Baron Barracuda

We're also on this Prima sailing and will be picked up by dd coming south on the West Side Hwy. Given the late arrival should I direct her to Arrivals or have her go past the terminal make a u turn on 12th ave and find a place to wait on the north bound side? Are cars picking up at Arrivals allowed to sit and wait or do police force them to keep moving?

Depends on whether they define "arrives at 10" to mean when ship will dock vs when ship is cleared and passengers are able to debark. It will take some time to unload luggage and sort it by group in terminal. Everyone will also have to clear CBP which can be either a breeze or a hassle depending on how many lines are open. NY now has facial recognition which should speed things up. (Anyone know if NY has Global Entry line?)

Manhattan is chaotic. Bayonne much easier. Brooklyn not too bad.

Have been playing with the 36 day Grand Fjords & Iconic Viking Shores from NY to Amsterdam which can also be booked as B2B2B (NY - Iceland, Iceland - Bergen & Bergen - Amsterdam). Price difference between 36 night booking vs 3 smaller ones is only about $1k. If I book it as b2b2b do you think they will give me booking discount + past guest for each leg?

A classier move would have been to give everyone $300 not just those facing higher airfare. We're disembarking on the 27th with dd picking us up at pier and $600 would have been a nice farewell gift.

We spent 33 days on the Star in Nov / Dec. Believe part of it was with Chef Joseph. Did Chefs Table and Manfredi's 7 times each and with the exception of fatty, thin ribeyes in Manfredi's (attributed by chef to recent switch to new beef supplier) we were very satisfied.

The Olympics are an infinitesimally minor event In the overall scheme of world finance

We were on same itinerary Nov/Dec. Ride from LAX to ship on a Friday was surprisingly quick, under 30 minutes with little traffic. Coming home on a Tuesday we walked off ship at 9am just as transfer bus departed. Called Uber and found a driver already in the parking lot. Drive to airport in heavy traffic took an hour. Passed transfer bus on the way. Grabbed a bite in the United Club ahead of our 1:30 flight.

We rely on the folks at Insuremytrip. Many policies appear identical but the fine print can reveal large differences. Another problem we ran into with Tripmate was when we attempted to cancel and rebook we had to forfeit our Tripmate policy on the original booking and purchase a new one for the replacement. Attempted to switch the policy to another reservation but was told we could not. Other carriers allow you to transfer policy to new sailing.

At least these folks were stranded in the Caribbean. Norwegian recently left 9 people behind in Angola. Were on a late returning non-ships tour. Tour operator said they notified ship but when they returned despite ship still being tied up at pier captain wouldn't allow them to board. When Angolan Coast Guard later tried to ferry them to ship they were turned away. https://www.wral.com/story/south-carolina-couple-stranded-in-africa-cruise-ship-left-without-them/21357016/

Years ago when Explorer was doing Caribbean sailings out of NJ we hit rough seas causing captain to deploy stabilizers. Something went wrong with starboard side one causing ship to lean violently to starboard. I was on promenade and watched carts of liquor bottles roll across deck and crash. Most of the dishes in Portofino fell and broke. Tropical fish from the display tanks flopped all over the floor. Only smart one was my daughter who ran to casino and made quite a haul from these machines.

We arrived at LA pier last November at 10am. Star didn't begin boarding until 11am. At that point there were probably 50 passengers queued up.

Been sailing to the Caribbean more than 30 years and the ONLY port we felt totally unsafe was Ocho Rios. Last time we were there (and it's been a while) machine gun carrying soldiers and unhappy looking locals everywhere. Couple of excursions to plantations had recently been robbed at gunpoint.

It's a long, hot walk around the bay. Much easier to take water taxi to pier at center of town.

How do you know your missing bag even made it off the ship? You put it in the corridor the night before and assumed it would naturally find it's way to the exit hall. Perhaps it fell by the wayside aboard ship or some nefarious sole snatched it and took it back to their cabin to examine.

Sometimes it pays to watch. On the deck 5 laundry on the Star last November the three washers worked fine as did dryer #3. Dryer #2 however didn't heat up leaving clothes damp and while the timer on dryer #1 read 50 minutes when started it would always turn off after just 10 minutes. Need to bring a book and keep pushing the button.

Hopefully danger to Labadee isn't as great as many on here fear. But with US is sending in additional troops to safeguard embassy and evacuate non-essential staff why would Royal take the risk?

In one of the poorest areas of the world Royal contributes greatly to the local economy. In addition to providing employment In the aftermath of of recent earthquake and hurricanes Royal regularly donated large quantities of relief supplies. By all accounts the company is highly regarded in the local community. Perhaps you might do some research before making uninformed sarcastic remarks.

Not sure where you are in Iowa but doubt you're looking at a direct flight. Did you check Delta which flies non-stop to Eppley in Omaha from LGA?

In recent years X eliminated several long time 14 day itineraries including Canada from Bayonne and our favorite, the Southern Caribbean from Miami. The longer itineraries were relaxing and always showed firm pricing.

4k escaped prisoners represents only 0.03% of Haiti's population. Now free why would they desire to remain in one of the poorest nations in the world? More likely looking for a boat. Those who stay are now facing Haitian army as well as national police. Kenya has offered 1k police and Haiti's Caribbean neighbors are willing to assist too. Feel much safer in Labadee than some of the other Caribbean ports we've been in, notably Jamaican and Mexican.

Was there back when the boat protests were going on. Everything was peaceful. Small boats with folks looking for publicity holding up signs protesting Haitian politics. Kept off to side, no attempt to get in our way. No animosity towards cruise passengers.

That's 3k prisoners escaping into a population of over 11 million. Not exactly an army.

Been there many times, never felt unsafe. Given that Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world Royal's contribution to the local economy is a golden goose that locals need to protect at all cost. One violent incident and it's all over. Therefore expect locals will work to ensure a safe environment for cruise passengers by adding their own security measures and / or buying protection from local crime bosses.

Read in a news piece a while back that VO is looking to double size of fleet, adding 10 new ships and VR is looking to add 16. Article said the first 4 VO are on order at a cost of around $1.3B. So total cost for all 26 VO & VR is likely $4B - $5B. That's a lot of new debt to add. Makes a $500MM IPO a drop in the bucket.