carohs

Oh jeez now you remind me of my kids. Haha they're constantly pointing out where what I meant isn't exactly what I stated. Ok, okay let's amend to if you're outflows increase beyond your current inflows....or something to that effect. I can't think straight anymore 😅 😂😁

Plenty of people do. The reality is that there's bankruptcy courts for individuals as well as corporations. Also, there's the homeless. It's an inflows vs outflows equation. Simple math. If your outflows increase you must then increase your inflow or go bankrupt or into ever increasing debt. In other words ask for a raise or move to a better paying job. And people who are unable to manage their outflows and inflows for whatever reasons are specific to their circumstances will either ask for assistance or.... If minimum wage never increased a lot of people would never be able to keep up with the increased pricing of things.

Of course companies pass on increased costs to the consumers, otherwise they'd eventually go bankrupt. Can you imagine still paying $0.35 for a burger? Compare the price of McDonald's in California to Wisconsin and tell me minimum wage has nothing to do with it.

I find your summary quite accurate. Every time I hear about someone cruising concierge on Disney I never think i's actually worth the difference in expense. You get so little perks, especially sailing out of SD. A lot of people will do concierge just to have a better chance at the pre-book activities like the character breakfast (longer cruises) or the Cabanas at Castaway Cay. And you're right about the lines! They can get quite ridiculous. Although I'll take a line for a photo op over a line at the buffet which IMO is better laid out and managed with serving staff on DCL than other lines.

Shoo I only got 2 emails. 1 sailing 2 passengers. Wonder if there's a correlation??

Ooh the convenience vs cost factor. We chose cost when they were littler and opted for a car rental so we brought the car seats. This was at PC not Miami tho. What I can say is the familiarity of the car seat really helps for a 2yo flying up to and including the cup holders if you can strap it into the airline seat. I understand not wanting extra things to lug but I also think it's worth considering how the younger child will do on the airplane ride.

Just pooping out of lurk mode to say hi and thanks for your Princess live. Still debating between this one and X for the next line we try. As always the time went by too fast! It was super cool to get a b2b via you and Greg though. And interesting seeing both of your takes on comparing Princess to CCL.

That's awesome. Not to knock CC but for the POA I was able to get a lot more detailed info for planning purposes from a POA FB group. Suppper helpful (and I tend to stay away from those including role calls).

Have a great cruise! It's been great following along so far.

Look at flights from your airport to your destination for about that time of year and decide if the cheapest flights would work for you. Some people have reported a two day deviation hoping to have a full two days in the arrival city, only to arrive well into the evening hours and really only getting one day to explore. Or on the return flight being stuck in the city til the evening for a red eye return flight resulting in an extra day off work. Decide how flexible you're willing to be and if you're okay with less than ideal flights.

I think you've gotten some pretty good answers into what is generally similar/different on the POA. But what is it you're looking for experience-wise? Are you looking for a ship first, destination second for a vacation? What I can say is that they still had a comedian, bands, bars etc. Layout all very similar, still feels like an NCL ship. It was nice to not walk through a smoke-filled casino. But, you won't find much entertainment during the day or even at night. Don't expect to be on the ship and have many options for things to do at any given time. It was all well and good for us, because we weren't there for the ship amenities and what was there was more than enough for when we went looking for it. We didn't care too much for the food tho. With no at sea days, and two overnight stops, you just won't have the same vacation vibes as a Caribbean destination for example.

I had to read it 3x too. To go from 4 to 1 you take a shuttle. The shuttle picks up either on the ground floor of 4 or 8, but to get to 8 you take the train. The sign also says because of the closure at 1 until November. Well it's November. My guess is they forgot to take the sign down when they got the train at 1 running again. Or they never closed it down. IDK 🤷🏾‍♀️

I find the terms to be a little clearer. https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions You can add-on specialty dining for any guest. I don't have a current reservation and can't remember the exact navigation but it's there under your booking info once you've logged in. The add-on package can be purchased on board too. You'll be asked for your card when you pay for the meals, just let them know to charge two on your son's card and keep yours available for the second dining with just you and your DH. Ymmv of course depending on your initial server. Or you can call the consultant and cancel altogether and get the gratuities on the included packages refunded at least. Generally the specialty dining is better than the MDR so I find the FAS worth keeping.

IIRC they did on the Jewel Mexican Riviera and POA too. A towel wouldn't be missed in Alaska but did they really not provide water at least?

I was looking forward to seeing the Rancheros...but is that a flour tortilla? and Black beans? Where's the salsa? Not the tomato-ey stuff but the real salsa. One thing Carnival gets right is the salsa bar at Blue Iguanas.

Well, now I'm bummed because I didn't get tags for the Jewel or the POA.

I feel for Mrs. Benson. DH has learned to be more flexible. He knows we're on time to early when it counts (e.g all-aboard), but for most social situations we get there about-ish the time I aim for. It helps that my family is generally late too so showing up early can be awkward.

When there was a DU promo on any room, my TA was able to find the CN on my account and apply it without calling NCL. He said he'd try it and see if it'd go through, but there was a chance it wouldn't. My guess is he's used to dealing with rolling CN offers. So just ask your TA to humor you to see what happens.

Not sure I'm understanding you. Are you having a hard time tracking how many CN or CF you have already applied to any given reservation? Can't you just look at the booking confirmation and see what the cruise price was? Mine also shows the form of payment applied. You can always add another CN to an existing reservation if a DU or TU is running now regardless of what promo was running when you booked. You don't have to keep track of that. Also, seems like if you need em for a cruise now vs a cruise later it wouldn't be all that difficult to remove them from the cruise later as long as you made another payment to cover at least the deposit amount to avoid cancellation.

Not necessarily because the promos are always changing. You may not be able to take advantage of a double up or triple up promo if it's not running when your PIF date is nearing.

That makes sense! I always figured it had something to do with a stowaway in search of a free cruise issue. Or a make sure everyone made it back alive thing (no unregistered man overboard). Hadn't considered an immigration concern.

POA Dailies.pdf

They have all these listed on the dailies from when I went a month ago (they're on my live if you want to download them). Not sure if the ship tour was free or not tho. I saw several wine tasting opportunities but didn't pay attention to what was offered when after discerning we'd be off ship during those times.

Sounds like a great opportunity to extend some kindness and make a new bff with an acquaintance or coworker you like but haven't gotten to know. You could invite someone for just one of the two legs even. Either way, have a fabulous B2B.

How far out did you hope to check in? 21 days is better than the 14 days on Carnival at least.