UKstages

i don't, but i'm a very frequent flyer and have elite status with several airlines and access to several different types of expedited traveler programs. those help in drastically cutting down the time required to navigate through the airport. but an hour is cutting it awfully close in some major airports. you arrive at LHR with only an hour before your flight and they will not even check your bag... they will put you on another flight. one of the main reasons you want to get to the airport early is that you have no control over accidents and delays. depending on the country or the city, you can be delayed by an overturned banana truck on the highway, a parade, a marathon, an accident, road closures, construction and so forth. it happens a lot... a half hour trip to the airport suddenly takes close to two hours. then there is the airport itself... miami is almost always a mess. and filled with inexperienced travelers casuing major security delays. getting international travelers through an airport - any airport - can really take more than two hours, especially if they are not native to the country of departure. three hours for international flights, two hours for domestic flights is a guideline. each individual traveler decides what is right for him or her, based on travel history and whether or not they have access to any expedited traveler programs.

my last experience with the haven bar on the joy was in september, 2022. yes, the bar itself has only a few seats… and people camp out at it. you’ll see the same people there for hours on end, night after night. but the “bar” is so much more the bar… there is tons of seating in there… nice comfy chairs… with drink servers roaming about taking your order. as for the concierge… it’s usually a team of three. choose the one that works best for you: i didn’t use their services much, but they were fine.

regarding the excursion ending at the airport tip... normally, that would work well, except the OP has (presumably) an international flight at 16:45. that's 4:45 pm. assuming they have to be at the airport two to three hours ahead of the flight, i doubt NCL's excursions would work. at the very least, it'd be tight. if the OP has airline status or some other expedited airport entry, they could save an hour or two, and there would likely be no problem. but NCL usually advises that excursions ending at the airport are for departures only after a certain hour. check the description of the excursion carefully for flight departure time restriction.

indeed. the silk scarf prohibition could explain the recent scarcity of magicians onboard. NCL mentions handcuffs and leg and restraining straps as examples, but the category of prohibited items is "restraining devices," which covers even broader ground. as for leather belts, i've been to the buffet on many NCL ships. so i'm a staunch proponent of more leather belts. in fact, i think they should be provided to many passengers who don't arrive with their own.

handcuffs are prohibited on NCL, too, as are "leg and head restraining straps."

no, i'm sure you weren't. but did you buy a lottery ticket when you hit shore? my speeds, and i'm sure i could find photos somewhere if i were motivated to dig them up, are consistently well under 5.0 mbps. usually somewhere around the mid 2.0s, but often in fact under 2.0 mbps. and it wasn't appreciably better the one time i ordered the premium "streaming" service. i sail on NCL a fair amount... two to four cruises a year, lately. i'm sapphire. i'm a fan. but can we agree that NCL internet, by and large, sucks? that it's among the worst in the industry? (somebody upthread defined it as "craptastic.") can we agree that generally NCL wifi has slow speeds and lots of dropped connections? the fact that you were able to get a speed of 5.82 mbps at one point in time doesn't really prove much. the fact that 5.0 mbps is a baseline for acceptability, rather than mediocrity says a great deal about just how bad the product is. you gotta click on it, to comment on it. the mention of "travel router" in the thread's title may be enough to steer people away. most people aren't tech savvy enough to understand it. many people don't understand what a router is and even more people have never renamed their router or changed the default password. threads on drinks and tips and chair hogs, however, have wide appeal. as for the overall direction of this thread... the question has been asked, is this stealing? well, i think it's the wrong question. there is no denying the OP is in compliance with NCL terms. the real question that should be asked is whether or not this is ethical. a legitimate debate can be had about that.

what sort of fantasy world are we living in when throughput on NCL is as high as 5 Mbps? i have never seen this, even at 2 or 3 am when, presumably, most people are sleeping and not accessing the internet.

i don’t think anybody cares who is to blame; it’s more about what NCL is doing in terms of service recovery for people who have booked these cabins. those customers have no relationship with fincantieri; they booked passage on an NCL ship. for most people who chose these cabins, the availability of the hot tub was a primary reason. NCL’s solution so far seems to be to provide $500 in nonrefundable OBC for guests 1 and 2. some people think that’s a little thin.

you may benefit from reading this comprehensive review, which details the ship’s many delights and considerable failings… now, due to NCL cutbacks, reduced to the hundred thousand dollar trio. sad.

i ain’t no mathematician, in fact i’m just a country bumpkin, but i’m gonna go out on a limb here and say 100%.

a lot of speculation in this thread. and a lot of second guessing. they don’t care what flight you’re on and they don’t check to see if you’re booked on that flight. they are only concerned with the transportation time from the ship’s scheduled arrival time to flight departure time, accounting for travel time to airport, variance in traffic and airport security clearance times. Assuming a 6 or 7 am arrival, they usually won’t accommodate flight departures before noon or 1 pm. a few months ago, i did exactly what the OP proposes to do. after the ship’s arrival in southampton, i had scheduled a five night theatre holiday in london. after checking bus and train schedules and NCL excursions, i determined the easiest (but not cheapest) thing was to get an airport transfer to LHR and take the tube into central london. when I requested the transfer, i put in bogus flight info. well, it was a real flight, but not be that I would be on. all NCL’s software does is check to make sure there’s enough time to travel to the airport and clear security before your scheduled flight time, whether you’ll be on that flight or not.

they don't affect revenue on previously booked cruises. many traveling now booked their cruises long before many of these cuts were put into place. if there is an impact, it will be for future cruises. once having sailed with the cutbacks, or the reduction in lounge size or additional fees for this and that, people may reconsider traveling again on NCL.

the theatre is on three levels. you'll want to enter on the lowest level, which i believe is deck 6, if memory serves. the theatre will be set up as a large meeting room on that day. it's a versatile "black box" space that transforms into a theatre, but it won't be in that configuration on embarkation day.

i'm in the camp that the observation lounges do actually add revenue because they increase guest enjoyment and satisfaction. and that is a leading indicator of the likelihood to book another cruise. you remove broadway-style shows, you take certain drinks out of the baseline drink package, you build ships with small observation lounges or you eliminate 45% of the existing seating in existing lounges, you reduce housekeeping services... pretty soon, you've drastically altered the cost/value perception. i'm sailing on a B2B on the joy later this month and one of the things i enjoy most is that OL. with it gone, the ship becomes far less appealing to me.

"invitations" to breakfast and lunch for suite guests have been extended since before forever on all classes of NCL ships. it has nothing to do with prima class. also, it isn't really specialty dining... you'll find nothing that is on the restaurant's regular menu is served for breakfast or lunch. it is usually the haven menu served to you in a different venue. as for buffet overcrowding, no, that's not why they do it. the local, the MDRs and the indulge food hall siphon people away from the buffet. i've seen a lot of things, but i haven't seen this. there may be an exception i'm unaware of, but generally, on ships with an actual haven restaurant, it is exclusively for haven guests... no suite guest interlopers. they take their morning and afternoon meals in specialty dining restaurants, typically moderno and cagney's. on ships without a haven restaurant, such as the jewel class ships, haven guests and suite guests do indeed dine together for breakfast and lunch, again, typically, in moderno and cagney's.

you can also call room service… they make and change dining reservations!

all of the newest NCL ships have nonsmoking casinos with a separate enclosed smoking section. when you walk by that smoking section, if the glass doors happen to open up, you'll get a strong whiff of stale smoke. same thing if you play a machine located near there, but, by and large, the casino - on the newest ships - is smoke free.

the NCL cutbacks are more severe than i had thought. i’m glad i saw the show with a full cast. this makes me a little leery of my upcoming voyage on the joy. i guess i will just have to be prepared for only one “element.” i pity the fools on the bliss and breakaway who are being forced to watch “one” instead of “six.” going on the encore or the escape? better get used to “solo of man.”

hmmm… italy or florida… where would i rather be at the end of a cruise? again, the problem with a cruise that ends in florida is that when you get off the ship, you’re in florida. the problem is not getting home or the length of the flight… the problem is having to spend time and money in florida.

while i certainly agree with your ultimate conclusion that the prima is lacking in several key areas, at least a few of your statements need clarification. there are no shows with a cast? who is in “summer,” the donna summer musical? have they switched over to automatons like the hall of presidents at disneyland? or were all performances of this show canceled for some reason? the only “show” held in syd norman’s is the series of rock ‘n’ roll musical revues created specifically for that venue. seating is extremely limited if you want to see the cast perform there. this is true of all ships with a syd’s. if the wait was only a half hour, you likely sailed at far less than capacity. all comedians formerly performing in the improv have been moved to the theatre, although there may not have been any comedians at all on your sailing, since it was a european itinerary. there are no other shows typically scheduled in the improv. it’s used for lectures and trivia contests and such. as for the haven… food served only four hours a day? the restaurant is only open four hours a day? room service is now prohibited in the haven? there isn’t an endless array of snacks in the lounge from 6 am or so till 8 or 9 pm? your butler didn’t bring you snacks at least once a day? the haven menu doesn’t change on any ship, although on a cruise of your duration, it’s likely that there were daily specials. The MDR menu does change. what do you mean when you say there was no grill? a dedicated outdoor space for burgers and such? or that all your meats and fish were baked and roasted? regardless of whether there was a designated “line,” are you saying there was no haven pre-boarding? that would be most unusual. did you board in southampton or reykjavik? or do you mean there was no priority check-in? i’ve sailed in the haven on a few ships. i’ve never seen a haven gangway. upon returning from port, the concierge team typically provides an expedited escort back onboard. i think the prima is an awful ship sent by the devil to torment us all. but some of your concerns appear to be either fleet wide (not confined to the prima) or are based on some sort of misunderstanding or based perhaps on unique circumstances of your sailing.

the problem with a TA that ends in florida is that when you get off the ship, you’re in florida.

this is not really news. It’s settled law. well, not law, but a long established fact: tables are held for booking once onboard. we know dis. what’s being discussed is whether they have tables set aside, unreserved, for walk-ins. they don’t. but it’s often possible to get a table because of no-shows and canceled reservations or tables turning more quickly than expected.

i don't "walk-in" per se, but i have often showed up 90 minutes or two hours before my 9 pm reservation and have always been seated.... indoors. that's the equivalent of a 7 or 7:30 pm prime time walk-in. pro tip: i find that there is often more availability on the last few nights of a cruise because many passengers use their FAS dining and platinum dinners in the earlier nights of a cruise.

the hilton, loews and harrah's hotels (soon to be renamed caesars) are all within easy walking distance. and the marriott is essentially across the street and adjacent to the pier. you can walk indoors through the mall from the hilton to an elevator that will take you right down to the pier. harrah's (caesars) is a block or so away from the hilton and loews is a block and a half or so from there in the other direction, closer to the pier. you can see the pier from some rooms in harrah's and loews. i assume the same of the marriott, but i've never stayed there. "walking distance" is an undefined term and its meaning can vary from person to person. for reference, all these hotels are about a third of a mile from the pier. that distance can be walked in seven to ten minutes depending on how much luggage you have and whether you have any mobility issues.

there are taxes on each stage of production, which is one of the things people mention when they say that VAT is more fair than a sales tax. it’s a shared burden. presumably, the manufacturer and the merchant are paying taxes before any good gets to the consumer. but I believe that you are correct that ultimately the cost of doing business - and paying taxes - gets passed along to the consumer at the point of sale, before VAT is applied.