rodndonna

I still have them as well, but has to 9 day or longer cruise for the $500 OBC.

We finished a cruise in Athen's a couple of weeks ago and our flight was 12:10. We booked HAL transfers on board (using some OBC) and all they had was the 8:30 transfer (7:30 was full). Knowing it was an hour trip... I figured no-go. They told me - no problem ... so living on the edge ....we agreed. The bus was a little late leaving (just to make me more nervous), we arrived around 9:45 and then, like gomers who had never flown before??, we stood in the wrong check-in line (it was an Alliance partner so had our Air Canada on the sign) for 45 minutes ..and even after all that, we still had plenty of time for our flight.

"Maybe?" the clerk was referring to the carry-on of liquids rule ... and since you inside security, your bottles (of liquid) are OK. Or, maybe they know most people get away with carrying it in addition to their carry-on.

No - you were under the wrong impression (likely because it is another often ignored part of the rule) but they are part of your carry-on allowance. The allowance is a just "how much "stuff" can I carry onto the plane with me" ... what you buy in an airport (duty free or elsewhere in the airport) to bring with you on the plane counts as part of your carry-on. All those bags of stuff that people buy in the airport then and stuff in the bins are part of the problem.

We have never received one, but I wonder if you get the receipt when it is the "free" one was to combat issues (or potential issues) with people claiming that they didn't actually use the booked meal and trying to rebook (maybe they just didn't go or maybe for a second freebie). Maybe when people are paying for their specialty dining, they are more likely to go or make a point of cancelling is they don't go so they don't run into as many issues. Afterthought: I recall last year (not a recent cruise) on a HAL cruise where we would get these wayward dining booking reminders ... when we didn't have a booking ....so we would just call in and let them know. Maybe that was a "thing" for a while, so receipt signing helped to clarify when people really had a booking and used it.

Although I didn't read fully through the thread (I was stressing out just reading through the thread) and I just HAD to jump towards the end to find out the ending... PHEWWW - Congratulations and enjoy your holiday!!!

It will definitely be deducted from your non-refundable OBC ( we just did it a couple of weeks ago) but I "believe" it goes into the related pool - e.g., beverage servers if is was a beverage based gratuity. You may have to just order a drink to get the receipt to sign (you should get one even with SBP). It was easy for us as we always had a glass of wine with dinner, so would get a receipt to sign.

100,0000,0000% we ALWAYS have medical insurance (in our case through our travel credit card). I was speaking of insurance covering costs relating to missing a cruise - like Cancel for any reason, trip interruption ... etc, as well as costs associated with hotels/meals to arrive early (protecting your cruise to a degree , another form of insurance to protect missing a cruise) Medical insurance - ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS .....

We Canadians are not eligible for those cruise credit cards 😥 Our travel credit card is covered by our bank if we keep a minimum balance which we do. It's pretty limited (e'g' 1.5K each Canadian for trip interuption) but the medical is strong. We will likely eye a separate annual plan in the coming years as we get older and our dog will inevitably make his way to the dog house in the sky..... when we then plan on doing more extensive (and expensive) holidays! 🙃

I remain optimistic - but willing to take the risk "generally". I say generally, and will take our upcoming (and only) booked NCL cruise. Worse case - flight get cancelled or delayed land we cannot make it to the cruise. It is a 7 day on the Viva booked very early. The potential loss to us assuming no credit from NCL and nothing from our credit card (although we have travel insurance card, worse case lets say we get declined) is less than $3K US. That also assumes we don't get anything refunded (prepaid crew grats?, port fees?, taxes?) Buying insurance to cover $3K is not something we would ever financially do. Flying in day before and hotel/meal costs are another form of insurance to mitigate that potential loss. Now if I wasn't so cheap and splurging on a suite or taking a grand voyage, then I would worry about protecting our cruise costs more. As a lowly insider, it just doesn't make financial sense and we will just have to see what happens when it happens. I do love insurance in our financial portfolio though!

Isn't that insurance I would purchase to protect me in the event I decide to cancel my trip? I guess it would cover me to cancel the day cruise if my flight is cancelled or delayed. Protecting myself against flights issues causing me to miss my cruise I would have thought to be more under "trip interruption" insurance (through NCL (Manulife), Credit Card or outside insurance) Carnival's air program Fly2Fun explicitly states that if flight issues make you miss your cruise, you will get cruise credits. I don't see other cruise programs make that explicit claim, but it seems reasonable to expect a similar good faith compensation (maybe I am just too optimistic!) and why I tend to believe the accounts of internet folks who claim they received a credit when their flights couldn't get them there.

NCL insurance is underwritten by Mnaulife . They don't explicitly say the coverage for trip interuption or cancellation is in credits , but it would be very misleading if that was the case. I can't speak from personal experience as I have never missed a cruise (yet!), but was just pointing out others "storries" as I see them, and getting a cruise credit if you flights are booked with the airline appears to be the norm (but again, only repeating what I read from stories) In the same thread a person claiming to be a TA stated " Did you happen to get trip insurance. If not, you’re probably stuck with the credit unfortunately. Sorry this happened to you." Is it true?? who knows ... I have no 1st hand experience. you can be sure if I have NCL booked flights and my flight is cancelled and I can't get flights to make it or catch up. with the cruise, I am going for a future cruise credit.

That's what we are thinking - either removing our bid or at least dropping them to absolute minimal. The only thing we really miss on an inside is not having a sofa to sit on (chair is just not the same!), but not sure if having an Ocean view with a sofa in a crappy location is any better than just having an inside cabin in a preferred location. As as this is our first time on the Viva and only our second NCL cruise in 15 years. it's all a crap shoot for us anyway 😃

Just another comment (as a person who has an NCL "day of" Canadian flight in January coming up) - I have found reddit a good source for "what happens if.." scenarios like this. Most commonly I have read, if you can't get arrangements to get you there - your cruise will be refunded as credit, although some say they have had luck with getting cash. I would just be happy with credit and replan a new holiday if I couldn't get a flight that would get us there.

As Julig says, within 72 hours NCL is no longer involved. That may sound bad, but in reality it is better that way. Working directly with the airline at that point is easier than working through a 3rd party. As an example, here in Canada I would typically fly Air Canada where the most common reason for cancellation is weather. On Air Canada's site (like many other major airlines) I can go on their website in the days leading up to my flight and look at their "outlook" status. If there us ANY chance of a delay or cancellation coming up in the next 3 days (usually iffy weather forecast), they allow you to rebook to other flights on-line without penatly. I really like that feature and any time I have had a flight show up as a candidate for disruption. I take advantage of the rebooking option and take an earlier flight (or maybe later one if it isn't to catch a cruise). Doing that through a 3rd party would be a pain. It's not actually happened to me (for a cruise), but I have read that if it is for a cruise you are supposed to inform the airline that you are working with NCL air, and are meeting a cruise. I guess that would put you on a higher priority for rebooking and potentially they would rebook you on another line if required. Again, that is only what I read (as a person who does multiple flights a year in winter ... ugghh).

Younger people typically spend more on a cruise (especially those with kids) Younger people are a "longer-term" potential customer Younger people are more likely to be on social media (lots of free marketing) Younger people may not cruise as often, but if I can fill a ship with younger "once a year" or "twice a year" or "first ever" cruisers, it does not matter how often each of those cruisers sail.

I agree. Sowing seeds for the next generation of cruisers and hopefully additional marketing power from social media where that generation are more likely to be active.

I hope you are right as we are going to redo our bid based on our assigned room. I guess I can just keep checking and change bid if they reassign us to a location I don't like.

With regards to release of 2025 itineraries, there is another thread taking about recent layoffs and changes with CVP's and I wonder if maybe the delay in 2025 itineraries (compared to other lines) is to allow those changes to settle out before a rash of new bookings?

We have an NCL guarantee inside booked for late January on the Viva. Last week we received an email for bidding upgrades and we bid (fairly low) Just noticed yesterday that our inside cabin is now actually assigned. Now that I see our cabin location which we really like, I am thinking to reduce our bid for fear of paying for an upgraded room in a crappy location. Is it normal for NCL to assign a GTY cabin so far in advance? Is is something they do before the bidding process and we just didn't notice?

I wonder if that is to guard against a potential change in the exchange rate.

I think that is the flaw (just removing the tag or placing item in the bin with tag against the back so not visible). On Swoop where you pay for carry on, they are tagged and placed in the overhead bin with the tags facing out (usually on the handle) .. so is quite obvious that only approved (paid) bags are in the overhead bin.

I think this is great news but would have thought tagging the one bag eligible to be in the overhead bin would have been easier. Either way great to see them clamp down on the bin hogs!

Thanks. Our issue is not immediate as our cruise is Jan 2025 (lol). Just trying to resolve our outstanding OBC offer to rebook from an X cancelled cruise in July. We were told it might take a week or so. We have only had one sailing with X, so this is not giving me the most confidence )-:

I tried our CVP today (after getting nowhere with Chat) and her voicemail still indicates she works M-F and her hours. Maybe she has taken on additional clients and busier than normal if there were layoffs, and that is why we are getting no response on our emails. Trying to cut her some slack ... not sure why. I would still prefer we were just in a pool and have whoever is available when I call help me.