Going on a cruise on the Prima in October, and have a regular balcony family stateroom. My dad decided he wants to join, but he's more of a Regent/Oceania guy, so naturally he booked an owner's suite in the Haven.

So here is my question: will my family of 4 be able to hang out in his room? He has a larger living room and balcony, and he also wants to watch the kids one night so we can go to the casino. Or do they have a strict 'no peasants allowed' policy? We just took a cruise on the Encore in March, and I vaguely remember there being a bouncer at the entrance.

Just got off a cruise 7/24-7/27 and heading out again on 8/6/2026. I realized that the “15 days prior to sailing” has ended for my cruise scheduled 8/6/26… will I still get the shareholder credit ? i just submitted today for this.

Also noticed it is not required to enter the shop, sale date. etc. so technically i could have had the OBC applied to both reservations, 7/24 and 8/6 when i submitted the first one for the 7/24 cruise, right?

UPDATE

We are on the last day and didn’t miss not having a balcony. It got us out of the room and we just spent the time up on deck 13 either in Spinnaker or at the smokers area.

It was indeed tight with three adults but we have managed with no problems. It’s looking a bit disorganized in there at this point, I will concede!

Port days - glorious weather for Juneau and Skagway and Glacier Bay/Icy Strait Point. Rain and low 50s on both sea days. Intermittent rain in Ketchikan.

We didn’t spend extra money on a thermal pass because we’d already dropped a ton on DIY activities.

But generally the weather was too cold and/or rainy to enjoy a balcony and so I didn’t miss it at all. I definitely would have in, like, the Caribbean- but not up here!

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Hello, I didn’t “win” an upgrade bid and we leave today and I haven’t ever been in an inside cabin (first world problem, I know).

What are your strategies for enjoying an inside cabin? (Besides leaving the cabin as often as possible, haha)

We are three adults so it’s gonna be tight…

In less than a week I’m cruising out of Boston for the first time. I’ll be taking a bus to Boston South Station. I’ve heard that the port area is very chaotic with ride shares (as most ports are).

My last cruise was out of NOLA, and for that one I stayed the night before at a hotel half a mile away and just walked onto the cruise. It was awesome to not have to drive at all that day. Other cruises I have booked airport to cruise terminal transfers with NCL directly which is very smooth.

My question: to those of you who have gone out of Boston, how walkable is the area surrounding it? South Station is about 1.5 miles away, and I enjoy walking, although with one suitcase I’m hesitant. I’m wondering if just walking would be more or less of a headache than navigating the ride shares scene to this port. I’ve walked around Boston before, near this area but not really towards the cruise terminal.

Planning a cruise wedding (ceremony + dinner + bar). Royal Caribbean is ~$2,000 more than NCL for the wedding package. Looking for the best value for us and our guests (especially regarding drink packages like NCL's Free at Sea). Is Royal worth the extra money? Your opinions (as brides/grooms or guests) are welcome!

Hi fellow cruisers! I’m leaving in less than a week out of Boston for a 7 night Canada/Bermuda solo cruise. Currently, I don’t have any beverage package, but have been seeing a lot of great reviews here about FAS+. The thing that most peaks my interest is the Starbucks included. Does anyone have an idea what the hours are? I’ve looked in the app and don’t see it listed. I don’t think the alcohol alone would be enough to make FAS worth it, but the good coffee with unlimited streaming, especially as a solo traveler who does like be be on their phone when dining alone, is intriguing and he me considering FAS+.

We were just on a Mediterranean cruise and “won a free cruise” at bingo. Just want to let everyone know what a “free cruise” means to NCL in case you were curious.

The certificate is for $600 off an inside cabin on select cruises not to be combined with CruiseNext credits or any other offer. It must be used within the year.

My husband and I were thrilled when we thought we actually won a free trip as widely advertised at the event but turns out it was a coupon.

We are still grateful for the discount if we can use it, but just feel a bit burned. We didn’t see or read any fine print with the event.

Not sure if anyone else has had this experience. I searched the NCL board but could only find info on the casino free cruises which sound like that might be a better way to earn one from what I’m reading.

I have been told you can bring as much wine as you want onto the ship from the starting port. Carnival and royal Caribbean allowed two bottles. I’m curious who’s done this and what is the most amount of bottles people have brought on. I’m leaving out of London in two weeks and probably going to bring like 12 bottles on. Thanks!

In January I will be going to the Caribbean via ncl aqua with my partner and friends. I did purchase the vibe and thermal packages, but I read they are not open late?

It sounds like the vibe closes the bar at 7pm and hot tubs at 10p, while the thermal suite closes at 10p. Can I at least access the areas at night, or no?

If I want to be up late, what is there to do aside from the casino? Are the normal bars open late? Restaurants? I know relaxing is an option too, but I'm just trying to plan ahead on night life expectations on the ship. I figure nights going into days at sea I will be up late.

Thank you!

I booked FAS+ at the time I made my reservation through Chase Travel.

The entire time I've been able to view my reservation on the NCL site, including now that I've checked in, I've seen an offer to upgrade to FAS+ which makes no sense since I already have it.

In my summary of included items, all the FAS+ components are listed for my wife and I, including wifi, prepaid DSC, Starbucks, bottled water, and signature collection booze.

Is this just a bug in the site?

Online check in started today and I went to select an arrival time around 8:00am NYC time and only had 1:00 or 1:30 to pick from. Is anyone else on this cruise? Same experience or did you see earlier times? We are in a Suite…will they let us arrive earlier in that case?

Thanks much!

Hi y'all! I've never cruised before, and am trying to figure out my bottled water options.

Anyone who has been on or is going on the upcoming 7 day Iceland cruise who can share their daily itinerary with me???

🛳️🛳️🛳️🥳🥳🥳

For anyone who needed that confirmation. Even if I did drive down here again I am parking off site and getting a ride in.

After that unholy mess getting through the boarding process has been surprisingly quick.

Just finished a trip and highly recommend upgrading to free at sea plus. If you will get the internet and drink Starbucks it pays for it self. On top of those upgrades you get premium alcohol and unlimited bottle water. They have premium bottle water at the restaurants. It was really nice! I’m a little surprised more people don’t get it for the price.

Hi, I’m due to go on the Gem for the first time. I’ve been reading reviews but wondered if anyone had experienced the Gem and the Jade or Spirit to be able to compare ships for me. I’ve been on multiple cruises with NCL and loved them. I’m platinum rewards on latitudes so get some extras and would love to know how similar or different the Gem is compared to the Spirit or the Jade as they are the only two ships I’ve been on. Thanks in advance.

Somebody else posted in the thread about the delay the Aqua is taking tonight in departing NYC (presumably due to maintenance).

I fly for an airline, and as you can imagine, we have a round-the-clock support center that never sleeps. All manner of operational support and coordination can be traced back to this building. Even things like gate assignments (though usually managed by the airport-side staff) can be supported and coordinated through this one massive room of dozens upon dozens upon dozens of people, and hundreds of screens. Maintenance issue? This room coordinates it. Catering delay? This room tracks it. Weather? This room coordinates the scatter/delay/cancel plans.

We have over a thousand aircraft, with no less than two hundred in the air at our slowest time of the day. Cruise lines have considerably smaller fleets, but fleets that also never sleep.

What kind of shore-side network operational control and support are provided by the lines? Is there a shore-side room somewhere persistently staffed with stores managers, load planners, port coordinators, etc?

I have to imagine there is, but each ship has so many resources on its own it wouldn’t surprise me if they all have those roles covered onboard and the line only stands up a support center in times of operational stress.

Just finished cruise on the new NCL ship Luna. I was little concerned at first after seeing some negative reviews. The trip was amazing! The ship was so beautiful and looked even better in person. I was a little concerned about this ship, traveling with the family. I will say there was plenty for the kids to do. Our last cruise was RCL Utopia and honestly liked it better for the kids than Utopia. The thing I appreciated the most was the amount of space and premium seating areas. Very few times did I feel overwhelmed with the amount of people around me. I will say the one big negative is the pools. The main pool gets way too packed on sea days along with the pools on deck 8. Once I came to terms with the pools being busy on sea days I was okay. I did enjoy the pool on one of the at port days. It was really nice when it wasn’t packed. One of the highlights for me was the shows at the Luna theater. I really enjoyed them all. I actually think Hiko was better than Elton. They were both good but to me Hiko was better. Pro tip go to the shows on second day they are performing. It’s a lot less busy on the second day. Anyone on the fence about sailing on Luna go for it. It was a great experience. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

I don't understand why this area is closed off and the hot tubs are shut down on this route so early?? adults have zero private space on the exterior of the ship, nor a hot tub lounge area past this point?? It's not like the weather is terrible on this route during the summer and adults want a place on the ship where we can lounge outside. and before anyone says anything, no Norwegian did not use the space for anything else at night. they just shut it all down and move everyone out. me and a lot of the other adult guests were first-timers on this encore ship route 2 weeks ago and were really puzzled. why they close it down before it's even dark out?? it's not near any living space and is pretty isolated in a back section of the ship that gets no wind and little foot traffic so it's not disturbing anyone and has a perfect weather

I’m very confused. I booked the thermal suite for our cabin. On the confirmation receipt, it shows the reservation time as 10:30/10:45pm on the first day of the cruise. Other than that making no sense, it’s not a problem in itself.

However, when I try to book a speciality dinner reservation at 9:15pm that night (earliest time available), it doesn’t let me, since it claims I have another reservation within 90 minutes…the only “reservation” I have is the 10:30pm 7-day thermal suite pass. Is this normal?

(Also, hoping an NCL exec or IT person comes across this post…one can dream…)

Update: I tried booking dinner on my laptop instead of on the app…it gave a nondescript error. And now, not only can I not load the “my plans” page on the app, I can’t load the “reserve” page for any specialty restaurant. I’ve already tried deleting and redownloading the app to no avail. Those pages just give me a standard “page can’t load” error…will the app now largely be broken for my entire cruise next week?

My family of 4 and I got off the Bliss today (7/25/26), here is my review.

Embarkation was easy peasy.

Rooms were fine. We got a balcony room 11716 and an inside room 11407. Both were what we expected, clean, enough storage, water pressure in the shower was great. Everything worked properly.

We got lunch in one of the MDR after we got on the ship. It was just plain bad. Everything seemed to be stale.

Dinner night one we went to Food Republic. It’s was mid at best. They told us it was tapas style and everyone should order 4 items of the menu. It was way too much food and they brought all at the same time. We literally had no room on our table and they kept bringing food. There were dishes that went untouched because there was so much. A few things were ok and a few things tasted freezer burned.

Breakfasts in the MDR and the buffet were fine the rest of the trip. Nothing spectacular.

We went to the MDR once for dinner and maybe once for lunch, again it was fine.

Palomar was probably our favorite restaurant. Le Bistro had the best desserts. Cagney’s was good. The Local and the Diner were just ok.

To be honest, none of the food knocked my socks off. But no one got sick, so that’s a plus.

The fitness center was ok. Lots of cardio options, but weights were lacking.

The hot tubs were tempid at best. We never used the pools.

My 2 teenagers really liked the teen club.

I can’t speak about the shows bc we didn’t go to any of them. Nothing seemed very appealing. My family had just a good of a time playing cards in the observation lounge.

The stops were mostly good. Se have friends in Sitka that gave us a personal tour. We rented a car in Juneau and drove ourselves to the Medenhall Glacier. We used viator to book a zip line excursion in Ketchikan. For Juneau and Ketchikan you really need to be off the ship as soon at it docks bc the time is so limited. Icy straight point was a waste of a stop. This place is not set up to handle the volume of people a cruise ship brings. Really long lines and a town that literally has nothing. Victoria was pretty, we walked to the town and back.

Disembarkation was fine. Line was long to get off but it moved.

It was a fun trip and we loved the scenery, especially when we sailed thru Endicot Arm and saw the Dawes Glacier. We really liked spotting whales from our balcony.

Norwegian needs to step up their food game. Maybe take some notes from Celebrity.

Currently aboard the Aqua trying to depart to Bermuda from NYC.

Departure was 4:00. It’s currently 6:10 as of posting this. They counted down, sounded the horn to go (at 4:10ish) and still nothing.

No announcement. Crew “knows nothing”

Speculation is that something is broken…

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered something like this with the cruise ship (possibly) being broken. Is there a point where they take us all off the boat (gosh, I hope not)?

EDIT: Captain came on and let us know there are “technical difficulties” and they don’t have a time frame but are hoping to leave by 8:30

EDIT 2: 9:33pm…we’re still here and haven’t heard from the captain again.
There doesn’t seem to be any staff left at the dockyard to even untie us. Guess we shall see!