Wayward Son

I wouldn't bet the farm on that. There is a lot of background "pushback" on the bigger is better concept. There are too many of us who like the smaller ships to be ignored.

Those certainly are mega ships. The term "mega ship" was here long before the ships you mentioned were built. The newer 6000+ plus ships have no classification, other than the "Insane Class".

To each their own. We love the cruise through Puget Sound.

Usually 11-11:30.

You are correct. It gave zero indication of who chose what to show. You simply said "they". Are you offended that I simply clarified your post? That seems unlike you.

Been there, done that. Good luck.

NCL certainly chooses what venue's TV shows what. However, if the company they use for broadcast chose not to show the Patriots game, you would have been out of luck.

Not specifically. Your post seemed to imply that NCL chooses. AFAIK, that is not the case.

You get whatever their satellite feed chooses to show. I also assume that will include the NBA Finals.

I don't understand your logic. It's still a comparison. I sailed on the Carnival Holiday in 1992 w/ 1450 pax. Does that count? In any case, I look forward to comparing "the masses" on Rotterdam vs. NCL Encore. 👍

You've seen this script before.

I assume you were a week too early? We did the NE cruise in mid-September '22 and everything was as green as Spring. Definitely wouldn't book a NE cruise with any expectation of seeing Fall colors. That's a disappointment waiting to happen. The year we decide to try October, we'll probably miss it late.

Man, you guys are so spoiled. 😆 Talking about "the masses" on a 2700 pax ship. We've been sailing the mass-market mega ships (4000+) and can't wait to get on the huge Rotterdam.

Why? If OP can only book one spot, that one spot sold out the excursion. That is a fact. What is NCL going to tell them that we haven't?

We wouldn't want to miss an Alaskan sail away. Is it really that important when/where you eat? If you must eat at Cagney's on embarkation day (not sure why), I would attempt to change to a later time once on board.

NCL's website is very good. Royal, not so much. HAL's is not at all intuitive, and difficult to navigate and find anything, at first. However, once you get the hang if it, and understand how to find what you want, it's quite good -- 90% of the time. The other 10%, I just log off and come back later.

Curious. Are you accustomed to live music prior to 7:00? Does/did HAL do this? I honestly can't recall ever watching live music until evening, but this is my first HAL cruise coming up.

Ship's currency is USD, but as CruiserBruce said, whatever you have will be accepted.

I'm the exact opposite. I will not deliberately take a cruise that stops in Santorini. If I must for other reasons, that will be a ship day for me. There is much more to see in Greece than one overcrowded, unmanageable port.

Now see, this is where I get my panties in a bunch. You have not yet experienced NCL for yourself, and yet you already know won't sail NCL again. How does that work? You are bummed about Alaska, yet NCL goes to Glacier Bay and Celebrity does not. Why would you assume a problem? Wouldn't it better assume an amazing cruise? Only you can make yourself happy, and you're already making yourself unhappy before you even set foot on the ship. Give up your predetermined "problems" and you may find they don't exist.

I apologize if I've offended you in some way. I have been on 6 NCL cruises for a total of 59 days, and I can't recall a single meal in the MDR that took 90-minutes. On the other hand, I have asked the server to speed things up and was out in 45. I don't know what you've been reading elsewhere, or who these "thousands of other parents" are, but I can assure you, if this was as huge a problem as they seem to be making of it -- we would know it here.

I suppose they could try. But my guess is the Attorney General, or any lawyer, would take one look at the cruise contract and say, "not gonna happen".

Except that you do have a choice, it's NCL, you dine whenever you want. Perhaps you misunderstood me, so let me rephrase: Why would you choose to dine at the same time as you know your kids will be in the queue? If I recall correctly (and that's not a given), the kid's club opened at 7:00 pm every night. So why would you choose to be dining at 7:00 (or 7:15, 7:30, 7:45, whatever)?

Sorry, but I have to ask the obvious question, why would you choose to dine when you know your kids are going to be in queue for the kid's club?

I was just ready to ask that. Even if it's accurate enough to show it on the ship, how can it possibly show what deck it's on? I think fred went a little off the scale with the "12 doors away" thing. But then, I've never used them.