Ellis1138

In USD? I had been wondering this, because we have an NCL excursion the moment we get to Iceland, so I won't be able to go to a bank to exchange for ISK.

I didn't say we got special treatment. Just that if you go down to the gangway when the Freestyle Daily tells you that you won't need a ticket from X time to Y time, you get to tender and not worry about a ticket or group number. I might have heard some crew member call us "early birds" and just assigned that name to it. But yeah, it wasn't priority of any sort; just being ready and needing to get off that early for a rental car pickup.

That's why I simply booked an NCL excursion for Isafjordur. While the dock is supposed to be ready, if it's not, then I want to be able to be refunded for NCL's last minute decision to not dock there.

Geez, that is a steep gangway. I better bring my poles.

I must have been on some cruises or specific port things where I was able to mosey off early, or the crew were just amenable to letting me off without a ticket. I guess I'll see on the upcoming Prima cruise, assuming we tender.

The last time I was at the MCT (Sept 2023), it seemed like a first come, first serve and we were handed boarding passes with a group number. I can't afford Haven or Priority, and was a lowly bronze at the time. I got onto the ship within about 35 minutes of arrival at the MCT. I used the extra time to fill out the customs card and hand it in. I don't know if this will help with anyone's embarkation day stress, but I've found that it goes very quick if you do a check-in time of 90 minutes after boarding begins. Like, everyone wants to be the first person on the ship, but nobody tries to be number 15. It winds up being fairly low stress for me; I didn't pay to get on earlier than anyone else and I get on when I want to.

I thought it was called early bird. I don't usually keep all my FS dailies, but here's an example of the "get off during an early window with no ticket", and there was something similar on the Escape when I went. free-style-daily-5 (3).pdf

It should say where and when, although by the time you need to tender, you'll know where the gangway is. You can always call guest services and ask them. There might be an extra slip of paper in the night before, telling you the information.

So on just about every NCL sailing I've been on, for tendering, it goes like this: The first lifeboats/tenders are dropped and crew goes over to the land to set up the security area and where people get on and off the tenders. (Edited to add: I remember there was a post from someone who got to over with the crew, due to a super early excursion. That was dependent on the crew being really nice, though.) Next, there is a 90 minute window, called Early Bird, where you don't need any tickets. You go down to the deck where the tendering will take place and just get on. After that Early Bird window is done, now starts the ticket parts, with Groups 1 to whatever. Never having been Gold or above, I have no idea how the ticketed groups work, since I always go early bird. I assume that I would have had to go to the assigned place to ask for my tickets and hope that I get a good time. High level Latitudes might be able to just get on, I don't know... someone with high Lat status can chime in. The alternative is if you have an NCL excursion, that is your tender ticket and you meet at the assigned place for that excursion. After a certain number of hours, when the ticketed groups and NCL excursion tenders have gone, now is open tendering. You will no longer need a ticket. I hope this explained the process.

And don't forget Love Canal (though admittedly, that's closer to Niagara Falls than Schenectady.) Also, I hope that Sexy Loo wasn't the only public toilet.

Other outsourced foods include the hush puppies and the matzo balls.

Oh! I forgot a question for my husband. For the Go Kart racing cars, the NCL page says "flat" shoes. I had only been planning on bringing Merrell hiking boots to the cruise. Would those count as flat? They have a very slight arch in the center of the foot, but are otherwise quite enclosed and not loose-fitting. Or should I bring like basketball-flat sneakers just for the kart racing?

In my opinion, the PoA is best used as a floating B&B. Sleep there, get up, eat breakfast and then eat a really good, big lunch on each island so that all you need is maybe a salad or light dinner. The food on PoA is edible, but not even as good as standard NCL cruise ship fare.

I'm not sure if this is where the Access Desk Form is warranted, but definitely contact NCL ahead of time (like a month maybe) to see where it is that you should put in the request. There are definitely plant-based options, I remember seeing those when I was scouring the menus for allergy purposes. The PoA has the same exact fleet-wide food, though, and sadly they were not as up to the task of special dietary needs as the other NCL ships I was on. Go to https://profcruise.com/ncl-menus-2024/ (Prof cruise menus) and you'll be able to see the approximation of what's offered and what you might be able to eat. One caveat on all NCL ships is that certain items are "sourced off ship", meaning they get loaded on the ship already made. So NCL can't guarantee the ingredients.

I just hope my mother doesn't see this article, since I'll be on the Encore in December. But yeah, anything can happen anywhere, no matter how safe a place seems.