UKstages

i believe it because i’ve experienced it and i’ve been told it and i’ve seen the internal NCL document that states a limited number of passes are held back for sale on embarkation day. it’s an established NCL business practice. on the joy, there will be a table set up for the selling of passes just outside of teppanyaki. when i boarded in new york in october, they had dozens of passes (maybe 40 or 50) available. there have been several recent threads about the availability of vibe passes, with people sharing their experiences, including me. provided you get onboard early enough, you should have no problem getting passes. i was on a back to back and there were dozens of passes available out of miami on the subsequent cruise, too. again, it’s not a rumor, or a search for fool’s gold… it’s a documented and established NCL business practice. that being said, there could be an unusual circumstance (there have been a couple recently on other ships) that might prevent passes from being sold on embarkation day… but that would be a rare situation.

the waiting areas for platinum and sapphire/diamond are roped off. there is usually a contract employee nearby who will ask to see your key card (with status) before letting you into that super secret squirrel area. you’ll be exiting that roped off area the same way you entered, and then walking down to a central walkway to board the ship, so if it’s important that you be at the front of that boarding group, you’ll want to sit near where you entered. as for boarding numbers, once the checkin agent verifies that you’re an elite latitudes member, they won’t give you a boarding number.

oh, there is A LOT of patronizing on cruise critic. i see it in almost every thread.

back in the day, you’d order cookies from a girl scout or one of her parents, and then - two or three weeks later - they would deliver the cookies to your home or to your workplace. are we saying that’s no longer the case? that girl scouts are now expected to commit in advance to a certain number of boxes which they sell and hand over immediately at the point of sale? *mind blown* what a logistical nightmare! and how many boxes are parents routinely left to eat? (metaphorically speaking) as for attempting to sell on your roll call… sure, you could try that, but a heck of a lot of people might resent the hell out of that. first off, if it’s cookie season, there are probably other people on the roll call with cookie selling kids, just as on a ship with 3,000 people there will likely be other people who are selling cookies (back home). second, assuming you’re talking about a CC roll call, these folks are anonymous and there is no way to message them. third, the roll call is no place to try to sell folks who are complaining about being nickeled and dimed. fourth, the NCL rule about no solicitation could likely be construed to apply to goods delivered while onboard, even if the solicitation occurred elsewhere… and, as a bonus, a good third or more of the people won’t even show up for the meet and greet… why would you expect these folks to keep their cookie commitment? how are you going to find them to collect and distribute? for all these reasons, and more, i suggest you toss your cookie(s) selling idea.

be careful what you wish for. if NCL authorized the sale of girl scout cookies, you had better be prepared for thinner mints, chocolate chip cookies with just one chip and an upcharge for s'mores, although, for you convenience, they'll be happy to fulfill your order with s'much less.

sure, bring a light bulb onboard. knock yourself out. put it in an easy bake oven and its use is prohibited.

it is, actually... #22. "Items brought on board the vessel and not supplied by the company containing any kind of heating element..."

this may be semantics. the guest "prepays," if he or she so chooses, the onboard service charge or the guest pays at the completion of the cruise. either way, cabin stewards do not see the proportional benefit of that reflected in their pay until a month or two later, assuming that they get any of it at all as a cash payment. NCL is very loosey goosey about what actually is done with the money it collects from guests on behalf of its employees., "tips" are not prepaid to cabin stewards, but if in stating that the OP means that you've prepaid or intend to pay the OSC (onboard service charge), then, yes, a portion of the OSC is theoretically set aside for distribution to cabin stewards.

no, you can't. at least not to my knowledge. it's an interesting idea, but it would actually disadvantage you, as the credit in a a specialty restaurant is worth far more than the $20 or $25 (or whatever) up-charge you'd pay in the MDR.

no.

and yet we have at least one poster on this thread, a devout haven-only guy, who has said he's noticed how the cutbacks have affected his experience onboard and that he won't be traveling with NCL in 2024. he has taken on a "wait and see" attitude beyond that. oh, geez, there you go with your straw men again. we were talking about whether the analogy was appropriate. (it was.) now you've switched it up to argue the specific economics, profit and loss, and financial viability of a business. and that's something very different, i doubt there is a business school that would admit you with that reasoning, but if you do find one, please let us know with whom they agree.

just so there's no confusion - and folks don't go looking for something called the "american cafe" - it's the "american diner," which was recently made into a complimentary venue. i ate there on embarkation day and found it to be virtually empty, as, on day 1, many do not yet realize it's now a "free" dining venue.

it was an effen brilliant analogy within the specific context of businesses raising prices and pizza, both of which were being discussed! the small family run pizzeria is a business! they serve pizza! they have not raised prices! one could not possibly hope for a more apt comparison.

where have you been the past few years? restaurants and small businesses were among the hardest hit by covid. customers couldn't go out of their homes. restaurants had to pivot to a takeout and/or delivery business and a "selling raw ingredients to cook at home" business. if they were able to make it past the initial covid closures and reopen, they had to deal with physical distance limitations which cut their money making potential by limiting the number of tables they could serve. and they had to deal with supply chain issues which limited their ability to get the products they needed to cook and clean. and the cost of those products, from toilet paper to paper towels to canned tomatoes to mozzarella spiraled out of control. the "costs and inflation impacts" are absolutely comparable for a business of this size, with one notable exception... NCL was likely far better able to handle covid precisely because of its large size and its ability to take on debt! an estimated 70,000 restaurants in the USA weren't as lucky... they closed, the impact of covid could easily kill a small business like a pizzeria. based on @cruiseny4life's description, my best guess is that this is a family business run by people with deep commitments to the community. yes, they want to make money, but they also care about the community. sounds to me like they are probably making far less money than they used to. if they haven't raised prices or lowered their quality standards, even as their costs have surely risen, then they have to be subsidizing every meal. they had excellent margins pre-covid, and they probably still have decent margins, and they just feel like they can't raise prices because it would be a disservice to the community. that will change at some point and they will most likely have to raise prices. and my best guess is their customers will fully support them and have only one question: "what took you so long?" oh, @cruiseny4life, for the record, chicken, bacon and ranch - like pineapple - do not belong on pizza! that is sacrilege! that's not a pizza... it's a cobb salad!

just chiming in again because los lobos seems to be taking some hits here. in my opinion, not only is the prima’s los lobos the finest in the fleet, it rivals many mexican restaurants on land. and i’ve been to many, including those in california, arizona, new york and, yes, mexico (where they are known simply as “restaurants”). as for it being dark and gloomy, i ate there two or three times and it was always bright and cheery and festive, with a panoply of color and light, with gaily painted mexican artifacts and sculptures used as decorations throughout. it’s a very happy place, particularly by the time you have your second margarita. look, i don’t care if you go to los lobos or not, but don’t go because you don’t like mexican food or because you’re booked up with other restaurants you prefer, not because a bunch of people here have said it’s rather ordinary and gloomy. ordinary and gloomy it is not.

haven't been on the joy since the dry dock, but based on my experience with humidors (cigar smoking rooms) on various ships, i'd say the idea of an enclosed smoking area on such a well-used public deck is an incredibly stupid idea. the big problem with the humidors has been that whenever the doors open, smoke billows out. on some ships, you can smell the smoke one floor above and one floor below and for several hundred feet in all directions. from the image above, it looks like those in the hot tub and pool, may be subjected to frequent bursts of smoke throughout the day, as the doors to the "enclosed smoking area" open. particularly if it's windy. let's hope they had the good sense to put those doors facing the ocean and not the pools.

carnival does charge 3% at table games and the cashier, but nothing at slots. doesn't make much sense to me, but that's how they do it.

there was actually a report here somewhere a couple of days ago confirming that this had happened. it is a trend. on the getaway recently, casino hosts informed me that they would be partitioning the casino into smoking and nonsmoking areas, by installing a glass wall. i imagine they will make a similar change in spice H20. when i went into spice, the stench from cigarettes was completely overwhelming. even though only the bar area allowed smoking, in essence the entire spice area was smoking... you couldn't escape it anywhere within that "club."

i agree that the solo meetups are often poorly run. and their success as an "event" depends heavily on the staff member entrusted to run it. but what's great about the meetups is the pre-qualification.. everybody there is presumably a solo traveler. i've made plenty of new cruise friends around the ship, but they are invariably couples, and not inclined to do an activity or show or share a platinum meal with me.

strictly speaking, los lobos is not a traditional tex mex restaurant. yes, they have tacos, fajitas and enchiladas. but they also do tableside guac, they have ceviche and yellow fin tuna. they have pork, red snapper, skirt steak (carne asada) and stuffed poblano peppers on the menu, as well as a "catch of the day" (which, depending on how recently you were in port, may actually be frozen or the "catch of a few days ago"). their street corn (elotes) is among the best i've ever had. they do have an enchilada with mole sauce. and that sauce can be put on other things, by request. and their spicy margaritas are excellent. it's not your granddaddy's mexican restaurant.

this came up in a thread a year or more ago. i forget the exact figures. yes, there are hundreds of millions of people who haven't cruised. but of that population, very few are likely cruisers. cruise ships are not commodities like toothpaste or beef that most people consume regularly. i've never been to a soccer match. i have absolutely no interest. you can send me your glossy full-color brochures about the joys of soccer, offer me a ticket deal where the second person gets in at half price and you can even offer me free cake on lionel messi's birthday. i ain't buying a ticket to your damn soccer match. so, too, with cruising. you can market the hell out of it; most people are just not interested, even once you overcome the disposable income barrier, which excludes even more of those hundreds of millions of people. as for loyal customers, it is far cheaper in almost every business to keep the customers you have, rather than acquire new ones. it's a fundamental business marketing principle. that doesn't mean you can't have customer acquisition marketing efforts. (ideally, you should have acquisition and retention efforts.) it just means that it'll cost you a lot... and for every four new customers you add into the mix, if you've lost five existing customers on the back end, you have a net customer loss.

well, that's certainly fortunate for NCL! similar things to what we're saying about NCL can be said about most major cruise lines. absolutely. and if that's the case, these companies are effectively and collectively killing the category. nobody needs to go on a cruise. it's a choice. and when the cruise lines make the product so inferior to what it once was, people can make other choices. the value gap is closing between cruises and all-inclusive resorts and land-based vacations. people can choose those or simply choose not to sail... or choose to wait it out a few years and see what becomes of the industry. agreed... having a poorly designed bathroom that allows you to see and/or hear your partner pooping is very different than hiding cameras in the cabin and spying on naked strangers, some of them underage, as they go about their business.

she had better not sail on the prima... there is no library!

i don't think "nickel and diming" means what people think it means. in the strictest sense, it doesn't even have a monetary component. you don't have to be charged something extra to be nicked and dimed. when you are "nickeled and dimed," you are relentlessly badgered by a series of small things that eventually leave you exhausted, disillusioned and disgruntled. the reference to "nickels" and "dimes" is a metaphor and is in comparison to the dollar... five cents and ten cents are relatively small amounts of money compared to a dollar... but they add up, if there are enough of them. so the reference is to small, seemingly minor things, that eventually add up to a significant thing.

don't confuse a "cash advance" (generally handled at the cashier) with charging cash to your room folio (generally transacted via a slot machine keypad.) they are two different things. cash advances often carry considerably higher fees and may be processed differently by your financial institution. when you charge money to your room folio, it goes through as an ordinary purchase.