UKstages

that is true. on the bermuda side. we don't actually know whether bermuda is cross referencing anything with NCL. they might if NCL says they have 2900 passengers, but bernuda says they issued 3000 TAs. or to resolve some other discrepancy. but the check-in agents only take a cursory look at your bermuda TA and your negative test result. no record is kept of either and i seriously doubt that any data is being transmitted to bermuda other than the number of passengers who checked in and the number of passengers who had proper TAs and negative test results. after all, if bermuda asked to see a particular passenger's test results, NCL would be unable to comply, so what would be the point? all bermuda is interested in is whether everybody who boarded had a proper TA and a negative test result. most people report receiving their TA 7 - 10 days before their cruise, regardless of when they submitted their request. people who submitted the same week as the cruise often report 24 hour service, particularly if they called or emailed.

i'm not really sure they're actually doing that. in fact, i'm pretty sure they're not. i think it's more likely that they simply verify and attest to bermuda that all passengers showed valid and timely negative test results before boarding... in the aggregate... i doubt they upload anything or tie anything to a specific travel authorization record.

bringing guests into the haven to dine is not guaranteed. it's at at the discretion of - and with the permission of - the haven restaurant maître d and/or concierge. permission is rarely denied, except if it's incredibly busy or the privilege has been abused (such as having guests for every meal in the haven). technically, you can't count on bringing guests into the haven. but if you're able to, then those charges apply.

ask five different NCL employees a question, get eight different answers.

while it appears that they have released the kraken, it is apparently in limited release... only available in certain bars on board.

technically, that's what is still printed in the rules. in practice, most people have reported that there is no limit on entree price, except you will be billed applicable upcharges for crab cakes or other items, as noted on the menu. this was my experience last week on the joy, where all the ordered entrees exceeded $35.

regarding solo travelers... there is a big difference between solo travelers and solo diners. i don't believe anybody has mentioned this! up to now, when a solo platinum (or above) traveler received a platinum dinner coupon, that solo traveler could invite a new onboard friend to dinner and the coupon would absolutely cover two meals consumed by two people dining together, regardless of whether they were sharing the same cabin. i can't imagine that has changed or that NCL's intent is to deny a two meal per coupon benefit to a solo traveler who invites someone to dinner. so, does the rule really apply to solo travelers or to solo diners? in my view, it applies to solo diners and NCL is just using sloppy language in the disclaimer, as it so often does. in any event, this is not new... the "one meal for platinum members dining alone" policy has always been in place with these dinner coupons. regarding the rationale behind this... several people have said that many (not all) solo cruisers pay nearly double for their cabin on a per person basis and that is why this is unfair. while that may be true, that logic shouldn't really apply to the redemption of an earned benefit. as a platinum (or above) latitudes member, you've earned two dinners, each consisting of two entrees. and two entrees (along with apps and dessert), regardless of whether consumed at the same time or consumed separately, cost NCL essentially the same amount of money to fulfill. that's the problem. that's the rationale for why this is unfair. you've earned the equivalent of four entrees, but solo diners are only be given the opportunity to enjoy two and don't receive full value. it's about the value of the promised benefit, not how much you paid to sail. NCL has made an arbitrary decision to limit redemption to two coupons, probably because it would be too confusing for their staff to distribute four solo dining coupons OR two coupons for two meals for those traveling together. so, they give all platinum (and above) members two dining coupons and insist that they each be used for two meals consumed at the same time by two people. they have every right to do so (their ships, their loyalty program, their rules), but it's not very customer-friendly for solo "travelers."

it applies worldwide, as far as i know, including europe. it depends entirely on the laws of the local jurisdiction... some demand that taxes be collected; some do not.

sure you can... if you have the imagination to redesign the ship with that in mind. you're falling prey to "current thinking" which dictates that what has always been done must be done. there is no law that says that a storage closet can't have a balcony extension or empty outdoor space adjacent to it. or that officers' quarters can't be built adjacent to a slide or under a noisy bar or theatre. as for maximizing revenue from balconies, they're not doing a very good job of it if a number of balcony cabins are harder to sell or will have to be sold at deep discounts because of the slide running through or near the balcony. a creative way of attacking this problem would be to make sure that there are no customer cabins near such obvious undesirable and unexpected obstructions.

local laws require taxes to be charged on food and drink "purchases" while in and near many ports, until you are in international waters. it can be an hour or 90 minutes after sail away until taxes are no longer charged... it can be much longer in some ports, such as new orleans, from which it takes longer to sail out into international waters. taxes are charged on the retail price of the drink, even if you have a drink package. you're not charged for the drink, just the tax on the drink.

i have often thought that obstructions like slides should be built adjacent to storage rooms, crew elevators or other non-premium space... even crew quarters. typically, the crew is housed on lower decks in the bowels of the ship... but they don't necessarily have to be. you're building a new ship... you're reimagining the passenger experience. there's no reason you can't reimagine the crew member's experience. or plan for obstructions to be built adjacent to non-customer-facing areas. in my vision, if you have hard-to-sell inventory with major noise problems or structural design flaws that affect the view or habitability of a number of cabins, then give those cabins to a crew member. why not house room stewards or butlers near the staterooms they service in these less than desirable cabins? if NCL doesn't want rank and file employees in there, then give the cabins to the ship's officers... the GM, the chief engineer and such. if they need a bigger cabin due to their positions, then the ship could have been designed that way... with sprawling suites or apartment-style accommodations next to the slides... to be occupied by the ships officers and executives. and if they need smaller cabins for stewards and such, the space could have been redesigned for multiple crew cabins in the same space as one passenger cabin. and if that idea won't fly for some reason... again, with all the storage and dead areas on a typical deck, there really is nothing preventing ship designers from building slides and other obstructions adjacent to dead space like storage closets and elevators... nothing except a lack of imagination, that is.

no, it makes no sense at all, as i clearly stated above: "i also showed them my receipt for $0 (and contained no $6.00 charge)." it was indeed a mistake and they reversed the charge. however, it is possible that they may have upcharged me for somebody else's crab cake after the fact, as, again, there was no $6 charge on the bill. the bill was for zero dollars.

no. typically, room readiness is announced at the same time for the haven as any other stateroom. however, i have always been able to drop my bag off and put things in the safe, after a quick introduction and with the permission of the room steward. also typically, even with a "check-in" time of 10 AM, you're probably not boarding the ship till 11:30 or noon.

just completed 15 days on the joy on a back-to-back. i'd say about 30% of the crew was wearing masks. i'd say about 10% of the passengers were wearing masks at the start. but that grew to maybe 20% by the end, as there appeared to be a lot of covid cases on board. why do i say that? some shows were canceled due to "medical" reasons, some crew members and servers would mysteriously disappear without explanation and other crew members would go silent when asked about them, while other crew members and servers (that you hadn't seen before in the first five or six days of the cruise) would suddenly appear. one show i saw the first week had an additional cast member when i saw it again the second week (who wasn't in it the first week). he wasn't a replacement... it was a musical revue and it was obvious he just wasn't in it the previous week. the other cast members apparently covered his "track." now, there can be a lot of reasons that cast members and crew members suddenly disappear, but given the amount of sneezing, coughing and sniffling on this cruise and the candid talk from crew members about covid being present, and the chatter from those infected that I overheard on nearby balconies, and the candid disclosures in bars and restaurants by those who said their traveling companions were sick (while they themselves continued to mingle unmasked with the gen pop, rather than isolating), i'd say this was a cruise with a significant number of cases, largely unreported. my traveling companion and i both tested positive the day we returned.

it's unlikely that premium plus was included in your package. the standard offering is "premium." an upgrade to "plus" gets you water, starbucks coffee, better "premium" alcohol selections and select wines by the bottle... basically almost any drink available on board. it is also unlikely that if plus was included, they would allow you to purchase it again, although NCL's IT infrastructure is not the greatest, so anything is - technically - possible.

i had a cagney's charge of $6.00 that appeared on my statement for the joy last week. i went to guest services to have it removed and they told me it must have been taxes on drinks that were consumed near port. i said i only had one drink and the taxes wouldn't be $6.00 on the one drink and - besides - i dined at 9 pm and sailaway was at 4 pm... we were nowhere near port. i also showed them my receipt for $0 (and contained no $6.00 charge). they had to send a message to the cagney's team to get the charge removed, but it did take a day and a half until a credit was applied to my bill.

your comments align perfectly with what i wrote above about the data being cross referenced behind the scenes and how one has to fill out all the information. my main point was that the arrivecan site and app tell you to have the QR code ready to display when you get off the ship. some people fret about this because they don't have a cell phone or a printer. in my personal experience, and from talking to others, nobody has ever asked to see the arrivecan QR clearance code. so, it's a bit of unnecessary misdirection for the arrivecan folks to say that it's required. filling out the data is required... displaying the QR code is - apparently - a once in a blue moon thing... at least for now. with an uptick in covid and more stringent entry standards, everybody may have to display it in the future.

the runner's job is precisely as you described... "going all over the ship... fulfilling those crazy requests." you personally may not feel comfortable with this, you may feel it violates some unwritten rule about the treatment of your fellow humans, but it is not inhumane to make a request that NCL has determined can be fulfilled by said runner. whether or not they have been working 12 hours is an entirely different issue! if indeed they have been working 12 hours and if you feel that is inhumane, then, by all means, organize a labor action or encourage the staff to negotiate new rules for their contract. but it's probably not best to chastise others who are making requests that NCL has encouraged them to make. one need only look at post #121 to see how far haven restaurant employees are willing to (over)extend themselves to please their guests. the thrust of most comments here has been about whether it is unseemly or impolite to make such requests or if these requests would tax the haven staff and lead to inefficiencies and poor service for other diners. i just got off the joy and i'll tell you what is highly inefficient about dining in the haven restaurant.... drink service. there is no bar in the haven restaurant! EVERY drink has to be laboriously fetched from a bar which is reached by walking down a long flight on a spiral staircase. up and down the waiters (or runners) must go to get every cocktail. yes, there is an elevator located nearby, but they don't use it. they bring trays of drinks up that damn flight of stairs all day and night long. that's crazy pants! all this talk of somebody occasionally being asked to go to the local to get a raspberry swirl cheesecake brownie and not a word about the hundreds of drinks a day that have to be balanced precariously on a tray and delivered slowly as the server/runner walks up those damn stairs. where is the outrage? these folks spend far more time fetching drinks than they do food from an MDR! interesting. it does say right on the menu that cheese substitutions for the "brie burger" are encouraged or welcomed or whatever (not the exact wording). so, presumably, they should be prepared for that. i ordered a burger three or four times last week and always ordered it with swiss cheese... no problem and no noticeable delay. and i heard others ordering the burger with american cheese and cheddar. i was told something else that i found surprising. my traveling companion wanted eggs with her steak at lunch. we figured that wasn't really a special request since "steak and eggs" is on the breakfast menu. and "steak" is on the lunch menu. turns out, they break down the kitchen after every service. at least that was what we were told. the kitchen is apparently provisioned anew for every meal service. so, even if they have eggs leftover from the morning breakfast service, they will have been removed from the kitchen before lunch and only the food items needed to prepare lunch are brought in. this is in keeping with the haven maitre d's insistence that you give him a day or so for any special requests, but the whole thing seems kind of crazy. don't you need eggs for the seafood fritto misto batter? or is that already pre-made and brought in when they provision?

just "back" from a back-to-back on the joy. visited cagney's on each cruise. ordered the 8 oz. filet each time... once on FAS promo, once using a platinum certificate... no extra charge for exceeding $35. also ordered an "extra" appetizer (during the platinum certificate dinner) and no charge for that, either. it's true... the server will tell you only one is allowed, but the point-of-sale software and inventory management system is what will calculate and print your bill. and it is apparently programmed to allow more than one app. YMMV.

not all tournament participants will be finalists from other tournaments held on board other ships throughout the year. some will be "invited guests," which is casino parlance for "qualified players," who generally get a free cruise as well as the tournament entry. i received an invitation for this, but will probably not go, even though the offer is tempting. (while i enjoy the breakaway, the casino is small and smoking is allowed throughout, which i don't enjoy. i also did this itinerary last december.) the prize structure for this tournament - and here it appears that there is just one prize of 100K - is based on a minimum of 75 participants. i played a similar (17.5K) tournament two weeks ago on the joy and the prize structure was also based on 75 participants, but there were about 140 who came onboard for the tournament. i finished first in each of my first two rounds, which means nothing because many other people finished first with much higher scores than i had. my third round was a bust. that tournament had prizes that ranged from 7.5K in cash down to $100 in free play. they did allow up to two "rebuys" for $30 each. (i declined.) a rebuy round lets you replace a bad score with a better score, if you get a better score the second time around. the tournament your wife is playing in on the 12/4 breakaway cruise allows two rebuys per participant as well... for $150 each! it's a money grab for sure, but if you have two strong rounds, it might be worth ponying up for a rebuy if your third round is less than stellar.

i'm just off a ten day canada/new england cruise on the joy. it's absolutely true that you have to fill out the arrivecan app... even if you're not getting off the ship. based on my experience this week/last week, however, i'd say it's extremely unlikely that anyone will ever ask to see the QR code contained within the app, or to ask you to open the app or display a printout. we were not asked a single question in any canadian port and nobody even looked at identification except when returning to the ship. that's not to say that they're not collecting all the information and cross referencing it behind the scenes. and so you might be flagged if you don't fill it out. you gotta fill it out. but don't be disappointed if nobody ever asks to see it once completed and submitted. you also have to fill out a canadian customs form once onboard the ship, prior to arrival at your first canadian port. that gets submitted to your room steward.

video poker has and always will be a game of both skill and luck. skill is knowing the mathematical probabilities of which of the dealt cards to hold for the particular game you're playing. skill is knowing to hold only three aces (in certain games) when dealt a pat full house and throwing away the remaining pair. luck is having the fourth ace arrive on the draw. there is a reason casinos, on land and sea, reward twice as many players club points for slots than video poker. and it's not because video poker is a "sucker's bet." video poker is one of your best bets in a casino and is usually the only machine in the casino on which you can figure out the payback just by looking at the screen. try that with a slot machine! the expected return on VP can be over 100%, but you won't find that pay table on an NCL - or any other - ship. as for confirming a downgrade to the VP paytables on board NCL ships... i just got off the joy this morning and played a lot of VP... i didn't see any downgrades on the joy. but i was playing mostly UX, three and five line. i did put a couple of hundred or two through a single line TDB at the $1 denomination and it was 8/5, which is what it was on my last cruise. not great, but cruise-ship playable. (maybe the joy got the coca-cola upgrade, but not the VP downgrade?) no self respecting casino manager, on land or sea, would put in a 7/5 paytable at the $1 or $5 denomination and expect people to play that. you might expect to see 7/5 at quarters (unplayable), 8/5 at $1 (marginal, considering where you are) and 9/5 at $5.

this. a thousand times this. i, too, was on this cruise. i left shortly after the ship was cleared. yes, i had to go through CBP for a cursory two question examination as a US citizen. got my blue sticker. when i returned to the ship four hours later, there were still long lines of non-US citizens waiting to get off the ship! i've traveled extensively around the world by air and by sea. the US is the only country that doesn't get this right. never have i had to wait in unreasonable lines as a guest in another country. this is an embarrassment. most US citizens were cleared. at 4 PM, there were still very long lines of non-US citizens waiting to be cleared. i would guesstimate 250 or 300 people. a shanda for the americans.

i'm just off the joy... no charge for mini-golf! of course the "course" is pathetic. nine holes (presumably) crowded into a small space big enough for three. it looked like a mini-golf course in a forgotten town where looters had stolen all the clowns and windmills and run steam rollers over the astroturf.

not to pick nits, but this is - technically - not true. there are daily flights out of LGA to canada, which makes it an international airport, although almost everybody forgets this and considers it a domestic airport. with recent renovations to several terminals, it now provides one of the more pleasant new york metro airport experiences. and it is indeed possible to begin a journey to europe or asia out of LGA. i've done it several times. (of course, you have to fly first to another USA hub, or to canada.) i'm not suggesting that NCL would book someone on such a circuitous journey, but it is possible, especially with the screwy way they try to maximize underutilized flights. (the flights to toronto out of LGA are short and efficient, by the way. and, depending on the day and time of departure, a first leg out of laguardia might actually make sense.)