Maraprince

Did you have more than one Dress Up or not night on your sailing?

MARAPRINCE

Is this an extra charge item? If so, what is the cost per person?

Thanks.

MARAPRINCE

See the promos advertised as "FREE" and correct or not, some will assume it is really free!

Even in land based restaurants, alcohol tipping is a separate charge and charged at a higher percentage than for food. If you only order a few drinks, do not get the "free" drinks promo. It is more cost effective to pay just for what you actually drink. The gratituties on all the "free" promos really add up!

MARAPRINCE

You were lucky to gain things. For us to get a small reduction in the cabin pricing before final payment, NCL took back free bottle of wine and strawberries (Platinum). My point of view was that it was worth the give backs since we do not drink and would have given the wine away and we can always get strawberries on board. All of our other perks remained.

To explain fuirther, we have 3rd party insurance which is based upon passenger's age/total cost of cruise. So when the cabin pricing went down, so did our insurance cost. This is another reason why we decided to wait until we are on board to pay the daily tips at the now higher rate so that the tips did not push the cost back up!!!!! Paying the daily tips on board will result in an additional charge of about $6.13 per person. No big deal.

Compared to other cruise lines, NCL's system is more complicated. For them, it is easier to charge Guest 1 for everything rather than splitting the cost among the total guests in a cabin.. On our last sailing, we spent so much time at Guest Services trying to straigthen everything out with the final result being that we needed to work it out between us and pay each other. They either could not or would not billl the charges correctly. Lesson learned, we will wait untill we are on board with separate accounts to book shore excursions with the appropriate discount due me as Platinum and have them post the tips daily. The whole purpose of prepaying the shore excursions, etc. prior to the sailing with a credit card along with the daily tips with each guest being charged accordingly simply doesn't work with NCL.

MARAPRINCE

Charging for an Angus steak dinner in the Haven? Even for an NCL loyalist who loves the Haven, this sounds like a new low. I'm disappointed to hear this, and hope it doesn't become standard practice.

As long as there are passengers willing to pay extra.......:(

Bermuda is not like other islands -- meaning, the price you pay is the price you see. You will not find big discounts unless the shop you are in is having a sale. Shops are not normally open on a Sunday and close at their regular time during the week.

MARAPRINCE

Has anyone found out what the Escape will be doing for the Wednesday that they won’t be docked? Two days is already more than enough time to get from NYC to Bermuda...three days seems almost excessive. Would they just go even slower?

 

I remember when the Dawn ran aground off Bermuda a couple years ago, and had to go back to port for the night. The Breakaway arrived and tendered in the Sound for Wednesday, and then docked once the Dawn left. I wonder whether they could treat Wednesday as a tender day? Or maybe the port would be too full?

I am on the 10/31 sailing and my best guess would be that the ship would be far enough off shore to be sailing around Bermuda until our designated dock opens up. Let's hope the other ship leaves on time!!!!!! It's too bad that we can stop at Nassau or Port Canaval or just leave NY a day later and return a day later.

MARAPRINCE

If it was a cruise to the Caribbean I would be more concerned since you would want to spend time on your balcony. Canada...not so much.

Consider if it would be worth the extra money to upgrade to a regular balcony or not. Unless you have a lot of sea days and you were going to Alaska with spectular views, I woiuld stay where you are. You will be spending a lot of time ashore in Canada in every port and very little time on your balcony. Deck 6 is near a lot of things and as point out, less movement if the seas are rough than the higher decks.

MARAPRINCE

I am also on the 5/31 sailing and have yet to receive the e-mail notice from RCL about delayed boarding in NJ. My travel agent called them directly on Thursday and was told that there was no change in boarding time. One of our Roll Call members was nice enough to provide a copy of the e-mail notice which I sent on to my travel agent. Sure enough, yesterday they confirmed that the change in boarding time ;pwas real and that they will notify all 4,000+ passengers no later than 72 hours prior to the sailing.

Thank you Roll Call member from me and my travel agent!!!!!!:D:):D

Who says that CC doesn't know what is going on.....!

MARAPRINCE

You said you received tip envelopes. Is the auto tip option no longer available?

MARAPRINCE

Take the free shuttle and shop at the indoor market -- no hassle there.

MARAPRINCE

It seems that our 5/31 Anthem sailing will have delayed boarding due to a Coast Guard inspection and passengers are being told not to arrive before 12 PM. Will this delay the cabins being ready and cause a mad dash once boarding is allowed? As a Diamond normally I would get priorty checkin. Wondering how this will be addressed. Also, trying to plan what time for the car service to pick us up.

MARAPRINCE

Do you remember if lunch was available in the dining rooms on day 1 after boarding or perhaps at the Solarium?

Thanks!

MARAPRINCE

Question regarding shore excursion credits. Were you able to combine them to use on one shore excursion? Although we are sailing at the end of October our actual arrival time on day 1 is either 5 or 6 PM at the dockyard. Therefore, we only have one full day on day 2 and day 3 we leave at 3 PM. Day 1 does not allow for much.

MARAPRINCE

Day 2 and 3:

 

I am combining days 2 and 3 because they were almost identical in nature... i.e. rain, cold and windy. We spent almost the entire day 2 inside the ship, eating, walking around, playing games at O'Sheehans, eating, have a drink, eat again (I sense a pattern). On day 3, we actually went outside for a lot of the day because it was a little bit warmer. We huddled up on deck 17 under the awning by the ping pong tables for the day. Around 3pm that day, the sun finally broke through and some people were actually able to get some color on their skin. The highlight of those days unfortunately was the comedian we saw on day 2. Her name was Gina Brillon (I think) and she was hysterical. We loved her style of comedy. If she is on your cruise, go see her. You won't be disappointed. There was also a comedian juggler that we did not have the opportunity to see him so I cannot comment. These two days highlight the biggest disappointment that I had in the trip. As a result of the rain, pretty much everyone was inside in the common areas looking for things to do. I would have expected the cruise director (Silas?) to add some additional activities around the ship to keep folks entertained, but alas, nothing was added. The Escape has a unique setup where most of the activities are held in the atrium. I like the concept and you can see from the atrium 6th deck and from O'Sheehans on the 7th deck. It works most of the time until too many people start crowding in because there's nothing else to do. I guess the bottom line is I was a little disappointed that they didn't try and spread out activities, especially when it was raining.

 

The only other thing of note is that my son and I went to the family karaoke in the 5 oclock somewhere bar. We actually had a really good time watching. When we walked in there was actually a 2yo singing on stage. Was very cute.

 

Next up: Bermuda

It's not only the Escape that uses the Attruim for by bulk of activities both day and night. We were on Gem and the Breakaway and it was the same set up. Sometimes it was so crowded that people were hanging from the railing above in O'Sheenan's to get a peak at what was going on. It became so noisy in the restaurant and really was not a great way to enjoy your food. The waiters carrying trays loaded with food had to dodge passengers who blocked the aisles. The area is way too small and then add in passengers who hold onto seats throughout the day. No one will offer a seat to someone who looks like they need one either. Even with some folding chairs brought in there were more people standing on both decks than those who were seated.

I question why some other room, not in use, could be used for some of the activities in the Attruim to avoid this overcrowding allowing for a more pleasant flow of people.

MARAPRINCE

With these "free" promos, the basic price of cabins plus port taxes, etc. seems to go up. Even with the 3 & 4 person sail free, prices are higher so the "free" is being rolled into the pricing. :(So not always a sale for some of us.

MARAPRINCE

If you want to reduce the cost of your sailing, do not book the Haven. Service by your butler is part of the whole Haven package. If you want to meet and mingle with others and not have the special treatment that comes with the Haven, again do not book into the Haven.

You have to figure out what is important to you. Booking the Haven and not utilizing the extra services that come with it is a waste of money.

MARAPRINCE

[emoji849]🤦*♂️

Translation please;

Why not drop her off at the terminal first and then park your car. She can wait for you inside the terminal and you can request a wheelchair for her.

MARAPRINCE

What is the status of the free NCL ferry to St. George? Is it running?

MARAPRINCE

Well, they aren't going to force it on you. I mean, they certainly don't make the children in attendance drink beer either.

So does that mean you can get a soda instead of beer?

MARAPRINCE

I am waiting to board the ship. There is still a long line of people waiting to get off and it's only about 11am

 

I think boarding might be delay due to this. I never seen these kinda of crowds at this tine.

Was the ship late arriving in NY?

MARAPRINCE

Just bring your binoculars to see the Statue! It is far, far in the distance.

MARAPRINCE

One of the main reasons why we take a balcony cabin is to avoid the difficulty of finding a deck chair at peak times.

MARAPRINCE

This is great to hear. Makes me feel a bit better as our previous experience with a bike race had limited entrance to the pier and crazy traffic.

 

 

Not familiar with the route of the marathon is it not close to the pier?

The race goes through all 5 boroughs and a lot of the bridges are closed for a period of time forcing vehicle detours which can affect anyone going from Manhattan to another borough or trying to get to the airports.

MARAPRINCE