G-DawgMN

8 hours ago, Carol Loves to Cruise said:

First time on NCL - very excited about the large number of different dining options.  I’ve made reservations at 2 of the specialty dining.  Do we need  to make reservations at the complimentary restaurants like American Diner, O’Sheehan’s Bar & Grill, or is it walk up/wait list?

 You can’t make reservations at the Diner or O’Sheeha’s/Local. Depends on the ship but you may only be able to make reservations at the main MDR that’s at the back of the ship. But unless you have a large group it’s really not necessary. 

3 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Yes.  Most of us keep cruising because we've lowered our standards accordingly.

If you don’t have standards you will never be disappointed. 

1 hour ago, rlpboy said:

Hi All!

 

I have used this board for years but have never contributed.  Now I really need some advice!  My family is currently on the NCL Epic on a transatlantic cruise that originated in Orlando and is ending in Rome.  Although we have done 7 or 8 NCL cruises over the years (plus more on all of the other major lines) this is our first cruise since covid.

 

This cruise has simply been terrible.  It is so shockingly different from any of the other cruises we have done that I find myself scratching my head trying to figure it all out.  First and foremost, the food is simply gross.  Much of it borders on inedible.  Every meal on this ship we have taken a bite of something that we either had to spit out into our napkin or simply choked the bite down and sent the dish back.  The garden cafe (the buffet) has had the same menu for each of the twelve days we have been on the ship.  I thank God for the pizza because that has been the one consistently ok thing to eat.  The specialty dining has been fine but all of the other meal options have been adequate at absolute best.  In my family's opinion, the meat has significantly declined in quality with steak that is full of tendons and very rubbery chicken.  I would like to add that this low quality meat has been served in all of their restaurants.

 

The other thing that has really surprised us is how rude the staff is!  Once again, something that I never thought that I would write.  The crew on cruise ships has always been shockingly polite.  In fact, I have always found that they are almost too polite as I have seen guests treat staff members poorly.  I feel like the staff is trying to get revenge on this particular trip!  The staff is shockingly rude to a point that some members are looking at guests with disdain.  For example, I went to the front desk to ask a question about the food and I simply asked the girl working "has the quality of the food gone down a bit since covid".  The only reason I asked was because we were trying to figure out if we wanted to purchase more of the "cruise next" vouchers and if the food was like this on all of the cruises we really aren't interested.  The young lady working looked so irritated and rudely replied, "ask them at the restaurants".  This and several other issues have actually had me questioning whether I should leave the "service charge" or contest it.  I have never not left the full amount.  In fact, I have always left additional money for particular employees that I felt went above and beyond. 

 

All in all, the food sucks.  This is the dirtiest ship we've ever been on.  The gentleman that cleans our room has left dirty dishes in our room more times than I can count.  The staff is rude.  Oh, and 3 times I've been told someone will call me back from the front desk and no one ever has.  There is so much more I could add, but in the interest of brevity, I will leave it at that. Is this what cruising post covid is like?  

 

Thank you all for any advice you can offer. 

 Talk to the General Manager and address your concerns with him.

 I know staff varies from cruise to cruise, but I've not seen that type of rudeness across the board anytime I've sailed the Epic or any other ship.

5 hours ago, Espeonkins said:

I apologize if this sounds like a newbie question (I'm totally new to Cruise Critic, though not new to cruising)--but I'm just trying to see if other people had good or bad experiences redeeming MyVegas rewards on NCL.

 

My mother redeemed a $750 off on MyVegas; I was skeptical at first, and after digging in a little more, it seems my skepticism is justified. I went on the NCL site to look for cruises we may be interested in, then I called in to try to make my booking. It felt very scammy; the representative quoted a price way higher than what I saw on the NCL website, so that after applying the MyVegas discount, we ended up saving only $400. I get it, the $750 is applicable to only one passenger, and doesn't cover gratuities, taxes, and the booking fee. But I cranked through the numbers, and the fact remains that they they're taking the $750 discount off of a much higher price than was advertised on the NCL website. 

 

This feels very similar to the "buy 1 airfare get 1 free" scams that companies try to push. They tell you the 2nd passenger is free, but they double the first passenger's airfare, so the net amount is about the same. 

 

We'll probably still do a cruise anyway, but maybe choose a cheaper one. A discount is still a discount (yes, we're being cheated out of the $750 discount, but still, we'll take any discount). That said, this arbitrary raising of prices left a sour taste in our mouth. 

 

Anyone else experienced this? 

 Did you go all the way through the booking when you price compared. I don’t believe taxes and port fees are usually included until the very last step. There’s also free at sea gratuities if you opt into those. 

24 minutes ago, skeeter195 said:

We were on MSC in January and yes the mini bar is stocked daily.  Not only inside the mini bar but in the cabinet alongside it.  We even a bottle of wine 4 of the 9 nights.  Lastly we got a bottle of Belvedre for the room.  

 Nice. Looking forward to it. 

4 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

 

We haven't been on MSC yet, but yes, I've also heard the mini bar is free in their YC. Not sure if it's a one time restock or endless, but it's a nice simple touch that NCL should have adopted by now, even as just a one time restock during the cruise.

 It’s been a few years since I did the Yacht Club but at that time they had just started to not restock the mini bar. Not sure if that has changed as I won’t be in the YC again until November. 

2 minutes ago, dltvermont said:

 

 

 

I believe that there are no service charges on european cruises because "tipping" isnt a thing over there? I think I read that? So are their workers just out of luck or are they paid more?

 There may be specific cruise lines that do that, but if you're on an NCL cruise in Europe you still have the DSC.

  Now I know people in Europe may have different fares with different rules than we do, but I can't really speak to that.

2 hours ago, mmt44 said:

When is the time to get the auto charges reduced or eliminated?  The day before debarking?

 

Does NCL allow you to tell customer service desk the amount you want to pay or do you have to totally eliminate all the charges?

 

 

  You can just go do it the first day if you want. I don't see any reason why you would want to do that unless you're just trying to save money and stiff the staff. It's not feasible to individually tip as you go along since it covers more than just the people you interact with.

On 4/2/2024 at 3:33 AM, natefish95 said:

It's 4:26am here at DCA. I've dropped my bag off at Delta and I'm waiting for Chick Fil-A to open. I'm also about to begin my 24 hour journey over to Japan to tour around on land before boarding the NCL Jewel in Tokyo on April 10th, which will then take us to northern Japan and then over to Alaska, ending in Seward on the April 22nd. 

 

Full disclosure up front-I have no idea if I'm going to keep up this, but I figured I would at least start it and try to keep up. If I fall off posting, or the wifi connection isn't great, I'll fill y'all in afterwards! 

 

For starters, I will not be as great as a lot of the other trip reviewers on here. There might be typos. My grammar may not be the goodest, and my pictures may not be award-winning, but you're reading this so you must be at least a little interested in this trip. 

 I'm enjoying this review. Back when Covid kicked off we had a Royal Cruise that would have gone from Tokyo to Seattle.....alas it never happened.

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

True, there are no passenger planes that can carry 4000 people at one time.  NCL had to use multiple aircraft.  And, it is very difficult to charter a large number of aircraft at one time.

Darn.  I forgot my sarcasm indicator when I responded. …

1 minute ago, RocketMan275 said:

Those passengers were not left to fend for themselves.  They were provided food and lodging, air transportation home, a full refund, and a FCC equal to their fare.

 It sounds better when people sensationalize it though. Also I know people were made because NCL didn’t have enough planes on hand to fly everyone out at the same time. Some had to wait. 

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

 

🤣Okay, now THAT'S sarcasm.  Maybe I get it "sometimes."😎

 

However, my friend @yakcruiserapparently didn't know about the "....." rule.

 78.3 percent of the Internet follows that rule…

1 minute ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

🤣Thx.  It's sometimes hard to separate the two S's on the internet (sarcasm and stupid).

 I should follow the general rule. If a sentence ends in … it’s sarcasm. 

Just now, ChiefMateJRK said:

No.  The cruise lines have an established process for passengers to board.  You can't just "somehow" change the rules on the fly.  No Captain in his right mind would do so without clear, documented corporate approval.

It was sarcasm!!! At least my post was. 😉

5 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

The surcharge for the beef filet at Le Bistro is for the foie gras which I hate.

 It’s ok. The foie gras is about the size of a quarter these days. I actually didn’t even realize what it was a cpl cruises ago since it was so small. 
 The filet is still fantastic though. 

4 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

 

Really? Why? What were these "extenuating circumstances" of which you speak?

 

 

 They wanted back on the ship even though they were late. Obviously NCL should have let them on somehow. That’s an extenuating circumstance. 
 

  While I agree it sucks they got left. It’s not NCLs fault they were late. There’s a lot of reasons they can’t hold the ship. 

11 hours ago, Haywood Jablome said:

I'm on the cruise in question, not happy about the change at all, is there gonna be a refund of some of the port charges as we just list a port,  I. Sure it saves them in fuel, port fees, and don't forget in the email from ncl it said to give our passengers more time for excursions, oh wait who sells the excursions and would make the most income from them, or maybe it is for safety reasons maybe England is gonna invade again

 Port fees are just estimated so you may not be due to any refund. If the port fees are higher than what is collected the cruise line will absorb it instead of charging people more that are already booked. But if they overcharged you will get it back. But it’s usually 5-15 bucks. 
 Surprisingly on the Epic last year we got back 8 bucks even though we didn’t have any ports cancelled. 

3 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

Was about to ask this and found this old thread. Has this changed? 

We have a Regent number. 

And an NCL number. 

Do we need to combine them or link them in some way or has NCL got these lines and loyalty siloed?

 Siloed. 

14 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. It could just be a duck.

In Minnesota it could be a grey duck. 

5 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

Our first Platinum cruise will be in September. The problem is it's a loop where people board in both Barcelona and Rome. We board in Rome a few days after the Barcelona boarders, so they will have already hoarded the spots for the tour and tasting. I doubt they will add additional tours/tastings for the Rome boarders.

I would think they’d have tours available no matter when you boarded but that may have gone the way of hash browns. 

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

 

We just became Platinum last month. I guess we'll see how hard it is to snag spots on the Behind the Scenes tour and Wines Around the World on our next cruise. At least we'll be able to get free laundry, chocolate covered strawberries and (most importantly) a couple extra Specialty dinners.

 Never had an issue getting a behind the scenes tour but I sign up the first day. 
  The valuable perks for me are the free laundry and dinners. I’m Sapphire now and don’t think I’ve seen or used the additional perks. 

On 3/23/2024 at 6:47 AM, BirdTravels said:

That’s a wrap!

 

Thank you for joining The Bird on a St Patrick’s day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean on the stunning MSC Seascape. 
 

The Bird tries to gather and proactively post the answers to the most frequently asked questions on Cruise Critic. 
 

It is time to get ready for another cruise. Safe travels everyone. 

 Thanks Bird for the great review (as always).

  Looking forward to being on the Seascape later this year.

18 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

I was pointing out that even lines that charge tax while in port don't always charge tax while in port. 😉

 

The cruise line is going to get that money from the guests in one way or another. HOW cruise lines get it may differ and guests may prefer one way to another but the line passes that expense onto the customer whether the customer sees it (NCL) or doesn't.

 True. In Alaska where you’re taxed quite a ways out from port I was not charged tax in the Haven even though they had a sign. 
  Certain bartenders don’t always ring drinks up either even outside the Haven when you’re in a tax area. Not sure how they do that without getting in trouble. This was my experience on a recent cruise out of NOLA. 

12 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

When in the Yacht Club, MSC doesn't  charge guests anything extra since guests don't even swipe their card.

 Well that’s because you’re in the YC. Passengers get what they want even when they don’t ask. 
 

  Ok. I’m not dissing the YC or Haven. I’ve sailed on both when I’ve had the opportunity. 

30 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

Oh here we go. The Cruise Critic tough love brigade strikes  again. 
 

as it turns out, we’ve already heard from the CNC dept. apparently this orphan credit was left over from peace of mind COVID booking and then transferred within family (to me) and that’s why there were issues around using it.

 

CNC got back to me personally this morning to let me know they will apply it if the agent emails them.

 

So in response to your tough love, I say:

 

So there, buddy. So there.

 So NCL fixed their error and acknowledged this was a special situation. Glad they did the right thing for you.