UKstages

you can book shows at the box office or via touch screen when you get onboard. if you find that your preferred showtimes conflict with your pre-booked specialty dining reservations, try to rebook on Day 1. there is usually one restaurant desk set up for that, but most restaurants can handle it for you. want vibe passes? they sell out quickly. so try to buy those ASAP. do you have OBC and have been waiting to buy additional specialty dining packages or excursions? do that and charge it to the room so it consumes OBC (if you had done it before day 1, your credit card would have been charged).

flat, with rounded edges, in my experience.

lots to comment on here, but let me start with the word "tip." TIP is almost certainly not an acronym. very few pre-20th century words are acronyms and "tip" dates back to the 1600s. and, yes, if it were an acronym, it would in fact be "tep," because you are indeed attempting to "ensure" a level of service, not "insure" it. but, as pointed out, that makes little sense because tips are almost always given out after service has been provided (with apologies to sthrngary, who is know to "tip" butlers up front). the word "tip" was used by thieves and beggars as part of a secret language they developed so that others wouldn't know what they were talking about. its original meaning was "to give or to share." over the next hundred years or so, the word somehow transformed to its modern meaning. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tip-sheet/ with regard to the comment that we must remember that - for most butlers - english is a second language... that may be true, but that is probably true of 90% of the ship's crew. in many cases, and particularly in the case of filipino workers, they are chosen specifically because of their english language proficiency. it's the same reason the philippines has taken over as the number one country for outsourced contact centers. in my experience, most NCL butlers are filipino. i have spent an extraordinary amount of time in the philippines on business and the folks are very customer service oriented and they will do anything they are asked.... but the request must be explicitly stated. any misunderstandings are usually due to cultural upbringing and not language gaffes. just as with a restaurant server, it's a two way street. the guest must first properly state the request. (this is, perhaps, why gary's recommendations to give a letter or printed list to your butler works so well.) with regard to a butler's repeated reminders to tip... that's completely inappropriate, in my opinion. the reason it's different than a card on the desk or an envelope with a staff member's name on it is because those things are passive, whereas the butler's comments are aggressive.

waiting time will vary greatly depending on the ship's projected capacity and by individual passenger's time of arrival. i walked by the pier today at about 2 PM and there was barely anybody there (outside). as you know, bermuda departures in many cities are reporting lots of delays associated with people not having cleared the TA process or having submitted the paperwork incorrectly or not at all. i sailed from this pier a few weeks ago and it was madness inside, but my ship was at 98% capacity. security line took about 40 minutes. and the second line, once past security was for document checks (vax and covid test results) and that line took about 90 minutes. and that was without bermuda being on the itinerary. my best advice would be to get a check-in time that is either very early in the morning or late in the afternoon if the object is to avoid waiting in line.

i had a bad cagney's experience (food and service) on the breakaway in december, but recently - on the gem - cagney's was fantastic. conversely, moderno was great on the breakaway, but the food and service at moderno on the gem was substandard.

there's another expression in the south... "well, bless your heart." that might me appropriate here, as the logic in post #10 is a bit fuzzy.

the title of the thread is a bit confusing because there is no set limit to what you're allowed to purchase onboard. and the duty free shop often has specials for "buy two, get one free" or some such... what's a solo traveler or even a couple supposed to do... because, yes, there is indeed a limit on how much you can bring into the US without paying additional duty. technically, you can bring back as much as you like, as long as you declare it and pay the duty. THAT is a cumbersome process and few customs people want to go through the rigamarole, so - in practical terms - if you have three or four bottles, you just walk through and they wave you on and nobody is any wiser and nobody really cares. in my opinion, nine bottles stretches the spirit (pun intended) of the law and if they were to ask you to open your bags, they might charge you, but again, the likelihood of that happening, in my experience, is very slim. personally i don't see the allure of duty free spirits. unless you're buying something locally produced in the country you're visiting, the price of the "duty free" products is often much higher than it would be back home. and on board they only come in special export sizes, so it's difficult to compare - on an apples to apples basis - duty free prices with what you might pay in a retail shop. i bought two very expensive ridiculously overpriced bottles on my last cruise: a liter of chivas regal (18 years) and a liter of hennesy v.s.o.p. cognac. but i bought these only because i was using up $200 in OBC, so they were essentially "free."

breakaway in december... docked.

i asked my butler to remove the nespresso machine, as I don't drink coffee. not a terribly earth shattering request, but something that seemed to be unique, as he said he had never done that before. he did it immediately. i also asked him if my room service pizza could be cooked a little longer. the pizza tends to be pale on the bottom, as if the dough was only barely just cooked. it typically needs another two to three minutes. he was able to get them to do that.

NCL actually sends the narrow tags now and the luggage tag holders shown in the amazon link will certainly still work as a plastic protective cover, but they are no longer a custom fit for NCL tags. one of the reviews on amazon actually mentions this. if you're printing tags from the NCL site, they are the correct size for this holder, unless they have recently changed the size of the self-printed tags.

except for a reduction in choices (i think they are down to four now), there has been no change. pillow menu is still a haven perk, although they may not have an actual printed "menu." in my experience, most ships no longer offer the "climarelle" cooling pillow, but memory foam is still available.

have you even looked at the arriveCAN app? it's not just filling out a form and answering a few questions. and people can lie all they want... and risk being denied entry to the country and testing upon arrival. and the app itself doesn't grant access to canada, per se... it simply expedites the virtual paperwork process.

just a note about "expedited" passports from the new york city office... i did this a few years ago... and i remember it as a two day process. you submit all your data and your photo. and then you come back the next day for the completed passport. YMMV and they may have a same day service now; i don't know. ALL the appointments are now given out by phone only, however... no walk-ins. so call for an appointment as soon as you can. and there are actually two "emergency" services provided... there is a "life or death emergency service" and an "urgent travel service." the kids would presumably qualify for the latter, not the former. the term "expedited" is used mostly by companies who handle much of the passport application process for you for an additional fee; the department of state calls it "urgent travel service." my understanding is that those under 16, or those applying for a first passport, must apply in person.

tip: for a really good caipirinha, a brazilian cocktail, head to the bar at the moderno restaurant, if your ship has one. they - understandably - make more caipirinhas than anywhere else on the ship.