Sailing12Away

Sounds like you need to do some research about what exactly you want to see in Athens first. Once you sort out what is a must see vs a nice to see, then you can figure out how many days you'll need to get to all of it. The day you get off the cruise would be a good day to check in to your hotel, and if it's walking distance to the Acropolis or some sights to just do that as a casual day. If you get tired, go back to the hotel and nap. If you're not tired, keep walking. Look through this site, we used them for our trip to Greece for an airport pickup and transfer to hotel, full day tour of Meteora, and then when our cruise stopped in Athens for the day used them again for another private tour in the South. It will give you some ideas on things to see and how much time you need to do it 'right', and ballpark on costs. https://www.premium-athens-transfer.com/

I'm hoping you're right and I read it wrong. I'm fine with it just being an extra food truck, that seems the most appropriate way to introduce it and see how it takes off. But as much as I love Thai, it's not a replacement for Food Republic. We'll wait and see what the menu brings, but my gut is predicting a lot of drunken noodles, pad thai and more 'american-ized' things. Still keeping my fingers cross for a larger selection of indian dishes at the food trucks. Where's the dosa and kati rolls? Those are small simple things that seem perfect for finger food truck things.

2 what? Adults? Teens? Children? Just because the room says it can hold 6 doesn't mean it holds them comfortably. The room hasn't changed, so any photos and videos you saw before the dry dock are still the same now.

There are tons of photos and videos here: https://cruisedeckplans.com/ships/Norwegian-Prima The balcony is the little regular sized rectangle looking out the side of the ship. The deck plans are misleading.

For the folks who want to eat dinner exactly at 6pm every single night, just talk to the maitre'd on the first day of the cruise and request, if possible, the same seat every night at a fixed time. They will do their best to accommodate. If you want to dine with strangers, let them know you are open to seating with others. There are often times solo travelers looking for a dining mate who would gladly pair up with you. Most people don't want to eat with strangers, so if you tell them you would like that - it makes their job easier to fill tables. There is no way I would ever pick a cruise where I had to commit to the same dining time every day. I don't want to skip a good local food find because I HAVE to eat dinner 2 hours later.

The regular 2 bedroom cabins weren't changing. They were just changing the owner suites into 3br villas by removing the existing Haven library area. So that 2nd bedroom is still very tiny and better suited for folks <20 yrs old.

My sister used it on Prima in September for our Iceland trip as a way to stay in touch with my niece. She said on the ship it really wasn't worth it as the delay in receiving text messages was so long that we would bump into the kids randomly before the text came through saying where they were going. At the ports of call it worked for her to get in touch with us (we had Tmobile and free international stuff to begin with), but at sea it wasn't worth it she said - at least for the price she had to pay for 2 phones.

You don't call anyone, at 21 days you have to log into your account and complete the check-in process. You can pick an early time if you want, but you'll be sitting and waiting there until around 11am, so there's really no reason to rush to get through security just to sit and eat a cookie. I really get frustrated when I see folks constantly saying "just show up whenever" and that your assigned check in time doesn't matter if you're in the Haven. We were denied entrance into the terminal building on 2 different occasions at 2 different ports of call. So yes, it does matter. I will never understand why folks are in such a rush to get there at 9:30 and sit and wait for 2 hours. The cookies and lemon water are really not that great people.

Not happy about the new Thai place replacing Food Republic. Also not too happy about an entire restaurant dedicated just to vegetarian diners. That seems something better suited to a food truck in Indulge rather than an entire sit down place. I'm sure there's more veggie friendly folks than I think there are, but I seriously doubt it will be a place that appeals to >50% of the guests.

Lots of nooks and crannies, and if one area is too people-y for you, just wander and find a different one. Take a peek at the deck plan, tons of photos showing the exact seating options whether you're looking for something inside/outside, top deck/lower deck. As others have already said, deck 15 observation lounge, deck 8 waterfront, deck 8 mojito bar (indoors) always had some nice nooks and crannies to hide in, deck 6 library & card room, and there's also meeting rooms that you can see if they're reserved or free to pop in and claim if you need to get away from EVERYONE. https://cruisedeckplans.com/ships/Norwegian-Encore As for star gazing, I've always had the best luck being aft or on my balcony with the outdoor light off. A kind word to the cabin steward will help getting your neighbor's lights turned off as well as some folks don't even realize they're on if they're not out there.

Look at the options and pricing for the different drink packages and pick the one that you think would be the best value for you. You can add the Starbucks package on if you think you'll be having at least 2 drinks per day, or just pay as you go with either a Starbucks gift card or on your cruise account if you don't need a 2x/day fix. https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/790164-BEV_Package_Flyer_UOBP_PPBP Update_V7_no_crops.pdf

Just curious.... how much OBC did they already offer you, and what exactly are you planning on spending that on if you were to get more? Not everything on the ship can be paid for with OBC as there are more than one kind. So before asking for more OBC, make sure you know which type it is you're getting and that whatever you're planning on spending it on is eligible for that. Otherwise you'll end up with 1K in non-refundable credit that can't be used on the thing you were thinking of using it on, so you lose that and still owe NCL a ton of money too at the end of it.

Double turf is too much food for me, and hubby enjoys the lobster. The one they give you is so small anyway he'll gladly take mine. I'm fine with the baked potato that comes with it, so that's why I would do the mac & cheese as the starter. The less revisions to the order the better it seems at not being labeled the PITA guest at each meal. Sadly it's not just cruise/ship dependent, it's time of day and day of the week on the same cruise dependent as well. Our last trip I asked what flavors of ice cream they had at lunch and was told 'vanilla, vanilla, or vanilla'. So I opted for vanilla and asked for some hot fudge to swirled on there so I could make it into chocolate. At dinner I asked again and when they saw I was disappointed to hear only vanilla, the waiter asked what I would want. When I said chocolate, he said 'no problem, I'll get you some'. So exact same trip and 2 completely different attitudes from the wait staff. It's those inconsistencies with NCL that drive me nutty and lessen the experience. Same, I tend to stick with simple ice cream or sorbet for dessert, or skip it all together and get my dessert in liquid form from the bar as a frozen cocktail. As for getting anything you want whenever you want... definitely a slippery slope on that. I've always heard that with advanced notice and planning the staff was more willing to be open to that - but in reality when we've tried it, not so much. Had a conversation with a F&B manager that was in the Haven areas a lot and she said it would be no problem for us to request indian food one night, but we could never get it to happen. Anytime we asked about it we were told to walk to the buffet as it is served there. So they implied if we requested it ahead of time they would just send someone to the buffet for us and make a plate of random indian stuff, rather than plan a special indian themed dish for us. Honestly I think the more we travel in the Haven the more we end up using the butler. Not a huge fan of eating in our cabin as the tables in there are good for snacks, not for full meals. But I think asking the butler ahead of time to bring something special to the room for an early dinner would be executed more willingly than trying to get it in the restaurant where others can see it as special treatment or something.

My guess is it's more of a Sixthman question. The general rule on NCL is that if you have the drink package, you can bring as many bottles of wine on board as you want with no fee. If you don't have the drink package there's a $15/bottle corkage fee. I have no idea if those same rules will apply on a charter - my guess is no, as it's not an NCL cruise. It's a charter cruise that just happens to be using an NCL ship.

Opinions on luggage will almost be as varied as opinions on food. We've always had the soft sided cases. As for taking too much stuff if you use the expanding feature - that's foolish. Bags come in different sizes. I would rather take a medium sized bag that I expand out 1 extra inch wide, than to bring a much taller bag which will be more trouble to manage in general. When picking a bag - think of how you'll actually use it. If your journey will literally have you rolling it from the taxi to the check-in desk at the airport and that's it, wheels, features, soft/hard doesn't matter all that much. But if you'll be taking the bag from an airport to a crowded train station, through the narrow cobblestone streets of Europe, or up/down stairs - you need a bag that will be easy for you to maneuver. A bag with 4 wheels is more 'pushed' either in front of you or next to you, where a bag with just 2 wheels is more 'pulled'. I always thought the 4 wheels was better, until I looked at how I dragged my bag most of the time - behind me being pulled. So for our next cases we're focusing more on those little features and touches that would make travel more easy for us. Things like a built in organizers, garment holders to prevent wrinkles on stuff you won't want to roll in a packing cube, the handle outside of the case completely so the inside can be flat instead of packing between the lumps of the hand railings... stuff like that.