EvanBedar

Your second passenger got free air fare, yes?

Congratulations.

51 minutes ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 To me it’s just another obstructed view cabin. 

So you’re endorsing a crappy business model?   Run a stripe of unwanted obstructed  BALCONY real estate right down the side of the ship?    Idiotic, thats what it is.  

What a monumental screwup   
 

Who wants to take bets that will be gone by the first drydock?  

5 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Please provide a source for these statements.  Otherwise, they are just more unfounded claims.
 

NCL claims to give a percentage of the DSC to the crew and I believe that they do.  I suspect the crew  has both fixed and variable components to their salary with the calculus for the variable portion being unverifiable.  So, the crew may very well know exactly what's going on but they have no way to prove it.

lt’s $20, 18 and 16 pp pd.  Any crew member could check the passenger load and do the math and from that could easily divide it by the number of crew with a stake in the onboard service charge which would give them an excellent idea what the percentage of the total OSC is that they’re getting.   So this is no big mystery.  

14 minutes ago, MCARAB1 said:

Thanks but the site says sold out 

1 (702) 479-4015

How about one of these?

https://nclhome.com/products/haven-robe

Does anyone truly believe that the crew on all of Norwegian's fleet doesn't read a news paper or visit cruise forums and news sites?
 

If they knew NCL was claiming to share something with their employees that they  actually weren't, the crew are grownups.

They know how to blow a whistle.

This is a company that specializes in interrupting unwanted direct mail to your mailbox.  It costs $2 for a 10 year subscription, and is endorsed by the Federal Trade Comission.

https://www.dmachoice.org/

37 minutes ago, smokeykat said:

BTW it is not really "free" but $1500.00 when you remove it from the booking.

 

 

First passenger is free.  Second is not.  So you are receiving free air fare in the special.  Just that your travel partner is not.  There's nothing hidden or misstated about that offer.

4 hours ago, peg013 said:

 

Good luck! I asked for reconsideration of our $1200 FCC each when the cruise went down an additional $4000 while I waited for their initial response. I got their response within minutes of emailing them. Their response was sorry - one adjustment per cruise after final payment.

Yep.   Same gentle rejection.   Speedy response though.  I don’t think it was more than an hour.  

They gave me a FCC of $473 already but standard balconies on the Sun for mid December just fell another $400 per person.  So I just mentioned to ‘em.  We’ll see what happens. 

It looks like all the penthouses on the Sun for December 14 are sold out.   I’m not sure why they’re still offering upgrade bidding.  Maybe they hold a couple, or perhaps someone canceling in the last 2 weeks is typical.  But it makes our cruise look at least fairly full up.  All thats left are standard balconies and interiors. 

2 minutes ago, freewilly said:

Hubs and I both getting error message while attempting to log in website. Anyone else or is this only a pox upon my house?

Usually clearing all NCL cookies in your browser’s history will snap it back to attention, and you can do that without deleting passwords or saved login profiles.  
 
If you don’t know how to find your browser’s history or how to clear cookies or cache you should make it a point to learn it.  It’s one of the most important elements of web browsing hygiene. 

Why not ask them if they deliberately photographed the ship to show less people on board?  The way this is worded you almost sound accusatory.  Like someone’s trying to dupe you. 

From the US to Europe, you are almost guaranteed not to get a direct flight, although Barcelona is kind of a hub city so it wouldn't be more than two legs I shouldn't think.  We're going in to the Canaries, three legs, 2 to 3 hour layovers in between every leg.  And speaking of legs don't expect yours to have any room.

As to working with the airlines, it depends on the airlines.  Air Canada allowed me to choose seats for a couple hundred bucks.  The other 3 airlines I got do not.  I can choose a seat on check in, which is kind of standard.  But no one will allow us to upgrade to Premium Economy.  United does.  If you get them you're in luck.

2 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Is this a serious question?  If so, I can name at least 10 restaurants within 20 miles of me that have perfected the art of screwing up pizza.

The question was "what was the matter with the pizza".   The follow up question was rhetorical.

3 minutes ago, goldmom said:

The blazing shrimp appetizer in Ocean Blue is excellent and large enough to share.  Also, the crab appetizer in Le Bistro, different that I expected but very tasty and light.

Do not order pizza in La Cucina unless you live somewhere that doesn't have pizza.

But, the tiramisu there is worth the raves it gets.

Whats the matter with their pizza?   How do you screw up pizza?!

17 minutes ago, MNcruisingcouple said:

 

I don't have real world experience with this but as @BirdTravels said above in the dining rooms they are going to be coffee drinks made with Starbucks coffee by your waiter.  Not made to Starbucks standards by a barista.

Just so you know what to expect and aren't disappointed in the quality.  Also, we do have experience with the slowness of the delivery of coffee drinks in the dining room.

I've never associated Starbucks with "quality".  I used to, until I finally learned the secret of the true cup of perfect coffee.  Now Starbucks is to me exactly what 8 O'Clock, Maxwell House, and Folgers are.  They are the muts of coffee.  Huge bags of bean blends, 3, 4, or 5 different beans all poured in together just to create mass.  Then they sit in warehouses, already roasted, for weeks or months until they are sold off to the coffee distributors who then ship them on to grocery stores, cafeterias, yes even cruise ship companies.   Any place where they know their clientele doesn't know much about decent coffee and need to keep their coffee budget cheap.

You know why Starbucks' coffee beans always look so oily?  A lot of people think that is some indication of quality.  Which is ridiculous.

It's because their beans are over roasted which ruptures their interior shell protecting the coffee from the oxygen in the air, exposing the coffee and leaving it with that burned flavor as if it had been sitting on a hot plate with very little coffee in the pot.

I will try one of the specialty coffees at the International Cafe.  I will know immediately if they are using single source, RECENTLY roasted beans, or if they're using some commercial garbage.  If it is the latter they won't get another penny out of me.

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

What was meant was that a "heavy lift ship" was used as there was no floating dry dock of suitable size.  Vista was lifted while outside the port of Freeport, as the heavy lift needs more depth to submerge than a drydock.

At this point you could tell me that ships are made out of ground pork and I will believe whatever you say.

Also it looks like it's a $300 credit card hold, not $450.  

The $450 number is when you opt to use a Travelers Check or Cash to cover your account.

 

No further questions here.   Thank you sir.  

I’ll be bringing a french press and a couple pounds of coarse grounds from my local roaster.  A favorite bean, Brazil Cerrado.  Actually just about any bean from Brazil has been great for the last couple years.   
 

With a french press (also referred to as a cafetière) all you need is 🫘 beans ground coarsely, hot 💦 water and your press.   
 

It is the absolute best a coffee can taste when used with a freshly roasted single source bean.  
 

1 hour ago, GeezerCouple said:

There were major system issues, per CC admins.
Apparently it affected some CC members differently/more than others.

 

I didn't "do anything" special, and I was finally able to log in.

 

GC

They warned us yesterday the were doing an upgrade today that would require you to log in again.   They just didnt realize people would have to clear out their cache first.  Obviously they have found a workaround.  

Honestly after I hand my bags off I don’t care what happens.  I’ve been obsessing over every detail of this vacation for two years.  At that point I’m off the clock and everything is someone else’s problem.  

If you are getting the "you've been locked out" messages, or the wild goose chase of logging in with no success:

1.  Open your browser's History.

2.  Select Clear History

3.  Check everything except the log ins you've saved.
4.  Quit the browser and restart.

5.  Go to your Cruise Critic Bookmark and log in again.