julig22

Not all enclosed balconies have the closed-in bottom. This is from the Star, I believe it is similar to what is on the Joy (as opposed to the what's on the Epic video)

What exactly is your issue? I've stayed in quite a few on other ships and find them actually nice. But then I tend to sail "cold-weather" cruises - Alaska, Iceland, Antarctica - and find I can enjoy my balcony even in bad weather.

Um, read through. I only made that suggestion in response to a prior ridiculous comment.

OK - you get up, your chair is up for grabs. Any time. Clear, concise, consistent, easily enforceable.

All they have to do is put a note or a sticker on the chair, with a time - which is what I understand other cruise lines do. If it's still there an hour later, pretty safe to assume it's unattended 'cause if the person had returned they should have taken care of the marker. No need to stare at anything.

There wasn't an available seat in the observation lounge when they had the presentation by the park ranger. Lots of empty seats tho. I asked people if I could sit in one of their saved seats just for the presentation and got some pretty rude replies, had to stand while those seats stayed empty. Extremely selfish IMHO.

Just a wild - but somewhat educated - guess. The ship operations, like engines etc, are in no way connected to the IT folks that handle the business side of NCL.

Something that I've noticed is that no matter what is announced, a fairly high percentage of passengers won't have heard the announcements - or read any information that might have been provided. And sadly, that seems to include crew members as well LOL. So I have been in situations where an explanation was given, just not widely distributed. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to hear announcements - I was just on the Star and the only way to hear anything if you were in your cabin was to open the door - IF you happened to hear that there was an announcement. They did NOT come through on the TV. I was told that the newer ships would have the ability to turn on announcements in your cabin, so no need to go through the TV. Maybe having a TV channel where you could see/hear the captain's announcements would help - better use of the bandwidth over broadcasting the "not so newlywed" game over and over and over...

No cancellation necessary - they can just move the booking. That way there is no need to pay a new deposit while you wait for them to return deposits/certificates. You also retain your booking date and reservation # - which can sometimes preserve promos or grandfather your reservation if there have been recent policy changes.

And they have a special department just for that - it's called room service. Your room steward in a suite might have had more leeway and/or fewer cabins to keep up - and possibly access to a galley much closer to your room. "Regular" stewards do not, nor should they be asked to, take care of anything but housekeeping. Take a behind-the-scenes tour to see how the galley works. Waiters, butlers have to wait for their orders to be prepared (most likely deck 4), then take the food back up to the passenger. Not the job of your steward.

Yes, you are kidding yourself. Your room steward takes care of your room - along with the 20+ other rooms where they are assigned, no different than the job they have when you are in a suite. I doubt that they even have access to the kitchen, like a butler does.

I was once "in the know" in a company (not IT) and knew layoffs were coming. Perfectly executed on the part of management - I helped them with all the layoffs, then got my layoff notice a day later.

Yea, I can do a side-by side comparison in my browser but was hoping for a list someplace. I had a PCC that would send me a list but she's no longer with NCL and my current PCC isn't exactly helpful except when I'm calling to book something.

Where are you finding them - the NCL site is useless for that, because everything comes up as solo discount now.

I wish! I haven't seen a no solo supplement cruise since they added the solo category, although I have seen double occupancy lower than the solo cabins on occasion. I must be looking at the wrong cruises.

Oh yea - been there. And from outside appearances, their current systems are spaghetti turning to mush, as patch after patch has been applied over the years. And when has any "new and improved" IT system come in on time??? Sometimes a basic system can be implemented but dealing with all the exceptions inherent in any business is a huge time drain. I was that person who knew all the business rules and exceptions when it came time to do an upgrade - and the IT people didn't listen LOL. They thought the departments should change their business models instead of building something that did what was needed. That didn't go over so well....

I've been amazed at how they get me home from Europe to my tiny airport on the west coast. Routes that I was never able to find on my own, partially because they can link flights that involve multiple airlines. Will they pay for a hotel - no. Will you have a 6-8 hour layover somewhere - probably not, their guidelines say no.

It isn't until after final payment that the pricing for the "regular" double-occupancy cabins seems to fall to lower than the solo pricing. And by then the limited solo cabins are sold out. For me, FCC is nearly as good as a price reduction prior to final payment, as I still have future plans with NCL.

I believe there are game tables in the internet cafe

That's the $64,000 question. Or in the case of a cruise I'm looking at, only about $150. In watching what's happening, the chances of solo pricing going down seems to be slim, due to inventory. So possibly worth the gamble.

Yes, my solo balcony is on the Sun is the cabin I chose because of location. I found it on an earlier cruise when I used my points to upgrade and that's what they gave me. I had to book solo OV in order to upgrade to a solo balcony. At the time, the solo was $400 less than a regular OV - but now the regular OV is less than what I paid and solo OV is sold out.

The new solo categories are regular cabins that they have "re-purposed" as solo. Completely different than the solo studios available on some ships. But they seem to be some of what NCL considers to be less favorable - so the PrivaSea cabins for example. Which I happen to like LOL.

I realize that the initial cost depends on the cruise but I'm thinking more in terms of the options for future price adjustments. I booked a solo OV (upgraded to balcony with WP points). Since I'm not using the NCL airfare on this one, I'd be eligible for FCC except that because of the limited number of solo cabins, they are sold out. The cost for a comparable regular cabin is now less than the cost of the solo cabin. Ironically, I did originally book as double-occupancy but the cabin I wanted on the upgrade just happened to be a solo, so had to change it. I'm thinking that I might just book my next cruise, paying double occupancy. More cabin choices. Note - access to solo lounge isn't a factor. They generally don't exist on the ships I'm considering, plus I wouldn't use it anyway. Thoughts? Experiences?

We had to miss Stanley when I went to Antarctica last year. Those with NCL excursions were actually in the theater waiting for the tenders when the captain announced the tenders couldn't make it because of weather. And people with private excursions said it wasn't true because their excursion folks told them that the weather was OK, ship shouldn't have cancelled. In reality, it might have been possible to get ashore at the time but then what happens when the approaching storm hits and you have 2000 people who can't get BACK to the ship in the afternoon???

I book through a PCC and WP had to call her to get permission to change my reservation. But it did involve changing the original booking to a solo because the cabin I wanted was not a solo.