BirdTravels

300 min is non streaming WiFi. And you only get 300 minutes of use. No videos and no vpn. You can share an account between multiple devices, but only one at a time. Unlimited WiFi same as 300 min except you can remain logged on for the duration of the cruise. Premium WiFi allows you to stream video and use a VPN. Speeds are about the same.

Here's a link to my recent live post from the Seascape to give you a peak at the ship. Somewhere around post #85 is some info and pictures of the kids club.

Sodas and fresh squeezed juice are not free.

I prebooked Teppanyaki on the Joy for an upcoming cruise.

Yes, there is a separate line for Haven going through security. You can't miss it. Big, gold banner-up that says

Consider Royal Caribbean where the smoking casino is at the door of the main dining room on a lot of their ships. Not a unique issue. And on Royal, the small glassed-in casino is for non-smokers while the big casino, which is a main walkway through the ship, is the smoking casino.

The gangway will be open at or shortly after your advertised arrival time. I.e., the ship will dock a bit earlier as it waits for clearance from the local port authorities to disembark passengers. There will be 4000+ other passengers who will want to get an early start or who have early shore excursion times. So, grab a quick bite to eat and get in line. The lines will be long and slow. It is hard to find a good strategy. You will be disembarking from Deck 4. They usually prevent people from going to Deck 4 and 5, holding you on Deck 6 or higher. Even to the extent of disabling the elevators from stopping on the lower decks. There are always those who can find a way to bypass the mob being held on Deck 6 and sneak their way onto a lower deck... For your tender port, ask about when tender tickets are available. And make sure you try to grab one as soon as possible for a low board group number. Priority tendering just means you can join the back of the tender line without a boarding group number. You are the same as anyone with a shore ex ticket or anyone with Latitudes status. All can join the back of the line at any time. That is Priority. That being said, lately, Latitudes has been escorting their people to the front of the line at some ports. I have no idea what they will do at Cannes.

If you have a wifi package, you can use your AT&T phone for wifi calling. Works o.k., not great. AT&T sells a cruise ship plan for $100 for unlimited calls and text. It has a small amount of data, which you need to be very careful to monitor. I could blow through the included data in a few hours.

You are only charged tax while in Washington state waters. That being said, it takes a long time when leaving Seattle to get out of Washington state waters (well into the evening when you’re paying their tax). On return to Seattle, you will enter WA state waters in the afternoon and remain there for the rest of your cruise. There is no tax on the free platinum wine. There is no tax on Alaskan waters.

When you are at sea, the ship will turn on its cell tower once you are about 2 miles from shore and can’t get a land cell tower. Any time you are at floating around the Bahamas, you wouldn’t be able close enough to connect to a land tower. AT&T (not the cruise line) will charge you $3/minute to talk, $0.50 for each text message, $1.30 for a message with photo or video, and $2.05/MB for data. (Figure it will cost you a couple bucks for every 6-8 emails you get unless people send you photos and videos in which case one email could cost you $10). Even if you don’t get email, all of those sneaky apps on your phone which help you with information are constantly using your connection and running up bills. There is no way to tell your phone to selectively connect to international carriers. Just onto airplane mode. Just go into airplane mode when you are leaving port. If you forget,,, AT&T will be very happy.

There are no assigned bus times. NCL does not "put you on a bus". Transfer buses are first-come-first-serve. All ashore is about 9:30 am, so they will be looking to kick you off the ship at that time. Room service is fine, but your room steward and butler really want you out of the room so they can turn it over for the next cruise that will board at 11:00 am. 8:00 a.m. is the published "get out, your cruise is over" time. (Maybe for an extra $100 tip each, your room steward and butler will allow you to stay a bit longer 😃). The concierge staff will escort you down the crew elevator as far as the Haven/Priority line to the ship's security checkpoint, after which you are on your own. Last year, the ship's facial recognition scan was also the CBP scan and there was no stopping once we got into the baggage hall. But getting through security (after the concierge dropped us off) to the gangway and into the terminal took a [long] while. After getting through the terminal and through the baggage hall, you will join a long like to board for the transfer buses. They have space to load a couple of buses at the same time, but it is slow, and they will try to fill every bus up. 1:16 pm departure is an Early Departure as far as NCL is concerned. You would get an 8:00 bag pick-up by default as a Haven guest. If you were in steerage, you would get an 8:15 bag pick-up time for your 1:16 pm flight time. That 8:15 recognizes that the transfer process is slow and mitigates the risk of the transfer delays causing you to miss your flight. The 8:00-9:30 timeframe is when the line for the transfer buses will snake from buses back into the terminal and back into baggage hall. You can expect a 30+ minute wait in line to get onto a bus. Personally, even with Port Valet, I would not "play chicken" with the transfer line. I would enjoy a breakfast and move on to getting to the airport. The existence of Port Valet is somewhat irrelevant except for needing to drop your bags with your airlines. Pre-check at SEATAC moves pretty fast. I have had a lot more delays in Miami TSA lately. Example schedule from last year.

NCL has tried non-smoking casinos before. They didn't last more than a month or two before the ashtrays were brought back out.

Has it been that different on other ships?

The answer is "yes" you can wire front money. The second answer is "no" I don't know how to do it because we have never done it. My travel agent always asks about assisting us with wire transfers and they said that the request has to be made at least one month prior to departure.

You need to be off the ship by 8:00. Traffic to the airport can be bad. Traffic in the airport worse.