hallux

I agree with @debenson0723, don't worry one bit about excess noise from the lounge. Except for during the meet before dinner (usually between 5 and 6 PM) there's not usually a lot of people in it. The lounge also does not have direct hall access, this would reduce the sound (if any) emanating from the lounge and leaking into other cabins.

Yes, I got one for my cruise last month.

and it was definitely still on the Escape in March, contradicting the suspicion of the expired contract...

One problem with that - the passenger needs to be 13 to have an account to then use the messaging feature. A "tween", while you said you don't care what that is, is a person 10/11/12 years old, or generally someone younger than is eligible to have their own account for the NCL app to use the messaging service.

Yes, NCL only opens a portion of the reservations pre-cruise.

99% sure it will be terminal B. The new NCL terminal building. If there's only the one NCL ship in port, that for sure is where the Joy will be, and it's very likely that's where it will be if there is more than one ship unless the other ship is the Prima.

Oddly enough - Haven IS one that has a reduced supplement on May Bermuda cruises on the Joy, on the May 14 and May 28. The only other reduced supplement on the Joy is May 28 balcony. To find them you need to add the filter for one passenger, only then will the reduced solo supplement indicator appear.

@spenecer I wouldn't say "should", I would say "may". It seems some ships have allowed some things through that others haven't...

I'm sure the drink contributes to that...

I cruised on that ship a month ago and didn't see a significant deficiency in service. Keep in mind - we're coming off big Spring Break weeks where there are lots of families cruising. There were 1,000 more kids on the cruise before mine than there were on mine (accounting for most of the difference in passengers on board). Were a couple things late? Maybe one or two, but overall I felt service was about equal to previous cruises. Also consider that the cruise industry as a whole is experiencing employment challenges, other lines may have similar issues. Yes, there was the recent review from the Bliss where the person had horrible service experiences. Additionally - consider that someone that experienced a problem is going to report that problem in full, possibly embellishing a little in their rage (I'm not saying the Bliss review was embellished, the person seemed very level-headed), and then nit-pick about EVERYTHING that was close to a less than desirable experience but people that are happy are not as likely to post their pleasure. My theory on the Bliss experience - that ship was FULL (it wasn't when I did the same cruise on that ship in 2019 as it was about 2 weeks later then) and since it was going North for Alaska they may have just done a large exchange of crew to get fresh contracts for the Alaska season so they may have had a lot of new crew members on board and service suffered as a result. When I returned a month ago I made a post about MY positive experience on the Escape. While there were over 4,000 other passengers on that cruise, I didn't see anyone post a negative rebuttal...

Not the OP, but my dad has one that he can read the numbers on a smart watch type device (I think it's a FitBit) that is connected to his iPhone. Despite both being connected to the phone by Bluetooth, in order to get the numbers on the watch he needs to have an internet connection. It's something to do with the apps and cloud sync. He uses a Dexcom (I don't know what model)

I've been perusing this deal as I also got the discounts in my account, it's only a discount on the cruise fare and does not apply to port fees, taxes, airfare (if adding) or any other additional. For just me, airfare included, I could be on the Jewel in an inside room for around $1350, Seward to Vancouver in September. As a solo I would pay 50% airfare, that's $569. I couldn't book a flight to Seward for that price... My mock booking certainly shows the $200 discount for using the 50% certificate, the room is only $400 before the discount.

I had no trouble with WiFi coverage on the Escape, even getting good download speeds! You shouldn't need the streaming option, it won't magically open additional access points to you.

Platinum and above get to book dining at 125 days before the cruise (which I think the Club Balcony allows for non-Platinum cruisers as well). Haven can book at 130 days. Everyone else is 120 days.

The BA+ ships (Escape, Bliss, Encore) don't have a bar in the lounge. A couple times on the Bliss (back in 2019) the solo host got a server to come to the solo meet and get drinks. On the Escape a month ago they had one almost every night that would come to the solo meet, get drink orders and bring them from a nearby bar.

I've been on 3 ships in the same class (Breakaway+) as the Bliss - the Bliss, Joy and now Escape. I LOVE these ships. Are some of the venues under-sized for the quality of performance they put in them (looking at you Cavern Club and Syd Norman's)? ABSOLUTELY! But NCL still has some of the BEST entertainment at sea on these ships! I agree with you that this experience seems to be an outlier - this is definitely not normal, I just hope it's not the new normal. I'm looking for my next cruise and actually considering going back to the Bliss as I loved that ship.

Every time I've gone to an MDR the host at the podium printed a slip and hand it to the host leading to the table and they would reference that slip as they reach the table. I'm assuming the slip has a table number on it, since the tables have numbers on them. I would think the host station has a diagram of the dining room and has available tables identified.

This is what it amounted to a month ago. Though they didn't ask me about being pregnant (I wonder why...)

For ice? I'm sure they have someplace in the crew-access area that has an ice machine to bring ice for any cabin asking for it.

On the larger ships (Breakaway and Breakaway+ classes), yes. 900-seat theater, 4,000+ guests, only 4 shows. You do the math. Now, not everyone wants to see the theater shows, but they're assuming they will. It really doesn't matter A LOT, there are usually some empty seats anyway, even after standby gets in. Comedy shows in the comedy club or Headliners, which seats maybe 200 people (depending on the ship), would need reservations, but even then they still have room for some standby. In fact - the only show on my last cruise that really SHOULD have had reservations didn't offer them!!

At one point the booking page actually had a note indicating the general time you should be expecting your air information (noted in # of days before the cruise). Don't expect the info much before 4-6 weeks before the cruise.

@zzdoug grabbing the dailies is easy, if the app is working. Once you open the PDF from the app, choose to save it. Mission accomplished! Once I saved it I re-named them as they would all have been the same name. Maybe it's easier on my Android phone? I don't know...

Except one was a group chat, with one member having an iPhone (yes, my primary circle is mostly Android. Shocking, isn't it?) Messages, the texting app.

Interesting that you mention this. When I was on the Escape in March I was definitely able to use my Android phone (and the Google Messages app) to receive and send SMS/MMS messages to people not on board the ship, without being signed on to access the external internet.

Just showering.