BirdTravels

Do you think that the terminal will be completed on time? Both the new RCCL and NCL terminals were [significantly] late.

It is really simple. Don't log on to NCL.COM when doing random searches. You are inviting calls to help you finalize your booking. It your action that results in NCL calling you. Just search anonymously and they have no way of contacting you.

The theater staging is very organized. The purpose is to hold people inside, out of the elements and not crowding the dock until their tour buses are available and the local tour guides are ready for them. There are many small ports where there is not enough space for all of the buses for all of the tours to be there at the same time. If your meeting point is in the Theater, there is no, zero, none benefit being in the HAVEN. You still have to stage in the theater with the steerage class passengers. You get no preferential treatment. You will still need to follow the ShoreEx guides from the theater to the gangway and out onto the dock. You have a meeting time. Be there at your meeting time. Don't be in the toilet at your meeting time. That is a no brainer. I used to tell my kids that if they need a toilet, use it before leaving the room. It is really sad that some adults don't do the same... and they expect the entire tour to wait for them because they are too important to use the toilet before their meeting time.

What did your email say? Maybe you should take it at face value.

Carnival does what NCL should have done: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2023/11/16/cbd-gummies-carnival-cruise-lifetime-ban/71611590007/ Royal Caribbean: https://www.royalgazette.com/court/news/article/20181005/american-woman-has-cannabis-on-cruise-ship/

Carnival provides a bit more rationale behind drug prohibition: Carnival recognizes that some states in the U.S. have legalized the use of recreational and/or medical marijuana. However, cruise lines are required to follow U.S. federal law, which strictly prohibits possession and use of marijuana and other illegal substances. Consequently, marijuana, including marijuana for medical purposes is not allowed on board. Under U.S. federal law, all cruise terminals in the U.S. are federal facilities and, along with our ships, are drug-free zones. Customs and law enforcement authorities in U.S. homeports and foreign destinations are present and have the right to conduct routine and random inspections with the assistance of narcotics-sniffing dogs. There is zero tolerance for possession of narcotics (which includes marijuana, even in those states where marijuana has been decriminalized). All guests and their personal items may be subject to screening by law enforcement and any guest found in possession of illegal drugs and other prohibited items may be subject to fines, arrest, and denial of boarding without refund or compensation. This is beyond Carnival’s control. Furthermore, Carnival reserves the right to deploy narcotics-sniffing dogs in terminals and on board our ships in order to enforce our obligations to uphold federal law.

Whether or not the guy was a cancer patient is totally irrelevant. It is against the law (cancer or not) and against the cruise line rules (cancer or not). The guy was fined and should have been thrown off the ship and should have been deported from the country.

As they should... since it is against the law.

Seascape

I am always one to "help improve" service on a ship. And I am never shy about going directly to the Hotel Director should their be an issue such as the "miscommunication". I would have asked the YC Director for a meeting with the Hotel Director immediately. And if they did not comply (you gave them a chance) go directly to the Hotel Director. I would add that we are MSC Diamond, Royal Caribbean Diamond, NCL Diamond, and Cunard Platinum level. So, we do a fair amount of cruising (6-7 cruises a year). And don't want to go home angry.

They are not basically a passport. They are useless (other than a form of ID) unless you are crossing the Canadian or Mexican border by land. If you got stranded in a Caribbean country, you could not use them to fly home to the US. If you got stranded in Canada, you could not use them to fly home to the US.

On our Alaskan cruise, there was a note in the cruise compass and a card.

Since the presence of drugs puts the cruise line at risk, NCL should have packed all of their belongings, and thrown them off the ship. Lifetime no-sail ban.

So,,, when and if the port call is cancelled, you will get notified by the cruise line. How can you expect the call center to "know" something that hasn't been formally communicated to anyone. Now, if you took the same tone to the call center rep as you do in this post, the call center should just say "no information available" and hang up. They are there to help, not get a lot of abuse.

While we love forward facing suites on NCL small ships (we always book them), the forward facing CBS on the Prima was a let down. It's is a little, narrow walkway (not balcony). The hull balcony is similar to NCL small ships, but rather than sweeping the wind up and over you, it just amplifies the wind hitting you from the front and back. We really could not find a good way to enjoy the balcony anytime the ship is underway. The suite next to us at least had a plexiglass wind break. Note that the interior of the room is different on different floors based on the ship's structure. So, if you have looked at YouTube videos of this room, ours was different than those. I think that we lost some sq footage based on the room configuration.