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Amberle3

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  • Posts

    163
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About Me

  • Location
    Winnipeg, MB
  • Interests
    gardening, crafting, baking, cooking, archery
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Disney, Royal Caribbean
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Caribbean (so far)

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  1. OMG I read that too quickly and thought it said "toilet is packed". I mean I've heard of some people packing some interesting things for cruises but...
  2. My point was that the comments seem to somehow differentiate between excursions booked through NCL and others. Your comment was: "if we're on an ncl booked excursion, i dont tip either the bus driver or the tour guide" From the passenger's point of view you're paying a premium for an excursion (from what I've seen the NCL excursions are on the pricey side). From the tour hosts point of view there is virtually no difference aside from the fact that passengers on the NCL-booked excursions are probably less likely to tip. Why do I say this? For the reason you've already listed: "(1) i've already paid an outrageous fee for the tour "
  3. Not only that but I since the printed luggage tags are usually folded I write my name, city & contact info on the inside of the printed tag. After the cruise I just fold the tag insert the other way around and voila, regular luggage tag.
  4. I have sometimes, albeit rarely, put things on the outside of my door. Usually it's just because all the doors look the same and I wanted something that was going to make it a little easier to find my cabin. Yes I know they all have numbers on them, but if you're at all impaired (be it from an excess of alcohol or, in my case, something like a migraine) it can be much easier just to find your personalized door than to read/focus on the cabin number. I did have one that somehow morphed into a daily public opinion poll on one cruise. I was with family members and had put up a magnetic whiteboard with pen so that we could easily leave messages for each other. I can't remember what I wrote on it one day but it garnered responses from a fair number of people. So then I started doing random polls on it (like which is better, Star Wars vs Star Trek etc).
  5. Keep in mind that NCL is just acting as a booking agent/middleman for the tours and excursions. Sure they supposedly vet the excursion companies to make sure that the ones they're dealing with are safe and reliable, but NCL doesn't run the tours. They just contract with outside companies to run them. They'll get quoted a price per person from the tour operator, they'll add a markup to that (likely a considerable markup) and that's what they charge the passengers. The tour company receives whatever the contracted price is and then from that has to pay for the bus (or at least maintenance and fuel for it), driver's wages and guide's wages, and of course has to make their own profit on the tour. Which was a very long way of saying the tour personnel don't work for NCL, no matter how much you've paid NCL for the tour is has no bearing on how much the tour company is paying them. The might be getting a decent salary, they might be working solely on tips, I honestly have no idea what the norm is for the various countries. I can tell you that HERE sometimes tour escorts are paid on an hourly basis but most often it's more of a per-day rate. And many smaller companies consider tour escorts to be basically independent contractors, which means they just negotiate a daily or per-trip fee for the tour host which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with minimum wage. Tips collected are sometimes shared between driver and tour host, sometimes not. Some companies have clear guidelines for that, others don't. If you're taking up a collection or wanting to tip then you can always ask if the tips are being shared. I know when I was escorting tours I never took any portion of a collected tip and made sure it went to the driver, my other tour hosts would usually split it with the driver. If someone personally handed me a tip then I considered that to be for me specifically.
  6. I found the same thing on my recent RCI cruise. Mind you I did have the worst cabin steward I have ever had on a cruise, but the lack of evening/turndown service was definitely noticed. We did get 2 towel animals during the 10 night cruise. I know some people think they're silly but they always make me smile, and making the guest smile is always a good thing. But we saw our cabin steward a grand total of 3 times during the 10 nights - once on embarkation day when he make sure to introduce himself, once when he made a point of coming over to us in the hallway to chastise us, and once a few days later when we passed him in the hallway. That was it. I asked on our FB chat/group what others were experiencing with their housekeeping service and the overall reports were very similar - rarely if ever saw their cabin steward. I really feel like that "personal connection" is missing from that service, which is a shame because the personal connection is one of the things that makes cruising so special.
  7. As much as I'd like to think "I'm sure everything will be fine", I then remember the cheap universal laptop charger I bought that started smoking and then caught fire...
  8. If you're booking with a travel agent then call them and have them put the request in. Otherwise call NCL and ask for it to be in the file. Info on air deviations is lower down on here: https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/air-service-standards
  9. Well balls. Okay so that's another cruise where I won't be spending any time in a pool/hot tub.
  10. I'm sorry, does that say the adult-only pool closes at 6pm?? We're booked on the Epic next year and one thing I really like is being able to just relax in a hot tub in the evening without kids running around.
  11. We're booked on our first NCL cruise next year so this is just my perspective as an as-yet NCL cruiser: - We passed on the free-at-sea drink package. The "service charge" on it was $325 (Canadian) per person for the 11 day cruise. We just returned from a 10 day RCI cruise a few weeks ago and we each had a whopping 2 drinks during that one. If NCL had the "everything but alcohol" package that RCI does then I'd probably go for that one but they don't seem to. - I'm just fine with the 2 speciality dining meals included. Honestly I'm not all that fussed about speciality restaurants on the ships. I've done a few on some of the RCI ships and they're good, but I'm frugal at heart and I keep thinking that I've already PAID for meals and now I'm paying more for another one. - The $50 shore excursion credit seemed like a good deal when we were booking, now that I'm looking at excursions I'm not so sure. All the ones that are showing (so far) in our planner are way more expensive than comparable ones through other suppliers. - We did opt for the 2-for-1 airfare because it's literally half the price of booking on our own, and since the cruise leaves from Portugal that's a pretty significant difference. We will be putting in for a 2 day (on each end) air deviation because a) there's no way I'm flying in the day the cruise is supposed to leave and b) we'd like some time to explore the city after the cruise.
  12. My lesson was my honeymoon with my ex. It should have been a sign really. We left a day before, ran into weather delays, got re-routed to another airport and that connecting flight was cancelled. Spent my first official "honeymoon night" in a Detroit airport hotel. Made it onto a flight the next morning and made it to the cruise on time but man what a headache. Now I fly in at least 2 days ahead - I'd rather be relaxing at the port city than worrying about my flights. I honestly have no idea. I know it's raining there but that's all I can tell. Toronto is just chaotic in general, there always seems to be something going on or going wrong. It is hands-down my least favourite airport for connections. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/inside-toronto-pearson-airport-1.6772718
  13. Because you're a transiting passenger and not staying in Canada I think you should be fine. According to the AC website transiting passengers in Toronto don't have to go through customs/immigration or clear security again. They say "a quick passport check and you'll be on your way!".
  14. They did include the information for both flights, but unless you're used to flying, and the Toronto airport, you might not know that 45 min (or even 55 min) isn't enough in Toronto. The Toronto airport can be really disorganized and chaotic to begin with, and then when you factor in having to make your way from your arrival gate, go through US customs and Immigration and get to your departure gate there's just no way that less than an hour is enough. But if the airline doesn't tell you that no longer have a legal connection and just leaves it to chance, and you don't find out that you're not going to make your connecting flight until you get to your connecting airport, then the airline reaccomodates on you a flight that they have room on - which might be a much later flight than one you could have gotten onto if the situation had been rectified sooner.
  15. Not necessarily. The term "legal connection" just means that it meets the minimum required connecting time. I have had schedule changes that resulted in my flights no longer having a "legal connection". Most times the airline has automatically changed my connecting flight to one that does have adequate connecting time, but not always. They don't always tell the passenger that the new connection time doesn't meet the minimum. For example, I had a flight to Orlando booked through Air Canada, departing from Canada and connecting in Toronto. Minimum "legal" connection time for Canada to US flights in Toronto is 1hr10min. AC had a flight schedule that left us with less than an hour to make that connection (I think it was about 45min). Although they sent me an email about the schedule change there was no mention in it that the new connection time was too short. I had to call AC and talk to a rep who actually tried to tell me that she was sure that would be enough time and that it wasn't necessary to change my connecting flight. It took quite a while and a supervisor to get her to make that change.
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