styxfire

Regarding your first statement, that's my perception too. Which is why I'm so puzzled that all of the major cruiselines have mentioned LACK of capacity as one of their greatest challenges. They aren't cancelling their ship orders, that's for sure. And now Four Seasons wants to join the industry and profit from excess demand, too. These corporations wouldn't be making the decisions their making if they saw evidence of softening demand down the road. Regarding your 2nd statement, "restructuring"... I suspect no judge would grant that. All the majors have shored up their liquidity and are still able to service their debt. And they are all forecasting improvement in their financial strength, not deceleration. A judge cannot simply wipe away creditors & investors to make a company financially better-off. Bankruptcy is a last resort, and I don't see CCL, RCL or NCLH meeting those bankruptcy standards in the near-term. Knock on wood. (or ship-railing...)

The testing/vaccination rules are so dynamic, as rules vary by nation AND by cruise company. The safest recourse probably is to call the cruiseline help-desk directly and ask what is required. That's what I plan to do for all my cruises scheduled within the next year. It's too easy to misinterpret something and get left holding the bag.

I'm the O.P, and I don't think you SHOULD.... but I do wonder if one WOULD, if appropriate incentive were offered? Please note that my question was about the phenomena of colluded bookings of one-half of every connecting pair on the deck. A couple of people explained why it "appeared that way" but wasn't actually happening. So I am relieved. The cabin reservations operate on a first-come first-serve basis. I support that. (Except for the pesky cruiseline's ability to bump you for ANY reason, lol.) I DID mull over the idea of offering someone extra money if they would be willing to move to 1 cabin left/right of their assigned one. Not sure I would actually attempt that... I can see how it could be interpreted as a selfish ask. The party clearly has every right to say "No thanks, I'm not switching". And there would certainly be no hard feelings from me about it. First-come, first serve. If I was desperate, I might ask the cruiseline if they'd be willing to negotiate that for me, PRE-cruise. But keep in mind: if someone accepted that "ask", they would: ----receive the incentive; AND ----would be spared from hearing a multitude of door knocks all cruise-long on both sides of their cabin, as the split-family on both sides of them tries to coordinate meals & activities all day long. I don't perceive booking an unneeded connecting cabin is as hurtful as booking an unneeded ACCESSIBLE cabin. Half my frustration is simply that Norwegian makes it almost impossible to view the connecting cabin-pairs that are available. Other cruiselines offer that functionality (or some form of it) within their booking process.

Uggh. That better have been a FREE upgrade.

Correction: the blank area is NOT a kitchen after all... It's all part of the Tradewinds store. I discovered this by looking at a different set of Bliss deck plans. That changes things. Should I be concerned about sleeping above Tradewinds? Granted it will be occupied during the day, but it closes at night. Daytime noise would be fine, for our group.

The dashed lines indicate connecting cabins. Do you see how some of the cabins are separated by solid lines, whereas others are separated by dashed lines? Admittedly, Norwegian website depicts connecting rooms very poorly.

LOL good tip. Here's a layout of Bliss deck 8, mid-ship. I'm making a guess that the blank space is a kitchen, as it's near many restaurants. (Referring to the space between Ocean Blue and the aft elevators.) Does anyone know factually if that is indeed a kitchen?

Your priorities are good, too. It's too bad that NCL doesn't allow you to search for connecting cabins at the beginning of the online process. Carnival enables a connecting cabins search. Many travelers probably don't need that at all. But those that do, REALLY do.

Thank you, these explanations make a ton of sense. And also clears up why cabins that were available yesterday don't show up today... It's because I was shifting passengers around -- divided our party up into 4 and 2 yesterday, but searched for 3 and 3 today. Thanks for the clarity!

Bingo! This makes sense and explains the situation completely.

In the image (from NCL), the dotted lines indicate a connecting door between the 2 cabins. Deck plans show it more clearly, using an arrow.

Please someone, help me understand why people book up 1/2 of a connecting pair of cabins... just ONE half. I can surmise that they think "maybe nobody will book next to me". But on cruises near the holidays, the ship is basically guaranteed to be full. So by booking a connecting cabin when you don't need it, you're keeping families apart. Honestly it just seems really mean & selfish. And you'll end up with families running back & forth in front of your door to talk to each other. Is there some OTHER reason people book only 1/2 of a connecting cabin? I would gladly pay an upcharge to keep my family together, and that would keep the people who don't need a connecting cabin from reserving one, especially "alternating" cabins as shown above. Has anyone ever successfully requested the passengers on the other side of your connecting door to switch with some of your family members, so you could be together? I'm considering offering maybe $100. I don't know what else to do.

I'm considering cabins in this area. How was the noise from District Brew House? How late at night could you hear it? How early in the morning? Also, was the 8138 balcony a diagonal shape (i.e. slightly larger than the small balconies") ?

Has anyone ever booked a cabin that's above the galley, or above an employee work area? I'm looking at Norwegian Bliss, deck 8. I see an empty space between Ocean Blue and the rear bank of elevators. I'm guessing that's a kitchen/galley area. Does anyone have any insight about it? If your cabin is above that, would it be quite noisy at night (clean-up) and morning (food-prep) ? And on that same deck 8, the front third of Bliss has more balcony cabins. They're above the 2nd floor of theatre, but worse, they're near the District Brew House. Would late-night bar noise travel forward down the hall, and make it challenging for kids trying to go to bed? Has anyone stayed on Bliss deck 8 that can describe their experience here?

Regardless of who can or can’t remember their stateroom number, some people enjoy having some identifier or cheerful presence on their door. And there are people like myself that enjoy seeing what others have shared of themselves. If you want to wear a plain shirt, or a vibrant shirt, or have a plain cabin door or a vibrant cabin door, so be it. I do know that people decorate their doors, and it is especially fun to see on the holiday cruises. It hasn’t been forbidden in the dailies on the cruises I’ve been on. I’m disappointed to hear Prima’s doors don’t support magnets. We’ve used magnets on both sides of the doors in the past. They’re incredibly useful

I would support some type of congressional action that would require cruiselines to provide more clarity in their price offerings. It seems less-than-reputable to lump a non-perk cruise-date in the same chart as 7 other cruise-dates that do have it. The current advertising strategies are essentially a “buyer use caution” type of situation. It’s the same as seeing a bin of beach balls in a Walmart aisle, some red, some yellow, blue, orange, green etc. with a huge bold sign saying “2 for 1!” But on the backside of that bin where people seldom look there’s a 3x5 postcard with Arial size 7 font saying “Red balls full price”. Most of us (on cruisecritic) know that the cruiselines pull visual sales tricks to lure customers, and we try to be vigilant when purchasing so we don’t fall victim to tricky advertising. But we should demand better. The only people who condone those $)&@#€*! ploys are marketing executives. I know there are numerous complaints here regarding FAS so won’t beat the dead horse any longer. But we really do deserve more clarity in the pricing. At least, I do.

I knew there would be legal jargon that would excuse them for suckering people into starting a reservation thinking they’d get 4 pax for price of 2. Unfortunately, that fine print isn’t anywhere near the groupings of cruise dates surrounded by the banner implying all the cruise dates in that grouping have the same perks.

One of the cruises I had wanted (specific dates) was lumped in with other dates and they all had the banner of 3rd & 4th guest free, plus all the other free at sea too. But when you click through and choose the ONE specific date to reserve, the “3rd/4th free” part of the sale goes away… while the other free-at-sea perks remain. I understand NCL using the “free” gimmick, but…. In the example I’m talking about, it’s coming closer to actual fraud. Or at least bait & switch.

I hope it doesn’t last. Otherwise my cruising partners (who aren’t huge MDR fans anyway) will choose the buffet every time after night #2, so I’ll either have to eat alone or eat every meal in the buffet too. 😞

And maybe they can start serving C-rations to the guests….? Remember, people are paying for a VACATION, not for summer camp meal-repeats. It’s a bad decision to downgrade the customer experience while trying to cater to higher clientele. NCL must think we’ll be fooled…

Yep, and the passengers will be spared not only Bermuda's test fee AND Bermuda's paperwork fee, but also Bermuda's PORT FEE per passenger. Cruisers save a lot of money when the cruise drops Bermuda from the itinerary.

Trivimp -- or anyone else with experience in partial payments on NCL's website,... Will your CruiseNext will be available to use IF your initial deposit was made using a CruiseFirst?

"Deals" don't seem to exist anymore. I know the price/perks NCL offers by booking direct. And I know which websites USED to offer additional perks. But these days I can't find a single T.A website that gives anything beyond the NCL free-at-sea deals. I sometimes feel suspicious when I read posts on CC about people whose T.A gives them so many more things. I don't have a T.A. I have a NCL PCC who gives me the same deal as the website, including CruiseFirst/Next which I already know about. Back in the day, when cruising on Royal & Carnival, I used a website that allowed travel agents to compete with each other for what discounts they could offer you. But NCL doesn't participate in that website. I've read tons of online articles claiming different companies that may give you an OBC... but when I do a mock booking, they give nothing for NCL cruises. At this point I basically feel too stupid to cruise NCL, because everyone else cruising them gets extra deals from their TA (supposedly) while I don't. So I booked with Royal for 2024. In the meantime, I found a nice cruise for family members in late 2023 on NCL... but again, i can find no perk other than the NCL online prices available for every human alive. Mock bookings yield nothing. Cruising for a decade yields nothing. No extra OBC anywhere. If those things exist, they are only for big spenders, not for frequent-but-cheap cruisers like me.

The weather you experience as those port resorts is generally far superior than the weather you experience on the high Vibe deck on a cruise, though. I’m not a fan of getting windblown. I understand that there are positive trade-offs though. For me, the decision to vibe or not to vibe would depend on the expected weather, and the expected capacity, and the expected ratio of kids to adults on that cruise. But the cost mentioned in this thread - $219 pp - that throws my other criteria out the window. Wrong price-point for me. One could upgrade from OV to their own private balcony for that. YMMV.

This is an interesting topic. In the past, I knew of a website that listed future scheduled port visits, i.e. all ships with a scheduled visit to a port, by day. I no longer remember what website that was. But it would be interesting to know if the number of ships docking in Bermuda is back to its 2019 levels or not. That could give a clue as to whether continued Bermuda fees might be revenue-driven vs health-driven. Perhaps the Bermuda cancellations to future itineraries has to do with a port fee increase set to occur in the new fiscal year? Is it possible Bermuda increased the port fee, causing the cruiseline to have to eat the increased cost for all reservations that were already paid? Just postulating. I have no idea how much notice a port has to give a cruiseline for port fee increases (so the cruiseline can pass cost onto consumer).