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Most flight aggregators don't include Southwest. Their system doesn't play well with others. Google Flights will acknowledge that their flights exist, but can't tell you how much they cost. If you think Southwest might fly to where you're going, it might be worthwhile to check their site directly.

I'm quite sure you can do better than NCL if you accept basic fares and do well on the timing of your booking. I'm flying via NCL in October, and if I booked the cheapest flights possible at basic fares I'd only be saving like $50 by using NCL (and then paying for my carry-on). If I booked the flights I'd actually choose and in the main cabin I'd be saving close to but not quite 50%. But God knows what it'll actually look like in September, or what they'll assign me. Even if this goes very well I doubt I'll be doing this again at least for domestic flights. I kind of checked the box on impulse. Live and learn, I guess.

Maybe it's just what I was exposed to, but coffeeshop workers have been around as laptops (and almost as long as specialty coffeeshops). A Starbucks full of screenwriters is an LA cliche. The panini pushed those folks back into their homes, and they only came back at the same time the rest of us were going back to the offices. Slower even in LA. They got hit so hard in the early pandemic that they're (on average) still much more cautious than the rest of the US.

Rule of thumb is also that Sunday (and Friday) flights are the most expensive. So there's potentially additional savings in waiting a day.

I'm not in that market, but I've seen a lot of chatter that it doesn't offer good enough quality of service relative to the price or to similar products on other cruise lines. It's not sufficiently all-inclusive, the exclusive spaces aren't good enough, the butlers and concierges aren't attentive or useful enough and also are very eager to let you know they aren't covered by the (higher) gratuities already being paid. And so on. I don't know how new these complaints are, exactly. And admittedly these are all subjective things I've heard secondhand. People do seem to like the rooms themselves, the private elevator, and the embarkation/disembarkation perks.

That's the million dollar question. I think for the mass market lines like NCL the answer to "who is the target demographic" is "everyone". Families, young adults, retirees, couples, solos, large groups, budget vacationers, and luxury travelers. Who is the target demographic for Delta, or Hilton? I think they are being quite successful in courting solo travelers (at least, they're offering a great product for solos, I don't know how many are actually biting). I think they are struggling a bit for the luxury market as the Haven seems quite divisive even among people who would book on the Haven.

Lots of people in this thread talking about "inflation" as if it were some unavoidable force of nature (or at least, solely the responsibility of a disconnected government) that's completely outside of the control of the suppliers. It is not. A lot of the "inflation" we've been seeing lately isn't due to inflated monetary supply, but by merchants simply raising their prices. This is partially because many raised prices by necessity due to pandemic-connected supply issues and often noticed that demand did not fall precipitously when they did, so when supply increased again they simply did not lower prices. Profits are up across many business sectors. This is why we see some businesses (usually smaller, privately-held ones) who can hold on to both their quality and their lower prices. This is a choice they are making. Now, that's not to say that NCL (or any cruise line) is a prime offender in this. I'm sure they're getting charged more too. Especially for fuel, but also food and contract services. Also I'm hardly going to riot about what's essentially a luxury product. But I think for the most part any cost-cutting or price increase is due to two factors: 1. Running down debts from the pandemic shutdown. 2. Because they can. That's not an NCL exclusive. This seems to be happening across almost all major cruise brands, with accompanying degradation in quality. Heck, I just watched a review for MSC where the reviewers (who were not MSC fans) admitted they felt MSC hadn't so much improved as everyone else was getting worse and falling to a similar level. And if everybody is failing together, then nobody has a reason to do better.

NCL's subtotal excludes taxes and port fees, which the others do not. So that's an additional ~$410 or somewhere around $2,592.80. Which still is cheaper, significantly so with FAS. But no longer quite so spectacularly so. It'd maybe be easier for someone to claim that the other ships are worth the premium.

I don't know if it's so on NCL, but HAL says that its mini-fridges aren't cold enough for medication and instead offer to store them for passengers in the infirmary. But also just check your medication. Some things kept cold are actually safe to store for up to several weeks at room temperature.

Yum Yum Man, now Leatherman? What kind of cruise is this? (And you absolutely cannot bring any kind of knife onto an airplane. I don’t know how strict ships are in comparison but if you like your multitool I’d leave it at home just to be safe. You will not be called upon to repair the boat)

Maine was never the Caribbean anyway. Cruisers must be a small blip compared to folks who just drive in and stay at one of the many, many B&Bs. It's also a town that would be hard pressed to expand and improve the port facilities. It's a small island, and most of the island is a National Park. There's no place to go except to displace local businesses and make the whole place less quaint and picturesque which spoils the whole point of the thing.

It creates engagement with the brand. Most people can afford to cruise with HAL only ever so often. So while they're replenishing their bank accounts, HAL doesn't really have much contact with them. Which means maybe next time they'll go with someone else. God help them, maybe even someone not in the Carnival Group. But if you join the standby program, you're letting HAL into your house. You're actually going to read their emails just in case it's news about your status. You're thinking about HAL, even if you aren't really buying a cruise yet. And when you don't get a cabin, you're disappointed. Not mad, since you always knew this was very likely. But you didn't realize you wanted this thing so much until they told you you can't have it. So maybe you should just buy a cruise at full price...

Start by selecting "Oceanview" and then change your occupancy. It'll be there. Remember that Inside cabins will often still be cheaper despite the singles supplement, so check on that and ask yourself if a window is worth it for you.

I've booked one of these cabins for a 14-day 2025 cruise. As pricing stands now, I'm definitely paying for the upgrade over an inside cabin. Which I'm willing to pay for a window over two weeks. But it's a long ways out and who knows what supply and demand will do as the date draws nearer.

The Studios have a better location, at least looking at the deckplans. The Studios are by themselves, surrounded by other cabins on every side. It seems they like to stick the Solo Insides under the main stage. There are exceptions (on some ships), but you need to pick carefully. With the studios the the only real possible pitfall is that some cabins have connecting doors which could let noise through from the next cabin. But since the other cabin is also a solo studio, that's somewhat less likely to be a problem than with other cabin types.

Barrel Picks aren't necessarily better than the main brand, but they are different and therefore more interesting. Whiskeys are blended so you can get the same whiskey over and over again, and that leads to some level of blandness and homogeneity. A single barrel can have different and perhaps stronger characteristics than the parent brand. Which isn't necessarily a good thing. So you are paying a premium for rarity, not quality. But whiskey nerds will happily pay for that! Comparing to the prices for the scotches further down the menu, they definitely are charging a premium for this. Not Pappy prices, but this was never going to be that. This is along the same bump I'd expect to see for a barrel pick in a liquor store.

Timing matters a lot, but I'm seeing round trip direct flights from New York to Miami for less than half that. And that's main cabin. If you're willing to forgo a carryon and the ability to choose seats, you can do half that again. And that's me screwing around on Hopper for one minute. Someone who actually knows the tricks of the trade, or a TA or cruise line buying at group rates, or someone cashing in miles can do even better than that I'm sure.

I heard similar, that they were requiring ships in port need to use shore power (which not every ship is equipped for) and also for cruise lines to address the road traffic caused by their passengers. But that was still just a proposal. I think the truth is that everything in New York is expensive, ports not excluded. It's probably cheaper to fly New Yorkers to Florida (where they can offer more varied and exciting itineraries anyway) than it is to embark them from their home city.

The clips, the towels wrapped so tightly around the chair that they don't need clips, the immaculately arranged monogrammed towels. You'll find thoughtless and inconsiderate behavior everywhere. The library squatter above is an example of that. But these people came prepared. They've had practice on this. Somebody somewhere is not only telling people that this is okay, they're developing strategies!

I'm doing a 14-day in 2025 (not in a suite), which will get me to 28 points. It would take a second cruise to get me over the top to 2 star status. And then on my third cruise I get a complimentary picture of the ship. I want that photo!

Without getting overly political, I don't think it's a foolish bet that things will remain unsafe in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. I think it's generally a much better move for customers to get a definitive answer this far in advance. (And also for the cruise line so they can plan and sell a different cruise somewhere without a risk of missiles) For the OP I take it you bought nonrefundable tickets to/from Dubai and Mauritius separately from NCL? I don't think they're on the hook for that, at least legally. I'm sorry that happened to you. If you have decent travel insurance, this is the kind of thing handled by that. Otherwise you can attempt to work with the airline and maybe rebook a trip somewhere else.

You do need to double check that your extension cord is not a surge protector. That's where people have problems.

That's true. Heck, I'm going to Baltimore on a business trip later this year and I'm not at all nervous about that. This is because I understand that even within city limits some places are better than others.

According to FBI data from 2019, the worst city rate for "Murders and Non-Negligent Homicide" in the USA (among the top 100 cities by population) was St. Louis with 66.07 deaths per 100,000 people annually. Which is indeed worse than Jamaica (as a whole). Baltimore basically tied with Jamaica. Third place was Detroit at 39.8, a significant drop-off. The USA as a whole was 6.1 deaths per 100,000 annually. So while there are some pretty dangerous pockets of the US, Jamaica still does pretty poorly in comparison.

The line doesn't trust you to not bring an ancient broken kettle that will burn down the ship so they say you can't bring your own. For most of their American guests, a kettle would only take up space so they only put them in the suites where there's space to spare. And they can't be bothered to keep a closet full of clean and maintained kettles just in case a British person shows up. Where British people are actually expected (and/or where the Americans will want to be like fancy British people, which is Cunard's whole deal) they'll find room for kettles.