debenson0723

Saw earlier today...9 night Getaway cruise, leaving this week, $1209 p/p for the Haven. If you are flexible, there are deals.

I have been on 5 NCL cruises in the past 11 months. 1 had a full on M&G with Officers, 2 had a M&G without Officers, and 2 wouldn't even let us have a M&G. It is going to vary based on GM and ship. None of them had a Captain's Cocktail Party or photos with the Captain. Didn't effect my cruise at all.

Off the top of my head, I have had this happen at JFK, Miami and LAX, both pre and post covid. At JFK I ended up riding the airtrain over to the Left Luggage vendor and checking my bag with them, and spending my time in the lounge (going back about 3 hours before my flight to get my back and check it with the airline). This happened with Southwest and Delta, the 2 airlines I typically fly.

Be aware also that you can't check your luggage (if you have more than carry-on) until 4 hours before your flight. Typically you won't be able to take it thru security either, if it is too large, so you are stuck with it (and there is no seating in the terminal prior to security). Depending on cost, I would rent a car close to the port with drop off at LAX and go see some sights or, as someone else mentioned, see if there is an excursion the ends at LAX. It should get there just a little after noon and you could check your bags soon after. I did this in Seattle and it was great!

Typically, in my experience, once you book an excursion, the remaining ones in your time slot don't appear anymore on your planner, since that time is already reserved. Could also be the other two reasons (sold out or vendor issues) but that usually comes later.

On both of my cruises during football season (September and November) football was available to watch on Sunday all day, Monday night and Thursday night. It was on the big screen by the pool deck, DBH, The Local and in your stateroom. You did not get a pick of teams...it was the nationally televised game. So yes, there is football on board but it will probably not be your local team, unless you get lucky.

There are over 100 cabins available on your specific cruise (more than half balconies), so while not completely full, it could probably get there by the time mid-October rolls around.

It was as of February.

A crew member told me last night that this was fleet wide. Only needed if it's a port requirement and can be reinstated if cases on board start to rise. So happy for them.

For those of us on the Prima TA, it's 12 days before we arrive in Canada!

Someone mentioned this auction bidding a few weeks ago and it might have been on the Bliss. For me personally, I have a maximum dollar amount I am willing to spend to upgrade and if I knew I wasn't in the running, I would remove my bid. A friend and I recently did an upgrade bid for a balcony on the Prima...he bid $400 more than I did. I told him he over bid, he says I underbid. I guess we will find out of either (or neither) of us win.

You need to post your question on the European Ports of Call board https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/8-europe/

According to some recent posts, if you have the FAS drink package, the corkage fee is now waived.

I believe they start around 9:00-9:30 and leave when each bus is full. You could get lucky and get a bus that fills up quickly or be sitting there for awhile. I just take a cab. Lots more information on the West Coast Departures forum.

Did NCL say in the letter they were not going to reimburse the port fees or is this an assumption? Port fees charged are a cumulative amount for the entire cruise. Some ports charge more, some charge less. Some raise their fees before you ever get there but the cruise lines do not come back and request the difference. What if they did substitute another port and their fees were higher? Would you want to pay the difference? I have had ports cancelled and changed, sometimes receiving a minuscule OBC that I didn't even notice....you wouldn't be buying one cocktail much less a few. There are disappointments in life and in the big picture this wouldn't rank very high on my list.

When you check in at 21 days before your cruise.

I have a very close friend who is an Officer on one of the NCL ships. He told me a few weeks ago about the switch and I had been sworn to secrecy. It is going fleet wide but he didn't have any type of schedule for the switchover. I don't drink soda so this doesn't really apply to me but I know lots of others will be happy for the change (and when I did drink soda, it was Coke all the way).

Since the bids are usually not accepted until a few days before the cruise (and upgrades aren't even offered until after final payment) you would have nothing to apply the 2nd CruiseNext to.

No, I have never had a problem either. Took my photo, saved on my desktop, attached to check in document on the first try.

Lots of information on the Florida departure forum https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/

There is an internet cafe on the Prima. Deck plans are available on the NCL website.

You may not plan to get off the ship in Canada but unforeseen circumstances could happen (hitting an iceberg) and you may have to get off in Canada. Better to be prepared than having to deal with issues that could arise...especially these days, it seems.

If you cancel before your cruise, you will get a refund to method of payment (so typically a credit card). If you cancel while onboard, you will get an OBC. And you need to call if cancelling before sailing...no doing it online. As mentioned above, sometimes they do fill up and depending on the excursion, no more are available. I always check on board if there is something I really want to do as there are cancellations.

Do you have a link to this verbiage above? All I see on the site is the Cruise policy that you posted in post #8 above. We are boarding the Prima in Southampton in September and won't arrive in Canada until 12 days later (assuming we test 2 days prior to boarding). Doesn't make much sense to me to test before embarkation.

Also, you can use the Starbucks app or card on the ship. I just load mine up before boarding with what I guesstimate I will spend. You do earn their reward Stars on the ship but cannot redeem them while on board.