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On another line, getting a different colored room key polled near the top of “reasons you want to reach the next status level.” Kinda surprised NCL doesn’t do this. Doesn’t cost anything and makes people happy.

Just me, but use a TA or a cruise consultant. Just book online and that’s it.

It matters to me because it’s a deceptive practice that forces me to work to understand the cost of a product I’m buying. End of the world? No. But it needs to die.

I was just about to hit my teenage years when The Deep came out. Great movie, and we’ll leave it at that.

I assume we are talking cash here. Otherwise, an offer of “personal compensation” to the wrong crew member can get you thrown off the ship.

Also known as “employee salaries.” The industry needs to stop pretending these are service charges that should be charged separately. What’s next, a fee to the captain for steering the boat? It’s a game every cruise line plays to make fares look lower. NCL is just a bit more extreme than the other lines. But if anyone thinks raised charges had to do with rewarding hard working servers…

While we are at it, can someone decide the 2UDP/PBP on the pictured card.

This may be obvious, but you get a set number of dinners depending upon what kind of room you booked. Usually 2.

You better hope not. Because if it does, I’m going to be pissed and blame you guys.

Everyone should get the option to pick up a roll playing card for the muster drill. Let’s face it, in a real emergency everyone won’t be playing the roll of “bored passenger who just wants to get this over with.” Let’s give the crew some real tests. “My ba-by. I’ve lost my ba-by. Won’t somebody please help me find my ba-by.” One card will read “You are Thurston Howell IV. Bring six pieces of luggage to the muster drill and insist that all six go into the lifeboat with you.”

I don’t know about NCL, but Royal will allow the 2nd person to get the no-alcohol package in such circumstance. So it’s worth calling and asking.

In general, a multi room suite is going to be more expensive than two cabins. One option would be to seek out a cruise with a low single supplement. Another would be to put her in an inside across the hall. She can hang out with you and your balcony, but retreat to her cabin for the bathroom and to sleep.

There’s always balcony cabins. You can usually fit a Pac-n-play out there.

Don’t forget the lime. Wouldn’t want to come down with scurvy.

Mosquitos carry all sorts of nasty diseases and you should take strong precautions to avoid getting bit no matter what. As for Yellow Fever, technically it’s recommended. But the risk is extraordinarily low unless you are going someplace with an active ongoing outbreak. I’m one of the most pro-vaccine people you will meet, but I wouldn’t bother. And it can be a bother to get the shot. There is no vaccine for Malaria. There are a couple drugs to prevent getting infected, but they all have problems. If you were overnighting in the jungle that would be one thing. If staying on a cruise ship and visiting cities?? Again, I wouldn’t bother.

I think there’s an idealized muster drill where people first watch the safety video at their leisure, then everybody goes to their muster station at the same time, where everything is well organized. But right now, no cruise line does such a thing. We are offered a choice between group mustering with disorganized safety lesson, and emuster. Of the two, I vote for emuster.

Funny, I’d always been led to believe that if there’s a bank error in your favor, you get to collect $200.

The annoying kids you kinda hope will die.

I’d love a “hard hat” tour if the restocking process in port.

Just to give an alternative view: I love visiting American fast food restaurants overseas. Fun to see what things are the same, and which are different. One of my favorite memories of Paris was enjoying some McVin, from the McDonalds Champs-Élysées.

Titanic. Duh.

Attention passengers: There will be a muster drill today sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 pm. Note that the primary purpose of the drill is to train the crew and we want it to be as realistic as possible. Think how you would behave during an actual emergency. Will you panic? Be a little hysterical? Is there a chance you will forget and go to the wrong assembly point? Then that’s how you should behave today. Let’s get the crew trained, and have some fun in the process.

An ode to a travel agent: And we can plan this cruise togetherStanding strong foreverNothing's gonna stop us nowAnd if this world runs out of cruisersWe'll still have each otherNothing's gonna stop usNothing's gonna stop us

I always book direct with the cruise line. The question for me is would I cruise less if I had to use an agent.

Literally millions of people cruise without a passport or leave their passport in a safe when walking around a foreign country. These people aren’t idiots. They’ve looked at the pros and cons and made a decision. I know people mean well, ok most of you mean well. But calling people names for making a different choice than you would make isn’t helpful.