Macaron

Coral cuts can be very dangerous & have a high risk for infection. However, the infection wouldn't suddenly appear after two weeks - there were surely signs before that. It must have been a miserable time for the poor man. You can walk with a severed tendon (although you shouldn't) & I'm sure he put off going to the hospital as long as he could, hoping that his wounds would sort themselves out.

If nothing else, this story serves as a reminder to always read insurance paperwork very carefully, and not to think of the ship doctor as a "real doctor," so to speak. That was certainly substandard medical care if compared to what one would expect from a land-based facility.

I had it on the Jewel a few years back & it's not something I remember with a particular fondness.

I think I have only ever seen it once on a regular restaurant menu.

It must be so frustrating to have an unresponsive TA. I agree with the suggestion to transfer, if you can.

In five applications, I've had one voicemail letting me know the $100 OBC has been applied and had one email letting me know. Usually it just appears on my account. The cruise has to be fully paid so I don't send in the letter until that happens (90 day window which I think is getting longer). Then in a couple weeks, the credit is granted. It has worked fine for the past 3 cruises and is showing in the summary on the next two. I've sent the documentation in via US mail.

My cruise is not fully paid & the credit was still applied. If that was once a requirement, I don't think it is one any longer.

Do you know how long is takes from applying for the onboard credit to benign informed that it will be on your onboard account please? Do NCL email you prior to the cruise? Thanks for your help.

I emailed the form to shareholderbenefit@ncl.com on Wednesday.

Today I received a phone call & voice mail stating that the credit would be applied. An updated amenity confirmation arrived in my inbox about an hour later. It's Sunday, so I was very surprised.

I noticed the insurance option when pricing a cruise online & unfortunately the default was to accept it. I made sure to decline when booking that cruise with my PCC. I also purchase my own travel insurance.

I don't think collared shirts or other dress clothes are necessary. They are little kids on a casual vacation. As long as they don't come straight from the pool wearing their wet bathing suits with those flip flops, they will be fine! :)

I use a Brita water bottle with a built-in filter & I find that the Brita-filtered water tastes much the same as bottled water.

The water on board isn't too bad to begin with, though. When we go to Disney World, the tap water there is so terrible that not even my Brita can make it drinkable. It's full of sulfur & therefore - quite literally - stinks.

Warm water lobster tails can be very good, even though they are a different species than cold water lobster. When I lived in Miami Beach, I had friends and neighbors who avidly caught them (during the short legal season). Grilled fresh outdoors with frequent buttering, the tails were very tasty. The frozen, rubbery tails baked aboard ship, not so much.

I'm sure the freezing & reheating process aboard ship had a lot to do with the lackluster taste. Some things just don't translate well at sea.

I like lobster but I think it is a little over rated...especially the small tails that are served by Carnival (and I assume used to be served by NCL). I definitely wouldn't make a cruising decision around it.

Yes, NCL also used small warm water lobster tails. I love cold water lobster but never cared for what was on the ships.

Is the rebellious fish included in the UBP??

Yes. Any drink $15 or under is included. If you want a drink that costs more than $15, you just have to pay the difference.

the kicker here is the guy realized he didnt have the passports when he was in line. instead of going back to the porters in the hopes that the bags would still be there, he thought "oh, no big deal, they'll let us on". that was where the error was made. these two have cruised before, they knew what they needed and thought it would be overlooked and they could get it to whoever later.

I think they knew what they needed when they set out, but momentarily forgot in the confusion of the terminal. Unfortunately, those few moments were all it took to create a bad situation.

These are older people & they mentioned health concerns - I do wonder why their granddaughter or another family member didn't stay to help them with the boarding process, or at least make sure the passports were tucked into a purse or other bag that the couple would keep with them. Paperwork can be very confusing for elderly people. I would have been there to see my grandparents off & make sure they got onto the ship.

Of course, there was no way they could have been allowed to board without proper ID/documentation, but it makes me sad to think of them sitting alone in the terminal, watching the ship sail away. Even though the error was theirs, I understand why they felt abandoned. I'm glad they had family nearby & I have no problem with them receiving a free cruise. It may well be the last trip they can ever take together. However, I don't think NCL deserves 100% of the blame, as the article implies, and it was irresponsible to report that a driver's license will suffice in place of a passport.

I too would consider myself a Pizza fan,but I think I tried only one slice from the Buffet on our cruise..I did not find it moreish..maybe just me,but too thin for my liking,and a little soggy..OTOH,there was plenty of other good stuff to fill the gap,both at the buffet and everywhere else on board!

Thin & crispy is good. Thin & foldable is good. Thin & soggy is gross!

I have never tried the pizza on a cruise. I have always been curious to see how just bad it is, but I just couldn't do it to myself. I'm from Brooklyn. I don't expect to find pizza that is "to my standards" (if "pizza standards" are a thing) away from home. However, I have never sailed MSC. :)

The $5 pizza on the Breakaway looked pretty awful, back when it still existed.

My PCC recommended a mini-suite over the Haven for us as well. I loved the Haven on a cruise we took a few years ago, but this time I will be cruising with my mom & I didn't know that the beds in the Haven cannot be split. My PCC thought we would be more comfortable in a mini-suite, particularly on a port-intensive cruise. I was very surprised as I thought they would surely try to convince me otherwise! I do think the PCCs simply give their honest opinion of what would be best for each person's situation.