hawkeyetlse

I have seen those reports about sharing a bottle with others at the table that don’t have the P+ package, but I would not be surprised if they are cracking down on that (which honestly would be fair enough). I get the sense that NCL are really kicking themselves for giving away too much with this bottle service offer and they are steadily clawing it back. Next maybe they will say that it’s one bottle for two people on the package, and solos can’t have bottles at all… (again this is just a maybe!) Anyway we will soon see how it all works for solos on Breakaway. It’s usually an interesting dynamic with drinkers and non-drinkers (and then the drinkers who expect the rest of us to steal drinks for them for 16 days).

Yeah, don't worry, it doesn't automatically renew itself, or start charging you by the minute or anything like that (but as always, what has been true in the past may be different by the time you sail). They will make it very easy for you to purchase a new package, so be careful where you click if you want to avoid that.

I have already said that they should pursue emergency renewal. But if that doesn't work out, and they don't have some amazing insurance that allows them to cancel their flights and their cruise one month out for lack of travel documents, then yes, I think the best option is go ahead and fly to London and try their luck at the terminal. It will not escape the terminal staff's attention that this family has at that point already been admitted to the UK (and therefore to the Common Travel Area, which includes Ireland), so unless the cruise is 5 months long, NCL risks nothing by transporting these passengers. I don't want to get their hopes up too much, there are no guarantees here. Maybe they can channel the stress and uncertainty in the meantime into imagining how they might make the best of the situation if the ship does decide to sail without them. Spend a week in London? Rent a big car and tour around the UK? Take the train back and forth to Paris 20 times and fill up everyone's #*%@! passports with stamps?

Detroit-to-Texas flexible with 4 kids (I assume they'd all have to show up in person for the appointment), I don't know… What I would not do is call anyone at NCL and ask them what to do, or if there are more specific document requirements for this particular cruise, or anything at all. Pretty sure that can only lead to bad things, or at best a waste of time. One big question I have is whether the online check-in thing will throw up red flags when you put in the passport expiration dates for your kids. I guess we'll find out soon (please report back, OP, we are all crossing our fingers for you!)

It's a rule of thumb, but absolutely not true across the board whenever you fly or cruise. Easiest example for most in this forum: as an American citizen, you can fly back to the US with a passport that expires the day of your arrival. And for US round-trip cruises, if you travel with an American passport, NCL only requires it to be "valid", not "valid for 6 months after the end of the cruise". They only mention the 6 month thing for non-US citizens on all cruises, and for US citizens on non-US cruises. Carriers (airlines, cruise lines, etc.) can impose stricter rules than the actual authorities of the countries visited, but it is not in their commercial interest to do so. Sure, it costs them money if they transport passengers who are denied entry for invalid documents, but it is also a headache for them when they refuse boarding to passengers whose documents turn out to be completely valid for travel. For the OP, I don't know what the entry requirements are for the UK and Ireland. But if you are confident that your kids' passport are sufficient, then go to the terminal and be prepared to state your case. They don't just apply some blanket rule from the website and say "boarding denied, final answer". They know what's at stake for you financially (and to a lesser extent for them). They will look at your exact circumstances and make a determination based on whatever they see in Timatic or some similar database of current travel requirements. Of course, if you manage to get an emergency travel appointment before sailing, that's the best option, since it's time to renew those passports anyway. But I don't know if that's even a thing for child passports.

Or they reduce it to 3 items per meal, or reduce the serving sizes. Or both. The best way to prevent food waste is to not give it to you in the first place.

I don't think I have, either. By "they" I meant the published rules that I referred to in my previous sentence, not "they" as in the restaurant staff on board. I know people are routinely allowed or even encouraged to share a dining credit at FR, and I hope that continues forever (but I wouldn't bet on it).

Unlimited Starbucks is $12.95 a day. I don’t know how strict they are about making everyone in a cabin get it (especially kids). But one person sharing their Starbucks with 1-3 other people probably gets noticed pretty fast (not suggesting you were planning to do that!)

In your case, since you don’t care about unlimited internet, or apparently about high-end alcohol, there is no point even doing the math on FAS+ for any (adult) in your party. And since they will require you to upgrade at least one adult, that’s the end of that.

Each coupon (Platinum voucher) is for 2 people, so it's 8 items with one voucher. I agree with Pitzel: it's useful to know what other people have been allowed to do in the past, but the rules for all of these dining offers clearly state no sharing, with no wiggle room. And they don't make any exception for Food Republic or the other "4 item" restaurants. All you can do is ask when you are seated and hope for the best. And have a Plan B in case they don't let you share, whether that means that the other two people go eat somewhere else, or they order a couple of additional items à la carte (and then you all share everything anyway).

I don’t what makes iMessage different, but if there was an easy way to make this stop working, I feel confident that NCL would have put that into action by now. They are certainly well aware that iPhone users have been taking advantage of this for years. You do not get full iMessage functionality. Sometimes you only see a snippet of the message as a notification and it doesn’t show up in the actual Messages app for a while (or ever). And don’t expect photos or “share my location” or any other fancy stuff to work.

It's not hard to find the previous terms of the PP package and see just how much they have reduced the value of it since last year. But the current description/terms clearly indicate that there must be at least one "wine" and one "champagne" available by the bottle at dinner. They can whittle down the selection all they want, but this is the minimum they have to offer. (They can try to hide behind "brand availability may vary" but that won't fly if they're still happy to serve the same wine/champagne by the glass.) Of course they can change the terms whenever they want, but they actually have to do it. If it is true that the Prima has gone rogue and stopped honoring the current terms (which so far we have no proof of, just a vague second-hand report), then I hope the passengers know how to raise a stink and demand some respect.

I have heard of them waiving the purchase requirement for pregnant women or some medical conditions. I don't think being sober counts as a valid excuse, otherwise lots of people would falsely claim to have a sober spouse in order to avoid paying for a second package in their cabin. So my guess is that they'll make you purchase two packages, and you'll have to decide if it's still worth it to you to get the Premium Plus package, or settle for the basic Open Bar package, or get soda and/or Starbucks packages for everyone. Or just pay for all your drinks.

When you’re standing in line, it’s pretty easy to see whether or not the people right in front of you tip the porters. And at that point it is very important to try to see exactly how much they are tipping, because the folks who say they give $10-$15 per bag are actually paying it forward and tipping for the next 3 or 4 couples, too.

Close to the summer solstice is bad news, because it won't get dark enough to see the lights. Plus the full moon is on June 11 in 2025, so that's extra bad.

If it says "upgrade" then it includes a credit for the 75 minutes, which will be replaced in your booking by the unlimited package (you won't still have the 75 minutes to use on another device). It looks like the minutes are worth a $20 credit: $29.99 × 4 days – $20 = $99.96. It should be the same price on board, and for a short cruise, I don't know if it gets any cheaper as the cruise days go by. They do sometimes offer packages for brief internet access towards the end of the cruise (for people to check in for flights home) but I'm not sure about unlimited. Ask the internet manager what they can do for you.

You really don’t have to give them anything. Or $2, whatever. They may be extra rough with your bags and drop them a couple times, but it’s not worth their time and energy to do anything worse than that. 10 seconds later they will have forgotten all about you, and your bags will be on the same cart as the Louis Vuitton matching set whose owner tipped them $100.

That would certainly explain why some of them act like they are being forced to be there (because they are indeed being forced to be there). But how many officers are there? Are there enough dinners for them all to attend one per month?

People already understand that 3rd/4th "free" doesn't mean that they pay nothing. NCL can just add a separate charge if they feel the need to. Or bundle it into the cruise fare for the 1st and 2nd guests, as they already do for most of the services that the 3rd and 4th guests get.

It surprises me to read reviews where people say that the officer was aloof and didn't seem to want to be there. Do they force them to participate in this dinner? I guess they must offer some kind of incentive to these officers, and that's why you sometimes end up with someone who is just going through the motions to get through the meal.

You can sell them through the usual channels (not here) but do it now! The closer you get to expiration the less likely you’ll be able to sell at a profit, or even at cost.

It looks like the full price to me. $29.99 per day – $100 credit for the 150 minutes = $109.93. If you don't use the minutes and wait until after midnight on the first day, the price of the upgrade offer should should go down to $79.94. It often makes sense to wait, since Day 1 is such a short, busy day (and until sailaway you can keep using your cellular data).

Yes, they know who's on and off the ship. But they don't know what you're doing off the ship (on one of their excursions or touring independently). The excursions people can say you bought a ticket for such and such excursion, but they don't know if the ticket was actually used (until the local tour operator hands in the ticket stubs to get paid), and they will never be sure who actually used the ticket (whether it was the person whose name was on the ticket, or someone else). So some catamaran is attacked by a sea creature and it devours everyone on board. All they have is the stack of ticket stubs that the guide collected, so their first assumption is that those are the victims. Your name is on one of the tickets, and security confirms that you left the ship and never came back. They tell your family on board that you are believed to be dead. In fact, you are at Señor Frog's. True story.

I was about to say that, I've given tour tickets to other people to use several times. I can't find anything saying it's against the rules (but I'm guessing it probably is). And if anything happens to the tour, the ship will initially think you're with them and they won't know anything about the other person, but that can be cleared up quickly, if necessary.

I would love to see a full deck of pool loungers with kitchen timers on them, but realistically these would be immediately destroyed, or disappear into people’s actual kitchens all over the world. The thing is, chair hogging doesn’t concern all of the chairs on the pool deck, but only those that have stuff on them, but no person sitting with the stuff. I was joking about the lasers earlier (or was I … ?) but it is very easy to identify chairs like this visually, and then keep track of exactly how long each chair has been in that state. I mean it’s very easy for a computer to do that. No human employee would want such a tedious task. A human would only need to be alerted to take action when a chair has been hogged for too long.