hallux

3 minutes ago, Teacherloves2Cruise said:

I saw this one earlier today. I am confused about the placement. The “swirls” don’t match. Anyone have any ideas? 

Opposite sides of the ship?  Notice the curved windows to the right in the after pic but not on the before?

22 minutes ago, Captain Billy Bob said:

Are they behind schedule on those other two builds? Fall of 2020 sounds ambitious for completion of Odyssey with two ships still  in the hall.

They build the ships in blocks, mega blocks (assembly of blocks) and I imagine super blocks (assembly of mega blocks).  If you find videos of float-outs of completed ships from this shipyard you will see in some what looks to be only a section of a ship.  Those floating sections are then floated into the portion of the hall seen in the pictures above and assembled into the complete ship.  I'm sure the block and mega block construction is well under way.

3 hours ago, njhorseman said:

It can only be used for what it says it's for...Shore Excursions. If you don't use it on shore excursions you lose it.

I believe the "shore excursion credit" in question is the promo NCL is offering where you get $50 per cabin OBC for each port in which you go on an NCL excursion.  It's not really credit towards the excursion, it's credit because of the excursion.  Yes, if you book the excursion on-board then it will help pay for the excursion.

39 minutes ago, dkjretired said:

The other issue now is people cheating with cellphones.

On cruise ships it may be new, but it's not new in general.  I was supporting a conference in 2007, we went out to dinner and drinks as a group and there was a trivia night, someone in our group was using a Blackberry to, ahem, "verify the host was answering the questions right..."

On 3/27/2019 at 11:05 PM, mking8288 said:

If creamers are "that" important, maybe put them in a 3-1-1 bottle/pouch (100 ml/3 oz.) and see if you can check them thru.

If you're checking the bag with the airline there's no need for the 3-1-1 rule, that only applies to carry-on.

I agree with the others, you don't need to have a package to cover the additional specialty restaurants, you can just book them and pay through your on-board account.  Considering the shortest is 3, it might be a better deal to just pay as you need/want for the last 2, or just eat in the main dining room for those nights.

10 hours ago, PJDH4 said:

What about shore excursion credit?  If I understand correctly, the $50 per port credit that we chose as a promo will be applied as OBC after the completion of our excursion. (I have already booked excursions online and so paid full price.)  Can I use that to pay the DSC?

Well,

12 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

You don't state where it came from, but if it was a promo from NCL then it will be non refundable, and the rep was correct.

would seem to indicate it would be non-refundable OBC..

We Will Rock You was good, I can't really comment on appropriateness for a child.  There were two comedy shows with the same performer, one was family oriented, one was definitely more for adults and younger people were strongly encouraged to depart the theater (for good reason as it turns out).

Spectra's Cabaret is not new, unless they changed the actual performance.  That would be a borderline show for a younger person.

What band is on Anthem these days?

I don't recall exactly, it was a year ago.  I was just saying that they had a book, might have actually been a binder of printed pages, that they pulled the questions and answers from.  There may have been some challenges, with the host confirming the challenge and correcting the book.

@martincath how is the adoption of mobile device payments (Apple Pay, Google Pay) up there?  Are the "tap and go" card payments the same (I don't think my cards support using the card in that manner but they all certainly have the chip)?

15 hours ago, Julie MacCoy said:

I don't know who comes up with crazy answers to questions

When I was on Anthem of the Seas last year they had a book of questions and answers they used for the trivia sessions.  We even saw it, and when one host picked a question another had used in another session (and were called out for it by those that were regulars), they pulled another from the book.

Thanks for the reminder to enter for this week.  Congrats on winning one of the cards last week.

12 hours ago, www3traveler said:

probably The Bliss.

If you look at the NCL site Bliss still shows a 14 day Western Caribbean out of NYC starting on Feb. 2, 2020.

Getaway, in fact, does not appear to have a sailing for public viewing between Jan 26 and Feb. 7 but she is in NOLA before and after that.

Encore and Escape seem to be in Miami in Feb., both still have sailings covering Feb. 2 available to book.

Having been a couple times now, the only reason I'd go to Times Square is for the Brooklyn Diner.  One of the BEST burgers I've had (sorry, mom).

I actually would love to get to the High Line, seems like a great place to kill some time.  Too bad the subway doesn't seem to have many stops in the vicinity of the pier, that's the BEST way to get around, and less expensive than Uber/Lyft.  If there's a subway stop near the pier that I missed, I'd suggest Battery Park (just don't go looking for Duracells and Energizers) and a walk through the park at the 9/11 site.

I'll second the idea of going to Grand Central - it's a BEAUTIFUL terminal

There may also have been language in whatever letter or notice you got regarding the credit that it was only applicable to the cruise fare and not to port charges, etc.

@CaribbeanforChristmas are you on the April 28 Pacific Coastal?  My travel agent booked me the NCL transfer from LAX to the port for $20.  I felt this was more than reasonable.

If it's like Royal Caribbean's terminal at Cape Liberty, you drop your bag at the curb with the porters and it gets put on the ship.  The folks running the transfer bus may even unload the bags at the curb so once it goes on the bus it's out of your hands.

I'm actually flying in the day before but my hotel is literally right next to the airport so I just need to grab their shuttle back to the terminal in the morning and meet the shuttle to the port.

Looks like she's departing now, looks like they're doing a 360+ on the way out...

5 hours ago, JoeTec said:

We didn't leave until after 9pm that night but there was a shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral so they stayed in port until it went off.

More likely SpaceX launch as the shuttle hasn't flown since 2011.  Staying in port may not have been a captain's choice situation, they may have been required to stay put due to the launch.  Sometimes it's not known for sure if it'll happen on a particular day until that day so the cruise line planned for a typical departure time when selling the trip.

I'm reading this with interest as I'm considering sailing on this ship out of Dubai next year.  Very disappointed to hear about the charge for water during meals in the MDR, and people say NCL is "nickel and diming" them.  The trip is going to be expensive enough, before having to pay for water that the ship probably "produced" from seawater!

Not shaming anyone, but I had to laugh at the guy who was on the ship on the news talking about how a wave crashed through a window and a bulkhead and said "it was like the Titanic".  Dude looked GREAT for being 117+ years old!

7 hours ago, CaptFantastic said:

I think the WIFI network also has to allow or support WIFI calling. There has to be a link between the WIFI network and the cell network.

Yes, kind of.  No.

The WiFi network has to be fast enough to support the voice calling so the phone will prefer it when both are available, but with no other option it will certainly try to use whatever WiFi is available.

No, there doesn't need to be a link between the WiFi network and your cell provider.  If you mean that the WiFi network has to be able to get to the internet (meaning you would need to pay for WiFi on the ship in order to "get out" from the ship) then you are definitely correct.

As long as you set up WiFi calling before leaving home, just do the same thing you've been doing and it should work.  Airplane mode on, WiFi on, pay for internet access on the cruise.

If you use the train, you'll need a cab from the train/mass transit to the pier, you can't walk the road out to the terminal (it's actually not allowed, according to another thread on here but you wouldn't want to anyway).  There is some light rail that runs along 440, so you can get within ~2.5 miles of the pier without a car..

Not sure we need a daily update...

58 minutes ago, OCruisers said:

Once, they parked off sight and said Never Again! 

We used an off-site lot just after construction of the current terminal and parking garage was started.  I got more sun while waiting for the shuttle to the terminal than I did on the actual trip.  That was my first cruise, for my second we just parked in the garage at the terminal...

I was on Anthem during Passover last year (it started March 30, we boarded March 31), I don't recall seeing any special considerations for those observing, but I also didn't look for it too hard so there may have been something.

I definitely don't recall seeing one large table set up in the WindJammer.