nattie

1 hour ago, PacnGoNow said:

Your CVP should be able to help at Princess.  That is why you have one.

At least get on the top of the waitlist.

 

Also, as soon as you get onboard, see when shore excursions opens,  go to their desk and explain this to them.  They will then, be in charge of excursions.

You will still have a great time!

My PVP responded and was very apologetic, but there isnt much he could do (according to him at least). He said they dont have access to the excursion database (he stated this before, so no surprise there) and he couldnt give me a separate phone number to call either. He said everyone has to go through the regular line where holds are measured in hours (he actually stated that). He suggested that I check with shore excursion desk as soon as we board and they would have more information and much more authority to do something. 

Thank you everyone for support! I'll block off some time to call Princess (not looking forward to being on hold).

JeffT237, your explanation makes perfect sense. 

51 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

I am sorry to hear that your excursion was cancelled.  I am on the Discovery Princess the week after you and have paid for the same excursion.  So far, no cancellation notice from Princess.  I can see why you are upset, I would be too.  When did you book your cruise and excursion? 

 

If my excursion was to be cancelled I would certainly get on the phone and contact Princess asking questions.  If I wasn't happy with the answer, I would elevate the question to a supervisor.  Hopefully, you will reach out to Princess and it will have a favorable result for you.

Thank you for suggestion! If I can find time, I'll definitely call. So far I have emailed my PVP with Princess (who booked the cruise) to see if he has any info.

Just a vent here... We booked an Inside package cruise on Discovery Princess this August. We are very flexible with sailing dates, so booked what seemed like great time to go (August 7th), but dont really care if we go any time from mid July to end of August. I paid for all the excursions I wanted as soon as I booked my cruise (some of them were already sold out) with the most important one to me being the Endicott Arm Explorer. I am not planning to do Alaska itinerary again (not a cold climate person here!) so wanted to actually get close to a glacier. Anyway, We have received a notice yesterday that "guest capacity for your shore excursion has been reduced due to operational reasons". I am really upset about that (may be undeservingly?), we paid for the tour in full as soon as I booked the cruise, so way before final payment date, why are we being booted off? To put more salt on the wound, the tour itself is still on the Princess website and doesnt even show as "sold out", there is a waitlist option!!! Why weren't we automatically put on waitlist? Thats just not right, so someone deciding just now to book this will automatically have higher waitlist number than people originally on the tour, but booted off??

If it wasnt for my final payment date being over, I would have switched the cruise timing. Now we are kind of stuck. I really expected more from Princess in terms of customer service (ie I would be fine with cancellation and automatic spot on waitlist).

Vent over. I get that things happen and plans change, but putting cancelled passengers as first in line for waitlist spots is a no brainer to me. Could be that I am all getting worked up about nothing and that particular excursion is not going to blemish my Alaska cruise experience. 

We did Regal in January and wanted to try the dining room at the back of the ship that used to be for "set time" dining only. The experience there was AWFUL. Next time we went to one of the regular dining rooms, had wonderful wait staff and were offered to get that table reserved for us for the rest of the cruise. We had no issues from that point forward!

So I guess it all depends... 

Just got the email about time change. Might have to figure out something else. We will for sure see them on the day we are getting back. I am also considering flying in a day earlier, but flights are RIDICULOUS right now. 

We are coming from East Cost, so breakfast might be doable too.

We are doing Discovery Princess cruise from Seattle and would like to meet up with friends for lunch before sailing. We have never sailed out of that port, so I dont know what the procedures there are.

Ideally, I would love to pay for "sail away" package for my friends, for them to visit on the ship and have lunch with us there, but I dont think that package is available any longer. 

Second choice is to board the ship around 11 or so (we are Elite), leaving carry-ons in the room and disembarking to meet up with friends. Is this possible? Kind of treating Seattle as port of call?

Any other ideas?

I love the Princess Plus because it lets me just relax and not think  about extras. I have recently booked Discovery Princess for Alaska and for whatever reason Princess Plus didnt show as option during booking. My PVP was able to add it to the booking for just $200 per person extra (total) for 7 day cruise. Great deal.

On 4/23/2022 at 11:41 AM, atexsix said:

I think I would just save my money for a regular room on a luxury cruise line than pay extra for a seat in "first class", which is what it reminds me of.  If the ship or cruise line is bad in general, can you really make a silk purse here?  I suppose you can choose to never leave your self-contained special section, but why bother with such a big ship in the first place?  I'd go for Seabourn or Windstar in that case. 

I see your point, but I actually get sea sick, so bigger ship is better :). We are back to Princess for Alaska, but I am eyeing San Juan Xmas cruise on NCL, For whatever reason this year I cant find anything on Princess that fits Winter break at my DS's school.

On 4/20/2022 at 12:37 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

If I might ask, how is the MDR food? When we sailed on the Getaway in a suite in the Haven in 2017, it wasn’t all that great. Later this year we’ll be on the Jade on a long B2B in an aft-facing veranda cabin and we’ll be dining in both specialty restaurants as well as the MDRs.

Sorry, Ken. We never tried MDR food on this cruise.

On 4/19/2022 at 5:40 PM, FM said:

Enjoyed the review - particularly from the perspective of an avid Princess cruiser. 

 

For your non-Haven friends, was there anything in particular they did not find appetizing with NCL - the service, food, entertainment, public areas?

 

They specifically disliked public areas (smoke) and lack of pools. They did like the entertainment and most of the family enjoyed the food (less my soy intolerant friend). The service was OK they said except for front desk experiences.

29 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

A link to your review would be helpful.

JF, link is below. Wasn't sure if it belonged in Princess forum.

We have just come back from NCL Breakaway cruise in Haven suite. Chose the cruise because we wanted to sail from NOLA and upgraded to accomodate an elderly relative. I have posted a full review on NCL boards, but wanted to comment my preteen here: "Mom, keep the waterslides, I want to go back to Princess". I know Princess is not perfect, but to get that testament from 12 yo is quite something.

If anyone is interested, I am happy to answer questions. Overall, NCL Haven is 100% YES (but at $$$$), I dont think Princess has anything comparable, but general NCL (or at least Breakaway) is 100% NO.

First of all THANK YOU to everyone on NCL Cruisecritic boards that helped me plan this cruise and shared their wisdom. You are truly an amazing community!

A bit about us, since I believe it will provide some context to the review. We are seasoned Princess cruises (even my preteen has one more cruise until Elite) and decided to try NCL because of the possibility of sailing from NOLA. We upgraded to Haven for my grandma, who ended up not coming on the cruise. We also sailed with friends who were not in the Haven area, so we ended up constantly comparing the Haven vs. General experiences. Also, I compare NCL to Princess a lot here because Princess is what we are used to and we just sailed Regal in Jan 22.

Overall score: Haven (areas/service/quality) – “A”; general areas – “C-“.

Embarkation: Rudest and most disorganized port staff EVER ( we have sailed out of Miami, FLL, NY, Bayonne, San Juan in US, so we do have something to compare to). Haven “Priority Line” starts after security but it is well hidden by the staff and we almost missed it. Security is a “free for all” and ridiculously restrictive comparing to other ports, but that’s not really NCL’s fault and they don’t have any influence there. After finding the Priority lounge, we were fairly quickly escorted up to the Haven area. No presentation was given on amenities, etc.

Room: AMAZING, except balcony is tiny. Master Bathroom is bigger and nicer than what I have at home! There is an excellent video on youtube showing the Haven 2 br family suite and it is exactly like the video. I was a bit concerned about sea sickness being so high up, we ended up not having any issues besides some hangers banging. Also, it is worth to note that there is so much storage! Every nook and cranny is a little storage spot. The only ding besides the balcony size I would give the room is outlets. I mean this is fairly new ship, can we please have more than one outlet per room!

Butler: We did not have any issues and had very good and responsive service. Granted, we didn’t ask for much outside of some snacks and couple of pizza deliveries. We did give him the “Gary letter” with half the tip upfront. The only thing that was not done was CPAP water for my husband, we used our prepurchased water instead.

Concierge: I know a lot of people don’t see the value in them, but an option of not having to go to general “front desk” is worth $$$ in my personal opinion. Especially when you compare the ease of handling issues for me vs. what my friends had to go through with general “front desk” whose answer was always NO.

Service in other Haven areas: Bar service was OUTSTANDING, bar tenders regularly circled lounge areas offering drinks, learned your likes/dislikes and suggested things based on that. Restaurant was hit or miss, some servers were good and others were subpar. I would note that restaurant manager was VERY present and was able to handle any issues very well. Food quality in Haven restaurant was always very good. Overall, you fell pampered and taken care of in Haven. Such an outstanding experience.

Haven vs. General areas: Night and day. I mean if we didn’t upgrade, we probably would have absolutely hated the cruise and wrote off NCL to be on par with Carnival. It was like stepping from your serene 5 star hotel and spa experience into a busy NYC street. The cruise was about 2/3 full (Haven was sold out) but ship felt so crowded. Our biggest issues were:

·         lack of pools (two teeny tiny pools that are only 4 ft deep are so not enough!);

·         casino smoking up the entire 7^th floor as well as half of 6^th and 8^th;

·         generally too much of cigarette smoke everywhere, even open decks smelled because you have smoking area right smack in the middle of the ship;

·         constant nickel and diming, ie “free dining” promo applies to only 2 people in cabin, so you have to pay full price for your kid, “arcade” pass is not really an all inclusive pass, wine that’s included in “P+” is not available and substitution costs extra (somehow in Haven it doesn’t, go figure). That was just our gripes, our friends who didn’t have P+ and other upgrades had way more;

·         Overall everything on NCL costs more than on Princess. Spa pass (underwhelming, everything was lukewarm, even the sauna), spa treatments (basic massage was $199 vs $129 on Princess in Jan), excursions, specialty dining, etc.;

·         Lack of entertainment (in our opinion). I do have to note that SIX was great!

Specialty dining and buffet: We tried Ocean Blue (“C-“, meh service, subpar food), “Wasabi” (“B”, good service and food, but they ended giving my DH’s cruise card to someone else after the meal) and “Moderno” (“A”, excellent service and good food). We never ate in regular dining rooms so cant comment on that. Buffet selections were a bit limited (again we are comparing to Princess with cooked to order burgers and fresh pizza on the pool deck), but you would not go hungry. The food was overly salty in some cases. I would also add that NCL had a lot of challenges handling my friend’s dietary restriction (soy).

Entertainment: We had high expectations here, since I felt that would be the area where NCL has the upper hand. As I said, SIX was great. The other show was cancelled for our sailing, so cant comment. Comedians were one good to very good (Mark) and awful (Maija). “Rockaway Duo” was awful – meh karaoke with autotune. We didn’t see the magician, but our friends said he was quite good. Not sure if there was some other entertainment besides game shows. They were OK also, but they were done in the open area on the 6^th next to “front desk” where sitting is very limited and not very comfortable.

Kids activities: Again, I felt that NCL should excel here. The kids club was closed, half the slides were always closed for “maintenance” and ropes course was open once the entire cruise. Quoting my preteen “keep the waterslides, I want to go back to Princess”. When I asked why his main reason was better pool deck.

Overall ship impression: Everything felt crammed together but there were also completely wasted areas, like on the 7^th floor all the way aft. WHY was that round seat there??? Also so much cigarette smoke! Smoking areas smack in the middle of the ship are not a good idea.

Ports:

·         Cozumel. We did “clear” boat excursion on our own and it was very good. I have never been on fully acrylic boat, quite an experience.

·         Roatan. Didn’t dock there, ended up being an extra sea day. We have visited Roatan numerous times, so no big deal for us, but some people were upset since Roatan was highlight of the cruise for them. Also, I have expected NCL to refund us port fees and give a token credit for missing the port (customary on Princess). That didn’t happen.

·         Belize. Its not really Belize, just NCL’s private island. Nice pool and beach area with plenty of seating. Water is murky (not dirty, just murky), so no snorkeling. Unless you are getting drunk, quite boring.

·         Costa Maya. It was very short stop. I have recommended our friends to go to Mayan ruins here and they liked the excursion (we did it before and were very impressed). We got off the ship to walk the “tourist trap” area. There is no access to any beach / natural water there as everything is cordoned off and most of the waterfront is given to the Dolphinarium. On the right side of the “tourist trap” area there is a small beach with what looked like a small hobo camp but we couldn’t figure out how to go there. We were in this port in Dec 2019 last time and had much better experience. Writing this off due to COVID hardships.

My apologies for comparing so much to Princess, NCL has a winning product in Haven experience which is unparallel with everything we have experienced in cruising so far. If we decide to venture NCL again, it will have to be in Haven and out of interesting port Princess doesn’t sail from (looking at you, San Juan!). On the other hand, our friends that were in “general areas” swore off cruising. That’s very sad since it was their first cruise.

Thank you for all the replies! Since her fare is like $100, all I want back is really prepaid gratuities and port fees. Calling NCL first thing tomorrow!

Thanks, islesdave. We are leaving in 13 days, so way past any deadlines. I have insurance through our travel agent, may be it does cover some costs. I was mainly concerned with prepaid gratuities portion of it, dont want to waste time waiting on hold for NCL's customer service if the $ are gone.

After all the upgrades purchased, my grandmother decided not to go with us after all 😬. Not a health issue thankfully, she just thinks flying will be too much for her. So now we have 2 bedroom suite in Haven for just the 3 of us. I am still a bit bitter over the price tag, since our friends paid less than half of what we did for the same cruise. 🙄

Anyway, with the way our cruise invoice is priced, her base fare was like $100 plus there were $300 in taxes/fees/drink package gratuities. I have also prepaid her ship gratuities. My question is, should I let NCL know before we sail that she is not coming? Would I get the $300 in taxes plus prepaid gratuities back that way? Or should I not even bother? I do have insurance for the cruise, but I don't think it has "I am not feeling it" clause.

All checked in. Had to repopulate phone numbers for every guest. Annoying.

Also, taking new picture from app on my phone for everyone worked best. None of the uploaded pics worked.

Question to more experienced people: Is there a way to print out boarding passes as separate pages per pass? Mine are all one after another. Also, my purchases are not showing up (water and arcade packages), only excursion reservations. is there a separate doc with all the purchases?

On 3/19/2022 at 9:25 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I had to laugh while reading through this thread... If you think you're having issues checking in with NCL...just ask anybody trying to do the same on Princess!  The Medallion App absolutely shows that it was contracted out to the lowest bidder! 😄

+1 Not a fan of NCL check in (the whole "verify your email/phone" thing is a bit of an overreach. But it does not compare with awfulness of  Medallion check in!

2 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

Surf and Turf is not on the Haven Menu as an option.  However, you can have a lobster tail added to your main beef course if you simply ask.  Lobster Tails are a main course on the menu.  I know this because I did this twice on my cruise in the Haven in November.  I had Prime Rib and a lobster tail.  

 

Hope that helps and clarifies your question.

 

Cruise well.

Dont want to contradict Sthrngary, but "Surf&Turf" is listed on the dinner menu I have received from NCL (page 2).Haven Dinner Menu.pdf

@SthrnGary, a bit confused by your answer on the Virgin drunks earlier? Are they included in teens soda package? Every cruise line has its own rules, so dont want to assume it is included.

Pre-cruise concierge email - I have sent one and received a very "canned" response back. I did get what I was mainly asking for (menus), so I didnt really care, but interaction didnt leave me with "warm/fuzzy, taken care of" feeling I somehow expected from reading others experiences. I am chalking this up to a lot of people wanting to upgrade recently and land concierges being a bit overworked. 

We are normally Princess cruisers and recently tend to do a lot of ship excursions, because Princess offers good variety and have price point very similar to "on your own" tours, as well as always offering options for "small group" experiences. When looking to utilize the promo credits for my upcoming NCL Breakaway cruise, there are no options I actually want to take and prices are over inflated.

There were no "small group" experiences offered, nothing "off-the beaten path" and the only thing I ended up booking is $799 vs $399 for similar thing on Princess cruise we did in January (total, this is for cabana).

Is it standard for NCL? I remember feeling the same way about ship sponsored tours before (5-6 years ago), but than Princess completely revamped their offerings. Just curious about what NCL devotees do about shore excursions, just do everything on their own?

BTW, this is not meant to put NCL down in any way, I do like A LOT about the line, hence our choice to sail it again.

Thank you everyone for keeping me excited about our upcoming Haven experience! 

I have emailed NCL concierge and have received PDFs of the Haven menus. Attaching them here in case anyone needs them! Pics paint way better picture though, thank you Kirk2121!Haven Breakfast Menu.pdfHaven Pool Menu.pdfHaven Lunch Menu.pdfHaven Dinner Menu.pdf

Toastie I was looking for is ham and cheese, but I'll take what they have. DS will be excited!

Oh, well. The quest continues! 🙂