Sinbadssailors

They take photos before dinner and then present them in a special Teppanyaki-themed folder before dessert. For purchase of course. It's time consuming and annoying and happened the last two times on two different ships.

Taking food from the buffets was fine, just not from the restaurants. Like so many NCL rules, it didn't make sense. We were told even the Haven butlers were being told no. So weird.

I was on this 4/29 sailing. We booked extremely last minute and ended up in an inside on deck 14. I spent my days in the Observation Lounge, entire days, usually from sunrise to around 4 - it was our balcony substitute. It was a wonderful space with great beverage service. I liked the 4 buffets, 2 front and one on either side(usually with similar/same selections and unchanging from day to day). I saw them more as snacks than meals though and we would alternate leaving for actual meals. We tried for front and center daily- that was the only place where the temperature was truly comfortable. The rest of the space is FAR too warm, and the occasional Mudslide was essential in order to cool off. We were blessed with perfect weather on Glacier Bay day, but then the side picture window seating was hot, like greenhouse-hot. Made a lot of trips outside that day, back and forth. We also had more frozen drinks than a day spent on a Caribbean beach. There was a lot of chair hogging (I'm not counting Glacier Bay day - that was expected and the ship did their best, setting up multiple rows of folding chairs to vastly increase the available seating). Every day people were stretched out sleeping on the couches, saving seats all day and actually blocking off entire areas with furniture for their family/groups, like it was their own personal living room. As for the rest of the cruise, the food and service were very good for the most part. We only did two nights in the main dining room and those nights were the weak spot. Cagney's was good, La Cucina was great(ended up there twice), Ocean Blue was very good and Teppanyaki food and 'show' were good, but service was barely okay - this is the second cruise in a row that we ended up leaving Teppanyaki before dessert because it just dragged on sooooo long after dinner with the silly photo nonsense. We ended up skipping Le Bistro entirely for the first time since 2002 - just couldn't justify the upcharge for what was always our go-to, the filet, and nothing else on the menu appealed. FYI no food was allowed out of the restaurants on this cruise. I heard this from servers all over, unsolicited, since we never even asked to take out leftovers. They were confused by it and weren't given an explanation for the policy change that was irritating passengers. Witnessed that the night at Teppanyaki when someone couldn't finish. Buffet food was (surprisingly) good and we're not big buffet people. The daily Indian selections were tasty. Embarkation was pure chaos. Too many people in too small a space and no way to hear announcements. We were on by noon but it was an unpleasant process. Disembarkation was only slightly better. They apparently had two lines for two exits front and back, but the lines were so long with no signage and no one directing and no way to know where either line ended. Why does NCL make us wait so long for cabins on embarkation day? 3:30 is ridiculous, especially when everyone had to be on board by 3 for the 5:00 sailaway. Although Sapphire now, we are by no means NCL cheerleaders. We had taken a 10 year break until a Haven cruise right after the restart. That was good, as it should've been. NCL the company still aggravates me, but overall this was a great cruise in our inside guarantee, and even purchased CruiseNext whatevers.

This is true when disembarking. I've personally never seen it happen when boarding other cruise lines.

This so bizarre. I've been on 30+ cruises on other lines, to ports all over the world. I've brought onboard local pineapple in Hawaii, local cheeses in France, odd street foods from India, mangosteens in Thailand, and dates in Dubai. No one has ever cared and it didn't occur to me that it would be a problem. Why would it be? ( Besides being against NCL's ever-so-important rules?) It's not eating into their revenue (like bringing in alcohol might). I never tried taking the foods off the ship, but also never saw the ship as some kind of closed ecosystem either.

If the spelling is correct, it won't be a problem. Seems the spaces are optional My mashed up name was no problem to check in because the characters were all correct.

No worries This isn't a problem as long as the name is spelled correctly. Mashing first and middle together with the Mr/Mrs is pretty common.

I agree. It's even the written policy of both airlines I was dealing with and another I dealt with in the past. I don't get the "we're not budging/you should've known this/you must cancel/pay penalties/pay fees" doubling down that they insisted was the ONLY way forward. That I wouldn't get a boarding pass unless I did this. That this was supposedly their contract with the airline. Two days before my flight and they wanted me to cancel and rebook in order to get to my cruise. Because of a missing character in a middle name. I just hope others don't get roped into believing this.

This was booked ages ago and I honestly don't remember who did it. It does seem like it was on the phone though since it's a common name and the spelling is like it sounds - although his is spelled differently. Even so, I could've and should've caught it before now. But according to EZair, it would've required cancelling and rebooking no matter when it happened. Which is not my experience with this kind of problem. Not at all.

We haven't picked the new date yet, but the new flight will be booked with that credit. And the name is correct now in Princess's system. It's unclear where the mistake came from, since the name was spelled wrong in the Princess profile and that's where the flight info automatically came from. The cruise info only shows the middle initial, so this problem only turned up on the flight info. United was willing to change it but couldn't once they discovered it was actually a Lufthansa flight. Lufthansa insisted that EZair call to change it.

That wasn't the issue. A letter was missing in his spelled-out middle name. This absolutely was a problem on the United Airlines site.

My husband's flight showed his middle name missing a letter. I discovered it when trying to upload passport info to United's site on Wednesday for Friday's flight. The site refused to accept the info because the names didn't match, and meant we wouldn't be able to check in online. Irritating but not the end of the world. We travel a lot and this kind of thing has happened before, so I know 1 or 2 characters can be changed, especially in the middle name. (And go ahead, jump all over me because I didn't notice this sooner(The timeline was also Princess/EZair's only interest/concern) --- but that doesn't change what's going on. I checked in to the cruise days ago without an issue, because his middle name wasn't shown). The airlines(United/Lufthansa codeshare) say they would change it for free but can't -- EZair must call to change it since they booked it. EZair says they can't do that, that the only option is to cancel and rebook and pay whatever fees/increases/penalties that entails, if the same flights are even available. That their contract with Lufthansa(and some other airlines) forbids 'name changes'. Even one character. Even though Lufthansa's own info says they allow it for 1 or 2 characters if I had booked with them directly, since it's an obvious typo/misspelling. (As an aside, if EZair's contract "forbids" it, what difference would it make when I noticed?) According to EZair, their contract with some airlines results in this restriction --- a restriction that would NOT apply if I had booked with the airline directly. That's definitely news to me. It's either true and that's bad, really bad --- or it's not true and the agent lied to me, which is worse. And before some person tells me -- yes I'm aware, if true, it's probably buried somewhere in the terms and conditions. But I'm absolutely sure there are others not aware of these differences due to the EZair/airline contract agreements. I don't have time to search airline contracts and EZair contracts to see how they might be different for specific airlines. I spoke to four different people about this, going on 4 hours, begging them to call the number Lufthansa had given us and add the something something(I forget the exact initials) code to the booking. This would alert the airline that the problem was known over 2 days in advance, and a one character change, fixable at the airport. EZair refused to call the airline i.e repetitions of, they "don't do that", "don't have access to that" (actual quotes). To be honest, I think every single person simply read off a script based on "name changes". Part of it was likely a language/communication issue since only the last person was a native English speaker and, coincidentally, the only one who seemed to understand the problem -- but a customer service agent and not part of the transportation department. And this is through the enroute number, the one that's supposed to help if my flight is delayed or canceled or I miss a connection. Added: While this was going on, I received a moveover offer. I was so irritated by this whole process that I accepted, so I can't say whether we were able to fly or not(I suspect it would've been fine, but no way to know for sure). People should know that EZair, acting as the travel agent booking flights, refuses to/claims they can't call the airline.

And Princess's definition of an upgrade can be wildly different from the human definition of an upgrade.

Which would be a greater threat to safety, 2000 fans(prohibited) or 2000 curling irons (permitted)?

I've been here long enough to know there are people on this board who will defend NCL no matter how ridiculous the policy. "Apologists" is an apt description. Complainers, whiners and (my favorite) "entitled" are the labels put on those who point out the ridiculousness of a policy.

It's ridiculous that the letter justifies this action by saying she didn't pay for transfers, (not the cruise itself.) And doubles down on the terms and conditions blah blah blah. As if this situation made any sense. Does this apply to all things in your cart? Can they keep my cruise fare if I fail to pay for a bon voyage package? A bottle of champagne? Do I have to read multiple pages of fine print in order to be sure? And it's inexcusable that they warned travel agents but not those who booked directly with NCL

Sometimes labels are insulting but accurate. I also would like to hear the apologists defend this.

Thank you for the polite and helpful reply. This was booked six days ago. I am only able to edit my own information and 'gratuities' has no blue letters anywhere near it. While I was in 'manage reservation ' yesterday it randomly logged me out. Then my reservation was locked when I tried to log back in. Then it was mysteriously unlocked 5 minutes later. It shouldn't be this hard or take this long. Or require a phone call in 2023. Seems to me the Celebrity it department could use a tech savvy child or grandchild

I was hoping to avoid calling(Princess has been a nightmare since the restart). Good to know it might not be a long wait(albeit to do things I should be able to easily do on my own...). I booked directly with Celebrity.

Chat on the Celebrity Website. Does it have that feature? I've seen references but can't find it on the site at all I want to live chat with an agent since I can't do the simplest things on this site. I want to add details of the second person on the booking. Can't. Want to pre-pay gratuities. Can't. It's been 5+ years since my last Celebrity cruise and this is bringing back bad memories of their horrible horrible website. Hasn't gotten any better with time.

Does this website have a live chat function? I don't see it anywhere.

Oia, seafood restaurant and stay through to celebrate sunset. In Fira we walked down to the bottom and back. We're a similar age and not in the best of shape, but managed it (in April) Akrotiri is interesting if you like the history --- otherwise Red Beach is a pretty hike. With only 2 days, I would just stay in Oia and not leave. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth

I booked 2 large aft balconies side-by-side for a transatlantic with the family. Found out at the pier that one cabin was moved 5 decks up, mid port side "because of a problem with the cabin". In quotes because it was a lie. Turned out it was given to a single passenger who decided to stay on B2B(found out from the room steward). After muuuch arguing, I got my cabin back, just after sailaway. My main argument was that if I wanted NCL to pick the cabin, I would've saved some money booking a guarantee. I was Platinum at the time, not that it mattered. Just because they can do it, doesn't mean they should. But NCL quite possibly will.

23 nights in March. We were briefly on a wait list but decided against. Lots of other options in the spring.