Asawi

Most of the times they swipe the card even for sodas. I have not seen any itemized FAS listing for drinks. Not sure if you can ask for though.

What they seem to do now is if I buy for example 2 certificates they start writing numbers on a paper and tell you "if you buy this you will get onboard credit but I have a special offer for you. Instead of the onboard credit I give you two certificates for free." I just looked at him and said "that is exactly the same thing as buying 4 and getting onboard credit." And he said "no it's not". I just looked at him shook my head...

I explain it a couple of posts up. This topic started in May when Epic was pulled out of Europe and relocated to the other side of the Atlantic. The European sailing's were cancelled and replaced with I think mostly Caribbean ones.

It's not really an issue now except for the person that did get some airfare cost back recently. It's unfortunate that the topic got "woken up" and is causing confusion.

If you read the thread and not just the headline you'll find out that this is abolut the cancellation of Epic's original schedule. European sailings were cancelled and Epic was relocated across the Atlantic. Your cruise is one of the "new" ones, brining Epic back to Europe.

No extra excursion credit for a solo traveller.

Yep! That's how I do it! I use the app and choose "other amount" and put the amount of my certificate (I'm paying in Euro, so I have to make sure to check the amount since it won't be the standard $250. Cerificate has to be in the currency of the booking, so if you for example buy one online in US$ you need to have it converted. Painless and fast usually!)

Double up run pretty frequently. A few times/year it's all cabins, including insides. Balcony and above double up runs pretty much always. Sometimes without the 4 months limit (there was one recently). My experience is that if your cruise fits with the current terms it doesn't have to be a new booking. I have applied a second certificate to several already booked cruises when the promo appeared.

I will be a bit harsh here. NCL didn't create this situation. They have no obligation to provide compensation. Sure, it could have been done out of goodwill. At a considerable cost for them. Maybe they should have done that. But it would have been out of goodwill and they are not "getting away" with anything! Having said that, I completely understand your reluctance to stay in Istanbul. But it is what it is. Personally I probably would have cancelled and taken the loss that wasn't covered by insurance. And shed some tears both of my own frustration and for the victims of the war. (I am not a wealthy person and the monetary loss would have pained me. But I doubt I could have enjoyed the cruise under these circumstances. But that's easy to say when not actually affected.)

😄 Yeah, Internet onboard does give me flashbacks of days gone by... Sometimes I just give up, realizing it will take too many of my metered minutes just to load some pages. I do the load-log off-write reply-log on thing as well. But it IS a bit of a hassle sometimes! Having unlimited is so much more convenient. Worth the price? Maybe... Maybe not...

I "waste" a chunk of minutes on controling home automation/security/control. Not really necesary, but gives me peace of mind.

Not a big drinker, but I do like a BBC, Mudslide or Bushwacker now and then. No ice cream in any of those. Ice and cream mix in a blender, as has been stated by others. Never been on Epic, so don't know what bars make them, but I suspect many of them would!

I'm beginning to wonder if it is ahip specific, but I've done two cruises on Star. Both times there has been a discounted upgrade offer all through the cruise. Even if I have used up some of my minutes. It startes out as the pre-cruise price and then went down approximately $30/day the next three days. On my 10 day very recent cruise. Price went approximately 200-170-140-110.

I get how bad that must have been. But honestly, it probably would have been just as bad in a non-connected room. I was in a non-connected room on my recent cruise, and I could hear my neighbours conversating, and had I wanted to I probably could have heard what about as well. But I put in my ear plugs instead... I do hope you can get your room exchanged for better peace of mind though. Good luck!

It seems lots of people are worried about connecting doors. So was I when I was asigned one a few months ago. As it turned out I didn't hear a thing from the connected cabin. My neighbour on the other side I heard way too much from. So, what makes a difference seems to be what neighbour you get, not connected cabin or not!

According to this old thread, yes, most of the time (although strictly not "soda"): https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2629191-does-the-soda-package-include-shirley-temples/

I have absolutely no clue how money is distributed and don't have an opinion about it either. Just thought I'd chime in on the difference between FAS in UK/EU and USA. It feels like we (EU) basically pays what US guests pay for drinks gratuities. (Around the same amount). However, unlike our US cousins we cannot opt out of just the drinks package, as has been mentioned. I would really like that! I don't drink much so paying per drink (soda) would be fine if I could get the other parts "for free" (fully understanding that "for free" actually means "included in the price"). But hey, that's not how it is, so I can sit here and wish or just deal with reality. Reality it is then... (Do US guests pay gratuities for the special dinners as well? If so I guess we get a slightly better deal for the whole shabang.)

This warms my heart! Sure, missing a port may be disapointing, but to know you have been part of saving these lives must be great!

Well, if most of the group made it in time then then I'd say ship was held the proper amount of time. I don't want to speculate further into what happened. I don't see OP blaming NCL. I read it more like "OMG! This happened! What horror for them!" It's definitely food for thoughts though and confirms that, (however much some people around me mock me) always trying to have time to have (at least) one train/bus/flight cancelled is good. Not sure it would have helped these people if it was something on the track, but maybe if they had taken the 3.40 instead... (ifs, buts, maybes and hindsights...)

Not really. They can make pretty substantial changes without allowing for free cancellation. Maybe with this being such an extreme thing happening they may be more leniant but only time will tell. Hopefully in teh next few days for those booked!

A few days now and then. There was one recently. Remember one back in May and also during the summer.

I think maybe they are in Italian waters and Italy has not enforced the VAT previously. But then neither had France until now...

Yep, today page is not doing well at all... It has been slow for a long time, but now the Uh-Oh is popping a lot! (Cache and cookies cleared!)

You know, with that location, so near the outdoors I don't think you'll miss a balcony! It's really great going out there to the comfortable seating and different viewpoints. I would LOVE getting an inside in that area again!

OMG! Clear... as mud...