Ellis1138

Maybe you were on a charter or "group" type cruise, because NCL itself hasn't had a formal night for as long as I've sailed with them (first cruise was 2003, specifically picked because I hate wearing formal clothing). But when the Star Trek cruise was on the Jade, there were formal and costume nights. Overall, though, not just on NCL, but as a whole, people have stopped being as mannered. I think it happened even before the pandemic. Just a gradual slope that we didn't notice until we spent 3 months isolated from everyone else.

When I was on the Escape in Sept 2023, I knew about the CoffeeMate thing. I brought mini-moos. It was nearly impossible to get real dairy half and half for coffee. I ran out on disembarkation day and begged one of the Starbucks people for a cup with cream in it so I could drink coffee at the MDR. (They were nice and gave it to me.) I was astonished on the Pride of America to find the little brown tubes of Cloud House real half and half! I'm hoping the Prima has them, too. I really don't relish packing boxes of mini-moos.

I don't do third party anymore. They're great when everything goes to plan, but when it doesn't, the third party (in my case, Orbitz) turn it into a total disaster. If you do go with a CheapFlights kind of place, definitely get travel insurance for sure. For us, we saved up United miles for a decade to be able to do nonstop from NYC to HNL in Polaris seats, which lie flat. It also might be cheaper to break up the flight (and easier on jet lag). Look for cheap flights from your home to SFO or LAX and then see if Hawaiian airlines has any specials from SFO or LAX to HNL the following day. I don't know if you have any loyalties or frequent flyer accounts, but for an upcoming cruise on the Prima, I found it was half the price to buy enough United miles (during their bonus sale) to top off what we had to get tickets from NYC to London and then Keflavik to NYC. So, buying miles if you have almost enough would make sense there.

I think more appeared as time got closer, but to be honest, I didn't pay attention because all we did was rent a car on each island and go see what we wanted to. But I know when I perused them, there were more than 10 total on the NCL site.

If you're on a ship with a Studio Lounge, they have WMF coffee machines that make a fairly decent latte, espresso and Americano. For free, no drink package needed. Yet.

Not a pilot error. Something on the ship caught fire and the ship lost power and hit the bridge. Horrible accident and loss of life, even though it could have been worse if it was the daytime. And traffic through the area is always awful. We tend to take the 895 tunnel. That and the 95 harbor tunnel will be a mess for a while.

The last time I looked, buying 1 of the Haven $500 Cruisenext cost $400 effectively. If you buy 2, then they're effectively $375 each. It might have changed in the time since I looked.

The Youtuber either lied or was clueless or was not on NCL or they, themselves, decided to dress up that night. Every NCL ship is a relaxed dress code and the PoA is even more relaxed, where you can go to the MDR in bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. Even the Jefferson Bistro only requires a slightly nicer resort casual. That said, NCL will not stop you from showing up in gowns and tuxedos if you wanted to.

Have him do a sleep study and get him a CPAP machine? If he suffers from sleep apnea, it makes the snoring go away.

The Escape, which is Breakaway+ like the Getaway (I think) had a price of $299 for 7 days ($43/day) in Sept 2023. For your TA, I would extrapolate the amount to be $41/day (if it's less, you can be pleasantly surprised). So it should be around $574, ballpark. Premium Wifi should be between $300 and $350. I could be absolutely wrong. But these seem like they would be the right numbers. And a 14 day TA seems like the perfect time to have a thermal suite pass and premium wifi. (As opposed to the Pride of America 7 day Hawaii one, in which you don't need either one.)

Not by far, would be my guess. I grabbed a bright aqua Swiss Gear 25" checked luggage on sale for $91, added some colorful Duck Tape to further differentiate it and then I put nothing in it that I can't easily replace, including my clothing, which mostly comes from Walmart or Target. When I make my packing list, I do it as a Google Doc and add the cost basis for everything in the checked luggage and replacement cost. The checked bag then has a AIG Travel Guard Bag Trak card in it and an Air Tag. I try to only take non-stop flights, so it reduces the amount of times the airline can lose my bag. I, too, am curious if the original poster was reunited with their luggage or if it was truly stolen forever.

During the overnights, you can get on and off when you want. Just be back in time for departing.

There are 2 other ships in port on the same day we're supposed to go to Isafjordur, so my idea was to do either no excursion or an NCL one, because I am willing to bet our giant wonking ship won't be able to get in there. I chose Prima because my husband has shown no interest in any cruise ship until this one. He wants go karts and Indulge Food Hall. So, here we go.

I'm interested in the tour operators who keep tabs on the ship and will refund in the case of not being able to make port. We're going on the Prima's June 23rd Southampton/Iceland cruise and I know from reading these forums that the ports, especially Isafjordur, get skipped a lot. My initial thought was just to overpay for NCL's excursions so that we'd definitely be refunded, but if there are independent ones who will do that, I would book with them instead.

When I called in for my FCC for our Hawaii cruise, the NCL customer rep said it was good I hadn't booked the flights or hotel with them because then I could get the FCC a couple weeks prior to going.

I've never seen the Studios even have a GTY category. Usually they are just T1 and when they're gone, they're sold out. I doubt it's bait and switch. The NCL webpage and system sometimes gets glitchy.

I'm willing to accept other peoples' obsessions over cookies and hash browns on NCL ships, because of my own need for real dairy cream in my coffee (NOT CoffeeMate). I was very shocked that the Pride of America had real half and half for coffee, after the Escape did not,

I was pleased that the Escape's buffet had a hard ice cream station, with some different flavors on each side. (Back in Sept 2023). The warm bread pudding with caramel was amazing. The chocolate tres leches at Moderno was splendid and the tiramisu was wonderful. I have severe food allergies and other restrictions and the food on the Escape was really good, IMO.

I stopped putting my address on the luggage tag, but do have the phone and email. Another thing I do is use my travel insurance's tags that they give me so that if the luggage is found, they can call AIG with the tag ID number and it would get back to me. I also use a specific Duck brand sprakly craft tape on my luggage, so that I can tell it's ours, as well as the neon handle wraps.

Sorry to bother, but does the buffet have the station where someone makes an omelet with what you want in it? (So far, none of the Youtube videos have shown this.) Edited to add: Oh and do they have real dairy half and half? (Like Cloud House or something). When I go, I need to know if I have to drag boxes of Land O Lakes Mini Moos aboard.

It should be all right, depending on what you look like you're doing. I had mine in a waterproof Ziploc bag and used it as a timer for how long I should be in the hot tub or sauna and then scrolled through email and Facebook while laying on a lounger.

I made the mistake of ordering the NY Strip on the Pride of America in February. It was seriously inedible. I made a joke about how if it was a NY Strip, it must have been 10th Ave and 39th Street. The Cagney upcharge steak was far better. And the Moderno's had beef, although they did struggle to cook it medium rare.

I just sailed on the PoA February 24 through March 2nd, 2024. Take the negative reviews with a grain of salt and the idea that each person's expectations are subjective. It was kind of funny, but halfway through the cruise, I noted with amusement that this was, indeed, the worst cruise I've been on. Mainly because the other 4 cruises were amazing. This one was just "good". The Pride of America is okay. It's acceptable. Most of the food was fine (but I advise against ordering the NY Strip off the classics). The rooms were small and the ship was old and some fixtures need replacing but on the whole, it did what it was supposed to. Ferry us around the islands. The staff did their best and when something was wrong, they worked to rectify it. Just about all the staff I encountered were pleasant. It was a good way to see 3 islands in 6 days without needing to pack, unpack, check in, check out and TSA.

The mall there in Kahului has allegedly been enforcing things stricter, but I don't have direct experience. The longest part of the walk is from the ship to the main road. If we hadn't been able to get a parking spot on Nawilwili Road on Kauai, the Aukele Enterprise said we could call them and park our car in their lot, but that we wouldn't have access to the car from 5pm to 7 am. So, I decided to chance it and if we couldn't find a spot, we'd pay to park at Lihue airport and Uber back and forth. Marriott Waikiki was in the running, although I don't like the area and location as much. I knew from two previous stays that being near the beach and center meant lots of noise. I also dislike luaus and it was awful to try to sleep at 9 or 10pm when there was music and entertainment outside keeping me up. One of the biggest issues was trying to figure out how my husband could have breakfast the first morning before Pearl Harbor. I knew that with jet lag, we'd be up at 4am and I had gotten him an 8 am Arizona reservation and he'd have to drive there around 6:15 am. Nothing opens until 7 am, really, except Denny's (bleh). We had enough points for 3 nights at the Ritz Carlton Residences Waikiki. Each unit had a soaking tub, bidet toilet, kitchenette and in-room washer and dryer. After we got the rental car at HNL, we made a quick stop at Foodland Farms Ala Moana Center and got eggs, milk, bacon and other breakfast items, plus the best pipikaula we ever had. The Ritz was far enough away from the beach to be quiet-ish, not caught up in Kalakaua Avenue traffic or festivals but close enough to be walkable. It was a really luxurious, high service place and definitely worth the points expenditure.

I hate convertibles, so I never purposely rent one. I will always try to get compact cars on Hawaii. (The Kona office had a You Click, We Pick special that wound up being a Mustang convertible. We kept the top up.) Parking overnight at the Kahului port is risky because if you do it at that Whole Foods mall, you chance getting your rental car ticketed or towed. The nearby Maui Seaside Hotel offers overnight parking for $25. If you have a handicapped tag, you might be allowed to park at the actual ship's area, but don't quote me on that. I wound up spending a bit extra to rent a Prius from Bio-Beetle rental cars, which is about a 20 minute walk (it would be shorter if we could cut through the port, but you have to walk a really long fenced in path through the Kahului pier terminal) and they let us park overnight in their gated lot, which worked out well for us. They also gave us free use of beach chairs, boogie boards, coolers and pool noodles. When we returned the car, the owner drove us back to the ship. Their location and lot looks sketchy, but it really was a very good rental experience for us. A rental car company called White Glove Car Rental also includes overnight parking and has similar perks as Bio-Beetle, but without the long walk, I think. I never priced them or used them, so not sure what they cost. One thing about parking on most of the islands is: the spots can be very small and having a smaller car helps fit into those. Gas is expensive, so bring a Costco card, which has the cheapest gas on the islands. For Hilo and Kona, we never parked overnight (I used Enterprise for all car rentals except Maui and they were great). On Kauai, we were allowed to park along Nawiliwili Road, on the shoulder, in front of Aspire Furniture and Nawiliwili Park. But we got back to the ship the first day around 4pm, so were able to get a spot. The Enterprise on Aukele Road (the non-airport) did a pickup and drop off at the ABC Store #59, which was in walking distance of the ship and that shopping village ran a free shuttle to the ship during the day/ For the other questions, I can't comment on NCL's cheap flights because we saved up United Miles to be able to fly first class both ways on a nonstop flight. We lucked out and both flights flew on schedule with no delays or diversions. I had also saved up Marriott points for 3 free nights in Waikiki. So there was no need to consider NCL's stuff. I also like having total control of the vacation. We flew in on Wednesday, my husband did a self tour of Pearl Harbor all day Thursday with an 8 am Arizona reservation, we did sunrise at Sandy Beach and then did Living Oceans Turtle Canyon Snorkel on Friday and then boarded the ship on Saturday. Cabins were ready around 3 pm. On Maui, rather than be on a boat for 30 minutes each way, we went early to Makena Beach and snorkeled among the black rocks there. Gorgeous beach.