chillyw

That would be me if they ran out of whistle pig. Not happy about the Veuve, but stock the pig!

Whistle Pig! So good.

This is the flyer: https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/Beverage_Package_Flyer_04_23.pdf

This is either a mistake or really freaking dumb. Even airlines do better then this. On my last flight British airlines offered a Rose and a regular champagne and that was from a little drink cart, not a giant ship lol.

IMO, AA is generally about the same as other airlines, but they are a little more strict on standby. They're policy is to allow anyone to standby for an earlier flight. The tricky part is it has to be through the same airport routing, so if you're on a routing that only has one direct a day, you're SOL, even if you can route through a hub. It's one of the policies I dislike flying from Austin. So many once a day direct flights in our Austin mini-hub, I don't get to take advantage as much of the standby policies as I'd like. You can generally use the app to confirm if there's standby options before even heading to the airport, and can confirm standby for $75 (free for higher level elites). If not, it's not even worth bothering to go.

Thanks bird

I bought it for my July sailing. I'm looking at it as my shore excursions for non-crowded glacier Bay viewing space.

Pincho looks great! And how have I never had the antipasto appetizer from La Cucina.. that looks fantasatic.

Both Delta and American will take over a travel agency booked ticket for a $50 fee and then let you deal with them directly instead of the travel agency. You have to ask for it, but it's really helpful. Especially helpful when you've booked with credit card points and don't want to deal with AMEX or a Chase's BS. Once they take it over, you should be able to make changes to it like any other Delta ticket.

On the plus side, you might be able to catch a few pretty good electronic shows before your sailing lol

That 10y whistle pig is definitely my favorite on the list, but it's a rye whiskey, not a bourbon.

It's pricey, but the best tour I've ever done in my entire life is this: https://www.contexttravel.com/cities/rome/tours/rome-with-dimo-archaeologist

I agree with you to an extent, I think that the Broadway shows, and especially showing the same expensive shows over and over, aren't necessarily all that appealing. I almost never go to them either. I'd rather get a broad range of options, with more variety, and it would likely be cheaper for Norwegian in the end. Electronic DJ/Club in one area, dueling pianos in another, rock cover band in another, magicians / comedians / improv in another, and maybe a small show like prohibition all could be setup to give options without having to pay extensive crews for shows and elaborate sets. They kind of do this today, but a lot of times it's for limited times (ex: electronic DJ only runs from 10:30-midnight). Would like to see them expand so the options are longer and overlap, using their venues for longer.

I personally love being in the Haven proper, but I'm a big fan of the Haven bar area. Going right out your door to the Haven bar is great. I can pop out, grab a cocktail, and be back in my balcony in 2 minutes.

I've sailed the Epic 5 times. When in a balcony, I liked the middle decks (11 or 12) if you're a stair climber, it's easy to go up or down the stairs on the Epic, and there's no sound from decks above or below.

Good call, that's what I was about to reply with as well. Typically when a 3rd party books your flights, it's considered their responsibility until the flight moves to airport control, and then it becomes the airline's. I'd start with NCL at this point to resolve it.

In order to believe NCL is advertising sailings they intend to miss, you have to believe that the short term gain of filling a few ships further is worth more then all the customer service incidents and mad customers they'll generate, plus the long term damage to the brand if they keep doing it. I think it's much more likely they create schedules they intend to sail a couple years, and they do a poor job proactively adjusting schedules until close in.

Loved that talk, didn't realize you had posted it here! I was going to reference it too 😁

Airlines use placeholder schedules until around 100 days out, then start to dial in on what they're actually going to fly. When these headlines run, and they run quite often, it's generally clickbait type articles generated by airlines adjusting their placeholder schedules to their real ones. I'd love for the industry to get more consumer friendly and have real schedules longer than 100 days out, but at the same time, I also don't think this is that big of a deal. You can see CrankyFlyer's analysis of United's placeholder schedule here. Only 1/3rd of the schedule is seemingly accurate until 100-days out: https://crankyflier.com/2023/02/14/only-a-third-of-uniteds-schedule-is-accurate-today-a-breakdown/

I did the Bliss in mid-October to glacier Bay and it was so rainy and foggy we couldn't see anything. We're redoing it this year over July 4th week on Encore. Significantly more expensive, and for sure will be a packed ship, but it's worth it for Alaska to go earlier.

Glad you still had fun. I had that happen before my last Alaska cruise, and American was really good about reimbursing everything, then shipped my suitcase home with all my stuff about a month later after they found it. The printed luggage tags had gotten ripped off in a rainstorm in DFW lol. NCL did a really good job taking care of us, giving us laundry, toiletries, and other things. Hopefully you had a similar experience and won't have any issues getting reimbursed!

What is the strategy for Norwegian on entertainment going forward? Entertainment was a compromise differentiator for the brand, and with the cuts, it feels like it's undergoing a transition period at the moment.

Exactly. Plus, the big benefits are the free meals and laundry, which I'm sure doesn't cost them that much. The one risk is them devaluing the program at some point.

Thanks @BirdTravels i was debating this for my July 4th and this helps the decision.

How about a Nick Tahoe's plate in The Local next?