Middleager

We had the Scotia Passport visa, which doesn't charge the 2.5% FX fee. It also comes with 6 lounge passes, but the time when they switched from Scotia's points to Scene they messed up and did not transfer about 35,000 points over. After so many phone calls and them admitting they messed up and would get the points to us, they never did. We didn't keep that card. We then had the HSBC WE MC which does not charge FX, then upgraded to the HSBC metal WE MC which came with lounge accesses. Now RBC is taking over, RBC issued Avion visa cards as replacement, which supposedly doesn't charge FX fee -- we'll find out for sure after April 1 when we can start using the new cards.

We were on the Jewel for Panama Canal cruise in March/2022. It was the first sailing of the Jewel after the pandemic. Being on the Haven, top deck, the viewing was pretty good. My wife is short, and she also enjoyed the viewing. Later on we also went to other decks, including just above where you can see the ground and tracks closer. All were good. If it's important for you to get good viewing and you don't mind paying Haven price, then why not. (My wife and I were not in Haven room, but were invited to go up on the Haven deck for viewing of the Panama Canal crossing. I think it was because I had organized a Meet & Greet, and the ship was only at 30% capacity. Or maybe because we just made Platinum from the cruise prior.)

Was in 2022. Haven't seen double up for CF certs any more.

They had before. But not recently. I'd hope they have such promo now, so I can use my CF certs.

You got a good deal. I knew what jump ship meant, just wanted to poke fun at it. Thanks.

CruiseNext is a different program. You buy CN certs onboard ships, not just for US but on any NCL ships. During Covid when ships were not sailing, NCL came out with CF program, to sell to people who can order online or on phone in US/Canada (i.e. don't need to be on ship).

google "NCL CruiseFirst" and you'll get https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruisefirst-program

Too bad this doesn't apply to CruiseFirst certs. (I have $250 CF certs for $500 value.)

How do you jump ship? From which deck of the Star, onto which deck of the other ship? Anybody miss?

I certainly hope we won't gain 10lbs from taking any cruise.

Too bad NCL won't cruise the Napali coast. It's a beautiful part of the cruise. Napali Coast has the mystic feeling about it. We've done helicopter and small plane rides to see it before, and a POA cruise in 2019. So fortunately for us we've done all that. For friends going on the POA, they'll need to fork out more money to see this beautiful scenery.

If you want NCL lanyards with NCL logo, probably need to buy from NCL. That'll cost. Or you can add some NCL logo or identifiers yourself to the lanyards you buy, depending on how fancy you like. I guess because we've take cruises on NCL, Carnival, and others, I'm not big on carrying/wearing advertising for those companies.

Ok. They cost >US$10 on the ship, rip off price. You can certainly order them on Amazon, Staples, Walmart, etc.

I just re-used conference name tag holder (having attended many conferences). The ones with zip is best, so the card won't fall out. Actually the ones without zip, my card hasn't fallen out, it seems sticky enough.

Ok, I was wrong, NCL did charter trains. When we disembarked in Seward, we took an excursion that returned in time for the 6pm train to Anchorage. The timing worked out quite well for us.

Doubt NCL will chart a train. If anything, NCL buys seats on some cars of train to sell to you (and adds their own cut in the price). People can buy tickets for those trains themselves (we did).

Not talking about double up. If there is double up of CN that's good, but that doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes when there's double up, it applies to both CN and CF, or mix of both.

The CruiseFirst certs at $250 get $500 are the best values, better than the CruiseNext certs you can only buy on ship. Those are the ones to buy when available, especially if no more expiration date.

Ok, if that's true it's a welcoming change. In Ontario, the government also mandated that GCs cannot expire. But many companies get around this by calling them cash cards, point cards (points equal to some cash value), store voucher, with expiration dates, and those do expire. If NCL had lawsuits to force them to change, to no expiration dates for those existing CN or CF certs, that'd allow us to keep them longer. What happens with already expired certs can be tricky, because how much liabilities would that bring to NCL, or other cruiselines.

NCL can have temporary system issue, with messed expiration dates messed up, it doesn't mean it won't get fixed. It should be an important issue for NCL because expiration dates do force people wanting to use them, and book cruises. I wouldn't believe that my certs all of a sudden have no or 2099 expiration dates, without fixes in the future. NCL system, no matter how bad it may be, has the original expiration dates. They have many backups. I had worked in IT, and yes we do at times have to recover from backups.

You can believe what you want. For me, I don't want to believe that my certs had expiration dates extended because NCL has display issues, then find out later on I cannot use the certs because they expired.

Do I want expirations dates? NCL has the expiration dates on the certs whether I want it or not. NCL should show the expiration dates, which they used to before. I do like to see the expiration dates on my account.

I have certs that originally showed expiration dates. But recently they've all shown blank dates. Another "enhancement" by NCL.

How much does the open air safari bus costs from cruise pier to Coki Beach, per person? I've been there before and think it was about 20-minutes, is that right? Thanks.

Wow this thread is still going. The universe is probably going to self destruct in 7 billion years. Some people should be concerned.