bookbabe

You won’t see the “discount” come off until to apply the coupon on the payment screen.

@limu1 Ahh…your previous cruise was Disney. That explains it. Disney as a whole (parks, ships, resorts) is one of the most allergy-conscious entities out there. They follow very strict allergy guidelines, and err on the side of caution in every situation. If you say you have a nut allergy, they will not serve you anything that could have even briefly encountered a nut during the prep process. 😉 I have a fish allergy, and we were eating at Ohana at WDW, which doesn’t have any fish on the menu at all. However, I’d identified that I had an allergy, so the servers wouldn’t even bring me so much as a glass of water until the chef had been by to discuss my options. But the parents of extremely anaphylactic kids I know love vacationing with Disney since they can somewhat let their guard down and relax a bit, knowing that their child is going to have a safe dinner. NCL is a bit more mellow about allergies. They’ll help you with ingredient lists and making safe choices, they’ll let you preorder meals if you need special preparation of your food, they’ll make off menu items if needed. If the allergy is mild enough that you aren’t worried about cross-contamination, you’ll likely be fine and won’t encounter any of the issues you had on DCL.

Our last few cruises in the Haven, on embarkation there was a spa rep set up at a table in the lounge beside the concierge desk and bar. She had flyers of all the offerings, and I’m pretty sure she was taking bookings.

I did a mock booking for the cruise, thinking we might do it if the deal was right. The coupon saved me $1 - and that was Canadian funds. They even showed it as a line item in the price summary, like they were proud of the savings or something. 🙂 Thinking there must be a glitch.

We’ve stayed in both a Haven 2 bdrm and a Haven aft penthouse with large balcony on the Encore. (Btw, if you are lucky enough to have Rao as your butler, you’ll have a great trip, he’s awesome.) The 2 bdrm is nice, and having the extra bed/bath is good even if you’re only a couple. Very good for naps and an extra bathroom makes DH very happy. However, the balcony is small, even on the large balcony version. It’s nice being inside the Haven for access to the amenities, but coming/going to and from the rest of the ship isn’t as easy since you have to navigate through the lounge and/or down narrow hallways. It really depends how much time you plan to spend actually in the Haven complex. We really liked the Aft penthouse. Huge balcony with loungers, which is our absolute favourite place to hang out in sea days and warm evenings. Still has the separate main bedroom and a second bathroom, just no extra nap room. It’s not a bad trek to the Haven complex, easiest is up to deck 17 and go across outside. We only ever go there to hit the pool maybe once or twice a cruise, and for maybe a third to a half of the meals, so for us the aft penthouse is just a better fit. We haven’t done a courtyard penthouse, but they’re really just regular balcony cabins but inside the Haven complex. Meh. For anything longer than a couple days, DH and I need more space than that, at least if we don’t want to drive each other nuts. Overall, it really depends on how you will use the various spaces.

https://www.caymangoodtaste.com/restaurants/cayman-cabana

Curious as to how many were sick and needed hospitalization as opposed to being asymptomatic with a positive test result?

Tagging on to this thread, since it’s the same topic. We have another Viking cruise booked which will have its final payment date shortly after we return from our February West Indies Explorer. Our Viking rep said to contact him after we get back and he’ll apply the past guest discount. Is there anything in the way of OBC or additional discounts that meeting with the onboard rep could generate?

We have this cruise booked for next September. It ran this August as well, and there’s a roll call where you might pose some of your questions to the folks who just took it. They could likely provide some answers. https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/multi-region/in-the-wake-of-vikings/index.html https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2777203-viking-star-23-august-2022-in-the-wake-of-the-vikings/

What’s your issue with Flow? The packaging or the water itself? I drink water as my preferred beverage about 99% of the time. Flow tastes fine, it’s regular bottled water, just in a carton instead of a bottle. It’s on par with any of the mass market bottled waters out there. You can buy it by the carton at bars, or get a pre-ordered package for the cabin. You don’t have to get a drink package to buy it. The price is reasonable compared to buying a drink package. i think ‘fancy’ bottled waters like Evian are also available by the bottle at bars, but I don’t generally drink them so I’ve never tried. Tap water and water from dispensers in restaurants and the buffet is perfectly fine to drink as well. It’s produced by the ship in most cases, it’s not bottled water, but it’s been fine on all my cruises. A refillable bottle with a built in filter would likely serve your purpose.

What kind of sense of humour does your godson have? Could Mr M “get up to no good” on one of the days? I know my nephew would have loved pics of his stuffies gambling, drinking, eating too much junk food, etc when he was that age. 😉 Or maybe my nephew is just weird…

LOL. That’s an inspiring thought. I’ve got some pretty creative ideas about the perfect cruise ship…

As an FYI, it is socially acceptable these days for teens to wear pj bottoms and a crop top to school, the movies, the mall…pretty much anywhere. As a high school teacher, I’ve seen every fashion statement you can imagine and then some. I’ve learned to focus on their behaviour and not their wardrobe. Trying to be the Fashion Police is futile, frustrating and unrewarding. So maybe the pj-wearing buffet goers are simply copying their grandkids’ fashions…? 😉 In all seriousness, though, this thread is making DH and I a little nervous for our upcoming West Indies Explorer cruise. I’m pretty sure our wardrobe choices won’t live up to others’ expectations. Ah well…

LOL. You obviously aren’t a high school teacher. The quiet ones are generally the ones to watch, they’re planning something… In all seriousness, though, those of us who are teachers are ALWAYS aware of the presence of kids or teens in an area, even if they are just sitting quietly. It’s an occupational hazard, your mindset and behaviour changes when there are “students” around, even if they aren’t technically your responsibility. You get used to it.

The Pearson T3 US departures has a Nexus line which feeds directly into US immigration. It’s always there, it’s just hard to see since it’s around the corner from the main entry, past the bathrooms. There was a stretch when travel was limited where it wasn’t open all the time, but now that numbers are back up it’s been open every time we’ve flown. There was a separate Priority line for premium seats, business, first class and airline status holders, but it’s often not is use. T3 Canadian/International departures share two separate security lines, the highly visible one in the middle of the terminal and one hidden around the corner at the far left end, and there’s technically a separate Nexus line, but it’s often merged with Priority so it can be backed up sometimes. It almost always saves time over the regular line if it’s at all busy.

Look for ones stopping at the Kittiwake, it’s a wreck snorkel/dive that isn’t in a location that would make stopping at Stingray City easy. Or look for snorkel excursions in East End, those wouldn’t stop there either.

Jewel was in the process of switching over last week. One of our travel group is a Mt Dew junkie, and getting it was easy at the beginning of the week and tougher near the end. Some bars still had a few cans of Pepsi products left, but fountain drinks seemed to all be Coke products everywhere we checked by the last days.

On the flip side, we flew YYZ to LAX yesterday with Westjet at 10:30am. Arrived at the T3 parking garage a few minutes before 8am, DH and I have Nexus but a travel companion didn't. A bit of a line for security in both Nexus and regular but it moved quickly. No real lines at the US immigration section. We were in the lounge line by 8:15, our friend was there by about 8:20 or so. The lounge was packed full with a non-moving line, however. After 15 min in line we gave up. The restaurant was full too, and Starbucks was insane. T3 US departures is the absolute worst for lounge access and food availability.

The info you seek is highlighted in the other threads in this forum. Lots of good posts about beaches and tours.

Depending on the time of year, Cayman time is often one hour earlier than ship time since they don’t do daylight savings.

It didn’t charge you for the fixed charge places because it thinks you are using your FAS for those, and it didn’t charge you for the a la carte places because it doesn’t know what you are eating yet. I have an upcoming cruise where I have no FAS dinners, just my platinum ones, and I couldn’t book Moderna unless I paid for it up front, and they wanted to charge me for a party of 4 because they don’t have any advance reservations for three, so I skipped making the reservation and will just book on board. Tried online and by phone. Same result either way.

If you search on YouTube, there are tons of cabin walk-through videos. Just search NCL Encore and a couple words of the cabin name…ie, NCL Encore Haven 2 bedroom…and you should find them. There’s a travel agent that has done a ton of great videos of most cabins on Encore in particular. He’s also got a Haven walkthrough so you can see what the complex looks like. I find his videos really useful, wish we could post links here but it’s against the board rules.

Emailed the form and a screenshot of our holdings page from the website on Friday, email and OBC confirmation in my email this morning. FYI, make sure the date and your name shows on the screenshot as well as the stocks. Had it sent back for a redo last year because no date showed.

We did Alaska on the Encore in May and it was great. Glacier Bay especially is a must-do.

Info on the caves themselves is here - https://www.caymancrystalcaves.com Nice enough attraction if you’re into caves. Kaibo is a beach restaurant in the Cayman Kai (Rum Point) area. https://www.kaibo.ky I used to be a bigger fan of their food before they got all poshy. Nice place as far as atmosphere goes. Starfish Point is a spot near the Kaibo where you can often (but not always) see starfish in the water. Okay beach, shallow water. if you put the various spots into google maps you can get a good idea of where they are in relation to the port and to each other. The only way to get to the caves is by land, and they mention Kaibo lounge time post-caves, and there’s a no-caves option, so I’m assuming that they take you by boat to Stingray City and then Starfish Point first, then dock at Kaibo. They must have a shuttle parked there to run you to the caves and back, about 15-20 min each way maybe? And then by boat back to town and then a shuttle to the ship. Knowing the distances, that seems to make the most sense. Driving to Kaibo and the caves from town would take much longer, about 45-60 min each way, and since starfish point is about a 2 min boat ride from Kaibo, I can’t see them lugging you into town to come all the way back out to the caves. That just seems weird. If they didn’t mention going to the Kaibo after the caves, then maybe they’d be doing the cave part separately by land, but there’s no way they’re driving by land all the way to the Kaibo if they took you to Starfish Point by boat. If the various stops are of interest, then it looks like a decent tour. Captain Marvin’s has a pretty good reputation, lots of good reviews of them online. (I’ve been to the spots DIY, just not on an excursion.)