UKstages

3 hours ago, floridafish said:

Why can't they give you a price?

kindly see post #7.

34 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Never, ever have seen that warning.

sadly, this is a real thing. people lick batteries, most likely motivated by a series of popular youtube "instructional" videos.

36 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Now, some of us are being chastised because neither NCL nor any of us, can control the weather?

i think we're all in agreement that NCL can't control the weather. that's a straw man argument. nobody is insisting that NCL is responsible for the weather nor is anyone saying that NCL is responsible for flight delays.

there is a legitimate debate taking place here as to what the appropriate response should be when 60 or more travelers are en route from the airport or actually at the dock, waiting to board. should the ship have waited? or was the correct move to depart without those passengers? which strategy would have caused the most inconvenience and expense for the passengers onboard and those en route, as well as NCL?

2 hours ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Add in...

The Porters are probably unionized, they have their set rules and work days.  If it was raining so hard all day, think they wanted to work an extra 2 hours OT in that rain?

oh, geez. that's a whole lot of conjecture and "what ifs."

here's a few more...

what if the porters are indeed unionized? you're right! they probably do have their set rules and work days. and they probably have a contract that protects them when they are required to work overtime.

i say required because none of these jobs are 9 - 5 jobs. that's not what they signed up for. they know they are in a business in which the workday is not done until they're told it's done... typically when the ship they're working on pulls away. 

what if that ship was seven hours late getting into miami... would you still feel it was unfair to ask the porters to stay to unload the baggage and load it for the new guests who will be leaving at least seven hours late? you've apparently only thought through one side of the equation. the same operating principles that ensure port workers are there for you when you arrive late ensure that port workers are there when flights get delayed.

don't you worry about the porters in either case.  they'll be making an extraordinary amount of overtime. and i never met a union guy or gal who didn't love overtime.

ditto the harbor pilot, the check-in agents, the "luggage screeners" and the "cruise port staff." they know what this work entails and they know that they didn't sign up for a 9 - 5 gig. it's in their employment agreement that they may have to work as assigned and may be "held over" in times of need.

there may be a lot of valid reasons to justify the captain leaving on time and not waiting for those impacted by air delays. saying that the port workers turn into pumpkins if they don't get home by a certain hour isn't one of them. 

2 hours ago, Yesimapirate said:

But we also live in a society where car batteries have warnings on them that ylu shouldn't lick them.

you'd think we wouldn't have to do that.

little known fact: baskin robbins least popular flavor ever was something called "battery acid and cream." 

21 hours ago, VideoTech said:

She said there was a "White Hot Night"...

she may have said that and others may have called it that, but NCL no longer has such a thing. they have renamed it "glow."

"take part in norwegian cruise line's newest and most illuminating party at sea. we’ve amped up our party so much, it glows. wear neon or white and let the DJ take the night to the next level."

by CG, you presumably mean coast guard?

we just went through this in another thread... the coast guard has nothing to do with clearing the ship, no involvement in reaching a zero count, nothing to do with immigration or customs or border patrol when the ship is in port. the coast guard can inspect the ship, if it wishes, and it sometimes does that even with passengers onboard.

customs and border patrol clear the ship and interview returning guests (if necessary) and check passports (if necessary) and so forth. they conduct facial recognition checks and inspect luggage (if necessary).

it is at their discretion as to whether B2B guests have to get off the ship or not. sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. in new york, i stayed onboard and CBP met with 30 or so B2B guests in a meeting room. in miami, i had to get off the ship.

even then, you won't technically be the first person on the ship. back-to-back passengers will have either never left the ship or they will have been brought back on before any new passengers are asked to come onboard.

4 hours ago, Treasure Hunter said:

But any taxi driver or Uber worth his salt will know what you mean when you say you are sailing on a cruise ship.

a wisecracking stereotypical career cabbie in the 1940s or 50s or 60s, or even the 70s? 

sure.

cab drivers in new york today can barely find times square without waze. very few are natives, very few know anything beyond numbered streets and very few will know that the entrance ramp for the terminal on 48th street is several blocks north, if they can find the "cruise terminal" or "the westside terminal" at all.

34 minutes ago, Treasure Hunter said:

Manhattan cruise terminal’s local name is the Westside pier.

that's interesting.

i live a few blocks away from the MCT and have never once heard it referred to as "the westside pier," mostly because there are many piers on the westside of manhattan.

chelsea piers, pier 25, pier 26, pier 34, pier 40, pier 45, pier 46, pier 51, pier 57, pier 78, pier 84, pier 88, pier 90 ... which one is "the" westside pier?

all good suggestions about passports and flying in the day before (although this was apparently a multi-day weather event that could have seen flight cancellations the day prior). but if there were sixty people who were known by NCL to have landed at the airport and who were either en route to the terminal or already in the terminal... gosh, i would have held the ship... what would that be? a two hour delay? 

i'm not the captain. i can't assess the potential to miss ports or arrival times or docking windows. i don't know if the berth in miami was needed for another ship, but still... sixty or more NCL-affiliated travelers are headed to the ship or already at the port? NCL would have to have held the ship two or three hours versus spending hundreds of hours of NCL employees' time rebooking flights and managing customer dissatisfaction. and i don't know any ship, except maybe the getaway last week with its mechanical problems, that couldn't make up three or four hours.

i would have held the ship.

but, hey, maybe that's just me.

i live on the edge.

every cruise i've been on the past year or so has had a printed and framed sign at guest services saying that the ship is fully booked and no upgrades or room reassignments are possible. 

"wines around the world" actually kicks in at the platinum level.

13 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Hopefully we can get our carryons into our cabins as soon as possible so we won't have to lug them to dinner with us.

on the getaway, you can usually drop (and claim check) your carry on bags in the casino.

9 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

CAS actually don’t want you to book through them.

that depends entirely on how much you play.

they would prefer that a land-based casino subsidizes the play of ploppies... then they are guaranteed to have earned a minimum amount of money and will have covered their operating expenses. but if you have significant play, if you're a strong enough player to have earned comps with CAS, they would prefer to have you book through them and they would like to "own" that relationship.

9 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

CAS agents have been told to “get someone else to pay for the cruise” before awarding a comp based on play and theoreticals. 

no... just no.

CAS agents will often look to see if there is a certificate there when a customer is not worthy of a BOP (based on play) offer, or to see if the land-based casino certificate (which is almost always for a free cabin) is better than the CAS offer, but they are not told to "get somebody else to pay for the cruise." 

just... no.

a thousand times no.

8 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

It's that well known?

no i don't think it's very well known at all.

we are all stoked for you!

you know who's even more excited than us?

the people who will be traveling with you.

you'll find them here in the roll call for that cruise:

not much activity there yet, but i'm sure things will pick up.

the agent wasn't being difficult. they have no insight into the price, in the same way that guests don't. my understanding is that the thermal suite pricing is dynamic and depends on a number of factors, including the number of days, ship, itinerary and the season. the pricing only becomes available once the reservation is booked, and only if you are 365 days or fewer from the sail date.

if the vibe pricing is an indicator, passes tend to max out at ten days. so, a ten or fourteen day cruise would be the same price. i can't provide a price, though.

unless i'm  mistaken, beetlejuice and donna are both still on their respective ships.

people start rumors when online booking is unavailable or after a performance or two gets canceled on an individual sailing. but i have heard nothing about beetlejuice being permanently removed from the viva. (although it wouldn't surprise me if it happened within the next year... beetlejuice was the last of the big shows NCL ordered up before they shifted direction.)

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

I often forget to carry anything extra with me to leave at the table to indicate I'm coming back - and if I happen to catch the eye of one server, another one will come by and clean the table.

yes, solo traveler here, too, and i feel your pain.

i used to carry a sign with me: "table occupied. be back in five minutes." i no longer do that. now, i just go find another seat. works on almost every ship, except the prima (and presumably the viva), with its ridiculously small venue.

34 minutes ago, EllieinNJ said:

Another perspective is maybe if they serve less variety maybe people would stop taking everything that is put out. 

two words: smaller plates.

more words:

i often use dessert plates for buffet entrées, to limit intake. seriously. (pro tip: you can always go back for more.) any buffet management trying to limit food waste should put out smaller plates. i'm not saying they have to go down to dessert plates, but something smaller than a ten inch plate would be swell.

2 minutes ago, larryt1976 said:

I am on prima now and did get a drink card with my booking through cas Cesars diamond discount 

as well you should have; today's date is 3/23/24, so i don't think anybody is the slightest bit surprised by this.

we are talking about changes that go into effect 4/1/24

yes, you're right. of course, you're absolutely a CAS customer. but your point of entry when using a certificate is your land-based casino. on your booking confirmation, it likely lists your casino company as the travel agent of record. i came to CAS that way, but i no longer use land-based casino certificates and always book directly through CAS using CAS offers or custom play-based offers from CAS.

it makes no sense to create a division among casino players based on how you walked in the door. frankly, CAS would prefer you book directly through them... it's more cost efficient for them. so it would be odd for them to offer a strong incentive (e.g. free drinks) only to those using certificates.

by the way, based on my prior conversations with NCL, and my personal experience, there is no need to pick up those cruise certificates in person. reserve the offer with the land-based casino and your name and account number and the virtual certificate will automatically be transmitted to NCL after the event... whether you show up to pick up the physical piece of paper or not.

15 hours ago, mking8288 said:

The Epic, Getaway and the Bliss are obviously a different class / category with more public space dedicated to buffet, and, by virture of seating capacity or sizes, by definitions - have the space to offer broader range of choices and varieties of food.  

and yet things seem to be changing.

on my most recent cruise on the getaway, the very large buffet had a collection of items for lunch and dinner repeated at three or four different stations throughout the eatery.  in other words, the available choices were cut by 50% or more. (at breakfast, it has always been common for items to be repeated in mor ethan one place on the buffet line.)

and the indian food was extremely limited.

there are too many reports fleet-wide, across all ship classes, of severe cutbacks in the buffet... too many to toss this up to the size of the ship. if anything, the array of food on the smaller ships now looks better because they are not repeating items as they are now on the mega ships.

bananas on request?

BANANAS?

6 hours ago, ometauru said:

I'm pretty sure they lied to you.

i don't think they lied. little known fact: assuming that the land based casino giveaway event was attended by one of more NCL reps, those reps are usually... wait for it... NCL CAS PCCs. yes, that's right, the same people who answer your phone calls and dispense incorrect information on the daily. it's a "perk" of the job that every so often they get to travel to vegas or atlantic city or wherever and meet and greet those picking up certificates and answer any questions.

but they have the same level of knowledge and understanding as everybody else. this is a new policy, not yet in effect, and there is widespread misunderstanding among NCL's own employees of what the policy means and how it will be rolled out and whom it will affect.

so, they didn't lie, in my opinion, they just dispensed incorrect information, which they believed to be true... or they just made stuff up because they didn't know and were unfamiliar with the parameters of the new policy.

1 hour ago, ometauru said:

Technologically it's not impossible.

it's absolutely possible. in booking, you just enter a different promo code, like the dozens of other promo codes in the promo thread in this forum. there's a drink card in your cabin... there is no magic to that drink card; it's just for show and identification purposes. it shows that you have free drinks and which level of free drinks you are entitled to.  the bartender or server takes your actual room card and swipes that and then enters a code on the screen at the till. they could very easily enter that code for land-based casino certificate guests and not those booked directly with CAS.

but, again, why would they do that?

treat other people's customers better than their own?

unless there is a contract provision in their deals with land-based casinos that says they have to provide free drinks, i just don't see this happening.

25 minutes ago, Bliss1 said:

water pkg  6 small 

i don't doubt it... but is that a guess or are you just imagining that is what it would be?

for comparison, folks who rely upon the casino for water often get two cartons of water on their way out of the casino every night. those with ultra drink cards, get two bottles of pellegrino or aqua panna every night.

so, on a 7-day cruise, we're looking at 6 cartons of water versus 14 cartons of water.

on my last cruise on the getaway, the casino bar didn't stock pellegrino, so i asked a host to send me some. six bottles arrived in my room the next day, gratis.  i imagine hosts will be doing more and more of this, with the new rules.

17 hours ago, erisajd said:

Just grab your [NCL provided] phone - call your butler - and have him/her bring you drinks on the Haven sundeck . . . 

i know you're just being playful here, at least i think that's the case... but the butler would most likely not bring you a drink on the haven sundeck. that's not his job, anymore than it's his job to bring you a cocktail on the pool deck or in the theatre. he might call the servers on the sun deck and ask them to tend to you, but the butler won't be bringing you a drink. and if he did, as @cruiseny4life points out, there would likely be a charge, as there is for every alcoholic drink the butler brings to your stateroom.

i never even consider buying vibe passes when staying in the haven, but there should be no debate... the service in the vibe is far superior to the service on the haven sun deck. also, a portion of the haven sun deck allows smoking, and that smoke travels... in the vibe there is no smoking... and, as many have mentioned, no kids.

unless NCL does a reversal, i'm pretty damn sure free drinks as we have come to know them, will no longer be available. no drink cards for anybody, no free drinks for CAS guests, no free drinks for those traveling on land-based casino certificates. (do we really expect them to treat other casino's customers better than their own? that makes no sense.)

look, this is a horrible terrible mean and nasty thing they've done, but in practical terms, it affects very few people, since most people buy the drink package anyway, so they can have drinks outside the casino. what they've done is remove water and energy drinks on demand.

typically, OBC from the casino shows up after you board. you'll get a packet in your room containing your player's card, your drink card (oops!) and a card detailing any amenities you have from the casino.

the card is just for show... the OBC will have been added to your folio. it's invisible (you won't see the credit on your TV screen when viewing your folio), but your charges will draw down against it.