TrumpyNor

According to the European NCL booking conditions, there is a €50 fee for name changes and it can be done no later than 7 days before the departure date. As I am located in Europe myself, I automatically get to the European NCL page when typing ncl.com, but I am guessing that if you try to open the URL below in other parts of the world, then you would be automatically rerouted to the correct T&C for where you are located. https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/about/terms-and-conditions-ce#!#Changes Allthough booking conditions are different for the European and the American branch of NCL, it would not be logic that Europeans are allowed to change name(s) on the reservation up until a week before sailing date for a small fee and Americans are not. But then again, not everything NCL decides on other subjects is logic..... 7. Changes by you (1) Should you wish to make any changes to your confirmed holiday, you must notify us as soon as possible and in any event more than 30 days before departure except as set out below in relation to a transfer. Whilst we will endeavour to assist, we cannot guarantee we will be able to meet any such requests. Where we are able to do so, an amendment fee of €50 per person per change will be payable together with any costs incurred by ourselves and any costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers. Restricted Air flights cannot be changed after confirmation. If your reservation includes a Restricted Air flight, any change will incur a 100% cancellation charge of the flight cost together with the full cost of booking another flight. It may be possible to make changes at a later stage but the costs involved in doing so will be higher. (2) If any individual Guest wishes to transfer their individual booking to another person (introduced by you), you may do so provided the person to whom you wish to transfer your individual booking satisfies all conditions which form part of your contract with us. Requests for transfers must be made in writing at least 7 days before departure and must be accompanied by the name and other required details of the person(s) to whom the booking will be transferred. The costs and charges incurred by us and/or incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers as a result together with an amendment fee of €50 per person transferring their place must be paid before the transfer can be made. For flight inclusive bookings, you must also pay the charges levied by the airline(s) concerned. Guests should note that airlines may not allow name changes on scheduled flights and that the flight booking may need to be cancelled (with payment of the applicable cancellation charges which may be up to 100% of the flight cost) and rebooked if a name needs to be changed. The rebooking will always be subject to flight availability and to the payment of the full cost of the new ticket. Restricted Air flights cannot be changed after confirmation so a 100% cancellation charge together with the full cost of booking another flight will apply.

Pre-covid that particular Epic cruise (7 days) actually had a total of four (4!) embarkation ports in severn days, so only two now (Rome and Barcelona), is actually not too bad. You will not really notice that there are more than one embarkation/disembarkation port...

The exact size of port fees vary depending on ports - but I find that $50 OBC in compensation is a better deal than actual port fees refunded as OBC. We have currently two 11 days cruises (both for Northern Europe, where port fees often are higher), and gov.tax + port fees (9 ports on each cruise) paid per person in advance is only around $210 per person on the first cruise and $300 p.p. for the second cruise.

I think I have understood what DIAXUP means - Diamond upgrade. 😊

On my reservation for a cruise in August 2023, there is one booking code I don't think I have ever seen before, and it is also not on the latest list posted here. It is DIAXUP - does anyone know what that could be?

A google search resulted in many photos of balcony cabins on the Pearl,ufortunately most of them without showing much of the closet. This photo is from balcony cabin no. 9098 and shows several large drawers plus many shelves next to the closet, so very similar to balcony cabins on other Jewel class ships. And plenty of storage for several large suitcases under the bed.

NCL seem to have changed the T&C for the SDP very recently.....

It is important to remember that allthough Hurtigruten have numerous stops along the Norwegian coast, many of the stops are only 20-30 minutes long and also several stops in the middle of the night. And the longest stops are in Tromso and Trondheim - but still no longer than max. 3-4 hours. After all the Hurtigruten is mainly "public transportation along the coast" - and it is also important to note what you is pointed out by kitkat343: Not a cruise ship and no entertainment on board. Even though Hurtigruten sails close to the coast most of the way, offering amazing views of stunning nature "everywhere" - it can get a bit "boring" after a few days...? I believe the OP is better off with the Norway cruise they have already booked. 🙂 Greetings from a native Norwegian, living in Norway.

We were on the Escape last August, and found this sign in our club balcony cabin. Didn't ask to have it delivered, so unfortunately don't know the type - but I am assuming it is the same they had earlier...

I believe that OP is talking about giving it to the porters like they would do with a larger suitcase, before they reach the scanning machine...

I am sorry, but I must have misunderstood what OP originally was asking about. I must admit that I did not read all 17 replies that was posted before my post, so sorry if what I wrote was information that everybody knew.....

IF YOU DO A MOCK BOOKING FOR A CERTAIN CABIN NUMBER, THEN YOU ACTUALLY PUT THAT PARTICULAR CABIN "ON HOLD" IN THE BOOKING SYSTEM YOURSELF, AND IT REMAINS BLOCKED FOR 30 MINUTES - this is to give you enough time to complete the reservation online. I experienced this on a couple of different occasions a few years ago when close to sailing date for cruises where I had booked regular balcony cabins. I was doing "mock bookings" on ncl.com hoping to see a "bargain" and there were suddenly ONE suite or Haven suite available for a reasonably good price. I contacted my PCC at NCL right away and asked her to upgrade me to that particular suite. And when she tried to book it for me, it came up as "not available". Then about an hour later I saw it being available again, and contacted my PCC again, and the same happened again - "not available to book in the system". After 3 times of this happening over the course of a few hours, I suspected that it was my own "mock booking" that somehow blocked the cabin number for other reservations. So I asked my PCC to please wait about 30 minutes more, and see if the suite was then available. And it was! A couple of years later the situation was similar - 3 days before sailing dat I saw an owner suite available for a price that I found to be very good, by doing a mock booking. But I remembered what happened last time we tried to do the same thing, so this time I contacted my PCC and asked her to please check to see if the upgrade was available in her system, and it was not. I then asked her to please try again 1/2 hour later, and it was indeed available.

A schengen visa is only valid for 90 days per stay without leaving Schengen - so the extension he is talking about is ONLY for Portugal. (As all extenstions of a Schengen visa beyond the 90 days limitation has to be for a specific country, according to the "EU/Schengen rules".

Why the need to start a new thread when you started another one with the same topic/question about a month ago? You could just have "bumped" your old thread to the front page with a short comment. 😏 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2898818-porugal-visa-extension-question/#comment-64430884 Maybe the Canadian embassy in Lisbon would know the answer to this, as it is a so special topic that is is highly unlikely that there would be anyone on the NCL forum who would know about it.....

To me, 100% FCC instead of 25% OBC (percentage of course of the actual price drop) is a better deal - no question about that! I am very happy with the change!

It is "OK", but not great (of course depending on hairtype). So with thick hair I would use the conditioning shampoo as shampoo PLUS bring a conditioner from home as well.

To answer your question: The body wash is the green one, the conditioning shampoo is the non-transparent "white" one. At least that has been the case on my many NCL cruises. I have a type of hair that would "protest strongly" and be impossible to comb, if I tried to use the body wash on my hair instead of the conditioning shampoo, so I would definitely note the difference if they were switched....

Maybe you have to do it "twice" - first use one of the FCCs listed, and when that is registered as payment you choose your payment type again, and this time choose the remaining one? If that doesn't work, then the easiest is to call NCL and have one of their PCCs help you with this. My husband and I had some FCC from a couple of cruises that were cancelled because of covid in 2020 and 2021, and in both cases the FCC was "divided" with 50% FCC to my own NCL account and 50% to my husbands NCL account (even though everything was booked and paid through my NCL account in initially).

As others have replied earlier, the answer is yes to your question. It is also worth noticing that most of the dishes on the menu are quite large, so just using one voucher at the time to and share the 4 dishes amongst you is both allowed and recommended in most cases. That way you can have TWO dinners (or lunches) at Food Republic, and using one of the vouchers each time.

It is also a fact that the large majority of passengers on any cruise have never even heard about CruiseCritic....

On a NYE cruise with the Norwegian Spirit (smaller ship) some years ago, all new years parties were held indoors, there were a balloon release in the atrium at midnight instead of fireworks. Main Dining Rooms had an "upgraded" menu for New Year's Eve and all speciality restaurants just had their regular menu (I actually found that to be a little dissappointing). About 90% of the people on board dressed up for the evening - ranging from "smart casual" to "formal". There were free "champagne" for everyone in the bars surrounding the Atrium at midnight.

We did an NCL cruise from Copenhagen to Iceland (incl stops in Norway and Scotland along the way9 a few years ago, and honestly - it did NOT matter if your cabin was located on the starboard or portside of the ship. When "out at sea" there is "nothing to see but sea". And sailing in/out of ports, then the views were the same level of interesting and/or nice on boths sides of the ship - and when not, then you would have the "nice side" either when arriving at a port or when leaving the same port.

It is a fact that pre-covid I was able to book cruises for my husband and myself in type balcony- or club balcony cabins without any sale going on just by booking early, often a year in advance - at "reasonable" rates. And post-covid, with all the "sales" going on, I pay significantly higher rates for category inside cabins than I just a few years ago paid for balcony cabins (balcony cabins seems to be "out of reach" for my wallet at the moment, ecept if I get "lucky" through the upgrade program before the cruise actually sails).

I just read the initial post from the OP, and I have not read the replies - as my first reaction to that post was "why would this be on CruiseCritic"....??? Maybe someone fell and broke their hip, or had a heart attack or became ill due to one of "a thousand possible reasons" - with literally thousands of people on each cruise at any given time, there are persons who get seriously ill on board like there would be anywhere else.... Why this "need to know" about the health situation for someone you do not know personally?

If I understand you correctly and you are booked on a cruise that starts in Pireus, and want to do a half-day-tour before embarking the ship, then why not just stay in Athens the night before? You will then have much more choices for your half-day tour. And taxi from downtown Athens to Pireus cruise port (literally next to the ship) have a fixed price of €25.