KeithJenner

You can book tables for however many people you want (up to the maximum table size) and the system doesn’t know who you will be eating with, so just book a table for the number you want.

In that case you wouldn’t have had a problem on the Gem either. The last that I heard was that in Greek ports you could only get drinks if you had the package. There are no restrictions now if you do have the package.

You were unlucky in that your cruise was one a very small number that had this issue, which was due to some restrictions imposed by the Greek authorities. For a short period of time some cruises were affected in different ways. It was a very unusual situation that shouldn’t affect you again. Out of interest, what cruise was it that you were on, and when? The main problem was on the Jade around Easter this year.

Anywhere except for a couple of places on the Prima that have a special wine list.

Yes, they use original pods.

This is the sort of thing that seems to become a bit of a thing for a few ships and then they move on to other things. Similar to ropes courses, for example. I’d guess that go kart tracks will be replaced by something else on new ships soon.

Howl at the Moon is on the Epic, Breakaway, Getaway and Escape.

It really depends where you are cruising. In some places there will be lots of options for tours you can just pick up on the day. In others your there will be little or no options. I suspect that being a group of 8 will reduce your options. If the choices are just taxis, for example, then you are going to have to split up. Not all tours have tight schedules.

Apparently if you do it onboard they let just one person upgrade. Ive never done this myself, so I’m just passing on reports from others.

You won’t necessarily pay any local tax. It depends on the port.

In my experience it has always given a date 120 days out, even when it will open earlier either due to cabin category or latitudes. Bookings have always opened up for us on the correct date regardless of that.

Reports of success with this seem to vary, so I would be cautious about relying on this.

Depending on the port, yes you may have to pay the tax.

Howl at the Moon is at Headliners, and the Getaway does have both that and Syd Normans. There is often a pianist or guitarist in other places around the ship (I believe Sugarcane has a piano).

I’ve never had any surprise charges on my account (well, one or two incorrect ones that needed correcting, but that has always been easy enough). There are many optional costs that you could incur, so it would be very difficult to put together a complete list, but don’t think that you will be forever getting charged for things unless you have made a specific decision to do so. To answer some of your questions, there is no gratuity on complementary dining, and any costs incurred for included speciality meals are paid prior to the cruise. There are a couple of upcharge items, but they are clearly specified on the menus (which you can look at in advance). There is no hard and fast rule about tax in ports. Some Non US ports charge them, but then it is usually only on purchased items, rather than those covered by a package. There are then other charges that you could incur (Spa, go karts, arcade, drinks tastings, coffee, Vibe etc). It is very easy to make your total cost for them equal zero, and any charge is usually clearly stated.

Release dates for cruises vary hugely. Whilst 18 months is not a bad rule of thumb, they can appear 3 years out or less than one year. A few years ago the Northern Europe cruises were always posted so late that there were often threads on here asking why NCL weren’t doing them any more. Meanwhile, Hawaii gets released many years out. In my experience, Med cruises are posted relatively early. We have had them booked more than two years out. Based on previous experience, I would expect Summer 2025 for the Med to appear by early next year.

The 2017 dry dock was very substantial with some venues being moved for changed. This years one was very minor. We have sailed on the Jade three times. Once in 2014, once just after the 2017 drydock and again this year. In 2017 it was like a different, but this year we didn’t notice any difference.

You certainly can. The website makes it easier these days to see what cabins are available, and even when it used to just bring up the first few you could always phone and see if your selection is available.

We sailed quite a few times as platinum plus when it was an incremental benefit at that level. There were certainly some occasions where we felt that we were given better seats as a result of our latitudes level. It was never specifically stated, but on some occasions we found ourselves seated by the window when the couple before us went in the middle of the room, that sort of thing. Having said that, there were many more occasions when we didn’t seem to get any preference, so it is certainly not a benefit that I would rely on.

At the moment you can only book any restaurant once online. That applies to MDRs and speciality restaurants. As stated above, reservations aren’t really necessary in the MDR (we have never made one), but if you want to then you can phone to do it.

That is basically it. It very much depends on the individual staff though.

These are two different things. The priority seating is a perk that is not always actually available. Sometimes there is an area in the theatre that is for latitudes. Sometimes it appears that we get a better table in restaurants. I wouldn’t count on either of these things though. The early booking is a decent benefit, although I have to say that I’ve never had an issue getting what we want at 120 days.

I’ve had ports cancelled due to weather. I’ve had ports cancelled due to someone jumping overboard and us spending the day looking for them. On our last cruise we arrived at the port to find that the itinerary had completely changed, which resulted in a lot of rearranging and a bit of lost cash due to non refundable bookings,. We could have grumbled at all of these. We could have had the “worst vacation ever” if that’s what we choose. But instead, we always chose to have a good time, even if it doesn’t give us a great story for the internet. The world is a mess at the moment, and we are lucky enough to be able to go away and relax on holiday. I’d feel pretty bad about myself if I allowed some changed plans to make me feel that I was in some way hard done by,.

Yeah, I assumed that was what you meant, and I agree it seems like you still can.

I’ve not been following this very closely, but I think that the wording has always been something like this. Previously it was always just typical bad NCL wording, and what they meant was that a solo latitudes can’t claim two separate meals for one, rather than they can’t take someone else with them to make one meal for two. Perhaps their meaning has changed, but I would assume not until it is confirmed onboard. Maybe it has already been confirmed one way or the other, as I say I haven’t been following closely.