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Ahh what they mean is that you don’t have to login to the ships WiFi to use iMessage which is specific to iPhone/iPads. If you want to use wifi based messaging on any other app/device you need to actually login to the WiFi. iPhones can use traditional SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, messenger, viber… etc. to send messages but only iMessage will work on the ship without any costs and iMessage doesn’t communicate with Androids. it’s a quirk of how the wifi is configured on the NCL ships, they don’t block the specific port used by iMessage as they use it internally themselves for other reasons. if you have the unlimited wifi package from NCL you can send messages via any app you choose and only SMS/MMS will attract charges for mobile roaming while on the ship.

I did Venice in January years ago, I was in Treviso supporting my local rugby team and the day after the match you couldn’t turn a corner in Venice without spotting someone in team colours. The city was practically empty of all other tourists. Meanwhile our lot were checking pubs to see if any of them were showing another rugby match but no dice so we all did the tourist thing. I even managed to get that trip partly subsidised by my employer at the time, I visited a partner company outside Milan before flying back to Ireland.

On my very first cruise another solo got stopped when going back to the ship at St Thomas, I had my passport with me and after her giving me her keycard and instructions to find her ID the security guy decided to let her through without the ID. So always bring some sort of photo ID if you have it, you never know when a port will have heightened security. And keep any other travel-critical documents & medication in your room safe so if you miss the ship the crew can find it and leave it with their port agent.

I did sorrento & pompeii via NCL in October ‘21 so it was just after the resumption. We still had a full bus though and one couple had forgotten their vaccine certs which complicated matters at Pompeii. Back then Italy still had heaps of covid restrictions including no access to Pompeii without a vaccine cert. In sorrento we only had one guide but that was basically him escorting us into town from the bus, bringing us to a wood crafter place with a New Yorker explaining the craft and we then had about an hour free before getting on the bus to Pompeii. At Pompeii there was a second guide along with our original so one of them could answer specific questions while the other gave the talks. I will say I’d advise anyone doing tours in Italy to bring their own headphones to plug into the little walkies as the ones provided are neither comfortable nor reliable.

I dunno about the North American site but the European site processed my latitudes discount in addition to the excursion credit on excursions no problems. Of course I’m dealing with prices being ever varied thanks to the €/$ exchange rates but for this booking I’m also managing the excursion bookings for a friend on her first cruise so she has no latitudes discount at all. Comparing the prices I’ve paid for each they appear to be in line with what they should be, of course we are in 2 separate cabins as we have each booked a studio hence the fact we’re both getting the $50 credit. One of the perks on FAS+ is that guest #2 also gets the excursion credit. I also checked the excursion prices for booking independently and the excursion credit does make them cheaper, not massively so but enough that the assurance of the cruiseline coordination is a plus factor. I will say my upcoming cruise is Alaska in October so a lot of the usual excursion providers don’t even take bookings that late in the season which left independent options thin on the ground. But I could do a straight compare for the white pass railway in Skagway and the NCL price worked out cheaper.

I’ve tried a few TAs with mixed results. The first I tried priced a cruise with a flight out of Dublin (3 hours away) rather than Shannon (15 minutes away) so I immediately ditched them. What is the point in using a local travel agent if they’re going to default to not picking the local airport ? another local TA, too slow in responding.. then tried a national one and they got me a great deal from my preferred airport but when I tried their helpline when my airline had an IT meltdown the day I was flying home the response I got was, just queue for the airline desk. Sooo… I’m sticking to DIY. I actually got a call from a PCC this week, I think I triggered by looking after a friend’s booking but he hadn’t spotted that I had my own reservation too. This one was from the states, I had spoken to a European one a few years back before covid and when I tried to contact her post-covid her contact info no longer worked. I am hoping to do a Hawaii cruise in a couple of years but I think I will need to use either a TA or PCC for that as it’s likely to involve at least 3 flights each way, plus a TA might be able to get a decent pre/post hotel deal in combination with the flights.

So right .. I'd been looking into cruising for years before finally going on my first after my dad passed. I once brought mum on a holiday to Australia after I won flights from a local radio station, within 3 days of our departure my Dad decided he couldn't cope being at home on his own for 2 weeks so booked flights to join us for the second half of the trip. He and mum were on a sailing holiday in Greece when he died from an aneurysm almost 10 years ago. Our extended family lost a bunch of his generation over the space of 18 months. I decided to leave my corporate tech industry job cos it just wasn't worth the heartburn, and came back to the family shop. While I may not be earning what I got back then at least I'm not dealing with that stress anymore and I've changed my holiday habits drastically. Back in the corporate days my holidays were volunteering at various sporting events, yep that's how skewed I was, working for free was more enjoyable than the day job! These days while the months I can take holidays are restricted those holidays are now actual holidays, 1 cruise a year.

The crocs range goes way beyond the clogs that everyone is familiar with. This is a promo image we got from Crocs, I work in a shop that sells them. These are their version of "chelsea boots".

you can also get repellent wrist/ankle-bands if you're allergic to deet.

Are you sure about the not a uk law ? I seem to remember any time I got a ferry between Ireland and the UK the bars onboard didn't open until we were a few of miles off shore.

Definitely on my list. I’m just not sure how far in advance to book it.

Glow night is what used to be the “white hot” party, it’s basically a night club with UV lights so everyone wears white or fluorescent colours . On a warm weather cruise on the big ships it takes place in Spice H2O if the weather allows. The first few hours are open to the kids but it switches to adults only at 11pm I think. I’m not a fan of the night club music played at the 2 I’ve experienced.

That is the deal everyone can get any day on the ship. I do hate that they pitch it as OBC because it’s actually a discount on the price. That sales pitch is designed to confuse folks and convince them they’ll have more money to spend on the ship but the “obc” is immediately eaten up by the purchase of the cruise next vouchers.

I usually book a studio cabin so generally can only ever use 1 cruise next credit but occasionally the kind folks on this forum post notifications about double Up or very very rarely Triple Up promos that then allow you to add another credit to an existing reservation that meets the criteria of that promo. e.g. I booked my October 2023 cruise in January 2022, at that time I could only use 1 credit, but last month I was able to apply a second one to that reservation because of a double up promo specific to Alaskan cruises. You can also find people selling cruise next credits on other websites, I gifted one to a friend for her first cruise as it was going to expire before I could use it thanks to the various covid cancellations after I originally purchased it. For the cruise next credits there are now 3 levels - light, regular and haven. In general you can always apply 2 credits for a sailing with a balcony cabin at least 4 months out. I haven't looked at the cruise next light credits at all as they weren't offered on my last sailing so I'm not sure what t&cs apply to those.

There is another scenario wherein you can lose a cruise next credit, I used one that had an expiry of December 31st 2022 but could be used for a sailing up to December 31st 2023. If I were to cancel the 2023 cruise now, that cruise next credit would promptly disappear into the ether never to be seen again. It was one that I had purchased pre-covid and had its expiry date extended as a result of that. for European customers our deposit is theoretically forfeit for any cancellation beyond 14days from original booking and the 14 days window is an EU rule to allow “cooling off” for online purchases, e.g. you were madly intoxicated when you made the booking and when you sobered up you realised you didn’t want it anymore. However if you are outside the final payment date and get ahold of a cooperative NCL person on the phone they may be able to move your deposit to a different sailing, it’s the flat out cancellations they want to avoid.

They won’t be allowed to exclude mandatory fees on the EU site thanks to the rules brought in to stop the airlines pitching €4.99 air fares which then had €50 in fees on top.

from what I can remember hearing the free tour tended to be early in the cruise while the paid version was towards the end so it simply may not have been safe to bring people into the provisioning areas when it’s fully stocked. When I did the paid tours the freezers were significantly under capacity when I saw them.

Supply v demand, a lot more guests on the bigger ships and possibly different levels of access. previously the paid tour on the breakaway/+ class ships had: theatre dressing rooms/backstage, food storage freezers and meat processing, main galley, recycling centre, laundry and a walk through the main crew area. The paid tour is normally on the last sea day , at least the couple of times I did it. There used to be free photo taken for each person on the tour in the galley and you get it printed and mounted by the end of the tour. AFAIK the free tour that higher grade latitudes gets has been a bit more limited and they don’t get the photo. The new paid tour seems to have expanded into more technical areas of the ship like the engineering areas and bridge in addition to what was on the old version. Or at least that’s how the description reads for Bliss anyway.

I think there was an opps at the backend in the latter half of the week as a few folks (me included) were able to book thermal spa passes well before they should have been available for our itineraries. My cruise is still more than 160 days away so I wasn't expecting to see the spa pass available to purchase until sometime next month.

That's fairly normal as NCL sees the studio lounge as a bonus feature and think of the Studio complex as a Haven for solos without all the extra bells & whistles. The meetups coordinator will usually organise a table at a specific restaurant each night after day 1 and book for a group to attend the theatre shows, we were brought in through a backstage corridor for early access to the theater on Epic. After that any extra activities depend on the itinerary and the coordinator assigned.

I'd recommend bringing at least one bottle/can with you if you are checking a bag. Places like hawaii have premium rices compared to the mainland for things like that due to import costs. Also you want to make sure it's one that works on your skin. I have a hard time getting one that works on my skin and doesn't make me itchy all day. Similar for after sun, I'd also recommend a few sheet masks for your faces to help recovery from excessive sun and dehydration. The watermelon one from sephora was my go-to until they changed the formula and added Aloe. I have the fun of being violently allergic to aloe vera which tends to influence me towards bringing all toiletries with me and I even make sure I've enough to keep me going for a couple of days in my carry-on. That last is a policy I took after having to hunt for moisturiser in Bangkok that did not contain a bleaching agent.

I'm sailing on Bliss later this year which was the first NCL ship to have an enclosed smokers area from the start in the Casino so hopefully that will eliminate the drift out to 678 Ocean place and the atrium. Smoking is usually allowed by the bar in Spice H2O and there is a cigar smoking enclosed bar on deck 8 which can leak out to the waterfront bar next to it. The other hotspot I found is a few of the ships have a semi-enclosed smoking area on the main pool deck, I had to make sure I crossed on the opposite side of the deck to avoid the stench from that one. Apparently the policy at the outdoor bars is that it's up to the bartenders as to whether they let people smoke in their vicinity or not.. The day smoking gets banned completely will be a joyous occassion for those of us affected by the smell.

There was a bunch of snorkel excursions that went to the exact same place as the turtle snorkel when I did it years ago. I will say that the location they used back then may not have fully recovered from hurricanes, when I went to Tortola 2 years after Irma & Maria the island was still recovering and a lot of damage was still visible. I know some of the boat/dive/snorkel excursions took a fair while to resume because so many boats and reefs were destroyed. I’d hope the stoppages due to covid will have given the reefs eco systems to recover so they might be back using the old locations again. The turtle snorkel I did was also on the VI cat back in 2017. Back then they had a presence on trip advisor because they asked everyone to post reviews on there after the excursion.

Yes

If you are not regularly around smokers it’s highly likely that is the cause of your nausea. It took having my own car for me to figure out that my “travel sickness” was from the smell of stale smoke ingrained in the upholstery of buses, ferries and my dad’s car. Since the smoking restrictions came into place in Ireland my previously limited tolerance has thoroughly disappeared. Once upon a time I could tell what brand of cigarettes was being smoked in my vicinity purely based on my reaction to it, Benson & Hedges were the worst of the lot.