NutsAboutGolf

It's all about timing, you'll want to contact some independent tour companies to find out if they'll be one of the first boats there. There can be many ship and therefore many tour boats going there which is why it's best to be one of the first boats there

Please expand on why, was it because it was too crowded?

After the final payment, they require a $200 fee to make changes. When booking directly with the airlines, as long as you don't book their "basic" fares, they allow you to change your flight without any fee, even on the day of the original flight. When booking with the airline, non-basic fares, you can cancel the flight and receive a future flight credit

Most airlines including Icelandair, utilize TSA precheck at the departing US airport. The few airlines that don't participate are usually international budget airlines. This includes the Iceland flight we took on WOW Airlines, which does not participate with TSA precheck. However, since we were flying from the Iceland International Airport to the US (Boston), it wouldn't matter as TSA Precheck (going through airport security/x-ray/body scanner) is performed in the US airport, not the international airport

When you purchase Global Entry (GE), they include TSA Precheck but they're two different things GE = Expedited passport control TSA Precheck = Pre-boarding TSA security/x-ray/body scanner After our X Greenland/Iceland sailing last August, we flew from Iceland to Boston on WOW airlines, at the Iceland airport, didn't experience either GE (did passport control in Boston) or Pre-check

Yes, as stated, Ireland, Canada, Bahamas, Bermuda, etc, all have "departing GE" or US passport control is performed at the international airport. Are you sure departing GE is available Iceland?

If you're a US citizen, Global Entry works in two international locations, New Zealand, and Canada if flying to the US. If flying from Canada to the US, you go through US passport control in the Canadian airport and there are Global Entry lanes GE is available for US citizens in about 20 international airports, although two are in the US territories of Guam and the Marina, and 8 are in Canada. Most of the 20 GE international airports require you to be on a flight heading to the US then you go through US passport control in the international airport. "Departing GE" works in Canada, Ireland, the Grand Bahamas, and Bermuda, I'm probably missing a couple International "Arrival GE" works in Aruba and New Zealand, and again, I'm probably missing some While international GE only works in a very short list of countries, anywhere that has GE kiosks can save travelers time As stated, there are some countries that allow GE travelers to apply for their own expedited passport control but usually they still require an interview and possibly to pay a fee so it would only makes sense if you plan on traveling there more than once

They progressively lower the fare, if it gets really close to the sail date, many call it a "fire sale". I priced out a 3-nighter on the Reflection in sept, balcony picked the room/not a guarantee, added AI, and added prepay tips. All in for 2 is $1321 which works out to $220 all in, per person per night

They're saying from the berth, (highlighted in green). But as someone else said, that's a Nassau question, not an X question

Would it be in @zitsky 's best interest to arrive a little early or does it not matter? Only done the Capt's Club out of Micheals/Craft Social, they generally escort groups of around 25 at a time so there's still a bit of a wait unless you show up early

They'll leave a printout in your room of where to meet to be escorted

When it comes to early flights, above all, you need to determine if you or anyone in your group gets easily stressed and if so, do them a favor by NOT booking an early flight. I always get the sense that when someone needs to ask, they do get easily stressed and therefore are asking for reassurance. People with my, let's go with adventure-seeking personality, we just book the flight and if we can't make it, we take the next one. We have GE which gives us pre-check and clear which is helpful most of the time except in Miami for some reason where I've seen 100+ in the clear line. We've still made a 9am Miami flight from the port of Miami from a 7am disembarkation in April We just got back from Logan 3 weeks ago, a lot depends on the terminal but it's not that bad, maybe needed to walk an unexpected 5 extra minutes, TSA lines weren't bad but that's very YMMV; a lot of airports list their waiting times online and if you check the same day and time, can get a rough idea of what to expect. Without clear and/or pre-check, it is a much greater gamble

It's a disguised advertisement to sell you transfers. When I answer self-carry, I still get luggage tags

Interestingly, none of these require cooking

Oh the irony...

Start heading down 20 minutes early, if your status or room type like a suite gives you the ability to be escorted, use it. If you don't, just make sure you arrive early to wait in the tender line and be vocal to the crew about needing an early tender due to an early tour

The casino was open on our 2023 Summit sailing

X, along with most other cruise lines fixed 2 out of the 3 worst things about cruising First is the e-muster (NCL and Disney went back to traditional musters) Second, they added Starlink for somewhat high-speed internet...Even if you're the type of person who has sailed 1000+ nights with their phone in a safe, things like family health emergencies or the ship needing to go back a day earlier than expected can happen and now you can change your flight without the internet timing out The 3rd is the food, lower quality, has less selection, and for some reason they allow the Mast Grill to exist. The food selection was a bit worse, then #cookiegate came along, X was in damage control mode and they reversed some of their cutbacks

Having customs grab to check your bags is still a possibility. Of our after the restart 20+ X sailings and 10+ sailing on other lines, only once were we grabbed by a customs officer. They have luggage examination rooms after the facial recognition. All and all, it took 5 minutes, we had a good chat with the officer who said they need to have a certain amount of passengers fill out the customs forms even if they have another to declare. He said they typically grab folks with a lot of luggage. Oddly, all he did was open one piece of luggage, with his gloved hand picked up a handful of clothing a couple of feet, dropped it, and close the bag, pretty pointless (lol)

I fly United Airlines whenever possible and with international flights, we have a layover in Newark or Houston. The last few times, it isn't the GE line but after with the transit security line that's a zoo. It would probably be quicker to exit and go through regular security especially if you have Clear

Yes but if there is strong weather or perhaps a medical emergency, the ship may need to get to the port early and utilize a different terminal. This happened to us once when the ship returned early at around 10 pm the night before at a different terminal

I always thought cruise lines should add a continuous lazy river around the perimeter of the ship and have it connect to the main pool

I'm purely speculating that perhaps the crew member you interacted with was brand new with Muster 2.0

Were they X-tours or non-X tours?

FYI1: X = Celebrity (nickname) FYI2: X-Tours means if for whatever reason the ship leaves before you return, they will cover the expense of getting back on the ship. They don't guarantee as in extremely rare circumstances if there's danger such as unexpected fog, the ship can leave early You should ask your TA to be sure