njhorseman

As I recommended to the OP, use CityMD, which has many offices in New York City. There is likely an office not too far from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, which is on 12th Ave and West 48th St.

So before the B2B testing procedure change you weren't concerned about possibly being taken off the ship in a foreign country when you knew you would always have to be tested before the second or subsequent segment ? The new procedure lessens the chance of that happening so why would it cause greater concern?

The OP specifically mentioned the "planning section", which to me indicated they were may have talking about booking entertainment, although you may be right about the "IF". On the smaller ships even though production shows are displayed there you still can't book reservations for them and since the planning section doesn't tell you which shows will be presented on which nights not only can't you book them, you can't even plan for them. The Pearl is a unique case because of the ship is used so frequently used for charters. Because production shows are expensive to produce long term entertainment, with the same show running on the same ship for many months, even years, NCL may have decided it just wasn't practical to run production shows on that ship. There's still plenty of other entertainment on the ship.

Other than to satisfy your curiosity, why does it matter? If a test is needed NCL will do it on the ship at no cost to you . The requirements change so frequently that it would be difficult to keep the website up to date and since there's nothing a passenger has to do to prepare for a B2B test it doesn't seem to be worth the effort to keep the website up to date.

Entertainment is never something you book on the smaller ships. Booking show reservations is only for the larger ships, those built starting with the Epic.

Thanks for the compliment. I honestly don't think of myself as a big contributor to this board or an expert on the Panama Canal, but I'll gladly accept your kudos. 🙂 If we can lure @BillB48into this conversation perhaps he can provide some real expertise.

The OP wants gummy worms and pistachios...items that aren't going to be available from room service. We always bring a supply of low carbohydrate protein bars on board...again something you can't get from room service. BTW, it's common practice these days for the mass market lines to charge for room service.

+1

If there ever was such a place I don't think it exists any longer. AFAIK Fuerte Amador is the only cruise port in the Panama City area.

I had read that when ships were homeporting in Fuerte Amador earlier this year temporary facilities were set up in a tent .

Last winter ships were docking even though the terminal building wasn't complete. A Viking ship was the first, back in November 2021. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/viking-first-alongside-new-panama-cruise-terminal Buses were shuttling passengers to the port building adjacent to where the tender dock is . I've had cruises that docked at a number ports where there was no terminal building . For example it's not uncommon for a cruise ship to dock at a commercial port where there's no cruise terminal. There are even piers at which normally only cruise ships dock that don't have a terminal.

I've gotten the laundry back in less than three days while in a concierge veranda cabin, which also has the free laundry perk. I think the timing just depends on how busy the ship's laundry is.

You can't buy them in the UK. They're only shipped to US addresses.

There are no cruise ship calls there at this time of year and the cruise season usually starts in December, so whatever the rules were at the end of the last season, which was months ago, won't necessarily apply in December. Probably you want to check back closer to December.

You misunderstood what I said. Yes the cruise line is displaying taxes and fees separately. Many, but not all do. What the travel agency is including in that number is non-commissionable fare (NCF) which in the cruise line enumeration is included in what you're seeing as "Original Fare". Cruise lines are not allowed to break that NCF out of the fare . Travel agencies can break it out, resulting in an artificially low fare quote in their advertising and promotional materials. Again, the only important number is the bottom line total, not how the components are displayed.

Three bags per stateroom for the length of the cruise. Maximum 20 items per bag. Dry cleaning is not included. If you wish to do your own laundry the launderettes on board are complimentary.

I think you're "finding it odd" because you're calling it "tax" when it's not tax, it's non-commissionable fare that the agency has added into their enumeration of taxes and fees rather than including it in the fare as the previous poster has explained. Cruise lines are not permitted to break out the NCF that way but travel agents are permitted to and some do. Forget the artificial breakdown of the components and just focus on the bottom line total.

If I'm correctly interpreting that your question about balcony cabins has nothing to do with NCL ships per se but rather whether it's worth the additional cost for purposes of viewing scenery then the answer is no, because wherever there's something worth seeing you can just go to an open deck to get a view. if you have any questions about the NCL ships then you should post them on the NCL board. As far as airports are concerned you can fly into any of the three airports that serve NY City, EWR, LGA or JFK. Make your choice based on cost and schedule. LGA is the closest and ground transportation costs to the cruise terminal will generally be the cheapest. EWR is next closest and JFK the furthest away, but ground transportation costs from EWR to the cruise terminal will usually be higher than from JFK because of tolls to cross the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York. If you have any questions about the details you should post them on the East Coast Departures board.

I live south and west of Cape Liberty and NYC and it takes me all of about 20 minutes more to drive to Manhattan than to Cape Liberty. And sometimes the traffic jam getting into Cape Liberty is worse than it is getting into the Manhattan parking, which can make it a longer trip overall than driving to Manhattan. Further mass transit is much better to Manhattan and from a marketplace perspective I believe the population north and east of Manhattan is greater than that south and west so it makes more sense to favor that market. So while it would suit you it probably doesn't make that much sense for the cruise lines. When Carnival Corp. needed more docking capacity in NY for Cunard and Princess they went to Brooklyn, not Bayonne.

There's no reason for NCL to cruise from Cape Liberty. They have primary control of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, which has the capacity to handle more than one ship per day if needed...in theory up to four ships per day could sail from Manhattan while Cape Liberty only has a single berth. HAL used to do some cruises seasonally from Manhattan but only rarely does so today. They apparently don't think it's a good market for them. Disney already uses Manhattan seasonally, as does Carnival. Again, Cape Liberty would need another berth before any other cruise lines could consider using it as a homeport.

Warwick Long Bay and Jobson's Cove are adjacent to each other on the South Shore. You can get from one to the other via a walking trail. You can take the #7 bus there. Frankly I used to take the public buses everywhere but I'm reluctant to recommend them any longer because service has been so unreliable for the past few years. Other than reliability concerns there's nothing unusual or intimidating about using buses in Bermuda. I'm not sure what you mean by "suggestions for a one day pass". There is only one public transit one day pass, which can be used on both the ferries and buses. It costs $19 per person. A two day pass is $31.50 pp. If you're just taking the bus from your ship to the beach and back then rather than buying the pass just buy 2 tokens at $4.50 each. That way you're only spending $9 per person for the day. If you want to do more bus or ferry rides than that then the pass may be worthwhile. Warwick Long Bay is the longest uninterrupted stretch of beach in Bermuda, while Jobson's Cove is small secluded beach surrounded by rocks. There may be a port-a-potty or small bathroom at Warwick...I don't recall exactly, but there's no concession stand or other facilities although a food truck might visit there in season. There are no facilities at Jobson's Cove. I've never been to Blue Hole Park . It's at the other end of Bermuda. There may be some type of restroom, but no other facilities there. Assuming your ship will be at the Dockyard it requires a combination of ferry and bus...either ferry to St. George and then a #1,3,10 or 11 bus, or ferry to Hamilton and then a #1,3,10 or 11 bus. You could also take the #7 or 8 bus to Hamilton and then the #1,3,10 or 11.

Trinityreservations.com offers hotel and parking packages.

Look at trinityreservations.com for packages. Typically shuttle service to and from the port is included.

I believe you can just walk in, but I suggest you call the office you want to use when you arrive in NY to verify. As an alternative there are telehealth testing services that will do an observed test similar to what eMed and Inspire Diagnostics do, but using test kits you buy yourself. So when you get to NY you can walk into any drug store and buy over the counter rapid antigen test kits and then make a telehealth appointment with one of these services. I've seen some cruisers mention this company, OnPoint testing. https://onpoint-testing.com/product/certified-teleservice-covid-testing/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7KWB08ra-AIVkbfICh19ngeMEAAYASAAEgL3ufD_BwE .

I answered your question on the East Coast Departures board, and recommend using CityMD, which is a chain of walk in urgent care medical centers with many locations in NY City and surrounding areas.