PJL1973

Good to hear that drinks were served in Southampton today on the NCL Star. However for me the damage has already been done. I was one of the passengers on the now infamous 'prohibition' cruise and while I could accept it being an admin muck up / new regulations on the embarkation day, it very much all turned sour when the promise that it wouldn't happen again when we were scheduled to be in Belfast failed to materialise. After that I concluded that I no longer could trust anyone's word within the cruise line unless it was backed up by a typed message with the NCL logo. To be fair this only applied to the senior ship members, the bar staff themselves were non-committal (probably because they themselves probably didn't know).

Given the situation, I concluded that I did not want to spend any more money on NCL until I knew for sure that the situation had been resolved to my satisfaction, which never happened whilst on board. So although I failed to reclaim the gratuities that some have suggested (not an unreasonable option IMO) nor filed a complaint while on board, I also decided not to take out their Cruise Next offers, which arguably is the greater damage to them, as it now means I no longer have any deposits with the company and therefore do not have any 'skin in the game' to tie me into making further cruise holiday purchases with them. As a result I am now looking at booking cruises with other lines now, whereas had this been resolved before Belfast, I would have definitely booked at least one more cruise, if not more with NCL.

That price is more for 4 nights than I bought for 5 nights on Anthem OTS. So I say don't buy unless it's falls below £50pppn

51 minutes ago, oddly excitered said:

Anyone know the cruise director?

What about the house band?

Cruise Director on the UK sailings was Joff Eaton. The house band was The Dukes.

On 11/8/2021 at 10:50 PM, Oceansaway17 said:

 

 

me too I just booked today and have scheduled two covid tests.

 

It will be interesting to see how Northstar works with no precruise reservations and if standby line is okay.  Same with shows.  I have seen all of them any times.  hope the buffet at night is open.

This is my first cruise since Nov 2019 and got great rated for forward deck 11 oceanview.

Never been to Coco Cay.  

If you want a free slot on North Star then I would recommend booking early on the day on the app (8am) otherwise the spots will fill up fast.

8 hours ago, BND said:

I'm just addressing that financial value only really applies if you are actually saving money over what you normally would.   Most people will order more to justify it as we've seen reported on here.  For example, we never buy fresh squeezed OJ, but would if we had the package just to justify having it.   DH would order sodas (which he does not need being type II) for the same reason.  Plus, as I've posted before, RCI wouldn't offer these packages unless they made them money.  Anyone who thinks they're getting anything over on RCI would be wrong.

For me, having had the drinks package, I've ordered stuff not because I need to justify the cost, but for the peace of mind of knowing it's all been paid for through the package. I wasn't worried about drinking as much as I can to use up the limit. But I was happy that it gave me an fixed upper cap to my drinking bill. Of course it doesn't cover all drinks, but it certainly covers most drinks, evough for me anyway. Furthermore it was more convenient, in that I had a lot more all included drinks options and places to go to than just the basic buffet+ areas to choose from. Plus, you're on holiday, why stress about how much you're spending on each drink every time.

Of course I did a lot of research on this befordhand, and I concluded I would probably break even, maybe even be a bit more expensive with the package. But the added peace of mind & convenience was worth any possible extra cost.

I would say gratuity rates rarely change. My guess is that it's once a year at most. So perhaps if you've booked more than 12 months in advance it might be a good idea. But even so, the increase in price is unlikely to be dramatic (unlike other things which do have much larger price changes and more frequently, like drinks packages or excursions).

Don't think the TA will allow you to pre-pay gratuities through them (they certainly didn't when I tried it). You need to contact Royal Carribean direct. In the end i decided not to bother. Which turned out to be good as they had a sale on our cruise a week before the sailing and I managed to get OBC out of it for the difference. This in turn easily covered the cost of the gratuities for the sailing.

So moral of the story is - Never pre-pay gratuities.

I've just received my Crown & Anchor points for my cruise, but it's only 10 points (5 nights solo in an inside stateroom) instead of the 20 I was hoping. Would I qualify for double points given the following:

1. I book the cruise through a TA for my sailing (it was booked before the end of the promotion on 30/09/21).

2. I'm a newbie on RC, so no points (pre-gold), but I do register for C&A membership before I go on the cruise, but after I book it

So I guess the issues are - do I qualify for double points if i am pre-gold & do I qualify even if I booked the cruise before joining C&A?

I understand the kids club have been cancelled due to a child testing positive for Covid on our cruise.

On 10/16/2021 at 4:42 PM, gavvy said:

The bionic bar also broke after day one and was not fixed so that took out an area to chill with a drink, there was nobody there most of the time.

It still wasn't fixed for my cruise either (I was on the one after the OP's).

Some bars were busy at certain times on my cruise as well. But I always found alternatives. Solarium bistro was only open for evenings I think. Windjammer closed in the evenings (though they're open for the current sailing during half term - looks like it has to be at least 50% of ship capacity before they open it up). 

Nearest thing to a lounge area on Anthem is probably the centre of the Via (where Jamies & Vintages are situated).

270 did have a bar that was open which you could order from. Or you could just wait until the servers approached you like everywhere else.

Solent Ships has a YouTube channel of cruise ships leaving the port of Southampton.

Have just been on Anthem and although on the app the earliest date you can have is 6.45pm, I was able to get a 6pm slot one day by asking at the restaurant earlier that day.

2 hours ago, Roybthered said:

We are on the 15th sailing (this Friday) and where in Liverpool city centre for our PCR test this afternoon, we did not get a chance to go down to the Docks to have a look at Anthem but will have plenty of time from Friday onwards. One of the first things we do when booking a cruise is look when half term is, love kids but its nice to get away without loads of them running around without any or not much control. 

Although I've heard half term in Scotland (& Leicestershire) starts on the 15th, so there may be a few more kids on our cruise than the one before. But I don't think it'll be as much as the following two.

20 hours ago, alexgtp said:

I sailed Freedom 2 weeks ago and it was at 1/4 (1100 ppl) capacity.

 

I also have Anthem Dec 31 NYE trip booked, I check almost daily for price drops (have gotten 2 so far) and have now noticed that ALL balcony and Oceanview are all SOLD OUT.

 

So either they are limiting the amount of rooms available for purchase or we will be sailing closer to over 60% capacity.

 

Hoping for 1st option.

Most likely it is the 1st option,. Inside staterooms were 'sold out' at one point on my cruise for 15/10 but are now back on sale at a very good price. 

A few things I'd like to ask are
1. How formal was formal night? Suits / dinner jackets?

2. Was it enforced or just voluntary?

3. What night was it on? On the second day as stated on the RC website?

Are you allowed to go to your staterooms yet? On the Royal app for my cruise is states that they tend to be ready 2 hours before sail-away & luggage available an hour afterwards? I'm hoping those are no later times and the reality is that both are usually much earlier.

I'm on Anthem OTS on the 15th, so am looking forward to a live blog on this.

I'm considering buying at £47/day for my Anthem OTS trip, so $47/day would defintelly be a must buy for me. Of course YDMMY.

This might seem a silly question, but does Anthem OTS use US measures / glassess / bottles rather than UK measures? I'm only asking as US measures tend to be smaller than UK ones. This is especialliy true for beer/cider - a US pint (16 fl oz) is only 5/6th of a UK one. If they do use US measures then it would make their drinks even more expensive than at first glance. Certainly on P&O for bottled alcoholic beverages they were using the standard 500 ml bottles (a metric pint I like to think of this, bigger than US but less than UK).

7 minutes ago, *Fudge* said:

We have the drinks package and certainly won’t be drinking 12 alcoholic drinks a day.  We paid £47 for ours and given that we drink specialty coffees, premium sodas and fizzy bottles of water before we have even ordered a glass of wine or two with lunch/dinner and two or three drinks after dinner in the evening it is well worth it for us especially as gratuity is included, with 18% off comes to roughly £38 without gratuity. 
 

I was curious about added tax in port. 

That's good to hear re the drinks package (I presume VAT is always included in the price as well, should be as this is the norm in the UK). Do you know if it's the same for individual drinks prices as well?

A good reivew of Anthem OTS - am definitely looking forward to going on there in October. The testing requirements for entering/leaving the UK are a pain right now, which is why I'm not doing any international sailings, just sticking to the UK for now (which is fine, as crusing is still a novelty for me). 

2 hours ago, OACAggie said:

I am on Anthem in Dec and check in just opened today...90 days out. I was able to check in no problem as well as pick a time. I used the app.

UK sailings are operating to a differrent timescale though. RCI are only opening check in 30 days before sailing for Southampton departures (I can't at the moment with my 15/10 departure cruise). So the OP won't be able to choose times until later this month.

On a related note, a few questions on the RCI drinks package I would like to see clarified please.

1. Is it all inclusive (VAT & gratuities)?

2. Is £48 per day a good price for the deluxe drinks package?

3. How much more expensive are RCI drinks prices compared to P&O? 

All these testing requirements for going abroad is the main reason why I will stick to UK staycation cruises for the time being. Still a hassle but not onerously so.  One test per cruise is enough for me.

36 minutes ago, Roybthered said:

My DW and I are booked on the 15th October and cannot wait to go.

Considering you're from Liverpool, do you find it strange that you'll end up back there via a cruise going from Southampton. OTOH, I suppose you could disembark a few days early if things are going badly. 😄