K_S

You certainly could. The idea is the same. Having a small travel router is more convenient as you would simply plug it in, a quick webpage visit to enter your ship login credentials, and leave/forget it on a counter plugged in. Using your phone hotspot requires you to turn the hotspot on each time you want to use it. Therefore you would also need to remember to turn the hotspot off when out of the room or not using it. Likewise it will drain your battery quickly. I have used the travel router solution for years when I traveled professionally. For me, it's more of a safety issue. I would work on my computer in the hotel room to finish up paperwork. The router is a firewall and blocks other people from reaching individual devices (ie., blocks them from hacking or browsing your public ports or folders) while logged into the public wifi. Being able to use multiple devices in your room with the same login is a secondary benefit in my opinion. Primary is data safety honestly. Just remember, this is not (different from) a VPN tunnel. The network admin will still be able to see what sites you are visiting and potentially intercept information you send or view.

Yeah, the price bump for spring break was excessive and a bit astonishing.

A quick update since I actually received our air reservations tonight. Our flights were booked on two non-stop flights (in-out) to Miami. They could have used connections, but didn't and I am happy. Our seats for a family of four were not together, but isle/isle behind and isle/isle behind on opposite side (if that makes sense). The flight times were 5:10am on embarkation date and 9:15pm on debarkation date. That's 12H in the airport on the way home. 😕 I checked the fares today from our midwestern airport (not a hub, but certainly an international airport) and the fare to Miami for the same flight in coach was $1200 round trip per person today. It seems like we saved about $1600 using BOGO. With that said, the only difference in using the new promo (or bought our own tix) is we probably would have chosen an earlier outbound flight on debarkation. I'm not really upset and in this case, it really looks like we would have lost a significant amount of money with the new promo or if we had bought our own tickets.

We are booked for the Joy during spring break. We got the BOGO airfare as part of our package. They emailed us about two weeks ago and asked for a date and time to call and go over the new promotion. When they called, a very nice woman explained that this promotion allows passengers to choose their own flights rather than let NCL choose them. In the program, the cost for four BOGO passengers to fly from our Midwestern airport to Miami would cost an additional $2K. This was above our BOGO fare which worked out to be about $800 per passenger, averaged. I was a little confused since this is our first NCL cruise and second overall--ever. Yes, I understand BOGO travelers fly at the mercy of whichever flights are available approximately 3 weeks before our cruise. I also understand the flight arrangements and airlines (and fares) are chosen to best benefit NCL, but why would I pay $2k more? Her response was that some people want to be able to choose their own flights, carriers and points programs. Hmm, but an additional $2k is a steep price for this accommodation. It felt a bit like a bait and switch. That said, she didn't try to pressure me into a sale. She just said, "hakuna matata" (literally) and that she fully understood, thanking me for choosing NCL and wished us a great trip.