KeithJenner

If you do ask then please come back here and let us know what they say. I always say that they are unlikely to make exceptions because it is extremely rare that anyone reports back with positive experiences. Any feedback you can give will help others who have the same question in future.

The dining package is not transferable, so you can’t do what you suggest. People often suggest that it is worth asking, just in case they let you, and there is never any harm in asking, but it is very rare that they make exceptions like this. I would plan around not being able to share the credits.

I have had experience with this, although mine was more complicated (and caused some problems). It was back in 2015 though, so things have likely changed anyway. When the Escape launched, I did a three day cruise from Hamburg to Southampton with my wife and son. They then went home and I stayed onboard for the one night CTN when I was joined by my brother. Following that, he left whilst I carried on to Miami as a solo. All three legs were in different cabins. The system tried to pull all three bookings together, so I just had one onboard account for the full two weeks. This caused a number of problems, good and bad. The good was that, as I had the beverage package for the transatlantic, and had purchased corks and caps for the three day, I actually had them both for the full two weeks, including the CTN. I was the only person on the ship who had the beverage package that day, and saved a fortune. As both were marked on my room card, I did get lots of questions from bar staff who assumed I had purchased both packages. 🙂 Before the CTN I got off the ship with my family and walked to the station with them. When I returned back I met my brother at check in, but I didn't need to check in again (I think I had got a new card at guest services in the morning). The problem was that things started going wrong with my room card. We discovered on the CTN that only by brothers card opened the door. That wasn't a problem, but when he left the ship the next morning and cabins were available for the transatlantic, I found that my card still didn't let me in the room. For a period I had to call a number if I wanted to get into my room so that they could let me in. This wasn't ideal, but I decided to live with it for a while. When I couldn't get a drink with it though, I decided to get something done about it. Senior staff got involved, and eventually they got it sorted (plus some OBC for the inconvenience). It was certainly an experience, and I have a unique room card as a souvenir. Another inconvenience was having to do 4 muster drills in 5 days. 🙂 I suspect that your experience won't be quite that complicated.

I wouldn’t say they are easier to do onboard. You either have to go to the reservation desk or go through the same process as you would at home to do it on the app/touchscreen. I’d rather do that at lunchtime at work than when I’m onboard. I’d say they are similarly easy, and it comes down to personal preference.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that people who don't want to be seated with others at dinner don';t necessarily want to meet people as well. I go to the meet & greet, I talk to people at the bar, and count many people who I have met on cruises amongst my friends. Some of them I have cruised with on multiple occasions. I have eaten with others quite a few times on cruises. However, we have always selected the people we dine with. Generally we like to eat with by ourselves. There is plenty of time to socialise during the rest of the cruise. When we eat with others it is because we specifically want to spend time with those people, rather than feeling that we need to use the dining table as a place to make friends (with people randomly selected for us). I'm a big boy now and I can find my own friends.

I’m 125 days out today and was able to book online (based on latitudes level, we are in a balcony). I wasn’t expecting that to work and thought they wouldn’t actually open up until 120 days. Good to see the system is getting back to normal now.

I’ve heard there are around 100 positive cases (about 10% of passengers). Not sure what will happen at the end of the cruise. covid rules are fairly relaxed here in England but still that many positive cases will present problems.

They are per cruise, regardless of length. The only difference that cruise length makes is that you don’t get some of the benefits on very short cruises. The detail is on the website.

BA will want you to upload required information before you can check in for your flight. This allows them to check your documentation beforehand which saves time at the airport. If you aren’t getting tested until the airport then you won’t be able to do that, so you will have to show your documents at the airport instead. From what you say about your computer skills/lack of email I suspect that you will be doing it manually anyway, so not particularly a problem for you.

They haven’t substituted ports because the real reason for cancelling is that they don’t have the bookings to support two ships in the Baltics. The Dawn is still there at the moment. They should really offer to transfer people to the Dawn, but that isn’t how NCL works.

Looks like you are currently in the lock. That usually happens in the evening/at night. It’s a fun thing to do during the day.

In normal circumstances, Headliners alternates between a comedy show and Howl at the Moon (the pianists). I suspect that any difference at the moment is related to covid etc. We love Howl. Last time we were on the Breakaway we had our seats at the bar every other day. By mid cruise they were being left for us if we were late. 🙂

I'll try to be brief, as this is quite off topic. I was probably a bit unfair about Greece in my report. I do like it, but there are other places which I prefer. Santorini is really nice, although Thira is just OK in my opinion, and I really love Rhodes, but many other Greek ports, whilst being nice, don't excite me. In the Eastern Med, my ideal itinerary would include the Croatian ports, Motor (a real favourite) and Istanbul. Having said that, a Greek Islands cruise makes for some of the best sailing. One of my favourite cruise memories was from a few years ago, sitting on our aft balcony with some wine at night watching the Islands pass by. I would certainly recommend the Eastern Med, and the Greek ports. Western Med is quite different. It isn't as scenic, and travelling to places like Rome and Florence make it quite tiring. However, there are some great ports and I particularly love Barcelona (we often sail from there). I think that the Epic round trip is a great introduction, as it includes Barcelona, Rome, Naples and Livorno (Florence). It may be worth looking at the 10 day cruises that NCL are doing from Rome (we are doing it on the Breakaway next year). It includes some Greek ports but also Sicily and Malta (which are both new for us). I think that would be a great introduction as well. Give it a go. People generally aren't disappointed by the Med.

It doesn't show up in your account (there have been loads of "where's my voucher" posts recently). NCL staff can see the voucher, and I assume that a travel agent can access it somehow. It is 10% off the price of a cruise, so isn't a monetary amount or something that can be used as OBC. It makes the new cruise you book cost 10% less (approximately, as it doesn't come of some bits like taxes etc). I had a couple of them and my PCC just applied them to new cruises.

No, we were all booked, we just requested sitting together. My point was that they don't just seat people as they turn up, but have the seating planned in advance, based on the bookings.

When we were on the Jade recently we discovered that we had booked Teppanyaki for the same time as some friends onboard, so decided to go together. When we arrived, they seated us on different tables, as they has pre-allocated the seating. This suggests that they don't just fill them up as they go.

It doesn’t even have to resemble you. They will take another picture at the port if they aren’t happy with it. Ours were all ok, but she said she would take another one anyway. Next time I’m not going to spend any time over it and just take a quick picture.

A few weeks ago on the Jade they were providing tests on the final day. I didn’t need one, so don’t know the detail, but they had times for different groups listed in the dailies and also a separate walk in area for those who hadn’t registered. I was in a non Haven suite and we had a letter saying that we could get tests done in the Haven.

Yes, that changed a little while ago, I remember some discussion on here at the time as there was debate as to whether the OBC for the purchase still gets allocated to the payment (it does - for now)

You will be first off, probably around 6am

I assume that this was after the transatlantic? That would explain the queue for immigration. When the Epic is doing the standard round trip there is no immigration on disembarkation, so no queues there (unless something significant has changed).

Yes, it is a point of confusion. I assume that they want people to spend it, which is why they word it the way they do. I expect that one day they will stop applying it to the purchase, but at the moment it is still done that way.

That is the cost of the gratuities on the beverage package as part of the free at sea offer. Effectively the beverage package costs $20 a day per person (if you ignore any extra cost for getting it like the premium over a sail away room, but that's a different discussion).

You aren't committing the $2,000 as the $1,000 comes straight off it. You are paying $1,000 out and get $2,000 of vouchers. Everything else is just marketing talk.

Where did the OBC come from? If it is from a travel agent then it depends on whether it is refundable or non refundable. Only the TA will be able to tell you that.