UKstages

it does indeed depend on roll/pitch. the noise comes about chiefly during inclement weather/high seas. but it's a known problem on the prima and is due to a faulty build. if the noise is only intermittent, then it's probably not this very specific problem affecting a number of prima cabins... then again, most people do describe it as a "click." in my cabin, however, it was constant... 40 or 50 clicks a minute. you can ask at guest services, as all the cabins that are so afflicted are marked in their database. they usually only send engineering when the cabin is not already in the database. frankly, there is nothing engineering can do. it's internal. after two years, they should know which cabins have this problem. it would be unusual for them to discover a new cabin with this problem this late in the game, unless nobody who has stayed in that cabin previously ever complained.

well, that's one way to get a seat for "rumours," for sure. bribe the freestyle daily people to relabel the syd norman shows as "cruise next presentations."

shockingly low throughput. starlink is only as good as NCL wants it to be. they control the spigot. and that's fine, except for one tiny detail... they still promote that 100 mbps image on the website! as for the menu... that chinese-style barbecue pork is a killer dish. at least it was when i had it on the getaway earlier this year. i was surprised at how good it was.

just confirming... you have your ticket already for the anne frank house? they go on sale exactly six weeks before the day of the visit. no tickets sold on the premises. i'm sure you knew that, but just checking. two hours is a long time in the museum, unless you spend time time in the cafe. it is indeed a short cab ride back, but it's also walkable... the whole city is walkable, if you have no mobility concerns. the very last room of the museum has a video with otto frank, filmed in the 70s i think, for american television, if memory serves. don't miss it. he makes a rather simple but stunning comment about not just his daughter, but about all children.

and, again, depending on the ship... the american diner is open (assuming the ship has one.)

it was revealed in post # 9 that this was a group booking and in post #18 it was posited that the inability to remove a component of FAS might be due to a restriction based on the terms of the group booking.

reading this thread, i'm reminded how wise it is to take a break from cruise critic every now and again. y'all are brutal and unforgiving and strict constitutionalists... when you want to be. what i said was they arrived just ten minutes after scheduled departure time. and indeed they did... according to them. NCL disputes that. but what they dispute is the arrival time of the couple to the pier... not the time they called and notified the ship (through a surrogate). so the real question is... how long should a cruise line wait when two delayed passengers make a good faith effort to notify the ship that they're late? we can argue all we want about whether they should have called the port agent themselves, but there is no denying that the ship was notified of their delayed arrival to the pier before the scheduled departure time. according to the article, NCL says they arrived "approximately" an hour late... that would mean 6:30, since they were supposed to be there at 5:30. but that is - according to NCL - an approximation! the couple says they were there at 6:10. maybe they were, maybe they weren't. NCL says they were there at "approximately" 6:30. let's split the difference and call it 6:20. twenty minutes seems to me to be a reasonable delay... so does a half hour, quite frankly. it's the captain's decision and i'm not the captain, but i would have held the ship for twenty minutes. yeah, the couple screwed up. spank them and reprimand them. and don't give them a window table in the MDR. i hope it never happens to you. (missing the ship that is... not the window table snub.) this isn't the africa thing! no comparison. they didn't wait long at the pier at all. there was little doubt that the passengers would arrive in due time. there was no danger of a band of errant pirates trying to board the ship long after it departed. in any case, it is in NCL's nature to dispute almost everything when a customer raises a concern. have any of you guys ever read virtually any other thread on cruise critic? as for taking a photo of the port agent's contact info. i do that. a lot of people do that. that is wise. this couple is in their 80s. not to be ageist, but they may be luddites using flip phones. everybody likes to "translate" the experience of others into their own personal experience. taking a photo of the port agent's info works for me... for whatever reason, they didn't do it. it doesn't make them bad people. i'd say contacting the ship fifteen minutes after all aboard and fifteen minutes before scheduled departure is pretty darn good for a couple in their 80s. i don't think anyone should ever miss the all aboard call. there is virtually no excuse for it. but stuff happens. walk a mile in another 85-year-old man's moccasins, why doncha?

this one is a little different, in my opinion. yeah, they booked an independent excursion. mea maxima culpa. but, here, i would side with the couple. they notified the ship they were running late and indeed they arrived very shortly after scheduled departure. if i read it correctly, just ten minutes.

he may well be. the operative term here is "word." in order for him to be a man of his word, he must respond to someone. if he doesn't respond, there is no word by which to judge his actions. as i said, he is a swell guy, affable and personable. i've praised his amsterdam presentation. but my experience was that he was almost completely non-responsive to guest concerns. i base this on my 21 days on the prima about a year ago. i've written extensively about it on CC. YMMV and, apparently, it has.

travel advisors (NCL prefers that term) get paid between 10% and 16% of commissionable items; it's a sliding scale based on either the number of cruises they book or their total dollar value of sales. you can qualify for higher commissions by meeting quotas in either of those areas. gratuities are not commissionable.

the jones act applies to cargo ships and that's the one that requires ships to be amercan owned and american built. the passenger vessel services act is the one that requires ships to have a predominantly american crew if sailing on a domestic itinerary. foreign-flagged ships must stop in at least 1 non-US port in order to call on an american port. there is no requirement that the ship has to have been built in america. i don't believe any large ships are still built in america. i wholeheartedly agree. many of your suggestions, including expanding hours for various venues, are good ones. and i think i made some of the same suggestions in my review last year. i will say that i did find the F&B execs receptive to feedback on my sailing, but indulge was relatively new then and they were very interested in feedback. i'd be curious to learn if any passengers have been unfortunate enough to be placed in a cabin with loud internal noise. i imagine that is still going on, but it sounds like you and our other CC correspondents are not afflicted. a rare word of praise for marc, the GM... (or "mark" as he is incorrectly referred to in the farewell video... have they fixed that yet?)... he's a swell guy, very nice, even though he is almost completely non-responsive to guest concerns. but he is from amsterdam, if memory serves. and on itineraries that include amsterdam as a port call, he does a great "lecture" in the theatre detailing top sites and attractions to visit. it's a very loving and sincere presentation (not at all focused on selling excursions) and it is quite interesting and worthwhile. (he's a little loosey goosey on facts, however... recommending, for instance, the anne frank house, but not telling everyone that you have to buy tickets online exactly four weeks in advance. similarly, his advice for the van gogh museum was just to "show up." and that dog don't hunt.)

yes, you can manually change the phone, but it creates an entirely new problem. you have to remember to go back in and manually change it again with the next time zone or ship's clock time change! and you have to remember to change it back to "automatic" when you return home.

apology not needed or expected; i was just trying to clarify. i haven't heard about free drink package (no gratuities) for additional passengers beyond 1 and 2. but i'm usually solo and never more than two in a room. let's see if anybody else has heard about this.

the GM has remained the same. (can i get a "hmmm" on that?) make of that what you will, but i do think the prima, of all the NCL ships i've sailed, is the least well run. yes, there are design problems that limit the use of space and have caused crowding in venues, but the prima's problems - and there are many - are largely because of poor executive management and their response to know problems. a year and a half in, they should not be surprised when hungry diners show up to eat in the MDR at the same times every night.

no experience with that, but if i had seven other people in my cabin, i'd need a drink package for sure. i'd be drinking all the time and not spending a moment in the cabin. what do you mean they are "offered" basic FAS? do you mean they are given the baseline UB (unlimited beverage package) for free... no gratuities charged? those CAS agents seem confused or misguided. there is no documentation that i have seen to support what they have told you and it would be contrary to almost every other NCL policy which stipulates benefits for passengers 1 and 2. a lot of folks, including CAS agents, seem to think that once a player becomes "elite" all manner of special benefits and goodies get bestowed. in my limited experience as a new elite, the benefits you get are pretty much limited to the published benefits. even the baseline offers are the same... balcony cabin for 12 days. i can usually get a play-based offer and get a club balcony or better, but it's still limited to twelve days. anything over twelve days, they want to charge me.... even though i can book a "free" back to back for 24 days! i think they have made some upper tier improvements with the april 1st changes, but CAS still doesn't really know how to run a casino program in which players are recognized and rewarded throughout the ship, not just in the casino. (one new exception is the drink package for ruby and elite.)

it also depends on the port/city you're visiting. in manila, for instance, where traffic can often delay your journey by as much as two hours, i would never book anything but a ship-sponsored excursion. traffic can happen anyplace, but a traffic jam in aruba or newport, rhode isalnd is very different than a traffic jam in manila.

most cruises depart around 4 PM. if your departure is scheduled for 8 PM, that suggests that boarding may not begin until 2 or 3 PM. it is unlikely that they will board you at 11:30 or so if your departure is not until 8. look at the ship's schedule for the prior cruise on the same ship... what time is it scheduled to arrive? On, NCL you can do a preliminary checkin online 120 days before the cruise. to get the earliest checkin time for the pier, go to the website at 12 AM ET exactly 120 days before your sail date. in person checkin at the pier usually starts 2 hours before boarding begins. so if the website is offering a checkin time of 11 AM, it's a safe best that boarding will not begin before 1 PM.

all this talk of "turn down" has made me nostalgic for 2X daily housekeeping services. travel agents essentially book using the same site that NCL cruise consultants use, albeit with a few restrictions and a slightly different interface. it, in turn, is not all that different from the site consumers use. you can decline any part of the FAS program that you don't want. FAS is non-commissionable, so i can't think of any rational reason why a TA would not comply with a guest's preferences, unless it was tied in somehow to a restriction on the group booking. there are separate promo codes for different combinations of FAS benefits. for example, DISXIN is dining, shore excursion discount and internet, with no beverage package. DRINKDIN is drink package and dining. And DRNKDINE is beverage package and dining package.

my thoughts exactly. ultimately, it all worked out. but i do think everyone calling to complain really woke CAS management up and had a lot to do with the program enhancements. (of course, i don't sail till the end of the month, so i haven't experienced any of it yet.)

it seems almost silly to mention this, but here goes: as you're departing the ship, don't just confirm the all aboard time... also confirm the ship's time. then look at your watch or your phone and confirm that the ship's time is the same as your watch and/or your phone. and remember, if you haven't connected to a mobile network while in port, your phone's time will - most likely - not be updated. (it won't update over wifi.) finally, remember that - under certain circumstances - the ship's time may be different than the local time.

sounds like the reception should have been held on the bliss or the joy or a broom closet on the icon of the seas

i haven't sailed since 4/1, but i did just book a B2B for this month and next with a top notch CAS agent whom i trust. i'm a newly minted elite, so i asked about the process and procedures related to CAS benefits. she said that about two weeks before sail date, there is a team that will run a report to see who has status and they will add/code the benefits at that time. ruby and elite should opt out of FAS drink package; it will be on your card when you check-in. if not, of course, see a casino host. ruby and elite do not have to pay gratuities (or taxes, for that matter) on the drink package. and the package will follow you around the ship... it's not just for drinks in the casino. however, i do believe that ruby gets the standard UB (unlimited beverage) package, while elite gets the upgraded premium plus package (but not FAS+, which includes other features, such as additional excursion credits for passenger 2). there were several missteps and miscalculations in the roll out of the new program and i believe at one point ruby and elite had the same premium plus drink benefit, but that has since been scaled back to just standard UB for ruby players. https://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/casino-cruise/players-club the CAS drink package benefit applies to passengers 1 and 2 (assuming passenger 1 is the casino guest). If passengers 3 or 4 are also casino guests, it does not apply, unless they have earned status themselves (in which case, it is more likely that they would have their own room[s] and their own reservation[s], anyway).

several ships have a "patio" with le bistro seating outside the restaurant proper, adjacent to the atrium or the staircase leading up to the casino. they tried to seat me there once and i said "no..." but i couldn't finish my sentence. the hostess interrupted and said, "you want to be away from the smoke, right?" i was told the illusionarium, too, when onboard earlier this year. it's a wonderful space and i'm sorry they feel the whole magic thang didn't work out for them. i do wonder if they realize how big magic is now, with several prime time TV shows showcasing magicians, plus AGT and other talent competitions. I think they kind of bungled the illusionarium and should still use it for magic. i assume they will dismantle the memorabilia that lines the entryway. i thought it odd when going in to see "broadway unplugged," that i had to pass through shrines to houdini and blackstone. personally, i think the space is too big for Q, given the limited audience the paid version of that restaurant seems to attract. the appeal is probably the ready-made stage, where they can house their country trios... although the stage is a bit big for that. they can still do "broadway unplugged" in there in the afternoons, if they want (they do broadway revues in Q on at least one other ship). or they can elevate it to a spot or two in the theatre.

i was on the getaway in january and february of this year. casino hosts confirmed that a small portion of the casino would be made into a "smoking" casino, by installing a glass partition, similar to other ships. i've played in a lot of casinos on land and on sea, and the smoke in the getaway casino was at a level i have never experienced before. casino hosts agreed that most of the smoke was coming from folks who were congregating in the casino to smoke, not to play, which violates NCL's rules.

the "trick" to accessing cruise critic for "free" on NCL internet is to load the site while connected and using your minutes, then return to browse at no charge once you've logged off.