timf2001

Putting Laser Tag in place of Spice H20 on Encore was a mistake from the start.  I'm glad they are fixing that mistake.

The Vegan restaurant is a stand in Indulge, not a full-service restaurant.  The Thai restaurant replaces Food Republic.  A few of the restaurants and bars have shuffled locations, but are largely the same as on Prima and Viva.

RoyalUp appeared on my reservation page 75 days prior to sailing.  I never received any other notifications.

Whether or not there are cabins still for sale should not affect whether or not you get an offer.  They regularly take bids on sold out cabins.  Booking via a travel agent that does not participate in the program is the most likely reason you wouldn't see it.

It is too early since you are still over a year from sailing.  There should be more excursions added as the date gets closer.

St. Kitts added a second dock a few years ago, which makes tendering much less likely.

In my experience, the 3 night dining package never goes on sale below the standard 20% off.  They recently changed from gratuities added at checkout to gratuities included, but the total price stayed essentially the same.  It's best to lock it in as soon as you can as it can sell out or the price could increase.

I sailed in both an Edge Villa on Celebrity and Yacht Club Duplex on MSC in the past year.  Crowding outside of the Yacht Club on MSC was a serious concern.  It's hard to do a fair comparison though since my Celebrity sailing was well below capacity.  Celebrity is clearly the more upscale experience, from the decor and furnishings around the ship to the quality of the entertainment and excursions.  However, the Yacht Club service was every bit as good, and the private areas had better offerings.  I certainly can't complain when it cost half of what Celebrity did.

7 hours ago, GeorgiaGirl14 said:

66Olds442 if you, or someone else, could investigate while you are on board, if there will indeed be no pool or hot tubs, I would really appreciate it. My hubby recently had surgery and a hot tub might work for him when we are scheduled.  However, standing under a water feature probably would not.

I would just take advantage of the free hot tub in Spice H2O.  Adding pools or spas to the thermal suite would require significant structural work, which is why they are going with water features and extra heated loungers instead.

11 hours ago, Becky Brown said:

I'm sorry.  I typed the wrong room number.  We are in 10190.

 

10190 is even farther from the slides than 10910.  They will not be an issue.

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Doubt it.  Her bottom survey is not due until Oct 2024.

This is exactly why there is a dry dock scheduled for November 2024.

I would not be concerned about being on the first cruise after this, as it should be mostly technical work with nothing major on customer-facing areas.

In the future, you definitely want to sign up for Move Up as early as possible.  My last accepted bid was awarded a full 30 days before sailing.

2 minutes ago, zqvol said:

You need to call and have all of the accounts merged. 

You shouldn't need to merge the accounts if no points were ever credited to it.  Once you switch to the proper number, the new number just gets abandoned.

You don't need to call.  All you need to do is log into the person's Latitudes account who was assigned a new number and search for the reservation.  It will then link the reservation to their proper Latitudes number.

13 minutes ago, Slyfox16 said:

Are Onda and Paloma part of the 3 night dining package and what would that include? Does Prima have the Texas Smokehouse or Churrascoria on it?

No Moderno, and Q is part of the food hall rather than a specialty restaurant.

The Black Friday sale seems to only touch lunches and Unlimited Dining.  The C&A discount they had a couple weeks ago on individual dinner reservations is better than what is offered now.  I too have never seen the minor dining package (3 day in the case of my reservation) ever go on sale below the standard pre-cruise discount.

I noticed the "base price" of the drink package just went up $5 for the first time since I've been watching it, probably so they can offer a bigger "discount" for Black Friday and still net out about the same.

Historically NCL has never run sales on pre-cruise purchases.  The price is unlikely to ever go down from what it is now.

The big advantage to this would be if you lock in the drink package price but don't have to pay for it until final payment.  It also looks like they may be offering 30% off at the time of booking, which would be as good as the best Cruise Planner sales.

10 hours ago, lgbeddow said:

 There will be no open casinos while docked, and there is very little to do there. It will also be damp and cold.

Did you even look at the weather forecast?  It's showing sunny and low to mid 70s from Sunday to Tuesday.  You will be fine.

18 hours ago, karinad said:

We're considering the week after Thanksgiving on the Getaway. Will it be decorated for the holidays?

I sailed on Getaway the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we did not have decorations.  They started setting them up as we were disembarking.

No, the pre-cruise prices never go on sale with NCL.

I opted not to upgrade my internet and never had any issues browsing, but it was nearly impossible to get photos to send via iMessage.  The speed test results looked promising, at about 40 Mbps up and down, but something else must have been restricting access.  There was even a 24 hour period where the service switched over to Starlink which I did not expect (probably due to coverage issues in the fjords), but once out to sea again it went back to the normal service.

I never had any dining packages appear in the pre-cruise planner, but they were available to book via the app once on board.

I just got back from a cruise on MSC to Norway since I could do Yacht Club for less than a normal balcony cabin on Prima.  The dining room, entertainment and ship decor is definitely sub-par to NCL, and the ship felt very crowded outside the YC areas.  However, the service within YC felt as good or better than what you get in The Haven and the stateroom was comfortable.  I would consider another MSC cruise if the price were right, but probably only from a domestic port.

I never heard any noise from neighboring cabins, but there was one major noise annoyance in the cabin.  When the seas picked up, the glass door to the master bathroom started sliding open and closed repeatedly in the middle of the night.  This was easily remedied by wedging a towel in the door, which then stayed open for the rest of the cruise.  This was on Edge, so hopefully they added a latch to the door on newer builds as it would be a proper permanent remedy.  Other than this, the room was great and the location was very convenient to all the Retreat amenities.