hallux

In the drop-down above the topic list in this forum you can select 'Getaway'. This is a pre-configured search, which can be used to find people's reviews of the ship and possibly the dailies from their cruises where you can see the answer to this.

I'll back up the votes for SIX! Excellent show! I thought Footloose on the Joy was really good, and the NCL original, Elements, was quite different but good.

120 for most, Platinum status or The Haven get to book sooner (125 and 130 days)...

I've sailed both, and the only reason I'd prefer the Bliss is that the Bliss has the studio cabins (since I sail solo). The Joy still has a lot of Asian inspiration in the decor, since it was built for the Asian market initially, but they're nearly identical as far as venues and activities. I feel like the Cavern Club on the Joy has a better layout. The only other factor in favor of the Bliss is the theater shows - the Bliss has TWO Broadway productions in Jersey Boys and SIX. SIX is EXCELLENT.

I had two show up in my account this summer - one 10% "cruise comeback" coupon, valid for any sailing if I booked by a certain date and one $100 coupon specifically for a Canada/NE cruise this Fall.

Or sign up for Google Fi, which is an MVNO and runs (primarily) on T-Mobile. With certain plans of theirs, including the Flexible plan which is $20/month and $10/GB of data used, you can use the phone in most of the world.

The more they push this back, the less incentive they give people to go out and do what they're supposed to do! At this point, they've deferred it more than a full license renewal cycle, there is NO excuse anymore...

Think again - I try to fly with the as much as I can, and for my next cruise they have direct flights to MCO from my home airport at times that actually make sense for when I need to get there and for getting home so I'll be booking my own flights. My parents had a bad experience on AA and have that airline on their "no fly" list with their TA.

other than bulkheads and exit rows, every seat on Southwest planes is identical. The only differences in fares is cancellation/rebook policies and when in the boarding process you get to board.

Give a person a fish and they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime. The information many people seek is available, either directly from the cruise line or in other threads here

and NCL will let you do the same, through their Premium Air service, but the BOGO offer does not let you pick your own flights.

There are balcony rooms that sleep 3 and rooms that sleep 4. Don't the ones that sleep 4 have the bed that pulls down from the ceiling? This may depend on the ship...

I agree with @ChiefMateJRK you can absolutely schedule the NCL shuttle now. I don't sail until March (so I haven't checked in yet) and the option to add it to my trip is already available (see screenshot). I'm debating staying near the airport and using the NCL shuttle from the airport as I've done in LA before, but that would require using a random flight into MCO to book the transfer against or I call NCL to book it.

I was on the Joy in March, the experience was on par with my previous experiences on the Bliss (pre-pandemic), which were excellent! I'm curious what others were not impressed with...

Why don't you call NCL and take their shuttles from the cruise port to the airport? They won't wait until all passengers are off the ship to have any bus depart, once a bus is full it will leave. You can even do it through your reservation on the website, filling in your airline info. By doing that they will know when you need to be at the airport and schedule you for disembarkation based on that, to be sure you're in an early group so you can be at the airport early enough. I'm sailing in March, I'm planning the only SWA direct flight home from MCO, that flight leaves at 1:00 and NCL will sell me the post-cruise shuttle at $40 per passenger.

I'm sure every one of those ports is covered in the ports-of-call forum section. Here's the Europe section - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/8-europe/ To an extent - it depends on the level of risk you wish to accept. If you're on a ship-sponsored excursion and something happens to cause it to return late the ship will wait as long as possible for the excursion to return, but if you're on your own and you return late you should expect to see the ship sailing away with your documents left with an agent in the port. However - for independent tour companies, this is their livelihood and it wouldn't be good business to have people returning to ships late. That's a recipe for a quick exit from the business so they will make every effort to get you back in time.

Counterpoint - larger Vibe means less space for people that can't afford a Vibe pass...

You're overthinking this part. If you use the dining package at the venue (even at a-la-carte venues), within the guidelines in the T&C's for the promo, there is no charge. Only limitation on the FAS and add-on meal plans is that you can only get one entree in the a-la-carte places, don't let the server tell you otherwise. If you want more nights of specialty dining, add it. Booking process (as explained in many other threads on the topic) - 120 days before sailing you will be allowed to make reservations online, Haven and high loyalty tier people can book at 130 days and 125 days, so you may not get the venue and time you want online. Don't fret, though, more reservations open up on embarkation day as NCL only makes SOME tables available to book pre-cruise. Book the set-fee restaurants FIRST, the system will assume you're using your dining plan for them and won't charge you. You can't possibly starve! If you're hungry in the MDR, order an additional meal. They won't charge you. On 3 cruises with NCL I have been disappointed MAYBE once. However - I'm a single male in my 40's and my bar for being disappointed is "how does this compare to what I make at home for myself" so my expectations may be lower than yours. On the Escape - don't discount O'Sheehan's. It's The Local on other ships and has FANTASTIC burgers, Reuben, spinach & artichoke dip and other items, ALL INCLUDED in your fare!

@Solo Cruiser Memphis How many nights is your cruise? All categories on 3-6 night cruises only get 1 meal. https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions If you originally booked a Studio then used the upgrade program to go to the Spa Balcony you may not qualify for the additional meal(s).

If your flights were booked through NCL's BOGO airfare deal, the first call after the first delay text should be to NCL's emergency air department (phone number provided in your cruise documents), to get help with booking alternate flights. However - at that point the options are going to be VERY limited. You say you were in contact with NCL through the entire thing, was that through that number? Flying West to East poses some interesting challenges for flights. NCL will book you to arrive ON departure day unless you ask for a deviation - in the case of a West to East flight that would usually be on a red-eye as in this case. At that point in the day there are very few other options for flights to the embarkation port city. Planning to fly in the day before in these cases is VERY prudent, to give some wiggle-room for delays and cancellations. I realize not everyone has excessive vacation time, but it's something that needs to be budgeted for in the planning of the trip. If an airline reschedules or delays a flight by a certain amount of time and the resulting schedule provides a hardship for other plans I believe the airline is obligated to refund the flight if you need to make other arrangements, or work with a partner airline to get you there on time. Easy to do if YOU booked the flight, but when it's booked by a 3rd-party it's a whole other ball-game. SHOULD NCL have booked a flight like this? Probably not, but it's well within the terms of the promotion for them to do so. They also won't book a flight that would require a hotel stay unless the passenger requests it, so the flight that met the appropriate criteria was booked. SHOULD NCL have been proactive to re-book the passenger when the first delay was communicated? Maybe, IF the appropriate people knew. When you consider that NCL is embarking how many passengers a day, or at least has passengers transiting to embarkation ports on NCL-booked flights, monitoring those flights (probably numbering in the thousands on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the days leading to and actually typical embarkation days) can be a chore, especially if a weather event is happening. For the OP - it's unfortunate that you missed your cruise, I'd be sick over it too! I've flown to 3 cruises, haven't missed one despite having flight delays on two of them. Why? Because I flew the day before the cruise. Oddly enough - the flight for at least one of those cruises SHOULD have gotten me to the embarkation city in plenty of time to make the ship if I had been sailing that day but the delays pushed it and I would have been too late to get the ship. My next cruise - I can fly non-stop to the port city and I'm still going to go in a day early.

Technically, the only cost decrease is due to the removal of the gratuities for the declined packages, there's no fare decrease because you're not taking them. If removing both dining and drink packages and you don't care about cabin location this is the best suggestion, then you can use the fare savings to pay for internet. Unless it's one of the rare cruises where the sail-away is MORE expensive than the fare with FAS...

There are tables for 8 in some of the venues (may depend on the ship and venue, you don't say which of either you're booking), no "putting together" of tables to make them. It's possible someone with a higher status than you or booked in a Haven cabin already made the reservation at a more preferred time. NCL also only opens a portion of the tables for pre-cruise reservation, make your way to the dining reservations table/location when you get on board and see about making the reservation you need.

There's no set $ value at the a-la-carte venues. Order what you want, with the only limitation being a single entree, and some items do carry additional cost that is not covered by the package..

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how this happens. Not so much how the mistake happens (people hit wrong keys all the time), but how the mistake was allowed to go unnoticed until the flights were ticketed. The deviations are right on the PDF confirmation you get when you book, as soon as you get it and review it, the mistake of the lack of deviation should be a clue to the mistake and THAT is the time to get it fixed. And, OP, you're not the first this happened to, someone else recently posted the same issue, and the same lack of confirming details were correct.

I guess the word 'convince' in the topic title means something different than some thought?