Son of a son of a ...

Good golly, sleep in a bit ... you're on vacation! :)

Ask a friend to join you so you are not a solo adult. Start dating :)

Xmas cruise coming up. I like to sit and play the slot machines. Any you would Reccomend that won't eatp my money too fast?

When you find such a machine, please let me know! I, too, hate when I lose money :)

Dear OP - by now you will have realized that the boards have cheerleaders and the reviews have haters ... the truth often lies somewhere in the middle lest one group or the other is completely lying.

For that much money, I would have gone with a newer dream class ship. Just my opinion.

Carnival was our favorite when we were saving $$ to plow back into the casino or pay our bar tab. It is a great bargain and good entry level cruise line. But on the longer cruises (and as we get into our 40s) we like NCL more. We like going back to Carnival when we want a quick "salt air" fix. To each his own.

We did it this in May (BWI to FLL @ 1145 on a direct flight) to cruise out of Miami. It worked out with no problems, but heed the experiences of others.

We, too, did it to save $$.

tl;dr: OP got stuck mid-way on a waterslide.

 

The story represents 60 seconds of my life I can't get back.

Ha, ha! I was thinking the exact same thing! :)

You need to book through an Internet TA. We were able to save $300 pp on a balcony with no perks for the Escape sailing 11/14/15. The same cabin was offered by NCL only with the perks (and $300 more pp). All told, we saved $600 on our cabin - DW & I don't eat and drink enough to run the tab up to $600. :)

Howdy yall! I'm trying to sift through all the pages...this is a MASSIVE thread! I'm about to pull the trigger on booking 2 Escape sailings b2b next May for our youngest son's homeschool graduation. (It'll take place during the trip.) I'm forcing the family to buck-up & *rough* it by squeezing all 4 of us into 1 stateroom. I say squeeze because my boys will be 20 & 18 yrs old so they're big fellas. I'm looking at a category BB midship balcony room on deck 13. It's a little different because the balcony has a bit of an odd shape. Will this make the balcony a little bigger? It's stateroom 13778 as seen in the deck plan I'm attaching. Has anyone had this room on the BA or GA? It says it sleeps 4. Speculation for a pullman in here?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Gotta say, the excitement here is soooooo infectious!!!!!!

We booked that cabin for 11/14/15 because of the angled balcony.

PVP calling too much ... best first world problem. Ever.

If you need a Xanax over deck chairs, then cruising is not for you. :)

Wow - we budget $150-$200/day for DW and I (including excursions). OBC helps, but we usually have $1,100 tab at the end of a seven days cruise. To each his own!

The passengers. Gone is the sense of awe and adventure. Now replaced by a sense of entitlement and unabashed gluttony and rudeness.

Hi cot - We are doing the same cruise on May 8th ... we'll a clean ship for you :)

Our flight is booked for 10:45 a.m. on AA out of BCN to PHL and I have read ithat this is doable if you get up & off early.

Boo about the change in ports times!!

On another note ... Any thoughts on how windy the forward facing, angled balconies will be? Never had one before, but booked one on the Escape!

I've done it from BWI to MIA & FLL several times ... never a problem when using direct flights ... connections are a different story.

Assume every question has already been asked and it is only the answer you seek ... http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2172727&highlight=getaway

Cheers!

Get those light pants that have legs that zipper off then just zip off the casted leg.

Thank you so much for your review. We are doing the Western Med cruise on Epic out of Barcelona and reading insightful reviews of the ports, such as yours, is helpful!

As the ships are not entirely at sea for seven days, you will likely find your needs met in port.

Odd ... got a call from PVP today and I told her we were taking a pause given that we have two future cruises booked on another line. I gamble much harder than DW, but nothing in my VIP offers. I checked DW's account and she has some nice casino rate offers ... now thinking about squeezing another cruise in. I just wish that airfares would yo down!

I got nothing, but I can't leave a Woo Hoo! hanging ... have a great time! :)

The ship's crew actually play a big part in dry dock renovations. It's not a paid vacation to party. Everything from painting to replacing carpets to replacing furnishing. Consider referbing a restaurant with dozens of tables and hundreds of [heavy] chairs that need to be moved. And hundreds of sq ft of carpeting. It won't be the ship building contractors from Germany doing that. It's a lot harder work that serving passengers. That being said, the crew does get a lot more "scheduled" time off work to go "ashore".

 

NCL started notifying passengers of the 1 week extension to the dry dock in early March 2015, moving the repositioning voyage from Southampton to Barcelona to October 18, 2015 and cancelling the first Mediterranean cruise.

 

With regard to Blue Man, they signed a 5-year contract with NCL for the Epic. That 5-year contract is up and not renewed. During the dry dock, the staging for Blue Man will be removed and replaced with Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical. Similarly, Legends in Concert will be replaced with a Burn The Floor-like Latin dance show.

 

 

Past Cruises

June 2015 Norwegian Jewel

May 2015 Norwegian Sky

Apr 2015 Norwegian Getaway

Nov 2014 Norwegian Epic

Aug 2014 Norwegian Breakaway

Jun 2014 Norwegian Sky

Feb 2014 Norwegian Getaway

Oct 2013 Norwegian Breakaway

Mar 2013 Norwegian Star

Sep 2012 Norwegian Epic

Mar 2012 Norwegian Epic

Oct 2011 Norwegian Epic

Apr 2009 Queen Victoria

Aug 2007 Sapphire Princess

Jul 2006 Queen Mary 2

Jul 2005 Queen Mary 2

Mar 2003 Queen Elizabeth 2

Sep 1999 Queen Elizabeth 2

Sep 1996 Queen Elizabeth 2

Oct 1992 Queen Elizabeth 2

You need to distinguish between the type of crew. The crew related to the ship's operation will be busy with maintenance and ongoing OP's. The crew related to guest services will be furloughed unless there is work for them during dry dock ... no DSC from the contractors. The "performers" tend to vacation while the ship is dry docked. I spoke with a bartender about the Carnival Victory's dry dock earlier this year and he said that he stayed on as a fire watcher, which was a necessary job, but very, very boring.

Heck...just sail with Holland America, where every cruise is a WALKING DEAD cruise

I thought it was pretty darn funny!!