MadManOfBethesda

Yes; one of the nicest aspects of embarking in Barcelona. I picked up a bottle of Licor 43 on my way to the ship and my cabin yesterday afternoon.

Exactly. It is one thing to blame the late eight for missing the ship, it is quite another to exonerate NCL's actions with regard to the 80-year-old stroke victim. After all, what is the purpose of the cruise line requesting that passengers provide emergency contact information that includes the name, relationship, and telephone number of a person to be contacted in case of emergency if the cruise line isn't going to bother to actually make that phone call? And that doesn't even address the issue of whether the stroke victim would have been better served by remaining on the ship until she could be debarked at a larger mainland facility rather than what São Tomé could provide. And the ship's doctor didn't even make that determination. According to an article linked earlier in this thread, it was the ship's nurse who made the decision. I have no problem at all with NCL leaving the late eight behind, but in my opinion, they really dropped the ball with regard to the stroke patient.

Interesting because I've only sailed out of NY one time (12/23) and my experience was similar to that of the OP's. I was in two exceedingly-long lines before reaching CCL's check-in area. (The first was out on the sidewalk just to hand over our luggage, and the second was the security line.) Once I got to the Venezia check-in line, I was directed to the exceedingly-long late check-in line since we were now outside of our 30-minute window. And no, contrary to your alternative theory, the regular check-in line had not closed as people were still being directed to enter that line if they were within their window.

Give me an M Give me an S Give me a C What's that spell?! What's that spell?!! YAY Team!!!

Utter nonsense. If that were the case/reason, then why were they prohibited from even simply using their I-phones to take videos? And as for all of the MSC cheerleaders here proclaiming that other passengers complaining was most likely the cause of the ban, don't you think that MSC management would have at least mentioned that to the YouTubers when banning their filming? What's more likely...that they were banned from filming after MSC management learned about their previous negative reviews after specifically asking about their YT channel, or that they banned them after numerous passengers allegedly complained about their filming (according to the fertile imagination of some posters here) even though management didn't even bother to mention any of these alleged complaints? Occam's Razor, people.

Yes, probably close to 10, including two last year: Carnival Pride from Tampa to Barcelona in April & Celebrity Reflection from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale in October. And now this year in addition to the transatlantic on Glory in April, we're also doing a 25-night transpacific cruise on Panorama in October from Singapore to L.A.

Well, I can't address what "usually" happens, but in November, I booked a last-minute "free" 10-night cruise over Christmas (Dec 18-28) in an interior cabin on Venezia, and on the Friday before the Monday departure, I received an upgrade offer to a Terrazza category cabin at the rear of Deck 6 with an enormous wrap-around balcony. It was only $250/pp and I leapt at the opportunity.

We were in cabin 6501 with a wrap-around balcony this past Christmas and had no issues with noise whatsoever.

About 6 weeks ago. December 18th-28th on Venezia out of Manhattan.

That wasn't my experience at all on my 10-night Christmas cruise on Venezia. While I occasionally ordered the night before because my wife needed to oder her gluten-free items in advance, I normally just waited until the same evening to order off of the vegan menu. The only pushback I received (if you can call it that) was that I sometimes was told that it would take longer to receive my entree'. But I was never outright refused the option of ordering from the vegan menu for that same night.

That's not true. While institutions are not required to provide you with a 1099 form if the annual amount paid is under $10, the income itself is still taxable to the individual and required to be included as income on your 1040. In fact, everything from $1 and above (technically, all the way down to 50 cents and then rounded up) is required to be reported as income when filing your taxes.

Well, I don't know about "most" offers, but I'm certainly not going to complain about the one I received last month. We were booked in a standard inside cabin for our 10-night Christmas cruise on Venezia, and 3 days before the trip I received a phone call with an upgrade offer to a "terrazza" cabin on deck 6 with an absolutely enormous wrap-around balcony at the rear of the ship. And we enjoyed the terrazza benefits even more than the upgraded cabin and balcony itself. In fact, being able to relax and enjoy a relatively private continental breakfast each morning far from the madding crowd in the cordoned-off area of the Carnevale Bar & Lounge area at the rear of deck 5 was almost worth the $250pp upgrade charge itself.

Do you consider John Heald to be an official source? Because according to an article in TheStreet,com, he answered that specific question on his Facebook page. Here's a link to that article, which includes John's verbatim response that the limit does in fact apply to all passengers, whether on a Cheers package or not. Carnival Cruise Line Explains Controversial Beverage Policy - TheStreet

That just goes to show how everyone's tastes and experiences are different. We were on Venezia over Christmas and my wife and I both agreed that he was our least favorite CD in over 40 years of sailing. I found him to be extremely irritating and dreaded anytime he began making an announcement.

Fwiw, that's not the first voyage. I'll actually be on the first voyage, which is a transatlantic out of Barcelona on April 18th, and I'm not worried at all. If it will ease your concerns, I can report back during the cruise.