cloud_nine

I wonder what their response would be if you rang up. Whether they'd be able to get the grats included since the all inclusive offer is still clearly ongoing until the end of the month. But like you said if they don't know what's going on either, who knows!

14 hours ago, lupaglupa said:

Cross the Atlantic on the Queen Mary - you'll see nearly everyone dressed up on the three formal nights - and a glorious sight it is! I know lots of people enjoy having the option to be casual every night but if you like to dress up, Cunard is the line for you.

To be honest any cruise on any line going out of Southampton will be a lot more formal than out of the US. P&O are also pretty dressed up on formal nights and all of the Royal cruises I've been on out of Southampton about 80-90% of the pax dress up formally on formal nights (tuxes or suits - or kilts - for men and long evening dresses or dressy cocktail dresses for women.) It's just that Cunard is on a different scale entirely.

I really liked the all inclusive fare - it made us switch from RCI to NCL this year as you got a lot more for your money than you did with RCI. If this change doesn't lessen the cost of the cruise by much (and as others have said I can't see it) we'll end up going back to RCI.

Valleyvillage, may I ask what you ate in Cagney's that was vegetarian? I've been looking at the menus and don't see much for veggies.

We'll be in an aft penthouse on the Star in August so this is a great read! Eagerly awaiting the next part.

I would wait until you're platinum with NCL until you loyalty match with MSC as their "black tier" is the only decent tier with MSC and I'm not even sure if platinum is the equivalent to black anymore (it used to be platinum on NCL and diamond on RCI but I'm not sure if it is anymore.) Either way, I don't think bronze (or even gold) will get you much on MSC's status match. 

22 minutes ago, Zippeedee said:

I was shocked at how much the desserts had improved on the Breakaway in the Garden Cafe last spring. I'm hoping the Getaway has the same changes this year.  I didn't find much to enjoy on the Epic or the Gem, and I'd eat nothing but dessert if it is good. Some of the cakes actually tasted like cake and not just some jello thing.  I love the afternoon tea scones they put out at 3pm, and the cookies. The crepes are good if you can find them at night, and the hard ice cream is fine. Stay away from the soft serve, it doesn't melt! I tried to put it in a cup of coffee to brighten up the awful buffet coffee but it just sits there.  Ick!  Can't beat the seven layer cake in Cagney's (good advice to avoid that raspberry brulee).  In Le Bistro, the crème brulee is very good.  If they have the chocolate fondue, ask for ice cream instead of the fruit and cake and just pour it on. SO good!  I actually like the green tea cake and ice cream at Teppanyaki. The color is off-putting but it tastes good, not too sweet.

Where do you get the scones from?

13 hours ago, Kmkub said:

Our one and done is for the entire RCCL fleet. It's the only cruise we've both ever lost weight on, simply because so much of the food was completely inedible. 

 

So far, except for some database glitches, we like NCL. We leave in 16 days on the Jade. It's the smallest ship we've sailed, and we are excited to try that experience! 

Really? Wow - I always put on so much weight on Royal Carribean. I once put on almost a stone on a two week cruise! Guess food really is subjective! 

My one and done was Carnival. Now that was a cruise line where I hardly ate anything for dinner. Their vegetarian options were non-existent in the MDR so I lived on bread rolls and chocolate lava cakes for the whole cruise. I did also try the buffet one night but everything was barely luke warm. 

Nice review. It's too bad you didn't book anything for Palma as it's a great place with lots of interesting things to see and do and I'm surpised that you said it doesn't have a lot of history. Didn't you walk into the old town where the cathedral and old city walls are? I think that can make an interesting day, seeing all the architecture and historical buildings.

We usually either do a beach day or walk into the old town as we've been there so often, but if you haven't been before, you can do excursions to the Caves of Drach which are really interesting and the train to Sóller is lovely as Sóller is such a beautiful traditional town. 

On 1/12/2019 at 1:03 AM, Barb Nahoumi said:

We were on the Explorer of the Seas, two or three weeks after the outbreak of Noro, which sent it back to New Jersey early.  They did not have "Washy Washy" people on that ship.  Maybe  Royal should take a tip from NCL and have "Washy Washies" on board.  

 

NCL cruises don't return early, that we know of, because of Noro.

 

Noro is not just prevalent on cruise ships.  Kids and teachers catch it in school,  and I came down with it at work where I dealt with the public.  Wherever crowds gather, noro may be there.

Every RCI cruise I've ever been on has had a washy washy man, even on the Explorer.

Great thanks! I'm booked in August so reservations haven't opened up yet. I'll make sure to book as soon as they do if they go that fast.

With our booking we got 3 free specialty dinners included. My question is: do we have to wait to reserve them on board because we're not paying for them or can we make the reservations online when they open up? 

Ah, that's a shame. I love crepes at breakfast. Guess I'll just have to have them for tea instead.

We've stayed in both the H10 Universitat and the Hotel Catalonia Ramblas. Both were great hotels in a location that was just a short walk (and by short I mean a few minutes) to Placa Catalunya where you can pick up the HOHO buses, which is the most reasonably priced way to get around the city. As said, you'll need a taxi to the port but it's not far. We've walked it, but not with luggage. It's a fair walk but only about 10-15 minutes or so by taxi depending on traffic. 

On 10/31/2018 at 10:41 AM, Laszlo said:

I've only seen them past 6pm

Are they not available for breakfast then? 

1 hour ago, Casino Comp Chick said:

 

Military with machine guns greeted us getting out of the port, they had barriers to keep the locals away from you. Rickety transportation. People recommended a bar/restaurant near the port. I never saw so many flies in my life, I ordered a soda and the bartender placed a napkin over it....I did not drink it after seeing that. In all fairness I went to a rainforest cave type thing and that was nice.....but not nice enough for me to ever go back there. 

To be fair, you can get loads of flies wherever you go. I remember on a cruise out of Barcelona in 2017 - everywhere in Italy was absolutely bombarded with flies! I was sitting in a restaurant in Civitavecchia having a pizza and they were absolutely everywhere! Really put us off our food! Naples was the same, I think it was just the heat and the time of year. It doesn't automatically make it a bad or dirty place.

I have to agree about Messina! I'm also not fussed on Vigo. I found it very lack-lustre after all the hype about the "amazing shopping", but I also found this to be the case with St Thomas. Everyone said that St Thomas was a shoppers paradise, but clearly only if you're in the market for diamonds and expensive jewellery - which I wasn't.

I would definitely say the Venice itinerary as it has Kotor and Dubrovnik in it. I personally don't think much of Chania or Messina. As for trains, they can be a bit dodgy in Italy but I haven't done Rome to Venice, only trains within Rome and out of Naples etc so the Rome to Venice trains might be alright. Hopefully someone else can help you out with that.

Thanks graphicguy! It's great to hear about the entertainment - that was one of the things I was worried about as it's a smaller ship (smallest we've done on RCI was Jewel and we found the entertainment a bit meh on her). Wasn't sure if it would be very good or not. I'm definitely going to try Le Bistro and La Cucina as we've got three specialty dinners included from booking the suite and Le Bistro sounds great. Thanks for the comparison, it's good to hear other people's perspectives!

Thanks for the info! I didn't realise one of the MDR would have a dress code, so that's good to know. And I am already liking how late the buffet stays open compared to RCI.

Oh, thanks very much for this! My mum and I are the same with the maxi dress/cocktail dress type of evening wear. We don't mind being overdressed, so long as we know in advance. I'm looking forward to trying something new actually!

We usually cruise with Royal Caribbean, but we're looking at the Norwegian Star out of Venice in August, as RCI have priced us out this year (a suite on their Venice itinerary at the same time is almost £2000 more expensive!)

Anyway, we'd be in an aft penthouse suite and have the all inclusive deal they're offering in the UK (drink package, gratuities, 60 mins of WiFi a day and $100 OBC). Has anyone here sailed both RCI and NCL who can give a bit of a comparison of the two? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated as I have only ever sailed RCI (and once on Carnival - the less said about that the better though) and I'm a bit of a planner so like to know as much as possible before I book.

We're looking at a cruise out of San Juan in mid to late August that goes to Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and St Maarten. Does anyone have experience of what the weather is like at this time of year? My mum is worried about hurricanes or at the very least that there will be a lot of rain. Any advice would be appreciated.

We did a Royal Caribbean excursion in Santorini and it was really good. You're the first off and into the tender boats and don't have the faff of dealing with the cable car up. I can't remember the name of the tour we did but it took us to a winery first, then to Oia and finally dropped us back off in Fira.

Only downside was that we didn't have as much time in Oia as I would have liked but being the first off and skipping the cable car was worth its weight in gold.

We didn't do a Royal Caribbean excursion in Katakolon, we used a private tour company to see Olympia.

Haven't been to Dubrovnik or Kotor though so can't help you with those sorry.

Judging from the last time I was on the ship, you should change the words "may be" to "am".

That wouldn't have been out of the US would it? I didn't realise that Independence in the US wasn't non-smoking, but I did say I may be wrong.