PATRLR

They are generally available long before 120 days. People have purchase them a year or more before their cruise date. (perhaps you are confusing dining reservations which are 120 for most people)

Yes, thank you (and I did see that). Of course "1 in 20 chance of dying on the job" is a much different stat than "1 in 20 percent of dying every time he boards a ship".

Well, my uncle's small grocery store and butcher shop would do it if he was there. Heck, he was even known to drive back to the store to help someone out if they desperately needed something. But my uncle's store and NCL are two very different things which is exactly why it's a poor analogy.

I don't suppose you have a source for this claim? I'm pretty sure you don't and I doubt it's even remotely close to true. If it were true, then that would mean 1 out of every 20 ship boardings would result in a death. Even if you meant to say 1/20th or 1%, that would still be 1 out of every 2000 boardings resulted in death. I'd be surprised if anyone on these boards has ever heard of a pilot dying while boarding a ship they were a passenger on. Probably 100s of thousands of pilot boardings - anyone ever hear of a pilot dying while boarding?

Fair point. If we were talking a well developed western country, I might be less inclined to believe a CG got involved. Considering where this happened, I envision the CG consisting of exactly 1 boat, the captain of which is also the overall commander of the CG and able to make such decisions to get involved and eager to help (and maybe looking for any excuse to actually do something with his boat and crew).

I would be shocked if the PA wasn't involved here. I would be shocked if the CG got involved without the PA's involvement. But as you said, no one mentions the PA, so, we don't know.

Why wouldn't the port agent have handed over the passports if they were indeed being brought back to the boat? (Not that I believe they were. I suspect the CG offered to bring them out and the ship said "no")

What are you quoting? Those words are not in the article referenced by OP. The article stated that NCL customer service said that. I thinks it's very plausible that NCL CS would say such a thing: We sent emails to NCL, the NCL customer service emergency number, they said ‘Well, the only way for us to get in touch with the ship is to send them emails, they’re not responding to our emails, I do agree there is more to this story.

@Oddsbet1029 As others have stated, these are legitimate offers. That being said, mistakes happen. We did have one case where the prepaid gratuities message didn't make it to the ship and they tried to charge us on board. I had printed copies of my invoices and receipts clearly showing gratuities included. I showed those to the customer care folks on board and the issue was quickly resolved.

Please stop saying this. It serves only to confuse people, especially in situations like this one where OP is asking if an offer might be legitimate. Regardless of your thoughts on this topic, there are most definitely Travel Agents who advertise PrePaid Gratuities or similar terms that are not "Daily Service Charge" or whatever formal term NCL is using today.

It probably has nothing to do with number of cruises. It might be something like your onboard spending habits, maybe they were targeting people who spend less than you do typically on board. Or maybe targeting people who spend or don't spend in/on specific venues. It could be geographic - they might be targeting people who live in specific areas. There are limitless ways these things can be targeted.

Yes, it was targeted, it's just that you nor anyone outside of Princess Marketing knows who the target was. This happens all the time. I used to see it when I was a United Airlines 1K+ - colleagues, some also 1Ks and some not, getting offers I didn't get. And sometimes the other way around. I'd see it with Marriott and Hilton also. I am sure they all do it. My interpretation of everything I've read that you've written is you are most bothered by the targeted offer and the fact that you were not part of the target. I'm not sure what else I can say that hasn't been said. This happens all the time, it's not personal, you shouldn't feel penalized, it's just the way marketing works.

Which are you dismayed by, the fact that the promo isn't offered to you or the fact that they gave it you then took it away? If the former, IMO you need to move on - targetted promotions are done everywhere and even if you don't know or understand who the targets are, it doesn't matter. If it's the latter, I agree it's poor customer service but that's all it is - a sign of how bad customer service has gotten everywhere. Seldom are frontline staff empowered to do the right thing and it's near impossible to communicate with anyone who is empowered. That's just the way it has gone with just about every large consumer company.

Because it matches the topic they want to discuss?

Interesting. I'd think my phone would be far more valuable to me off the ship than my passport. To each their own I guess.

Lucky enough for that calculated risk.

I'm struggling to parse this. The blue highlighted text seems to contradict the yellow. The yellow says the drive engine and the electricity are not the same source, but the blue seems to say they are connected. What am I misunderstanding here?

Seems they'd have a better chance of finding enough busses for NY/NJ seeing as they can pull busses from all the northeast population centers north, south and west of there.

I agree and this is the primary reason that I am skeptical of what @UKstages writes. I want to believe him, but until someone corroborates I remain skeptical.

PLUS is 2 per cruise, is it not?

If it's warm and not too windy. On Encore in Caribbean, Ocean Blu, there was a young couple sitting outside because he didn't have long pants (or so said our waiter). They were essentially right next to us, but we were inside and they were outside. They looked cold. I felt bad for them.

Agree 100% - forgotten items in hotel/cruise rooms happens all the time and isn't going to affect my cruise. But "forgotten items" isn't what most of the people commenting on OP's " A razor and a loofa in the shower" are discussing.

Because OTHER people are saying or implying that the shower was in fact cleaned. I'm not the one saying that it was cleaned, I'm just pointing out what would have to occur for the shower to be cleaned and the items left behind. What I believe happened was the shower was never cleaned at all. I am not saying the steward has a "complicated (and seemingly malicious) way of cleaning", I say the steward just didn't clean it at all. Edited to add - You @Distinctive-Destinations are actually helping to make my point. Either the shower was not cleaned at all, or, if it was cleaned the steward must have a complicated (and seemingly malicious) way of cleaning. I find the former to be much more believable than the latter.

Really? You are better than that. You know damn well I didn't say that.

At the risk of too much identifying information, I grew up in Newington, graduated Newington High early 80s. Go Indians! (Yeah, I know they are something different now). Left there in the mid 90s and don't get back much since the parents passed. It's been a while since we've been on Carnival but we considered them to be quite similar to NCL - they are both mass market cruise lines. I agree with what another poster said and would try to avoid a school vacation week on Carnival if I could. I say try it. We are actively trying other lines now due to NCL not being what it used to be, in our opinion. RCCL last summer, Princess this summer. I think it's good to try other lines - none of them are so bad that you won't still have a good time.