mking8288

Different points of views, different exposure (some haven't gotten it) and just to put things in our perspective. We resumed cruising in late March 2022 while the winter surge here in the Northeast was still happening and being careful pre-cruise ... comfortable to do a 7 nights. Still hit the jackpot toward the end of the cruise with 2 lines ... DW "blamed" me for sharing as she turned positive several days later after coming home - self-isolated for basically 2 weeks. Among the first to get the bivalent booster once available at local CVS, in time for our mid September cruise on NCL - this time, tested negative before the cruise & also post-cruise, not catching anything onboard - exercised same precautions, masks & hand sanitizer use, social distancing when practical. Ready to cruise later this month, 12 nights this time and NCL again - extra natural immunity should be good for us. Reasons being that, despite being careful in the late Fall, exposed somehow & initially felt like a cold or seasonal flu - nearly asymptomatic, minor sore throats & coughs, no fever and wasn't tired. DW tossed me to 2nd bedroom/my home office to camp, sleep & stayed home for 10+ days ... Forget lottery, 5 or 6 days later, 2 lines on her 3rd rapid test results, clearly ... and was me, again. Had the HEPA filters running plus everything else, except for negative air flow in the house as it isn't central HVAC. DW recovered faster ... despite other risk factors and given both of our health factors. Used up 3 to 4 tests each during our "shelter-at-home" period until results were negative ... one of the BIL recently recovered from prostate surgery. Walked to local CVS and Walgreen stores last week, saw the entire section of cold/flu OTC racks being nearly empty aren't positive signs, as I picked up some extra free test kits (thanks to our insurance for covering, zero out-of-pocket costs). Odds are that we could be "exposed" onboard but perhaps not catching it, universal precautions & measures, etc. but we are prepared and let the body's immune system do its job. Pack a bottle of Vitamin C's. Perhaps, we are at the early stage of moving into a pandemic but the trifecta indicators aren't looking pretty - we live in a NORC and seeing plenty of older neighborhood folks masking up. If only we can tell several of the friends we lost due to Covid that it's gradually becoming business as usual, maybe ... kind of. Happy & healthy cruising - cheese empanadas from our local bakery tasted wicked good.

Here are some Food Republic onboard the Joy last May - it was a feast for 6 of us, used only 4 sets of dining coupons/vouchers - server stopped us from ordering more, said we can always do if still hungry ... Better yet, come back the next evening (lunch - if open on full sea days). Way, way too much and we ended - everyone stuffed full, with with takeouts - sushi rolls for midnight snack in our cabin. If we are going to do it again, use 2 vouchers - 8 items to share among 4, maybe add 1 or 2 extra items at most ... dine there twice. Can't vouch as to portion sizes might've shrink but a la carte prices were reasonable + 20% and the place wasn't busy on our sailing with reduced occupancy level. Those rolls are oversized, jumbo vs. petite ones seen elsewhere on the ship. Bon Appétit

$10 + 20%, for your "convenience" huh. Fixed it for everyone. Leaving no stone untouched ... Why not impose an across-the-board dining surcharge I can almost smell what's coming next for our "free" tiered benefits but not going to provide Frankie & Larry with ideas. It is what it is.

@UnbridledEnthusiasm Point #1 - The pricing/rates is same, regardless of Latitutdes status with NCL. #2 - if you wait until 00:01 hour on Day 2 (that's just past midnight, ship's "local" time) - it's considered Day 2 to calculate the applicable charges. For a 7 day (nights) cruise - you will be charged for the remainder of the cruise or 6 days. #3 - currently, unlimited basic (non-streaming, non-VPN) WiFi is $30 daily, times 6 = $180. #4 - OBC is not related, but "some" of us have other OBC, these days - they are often non-refundable = spent it or lose it, i.e. Starbucks, gift shop, cosmetics/duty-frees, cigarettes, photos, misc. up-charges for dining/beverage packages or a la carte, etc. We use it to reduce our net cost to trade-up our WiFi. #5 - As an example, we get $100 OBC, NR as NCLH stock shareholders on a 7 days cruise - and, it's one of the first "purchase" that we spent down against - if we decided to pay for unlimited WiFi upgrade. #6 - For 6 nights, it's $30 x 6 = $180 less the $100 NR-OBC equal net charge of $80 to our Onboard Stateroom Account. If one happens to get other OBC (and, it's mostly non-refundable these days ... ) they get applied. #7 - Always check your onboard account nightly or each morning, and, if something doesn't look right - don't sit on it. Go over to Guest Services & get it answered or resolved ... before leaving the ship. Lastly, basic WiFi - even the free 150 minutes (we have 300 x 2 coming up on a longer cruise) is fine for basic browsing, news & accessing email, etc. Expect it to be slow & sluggish, especially on a sea day and mid/late evening when many are done with meals and logon to hit satellite data traffic jams at sea. Learn & remember the basic steps to do the login.com and logout.com URL via the device's browser to start & stop the meter, or else, those free minutes will go fast. Thus, many will pay extra $$$ for unlimited so as to not worry. We managed using about 360+ minutes on a 14 nights cruise, only paid an extra $60 for an additional 100 minutes on the last 2 sea days coming home, as we're running low then ... Once we hit land's cellular towers, WiFi is off & we ping our inexpensive "roaming" Google Fi signal at 4G ... can't wait to see how 5G VPN works later this month.

NCL has flip-flopped a few times within the past several years (pre-Covid) on whether they allow "takeouts" from OSH and/or The Local. Can't imagine that the working crew will be too happy wrapping & packing items to go, whether it's late night or all hours of the day. I wouldn't be surprised if they nicely suggest to call Room Services for what you want to be taken back/delivered to the stateroom (or, nearly anywhere on the ship) for a $ service charge + 20%, for the convenience ... yada yada. Apologize for sidelining the live reporting ... I say, raid the buffet earlier in the day & stock up a little in that mini-refrigerator, in case of late night food "emer-gencies" - especially parents cruising with children. NCL used to ?? have a little mini-buffet of several finger food, setup around 11 pm or midnight in a corner somewhere inside the casino. Fewer consumable waste to be processed and less fish food in the ocean being released from ships at sea - reductions in carbon footprints and better for the corporate balance sheet ... sounds good, huh.

Did a curious look-up of NCL's pier-to-JFK price lookup for bus transfer after disembarkation (Feb. 1st) and it's currently priced at $37.50 p/p - not bad. OP can sign-up and do this onboard, and unless I'm mistaken, it can be offset by the shorex ($50) credit per cabin (please check & ask at the ship's shorex desk) You will get special colored luggage tag & have an early time to disembark - collect bags downstairs in the luggage hall, and walk over to the bus "staging" area nearby, all on street level. If you are parking at JFK's Long Term satellite lots, just get off at the first airport terminal stop with luggage & take the free AirTrain to get your car - sit back & relax and enjoy the ride over to Queens. It's 2023, taxi's flat rate to JFK has gone up, I believe it's now around $70 instead of $55 (roughly) + toll and tips. Rates for Uber/Lyft - often slightly cheaper and car service (we used Carmel) has gone up / will be raised to keep up - ours up about 20% Bird is right, surge pricing as I've seen them go up on the apps while looking at options ... car service was a 45 minutes wait, Uber jumped by $15 to $20 within minutes and Lyft was up as well, lower from their "base" quote over Uber being the priciest - that was on a weekday morning, toward the tail end of rush hour. Weekends usually not as bad - February being the middle of winter and could be freezing cold, not necessary easy & fun to haul bags and walk 2 city blocks or more and stand outside to wait for the pickup ...

@NJLVW - apparently, not clear if he's on vacation or left NCL and moved on. Our friends that came off the GEM tried to find info without success or luck.

Didn't realized that nobody from the recent GEM T/A crossing last month posted anything relating to the ships' senior officers - here's a link on where to find that info here on CC ("Search" function .. sometimes, working and ) As for the post directly above from @NJLVW - Hugo Van Vanosmael is the GM/HD onboard the Dawn recently, sorry - don't have any particulars on other senior/junior officers & staff onboard her lately.

Amber Cove will be like stopping at Harvest Caye instead of GSC (and we know how that goes often, watching the Getaway this Thursday with her revised itinerary, skipping Bermuda as the overnight stop was cancelled per onboard announcement) - docked alongside the pier & just do the long walk on the waterfront ... Still not sure if I'm changing the odds of "me" calling it from 50:50, haha 😄 Aren't you a B2B again this season to Panama & back, with 2 chances of GEM visiting DR - good luck too ! We'll post as I'm sure someone will be updating here, going to bookmark this thread for reference.

Turtles ... thanks. Very helpful info, let's see how other NCL ships do this month first.

@cruiseny4life Thanks so much again for the various updates, nowadays ... we'll just have to roll with the punches with the "Almost Cruise To Nowhere" as NCL called them last minute. Overnighting is good as long as folks knew ahead and can plan independently - NOT. Per Marinetraffic site: 4 ships in PC this afternoon - Carnival Freedom, Enchantment OTS, Mariners OTS and Independence OTS. On a positive note - Jetty Park is easy walking distance, practically right next door this afternoon (until sunset) Looked at a # of maritime & weather forecasts/charts for today & next several, don't see anything that suggested today's delayed arrival - it anything, a strong tailwind that should've boosted ship's true speed in getting in early. Tomorrow & Wed's outlook for the Bahamas looking fine, GSC is always 50:50 but later this week ... the North Atlantic including areas around Bermuda & coastal routes heading back to NY, not pretty & mother nature whipping out sea state & waves, again (fairly typical this/any time of the year.) But, gotta have faith with the bridge team & the captain, staff captain & others responsible ... that safety first. Yeah, we are sailing her once Laszlo come back. Whether Syd' Norman will be back, personally, don't matter to us but could be true for others - as long as they don't put on a movie in lieu of the production shows (... could watch them at home at 4k, LOL.)

It depends, sometimes, on the ship, dates & cruise itinerary, etc. - we are on a number of social media platform but post/use and share/join with care as to those private group with care ... and, 100% agree that, for privacy & safety/security reasons - no plans to be listed elsewhere with full names, hometown info & travel itinerary with ... sometimes, hundreds of strangers lurking & poking. Identities can be faked and DOB, etc. can be misleading and stolen, etc. and their cybersecurity breaches are well known. Was at 3 M&G in 2022, 1 held without any ship's junior officers attending, and 2 with them - one was a disaster b/c it got "hijacked" by someone from the other group & poorly organized. One was fairly successful, good attendance & had a fun slot pull ... (the one held without any ship officers also had a slot pull) There was no sailway gathering, partially b/c few felt comfortable to mingle closely together - same for not having any cabin crawl (except, offered in a modified manner, that if someone wish to see or privately tour a particular type of cabins and others on the roll call is in one, arrangement made) Nowadays, I'm personally still not in favor of organizing 20 to 30+ CC'ers to roam thru another passenger's cabin, touching & leaving behind airborne devils, etc. - and/or having to spray disinfectants and wipe down surfaces before & after. I see these as among some of the reasons for not seeing robust M&G and roll call. Still answering "silly" questions and helping each other with online check-in, port info, ground transfer & pier check-in tips, strategies to bidding upgrades, and tricks after final payment, etc. At the same time, CC's hosts/admins have been, to be direct on this, loosely moderating and safeguarding rules & enforcing (or not) how the other platforms are sometimes semi-openly recruiting and using CC to their "advantage" for the free onboard gathering. Every now & then, I checked some of the relevant roll call threads and see that happening, and nothing being done about putting a stop to be nearly open about going to the other place(s) to exchange details, etc. For example, take a look at this one - they just sailed, not putting anyone in trouble for the past, I hope - when I saw this a while ago & went back to look at it again recently - for a somewhat related reasons about one of the ports ... left me shaking my head, urgh ! To be fair, CC also has its open presence on the "alternate" site and not talking about TripAdvisors or Google ... being a "Local Guide" but I don't write/post there about cruising.

Thanks for all that, I'm sure fellow CC'ers on our roll call are following all these useful & informative update ... plus more from next week's GA sailing. Looks like GA at full speed (that could anywhere be at 18 to 20 knots or 21 to 23 knots if wind & sea states are favorable, marinetraffic has her at 19.4 knots & updated ETA of 1:45 pm (scheduled arrival @ 1 pm ??) ... isn't that going to be a very short visit to PC ?? We would never bother with going to theme parks (especially today being a holiday & long lines) or even downtown Orlando, etc. Last night, GEM was really pushing hard at 23 knots coming up the Jersey coast, must've got a strong tailwind for that extra top end speed. Our friends reported that on their recent GEM T/A crossing with rough seas, best that they did was no more than 13-14 knots ... maybe, they left one of the engine off in eco-mode for a sustainable blueprint, LOL. Any ideas as to whether the Dine With Officers and BTS tours are starting up anytime soon ... wine tasting are being offered ?? When we had the GA Meet & Greet last March, none of them came - except 2 from the ship's Group Services ... we only met some of the officers at the VIP cocktail reception in the Bliss Lounge. We dine with the ship's Public Health Officer and trainee from corporate HR, explaining that they were still "isolating" and protecting the team from the bridge, minimizing and avoid direct contacts with passengers - Mario was the GM then, but Metin looked familiar, perhaps he was wearing a different hat ... holding another job title last year. If you have & get a chance to upload, calling cards/names & titles of the officers contact onboard the GA would be appreciated and helpful too, TIA. If not, no big deal as Laszlo doing a Live post next week is going to try ... those of us on later sailings lurking here. Just to clarify, they close down the buffet for cleaning after 9:30 pm nightly - nothing available after evening dinner services ... not even light snacks, burgers, hotdogs, fries & finger sandwiches, fruits, cookies & fruits, etc. (discontinued) - that means, exactly as you described - O'Sheehan's and Room Services, for real. Wow, that's a "change" for 2023 that can catch a few folks by surprise & aren't even talking about the good old midnight buffet. Love all that pictures ... much thanks for taking time away from enjoying Haven to do this. Enjoy sunny FL and the rest of the cruise, while we are looking at wet weather ahead this week in NY, in the form of showers & warm temperature - 50's and hitting low 60's this Wednesday.

OP on a 19 days cruise - is that a B2B or booked as a single cruise, 500 free minutes for passenger #1 (and #2, if applicable) is a 1,000 minutes in total or roughly 16+ hours; and, if he can manage online access with a little discipline, not needing to be "connected" to the grid daily ... it might be just fine. Save the extra $$$ to spend on dining, shorex or whatever. On longer cruises, don't recall off-hand as NCL does discount the daily unlimited WiFi charge of $30 p/p to $25 p/p when it's more than 11, 12 or is it now 15 days (others that recently did one of the longr T/A probably can help with this) I'm, however, pretty sure that 19 days should qualify OP to buy up the unlimited for less than $30 daily, to $25 daily (thus $25 x 19 = $475). Usually, on longer cruises - you an upgrade on Day 2 or Day 3, possibly wait until 12:01 am on Day 4 to switch to unlimited WiFi, as long as you do not use any of the free (500) minutes on the account. Since there's 2 of them cruising, the 2nd. person's 500 minutes should be fine to use, but I would recommend that OP speak to the onboard iCafe manager first on Day 1, to find out what and if anything changes. If OP wait until 12:01 am local/ship time to upgrade, that should be calculated on the basis of $25 x 17 = $425 less a credit given for the upgrade/trade-up of the 500 minutes (probably around $150 to $175, maybe more or less, slightly) Net cost would be something like $250 to $275 for the remaining cruise days. Available non-refundable OBC can only be used onboard to offset/apply against the WiFi upgrade charges, if you prepaid ahead - can't be done. On our upcoming 12 days/nights - the discounted upgrade to basic unlimited WiFi for 1 user is $215, the 300 minutes as a trade-up is worth $145, assuming that the daily rate is still $30 p/p. Still haven't decided whether it's worth going for the unlimited as our combined minutes are 600 minutes or 10 hours worth, with 4.5 days at sea - port days, we have options for roaming cellular (non-WiFi) access from land towers (Google Fi unlimited plan w coverage in 200 countries, none at sea !! ) Ship and cruise itinerary for 19 days (and dates of travel) can also be pivotal in considering whether it's worth paying extra - satellite coverage on a typical T/A crossing are mostly reported lately as being poor, spotty to none and unusable, waste of money & time. If this is for Euro-South Pacific cruise later in 2023 or 2024, perhaps - if NCL would switch over to Starlink (was being tested live onboard the Breakaway last month) - connectivity will improve vastly as the technologies & hardware aren't the same as now ... the Cisco server background are fully capable of supporting Gigabit data traffic. P.S. It's login.com and logout.com to start and stop the inTERnet metering onboard, inTRAnet access not affected & you can stay connected with the Norwegian App (yes, a little confusing to some & resulting in quickly using up all the available free minutes if forgotten to "sign" out) If you do this correctly, each time you login and logout, the "meter" will show your minutes used and remaining, etc.

There's been a couple of other live post / trip report onboard various NCL ships within the past 2 to 3 weeks from other folks staying in Haven; and, thus far, not reading about anyone else getting charged and/or unexplained charges with their onboard account (yet). Reasonable to assume OP's charges were posted in error and not new across-the-board extras ... as dexddd would joked "for your convenience, of course"

One of the TA email alerts tipped us off to this Triple Up offer first, and I wasn't sure if it was just another click-bait ... and initially it was for 2 days only (this past weekend) This particular TA offering free DSC (included) and other goodies too. Answer is yes, you should be able to use TA to book this - and some of the NCL call center agent apparently didn't know or read about it and bother to check for valid terms & conditions.

Starting booking NCL cruises in 2023 onward by not dealing with NCL ... perhaps not with those big box TA either but to find one of those TA that kickback free DSC and extra OBC, etc. when booking with them directly instead. This avenue has its shortcomings and limitations, restrictions but for some families - 4 to anything from club balcony cabin or lower for 7 or 8 nights, looking at saving $560 to $640 for the week/+ Then, no worries about DSC at all since the agency is paying for it ... It will help NCL to further shrink its back office and keep fewer PCC, hmmm.

Ask about it once onboard at Guest Service, if the offered is available and the price & location is acceptable, deal is done on the spot. TA not likely to fully sold out ... our friends won an upgrade bid for very little from OV. Good luck.

Thank you for the review, short - concise and with key highlights. Done nicely. How were the crew onboard and any comments on the major production shows, if you watched them. 4 sharing an Inside statement, wow - that's truly tight quarters on the *away class ships and you managed it. (as for) Things I wish NCL would change: * Hand sanitizer at each dining table. I'm not a germaphobe but the concept of maybe 5 %of people washing their hands before walking through a buffet and the rest just touching serving utensils one after the other with no cleaning mechanism on the table is a joke. That's really dancing with norovirus lurking onboard ... which will probably return anytime without notice or warning, on top of the coughing going around. With 4,800 onboard, that's holiday sailing pre-Covid at 120% capacity. Happy New Year 2023 & much obliged for sharing.

@ShadowRegent Yes, correct - based on bidded amount for 2 persons only. Good luck ! We booked and stayed in 2 of those this May, loved all the extra space. We did a Semi-Live review, including pictures of those suites too.

@preston If you go back a few posts within this thread ... Getaway sailings in the latter part of next January upgraded "some" balconies & higher about 3 weeks ago (borderline fair/poor bids). It is impossible to generalized with your non-specific questions (ships, itinerary/dates, and cabin categories, etc.) Oceanviews were sold out within the past few days, Insides are still available. @ShadowRegent Joy has 30' something Family Insides Suites with 2 bedrooms that comfortably sleep 5 to 6, has 2 baths and a nice living room - 3 TV's ... spacious & roomy, nothing fancy but square footage-wise, superior than many Haven suites. You should be able to bid on those "SP" category cabins - unless they are all sold out. When we're sailing her in May and September, they're available with "discounted" 50% off bid minimums.

This TRIPLE UP offer for balcony & higher cabins at least 6 months out is set to expire next week, Jan. 5th. (unless it's extended). You can apply it yourself after logging into your NCL account's Reservation(s) - OR, you can call NCL and speak to an agent for live help, and they can do it for you. However, beware that NOT all agents are familiar with this promotion. This happened to 2 of our Latitudes Sapphire friends with an Escape booked next August out of Florida - they hang up and called again, next agent was helpful & knew, had it done quickly & pushed an email confirmation ... always re-verify that amenities aren't changed or lost, etc. afterward. Certain sailings also qualified for triple status points, like that of our friends ... had they booked one of them (non-Haven) as an extra bonus closer to Diamonds tier. They had not been on NCL in a while and only realized that they still have 2 CN deposits, un-expired and extended for a year, to apply against the booking on top of certain Amex promo offers.

Maybe we should call NCL's new "almost Cruise to Nowhere" sailings. Getaway scheduled to call on DR on Jan 29th and appeared that we can dock either in the Bay or the Cove. IMHO, don't bother to hold my breath to ask this kind of question at the CC Meet & Greet/Mingle, not at all. One can try - they are very good at passing the bucks to corporate HQ in Miami. Maybe, @Laszlo can do a Youtube "Special" about it and we can all give plenty of "Likes" as a CC style "documentary" ... just kidding. Pssst - port fees/charges are not adjusted nor refunded, as a matter of routine practice at NCL. Hence, "keep the change" 🙄 🙄 🙄

This + 1 And, OP, feel free to make use of the Ignore option - of course, indirectly, poster(s) being ignored can still show up b/c someone else jump on it & started quoting and replying, etc. Back on topic, lately - we are also seeing those 10% discount tossed in, showing up only when logged into MyNCL account, apparently targeted selectively. NCL cruise consultants also coming up with 15% additional discount offers, good on "any cruise" (of course, always read & understand the fine prints & disclosures, restrictions, etc. etc.) There's also the Latitudes TRIPLE UP offers coming from TA mass emails, apparently valid & available also directly via NCL ... not going into details to help promote it. Google is often ... Always do mock bookings and calculate the numbers to see if they add up or deduct correctly, click-bait wordings can be easily misleading, unintentionally, for your convenience, of course.

... perhaps, partially associated with that 9% reduction in back office workforce announced ?? It is - I suspect - NOT just machine intelligence being impacted, rather it has to do with them not responding to an assigned Case Number (2nd. request) that I'm not going off-topic. And, it's holiday & year-end vacat' time, LOL with a skeletal staff.