Panhandle Couple
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Posts posted by Panhandle Couple
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We have been to Moderno 3 times.
Dawn Jan 2022, just out of lockdown. The room was small, salad bar was small, and waiters kept carrying meat around until it cooled.
Jan 2023 on Breakaway was very good. Our seat was next to the large salad bar, and also close to kitchen door. We were the first offered all very hot meat, and medium to medium well was a surface slice, medium rare was a deeper cut. We enjoyed all the offerings, especially the pineapple.
March 2024 on POA was also very good. I remember even having a lamb offering. The chicken was slightly tough. But we only get a small portion of it. The kitchen is open so you can see the cooks. And distance to tables is short.
Dessert are also very good.
Tips:
Closer to kitchen is better.
Use the red-green card quickly. Get 1 or 2 meats then savor them before the next one comes around.
If you like one meat, ask for it again, they may let you know how long until it comes back.
Pineapple is better after lots of meat, but before dessert.
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Just now, Sugar Magnolia said:
The saddest sight…even the lights are blue
One trip ends. Another begins.
We board tomorrow after several days in Barcelona. Hope you have a good journey back home.
We enjoyed your review.
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15 hours ago, richstowe said:
Except they don't get rid of a show. They eliminate paying royalties on a brand name show. Even a no-name show pays music royalties, staff, and production costs. I have no idea if the difference between the two is 88 thousand a week. But that's getting into the weeds. My point is that Norwegian has always been "laser focused on cost management" and this is just more on more cuts.
What S&P 500 company will admit to NOT being focused on cost mgmt?
My point is that relatively small changes add up on a weekly basis, fleet wide. If that change is permanent (maybe reduce the amount of slot machines that no plays) then the savings are year over year. And the savings goal isn't far fetched.
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14 minutes ago, Bridgetocaptain said:
Hi cruisers! I’ve looked up other vibe threads, but haven’t seen much written about the vibe club on the bliss. From what I understand, it is smaller than on many other ships and there is only one hot tub.
For those of you that have experienced vibe on the bliss specifically, what was your experience and would you do it again? Also, does the free at sea unlimited open bar package cover the usual drinks at the vibe bar?
I am sailing to the Mexican riviera in November and am debating whether I should splurge on this or the thermal suite access. I have been on the bliss twice before, but the vibe must be relatively hidden as I’ve never seen the entrance for it before.
The entrance is on deck 19. Free at sea applies.
We used it in December for PC cruise, and loved it.
They don't over sell the spots. It was sold out for our cruise, but never more than 50% full when we used it, which was 12 of 15 days for at least 2 hours or more.
The hot tub can get crowded based on the whims of those using it, but certainly less than on main pool deck.
As a bonus, the bartenders do a "shots at 5" every day, which seems to creep up 15 minutes every few days during the cruise. You have to be at the bar, but they will go through 3 or more, all multi flavored. Even if you only drink 1/4 of the shot, it gives a great variety.
On cooler windy days, they also have warm blankets to wrap up in. We hadn't expected that.
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6 minutes ago, richstowe said:
Your point? If it's that 300 million translates to only $22 per cruise I'd say there are lots of ways the experience can be lessened for that amount. For instance, how much does eliminating Broadway shows save them? I'm betting much less then that.
Well, $22 * 4000 passengers (BA/BA+) = $88,000. Eliminating a Broadway show probably saves a lot more than that.
But, taking away the casino card tables that no one ever uses, and the pay for the dealers (say 4) manning them easily saves (and I have no idea on wages paid)
$25,000 wages / yr * 4 = $100,000.
$100,000/52 = $1923 / wk
1923/4000 = $0.48 $.wk/passenger / 7 days = $.069 per passenger day. Already 6% of the $1.02 per passenger day required. I would never miss those employees, and I think hardly anyone else will. (OK casino is contracted out, but somewhere that contract will be reduced.)
That doesn't factor in the on-board cost of food, etc for those people.
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10 hours ago, richstowe said:
Mark Kempa, CFO of Norwegian Cruise ,“Let me be loud and clear. We are laser focused on cost management,” with a goal of $300 million of savings over the next three years.
I'm sure they will. Sounds like a promise of more cost cutting and treating their customers like a piñata.
People are forgetting that each quarter is almost 2 BILLION in business.
300/3 = 100 million per year required savings
100/4 = 25 million per qtr. required savings
2/3 from ship operating costs * 25 = 16.5 million
(assuming then 1/3 comes from shoreside operations)
1st qtr 2024 "ship operating costs depends on which line they are referring to.
Gross cruise cost = 1.75 Billion
Net Cruise cost excluding fuel = 983 million, the more likely number.
16.5 / 983 = 1.7 %
What CEO talking to shareholders won't say they can't cut cost by 2%?
(shore side 8.5/568 = 1.5 %)
So, how does this compare to the cruise population?
736,559 passengers
16,112,370 passenger cruise days
Per passenger = 16,500/737 = $22.39 per cruise
Per passenger day 16,500/16,112 = $1.02 per day.
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6 hours ago, BrianLo said:
For the moment, it doesn't look like they are reducing the variety, but diluting.
All new product through 2026 are being added to the Caribbean market. Rather than seemingly them shifting ships back. The Caribbean market inherently has shorter cruises so I think that also reduced their lengths of cruises fleet wise by dilution.
When Aqua arrives, that is 3 new ships in ~ 3 years.
Each ship has 3 ports per week (maybe more), that is 156 news port calls per year. 3 ships = 468 new port calls in a relatively short time. They may have to double and triple up on the more popular and easier to reach ports.
Since cruising in Europe in the winter is not profitable, more ports in warmer weather need to fill at least 1/2 of those new port calls. By their own statistics, 85-89% of their customer base is from the US. No other country exceeds 10%. Most US customers don't have the time and money to fly to Europe. But they can afford flights inside the US, or simply drive to the port.
There are many places NCL occasionally sails to, but not frequently or regularly.
St Maarten, St Kitts, Barbados, Aruba, Turks & Cacos, Martinique, etc.
They don't use San Juan as a terminal regularly, and I think are adding Jacksonville next year.
They had a plan to use Panama City, Panama as a terminal, and it might happen, since the terminal there is nearing completion. Those would cruise the west coast of S America; Ecuador, Peru and Chile. (I would certainly go on that cruise)
The key is they do have room for "expansion" without simply visiting the same ports over and over.
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8 minutes ago, BrianLo said:
NCLH had their investors day today.
Highlights or low-lights;
-Drifting more itineraries towards Caribbean.
-Moving towards shorter itineraries
-Moving towards more consistent repetition of itineraries for a given ship
-Focusing on more things to upsell above product above all
-Ongoing drifting to more higher end cabins in percentage mix
-Focusing more on their private islands, more itineraries to include
-Moving towards larger, more efficient ships (we kind of already knew this, but spelled out as a strategy).
-Cost containment, as always
-CruiseFirst seems permanent. Which is a bit odd as I find it somewhat of a redundant program to CruiseNext, there is no real actual benefit to CruiseNext really (other than they hawk it). I'm not complaining, CruiseFirst is more consumer friendly.
All things good for the stock and that have worked well for RCL. Many things I'm not personally that enthralled with, that RCL does.
Stock jumped over 7% today.
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7 minutes ago, jrt.mom said:
Mmmmmm, leftovers. Seriously, a lot of food tastes better the second day when the flavors really come together.
They do NOT serve leftovers.
Any food that leaves the kitchen (to MDR or buffet ) cannot return to be used as leftovers. Food prepared in the kitchen but not served to guests may ( or may not) be served in the crew only buffet the same day. That buffet has to support a 24 hr work force.
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1 hour ago, 4supermom said:
The Hippie Market is held on Saturdays. We went in October 2022 and had a great time. VV offered an excursion that provided transportation there & back. Lots of vendors, so lots of walking. Bought some things I get compliments on all the time.
There’s music playing. In various spots, so we had a light bite, a beer & relaxed while we took a shopping break.Shari
Thanks!
With further investigation, I have found there are 4 or so that use the term Hippy Market. Sadly, they are mainly open on Wed, Thur and Sat. We are there on a Monday, so will have to look at other ways to spend our money.
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9 minutes ago, Aquahound said:
Jurisdiction is the United States, and this case is being investigated by the FBI and the Coast Guard Investigative Service. The crewmember was arrested upon arrival in Juneau. Here is a link to the press release from the US Attorney's Office.
I guess I don't know Jack Schmidt.
(Anyone from St, Louis area, can laugh)
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Just now, realnice46 said:
Just received email mosquito’s on our upcoming France, Italy, Greek cruise departing Barcelona. We’ve done many similar itineraries and never received an email like this. Is anyone aware of a particular problem with certain European countries? If so which ones? I always pack repellant on any trip we do but have never had to use it except in Yosemite. Did anyone receive this email as related to their upcoming cruise.
Yes,
also wondering why I got it for a Euro cruise, and not our PC cruise last December.
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10 hours ago, MohrPfun said:
NCL Brass will want this settled as quickly and quietly as possible, which means a generous settlement and an NDA on the terms. I can almost guarantee you that is what will happen here, and none of us will know the outcome. That’s why they flew there and are handling this in person. The alternative PR that would result from this moving forward in the court of public opinion, and/or law all but makes it a fait accompli. It’s really that simple.
There are overriding reasons why NCL sent staff there. I doubt they spent more than 10% of their time with the victim.
They reported a crime, and have to provide evidence of the crime. They own the crime scene, which, happens to be movable, has 4,000 people wandering around, and will only be in port 8 hours. The incident happened in a public area that they simply can't shut down.
They have to ensure that the on board security has done the full collection of video, testimonies, and tracking of the suspect. That has to be turned over to the local authority. The locals may also want to inspect the area, and security has their regular port duties on top of this.
As stated earlier, jurisdiction will be up for discussion, which is well beyond the pay grade of the Captain and crew. That might take weeks to determine.
Also the corporate review of all the employees and actions involved.
What did we do right?
What did we do wrong?
Is our training sufficient for these events?
The faster you go thru this process, the better.
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1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:
There is an overlap in jurisdiction between "port state" (the country where the port or waters the incident happened in) and "flag state" (the country where the ship is registered). And this gray area is what keeps Admiralty lawyers in business. In a port (I don't remember if this happened in port or at sea), the flag state has jurisdiction on the ship, unless the "safety or well being" of the port state are affected, in which case the port state has jurisdiction. However, the US has also claimed "extra-territorial" jurisdiction to claim jurisdiction over certain crimes against US citizens that happen on the open ocean (in no other country's waters), regardless of the flag of the ship.
The timeline is unclear in the news articles, but here is what I came up with.
Other crew stated he was only onboard "24 hrs".
It was also stated that the incidents happened at night.
If Encore left Seattle on Sunday afternoon, it could have happened Sunday or Monday night, but sounds like Monday. Which would be somewhere off the coast of Canada.
We didn't find out until they ported in Juneau on Wednesday, which is right for sailing duration.
As this was not an act of piracy or terrorism, applying extra-territorial rights seems unnecessary? That would be important for criminal charges, but liability claims? The two may end up being tied together for which court gets the cases, assuming there is a liability claim.
In any case, a judge will likely recommend binding arbitration vs being the determinate of any award.
My point was what you mentioned, lots of grey areas here, which most "personal injury" lawyers are not prepared to handle.
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1 hour ago, marrashadow said:
They can sue NCL very easily as they have a US office located in Miami. Which means they have a US business license as do most cruise lines. They own ports and buildings in US. Even with a parent company in a foreign country they only have to go after US address licensed. A simple google search and you will see lawsuits are brought against them in US often. Which is why your cruise contracts have so many pages and exclusions. The contract states you have to settle in the home office country but that is not what generally happens because US courts don't allow such a restriction. Injury lawyers state normal payouts from cruise lines are between 50k to 500k so don't think they are getting millions.
Because NCL does have many operations in US shore side, they would logically be subject to any legal action pertaining to those operations.
However...
This incident happen in the open seas. Admiralty Law takes precedent, as I see it.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/admiralty
"Under admiralty, the ship's flag determines the source of law. For example, a ship flying the American flag in the Persian Gulf would be subject to American admiralty law; and a ship flying a Norwegian flag in American waters would be subject to Norwegian admiralty law. This also applies to criminal law governing the ship's crew."
"American courts may refuse jurisdiction where it would involve applying the law of another country, although in general international law does seek uniformity in admiralty law."
More info on the process:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_law
Personal Injuries to Passengers.
"The passenger bears the burden of proving that the shipowner was negligent. While personal injury cases must generally be pursued within three years, suits against cruise lines may need to be brought within one year because of limitations contained in the passenger ticket. Notice requirements in the ticket may require a formal notice to be brought within six months of the injury. Most U.S. cruise line passenger tickets also have provisions requiring that suit to be brought in either Miami or Seattle."
United States
Jurisdiction.
"....all other maritime cases, such as claims for personal injuries, cargo damage, collisions, maritime products liability, and recreational boating accidents may be brought in either federal or state court.
From a tactical standpoint it is important to consider that in federal courts in the United States, there is generally no right to trial by jury in admiralty cases, although the 1920 Jones Act grants a jury trial to seamen suing their employers."
Applicable Law
"A state court hearing an admiralty or maritime case is required to apply the admiralty and maritime law, even if it conflicts with the law of the state, under a doctrine known as the "reverse-Erie doctrine". While the "Erie doctrine" requires that federal courts hearing state actions must apply substantive state law, the "reverse-Erie doctrine" requires state courts hearing admiralty cases to apply substantive federal admiralty law. However, state courts are allowed to apply state procedural law."
Not as easy as everyone is suggesting.
Clearly falls under Admiralty law.
6 months to make a claim.
Seattle or Miami (most likely),
Court would need to make a determination why Bahama Admiralty law wouldn't apply.
A state court (if it is in that venue) still has to follow Federal laws. No advantage to state shopping. State must also have judges certified for Admiralty law.
No jury involved in the trial.
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On 5/6/2024 at 8:51 PM, Devo12 said:
Hi. We will be a group of 13 sailing on the joy over Christmas. For the complimentary dining, do we need to make reservations to sit together or can we just show up? I would think we would eat around 6:30-7. Or will they seat us at 2 tables?
thanks. Devo
That is pretty far in advance, I wouldn't start any reservations until October timeframe.
We sailed on Breakaway this last Christmas, and there were many large parties, 10-18 or so that we noted.
I would certainly consider breaking into 2 smaller groups, overall service (ordering, meal organization and delivery) will be faster that way. Ask for 1 table of 8 and 1 for 6.
Also the specialty restaurants struggle with large groups. We did see a large family at La Cucina, which has the most space on the Breakaway.
We were disappointed when our family group of 5 (which we reserved as a table for 6) was constantly given a table for 4 with an extra chair squeezed in. (We are all grown adults) We flatly declined this in Cagney's and La Cucina, even getting into an argument with La Cucina staff about what a reservation for 6 meant.
My advice for specialties, is book in 2 groups of 4 and 1 of 6 for flexibility, and refuse to sit at tables with extra added chairs.
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7 minutes ago, markwfpb said:
That's great to hear. We're not overly concerned about cross contamination but it's great to know that's even on their radar!
We have done a behind the scenes tour (freebie) and were shown the different colored knifes and utensils for different meats and the veggies. NCL has moved away from frying (especially deep frying) as much as possible, so likely uses only vegetable oil, but I can't be certain on that.
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1 minute ago, AC Stew said:
Me too. Don't use the link!
Which means for those who didn't get one, a good idea is to shut computer, restart, and do full virus scan before reconnecting to the inter web.
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12 hours ago, njkate said:
I recommend not using this link. 10 seconds in I got several virus attack warnings.
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2 minutes ago, WhiteOptima said:
Thanks! My DH is a railroad fan and all about the canal.
Check out Panama canal videos on U-tube. There is one from the PBS show "The American Experience" which is very good, and has many photos and comments about the railroad importance during the construction. It is also a very good overall program on the building of the canal.
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5 hours ago, WhiteOptima said:
And another…the next day Bob and Nicky did one of the train tours, and he was their tour guide on that as well. They got a double dose of boring.
I was looking at the train ride and wondering if it was worth it. Did they have any thoughts other than the guide?
If you haven't looked, there are many excursion discussions on the PC page here on CC. Also look at Trip Advisor for Panama City, Panama. Many more reviews there, along with the other
ports. Most are similar, or really the same as the NCL offerings.
Our friends liked the excursion, minus the boring narration.
But it might all depend on if you are a railroad fan, if you want to see more of the canal (and get more history) or see the city.
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Just now, WhiteOptima said:
@Panhandle Couple Thank you! Will do.
Also, a poster going by Eganfire had a Semi-live of the same cruise.
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2 hours ago, WhiteOptima said:
I know this is a year later but I am doing PC in December and trying to read up as this is my first NCL Cruise.
Was American Diner a cost? I have read different things about.
And I agree, WHAT THE HECK with no water. Drink but don't hydrate? Even Carnival offers water with their drink package. This just blows my mind. Bringing a collapsible large container to fill up with ice and water from the buffet so I can keep in the room.
See my review from Dec 2023 for another viewpoint.
Since this will be your first NCL cruise, just a few things to point out.
NCL typically does not hand out individual water. Experienced NCL'ers will bring their own metal container to carry water around. You can fill it at the self fill station in the buffet, or simply ask for a glass of ice water at any bar, and place it in the container. Some will even fill the container for you if they are not crowded. The reasons for this vary, but think of how much room 10 pallets of water take up for a long cruise. The same amount of stackable cups is probably 1/4 of a pallet, which they use for bar drinks anyhow. NCL doesn't want to have to store and recycle all that plastic when they get into port. We have also found when on Princess, that 1/2 to almost empty water bottles seem to gather in public areas. People can simply be slobs at times.
NCL earlier this year changed American Grill from a pay option to a free option. {lots of applause}. I have never eaten there, but will on my next cruise now that it is free.
The OP missed that The Local/O'Sheehans is also a free venue, open 24 hrs. Small menu of mainly munchies, but a good quick breakfast option. Having 3 MDR with the same menu is std on NCL large ships. Again, don't know why the OP complained about that.
For specialty restaurants, on a long cruise like PC, I would add at least 1 extra dining pkg (which is 2 meals) from the web site vs purchasing on board. Cheaper that way, and you can break up the meals through the cruise between specialty and MDR.
I would also add the Vibe Beach Club. (Again available on the web site, but book at least 4 months before the cruise or they will sell out.) The extra space and attention made the trip, especially on sea days. No need for Spice H2O or main pool deck unless you want to go there to hear the band.
Deck 15 near Observation Lounge is a great location. Early morning quick access to the OL gets you easy continental snacks, coffee and soda, or mimosa to start your day. Our only complaint was that the nighttime pool parties were a little loud, but didn't keep us from sleeping.
Search for "New to NCL" or NCL first timer" post to get lots of other info that gets repeated every month or so.
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Barely A Live from Escape May16-26 2024 Trieste (Venice) to Barcelona/10-Day Mediterranean: Italy Croatia Greece France Spain
in Norwegian Cruise Line
Posted
4 days in Barcelona will give you lots of time to see things.
We did the 2 day HOHO red and blue lines. (Another company uses green and orange, but close to the same routes)
Beware of pickpocketing in the beach area. We met a couple that had their cell phone stolen on their first day because they weren't paying attention there. Tell anyone approaching you "gracias no" before they get into your personal space. Regular vendors do not hawk things in the street.
We stayed by the Sants train station, and it is more laid back, less crowded, and seems safer than the more touristy areas.
Many places close at 2 or 3 and don't reopen until after 6 at the earliest. Most don't serve dinner until after 8.
The Boqueria market is a great experience. Iberian ham is a must try.