sanger727

That does seem a bit crazy that those are the items they removed. The only desserts that I will never eat are chocolate cake, carrot cake, and cheesecake... Just not fans. When we got out to eat there are rarely any other items on the dessert menu. Maybe ice cream. But chocolate cake and cheesecake do seem to be dessert staples. On a personal note, I would be quite happy with the apple pie or the creme Brule so I'm not upset about this change.

$800 for insurance on an $8000 trip isn't that unreasonable. Especially when the cruisers are older. A quick look on insure my trip for a 70+ year old couple ranges from $500-$1,000 in insurance cost. I would do what you do with the credit card before spending that much on one trip. But, that is probably what insurance for this trip will end up costing.

Everyone is charged auto tips so I assume the OP is only asking about "extra" tips. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using an envelope for extra tipping or giving a bartender cash. I don't typically hand out cash as we go; but I may track down favorite employees at the end of the cruise to give a larger cash tip to. I wouldn't be too concerned about whether or not others appear to be tipping extra. They may, they may not, or they may do it discreetly enough that no one notices. As already mentioned, I think alot of Celebrity cruisers end up with quite a bit of OBC and probably use some of that for extra tipping.

It seems that it worked fine with video - that being said; every video conferencing platform I've used allows for no video connections. I have several video conferences a week for work and when people are traveling, turning the camera off works well when there is a weak connection. If you don't absolutely have to have a face to face call, that is always my suggestion.

I've taken this to mean that the children selected the cabin - but the OP and wife have to pay for it. $8000 is outrageous for a 5 night cruise and I would personally be offended also that that was selected without approval. I'm curious what the conversation was between the wife and the children about this. I've planned quite a few vacations with other people have never been on such different pages on acceptable pricing.

Why do you think that the salon won't braid hair? I'm willing to bet that Carnival has a non-compete with the spa that they can't offer any services that are already offered.

sorry. Celebrity. Same concept. They don’t run their own HOHO buses; they use someone else’s. The point is to travel on ur time frame, not theirs.

We did the HOHO on our own. Can’t remember what we did with our luggage but think there was storage at the port. Not sure how a HOHO would include luggage and transport to the airport - it’s a public tour where you can travel on your own time frame. any other NCL excursion probably would include the airport drop off; but it doesn’t surprise me at all that the HOHO doesn’t. The airport isn’t a stop on the Vancouver HOHO; so they would essentially do what u can do on your own - store ur luggage at the port, then have u return to the port a specific time and arrange transportation to the airport.

Agreed. And different people have very different priorities. Someone with mobility issues or strength issues would place a high value on not having to drag a suitcase around. The friend I travel with gets debilitating leg cramps and won’t travel in economy overseas. Her priority is that if she can’t afford business, she won’t take the trip.

agreed. I usually use TripAdvisor; but have had very good luck booking directly with local tour companies. Many times you don’t even have to pay in advance.

I don’t necessarily either. I personally am in a situation where trips are budgeted. I frequently travel with a friend who has probably 10x my budget. The reality is she prioritizes things and is willing to spend money differently than me. The only positive is that my DH doesn’t love traveling; so I can spend the whole budget on my half of the trip.

your situation was also unique and those ‘one offs’ pop up. Ours was traveling to Vietnam last year. We took a river cruise. The river cruise company told us upfront that an ‘e-visa’ was not acceptable and they recommended a visa service. Using the visa service was like $600 for two of us (included 2 visas and expedited processing because my travel companion had an out of the country trip and couldn’t send her passport in far enough ahead). I would normally never pay that kind of money for that kind of service. BUT…. After a lot of research it became clear to me that there was no other option to get the correct visas in the time we had. So yeah, when risking many thousands of dollars of trip money, $300 each was well worth the peace of mind of getting our visas.

It’s not that, it’s a budgeting perspective. If you have the ‘fun money’ to regularly spend thousands on business class flights and on suites; a few hundred for luggage forwarding is likely not going to phase you. If your travel budget for a trip is $10,000, $600 for luggage shipping is 6%. If your travel budget is $2,500, $600 is 25%

thanks, that’s really helpful. Neither the cruise line nor Vietnam have a published policies related to positive covid tests. And frankly, in Vietnam, there are no formal rules. We ended up calling the US embassy for guidance and that’s where we got with it. They can’t help, it’s communist still. Businesses are free to refuse people, the government is free to quarantine people.

right. It’s a bit like saying if you paid for a balcony cabin, would you take this free upgrade to a suite where you can’t sleep for a week. No thanks.

We had one on our last cruise. The agent was very responsive when we went to book our cruise. Several months later we couldn't get him to pick up the phone or return an e-mail. We ended up going through the main number of the agency and they couldn't get him to call us back either. Another agent ended up helping us instead, and it was a mess. He booked us in the wrong room category so the price wasn't what they quoted us. We finally had to file a complaint with the better business bureau to get a response.

I was on a river cruise last December with a pretty major covid scare. There were 38 people total on the river cruise - and probably 24ish that were on the land tour plus river cruise. Everyone was required to be vaccinated and boosted. On the first day of the land tour one of the guests had some sinus issues, then someone had a cough - by midway through the cruise, everyone had been exposed and probably 10-15 total were sick. Our cruise director decided that everyone who was sick should take a rapid covid test. Now, we were in Vietnam at the time, so the tests were certainly not in English or of any brand that anyone had heard of. A total of 4 people tested positive; interestingly enough my roommate and I were both sick. I tested positive and she tested negative - go figure. So she was allowed to switch to a different room and remain on the tour was I was quarantined until we docked. We only had 2 days left of the cruise and then another land tour section in Vietnam. It turned into a whole mess. The tour company advised the hotel that we had the positive rapid tests. They required all 4 of us to take PCR tests before we were allowed to check in. And there was a heavy implication that if any of us tested positive, the whole group would either have to test or be refused. Luckily, we all tested negative on the PCR tests. No one got seriously ill. All around it was essentially cold symptoms. Do you what feel is right; but keep in mind that a positive test can still cause serious implications - especially outside of the US.

This happens in the US all the time. For example, on a groupon voucher you supposedly still owe tax even though you pre-pay for the service. Some places do a $0 transaction with no tax. Others do a full price item + tax, and then add the price of the item as a discount. Not saying that what they are doing is legal in the UK. But, NCL does it the same way in US waters - ring up the transaction with the price of the item and tax it, then subtract the price of the item. I tend to think that one way or another, tax is still due. Just a question of whose pocket it comes out of. Otherwise we are talking about fraud of NCL charging tax but keeping the money; or other cruise lines giving away products without charging the tax.

Sorry, in my mind you lost this one. The balcony with a $300 or $500 credit would have been a win. You ended up staying in a room that was intolerable to use.

As you have found; yes, the service exists; and yes, it is very expensive. If you are flying business and traveling in a suite - it's an insignificant add on cost that may well be worth it. If you are pinching pennies (no shame, we do); the expense is much larger than hauling your own bag. I've not yet gotten to a point in my life where hauling my own bag seemed like an inconvenience. I'm just happy to splurge on a checked bag fee so that I can bring a full size tube of sunscreen.

Whenever someone is the "First" to do something - there is enormous risk in investing in it. I won't even sail on the inaugural sail of a new ship.

This wasn't NCL but I had a very opposite experience on a cruise last december. It was a river cruise on a small ship - the company still required everyone onboard to be vaccinated but did not require a pre-cruise test. Our trip was a combined land tour/river cruise. Someone had cough/sinus symptoms the first day of the tour and they rapidly spread throughout the group. A few days into our cruise our cruise director decided that everyone who was sick should take a rapid covid test. Out of 10-15 people that were clearly sick, 4 tested positive. The real kicker of the situation is that my roommate and I were both sick - I tested positive and she tested negative. The cruise line had no idea of how to handle this situation. They allowed her to move to a different room and continue on with the tour while I was quarantined in my room. Two days later, when we docked they arranged for all of the "positives" to have a PCR test - and we all tested negative. It was a really terrible experience to have the midst of a wonderful vacation.

I don't want "Americanized" ethnic food; but I do want edible. And everything I've heard about "real" indian food is that many Americans would find it inedible due to spice levels. The closest we had was when we visited Thailand. My friend ordered and indian dish at a restaurant. She said that it was extremely hot but tasty so she ate it. She was sick for the next two days due to overwhelming acid reflux/upset stomach symptoms. We don't think anything was wrong with it, just far too much spice for her stomach to handle.

So, the last place I recall being served ketchup with pizza was in Thailand; so yeah, think it's the luck of the draw. But I've had it served like that other places before, and ketchup is my go-to for crust dipping sauces (not that I would turn down pizza sauce, but I have ketchup readily available at home).

When we had a late flight home from FLL we rented a car in Miami and spent the day doing our own thing. We were able to return the car at the FLL airport so it worked out well. You could also look into a day room at a hotel. Most flights won't let you check baggage more than 3 hours ahead, so no point in getting to the airport before then.