insidecabin

There are still differing protocols depending on locations In Europe it used to be test positive you get offloaded and into quarantine. I think most if not all Europe locations have dropped that requirement except for those that need medical assistance, the ships have the option to keep passenger on board and manage the situation. (Greece was one of the few places that had state paid quarantine hotels) What is clear is it is far too early to be dropping onboard protocols, the lack of testing is just ignoring/hiding the problem. Which is fine till the ship has to test. I have been monitoring the transatlantic, everyone has been a car crash at the end when testing of those flying back USA had to happens with 100s are heading to hotels waiting to go negative. NCL Dawn got notified they had to test to get into Amsterdam, result lots of positives and the next two ports missed and disembark Southampton(14th) with more testing for those wanting to fly home Less than 1k pax on the crossing(easy to social distance), estimates are over 200 positive cases The cruise lines are relying on not having to test along with most people being asymptomatic or won't report mild symptoms and get tested. Covid on ships is being hidden.

Just checked NCL UK and all the Getaway Europe cruise 2023 have gone including the TAs.

In the UK it's 30% My take is they have already decided to increase the drinks prices BUT they did not want to mess with the current package so created a new one with higher limits in anticipation it will not be long. They had to put frills on to make it less obvious The main competitors already have multiple packages Princess was an outlier. One issue is people will spot that once you start adding the extras you get a lot closer to the next level up prices.

We will be doing the same on the next trip. Never had a dish on a package charged because we shared it. One credit works well at the 4 items places.

Depending how big eaters they are and there potential $ choice it may be better to use 2 credits and PAYG for them. 2 packages would cover 2 people and enough sides for 4. You have 2 starters & 2 soup/salad and 2 deserts covered. That's a lot of food then pay for the extra main or extra starters etc. In the past we have done that for 2 using one credit and a lot of the items got zeroed out as part of the package(OH is not a big eater). They may have fixed the POS systems to stop that or insist on separate bills.

quite a while back(years) they change the upgrade system to a make an offer. (they used to call/email offers or if you had the number you could call in) if using a TA check if they are in the program. its called "Upgrade Advantage program" https://www.ncl.com/uk/en/content/upgrade-advantage-terms depending on what you booked you get a chance to make an offer for a better cabin they have a min bid and suggest a range from poor through good to Excellent. For out inside it was OV, balcony, club, and spa versions of the last 2 if in higher grades you get to bid into the haven cabins The delta for us to book a balcony was around £180pp the min bid is £80pp When ships are running fairly full mid bids don't work that often, now they are running low capacity reports are mid bid are getting accepted. There are a few threads where people report success, here is a recent one

Depends how you categorise safe, We have cruised the Suez that sails through pirate region off Somalia the ship bloke down gulf of Aden, were we bothered(uk may get that reference) The ships that are still sailing(there are plenty) as far as Helsinki and Tallinn can pull back from the further reaches fairly easily. I have said this before If it kicks off so trips that include Sweden, Denmark and Germany are no longer considered safe we have more problems than worrying about a cruise getting cancelled. Even if they do need to pull back further they can adjust the Star but could mess up Copenhagen as a change over. if it gets so bad the channel and north sea are off then it is too late for us to build a bunker. We are there next week and considering Prima for Sept Amsterdam to Copenhagen if they fix the pricing. I should be scaremongering to get all the Americans to cancel to bring the prices down Prima 10 days (3sept) is double and £400 more that our Getaway 9 days and I got flights with that one

I replied to a post about the Getaway cruises. There are also three Getaway Baltic sailings

That's the report from the current getaway cruise and people have been moved on others. I got moved from 5 to 13 with no notification had to check my booking to find out. No cabins available on deck 5 on the getaway cruises through to the TA when I checked the other day.

Prices on those went up and in the UK the free at sea has doubled. They have also closed deck 5. Waiting for my upgrade offer to be accepted, a lot of cabins available last time I looked.

My last cruise it never turned up before the cruise. They fixed it on the ship I had no docs so assuming they contacted benefits UK.

15 on a sea day is pretty easy far too many lightweights about. Can use 5 at dinner, Sig cocktail, 2 glasses of wine, port with the cheese and a double to finish. Sticking to beer 1 every 30-40mins is not unreasonable with some of the bottles. 10am to 10pm that's 18+

If you do a search then view cruises then there is an option to change the passenger count to 1

Three broadly equivalent standards(different testing). KN95(China) N95(US). FFP2(Europe) US ships tend to provide KN95 probably cheaper. Italy requirements have been FFP2

It's not just Princess. Another example The European 270 rule has been around for months came as a surprise to a lot of Americans relying on cruise line information for their Europe cruises.

Start with the TAs and check them all going forward. March April May June are the ones I am following. We were on the sky 28 March so have first hand after a TA. following for our later Emerald. Everything is OK till they start testing people which can happen as some will get sick or a port says test people

Depending on flight time you could look at staying in Civitavecchia. Accommodation is more reasonable some nice restaurants and then train/travel to the airport following day for the flight

European roll calls of Sky and Emerald have been reporting some measures returning. They test on those cruises and are getting high numbers with 100s getting bused to quarantine hotels before their flights back to the US. They were some in place on the cruise after the sky TA. The stop testing strategy has worked to hide the spread on ships. Same on NCL end of Dawn TA refused entry to 2 ports after one required testing.

There are non alcohol packages available. On my UK booking they are including grats £16.98pppd £8.49pppd £26.34 (15 coffee/tea) Get Your Caffeine Fix Enjoy premium and specialty coffees and teas along with fountain sodas, fruit juices, hot chocolate and “zero-proof” mocktails throughout your entire cruise with this beverage package. The Coffee & Soda Package is $19.99 USD* per person, per day The Best Drinks Don’t Need Alcohol This package includes all fountain sodas, fruit juices, mocktails and smoothies. The Classic Soda Package is $9.99 USD* per person, per day Coffee (or Tea) Lovers, Rejoice! Sip your favorite espresso-based beverage or tea with the pre-purchase of a specified number of specialty coffees (numbers vary by itinerary) during the voyage of purchase, as well as complimentary brewed coffee and hot chocolate. New Grounds Coffee Package (number of drinks)

Assume a UK booking One thing to consider is free at sea and the drinks package as well as the perks. If one of 3 is not a drinker then having that person in the inside without free at sea saves a bit of money. you can then shuffle the sleeping later. If the ship has the 2bed suites that may be an option. Is the suite a Haven one that can complicate.

Burn the floor started as a main dining room show and was popular, I had resisted seeing it quite a few cruises but did on last one in Nov, still not top choice but I was surprised how good it was, entertaining and impressive dancing

I suspect they are staggering the changes they want to make so they can feed them through the system. Getaway 2023 got pulled completely so they may have deployment ideas that don't need the TAs. With the Dawn if they plan to leave it in Europe the can deal with that later and leave the TA in place while they work out what to do. Issue is it is getting very crowded up her around the UK. Competitive pricing will be needed to get the bodies in the beds. The Dawn doing Amsterdam<->Southampton trips this year messes up UK bookings as you have to join the end points, might as well book a round trip Southampton as they are available on other lines.

The current strategy by the cruise lines(not just NCL) is pretend its all over. They dropped the protocols and any on ship testing(unless people volunteered) at the same time hoping most would never know till they got home as most will be asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms and not report in for a test. At the same time capacities increased The Transatlantic cruise have shown the true extent of the problem as they have been testing at the end of the cruise so USA people could fly home, 100s are positive and getting sent to quarantine hotels. In the UK we no longer have quarantine so no need to isolate in your hotel you can just go about your business till you test negative and can get on the plane home.

There are currently more patients admitted who are vaccinated than who are not. It is expected that the vaccinated group is likely to have more cases than the unvaccinated, over time it will trend towards 100% as everyone gets vaccinated. The vaccinated group is much larger than the unvaccinated group at some age groups by a factor of 19+(95%+ rate). I suspect(not seen any data) that those with underlying conditions are also more likely to have been vaccinated as their doctors would have been pushing them to get the shots. In the UK many qualified for extra shots(3main+booster) second boosters are in progress for compromised(over 12) and over 75.

They will have difficultly updating the text in the invoice emails that say I have the premier package.