joydivision84

On 5/24/2024 at 4:21 AM, chengkp75 said:

It most likely is.

 

It most likely is.

 

As Aquahound has posted, the dry AC air dries out your sinus membranes, which are your first and best line of defense against airborne pathogens, which cause respiratory illness.  Use of a simple saline nasal spray can mitigate this dryness.

 

For those who recommend wiping down surfaces to prevent coughing, most respiratory pathogens are airborne not picked up from contact with surfaces.

Do you recommend a particular nasal spray?

3 hours ago, KKB said:

Trust me, the stats guys will tell you otherwise.

They are profiting by filling as many rooms as possible & selling them at the highest price possible.

 

So if they can sell guarantees at a higher rate than last minute deals, they will, knowing that on average X% will cancel.

Obviously when dealing in numbers, reality doesn't always match.

So they start calling people & offer to move them to another ship that DOES have open rooms (with some perks that cost the cruise line little to toss your way)--TA DA, NOW you have passengers in those empty rooms. (most profit is made by the $ passengers spend while on the ship, not the original fare)

They know the ages of passengers--those of retirement age are more likely to have the flexibility to do such a change, so that is who they call first.

 

It's not terribly different than what airlines do. 

And it's honestly impressive--they clearly are MUCH better at it, as there are fewer requests for people to take bumps on flights (at least in my experience--but have been flying at least 2 flights/month for 2 years, perhaps every 2 months or so for the 30 years prior), and fewer of those VERY last minute cruising deals we used to come across.

They use that data to fine tune & maximize profit. 

(yes, it occasionally costs a little to offer vouchers, credits, etc; but in the long run, it makes them $ or they won't do it)

Yeah I'm sorry but this is nonsense. The only time you saw this was a few years ago and this reeks of "just trust me bro". You keep mentioning similarities between flying and cruising but in regards to vacations there really isn't much similarity at all. A cruise is the vacation, a flight is just transport from one place to another, and as others said most places have multiple options for that, within hours of one another.

It's very different. 

That's before you start taking into account things like excursions people have booked, plans for ports, flights back home post cruise, hotels post cruise. 

I've never heard of this ever occuring but I'm not calling you a liar, I'm sure there's been one offs, but we'd all be hearing about it daily if this was even semi-common.

We book our cruises at least 9 months prior to leaving and if I turned up and someone told me our room was going to someone else I'd spontaneously combust. 

On 5/13/2024 at 1:36 PM, 39august said:

Elite Plus, so have some experiences for comparisons. What we liked about Beyond: Eden, Oceanview Cafe, 4 MDR experience, and the Infinite Veranda cabin.. Of course, it's not a veranda at all, but a mini sun room. There is actually more storage space in the closet than pictures seem to show. The staff was incredible ship wide. That's it. The ship was loud over all and very dark in some areas such as  WCB. Craft Social is ridiculously small for such a large ship. A lot of areas encouraged use of stairs. Those at the Martini Bar seemed dangerous. And speaking of dangerous, who in the heck thought that dark maze approach to Eden was a good idea?! If no one has been badly injured there, I am surprised! Shows were strong on effects with the amazing lights and screens. however, only 2 production shows each of our two back to back cruises. Using acrobatics in all shows seemed redundant. Seemed as if every time I wanted to take a drink into the Club,to escape the noise of Craft Social,  it was not open. Just didn't like the layout of the ship and the noise. Have Eclipse, Reflection and Silhoutte booked for the future. 

You listed a lot of good, and important things, staff, cabin and food being good etc. 

You listed a couple of issues like one bar being too small and a big what if, not I fell going to Eden, but you could potentially fall.

Not discrediting your opinion, but if certainly doesn't read like it adds up to a 'never again'.

10 hours ago, SkiPro62 said:

We had the Trio on Apex in March 2024. We bought it during the 2023 Memorial Day sale.  I think it was less than $100 per person. We had an 11:30 boarding time, arrived at the terminal at 11:15, and by 11:30 we had boarded, dropped off our bags, checked in at our muster station, and we were seated at the Specialty Dining desk across from Guest Services. It was that multi purpose desk where they put up a cardboard sign to designate what it is being used for.  Within 5 minutes we had reservations at Eden, Fine Cut, and Raw on 5 including our preferred 7:30 on a milestone birthday at Fine Cut, which was the main reason we were in a hurry to make reservations.  
The lunch was at Raw on 5 on the last sea day. We had a $45 per person credit.  In 2023 that would pay for the Imperial Tower for 2, but the price has gone up to $120. Our mistake was making a 1:30 reservation. They were out of oysters. We had planned on ordering a couple of plates at a time over an hour or so, but at 2:10 our server told us it was last call because the kitchen was closing.  We ordered a couple more items but we didn’t come close to our $45 limit.  Another Raw on 5 detail: the web and app don’t show sake by the glass but it’s on the paper menu in the restaurant. 

Overall the Trio was great value and we were lucky managing the reservation risk. 
 

OP might be interested in knowing that as we prepared for the “Unknown Pleasures” of Eden we were seated around the same time as several other tables and the sommelier became quite flustered getting all of the drinks. She brought the wrong wine to our table and my wife said to me “She’s Lost Control”.

What an awesome insight, thank you for taking the time, much appreciated!

I was fortunate to grab this package for our Beyond sailing in November 24. It shows as sold out now.

Unlike the other meal packages, under the info/terms I don't see anything. Other packages talk about surcharges for tasting menus, or particular restaurants etc. But here, no mention of any caveats.

Does anyone know of they are any special terms for this trio package (2 dinners and 1 lunch). Since there's nothing saying otherwise, for example could I choose the chefs table and dinner on the edge? Or a tasting menu at Le Voyage?

I've attached a screenshot of the deal.

On 3/20/2024 at 2:43 PM, Tyler414 said:

Warning:  Very Long and I am definitely NOT a writer or spell checker.....lol 

 

I have gotten SO MUCH great info from other reviews and "lives"  I wanted to contribute my 2 cents.  Overall we all had a wonderful cruise vacation and can't wait for our next Celebrity adventure, any "complaints" I may have are very minor and had zero impact on the overall vacation.

 

I started planning this cruise all the way back in June 2022 when X still offered OBC, Premium Bev, premium WIFI...and we were in a sunset veranda 11296 (zero noise issues)  I'm fairly new to cruising, with my first cruise being back in 2019 on an older NCL ship, I had such a fun, relaxing time I ended up booking my second cruise on board.  That second cruise was on the brand new at the time NCL Encore, it ended up being the third to last cruise before the shutdown.  I came away from that cruise in awe of the Celebrity Edge ship I saw in two of the ports we were at.   The NCL Encore cruise, almost had the opposite affect on me, I hated it for many reasons and just did not enjoy myself.  Since the restart I have been on four Celebrity E-class cruises, and two Virgin cruises.  This cruise my sister joined me (we are both in our mid 40's) and on black Friday our parents (mid 70's)  decided to join and booked during the wonderful black Friday sale, they ended up in an infinite veranda and they absolutely loved that style (cabin 8209 zero noise issues as well)   We are all pretty active and enjoy doing active excursions.  We flew into Miami the day of embarkation (I know it's risky, but my preference) with no issues and got an Uber for the four of us to Ft Lauderdale for $80 and were on the ship by 12:30.  Celebrity has perfected their embarkation process IMO.  This is my sister and my second time on Beyond, we saw all the shows on the first cruise, so we didn't go to any production shows this time around (we did make an attempt a couple times, but due to zero seats available, we did not stay.  Our parents went to all production shows and few other main theater shows and they said they were fabulous.

 

Day 1  Depart.  We departed Ft Lauderdale around 4:30 to wonderful weather and hung out around the sunset bar area (one of my favorite spots on E-class) Later on my sister and I had a great diner at Le Voyage. 9/10  We both had the filet and based on our previous experiences at Le Voyage it was excellent.  The only "issue" was we were to full for desert and had a show to catch, so we were trying to pass on desert and our waiter insisted we stay, we again said we were going to pass and he asked us to hold on.  After sitting for about 5-7 minutes and wondering what was going on, we got up and left.  By the time we got to the theater it was full, so we missed the show. no biggie.  Off to the casino.

 

Day 2  Sea day.  I rented a 2 person cabana for the day and glad I did, sea day one, the pool area was packed and the Chogs were everywhere.  The night before I received a phone call in our cabin asking what bottle we wanted, I chose vodka (Kettle One) when we arrived at the cabana out attendant brought the vodka, fruit plate, water and a round of drinks.  Our parents joined us once in a while with no one saying anything about four people being in the 2 person cabana.  My sister and I both had the Luminae Burger and it was delicious.  Overall the cabanas can be a bit pricey, but with the black friday sale and a full sailing, it was worth every penny.   In the evening we ate at Raw on 5. 10/10  My parents and sister rarely if ever eat sushi, so I ordered for them and they loved everything. And off to the casino

 

Day 3  Sea day.  Today we had the wine pairing planned, we are not big wine folks, so this was a very informative and fun thing to do.  We received 6 half full glasses of wine and a "food" tray with various pieces of fruit, cheese, sun dried tomato, and a couple other things. I would recommend to anyone who may or may not drink wine.  In the evening my sister and I ate at Rooftop Grill. 10/10 This continues to be one of the better specialty's on an E-class ship in both value and the food.   I again had a delicious filet, mac n cheese, sliders, wings.

 

Day 4   St, Marten.   My sister and I did our own thing to Orient Beach, we got a taxi with two other folks and where charged $20pp for round trip. On Orient beach we went to Contiki Beach Club, the beach, loungers, food, drinks, everything was great.  We ordered a light lunch of sushi and fries. Everything at Contiki was great, clean restrooms, shower, staff all great.  After about 4.5 hours it was time to pay the bill and head back for some Philipsburg shopping.  The final bill for the two of us was $150 plus tip.  That included padded loungers, umbrella, whos knows how many drinks and food.  When we finished shopping, we took the water taxi back to the port area, if I remember correct it was $7 for a one way ticket each.

Tonight for dinner we all dined at Eden, this was at least the sixth time I've eaten at Eden and again everything was excellent. 10/10

Tonight was the "Shine the Night" pool deck party that I was looking forward to and bought a special shirt for the party.   I went back to the cabin pretty tired and ended up falling asleep and missed it the whole party and the casino.  lol   A reason to do another cruise now. (not that I needed an excuse)

 

Day 5  St Lucia.  All four of us did the Celebrity excursion Botanical Gardens & Catamaran with lunch.  It was a 6.5 hour tour with many short stops at local venders and viewing stops of the Pitons on the way to the Gardens.  Along the way we stopped to get some fresh picked banana's, best I've ever eaten!!  After almost 3 hours of slow, hilly driving we arrived at the Botanical Gardens.  It was a short half hour walk through the beautiful gardens and then onto the included lunch.  The lunch was the typical chicken, fish, lentils, salad, that is served in the Caribbean.  After lunch, on to the catamaran for the trip back to port, along the way we did stop for about 45 minutes for some beach time.  Overall 10/10

We did not eat in any MDR during this cruise, a lot of specialties and Oceanview.  Tonight was an Oceanview evening. It is what it was.  lol

 

Day 6   Barbados.   The parents did a beach day with a Celebrity excursion to Carlisle beach.  They said they had a wonderful relaxing day at the beach and the beach itself was clean and the staff were great.   My sister and I did a DIY with Silver Moon Barbados.  They have a max of 12 people on their catamarans.  Today 3 of the 12 did not make it, so there were only 9 folks on the Cat. If you plan to do a catamaran with snorkeling in Barbados Silver Moon is the only choice IMO,  This ended up to be the best excursion on the entire vacation.  It was such an awesome day, from the snorkeling, to the drinks, the first class lunch provided, to the private(ish) beach we swam to. Everything was first class++  10/10+++

For diner my sister and I ate at Fine Cut, I don't know what it is with Fine Cut, but it was again underwhelming for me.  I had, again a filet (we see a theme of meat here) it was just OK.  I just don't understand why the steak joint on the ship has the 4th best filet, and it seems consistent. 7/10

 

Day 7  Antigua.   We all went on the Celebrity excursion  Catamaran cruise with Lobster Lunch.  This was another knockout by the staff.  It was a big catamaran full of people, we cruised down the west side of the island and the captain was very informative about everything on the island.  After the first beach stop lasting about 45 minutes we got back onto the Cat. with tables and chairs placed out for our excellent, freshly cooked lobster lunch, it was delicious, even my non seafood eating sister cleaned her tail until nothing was left.  After lunch we headed to another short beach stop before heading back to port.  10/10

Tonight I was able to book a 6:30 dinning time at Rooftop for all four of us, this was important to me because the ship did not depart until 7pm.  Rooftop can get windy, especially when at sea, so no wind issues while eating.   I think we all had the filet and ordered way to many apps, it was hard to finish the best desert on the ship, the cookie with ice cream.  Another 10/10   And off to the casino. 

 

Day 8  St Kitts.  Today all four of us were to do a Celebrity excursion Catamaran to Nevis with lunch, this was a 6.5 hour land and sea tour stopping at Alexander Hamilton's birthplace? and a few other stops.  My sister and I decided we did not want to do such a long tour, so just the parents went on it, and my sister and I opted for a 4 hour Trip to Nevis with lunch, pretty basic catamaran ride to a Nevis beach where a lunch of chicken and fish was waiting for us. After lunch we relaxed on the beach for about 45 minutes before it was time to head back.  I think after hearing what a great time my parents had, I had regrets on switching.  Oh well, next time.  9/10

Another diner in Oceanview and back to the casino for me.

 

Day 9   Sea Day.  We had a cabana rented again for this sea day another bottle of vodka (unopened bottle came home with me, I'm not that big of a drunk  lol)    I really enjoyed the freedom the cabana offers, come and go whenever, not having to be or fight the chogs is great.  This time I opted for the chicken sandwich on the cabana menu, and it was excellent as well. 

Tonight was another Le Voyage night.  Again I had the filet and saved room for desert this time.  Tonight we had the best waiter of the cruise Dev, he was outstanding, and made the wonderful meal even that much better.  10/10   And then off to the casino.

 

Day 10  Sea Day.   The dreaded last day.  Did not do much during the day, relaxed and enjoyed my last day of vacation.

Tonight was the finale at Eden, tried some different for me apps and entre and they were Eden good.  Again great food and service. 10/10

 

Day 11    Disembarkation   After an incident with NCL with my luggage, I now carry off my own luggage.  Again, Celebrity has perfected this, we where in the Uber by 7:30 and at FLL by 7:45 to easily make our 10am flight.

 

Overall this was an awesome vacation on Celebrity Beyond that I've been looking forward to for a long long time.  I'm not going to say it was make or break for Celebrity, but after a not so good cruise on Beyond in January 2023 (the start of the major cutbacks that they seemed to have now reversed)

I was prepared to cancel my three future cruises with Celebrity, I am definitely keeping the reservation after this cruise.

Thanks again to all those before me who have posted reviews, comments, shore excursion experiences, overall help on Cruise Critic.  Sorry for the long winded, poorly written review.  Till next time 🥂

 

Man, you sure love catamarans.

No huge deal, but drink prices seem to have changed fairly recently, well, increase is more appropriate. Not like they are ever going to go down these days.

Sailing on the Beyond in Nov and currently have the classic package, would really appreciate if anyone has any snaps of the latest menus with current prices. Thanks a bunch.

Can someone confirm exactly what waters are included with the classic package then? That would be really appreciated.

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

 

Submerging hockey pucks of frozen potatoes into a deep fryer and calling them hash browns is blasphemy. Proper hash browns are created with shredded potatoes on a griddle.

 

Well, Norwegian don't do them either, so that's us all double screwed.

5 hours ago, cruisinsusin said:

@joydivision84

we engaged a driver for the entire day to do touring from Panama City to the Colon area ( 7-8 hours) and it was about $200. 

appreciate the answer! Thanks!

On 7/19/2022 at 1:18 PM, cruisinsusin said:

Just visited on land trip. Agree with @BillB48- be sure the driver stays with you- even the locks staff made sure our driver was going to wait as they said it is difficult to get someone to pick you up otherwise. The entry fee for non resident visitors was $10 each. 

Excellent viewing area by the way..

This post is old I know, but do you recall approx how much you paid for the taxi to and back from the visitor service, including his 'wait' fee.  

17 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

Right.  But I wouldn’t bother with “refusing” the OBC from the CN.  It’s all a marketing ploy.  The “OBC” you get for the CNs is applied against the cost of the CNs.  Net cost would be $1000 regardless, which would be paid for with the purchased credit you bought in advance.  Just not worth the argument with the the CN folks.  It’s all a shell game.  Just don’t believe the myth that you have to spend the OBC you got on other stuff.  You don’t.  You will be charged $1000 net.

Oh ok, sorry one last question, if we get on board and don't really enjoy ourselves, at least enough to warrant going with NCL again and buying cruisenext vouchers etc, we could just go to customer service on the last day of the cruise and ask for out $1000 worth of OBC to be returned to us in cash?

That's right yeah?

I presume it will be $1000 minus some small amount (tax on drinks in ports etc), as I presume when you have OBC purchased, that is used up before your credit card on file is used. So even though we plan to spend nil on board, a small amount is unavoidable (tax) and that will come off the OBC before our credit card?

23 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

The only warning I’d give you is that technically the Amex offer does not apply to purchases made onboard, which would include the purchase of the CruiseNexts.  I don’t know how they determine if a purchase was made onboard, vs. through NCL.com.  I don’t think I’d take the chance.

 

I had the same dilemma last month.  I ended up buying $1000 of OBC through NCL.com for my cruise that month.  It is refundable credit that can be used to buy the CNs.  I got the $200 credit on the Amex card.  In my case, I also have a NCL MC, which I prefer to use for onboard expenses because I get 3 points for every dollar spent.  The purchased OBC can be cashed out on the last full day of the cruise.  So I waited and cashed out the credit that morning, then purchased the CNs, which were charged to the NCL card.  Net effect was that I got the $200 and an additional 3% when I purchased the CNs.

Very clever. Good idea. I guess I could duplicate what you did then? Minus the NCL credit card which I don't own/have.

So I could, purchase $1000 OBC from NCL.COM prior to my cruise, then whilst on board spend that $1000 OBC in its entirety on 8x $125 cruisenext vouchers, refuse OBC, and when I am home I should have $2000 worth of cruisenext vouchers and $200 back from Amex? I could just do that right? 

Ok, this has been a really informative thread. I have one last question, I think I have formulated my purchase plan on board so I will run it past you all, since many of you have experience here. Thanks a bunch in advance.

First stipulation, I currently have the American Express NCL deal on my credit card, which is spend $1000, get $200 back. The reason I mention this is that I hope this can be used alongside this deal.

Plan, on the Breakaway at the end of the month, buy 8x $125 cruisenext coupons. Total cost $1000.

IMPORTANT: Refuse OBC offer at the time (I presume I just state that outright to the consultant there at the time? I have no interest in OBC value, just future x2 cruise reservation use)

Result = When I arrive home from my cruise, I should have an email containing 8 $250 cruisenext credits, totaling $2000 towards upcoming cruises(s). (understand I can only use up to x3 per cruise, if they have a triple up offer etc).

Bonus? = Because I spent $1000 on the cruisenext vouchers purchase don board, this is trigger my American Express deal, giving me $200 statement credit back. So at the end of the day when all is said and done, I will have spent $800 real world money, for $2000 worth of cruise credit for future trips.

Could you all confirm, or rather whoever wants to comment, ha, does that all sound viable and correct?

5 hours ago, hallux said:

No, see the table on the CN site - 

https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext

So, regarding the Haven $500 certificates, they are at cost? As in, you pay $500 on board for one, you get a $500 certificate? I presumed it doubled up, ie. they cost you $250 for a $500 certificate and you can buy maximum x amount, and put x3 of them towards a future cruise, so $1500. Christ, I am confused and embarrassed to admit that.

Am I reading the comments right, where people were excited then disappointed after looking at the table you posted. For such a at first simple sounding concept, it sure is needlessly complex.

8 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

Yes, that is how it works.   However, we do not know when and if the triple up promotion will happen again. 

 

Sorry pal, last question, can you even buy the $500 cruisenext vouchers (for $250 each real money) and use x3 of them towards a balcony room? So $1500 total value for $750 real money.

Or are the $500 cruisenext vouchers only applicable to suites and above? 

I'm a new cruiser so please excuse me if this is a dumb question, but I presume if I purchase 3x cruisenext certificates, say the $250 value ones (at $125 a pop real money), I can hypothetically book a cruise at the end of 2024, apply x3 cruisenext and that's $750 paid towards the total amount? 

Say total for cruise is $3000, I use 3 of these and my balance is now $2250? Am I right in thinking that's how it works?

Also, are they applicable towards costs such as pre-paid gratuities? 

18 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Cruise Plum is a great thing, but largely ignored by the masses.  Upon checking the plum today, I observed an across the board REAL NCL price drop.  No, this isn't the latest promo thing that fools many fine cruisers.  I eventually called NCL and repriced ten cruises and my total costs went down $523.30.  The reductions ranged from $38.40 to $100.42.  I'll leave it to the smart kids to figure out what that meant for my average future NCL booking.  🤣

 

Huge?  No.  Worth the hour or so I spent on it?  Absolutely.  It really only would have taken about twenty minutes if I didn't mock book every cruise to confirm a price reduction.  That would be like making $1569.90 an hour.  Not bad for a lazy afternoon of dreaming about future NCL cruises. 😎

 

Now I need to work on DD's future cruises with us.  Yes, at times, @ChiefMateJRKis a good father.😏

 

Like it or not, I know of at least one lucky cruiser who is about to meet the whole @ChiefMateJRK"crew."  Yes, you know who you are.👩‍🎓

What a terrific site, had not heard of it prior to your post. Thanks for the heads up!

13 hours ago, BrianLo said:

 

You know, I just want to make a comment that I'm not really sure this is the case per say. There seems to be a widening divide between the two of these lines, they definitely used to be really obvious comps.

 

NCL is decidedly trying to swim up market, further reducing their focus on the Caribbean and are purposefully working towards longer length cruises with a wider variety of destinations. We see other targeted areas of focus like Solos on NCL and meanwhile RCL seems to digging in deeper to the family cruising with staterooms meant to accommodate. NCL continues to have most guests on some form of package. NCL is also kind of in the medium ship category while RCL is focusing on mega's and their land-based offerings.

 

This is not an insult to RCL in the slightest, but I actually think Carnival and MSC are both trying to come up as well into RCL's current category. NCL is trying to become a Celebrity competitor.

It's a weird form of upmarket push though, where their ships are becoming more segregated. I know that sounds strange, but if you compare the product on their new Prima, Viva etc ships there is a noticeable difference in regards to the offerings on display and specially in the restaurants when compared to for example, the breakaway class ships. The decor and style differential between their brand new ships and recent but older vessels is quite stark. The new ships looks lovely, but obviously they have came with lots of complaints regarding best usage and charging even more so for extras.The ship within a ship thing is in my opinion getting a little extreme.

Where the big difference seems to be to me is in the dining options now, where the new ships seem to be leaps and bounds above the breakaway class ships with more options and genuinely better looking and more appetizing food offerings. So to me anyway, and it's just my opinion, it's almost like they are beginning to offer two separately different options, their new vessels going more upmarket and you can see that on the menus and on the walls, and their  older vessels being left behind for the more economical traveler. The problem is the new ships are not really more expensive when it comes to cost to customers, so it's kinda a weird situation.

On 11/3/2023 at 8:16 AM, wilmingtech said:

NCL has gone from a net income of (-482.48M) in Dec 22 to a +345.87M in the 3rd quarter of this year (2023).

 

How long will it take for that to trickle down to increased service and food quality on the ships? 

I understand the reason for the cutbacks but now with the cruise industry booming, will more of that addl profit go to new ships and expansion of the company with the current cutbacks being the "new normal" or will they focus on improving quality of food and service on the ships to retain the clientele?

If they are selling at capacity or above with food as it is, don't expect any upgrades, it's as simple as that really I'm afraid. I read some of their shareholders meeting and they mentioned several times how good feedback was for their current product (hmm...) and how that supported recent cut backs, so it was pretty clear there was not a push to increase food cost, and thus most likely quality.

19 hours ago, jlowe420 said:

I've never seen it on the menu, but both are available in the breakfast buffet.  I will say that the "cream" gravy tastes terrible, every time I have tried it was just flour taste, no flavor.  Not something I'd eat.

 

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH NCL REMOVING HASH BROWNS?!?!?!?

 

That is literally insane.  There's cutting costs and then there is cutting costs.  I didn't much care for the ones that they had (too onion-y) but it's a staple like bacon.  They best have on point other breakfast potatoes.  I think this may be my last cruise for a little while until we're past the cost cutting to make up for covid is over.

When companies implement cost cutting in the way NCL has, they very rarely bring things back that were cut. The stuff cut, becomes the new normal and they expect, or hope customers to adjust then forget. The cuts are more about increasing profit stream percentages, rather than actually needing to cut. So sadly I wouldn't anticipate things cut ever bring reinstated.

1 minute ago, Russiamomm said:

Possibly.  I’ve learned a lot about cruising since then.  I’ve made up for a lot of lost COVID time in the last two years.  😂. We had used that TA before and it never occurred to me that it was an issue that the charge was to the TA and not to NCL.  Live and learn, but if the experience helps someone else I’m happy about that.  I just wish I could name the TA.  It’s an online cruise seller that is still in business.  I still get promotional emails from them at least once a week.

That's true, good you learned and good you warned people. If it is as black and white as them using their credit card (and I presume benefiting from things such as points doing so), then naming and shaming them seems fine and beneficial, in my opinion. There is no argument for what they did there and it definitely falls under fraud. So feel free to name them, I'd say, but also, that's just me!

3 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

 

I agree.  I discovered this the hard way at the beginning of COVID.  I had booked a cruise through a TA.  It was fully paid for.  I had booked extras on my own directly through NCLs website.  Those were refunded rather quickly, considering the circumstances.  But months passed and I hadn’t gotten the cruise fare refunded.  NCL said I had to talk to the TA.  The TA said it was still being processed by NCL.  I got really frustrated and escalated it within NCL.  They finally told me that the refund had been processed two months earlier and gave me the last four digits of the card it was credited to.  It wasn’t my card.  Turns out that the TA put it on their own card, received the refund and never credited me back.  I was furious.  The TA credited us within a few days.  That was obviously the last time we worked with that TA.  I discovered CAS after that and have used them ever since.

That's straight fraud. Even if you got it back within days of finding out and asking for it back, you should have reported that to the police. 

19 hours ago, Grandmafreddie said:

Review for cabin14126 used to be spa cabin but now regular balcony.

From January 2024. Still Spa until then.

8 minutes ago, RD64 said:

Ripped off? They accepted the terms and conditions in the first place - so at the time did not think it was a “ripoff”. Their blatant promotion of this will eventually get it shut down - then of course people will complain that they are no longer able to take advantage of this loophole.

What terms? Aren't the terms one device. Once again then it goes back to interpretation. Either way if something like this went to court I can guarantee the terms are almost certainly being followed in the most black and white meaning of the contract.

The irony is that people who make WiFi hotspots off their phone/tablet/laptop, which going by this forum is way more rife that what this guy is doing with a router, is most likely closer to breaking the terms.

Then you've got end user device leeching off another end user device and so on, where at least with a router it's a middle ground before the end user device(s). If that makes any sense.

Regarding OP If he was getting increased bandwidth then it would get murkier and go further into the weeds of what is the service inherently, bandwidth or service as a whole, if the WiFi signal is the service, or is the internet itself a service? Almost gets existencial.

Maybe this will be something that NCL will look into off the back off the thread, it's definitely always a bad idea sharing 'hacks' like stuff like this, as it usually just leads to bad ends for customers, and especially OP! Although no doubt the amount of people who actually go to this level to get internet access is probably very, very small indeed. I know it's be too much of a pain in the arse for me for sure. 

At the end of the day people can play white knights for large companies all they want, you do you, I'm more apathetic to this. It's just a guy playing with like 5mb internet, I know I don't care. Plus anyone comparing it to sharing drinks packages etc, yeah, well I'd lean heavily into that being a way more overt and stingy operation, definitely shitty, especially for everyone else who pays for drinks packages.