JeanKC

This thread makes me want to book a cruise to Alaska!! Our first cruise 10 years ago was to Alaska on the Celebrity Century and it was fantastic.

I'm trying to submit my details on the status match page but it will not allow me input the address details. It recognises that I am in Ireland but nothing appears in the drop-down for county, city or province and it won't just met me type in them either. Has anyone encountered this before? I've tried a few different browsers and devices in case it is an issue with anything like that.

If you have a alcoholic beverage package, you can bring as many bottles of wine as you like and there is no corkage fee. If you do not have a beverage package, you can still bring as many bottles of wine as you like, but is subject to a corkage fee of $15 per 750ml bottle.

On our recent European cruise, Splash Academy was not open during the day when in port. It opened at about 7pm, I think. Plus, you did have to be contactable and available to collect the child should something happen (something happening included the child being tired and wanting to go the bed). I'm not a parent......BUT, if I was, I don't think I would feel comfortable leaving my child on board while I went on an excursion (no matter how far away it was).....Not to mention, if something did happen and you did have to return to the ship.....would you expect the excursion bus to turn around and take you back, inconveniencing everyone else, or would you happily shell out the few hundred quid a taxi back to port would cost you? Or take a chance on public transport? Or have you not actually thought about that? Maybe, leave the kids at home or try to convince someone else to join you on the cruise as a nanny.

It's great that you have not had issues with NCL air but I think the issue that people are taking with Greg's situation is the crazy short connection time between flights which NCL air seem to think is okay to book. So, yes, while things happen and flights can be delayed and customs queues can be long and none of that would the fault of the NCL Air (or any TA booking flights). But what is very much in the control of NCL Air is allowing for a reasonable connection time between flights.....and even without a customs queue or flight delays, they did not leave enough time in this case. And, if it is true what the NCL agent told Greg, that provided they leave at least 30 minutes between flights, they can book it......then whoever is in charge of those policies must never, ever have been in an airport.....ever!! To be honest, I would probably never use NCL air mainly because, unlike with a regular TA or self-booking, you get no say at all in your flights, and so even if you think the connection time is too short (and my husband gets very stressed in airports at the best of times so throw in a tight connection......it wouldn't end well 😀) tough, you have to take it. I would prefer be in control of these things myself and yes, I guess, it might cost a little more, but to me, it's probably worth it for reduced stress.

Not sure why you cancelled in the first place......seemed a bit of a kneejerk reaction.to your new girlfriend not being able to go. Did she tell you that you shouldn't go or something? If so, that's ridiculous. If not, cancelling was ridiculous. Go, enjoy. End of.

I don't think so as the OP who shared the email they got about tax in Spain has their cruise starting in Lisbon too (we got no email before our cruise).

Definitely a real life guard at the main pool on the Viva last week. Looking very bored but I guess that's better than the alternative of having too many drowning people to save.

Our recent cruise started in Lisbon, all ports were in the EU and it included 4 Spanish ports. We had a drinks package and were not charged vat on any drinks in Spanish ports. Someone on another discussion on this topic mentioned that on their cruise(can';t remember which ship) they were charged tax in Spanish ports but they also received a credit of USD46 on their ship account and when they asked guest services, they were told it was to offset the tax........We were not charged any tax, but we did get USD46 credit to both of our accounts......I did not ask guest services what it was for cos I was afraid they'd take it back!! It was great - paid for laundry, karting, and some starbucks!!! Now, maybe, it was because we were on the second voyage of the VIVA and so they decided to let us all off the tax and also reward us with credit for nothing,.......But we were pretty happy!! It was a good outcome for us, but there does seem to be very little consistency on these charges and when they're applied.

Arrived back from our cruise on the Viva from Lisbon to Rome on Saturday. We had 3 ports in Spain. We had a drinks package and were not charged tax on drinks in any ports.

Didn't take a pic but it's a small covered area on the Deck 18 sundeck(forward). It has seats and was never particularly crowded. For us, it made us smoke way less as it was long trek from the 6/7/8 entertainment areas, but I reckon that's probably a good thing! 😁 Also, the elevators only go to Deck 17 so you do need to go up a flight of stairs outside. If you get the aft or midship elevators, you will also have to walk through the buffet . As an aside, we loved the ship overall. Much preferred it to our last NCL experience (the Getaway in 2017).

We're also sailing out of Portugal and leave on Saturday. We haven't received any notification.

Maybe the NCL online POS systems can't cope with a dual system for charging drinks and so to ensure that anyone purchasing a beverage without a package is charged VAT, they have to set the system to charge VAT for everyone regardless of package or no package. Then they add a credit for those with a package to off-set. Seems a bit crazy, but why else would they be adding credit to people's accounts. That's almost an admission that they shouldn't be charging it to people with packages.

Hi - Can you confirm what live entertainment options are available. I know Beetlejuice is not ready yet but are all the other advertised ones taking place everything else (Icons, Ocean Music Fest, Press your luck, Syd Norman's, Improv at sea)? Thanks

According to one of the entertainers on Viva today(saw a post on another website), Syd's is listed on the Freestyle daily for tonight.