alreadypacked

17 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

I cant believe people are praising CC for learning of the cancellation yet still blaming NCL.  HELLO!

The reason CC posted the cruise was cancelled was because of someone stating their Travel Agent was notified by NCL the cruise was cancelled.  So it appears NCL did notify people and even TA's the cruise was cancelled. Why everyone did not get this message does need investigated.  However, from the majority of people attacking NCL, they booked with a TA.  I am not sure why frustrations are not turned back on their TA.  If posters on CC posted the cruise was cancelled per their TA, why did their TA not be notified or pass along the information.  The issue that irks me is that so many were venting at long wait times with NCL when their TA was nowhere to be found.  This is their job when they take your money.  

As I mentioned, there were only hours of notification.  The closing of the port was a surprise to everyone.  NCL probably could have done a better job at notification.  But why is no one asking the question that other TA's notified their customers in plenty of time while other TAs took the weekend off with no emergency contacts.  This was a sudden cancellation and it appears way too many want to book with a TA and give their TA a pass at not being on the job on the weekend.  That irks me.  The entire reason CC knew of the cancellation was because of a TA who was on the job and notified their customer.  Yet others want to give them a pass.  Its possible but unlikely that NCL only notified one TA of the cancellation.  Again, we are talking about hours before a cancellation.  Why is no one asking their TA, other TA's got the word to their customers, why not us?  When you book with a TA, all changes to the reservation or cancellations are done NOT through the cruise line.  You cant have it both ways, book with the TA for perks then blame the cruise line for not being notified of changes. Sorry.

It appears NCL notified SOME passengers [in a timely fashion], not ALL passengers...

I booked directly with NCL, not with a TA.

I found out around 4 pm Saturday, August 31st that our 9/1 Breakaway cruise was a "go" and that we had to be to the port by 11 am.

At that, I promptly got up from my computer and started packing.

Several hours later, something made me go on cruise critic again--just to see if any posters had any new information to share [even if just their own experiences in this situation]. To my shock, posters were saying that although NCL had recently instructed us to be at Port Miami early (by 11 am), our cruise was now in fact canceled!

Only around 10 pm Saturday night did we get any notice from NCL about cancellation.

6 hours ago, blarko said:

Some people just don’t get it.  It’s not about a cruise that was cancelled or shortened. It’s about the timeline of events leading up to the decisions that were made. Not everybody is on CC and I’m sure there were many who showed up for the cruise that didn’t happen. If only the communication was better, I’m sure this whole thread wouldn’t even be here.

Exactly!

I am on CC... but after I saw the notice on ncl.com that our 9/1 Breakaway was going, I started packing my suitcase.

My DH was all set to drive me and my sister down to Miami early--as it was noted that passengers must be aboard by 11 am.

After spending almost 2 hours packing, I'm so glad I looked at cruise critic again... otherwise we'd have been ones who'd showed up for the cruise that didn't happen as blarko stated!

Nothing! I repeat, NOTHING from NCL until almost 10:00 pm Saturday night before our cruise saying it was canceled!

I found out later [thanks to CC members] that a mere 45 minutes or so after NCL told us our cruise was a "Go" that it was indeed canceled!   

Very sorry for the current Breakaway guests, who probably have their heads spinning by now, and now will be disembarking their cruise in New Orleans (we think, as of now)...

I'm glad everyone on my 9/1 sailing will be getting a refund now that the cruise is canceled altogether (so they say...as of now).

Hopefully this refund is truly granted to all passengers--without them having to call NCL and wait on hold for 2 hours [like I did this morning] trying to secure a 100% refund before NCL's Sunday 09-01-2019, 9:00 pm deadline arrived.

If I (or anyone) hadn't gotten through before 9:00 pm, would we have just been SOL?

58 minutes ago, Goldconnection said:

My DH and I first cruised with NCL in 2000. Over the last 19 years we have sailed on 13 NCL, 5 Princess, 5 Royal Caribbean, 4 Carnival, and 2 Celebrity cruise. For what ever reason I have rated the food on any of those cruise as 5 star quality. The food on all the cruises was just OK. There were some items that were better on one ship/cruise line than another but nothing I would rave over. 

 

My thought is they are preparing meals meals for thousands of people there they cannot get it right for everyone. When I try something that does not tickle my tast buds I move on to something else. I know I am not in a 5 star restaurant and don't expect 5 star quality food. I eat what I like and keep moving.  I haven't starved on a cruise yet. Happy cruising to all.

It is true that they are preparing meals for thousands of people but...

I have to say cruise line food used to be much much better.

I started cruising before cruise ships had "specialty restaurants" and the MDR food (even the buffet) was well prepared, well presented, and very tasty across most of the mainstream lines (except Royal--never cared for their food, even back in the day). I actually looked forward to certain signature dishes every time we cruised.

I don't expect 5 star quality food either, but cruise line food used to be very good.  

2 minutes ago, pmt3 said:

Yes, NCL told us to have TA do it, but just a bit nervous since the travel company is not open for the holiday weekend and we are in FL so could lose cell service on Tues. I sent emails just in case.

And, NCL put a time limit on getting the full refund: You have to contact them by 9:00 pm tonight. I assume they mean EST as it seems their offices close at that time on Sundays.

Ok Thanks. Just wondering because I waited on hold 2 hours to cancel this morning. Hoping they don't mess up my refund, but if they do, was just trying to get an idea of how much time on hold I might be in for this time...   

4 minutes ago, SCOYLE058 said:

They have it straightened out for now at least. Fingers crossed!

Excellent! I'm glad.

If I might ask, how long did you have to wait on hold for a customer service rep? 

6 minutes ago, SCOYLE058 said:

PAY  VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO YOUR REFUND INVOICE!!! We just received ours and it was showing up $604 lighter. On the phone with them again... "the system automatically applied penalties for the cancellation" now we're on hold again waiting on them to figure out how to get this corrected... 

Yikes! Thanks for the heads-up. Hoping yours gets straightened out quickly!

1 hour ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

Miami airport (a bit inland and sheltered) is reporting sustained winds at 13mph with gusts to 21mph. This means that right on the water they're easily 5-10mph higher.

We just got home from lunch at Margaritaville on Hollywood Beach. It was not very windy there at all. Other than a brief rain shower, it was mostly sunny. The ocean wasn't rough at all, but the Intracoastal Waterway water level was probably the highest I've ever seen. 

I first sailed NCL on the Sky in 2011, and the food was pretty bad.

Gave NCL another shot in 2016 on Getaway and the food was fantastic! Great menu selections, well prepared, nicely presented etc.

Same on the Escape in 2017.

The Getaway in 2018 had a new (cheapened in my opinion) menu. Menu selections were more pedestrian. Gone was the chicken parmigiana, pad thai, penne with scallops, spaghetti carbonara, linguine with white clam sauce, asparagus risotto, fried brie, beef wellington etc. And a lot of the food had an off taste (as if highly processed ingredients, artificial flavoring etc.) and gave me severe indigestion (which never happened previously).

Worse was our Dawn cruise this past May. Sad, because NCL had been my new favorite line, after leaving Carnival in 2015 (after almost 20 cruises) due to bad food. 

3 hours ago, graphicguy said:

NCL hung up on me again while I was on hold.  Called the same number back...800-327-7030. Message says the call can not be completed.  

When I think NCL can’t possibly be more inept, they prove me wrong!

I got that same message at first when I dialed, but I hung up and redialed and the call went through. 

As I was waiting on hold [forever], I read your post about having been disconnected, so I had my sister dial NCL from her phone and sit on hold too--in case I got disconnected too after all the time I'd already waited. At least we would have been further up the queue versus me having to redial again from scratch! 

I wouldn't let her hang up until my call with the agent who'd finally answered was complete!

3 hours ago, graphicguy said:

What did they say?  Did you get a full refund?

Yes they said I would get a full refund. The agent I dealt with sounded very competent (unlike the person I spoke to yesterday).

She said they have a separate team processing the refunds. She couldn't actually process the refund herself right then, because she said, "On the day of embarkation, the bookings are locked." What she did was notate on the booking that I did not want to do the modified itinerary and wanted to cancel for the full refund as offered by NCL.

She said I would get a cancellation confirmation email probably later on today. 

Finally able to cancel my cruise after 2 hours and 4 minutes on hold!

2 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Purchase a new one....this is the most expensive cruise I’ve ever taken, and I haven’t even set foot on a cruise ship.

Glad you were able to get a flight home, though. I agree with you, NCL should've canceled our cruise days ago instead of stringing us along. I've been on hold now 1 hour, 51 minutes waiting to cancel this cruise!

So far, I've been on hold with NCL 1 hour and 6 min waiting to cancel this cruise. 😞

Looks like Port of Miami has cancelled their emergency status and is open (and likely will be tomorrow).

27 minutes ago, TPgal said:

Today we zipped across the Puget Sound and got an epic look at the Bliss.  Folks were already on their balcony ready for their cruise to Alaska.  I mentioned to my DH that I was jealous.   Does this happen to others who live in port cities?  

It used to sometimes...quite a few years ago...

Not anymore.

We live single-digit minutes away from Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale), the envy of our relatives in the northeast...

Have to say, cruising (and South Florida in general) has gotten a bit old for us.

Upon retirement, we're outta here...

But we still love watching the cruise ships sail out and regularly go to the restaurant on our local pier to watch them! There IS something magical about cruise travel--even if we're now kind of over it...

12 minutes ago, EMOSEA said:

Hubby and I did a silly thing almost six years ago and got married one day before his birthday, so we usually like to take a trip to celebrate both at once. However, I would like to do something a little extra for him for his birthday on the second day of our cruise (sea day) and wondering if anyone has some suggestions. I don't think he'd appreciate the birthday decorations package that Carnival sells. 

What have you done for your significant other for their birthday on board?  

I just had to reply to your post because... 10 years ago, my hubby and I got married the day before his birthday too!

We hadn't initially planned to do so, but it was the way it ended up working out. I even asked him if he'd rather plan it for a different time frame (I know how people who have birthdays near Christmas, for example, end up feeling gypped), but he was fine with it and still is.

We just celebrate both at the same time and I get him 2 gifts.

When we cruised for our anniversary/his birthday quite a few years back, I surprised him with a cabin upgrade as one of his gifts.

In my experience in Florida, Los Angeles, and NYC, they are full size coach buses.

But it seems like how well the operation runs varies from port to port...

Have used the NCL transfers roundtrip from FLL (Fort Lauderdale) to Port Miami many times without issue (and once in LA). Bus fills up quickly and you're on your way. Staff seems to have a roster with documentation regarding passenger's flights (or in our case, no flight since we live locally and therefore will be disembarking the bus at Terminal 1), bags are loaded on the bus (by port personnel) based on what terminal you'll be disembarking. Very smooth process.

NYC was a totally different story. Staff and bus driver had no idea what airlines passengers were on (or, indeed, what terminals the various airlines left from). The bus driver alone was loading the bags into the cargo hold of the bus--all the while, an NCL staffer was yelling at passengers to "be sure you know what terminal your carrier leaves from" so the driver can load your bag into the proper compartment.

Many passengers were older, unfamiliar with Laguardia, without smartphones and had no idea what terminal their carrier was in. DH looked up the info for them as we stood in line waiting to hand over our luggage and board the bus.

When you book transfers through the cruise line, you have to provide info such as airline, flight number, destination...

Why this info was unavailable to staff at Manhattan terminal is beyond me.  Anyway, after well over an hour, we were on our way to Laguardia.

Thanks for the beautiful Halifax photos (puts mine to shame Lol)! We went to the Maritime Museum and Citadel as well--really enjoyed both. Found the Titanic talk at the museum very interesting with many facts we didn't know.

On 6/27/2019 at 9:10 AM, perditax said:

 

The line IS going downhill, but a lot of mass market lines are. It's an economic thing; unemployment is low, and more people than ever have the means (and the desire) to achieve 'affordable luxury', which means the big cruise lines are trying to figure out how to cram as many of those people onto the same ship at once as possible, turn them upside down, and shake every last penny out of their pockets. They're just arguably going a little too far and alienating people who remember 'what it used to be like', and possibly some of those new people won't want to cruise again.

 

But on the flip side: the Escape is (in my opinion) the best of NCL's big ships right now, and the solo product is pretty fantastic. Edit: I also had a look at January, and that's a pretty good price for a studio. Sometimes they try to get insane prices for them on 7-day sailings.

If you'd spent tens of thousands of dollars on Haven, my answer might be different. 

Twipenne don't cancel your cruise. Cruising is a very nice way to vacation. I agree with perditax in their statement above. I've been on around 40 cruises over the last 17 years and have seen a lot of changes that I haven't cared for. But a first-time cruiser won't feel like they're missing anything. I think we're also just a little "cruised-out" at this point, so we're doing more US land-based vacations as a change. NCL Escape is a beautiful ship with lots to do. Enjoy your cruise.

Loving the review as always, Shadowmeboy!

I'm following with particular interest as DH and I sailed this ship/itinerary recently on May 11, 2019. It was our first Canada/New England cruise. Had a great time--folks in Canada and New England were very friendly too! Only disappointment was a lot of the food on Dawn. NCL has done much better in that department during our 2016 and 2017 cruises. Hoping they'll get it back together.

Great to read about our itinerary/ship from others' perspective.

Happy Birthday, Susan!!

42 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

How are you guys saying the specialty restaurants are dead when most people booked with the specialty dining perk?  I would imagine they would be packed.

I too expected specialty restaurants to be packed on our May 2019 Dawn cruise, because when I went online to make our reservations at 120 days prior, I could only book space for a party of 1 at two of the venues. I thought, "Wow people snagged up the spots really quick!" And I was reserving the very day the dining reservation system opened for our sailing.

Reality on our sailing was that the specialty restaurants were EMPTY!

Maybe people are making reservations and not showing up?

MDR food was so bad on our sailing that we tried to make an additional reservation for Bamboo, but were told it was sold out. Later in the cruise, we went to the reservations desk again, and they had a slot available for like 8:30 pm the last night of the cruise, so we said ok.

That evening we were so hungry by 6:30-ish, we decided to drop by Bamboo to see if they might be able to take us early...

They did!!!

The place was empty.

On our sailing, Bamboo and Moderno were very good; Los Lobos was excellent! La Cucina: Well, DH liked his steak, but my Carbonara was tasteless. :(

MDR food at breakfast was terrible. For example, the Bircher Muesli (a healthy dish I have thoroughly enjoyed on NCL) contained exactly 3 blueberries, 3 raspberries, NO orange segments, hardly any raisins or nuts and NO fresh mint leaves.

We spent more money eating breakfast OFF the ship than ever before (and I've been on almost 40 cruises!)

DH and I still had fun on the cruise because entertainment was stellar and we met some really nice people, but... I don't like paying a lot of money for a cruise and getting a lot of bad food! So I promptly canceled my Oct Breakaway that I had booked for me, my sister, and our best friend. We're booked on Regal Princess for our annual girls' cruise now. I hope it'll be good (read bad food reviews on Princess board recently too).

I jumped ship from Carnival a few years ago, because their food reached such deplorable lows (for the price point, their food had been so good back in the day... 2002 - 2009-ish). We rediscovered NCL in 2016, after first sailing on the Sky in 2011 with bad food. Now I'm done with NCL too.

We may soon be done with cruising altogether if things don't improve.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I wish all the cruise lines would drop all the gimmicks (ropes course, go carts, zip lines etc) and get back to providing the great [included] MDR food and great nightly entertainment like they used to do.

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Unsanitary? The bars of soap in hotels and on cruises are wrapped in factory-sealed packaging. You're the only one using it. If, for some reason, there's an opened bar in your room, obviously don't use it and ask for a new one. Millions of people use bars of soap at home. Liquid soap from a pump bottle is a relatively new concept compared to how long bars have been around.

 

I don't have any fears about using the body wash & shampoo from the shower dispensers on cruises. A lot of people pack their own soaps & shampoos, but it's always because the stuff in the dispensers isn't the best quality and people like their preferred brands. I find it hard to believe that stewards or their team members would ever tamper with them.

Organized..

You read me wrong...

Not accusing stewards or any staff of tampering with  soap or dispensers...

Sorry if I gave that impression...

A [very] few times I've traveled in group situations where people's hand hygiene sadly gave me significant pause...

1 hour ago, subiero said:

Going on my first NCL cruise in February. (Not new to cruising, just new to NCL). I use a CPAP and was wondering about electric outlets location availability in balcony rooms and would the ship (Gem) provide distilled water ,if I ask, that I need for the machine? Cruised back in 2015 on RCCL and they did supply distilled water (back then) and extension for power. Thanks!

DH uses a CPAP.

We just completed a 7 day New England/Canada Dawn cruise.

I alerted NCL's Special Needs Department ahead of time but still brought my own extension cord... (I'd read that the one US outlet was far from the bed.

True!

Apparently Dawn was originally designed for non-US passengers.

Distilled water gallon bottle was already in cabin when we arrived!

Room steward gave us a better heavier duty extension cord than the one I packed!

This was on NCL Dawn--could vary, but we were happy with service provided by Special Needs & Room Steward!

Forgot to mention we were in a mini suite cabin. Other cabin configurations might vary.