KeithJenner

It is true, but does vary. I have been unable to do this on any recent cruise except for managing to make two Moderno reservations on my upcoming cruise (which I also wasn’t charged for despite not having credits to cover both of them).

You can book as many as you like. Even if you don’t have any dining plan you can book every night. You will be charged for any fixed price ones if you don’t have a dining plan (or if you have booked more restaurants than you have in your plan), and there is a restriction on being able to book the same restaurant multiple times online (although that one varies), but no limit on number of reservations you can make.

The published times are usually fairly accurate. The ship usually arrives earlier and is cleared at around the stated time.

It’s a few years since I’ve done a Canary Islands cruise, but when I have the tax has only been charged when in Spanish ports. I’ve never seen tax charged in the Canaries.

When we plan our speciality meals the first two that we always put in are the first and last. Last could change depending on the port, but I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t do embarkation day (unless we decided not to bother at all. We have eaten at a speciality restaurant for at least our last dozen cruises. Quieter, and a nice relaxed start to the cruise. I struggle to see a downside.

I emailed my PCC (a new one who I haven't spoken to before), but didn't get a reply so just gave him a call now. He said that there was nothing showing as owing on the system and that everything was fine. I got him to email over a current confirmation showing zero owing, which he has just done. I was able to check in fine at the weekend. Not much else I can do now really. I will go armed with screenshots and the confirmation showing zero owing, in case it is a problem when boarding. I'm not really concerned about the cruise being cancelled, as there seem to be a few of us in a similar position and there would have been more reports of cancellations if the glitch was that bad, but you never know with NCL.

The change allowing people to bring wine onboard if they have the beverage package is relatively recent (2022 I believe), so didn’t apply then.

Yes, that is the official stated policy now. However, the OP seems to be wondering whether they can avoid getting the beverage package.

Policing of this has always been very random. I've carried wine onboard a few times and have had to pay on about half of those occasions.

That whole area is one of my favourite places on the Jade. There are three bars (Magnums, Tankards and another one that I don’t recall the name of) which all join together and there is often entertainment (piano player usually) at Magnums. They do tastings there, yes.

The 300 minutes is time that you spend specifically logged in to internet access. You can be connected to the Wi-Fi all the time, but need to then log in to get internet access. Using the app is completely different.

It works exactly as you said. When tender tickets are released you don’t need to worry. You just turn up when you are ready to go ashore. Just be aware that this doesn’t mean that you can jump the queue. You just get to join the queue when you want, rather than having to prebook a time. It is always possible that things could work differently on a particular cruise, but I’ve always found the way this works to be very consistent.

We usually get an email confirmation when we make dining reservations. They also show up online in the cruise summary, although this doesn’t state the number of people.

I was just checking something on my upcoming cruise (sails in 26 days) which was fully paid and it now shows a small balance owing, which is the amount of the FAS+ shore excursion discount for my wife. Having read this thread earlier I decided that I would just make the payment and then chase up the refund later. However , when I click on “make a payment” it shows a balance due of zero. I’ve taken a screenshot of that page, and may give them a call at some point (although I have no confidence of anyone at NCL understanding what I am seeing). It looks like a website issue to me.

If that was true then they would be Teps.

Firstly, you are talking about EU rules when referring to cruise from the UK. The UK is not part of the EU. Unless you are boarding somewhere like Amsterdam? I am certainly not aware of any legal reason why a company can’t enforce a corkage policy. It is within the cruise lines rights to not allow you to bring alcohol onboard.

Whilst I’ve not done that specific itinerary I have been to all the ports except Visby and Kotka a few times and they are all docked. I believe that Kotka is a docking port so I would be surprised if you have any other tender ports.

Completely irrelevant to my point. The OP asked on the NCL board whether there is a list of ports where you are charged tax and I stated that it can change from cruise to cruise. Whether this is an NCL issue or not is irrelevant.

Unfortunately these things are not always consistent. Especially in Europe things can, and have, changed from cruise to cruise. I’m not aware of anywhere that has these things listed. This board isn’t a bad place to pick up knowledge and it is worth reading through reviews to give you a good idea of what to expect.

You can always opt out of the extras and save the gratuities. There are other rates that don’t include the free at sea options. These differ depending on where you are from, but look at rates like “sailaway”, which may exclude those offers and be cheaper. However you may lose the option to select your cabin (again, that varies by location).

No reservations for places like Headliners (duelling pianos). Reservations for entertainment open up 21 days out now.

The person you are replying to has insurance. They are just asking whether they need to take proof.

It isn’t compulsory on NCL in Europe.

Whilst the vouchers are non transferrable, many of us have used them where just one of the platinum guests is included along with another person (even when the other platinum is present), so there is unlikely to be any problem with one of you taking one friend and the other person taking another friend. However, this is the bit that is much more likely to be a problem: "Coupons can’t be used for the same venue twice." So, the two coupons are supposed to be used in different restaurants which would seem to rule out doing what you suggest and using them both for the same meal. Having said that, I don't know how well they police this, so it is at least possible that the staff could chose to ignore the rule. But it does go against the stated conditions of the benefit.

There are a wide variety of specific proportions quoted on here, I assume based on guesses by whichever staff member people asked. We know that only a proportion is released early, but we don’t know what that proportion is for sure.