ChiefMateJRK

Yeah, I'm sure many enjoy those. That's fine. I'm a survivor/victim/beneficiary of decades at MegaCorp. The "honor" of sharing dinner with people more important than me faded to oblivion many years ago. "I've already gone places. I just want to stay where I am." (bonus points to whoever can identify where that quote came from, I will be SHOCKED if anybody on CC knows🤣)

I chose the full cash refund for my May 2020 cruise mainly because I generally don't like taking I.O.U.s from corporations regardless of the incentive. That said, I have started leveraging CruiseNext certs, but those have a 100% incentive, not just 25% which the Covid FCC offers gave you. The odds are better, but nothing is certain.

I agree with you (we just flipped to Sapphire). I do like the additional 5% discount on Shorex. That equates to actual $$$ in my pocket. We'll see if that "priority seating" turns into anything meaningful, but I highly doubt it. If anybody ever spots me having dinner with the officers, please pull me out of the game and walk me to the nearest bar.😎

Nice! Alexa played some good Queen for us on the Encore in 2021. We may have had to (slightly) twist her arm but she is my favorite all time NCL performer. I recently heard that she is on the Sky now, which is a shame because we just got off the Sky (well, Feb) and won't sail her again for the foreseeable future. Siglo did one or two Queen songs in recent weeks on the Bliss. They tend to learn a collection of great songs and perfect their presentation, so not a lot of "hey, can you try this one?" I actually like that.

Mine flipped within the past two weeks. It's not surprising that some are still pulling the old web pages. That's how it's been every time NCL "evolves" their website.

They're alright and I enjoy listening to the renditions on the NCL ships. That said, back in my youth, I listened to a whole lot more Pink Floyd, Queen, Rush and many others (including Fleetwood Mac) than I did the Beatles.

LOL. Someday we may brother. 🐀

I would love that, but it's too expensive for my blood even if I'm spending @HBCcruiser's OBC. 🐀

Aye! Therin lies the trouble.

The closest I come to "pants" on a cruise is a nice pair of cotton sweatpants. I've worn those to the "classy" restaurants several times, often to the chagrin of DW and DD. I may pack a pair of my nice cotton broadcloth pajama pants on my next cruise, just to push that envelope. 😎 Slippers are an absolute given. If I ain't leavin' the ship, I ain't puttin' on shoes. And yes, I do have a witness. 🐀

Are you sure about that? I thought that CruiseNext certs just returned to the account if the cruise is cancelled. Are there any experts out there who can confirm????

I've been in both, and they are both too small IMHO. Besides being small, the Joy is also set up so that the stage is on the short side of the rectangular space. Weird. The Cavern Club on the Encore is very similar to the one on the Bliss.

Well there's the problem right there! The good music only gets one night? 😀

Thanks. It would seem that there would be a win-win out there to revisit the contracts, but I know absolutely nothing about that stuff.

I'll agree with those as being problems. I think these are more logistics and programming than cost reductions. The performers get paid the same whether they are performing in one of those small venues or the main theater (which goes unused for much of the time). I (and likely many others) don't understand why folks should cram into or miss the Rumors show when it could instead be presented in the theater. That said, I haven't had the benefit of sailing on a cruise with that show but I'm sure it's great. Is Syd Norman's any smaller than the Cavern Club on many other ships?

Sure. My preference is to keep the DSC increases lower by eliminating that nighttime turndown which provided no value to me whatsoever. That doesn't lower the quality of my cruise experience at all. If it lowers your cruise experience, then you may want to pass that along to NCL in your next post-cruise survey. Yikes!! I see no reason to get personal just because I shared a contrarian opinion. It would be pretty boring around here if everybody agreed on everything. 😎 Some/most of us enjoy the various opinions. Sometimes they even change my mind on some things, although I may be in the minority on that one.

Did you provide that feedback in your post-cruise NCL survey?

Pearl? It's showing on the NCL website now.

Have you listened to any of the musical acts in the lounges and smaller venues? If so, how were they? We'll be on the Sun in couple of months.

I think it is totally random. I was on the Sky in January. Warm weather cruise. I wore shorts to MDR twice for dinner, saw the "pants required sign" but was seated anyways. Then, a few nights later we went to MDR after a show for dessert. It was close to 9:00 PM. Hostess told me I had to return to my room to change into appropriate clothes. 🤣 We just grabbed some dessert elsewhere.

I'll be that contrarian. If they need to do both to remain viable and compete, then so be it. Let's use the DSC as an example. For steerage, the cost per person per day went from $16 to $20, and the evening turn downs were cancelled. IOW, the cost went up but the service went down. I'm fine with both if keeping the evening turn down would have instead necessitated the DSC going to $24 per person per day. That said, I'm likely a bit more analytical and a bit less emotional than many of my fellow cruisers.😎🐀

Another Muster drill debate!! 🤣 Didn't NCL themselves end this debate?

One of the most fun moments of my recent B2B was getting that dreaded notice, 🤣about it, and throwing it in the trash! 😎

The problem is that you get the tickets once on board and if you didn't know about this you likely wouldn't have any packed.

Okay, the correct spelling is "Ruh Roh."