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I should add, there are 2 day 6 dailies as we lost the port of Punta Arenas.

It's really strange as the internet was fine the first few days and of course you can't expect good coverage in Antarctica but it was the last few days. It was impossible to even send a text only email in under 15 minutes. In fairness to the internet manager, who was excellent and granted me an extra hour of time on two occasions. I even showed him an email iny outbox that had been sat there for 3 days since the Falklands.

See reply above, the cruise was amazing and Antarctica a very special place, one fantastic cruise.

Fantastic cruise, the staff were great and Antarctica of course was amazing 🤩 The WiFi however was dire, while I did not expect good coverage in Antarctica, I did expect reasonable coverage just off the coast of Buenos Aries. There was a constant line of people being granted extra minutes due to the WiFi problems. That said, WiFi was the only issue on an amazing cruise, lovely ship and fantastic staff. I took me forever to write all the hero cards, it was so good.🤩

Thought some might like some current info from the Star. PDF daily's: 07012024(day1)free-style-daily.pdf 08012024(day2)free-style-daily.pdf 09012024(day3)free-style-daily.pdf 10012024(day4)free-style-daily.pdf 11012024(day5)free-style-daily.pdf 12012024(day6)free-style-daily.pdf12012024(day6B)free-style-daily.pdf13012024(day7)free-style-daily.pdf 14012024(day8)free-style-daily.pdf 15012024(day9)free-style-daily.pdf 16012024(day10)free-style-daily.pdf 17012024(day11)free-style-daily.pdf 18012024(day12)free-style-daily.pdf 19012024(day13)free-style-daily.pdf 20012024(day14)free-style-daily.pdf Menus: Cagneys Cagneys-Dinner-Dessert-Mobile-Menu.pdf Ginza Ginza-Lunch-Dinner-Mobile-Menu.pdf La Cucina La-Cucina-Dinner-Dessert-Mobile-Menu.pdf Moderno Moderno-Fleet-Dinner-Dessert-Mobile-Menu.pdf Sushi Sushi-Lunch-Dinner-Mobile-Menu.pdf Tappanyaki Teppanyaki-Dinner-Dessert-Mobile-Menu.pdf Suite Breakfast Suite Lunch Officers Extra Speciality meals Dress code MDR & La Bistro Activity collection cards and redemption (We got 160 🤩 -- 2 water bottles 😂) X

I can comment on Norwegian as it's my line of choice. I love it for the as they now have Freestyle Cruising. You eat whenever you like, just turn up to the MDR whenever you want and they accommodate you with hardly ever a wait. You are normally offered a table to fit your party size, a two top for two people. If you would rather share you can but that is not common. They also have no formal nights which I love, dress up in a gown and tux for photos but there are no nights it's required. They are accused of nickel and dimeing passengers but I don't think they do. I love NCL.

You can do that, there is a ticket machine and ticket desk in Southampton, you will however get the best prices by booking in advance the website Trainline makes booking easier online.

How long are you staying at the hotel at Gatwick? It is a long way outside London, I wouldn't recommend staying there unless is just for a night. Southampton to Gatwick take the train, the National Express coach, although comfortable, is a long journey. The tube is the metro or underground and quite simple when you have a map, it's very extensive and will get you just about anywhere you want. What is it you don't understand about the regular trains, I think they are very similar to what I have used in other countries.

It certainly is John, and for the OP, this is why nobody can directly answer your question & tell you who to book with, we all have different likes and dislikes, even trivial things like formal nights. What is important to one person is irrelevant to others. You will find each cruise line is slightly different and you need to select your line based on what you like.

John, that is not the cost on NCL, there is no service charge on the drinks package in Europe only in the US and it's not $99 a day for the Free at Sea upgrade, that would get you 5 days on the current promotion. It's £299 for cruises between 6-8 nights and currently on a 50% discount so only £149. That also covers the free at sea which is wifi, drinks, speciality meals & excursion discounts. A five night only costs £199 and currently at half price so only £99 so not bad at £20 a day. This is the current promotional cost (50% off) of Free at Sea with NCL and very well priced, it's way lower than P&O if they charge £48 a day and you get much more than just drinks.

There is one other good point here, if you are working to a budget. I believe ( @John Bull can confirm as I don't have the experience) P&O have much better bar prices if you don't want to buy a package, I'm told it's much closer to London pub prices. Other lines like NCL you really need to consider a drinks package as drinks are very expensive without, you really only need 3 drinks a day to make a package worthwhile. Also NCL will not allow you to bring drinks onboard unless you pay $15 corkage for each wine bottle (no spirits, beer, soft drinks or even water allowed). Again, I'm not sure what P&Os rules are on bringing drinks onboard.

Don't let "not stopping at scheduled ports due to weather etc." put you off, this happens to all cruises as there is nothing they can do about bad weather. If you want to try and reduce the chances of this happening, try to choose a cruise with less tender ports. the tenders (lifeboats) can't launch to take you ashore in bad weather. Next, if you want to avoid raucous kids, then make sure you choose the dates carefully, school holidays will be more likely to have lots of children onboard. That said Norway does not attract families with children as much as warmer climates like the Med. Next, look at ships that suit your likes, we tend to use NCL the most as they are very relaxed, no formal nights where you are expected to dress up and freestyle dining, this allows you to go to the main dining room whenever you like (unlike fixed dining times) and you will have a table for your party size rather than sharing. Some people like to share a table, we would rather have a two top, that is personal choice. I would also suggest you look at MSC, they have the Vertuosa home based in Southampton, she is very new and a lovely ship, MSC do some very well priced cruises to Norway, we did one recently and loved it. MSC do have fixed dining times if you want to eat in the dining room rather than the buffet, however on the Virtuosa they tend to put you in a row of two top tables (same table each night) which I like better than a big shared table. MSC do have an occasional formal night but it's optional, if like me you don't want to dress up. So what I am saying is choose a cruise like based on what you like, many people love dressing up on formal nights, some don't. Again some people love fixed time dining with the same people for the social aspects, some people would rather have the freedom to dine alone when they feel like it.

You can no longer us stockholder OBC for Cruise Next unfortunatly, I used to do the same, it was an ideal use of the credit.

I am sure I have also read that while it can't be used for gratuities, it can be used at customer service to additionally tip an individual member of staff such as your room steward. Someone may need to conform this as I have not done it and its a vague memory.

Correct, you cant spend it ahead of time. We used it in the shop for gifts, alcohol and cigarette for neighbours (we don't smoke), we took extra speciality meals and excursions.

It is non refundable credit and it cant be used for Gratuities, Cruise Next Purchases or in the Casino, everywhere else is fine.

As Keith says if you go to "Explore and Plan" then "upgrades" you should find 2 extra meals for $69 (30% off), there is no discount onboard, it's still $99. On our last cruise we wanted to use OBC for meals so waited until onboard, discounts were not to be found.

Different ship, different rules, the smaller ships have always had tighter rules in the MDR.

Then the answer is no, this is no different to taking a single cruise and making status mid cruise. If you had made the next status by the end of you second cruise AND it updated online (usually quick) then yes it can be updated.

I have never had any trouble getting cheese and crackers in the main dining room instead of a dessert except on my last cruise on the Star, on this ship I was repeatedly told they don't have cheese available. On a couple of occasions when I did not order an alternative they magically found some. They normally even have a stock of cellophane wrapped crackers at the waiter stations.

You aren't transiting, put down the date of your first stop on US soil. I'm not sure what you mean by "Do we have to enter each port call day?", or do you mean entering each port on the ESTA application. If that is the case and there is a section to add each US port of call then put them down even if you don't intend to get off. There is no issue with her deciding to stay on the ship if that is her preference.

It's the reason the CN people handle it, it gets wallets in front of them for something free and an opportunity to convert it into a sale. Otherwise shore ex could do it but they are chasing their own sales.

I just had a call from my PCC to give me a promotion update which was useful as I was not aware Free At Sea is currently on a 50% off for us in the UK until 27th November. He advised that after that date it would return to the normal price but then from 5th December it would increase by £50 across all levels. For those that are not aware our free at see in Europe works slightly different than the US (as posted below). I have no idea if this will happen in other markets but I doubt this will only be one market effected as they keep prices pretty consistent across markets, I expect the rest of Europe will be the same as they have the same system just in Euros instead of GBP.

You cant take your own its a restricted item.

Oh yes, you don't get that on Cunard! Or electronic devices for that matter, nobody would bring their writing slope to the dinner for fear of castigation. A far better class, my dear fellow.