Sand and Seas

Mmmm.... love those sweet plantains. I ask for them as a side dish. Also love to order Lobster rolls at Ocean Blue walkup window on sea days

We were on the Getaway in May. We went to Broadway Unplugged in the Illusionarium theatre. It was a great show and a nice venue for it. No dinner served. I didn't see any dinner shows advertised.

@Dorhead1230, you have a fun to read writing style! We are sailing on the Joy again later this year. Looking forward to following along with you! Hope you all have a wonderful cruise😎

Yes, we loved our Prima southern Caribbean cruise. Came home and immediately booked a 2nd similar cruise on her. It is different than other NCL cruises, but we loved it. For example, we love the Waterfront on the Away and Awayplus ships. On Prima, they took that concept and expanded it in a delightful way. Bliss, Encore & Joy are favorites with us....but so is Prima. Hope to find a good deal on a Viva cruise to book in the future😎

I wish they would put Los Lobos on more ships! Always have to get the fresh table-side guacamole. We also love the Carne Asada and Elotes (corn). Ocean Blue- Love the Blazing Shrimp! Might need to make it my Main dish🤔 Local- we share sandwich halves ,ordering a Rueben and the Chicken Salad sandwich. Also love the sweet plantains (from the Cuban dish) at the Local. Have nicely asked for a side of it in place of fries. And, Local on Prima, Hot Fudge Sundae! It's on the complimentary menu. Ordered it for a charge ($6?) on another ship's Local and it just wasn't quite as good.

We have been in the Courtyard Haven on Getaway and of course loved it, but we are looking forward to our first Forward Facing Haven in a few months. Some awesome person created this spreadsheet years ago and posted a link on this forum. It has links to all kinds of information about cabins on Getaway/Breakaway: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10YW7fMQarer30UCHKqKJ_zLDmbyMTczCTtYf2XRflh8/pub?single=true&gid=0&output=html

We have been in all three types on Getaway or Breakaway. Love the Aft balcony view. Some of the balconies are larger than others. The Large Balcony is OK, just a regular cabin but nice sized balcony. Club Balcony (not family?) have a great bathroom with good sized shower. Also comes with a free laundry service and a couple of other amenities. Our favorite is Club Balcony with Large Balcony. Has the bigger bathroom with great shower. Same room as a Club Balcony with great bathroom, but it has a huge balcony with room for two loungers, two chairs and a large table. Here is a link to a great spreadsheet for Getaway/Breakaway with good visuals of all types of cabins. Some awesome person years ago created this and posted the link on this forum. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10YW7fMQarer30UCHKqKJ_zLDmbyMTczCTtYf2XRflh8/pub?single=true&gid=0&output=html

@graphicguy above is correct when he says Latitudes “Concierge” is a very loose term by NCL! A couple of years ago, we once asked at guest services how we could reach concierge service. They gave us a phone number to call. When we called, we got the 'WHO GAVE YOU THIS NUMBER???' . Thank heavens we generally have no troubles prescheduling our own dinners nowadays. (Of course, when we do the rare Haven, we absolutely love the Concierge desk onboard!) When the new Tiers were announced, we bypassed Sapphire and became Diamond. We went through many calls to the Dedicated Service Desk get our 'Onetime Diamond Upgrade' processed. If the Dedicated Service Desk phone is our 'concierge' off the ship, it really isn't worth the bother. When we called that number it was often answered by a regular agent who would then tell you to call the same number that they had just answered😒

We were on the Joy in April for a 12 day cruise. Loved going to the Observation Lounge for something light in the afternoon. In addition to small sandwiches, they had quiche and scones. Hope you have a great cruise😎

So clever of you....I bet you could find dozens more if you try😉 It's actually my very dear husband I'm referring to. Since you are relatively new to CruiseCritic, you might want to check out this link:

@UKstages, we love the idea of asking for a scoop of Chicken Salad with your Caesar! Since it's sometimes hard to decide, my DH and I usually split a Reuben and a Chicken Salad sandwich. I think he's going to be asking for the Caesar with Chicken Salad too😋

It wouldn't hurt for you try calling them again. Like you, I reached a clueless person originally. Same story about 'call the number...' which was the exact number I called! When I called a 2nd (or was it 3rd?) time, I reached someone who was willing to put some effort into reaching out to the diamond upgrade department. For one of our two upgrades, I didn't get a call or email, but noticed in the My NCL app that my cabin was changed! Hopefully you will get that upgrade🤞

We were on both Joy and Getaway in the last two months. I think it was Getaway?? Sorry I can't recall for certain. We just kept our shoulder bags with us.

We slid our luggage under the far side of the bed and then never noticed them again until it was time to pack up that last day.

We saw them holding luggage in the casino. They had a roped off area.

We like to stay at the Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon. I'm guessing we have now stayed there at least a dozen times pre-cruise. We have several things we have enjoyed about this hotel: easy shuttles, nice rooms with fridge & microwave, a decent free breakfast, and good shopping/dining across the street. It has a free shuttle from the airport starting about 6am in the morning. When you check in, you can sign up for shuttles to the airport for $10 per person. They usually run two or more shuttles (with a private company) at something like 10am and 11am. We've never had a problem getting on the shuttle and it's been very reliable. If there are a lot of cruisers, the shuttle company has provided more than one shuttle at a certain time and will load them depending on what ship you are on. Directly across the street you can walk to a Publix, Burlington Coat Factory, and a couple of places to eat. Nothing fancy, but we enjoy getting Cuban food at Casa Juan or a made to order sandwich at Publix's deli. And, if you've forgotten to pack something, you can find almost anything at Burlington or Publix. (We have forgotten sandals before!)

Thank you both for posting your experiences! This forum has always been so helpful to those of us cruising from a new port or with a new cruise line. We had a much more positive experience with Cruise Control shuttle from PC to MCO last month. Their dispatch and driver were both texting me with precise information about when & where they would pick us up.

We loved our first cruise out of Port Canaveral. We flew in a couple of days early and rented a car that we dropped off the morning of cruise. (Their is a shared rental office right at the port for Enterprise and a couple of others.) It's an interesting port and we ate a couple of meals there at Gators & Fishlips. Hope you have a great cruise! The official Port Canaveral cruise ship schedule is only showing through September currently, but it might give you an idea of how busy it can be: https://www.portcanaveral.com/Cruise/Cruise-Lines-Schedules

Do you know what time your ship is scheduled to dock that day? Last month, our Getaway cruise was one of four ships disembarking at PC that day. Our ship was scheduled for 8:00 docking and the others were earlier. We made a 1:10 flight out of MCO by doing early walk off. It was easy to be first off the ship as we were in Getaway's Haven and got the concierge escort to first of line. I would have been stressed if we were not in Haven as I know that can be quite a line. We are rarely in Haven, but it was great for this particular trip as Delta had changed our original 5:30 pm flight to 1:10. We were able to change our CruiseControl shuttle time to 8:15am. (I highly recommend them!) They were also supposed to pick up another couple from a nearby ship, but they had docked late. CruiseControl driver arranged with their dispatch for a later shuttle for that couple and we left for the airport on-time. No traffic problems and I believe we arrived at MCO around 9:20am. The more stressful part of that day was once we arrived at MCO. Orlando airport on a Saturday was a series of long lines with lots of kids running around. For some reason, I thought Saturday at MCO wouldn't be as bad as a Sunday. It took quite a while to get our luggage checked in with Delta. They pulled some of us out of that line and sent us downstairs to check our luggage. If you are cruising with only carry-ons that would be optimal. And, even though we have TSA pre-check, it was confusing to find the correct line. They should work on more signage. Several of us were in a line that we had been told was pre-check, but then found out it was not🤨 We all moved over to another long line (still no visible signage) and were finally through security. I really felt bad for those in the regular security lines. Unfortunately, we talked to several in line (for bag drop & check-in) that were not going to make their flights. For us, we had no problem making our flight. A tram ride to our terminal and all was good!

Your son and daughter-in-law are awesome! We were on Getaway in late May and absolutely loved MDQ and Broadway Unplugged. Such a talented cast😊

Not inexpensive, but we are looking at Ink48. You can walk to the port.

Pineapple slices dipped in dark chocolate

I am surprised about 'Six'. Very talented cast when we saw it. However, on the Joy in April, we had been looking forward to 'Footloose'. We only made it through about an hour or so and then walked out. (We were not the first to leave.) I don't know if the performers were in-experienced, but production really wasn't up to what we expected. We LOVED Million Dollar Quartet on Getaway in May so I'm very happy they are not on the list above. The very talented cast of M$Q also performed 'Broadway Unplugged', one of the best shows we have enjoyed at sea.

Its quite easy in Teppanyaki as they will have three or four different lines with an employee to help you. We had some dinners set up in advance, but then one of them conflicted with a show we wanted to reserve. The NCL employee can easily change or cancel something you had already booked.

DH was not happy with his first Haven burger (Getaway) last month. Mushy, greasy and tasteless burger patty, and of course the bun fell apart😒 Later in the cruise he tried again and requested they put it on the Pretzel Bun (from fish sandwich). It was a better burger but still didn't have the good burger taste he had on prior cruises. However, the pretzel bun held together. Although he loves a good burger, he is learning to try other items on that menu😉