Kortehgehn

3 hours ago, G-DawgMN said:

 I'm starting the question the legitimacy of the post, it's been deleted on Reddit by the author, and I also saw that same post on Facebook, and it's seems to be deleted also.

It is possible that if the passenger contacted NCL regarding their other incurred expenses, and if they were offered additional compensation, a requirement of the agreement may include a stipulation that they take down all online posts about the incident.

Okay, apologies again, but I was definitely not thinking when I posted that list of countries requiring six months of validity on US passports last night.  Initially, I thought the discrepancy indicated by @njhorseman was due to the inclusion of considerations beyond the scope of typical vacation travel.  However, something in the back of my mind made me go back and recheck that post, and I definitely copied an incorrect and completely different list.  Please disregard and use the link provided by @njhorseman instead.

20 hours ago, njhorseman said:

I'm curious about your source of this information

Yeah, sorry about that; the list I posted should be up-to-date for US passport holders, but depending on the specific circumstances of travel, it may be overly prescriptive.  Your statement regarding what is currently posted on the public-facing side of the DoS website is accurate.

10 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

8 hours ago, Distinctive-Destinations said:

But your “it’s already expired” bit is completely wrong.

You put those words in quotes as if I actually posted them...but I didn't, did I?

8 hours ago, SeaShark said:

If the expiration date on your passport is in August, then your passport is already "expired" as you'll need 6 months remaining on your passport to sail. IOW, you lost the ability to use this passport for cruising back in February. You might as well renew it now...you gain nothing by waiting.

I realize that there is a technical and subtle difference here, but sometimes, reading posts on CC makes me wonder if I'm being gaslit.

In reality, countries with a three-month validity requirement can often be more of an issue than those with a six-month requirement.

For reference, a list of countries requiring six months' validity on passports for entry:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Burma, BVI, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Côte D’Ivoire, Curacao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Uganda, UAE, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe

6 hours ago, Laszlo said:

There is no question I would pay for expedited turn around. At the moment I have three friends, for three different parts of the US who are all waiting for their passport renewals. Two are going on almost 5 months and one is just over 6 months 

FWIW, if accurate, five to six months processing time on US passport renewals is relatively unusual.  About five or six weeks would have been the average turnaround, plus mailing time, for typical passport renewals received with non-expedited processing during the December to January window.  The processing window around Thanksgiving was greater, but twenty weeks would generally be indicative of an issue with the application.  When applications are still listed as "In Process" after this much time, it's often helpful to call the branch where they are processing the application. 

Not sure if this is still the case, but just FYI, we arrived around 10:00 for our cruise on April 14th and parking at the pier was already full with the exception of those having reservations.

27 minutes ago, Hmmcminn said:

Where do you see it on your account?  I got approved but I haven’t seen anything indicating that in my account.

When you log in to MyNCL, the Teacher Appreciation banner will appear under your username, right above your account number. You may have to log out and log back in for it to appear.

1 hour ago, weisla said:

Did your TA say whether they had to cancel and rebook a new reservation in order for the discount to apply?

So I was actually worried about loosing our stateroom with a cancel and re-book.  The difference was only about $150 per reservation so our TA said that because the amount was below a certain threshold, he could just call NCL to reprice instead.

On 5/9/2024 at 11:28 AM, Hmmcminn said:

Well, apparently NCL denied my PCC’s request to apply this discount to the 2 cruises I just booked last month.  

Our TA told us that they could apply the discount to two of our existing reservations, but I haven't received a confirmation with the updated pricing yet. The cruises were still before final payment though, so that may make a difference.

Also, has anyone who booked using this discount noticed the $50 onboard credit showing up in the vacation summary on NCL's website?

16 minutes ago, Shidah said:

They do have privacy type curtains.  You can make it as private or as open as you want.

I just saw a video of the new H2 yesterday and noticed those room-darkening curtains as well, so I stand corrected.  However, I'm still not sure how I would feel about having part of my stateroom overlooking the lounge like that.

We sailed out of NYC on 4/14, and there was definitely a separate security line for Haven guests to the left of the regular check-in line.

On 4/24/2024 at 6:03 PM, david_sobe said:

some bedroom windows look down into the Horizon lounge

Just an FYI, those new windows aren't from the bedroom; they look into the new dining room of the H2 DOS staterooms. I was a bit surprised that they didn't seem to have room-darkening type curtains that I could see, and as a result, there did not seem to be much privacy from those in the Horizon lounge.

52 minutes ago, jackieodonnell said:

There is plenty of parking at the pier but it is expensive. I am from New Jersey and I Lyft or Uber in because it costs less to get there and come back than to pay for parking for the week.

We sailed on the Joy the week of April 14th, and parking at the pier was full when we arrived just before 10:00.  Only vehicles with reservations were allowed up the ramp, so we had to use the alternate garage on 43rd Street.  We have cruised dozens of times out of NYC and never had issues parking at the pier, but staff told us that Pier 88 and 90 were scheduled for some construction starting last week, which was why they were temporarily limiting the number of available parking spaces.

21 hours ago, Russiamomm said:

Mr. X was the concierge.  (I don’t remember his real name,  he asked us to call him Mr. X 😃).

I actually had a vigorous debate with my wife about this.  All our letters list Efren Acesor as concierge.  We dealt with Mr. X almost exclusively, and he was awesome!  The impression I had, though, was that he was an assistant concierge.  I'm not sure that we ever met Efren unless he and Mr. X are one and the same.

In my experience, NCL will mail out the Haven welcome letter and tags at the 30-day mark.  Although, we just cruised last week on the Joy and received our tags in the mail on March 9th, so that implies they are sending them earlier than 30 days out.  We have had times in the past when we did not receive tags initially and had to call the pre-concierge to have them resent to us.  It's also accurate, as mentioned above, that the tags are sometimes sent to your TA directly.

27 minutes ago, deckguy said:

Courts too will now recognize that a policy of reimbursement has been established and through the Reasonable Person Standard, others now have the reasonable expectation of financial payment.

Full disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.  However, I think the issue for courts regarding any such future claims is not necessarily so clear.  Also, I doubt that a Reasonable Person Standard could successfully be applied as suggested in that situation.

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

Ships measure capacity by 2 beds per cabin. 100% is when that number is reached. That is not the max capacity due to the number of 3/4 cabins. Max capacity may be 20% higher than normal capacity. Cruise lines holding companies ccl, rcl, nclh were reporting averaging about 109% capacity in 2019 prior to covid in their sec filings.

That's an excellent point.  Many people are confused, perhaps understandably, about standard operating capacity compared to actual maximum passenger capacity.  If I'm not mistaken, the Dawn's actual maximum passenger capacity is 3,000 passengers, even though the number referenced most commonly based on double occupancy is 2,340.  So, about 128% of the published capacity when sailing with maximum occupancy.

38 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Not falling for the NCL corporate washing their hands of this. The appear to feel somewhat responsible by reimbursing the passengers of all their expenses of catching up to the ship.

I must have missed this... I wasn't aware that NCL was reimbursing any of the passengers costs in this situation.

1 hour ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Many countries in the middle east will not let you in with an Israeli stamp on your passport. Given world politics, that number is probably growing.  This may preclude any cruise line from originating or stopping in Israel for many years.

Israel won't typically stamp passports for this reason, and there are only nine or so countries that will routinely deny entry if there is evidence of travel to Israel.  If you have planned travel to these destinations, you can get a second US passport for situations like this.  I would say that it doesn't really affect cruise lines stopping from or departing from Israel as long as enough customers are willing to book the itinerary.

3 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

I would have to guess that 10% of a Viva cruise to Israel isn't just a few pennies in the pocket

FWIW, that's not how those credits work; they're 10% off a future booking, not 10% of what was paid for the original cruise.  Additionally, if you don't use them within the specified timeframe, you lose them altogether.  I have never found those 10% credits to be as good as they sound; we had two from canceled sailings during COVID and never used them before they expired.

45 minutes ago, Kortehgehn said:

I believe that Deck 11 is the largest, followed by Deck 9

It looks like I was mistaken about the sizes, and Deck 9 is the largest, followed by Deck 12.

I just found the thread on the Encore aft balconies here:

Yes, the depth of the balcony definitely differs by deck.  I believe that Deck 11 is the largest, followed by Deck 9.  It's a breakaway-plus class ship, so it should be the same as Bliss or Escape.  I believe there is a thread on CC about the balcony sizes on one of those ships, but I was unable to find it with a brief search.  We always stay on deck 14, which is one of the smallest, and the balcony is still deep enough for a long lounger to fit lengthwise.

2 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Is Captian Hakan Svedung still master of the Dawn?

I'm sorry. That was a mental typographical error.  We sailed with him many years ago on the Gem, but last I knew, he was on the Dawn.  He had been on the Joy previously.

Is Captian Hakan Svedung still master of the Dawn?  If so, I would say there's definitely more to the story than is being reported; those types of decisions aren't arbitrary.  Either way, it's certainly not the cruise line's fault.  It's pretty clear when the departure times are; if they are "veteran cruisers," they should know that.  I think that there is obviously more to this story.

On point with the original topic, I have never experienced overcrowding on the Haven sundeck, but I am interested to see how it will be when we sail on the Joy in a few weeks.  I can believe this might be more of an issue because of the additional cabins that were recently added to the Haven on the Joy.

15 hours ago, IAcruising said:

I would be embarrassed sitting in a haven lounge with hoards of people walking by in a crowd looking in. 

On many airlines, you must walk through first class to get to seats in the rest of the plane. I doubt anyone in first class is embarrassed when other passengers are walking by them.

To each their own with regard to the Haven, and I agree with many of the other posters' points here.  I would just add that it's fine if you don't like the concept of the Haven area on NCL, but reading some of these posts feels like you're attacking the guests who book these experiences as well.  I would say that the customers who choose to stay in the Haven or other similar areas are typically regular, average, everyday people like everyone else on the ship; it's not an elitist club or anything like that, just a different tiered level of service.  At the end of the day, there's a reason that NCL can charge the prices it does for the Haven and then sell it out on the majority of sailings.

15 hours ago, IAcruising said:

that is even more disgusting. I'm so glad that I stick to ships where everybody is equal. 

I don't believe that the type of equality you're suggesting really exists anywhere.  This is a bit of a tangent, but many years ago, on a trip to WDW, we happened to be in the park during the same week as Princess Diana and her kids.  It was not uncommon for parts of the park to be completely closed off from regular guests for part of the day, and I remember two times when we were exiting a ride and were stopped to wait for the entourage to pass by.  While it certainly made the week more unpredictable, but we were never upset by this, and it certainly did not affect the enjoyment of our vacation in any way.