hallux

Available Ubers are roaming near the port.  I ordered one at 11 AM on a Bliss disembarkation day and got a driver within minutes and if it wasn't for a traffic snarl because of a family trying to fit 10lbs of stuff in a 5lb bag (the guy had to call in a buddy to get the overflow, security/traffic control were NOT happy) I would have been in the car within 10 minutes or so.  Getting off the ship was a whole other story, but I was also on a bigger ship.

8 hours ago, ngrund said:

really no reason to close/cancel it-there is no annual fee

In fact - some say it's detrimental to you to close or cancel the account rather than leave it dormant and let the issuer close it after a period of inactivity.

10 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

But now you have me thinking (dangerous, I know). How exactly do you apply the points to an NCL reservation to get the upgrade? What's the process like? Do you get to pick your cabin? (Location is very important to us)...

Quite valid considerations.  I'm not sure but I may find out soon enough as I found a trip quite interesting to me and I can book an OV cabin to then upgrade to a balcony.

7 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

The big danger of a branded credit card like the NCL card is the temptation to spend more to get more points.  You wind up justifying additional spending because of the points.

I spend no more than I would normally, I just put as much of what I do spend on THAT card.  It's my default for tap-to-pay on my phone.

3 minutes ago, FranciscoFamily said:

 I was looking at it again last night and thinking about it this way, lol!  I think we might do it!

Unless you plan on sailing NCL again, that would be fine.  If you ever plan to sail NCL again, you're leaving points on the table by redeeming the bonus strictly for OBC.  Plus - the OBC is in, I think, $50 increments, you won't redeem the full 21,000 points for OBC, you'd need 25,000 for $250 of OBC.

Before you ask - that OBC can NOT be used for CruiseNext purchase.

13 hours ago, stinkyharriet said:

I think it replaced the Illusionarium.

Looking at the deck plans, the Illusionarium is in the same location Q is on the ships that have Q.  On the bright side, for those that liked the Broadway event in that venue, I've seen similar in Q on another ship so it may come there as well.  Q on the ships that have had it as a full specialty restaurant also have a stage in there.

13 hours ago, FranciscoFamily said:

and no incentive to use it as onboard credit then it may not be worth it.

You're right, there is no incentive to use it as OBC.  Actually, there is if your sole purpose is to get the credit for a single cruise.  The sign up bonus is your incentive - get the card, spend the required amount to get the bonus, request that your points be applied to OBC for your cruise.  Your $1,000 spend to get the bonus gets you points worth $20,000 of spending on non-NCL purchases.

If they told you something that counters this section of the guest conduct policy they may want to review it -

The minimum drinking age for all alcoholic beverages on Norwegian Cruise Line ships is 21. Guests who are 18 - 20 years of age can purchase and consume beer or wine when the ship is in international waters (3 miles out of US territorial waters). The age modification does not apply for Alaska and Hawaii sailings. The parent or legal guardian must be onboard the sailing with the young adult and present themselves at the Front Desk so they can sign the form allowing the consumption of beer and wine only. A notarized Parent Consent Form or any other document allowing for temporary guardianship for the purposes of the sailing only will not be accepted.

It even says how to go about getting it set up (I bolded that).  Best suggestion - give that a try on board, the worst they can say is no...

https://www.ncl.com/faq/guest-conduct-policy

16 minutes ago, ngrund said:

and just use it for NCL.

I don't cruise enough in expensive enough cabins to benefit from this use case. I charge almost everything to the card and have amassed almost 20k points in a year in addition to the sign up bonus.

10 hours ago, mking8288 said:

OP is sailing mid month on the Breakaway, out of Miami terminal  ... Jun 16 — Jun 23 2024 - 7 nights Caribbean: Great Stirrup Cay & Dominican Republic  

I'm so glad someone is cataloging what cruises other CC members are on... 🤪

11 hours ago, Jellybean326 said:

What phone service do you have? First time cruiser and I'm wondering how I'm going to communicate with my family. If any past cruisers have been able to do this and also have Verizon please reply to this

iMessage is independent of the carrier, it runs strictly over the data network as long as both parties have iPhones have their devices defaulting to the Messages protocol for messaging other iPhone users.

4 minutes ago, Le Pappy said:

but we are completely unfamiliar with how things work on NCL, and POA specifically.

What things, exactly?

A tip - at the top of the thread list in the NCL forum is a drop-down, that is a list of ships in the NCL fleet, you can select the ship name and it's a pre-filled search for threads about that ship.  Start there...

Free At Sea questions?  Browse the thread list - several questions about it have been asked in the last week or two and it's THOROUGHLY explained in those threads and the many others that came before them.

1 hour ago, Sayuil said:

Thanks for sharing this. Yes my son is 5 yr old. My TA Confirmed exactly what you shared but they were not sure about Upcharge dinning like Brazilian steakhouse or Teppenyanki. Any idea ?

Yes, Teppanyaki and Moderno are included as well.  If you get any extra meals beyond your included Free At Sea meals, be sure to book Teppanyaki or Moderno FIRST.

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

This is going to be our plan from LAX to the port, since we arrive a day early, staying at an airport hotel. My question is, how do you know the time and the location for the transfer if we decide to do this? I'm sure we'll end up scheduling the transfer ahead of time, just wondering about the logistics. If it's too much of a hassle, we might look into alternate arrangements.

Both times I sailed from LA I flew in the day before and used the NCL transfer.  Both times I used the hotel shuttle and returned to one of the baggage claim areas as directed by the TA I used for each trip.  I believe there's an NCL rep at each baggage claim to meet arriving airline passengers.

6 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Let's make a distinction here.  A large portion of the population are very infrequent travelers.  They generally aren't the folks posting on a travel forum.  I believe that a large portion of frequent travelers are very focused on routing and connection times.  I certainly am, and I doubt that I'm alone here.

I'll agree with you there.  I most certainly DO look at those things when booking flights.  I've even had to make the case to my employer to allow a slightly more expensive non-stop flight because it meant that I would spend less time traveling and result in less hourly wage paid for that travel time (yup - paid hourly, including for travel).  I consider it for personal travel as well, and I'm absolutely FINE with layovers as long as I'm not scheduling to spend 3+ hours at BWI or MDW (I primarily fly Southwest domestically)

35 minutes ago, Asawi said:

It seems to me that most/all of the problems here were airline-related and not really NCL-related. HAving said that, maybe they could have been more supportive, but it seems like United/Lufthansa are the ones that messed up really bad.

I agree. Once you get to the day of travel it falls on the airline to get you where you need/want to go.  Could NCL have helped by trying to find an alternate carrier?  Maybe, but if they did this for everyone that had air carrier issues on travel day they would need to add staff to handle the call volume (and possibly drop the BOGO offer as it would no longer be sustainable when they need to start buying new tickets half the time).

13 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

For NCL is just think a full refund is enough is ridiculous

This sentence structure is a little odd, but it seems like that's what you're saying, referencing this:

1 hour ago, dbrown84 said:

And I challenge you to find where I said it was JUST a refund 

As for this:

1 hour ago, dbrown84 said:

Actually, it's not.  Move on 

It IS more than a refund, per the first post the person is getting full refund AND 100% FCC.  That tells me that 200% of their fare was given to them in some manner.  That's more than a refund in my opinion.

10 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

right, which ain't ish

I can't argue that it doesn't cover expenses incurred to get to/from the port for a cruise they didn't get to take, but it's more than JUST a refund as your post that I quoted made it seem.

1 hour ago, dbrown84 said:

For NCL is just think a full refund is enough is ridiculous.

They didn't get JUST a full refund, they also got a 100% FCC

17 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

The thread below did mention A/C and bathroom issues on Breakaway....

 

 

That person posted the same here...

2 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I think that Galaxy Pavilion on Encore will be reduced in size or removed and Spice H2O will be placed there. 

Actually, I believe the laser tag on Encore is where Spice is on other BA+ ships, so removal of that would make room for Spice...

I have one on my account - 10% off discount Future Cruise Credit.  I have to book by June 30 this year and sail by June 30 next year.  Not sure where it came from, and I don't think it was there until recently.  My last cruise ended almost 4 months ago.

7 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

Great, thanks for the info!  Do other bands besides the Beatles band play in the Cavern Club?  I thought I read that somewhere.  

When I was on the Joy in 2022 they also had karaoke in there.  I don't recall other bands playing there but they may have (they do on the Bliss).

1 hour ago, newNCLcruiser2010 said:

Okay so I just just charge all the onboard expense to my credit card and then when I return and everything is posted use the points to request a statement credit?

From a standpoint of earning more points, yes.

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

Do they? That's interesting and I don't doubt it'll happen. In my experience, I had to generate a confirmation through NCL's system, then email it directly to those I was working with. Granted, the last time I booked a NCL cruise was March, 2023 so the system also may have updated since then. 

Maybe it works different when booked through a TA?  On direct bookings I get a new confirmation PDF any time a change is made (dining, excursion, etc.)

I agree with the other two.  You get WAY more benefit by charging all your onboard expenses to the card (those on-board spend $$ are worth 3x points) compared to cashing in for OBC.  I may have even seen a CruiseNext manager telling people this exact same thing!