Asawi

Today I spotted a new (to me at least) version of "sale" on the EU site. Not 35%, or 50% but "up to €1400 off". To my <sarcasm> huge surprise <sarcasm> the price on some cruises I checked are exactly the same as yesterday when the old "sale" was running. Gotta love their marketing creativity. 😁 And gotta love the "up to" that they really don't elaborate on as far as I can tell. 😮

I'm a hardcore Android user but I bought a refurbished iPhone SE 2020 about 6 months ago and feel like it has already paid for itself in "savings" (ie less wasting) by using eSIM in SouthAfrica and USA and being able to communicate with my daughter and my best friend (iPhone-users) through iMessage while onboard without getting unlimited Internet. Not necessary, but lots of fun! (I also love that it's red and very pretty and it's small and really easy to keep in my pocket. Such a shame it's not Android 😁)

eSIM in itself does not prevent talk/text. You can have eSIM from many cell plan providers. If your phone is a dual SIM phone you can have both for example an Airalo eSIM and your regular SIM active. You must however be aware that receiving phone calls while abroad can be very expensive. I usually turn off my regular SIM when abroad where I don't have free roaming.

Unfortunately it seems like A12 may not support eSIM. Not sure though

Maybe I should add that the eSIMs i have had has been data only. No talk/text except iMessage, WhatsApp and similar.

What Galaxy model? If it's fairly new it probably has eSIM support. Yes, you can buy in advance, put it on the phone and have it activated when it connects to the foreign network. I have only used Airalo, but it worked very well for me in South Africa and USA (I'm Swedish so USA is not my home network)

A tracker can't prevent a bag from getting lost, as in not making it to the ship or plane or whatever. It might however help you locate it If the dot stays when the ship leaves - tough luck. 😮 If it moves when the ship does, go find it! 😁

Yes. But it's text only. No pictures

I had a room problem when I was on Dawn in March (incredibly high noice from ventilation - we're talking "earplugs necessary even during daytime" noice level) and I really had to be insistent to get it fixed. Everyone that came to check it out agreed it was an issue but ship was full with no room they could move me to. It took about 3-4 days on my 12-day cruise to get it fixed (after they had told it couldn't be fixed, all I could hope for was compensation after the cruise - fortunately they were wrong...). The reason I tell this is to point out that it seems as you cannot just wait for something to be done. Even if reported more than once, keep on it and INSIST that both hotel manager and technicians come to look! Rinse and repeat...

Poster has the PLUS package. Hence the question since that package gives a discount to person 2.

I will be doing several land based trips in 2025. Trips where the destination is important to me and that are reachable by budget airlines and/or train (I'm in EU already). Cruising is very nice and very convenient but some 2025 prices are almost double to 2023 ones even with the new solo room pricings. I will do at least one cruise as well, but the bulk of my travelling 2025 will be air/land

It seems to me that most/all of the problems here were airline-related and not really NCL-related. HAving said that, maybe they could have been more supportive, but it seems like United/Lufthansa are the ones that messed up really bad. Fortunately when I buy air through NCL (I'm in EU) I can see what flights they plan to put me on and can say yes or no. It's not as much discount as US BOGO, but still can be worth it on long/expensive routes. Either way, once approaching flight date the airline is who I need to deal with, not NCL. (Like when Lufthansa had a strike cancelling my flight to South Africa earlier this year (day before flight departure or something like that). A stressful couple of hours before Lufthansa could put me on new flights with other airlines.)

But that's not what this thread is about is it? I thought it was about Latitude dinners

Not really! Unless it's fixed priced restaurants, since they may charge you when you book. I suppose the money then gets refunded, but still... I usually have more bookings than I intend to use and cancel them when I decide which ones I'll actually use. No problem at all! As for showing up early, I have had good successes with that, but not at Teppanyaki. My expersience is that there really isn't much point in showing up early. They run by their schedule anyway since it's a shared table. Of course, if you are solo there might be room for you at the 5.30 table so it could work out well.

That's interesting! Just US embassies or different nationalities'?

I disembarked there October 2023, Star. I only had a carryon size bag so I took it off the ship myself and was off the ship around 7. Docking according to itinerary was 5, so the 2 hours they usually quote seems pretty accurate although I can't say I kept track of when they actually allowed people to disembark. There were no lines at all at the time I went and all very easy.

I'm not into Starbucks so I have no personal experience but as I understand it gift cards and app only works on "full" Starbucks. So it should not work on Dawn.

Good decision!

As I wrote in the other topic, I boarded an NCL cruise with a passport exiring less than 6 months away. I was new to cruising and didn't know about NCL 's 6 month rule. The cruise nearest to passport exiration was Iceland/Norway, july 2023. Both of them countries where I can travel without passport. Of course I did bring my soon-to-expire passport anyway. No issues at all. I will not do it again though now that I'm aware of NCl's requirements.

I admit to being careless and having been unaware of the "NCL 6 months rule" until last summer and was actually on two cruises in 2023 with a passport expiring less than 6 months later. No issues at all. But do not take that as a sign there won't be for someone else! Possibly a YMMV situation. And I will not take that chance again myself either! (I always check entry requirements for any countries I am visiting though so I'm not totally clueless even though it may seem so. I was well within any of those requirements on both occasions)

While both balconies I have had (Gem and Dawn) had chairs, none of them had deckchairs.

No. They are tied to the person.

I'm Swedish so I'm not used to tipping either. I do however tip for example porters and shuttle drivers USA. (And I do of course add tip to for restaurant bills wherever I am in the world) But I honestly haven't seen anyone tipping the buffet crepe or omelette chefs. I'm not saying no one does it, but if I've never seen it it can't be that widespread.

Consider yourself lucky that you got the $100! Unfotunately, as nice as cruising is, it's not the way to travel to any "bucket list" locations. Always expect itinerary changes. Having said that, it does seem like there's a lot of them on NCL.

This was my thoughts as well!