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dcipjr

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    Philadelphia, PA
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    NCL

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. Just noticed that as well on the ferry to St. George! And another update: not only are we not staying a bit later, we are leaving early. The captain announced that we are sailing Thursday at 6 PM to avoid worsening weather conditions on the way back to New York. This seems a bit dodgy to me—Windy shows poor sea conditions on Friday that seem to get better on Saturday. I’m wondering whether they are covering for propulsion issues. They’ve issued us another $100 of OBC, but I’m less than thrilled. I’ll write up thoughts when we get home, but we have definitely seen evidence of cutbacks. The food has been decidedly lower quality than in the past, and the entertainment hasn’t been great. We’re booked for August on the Joy, and leaning towards keeping our reservation, but this trip has been somewhat disappointing. Some of that is due to weather, which is beyond the control of NCL, but the product has suffered a bit. Not as dramatically as I’ve heard on here, but enough to notice.
  2. We actually did well. We arrived at 4:30 PM and got right on the boat—minimal wait times in the Terminal. Seems that many people got there well before the 3 PM start time for embarkation. We got one of the last parking spots on the pier. Whew! As suspected, the captain hugged the coastline to minimize the rough ride, at the expense of 1 day in Bermuda—we are arriving now, as opposed to yesterday’s originally-scheduled arrival. Unfortunately, our departure time from Bermuda has not been modified from the originally-scheduled 7 AM Friday. I thought it would be moved back to 2 PM like the previous cruise, since weather on the way back should be fine. But…no. We got $100 OBC as compensation but I’d much rather have an extra half-day in Bermuda. I wonder whether Getaway is still speed-restricted. The ride down was pretty rough all the way until yesterday afternoon. Not much that could be done about that though. Looking like good weather for today and tomorrow in Bermuda, and for that I am grateful!
  3. We’re still expecting a little chaos. Did you check bags for your delayed embarkation? When did they get to your stateroom? Was there indeed a bag check in the casino? Trying to figure out whether we should carry on or not—we’re not sure if we’ll have our bags by bedtime.
  4. Thanks @mking8288! We’re going to be driving up from Philly at around 2:30 PM today, targeting an arrival between 4 and 5 PM. I figure the terminal at 3 PM will be mobbed, so better to skip the initial rush. Looks like we’ll have a nighttime sail away from New York—should be lovely! Probably a bumpy ride tomorrow, but we’re prepared with Bonine, sea bands, ginger candies, and past experience. Weather for Bermuda looks nice too! I wouldn’t be surprised to see us arrive late Tuesday or even Wednesday.
  5. We just got the notification. NCL is asking for us to arrive between 3 and 6 PM. Shouldn’t be a big deal. Safe travels.
  6. We bid fairly aggressively for a balcony—$200 per person bid from an inside, so into the Fair range. We still were quite a bit below what balconies were selling for outright, and I had been doing mock bookings to check availability so I knew there were some available. We got upgraded 3 days ago, so 6 days prior to departure. My daughter is in school now, so we're stuck on the school schedule—so forget about price drops closer to sail date. Now the prices seem to go up as we approach the sail date. Back before she was school, we'd book last-minute and get some great deals, but that's sort of a thing of the past now. This time, they actually charged more for the third person in the room than persons 1 and 2! I was floored. I feel your pain with the M&Gs—if they happen at all, they've been taken over by That Other Platform. I used to go, but haven't been bothering recently. The CC boards have gotten much quieter, as Zuckerberg & Co. coalesce so much of the online community into their own walled garden. And what remains of CC has gotten so negative that I have largely stayed away, to avoid poisoning my opinions of the cruise before we even set sail. Back to the weather—yes, I wouldn't be surprised if they held us in NY or had us hug the coastline a bit, with a later arrival in Bermuda. They might wind up just putting us on the same itinerary that's usually used for Bermuda: 8 AM arrival on Wednesday, in port Thursday, depart Friday at 3 PM. We'll see what happens. Either way, no cooking or cleaning to do for the week—so that's already a win. It would be great to catch up on another cruise one of these days.
  7. Henry, it's a little reminiscent of the cruise we were on to Bermuda—though that was in May. Wave heights were around 28 feet, and I was definitely feeling a little green around the gills. We're packing Bonine, sea bands, ginger candies—the works. And I'll definitely hit up the buffet for green apples. We hit the Upgrade Advantage lottery and got moved from an inside to a balcony—with the bad weather for the first day or two of the trip, that was probably a good move, since I'll be able to watch the horizon to settle the old inner ear. Bermuda Weather Service is saying to expect strong, gale-force winds Sunday, and continued strong winds on Monday, easing toward the end of the day. We are due to get in Tuesday, so I'm thinking we'll be in for a rough ride on Monday, but after that we should be pretty good. Once we're in Bermuda, it might be a bit breezy, but temperatures should be fairly agreeable—68-70°F. Of course, that's going by my phone's weather app; the most trustworthy source is weather.bm, but they don't predict more than 5 days out (and for good reason).
  8. We’ll be on our way to Bermuda in a few days’ time, once the Getaway comes back for us. Looking at the forecast, they’re calling for a “breezy” Sunday, so I’m thinking we might be rocking and rolling a bit too on our way down. Windy is calling for 22 foot waves on Monday, so we’ll be packing the Bonine. Hopefully Bermuda will greet us with sunny skies and temps in the high 60s!
  9. She's heading for Bermuda at 20 knots right now, so she seems to be making expected speed for a Wednesday arrival.
  10. I figured there was no way she’d make her originally-scheduled arrival. I’m curious how long she’ll remain docked in New York, and what time on Friday she’ll leave Bermuda.
  11. Hey Henry, I sort of feel the same. We are going to Bermuda next week aboard the Getaway, but probably would have preferred another itinerary option—but there aren’t really that many. We thought about Caribbean cruises from Florida, but the flights were expensive, and NCL’s offerings were a bit pricey too, and fairly limited (not much that we haven’t done before). This was our best bet for a quick and (relatively) inexpensive trip, and it might be fun to do some non-beach activities in Bermuda. Still would have preferred warmer weather, but will take a week without household responsibilities either way. I’m thinking about trying other lines. NCL’s itineraries have gotten a bit stale.
  12. Obviously, she won’t be departing New York on schedule, but I’m curious whether they will keep her at the pier longer (overnight?) to repair the mechanical issue before departing. The itinerary is a bit different for these weeks: Getaway is scheduled to be in port from Tuesday morning at 8 AM (Bermuda time) until Friday morning at 7 AM. Typically, NYC itineraries are docked from 8 AM Wednesday till 3 PM Friday.
  13. She’s at the pier now, getting some help from the tugboats while docking.
  14. We’re on the Getaway’s next sailing, March 24th-31st, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this. Hopefully, whatever the issue is, they can get it corrected without too much impact to the itineraries planned.
  15. I was on that same cruise, but because of the itinerary there wasn't really a Meet and Greet, so I didn't get to meet you two. But yeah, what a fantastic cruise that was. We had such a good time; the ports were beautiful, and the price was oh-so right. It was less than $1700 all-in for 3 people in a balcony with $200 OBC. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
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