BirdTravels

Totally agree. But it is getting the kiddos to disconnect or $1K. Personally, we would not pay the $1K. Fortunately, there was not a demand for WiFi when our kids were cruising. Now, they cannot their own WiFi when sailing.

I would upgrade your Free at Sea minutes to basic unlimited wifi. Everyone shares that one account. Only one phone can be on at a time. When a 3 device access the WiFi, one gets bumped off. Or upgrade to a 2-device package and you suck it up and stay off the WiFi when the kids are active. It is the cost of the WiFi. No gratuities. wifi is available ship-wide on all ships. In your stateroom and in all public areas. We share 1 account across 5 devices. Two phones each (one personal, one work) and a iPad. Sometimes a 6th device is my laptop if I carry it.

Yeah, US rules do not apply.

I drink bottled water on the ship because of our encounter with what is really in a ship's water system. Naive.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! If you stand in line at a bar, you can get a glass of water. That's about it. You can get water, tea, coffee at restaurants. You can get juices for breakfast at restaurants. The buffet, when it is open (and Observation Lounge on selected ships), you can get water, coffee, tea, milk, and flavored waters. Sodas, energy drinks, bottled water are come with a charge. Add 20% gratuities to the prices below: Or there is specialty coffees

Haven eats!

All breakfast room service comes with a $4.95+20% tip charge = $5.94

They will ask you to be out of your stateroom no later than 8:00 am, so "staying on the ship" means hauling around all of your belongings. It could take 10-20 minutes to get on an elevator at the end of disembarkation.

In each port, you should expect to be able to start disembarking around the advertised arrival time. That being said, many/most people on your ship (could be thousands) will want to leave the ship shortly after arrival. All aboard time is no later than 30 minutes before departure.

All ashore should be around 9:30 am.

Old days are long long long gone. Pay your daily service charge.

Just throw the tags away after you claim them in the baggage hall. No tag. First bus available. There would be several dozen buses associated with people disembarking with a brown tag. Uber is a nightmare since there is no pickup area. Most people haul their bags down the street or across the street in hopes of finding their driver on their first pass. Once you miss a pick-up, the "meter" is ticking and you get charged for excess pick-up time.

Nothing special. Maybe a cake in the Buffet. Also acknowledging that it is Mother's Day in the US and Canada. But it is not in all countries. For example, in the UK, Mother's Day was March 10th. On our NCL cruise last month, there were guests from 60 different countries.

We're Diamond members on RCCL. Coastal Kitchen is not much of a restaurant. We actually walked out twice during our last cruise because the food and the service was so bad. And went to the Windjammer to get some "real" dinner. On small ships, the breakfast service in Chops is abysmal.

Are alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks included in the Haven Lounge similar to the Retreat? No. No drinks are included with the Haven. You either pay for drinks with a room charge or you can accept the "free" beverage package that comes with your reservation. I was looking at a NCL cruise with "all included" promotion that listed a drink package as an included perk but then there was an additional $350 gratuity added on for that perk. Yes. You pay the gratuity on the retail price of the drinks package. That comes to $350. That is the same for any passenger on the ship from inside room through Haven. The Haven does not get you relief from paying the gratuity. You would have also been charge a smaller gratuity if you accepted the free specialty dining. That was in addition to the $25 pp daily service charge for suites. Then, in the FAQs, it said that none of the service charge goes to the butler (only regular service staff) so an additional gratuity should be considered for that person. I am confused because the Haven service charge is higher than a standard room service charge. There is a standard $25 daily service charge. It is kinda like the $23 daily service charge you pay for a Retreat room (versus the $18 paid for a steerage room on Celebrity). Yes, your butler and concierge are not included in the daily service charge. And NCL encorages you to tip them accordingly. There is a much higher crew to passenger ratio in the Haven, so your daily service charge is increased because of that along with all of the front of the house and behind the scenes crew that help you throughout the ship. Personally, we tip our room steward (who is include in the daily service charge) regardless of what class of room we are sailing in (steerage to Haven). We tip our butler. And we tip our concierge.