PATRLR

I'd be very surprised if any officer would admit to Covid being the reason.

I'm not sure "typically" is the correct word here. I've only heard of rare instances where someone got lucky on board and got some passes. Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to set expectations. One other point to consider - check to see if there are Vibe Cabanas available (if the Joy even has them). The Cabanas include 2 Vibe passes, and run only about $100 more than the cost of the 2 passes.

Gary - Encore's is on both sides too, don't know if you knew that. I agree, being side to side makes a difference, especially for folks like us who like shade.

@smellywax This is false information. You can NOT get for free anywhere on the ship what Vibe offers. Vibe offers value to many people. Besides the 80-300 people who buy the Vibe, there are unknown numbers (hundreds perhaps) who wish they could have bought it before it sold out. Vibe has been around for many years now, it still sells out on every warm-weather cruise. The Birds may not like it, but obviously, plenty of others do.

Really? So one should never try to improve? Status quo, no growth. Where do you live, North Korea? And so what if we're back here saying "just a little more"? I personally would like to think that I am always trying to be just a little bit better. In my business, I am always trying to do just a little bit better for my customers. What is wrong with striving to be better? You quoted me so I feel a need to remind you that I have stated unequivocally that the OP is to blame. My statements had nothing to do with personal responsibility.

@smellywaxI'll assume you are on a warm weather cruise. Shade is not guaranteed, although I lounger is. We've not had a problem getting shade in the past. For us, the benefit of Vibe is the atmosphere. We don't care for the loud racous party scene around the pools. Vibe is quieter, peaceful. We also like that the bar staff and servers get to know you, what you like, etc. There also tends to build up a little community in Vibe which we enjoy. There is no pool. There are hot tubs that are only for Vibe (so no kids hanging out in them). Some Vibes have a water feature that can be used to help cool off.

I agree and I've said the OP is at fault. I just believe that NCL could do better.

Classic strawman. But way off base. To make your strawman more like the topic of this thread, it would be like saying it's OK for NCL to not publish the time to be back on board and saying it's the passenger's responsibility to ask the Captain what time he plans to pull the gangway. And my statement would be, yes, it is the passenger's responsibility to know what time to be onboard. No disagreement there. But, NCL could be better by doing something like posting signs and publishing the all aboard times.

The difference is, according to OP, NCL didn't say anything until 3 days before embarkation. Long after check-in. As I have said before in this thread, I am not saying NCL is at fault here, I am only saying NCL could have done better.

My point wasn't the timing, but the fact that the airlines have the knowledge. I made my statement in response to @BirdTravels who stated "NCL, like any airline, can’t make determinations for every passenger. ". As you state, the airline does indeed verify you have the documents at check-in. They aren't performing this verification off of some random number generator, they have the actual factual knowledge. If you travel a lot, you more than likely have your passport information in your profile. I suspect the airline is telling you at booking time what you need. Just this past summer, I had United Airlines tell me for a trip to Sydney that I needed a Visa. So they do tell people at booking what is needed. But as I have said, the airlines argument is irrelevant. NCL also has the actual factual knowledge that at the very least a passport is required because they too are going to enforce it. I have news for you @omahabob, the airlines already are responsible. If you get to a destination and are denied entry, the airlines are responsible for you and responsible for getting you back to where you came from. This is exactly the reason the airlines perform these checks.

Airlines do it all the time. It's not an infinite list of possibilities. NCL knows exactly what ports they are going to, each port's entry requirements are well known, why would it be difficult to know? But why are we debating NCL's ability to "know all the potential passenger scenarios". It's already an established fact that they DO know. When OP arrives they will be denied boarding. What do you think NCL is basing that decision on? They are basing their decision on their knowledge of the requirements. You might want to take your NCL colored glasses off for just a moment and you might realize that NCL can most definitely have done better here.

You are correct of course, ultimately it's OP's problem. But NCL could have done better here. Airlines do it all the time. So it's absolutely OK for OP to feel NCL has let him down. When NCL decides they aren't going to do anything to help their clients avoid these situations, they risk alienating those clients, I am sure they understand that and I am sure they are OK with it.

OK, so they will make the decision at some point in the near future. How does that change my rebuttal to Bird's contention that NCL couldn't possibly know what all their passengers' travel documentation requirements are?

Oh really? Are you sure about that? Because NCL seems to have no problem making the decision right now for OP that they can NOT board. How is it that they can determine OP can't go, but they are unable to determine what is needed TO go? Sorry, NCL has all the information they need to know what is required of the passenger. NCL should have its systems protect from this situation. Lastly, the airlines do this ALL the time. I don't know what airlines you are flying that you think can't make a determination as to the travel documents the passenger needs. Airlines figure it out because they are responsible for returning the passenger to the point of departure if they can't enter their destination country.

I hope you are right. I'd have more confidence you are right if NCL would communicate more on the matter. This past summer I was on Oasis of the Seas for a week. That was a real wake-up call regarding just how far the NCL entertainment has slipped in recent years.

I agree and I suspect there is nothing "up their sleeves". The loss of entertainment makes it much easier for us to book other lines.

Huh? What you are saying is, if I have a "cancel for any reason" policy and I decide to cancel, for any reason, I can't if there happens to be a war going on nearby? Cancel for any reason policies have other limitations that have kept me from buying one, so, I've ever looked closely. But I find it very hard to believe what you've written.

If a thread really is dead, the mods should close it. Otherwise, in my opinion, there is not reason to not reply to it. Some boards actually take the opposite approach and if someone created a new thread about Lobster they would merge the new thread into the old existing thread. The FlyerTalk United Mileage Plus forum comes to mind. @JJNorsk this member of the CC community has no problem with you replying to an existing thread.

Do you have anything to support your claim that the comedy club on Viva seats 100? I hope it does as that would be an improvement over Prima. This is a good picture of Prima's club, at best I see about 68 seats (assuming shoulder to shoulder on the wall bench). No way there is 100 seats there. https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/shiptour.php?r=12664 And do we really want to start comparing entertainment options (options, not just venues) on Oasis-class ships vs *any* NCL ship, especially what I am reading about Prima? Oasis may be twice the size of Prima/Viva but I'd be willing to bet it has 3 times (or more) options on any given evening. And if you were to actually count seats in those options, I am confident the ratio is much bigger.

Actually, there is a need if this is going to be called a "live" thread.

Don't be surprised because that is exactly what's happened.

I believe this statement is not correct. I'm not saying you weren't told this, I am saying whomever said it was wrong. Especially for warm-weather cruises I almost had to do this for a cruise and was surprised that they weren't all that much more expensive than the two passes they included, like about $100 more for a 7-night cruise. Have they cranked the price up a lot more now?

One hack to avoid the book/cancel cycle is to ask in the roll-call for your cruise if someone would look at availability.

@jsn55 You really need to understand which type of OBC you have. Once you know, there is a topic here that discusses what you can use each type for. Also - as mentioned above - NCL will not let you off the ship at the end until they have returned your unused refundable OBC in cash. Take care of that the night before you disembark or they will pull you out of line in the morning and make you go to another line to get your refund.

As Bird said, onboard you get reimbursed with refundable OBC. If you do not spend that OBC, on board, be sure to get to Guest Services on the last night to pick up your refund. They insist on giving it back to you while still on board and if you don't pick it up the night before, they will pull out of the disembarkation line and make you go stand inline with a cashier to get your money back.