CruiseMH

Maybe i should have been more clear. I was saying that NCL does not give any info to the employees because there is an official statement. I also said that this statement to me is useless. But I find this statement useless and you might find the statement useless. But NCL doesn`t ! Thats why they have given exactly that statement to the customers.Because they think it is good. And because they think this is good and enough they don`t give their employees any info.

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there is something that is called respect. If all americans would act like you then you would be treated as an arrogant a****le in every country outside the US. The first tourist is disrespectful, the second is as well.From the third on every tourist from that country (in your case the US) will be treated as sh*t. That might not be a problem if you are the first. But always remember in most cases you are in the group "from the third on". 😉 Especially in Europe there are meanwhile quite a few countries where the people would rather take nothing than accept dollars, even as tip. (parts of germany, Italy, France, whole scandinavia) It might work in small countries on the american continent or in Africa where the local currencies are weak and unreliable. But the Euro is strong, stable and reliable.

No, they should not know. Simply because they don`t need to know. thats what press releases and information to the guests are there for. To give you all the information you need (or they want/can give you). They don`t want 100.000 people to call them and block the lines just to ask for information which was already spreaded in the mail. I admit that of course the mails then should give at least as much truth as possible and don`t be any useless marketing BS. But even if it is useless blabla it is a waste of time to call anybody at NCL cause they don`t know more about and if they do they won`t tell you.

I don`t know if all guests would be so calm as you would be i agree with you, most people would honor truth more than any BS excuses.

I love how everybody beats NCL although nobody,absolutely nobody has a clue what the reasons are. Of course the text in the e-mail is really bad marketing blablabla, but that does not make the decision itself wrong. Especially when these itinerary changes are on such short notice there are usually good reasons for a cruise line to do so. Yes, i know ,everybody wants to think that the bad cruise lines just want our money and a creating a itinerary they never plan to actually do and after final payment they make the changes they have planned already anyway. Sorry, but this is the real bull***t . There are for sure good reasons to make that change.Just ignore that blablabla in their e-mail.

I won`t tell you that Paris from Le Havre is an insane and stupid idea, but instead answer your questions. 😉 First of all, Paris has by far the best public transport system in the world. the subway, called "metro" is extremely reliable and fast. You can find all info under the following link: https://www.ratp.fr/en/plan-metro depending on the exact location of the drop off 3 hours are enough from visiting the tower...from the ground ! If you want to go up there can be a line of 1,5 to 3 hours. If you want to you can walk up (at least to the second platform but not to the top) and save some time if you are good at walking stairs. from the second platform you can take the elevator to the top. DO you need Euros ? Credit card is widely accepted in france. If you need cash (e.g. for smaller souvenirs) then you need Euros. USD might be accepted in some locations but is rather an exception.

No matter if bridges, dangerous rail crossings or anything else traffic wise there always has to be an accident(with casualties) first before protection measures are done.

It really depends on what your kids like or don`t like. If i had to decide which port/city/country the kids could skip easiest without having missed a lifetime experience i would say it is Majorca. From the port you can take the shuttle bus or public bus to Palma,stroll around the city and go back to ship. Marseille is also a city which imho is not necessarily a must watch city.

St. Kitts has four berths for docking ,even for the largest cruise ships. So tendering is extremely unlikely but yet still possible.

I don`t.

Maybe i should have said "more customers happy" You are right, making all customers happy is simply impossible.

I know. But i dare to say that people like you are the minority. The majority prefers some non-money making entertainment (e.g. live music, production shows, trivia,etc.) over rip off game shows. Very important is the "rip off" at the beginning. If it is a serious game show with adequate and noteworthy prices than many people could live with it. But at the moment it doesn`t seem so. And if the locations remain jam-packed during the next years...well,then obviously NCL has done something right.

I didn`t say that you shouldn`t go there if you like it. If you do,you can go. I just said, as long as the people are going there although they don`t like it just because there is no other choice then these rip off shows won`t go away. If in each of these game shows only 20 people are sitting in the theater and no one takes part then these shows will go away. Yes, these 20 people who liked it will be sad but i have the feeling that these people are a small minority. NCL was famous for their great production shows and fabulous live music. they should be really careful not to lose one of its signature elements on board of their ships. And if they want to keep all customers happy then they could have these rip off game shows AND production shows on their ships. Instead of 2-3 times the production show each week they could do 1-2 production shows and one rip off game show.

As long as enough people are so "stupid" to let themselves get ripped off the cruise lines(in this specific case NCL) will keep doing these shows. If no one would attend them or take part then they wouldn`t exist and NCL would have to think about some real and free entertainment.

Simple answer: they pack your staff and unload it at the first port. There is a time when they decide to leave without you. then they will go to your cabin,pack everything(but NOT in a nice or smooth way !) and bring your luggage to the port agent. Then they leave. If you do arrive before they handed over your luggage to the port agent you may be lucky and might be let on board.

No they don`t. It is clearly stated in their general terms that they are no liable for any lost or stolen luggage during disembarkation process. It is clearly your risk if you let them bring your luggage to the arrivals hall.

You can`t allow smoking on the whole ship so you have to create designated smoking areas. At outside locations the impact on other cruisers is much lower than at any inside location. Inside you have to take much more efforts(and money) to prevent the smoke from spreading too wide. And as the spice H2O also is an adults only area(at least throughout the day) it is the perfect smoking area. Thats why i would be surprised if NCL would ban smokers from the spice H2O.

It is clear that you can`t allow smoking on the whole ship.So you have to create designated smoking areas.And to me the best option for such areas are outside locations. Cause then you have the least possible impact on other cruisers. Anywhere inside it takes much more effort(and in the end money) to prevent the smoke from spreading to much. thats what i wanted to say. And also as the spice H2O is an adults only area it is even more perfect as smoking area.

China and US/Europe are completely different in almost all kinds of cultural things.But you are right,for most cruise lines it didn`t work well.

Based on my experience in business it is exactly the other way around. It is not hard to acquire new customers but it is really hard to keep them especially when the competition is as tough as it is in the cruise industry. But maybe it depends on the type of business.

there is still so much potential in getting new cruisers that many cruise lines don`t care that much about loyal cruisers any more. In the US and Europa alone there are hundreds of millions of people who have never been on a cruise. these people are way more important for the cruise lines than the ten thousands of loyal customers. Cause all these new cruisers don`t know what it was like in the past.So they think the current version is good.

i didn`t mean how long during each show, i meant for how many weeks/days/months will it be that full. 😉

The question is for how long.

Sorry, but no. Most ports if not all are charging by day,not by hour.If yo stay from 8am till 5pm or from 7am till 7pm doesn`t make any difference. Only if you stay until next day or leave in the middle of the night(e.g. 1am) then they might/will charge you more. Thats the info i got in the past from two captains independent from each other. Explanation is simple. They are trying to use the piers as much as possible and make as much money as possible. But no matter whether a cruise leaves at 4 pm or at 8 pm, the pier can`t be used on the same day again because it is too late anyway for another cruise ship to dock at the same pier. Also many ports(especially in europe) do have the tariffs on their website. So you can pretty exactly calculate how much a day in port costs. And on all the websites i have checked it shows "docking fee per day(new day starts at 12am)"