Rancher Dave

I'd expect it to be one of the easiest B2B since it's all in the USA and there would be no CPB clearance to go thru at the end of the first week before the second week.

Best to have your TA get the specifics of how it will work for the dates you want to go since things could have changed from when others have done so.

Every girls crazy for a sharp dressed man

 

 

*Living large one week at a time*

At 8 and 10 they may not want the attention of girls just yet...although dressing nicely young may help build that habit for later.

Mom saw one of the deckhands from tender in Belize yesterday and noted, told me, that his pants were nearly falling off showing most of his undies...see some pax like that going to MDR as well...last cruise not this week.

OP as long as they are dressed in clothes and have other than flip flops they will be just fine. I saw shorts and t-shirts in Mama's Italian Kitchen the other night on adults no less.

For my family and me, it would be the Navigator, in part because of the extra fun onboard activities the ice skating and flow rider both of which we like.

Breakfast on the last morning is earlier than usual...and it's not "relaxing"...at least, not like you've been used to all week! They want you GONE....and gone ASAP!

LOL agree out with the old and in with the new, pax that is.

Since the unlimited package is limited to one device at a time can you connect with an iPhone then use that as a hot spot to connect the rest of devices?

Haven't tried but honestly it;s so easy to just log out of one and onto the other...like I've been doing so far this cruise.

The best tasting thing I remember on it from our last cruise was the chocolate fountain with fresh fruit! Thank goodness they had a crew member spooning the chocolate for all the passengers, and it had a glass shield in front of it. I'd hate to see what some people would do if there was free flowing chocolate in front of them!

Saw the chocolate fountain the other day here on Jewel and thought how nice to see a glass shield and server helping with the fruit and chocolate. Some folks don't consider that food is being shared by many and personal bad eating habits aren't welcomed by others.

On Jewel and using the unlimited internet plan at the moment. Signed up after noon today and saved on a day of the cost which was nice because I didn't need internet yesterday.

Speed of the service is slightly slower than at the house, but far better than on other ships I've been aboard.

Email is moving without hassle and I was able to watch youtube videos without them sticking as more footage downloaded.

Ship only has 138 under 18 aboard so maybe the internet would slow if there were 800+ of them like last week, but reports were that last week it went fast anyhow.

plan to try it out on Jewel this coming week. Will be nice to not have to watch the minutes being used. Typically very careful first few days and then end up with minutes to burn on last day. Unlimited will be so much easier.

Breakaway because I want to sail from NYC on one of the newer ships.

We have never sailed on Princess before and are considering doing so for an Alaskan cruise. My husband has Celiac Disease and has to eat gluten free. So how about it...anyone else out there required to eat gluten free....what was your experience on Princess? Thanks!

My DD has been quite pleased on both Caribbean and Emerald Princess sailings since her diet was restricted. Her situation is complicated even more by having to be dairy free as well...so they made a special sweet ending for her and her meals were specially prepared without the dairy or gluten.

Get with your head waiter on the first night and they will work with you even when you go to specialty dining.

I can just see paying passengers sleeping on deck like non paying troops

They did on the CCL Triumph, but then again that cruise was worse than the troop sailings.

I will add I'd not want to be on a completely full Oasis or Allure sailing.

For the Canadians, did you pay with a Credit Card? If so I'd call the credit card company and get them involved over the exchange rate differences. Doesn't seem like NCL should be able to make a profit on the exchange rate at your expense when no product was ever delivered.

I'd also send a note to Andy Stuart explaining your disbelief that they are taking the exchange rate to their favor in refunds to those who were cancelled today.

Sorry your vacations are all screwed up...never fun when that happens, and sadly nothing can make up for all the time invested preparing for the trip.

This is exciting news given I am aboard in less than a week.

With cell service for the first few hours on the ship, post departure thru the bay and out past the sea buoy, and a meeting on Sunday morning, I should easily be able to wait until after lunch on Day 2 and sign up for the lower price. If we departed on a Sunday maybe different thought process, but really I don't need email until Monday and that can be achieved at Diamonds International for those who ask nicely for the password. (from DI).

Hopefully the speed is much better than in the past as staying logged in quite a bit will allow the data to flow all the time. Should allow to post daily reviews of the ship while the cruise is in progress.

It's probably the one thing I really would like to see on all ships as being able to work from anywhere makes more vacations possible for me.

This rather clever YouTube video/poem was recently posted by a past NORWEGIAN EPIC passenger who sailed in February. He was not happy about the cleanliness of his cabin, wrote NCL, and never heard back. So he took matters into his own hands and created this poem/video. It's pretty well done actually, and I have to admit some of the cabin conditions are unacceptable.

 

I have to wonder if having the shower/toilet arrangement in the cabin and not in a separate bathroom is creating extra mold issues on EPIC? This is not the first I've read of mold issues on EPIC.

 

Seems like NCL is getting a LOT of bad publicity as of late. Not a great start for the new management team it would seem.

 

Enjoy the video!

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isL8_zyIkwg&spfreload=10

Definitely had me chuckle. Much as I like NCL keeping clean cabins is a necessary function of the ship's crew. It's better for passenger health, longevity of ship facilities, and gee helps eliminate reasons for folks not cruising with them again.

Better have them in original bottle if going into the UAE. May not check but if they do it could be trouble if not in correct bottles with RX on the bottle. Also, not all RX can be legally carried there, and no I'm not talking about ones allowed in CO but not other states...

Yes, but Carnival is still keeping a free menu which includes coffee and a continental breakfast. NCL would have been smarter to try something like that instead of making a convenience fee for everything on the menu.

Just a trial now, so who knows where we will all be a few weeks from now, could be a $20 charge for all orders or could be back to some free stuff and charges for some items.

Regardless, the lines are out to make money for the shareholders, and increasing charges along with cutting food waste both help add to the bottom line.

Voyager of the Seas last night was featured during a prime time national television show in Australia.

A review Oz style.

 

Great show. Nice to see the Flowrider in action and Capt. Ryan aboard. DD and I may be on the July 18th HKG RT sailing. One of our favorite ships, especially given the Longhorns from when she first sailed into Galveston, are on our ranch waiting for a reason to be inflated again.

The production shows can be fun.

Ice Skating during open skate sessions is quite fun, especially if you hail from Texas where skating outdoors is not likely 99% of the time.

I think some of you are missing the point of the OP's original post, which I took to be quite tongue in cheek.

 

Airfare for the Escape transatlantic has increased by £100,152. Ouch! NCL iS digging deep for that extra revenue.

Probably because his trip home is via private jet :eek::D

Overall I agree that other lines will introduce the same fees once they are tested out and they work to raise revenue and cut food waste.

Yes. It's the *WAY* they announced all of this.

 

NCL barely upped the DSC, and then with no advance notice, they added a "convenience fee" for room service.

(Yup, the food is free. So if you don't actually want it delivered, then there's no charge!)

 

NCL should have done something like announce this change to take effect on some future date, far enough in advance so no one would have any penalty to cancel.

Surely they could have waited a couple of months...:confused:

 

GeezerCouple

Andy did actually accept the blame and apologize for not making an announcement about the service charge test on BA/GA for the room service.

I didn't hear him say why the different charges on each ship. My best guess is to see which one produces least food waste and brings the most money to the bottom line. Once the accountants figure that out, it will be time I am sure to roll it out across the fleet.

Heck the whole late night charge on most cruise lines for room service was adopted in an effort to cut down on food waste. (even outside the financial impact for the cruise line, I am not one who likes to see lots of food wasted because there are so many who don't know where their next meal comes from every day.)

Let me just say that I cruised two weeks after having my gall bladder removed. It was by far the least amount that I have eaten on a ship but I otherwise was fine. Ask her doctor for a prescription for "oral suspension" medication (powdered form) as normal OTC GI-symptom meds are of no use for the indigestion caused by the inability to store bile.

 

I think you should still plan to go as long as you have medical evacuation insurance. As for finding cancellation insurance nearly two months after final payment that covers pre-existing conditions...don't stress yourself searching for it, just concentrate on her recovering in time.

The Medevac is a good idea but still covered by pre-existing condition exclusion terms which would say if she had a post surgical problem it would not have to pay for the claim.

Almost always best to first read exclusions of a policy and see if they are problematic before reading the coverage and then buy.

In case of OP yes they can get policies of various sorts but coverage will be very limited and generally not what someone just having surgery would want.

Unfortunately they just misspelled the promotion. We all thought it would be a fair sale, but turns out it's just a fare for a sail.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

well stated!

I found a bargain on VOTS in July, but then again it looks like ship was pretty empty so I just lucked out finding it.

Nice photos.

Looking at sailing VOTS again this Summer...will have to bring a picture of the horns we have that were once atop VOTS when she arrived Galveston.

Hoping DD agrees the week long cruise out of HKG will be the father daughter cruise of the Summer.

I've asked in the past on board and was told 21 is the minimum age not so much about the booze but about the overall atmosphere and how some adults don't want to dine with kids no matter how well behaved they are.

all depends on the port of call, Juneau extends farther out than the smaller ports, but 20-30 miles out of the port in most cases the cell towers are gone.

When fishing in Kodiak (we've cruises AK as well) we have service in town, it gets spotty as we go around North end and pick up a tower in a remote community etc...