njhorseman

They use facial recognition technology, not Global Entry:

I'm fixated on NY because it's a prime example of a major NCL embarkation port where it would be essentially impossible to move to another port that could serve its huge cruising market and where the operational Hydra makes it extraordinarily difficult...indeed next to impossible for NCL or any cruise line to do very much about improving conditions.

Having done dozens of cruises from Manhattan on at least 6 different cruise lines, yes some were not problematic but some were total nightmares at embarkation, disembarkation, or both. To put it bluntly, your lone cruise is meaningless as a measure of the experience of cruising from the port. On another day your experience could have been completely different. NCL runs relatively few one way trips beginning or ending in NY. I recall one or two in the past being scheduled to depart Brooklyn, but the overwhelming percentage of NCL cruise passengers are on roundtrip voyages. Moving a few cruises doesn't address the core issues that affect probably 95% of NCL's NY passengers. Did you forget what I documented for you about NCL having to deal with the same service providers regardless of whether they sail from Manhattan, Brooklyn or Cape Liberty? Moving a few cruises is going to do nothing to address the problems caused by having to deal with that Hydra...and I need to add the Coast Guard and USCBP, which can delay any embarkation and disembarkation.

The complaints about lack of cruises from NY are about the reduction of the number of sailings and lack of variety in itineraries, not that there aren't cruises from NY. We used to have two NCL ships based in NY most of the time. That is no longer true. The situation here can't be compared to San Diego and San Pedro. The substantial port facilities in San Pedro were already in place. There's no comparable port here that could replace NY. Plus, by moving the San Diego cruises to San Pedro they were moving closer to the center of the cruising population. Moving from NY would be moving operations further from the center of population.

If you haven’t seen complaints about NY you haven’t been paying attention. If I were the type of poster who wanted to air my gripes I could have started a dozen threads myself. Yes, since you're from NY I assumed you had cruised from here fairly often. The fact that you haven’t probably explains why you haven’t seen complaints...you simply haven’t looked very hard for them. Threatening NY with a 5 year plan to move elsewhere ignores the reality that there is nowhere else on the east coast that could serve the huge NY area market, where so many millions are just a short drive, train ride, or bus trip away. While it might work elsewhere I doubt it could work here.

How would you suggest that NCL replace the Manhattan Cruise Terminal as a homeport ? Cape Liberty has only one berth and is controlled by Royal Caribbean. Brooklyn has only one berth and is controlled by Carnival Corp. for its Cunard and Princess subsidiaries, with now MSC leasing berthing rights. Oh...even if adequate docking space were available at either Cape Liberty or Brooklyn, it's going to be pretty much the same cast of characters running them. All three are under the general auspices of the Port Authority of NY and NJ. Brooklyn and Manhattan are both managed by NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Corporation), which has contracted day-to day management of both to Ports America, which subcontracts out the check in services at the pier...last I saw to a company called Intercruises that pretty much has a monopoly on those services in this area. Parking facility operations are subcontracted out to other operators. Stevedoring labor is provided by the local longshoreman's union, the ILA...no choice there. The above should also tell you why it's next to impossible for NCL to have any control over what happens at the port...no alternatives are available and you have at least five organizations involved in port operations: PA of NY & NJ, Ports America, Intercruises, a parking operator and the ILA.

As already noted, hotels in the LAX area have shuttles from the airport to the hotel, but no hotel has a shuttle to Long Beach. Take an Uber from any hotel in the LAX area to Long Beach. Likely price is in the $50 to $60 range.

In addition to what others have said, it appears to me that the $150 price quote is for an Uber Black. An UberX or Uber Comfort from LAX to the Long Beach Cruise terminal will be in the $50-$60 range.

I answered your question on a different thread.

https://widget.arrive.com/index.html?ui-components=event-list,location-list,checkout,purchase-confirmation&capture-plate=always&coordinates-marker=false&destination-location-id=51217&destination-venue-id=517845&enable-google-pay=true&enable-apple-pay=true&parkwhiz-opens-in-new-tab=false&pricing-access-code-exclusive=true&pricing-access-codes=f8107238&t-and-c-override=true&title-override-text=Manhattan Cruise Terminal Official Parking&utm-source=https%3A%2F%2Fnycruise.com%2Fmanhattan-terminal%2Fparking%2F

They're the parking operator for the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. It doesn't matter what cruise line you're on.

The point is that being represented by a maritime union doesn't mean you're not a government employee. I also checked job openings on the Washington State Ferry. Again they are state employees but may be represented by various unions. You are correct...we have gone far afield from the original question, but that often happens .

There's a job opening on nyc.gov as a marine oiler for the Staten Island ferry. The job description clearly states that the person will be an employee of the City of New York.

The privately-owned water taxis and ferries in NY City can't exist with the approval of their franchise by the city government. None would be allowed to directly compete with the Staten Island Ferry. In any event I am not talking about for-profit corporations. I'm strictly addressing the politically unacceptable scenario of government-owned operations such as the Staten Island Ferry operating foreign-flagged vessels crewed by citizens of other countries. The media outlets are going to feast on stories like "Mayor Adams Plans to Replace XXX New Yorkers Who Work on the Staten island Ferry with Panamanians" Maritime unions may be weak, but not unions representing government employees. You may not be aware of the influence that union leaders in this area of the country have. My son happens to be president of a union representing several thousand government employees in this county. He has the ear of every politician from our town's council and mayor to the county executive to our state legislators to the governor. He and his union worked on their behalf to help them get elected. Believe me if his rank and file were in danger of losing their jobs to citizens of other countries those politicians would be instantaneously reminded of how many votes that would cost them the next election. BTW, the Staten Island Ferry is already free, so foreign-flagging isn't going to reduce the fare.

The bad optics and negative publicity generated by a government agency operating foreign-flagged and foreign-crewed ships could be a political nightmare costing politicians their jobs. Unions representing the ferry workers would campaign against this.

Chief, while as always I appreciate and respect your knowledge and experience, I think you may be exaggerating the likelihood of government owned and operated ferry systems such as the Staten Island Ferry and Washington State Ferries reflagging to a foreign country such as Panama. Certainly the comment about not having to pay corporate taxes to the US is not accurate because as government agencies they don't pay corporate taxes. The Circle Line sightseeing boats are a different story as they are owned and operated by a for-profit corporation, not a government agency.

You were the one who reopened the inactive thread.

Then why is it still here?

I'm curious why you reopened a thread that has been inactive for over 7 months.

I was agreeing with your assertion. I said that while we have received small credits for decreases we've never been charged for an increase in taxes/fees despite it being contractually permissible to be charged.

We've received a small downward adjustment as a matter of customer courtesy in the form of an onboard credit once or twice in years past. I can't say if it's been done recently. We've never been charged for a tax/fee increase while on board, although it would be allowed under the terms of the Guest Ticket Contract: 3. Terms of Fare (a) Items Included in Fare "...If governmental or quasi-governmental action results in any element of such taxes and fees exceeding the estimates used by Carrier for purposes of computing the quoted amount, Carrier reserves the right to pass through the extra amount."

Apollo also controlled NCL/NCLH and continued to control NCLH after Oceania and Regent were absorbed into NCLH, but the whole purpose of NCLH going public was for Apollo to get out of the business with a presumably profitable divestiture of its ownership by selling its stock in NCLH. IIRC Apollo sold the last of its stock in NCLH in 2018. FDR was never the majority shareholder of the "Apollo" that controlled NCLH, NCL and Prestige Cruise Holdings (Oceania and Regent), which was Apollo Management a private equity firm with billions in assets under its management. Perhaps @pinotlover is referring to a different "Apollo". Edit: This is the Apollo that provides staff foe Oceania. It is not the same company that controlled NCL, NCLH and Prestige Cruise Holdings: This company has been in business since 1969. FDR was not the founder. https://www.theapollogroup.com/ https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2019/07/the-apollo-group-celebrating-50-years/

In your original post you ask the question "Does anyone know what amount is supposed to be taxed?" . The answer is that the taxes and fees are not based on any fare "amount". They're not like sales taxes which are a percentage of the price of the goods or services being purchased. (The exception is on Hawaiian cruises where a General Excise Tax, similar to a sales tax is imposed by the state.) There are numerous components to the taxes and fees, all of which can vary by port, ship and the cruise line's contracts with the various ports including docking fees, harbor pilot fees, tug boat fees, seasonal taxes, port taxes imposed on a per passenger basis and others that no one but the cruise line can identify. As I said, none of these are based on your fare so on any particular sailing you could be paying a base fare of $1,000 per person for an inside cabin or $5,000 per person for a suite and the taxes and fees will be the same for each. The same itinerary sailing on different weeks can have different taxes and fees because ports sometimes have seasonal variations in what they charge.

Cruise line telephone customer service reps will not tell you because they don't know and aren't permitted to tell you. Even if a customer service rep told you something their statement isn't binding on the cruise line. The cruise line website documentation FAQs generally have reliable. information and are a far better source than customer service reps.. In the end it's the passenger's responsibility to find the answer. BTW, since two different posters asked questions about required documentation, which one are you addressing, or is it both ? The answers to the two questions are different because the itineraries are different. One is a one way cruise from Alaska to the Vancouver followed by a train ride from Vancouver to Portland. The other is a closed loop cruise departing from and ending in Seattle.

I'd consider the premium lines Oceania, Viking Ocean or Azamara, all with relatively small ships compared to the mass market lines, casual on board ambience and catering to adults.