fredflint

The BOGO works well for international flights and two one way flights where the cruise is not a loop.

I took a cruise from Lisbon to Rio De Janeiro and we saved  quite a bit flew Delta and American flight was a little longer than we could have booked but we did save quite a bit of money.  YMMV

Find a branch of your bank and just deposit it there!

Hop on Hop off is a good option too

we were on a cruise a while ago and during the morning TV show the CD had a spot for what is in the box it was great, we submitted a few guesses and we looked forward to watching it every day.  A cooking exhibition was fun as well as egg drop competition this is the kind of stuff that I missed on the Star during my latest Transatlantic.  We are sailing on the Epic this winter on a med cruise we are planning on using the ship as a floating hotel not caring about much.

We were on the Star in December and the entertainment was mediocre at best, the Cruise Director was MIA most of the time.  Food was OK but nothing great, one issue when speaking to the crew was that the space they have on the ship is a lot less than the newer ships so I feel that many of the  more experienced crew look to move to a better ship.

I think part of it is the beverage package is free but the gratuities is pretty heavy they limit what is covered,  bars are slow that is what I feel is the issue.  Paying for priority vs just improving the overall service, like the express/toll lanes on the highway.

Take a magic marker it will make it easier to be identified is my opinion.  Make it easy for the people handling your bags.

I look at it this it is better to buy the bottom of the top than the top of the bottom.

The fanciest Chevy or Buick may cost the same as a Cadillac, but the Cadillac dealer will offer a better overall experience.

  I took a Crystal Alaskan cruise years ago we had a standard outside room (vs Penthouse suite on Celebrity).  But the service and level of detail was far and above the service we would have had from Celebrity.

It started with a person meeting us at baggage claim.  My bag somehow missed our flight the person from Crystal contacted the airline and was told it was on the next flight which was about a 30 minute wait.  She contacted another person to come over and escort the rest of the people to the shuttle busses they stayed with us until my bag arrived then walked us over to a shuttle to take us to the ship.  When it came time to get off the boat there were people there to make sure people had someone to help with bags and get you onto the shuttle busses.  Other cruise lines once you leave the ship you are on your own.  Before dinner every night there was a cocktail party with drinks, after the first night the servers knew which food I liked or didn't and they would bring over trays of appetizers that were just what I wanted or similar stuff. they knew no liver stuff after the first night.

All of the tours had a crewmember on them to make sure there were no issues and if there was someone from the ship was there.  This was on an Alaskan cruise but was told it was standard for all cruises/ports.

Plan extra time pick up a credit card or perk for lounge access at the airport and relax the last thing you want after a nice vacation is the stress of rushing to the airport or missing a flight!

I would plan on it being a very long day no matter what, make sure you take that into account in your timing and get lounge access for the airports.    They usually book flights so that there is a fair amount of people on the same flight flying to Europe.  For me flying from Denver that meant going thru JFK we met about 20 other people there going on our cruise.  We flew Delta and American airlines, they will do codeshares, our Delta flight was booked thru Virgin Atlantic for some reason.

Maybe you have the free 150 minutes and the lower price includes that discount into the price.

I am a bit confused as I was under the impression that the reason for going to once a day cleaning was due to the lack of staff.  It seems to me that more than doubling the workload of the staff would cause more of a staffing issue.  For myself we usually told the steward to skip the afternoon  turndown as there was  no need for him to do that.   I am not sure of the comparison but it is very much like the  idea of having the towels replaced every day.  I have not felt the need for new/clean towels every day.  I know everyone is different but just my 2 cents.

I agree mine is Dec 10th or 12 and I still like looking at the days to go reminds me when I need to do certain things.

yes we flew delta going to Portugal  no issues at all.  They usually try to consolidate people so my flight went thru JFK at JFK there were about 25 or so people on our cruise and we were 3 days  before on our deviation. 

Use this site to check if sites are down.

https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ncl.com.html

Find a laundromat or laundry in London 

There are usually multiple shows one of the plusses no need to book ahead and follow a schedule.  I for one prefer to be on vacation and not have a lot of stuff scheduled/planned.

You should be able to contact NCL and opt out

The speed will vary so much depending on where you are cruising the number of passengers using the internet as well as possibly the weather.  I would not count on it being very good as few people have posted how great  the internet was or how fast their speeds were.  I have not cruised that much but both Celebrity and RCCL have had much better speed my  2 NCL trips have been bad and the Internet desk has always been swamped with people having issues.  My last cruise people with by the minute plan would log on the internet would go down and  they would be unable to log off and all their minutes used up  The next day they go down to the internet desk and get their minutes back!

As long as you can reach them I would stay with the company you have.  The place I used before had nothing on the weekend

I have used the casino before to cash out  OBC by getting chips then turning them back in after a while

you should be fine

I have used an online agency I used one that did not have  people available 7 days a week.  The issue was there was an upgrade available that I missed out on and after that I swore only agencies  that were available 7 days a week would get my business. You can try a club agency people have had good luck  with them.

I had an agent that was Florida based and he was the best he took cruises but even more he was able to visit most cruise ships  when they docked.  He has since retired and the other agents at his agency were not as good so I moved on.  I have also booked directly and never had an issue but did pay a little more.

If the hotel is the one they used and a lot of people are coming in the day before due to distance they would have a shuttle but best to talk to the horse so to speak to get an answer vs speculation!

I get OBC for my points  but everyone is different  there is usually plenty of places to spend your non refundable  credit but it is usually  credit you get from someone else the cruise line or your TA.  If you are using points for credit it is usually refundable.  A trick it to use the credit to "gamble" then just place one bet and cash out!