njhorseman

IIRC once a ship exceeds 15 years of age it has to be inspected twice in every 5 years...essentially once every 2.5 years

Of course it is, but the passenger in question doesn't have one. The OP was mistaken when saying their MIL had an EDL and corrected the misstatement in a subsequent post.

Perhaps it will be handled like a port call at Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, which has a population of about 40. When we made a port call there on Marina a few years ago the passengers stayed on the ship and some of the island's residents came aboard to make presentations and sell local crafts Edit: I found this website, which says that some cruise ships will land passengers via zodiac (Oceania doesn't have them) or tender, while in other cases it's just as I described above for our visit to Pitcairn Island...island residents board the ship to speak and sell souvenirs. https://www.tristandc.com/cruises.php#:~:text=There are a few cruise,islands of the South Atlantic.

Where the ships dock in NY wasn't the OP's question. The question was how to find TAs that end in NY.

On ncl.com click on "Destination" and you'll see it has an alternate option, "Port of Call", so toggle to that and then select "New York". Then click on "Port of Departure" and you'll see the originating ports for ships calling on New York. For TAs select the European ports on that list, currently Barcelona, Lisbon, London (Southampton) and Rome (Civitavecchia).

I suspect that you aren't aware of the fact that cruise ships pay substantial reservation fees to guarantee their Panama Canal transit slots. When the number of available transits per day were reduced due to drought it was the commercial cargo vessels that were delayed because they generally do not have reserved transit slots. Cruise ships were not substantially affected because they have reservations . Panamax ships such as the Jewel class would be even less likely to be impacted because they can use either set of locks, while larger ships can only use the new locks. For years NCL has had two ships sailing weekly to Bermuda in the summer, one from New York and one from Boston. But it's virtually certain that some of those sailings will be disrupted by Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms and end up with shortened stays in Bermuda and even being completely rerouted to Canada or the Bahamas. That's not a "maybe", unlike your speculation about drought conditions in Panama, but it doesn't deter NCL from deploying those ships to Bermuda year after year. The reason is simple. Cruise ship fleet deployment decisions are all about maximizing revenue. That's why you see many fewer Caribbean and Bahamas sailings in the summer when ships can be deployed on itineraries that command much higher per diem rates on Bermuda, Mediterranean and Alaskan itineraries.

Actually the Panama Canal Authority recently increased the number of daily transits based on increased confidence in the return of a more normal rainy season starting to replenish the water supply. https://www.marinelink.com/news/panama-canal-increase-daily-transits-512152#:~:text=In response to the current,available in the Panamax locks.

Horseshoe Bay is the classic Bermuda beach, considered one of the world's best...but expect it to be crowded,

At EWR Uber ;picks up at your airline terminal. When you are in the process of booking your ride the Uber app tells you where the pick up location for your terminal is located.

It's not just the mass market lines. the PVSA applies to all ships. You could be on the most luxurious cruise ship imaginable carrying few passengers and the same rules would apply.

The cruise lines stopped doing business with Hartley's over 10 years ago after a cruise passenger died just after doing a Hartley's dive. IIRC, the reason cruise lines stopped booking Hartley's dives was not only that someone unfortunately died, but just as much Hartley's attitude and response to the tragic incident.

More from the Minister of Transport on the rideshare pilot program. since it requires legislative action, licensing of rideshare drivers, not to mention development of an app I question how soon this will actually be implemented. Perhaps not until next year? https://bernews.com/2024/03/minister-expands-rideshare-programme/

In my experience (six full transits of the canal. two of which were on Oceania) the commentary provided during the transit is done by a local guide who boards the ship at the start of the transit, not by the ship's onboard lecturer.

I'm not sure that it will be easy to get a taxi from Horseshoe Bay either because at this time of the year few people will be going to the beach so I wouldn't expect taxis to be waiting for passengers at Horseshoe right now.

Hotels in Jersey City won't have complimentary shuttle service from EWR so you'll have to Uber/Lyft from the airport to the hotel. I specifically recommend Uber or Lyft over a taxi because the taxis at EWR are generally pretty ratty.

Jamaica is under a level 3 travel advisory from the US Department of State due to a high crime rate. The Cayman Islands are only listed as level1-take normal precautions so it's a safer destination but a bit on the bland side. The ships are near twins, both part of the Jewel Class so your onboard experience should be similar on either.

When we did our first Panama Canal transit on Insignia a few years ago there was a lecturer on board who gave a series of talks in the theater on sea days prior to the transit. I can't say if Oceania is currently doing that. On the day of the transit itself there will be a local guide on board providing a narrative throughout the day.

Why would Oceania mention a former employee who resigned to take a job with a competitor?

The Caribe Hilton is located in Puerta deTierra just outside of Old San Juan. Sofia's is in the heart of Old San Juan about 2 miles from your hotel. I believe the fare will be based on the meter rather than a flat rate.

I've never seen it charged as a flat tax. The 20% gratuity charge for the beverage package is prepaid with your cruise fare. It doesn't come into play on board except if you're buying a beverage that isn't covered by the beverage package or a beverage priced over $15 in which case you're charged the excess over $15 so $5 on a $20 drink, plus the 20% gratuity on the $5.

I can't express an opinion about cruise lines I haven't sailed on such as Seabourn, Crystal, Regent Seven Seas and Explora Journeys, but based on what I read and hear it's possible any of them may have better food. Obviously there won't be any uniformity of agreement on the issue as it's not a matter of fact but rather a matter of personal tastes and opinion. But none of that is the point of my post. Let's say that hypothetically there were reasonably objective measures of which cruise line has the best food, and that cruise line wasn't Oceania. Oceania would still be able to use the advertising slogan "The Finest Cuisine at Sea" because it's a registered trademark despite it having extremely questionable validity. Should any intelligent consumer take the word of a trademarked advertising slogan as the gospel truth? It's advertising after all, not an immutable law of physics. You know that O's food isn't objectively the best at sea...look at what you said in subsequent posts: (bold lettering is my editing addition)

Can you point out who has said that in recent years? I can't remember that claim being made anytime recently . "The Finest Cuisine at Sea" is an Oceania registered trademark, not a statement of fact. It's purpose is for advertising purposes and is what is know as "puffery"...something quite common and legally permissible in advertising. "The Ultimate Driving Machine" is a long-time registered trademark of BMW. Do you think that is any guarantee of a BMW's performance relative to other motor vehicles?

Most hand sanitizers are alcohol and of little or no use in killing norovirus and other viral infections. Washing your hands with soap and water is the preferred way of limiting the spread of the virus. In almost forty years of cruising on about a dozen different cruise lines, the only time we've gotten noro is on Oceania. Having the crew serve you in the buffet isn't all it's cracked up to be as a preventative measure because the crew members serving you can spread the virus. In fact I'm reasonably sure that's how we got noro. The server who we went to for our eggs every morning came down with noro just before we did and I suspect that's how we got it. One morning she wasn't there and the next day we were ill. she came back to work the day before we were released from quarantine and told us she had been ill.

Since the OP clearly doesn't want to disembark that early I think it’s quite unlikely that they have an early morning flight. Anyone who has flown knows you have to leave from wherever you are, at home, at a hotel on a ship, etc in order to get to the airport in time for your flight. Further, since the OP's cruise is in 2025 even if they are using the cruise line's air arrangements there's no way the cruise line would have assigned their flights yet. That won't happen for many months. The 3am schedule isn't just for the OP, it's the ship's schedule as posted on the NCL website I can assure you that all 2000 passengers on board will not have flights requiring 3am disembarkation. Finally, it's not uncommon for Panama Canal transits ending at Fuerte Amador to have unusual docking schedules similar to this one. Other ships that may be docked there often do not depart until about midnight to take their place in line for the next day's transit.

Unless something has changed, when we were on an Oceania cruise affected by a GI illness outbreak and became ill we were not charged a fee by the medical clinic for the consultation or medication. Oceania definitely does not want to discourage passengers from reporting their illness due to fear of rolling up a medical bill.