hallux

Search the forum using the phrase 'price drop' and you're sure to find several recent threads. Bottom line - prior to final payment you can re-price all you want as long as you accept the changes (if any) to perks being offered, after final payment you get one shot at re-pricing or upgrading your cabin.

Some 'back-of-napkin' calculations for my upcoming cruise through the Panama Canal. I found a blog post updated this year with a cost of $5.25 per ton for the first 10,000 tons with a small discount (that was not noted of how much) beyond that. Norwegian Bliss is 168,000 gross tons (give or take), that makes the toll itself $880,000 or so. If the ship sails at capacity (which she probably won't), that's an average of $220 per person, just for the toll to transit the canal. I'm assuming this is in the port fees and taxes category rather than built into the cost of the cruise. There are also additional fees for the transit - the pilot being one. That $220 is nearly HALF of the charged port fees and taxes for the entire trip that has 10 other ports if you include embarkation and disembarkation ports, leaving around $270 for the other ports and the other fees for the canal transit. If one of those ports gets canceled, the average of port fees per port is around $27. Is this more than NCL has typically refunded? Sure, but it's not as bad as some might make it out to be. Oh - and there may be a cancellation penalty from the port! I used to work in a restaurant - if I showed up to work but no customers came in I still got paid. I imagine workers showed up to the port and expect to get paid for their time, at least until the ship canceled the stop...

There are lots of cabin and Studio lounge tours posted on YouTube, you could watch a few...

No it doesn't, it comes a YEAR after the dry dock. Dry dock is happening next month. This cancellation is over a year away, if people can't be a little flexible that far in advance, oh well.. 🤷‍♂️

@ddlb I don't think it matters which you select, the speed will be the same. The difference is which ports open for use while connected.

There's one pool area. The Encore lacks Spice H20 from the Epic and all the other Breakaway/Breakaway+ ships so there is no big screen at the aft.

2 most likely reasons - NCL overestimated the number of people that would book the cruise. They ESTIMATE the per-passenger responsibility for the port fees and taxes based on the expected bookings for the cruise and the expected fees to be paid (they don't pay based on the number of actual passengers, they pay based on per-ship or the size of the ship). If they under-estimated the bookings and a port is canceled the (now) over-payment would then fully cover the port fees from the other ports. Port fees for a port that was visited were higher than expected, the fees from the canceled port covered the higher fees for the visited port. A port was missed on my cruise in 2022, we got a whole $12pp back. In theory, if you examined NCL's financials the "port taxes & fees collected" are not higher than the "port taxes & fees paid". Yes, that should be done at a per-cruise level. The 'collected' line COULD be lower than the 'paid' line. By the way - if the fees are higher than anticipated or if NCL under estimates the per-passenger fees would you be OK with them asking for more money? Didn't think so. They don't, they eat the higher costs.

I used Chrome on my computer to test. Clear your browsing data (at a minimum the cache and cookies, which will reset saved logins for ALL sites)...

I logged in, but I use a username rather than email.

@Daruma my parents weren't even married yet (or were JUST married), and I'm not the oldest!!

The lowest price shown should be the lowest AVAILABLE cabin price, so if the lowest-priced cabin type is sold out then the next highest price will now be the lowest price. Here's an example from the Epic - Note that the lowest price shown was for the lowest-priced AVAILABLE cabin. And, for the record, that IS the lowest price listed as the 'as low as' price -

ALL of the work that the ship needs done (or that NCL has decided they want done, such as the changes to the Observation Lounge) should be complete during the drydock in 2 months, they are not going to take her out of service for more technical work a year later. It certainly is interesting that there are no sailings on the site for February and the first half of March on the Joy, unless they're getting a long-term charter.

@DominicAUS you can drink the ship dry of the bubbly for all I care, I don't drink. Wait, I'll have to put up with disgruntled people complaining of no bubbly for 2 weeks, maybe don't do that...

Unless they bought unlimited...

3rd ship to dock today, first to do so without tug assist. Either the weather has calmed or the ship just handled it that well...

well, so much for THAT... on the live port cams someone said all the ships had requested tugs standing by. Encore is in the channel and the tugs are nowhere near her. I guess your Captain pulled a "hold my beer and watch this" and is going it alone... nvm - the tugs just pulled along side...

Yup - it's one device at a time. Unlike some other cruise lines that flag your account to a particular device and ONLY that device can log in (I think I've read this somewhere, I don't recall which line it was).

Oceania Insignia.

From what I'm seeing on the webcams you most certainly ARE next. You're steaming to the channel at a good clip with no other ships in the way...

There are 8 ships scheduled in today. There were 9 but Royal's Vision of the Seas I guess was just a port call and diverted to Nassau. Apparently all ships have requested tug assistance. Oasis of the Seas is tying up now, she did NOT turn in the basin to face out of port. The two tugs are headed back out for the next ship, which might be the Encore...

Post on the roll call for your sailing?

No kidding - I recently stayed in a hotel that charged a $10 per night parking fee. The worst part - the nearest airport is an hour away and there's no public transit to get from the airport to the hotel!! That's not the worst - I'm staying at the Hilton LAX after my next cruise - they want $50 per night for parking! Good thing I won't need a car....

Yikes!! Yours is $300more pp than my cruise going the opposite way!! I think we're on the same one - January 27...

Yup, mine were $514, but there are 10 'port days' on a 15 day cruise. 42 days, but who's counting?

It looks like it's early in the night but at 10:15 on the latest daily posted is the Awesome 80's party. On page 4 the day 9 daily has a 70's & ABBA dance party. Both were on the pool deck.