hallux

But depending on your home airport it may require 3 flights to get there, and a quick search indicates that would be the case from Indianapolis including a couple with some LONG layovers (like, get a room in a nearby hotel long).

I believe there are two of those. What about using the free shuttle for the hotel to return to the airport and using the shuttle from the airport? I did that in 2019 and stayed in the ES on the South side of the airport (there's also one on the North side, I just checked). Hint - you can use Google Maps to get directions and distances. Uber should also allow you to estimate the fare.

To be fair - it's $100 per person. You could call the old fee a "$100 penalty" if you wanted to make it sound extreme, when it's really $25 per person. $100 per person does seem a bit high, especially when as recently as 2019 there was NO COST for this, but those folks making the flight bookings are working awfully hard these days trying to meet these requests. Be happy they're offering it, some have had it requested and then later gotten a letter (as the air department was trying to book their flights) that it just couldn't be done due to the current state of air travel. Their paid fees for the TWG were refunded and they were even offered a refund of the airfare portion if they wanted to cancel that and try booking on their own, SIX WEEKS before their cruise!

Do those devices (the AirWrap, flat iron or the hair dryer) have heating elements in them? If yes, they're likely to be confiscated - https://www.ncl.com/prohibited-items 21. Items brought on board the vessel and not supplied by the Company containing any kind of heating element, such as but not limited to: immersion heaters, heating blankets, clothing irons, water heaters, coffee machines with heating/hot plates, etc.

NCL really has TWO airfare programs. One is where NCL just acts as the TA and books the flights as you request and giving you their rate for the flights, this is called NCL premium Air. Then there's the promo airfare It's been BOGO for a while now, but in the past it's also been free/reduced airfare. With this you hand over all control of the flight booking to NCL. No preferred times, no preferred seating, just "book me flights to get there and home, whatever they are". Premium Air T&C's - https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/premium-air BOGO T&C's are part of this promo T&C's - https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions Read into those what you will or will not about NCL's responsibility for getting you to the cruise on time. I think it's been discussed in other threads - you'd be hard-pressed to find a cruise line that will GUARANTEE you will get on the ship, some/most say they will make every effort to get you there. Also of consideration - downline embarkations have significantly diminished or been stopped entirely (for North American cruises anyway) as a result of COVID protocols, though they may start happening again as protocols loosen.

Keeping a close eye on this. I have a friend sailing with Royal on August 21, they were supposed to call me for some more info on the proctored testing and have not yet called. This may change what they need to do.

I have, on the news...

Maybe it's a COVID-era restriction? When I was there it seemed that you needed a tour ticket from a ship to exit the port area to the right of the shops (up the red dock, there was someone standing there looking at tour tickets) and the escalators up the center area of the shopping area were roped off.

Interesting - SOME of the decks on NCL's page do have the slides - @prmssk I chose the same decks you noted for my screenshots. Teamwork!

In 2019 it was free or reduced airfare for each passenger, I used it in October of that year.

I think you're confused. I don't think the poster you quoted (who posted their comment over a year ago) was saying to cancel the flight with the airline, I think they were talking about removing the flights from the NCL reservation. You have until 75 days to the cruise to make most changes to your flight request (deviations, primarily) when using the promo. There's no defined deadline that I can find for cancelling it but I would say final payment or that 75 day deadline is probably a good guideline.

@farjar did you use the Premium Air service or the promo flights? There IS a difference and based on your explanation I suspect it's the former.

Probably can't compete on par with an Oasis-class ship. However, the Beatles tribute band is usually a good show (in a venue designed for them), comedians (if it's like the Joy they'll have two that each do an all-ages show and an adult show), various musical performers from a 'house band' to a country group to a keyboardist and vocalist. Not to mention the fantastic theater shows - Jersey Boys and SIX. There are also a couple organized parties on deck.

I'd have to compare the Encore, Joy and Bliss to see what the lifeboats look like but I THOUGHT the Bliss used a mix of ship-provided tenders and port-provided tenders when I was in Cabo. If that was the case, this would be a difference between the Encore and at least one of the similar BA+ ships.

No. Fuel 'costs' fuel. More fuel on board means there's a higher burn to carry the extra weight. They carry only as much as they need for the taxi/flight/taxi and then have enough for a hold and divert if they can't land after a set time in holding. Sometimes they'll decide to divert before that hold time is expired if it looks like they won't be able to land before their prescribed hold time is expired. Planes RARELY fly with full tanks when flying domestically in the US unless the flight is right at the limit of the plane's range. If they're on a particularly short leg or the destination has unreliable fuel supply or it's super expensive they'll 'bunker' the fuel for the next leg or the return flight if they can carry enough without going overweight so they don't have to try filling up at the turn around.

I forgot one other item - the Joy doesn't have the thermal suite as it was originally designed for the Asia market where such a venue was not desired.

MOST of those are PCR tests, a more sensitive test. The antigen test is less sensitive and is likely to give you a negative result 10-14 days after infection.

Right, but the studio area is clearly visible (decks 12 and 13 forward, though I'm not seeing a large area for the lounge), look at the rest of the decks and all the blank space with sporadic inside cabins.

do the non-Haven family suites get a butler?

Nearly identical except for some restaurants. The Joy has Spice H20 where the Encore has the laser tag. Encore's Vibe is larger as a result since the laser tag space from the Joy and Bliss was reallocated to the Vibe on Encore.

Right now, maybe. In the past I've booked shows in advance while booked in a standard balcony and even in a studio. The higher priced cabins and higher Latitudes members are allowed to book earlier than the rest by 5-10 days.

A lot of the marketing so far has indicated something about the fewest inside rooms, but this seems like a huge waste of space. Speaking of space - they're NOT advertising the smallest sundeck at sea but that seems to be the case...

Show up, check in. The prescribed times are more for traffic flow, there's nothing preventing you from checking in if outside some arbitrary window based on the time you selected. Lots of folks have posted about this issue recently so I'd say it's an issue for everyone It's a dedicated ferry for NCL, I believe to St. George. https://www.google.com/search?q=port+canaveral+car+rental&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS1006US1006&oq=port+canaveral+car+rental&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0i512j46i175i199i512j0i22i30l3j0i22i30i457j0i22i30l3.5008j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Thanks, but I think it'll be a while before I get back there (I want to see DIFFERENT places first), and it wouldn't have mattered on my cruise anyway as we missed the port.

NCL won't intentionally book you on a flight that will cause you to miss your cruise.