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I know they suspended the meets in the initial resumption after covid, but I’m curious as to which ships didn’t have hosts for the solo meet-ups? all my cruises have been on the bigger ships with plentiful studios and apart from the one I did a few months after the return from covid they all had solo hosts. there’s definitely been variance in the style of the hosts, one we had was training up a newbie and she clicked so well with the solos she stayed in contact with us through the week while the trainee was getting to grips with things. It has seemed to me that the solo hosting is a training run for staff with ambitions of being cruise directors in the future. I’ve also seen reviews online where the solo cruisers themselves were so “experienced “ and opinionated about how things should be done that they basically drove the host away along with a lot of the new solos. So much so I’m hoping and praying that those people never wind up on a cruise with me.

Person I prefer the spinners in case I have to walk a bit with the case, but I do not travel light and I know I’ll be buying some things that could be breakable. I do bring a duffle to use as an extra bag on my return if I know I’ll be doing a fair amount of shopping.

I’m curious have any European customers been given FCC for a price drop? Our t&cs have changed again to be final payment 30days before sailing (at least for a studio anyway). i don’t particularly want to do the cancel/rebook approach as the free at sea benefits and daily service charges have changed from when I originally booked. Also one of the cruise next credits I used was due to expire at the end of 2022 (a covid extended one) so I think it will disappear if I do a rebooking.

That’s new, the studios were previously excluded from the upgrade bid program. The only time I was offered an opportunity to bid was when I booked an inside cabin on the cheap just after the resumption. The next sailing I did I had booked a studio and was not offered any opportunity to bid on an upgrade.

AFAIK There are solo meet-ups scheduled on all the NCL ships, even on the ships with studio cabins they often schedule the daily meet-ups at a public venue so solos who aren’t in a studio cabin can attend. I’ve only been on the ships with studio cabins so far and the first meet-up on embarkation day was always scheduled for a public venue with the host often bringing the entire group to the studio lounge. There is often also a sign-up sheet at guest services on embarkation to register yourself as a solo so the coordinator knows if you’re outside the studio complex. On one cruise our coordinator sent everyone on that list chocolate covered strawberries. On some ships the coordinator is/was allowed to wedge open a door into the studio lounge for the daily meet-up but not always. If they’re not allowed to make the studio lounge accessible then the meet-up will be at a public venue. One one cruise I did they held it at the Sugarcane mojito bar every day. From what I’ve seen in the dailies from the smaller NCL ships the solos meet-up was listed though it did sometimes disappear later in the week (presumably due to lack of interest).

Been on 2 cruises since the restart, on the first I was fully vaxxed but hadn’t had to booster, on the second I’d also had the booster. Avoided covid both times. I did catch covid months later just before I was eligible for a second booster and it was not like a mild cold. It started like a cold but then turned to full on flu/bronchitis level misery for 3 days which then left me completely wiped out and I was testing positive for almost 2 weeks. However, on my very first cruise (long before covid) I was just after a respiratory virus which made my first excursion extremely limited as it was a snorkel excursion and I couldn’t swim any distance at all so had to stay next to the boat. But a further snorkel excursion late in the cruise I was fine. suffice to say my immune system does not react well to respiratory infections so my approach when travelling is to bring a full selection of any medication that might be required. After my experience with covid, a portable nebuliser will be added to my packing list if I won’t have had a recent vax booster.

I used the VPN in March on Epic to stream a rugby match from Ireland

25% of the price difference or 25% of the reduced fare ?

There is a Harrods outlet in the airport so if you're tight on time you might be better off waiting until the day you're flying home. At the moment there's a bunch of strikes around the uk with various unions looking for better conditions, 2 of which could definitely impact on your plan. Border agents and the rail union are both striking at random dates and locations, so the Border control could delay you getting out of the airport and then the rail would normally be the quickest way into the city and they're having strikes too.

yes, yes, yes... this would be fantastic. Heck, we know there's minimal changes to the schedule from sailing to sailing unless the ship is changing itinerary, it's why people look for copies from people who are currently on the ship. Just upload the defaults permanently and then advertise changes like when a new show cast comes aboard or a staff change causes changes. Imagine we could all plan our dining, show preferences and even excursion plans when we know which night the seafood is on in the Buffet or which night Six is most likely to be on and the times. Of course the idiot brigade would have a meltdown over any change from the very first version of the schedule. BTW in terms of potential money making for the Cruise lines they could approach places dealing with refugee crises like Ireland. There are so many asylum seekers and Ukranian refugees here some are in tents in the middle of winter !! The Irish government would probably quite happily hire a ship to house a few thousand until they get our national housing shortage fixed.

When it worked it was good but unfortunately when it doesn’t work it fails miserably and there’s no fixing it.

They went digital via the app when cruising first resumed but allowed people to request hard copies. There was obviously enough people asking for hard copies that they reverted to that. Their app needs a serious overhaul as does their website as both are horribly unstable. I’m a techie and couldn’t get the app to cooperate in giving me restaurant menus on one of my sailings no matter what I tried with a pretty common android phone. The need to improve the on-ship version of the app so it’s actually reliable and user friendly before they’ll convince everyone to go to the digital editions of the daily

if you go to Bushmills they now have a bunch of new blends, I like the honey one and I picked up a bottle of the rum cask aged whiskey just before Christmas. They were doing a promo of the honey blend when I was working at a sports event a few years ago and they were mixing it with apple juice and ginger ale. My local bar back home clued me into mixing with cidona (it’s an Irish apple soda made by the main cider manufacturer and looks exactly like it) .

That pricing is interesting. I booked before the 2022 FAS changes so I have 250mins free WiFi but the upgrade price to unlimited looks to be the same as it is for those with 150mins of free WiFi.

I know a few people who’ve had lengthy recoveries and one friend who has serious permanent damage. I was kinda surprised that I recovered as quickly as I did, after about a month I was back to normal. But a friend who’s far fitter than I and without asthma was feeling the effects for at least 3 months. both of us were fully vaxxed and boosted. Whereas another friend who was more severely asthmatic than I and working in a blood lab in the early days of the Irish outbreak in 2020 has permanent heart and lung damage and hasn’t been able to return to work.

There’s usually an offer leaflet in your cabin when you arrive or by the end of the next day. btw if you have the FAS promo on your booking you now get a 6 x 1lt cartons of Flow water included that will be delivered to your stateroom at embarkation. This was added to FAS for all sailings from the first of January regardless of when you booked.

There is usually an insert to the freestyle daily on day 5 or 6 and then another one delivered on day 7 (last full day) but on my last cruise in March I had to go hunting for the disembarkation baggage labels as there was no notice distributed.

there is an actual reason for not advertising that you’re away as if your home or business is broken into your insurance company may not pay out on the basis that you advertised your absence. I do join the Facebook groups but I do not post anything about my holiday on my personal page while I am away unless it’s for a good reason and even then I restrict those posts to family.

I’ve been on 2 cruises since the resumption, the first in Europe on Epic and the number of guests was something like 1500, the second was on Epic again but on the southern Caribbean itinerary when it was definitely busier but certainly not at full capacity. However on both of those itineraries some of the ports still had active covid restrictions in-place as did the airlines. I’ve been vaxxed and got my first booster after the European cruise so it was soon enough before the Caribbean cruise with the long haul flights that I was well protected. However Covid finally caught me in late October at home and I suffered badly for the first week of it as I’m asthmatic, the irony is about 5 days after I recovered I got the notification that I was eligible for the second booster but here you can’t get a booster until 4 months after having had the virus. I’ll be having a conversation with my doctor as to whether I should get the booster in March when I’m eligible for it or leave it to late summer so I’ll have better protection for the autumn and winter. BTW the hospitals here are getting hammered with heaps of patients suffering with Covid, Flu or RSV, it’s so bad the health authorities have issued advice telling folks to stay away from the emergency departments unless you have no other choice. This after they closed down the emergency departments in multiple smaller hospitals and general practitioners are decreasing in numbers through retirement and burnout and our population is at it’s highest since the potato famine genocide committed by the British. The Irish Public Health Service is an absolute disaster at this stage.

All of my cruises have been with NCL, originally because they are so highly rated for solo’s and after that because I enjoyed the cruises so much. I’ve hung out with folks in their early 20s through to folks in their 90s, there’s always been a wide variety of ages on the cruises I’ve done even though I don’t go at peak season. Yes there is resentment building about NCLs ever increasing prices along with shrinkflation in what you get for those prices. But in the current climate that is happening across multiple cruise lines and other industries too. I’m not a foodie but I am somewhat picky and weird in my food preferences but haven’t had to go off-menu at any restaurant on the ships and worst case I can always go to the buffet and grab a slice of pizza. I’m actually more warey of some of the high end lines for food options as going high end/fancy on food is less appealing to me. Heck I haven’t been to the steakhouse on NCL ships cos I simply don’t like steak.

On Jameson in Middleton I would say if you’ve ever done a whiskey or bourbon distillery tour anywhere else it won’t be very different. The only unique element is that they give you the option to try a range of mixers with the whiskey taster at the end. I’ve been to a couple of the bourbon distilleries in Kentucky as well as the Bacardi tour in San Juan and world of whiskys in Edinburgh. So if you’re debating between Jameson and something else bear that in mind.

For the killybegs stop I know a former park ranger who does guided walks. You’ll find him on Twitter and mastodon as well as his website https://www.cormacscoast.com/ He does both county Clare and county Donegal tours, if you follow him on Twitter you’ll see the unexpected incredible stuff he finds on his coastal walks. He used to be one of the rangers at the Cliffs of Moher in Clare but is originally from Donegal hence why he does both counties.

The handy thing with knowing French already is that it’ll be easier to understand Spanish and Italian than you might think. I did french in school, and a year of it as an elective in college, I’ve been to Italy a few times and the french lets me understand some of it, similarly for Portuguese and Spanish. I worked at so many surf contests in Portugal that I picked up a decent understanding so much so that the staff asked me to do something in Portuguese and I had done it before they realised they should have said it in English. I still can’t speak a word of it tho! Definitely invest in an EU sim with plenty of data allowance, google translate is your friend, you can download specific languages. You can also download google maps & directions to use off line there’s also another map app called maps.me that you can buy and download much larger maps for offline use.

Pinterest actually tends to have articles with recommendations of where to take photos and I’d suggest Flickr for seeing what sort of shots people capture and what kit & settings are used

They started doing latitudes pins after covid, I got them on Epic in February. the discounts on excursions and on-ship shopping are incremental but welcome when the costs of everything are constantly creeping ever upwards.