MSUjohn

8 hours ago, shof515 said:

how do they sniff the cabin? does security need to enter your room?

a dog can "sniff your room" through a closed door in the hallway.

5 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

No NCL ship "requires" dining reservations...at least not for the MDR. We have yet to make a reservation for any MDR and have never had a problem getting in either immediately, or a couple minute wait.

 

Now, if you're talking Specialty restaurants, that's a different ballgame. Although, I know of people who have walked up to a Specialty restaurant and gotten in. So, in that case, reservations weren't "required".

 

 

on PoA there were some large lines for the MDR.

i like older ships.

>They are the smaller (in NCL) ships. i like the smaller ship vibe
>smaller ships have in my opinion a wider variety of destinations.
>smaller ship regardless of line tend to be less expensive. i would rather have 2 cruises on a older ship than one on a brand-new ship. 

The Jewel class are my true love with NCL (I would call these a medium ship)

I wonder in the future when it is time to NCL to replace its' small ships: Spirit, Sun, Sky, Dawn, Star and yes the Jewel class if NCL will replace these with megaships or replace them with a single class of smaller/midsize ships.  

i bought one cruise onboard & i did not see any benefit over buying from your TA/ncl's website on land; less in someways.

i will not do it again.

13 hours ago, pr8hd said:

Fuel Surcharge ($15 daily)  and Gratuities ($18 daily) are charged after boarding

thank you for your reply.
can i prepay?

On 4/8/2024 at 9:21 PM, ChiefMateJRK said:

here are crew assigned to do this and they do a great and prompt job. 

i worked in the cafeteria at university.
the "dining room attendant" was the most boring job; having nothing to do was even more boring.

Hello,
I am thinking of getting my brother (a never-cruiser) a margaritaville at sea cruise for his birthday.
i have never sailed with bahamas paradise cruise line errrr i mean margaritaville at sea so i have two questions.
>incidental fees: apart from what i pay what will he be surprised with? gratuities? fuel surcharge? and so on.
>how about a back-to-back two day? can i book the same room does he have to disembark and do the full embarkation again? 

i can do the 4 days for him for $350 with no single supplement.

>any thoughts? 

thanks

On 4/10/2024 at 1:00 PM, Peachypooh said:

On my last cruise on the Getaway I was at a bar and the person next to me was telling this "hilarious" story (to him) about an elderly overweight woman that fell down in front of him on the beach and he didn't want to pick her up but reluctantly did. Then he turned to me and asked it that was me.

i think on cruises and on land, things were much much "worse" if you were obese; the derision to even hostility was open 30 years ago.

27 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

OK, that’s just gross.

ok i am lost why that is gross🤔
with the giant steaks anytime you have more than one muscle you are going to have connective tissue well connecting them😃

3 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

I would not waste time nor a FAS or dining package meal on Moderno.  We've given it a bunch of tries on the Jewel-class ships and NCL just can't pull off a churrascaria.  The meats were invariably cold, tough, poor quality.  I realize that food is subjective, and other folks may feel differently.  But we've decided we are done with Moderno.    

i think moderno is FAR better than any churrascaria i have had on land (all three of them).
Cagney's to me is a waste; hello connective tissue. 

its personal choice though.

3 hours ago, dmwnc1959 said:

I’ve never had tapioca pudding before either!

im sorry i am not trying to be mean. you do you make it this far along in life and not have had tapioca pudding? 

3 hours ago, MSUjohn said:

it is my father and i; it is our "tradition" to do moderno on the last night of any cruise we are on, as a consolation prize of sorts.

damn, i have accepted the fact that i am functionally illiterate when typing on forums and messaging groups. cruise critics edit policy does not help 😪  

8 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

If I add Moderno, I’ll have to make sure to add it on a night when we leave port late in order to hope that it won’t be packed early in the evening.

it is my father and i; it is our "tradition" to do moderno on the last night of any cruise we are on, as a consolation prize of sorts.

13 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Moderno is classified as one of the fixed-price restaurants? So, one of the ones that should be booked first before the à la cart venues? 

um, its fixed price as opposed to a la cart yes.

idk about booked first i always use my "free at sea" and platinum meals...and occasionally purchase vouchers before i sail.

with the a la cart if you use whatever kind of voucher, they treat it like a "fixed price" because you get a starter main dessert type set up.

i know out of pocket the a la cart prices can run "out of control" very quickly. 

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

Don't overlook Jasmine, the complimentary Asian restaurant, We ate there four nights and loved it every time. 

the bean pie with matcha ice cream is the best dessert on the ship. i will eat somewhere else and stop there for just for dessert.

i am not even a dessert person, i am a savory person...it is just that good.  

2 hours ago, dmwnc1959 said:

I’ve eaten at a restaurant similar to Moderno on Allure of the Seas and it just wasn’t even a good experience.

i have seen a video of the RCL churrascaria and it looked awful; NCLs top notch especially the "buffet"/ starter bar. 

5 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Moderno, neither which are really personally appealing.

Moderno is my favorite place by far; drastically better than cagney's.
but that is just my opinion; and opinions are like .....well never mind.

23 minutes ago, MSUjohn said:

either or

*either/or

31 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

And do the menus rotate through 7-10 days and go back to the same menu from Day 1?

off the top of my head there is a 7-day rotating menu.
>there is the daily favorites served everyday (think beef pork bird fish noodle/vegatarian) and then a rotating menu.
lunch and breakfast are more "repetitive" but that (especially breakfast) is to be expected. 

also there is an asian themed restaurant jasmine garden* that is complementary, if you want some variety. 

here is the menu for the mdr NCL Menus 2024 · Prof. Cruise, Ship Tour, Cruise Vacation, Cruise Travel, Cruise Menus (profcruise.com)

*just pop in for dessert and try the red bean pie with green tea ice cream; thank me after your cruise 😃

16 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

I see Norwegian Jade has two complimentary main dining rooms, Alizar and Grand Pacific. In the Freestyle world of NCL are you able to choose and walk up to which ever one you want to eat at for dinner, or are you assigned one prior to embarkation? I definitely fancy one over the other. 

"free style dinning" you just walk up to either or and they seat you wherever.
 

1 hour ago, david_sobe said:

I think the airlines have suffered the most post pandemic. I have no idea why people think they can act totally insane and expect to fly 30,000 feet in the air.  There are endless youtube channels of the airport meltdowns where police have to fight or arrest unruly passengers.  I flew on the second day the airports opened after 9/11.  You could not even be dropped off in front of the airport and the check in lines were a quarter mile long.  We all stood there silent. No one said a word. No one complained.  We were silently praying to ourselves that we could get to where we were going.

That did not last very long though.  Several weeks later people were fighting over their toe nail clippers.

Personally I hate to use the pandemic as an excuse for behavior changes.  But people are rude and parents don't teach manners anymore.  Talk to anyone working on schools.  The kids are out of control and the parents are even worse. I expect someday cruise lines will be like airplanes where they must increase security and have bouncers booting people off in ports every cruise. 

 

Who could forget this?

 

millions fly
millions cruise

hundreds brawl.


Jesus; its the combination of everyone having a high-resolution video camera in their pocket, the ability to share en masse and mass media highlighting big nothings.


people fight less now than let's say 100 years ago.

On 4/2/2024 at 5:46 AM, david_sobe said:

Without a doubt they are.  Miami is like an entirely different country and not part of the United States.  What tourists see is not real Miami.  We have the largest percentage of uninsured motorists.  Every day on the news is another hit and run.  People run over people and never stop.  Its every day.  I went over to introduce myself to new neighbors (how I was brought up) and they looked at me like I had 2 heads and looked like I had suspicious motives.  Many years ago people would say New Yorkers were rude.   When I went to NYC I found the people very friendly and even very flirtatious.  Miami is in a class of its own.

as someone that has been to miami, florida i do not even see it as american/western: it is the Caribbean/Latin America grafted onto the US. in but not of. 

8 hours ago, MyriamS said:

I think what you consider rudeness also depends on culture. For example, at the buffet, if there are two food stations, let's say one with bread and one with pastries next to one another, a woman is serving herself some bread but no one is taking any pastry at the moment, I would definitely go and grab a pastry if I wanted one. Some might consider that rude because I "cut in front" of that woman but there's no need to create a line when none is needed. A buffet is not (to me at least, and to most Europeans including Germans with their reputation as sticklers for the rules) like a school canteen where you have to queue up and take the food in strict order. If people did so, buffets would be less chaotic but no less crowded and so slow you would eat nothing but cold food. If I were to visit a country where everyone is meant to wait in line at the buffet, I would of course adapt to the rules. That's the thing when you travel, you adapt to the local ways of life (like going extra early to the buffet if the chaos bothers you). 

 

 

i am from the great lakes region of the US and spot on.

On 4/1/2024 at 5:13 PM, blackwing said:

Or have they always been, on the whole, like this?  Some of our early cruising experiences were on Carnival.  When we went on our first NCL 10 years ago, I had thought at the time that the Norwegian passenger on the whole was a bit more refined than the stereotype of the Carnival passenger.  There were formal nights, and passengers dressing up in suits and gowns was the norm and not the exception.  I know that NCL bills itself as a cruise line for families.  But I still want to believe that the passengers overall are very classy.

 

And then there were some incidents I witnessed last week on Getaway:

 

At the Mixx bar, an older lady turns to a middle aged man of Asian descent standing next to her.  He is waiting to order his drink.  She says to him very slowly and loudly, "EXCUSE ME".  He says "Yes, hello?"  She says "Oh good, you DO speak English.  I was worried."

 

Man walking in late to an art auction, making a beeline to a waitress at the front of room collecting empty champagne (prosecco) glasses.  Auctioneer is talking but the man just loudly says the the waitress "WHERE IS THE CHAMPAGNE".  I'm assuming he didn't have the bar package!

 

I walked into an elevator, where a man in his early 20s is chatting with a man of about 40 who is wearing a turban.  20 year old says "what country are you from".  40 year old (who did have a thick accent) says without missing a beat "United States of America".  20 year old gives this dumbfounded look and says "oh.  I meant..."  40 year old says "oh you mean originally?  India."  20 year old says "How is it?"  40 year old says "I wouldn't know.  I've only been there 4 times in the past 20 years."  Meanwhile, the 40 year old's 7-ish year old daughter just keeps repeating "it's crazy there, it's crazy".  I left the elevator before hearing the resolution of this conversation.

 

The best was the last night when I thought I was going to witness a fistfight.  There was a long line of people without reservations trying to get into the Tropicana.  The popular piano player Louis Razon was playing there all night.  One man was waiting in line and I think some little kids who were running around all over the crowded space must have bumped him.  He must have said something because the next thing I know, I hear shouting.  A woman is in his face yelling something like "Excuse me?  You do not get to talk to me like that."  There's some back and forth and she says "You are not allowed to tell me how I should parent my children."  Then her husband gets up and gets in the guys face and says to him something like "You need to back away.  You need to leave and sit down".  The parents go and sit on some bench.  The man (who wasn't talking loudly) must have been talking to the people he was in line with because all of a sudden I hear the woman yelling "excuse me!  I can hear you talking."  I went to the bathroom and when I came back, the parents were gone.  I don't know if they got seated or left.

 

I should not be surprised at all by any of these incidents, I think perhaps the answer is that NCL passengers are a slice of America, just like everybody else.

that is a whole lot of pearl clutching.....4000 passengers on a boat and you see some impertinent behavior and mild a that. Do you ever unknowingly do abrasive things?

ps the indian guy still was not from the US.

ok, i got this from as a perk for delta cruises (or the company that delta cruises is a front of). however, on NCL's website it still gives me the option to prepay them.