UKstages

each restaurant kitchen, whether it be a specialty restaurant or the haven restaurant, is "provisioned" before each service. everything they will need is brought in for that meal specifically. if it hasn't been provisioned, it ain't on the menu and they're not prepared to serve it. this is why the haven generally asks you to make special requests the day before. whatever you want, whether it be a filet mignon for your breakfast steak and eggs or one last banana banoffee for breakfast on your last morning on board. i don't like brie. i don't eat brie. the brie burger does nothing for me in the haven. i either ask for it without brie or get it with cheddar or swiss. i asked for this one day and they did indeed have it. in fact, the menu does state that cheese substitutions are available. not sure if the cheddar and swiss were being used on another menu item that day or if they had - as you suggest - anticipated the need for something as common as a particular cheese. but if it's not on the list of provisions for that meal service, they will not have it in the kitchen. if i had ordered provolone or bleu cheese, too less common burger cheese requests, they may not have had it.

this is good! easy to hide. the second rule of the "sharing internet with a travel router" club is that there is no router. well done.

there are things that - for whatever reason, most likely antiquated and inept IT infrastructure - display for NCL cruise consultants but don't display to customers on the web. i have an FCC certificate from a cruise earlier this year that is good for 50% off a european itinerary before the end iof 2024. cruise consultants can see it, but i can't. and i sometimes get the same banner ad that you do advising me that i have future cruise credit. were you on a cruise that missed a lot of ports or had delays or really bad weather? was FCC issued for that? it was in my case and that's what my "invisible" FCC is. do you have FCC for any other reason? the FCC message should in no way refer to cruise first and cruise first certificates. thats something altogether different. as for expiration dates on those certificates, as somebody pointed out in another thread, it does appear, as your PCC advised, that they no longer have expiration dates... the expiration dates on my cruise first certificates have disappeared.

the first rule of "sharing internet with a travel router" club is that there is no "sharing internet with a travel router" club.

THIS ⬆️. i don't drink coffee. never have. (ask anybody who knows me and i am confident they will tell you that i impulsively leap out of bed in the morning full of sunshine and light and the joy of being alive and don't need a stimulant to get me going. 😉) so i have no personal experience with this. but i did talk to some folks on my most recent cruise(s) last month on the joy. and they were quite particular about their coffee. and they were saying that from room service to the MDRs to the buffet, they felt that there had been a noticeable improvement in the quality of the coffee.

which amex card do you hold? certain affinity cards, such as the hilton amex, are believed to be exempt.

i believe the breakaway internet is now powered by starlink. does the getaway have starlink? i dunno… but NCL could be pricing the starlink product differently.

perhaps. but people do report repeatedly getting the offer, even after they’ve used the offer. (also, just because you’ve never made an NCL charge on an amex card doesn’t mean you’re not an NCL customer. a lot of people use the BOA NCL Mastercard for their NCL purchases, for instance.)

it's definitely targeted. if you have ever used an amex card for an NCL charge, even if it was only a few dollars, you'll likely get the offer. they may also target the travel segment, so if you regularly use your amex card for airline tickets or hotels, or other cruise lines, you also might be targeted.

most of the time, that is true. however, on my recent cruise on the joy, we were not scheduled for amber cove, but it was announced the day before that we'd be docking there. no reason was ever given.

the joy docked at amber cove last month.

in another thread, it was mentioned that somebody took a very nice wine glass out of cagney's and wound up bringing it home. no judgment, but i'm pretty sure this can explain the recent downward trend for NCL stock.

i'm confused by this. had you been naughty? how was this accomplished? and was it to symbolically represent your everlasting union?

also, the barrier on the forward facing balconies on the prima is tall and opaque, so you can't see anything through it. in most cases, you'd have to stand if you want to look out at the sea.

here's what sixthman has to say about it on their website... https://www.sixthman.net/norwegian/ so, it's a "partnership" "funded" by NCL, but they are run as completely separate companies. in fact, sixthman claims complete autonomy and sometimes chooses ships of NCL's competitors for its festivals. certainly sounds like sixthman was acquired by NCL; you are correct. but they apparently run their own ship, so to speak, so they could conceivably make their own rules when it comes to door decorations. but, as you say... whatever.

the joy's current vibe is pretty darn big and encompasses two sides of the ship and has two hot tubs. while it is rumored that the joy vibe will be expanded in dry dock (by taking over the laser tag space), two of the three vibe bartenders currently onboard said that the laser tag space would actually become an expanded sun deck for regular (non-vibe) guests. so... who knows? the relevant point here, however, is that the joy vibe - in its present form - is quite large, so if we're trying to draw a correlation between size of vibe and the propensity to hold back passes for day of embarkation, the joy's vibe would certainly qualify as a larger vibe "eligible" to do that. but whether that's the way it actually works is strictly conjecture. personally, i don't think there are some vibe beach clubs that don't hold back passes and others that do. i think it's far more likely that they all hold back passes for sale on the day, but that the number of passes they hold back is in direct proportion to the size of the vibe. one vibe might hold back fifty passes... another might hold back fifteen. it seems to me, to be fair (not that NCL is always fair), if they are not going to allow OBC to be used for advance booking, then they have to hold back some passes for sale on the day of embarkation... otherwise folks using OBC don't have a shot at getting passes at all. nor do people with close-in cruise bookings. some people seem to think the relatively recent switch to making vibe passes bookable in advance online means that they are only bookable online... and NCL never said that. nor did they say that all the passes for a particular journey or a particular ship would be made available exclusively online. to me, it's no different than restaurant reservations... cagney's is often shown as "sold out" online. but if you board at 11:30 or 12:30 on embarkation day, you'll usually have no problem booking cagney's or any other restaurant. so, too, the vibe... based on my recent experience on the joy. it's true that a number of passes may become available when people cancel their cruise or get upgraded to the haven... or die, but i think those would be incremental to the number i believe they are holding back for sale on the day and which i was told they hold back for sale on the day.

that’s certainly true if you book onboard later on embarkation day. my experience has been that if you’re onboard early enough, they have virtually all times bookable. in some cases, you may not get 7 pm, but you’ll be offered 6:45 or 7:15.

same general area, but a different location, with different staff members. if you go inside the teppanyaki restaurant, they will not be able to sell you a vibe pass. they only book restaurant reservations there on embarkation day. they will redirect you to a freestanding table set up outside teppanyaki that is specifically for vibe passes. they will have a keycard printer there, which will be required to code your new card for vibe access. (the folks inside teppanyaki do not have this.) it’s easy to miss the table if you’re focused on going to “teppanyaki” and not looking for “the table set up outside teppanyaki.”

island oasis is indeed the brand for all the mixes that come in cartons: pina colada, strawberry daiquiri, banana daiquiri, etc. (by the way, don’t look at the nutritional statement and calorie count printed on the side of the carton!) island oasis may be a brand unique to the restaurant supply industry and not available for retail purchase. many of the syrups, such as watermelon or simple syrup, come in bottles and I’m not sure if they are the same brand.

for those who want to use OBC to pay for excursions or the vibe, or who got shut out of preferred times for restaurant reservations, or who want to readjust their restaurant reservations to accommodate various performance times that weren't known before boarding... yes, it makes a great deal of sense. i was able to get vibe passes onboard the joy twice last month and may not have been able to if i hadn't boarded early. also, i had booked the second cruise of that B2B just a few weeks before departure, so i missed out on pre-booking of restaurant reservations. i was able to get everything i wanted once onboard.

yes. there is an asterisk about booking teppanyaki and moderno, but that likely doesn't apply here, as it sounds like you have just two "free at sea" dinners and no dinner coupons and will be making just two reservations. if that's the case, then, yes, they will be reservations made at no charge and no money will be due onboard.

is that because there are cuddly dogs in the photo or because NCL's contract check-in agents are inept? i heard a new excuse when checking in at the manhattan cruise terminal a few weeks ago. i was told a new photo had to be taken because NCL's systems are down and they didn't have the photos at check-in. say what? it used ti be "oh, no, it's a requirement that we take a new photo." (the one previously submitted online doesn't count, apparently. it was just for fun.) now, it's "photo? we don't have no stinkin' photo. you gotta take your photo right here, bub." enjoy your cruise. if you can drag yourselves out of the haven, do try the indulge food hall. best food on the ship, in my opinion, but i haven't been in the haven on the prima.

teppanyaki is for restaurant reservations. based on my past experience, you'll want to go to a table set up just outside teppanyaki.

i've reported this in other threads, but here it is again: for two recent (october 2023) warm weather cruises on the joy, i purchased the vibe onboard upon embarkation. i guesstimate there were about thirty-five welcome packets there with wristbands waiting to be sold. the majority of those were for two people, so there may have been as many as fifty-five or sixty spots sold on the day. i specifically asked if they held back some passes for sale and was told that they do. YMMV depending on the size of the ship and the ship's occupancy. for what it's worth, the first cruise was slightly under capacity, the second cruise was at or near capacity. for the first cruise, i live only a few blocks from the port, so was among the first onboard the ship, qualifying through several different elite statuses. i was the first to purchase a vibe pass. for the second cruise, i was a back-to-back passenger so i was once again onboard early and the first person in line. there was a different rep handling the transaction and so i asked all the same annoying questions. and i got the same answers all over again. FYI... $309 for the twelve day cruise; $249 for the seven day cruise. i asked about this, too. day passes were available for $99. YMMV depending on the ship and whether or not the vibe is sold out with guests who have bought passes for the duration of the cruise.

NCL is a strategic partner of sixthman. NCL does not own sixthman... sixthman charters their ships. if NCL owned sixthman, i would think the entertainment options and music on NCL ships would be far better and it's doubtful that they would have done away with certain broadway shows as onboard entertainment. the new carpets onboard the prima (and presumably the viva) have triangles, not fish. the triangle points toward the front of the ship. a lot of people don't realize this because they have been trained to look for the fish. the fish are considerably cuter and much more on brand than triangles.