mking8288

There's been a couple of other live post / trip report onboard various NCL ships within the past 2 to 3 weeks from other folks staying in Haven; and, thus far, not reading about anyone else getting charged and/or unexplained charges with their onboard account (yet). Reasonable to assume OP's charges were posted in error and not new across-the-board extras ... as dexddd would joked "for your convenience, of course"

One of the TA email alerts tipped us off to this Triple Up offer first, and I wasn't sure if it was just another click-bait ... and initially it was for 2 days only (this past weekend) This particular TA offering free DSC (included) and other goodies too. Answer is yes, you should be able to use TA to book this - and some of the NCL call center agent apparently didn't know or read about it and bother to check for valid terms & conditions.

Starting booking NCL cruises in 2023 onward by not dealing with NCL ... perhaps not with those big box TA either but to find one of those TA that kickback free DSC and extra OBC, etc. when booking with them directly instead. This avenue has its shortcomings and limitations, restrictions but for some families - 4 to anything from club balcony cabin or lower for 7 or 8 nights, looking at saving $560 to $640 for the week/+ Then, no worries about DSC at all since the agency is paying for it ... It will help NCL to further shrink its back office and keep fewer PCC, hmmm.

Ask about it once onboard at Guest Service, if the offered is available and the price & location is acceptable, deal is done on the spot. TA not likely to fully sold out ... our friends won an upgrade bid for very little from OV. Good luck.

Thank you for the review, short - concise and with key highlights. Done nicely. How were the crew onboard and any comments on the major production shows, if you watched them. 4 sharing an Inside statement, wow - that's truly tight quarters on the *away class ships and you managed it. (as for) Things I wish NCL would change: * Hand sanitizer at each dining table. I'm not a germaphobe but the concept of maybe 5 %of people washing their hands before walking through a buffet and the rest just touching serving utensils one after the other with no cleaning mechanism on the table is a joke. That's really dancing with norovirus lurking onboard ... which will probably return anytime without notice or warning, on top of the coughing going around. With 4,800 onboard, that's holiday sailing pre-Covid at 120% capacity. Happy New Year 2023 & much obliged for sharing.

@ShadowRegent Yes, correct - based on bidded amount for 2 persons only. Good luck ! We booked and stayed in 2 of those this May, loved all the extra space. We did a Semi-Live review, including pictures of those suites too.

@preston If you go back a few posts within this thread ... Getaway sailings in the latter part of next January upgraded "some" balconies & higher about 3 weeks ago (borderline fair/poor bids). It is impossible to generalized with your non-specific questions (ships, itinerary/dates, and cabin categories, etc.) Oceanviews were sold out within the past few days, Insides are still available. @ShadowRegent Joy has 30' something Family Insides Suites with 2 bedrooms that comfortably sleep 5 to 6, has 2 baths and a nice living room - 3 TV's ... spacious & roomy, nothing fancy but square footage-wise, superior than many Haven suites. You should be able to bid on those "SP" category cabins - unless they are all sold out. When we're sailing her in May and September, they're available with "discounted" 50% off bid minimums.

This TRIPLE UP offer for balcony & higher cabins at least 6 months out is set to expire next week, Jan. 5th. (unless it's extended). You can apply it yourself after logging into your NCL account's Reservation(s) - OR, you can call NCL and speak to an agent for live help, and they can do it for you. However, beware that NOT all agents are familiar with this promotion. This happened to 2 of our Latitudes Sapphire friends with an Escape booked next August out of Florida - they hang up and called again, next agent was helpful & knew, had it done quickly & pushed an email confirmation ... always re-verify that amenities aren't changed or lost, etc. afterward. Certain sailings also qualified for triple status points, like that of our friends ... had they booked one of them (non-Haven) as an extra bonus closer to Diamonds tier. They had not been on NCL in a while and only realized that they still have 2 CN deposits, un-expired and extended for a year, to apply against the booking on top of certain Amex promo offers.

Maybe we should call NCL's new "almost Cruise to Nowhere" sailings. Getaway scheduled to call on DR on Jan 29th and appeared that we can dock either in the Bay or the Cove. IMHO, don't bother to hold my breath to ask this kind of question at the CC Meet & Greet/Mingle, not at all. One can try - they are very good at passing the bucks to corporate HQ in Miami. Maybe, @Laszlo can do a Youtube "Special" about it and we can all give plenty of "Likes" as a CC style "documentary" ... just kidding. Pssst - port fees/charges are not adjusted nor refunded, as a matter of routine practice at NCL. Hence, "keep the change" 🙄 🙄 🙄

This + 1 And, OP, feel free to make use of the Ignore option - of course, indirectly, poster(s) being ignored can still show up b/c someone else jump on it & started quoting and replying, etc. Back on topic, lately - we are also seeing those 10% discount tossed in, showing up only when logged into MyNCL account, apparently targeted selectively. NCL cruise consultants also coming up with 15% additional discount offers, good on "any cruise" (of course, always read & understand the fine prints & disclosures, restrictions, etc. etc.) There's also the Latitudes TRIPLE UP offers coming from TA mass emails, apparently valid & available also directly via NCL ... not going into details to help promote it. Google is often ... Always do mock bookings and calculate the numbers to see if they add up or deduct correctly, click-bait wordings can be easily misleading, unintentionally, for your convenience, of course.

... perhaps, partially associated with that 9% reduction in back office workforce announced ?? It is - I suspect - NOT just machine intelligence being impacted, rather it has to do with them not responding to an assigned Case Number (2nd. request) that I'm not going off-topic. And, it's holiday & year-end vacat' time, LOL with a skeletal staff.

OP's SWA 1341 landed about 7 minutes, MDW-MCO taxiing to the gate, should be wheels locked at the jetbridge in about 2 or 3 minutes according to tracking data. Gosh, whew 😇 - and if they didn't have to gate checked their carry-on bags, can now relax with relief. Prima cruise ahead. Bon Voyage !!

NP, if only they can find flights out of Detroit instead Midway (used by SWA) - perhaps they found someone on their Roll Call to rideshare together - 600 miles of daily driving is a lot to cover even with GPS navigation, easily with 2 drivers taking turn behind the wheels & resting, planning fuel & rest room stops ahead, etc. OP hasn't updated, perhaps they are currently in transit and/or on standby for 2 open & available seats on SWA and/or other flights. Tens of thousands SWA fliers all scrambling to reach their destinations and come home with all those cancelled flights for the past week, not easy ... virtually all holiday flights are at high load factors or fully sold out. I asked my nephew to use his Sabre access to lookup hidden cities pair via Toronto & Montreal to see if they can be routed with 2 connections and it's "no can't do." Maybe, Greyhound and/or Amtrak to their rescue instead. Let's hope they are going to make their cruise.

Ahhh, this brings back memories of the good old, short, cruise-to-nowhere (CTN) with a twist, making a comeback! "Genius" concept and NCL can charge a lot more plus port fees, etc. That's it 😆😆😆 ... cruise with a sense of humor & adventure and be surprised 🙀. Afterall, it's covered by the cruise contract terms. And, cruiselines including NCL wanted their ships to the destinations booked and we spent nearly every vacation dollars with them onboard. This is a clever scheme to sell a premium holiday cruise to exotic locations and then ... oops, and you can't cancel and it's all non-refundable.

Perhaps, these changes will eventually bring positive forward-looking news on NCL (and other lines) quarterly financials. Why not just impost an all-inclusive daily resort fees or "supplement" instead on a per stateroom/suite basis, except $20 p/p per day to clean a studio/solo cabin at 110 sq.ft. isn't exactly the same as a large club balcony suite sleeping 4, even once a day for the "attendant" ... I suspect we all know, some cabins will be rather messy with more towels, garbage and bedsheets to "service" everyday. *** Quoting from "Cruise Center" as a footnote: The first ship to implement the new policy will be Norwegian Epic, starting January 8, 2023. The new company policy will be rolled out to the entire fleet in the following three-month period, expected to be completed with the Norwegian Pearl on March 31, 2023 ... Crew currently holding the junior role will see an increase in salary, but the salary will be reduced for the current Stateroom Stewards. Somehow, I don't see all the stewards smiling & singing happy, happy, washy, washy - and, yes, they signed the contract.

For "your" convenience, of course, I'm sure NCL will cheerfully provide an extra daily housekeeping evening service routine for a nominal upcharge, say $20 or $25, on demand, LOL. Not buying - IMHO - the notion and concept of "environmental sustainability" by scaling back service level while raising the mandatory daily charges. Why can't NCLH be direct, straight forward and honest with us, the customers behind the products - namely, cruising - and say, it is to (also ??) help maintain & restore its financial well-beings too. Whether the stewards and others below deck are well paid, competitively, or not ... in the cruise industry remains a private matter & close door topics with NCL and the signing agencies that recruited & placed them. From cruise news sources, it's clear that job titles are being changed, reclassified and some will be realigned into other functions onboard. Perhaps, this helped partially explain grumpy crew onboard these days. And, not to go off-topics substantially, some of the "non-verified" reports lately of live onboard entertainments being replaced with big-screen movie shown in the main theater are just comical, LOL. Pretty soon, we might see the gallery (and formerly housekeeping) crew on stage doing talent shows as the primary and lounge show with robotics AI ... LOL (hey, gotta have a sense of humor these days.) Not saying the grass is greener elsewhere but going to have a difficult time telling Mrs. to continue to be generous in tipping extras onboard.

Good luck to OP, perhaps they are on a Greyhound at this moment making their way down to the Sunshine State. SWA could not and will maybe, possibly masked some of the cancellations last week on weather; but, not with the subsequent & massive system-wide cancellations and delays, essentially a total meltdown. Worse than and comparable to what B6 (JetBlue) went thru in the winter of (Feb.) 2007, triggered by aircraft de-icing problems associated with a major winter storm/blizzard in the Northeast. SWA's failure is partially associated with crew scheduling & computer networking systems, and point-to-point operations vs. other carrier's hub operations. Looking at today's data - DL, AA, UA essentially ran 99%+ or better with no cancellations. JetBlue cancelled 3% and Spirit cancelled 4% of its scheduled flights. SWA cancelled 61% (sixty-one percent) of its US flights today, that's 2,509 flights cancelled out of 2,890 total US flights; with another 8% delayed (346 flights for SWA). There is simply no way that SWA can blame it on weather and evade DOT's oversight (which has been at arm's length from deregulations ...) To what extent will SWA refund and make good on its promise, remains unseen, beyond the price of the purchased airfares - extra compensations and/or reimbursement for missed cruises, hotels/lodging and food, ground transportation, etc. is going to be a tough one.

Surprised 🙀 not at all. This is consistent with hospitality trending elsewhere, realigning of service level. Perhaps, there will be a "new" self-service element next to these, soon thereafter, i.e. towel exchange, trash disposa, etc. to hold down further increases in DSC. Hahaha 😂 Welcome to the new $40 daily fees for 2 in "steerage" cabins for 2023, shared by many behind the scenes. The great "Takeaway" version 4.1b How does this fit the tagline of going above and beyond as vacation heros, some of us will need to really look harder & think about it.

Sure, that's 2 days worth of driving ... Are you nearby, available and offering to give them a ride 😉 see post #5 - "Given our ages, 73 & 77, 1200 miles to Port, and car rentals one way, nonexistent, driving almost not an option. I even checked flights from Indy to MCO, and that was not promising either." DOT said they will hold the airline accountable for the meltdown. SouthWest CEO said to keep all receipts for ... Only planning to staff and fly about 1/3 of their scheduled flights this week, at best.

We did only 2 full bags of free Platinum laundry on our last 14 days, about 5 or 6 days apart - that was 2019. Could've done 1 or 2 more bags free if we needed to. Just beware that the "new" paper bag is thin and smaller, hold about 1/3 less than before - stayflation ... thus, might need to do a 2nd bag if on a longer sailing. Why not, especially if it's complimentary.

On the "Plus" ships, I highly recommend choosing Taste or Savor, the 2 smaller MDR for a quieter dinner at a table for 2. It isn't as noisy and services typically a notch faster, and tables can be spaced slightly further apart, instead of being 6 inches from the nearest table if it was a table for 4 and they simply split and pull it apart slightly. Better for small talks and semi-alone for 2 people dining together unless you are happy to socialize with table mates next to you, etc. Happy cruising !

Names of senior officers onboard, GM, F&B, CD, etc. if someone has them. Thanks in advance. P.S. Noticed that GA had a planned stop at GSC but ?? It appeared that, based on Marinetraffic data, she visited or stop at Nassau yesterday and went out to sea again, and is docked at Nassau today (again ??) - a very busy port with 6 ships there now, wall-to-wall crowds in town. Happy cruising 😎

Not in the form of nonrefundable OBC, rather - you aren't charged for additional days in the beginning of the cruise. Just make sure you don't login to use those free minutes until 00:01 on Day 2. These are the upgrade pricing on a 7 nights cruise. Screenshot shown for 7 days and 6 days, with the trade-in value credited and net cost ... NCL hasn't raised these prices in years, unlike just about everything else ... psssst, hush. I suspect that if and when they team up with StarLink, the cost will probably go up, but at least it'll be comparable to land speed over cable broadband or Fios ... For that cruise that we are both on, we have 600 minutes in our "bank" to use, except it isn't much allocated over a span of 12 days, even if one don't use anything on Day 1 and that last (Sea) Day coming home - nearly 5 full days at sea, at 2 hours daily.

Our friends just came back from Bermuda last week and saw the NCL ferry docked next to/across from the Getaway - it's free / complimentary, show your NCL Guest Keycards to board andreturn from St. George's. Schedule should be tailored to ship's departure time and available/posted onboard - otherwise, just step out there to check - it's posted on the pier. Bermuda's fast ferry services (blue route) is on her winter schedule for 2022-23, like the other routes - and essentially, no services in the evening after rush hour to go back to Dockyard. There is no ferry services between Dockyard and SG's during the winter schedule months. Travel time is 45 minutes to 1 hour each way, including prep'ing the gangways & securing the lines, etc. - weather permitting. Some are the shops in/around the "Square" are closed (remain ??) for the season (for good ??)

Did another lookup on cruisemapper dot com this morning for January 2023's Amber Cove (updated ??) schedule - there are now, about, 16 NCL ships listed as docking there (and not downtown Taino Bay, not easy walking distance for sure) even the mid-size ships like the Dawn, Sky & Pearl are heading to Carnival's owned dock when it's not full with their own fleet. Hey, it's revenue for Carnival and other lines including MSC and Royal are using the Cove also. Whether, NCL is going to cancel and substitute something like GSC, which they own themselves, is another story. Escape that's doing the same itinerary as our 12 days already informed guests booked that they are not going to DR at all. It seems like the Bay is simply out of the question for next month. NCL calculated and collect the port charges/fees/surcharges for each of the posted - if they skipped and/or substituted port A for B, or cancelled entirely - it's mostly not refunded or adjusted these days ... kept and pocketed (as a general expectation), unless I'm mistaken & stand corrected. It's a different can of worms by itself, let's try to steer away from this controversial subject area. As for whether the NCL's onboard shorex team knows or not - of course, they should know by the time we are on the ship and sailing away from homeport - short of any real last minute changes from weather, emergencies & disruptions unplanned for - as one can bet that their tasks are to promote & sell, not to process refunds and create more work for accounting & bookkeeping.