BirdTravels

That’s a challenge. Lots of two-tops and four-tops. Far fewer six-tops in most specialty restaurants. At dining time, the hosts can push tables together, but at booking time, it’s limited to the number of tables actually configured that way.

Day passes are sold at the discretion of the Spa. Pre-pandemic, they would only be available, if any, on slow port days and never busy sea days. If the Thermal Suite is busy, no day passes will be sold. The price for a day pass on the Prima was $99. Thermal Suite is only available to those who purchase that service. Massage clients do not get access to the Thermal Suite.

Log on to NCL.com and it will be under explore and plan. Or… gasp…. Call the general reservations phone number and talk to a live agent.

You can ask for one. You may get one.

We had the photo shop manager once and the only host. And we had a gift shop manager (who’s is vendor and not an NCL employee) along with the ship’s training officer and a young bridge officer another time. We did a dinner earlier this year and don’t remember who the two officers were.

No peleton

Your time to arrive at the terminal is 9:00. You will be in the same steerage line for security (only Haven guests have a special lane on the left). Look for PRIORITY lines at check in. Priority boarding will start between 11:15 to 11:30. Rooms will be ready around 1:30.

For both, you go to the Cruise Next desk as soon as you embark and sign up. First come first serve. The dinner is currently being offered on a very limited number of ships. Most ships, they as still minimizing interactions with germy passengers. It is normally held on the smaller main dining room with the menu of the night. The only addition is glasses of wine. Sometimes you get a real officer. Sometimes it’s someone like a shop manager. Wines around the world has 4-5 stations with wines from different countries. “Taste” as much as you want.

No. Since they are doing the latitudes party and other activities like wine tasting, no other compensation.

No restrictions. Your drinks package even works on GSC.

See your MyNCL account for upgrade options (unlimited, premium unlimited).

The show is Velvet. It was pretty bad. Not Bird recommended.

It does not cover your FAS dining or beverage gratuities. Those are in addition to your Daily Service Charge. The Daily Servoce Charge covers your room steward, complimentary dining waiters, and behind the scenes crew who work to make your cruise memorable. https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/what-is-onboard-service-charge Additional “envelopes”’are still welcome. (E.g., we give our room steward an extra $5-$10 per person in the room per day in cash).

The Joy is a far superior ship. That would be the recommendation.

For future passengers in similar situations First, do not sign anything that releases the cruise line from responsibility for the accident. Second, organize a meeting with the General Manager, no one less - don't bother with the clerks at the desk. Third, file a formal report with the ship's safety officer Fourth, get medically assessed at the ship's expense, regardless if you feel "o.k." We were on a Royal shoreex in St. Thomas when our open air safari bus taxi was weaving through traffic, side swiped an on-coming car and swerved head on into a rock wall. The ship wanted to make our injuries (bumps and bruises from being thrown into the bench seat in front of us) our fault for not sitting properly in the "bus".

A couple of recent cruises.

The OP left on their cruise long ago and is enjoying their cruise.

We have never had any issue with the noise level in Cagney's. There should be no effort to ask people not to enjoy their meal. And there is no acoustics problem in Cagney's, the room is carpeted with a lot of soft surfaces to absorb sound.

What ship? On the big ships, it is the size of the bathroom and a few perks.

Turkey at the buffet and in the MDR. Along with normal fare (Chinese, Indian, burgers) because only a portion of the passengers are American and not all celebrate the holiday.

Why does it matter if the guide owns the company? A proper gratuity is expected on all shore excursions

Most ships have O'Douls and Heineken 0.0.

Just for your consideration. Today, most groups really don't want to sit together every night. Those days a long got. There is a lot to do and a lot of restaurants to eat at. Late port calls. Lots of entertainment that people want to partake in. And most of the younger folks would not want to be "stuck" in the MDR every night. My adult kids would humor me by eating together a couple of times on a cruise and be off on their own with their families on other nights.

You can skim through my live post from a couple of months ago

NCL does not insure your trip. NCL purchases an insurance policy from Aon on your behalf. If you are considering cancelling, it is very important that you know, today, what the insurance policy requires to substantiate the cancellation. It is more than a positive home test kit or "my kid was sick". You will need some sort of written proof of COVID or doctor's documentation that your son is unfit to cruise (often hard to get a doctor to put anything in writing). Read the policy. You need to cancel directly with NCL prior to the cruise. With a cancellation, NCL will automatically refund pre-paid expenses (shore ex, pre-paid service charges, internet, dining, spa), port taxes and fees. If you cancel, you will file a claim with Aon. After a [protracted] evaluation, Aon will either pay you (cash) for your cruise fare or deny your claim. Whether Aon pays the claim is totally dependent upon you providing the documentation required by the policy for a covered reason for cancellation. If Aon denies your claim, you can submit a request to NCL to provide you with 75% of your cancellation penalty as a new FCC. That FCC has to be used on a single future cruise (this is the way it used to work... not sure if they have relaxed the "use all" requirements for insurance FCC).