Travelling2Some

Can we take our complimentary bottle, unopened, to our cabin to enjoy later?

We're booked on the Dawn for June 2023. The itinerary does not have any sea days at all (Baltics), so any ship will be fine for that. We have been on the Dawn twice previously but it has been a long time. We like both the smaller ships and the larger ships for different reasons. It's not a ship I, personally, would pick for cruising with kids/teens or a less interesting itinerary.

The Indian food is definitely one of the reasons we cruise NCL more than any other line. I've been avoiding carbs the last couple of years so my new hack is topping the roasted veggies with the Indian food. Also like to top the (freshly!) scrambled egg and with hollandaise sauce.

We learned to do this a few cruises ago and it really helps. The very first time we go to buffet we pick a small area towards the back where we will always meet up. Saves a lot of roaming around looking for your spouse while your holding a plate of food that is getting cold!

Got one on the Sun transatlantic last month. Just asked the cabin steward when we boarded.

We took the Amtrak "Adirondack" train back to NYC. It was very scenic and we really enjoyed it.

If you are interested in a bus tour inside the park, I remember that reservations open on January 1st and sell out pretty quickly on the Denali N.P. website. Since you have been reading/planning you likely know that already but it is another good "heads up" for those who don't. Bus tours will be limited to the first 20 miles of road for now but they are the only game in town since you cannot drive private cars into Denali during the summer season. I researched a cruise plus a 3 week trip using the Alaska Rail Road, car rental and a couple of ferries just before the landslide and covid hit. We are going to wait for the road to open fully so we can do everything I planned. We rarely go to the same place twice so there is no "next time".

People planning to visit Denali should be aware that most of the single road through the national park is expected to remain closed at least until 2024. Just a heads up.

We will be on the Bliss next month and I am going to verify our dining reservations when we board just to be safe. I always bring the summary print out as proof. Interesting that others have had the opposite happen in that their reservations did exist yet they could not see them in advance. I always make all travel arrangements for both myself and my husband using my own account. However, we did have weird things happen to several of our cruises after the husband messed around with the NCL app one day. Since he didn't know his Latitudes number (or even what a Latitudes number is) he went ahead and got himself a brand new one, resulting in the loss of his Platinum status and many emails demanding mysterious small sums of money (turned out to be lost discounts on booked items). Took a while to sort things out! (Husband has solemnly promised to mind his own business going forward!!!)

No, I usually make them for sea days.

All I can say is that Royal Caribbean's IT is much worse overall BUT they do appear able to hold onto dining reservations, lol. They have always seated us when I proved in writing that I had a reservation but, since this was (at least) the third cruise this has happened on, I was curious if it is an "NCL thing" or a personal vendetta, lol.

I always make our specialty dining reservations in advance as soon as the window opens up. They clearly appear in my cruise summary before we sail. However, on my last 3 cruises when we show up at our first reserved specialty restaurant they have NO record of any of the reservations I made. I have learned to always bring the print out showing that we DO, in fact, have a reservation and they seat us without an issue and fix the other reservations in the system. But what the heck??? Are others experiencing this? This only happens on NCL and it is consistent. It's odd.

We were able to ask for cans of soda at several bars on our Sun cruise in November. We had the FAS beverage package and were never charged anything extra for the cans. (It is possible that this was because we were experiencing rough seas that would have made it unreasonable to expect guests to carry soda around in cups.)

We embarked from New York on the Sun last month and were surprised to have the traditional style muster drill. I think we were all hoping that was gone for good. As someone said, it may have to do with the Sun being an older ship with plenty of space on the lifeboat deck. Before the cruise NCL must have sent me that safety video 6 or 7 times!

Just back from Lisbon TA and flew TAP back to New York. Feeling like we dodged a few bullets even if we did pick up covid somewhere in Europe. Had a great time - ya can't win em' all.

We were in Gibraltar just a couple of weeks ago on the NCL Sun's transatlantic. There was nothing like this going on at all. We had drinks and wine with dinner without any issues. It may have been one of the ports where the ship needed to charge tax on drinks while in port - I do remember that in New York and maybe 2 other ports but I don't recall which ports. This must be something very new I guess.

We are getting on the Sun tomorrow in New York. Heard from someone already on board right now doing a B2B and they say the Sun has switched to Coke.

Well aware that Boca Raton is not a rural area. You indicated that you were missing the staples of southern cookery and I pointed you in what I thought was a helpful direction. There is nothing wrong with rural areas or country folks in my view. They are the backbone of America and there is plenty I like very much about them.

That's a novel one for sure. Do you think water shoes would work too? Just thinking that, if so (and I don't know) they are smaller/lighter to pack and might serve double duty if you are going someplace warm. This could be a great tip for rough seas and the balance issues that so many older people have.

We sailed out of Charleston on Carnival a couple of years ago (just before the covid hit the fan) and there was a marked leaning into Southern cuisine in the buffet on that cruise. It seemed to be mostly country folks onboard rather than Charlestonians.

I only use packing cubes on a land vacation where I am moving from hotel to hotel every couple of days. I don't find the cubes make sense on a cruise ship since you just unpack once.

Bringing anything at all extra is very usual for me BUT I am currently seizing the opportunity to depart rather drastically from my usual "carry-on only no matter what" habit. Since we are cruising out of our home port I am bringing a whole lot of crazy nonsense. (Everything from cruising ducks to a sleeve of large disposable coffee cups with lids, some Tupperware, real books and even a pop up ottoman). I will bring the extra stuff onboard in those cheap, disposable plaid "storage bags" ($4 each on Amazon) and use up most of it during our 18 day transatlantic. Once we reach Europe I will ditch the disposable luggage and return to my normal habits so I don't have to drag anything extra through all the train stations or fly any extra bags home.

There is a forum dedicated specifically for Wedding & Honeymoon Cruises. You are much more likely to get good information by asking your questions there. Here is the link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/18-honeymoon-amp-wedding-cruises/

I book anything we are interested in the day it opens. No "old money"here, just old, lol. Deposits are totally refundable and with inflation concerns it makes total sense to me. But I don't pay any more than the deposit until final payment day. Usually, on that day I will make the final payment, buy third party insurance and buy airline tickets. Why put yourself in the potential position of begging for your money back? There is no financial upside to that and you are also handing out interest free loans if you book far in advance.

I am sorry to sound un-American and I know I am the one that started the potato chip thing, but I actually dislike the taste of Pringles. Got to be Lays or Cape Cod brand for me. I wish I did like Pringles. They are way more packable since they come in a sturdy cardboard tube.