bruzin_for_a_cruizin

Oasis-class ships serve the sandwich in the Park Cafe. It's a staple there.

First time on NCL, and we will be on Prima in April 2023 (to Bermuda from NYC). Our last cruise was in Celebrity's Retreat, and we really enjoyed the quieter, more-exclusive sun deck. I'm assuming this is similar to that, and at less than CAD$600 for two, it seems like a good add-on to our Balcony stateroom. I was able to book it through the website just now.

Cozumel and Bonaire are my two favorite islands for diving (in my still-limited experience). Cozumel has beautiful reefs with some great drifts. Bonaire is all shore diving with tons of sealife over the reefs. Good luck finding a buddy for the 29th!

Dive Paradise is great. I've used them on my last two cruises to Cozumel. I would join you on this one, but you're in port a day earlier than I am! I've had luck posting to the Roll-Call threads in the past (in fact, I've met a dive buddy whom I will be diving with on a cruise again next year!), so you should be able to find someone. There's also a Cruising forum on Scubaboard, if you're a member there. You could post something there too... you might even catch a board member who just happens to be in Cozumel that week who will join you for the day.

I'm a regular cruiser with Royal/Celebrity, and we are booked for our first cruise with NCL on the Prima in April 2023. This trip is all a bunch of "new" stuff for us, aside from a new cruiseline: cruising out of NYC, staying overnight in port for multiple days, using the cruiseline's air program... We are coming from Toronto, so I figured it would be hard to screw up a route with something like 20 direct flights available every day and 1.5 hours gate-to-gate. But then I've been reading how so many people have been routed on crazy connecting flights and have missed connections or lost luggage. It's an insanely cheap add-on -- with the promo, it was only CAD$225 for two people return -- so I'm reluctant to cancel that feature and book direct. I'd be looking at flights around CAD$1000 booked separately. How does NCL offer this service and seemingly execute so poorly? Should I cancel and rebook? Am I just being neurotic and giving too much credence to the horror stories on CruiseCritic? Airports will have to be better by April, won't they?

How sad that's a calculation we all have to make now when planning travel. I don't anticipate much improvement in the status quo until at least this season next year, if ever at all. In the pursuit of profits, human decency and customer service are brutal casualties.

Can you elucidate for us investing n00bs who really only a few shares for the OBC? What I take from this is that all three major cruise lines took on a ton of debt in the past year to... stay afloat (sorry for the pun!). I presume that is anathema to future profits? Even though the 2023 number appears to be much smaller and more manageable?

IIRC -- and it's been a few years since we paid for the inflatables -- it's a timed event. So, you show up early to get your lifejacket and the safety briefing, then they walk everyone out on the dock and you go in on the hour. After your hour, they pull everyone out and let in the next group. An hour was plenty time. Those inflatables are huge, and just climbing onto one was enough exertion for me!

I don't think we'll see acquisitions within the industry. The ships and the USPs are too divergent between cruise lines. We may see a venture/vulture capital firm swoop in and buy a company. With the stock prices at near-all-time lows, that is indeed a possibility. But, I don't see that happening either. Cruising isn't a business you can acquire, make a bunch of cuts to improve profitability, and turnaround for resale quickly. I just think we're going to see low stock prices for a little while longer. I anticipate it'll take until the end of 2023 for things (labour shortages/wages/supply chain/FCC/etc) to settle down. I'm holding on to my shares in RCL at $79. I might buy some more if it dips below $30 to DCA my position. Of course, nobody should listen to me. I'm terrible with money and make poor choices all the time. I'm just chiming in with my opinion on something I really know nothing about. Ain't Cruise Critic great??!!

Are you me? LOL! I love the Black Friday sale. It's usually the best of the year, and last year (given the circumstances) the deals were particularly strong. I picked up the $50 water park passes, the $58 DVP, and a couple excursions at strong discounts. Of course, this doesn't help anyone who is traveling before then, but it does give some hope for those traveling in December or beyond.

We did this "excursion" back in November. It is quite hokey, but once you get through all the explanation stuff, the massages were quite nice, if short. I especially enjoyed the hammock massage. That said, I wouldn't do it again, nor would I give it a "must-do" recommendation.

I'm long on 200 shares at an avg. cost of $79. I'm tempted to transfer some more cash to my trading account to buy up more and DCA down, but I just know if I do that, the stock will drop even lower!

I was in Vancouver just last week, and needed a rapid antigen test to get into the United States. I got mine at the Parq resort right downtown. It was CAD$70, IIRC.

Love this. You have encapsulated my feelings on the subject perfectly. It comes down to Respect. Respect for the rules, respect for others and respect for self. It seems in the last 5 or 10 years, that has been in extremely short supply. I pack a couple pairs of long pants for each cruise. I only wear them during dinner, and often change right back into shorts immediately after. Respect.

My wife has a very limited palate, akin to a 6-year-old: plain pasta, cheese pizza, chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese... On our last cruise, she had the same thing every night: onion soup and ceasar salad. For 7 nights. My point here is, the staff will accommodate your dietary requirements. Don't worry about it.

Quite simply, when the pandemic hit, industries literally shut down for months/years. Staff were furloughed. Now, two years later, and things are opening up at a fast pace and personel have moved on to other jobs or even other industries entirely. I read a piece the other day about the airline industry. It suggested that many airlines offered early retirement to much of their pilot roster, and now that travel demand has increased, there is a dire shortage of qualified commercial pilots (one can't just learn how to fly a Cessna and then jump on the stick of a 400-seat 747). There really is no point in complaining about it... it is what it is, and it will be this way for the next few years until things level off again and people find their places again.

I have a booking in a Sky Suite on Edge in November. The only Retreat booking available now is for the Villa suite at more than 2x what I paid! Sounds like The Retreat amenities are really resonating with customers!

We're booked on that same itinerary for April, albeit just in a Balcony. It's our first cruise with NCL, so I'm keen on seeing how they differ from RCL/X. I do like the idea of moving more of the ship outwards, unlike the Oasis-class ships which are very inwards-looking. This is the most-expensive cruise I've got booked, looking at it per-person, per-night, including OBC, but as a new ship, I'm okay with paying a bit of a premium.

No decorations, but I will leave my dive gear out there to "dry" out between port dive stops (usually just overnight), and my wife and I will clip wet bathing suits to the chairs to get some of the dampness out. With the Caribbean humidity, nothing really dries dry, but it is really lousy to put on a still damp wetsuit...

For me and my wife, the premium upgrade is totally worth it. I just fold the expected cost into my budgeting for the cruise price. I completely understand the supply chain issues. Running any business in 2022 is a challenge, as ingredient supplies and logistics capacities are strained to their limits. In the wine & spirit business, there have been challenges for some producers to get the glass required to make their bottles, causing product shortages! We often don't think of the complexity of modern supply chain. It's quite astounding when you drill right down to it. All that said... I believe the cruise lines are doing their customers a disservice by not making accommodations, either by offering more-equitable substitutions or lowering the cost of the Premium upgrade. It is, IMO, disingenuous to cry "supply chain issues, sorry" and then increase the price of the upgrade.

How low can RCL go? I have some cash in my trading account waiting to buy so I can dollar-cost-average my holding down from $91/share. We are already at the 52-week low ($59.82)...