Ranger28

We got off the ship about 7:15 and are already driving and at the Mississippi state line. They began debarkation before it was announced.

How about you build a time machine and zap yourself back to Monday so you can take your own picture.

Norwegian employee, travel agent, or just a busy body. I haven’t figured out which one you are. 

No it’s not an exaggeration that bar lines have been AT TIMES 10-15 deep. So unless you are here, you have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m wondering if we have some Norwegian employees downplaying negative comment on this forum. I’m sure you doubt the lost bag comment as well. 

Yes! That’s the one…

On 3/13/2019 at 3:21 PM, Cjgrier said:

PLEASE READ!!!!!! I would hate to have anymore vacationers ruin their time in Costa Maya with this excursion. My family and I took the River Tubing at Seven Color Lagoon excursion a week or so ago on the Allure of The Seas (great ship by the way). Now, I booked the excursion online because the description said it was a 5 hour excursion, and essentially made it sound like you spend a couple hours tubing down a nice river into the lagoon and have a beach day for a few hours there. THIS COULD NOT BE ANY LESS ACCURATE!!!! I do admit, the tour guides were very informed and friendly and the lagoon and river are both absolutely beautiful, but that is almost made irrelevant. For starters, the ride to the location where you first enter the water IS AN HOUR AND A HALF bus ride, and nowhere online was this mentioned. When you finally do get to the area by the river, there is time to use the bathroom, put sunscreen on, etc. and I feel it is necessary to note that neither the ladies or men's rooms ("rooms" were pretty much wooden stalls) had toilet seats. There were people who ended up going in the woods instead, so heads up for that one! Before you actually begin any tubing, everyone gets in their own tube and is attached to a rope in a line and is pulled slowly by a tiny fishing boat through the water to the opening of the river. When you finally get there, you are detached from the rope and are actually allowed to float down the river, but its not as simple as it sounds. Now you may think of a relaxing float down the river, but it really isn't that. Before you enter the water you are given a paddle to keep yourself in the center of the river, so you can never really just sit back and relax in the tube because you are almost constantly paddling to keep yourself away from the edges of the river. You eventually make it down the river into the lagoon where you are re-attached to the rope and pulled by the fishing boat again to an area on the lagoon where you can take some photos, and possibly swim for a LITTLE while because you do not have very much time there, it is NOT a beach. It is essentially a hut in the woods, on the water, ran on a generator. They make you an authentic meal, which I thought was very good, but it did give my mother food poisoning later on. After this, you have another hour and a half bus ride BACK to the port. So to sum up the "5 hour" excursion: 3 hours of it are spent on a bus ride, and it is not some tour or vista filled ride, it is pretty much a straight shot, roughly 45 minutes are spent being pulled by a fishing boat that was never mentioned in the description, about a half hour is spent actually tubing down the river (with a paddle in hand), and the rest of the time is spent in the area on the lagoon with the hut and the meal. You are also in a life jacket for the entire time you're on the water. I do not recommend this excursion, do yourself a favor and find one of the many other things to do in Costa Maya.

ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON!!  I wish I had read your review before we booked this excursion through Norwegian. We just did this today and we were SHOCKED when the tour guide told us we would be traveling in the van for 11/2 hours each way. We spent our entire time in Costa Maya waiting in a line, traveling on the bus, and floating down the river for about an hour. The river part was great. I could tell they were doing their best at the “restaurant” but it was very low quality and they charged us $20 for 3 glasses of approx 8oz of margarita. We were given 1 bottle of water and a glass of lemonade at lunch but that was it. You are gone six hours. Everyone was really hungry by the time we had “lunch”around 4:15. The other van on our excursion had three people who had their money stolen and credit cards rifled through. I would never do this excursion again.

Your haven cruise on Brreakaway looks amazing! However, we’re on the same cruise, non-haven, and it’s been one bad experience after another. Lost luggage, bar lines 10-15 deep, unfriendly bartenders, a late departure Sunday, a late arrival today shortening our shore excursion, and general overcrowding of all public spaces. I have also talked to several people who have family feeling under the weather with a stomach problem. 

5 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

Are you still on this sailing?

I've seen printouts in the FreeStyle Daily's asking if people have seen missing luggage with a description or photo of the bag.  It's probably somewhere on the ship but sent to the wrong cabin.

Yes, we are two days into our sailing.

We dropped off five pieces of luggage at the drop off in New Orleans and one piece was never delivered to our state rooms. Has anyone heard a success story on being united with their belongings? My daughter had all of her clothes and other essentials in the bag. Has anyone else noticed in their cruis contract that Norwegian only gives you $100 for a lost bag? No wonder there are no claim tickets for baggage.

1 minute ago, cruisekitty22 said:

We always head to the  MDR for lunch. We skip the buffet at all costs! 

What types of foods are on the MDR menu? 

We’re sailing out of New Orleans on the Breakaway and would like to know where to dine after boarding and what the typical menu will look like. Thanks!

20 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Hi Ranger28!

 

If you have not booked yet, then get the earliest check-in time possible. And show up as soon as you can round up the troops in the morning. To do this, you must check everyone in exactly 21 days prior to departure (based on countdown clock on your MyNCL account) at 12 midnight eastern time. 

 

If you only see 9:30 dining times, you have waited too long and everything is sold out online. Reservations opened 120 days prior to departure and people who wanted "good" times made reservations at midnight 120 days out (125 for club balconies and 130 for Haven suites). The ship holds some tables for onboard reservations,,, but "prime time" dining (not 9:30 pm) will also sell out quickly on embarkation day. 

 

Show up early (I highly recommend that you get the birthday girl a wheel chair at the port since that will also give your party priority boarding). As soon as you embark, the able members of your party should head to Headliners (Deck 6 mid-ship) to make show reservations and then across the hall to Teppanyaki (Deck 6 mid-ship) to make dinner reservations.  

 

Show reservations include Burn the Floor (Latin dancing like Dancing with the Stars) and the Broadway hit SIX (highly recommended). Also Comedy shows (early shows family oriented, late shows 18+). Make sure to have everyone's cabin number to make reservations. There will be a show "menu" as soon as you enter Headliners showing all of the shows for the week (both reservable and those that are general seating). There is also a for-fee dinner show in the Spiegel Tent (not recommended) and activities like Canvas by U (painting class) that can be booked in Headliners. 

 

For Burn the Floor and SIX, I recommend having someone from your party show up at least 30-45 minutes prior to show time to get good seats. While reserving of seats is not permitted, everyone does it. (Front row center good for theater shows;;; Front row center not so good for comedy shows). 

 

An example of the "show menu" is on Post #10 on the link below. Other photos and information on the Breakaway on on the pages that follow. 

 

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your thorough and thoughtful answer!

Good advice. I read on another thread that they would expect six people because it’s all about the money they would lose with 5 vs 6. 

I’m trying to decide when to try and arrange our checkin time at the port in New Orleans.We have a party of five in three cabins, including a spry 90 year old birthday girl. We are unable to schedule our dining ahead of time because 1)The system won’t let us book for an odd number 2)All times other than 9:30 are unavailable. We would like to book dinner and shows when we board. Do we need to check in as early as possible to have our best chance of a normal dining time? I’m also concerned about the senior member of our party getting tired and not having access to the room if we board very early. Any advice you have as far as parking, dropping off bags and the whole port process would be appreciated!

I can’t believe there are EIGHT pages about a twelve dollar case of water.

On 1/12/2023 at 10:45 AM, jcollin said:

Same goes for Amex Platinum at Le Bistro?  Do you get a coupon or do you just tell them you are using Amex Platinum offer?

I did not see an update offer on Platinum. Would you please explain where to find it?

We cruised on Carnival to Roatan in November and did an excursion,  no one in our group - vaccinated or not- had to test.

Thank you this is very helpful. Do we make reservations each night  or only for specialty dining?

Today we  booked five members of our family- ranging in age from 89 to 18- on the Breakaway for a 7 day cruise in March out of New Orleans. This will be our first Norwegian Cruise and we would love advice on what we should prioritize as far as planning. Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated. 

For those of you who have purchased the premium internet on Glory, we found it severely lacking during our week long cruise. The Wi-Fi was intermittent and slow. Our cabin, 1056, had no service unless we had our cabin door propped open and balanced on the open bathroom door. I talked to guest services but they acted like it was not a widespread problem and insinuated it was operator error. My husband and I both purchased the premium package. In some areas (dining room, lido deck, dining room) service was better, but it was not great.

10 hours ago, crystalspin said:

I have not, but others report using one for extra ice (ice bucket is small and may only be filled once a day OR even only on request if you see your cabin steward. You would want one that didn't link for use as an extra-size ice bucket!

8 hours ago, Crew News said:

I can only speak for my Holland America experiences.  The few ice cubes in my stateroom small ice bucket were inadequate and its inconvenient to keep asking for refills.  I prefer the 33-degree temperature of sodas/beverages stored in ice and not the 43 degrees of a minibar. 

 

On my last six cruises, I brought a Coleman collapsible cooler.  It kept my sodas/beverages really cold and it needed Room Steward refilling only every other day.  Ice was always available for my refillable excursion drink bottle and to make diet iced tea for hot days on my balcony.  My minibar had room for snacks.

 

Collapsible cooler for ice needed?  No.  Convenient?  Very.

We had written “collapsible cooler” on our list after our last cruise but neither of us could remember exactly why we thought it was important😂Your analysis was very helpful.

Has anyone found a need for taking an insulated cooler bag on their cruise?

Piggybacking on your post! We made our cruise reservation last minute and are waitlisted for early dining. Will going to MDR and talking to them help our situation after we board? What happens if we still don’t have a dining time- are we relegated to eating at the buffet every night?

Search for “Cruise the Vinyards” on the Carnival website. Packages of 3 bottles start at $77. Premium wines 3 for $108. You can also purchase 5 in a package.

3 hours ago, backbiter said:

Tried to buy a package on the Pride last week, but was told they weren't available due to shortages. We said we didn't want a wide range, as we tend to stick to one or two varieties and don't really experiment, but they still refused to sell us one.

That’s what I was afraid of! We don’t drink enough to justify cheers and the wine package is perfect for us.