BirdTravels

Under what circumstances would you do this?

Nope. Blocked off.

You need to take things in context versus throwing stuff out. In ports like Rome, you need to get out early (whether on a shore ex or on your own) if you want to get to the city (which is over an hour away) and back. So, yes, the vast majority of people are trying to get off early and not lounge around the ship.

The majority of ships. Yeah, stuff happens all the time. Weather delays. Harbor traffic. Twice on on last cruise, the harbor pilot was late coming to the ship. But as a rule, they try to dock and have the gangways set around the advertised arrival time. .

It will be a fun cruise. the link below is from a live post on the Encore. You can see some of the ship and the goings on. The freestyle dailies give you a feel for what the ship has to offer. But,,, be forewarned that the cruise is taking the ship to dry dock for a major overhaul. There will be some construction/demolition going on. I would expect that the Observation Lounge would be partially closed since part of that is going to be replaced with rooms. Some people get grumpy taking a cruise just before or just after a dry dock since the ship will be impacted by the dry dock.

Show reservations 21 days prior to departure. Shore ex as soon as NCL negotiates contracts with vendors.

Bot tricky. If the excursion is sold out, you may lose it to a standby passenger during your cancel and rebook. The cancelled excursion will be a refundable OBC (does not go to your credit card) so you can cash it out on the last night of your cruise.

Totally agree. But it is getting the kiddos to disconnect or $1K. Personally, we would not pay the $1K. Fortunately, there was not a demand for WiFi when our kids were cruising. Now, they cannot their own WiFi when sailing.

I would upgrade your Free at Sea minutes to basic unlimited wifi. Everyone shares that one account. Only one phone can be on at a time. When a 3 device access the WiFi, one gets bumped off. Or upgrade to a 2-device package and you suck it up and stay off the WiFi when the kids are active. It is the cost of the WiFi. No gratuities. wifi is available ship-wide on all ships. In your stateroom and in all public areas. We share 1 account across 5 devices. Two phones each (one personal, one work) and a iPad. Sometimes a 6th device is my laptop if I carry it.

Yeah, US rules do not apply.

I drink bottled water on the ship because of our encounter with what is really in a ship's water system. Naive.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! If you stand in line at a bar, you can get a glass of water. That's about it. You can get water, tea, coffee at restaurants. You can get juices for breakfast at restaurants. The buffet, when it is open (and Observation Lounge on selected ships), you can get water, coffee, tea, milk, and flavored waters. Sodas, energy drinks, bottled water are come with a charge. Add 20% gratuities to the prices below: Or there is specialty coffees

Haven eats!

All breakfast room service comes with a $4.95+20% tip charge = $5.94

They will ask you to be out of your stateroom no later than 8:00 am, so "staying on the ship" means hauling around all of your belongings. It could take 10-20 minutes to get on an elevator at the end of disembarkation.