njhorseman

You're wrong on a few counts. First the REAL ID license requirement is for airline flights and entry to certain federal government facilities,. It doesn't apply to cruises. Second, the REAL ID requirement was postponed once again, this time until May 7, 2025. Third even if REAL ID hadn't been postponed and even if it applied to cruises (which it doesn't), the OP's cruise is in February 2023, months before the previous May 2023 effective date.

You may want to check your cruise date as there is no Epic cruise departing 2/2/23, but in any event as a (presumably) US citizen you don't even need a passport for your closed loop Caribbean cruise embarking and disembarking in San Juan You can take the cruise with just a drivers license and official birth certificate if you needed to. You can use your passport because this type of cruise doesn't call on any countries that require 6 months remaining validity. As long as your passport won't expire before the end of the cruise...and yours won't, you're good to go.

It looks like you didn't find the Costa Rica board. Under the Ports of call heading click on "Caribbean and it will list the individual islands of the Caribbean as well as countries or parts of countries with a Caribbean coastline. Or you can just follow this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/120-costa-rica/

Looks like you're citing an inaccurate source. Here are sources that say A&K USA's revenue was $559 million. https://www.zoominfo.com/c/abercrombie-kent-usa-llc/462535 https://rocketreach.co/abercrombie-kent-profile_b5c65e90f42e0cac The $1.1 million may very well be the revenue of A&K Philanthropy, Inc. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/364222228

I think it would be more useful and appropriate to post your Cartagena and Puerto Limon reviews on the Colombia and Costa Rica boards, respectively.

The general rule is if you don't have the required visa you won't be allowed to embark, so no...you can't just go and agree to stay onboard. There are a number of commercial visa services that can assist in obtaining a visa, for a fee of course. Some cruise lines have agreements with visa services that they recommend passengers use. Typically you can find the name of your cruise line's visa service partner on the cruise line's website.

The poster wrote "NB" after "St. John's" so I think it's rather obvious that they meant Saint John, New Brunswick. It's a rather common error to call the city in New Brunswick St. John's instead of Saint John.

Order Foreign Currency Check RatesHelp Minimum total order amount is $200.00. Currency will be delivered to your home address and a signature is required. To purchase in a branch, find a location. Note: Business accounts cannot be used to order currency online. Businesses can order currency by calling 1-800-626-9430 Monday – Friday, 8 am – 8 pm, Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm Eastern Time; or in person at any Wells Fargo branch. Currency TAHITI (XPF) 1 FRANC (XPF) = 0.0099562 U.S. DOLLAR (USD)

If NCL "paid a living wage" you...the passenger...would be the one actually paying it. Cruise fares would be increased to cover the wages paid by the cruise line. 100% gratuity, 100% salary or any combination thereof will be coming out of your pocket, not the cruise line's, just as it is now. The ultimate consumer of any product or service is who pays for the product or service.

Yes they do. I've bought XPF from Wells Fargo in the past and I just checked their website and confirmed XPF are still sold. Look for "Tahiti (XPF)" in the dropdown menu of currencies sold.

First, that's not an official government website, it's a commercial visa service's website. Second, even if it's correct it does not address the OP's question, which is whether a visa to enter Nicaragua is required for Chinese citizen who is a legal permanent resident (green card holder) of the US. The OP really has to contact the Nicaraguan embassy or consulate to get an answer.

Crowne Plaza and Doubletree by Hilton are the only two San Pedro hotels that anyone would recommend.

Reservations are neither needed nor available. https://nycruise.com/manhattan-terminal/parking/

There's nothing very close to the port, but lots of hotels a 15 to 20 minute drive from Cape Liberty. There's a cluster of 5 hotels on International Blvd in Elizabeth adjacent to The Mills at Jersey Gardens outlet mall, including an Embassy Suites, Residence Inn and Courtyard by Marriott. there are some adjacent chain restaurants If you're taking Amtrak to Newark Penn Station there's a Doubletree by Hilton attached to the station by an enclosed walkway so you wouldn't need transportation to get to your hotel. You can Uber from the hotel to Cape Liberty the morning of your cruise. The Ironbound neighborhood near Newark Penn Station is home to numerous good Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian restaurants, if that would be appealing to you.

Amtrak from Boston to Newark Penn Station. Taxi or Uber from there to Cape Liberty. Better IMO to travel the day before and spend a night in NJ prior to your cruise. If you have a couple of days available before your cruise take Amtrak to New York Penn Station, stay in Manhattan for a couple of nights and then take Uber, Lyft or a car service from Manhattan to Cape Liberty. You can also fly from Boston to EWR, then Uber to the port.

IIRC if you are taking a cruise from Vancouver that makes no other port calls in Canada and ends in Alaska you actually clear US immigration in Vancouver just before boarding the ship and are considered to be in the US from that point on. It's similar to preclearing US immigration at most major Canadian airports before boarding your flight to the US. Your flight is then treated as a US domestic flight, just as your ship will be considered to be on a US domestic itinerary.

Not that I'm aware of. Are you asking about a cruise that makes a port call in San Juan? For port calls NCL docks in Old San Juan 99.999% of the time. Pan American Pier is normally only used as an embarkation/disembarkation port so there would be no need for shuttles to OSJ.

PR to conceal a desperate need to cut expenses ASAP. Oceania's corporate sibling, NCL, is making similar itinerary changes. I can assure you the entire fleet isn't suddenly experiencing propulsion problems. Cut expenses and increase revenues immediately if not sooner is what NCLH is focused on .

You won't be allowed to board the ship if you don't have the proper visa.

Did you read @Laszlo's post, made just a few hours ago? It says " NCL just today finally, officially has our new itinerary for the 1-8-2023 cruise" . Did you bother to look on ncl.com to see that the itinerary matched the one that @Laszlo posted? Why would you assume that unnamed third party website showing a different itinerary would be correct when NCL just released the revision today and that revision released to passengers was identical to the itinerary on the website?

It hasn't run for several years.

It's on NCL's website. https://www.ncl.com/cruises/12-day-caribbean-round-trip-new-york-barbados-and-puerto-rico-GETAWAY12NYCSJUBASSLUBGIANUSTTNYC?sailMonths=4294934052&ships=4294959434&numberOfGuests=4294953449&sortBy=featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=GETAWAY12NYCSJUBASSLUBGIANUSTTNYC Why would you believe a third party website when @Laszlo, a passenger on the cruise, has posted the revised itinerary provided to him by NCL?

That quote refers to the daily service charge/daily auto gratuity that is added to the passengers' onboard accounts. Those gratuities fund the salaries of housekeeping and restaurant crew. The beverage auto gratuities...typically 20% these days...are what funds the salaries of the bar waiters and bar tenders. You're failing to distinguish between the two different types of gratuities and whose salaries they fund and the article neglects to mention the beverage gratuities.

Correct. Bar crew salaries are funded from the 20% auto gratuity on beverage purchases.

I've told you on the other thread why this information is highly likely to be inaccurate. Naturally I expect the same angry hostile response here that you were so kind to provide on the other thread.