FredZiffle

The difference here though is that we're talking specifically about the Upgrade Advantage. The TA receives no commission on an upgrade bid and is not involved to my knowledge.

No experience, but I can think of no reason it wouldn't work. Even if you originally booked through a TA, I believe Upgrade Advantage bypasses the TA and is billed directly by NCL.

I haven't seen duplicate bridge on NCL in a long time. We're lucky if it's even mentioned in the Daily as an informal gathering. The last cruise listed in the Freestyle Daily with a start time of 12 noon on sea days and located it in the internet cafe where space was at a premium and always filled. They had no cards and, needless to say, no games materialized.

I struggled with coming up with a title for this post. I'm trying to find out the email address for whoever on the Bliss would be responsible for giving a group of 12-16 people a location to play bridge on sea days. Too often, left to their own devices, the ships either ignore this completely, schedule it in an already filled library or game room, or schedule it over lunch hour. The times it's been done right, they put an announcement every sea day in the Freestyle Daily and schedule it for an unused restaurant. I just need the correct email to contact them.

If anything, entertainment quality will decrease in 2024 rather than get better. Many ships are discontinuing the large production shows and replacing them with game shows.

I can sympathize with your experience. We took a transatlantic on the Getaway just before the pandemic. The food was so bad that we were ready to give up cruising. I started counting the number of individual dishes we had at dinner, and only 2 out of 65 dishes were at least average - a hot wings appetizer and a souffle dessert. The 63 below average included a steak that was uniformly gray both inside and out and a mixed green salad that had exactly one leaf on it. Fortunately, we already had another cruise booked which was quite enjoyable and restored our faith. We've since sailed two more times on the Getaway and never repeated that bad experience.

I'm not one to sugarcoat problems on a ship, but having sailed on the Getaway three times, the most recent earlier this year, I can tell you my experience. Yes, there are lines sometimes, which is not uncommon on any megaship on any cruise line. The line to disembark at the end of the cruise is always long, but it moves very quickly. I doubt we've waited more than 15 minutes. We have never had to wait in a line to eat dinner in the MDR, but I have seen some lines when we leave around 7:00 or so. If you know to go to Headliners when you board the ship, you can usually score your preferred times for specialty restaurants. We always go there first, because the excursions desk usually opens a bit later. Regardless, we're first in line for excursions when it opens. Some excursions are completely booked up, but often some have opened up that were showing full online. You can also get on a wait list in case something opens up later (it does happen). Catching a tender in a popular port can be tough if you're trying to get off early, but sometimes the very first tender of the day goes off half empty because people who booked don't get moving that early. I've heard announcements telling passengers that spaces are available without reservations. Speaking of reservations, since you have no latitudes status, you'll have to get a tender ticket the day before if you want to get off early. If time is no issue, don't bother with a ticket because usually by 10 or 11, everything opens up and you no longer need tickets. Of course, if you're on a ship excursion, you don't need a ticket. The buffet, like on every ship, can get crowded at peak times. We've never not been able to find seats, but sometimes you have to wander a bit and be ready to grab a spot that opens up. As far as a quiet place to read, if the weather is nice, the waterfront is awesome. If you want to sit indoors, check out the bars during the morning and early afternoons. They are virtually empty with comfortable seats. HTH

Excursions in Iceland are prohibitively expensive. Consider renting a car in Akuryeri and driving to the sites. Roads are better than most in the US. We had no problem just using a map (back in the days before widespread use of GPS). We just walked around Alta and Longyearbyen. Not much in either port, although the museum in Longyearbyen was interesting.

I always use a TA and have always received my stockholders benefit, including one I received last month for a cruise this December.

Why not keep it simple and just buy $1000 in OBC and then use it for the items you mention?

Check with NCL to see what their process is. If they credit the OBC back to the AMEX card, you might have an issue (but maybe not since the Amex system is likely not set up to catch a credit several months later.). If they write you a check, you'll absolutely be fine.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is any fee for charging slot play to your room account. Since technically you're not supposed to be able to use OBC in the casino, I usually do a $10 test to make sure it still works.

You can charge casino play to your account rather than pulling cash out. If you don't want to play with it, load it into your account on a slot machine and then cash out.

Took advantage of a similar AMEX offer earlier this year. I think it was $250 credit for a $1000 charge. I purchased OBC for a cruise on the Getaway. At the end of the cruise, I asked if they could just credit the card on file and was told no. I wasn't keen on walking around Europe with $1,000 of cash in my pocket, but there was no other option. ETA: Just checked my Amex account, and I've got this new offer as well. Guess I'll be buying some more OBC for my December cruise.

You're correct. I should have said double the Latitudes meals. We'll each get two vouchers for 2 people due to our status, so four meals for the two of us. If we were in the same cabin, we'd only get one set of vouchers, so only two meals.

I have a question regarding the 2nd bedroom. In looking at videos, the bed appears to be something like a futon. Is the mattress reasonably comfortable and large enough for an adult, or is the adult better off using the sofa bed in the main area? Or are both so bad that we should look at other options? This is on a Breakaway + ship if it matters.

Thank you for such a detailed reply. I double-checked everything you mentioned, and all settings appear correct. I have repeatedly checked my spam folder to see if messages are being routed there, but I do not see any. I do get push notifications for replies to my posts when I open the CC site, but do not receive such for followed content. I receive no email notifications for any posts, but I do regularly receive emails from CC advertising cruise sales.

Are you aware that the cliff divers are less than 2 miles away from the port? I was also considering an excursion, but even the cheapest would be over $200 for the three of us. We plan to catch an Uber from the port and back. I'm a bit wary of the taxis because I can't tell the good ones from the bad, but Uber vets its drivers, so I feel more secure. BTW, if you want to tour the fort that is generously included by NCL in some of their cliff diving excursions, just do it on your own and save the extra charges. The fort is literally across the street from the port.

Appreciate it, but this was the first thing I checked to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong. Follow always worked for me in the past. It's just been the last couple of roll calls that haven't worked.

The last two roll calls I have followed have not been sending notifications to my email. Messages are not going to my spam folder - they are simply not being received at all. I have double-checked, and Follow has been set up correctly just like I've always done.

lol. I know, but since posts stick around forever, others will read this thread like I did.

I wouldn't worry about traffic delays getting back if you're on a private excursion. You can bet that the buses from the ship are stuck in the same traffic. Just time your departure so that you're leaving Antigua around the same time that the ship excursions are leaving.

It would be extremely helpful when you post these deals, you include the ship, the date, the cabin category, and the price. I'm seeing too many screen grabs that are lacking enough information for someone to follow up if they're interested.

You might want to include the ship name and embarkation port in your title.

We were on the Getaway last month, and I was surprised at how much the utilization of the Illusionarium had changed since our last cruise 5 years ago on this ship. As I recall, back them they had the pseudo escape room activity in there and used it as a staging area for some excursions, but not much else. Last month they had several musical performances in the evenings. They set up around 6 rows of folding chairs around the stage, and, together with the existing booths, the venue holds more than Headliners.