njhorseman

711 12th Ave isn't the address or location of either of the two cruise piers, 88 or 90, it's the mailing address for the cruise terminal's office. It's used as the address only because there is no other address to use. Neither Pier 88 nor Pier 90 are located at 12th Ave and 54th St, they are located at 12th Ave and 48th St and 12th Ave at 50th St, respectively. Further, the automobile entrance to the cruise terminal is at 12th Ave and 55th St. Telling the taxi driver "Manhattan Cruise Terminal' should be all you need to say to get there.

It could have been a one-off but both my wife and I had absolutely the worst...they were totally inedible...lobsters we've ever been served in Polo on Insignia.

AFAIK MSC is the only cruise line that provides a loyalty benefit based on your status level with cruise lines that are part of other cruise line holding companies, so it's not other cruise lines that provide a status match. I'd be reluctant to call what MSC does a "status match" as the arbitrarily assigned MSC loyalty level may not have benefits that look anything like the benefits you receive from the cruise line you are coming from.

The taxi fare will be more than $70 due to various state and city surcharges. Depending on the day of the week and time of day it will be either about $75 or $80, plus any tolls, plus tip (15 to 20% is customary). Figure on your total cost to be in the $90 to $100 range.

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.

You can deny that you're bashing NCL from now until the cows come home, but to quote what you said: " It is calling it what it really is - NCL nickel and diming." If that isn't bashing when you don't have any personal experience on NCL and not one person has been able to substantiate the OP's claim, then I've never seen bashing. Not one poster on the NCL board has posted so much as a word that would support this claim, and believe me it would have been a hot topic if it had happened. I'm pretty sure that I can do simple grade school level arithmetic since I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics...in fact I'm sure everyone posting on this thread can do the arithmetic. You can make up all the hypothetical math you want but until you have some actual evidence your examples are nothing more than idle speculation.

There have been no changes to NCL'S terms and conditions that would permit them to do this. More than that, the fact that not one post made on the NCL board has reported this...and believe me some regular there would have screamed at the top of their lungs if it had happened to them makes me skeptical to say the least. Perhaps there's an innocent error in the programming of the tax calculation. Perhaps this first-time poster has misunderstood something or perhaps this is an instance of what we sometimes see on the internet from people who have an ax to grind.

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

Have you actually sailed on NCL? The extra $1 is total BS. It doesn't exist. We've never been charged anything but the government-imposed sales tax.