BreeYark

While on Epic Med Cruise, port of Cannes, I was going on a self-guided tour of Ile Sainte-Marguerite with my heavy Canon 70D camera + lens kit, hoping to take the best pictures of my life. Once on the ferry, wanting to get some pictures of the Epic behind us, I take out my camera, turn it on...then nothing. Can't turn the thing on! That's when I realized I had forgotten the battery in the charger, on the shelf, in my cabin, on the ship I was trying to get a picture of! DOH! There goes my wonderful long planned picture taking day onto this once in a lifetime paradise island.

I still had a wonderful hike on the island despite having to carry my heavy camera pack all day long for absolutely no reason!!!

Unless things have changed recently, Howl at the moon was on every two nights, starting from embarkation day. So Day 1, 3, 5 and 7. Don't miss Day 1, that's usually the wildest night with a lot of people enjoying their first unlimited drinks package :)

I'll be on the Getaway in three weeks :)

After reading the whole thread, I have to say the scrambled "eggs" is the one item I will never eat again on a NCL ship. They always make me feel sick for a few hours after I eat them.

Perfect location if you want to be close to the Studio Lounge and the stairs, but definitely bring some ear plugs if you want to get some sleep at night.

About question #9, I don't know of any HOHO in Cozumel, but if all you want is walk, shop, drink and eat for a few hours, you won't need any. NCL ships dock directly in San Miguel, where all the good stuff is. Only reason to get out of San Miguel would be to see dolphins, beaches or mayan ruins.

If this had happened to me, I would have expected some kind of compensation, like "We will make room for you and your family at another specialty restaurant, free of charge."

I feel humiliated when I get thrown out of a public area for an unannounced "private function" (it happens a lot with another company), so I would for sure get angry to have my restaurant reservations canceled for a similar reason without any effort to compensate.

I just booked the March 4, 2017 4 nighter for my daughter. There were only 2 shows(Priscilla and Burn the Floor) available for reservations. Are these the only shows, or are the rest all booked up already??

They are the only two shows you can reserve in advance. The other shows will be available for booking when you board the ship. They tend to change every week, that's why they are not announced before that.

Is it customary to tip for each drink you get? Last year we did an AI and would usually give a dollar every time we got drinks, but I'm not sure if that is thought of as included with the automatic gratuities. If you do tip, is it best in USD?

Tipping a dollar bill for every drink is mostly an American thing. I've not seen any european do it in my last european cruise. But my american friends did it all the time!

I can guarantee most Canadians don't walk around the ship with pockets full of dollar pieces to hand over as tips :)

Spice H2O is a very nice place to hang out during the day, but the bar staff there don't know their drinks. They use pre-made mix for the most popular drinks, and have to search for the recipe if you ask for anything else. I must admit they make the best frozen drinks though :)

Maltings and that adjacent Martini bar have the best service and always make perfect drinks. O'Sheehans was the place to stop to get your favorite drink on the go while going around the ship.

If you're not sure about what drinks you like, start with the "Drink of the day", you can't go wrong with those :)

Just keep in mind that any bottled liquid you try to bring on board will potentially be confiscated during the screening process. NCL clearly stated they don't want to waste time opening bottles to check the contents for alcohol, so they throw it all away...

You guys read that wrong. 1.00$ is an EXTRA tip, for only one person, on top of the automatic 18%. Total makes it around 21% or 22%. Not sure what's the custom in the U.S., but here in Canada, that's pretty generous!

On my last cruise, I had an unpleasant situation at a specialty restaurant. I had the SDP, with prepaid tips, but I decided to add an extra tip to the bill, having received great service. So I clearly wrote "1.00$" on the extra tip line. My account then showed a 10.00$ charge at that restaurant. I went to customer service to mention the mistake and all they could do was "leave a note for the specialty restaurant". It never got corrected. I don't like to waste time on these unpleasant things during a cruise, so I let it go, just making sure I never extra-tip that specific waitress again.

I'm not sure if this is a common scheme from the restaurant staff or if this is just an honest mistake, but I learned from that and I started writing my extra tips with words and letters, just to make sure I don't open up the opportunity for the same situation ever again. Now I clearly write "One dollar" on the extra tip line, with lines before and after, just like I would on a check.

So my tip for safely tipping extra is just this : Write everything in words, not in numbers. This will greatly reduce the opportunity for a hard-to-correct unpleasant mistake to show up on your account.

I did not have dinner often in the MDR in the past, preferring the UDP/SDP. However, I went a few times in my most recent cruise, a month ago, on the Epic. I was completely underwhelmed by the desserts in the MDR at dinner. Like some have said, most were gelatin/pudding based, not to my liking. I'm really grateful for the chocolate lava cake on the everyday menu!

My best dessert on NCL is surprisingly served in the MDR, but for lunch, not for dinner : The orange chocolate mousse. Perfect yet simple dessert! I wish it was offered at dinner and in the buffet, I would have that all the time!

Someone also mentioned the strawberry pound cake at O'Sheehan's. Add my vote on that one, that's a dessert worthy of the name!

After we dock in Naples, will we be able to walk from the ship into the town or do we need a shuttle. If we decide not to do an excursion is Naples a place you can while away a few hours just wandering round the streets. If so, which ones would you recommend?

Thanks

I just did Naples on foot, on my own, having already seen all the other major attractions nearby. I walked around the city up to a place called Napoli Sotterranea, on Via dei Tribunali. It's basically a guided tour of the underground world under Naples, built over time by the ancient greeks and the ancient romans. Impressive and very interesting! Best tour I've had in years!

Many have reported receiving an email about two weeks ago to notify them about this change. No idea why you did not get that email. Or maybe you did and just deleted it, thinking it was just another publicity from NCL?

I'm sure it's not a real security issue. Although it could be that a number of insecure passengers requested the change following the Nice attacks.

Palma was already on the Epic itinerary in 2014 and in 2015, but they had some problems in 2015 that caused them to change it to Marseille, after having to seriously shorten the time in Palma (from 7 hours to 5 hours) for the rest of the year. My guess is that they managed to solve the issues they had in 2015 and have just decided to go back to the original itinerary.

...when you go to your reservation online and you see : "2 Days to go".

You just HAVE to be ready by then, even if you're not sure if you are!

Changed my promotion from shore excursions to gratuities earlier today and just noticed that I no longer have the same cabin (which had been fairly close to the studio lounge) Now I have the most aft studio cabin available; long way away.

I once had cabin 12579, which was the last one at the end of the ship. I don't want to be an alarmist if that's your new cabin, but before the Epic dry dock, that cabin had puffed up flooring around the shower and smelled of mushrooms. I really hope they made the appropriate repairs last fall!

3.5 days! So excited!!!

Chances are it will be total chaos in March. Having done a similar cruise at the end of February (start of Spring Break for some areas, so lots of kids on board), I can also tell that you can be smart about it and still have a wonderful cruise. Just avoid some key strategic areas / times, and you'll be just fine.

For example, avoid the pool and the buffet at all cost. Spend your days on those quiet sun decks away from the pool (deck 18 and/or Spice H2O) and have relaxed lunches in the MDR whenever you can.

Also, carry some ear plugs with you, as you are likely to hear some unsupervised kids running and screaming by your cabin in the night.

I also felt awkward at first when I bought the UDP on my first solo trip. But I quickly got over it when I went to my first specialty dinner as a solo. I looked around and saw that I was not alone doing it, and everybody made me very comfortable about eating by myself.

When the waiter first comes to your table, even if you made the reservation for 1, he/she will ask if you are dining alone that night. Don't be offended by the question, they're not judging you, it's only to know if they can clear the extra cover from the table. Other than that question, I never got any other remark or suspicious look from either the staff or other passengers on any NCL cruise ship.

The only restaurant I would not go back to as a solo is Teppanyaki. As much as I love the food there, I often found myself seated with couples or families that keep to themselves, or even worse, that don't speak either of my languages. That's the only time I felt uncomfortable eating alone.

For my upcoming trip, I made reservations for two, even though I will be eating alone. As others have mentioned, as a solo, you'll be seated at a table for two anyway. Reason I did that is that somehow, the online reservation system blocks certain times if you make a reservation for 1. And since most restaurants are now A La Carte, you don't have to prepay your dinners, so you won't be double charged for make a reservation for 2. This strategy would not work in the fixed price places (Teppanyaki and Moderno).

I'm pretty sure 50% of people would fail a blind taste test to identify "pre-mixed-alcoho"l and "mixed-in-the-glass-alcoho" long island iced teas.

Maybe it's going to be just like it is on the ship : a basic complimentary BBQ buffet with a basic NCL bar, surrounded by numerous specialty extra fee options, for our convenience...

I'm going next March too and I really hope that it's true that they will have at least one bar on land honoring the UBP. I would hate to have to go back on the ship to get my drinks or to have lunch...

It's a wonder that with that many reported chair hogs, none of them are actually on these forums to defend their lifestyle, or even better, to openly exchange tips and tricks about how to be more efficient about it...

Like...

How early must you send your scout to have the best spots?

How often must the scout come back to the chairs to preserve them?

What stuff can you safely leave on the chair?

What to do when you find your stuff is gone?

What excuses have the best chance of working to get back your chair if you find someone else sitting there?

Any tips on how to get those chairs anyway if your scout forgot to wake up?

How come we never see those chair hogs on Cruise Critics?

https://www.ncl.com/terms/ultimate-beverage-package

"This package is not available for purchase on charters, sailings that are two (2) days or less and Pride of America."

Palma Majorca was the original destination on that cruise until 2016, when they changed to Marseilles. Back in 2015, I received the same kind of email advising that the hours in Palma had been cut down from 7 hours to 5 hours (from 1pm-8pm to 2pm-7pm). With such a short time on shore, a lot of passengers ended up just staying on the ship that day. I guess they managed to work things out to make it a worthwhile stop once again...