TrumpyNor

Summer 2022 both on the Gem and the Escape this sign was outside restaurants on board:

Hello everyone. I am the OP who started this thread about this "curious" (and according to all replies that were posted a seemingly very "random") coding on the top of the online NCL-profile when logged in to MyNCL. Today I just noticed that the information in question has changed, it now simply says "Latitudes" instead of "Jade" - which is more "understanding" to me... 😊

15-20 years ago.

The auto-gratuity to bar staff goes in to a "tips pool" that is divided by number of barwaiters on board - the more passengers on board the higher amount of daily gratuity they receive. They receive a certain amount per day in addition to their base salary, and that daily amount may vary from cruise to cruise, depending on how many passengers on board and how many crew members to serve them. It is just as simple as that. It is similar with the distribution of the daily service charge that every passenger pay, allthough that is divided in to a certain percentage to cabin stewards, a certain percentage to restaurant staff who work at complimentary restaurants on board, and a certain percentage to behind-the-scene-crew. How do I know? Well, the tip-distribution is similar on most cruise lines - and both my husband and I worked on cruise ships when we were younger and the majority of our monthly pay came from those tips pools - and the total income was not as bad as many here may believe that it is..... After all, you do have "room and board" paid. BUT you do have looooong working hours - it is not unusual to work 10-12 hours per day, 7 days a week for 6-9 months (length of regular crew contracts vary depending on the cruise line). So in short - the monthly income for a bar waiter or restaurant waiter on a cruise ship is not bad, but when you divide it in to the hours they work per day/week/month - then it is not that good after all...

Yes, they are.

I must have misunderstood OP as I thought he/she was asking about adult only pools on the Viva available for "regular balcony cabins" and not for suites....

From a website called cruisespotlight:

All the "regular" speciality restaurants on NCL are a-la-carte, only exceptions are Moderno and Teppanyaki.

Up until 16 days before the cruise was the "deadline" my PCC at NCL gave me when I wanted to apply for the FCC because of a significant price drop on my August 2023 cruise. I actually have that in writing (in an e-mail).

For various reasons I prefer to always book my cruises through my American based NCL cruise consultant, and since I always get automatically rerouted to ncl.com/EU with the rates in Euro and the European promotions, I have found a very large American webpage (cruise dot com) where I can modify searches to only show NCL cruises/NCL ships/NCL itineraries. That way I can always do "mock bookings" and check what is available on my own before I contact my PCC in the US by e-mail and ask her to book it for me.

I am automatically rerouted the NCL webpage in Europe that is in English, on the very bottom of that webpage on the right hand side, there is a "scroll menu" where I can change language from English to French. Maybe while you are in Bermuda, you have the possibility to change from Spanish to English instead? See screenshot below - I have no idea if that would even be an option for you right now, but it is worth a try...

There is also the possibility of getting a take-away-pizza from the Italian speciality restaurant, cost $$$ but is in my opinion a much better pizza than the room service pizza or the buffet pizza. Below a screenshot of the current pizza menu at La Cucina.

That is definitely not the status in my case. The webpage ncl.com automatically redirects me to the Eurpean webpage with all prices listed in Euros (all though I live in Norway, we don't have Euros but we also don't have a specific branch of NCL for the Norwegian or Scandinavian market, as we are simply not enough customers). I have had the "automatic default to NCL Europe" ever since they divided NCL Europe in to a separate NCL "branch" - and the first year this happened both my PCC at NCL, and her supervisor, and even with assistance from the IT department at NCL (based in the US), they all tried to add special settings to my account so that I could have access to the American version of ncl.com - but unfortunately it didn't work. So my way of working around this and have access to up-to-date US prices for NCL cruises, is that I have found an American online cruise travel agency that shows the exact same rates, promotions and fees as NCL has in US dollars. There I do "mock" reservations whenever I am ready to book a cruise, and when I have found what I want, I just send my PCC an e-mail and ask her to book it for me. It works for me, it just takes me a few minutes extra to search for cruises at that online cruise TA site first. I did actually book a couple of cruises myself online through the European webpage a few years ago (after booking through NCL in the US for about 10-15 years) - the cruises were great, the rates at that time were also good, but the "local" cruise consultants I then automatically received were NOT any good - at least not compared to my American based PCC who has been working with NCL for about 20 years, so after that experience I went back to booking all my cruises through NCL through her. So at least for me, it works well enough the way I have chosen to do it. All though a tiny bit more complicated than booking directly on the webpage. 😊

I live in Europe but my regular cruise consultant at the NCL is based in the US; hence I book and pay all my cruises according to the American booking conditions and promotions (for various reasons, but mainly because I often find the cruises when priced in USD to be a better deal than when priced in EUR). I have however had the same PCC at NCL since 2008 (so before they decided to split their "customer markets" based on where the customers live). I don't know it that is why they (NCL) has let me "keep her"....

Absolutely agree on this!!!

I yesterday asked my PCC to book an inside category IB on deck 9 on the Dawn for us, for a 2024 cruise. I specifically chose cabin no. 9027, as that cabin is one of the few IB inside cabins that according to the deck plans only holds 2 persons and still was available (meaning no extra bed attached to the walls on either side). However, I just googled photos of that particular cabin number, and the photo I found clearly shows a bed on at least one of the walls.... 🤔 That photo however seemed to be from 2014, could it have been removed during a drydock renovation at a later time? 🤞 Or could it simply be that the deck plan is incorrect about this? I simply hope that some of you maybe have been in that particular cabin on the Dawn after 2014, and have the up-to-date information. I would certainly appreciate it, as I twice in the past have banged my head and shoulder in to such a "bed on the wall" when getting out of bed on a cruise, and I can confirm that it is a painful thing to do! 😟

I believe that ou can bring them ON the ship without any problems, but that you are not allowed to take them off again, assuming they last throughout the cruise.

You can not bring box wine - as it is not allowed. You would have to bring bottles, and probably carry them on board as hand luggage unless you have room in your suitcase (and thereby also risk that they could break when inside the suitcase)...... https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/cruise-faq/can-i-bring-alcohol-board

Ok, sorry about that. Last summer (2022) they did....

O'Sheehans also has a "dinner of the day" special offer on the menue every evening, from around 5.30 PM.

I second this - only the Epic has the special bathroom set up. Escape is standard.

Photo from the bathroom in the Club Balcony cabin we had on the Gem in August 2022 (so after the latest refurbishment):

Just be aware that if you are doing mock bookings, then you are blocking the cabins chosen for a certain amount of time (I believe that it is somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes). This is because of the time the system automatically gives you to finish your booking procedure. So if you do mock bookings, then you should wait at least 20 minutes before you try again...

You could also check it yourself online without receiving the e-mail "inviting you to bid": https://upgrade.plusgrade.com/offer/NCL/

My Diamond upgrade was done already in August 2022, and the FCC for the same cruise given in April 2023 *after final payment. Sailing date in August 2023. So will receive the actual FCC voucher when that cruise is completed.