Atlgator

23 hours ago, pkt1976 said:

Another passenger is having issues too, Much worse issues. 
 

he woke up this morning with multiple bites all over his body. NCL staff checked his room and there were bed bugs and signs of them in the drop down bed he wasn’t using, so they’ve been there a while.  They are moving his room and doing cleaning his clothes… but only after he had to fight with customer service. Originally they said HE had to pay for the clothes to be cleaned, then tried to offer him a discount for cleaning but still have him pay part of it until finally relenting. That’s just not acceptable. And apparently this just escalated to a stupid and beyond unacceptable level. I’m encouraging him to go to the customer service director so we will see how it goes. 
 

Problems happen,  it’s how they are addressed that lives in memories.

Do you know what deck or cabin # this man was in? Will be on the Jade next week, and curious where this problem was located.

Thank you.

Also, if you could post your dailies for the 9 day, since they should be similar to our 9 day cruise next week.

On 4/28/2024 at 11:34 AM, schmoopie17 said:

We spent 14 days on the Jade a little over a month ago. Great ship...awesome service and food.

 

Do yourself a favor and stop by the Martini bar and ask for Shane. Best bartender we've ever had on NCL. We would sit at the bar and within two minutes of sitting down, he'd have our drinks in front of us without even having to order. Say "Hi" from "Bulliet on the Rocks" (me) and "Cosmo with a lime" (Mrs. Schmoopie). 

We will be on the Jade in several weeks. Are there any other bartenders to look for at the various bars while on board? We always find a couple bar tenders that are awesome and we really enjoy and tip very heavily, and they do remember you always.

On 4/19/2024 at 9:27 PM, Kiss The Cook said:

So can I ask, what was it about the other cruise lines you didn't like that NCL is your first pick?

 

As far as the ship size goes, we chose it because it was smaller to get our feet wet and to see if we liked cruising, so for the next one we would definitely look for something bigger. 

In regards to the other cruise lines pushing me to prefer NCL.  I will start off with the worse to a close 2nd. 

I refer to Carnival as the "Wal-Mart" crowd. Usually younger power drinkers, unruly children, poorly maintained ships, and drink package is extra and limited to 15 drinks. Pluses for Carnival are that they usually have great entertainment and cruise directors and good itineraries.

Royal Caribbean have great ships, but are more pricey fares, purchasing the drink package is very pricey, and usually more children on board.

Celebrity has great food. The food in their MDR is better than specialty restaurants on other ships. They have specials to include drink packages at times, if you can catch one of those specials. However, the ship is dead by 10pm. I am 61 and I was a kid on my cruises. Much more laid back and more for your older crowd that just want to sit and read a book all day and go to bed after dinner.

I have never been on MSC, but have talked to enough people who have given many negative reviews, so I will not try them out. Also, I have never been on Princess for the same reasoning.

Now, these are my opinions, and also many opinions of my customers that I book for. I still sell cruises on RCCL and Celebrity, but for some of the reasons that I mentioned above. For me, I will stick with NCL for their drink package and specialty dinners. NCL has some short comings as well with some of their cut backs that has effected all of the cruise lines post covid. However, the cruise industry has grown immensely over the past 2 years, and now the cruise lines are just getting greedy and not reinstating their cutbacks, especially in the area of service and entertainment.

Sorry to be long winded, but I was trying to answer your question the best I could.

Where to begin with a constructive response....First you mentioned continually that the both of ya'll did not feel well throughout most of your cruise. Not feeling well will make food not taste the best as well as put a damper on having a great time drinking and hanging out on the ship. You also mentioned that this was your first cruise as an "adult", that tells me that you have not cruised post covid. A lot of things have changed among ALL of the cruise lines. Good luck finding a better cruise line than NCL. Does NCL have it's short comings? YES!! But all of the cruise lines have cut back on everything from entertainment, food, and extra luxuries. I have been on 5 other cruise lines, but I continually sale with NCL. I have close to 20 cruises with NCL.

Also, the Jade is a smaller class ship and I would suggest trying a larger ship like the EPIC, or Breakaway, or Getaway and see how ya'll like those ships.

Either way, good luck on your search of cruise lines.

We bring the premade mimosa bottles on board with us and we have them while getting dressed in the morning before ever leaving the cabin.

There is a current promotion that you can use 2 CNC for a total of a $500.00 deposit for any reservation cabin  balcony and above.

23 hours ago, Blaise said:

Is it too late to answer? I can offer some ideas. Been there several times and have done some planning for our trip next week.

I will be in SJU in May, I would like to hear your ideas. I have been to San Juan several times, but always open to new ideas.

Thank you for a great review. My group are doing a 9-day out of Canaveral on the Jade. I have done 16 cruises on NCL but have not been on the Jade yet. I prefer the larger ships, but this ship had a great itinerary and was out of Canaveral. I live in Daytona. I am looking forward to the down scale size and comparing the differences from the other ships.

It is funny listening to people complain all the time about the food or entertainment. A cruise is what you make out of it. There are going to be down times on food, entertainment, or service, but I always remember that I am on vacation and a cruise is always better than sitting at home. 

Thanks for all the responses. I normally sail on NCL, have only been on Celebrity once before, a while ago, so I am used to the hurry up and wait approach on NCL.

I know it is a change of subject, but since I am the OP it is ok.

How early can you get tender tickets? I have an early excursion in Belize and the tour company wants us off as quickly as we can. Since I don't have any seniority with Celebrity, do you just request tender tickets from Guest Operations?

Just now, cruisestitch said:

Welcome to Celebrity where shows do not need reservations😀

OK, you just show up early and stand in line?

I apologize in advance if this has been discussed many, many times, but I have a simple question about Entertainment Reservations. How does Celebrity handle making reservations for their various shows? Do you go somewhere once on board and reserve times then or what?

Thank you in advance

.

Dan

On 6/12/2023 at 12:51 AM, KeithJenner said:

Epic has been redeployed during that period. It is now doing Caribbean cruises from Port Canaveral.

Just booked the EPIC yesterday out of Port Canaveral for the Western Caribbean.

Sorry about your misadventure. I will be on the Getaway in a couple weeks, and I was curious if ya'll did dock at OSJ?  I had heard rumors about the Pan Am Pier, but no one knows for sure which pier we will be docked at?  I usually just do my own walking tour of OSJ.  Stay at your leisure and see what YOU want to see, not a tour guide.

We saw the show on the Prima and we both loved it. I would definitely recommend attending the show.

I am surprised that NCL is now using Amber Cove as their port for the D.R. ?  The Getaway has been changed from Puerto Plata To Amber Cove in May as well.

I had the same such trouble before where I used Priceline to make the reservation, and I "thought" payment also through Priceline. But when arriving at the hotel up in Helen, GA, the hotel did not show any payment. After going through priceline customer service, I was sent to booking.com customer service, where NO ONE speaks English!! Long story short, the hotel got their money from booking.com and I will NEVER use Priceline again!!

We just got off the Freedom on 12/1 after a short 4 day trip down to the Bahamas, and I can easily say that this was the worse food we have ever had on a cruise ship.  The Lido Buffet was not that good and had short serving hours. Only bright spot was the Mongolian Wok and the Deli. We ate in the MDR 1 night, and that was enough. We had a chicken breast that was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and was so dry and tough you could barely cut it. The best meal on board was the steak house. The meal and service were excellent !! It is a shame that you have to pay $100 to get good food on board.  On a bright spot, the bar tenders were awesome, especially Larry in the Sports Bar and Zara in the Alchemy Bar. I was shocked at how some people spoke to the staff on board. Very rude to the employees. Just made me tip these hard working people even more, and they were very appreciative.

I realize that there are people that live and die with Carnival and I will continue to cruise with them sometime in the future, but it will be a 7 or more night cruise and on the Mardi Gras. For now, I have 2 future cruises on Norwegian and will see how they perform post covid.

A couple quick questions. We will be on the Freedom the end of Nov., and it has been pre-covid since I have been cruising.

What is the name of the restaurant for the Your Time Dining?

Where do you go on embarkation once on ship to make the show reservations, or is it stand in line and first come first serve at show times?

Thank you in advance.

This is a great review. I have a group of 8 doing this cruise in Oct. I am concerned about the weather. I realize that you went in May and we are going early October, but I am not getting warm fuzzies for what type of weather that we will experience. We are beach people that love the sun and water and hate the cold.

I realize that you are not done with your review and it takes time to post all of the details and pictures, but did ya'll do any excursions either through NCL or other while in Bermuda? We were thinking about a cruise out over the Bermuda Triangle at night but now unsure if the ferry is so choppy being within the ports?

Thanks again.

We did this excursion through Shore Excursioneer back in Dec. on the NCL Epic. Royalton White Sands and Blue Waters are side by side resorts. These are beautiful resorts with adult only pools and also a children's area that they even make into a suds pool at times. They have a lazy river and infinity pools throughout the 2 resorts. The beach area has clean sugar fine sand and they have an island that you can walk/wade out to. The food was great and the drinks were strong. They have swim up bars and at noon, they have a hut on the beach that serves jerk chicken. They have a huge dinning hall that has a buffet lunch with everything you can think of from meats, vegetables, fruits, and even cooked to order dishes. The service is awesome. They provide you nice plush towels, unlike the cheap ones on the ship. Nothing negative to say at all about the resort's facilities, service or food.

The only downside was having to wait at the Port for everyone to show up to go to the resort. It seems disorganized and I did not like that I had to wait for people who could not get at the meeting tent by the set time on the reservation. We were over 30 mins late leaving the port. The resort is only about 15 mins from the port. We are back in Falmouth in March on the Escape, and we want to go back, but we are also exploring maybe a little less expensive options.

Hope this helps. If you can manage the price, the resorts are so nice, I would go back outside a cruise just to stay at the resorts.

I was going to mention the midnight buffets with all of the carvings made out of fruit, ice, butter, and chocolates.

The food was definitely much better 10 years ago. I never remember the assigned deck chairs, almost have LOL about that one.

Things I do NOT miss, formal dress up nights and having set early or late dinner times.

I would also look at all of the requirements that are imposed to visit Cuba. Such as only being able to do group excursions and being required to get a Cuban Visa ($75.00 from the cruise line) just to get off of the ship.

I have seen such questions many times on many of the cruise line specific boards. If a specific game is that important to you, do not schedule a cruise for that time period. I even heard one Princess cruiser complain that he had to watch the game he wanted in his inside cabin (lucky it was on even there) . He felt it should have been broadcast on the big screen above the pool.

Cruises are scheduled many months in advance. Many college football fans have no idea if their team will be playing in the Conference Title Game or any other playoff games at the end of the season. So you can not forecast this ahead of time. And yes, college & pro football is very important to most Americans who follow their teams closely. In modern day when they can beam internet signals for passengers while out at sea, they should also make available more sports channels within their sports bar.

As for the UGA fan. I would estimate same results as last time ya'll played Auburn...LOL

I am looking at doing this same excursion through Cruise Excursioneer in December. I have contacted C.E. and they were very quick to respond. I also have seen very positive reviews about Royalton Resorts.

 

 

I will be at Sunscape Splash Resort next week while cruising on the Breeze. I will follow this thread and post some pictures and thoughts once I return from my trip.

 

The last time we were in MoBay, we did the Hilton Rose Hall and had a great time. It was actually booked for a group of 150 of us and I think we might have been the only guests other than the ones staying at the hotel. That is another good option if you decide to not do Splash.

 

I'll be back with some photos!

 

Deb

We will be in Falmouth in Dec. and were looking into Hilton Rose Hall. Did you book through resortforaday or directly though Hilton. I thought I saw where Hilton Honors get a discount on the cost? How was the service? I will be looking forward to see your reviews of Sunscape Spalsh vs Hilton Rose.

Thanks.