UKstages

u.s. customs and border protection.

yes, platinum meal coupons can now be used at virtually every restaurant fleet-wide. but i thought there was some talk here in the forum about one restaurant being excluded (onda, perhaps?) because the wine list was incompatible with the platinum terms. is that not the case?

that is correct. platinum meal coupons have different restrictions than the FAS meal plans.

prior to sailing? you can tell if cabins are available by making multiple mock bookings, but there really is no reliable or definitive way to tell the number of passengers that will be sailing with you on departure day.

my belief is that the smoked meats served in "Q" onboard many NCL ships are not smoked or cooked from scratch on the ship... they are likely smoked in some land-based central kitchen and reheated and "finished" just before serving. i don't think they're using microwaves, however. as for the OP and what she might need a microwave for... i think it's more about when, not what. my sense is that many items from the kids menu and the buffet will indeed have appeal, but the hunger pangs might occur when the buffet or other venues are closed. that's my take.

i'm pretty sure they had uncooked beef. it doesn't take long to go from raw to medium rare. ask them to get you medium rare beef, if that's what you want! if you do, and the gaucho points to something on the skewer that's too well done, say, "no, i want it much redder than that" or "that's cooked too much." they hear this all the time and they are prepared to answer the call... they aim to please. presumably, you were in the restaurant for at least an hour. they easily could have brought you whatever you preferred. it is, after all, the operating principle behind a churrascaria. i've had really bad experiences at some moderno locations, but it was never because food was unavailable. they were usually lapses in service. there has always been more meat than anyone should be allowed to consume, available in what ever temperature one desired. let them know what you'd like. you are truly the captain of your fate and the master of your soul. also, for the record, they're probably not using charcoal at moderno.

uh, no, that wasn't the reason,.

the need for tim depends on where you live, i guess. there are actually over 600 tim horton's locations throughout he USA (with over 200 of those located in new york state.)

i've had good and bad experiences at most of these restaurants, depending on the ship. cagney's has been sensational or ordinary. moderno has been phenomenal or rudimentary. le bistro has been uniformly wonderful, however, regardless of the ship... it's usually the best meal of the voyage. as for the meat temperature at moderno, you can get whatever you want and it's usually perfectly cooked... ask the gaucho (the guy who serves your meat off of large skewers) for what you prefer... if he doesn't have it (and he usually does, off a different part of the skewer), he will send over the guy who does. same thing goes for your preferred meat... if you favor one more than the other and want more, they'll send over a gaucho to give you that particular meat or cut. moderno also has the best salad bar on board and many non-meat eaters will go to moderno just for the salad bar.

very disappointed to stumble upon this thread revealing all the secrets of the thermal spa. the first rule of thermal spa is that there is no thermal spa.

yes, you can. reserve online or call within the specified time frame for your tier level or cabin. or reserve once you get on board. the reservation is independent of the payment method. you give them the coupon when you arrive at the venue.

no tier matching, but you'll get a percentage discount as a CZR diamond player, if you purchase a cruise. it's more than likely that you've been given a "free" cruise offer by visiting a CZR casino. redeem that... once having sailed with NCL, you'll probably get far better offers directly from NCL's casino at sea program than you would from caesars. cruise line casino player development execs will sometimes match status from other cruise line casino players' clubs, but rarely from a land-based casino.

not exactly. they typically have a "glow" party, usually featuring glow sticks. you can wear whatever color you like

that's sort of true. but also sort of not. the rule still applies, regardless of whether a declaration form is being used... but the language is very broad. i've traveled extensively by air and also by sea. and several times, with packaged food, such as jam from england and maple syrup from canada and cheese from holland (via aruba), i have asked about this very thing. and they have always said: "no, no, we don't care about that. we want to know about raw or organic food, plants and meats." and they just waved me through. they're looking for balut, they're looking for plants, they're looking for uncooked meat and fish. anything packaged and sealed is generally OK. as for maple syrup, on my most recent cruise on the joy, after coming back on board with two bottles of maple syrup... the NCL security personnel insisted - after viewing them in the x-ray machine - that i had alcoholic beverages and they asked me to open my bag.

can't hurt to ask, but it will almost definitely be a waste of time. make sure you go when there is no line. by all means, let us know what the response is, but i'd be shocked (shocked, i tell ya) if they elevated your tier status mid-cruise. i hope they do, but i doubt they will. they will do it on the second leg of a back-to-back cruise because your points from the first cruise will have already posted. as noted in post #4, your status doesn't change until after the cruise ends. the cruise next folks (who handle latitudes rewards issues) have no means or rationale to elevate you mid-cruise. they will pull up your account and verify that you're at your current level. they can't do anything if your status hasn't already changed "in the system."

will you be purchasing an NCL beverage plan? if so, there is no longer any corkage fee. if not, they generally send you to guest services, i think, to pay the fee, but some folks report that sometimes the staff are unprepared or uninterested in charging you the corkage fee, especially for one bottle.

as noted in post #199, it's now the "flow" brand, fleet-wide across all of NCL.

doug, were your neighbors elderly or hard of hearing? i see post after post on cruise critic about how even thinking about amorous activity can cause noise that can be heard in adjacent cabins, but somehow a guitar and "normal" singing can not?

can you explain this in more detail? i just completed a back-to-back and did not find this to be the case.

is the google machine broken in your neck of the woods? you'll find that third hand smoke has been discussed as far back as the 1950s. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/third-hand-smoke/faq-20057791 https://www.cancercenter.com/community/blog/2019/01/thirdhand-smoke-what-is-it-and-what-are-its-risks https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3040625/ https://news.yale.edu/2020/03/04/third-hand-smoke-no-joke-can-convey-hazardous-chemicals https://health.clevelandclinic.org/thirdhand-smoke/

this could be easily fixed if NCL hosted the videos on its site, rather than using youtube. if they hosted the videos, they would have data on who viewed them and then could send those pesky reminder emails only to those who hadn't viewed them... or hadn't viewed them all the way through. they could even supply separate links for each passenger in a cabin. but even then, they'd have no idea who - in a party of several people traveling together - has actually viewed and who hasn't. if the strategy is to get people to watch the video more than once, they could still send reminders. but, as it stands now, they have no idea who has viewed the videos and who hasn't. all they know is that somebody associated with a particular email clicked the link to go to youtube. and visiting youtube, of course, does not necessarily mean that you watched the video.

it depends on when your dinner reservation is and if the ship's departure is delayed. many times, out of new york, you could be eating dinner and the ship might only just have left port. you could sit down, i suppose, and tell the server that you only want your bottle served once you're in "tax free" waters. but, yeah, an hour and a half is a pretty safe bet that there is no longer tax being charged.

all the fine folks who say that some are just being grouchy or overly sensitive are ignoring this inconvenient truth: NCL prohibits door decorations and they don't leave it to passengers to decide what constitutes a safety risk. you're not allowed to skip your muster station check-in, even if you're sure you know where to report in the event of an emergency; you're not allowed to vape surreptitiously on the pool deck or in the buffet even if you're sure you're not bothering anybody, and you're not allowed to smoke on your balcony because you have determined in your infinite wisdom that you're in the open air and it isn't bothering anybody. no means no. the fact that many vape and smoke and decorate their doors with impunity is a different issue. clearly, when it comes to muster station check-in, NCL ain't kidding around. with regard to these other issues, enforcement is more lax. that doesn't mean passengers have permission to do these things. don't be distracted by the fact that many (myself included) don't like door decorations and think they're tacky. that is not the issue. the issue is that it's a fire hazard and NCL prohibits the practice.

the operative words here are "to use the unlimited wifi I purchased as an upgrade on their device." once you upgrade to a purchased plan, if you attempt to share that plan, then, yes, you can only be logged into one device at a time. what's being talked about elsewhere are "free minutes" doled out on a person to person basis. the same principle would apply, by the way; you can only be logged in on one device, but every person who has a plan can be logged in (to some device or other, one device at a time) simultaneously, because they are on different plans.

what a great read that was... so well written and so fair with its praise and criticism. i was on the joy on the cruise immediately preceding you and i share most of your sentiments about the haven staff and the crew overall. (i'm toying with doing a post myself to share some of my kudos, observations and frustrations.) again, thanks for taking the time to share your experience. it was a really fun read!