mderaba

Here’s another vote for St. Tropez foam mousse. I’ve used it for several years now and always get compliments.  Natural looking. Be sure and use the mitt to apply it evenly.  There’s one version that’s called Marshmallow mousse that has a fuzzy mitt that I like even better.  

We and three other couples did the NCL 12-day Med cruise in 2015, so the itinerary has probably changed since then.  We were on the Spirit.  We loved this cruise!  We embarked from Barcelona and spent two nights prior to boarding, which was fun. Lots to see and do there, including a beach.  We then sailed to southern France and did a winery tour for the day, with a private van and guide who worked at the one winery.  Had a nice lunch in Cassis.  Then on to Italy, where we hired the Rome in Limo tour company, again with a private van for the 8 of us plus driver/guide, and they planned our days in each port according to what we wanted to see and do.  I highly recommend them.  They know how to avoid the crowds, even getting us in a side entrance to one of the museums one day.  We toured  Florence, Tuscany, the Vatican, Rome, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast with a pleasant stop in Positano.  Then we sailed to Mykonos, Greece, and did a beach day there.  Then on to Istanbul, Turkey, which was discontinued three months later as a port stop due to the political climate and tensions there.  We disembarked in Venice, which was an overnight stay.

It is true that this is a tour-intensive cruise.  However, we did grab an extra sea day by staying on the ship when it stopped at Ephesus, Turkey, which was so nice to have the pool all to ourselves.  It was exhausting but very exciting--the trip of a lifetime for us and our friends.  The Spirit was a fine ship, with the biggest deepest pool I've seen on any ship.  We had the specialty dining package and had wonderful meals, along with the beverage package.  We also were met by our tour guides as soon as we got off the ship, at almost every port but in Mykonos.

Thanks don’t-use-real-name for the helpful tips!

Thank you, Love My Butler!  Good to know.  

So, is the ability to book dining reservations, etc., as soon as boarding only available to Haven guests, or is it also available for suite guests?  We have a Penthouse suite with large balcony booked. 

Does anyone have experience with the free or reduced airfare from California to Hawaii?  I am particularly interested in flying from southern California, and if NCL routes you directly to Honolulu or if they route you with any stops.  We are booked for the Pride of America cruise in September 2020, and are paying for our flight from the East coast to Huntington Beach for three days prior to the cruise date to break up the trip.  We want to use the free/reduced air offer to then fly from California to Hawaii.  Seems to me it should be a direct flight, from all I've been reading it seems like NCL can book routes that have stops and layovers to get the cheapest price.

We did a Mediterranean cruise four years ago for 12 days, and after extensive research, we booked our tours in Italy with a highly recommended company called Rome In Limo.  They have thousands of five star reviews on TripAdvisor.com, one of my main sources of information for many many years.  We booked for our group of eight and they met us in a nice air conditioned Mercedes van right off the ship in Livorno, Rome and Naples, from where we decided what we wanted to see and do, although they always have suggestions.  The drivers were our guides and spoke very good English.  They also were very helpful in getting us to the hotspots at the best time to miss the crowds that arrive in buses!  At one museum, our guide knew another guide who got us in a side door because there was a long line to enter.  Plus, we had one of our group who has MS and found she'd need a wheelchair to do the Vatican tour, etc., so our first day guide called ahead to her company office in Rome to arrange for a wheelchair!  This was definitely a great tour! 

You can book with them in advance online, and I think we just gave a credit card number to hold the reservation.  I can't recommend them enough, if you're at all interested. The drivers/guides were so nice, informative and entertaining, too.

We booked RIL for three tours in Italy while on our cruise. We had Laura in Florence, Rolando in Rome and Enrico in Naples. All were fantastic! Laura was very accommodating for our group of four couples, with special attention to our one friend with MS who needed a wheelchair. Laura called ahead for the next day in Rome to make sure there was a wheelchair for all the Vatican touring, and Rolando also made a special effort to pick up the wheelchair at his church and bring it along. Enrico also showed up with a wheelchair the third day.

Laura was intent on having us enjoy the beautiful Tuscany scenery, and we thoroughly enjoyed our day. Rolando entertained us with his description of Rome and Vatican City with many special highlights, adding a good dose of humor! His extensive experience in the tourism business is evident. The guide at the Vatican was Katherine, and she was super fantastic! She was so enthusiastic and animated in her descriptions, and we will never forget our tour thanks to her wonderful guidance.

Enrico was a great driver and guide in Naples and along the Amalfi Coast. Positano was a charming town and we enjoyed the shopping, even though it was brief. He knew how to navigate the twisting roads along the coast with ease, allowing us to enjoy the panoramic views. I would definitely like to return to this area!

Everything from booking the private vans for our group online to meeting the guides and drivers was easy and seamless. Our group all relied on me to book the tours and they kept repeating how pleased they were with RIL. I highly recommend this company!!!

We're flying THIS August --in two weeks-- non-stop from JFK to Barcelona on a British Air flight operated by American Airlines. Reasonably priced. Not sure about 2016 but you could check.

I haven't used it, but the $7.95 (or whatever it is) per phone to text each other on board has received good reviews from others.

This is the first I've heard of this option. How and where do you sign up for this? Is that price good for the entire cruise? We have eight people going on the Spirit Grand Mediterranean for 12 days and I'd really like to know! Thanks.

Does anyone know if the UDP allows you to eat breakfast in Cagney's? We are in a balcony cabin on the Spirit Grand Med cruise but last year we had a suite on the Dawn and really enjoyed Cagney's breakfast!

My hair frizzes too if I don't blow dry it, and of course, depending on your itinerary, if it's tropical, the humidity is often high. I always take my own blow dryer for this reason. I also received a fantastic gift for Christmas--the Calista styling brush, that is a plug-in heated round coated brush that smoothes the hair and curls or lifts at the same time. Note that it is not an air blower, so it doesn't dry your hair. But it heats in 3 minutes and does a wonderful job. They sell it on QVC.

I have tried many waterproof mascaras over the past couple years. My new favorite is Givenchy waterproof. It is not cheap, BUT I love the brush! It is truly unique, in a ball shape with bristles over all around including the tip, that grab and coat every lash from corner to corner. This is the only mascara I've ever had that doesn't smear upon applying and cause me to have to wipe away the smears. It also gives great coverage with one coat. It is quick and easy once you practice applying a couple of times to get used to the little ball brush. Stays on in the water when swimming. I use the black shade as well.

Good luck!

Sure, but unless you have really think hair, that is long and super hard to dry, why would you want to bring your own? There are very few outlets in the cabin. I am always satisfied with the NCL dryers.

Yep, you got it--I do have long and thick hair! I used the ship hairdryer once or twice on our last cruise on the Dawn, and it just didn't do the trick. However, I will probably have to pack my own high-end dryer for our pre- and post-cruise hotel stays in Barcelona and Paris anyway.

Yes. The only ship with a restriction is the Spirit due to voltage.

 

However all of the ships I've been on have really good hairdryers. I never bring one from home.

So, just to clarify, I cannot take my own hairdryer on board the Spirit? Will they confiscate it?

We've been on the Dawn twice, most recently April of this year, and the Pearl once in 2011. One thing we noticed was the Pearl's buffet was a lot nicer and bigger with more selections, and the dining area was more upscale with upholstered seating, etc. Probably the difference with a newer ship. The food quality was about the same.

My DH and I were on the same cruise last week with three other couples, and each couple had a forward Penthouse Suite. We had a blast! We found the food to be fairly good in every venue EXCEPT the buffet. Our last cruise was on the Pearl and the buffet on that ship was far, far superior to the Dawn's. We ate breakfast several times in Cagney's, and I really enjoyed ordering different things like the Crabcakes with Poached Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce, and the Lobster & Scallops dish, both of which were not available in the buffet. Also used room service for a nice breakfast on one of the Port days.

Agree with the comments about the butler--ours was very nice, but the steward did far more work than the butler. John the concierge was great, and we had him make dinner reservations one or two nights for our group of 8. He seemed gracious at all times, and only once did he mention that he "had a lot of other suite guests" to take care of when we asked about seating at the Bollywood show. (Ha--I know we as PS guests rank at the bottom of suites! Oh, well.)

I also agree with the comments about the pool area and the teens. Again, the Pearl has two pools, an adult pool and a kids pool, both on the lido deck. It's a larger pool area in general than on the Dawn, so it's not as crowded. Overall, I didn't think there were many Spring Breakers on this cruise as I expected, though. We were entertained by some of the older guests' freaky actions during the various poolside contests--more so than by the younger guests. We are middle-aged and definitely not prudes, but we saw one "lady" competing in a push-up contest with her backside and more totally exposed! Yikes!

We went to the Venetian the first night and had the surf and turf, and a couple of the guys had more than one lobster tail. The tails were fairly large and very tender, a surprise to me, as I thought I had read on CC that this was not the case. We also ate at Aqua and had a nice meal there, nothing outstanding. La Cucina was very good. My Italian husband is a lasagna nut and had such a generous portion with lots of meat and cheese that he couldn't finish it all, which is very unusual. We also ate at Moderno the last night and had an excellent meal. This was probably the highlight of our dinners for the week. I favored the lambchops, and most of our table enjoyed the filet mignon and the seasoned steak. Service was excellent.

We were disappointed in the cancellation of the Roatan port stop but totally understood why NCL cancelled. After all, one of their crew members was KILLED the day before. I know this can and does happen in other locations, but come on, this was one of their own. They were rightfully concerned about the safety of guests and crew. Also, some may not be aware that a family of four were also held up at gunpoint on a jeep excursion on their own on Roatan a couple months ago. NCL was sending a message that this will not be tolerated without consequences. The negative publicity for this port could harm any future cruise ship stops, I'd think. In any case, we had booked the ship's catamaran snorkel trip, and of course, it was fully credited to our onboard account as promised.

We did the Sharks Rays Island Getaway tour in Belize and really enjoyed this day. Excellent guides on that one. The next port was Costa Maya and we went to the Pez Quadro all-inclusive beach club. After initial confusion by the staff there that we had guaranteed lounge chairs and palapas for all of us for the day, we were guided to eight lounge chairs and had excellent service at this very nice venue and beautiful beach.

Our final tour in Cozumel was the Bar Hop Tour which we all agreed totally lived up to all the five-star reviews on TripAdvisor, etc. A really fun day on the wild Atlantic side of the island, where my DH and I had been before. Four different bar stops with a free drink at each, ending with some excellent coconut shrimp at the Rasta bar. This made a nice variety for shore excursions for us for the week.

One other side note about our pre-cruise stay in Siesta Key....we arrived on Friday in Tampa, rented a large van and took the one hour trip over the Skyway Bridge (the one the Dawn sailed under) to Siesta Key for two days, and it was fabulous! None of our group except for me had been to SK before, and they absolutely loved it! We rented two condos, with two BRs and two baths, full modern kitchen each, just a block from the Village and 3 blocks from the beach. Saturday was a perfect beach day, and our friends just couldn't believe how nice the pure white, soft sand was with the turquoise ocean. Perfect day! I highly recommend doing this if you arrive at least two days early for your cruise out of Tampa. We were actually reluctant to leave SK Sunday morning to drive back to Tampa!

Does anyone know if the Penthouse suites on the Dawn are equipped with the portable phones? I searched the forum but can't find this specific information. This is our first time in a Penthouse, and previously our friends were in a Family 2-bedroom suites and had the portable phones.

Also, do these phones allow you to call others with the same phone from their suite? We have four couples all staying in the SE suites and wondering if this is a way we can communicate with each other onboard.

The last time we cruised on the Norwegian Dawn they required the men to wear long pants in some specialty restaurants, as I recall--specifically Le Bistro. Does anyone know if this is still the case for any restaurants? We are probably only going to Moderno and La Cucina.

I wear waterproof mascara all the time with my contacts--just can't stand any smudging, etc. Recently I asked at an Ulta store what's the "best" waterproof, and they told me "Cannonball" by Clinique. It absolutely is the best as far as waterproof, in my opinion. A very close runner-up, with a bigger brush, is DiorShow waterproof.

I truly believe the Cannonball by Clinique must have been made for professional diving or swimming athletes!

I also second the votes on Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner. I will definitely be wearing this on our upcoming cruise!

Thanks everyone for your quick responses! I am glad to hear there is an outlet in the vanity. I have a travel make-up mirror and just wanted to make sure I could use it there!

Does anyone know if in the Penthouse Suites there is an electrical outlet in the "vanity"/dressing room area outside of the bathroom? Or if not, is there an outlet in the bathroom itself?

I've been using Smashbox BB cream now for most of the past year, and I absolutely love it! It is a little on the expensive side, but I've found that it lasts for a long time, and you do get what you pay for with these creams. This one looks real in sunlight and not fakey or orange-ish. It gives a nice glow and even covers up redness. I definitely recommend it!

Thanks, all, the photos are great! Thanks for all the helpful info, too. Now I'm even MORE excited to be in the penthouse forward suite! Our friends will be above us in two suites on deck 10 and another couple will be beside us on deck 9. I think we will all have a blast no matter what! (Even if the embarkation and debarkation wait line issues are still happening :confused:!)

Wow, thanks for the great pictures from the Dawn, DCP! That "submarine" door is something else...hubby will get a kick out of that!

Garycarla, I'm not sure what you mean about my "links being all bunched up"?? I didn't include any links in my original post...do you perhaps mean the signature "Sailed" blocks? If so, I have no idea how to correct them, since the website designs those somehow. When I view my post, everything looks fine. Sorry for any confusion.

In any case, it appears everyone has provided good info about the forward penthouse suites. I guess we will just have to put up with the suite life...!;) Thank you!

Thanks, Doughboy, did try YouTube, and found two short videos; however, I didn't get specific answers to the questions about windy balconies or noise.