Ellis1138

My father was an HVAC engineer and salesman. He used to take me to work and on job sites. He taught me how to get the lime scale off humidifiers, how to check the general humidity of places and what the ideal should be for a regular residential house. I also got to see clean rooms and the filtration levels for those. My grandfather (his father) was also in HVAC and was a maintenance technician and would take me on his rounds whenever I visited. I didn't go into HVAC, myself, but still remember all of it.

Did you rent a car to do all this? We'll be renting one for when we arrive in Reykjavik and keeping it for a couple days and using it to get to the airport. One piece of info I can't find is where to park the rental car at the place the Prima docks in Reykjavik and whether it's free parking.

It should not set off the smoke detectors unless the humidity in your cabin reaches 85%. That's pretty extreme humidity. I take along a nice Accurite Hygrometer and stick it magnetically on the wall in my cabin. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013BKDO8 You could take one of those along and if it looks like your humdifier is getting up to 80%, you can turn it off so it doesn't set off any alarms.

1. It will depend on when the ship clears customs. Whatever time it generally says on the Freestyle Daily for arrival is usually the time they will let people get off, not when the ship starts docking. This can vary based on weather, port issues, etc. My strategy is: get up early, eat as early as possible and go down to the deck with the gangplank so that when it does open, we're close and not waiting on elevators. 2. Check the Freestyle Daily for tendering instructions on "Early Bird, no tickets". You don't need to pay for Priority Access, nor should you, since it won't get you off earlier than Early Birds. And for tendering, you don't get Priority Access on the way back; you have to stand in line. Get to the waiting place for Early Bird and wait until they let you on the first tenders.

Free at Sea plus opinion: I don't drink, but for the plus, you also get the soda and carton water and (I think) specialty coffees. The unlimited non-streaming internet is a $250 value by itself, so if you're going to use it a lot, it's worth it. 2 specialty dinings are worth about $160-ish. So, if you will be drinking and using all that, it's a decent package price. (Why I never took it: I don't drink alcohol or soda, the tap water on the ship is great to drink and I was in the Escape Studios with the best coffee machine for free. My itinerary was port-heavy New England/Canada, so I had nearby wifi and data coverage and didn't need to use up the 150 minutes.) I tend to go Hobbit Mode for breakfast. I would get up at 5 am, have a coffee from the Studio Lounge machine and then head up to O'Sheehans for extra crispy bacon. (I can't swallow pills with water alone, so I use bacon to help me get them down.) The regular coffee there was good and they do have some nice stuff, like corned beef hash. After my pills and bacon, I went to the buffet for the 'made for you right there as you like it' omelet. Then down to Taste (MDR) for pastries, pancakes/waffles and tea. I never went to the Starbucks but I think they had pastries too. I did Moderno twice on the Escape. I love that salad bar, the pao de quiejo and all the meat. I also like not having to keep track of 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert. They cooked the meats as I requested and brought me new ones if I thought the meat was overcooked. My favorite night for the MDR is when they have chimichurri beef. I did none of the entertainment, so do not know how that was. There was a lot of it and the stuff in the Atrium was 85 decibels. I had to wear Hear-Os. The casino tends to be smoky, but I had fun at a slot pull. The Escape is a really good ship and I enjoyed it.

Is it a specific Amex card that does this?

The Mandara spa's usual hours are 8 am to 10 pm. The exceptions are the night before disembarkation, they tend to close at 8 pm. The day of embarkation, they tend to be open for tours and the raffle from boarding time until the time the muster drill used to be. Then somewhere around sailaway/departure, one would be able to have spa services or use the thermal suite. This is generalized and it could vary per sailing.

Just to clarify: Are you on the regular or the "Premium" wifi? (And if anyone is on the Prima with the Premium wifi and wants to post their Speedtest, that would be cool.)

And in shows, people run away from explosions without messing up their hair. They shoot guns that have no recoil. I'm not sure I would base my expectations in life on what happens in a TV show.

I knew when I booked the Prima that all this stuff is possible.

It's funny that it's getting so much news coverage these days. But maybe word will spread that if you do an independent excursion, aim to be back an hour before all aboard, just in case of delays. Also take a day or 2 of important medicines, necessary items and passport with you. I also always (even for non-cruise vacations) bring a list of all the Plan B places and what to do if the original plans are awry. But they got back to the ship, which is a happy ending.

There's three types of stocks: The one where it looks like a staircase going up. The one where it looks like a staircase going down, or worse, a slide. And then there's the Mountain Ranges. NCLH has been a Mountain Range. When I saw the 2020 crash, I grabbed 100 of NCLH at 10 and 100 of CCL at 7. Not for pure investment purposes, but I knew I would be going on cruises, post-pandemic, and I had faith the industry would make it. I could not also afford to get 100 of Royal, which was 24 at the time. It's going to be rocky rides, with the stocks going up and down due to investor emotions and not based on actual performances. Just hang on for a while and get your OBCs. Right now, the industry shoud be ok and NCLH is still filling ships on NCL, Oceania and Regent.

In my opinion, do not get an aft balcony. Owing to the complaints I compiled over the past couple of years, the aft cabins on the PoA can suffer from a "sewer smell" that ranges from annoying to nauseating. The main cause needs a combination of factors: The wind has to hit the ship's funnel at the right direction, which then causes the both the sewage plant output and the funnel exhaust to be blown into the AC intakes for those cabins. It worried me so much that I moved our cabin to mid-ish and ahead of the funnel. (Ours was 9622). And without the Na Pali sailing, there's no right or wrong side to be on for scenery. Most of the time, by the time we got underway, it was after sunset, so no scenery at all. I've stopped updating the reports, now that I've taken the cruise.

I happen to be a weirdo who enjoys being out in cold, damp and dreary weather, so as long as it isn't icy or lightning. But yeah, I had a similar thing on the Escape for a New England/Canada cruise, where I was out in the hot tub on deck 19 by myself in the pouring rain. Or where I was the only one in the pool on the NCL Sun in Alaska when the outdoor temperature was 30 degrees. But yeah, our sailing on the Prima is a holiday one and probably very full, so I expect the food venues to be zoos. We'll find out in June/July.

I thought NCL ships were no longer going to do currency exchange on board. I can always check with Guest Services when I get on ship. The trouble with the ATM thing is the same: We dock and I immediately have to be at the shore excursion. No time to run off to a bank and back.

I don't know if this will help anyone, but in addition to the $10 waterproof Walmart wristwatch and my phone's clock, I also set an alarm on my phone, based on hours, not time. Like if we're being let off the ship at 9 am and all aboard is 6 pm, I set an alarm to go off in 7 hours. So no matter if the clocks are not set to local or ship time, I have a backup for the exact amount of hours that we're allotted in port.

I do go on a cruise with the basic notion that we might not be able to go where the itinerary says. But I use cruises as a "sampler" for "Do I want to come back here by airplane and do an in-depth vacation here?" We're booked on the Prima for the Southampton/Norway/Iceland itinerary and I have my fingers very crossed that we'll be able to port at Geiranger. I booked an NCL excursion at Isafjordur, so that it will be easily refunded when the Prima somehow doesn't manage to make it. Most everything else is "get off the ship, walk to here, look at that, check this museum, eat at cafe" kind of stuff. I've been watching the Prima Live TA thread and, aside from embarkation chaos, am somewhat worried about the lines and waiting times for the MDR and specialty restaurants. And that they tried to cram the Latitude party in a small space. Another trepidation I have is that when I check the actual port schedules on the port websites, a few of them have the Prima coming and leaving at different times than our itinerary. Got a very cheap price for our itinerary, though, so... Here's hoping.

Thank you! I'm happy to see Cloud House half and half on the ship. Despite that it looks like it isn't real, it is real dairy and, more importantly, is actual UHT half and half so I don't need to be bringing boxes of Mini Moos with me.

We're coming in via cruise ship and the first port is Akureyri, but we have a cruise ship excursion right after docking. I don't know when I'll be able to get Isk coins. The pay toilet thing frightens me the most about this trip. (I have some gastrointestinal issues and bladder problems.)

Do you remember if the pay toilets would take USD?

Yes, I would hope the people complaining were actually on the cruise itself. It's valid to be bothered by people complaining (or complaining about the complaining), but it's all down to us as an individual to make the best of whatever happens... or to decide to be miserable.

Fill this out https://nclh.my.salesforce-sites.com/AccessDeskForm/ You might be required to bring a doctor's letter, stating you need it but they should allow that if they know ahead of time why you need it. Or if they don't want you bringing a blendjet, they might make arrangements for you at one of the bars that has blenders. But generally, little low-heat USB things are okay as long as there's no surge protection. Fire risk and all.

I go with the idea that everyone's cruise experience is valid. If MajSteve is done, then that's valid. It's extremely possible for people on the same cruise to have entirely different experiences. And NCL in particular has some quirks that can catch people unawares. I was in a Studio cabin on the Escape and had an exhilarating time (even with being stuck in the harbor during a storm and missing Halifax) and the crew was so nice to me. Other people getting off the same cruise said the only good thing about it was leaving. Both my experience and theirs were valid. A long and chaotic embarkation can put a damper on the cruise, especially in the heat. That is shoddy and I would probably be miffed, too.

Yeah, seriously. Most of the time, it's at least edible or recognizable. One night, I ordered the NY Strip off the classics on the Pride of America (I should have known better). It was so awful, tough and overcooked that I said if it was a NY Strip, it must have been 10th Ave and 39th Street.

I've never used a TA, because I want all the detail control, but I also do research before booking. So I already know the amenities. So what makes the Studio cabins nice is they're cozy like Star Trek starship cabins. I've only been in the one on the Escape so far, but loved the coffee machine, the water/juice station and the quiet place to sit and contemplate. They did have cookies, cakes, pastries and fruits, but I can't vouch for those, not having consumed them. As folks said, the rooms have: liquid soap dispenser, "conditioning" shampoo, body wash, hair dyers, towels, usually 2 closets and some storage depending on which ship. Hair dryer. A couple of US plugs, a Euro plug, a low voltage razor plug and possibly a USB plug in a bed lamp. There's no mini-fridge in the Studios. I also have them remove the overpriced bottled beverages from my cabin.