PATRLR

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.

Yeah, I was kinda thinking that after I wrote it. I'm sure it happens (but never to one of MY projects 🙂 ).

I think you are reaching at this point. But if in fact NCL corporate policy is to leave toiletries in the showers, then IMO that's a terrible policy for exactly the reason we're discussing here, it risks leaving the impression the room is not clean.

This says it all right here. You claim that mold is a problem but you are willing to put up with it. That's fine, you do you. Clean bathrooms are important to me; dirty bathrooms are not something I would tolerate. Toiletries in a shower make it hard for me to believe the shower was cleaned (what did s/he do, clean around them? Pick them up, clean under them and put them back?). Nothing I said mentioned dust bunnies or debris left under a bed or any of those other innocuous strawmen people have been positing. The only thing I've been writing about is what would appear to me to be a shower that was not cleaned.

I believe you meant to write the first 90% uses 10% of the budget, the remaining 10% of the project uses the other 90% of the budget. (Although I believe the more common numbers used are 80/20 and newer project management frameworks have come to flatten those curves quite a bit)

I shouldn’t be surprised that you’ve resorted to attacking me for pointing out your false narratives and strawman

There's a strawman if ever there was one. Could someone point me to a picture of one of these "shower caddy" that supposedly exist in Encore showers? I'm quite certain mine didn't have one.