Nilbog

Read the book, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 By David McCullough before you go. It'll give you a detailed background of the building of the canal, and then you'll see it as you go through it. If the weather is nice, try to go up to the sun deck so you can go back and forth from side to side watching the lock operations as you go through.

If you choose to go with My Time Dining, make sure you make reservations for each night prior to the cruise. If you decide not to go to the MDR one night, you can always cancel the reservation in the app. For My Time Dining they will have two lines: one with reservations, and one without. The "without" line is almost always long, while the reservation line usually moves pretty quickly.

I recommend you follow Topnole's advice and go to the Roll Call for the cruise(s) you're looking at and ask someone who has already booked to get you the current pricing for that cruise.

That's a good case for going to Amazon and searching for cruise luggage tag holders (like mentioned a couple of posts ago). They're plastic, you slide your luggage tags into them, then use a steel cable (included) to attach them. You put them in the outside pocket of your luggage before flying, then at the hotel you take them out and attach them to your luggage, and voila! you're ready to drop them off with the port porters.

And why is a highway not high?

CC is more of a travel site, specializing in cruising. People on CC come to learn new things and share information based on their experiences. While there are some misleading posts on CC, for the most part people are trying to share the right information. The other site is geared towards things other than cruising, and misinformation is much more prominent there. People on that site are much more inclined to share rumors and 3rd- and 4th-hand stories that may have at one time been based on fact, but were led astray. The cruise lines know CC is cruise/travel related, and are willing to work with those people. CC has built up a reputation with the cruise lines that the other site hasn't, and probably won't.

If you had three different browsers hit the same home page, it's probably in your DNS cache. I'd try flushing your DNS cache (not your browser cache) and try it again. Or, while in one of the browsers, instead of just hitting F5 to refresh, press Ctrl-F5 to force a fresh DNS lookup of the IP address of the web page.

Great if you're Platinum, but not everyone in a suite is.

Which I've always found odd. Club Balcony Suites (formerly Junior Suites) get one bag of laundry per cruise. But real suites and the Haven do not...

According to the NCL site your butler will help you set up a cocktail party(ies) in your suite. Why not a brunch gathering in your suite for your family one or two days? Ask the butler and see what he/she can assist with along those lines.

Yes, when booking your cruise you can un-check any of the FAS offers.

When I upgraded from a Club Balcony to a Penthouse Suite, I was charged the difference between the suite rate of Daily Service Charge and the Club Balcony DSC, even though I had already prepaid my DSC. I can see where they will probably charge you the difference between the Haven DSC rate and your prepaid DSC on your existing cabin, at the time of the upgrade. Your scenario 1 won't happen just because you prepaid your DSC. I believe the most possible scenario will be #3. I would plan on that, anyway, and if you end up with #2 then you have some extra play money.

Do the balcony cabins on the Grandeur have a mini fridge?

When I tried to use the app while on my cruise, if I wasn't connected to the ship's wi-fi (not logged into my Internet plan, just connected) the app wouldn't show anything at all. I couldn't call up scheduled activities or even the My Account information. Maybe you've had a different experience, but this was mine two weeks ago.

We were just in both ports in September, and I don't remember any type of public transportation from the ship to the excursion areas in either place.

Thank you all for your service. 20+ years Air Force (Security Police/Forces) for me and 25 years for my DW. Just off the NCL Pearl last week, Harmony just before that, and will be on the Grandeur in August.

My experience was the same as Reallyitsmema in that we requested in advance for a shower stool, but it wasn't there when we boarded. I asked the steward and it was in the cabin within 20 minutes. It was tight in the shower, but it worked.

My fear is that when I choose Plan B and bring my wheelchair, they'll have the scooter where you drop off luggage, then I ride while my wife pushes an empty wheelchair.

Just keep in mind that if your scooter is delivered to your cabin, even asking for wheelchair assistance through RC, you have to get through security first. If there's a line at security, you'll stand there in line. My last cruise out of PC they delivered scooters before you got in the terminal. Two weeks ago in Miami, Scootaround said they were delivering outside the terminal, but they delivered to the cabin. I had to stand for nearly two hours to get through security before I got to wheelchair assistance.

That is completely correct, but you do need to be connected to the ship's wi-fi at the least. If you're connected to any other wi-fi the app is useless.

Not very smart on dress codes, so we didn't eat there. 🤪

Having just got off the Pearl, I found the NCL app to be very limited in its use pre-cruise. You can't do very much on it at all until you connect to the ship's wi-fi. This was very distressing, as pre-cruise I couldn't even see deck plans, so I'd made other arrangements through another app to download deck plans to have available for my cruise. Once on board, the app was very useful, but if you leave the ship's wi-fi for any reason (in a port, or simply lose you connection) the app is useless.

I cannot speak personally of the Dawn, but I just got off the Pearl and shorts/sandals were frequently seen in both main dining rooms. The professed dress code for Le Bistro is smart casual, but we didn't eat there, so I can't attest to what was worn and/or acceptable there. The aft dining room on the Pearl is the Summer Palace and we ate there frequently on our 11-day cruise and I often wore shorts and a t-shirt, and even sandals on some nights.

Just off the Pearl, and I can say with confidence the standard unlimited plan left a lot to be desired. Part way through the cruise my wife upgraded to the streaming package and she was getting better Internet service than I was on the standard unlimited plan. Connection speed was more important to her than it was to me, so I just muddled through. I was on vacation and not required to be connected to anything in particular, so it was sufficient for me.

Thanks for all your help. The cruise was a success, but our butler was a disappointment. We rarely saw him, and even though we left direction for our preferred afternoon snacks and drinks he continually brought things we asked him not to bring, and while a fruit plate was one of the snacks we said was preferred, one day he brought a fruit plate better left for a suite of 12-15, not just the two of us. All said and done we gained personal experience into what the butler can and cannot do, and how much we need to push for what we'd like to see. On the other hand, the concierge, Nashira, was AWESOME!