Tamereth

On 1/9/2024 at 8:12 AM, pfleer said:

HI all!  We are a long time Carnival cruising family.  We are trying to find alternatives.  We tried Royal Caribbean last year and while some things were nice, it wasn't worth the cost difference vs Carnival.  We get pretty great casino deals with Carnival.  The biggest issue my family had was that RCCL did not have 24 hour soft serve ice cream.  And when the soft serve was open, the lines were extremely long and you were served tiny cones by RCCL staff (if they didn't run out by the time it was your turn).  Needless to say, my family has threatened me that if we ever go on another cruise without 24 hour ice cream, they will throw me overboard.

 

So - does NCL have 24 hour, self serve, ice cream cones?  Specifically looking at Breakaway for Thanksgiving, I think.  Was looking at Joy but the wonky pool deck makes that one a no-go now.

It's not self-serve, but O'Sheehan is open 24hr and has ice cream.  The sundaes are an extra charge BUT their complimentary dessert menu includes apple pie a la mode.  When we're feeling like ice cream, we ask for an apple pie a la mode, minus the apple pie :)  (Or just also eat pie.)

Bayamo's birthday cake;  Non-birthday chocolate cake in the background

5.  Specialty Dining

We had the 3-night specialty dining package.  We used it on Le Bistro, Cagney, and Bayamo.  We also paid for Teppanyaki and La Cucina a la carte.  Last year, we went to Moderno and Food Republic and decided to not repeat them.  Menus can be found at Beyondships.  The Beyondships' Bayamo menu is out of date, but the most recent one can be found here.

Teppanyaki.  Last year, Teppanyaki was one our worst specialty dining experience.  The problem was two-fold: 1) A girl at the table was vegan so the chef made everything without butter, served her, and then put some butter on top of the rest.  Everything came out unevenly or under-seasoned.  2) Everyone else at the table was either a stick in the mud or had the best poker face I've ever seen.  The chef got halfway through his routine, decided it wasn't worth it, and finished his cooking in silence before beating a quick retreat. 

Since we felt like most of our issues with Teppanyaki was due to the other guests, we wanted to give Teppanyaki a second chance.  It was definitely the right choice.  We had a fantastic table and an excellent chef.  He was super entertaining, the guests were all really into it, and we got plenty of butter on everything 🙂  We all got the filet mignon with shrimp, and both were cooked perfectly.  After he was done with the entrees, the chef asked if anyone wanted seconds.  It was apparently a rhetorical question, because he made everyone seconds anyways.  No one ordered the udon noodles but he made some for everyone, and oh my god they were so good.  We liked it so much we went back a second time, reasoning that $30 a person was about the same $$ as going out to dinner in Bermuda.  (This is when we discovered you can order a side of udon noodles with your entrees, because why not?)

La Cucina.  Those of you who frequent the forums may already know this, but La Cucina changed their menu between 2018 and 2019.  They added pizza to the menu and took off a couple favorites, like lasagna.  I only wanted to try the pizza, so we opted to go a la carte.  It was incredibly disappointing, especially since we had just left New York City.  The 'pizza' was a thin crust, with a doughy center and cracker-crisp edges.  The sauce was not very savory either, and overall everything just tasted off.  Maybe it suits some people's tastes, but definitely not ours.  It's a shame they didn't go with a more traditional Italian style pizza.  

Le Bistro.  Not a lot to say about the food that people haven't already said.   One of the best meals on the ship.  If you like mushrooms, for sure get the mushroom soup.  Highly recommend the profiteroles for dessert-- it's like cream puffs stuffed with ice cream and drizzled with melted chocolate.  

A note about dress code: if the men don't have long pants and collared shirts, they can still seat you on the 'patio'.  The downside is you get a lot of smoke smell from the casino.  (And if whoever is performing at Headliner's is a terrible singer, you have to listen to them all night.)

Cagney's.  Pretty standard steakhouse fare.  Nothing on the menu that we tried that we didn't like, but most things didn't stand out much.  For dessert though, the cheesecake was really solid. 

Although the food wasn't the best we had, we had the best time at Cagney's.  To rewind a bit, we celebrated my husband's birthday on this trip.  I bought a decoration kit that included balloons, a happy birthday banner, party hats, and photo booth style signs/props.  I thought it would be fun to bring the photo props to dinner, since there's usually a photographer going around at Cagneys.  The photographer never came by, but when the wait staff came by with the birthday cake, they all picked up a prop and held it while singing happy birthday, and then got in a group photo with all of us.  We just couldn't stop laughing.  They were so much fun.

Bayamo.  We didn't do Bayamo last year.  We looked at the menu and decided it wasn't that interesting, especially with the extra charge.  Like La Cucina, they redid the menu between 2018 and 2019. Unlike La Cucina, the change was really really good.  The BeyondShip's menu looks similar to Ocean Blue, but from what I recall ours was a little different.  Unfortunately, didn't think to take a photo, sorry. 

For appetizers, we had clam chowder (amazing, with a full strip of crispy bacon on top), pan seared scallops with pork belly (yum), blazing shrimp (also yum, somewhat spicy), and the ahi tuna tower with avocado (too much soy sauce on the bottom).  The sesame bread that they bring out was the best bread we had all week.

For the mains, my companions both got the 8oz filet and added a lobster tail for extra charge.  This was a better deal than getting the 5oz surf and turf with the same amount of upcharge.  They thought the filet was okay, but enjoyed the lobster tail.  The menu also had a selection of grilled fish, so I got the barramudi.  It was perfectly cooked; flaky and full of flavor.  I definitely felt like my entree was better than the boys'.  For dessert, we got the chocolate mousse cake and it didn't disappoint.  

I thought the food was as good as, if not better than Le Bistro.  Not sure if it's worth the upcharge, but the service was fantastic.  All around, great experience.  They also brought us another birthday cake, even though it was already past my husband's birthday.  Most importantly, this cake was leagues better than any other birthday cake that we got this trip.  At every other restaurant, for your birthday/anniversary, you get a square piece of pretty standard buttercream icing cake.  This cake was a cylindrical chocolate mousse cake covered in chocolate ganache.  Actually... I take it back, the upcharge was worth it for the cake alone.

7 hours ago, dkd114 said:

Did I miss the dining and drinks discussion?? This is great!

You didn't miss it! I got really busy with work this week 😞 But here we go:

35 minutes ago, kba1988 said:

loving this review so far.  did you have the specialty dining package, or the drinks package?  I'm curious to know how the dining package works since most of the specialty restaurants are a-la-carte now??

I had both packages! Specialty dining and drinks discussion coming up after work today 🙂 

9 hours ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

My O'sheehans modifications were the hot dog minus kraut and added the nacho cheese. Also, when ordering nachos I ask for extra jalapenos and extra bacon. You can modify anything.

Thai chili wings are the best!

Whoa.  Never considered a bacon and cheese dog, but definitely asking for one next time! 

One of my favorite things about cruise dining is asking for modifications and being told, "Yes of course!" instead of "It'll be an extra $$" or "No substitutions/modifications." 

4.  Complimentary Dining

Breakfast.  We almost never got up in time to have breakfast in the dining rooms (ended at 9:30).  Most days, we ordered the free room service breakfast.  Drinking coffee/hot cocoa on the balcony felt super luxurious. 

Buffet.  We went to the buffet once for lunch.   It was crowded, but we didn't have trouble finding a seat.  At lunch, they had mostly soups, salads, sandwiches/burgers, pizza.  Everything was... fine.  Nothing blew me away and some meats were a bit dry, but the variety makes it a good pick if you have a group with differing tastes. 

O'Sheehan's.  We did most of our complimentary dining at O'Sheehan's.  Really enjoyed: wings, burger, chipotle chicken sandwich, caesar salad with salmon/chicken, fajitas, fish and chips.  We also went for seafood basket night.  The basket had fries, onion rings, calamari, shrimp, and fish.  Easily the best complimentary meal we had. 

Some customization suggestions:  you can get the nachos with fries instead of chips (i.e. cheese fries 🙂 ).  The wings are really good without sauce or sauce on the side.  The breading is actually really craggy and peppery, like mini southern fried chicken.  The texas BBQ sauce is more tangy than sweet, makes for a good dipping sauce if you go this route. 

Main Dining Rooms.  We didn't go to the main dining rooms this trip.  Last time we went a few times, but found service to be slow and food to be just okay.  More importantly, the hours just never lined up with our schedule.  We were about 2-3 hours behind regular meal times the entire trip 😳  O'Sheehans was more flexible for us (and, let's be honest, a shorter walk). 

Family Balcony Cabin (8140) -- Angled Balcony

Family Balcony Cabin (8140) -- View of Shuffleboard Court

Family Balcony Cabin (8140) -- Bed by Closet

Family Balcony Cabin (8140) -- Bathroom

For comparison's sake:

Mini Suite w/ Large Balcony (8134) -- Balcony

Mini Suite w/ Large Balcony (8134) -- Bed by Balcony

Mini Suite w/ Large Balcony (8134) -- Bathroom 

3c. TV

I know this is highly controversial, but we brought a Nintendo Switch and hooked it up to the TV.  We were also able to hook up an iPad/iPhone using a lightning to HDMI adapter.  

The TV in the room has a couple of HDMI ports, but there wasn't a way (that we could see) to switch inputs.  We ended up unplugging the HDMI cable that delivered ship TV, and plugged our own HDMI cable into that port.  It was a pain if we wanted to switch back to ship TV, but it worked.  

This worked beautifully for playing some co-op games and catching up on a couple of shows.  

3.  Cabin

We had cabin 8140 which was a family balcony on Deck 8.  Last year, we had 8134, which was a mini-suite with large balcony, just 3 rooms down the hall.  We really like being on Deck 8.  It's super convenient to be a few steps away from the District.  We would swing by for drinks before dinner, or grab a drink (or two) on our way back to the room.  It's also just upstairs from O'Sheehan's. 

You could see shuffleboard on Deck 7 from our balcony.  Too windy to play on most days, so not a lot of noise there.  No noise from the theater.  The neighbors that shared a wall with our bed kept knocking into the wall.  Maybe a rambunctious kid.... or a rambunctious couple 😉 

3a. Balcony

Our room had an angled balcony, as did 8138 next door.  Our room was a category B3 (sleeps 3) while 8138 was a category B2 (sleeps 4).  For those who are curious, 8138 had bed by the balcony, and a bigger angled balcony.  Oh! Like I said before, you can see the shuffleboard on Deck 7 from our balcony.  We went down there one day, and let me say-- you can see our balcony pretty well from down there too.  Luckily, never forgot to get dressed before going out on the balcony.  

Despite our balcony being smaller, it was still more space than a regular balcony.  We had enough room for two chairs, the small side table, and a lounger.  Funny story-- we called housekeeping to ask for an extra regular chair.  The guy showed up lugging a lounger, and we didn't have the heart to tell him we just wanted a chair.  We were worried it wouldn't fit, but it did! 

The mini-suite with large balcony had a way nicer balcony, but it was maybe $600-1000 more on this sailing.  I was glad we didn't go for the bigger balcony.  It was 50 degrees in New York city when we left and when we got back.  On sea days, it was slightly warmer but still pretty windy, so we really wouldn't have made good use of a bigger balcony.  You know its too breezy when the pool area is empty! 

3b. Layout

This room had the bed by the closet.  Last year, our room had the bed by the balcony.  Bed by the closet makes it a tight squeeze to get stuff from the closet.  Lazy me would open the closet while sitting on the bed, so that balanced it out.  Bed by the balcony is nice for laying in bed with the balcony door open.  A little more room to get into the closet, but only if the sofa isn't occupied or set up as another bed.

For our purposes, I thought bed by the closet was more convenient.  The couch and balcony were our primary hangout zones, so it was more convenient to have those be together.  You didn't have to squeeze past people sitting on the couch in order to get at the closet or go to the bathroom. 

Also, a personal pet peeve:  everyone would drop their stuff wherever when they got into the room (ugh).  At least with the bed closer to the entrance, stuff ended up on the bed and it was easy to make space.  With the sofa by the entrance, stuff would be all over the table, that tiny ottoman, the sofa, and the floor around the sofa (big ugh).  

Yay glad it worked! 

4 minutes ago, Son of a son of a ... said:

Your pics aren’t visible, OP

Whoops! Thanks for letting me know.  Trying again... let me know if it works. 

Hamilton -- View from Rear Mezzanine

Take 31 -- Braised Pork Belly

Pocha 32 -- Spicy Fried Chicken 

Ess-a-Bagel -- Bacon/Egg/Cheese on Everything Bagel and Scallion Spread on Sesame Bagel

2. Embarkation

We got a call the day before the cruise, saying they had a coast guard inspection and we shouldn't arrive before noon.  We decided to have breakfast after checking out of the hotel, and made our way to the port around 12:30.  By that time, several people in our roll call said they had gotten on board, so I guess the noon thing wasn't that important.  Lots of people in line when we got there, but it moved at a good pace.  After we were checked in, we were able to board right away.  

For those who wonder about carrying on your luggage:  We carried on both of our suitcases-- one medium suitcase and one rolling carry on.  The medium suitcase was 26" x 18.5" x 11" and fit perfectly through the x-ray scanner.  I don't think anything more than an inch bigger would have fit.  

We got on board around 1:45 and made a beeline for our cabin.  The welcome sheet said lunch ended at 2pm, so we wanted to get there in time.  The room steward was still working on our hall, so we just dropped off our luggage and headed to O'Sheehan's.  

Hamilton -- View from Rear Mezzanine 

Take 31 -- Braised Pork Belly

Ess-a-Bagel -- Egg/Bacon/Cheese on Everything Bagel, Scallion Spread on Sesame Bagel

Pocha 32 -- Spicy Fried Chicken w/ Fries

Hey guys!

Finally had a chance to sit down and go through my notes for this trip.  Lots of helpful info on this board, so I figured I'd give back and recount my experiences.  Rather than doing a day-by-day review, I'll be breaking it down by pre-cruise, embarkation, cabin, dining, etc., and focusing on info I haven't seen as much on here. 

A bit about us before we begin.  There were three of us this trip-- myself, my husband, and one of our good friends.  We're all 30-ish, and tend to enjoy more geeky activities.  This was our second ever cruise.  We did the Escape last year (Western Caribbean out of Miami) and liked it so much that we booked this trip while we were on board.  Since we've only sailed the Escape, I can't compare with other lines or ships, but I'll try to address some of the changes that were made on the Escape since our trip last Spring.

1.  Pre-Cruise

The cruise started Sunday, and we flew in Thursday afternoon. 

Due to arriving at our home airport much later than we planned, our checked bag did not make it onto our plane.  Lucky for me, I had split my luggage so that pre-cruise items were in my carry on, and my checked bag just had all of our cruise clothing.  While it would have been a pain to lose a week's worth of clothes, we would have been able to make do.  Thankfully though, our luggage was flown out on a later flight.  The airline partners with a baggage delivery service (Delivery on Demand).  For $35, they picked up our suitcase from the airport and delivered it straight to the hotel.  Cheaper than a 1-way Uber! 

We had tickets to see Hamilton on Friday night.  .  For those who might be interested, we were able to get the tickets on pre-sale by registering as a verified fan.  If you're picked for pre-sale, they text you a code that gives you early access to tickets.  I logged in to Ticketmaster in advance, put the code in right as the specified time came up, and got my pick of seats.  This did require significant advance planning-- the pre-sale notification for January through mid-May 2019 came out back in May 2018, and the pre-sale notification for mid-May through November 2019 came out in November 2019.  For those who plan their trips early, this is a good option.  Also worth looking into for other shows and concerts. 

Hamilton plays at Richard Rogers Theater.  The venue is absolutely gorgeous.  We had rear mezzanine seats.  It looked like the seats were really far back, but the view was fabulous and we didn't notice any sound-quality issues.  I don't think there's any bad seats in this theater, honestly.  We've seen a couple of different productions and thought that this was the best one.  Highly recommend.   

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Times Square South.  The hotel was fine, but there are plenty of other hotels in the area-- I would just pick your favorite brand/whatever is cheapest.  It's about a 10 minute Uber ride to the cruise terminal, and about a 40 minute ride from LaGuardia.  (I say Uber but I actually check both apps before summoning a ride.) 

Plenty of shopping and food by the hotel.  We were able to pick up some last-minute items at Target and Sephora, about a 5 minute walk away.  A couple restaurants that we went to and enjoyed: Pocha 32, Take 31, Joe’s Pizza, Pepper Lunch, Ess a Bagel, Shake Shack, Sammy’s Halal Food (not to be confused with Sammy’s Halal or Sammy’s Halal Cart), Katz's Deli.  Lots of reviews on Yelp so I won't go into details here. 

We did sail away on the Waterfront (Deck 8). Got drinks at District Brewhouse, and exited at the doors port side.

From port side we got views of the dock and Manhattan as the ship pulled away.  Then we walked around to the other side to catch the Statute of Liberty.  You have a lot of time— the Statue doesn’t come up until the ship has passed Manhattan.

Edit: just wanted to add that the Waterfront was really quiet, maybe only four other people, until we hit the Statute of Liberty. Even then it was maybe 10-15, and easy to get a spot by the railing.

(Attempting to attach three photos, not sure if it’ll work. One was taken port side, one aft, and one starboard, all from Deck 8.)

Currently on my cruise and I’ve been ordering my drinks non-alcoholic.  What has been really fun is to ask the bartender to surprise me with something non-alcoholic. 

Any of the frozen drinks can be made non-alcoholic: e.g., mudslide, bushwhacker, bbc, mango meltdown, Miami vice.  

Soda water with lemon/orange/lime is a nice non-caffeinated option, and they also have Sierra Mist, diet Sierra Mist, orange soda, ginger ale.  

My favorite so far is a non-alcoholic Bahama Mama, which some servers referred to as a non-alcoholic fruit punch.  Tastes like orange juice and pineapples. 

26 minutes ago, Nachosupreme said:

On our Alaska 2017 cruise my brother and sister in law had google fi and used it to watch game of thrones while on the ship. I recorded it on my DVR and watched it when we got home, I was not interested in watching it on a cell phone sized screen over the 60 inch tv at home. I also like to disconnect from technology on my cruises, but that’s my preference I realize others don’t always share. 

 

 

I suspect that OP does not intend to voice that opinion to their wife even if they agree with you 🤣

1 minute ago, hallux said:

 

Actually - Google Fi international data speed is only limited by whatever speed the local provider will serve up. There is no fee schedule for higher speeds posted.  You are correct in that there is no additional cost to use data while abroad if you have Google Fi, you just incur the same per-GB data cost as you do when in the US and whatever cost there is for calls if you make any ($0.20 / min typically).

 

https://www.androidcentral.com/bye-t-mobile-i-just-switched-google-fi

 

"Fi's international data is consistently faster than T-Mobile's, and doesn't cost anything extra."

 

Additionally, you can use hotspot internationally, also with no additional cost, except for whatever data you use.

Cool, I didn’t know that! I had only looked up the other ones.  Should have done more thorough research before posting.

 I haven’t met that many people who use Fi tbh, but my friend had it for our last cruise and didn’t have any problems.

Who is your mobile provider?  Maybe they have free (or reasonably-priced) international roaming that you can use after you dock?  For example, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Google Fi all seem to have free 'basic' data (pay more for higher speeds), and AT&T has it for $10 a day.  I've used the AT&T one and it was pretty fast.   

I've never been to Roatan but it sounds like WiFi availability isn't great unless you get a day pass for one of the resorts...?

Good luck!

Just now, shof515 said:

internet on the ship is soo bad that streaming will not work

It might work with the higher/highest tier internet. Or if you have a DVR service that lets you do offline viewing on your device.  Worth it for OP to look into alternate solutions if it’s as dire as it sounds 😛

Might be worth paying for internet and HBO Go, so she can stream it lol!

My in-laws got us the anniversary one for our last cruise. It was nice in that we tried Le Bistro and took home two photos, when we otherwise wouldn’t have done either. The sparkling wine appeared to be the same as the latitudes one. Overall, lots of things that were nice but I wouldn’t have gotten separately, but I think with the roses and the chocolates, it would be a lovely surprise for your wife.

In O’Sheehans, we ask for the nachos with fries instead of tortilla chips, and add jalapeños. Jalapeño bacon cheese fries!

Looking at dailies someone posted recently, it’s usually at 5p in the 5 O’clock somewhere bar (lol). The Friday one will probably be the most convenient since the ship will have left Bermuda by then. But my experience was that each day has a different painting, so that day may not be what you want to paint.

When I did this on the Escape, they set up plastic sheeting and easels on the tables. The bar makes it easy to grab a drink while you paint.