The Traveling Man

I didn't realize that Pr1ma class ships were unable to use tenders. Could you expand on that?

Re: Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger

We have sailed with her once, about a year ago. What an outstanding experience. She demonstrated that she really cared about her guests and connected with them. She was standing next to the gangway, saying goodbye to her passengers, as we disembarked the cruise. I know it's an overworked phrase, but as we left I just had to say to her "You know that you're a rock star, don't you?" She just smiled demurely.

It looks like SkyNet is already here. Those ChatGPT responses are head and shoulders better than "Nothing Comes Close."

The crew usually is Johnny on the spot when it comes to clearing tables. I don't think I've ever been able to get up from a table in an NCL buffet before a crew member had whisked away my dirty dishes. Maybe a glass or a napkin were left behind, but otherwise they had my table spic and span even before I was ready to leave.

Also Texas.

I went back to look more carefully at the specifics of your cruise and the one before yours. It's possible that you may in fact have some difficulties in booking these activities. When NCL has operated similar itineraries in the past, they usually had a sea day immediately after Barcelona. NCL frequently schedules activities like BTS and WATW on sea days, so those boarding in Barcelona would have them on the second day of their cruise while Rome passengers would have them near the end of their cruise. In that case, it would be the passengers boarding in Rome who would have first crack at making reservations, while the Barcelona guests would play the role of "Johnny come lately." The September itineraries for the Escape have zero sea days. The most likely time for these activities would be the afternoon of the 17th after departing Malta at 2:00 PM or the morning of the 19th prior to arriving in Majorca at noon. That means that those boarding in Barcelona would have a four day head start on you for booking activities which likely would occur on the fourth or sixth day of your cruise, which translates to the eighth or tenth day of theirs. Your best bet is to stop by the Cruise Next desk as soon as you get on board and hope that they can add an additional BTS tour group or wine tasting event if demand warrants it.

We have done a similar itinerary several times on the Epic, sometimes boarding in Barcelona and sometimes in Rome. With the overlapping itineraries you sometimes may find that certain events are fully booked by "the other guys" before you board, so you'll miss out on those. OTOH, you'll be ahead of the game for events occurring on the last few days of your cruise when you are able to book them before "the other guys" even board your cruise. NCL usually schedules things like behind the scenes tours and the complimentary wine tasting just once per week, or in this case just once per ten day cruise. If you come in toward the middle of "the other guys" cruise you may miss out on some things early in your trip, but that means that you'll be ahead of the next batch of "other guys" for things taking place toward the end of your cruise / the beginning of theirs. It's confusing, I know, but I hope that helps explain it.

It's been over two years since NCL renamed the Platinum Plus Latitudes level to Sapphire and added the Diamond level. Wonder when NCL will get around to updating their signs?

Not sure what a GET tax is, but in the US (and possibly elsewhere) when your ship is in port or within the territorial waters, you likely will find sales tax added to any purchase you make on board. It varies from one city or state to another, perhaps as low as 5%, but probably more like 10% or more. Although you purchased your beverage plan prior to the cruise, if a beverage is actually served to you while within the port's jurisdiction, it usually is considered to be a transaction subject to the tax. It normally adds less than a dollar to the price of your drink. As they say, you can't fight city hall, so if you can't wait until you're out of port for a drink, expect to pay a bit of sales tax.

That being the case, then you should be OK with a 12:55 flight. I would recommend against a bus or any other type of shared transportation, however. It may cost more, but under the circumstances you won't want any unnecessary delays while waiting for other passengers. Just arrange for a taxi for your party, plan to be off the ship as early as you can, and hightail it for FCO.

Or if the ship absolutely cannot wait for you, NCL will cover the cost of transporting you to the ship's next port of call, pay for a hotel stay if needed, and pay for your meals and any other necessary expenses you incur until you can rejoin your cruise.

That may be the most apropos understatement ever made.

Getting through the Rome airport can be a harrowing experience. Most airlines ask that you arrive at that airport at least three hours before your flight's scheduled departure time. If the traffic from Civitavecchia to FCO is backed up, as it frequently is, it can take more than an hour to get there. If you are on a bus with 40 others, some of whom will be dropped off before you at different terminals, you might need to add another ten minutes or so to your travel time. Getting to FCO in time for a 12:55 flight certainly is possible, perhaps even likely, but you probably will feel quite rushed to get there. As @complawyer has suggested, if your vacation schedule permits it, you may want to consider spending a couple of days in The Eternal City either before or after your cruise.

We experienced the same thing recently on the Ascent. Once we were on board, however, we were able to find reasonable dining times at a couple of specialty restaurants. We didn't get our preferred day, but by shifting our schedule to a different day were seated at 7:30. You may need to be flexible once you're on board, and be sure to visit the restaurant reservations desk as soon as it opens on embarkation day.

In April 2019 we took a Transatlantic cruise on the Getaway which arrived in Southampton two days earlier than previously scheduled. It seems that NCL decided to get a head start on moving the ship into dry dock. That left us with two extra days to spend prior to our previously arranged plans to travel from Southampton to Brussels. We had been to England several previous times, so instead of rushing off to London, we looked for places to visit in the Southwest. We found a hotel for two nights next to the Southampton train station. We took the train one day to Salisbury. We found a tour bus at the Salisbury train station to take us to Stonehenge. Afterward we explored the town on foot, enjoyed a delightful pub lunch, and visited the Salisbury Cathedral, where the Magna Carta is on display. Another day we took a train to Winchester to visit the Cathedral, walk the old city streets, spend time in the shops, and enjoy another splendid pub lunch. The following day we resumed our previous itinerary, took the train to London, then the Eurostar to Brussels, which put us back on our planned schedule. It was a wonderful, though unexpected, two extra days of exploring parts of England where we previously had not immersed ourselves.

NCL has been sailing recently with ships close to capacity. In cases where more than two persons occupy a stateroom, some ships have sailed with more than the rated capacity. So far, their practices have not scared off more passengers than they have been able to attract. It seems that NCL is following the advice attributed to P.T. Barnum, that there's a sucker born every minute. As long as NCL can continue to attract newbies or those who do not object to last minute itinerary changes, they will continue to make those changes if they think that will net them more profit.

The closest we have ever come to getting perks ahead of time happened years ago. On our second-ever NCL cruise, every Latitudes member from Bronze on up received an invitation to the Latitudes party. They used to give away door prizes. They had free drinks at the party, in an era before beverage packages were common practice, so there was a real incentive to attend. A couple of weeks later we were on our third NCL cruise, where the Latitudes party was open only to Silver and above. We had earned enough points for Silver by the time of the party, but of course they wouldn't be credited to our account until the end of the cruise. We spoke to the Cruise Next Director, told her our story, and asked to be invited to the party. She took pity on us and let us in. At least we got some free cocktails out of the deal.

In this instance, "jump ship" was meant to refer to those passengers who accepted NCL's offer to end their cruise early, leave the ship in Melbourne, and give up their final week of the planned 12 day cruise. Those who did so received $300 to help cover the cost of changing their flights home. They may also have received some additional FCC, but I do not recall. Those of us who remained on board continued to Auckland, although delayed by several days and missing all of the intermediate ports of call in New Zealand. We also received "a full refund of all monies paid" for the cruise, plus additional FCC. As I recall, our FCC was equal to 50% of the fare we had paid. So, "jump ship" was intended as a colorful way of saying "leave the cruise prior to the scheduled debarkation date."

So far as I know, the Star hasn't had any propulsion issues which delayed a cruise since they cut a hole in her hull a couple of years ago to replace one of her diesel engines.

Correctamundo ! It's a tongue in cheek way of saying that cost overruns are unavoidable. IT folks tend to keep their tongue planted firmly in their cheek.

Nope. I wrote it right. You missed the point.

You're pretty close with the exponential cost estimate. Another standard rule of thumb in IT is that the first 90% of a project requires 90% of the allocated budget. The remaining 10% of the project uses up the other 90% of the budget.

Or you could pay more to be in the Haven courtyard, but then you'd miss out on the exercise of walking that extra distance each time you went to the Haven. But wait, isn't the Haven closer to the gym? That would make it easier to get to the treadmills where you could make up for the steps you miss by being so close to the courtyard. If I were fluent in the Emoji language, I would add a couple of smiley faces here. 😉 😉

Sorry, Chief, but for those of us who are not fluent in this newfangled language called Emoji, could you please translate what the rat-like figure means? Thanks.