hallux

There are usually two US outlets in the room - plenty for me. I have a multi-port USB charger to charge my devices that use USB charging and then my camera battery charger. Yes - a REAL camera is an "essential" for me, I try not to rely on my phone camera. A travel fan? I usually sleep with a fan on at home, never needed one on a cruise. My card goes in my pocket, no need for a lanyard. One item I would consider an essential is a set of luggage tag holders. They're inexpensive and they assure that your luggage tag isn't ripped off your bag. That happened on my first cruise. I have two - one for my checked bag and one for my carry-on (in case I misplace it before I get to the cabin).

I'm going to echo the others - especially as it relates to Venice, I would absolutely book to arrive in Venice at LEAST 1 day in advance, I'd consider 2 or 3 so I could see the sights of a place I probably won't get back to again. Considering the port situation the other posted, you may consider multiple hotels - book one close to Venice for the day you arrive, then another for the night before embarkation closer to the port you actually leave from. That makes touring Venice easier, then less stress on embarkation day. If you're doing a round trip, maybe book 2 days on each end to tour Venice. from a pure timing standpoint - absolutely book to arrive a day before the cruise.

They would need to implement retractable stacks like some RCI ships have, in order to fit under some bridges into ports.

5/17 - mailed old passport and renewal form 5/24 - received and in processing 6/28 - received new passport in the mail I did NOT pay for expedited processing. Mine was mailed to the Philadelphia processing center.

I'm sorry that you paid the extra. I got mine back today, standard processing. I mailed mine on May 17, I believe the status page said it was received and in processing on May 24. Technically 5 weeks I guess, your expedited payment got you a week.

Here was a thread regarding a similar smell issue on the Getaway in March -

Some of this is explained in the promo terms & conditions - https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions Reservations open 120 days before sailing, usually. Keep in mind that they only open a fraction of the reservations before embarkation day so don't be TOO upset if you can't get what you want. HOW you make the reservations - sign in to your NCL account. I quite liked La Cucina. I'm not a steak 'snob' so I was also satisfied with Cagney's. In the app (or maybe also in the browser-based account to make reservations) you should have an option to see example menus - look those over and decide what you want. I would not use a dining credit on Q, it's inexpensive enough that I feel like it's a 'waste' of a credit.

It won't melt, but it's also not anchored so it's likely to move.

I'd prefer the Breakaway, but on the Encore itinerary. I'd do that BA itinerary again, actually I haven't sailed from NOLA before so only the ports to be visited are the same as a cruise I've done before (I'm trying not to duplicate too much) so I'd go with that one.

The terms of the AirSea program that @LunarAquaQueen posted MAY differ from those for the BOGO promo airfare. THOSE terms are in NCL's promotional T&C's, here - https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions The layover/connections part for international travel is here: For International flights, Norwegian Cruise Line will book guests' airfare with a maximum of two connections when possible; air schedules permitting. Note that no maximum length of layover is indicated.

MIA is a 10-15 minute ride from the port, maybe as much as 20. I stayed on the West side of the airport and my Uber was only a 30 minute ride, driving to the West then along the South side of the airfield and over to the port. You can self-disembark and be off the ship by 8 AM or maybe even as early as 7 AM if the ship is cleared right away. You should have no trouble making that flight.

It's not like ALB is a huge airport, wonder why your flights are so much more, and I did check MCO...

eh, not really. Picking a random cruise in October, flights on Southwest from my home airport to MCO are $200 MORE expensive (almost 50%, $660 on Southwest compared to $488) than NCL is charging for both guests. That's on a carrier that NCL doesn't use, other carriers have some flights that cost less than NCL is charging but nowhere near 50% lower than NCL's fare, and most are higher.

That's not something I'd count on. If you have the cruise booked already you should have the option in your cruise planner to buy it.

$20 per person per day - the regular price of the package is $100 pp/pd you pay the gratuities based on 20% of that cost. Max drink price allowed on the plan that's included is $15. 4 drinks per day between 2 passengers in the room and you easily break even. When you consider that some lines have limitations - some allow you to only get one at a time while NCL allows two, some have a per-day limit on how many you can have while NCL does not restrict in that way - the package isn't as bad of a deal as some make it out to be.

As a fellow solo traveler I can understand where that would be embarrassing and upsetting. The manner in which solo travelers are supported is one reason I've enjoyed my NCL cruises, though for 2 of 3 it turned out to not really matter anyway but the option was there if I wanted or needed it.

This is at the discretion of the airline servicing the flight. Delta allows cabin upgrades once you have the record locator, UA and AA may as well. International airlines seem to be more selective in that regard.

That's because your cruise wasn't during the dry dock happening in October that this thread was discussing. It seems that ship has no cruise that week, I wonder if this is a new way of advising of the ship being chartered?

Actually - quite opposite. You claim your bag then go through customs with your bag. If you're then transferring to a domestic flight there will be bag drops for each airline after you pass through customs. Depending on the flight direction you're asking about, you MAY pre-clear customs before boarding the plane. As for the connection times - if the airline allowed the flights to be booked then they meet the minimum connection time standard for the airport. If the airline finds that some condition is going to cause you to miss your connecting flight they may automatically rebook you on a later flight. It's happened to me - I had a flight from Vancouver connecting in Chicago, after I booked my flight they started construction that closed the shuttle train between terminals so it was decided that my original connection that met the MCT was no longer valid and rebooked me WHILE I WAS ON MY CRUISE for a later flight out of Chicago. When I checked in at the gate at YVR they told me what the deal was. The flight arrived at ORD early and I had enough time to get to the earlier flight, which I was able to get back on.

That seems like more of a Carnival-specific situation, if not just something that crew member specifically did.

What I planned to do in March, and didn't fully implement, was to have a Google Drive folder containing PDF files of all the documentation I needed. I then made it available offline (cached locally on my phone AND tablet) and pinned it to my home screen (because I can with Android devices) so it was quickly accessible. The part about not fully implementing it - I didn't get my vaccine card or COVID test into there as I planned on relying on those apps. Fortunately the WiFi was pretty good and I got the apps working just as I got to the screeners. Yes, rather than waiting until I got to the screeners I was working on getting things pulled up as soon as I entered the building, spending my time in the line making sure things worked so as not to waste their time or that of the folks behind me while I fumbled with everything. The only documents that made it in there were my cruise boarding pass, my hotel confirmation and my airline reservation.

That was the typical sea temps in Southern NJ when I'd go in July and we'd dive right in!