Karaboudjan

Live bidding has been mentioned before on the big upgrade thread. It does not appear to happen for all cruises/cabins, though.

We just got off the Prima and loved it, and that was with a reported 3500 passengers including 700 kids! Yes, it was crowded in certain places and at some times, but I don't think there was ever a time that it was not possible to find at least some public place that was relatively quiet and uncrowded, although maybe not be outdoors on a warm sunny sea day. We got on the ship at around 12pm and heard that the small venue shows were sold out, but we had no problem getting reservations for Noise Boys and Summer, and it appeared that neither of those shows was sold out when we attended them. This might be an upside of having more families on board. If you are over 17 and don't have kids I can't recommend the Vibe strongly enough, especially if you plan to eat at the buffet. The Vibe is only a few steps away, so all but one day we got our food and took it to the Vibe to eat in peace.

Well I HAVE played and I enjoyed it. Yes, if you are a hard-core player wanting the usual game experience you won't find that, but if you just want to get a bit of exercise and enjoy hitting the ball around it is fine. Our cruise was kid-heavy so the whole Stadium was overrun in the afternoon, but nobody was there any of the days that we showed up at the 9am opening time. There are paddles and balls available. BTW - if anyone is really interested in pickleball on a cruise we were docked next to a Regent ship one day and it had an apparently regulation pickleball court on deck. But it might be the most expensive game you've ever played... 😬

If you are open to alternate forms of burning calories there is a small pickleball court in the Stadium.

I have seen some articles about delays attributed to supply chain issues. I have not seen anything about redesign. Maybe wishful thinking on someone's part?

Why would they? Here are some reasons that come to mind: 1. The airline follows up with NCL to scold them for booking passengers who no-show. 2. The contract that NCL has with the airlines has penalty clauses for NCL in the case of no-shows. No-shows are lost revenue for the airlines so you'd better believe they care; they just can't do much about it for the individual traveler. Cruise air is big business, though, so I would not be surprised if they go to extra lengths to protect that revenue. Would this all happen in time for NCL to cancel the return flight? Maybe not, but I don't think it is an impossible scenario.

And you don't think that the airline might follow up with NCL about the missing passengers for any reason? I would not take that chance.

We got the details on our airport to port transfer with our eDocs, so not until after we had to select a check in time. I just picked an early one to be safe in case someone decides to get strict.

It was not a small flight delay; it was 8.5 hours.

SWA is interesting. That's the first that I have seen of NCL using them. It might be the same cost to you right now, but who knows what sort of arrangement NCL has with the airlines.

I checked in last week for a December cruise (Prima so I assume fairly high occupancy) and sometime around 7:30AM I had every slot from 9AM on to choose from.

I believe that NCL has a similar option to what you got from Holland, but it's not the Free at Sea BOGO air that is usually discussed here.

Arriving early yes, but I don't think there is a consensus on using NCL air in general. I have seen many people on here who were quite satisfied with the NCL air arrangements, especially considering the cost savings.

I did a check-in last week and I don't recall if the subject of COVID came up at all. Maybe I had to attest to something. Definitely did not need any vaccination cards, but I don't think you ever did for the online check-in...

According to the document that was linked earlier the Cancel for Any Reason is 'not an insurance benefit' so I don't think the insurance company would or should touch that. That said, it does say 'any reason' so you should be eligible even if you 'just turn around and go home', provided that you give the proper notice.

I think it's partly buying in bulk, partly getting the low-yielding itineraries/schedules and maybe to some extent a loss leader.

Where do you see that? I don't see anything in their description about trouble reaching an agent.

According to the OP's description they spoke in person with the shuttle driver so apparently they had not stopped. I'm sure that NCL can and does bend the 2-hour rule as needed, but I'd like my chances a lot better if I'm on an NCL-organized shuttle.

So you say that they are still making you jump through hoops but also that $500 is all you are going to get. One of those must not be correct. Is $500 really the final reimbursement or is it a partial amount and the rest is still dragging on? I have never made a trip insurance claim, but I have read enough of these threads to get the gist of how it works - you have the insurance company and the cruise line each wanting the other to cover the reimbursement, and jumping through hoops seems to be how that process often works. So I agree - find out what the $500 payment was for and exactly what the policy says you are covered for.

Yes, your eDocs will tell you where and when to show up for the transfer to PC.

They are not exactly fakes because Laguiole is not a trademark. I believe there may be one 'original' brand (or claimed to be) but there are probably other high-quality ones also. There is quite a bit of information out there on what to look for, but in general it's probably a case of you get what you pay for.

If they were open to making changes just imagine how many requests they would have to deal with!... I think it's quite understandable that they have to be firm on that.

Is there anything on your confirmation/invoice about a deviation? I believe that those have sometimes been either a charge or a credit so if the agent entered it properly (and the air department messed up) it might show up as a line item.

Ah, okay. I misunderstood. I thought you meant that your NCL flights were with one airline and the ones you booked were with another. So if your return flight is really one-way then I guess that would not be throwaway ticketing, at least from the airline's perspective. When you say NCL wants to charge you 100% do you mean on top of what you already paid, or just that they won't refund you anything for the flight that you don't want to take? No refund seems quite understandable.

Look up throwaway ticketing if you want to know what could happen and what is likely to happen.