zzdoug

How is the tap water onboard? If it's undrinkable, sometimes ice and/or a squeeze of lemon will distract from the sludge and one could bring any empty bottle in luggage and refill it. Otherwise maybe one of these will help.

No. Escape. But I doubt the data entrant cares what ship anyone is on. I would guess they cross check the reservation number with other info and maybe their registry of shareholders. Which, come to think of it, may be the issue in my case, if that only gets updated periodically, as I just bought shares 2 weeks ago. I should add that I sent my form in by email.

I have a feeling this is a leading indicator of point inflation, as we have seen in many frequent flier and casino point programs lately, and it is a way comparatively to give fewer points to base-level sail-away cruisers. I would not be surprised if the benefits at each tier are reduced in the near future, such that cruising x number of days does not result in more benefits than one would have received under the previous regime from cruising that same number of days. 😞

My Vacation Summary doesn't show either the Payment Status line or the Onboard Credit line. I booked for April 30, 2023, with a travel agent and have already paid in full. I own 100 shares and submitted the form. Is that to be expected or should I be contacting customer service?

It's OK! You probably get more traffic with live reports but I personally prefer reading post-produced reports. Just one opinion. I also write trip reports exclusively after the fact, even if on land, mainly because I am very slow and cumbersome with the thumbs so typing demands all of my concentration and prevents me from being in the moment and fully enjoying my vacation. I know others are much more adept at it than I am. I for one look forward to reading whatever you are able to post, whenever it may appear.

I haven't had any issues in Mexico either, and I would travel to Mexico, but we are talking about low-probability, high-cost events. Different people have different fears of different risks. For example: Many people who have never been injured in a car accident wear a seat belt anyway. All risks involved with going on a cruise to Mexico can theoretically be quantified, but almost nobody does balance every possible risk, except maybe an actuary for a travel insurance carrier. And even they can only estimate generalized risks across policyholders and don't have specific information that an individual policyholder might have about their own situation. ETA: on second thought, even insurance companies have to exclude risks from policies if they can't accurately quantify and/or price them.

Be careful what you wish for... do we really want those becoming pop up ads in our phones? At least I can quickly throw paper printed ads away in the trash.

One option is to sell the ships themselves and lease them back. It's pretty common in commercial real estate and most of the hotels in Las Vegas have done this. I don't know how common it is for passenger or cargo ships but it seems theoretically possible. They may be limited by the debt already on each ship which is considerable, and also by the reality that a cruise ship is probably only useful to ncl for about 30 years, less than a hotel typically lasts.

Carnival did away with hard copies of the schedule handouts (Capers, fun sheets, or whatever they call them) in favor of the app immediately after the pandemic restart in 2021. I believe they still offer the paper version at guest services desk but won't deliver it to cabins by default. I'm sure it saves a lot of paper and ink. I prefer paper but expect NCL to eschew paper by our next cruise in May.

How is the creamed spinach? It's my favorite side item at a steak restaurant.

Looks like the tomahawk is completely gone. 😞

Every cruise I have ever been on uses local time when in port. Which is a good policy because most smartphones will adjust to local time automatically.

Emma posted a nice video review of the Sun (out of Portugal (?)) just a few days ago. I hope this post doesn't violate any rules; please delete if it does.

Unless they are flying SpaceX that is. And as you can read on many threads here, there is a good chance that someone flying in the same day as the cruise departure has a great chance of missing it.

In my opinion the benefits of traveling to Mexico vastly outweigh the risk. But as we have all learned in the past few years, different people assess risks differently. I have friends who fear that the most dangerous part of a cruise to Mexico is the risk of drowning from the ship running aground and sinking like the Costa Concordia or being trapped on a virus infested ship like the diamond princess, and they are not bothered by traveling into cities in Mexico that endure much more violence than Mazatlan or any other port of call. I personally believe that the part of the trip where I am most likely to be hurt is the Uber ride from the airport to the cruise ship and back. It's really a personal assessment of relative risks.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2899850-escape-daily/

To clarify, I might have to check it out.

DANG. Breakfast of champions? Might have to check out the Macorix.

I think it has become pretty standard among many 4-5 star hotels on the Las Vegas Strip only to provide daily housekeeping upon request. I follow a LV-oriented forum also and people have very similar gripes. It was another place that historically provided an inexpensive vacation but has become very expensive in recent years while dropping many perks that were widely appreciated such as unlimited free drinks, free valet parking, the $9.95 steak and lobster dinner, inexpensive buffets; and cheap gambling and live musicians are nearly extinct. Meanwhile room rates, table bet minima, room rates, and resort fees have continued to escalate. I am not aware of any hotels that charge for housekeeping right now but I think I read that one hotel offered a discount for declining housekeeping service, which if you think about it is is a (more palatable?) way to charge for housekeeping. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it becomes a separate charge in the future.

Our travel agent offered the same promos ncl offered, plus standard room gratuities/service charges or whatever they are called, which was not offered through ncl.com. I don't use a travel agent for any other type of travel but I'm sold on using them for cruises. We had used them last year for a Carnival cruise and they were very helpful in spending a lot of time on the phone with Carnival and getting us a second room for our kids (who originally would have stayed in the same room as us) plus onboard credits after fares went down, all at no additional cost to us. I doubt I would have been able to accomplish that myself. If I somehow could have, it would have taken many hours on hold. I was very impressed with that customer service so we used them again this year and also referred our friends on the same cruise .

I (steerage passenger) was able to book multiple days for the same restaurant online at T minus 120. Yeah, maybe a moderator should close it now before it deteriorates.

My very independent 17-year-old daughter (echoing gen-X latchkey me) would say: point me to the teen club and enjoy your vacation and I'll see you next week! Along those same lines, when we took our teenagers on a cruise last year, we booked a standard-sized room for ourselves and booked the kids a separate room nearby. That said, we probably give our kids wider berth than many people.

Yeah, butlers might appreciate letters, but I would not be surprised if they appreciate a $20 bill even more, as they write down your verbally dictated requirements. - an opinion from way down in butlerless steerage

Enjoy! Hopefully someone else was driving when you tapped out that dispatch.

That is a surprisingly candid explanation. I would not expect that level of disclosure from an American company in that situation. I had not heard of Ambassador Cruise Line until last night, when I happened to see Emma's vlog.