julig22

Almost there, 1 more price drop to put the upgrade cost equal to my low-end bid. Cruise is still more than 2 months away.

More than what you paid, under the same circumstances? As in, do you have the BOGO airfare offer attached to your original booking? That factors into the price comparison. Nothing new.

Yes, good advice, book your hotel early. If you book through a 3rd party site, it should be fully refundable. And the Alaska train also sells out, if you are planning for that.

I 100% agree. While I don't have any insider information regarding how they are actually paid, I immediately think sympathy tip or simply not understanding their paycheck. I think back to all the co-workers I've had over the decades (nothing to do with cruising) that didn't understand their paychecks or benefits. Not unusual at all. Based on the push to fill out "Hero" cards I'm assuming that may significantly affect what someone gets in compensation, monetary or otherwise, from the DSC. As to the adding 11 more cabins, yes more cabins seems to be true. But stewards are now working a 9-5 shift, more or less, most days - instead of a split shift well into the evening. And with those 11 more cabins comes the possibility of 11 more cabins with tipping passengers.

That varies widely. I'm booked on a cruise where the solo balcony is actually more ($1 LOL) than simply booking a balcony and paying double occupancy. And no solo lounge on that particular ship. The solo categories also tend to be on the lower decks, so your cabin choices are limited. Also, if you use your NCL credit card points for upgrades, you cannot upgrade from a solo booking (it's a pseudo category) - I don't know if you are eligible for Upgrade Advantage. Still hoping for a reduced supplement as it gets closer to my sail date.... CruiseNext folks said having the solo categories would not necessarily preclude dropping the solo supplements on cruises - only time will tell, taking that info with a grain of salt.

While I agree that perhaps they should reduce the fee some when there are multiple people in a cabin, I don't agree with your logic. The DSC doesn't have anything to do with playing games or going to shows. If you choose not to eat onboard, that's on you. People who eat in the specialty restaurants (they are charged gratuities for those) could make a similar claim, as they aren't eating in the MDR or buffet either. No, it might not take a significant amount of extra time to clean a cabin of 4 vs 2 vs 1, but with 4, there are additional beds to make, sheets & towels to wash, etc. The DSC covers the laundry crew, the buffet & MDR crew (whether you eat there or not), and I assume the crew that cleans up the public restrooms, the pool area, the stairs & hallways...

If it's buried in the fare it would be non-refundable in the event you cancel your cruise after final payment. As it stands now, it's refundable if you end up missing your cruise for some reason. Small consolation but it's something.

On rare occasions there have been reports of lowered bid requirements. I had a "special bid offer" once, don't remember if it was before or after the shutdown. I think it was listed for a limited time but I didn't take advantage of it, so don't remember all the details.

I fly from a small airport, so first flight is almost always to a larger hub. And then usually a direct flight. Small airport has nearly always worked in my favor. The only time my NCL flights didn't conform to their guidelines was when they had to rebook a week before my cruise, due to flight cancellations because of an airline strike.

It depends somewhat on your interests. Last August, I took a midnight flight from Seattle to Anchorage, then the Alaska Train to Seward (6am), the day prior to the cruise. Went directly from the train to an afternoon excursion, stayed overnight, took an all-day excursion the next day - boarding is late 7pm, so plenty of time. But I will admit I was pretty tired when I got to the ship! I went with Major Marine tours but there are others that also do wildlife and Kenai Fjords tours - tours vary, depending on the dates you are there. I stayed at the Breeze hotel for that trip, will be staying at Harbor 360 when I'm there in April. Nothing fancy but clean and comfortable. If you take the train, your luggage will be delivered to the major hotels in town. MajorMarine/Harbor 360 will also take your luggage to the ship, Breeze will take you, with your luggage, to the ship.

I find that quite odd, NCL guidelines are a max of 1 layover for domestic flights. There's got to be more to that story.

But on the other side, it's a purchase, not a cash advance - so you do get whatever benefits your CC gives you for travel purchases. With the NCL card, that's 3%, so a wash. If you use a travel card with higher benefits, you can actually make money - or accumulate travel points - over using cash - assuming you don't carry a balance.

All NCL ships use the same process for handling luggage. Color tags are used for sorting bags, depending on when people are planning to leave and/or if they are using NCL transportation after the cruise. But luggage isn't necessarily the reason for long lines at disembarkation. Port Valet in Seattle is unique, it would be nice if it could be expanded to other ports. But it's run by the port, not the cruiselines.

Same thing happened in Seattle. On the Sun, ship tags were yellow, so people who didn't read the instructions thought they were supposed to leave when yellow was called - and were complaining that they didn't get to choose when they got to leave (yellow was latitudes priority, so early). It was probably 50/50 whether their luggage was with the yellow tags or with the unknown bags.

Depends on your interests. I love the Seward/Vancouver route. Longer times in ports, both Seward and Vancouver have additional excursions available if you are wanting additional whale watching or glacier viewing (Seward). And the train from Anchorage is always nice. The Bliss visits lots of ports - and the trade-off is very short times in port. I've been to Alaska on NCL 6 times, my least favorite itinerary.

There are various different land tours, some primarily by train, some by bus. So you'll need to be more specific as to which one you booked. Go to the NCL website for basic details on where your specific tour will be going.

So this is a cruise I've booked - I booked a regular OV because I wanted to use my points to upgrade - and currently there is a fairly big price difference there ($3098 deck 4 or 5 vs $2099, deck 4). Insides are the same price. And look how the balcony prices out. For an extra $1, you can get a solo balcony, decks 8 & 9, forward only. No choice of cabins in either case, "regular" priced cabins are guaranteed only at the moment. This is the Star, I don't think they have solo studios, so no added benefit to booking solo.

Might want to be a little more specific as to what excursion you are taking? I sincerely hope you aren't thinking you'll take a zodiac to land in Antarctica? In general, most excursion operators provide boots, dry suits, rain gear as needed.

I was just going to say that on my recent trip (Dawn), we also had what I'd call normal burger buns. I don't know if they bake their own or buy ready-made. So maybe a new supplier or a new recipe?

With the limited amount of flights that actually fly into Quebec, your chances aren't good. You can get an idea by checking what's actually available from your location for the date you want to arrive - they don't tend to have daily flights from everywhere.

As Far As I Know

Correct, AFAIK.

Yes. But if you cancel and then rebook the same cruise for some reason I think you lose the added value. Some people seem to have it in their head that they have to cancel/rebook to take advantage of a price drop.

It actually used to be illegal to charge a different amount when using credit but eventually most states created their own rules around CC fees, so it's now legal in most states. Same for debit cards. I don't blame the merchants, especially smaller businesses, for including their charges but I'd much prefer the old "cash for discount" way - I always like feeling like I got a discount when paying cash. But I'd probably also walk out if I was forced to pay the fee because they wouldn't accept cash.

Volcano just erupted again this morning... but it isn't near the port or airport. Only issue would be if the smoke/gasses interfered with air traffic, which has happened in the past. I was on a cruise leaving from Reykjavik in 2022, one of the more local volcanos erupted the day I got there - but it's one where the lava is contained, could only see the gasses above it as we drove by. Interesting welcome LOL