luv2kroooz

They are all one depth. I am recalling 4 ft or so. They are not as deep as the Princess ships. You didn't ask but full disclosure.... Carnival pools are salt water. Princess is fresh water.

Comedians were different on ours. Yes, the rest of the shows were the same but we also didn't necessarily feel the need to see everything on week one. It ended up being a more chill experience. If we wanted to dine late one night, we did because we knew we could see the playlist show next week. If we were too tired to catch the deck party, we skipped it on week one. We love B2B. If you can pair a 7 day eastern with a 7 day western all the better.

Not so fast. It's all over YouTube. Cruise vloggers covering it too.

NCLs response is so amateur. I mean what a missed opportunity for them. They go on and talk about the rules and the signs and announcements, blah blah blah. "..... guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time, which is communicated broadly over the ship’s intercom, in the daily communication and posted just before exiting the vessel. Guests are responsible for any necessary travel costs to rejoin the ship at the next available port of call. When the guests did not return to the vessel at the all aboard time, their passports were delivered to the local port agents to retrieve when they returned to the port." The above is all true by the way, but why rehash what has already been said in the news story? A more skilled public relations response to the story might have read something like this. ..."regrettably, we acknowledge a group of 8 passengers chose to participate in an excursion operated by an independent third party and were delayed, and returned to the port after the ship had raised its anchors for departure. It was always our intention to allow them to enjoy an uninterrupted vacation. However, we have a commitment to the 2,000 guests onboard to maintain a posted schedule. Furthermore, we have an unwavering commitment to the safety of our crew and our passengers. After consultations with senior officers and shoreside management, it was determined that the risk of injury to reboard the 8 passengers was simply too great, and accordingly, we stand ready to safely reboard them when the ship is docked in it's next port of call. Then they could trot out all their cliches about how they regret this inconvenience, and they work hard to deliver memorable experiences, they remain at our service, and the safety of passengers is always front of mind. Big time missed opportunity here. Instead NCL just blamed the passengers, which is obvious to most fair thinking people. There were better ways for NCL communicate this.

I have no idea. It was your hypothetical, so it can be whatever you want it be.

A smart, service minded business man would open the store. It would increase profitability and build good will with his customer base who may have been in an unfortunate bind. If you just tell them to go away and come back tomorrow, they might just go to a competitor today and never come back tomorrow. Then, they'll tell all their friends about your terrible customer service. So, while you were technically correct in denying them service, you may have harmed yourself in the long term.How wise was your decision in the end?

No, the HDMI ports are disabled. https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2789/~/stateroom-television-programming Connecting Personal Devices to Stateroom TV's Guests are not permitted to connect Digital Cameras/Camcorders, DVDs/VCRs, USB sticks, iPods, Nintendo/X-Box Play units with the television in the staterooms; all connection ports are disabled.

......and the bus company wants to maximize revenue, better said, fill every seat on the bus, on the 90 minute journey to FCO. NCL wants you off the ship as early as possible. They don't care how long you sit shoreside waiting for a bus to load and leave for the airport. The train service is scheduled and operates on a time schedule, irregardless of passenger capacity.

The lines are more similar than different. You can't go wrong with either. If you want value, go with whatever is cheaper. Carnival is bare bones, low key fun. NCL feels a bit more upscale to us. Lots of opportunities to have fun on both lines. Lido deck complimentary food options are better and more varied on Carnival. MDR is about the same with complimentary filet and Caribbean lobster on Carnival. Highlighter entertainment is about the same....average, low quality entertainment. Carnival excels in dedicated comedy shows and movies at night on Lido, if that is your thing. Typical trivias, game shows, etc. NCL far better itineraries offered, Carnival is basically US to Caribbean, over and again. NCL's Free at Sea offers are a better value than paying Carnival $65 per day for drinks. Sometimes Carnival includes their Cheers program in the fare, but this is very rare. If you can get the Cheers included, it is far superior to NCL.

The high speed train is super convenient too and ridiculously economical. 16 Euro per person to FCO. Lots of "how to do it" videos out there.

The devil's in the details and the details really don't matter, at this point. The general public reads and concludes that big corporation NCL abandons guests in Africa. A paraplegic, a pregnant woman, a heart condition, a concussion, all abandoned by NCL without prescriptions etc. NCL refuses to help....yada, yada yada. The public (outside of cruisecritic) concludes NCL is bad. If NCL had an opportunity to get these people on board, it should have done so. The article implies that it did, but who knows. If it did not, then so be it. NCL to date has not disputed the story..... On the afternoon of March 27, 2024, while the ship was in Sao Tome and Principe, an African island nation, eight guests who were on the island on their own or with a private tour missed the last tender back to the vessel, therefore not meeting the all aboard time of 3 p.m. local time. While this is a very unfortunate situation, guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time, which is communicated broadly over the ship’s intercom, in the daily communication and posted just before exiting the vessel. Guests are responsible for any necessary travel costs to rejoin the ship at the next available port of call. When the guests did not return to the vessel at the all aboard time, their passports were delivered to the local port agents to retrieve when they returned to the port. Our team has been working closely with the local authorities to understand the requirements and necessary visas needed if the guests were to rejoin the ship at the next available port of call. We are in communication with the guests and providing additional information as it becomes available.”

Agreed. I'm just saying that I can't control what the next guy does or does not do, so there is no reason for me to invest time debating it. When the system degrades, changes will be implemented.

Yeah, the mimosa happy half hour was nice because the rest of the ship is basically shutdown in preparation for boarding. It provided a place to hang out and chat for 30 minutes or so while the crew was working hard on turnaround. Oh well.

Venezia is same for April. High travel season, high demand, ships are likely booked to capacity.

As long as they are discretionary and can be adjusted up or down, they are tips. Those that want to tip, tip away, those that don't, don't. To each their own. I couldn't care less how much the next guy tips or doesn't tip.

Again, as I posted above, we have not experienced "matters of convenience" changes on other cruise lines. Maybe we are just lucky. With respect to Caribbean, we cruise to be on the sea, too. Ports are secondary. But that's us. Europe, South America, Greece....we cruise to actually see the destination. If you only cruise to be on the sea, go cruise on a freighter. Maybe you are the one that is doing it wrong.

It has not changed. The fuel surcharge is still there. They've not implemented it to date.

Wow, so you are advocating flexible pricing based on fuel costs. That is a dangerous proposition.

What would make even more sense is to recognize this at the itinerary planning stage. The distances to Grenada haven't changed in a meaningful way since the itinerary was created and published or while NCL collected revenue on this sailing.

Undoubtedly true. The entire industry is experiencing record demand. I am so glad the other lines have not adopted NCL's practices.

Couldn't agree more. Our last two NCL cruises had multiple last minute changes for what I call matters of convenience - itinerary optimization, customer feedback, etc. We caught on to their game. By the way, we support itinerary changes for safety reasons...unrest, weather, etc. Since that time, we have done one Princess and two Carnivals with a third on Carnival coming up next month. Fortunately, no itinerary changes due to matters of convenience. If you are truly committed to an itinerary, NCL is not your best choice. If you couldn't care less where you end up, then it might be a good, value-based option. Best way to vote on this is to take your business elsewhere. They can fill their ships with unsuspecting passengers or passengers that are indifferent to the itinerary they are purchasing. If we wanted to play "guessing" games, we'd join the circus.

Sounds about right. Itinerary changes just a few weeks out to disrupt your plans, for your convenience, of course. As long as they say they are working hard to deliver and then apologize, everything should be ok, right, lol? If they were being truthful, the time for working hard and optimizing experiences should happen at the itinerary development stage before the cruise is published and before they collect money from 2,000 guests. It's the typical sell X but deliver Y. NCL has mastered it and they will continue to do it because they can.

NCL....No Complimentary Lobster. If important to you, try Princess, Carnival or Royal. They all serve up decent, not outstanding, lobster for FREE.

vertoe.com Hope this helps.

What everyone said above is accurate. In Galveston, we did not have to leave the ship. Customers came to us and processed us through while we were at our meeting point. Then, straight to the lobby for mimosas, which has since changed to a drink coupon.