Kortehgehn

You guys are seriously over-thinking this. The cruise has no way of even knowing, nor do they even care, if the 2 passengers are even married or boyfriend or girlfriend. Her reservation matches her passport. Marriage certificates, drivers licenses, etc. play absolutely no role in this.

 

Besides, the marriage certificate in no way indicates what name the woman plans to use going forward. She can use it to change her name on her social card, bank accounts, etc. if she so chooses, but merely having a marriage certificate does not change the name.

I am only referring to possible passport issues when reentering the US through CBP. I agree that NCL likely has no way of knowing, but they do forward the crew and passenger manifest to CBP.

In certain states marriage certificates are made out under the new married name. In other states the married names are indicated on the marriage certificate.

Correction for clarity:

Once a marriage certificate is officially placed on file as a document of record with a new name (ie. a name that is different from the current name of the person on the certificate; every state does this differently and it can be extremely complex), a passport issued in your former name becomes invalid.

I am not a lawyer. I understand the statement about marriage certificates, but they are used and treated the same as a court documented name change as far as Consular Affairs is concerned. I believe other government agencies see this as an official document as well.

Officially, if you use both a maiden name and a spouse's name concurrently then you would need a "known as" amendment on the last page of your passport.

I know this can appear confusing, and does not always seem to make sense. There are different regulations and policies between Consular Affairs and Homeland Security for example. I have personally dealt with circumstances in which this has been an issue. However it almost always involves, directly or indirectly, some sort of suspicious or unlawful activity. Though I have worked with many regular people that have been caught up in these situations.

When I say the passport becomes invalid I do not mean it will be flagged or suspended, I am saying that technically it is no longer valid for travel because it is supposed to be in your current legal name. For example you can travel in your married name with a passport that is in your maiden name right after you get married as long as you have a marriage certificate. The passport is still technically invalid but the marriage certificate together with the passport is a valid document for entry under WHTI in this circumstance. You are still expected to update your passport as soon as possible, or at least before any other international travel.

You may not have an issue, I am sure from the comments here that many people have done this without incident. I am just trying to explain the official position of the situation. The US number for general passport services is 877-487-2778, they should be able to explain this in sufficient detail and give more information if necessary.

DipBrat

Your passport is absolutely not invalidated by a name change. If you search or speak to someone from State they will tell you it is reccomemded you apply for a new passport following a name change. The use of "recomended" will tell you it is not required.

If your name has legally changed through marriage, divorce, or a court ordered change of name, you will need to apply for a new passport.

A U.S. Passport is only considered valid if it is issued in your current legal name.

Once a marriage certificate is officially placed on file as a document of record, a passport issued in your maiden name becomes invalid. If anyone at the BCA tells you differently they should be fired. You can use a marriage certificate as proof of name change within a reasonable time period on a invalidated passport to meet the requirements of WHTI when dealing with CBP upon reentry into the U.S. but a marriage certificate is a dated document as well and is not intended to supplement a valid passport.

I am not saying you can't get away with it, you could be perfectly fine, or you could have an issue it's hard to say. From an official standpoint however, the passport is invalid. Sometimes CBP/TSA will let this pass, and quite possibly it will not even be noticed. There is however a database that these are cross-referenced in. It is a risk.

Separately, having a driver's license that does not match your name at check-in may be a problem for re-boarding the ship as mentioned above.

DCL and RCCL allow swim diapers in their "splash areas" which are separate from their kids pools. I do not think that swim diapers are allowed in the "splash area" on the Breakaway and the Getaway.

That said I have seen toddlers in swim diapers on NCL ships both in the pool, the kids splash area and even in hot tubs on many cruises. So it does not seem like the rule is very stringently enforced by NCL, or the crew are not well aware of it.

However, I can find no definitive information from NCL that states this as such specifically regarding "splash areas" only "pools". One would think they would make the policy more clear especially if it was allowed. I believe extra procedures are necessary if swim diapers are to be allowed in a splash area due to CDC Regulations.

Wow! Spinnaker looks great after the renovation, and it looks like there are actually more places to sit now instead of all those crazy neon colored bed/chair things. Wish they could have had this done a month earlier for our cruise.:(

The DSC essentially replaces tipping on NCL cruises, it should not replace basic pay for the crew. Crew on these ships should still get a basic wage from NCL; tips should not be relied upon as base pay, they should only supplement base pay.

Well, this is off topic, but I think discretionary tipping is a good thing. I suppose it would have been clearer to say that guests no longer get to decide what is a fair amount of extra compensation for a particular crew member, especially in the event of poor or exceptional service, because the amount each employee receives is determined by NCL and comes out of the DSC.

Normally if I receive exceptional service from a crew member and then I leave this crew member a tip, they receive that full tip for themselves; if they choose to give some of that tip to other crew that I did not have direct contact with that is their choice as well. NCL says tipping is not required but requires that guests pay that money to NCL instead through DSC and they will distribute it for you. It is a fact that the DSC does not go directly to crew members, at least some of it is used for NCL's "incentive programs". I do not know what percentage of this goes to the crew directly, I perhaps incorrectly assumed that this was pooled and distributed to crew evenly.

"Staff members including restaurant staff, stateroom stewards and behind-the-scenes support staff are compensated by a combination of salary and incentive programs that your service charge supports"

The above quote from NCL's website leads me to believe that the DSC is only used for these incentive programs, which I assume may include crew bonuses.

Originally Posted by sjbdtz

 

How would you feel, if they told you that your cruise fare included all gratuities? Would that be better? No need to tip at all.

While I know that it is becoming more common practice to include mandatory gratuities in all kinds of service professions that previously did not, I do not understand how the inclusion of gratuity charges ever benefits the consumer. Gratuity charges should not be decided as a fixed rate by the provider of a service as it defeats the whole point of the gratuity in the first place.

Originally Posted by sjbdtz

 

They've simply calculated what the TOTAL PRICE of everything is, and then carved-out $12/day to make it noticeable.

 

Really it's no different than determining the total cost of the cruise, and then carving out $100 of OBC (the same as a discount) to make it noticeable.

I think NCL's cost structure is far more complex that the above example makes it seem. Cruise fares and profit margins can fluctuate greatly and the DSC is a fixed fee that everyone pays regardless of how much they paid for their cruise fare and it is paid per guest not per stateroom. OBC's are offered in different amounts at different times and do not affect the cruise fare directly. Also given the restrictions on OBC from NCL they are likely not worth an equal cash value compared to a cruise fare.

Originally Posted by sjbdtz

 

- The cruise line does not take an administrative levy from the DSC.

How can anyone possibly know this unless they work for NCL at the corporate level? This statement also depends heavily on the definition of "administrative levy" which could easily be subjective.

Sorry for the long post, I see that there are a lot of threads and opinions here on the forum about the DSC. All I know is that there is a lot that I do not know about how the DSC is really used by NCL.

The Haven Spa Suite on the Epic does come with butler and concierge service (and an awesome jacuzzi :D) however, the Spa Mini-Suite does not. If you have a Haven Spa Suite your butler will bring snacks to your room daily and can serve you breakfast or dinner if desired. Your butler can handle all room service requests, and in fact as a suite guest you can order any item from any restaurant on the ship and your butler will get it for you. There is no charge for any of these services unless you order dinner from a specialty restaurant, in which case the cover charge will apply. Hope that helps!

As a side note, if eating breakfast or dinner in your room, it is worth noting that the table area is smaller compared to the other suites and can be a bit crowded.

NCL has changed the system, for various reasons, most of which I think tend to benefit NCL, some of which may benefit the staff onboard their ships, and I would say none of which benefit the consumer. Having a DSC in lieu of tipping gives NCL much more control over the final distribution of those funds that would normally be given directly to the crew. Also I think this can affect the level of performance of some crew members because tipping is not expected and the DSC is pooled and distributed evenly regardless of individual guests opinion of service quality.

In the past few years almost all lines have implemented something similar to the DSC concept. For example Royal Caribbean calls it an automatic gratuity charge, but I don't think it's really much different than NCL's DSC. Prior to these changes it was common practice to tip staff such as the cabin steward, maitre d', sommelier, waiter, and busboy and other such staff on the last day of the cruise.

Lots of people are commenting here that the DSC is not a tip, and while that may be technically true in wording the fact is that it has replaced the standard practice of tipping these crew members. Anyway, I just think this is an important point to remember when talking about the DSC. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by peg013

See red above....did this just happen recently? On which ship? Mine has always shown the correct balances for both the refundable and nonrefundable OBC.....no surprises at the end on the Star, Dawn, Gem and Breakaway. It is hard to tell the differences on the TV but I always get at least 2 printouts each cruise which define them better than the TV.

In 2012 on the Gem we had been using the TV on-board to keep track of our credit and I had been calculating the DSC thinking that it would come out of our remaining OBC. Every day on the TV the DSC would appear to come off the OBC credit and the balance would be negative. In the end we went over a little and had a balance at the end of the cruise, but it was less than the DSC. On the last night when we got our account statement in our room the balance was more that what had shown on the interactive TV, and it showed we still had about 50$ of OBC. I fully understand it now but it was confusing at the time, and I had thought at first it was a mistake.

In the end it worked out and they actually credited us the difference, I just wish the TV accounting had been more clear. I never knew about different types of OBC before that.

I do think it can be confusing for new cruisers with NCL about the DSC. It is on their website FAQ and in the contract but I don't think many of the passengers read that, even if it is their responsibility to do so. NCL mentions it certainly but I don't think they are as up front about it as they could be.

I think most guests assume the credit can be used for anything charged on-board and in fact, for a while it was able to be used that way even though NCL officially said otherwise. I also think it is very misleading of NCL in that when you view your account on-board the DSC charges will appear to come off of the credit balance until that last night when you get the final printout and a surprise balance.

Originally Posted by meglet

So if the real driving force behind the ban is regulation and the cost of retrofitting, does that hold out hope that new builds may have the sort of equipment that will make it safer for a portion of some ships to permit balcony smoking?

I heard that these changes are most likely to be industry wide due to updated regulations that would require ships to refit smoke detector and fire suppression systems, as well as other enclosure modifications onto all balconies in order to comply, or simply introduce a no smoking policy on all balconies. Certainly the case of burning cigarettes being sucked back into the ships ventilation system is a good example of the dangers. I was told by my cousin who does marine engineering work, that a lot of this stems from the fire on the Star Princess and the subsequent analysis, investigation and their conclusions. I do not understand why it would take more than 8 years to implement a change in regulations; though I suppose everything in large industry and the bureaucracy moves rather slowly.:rolleyes:

From what I saw touring the Getaway, none of their their mini-suites have a tub. Or at least the category that we saw definitely did not have a tub, though it did have a spa type shower. I do know on most of the other Norwegian ships we have been on, that the Mini-suites do have bathtubs such as on the Norwegian Gem, which is a Jewel Class ship, among others. This is usually something we look for when booking as well. Hope that helps!

So I agree that as these drugs are illegal they should not be brought on board any cruise ship in the first place, and that a person has no right to expect that they would not face fines or jail time for bringing them into Bermuda.

However, I would say there is a large difference between searches of cruise ship cabins and searches of airliners or passengers coming into port etc... I am sure Bermuda certainly has the legal right to do this, but it would seem the Bermudian Government is not only exercising border search and seizure rights at the time of arrival or disembarkation but has an all out invitation to search any cabin at will at any time over the course of a 3-day stay in a Bermuda port. The idea that only criminals are at risk and that customs could never make a mistake or enter the cabin of a passenger who has no drugs at all seems a fallacy. People live in their cabins on board cruise ships and the average person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, people do not live on board airliners or have such expectations of privacy. Bermuda customs cannot search hotel rooms in Bermuda in the same manner, they get around this because of the unique nature of the situation involving a ship in port, which is infact a floating hotel.

"In the past, crew members, according to the premier’s spokeswoman, have been known to hide large quantities of illegal drugs in unsuspecting cruise passengers’ cabins."

I don't know of many NCL ships with rooms on deck 12, especially suites with balconies so I am assuming this is referring to the Pride of America. If you are referring to room 12500, the category SE Penthouse, then yes the balcony is enclosed and completely separated from cabin 12502, unless you really stretch out and look around the divider. Although didn't the PoA just go through some more renovations? If so then I'm not completely sure.

For what it's worth, whenever we have gone out of the port of NYC there is always a very nice lady from NCL at the entrance to the Suites and VIP check-in line to the right. She has a clipboard with all the Suite and VIP guests and she checks your name off of the list when you arrive; last year there were two couples who were in front of us who I think were traveling together, the first couple was on the list but the second couple was not and she politely directed them to the general check-in line. Although I saw both couples together later in Cagney's so who knows.

I would say that if you get to the terminal early enough the general check-in line moves pretty fast especially if there are few guests in the suite & VIP line because the general line usually has more than one metal detector and X-ray machine going, and it seems like the majority of passengers arrive in the afternoon. I know from experience that the pre-concierge desk is hit or miss they do not always seem to have the correct information and have given us incorrect info in the past, it even seems to vary depending on who you talk to when you call. :confused:

Okay, so I am hoping these are the correct and current tags:

Interestingly enough supposedly the reason why we never got tags mailed weeks ago was because the suite categories were changed from a S# to an H# which apparently made NCL's automated luggage tag request system go crazy and refuse to print any tags.

A few people mentioned they got the correct tags on this thread though so I am not sure if this is true, but I was told this meant that many Haven guests would be receiving old generic tags instead of printed tags. Again I don't know if that is all true or just a story they told me but thought it might be of interest to some. :rolleyes:

After having luggage get lost, rerouted and stolen over the years I suppose I am just overly anxious about luggage tags for any trip cruising or flying etc... Seems like my luggage always finds a way to get lost. Although I have never had a problem on NCL, I just really like the printed tags with the room number for that reason. I suppose at this point I can always print the online ones with the room number, I just always worry about the tags coming off the luggage or getting damaged or wet.

Just as a side note though, I feel like the preconcierge desk just tells you what you want to hear, I have gotten so many different explanations from them when I call it's unreal.

These were sent through the preconcierge last week after we had called because we had still not received our tags for our June 28th Sailing. Very frustrating as I had been told multiple times by different people for the past four weeks that tags had been sent and they never showed up. My wife finally called again last Thursday and they looked up our booking and told us that the tags still said "pending" and the documents department would send them out Friday. This is probably the third time we were told they would be sent. Got these tags in the mail today.

Now that someone mentioned it I do recognize the old font on those tags. Quite frustrated getting the run around with the preconcierge at this point. :(

Thanks for the input and the help!!!

I guess it just surprised me that there was no cabin number or my name, my wife's name etc... All of our previous luggage tags have had that info printed on them already. Our online tags from our e-docs have a cabin number but look different that the ones we got in the mail. I've attached a picture, but it's not the best:

Hello all,

I received my luggage tags from NCL today for our upcoming cruise on the Gem. I was curious though because they were not preprinted with all of our info, they do not say priority on them and have a different design then the old ones. In the past they have always had this information on them, I wonder, is there no more priority luggage? Does NCL send out generic luggage tags to everyone now? :confused:

This is very disappointing and it makes me concerned about our upcoming cruise on the Epic, I sincerely hope NCL rethinks this decision. The private sundeck was one of our favorite places on the Gem. Our entire haven experience on the Gem was wonderful! I was already a little worried with the Epic having a much larger Haven capacity then other NCL ships and also by the fact they sell Posh passes. Lately I have been reading reviews of people sneaking into the Haven and others who can't get a lounger in the courtyard. It almost seems like the Haven on the Epic just isn't worth the extra cost. If I had known all this months ago I think I definitely would have considered a different ship.:(

We are on the April 13th sailing as well! According to iconcierge only 68 days 3 hours and 25 minutes to go!!!