UKstages

it is "off." you are correct. if indeed the promo was somehow capacity-controlled (i've never heard of this for NCL offers), they knew that at the time you booked and that should have been disclosed at the time you booked. you then could have made a decision as to whether or not you wanted to continue. on the other hand, what does your booking confirmation say? does it include the code for double points? screen shots are all well and good, but did your booking confirmation say you were to receive double points?

back in the day, most cafeteria-style or buffet dining featured a ledge composed of several metal bars, which ran the entire length of the cafeteria. diners dutifully slid their trays as they moved down "the line." with the trend towards trayless dining, that ledge has disappeared in newly built buffets. (there's still something there for you to rest your plate on, but it's not quite the same thing.) there is another design element at play that is equally responsible for the disappearance of trays. at a modern buffet, customers dart in and out at several different "action stations" to get what they want. an old-school buffet requires people to stay in line and move one by one through all the things they don't want to get to the things they do. you see conflicts at buffets now because there are still people who cling to this old-school buffet notion... that there is a line that you must follow as you slowly inch through the entire buffet. modern buffets are not set up like that! (please note: i am not suggesting that you ignore all the people waiting for pizza or chicken curry ahead of you. once you get to the food item you want, you still have to wait in line behind all those who want the same item. i am merely saying that you don't have to slowly walk through the entire buffet to get to the food items you want. that's the way buffets used to work... but no longer.) there are two other factors controlling people's behavior at a buffet... the first is the size of the plate. larger plates mean more wasted food or over eating. i typically first go to the dessert section, not because i want dessert, but because i pick up a couple of small plates and i put entree items on those. not only does it limit your intake (although you can always go back for more), but it tricks the brain into thinking you are eating more food because it looks like your plate is overflowing, which has a psychological effect on how full you feel. the other thing about the brain is that it takes a good twenty minutes for the stomach to signal to the brain that you're full. so, smaller plates means more time to feel full before you get back up for another helping of whatever that delicious thing was. and the other factor affecting food consumption is whether or not the buffet is an all inclusive restaurant... one flat fee or, in our case, "free" with your cruise fare. there would be no need to eliminate trays at college campuses if students were charged for each item they consumed.

yes, there is nothing to stop them from posting the menus on the tv, except knowing that it has to be updated daily and they might let one linger there too long causing all sorts of problems. similarly, they could have a prerecorded phone announcement. you call a number to listen to the menu being read to you... several land-based casinos do this for the menus in their elite players' lounges.

balcony aft is known to have the majority of the serious noise problems on the prima, including some haven rooms. i was in a club balcony and lost three or four nights sleep until they were able to give me a separate room for sleeping. midship balconies seem to be unaffected.

if that were true, and it certainly may have been, it is no longer true... except to the extent that NCL's crackerjack web team haven't updated the website yet. the "DSC" has been renamed the "OSC," which stands for onboard service charge.

many of the caribbean itineraries are similar if not identical, depending in the cruise length. what i mean by that is that you can find more than one ship - at different times of the year - doing very similar itineraries. the OP indicates that this will likely be a longer cruise. so it really does come down to the ship. i'd recommend the joy, simply because i believe it to be one of NCL's best run ships, with a string executive leadership team, a good selection of restaurants and a good mix of indoor and outdoor spaces.

congrats on getting the reservations that you want! just to set expectations, i'd like to refer you to something that was briefly mentioned in post 8. as a suite guest on the joy.,. you won't really have easy access to a concierge. there will probably be a card in your suite with a concierge's name (who will likely be the same concierge for the haven), along his or her phone number. but the concierge team doesn't really have the time or inclination to help suite guests. it'll be pretty much an absentee concierge who may respond a day or two late to a phone call or email, if at all. in most cases, you'll be better off - and can get things done more quickly - by booking reservations yourself. this was my suite experience on the joy... an invisible concierge. the joy is unique in the benefits it provides (or rather, doesn't provide) to suite guests.

Mmmmm... eggplant parm. i would choose eggplant parm over "donna" any night of the week.

i'm not sure the suites have haven-style mobile phones. my suite on the joy, didn't. (but the joy suites don't have a lot of the same privileges as other suites across the fleet. they don't have butlers, either.)

there is a fallacy to this supposition. to take the mexican food example up above... it's hard to be authentic and authoritative with your opinion if you haven't tried said mexican restaurant, even if you know you don't like mexican food. time and time again, i myself and many around me have thought we didn't like this or that... only to try a different version of this or that and suddenly discover that we do in fact like this or that. sometimes, even just the experience of going to the mexican restaurant with our friends or family, who we like more than mexican food, helps us find value in the experience. and then there are dishes like carne asada, which are not typically what one would think of as "mexican food." sometimes, people reject things without fully understanding the full expanse of what the thing in question has to offer. i don't like brussels sprouts. or so i thought. and then i had them properly prepared and nicely carmelized with a bit of bacon and a honey drizzle. i guess you could say that it's still true that i don't like brussels sprouts; now i love them! somebody might not value what the vibe offers. until their partner insists they try it. and then - suddenly - they discover they do rather like being waited on with unparalleled service that's hard to get elsewhere on the ship, they like not having to fight chair hogs or kids or crowds, they like big loungers (and they cannot lie), they like clean bathrooms, they like pitchers of ice water and they like the shared experience of being with their partner and meeting new friends in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere not possible elsewhere. so whether somebody has actually visited the vibe is indeed relevant to the credibility of their opinion (in my opinion). in post #59, i spoke of the difference between cost and value. it's perfectly fine for somebody to say that they personally don't see any value in the amenities offered by the vibe. but how would they know unless they've experienced them? yes, it's true: some people eschew the sun and hot tubs and alcohol. it's a pretty safe bet to say that there's very little value in the vibe for them. but to unilaterally make that decision for everybody by saying that nothing in the vibe is worth the cost is just absurd on its face..

pearl = older, smaller ship that has - generally speaking - top notch senior management along with a dedicated team in most customer touch points prima = new, but poorly maintained ship with spacious staterooms, which are now a little rough around the edges after only a year and a half. venues are exceedingly small and design flaws abound; the ship has an executive leadership team that is - generally speaking - one of the least effective and most incompetent at sea. i travel on NCL exclusively through casinos at sea. and while i originally came back to NCL on a caesars entertainment offer (an annual seven stars cruise), i now get far better offers directly through CAS. the same would likely be true for most players, i imagine. as for whether NCL is losing market share with land-based casino offers, i would say - anecdotally - that they are. CZR has long been affiliated with NCL and still is. (CZR, though, since eldorado bought the company has lost considerable market share itself... because it's taken one of the most famous names in gaming and destroyed the product. but i digress.) MGM has long been affiliated with RCCL. everybody else is up for grabs and i have seen some smaller casino brands move away from NCL. i don't see this, however, as being a factor in any real or perceived reduction in journeys from the NYC port(s).

yes, but the charge applies regardless if you've just woken up or have been awake for several hours. delivery fee plus 20% but you can have just coffee and croissants... or coffee and croissants along with bacon and eggs and potatoes and cereal and a banana for the same $4.95 delivery fee.

pearl over the prima any day of the week. twice on sundays. is there anything else i can help you with?

since you may have only glanced at or skipped over some of the vibe threads, i will tell you that many of us have had success purchasing the vibe on embarkation day. board as early as possible and head to wherever they are doing restaurant reservations... usually, there is an additional table set up just outside that location at which they sell vibe passes. i've been told by the reps who do this that they have passes available at the start of every cruise. the availability of vibe passes may vary, however, depending upon the ship's occupancy and the weather and how port-intensive the cruise is and a variety of other factors, including whether or not they oversold the vibe due to a computer glitch, as some found on a recent cruise. but, generally speaking, some vibe passes are available on every cruise on embarkation day.

there is a website called the seven stars insider, a gambling knowledge website originally about the elite player status program for the casinos of caesars entertainment. the creator of that site, a solo traveler, has passed away, but the site remains. somewhere on there, there is indeed a downloadable buffet sign you can print out that says something like "table occupied. be right back."

in the haven on the gem a couple of years ago, i received towel animals every night. one day, i wandered into my cabin attendant's storage area, looking for him to ask for something or other. i was surprised to see a menagerie of premade towel animals, ones i had already received, as well as ones i would receive on subsequent nights. monkeys, elephants, rabbits, dogs... they were all there. that led me to believe that he might have been reusing some of them from cruise to cruise. not the most hygienic practice, but this would certainly cut down on cleaning of towels!

whaddaya mean, now?

i view cruise critic opinions like sitcom plots. there are only a few sitcom plots and they get endlessly repeated, week after week, year after year, decade after decade. so, too... there are only a few opinions expressed here on cruise critic. and they get endlessly repeated and restated and analogized. there are only a few opinions expressed here on cruise critic. and they get endlessly repeated and restated and analogized. there are only a few opinions expressed here on cruise critic. and they get endlessly repeated and restated and analogized.

' as any salesperson will tell you, there is an enormous divide between cost and value. people don't buy a product or service, they buy how that product or service makes them feel or what it does for them. that's why, when people say "it's not worth it," what they really saying is that they personally don't see the value. different people can have different value perceptions about the same product. some people like the strip steak in the MDR; some people know it to be the shoe leather monstrosity that it is. as for vibe opening hours and hot tub availability... based on my recent experience on the joy, i'd say the bar closes at 7 pm, but they let you stay in there for at least another hour or so, maybe two, while they shut down and make the space ready for the next day. i don't know that there is an official closing time; i'd be surprised if it was as late as 10 pm. everything in the vibe is very much on a relationship basis... if you come to know the staff, it is likely they'll let you stay in there as long as you want, within reason. they may even bring you water or soda or whatever even though the bar is officially closed. the real question is whether the gate or sliding doors get turned off and no longer work after a certain hour.

funny you should wonder this. there was a sixteen year lapse in my cruising on NCL.... i cruised with them in 2003 and then started up again in 2019. and when i booked that cruise in 2019 through CAS, i actually told the rep that i was calling to take advantage of the "special" because i knew it expired that night. so, in answer to your question, i'd say it probably helps them a great deal... with new or long lost customers. if it didn't, they likely wouldn't continue doing it. but customers will only respond once to a false sense of urgency. after that, the never-ending sale becomes fodder for ridicule and mockery. so they have to weigh that negative customer sentiment against what benefit they get from new customer acquisition. apparently, they've done that and the never-ending sales will continue.

i met a guy on my last cruise who raved about the filet in la cucina. so much so that i had it on my next visit a day or two later. it was... disappointing. this was on the joy. but, yes, i have heard several folks rave about the filet in la cucina.

quite a little tasty nugget of controversy you slipped in there. i'm surprised nobody has commented on it. do we know about what? the fact that TAs sometimes give out wildly inaccurate information? yes, i have heard this. TAs are a lot like cruise consultants at NCL... they don't always have a complete grasp of the facts and the terms, the TA's statement requires further exploration and clarification. as for the substance of your question... is NCL doing away with "free at sea?" no, i have not heard this. i have no inside line, but i doubt it. they might go back to a "pick two" or "pick three" strategy that they had four or five years ago... but to eliminate their ridiculously successful (from a marketing standpoint) FAS program? i just don't see that happening.

no limitations on ordering room service, but you'll pay for each visit. there's no charge for the food, but there is a delivery fee. $4.95 for breakfast, if memory serves and $9.95 at other times. you can fill out a card for breakfast orders and place it on the door.

would we still get only 1X per day cabin cleaning with the $2500 onboard service charge? asking for a friend.

i don't follow how the entertainment options are more limited because you're traveling through antarctica. i get the food availability issues (temperature of cooked food, however, has nothing to with the ship's destination), but i don't see why somebody wouldn't choose antarctica if entertainment were important to them. except for the food, everything on your six point list doesn't seem to have anything to do with the destination. as for the food, any modern cruise ship should have the ability to store three weeks of food and should have chefs who can alter the menu to account for the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables toward the end of the cruise.