Pitzel

The good news is that you don't all have to use your specialty dining credits at the same restaurants. If your daughter is a dainty eater, have her use one of her credits for Hasuki (since she will pay the same whether or not she eats a little or a lot). She should then use her second credit at whichever restaurant she is likely to eat the most (value-wise). Then, go a la carte for the remaining 2 restaurants. For everyone else, determine if you are likely to eat more than $59 at each a la carte restaurant (since that is the cost of Hasuki and the cost per meal of purchasing an incremental 2-meal dining package). If so, you may be better off purchasing an additional package. If not, have each person plan to purchase a la carte for the 2 least expensive places and use their credits for the 2 most expensive places. Chances are that most, if not all, of you may choose to pay a la carte at Food Republic, but it will ultimately come down to what you plan to eat there.

If I recall correctly, both iMessages and FB Messenger messages from on or off ship came through just fine as long as my device was connected to the ship's Wifi (not signed in to the internet package, just on the wifi and in airplane mode). Some messages (including those from others onboard) were delayed a bit, so it is not foolproof, but it is way better than having to sign in regularly to make sure that everything is ok back home.

Do all four of you have "free at sea" meals or just you and your wife? I would check the menus and figure out -- roughly -- what everyone might order at each place and then price it out and determine if it makes more sense to pay a la carte or buy an extra 2-night/3-night/4-night dining package for anyone (or everyone) in your family. Our teen is a very picky eater, so we are planning on paying for him a la carte since he likely won't eat appetizers or salads anywhere we go for dinner. We figured the most he might order at any restaurant is about $35-45 (before gratuities), which is typically less than the per meal specialty dining package costs.

Agree! We have been connected with the GM’s secretaries on a few cruises and they have taken incredible care of us.

Have you called NCL to see if having different last names will be an issue in your situation?

Also, looking on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative site, it looks like a photocopy of a birth certificate would suffice for those under the age of 16, in the event that you needed to get a copy of the birth certificate rushed to you and couldn't get the original or a certified copy in time. U.S. and Canadian citizen children under the age of 16 (or under 19, if traveling with a school, religious group, or other youth group) need only present a birth certificate or other proof of citizenship. The birth certificate can be original, photocopy, or certified copy.

Do you have any other documents that would show a link between your wife and the 15 year old? Maybe a marriage license, divorce decree, or court order showing that they once had the same last name (if that is, indeed, the case)? For more info about traveling with a child that does not have the same last name, see: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2931 As for the check in times, I don't think you should have a problem. We had a similar situation where our party had different check in times and we were all able to check in together at the earlier time.

The Local Bar & Grill is open 24 hours and room service (for a fee) is open 24 hours. The only places to find pizza onboard are the buffet and Onda, as far as I know. I don't believe you can order a pizza from Onda for take out, though, as most of the specialty restaurants frown on taking any food out.

You can also ask your room steward for an extra pillow case and use that to line the paper bag, if you are concerned about busting through the paper. I have also heard of folks who bring a roll of duct tape with them and use that to secure the top so that they can load it ALLLLLL the way up. I have found that rolling items up as I itemize the list saves a ton of space and allows me to pack a lot in to the bag, even without tape or a liner. Getting 20-25 items in the bag (including jeans, shirts, underwear, socks, pajamas, etc.) is definitely doable if you compress everything as much as possible.

A few responses: - The NCL app should have the daily schedules, menus for restaurants, and the ability to make reservations to activities or events. The app can be accessed by connecting to the ship's wifi and does not require an internet package to work. If those are things that your kiddos would want to use, then load the app on to their devices before the cruise and set up NCL accounts for them. The app also has messaging capabilities, but every user needs to pay a fee for messaging to work through the app. - On our Escape cruise last year, we were able to use iMessenger on our iPhones as long as all of the devices were connected to the ship's wifi (again, not using the internet package). It wasn't 100% reliable, though, and some messages were delayed or never sent. Not good if you need to reach someone immediately. - Unless they have unlimited wifi, it doesn't make sense to log in to use the internet package just for messaging, as they will burn through their minutes pretty quickly. - You don't need the NCL app to log in to the wifi package. Connect to the ship's wifi and then go to the URL provided to access your internet package.

We once had an overnight in St. Thomas due to a cancelled stop in Tortola. Due to crime in the area, all passengers had to be back on board before sundown on the first day. We were then able to disembark again in the morning once the gangways opened. This was the first time that we were not able to come and go as we pleased during an overnight port stay. You may want to ask this question in the appropriate port of call board to see if you can find more detailed guidance for your specific port.

Guest services has nothing to do with the Cabanas. The Shore Excursion desk is where you want to go to inquire about adding an additional person for the cabana if you want to have 7 or 8 people in your small cabana (which is usually for 6 people). If anyone in your party has Latitude status that offers discounts on shore excursions, make sure to mention this when speaking with them. They will not automatically apply your excursion discounts when booking onboard; you need to mention it and may need to show a key card showing that level.

You can ask for a glass of ice water at any bar or lounge. Bottled water carries a cost, but glasses of ice water are free.

Thank you, @BirdTravels. It would be SO much easier if, instead of the "Platinum dinner for 2" certificates they just granted each Platinum member a 2-meal SDP and a separate certificate for the bottle of wine. It would also be easier if they clarified how meals were handled in places where there are more than 3 courses offered (like Cagney's or Italian) or where side dishes are an additional fee.

Good to know about calling general reservations. I thought that the Platinum certificates only covered up to $35 per entree, but the SPD didn't have that restriction. Is that not the case?

No sport coat required in any NCL restaurant. Here is the recommended dress code: https://www.ncl.com/faq#!#what-clothes-should-i-pack, though a polo shirt and shorts are often seen, especially in the main dining room.

Now that the Latitudes and FAS dinners have changed what is included, any strategies for which one is best to use in which restaurants? We have 4 dinners in total -- 2 Platinum certificates and 2 FAS meals. We are sailing on the Prima and have Cagney's, Palermo, and Onda reserved at the moment. We have one meal left, which we haven't reserved yet (NCL won't let us pre-reserve the same restaurant twice, some of the specialty restaurants don't provide a pre-booking option, or we might choose to dine in-suite for our fourth meal). SO...given the current inclusions for the Platinum and FAS meals, which ones should we use where? Where are we likely to get the "best bang" for our specialty dining buck?

We got covid while on our Royal Caribbean sailing to Alaska in August. I got sick on the day we disembarked. My husband got sick a day or two later, as did my in-laws. Unfortunately, my father (who lives with us, but who did not go on the cruise) got sick from us after we returned. The biggest problem for all of us is that we tested negative on the home tests for the first few days, even though we had symptoms. I didn't know it was actually covid until I had been home for 3 or 4 days and, as such, we weren't taking the precautions that we should have. The home tests gave us a false sense of security. Had we masked up at the first sign of symptoms, we probably could have minimized its spread through our family. All of that said, we are still traveling. We have all gotten boosters recently and, having been through covid once, we now know what we would do differently if we caught it again.

Have you booked any excursions through NCL? If so, they likely hide excursions that conflict with those that you have already booked. It is also possible that they are sold out of many excursions OR they are having difficulties locking down excursion operators in some ports for those dates. If you look online, are you able to find private excursions available for your cruise dates?

Nope. You can bring wine and champagne on board with you to consume. Normally, there is a $15 corkage fee per 750 ml, but they recently changed the policy to waive the fee if you have one of their beverage packages.

A good travel agency should make your life easier AND provide a good deal of OBC or other perks for booking through them. We have gone through big-box warehouse club travel centers, cruise-specific online agencies, and in-person travel agents. In every case, we have gotten *something* over and above what the cruise line was offering directly. if we can catch the sales during the year, we can often find 10% of our cruise fare back in OBC, free gratuities, specialty dinners, bottles of wine, and loyalty booking bonuses.