BirdTravels

NCL is implementing the policies as agreed by the counties they call at. A lot of the employees on GSC come from Harbor Cay and other islands in the Bahamas. If the cruise ships start causing COVID outbreaks, the county’s policies wrt to the private island may change. The policies for cancellation during the pandemic have not changed in a long while. NCL follows the policies. Lots of people as “what if” or speculate what the cruise line will do. Read the policy.

It is impossible to tell when you will be off the ship and when to order an Uber. You will either be waiting around for them, or they would have left and charged you for a no show.

Waiter, assistant waiters, busboys, cooks, assistant cooks, dish washers, cleaners…..

In our group, a couple of people found a wine they liked and just kept having the wine stewards serve more “sample” pours.

Once general boarding starts, people board as fast as they can get up the gangway. By noon, the initial group will be onboard making show reservations, dining reservations, and having lunch (oh yeah,,,, enjoying their beverage package). Once you get through the long line outside for security and check in, you can walk right onboard. Personally, we hate standing in line. To us, that is really aggravating and hard on our old knees. We rather breeze through security and checkin early, and sit in the terminal and read the morning paper.

Pretty much. It used to be better in the old days when everything was a cover charge (not a la carte) and you got charged for a no show. It reduced the number of “just in case we’re hungry” reservations and allowed more people to enjoy specialty dining. It was also nice when the UPD was unlimited dining.

Many don’t want to pay for laundry service on the ship. Only upper Latitudes tier and club suites get a free bag of laundry.

The Prima has only sailed once. Not sure that you could collect substantiating metrics from a single voyage.

Have a great dinner. The best part…. It’s free! Most waiters will enforce the one appetizer, one entree, two sides (Cagney’s), and one dessert rule. We normally order a second appetizer and charge it to the room.

Too many variables to book a specific time. Our last cruise had 35 Cuban refugees that we picked up from their sinking boat off the coast of Cuba. We disembarked on time. Our cruise in April had people who missed the ship in Miami and joined two days later. That cruise delayed disembarkation by 45 minutes for immigrations and customs to clear the the late joining people first, before the other 4000 people who got to the ship on time.

There is no way to know when you will be on the curb. Just book the Uber once you are outside. Uber or Lyft will give you an estimated time (usually less than 10 minutes).

Technically per stateroom. But there is zero way for the shoreside rent-a-cops at security to say two people carrying water are in the same room. That being said, 12 bottles of water is really heavy to be carrying theough security, through checkin, theough boarding, through lunch until your room is ready. We just bite the bullet and pay for water on the ship.

We use a 1 device plan for 4 phone (2 personal and 2 work), one laptop, and one iPad. We don’t need to be on continually. We try to disconnect a bit. When you exceed the maximum device count, you are allowed to bump someone stelae off the network.

The time you select at checkin (21 days prior to departure) is the time to arrive at the terminal. early times “sell out” quickly, so log on exactly 21 days prior to departure (12 midnight NCL time - Eastern Time) for the best selection. Times normally start around 9:30. And there will always be lines. General boarding starts around 11:30, so once you get through security and check-in, you will be hanging out in the waiting area until boarding is called.

You make a reservation at Cagney/Le Bostro (with a bottle of wine) and a reservation at one of the other restaurants based on the ship. At the time of dining, you tell the hostess that you are going to use your platinum voucher. The Platinum vouchers are a dinner for two. You can take hubby to dinner! And don’t forget you get a free bag of laundry also. Front of Voucher Back of Voucher

Call NCL general reservation number to cancel. That way, you’re not blocking that time for any other dinner or show reservations. And your fellow passengers will be happy if a table opens up. (It would be selfish to hold a table that you’re not going to use because you are too lazy to cancel it).

The Oasis has been recently in dry dock, so it is refreshed/amped. Personally, I would go for the newer ship. Here’s some of my live impressions from the wonder earlier this year

Our last suites upgrade in June was 1 week to departure.

They are the rates at the instant that the poster pulled them. Pricing will vary.

It will be a lot faster to use a ship transfer. Tell them your flight is at 1 pm. You add 60+ minutes fussing with car rentals. We used to always use Go Port Canaveral. They used to be cheap, fast, and efficient. They nearly doubled their price after the restart (now $30).

Breakaway Embarkation Day

The vibe has been good. And there are things that hide the fact that the ship is a light load. Like they put out fewer loungers around the pool, so it feels more “normal”/crowded (I.e., not a lot of empty loungers).

True, but on all of post restart cruises, the waiters did not care about the $35 limit. They only cared about items with an up-charge,,,, and charged you the up-charge regardless of the difference in cost between $35 and the retail price of the item.

So it is not all US cruises. It depends on where you are cruising and your vaccination status. All passengers still need to test if you are going to Canada or Bermuda (Bermuda, Alaska, New England/ Canada cruises). Unvaccinated passengers need to test for other ports like the Bahamas. Please check out https://www.ncl.com/travel-requirements-by-country

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