Asawi

As others say: Solo meetups even on ships with no studios. Spirit, Star and Gem are the ones I travelled last year. If I recall correctly somwhere between 5-7 pm every day. Listed in the dailies.

Agree to both of those thoughts! I actually did put some soft serve in my coffee one day at Star, and seeing what it looked like when it was supposed to melt made me wonder what weird chemicals it consisted of! (Still better/less bad than chocolate sauce on those yummy "cobblers" (more like crumble pie) they served most days though. Chocolate sauce????)

Yeah... I have looked at solo insides and oceanviews on Star and Dawn and they really are more or less the least attractive rooms on the ships. Those ships don't have studios, so it's either those "not so good" solo rooms or pay more for a non-solo. I'll be on Bliss i April and really look forward to trying a studio! Edit: Had to check out Bliss's solo insides and apart from bad location there were quite few of them.

I am an early riser and during my 4 cruises in 2023 "early bird" breakfast in the buffet opened either 5.30 or 6.00 on port days (and also some sea days). It's scaled down breakfast (cereal, bread, cheese, fruit...) but enough to get something inside you. (On my Alaska cruise I was 9-10 hours behind Swedish time and hadn't adjusted very well, so I pretty much stood there waiting for them to open up for breakfast at 5.30. 😄 But wow what nice views and sunrises I saw!)

It's been a hit or miss with Cruise Critic for me. On Star I wasn't able to read the forum without using minutes (it looked like it was loading, but it took forever and I had lots of minutes to spare so I gave up). On my more recent Gem cruiseit was slow, but I was able to read the forum without logging in to use minutes. I just used my forum bookmark on my cellphone. Go figure... I guess it's one of those NCL things where you can say "it depends". Denpends on what? Who knows? I don't...

Agree! I booked my Cape Town roundrtrip not long ago at all when solo price had dropped. When I looked at what Dawn was up to before my cruise I thought "Oh, THAT would have been nice" about Madagaskar, and even cursed a little bit for missing that opportunity. Must be a big disappointment to many!

I'm getting on this ship for the cruise starting in Cape Town March 8.

My September 2024 Norway/Iceland/UK cruise had loads of excursions bookable right when I booked it back in the beginning of November. My April 2024 Alaska cruise has had excursions added to it now and then. For a long time there were very few except a gazzilion in Ketchikan. So... it varies!

Yep! Told you so! 😉 But you are absolutely doing the right thing checking it with NCL or travel agent. WAY to much "not quite correct" information on forums/social media! Especially concerning non-US bookings with people don't realizing there are very different rules depending on where you are.

No.

Because the German newspaper just translated and printed what they read elsewhere. I'm convinced they have not done any own "research" beyond that. So anything "false" get republished over and over and over... And gullible people think that because it's "everywhere" it "must be true".

And I'm sure is it's a HUGE surprise <sarcasm> to all that the intial test results say NO CHOLERA!

I don't know, but I'm guessing kitchen staff (all restaurants and buffet), cleaning staff (not just room stewards), all "behind the scenes" staff...

I don't know... They must have done something right or else more than 15 people would have been affected. And FWIW, in situations like these there always seems to be people that "know" things and want to talk about them. Although they may not be outright lying, they might "embellish" a little. My thinking: Who knew about someone being ill? Who did they tell? Did it get reported to whoever it should have been reported to?

<sigh> Still not confirmed cholera. Test results are not in yet. If, although unlikely, it is cholera it's more or less certain it has been contracted ashore. Read up on how cholera spreads and you'll understand that. But by all means, don't sail NCL again. Your choice!

Those were the days! Nowadays their "research" seems to find other articles and change them slightly before publishing them as your own. So any error or misunderstandings will spread like wildfire, and because they appear in so many places will be seen as truth.

More info as well in that article. This measure comes in the wake of 15 passengers being isolated and tested for the disease, some showing mild stomach-related symptoms. Although still a bit unclear if cholera is actually confirmed or suspected even if they say : The cause: an outbreak of cholera onboard, confirmed by spokesperson Kate Edwards. Has Kate Edwards really confirmed an oubreak of cholera, or an outbreak of stomach-related symptoms? Sounds odd she would do that at this stage.

I wouldn't be surprised if what that person said was along the lines "we have done testing to make sure it's not cholera and are waiting for the results" And that then morphed into "We suspect cholera" in the journalist's head.

Source? No they don't. They report a stomach illness. They "know" nothing, They "heard" iit was "suspected". Quote: While on the ground in Mauritius, USA TODAY and a group of journalists scheduled to depart on a press itinerary Sunday, heard the stomach illness was suspected to be cholera.

It's not the first time there has been Norovirus or similar on a cruise ship. Usually not as much drama around it as this time though. What's different from other times is that port authorities won't let anyone disembark for fear of cholera. NCL isn't putting people's life at risk any more than any other outbreak of whatever illness. These things happen! REALLY inconvenient for both the people stuck on ship watching their flights take off without them and those waiting to board though! And probably also scary for people onboard. Let's hope for everyone's sake that it is "just" Norovirus or GI or whatever you want to call it. And not cholera!

Absolutely! If nothing else, a card or email pointing out how much you appreciate them! (Or one of thos charity things I wrote about earlier. 😄 )

It's a photo. I'm not comfortable taking someone else's photo and posting it elsewhere. The letter doesn't actually say much, just that they should rearrange independelntly booked flights and that hopefully they can disembark on Tuesday. So no info that isn't already given here.

As I see it what has happened is they got what surely was wrong information when cancelling. After all, WHY would they get their CN back if the cruise fare isn't refundable? The person that told them that must have thought the situation was another than it was. Or just not knowledgeable enough. So it's not really a warning about CruiseNext, but rather to check and doublecheck and also have another think if something is reasonable. Would it really be reasonble to have a certificate worth 250 given back if cancellation fee is 100%? Of course to excuse for NCL to give wrongful information!

As I understand they have taken samples to be analyzed to make sure it's "just" norovirus (or similar) and not cholera. Analyze can take up to 48 hours. So sorry for those of those that should have embarked today! They must be so frustrated.

Wondering the same! As someone who will embark Dawn in less than 2 weeks I'm not amused. But to each their own I guess...