Studio cabins there's the space called The Waterfront with tons of comfortable outdoor seating. The lounge is a nice place - on my last cruise I went up to the lounge just after rooms were ready and ended up running into some people (there were a dozen there at the time) that I ended up hanging around with for much of the trip! The two times I spent a lot of time with the solo group every meeting except the first one was in the Studio Lounge, and the first one only STARTED outside the Studio Lounge so those not staying in a Studio could be shown where to go for the meetings the rest of the week. I will prefer to book Studio cabins if it makes sense as I do love the concept, but they're not always the best deal. I'm doing a 15-day Panama Canal trip in January and booked a regular inside at $1,000 less than a Studio. Even my PCC, when I talked to her to book, was going to put me in one and I declined as it was more expensive (which surprised her). When I booked my October 2019 cruise I sailed in a balcony for only $60 more than a Studio when airfare was factored in (I paid full solo supplement but only $200 to NCL to book the airfare, Studio would have been full airfare at my expense, I used a TA to book that one, she figured it all out). The point is that you need to figure everything when considering the cost of the Studio compared to a higher category.

This is the part I was referring to

I wonder if the gangways damaged the ship at all. That one that went completely into the water might have posed a problem for coming back to the pier, but I'm really surprised the people on watch in the bridge didn't get propulsion up quicker to try to keep the ship closer - I wonder if there weren't enough generators online to do that...