The Traveling Man

We were on the Getaway in 2022 and only wanted to take the first three days of a ten day cruise. We boarded in Southampton and left in Amsterdam instead of continuing to Copenhagen. Since The Netherlands and Denmark are both EU / Schengen countries, our circumstances may have been a bit less complex than @Airbear232's desire to skip from England to Belgium.

We did something similar while traveling on the Getaway a couple of years ago. We contacted NCL Senior VP for Guest Services Katty Byrd (kbyrd@ncl.com). She made all the arrangements for us with the appropriate immigration / customs offices. Our circumstances were a bit different than yours, so your request may prove a bit more difficult. I still would recommend that you contact Ms. Byrd for assistance.

Actually, it means a lot. First, the label on the original pill bottle lists the name of the person for whom the medication is prescribed. Next, it gives emergency medical personnel or an investigator the name of the doctor who prescribed the medication and the name of the pharmacy that filled the prescription. Many pill bottle labels also describe the shape, color, and any distinctive markings on the pills. Even if the physical description of the pill is not on the label, there are pharmaceutical catalogs which describe the pills. Each of these techniques can be used in attempts to verify that the pills are yours and that you haven't removed the prescribed pills and replaced them with something else. If you become ill or injured and need to spend time in a hospital, the staff will want to know any medications you are taking. In many cases they will allow you to use the pills you brought with you only if they are still in their original bottle. If you have transferred them to a daily pill organizer, they most likely will insist on contacting your doctor to confirm your prescription and provide pills from the hospital pharmacy. Regardless of this, I also usually place my pills in a pill organizer, hoping that I never have to go to a hospital while on vacation, but realizing that if I do, I'll have to go through the rigamarole to have the hospital provide my medications instead of taking the pills I brought with me.

The White Pass & Yukon Railway offers three different excursions. NCL regularly lists two of them, plus NCL also packages other tours with the train ride for a greater variety of options. We have taken each of the three tours on the WP&Y and have really enjoyed them all, but then again, I'm an avowed "train nut" or more properly a rail fan.

Late October is the peak time for Fall foliage color. It can be worth it to risk a bit of inclement weather to view the beauty of nature at its best.

As others have suggested, Victoria is deserving of more of your vacation time than the brief stopover that foreign flagged cruise ships must perform in order to comply with the U.S. Passenger Vessel Service Act (PVSA). An alternative might be to book an Alaska cruise which either sails from or to Vancouver. That way you can spend a few days in Vancouver or on Vancouver Island (or both). You also may want to venture into Alaska's interior in addition to sailing along the state's Southeast Panhandle. You could visit Anchorage, explore Denali Park, and travel the scenic Alaska Railroad at one end of your cruise, then visit Butchart Gardens, have tea at the Empress, or explore Vancouver's Gastown at the other end of your cruise.

It obviously is a matter of personal preference and depends heavily on where your interests may lie. For me, Bermuda is a "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" kind of place. It's a nice place to visit, but it simply doesn't tug at my heartstrings and beckon me to return. I've taken a half-dozen cruises to Canada / New England and have a B2B booked there for this Autumn. We also flew or drove there several other times. I doubt that I will ever tire of visiting there, especially in October when the Fall foliage colors are at their most radiant. YMMV.

Le Bistro has several seafood items on the menu. We really like the Dover sole. I think they may have dropped the scallops appetizer recently, though. If you're willing to pay the surcharge, the lobster Thermidor is quite nice. In Cagney's, my wife usually selects the grilled fisherman's platter. I also have tried it a few times and it's quite good. They sometimes char the shrimp and scallops a bit too much for my taste, but overall I would recommend it.

And that produces a ratio of 1.15151515151515... And that results in a ratio of 1.15077945075 miles to the knot. Where will it all end?

Perhaps Leonardo and Kate could explain it if their hearts could go on.

That would produce a ratio of 1.150780303 to 1.

I also prefer little to no garlic, so when they come around at the beginning of the meal to take drink orders, I ask for no garlic with my food. The chef then sets aside a portion of the rice and prepares mine first, without garlic. He then adds garlic (and perhaps other seasonings) and prepares the rest of the rice for everyone else.

The thread which currently appears just above yours on this forum was posted by @jjesq99 who stated that he or she was booked on the Encore for the first week of July. You might try asking them or checking the CC roll calls for recent sailings of the Encore.

Unfortunately there have been some recent reports on Cruise Critic of passengers with "Guaranteed" staterooms being bumped at the pier. I never have seen this happen, but it has been reported on this forum, so I suppose it is possible. If it is true, then "guarantee" really is not a guarantee. We have received notification of our stateroom number as late as 24 hours prior to departure time, so let's hope it works out for you. In any case, you probably should not expect your two staterooms to be adjacent or even close to each other.

Bazinga !!!

I agree with you, Mike. While the seafood in Teppanyaki is still very good, the "show" is a "been there, done that" experience for us. The salad bar in Moderno is still a real winner, but the meat offerings are no longer very appealing. Many are either bland or overcooked. La Cucina can be hit or miss, but we usually are able to find something appealing. In fact, the best steak I ever had on an NCL ship was in La Cucina on the Epic a couple of years ago. James

When they initially added this benefit to the Latitudes Program in February 2022, it was stated that it would expire one year after the guest reached the Diamond status. NCL has announced since then that there is no expiration date on this. I suppose the implied deadline, though, is that it must be used before you graduate to Ambassador status.

I suppose you could ask your neighbor's 12 year-old grand kid to explain it. 😃

Be sure to try the food court for dinner. It's not just for breakfast and lunch. On another note, I know you avoid using the shift key whenever possible, but if you want to "knock on someone's door" on Cruise Critic, so to speak, using the "at sign" and spelling the first few letters of their user name will bring up a list of all the similar names registered on CC. Just scroll and click, then @complawyer will pop up in a blue bubble. That will send them an alert so you don't have to wonder if they got your message. Try it. Hope that helps.

Once you have cruised enough times with NCL to reach the Platinum level in the Latitudes Program, the Behind the Scenes Tour is offered at no charge. The free tour is not quite as extensive as the pay-to-play tour, as the bridge and engine control room usually are not included. Overall, though, it's hard to beat the price of the Latitudes version of the BTS Tour.

The bar was set rather low for this one.

On a short cruise, the menu in the Haven restaurant may be sufficient to provide a variety of menu selections. On longer cruises, though, the variety of specialty restaurants can be a welcome change of pace. My personal preferences are Le Bistro and Cagney's. YMMV. Unfortunately, however, NCL rules don't allow transference of Latitudes or FAS dining benefits.

You might try posting this on the Cruise Critic roll call for your cruise. Frequently you can find info on bar crawls, sail away parties, slot pulls, cabin crawls, or other activities.

Thank you all for your comments. Based on your input and after spending some more time studying the deck plans and other info on these three ships, we have decided to go with the Ascent. We really enjoy the design and flow of the Edge ships. We might like the ships even more if more of the rooms had actual balconies, but the Infinite Veranda staterooms work just fine for us.

My wife and I are planning a two-week Transatlantic cruise for next Spring from Florida to Europe. We have spotted three different cruises on Celebrity that catch our eye. We have sailed on almost 50 cruises with a half dozen different cruise lines, but our only experience with Celebrity is on the Edge class ships. We love them and have sailed on all four. We might like to try one of Celebrity's other ships, though, and would appreciate any thoughts or recommendations on the Ascent, Constellation, and Equinox.