Ellis1138

Is it a specific Amex card that does this?

The Mandara spa's usual hours are 8 am to 10 pm. The exceptions are the night before disembarkation, they tend to close at 8 pm. The day of embarkation, they tend to be open for tours and the raffle from boarding time until the time the muster drill used to be. Then somewhere around sailaway/departure, one would be able to have spa services or use the thermal suite. This is generalized and it could vary per sailing.

Just to clarify: Are you on the regular or the "Premium" wifi? (And if anyone is on the Prima with the Premium wifi and wants to post their Speedtest, that would be cool.)

And in shows, people run away from explosions without messing up their hair. They shoot guns that have no recoil. I'm not sure I would base my expectations in life on what happens in a TV show.

I knew when I booked the Prima that all this stuff is possible.

It's funny that it's getting so much news coverage these days. But maybe word will spread that if you do an independent excursion, aim to be back an hour before all aboard, just in case of delays. Also take a day or 2 of important medicines, necessary items and passport with you. I also always (even for non-cruise vacations) bring a list of all the Plan B places and what to do if the original plans are awry. But they got back to the ship, which is a happy ending.

There's three types of stocks: The one where it looks like a staircase going up. The one where it looks like a staircase going down, or worse, a slide. And then there's the Mountain Ranges. NCLH has been a Mountain Range. When I saw the 2020 crash, I grabbed 100 of NCLH at 10 and 100 of CCL at 7. Not for pure investment purposes, but I knew I would be going on cruises, post-pandemic, and I had faith the industry would make it. I could not also afford to get 100 of Royal, which was 24 at the time. It's going to be rocky rides, with the stocks going up and down due to investor emotions and not based on actual performances. Just hang on for a while and get your OBCs. Right now, the industry shoud be ok and NCLH is still filling ships on NCL, Oceania and Regent.

In my opinion, do not get an aft balcony. Owing to the complaints I compiled over the past couple of years, the aft cabins on the PoA can suffer from a "sewer smell" that ranges from annoying to nauseating. The main cause needs a combination of factors: The wind has to hit the ship's funnel at the right direction, which then causes the both the sewage plant output and the funnel exhaust to be blown into the AC intakes for those cabins. It worried me so much that I moved our cabin to mid-ish and ahead of the funnel. (Ours was 9622). And without the Na Pali sailing, there's no right or wrong side to be on for scenery. Most of the time, by the time we got underway, it was after sunset, so no scenery at all. I've stopped updating the reports, now that I've taken the cruise.

I happen to be a weirdo who enjoys being out in cold, damp and dreary weather, so as long as it isn't icy or lightning. But yeah, I had a similar thing on the Escape for a New England/Canada cruise, where I was out in the hot tub on deck 19 by myself in the pouring rain. Or where I was the only one in the pool on the NCL Sun in Alaska when the outdoor temperature was 30 degrees. But yeah, our sailing on the Prima is a holiday one and probably very full, so I expect the food venues to be zoos. We'll find out in June/July.

I thought NCL ships were no longer going to do currency exchange on board. I can always check with Guest Services when I get on ship. The trouble with the ATM thing is the same: We dock and I immediately have to be at the shore excursion. No time to run off to a bank and back.

I don't know if this will help anyone, but in addition to the $10 waterproof Walmart wristwatch and my phone's clock, I also set an alarm on my phone, based on hours, not time. Like if we're being let off the ship at 9 am and all aboard is 6 pm, I set an alarm to go off in 7 hours. So no matter if the clocks are not set to local or ship time, I have a backup for the exact amount of hours that we're allotted in port.

I do go on a cruise with the basic notion that we might not be able to go where the itinerary says. But I use cruises as a "sampler" for "Do I want to come back here by airplane and do an in-depth vacation here?" We're booked on the Prima for the Southampton/Norway/Iceland itinerary and I have my fingers very crossed that we'll be able to port at Geiranger. I booked an NCL excursion at Isafjordur, so that it will be easily refunded when the Prima somehow doesn't manage to make it. Most everything else is "get off the ship, walk to here, look at that, check this museum, eat at cafe" kind of stuff. I've been watching the Prima Live TA thread and, aside from embarkation chaos, am somewhat worried about the lines and waiting times for the MDR and specialty restaurants. And that they tried to cram the Latitude party in a small space. Another trepidation I have is that when I check the actual port schedules on the port websites, a few of them have the Prima coming and leaving at different times than our itinerary. Got a very cheap price for our itinerary, though, so... Here's hoping.

Thank you! I'm happy to see Cloud House half and half on the ship. Despite that it looks like it isn't real, it is real dairy and, more importantly, is actual UHT half and half so I don't need to be bringing boxes of Mini Moos with me.

We're coming in via cruise ship and the first port is Akureyri, but we have a cruise ship excursion right after docking. I don't know when I'll be able to get Isk coins. The pay toilet thing frightens me the most about this trip. (I have some gastrointestinal issues and bladder problems.)

Do you remember if the pay toilets would take USD?