UKstages

it really depends on what you mean by a "line." is there a notice at the buffet that says people should start in one place and dutifully push their tray or their plate along some imaginary path to the buffet's end point? where is the buffet's end point? where does the line begin? where does it end? what if you only want ice cream? do you have to shuffle along through the burgers and the salads and the indian food until you get to the ice cream? without a doubt, there are lines for certain foods... a carving station, perhaps. so, maybe that's what you mean and we're actually on the same page. there may even be a line for pizza... three or four people might be waiting for a new pie to come out. similarly, there may be a backup of three or four people waiting for burgers. it would be rude to jump ahead of them. but if the french fires are out next to where the hamburgers are supposed to be... and all you want is the french fries, there is no reason to wait... you go up, take your fries and go on your way. no harm, no foul. but if you think there is a line that runs through the buffet from start to finish, respectfully, how do you know there is a line? because you see other people near you at the buffet, some of whom are behind you or to the right of you? is that what you believe constitutes a line? or perhaps they are confused by what you said. because they know that a buffet is not a cafeteria. it's not the DMV. you're not buying concert tickets at a box office. buffets are not linear concepts. there is no correct or required path to navigating a buffet. yes, you pay attention to others around you; you don't go ahead of other people waiting for the same food item as you, but feel free to dart in and out and take what you need... that's the way the buffet has been set up. if it weren't meant to be used that way, it would be designed with a clear entrance and exit and a path that required people to pretend that they were liam payne or harry styles and only go in one direction.

all well and good. and how do you suppose the rep would learn that you're not interested and that a product or service doesn't fit your requirements? geez, i dunno... maybe by engaging you in conversation and having you tell him or her that you weren't interested? in which case, i am pretty darn sure that you would not be subjected to a "sales pitch." if you don't want to talk to a human being, and be subjected to a "sales pitch," use the website or the app. by the way, nowhere in my post did i suggest that a "sales pitch" was necessary. that's because a "sales pitch" is not required in order for someone to buy something or someone to sell something. a "sales pitch" is the pejorative phrase that you are using after the fact to describe a customer service interaction for a product or service that you yourself are not interested in. yeah, i get that... but TAs are not NCL's cruise consultants... the folks you get when you call NCL. the promo materials used for TAs should not be used to train frontline agents. if they are, NCL should be prepared for whatever is in them to be quoted by agents to their customers. they should also be prepared for TAs to use that same language! and that means they should probably rewrite those promo materials. people (whether they be TAs or phone reps or customers) respond much better to positive messages. that doesn't mean you should lie... it just means you should reframe your message to express it positively.

thanks. for most of my my career, i have been affiliated with contact centers providing sales, customer service and client support and, sadly, it's all too common for reps to place the company in a bad light or to misrepresent the product or service or terms. NCL is somewhat unique in that their cruise consultants actually work for the company and are not subcontracted, but they still say things they shouldn't or are imprecise with their language. i had a consultant tell me recently that the indulge food hall on the prima really should be open longer hours, but they can't do it because the food quality is too high and it would cost too much. that is a rouge interpretation of one rep and it sounds OK on the surface... the indulge food hall is great and serves high quality food! the problem is that he also said - essentially - that it was too expensive to operate and that is why NCL has chosen to deprive its valuable guests of high quality food. that is not a message that NCL wishes to promote, i'm sure.

you're correct, but there is a workaround. the "trick" is to book those first before reserving other (a la carte) restaurants. if your cruise has two FAS meals, plus two platinum meals... book the fixed price restaurants first, such as moderno or teppanyaki, then book the a la care restaurants, such as cagney's and le bistro. if you've already reserved beyond what your FAS meals cover, the system will always try to charge you for the prix fix. if you do it in reverse, there should be no problem. if you want to book all your meals at fixed price restaurants, there is no workaround.

one thing to remember is that the POA, due to its routing within the USA and complicated laws regarding how you can staff a ship that doesn't leave the USA, has a completely american crew. that has caused staffing issues and some people believe quality of service issues. i was born and bred in america, but i do believe that the foreign born staff on most of the other NCL ships are more dedicated to service. hospitality is in their blood and they take great pride in service and customer satisfaction. many of the frontline american crew members on the POA are just passing through on their way to their next gig. so, some of the negative comments you hear about the POA may be related to its crew.

well, actually, they probably should be trained to say something like "our air program offers a wonderful opportunity for you to save money, if you're flexible with your time and don't have a preferred airline." if you're trying to sell something, you shouldn't emphasize the product's drawbacks! that statement says basically the same thing, but in reverse... hey, you can save money if you're flexible, thereby emphasizing the product's chief benefit, but also opening it up for a discussion as to how the program works. "well, what do you mean if i'm flexible?" "NCL chooses the most affordable routing from the airlines available to us at the time the air travel is coordinated." "that sounds OK, but I only travel on delta and american airlines." "well, in that case, we'd ask you to book your own flights directly with those airlines. we can't guarantee a flight on any particular airline, so the NCL air program is probably not a good fit with your travel plans." that's a very different conversation than "yeah, i hear ya. NCL air sucks. a lot of my customers tell me that. i don't recommend it." just sayin.'

you are correct. i think i'm confusing it with the breakaway. no lunch at moderno on the breakaway when i sailed.

i think it may have stopped long before covid. i was on the bliss in december of 2019... no free lunch at moderno or any other specialty restaurant.

los lobos is not on several NCL ships.

when haven passengers mix with gen pop, they should play by gen pop rules. it really is as simple as that. that doesn't mean they can't have a special section set aside for them in the theatre. that doesn't mean they shouldn't get priority embarkation or priority tenders. that doesn't mean they shouldn't have private elevators. it does mean that they shouldn't be escorted through a back entrance to a small venue and proceed to occupy 75% of the seats. (and, yeah, i understand the difference between seating capacity and occupancy.) what's next? a haven omelet station in the buffet for the express use of haven guests? a haven service bar for the express use of haven guests at the gen pop pool? special opening hours for indulge just for haven guests? if you venture out of the private cocoon that is the haven, be prepared to meet and mingle with your fellow passengers. and play by gen pop rules. (by the way, that doesn't mean that hosts and servers in the local and other restaurants won't still fawn all over you when they see the haven designation on your key card. i call that the haven halo and it's a real thing. but it doesn't extend to giving you the right to bypass queuing up in other parts of the ship.) again, i've sailed in the haven and i feel this way whether i'm sailing in the haven or not.

online check-in time begins at midnight ET, regardless of where the cruise is embarking. so your check-in should be available at midnight tonight. the exception is at midnight on a saturday night, when they sometimes do maintenance at NCL.com. in that case, check-in usually becomes available at around 6 am. the advantage to being the first to book is to get your preferred check-in time at the pier. typically, those that want 9:30 or 10 or 10:30 am check-in times at the pier need to check in online promptly before those times disappear. check-in time at the pier is not the same as boarding time, but many believe in waiting in a short line at the pier, then sitting around, then being among the first to board, so they can maximize their time on the ship. the alternative is waiting in a somewhat longer line later in the day, but boarding right away. the choice is yours, but if you want an early check-in time. those tend to disappear within a few hours of online check-in opening up.

where did you find these images? none come up on image searches through tineye or google. and the press release for the expanded NCL/starbucks partnership does not mention the availability of this merchandise.

because there are many more readers than posters; CC has nearly two million registered users and over six million visitors a month. there are over fifty million posts, reviews and photos. and its reach goes far beyond that. CC is frequently cited by the media as a leading source of information on cruising: CNN, ABC, fox news, the washington post, forbes, conde nast traveler, travel+leisure, bloomberg, huff post, new york post, the new york times, the los angeles times, boston globe, miami herald, reader's digest, CNBC, us news and world report, a cruise line would ignore those visitor numbers and access to those media outlets at its own peril. perhaps. perhaps not. there was a recent well-documented case in which a woman's cruise (for her and her family) was canceled with no refund because of an app glitch. she reached out directly to NCL and they responded in platitudes and did nothing. it was only after she complained on cruise critic and other social media sites that they apologized and agreed to give her credit for a future cruise. some "travel professionals" may not think highly of social media sites because they make their job more difficult, if only because knowledge is power. years ago, you often had to use a travel agent because they had proprietary knowledge and access to book certain things mere mortals could not, for the most part, that is no longer true. social media sites, along with online booking, have democratized travel. what "travel professionals" don't like about social media sites are fake reviews and what they view as unsubstantiated complaints. and they probably don't like that in many cases they have had to hire employees to document and respond to posts. but they generally love the increased focus on their brands by passionate travelers and the increased business sites like cruise critic bring them.

things that are also not guaranteed: the availability of coffee, tea, orange juice, toilet paper, mini-golf, olives in your martini, swiss cheese on your hamburger or ice in your drink. it doesn't say anywhere that those things are "guaranteed." in fact, there is something in the terms that speaks to the individual components of the booked holiday and how no refund will be due in the case of NCL's failure to provide. but you have a reasonable right to expect that you can have ice in your drink (if you want it) and hot coffee in your cup. people will often complain if access to these items is denied, and rightfully so. my goodness, people practically threw themselves off the duomo in protest of the switch from pepsi to coke! (which is a whole different matter, but it does speak to passengers' dedication and passion.) people have a reasonable expectation of being able to see an advertised show, if they do what is expected of them. in the case of syd's, that means queuing up in advance to get one of the limited number of seats. no reasonable person would expect that the seating capacity of the venue would be reduced by as much as 75%.

you pay to be escorted to syd norman's? where is that listed as a haven benefit? i'm not being a smart aleck; i'd just like to know. most commonly, i see the haven concierge and butler benefit described as offering help in booking "dining and entertainment" reservations and shore excursions. syd's is certainly entertainment, but they don't except reservations, so, i'm baffled as to why getting into an incredibly small venue is an expectation of some haven guests. i've been a haven guest several times and didn't have that expectation. if, as reported upthread, haven guests are occupying 75% of the seats at some shows... that's just wrong on many levels. for starters, haven guests do not comprise 75% of the ship's passengers, so the ratio for the potential benefit is way off. i'm not saying that a mistake was made by stating that haven guests were 75% of the audience. i'm saying it would be a pretty dumb decision to let a small percentage of the ship's guests "rule the roost" in a public venue. the analogy to being able to get a restaurant reservation on short notice when none are otherwise available is an apples to oranges thing... you're asking for one reservation for (presumably) two or four people in a restaurant with a capacity that far exceeds syd norman's. the butler or concierge is not escorting dozens of people en masse to cagney's, i can assure you. as far as disagreeing... what we're really disagreeing about is whether an individual haven guest feels comfortable accepting such a perk. we can't disagree about whether or not it's the butler's or concierge's job to get haven guests into syd norman's. it is not.

no problem whatsoever with taking the liquor provided for one cabin and transferring it to another, as a continuing passenger on the same ship. you can carry it your hands, put it in a sack, put it in your bags, or throw it over your shoulder like a continental soldier. nobody will be the slightest bit concerned.

that's not entirely true. they WILL let you use this money, provided you use this money (FCC) under the terms you agreed to. look, i think everybody here is sympathetic to your plight. you either didn't keep close tabs on the expiration date, and/or never looked closely at the terms and/or life's circumstances have prevented you from focusing on redeeming these credits until now. but your characterization of NCL as being unbending and inflexible for doing what they said they were going to do is odd. i get that you're disappointed, but you should be disappointed in yourself for letting such a valuable credit (nearly) expire. i regularly find fault with NCL policies and practices and customer service (or lack thereof), but this is not something about which i would get my knickers in a twist. THIS may be your best shot. you could make a direct appeal to NCL stating that until "recently" you were prevented by government regulations from traveling freely. and that NCL FCC restrictions don't acknowledge that. chances of success with that line of reasoning are better than simply saying the expiration deadline is unfair. this strategy assumes that you accurately represent the governmental travel restriction and it very much depends on how you define "recently." if it's a year, as you mentioned in the beginning of that sentence, then your plea may not be successful at all, as a year would generally be considered adequate time to plan and take a cruise, under the original terms.

the venue on the prima is very small and many assume it will be the same on the viva, as well. so that may mean that it will be difficult to get a seat.

i don't travel on princess, but my experience tells me that the cruise you're already booked on won't show a casino rate for that cruise because you're already comped or discounted on that specific cruise. is that functionality built into the site? can you normally view casino rates for a cruise that you're already booked on? as for no other cruises showing casino rates... how many cruises do you currently have booked and does princess have a limit to the number of cruises you can have booked at one time? if so, have you reached the maximum? (in which case I can understand why they might not display casino rates for you.)

many people do this on every cruise. sometimes there are 40 continuing passengers, sometimes 200 or more. depends on the itinerary. i'm on an upcoming prima roll call here on cruise critic where it seems like half the ship (or at least half the roll call) will be doing a B2B. you will need to vacate your first cabin at the usual time, probably no later than 9:30. most areas of the ship will be open for you to hang out in, however, food service may be limited. yes, you can stop in at guest services and confirm that you are on the list of continuing passengers, but your travel agent or cruise consultant is chiefly responsible for first noting this in your reservation. i did a B2B on the joy last year. in that case, with new york being the port, they did not require us to get off the ship. they brought immigration officers onboard who cleared everybody in one of the clubs or lounges. you will receive special luggage tags in your stateroom a day or two before the first cruise ends. they will indicate that your bags are continuing on the next cruise and the packet will have complete instructions on what to do. generally, they ask you to leave the bags in your room, with the luggage tags attached. my understanding is that it is the first stateroom's attendant who is responsible for transporting your bags to the next stateroom. if you're able to stay onboard, listen for the crew announcement. at some point, the captain or the cruise director will come on the PA and address the staff. you'll learn how many passengers are on the next cruise, their average age, how many kids will be traveling, as well as which staff departed or will be new to this sailing and various other data points or obstacles relating to the upcoming cruise. it's usually pretty interesting.

most of them, yes. thanks very much for asking. i'm a very frequent flyer, a super premium elite flyer, the kind who gets rebooked by the airline before the flight is even canceled, while the connecting flight is still in the air. i do know what most of those codes and numbers mean. and none of them carries a hidden message to treat flyers unfavorably if they purchased their tickets through a so-called "third party." (which is, in most cases, actually a second party, but why quibble among such esteemed friends and fellow cruisers?) the source of the ticket revenue can be found by any gate agent or airline employee with just a few key strokes, but it's irrelevant to the rebooking process, unless a refund is being offered.

um, no. in the case of rebooking after an air travel interruption, the priority is super premium elite frequent flyers, followed by premium elite flyers, followed by elite flyers, followed by premium cabin passengers, followed by coach passengers (for instance, a passenger who has united airlines global services status traveling on a discounted coach ticket has greater status than a generic united mileage plus member who has purchased a first class ticket.) how they purchased their ticket - directly from the airline, through a travel agent, through a consolidator, through another airline or a travel website or other so-called "third party" or by cashing in frequent flyer miles - has absolutely no bearing on the airline's legal responsibility to get the distressed traveler to their destination nor does it factor into the priority or courtesy given them during the rebooking process.

i am not.

using a specific certificate at any of those restaurants is the same, sure, but the certificates and the credits are not the same. first, you need to determine at which meal you want your "free" bottle of wine. you only have one latitudes coupon that includes a free bottle of wine. your remaining latitudes coupon and your FAS dining credit each carry different restrictions. the latitudes coupon is good for one appetizer, one entrée, and one dessert, whereas people report some success with the FAS credit in getting additional appetizers, sides and desserts. (that may be changing with all the recent changes and cutbacks.) so, some strategy many come into play in deciding where to redeem which.

the problem with arguing with a straw man is the sudden twists and turns in the wind. oh, it's this thing.... once that thing is successfully debunked, it's this other thing over here. when that is successfully debunked, it becomes some new and different thing over there. for the record, it's the passenger's status, achieved either through purchasing a premium class ticket or by achieving an elite status in the airline's frequent flyer program, that may determine priority or preferential treatment. and that status carries over regardless of where or how they purchased their ticket.