Pitzel

You will be allowed to book 3 people into 2 adjoining staterooms, but you will likely end up paying for 4 people. One of the adults would be a "solo" in room 1 and you would pay a single supplement if you didn't have double occupancy or higher in that cabin. Adult 2 and the child would be booked into room 2. There are some ships now that have "solo" balconies that do not incur a single supplement, but I have no idea whether or not those rooms adjoin to a standard balcony room. Other options: - Look into Family Oceanview rooms on the Breakaway / Breakaway+ class ships. There are a few different room layouts, but look for ones that have a separate sleeping area that can be curtained off from the main bedroom. The forward Family Oceanview rooms on the Escape (rooms ending in 700), for example, have an enclosed sleeping room with its own bed, TV, desk, and small closet. The cabins on deck 5 also have a curtain to close off one sleeping area from the main bedroom space. While not soundproof, this does provide for a dark, private space without needing two cabins. - On the Joy, there are Family Suites that are interior cabins with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. - Look into a 2-Bedroom suite or a suite that has a primary bedroom with a door that separates from the living room. Some ships have both Haven and non-Haven suites with this configuration. - If cost is an issue, look for adjoining oceanview or interior rooms -- or sail off peak when balconies are more affordable.

The Joy also has the Horizon Lounge where you can find a fancy coffee machine that makes all sorts of espresso beverages.

There was a whole discussion about this a couple of months ago:

If you are in the Haven, ask your butler to bring you a carafe of coffee (drip or French press) to your stateroom in the mornings. These should be easy to pour into a large insulated cup in your cabin. You can also request milk/cream/etc to be stocked in your mini fridge. You will also have a Nespresso machine in your cabin, but these brew very small cups of espresso and you would go through a ton of coffee pods trying to fill anything larger than 8 oz or so! Outside of your cabin, you should be able to request French press coffee at breakfast in the Haven dining room or in whatever restaurant is designated for Haven breakfasts/lunches if you are sailing on one of the older ships where there isn't a proper Haven restaurant. There are also coffee stations in the buffet and in certain lounge areas (depending on the ship), though these will require you to fill a different cup first before pouring into your insulated cup.

Having sailed both Star Class on RCCL and in the Haven on NCL, I would say that Star Class is hands down the superior product. But, we stumbled into Star Class because we had booked an Aqua Theater suite shortly before Star Class was initially announced. We got all of the benefits, but we locked into a significantly lower price because Star Class wasn't even a thing when we booked. The same suite a year later would have been 2X what we paid for it. Star Class does include a TON of value (included gratuities, included beverages, unlimited specialty dining, in suite mini bar that is always stocked, unlimited WIFI, etc.), but it also includes a lot of intangibles that might be harder to put a price on: Like staff members who recognize the Star Class key card and whisk you out of lines and give you priority treatment, a Genie who makes you feel incredibly special and taken care of, and personally selected gifts at the end of the cruise, among other things. We were in tears when we left that sailing because it truly had been a magical time and we were very sad to leave it. Star Class was amazing (especially at the price we paid), but I would be hard pressed to say that it was amazing enough to warrant 2X the cost (or more!), which is why we haven't booked Star Class since then and have chosen to sail NCL in the Haven because it offers a higher cost/benefit ratio to us.

Rather than booking through NCL, I would suggest getting an "excursion" via the Boston Water Taxi. For $50 pp, they will pick you up at the cruise port, take you to the ferry building to drop off your luggage for storage, and will take you to the airport when you are ready to depart. In the meantime, you can check out Boston on your own. Once you get to Logan, there is a free shuttle that will pick up at the Logan water taxi stand and will take you to the terminals. https://www.bostonwatertaxi.com/cruise-ship-special

No freezers, but ice is definitely available. You can ask your room steward to keep your ice bucket filled with ice (or ice water). You could also bring a small cooler with you or ask the Access Desk (see Bird's link above) for an ice chest to be provided to you. When we sailed and needed to keep our child's medicine cold, we were provided with an ice chest for the week, which was regularly refilled with ice for us.

No, the cards in your stateroom do not show up for shareholder credits, but that wasn’t the question that I was responding to. If you go back and read my original reply, you will see that the question was around OBC from their TA not showing up on their account. That is what you might not see until much closer to boarding, depending on how far in advance your TA purchases the credit for you.

Or the Sea Bass...which is listed right under the sole.

That list is just UK based travel agents, so it probably won't help you much if you are in the US.

I don’t have a photo, but we have gotten cards in our cabin on every sailing showing that we have OBC from our TA. It may have to do with how it is “purchased” or added to our account. As for the terminal, I have successfully connected to NCL, RCL, and DCL ship’s wifi when in the terminals at Miami, Tampa, Manhattan, and Seattle. I don’t think we tried when sailing from Vancouver or Ft. Lauderdale. In some cases, I have been able to grab reservations for activities from the app before I have even boarded the ship.

I have never had an issue, but YMMV. One could also connect once onboard…or just head to guest services to ask.

This! The TA that we most often book with often offers 10% of the cruise fare back in OBC plus a bunch of other perks (such as additional OBC or pre-paid DSCs). Since the OBC is refundable credit, I can cash it out on board if I don't plan on using it for other things. For an upcoming sailing, I calculated that we are getting almost 15% of our total cruise price (including taxes and fees) back in OBC or pre-paid DSCs.

It really depends. When we took our first cruise, we had NO idea what we were doing and used a local in-person agent to help us walk through the process. Since then, we have used warehouse club travel programs when those programs were offering particularly good perks or gift cards as booking incentives, we have gone through certain websites that allow you to get competitive bids from a number of different agencies, and we have used an online agency that came recommended to us from a friend. I don't think we have ever booked directly with the cruise line, though. We will often price things out through the cruise line, but we have always found a better offer (more OBC, a better price, free gratuities, specialty dinners and wine, etc.) by going through some sort of agency.

It depends. Sometimes, you will see it in your account a few weeks before sailing. Other times, it may not show up until you board. Either way, there is usually a card in your cabin on Day 1 letting you know about the credit. If you join the ship's wifi when you are in the terminal waiting to board, you can often check on your account via the app and see it there.

And the lack of a single supplement for a single cruiser sailing in a double occupancy room.

The Beatles show in the Cavern Club is 3 nights, 1 believe. Each set should be a different Beatles era. They may also play a "best of" set in the main theater, but that may depend on what else is scheduled. The Joy will also have Elements (likely 2 nights), and possibly other acts in the main theater (comedy, game shows, singers, magicians or other performers).

On many sailings, you can check out and return your towels to a booth that is set up on the pier. Also, there have been many, many instances when we brought our pool towels back to our room (esp. when used to wrap up in after swimming) and the room stewards have always taken them to the laundry for us and saved us a trip back to the pool deck to return them.

We agree with you about Cagney's being overhyped. On the Prima last year, the restaurant was quite noisy and the steaks were just ok. I got the ribeye (a cut that I usually love) and it was exceedingly chewy. We dined in the MDR a couple of nights later and it was quieter, we had better service, and the New York strip there was far superior to what we ate at Cagney's -- and it was free!

NCL usually runs a free ferry to St. George. From there, you can grab the bus or a taxi to the caves. If the ferry isn't running or if the schedule isn't conducive to a visit to the caves, you could always take the public ferry to Hamilton and then take a taxi or bus to the caves from Hamilton.

Definitely leave the passports in the safe! The adults in your group just need to bring a driver's license or other government issued photo id card with them when they go ashore.

I was not talking about online or in the app. When onboard, one can pick up the phone and call the restaurant reservations desk or walk over to one of the restaurants to make or change a reservation. That is often faster than waiting for the Cruise Next rep to make the reservations for you.

Yep. Sometimes, it is faster and easier to just make the reservations yourself!

Officially, minors under 18 do not need to show photo id to get back through security to reboard the ship in port. Those 18 and over should plan to bring a government issued photo id.

That is correct. We inquired about the "concierge" perk on our last sailing at the Cruise Next desk and they confirmed that they were the "concierge" for Platinum and above Latitudes members who did not otherwise have access to a concierge by being in a suite/haven cabin. They couldn't do absolutely everything that a true concierge could (no escorts off the ship, as an example), but they did have access to the show and restaurant reservation system and could help with making or changing plans. I don't know how much "pull" they have, though, or how much of a time or effort savings they would have been vs. just walking over or calling the normal restaurant and reservation desks.