dinosaurdem

I realize that "cruing" was a typo, but I had a wonderful image of the passengers lined up on oars with the Captain yelling, "stroke, stroke".

I haven't sailed NCL in over ten years and am now booked on Epic. What are your favorite specialty restaurants?

How would you rank the five best restaurants on Epic.

Just off Infinity this morning. This was our first 7-day cruise in years and we keep kicking ourselves that we booked one this short. Never again. We were just starting to get comfortable onboard!

 

The ship is just as lovely as we remember from 2013. We still prefer Solstice Class, but M Class is still a great class of ship, and we are more itinerary-driven than ship-driven. Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves. I can't speak highly enough about Luminae. Our CS was so roomy, but like mentioned before, it needs some loving care. The staff was overall lovely, with officers very visible around the ship. We do think that they need to improve security who scream at old ladies during boarding. It's very different from Azamara's "welcome home" vibe from the security folks. We enjoyed some great treatments in the spa and spent lots of time in the Solarium. Icy Straight was lovely to walk around - especially with all the eagles we saw. And we had a great zipline excursion in Ketchikan - something I never thought I would want to do, but it was so fun. We've been to Alaska quite a few times and are always searching for something new.

 

Our biggest quibble was the situation in which our morning tour was cancelled and shore ex staff moved us onto the afternoon tour - only to be told when we showed up for it that they had made a mistake and overbooked it. Just a "Sorry, hope you still enjoy your afternoon in Juneau". So we wandered the town for 30 minutes and then went back on the ship as it was too late in the day to arrange another tour. That night we went to the shore ex office to make sure they refunded our $1500 for the tour and we saw the staff member who overbooked us peeking around the corner and hiding from us. We were so easy-going about the whole thing. The least he could have done was come out and apologize again. My entire career has been hospitality and I have dealt with hundreds of upset guests. An apology note and a bottle of wine goes a long way to show that you care. Apparently the shore ex staff are trained to sell tours, but are not given skills to face guests and resolve issues. Fortunately, the rest of Celebrity's staff excel in this area.

 

We can't wait to be back onboard for our October cruise out of Sydney! And, honestly, ready to sail warm waters again :)

 

Michael & Omar

On all of our Celebrity cruises we have been most disappointed in the Shorex staff, for a variety of reasons.

I cannot remember another post where I agreed with all but one poster. As someone who has poor balance, a bad leg and walk with a cane, I spend a lot of time dodging the able bodied. I even had one privileged young man suggest that people with mobility impairments should have a separate cruise so that they would not get in the way of the able bodied.

To the best of my knowledge (based on viewing videos, etc.) the doors to Epic cabin facilities are probably better described as "translucent" rather than "opaque." The problem for some (as I understand it) is that the doors *aren't* opaque.

Thank you.

I'm much like you (well, in various ways LOL ;-) ), I can't think of a single time I have actually called Celebrity on the phone for anything, not one time.

 

Website does most of what I need, and what it doesn't my TA can handle.

 

As to Captain's Club desk on ship, ONLY thing that comes to mind is to use as a concierge (and really, how much concierge service is needed on the ship), but one time I arrived to my cabin and had no captain's club materials, went to guest services, they said they couldn't help, only Captains club could, and they were closed so I had to wait till next day. Guest services wouldn't even give me the calendar of events.

 

Missing luggage tags, no way am I going to waste 15 minutes trying to find someone for something I can print myself, or just have a porter affix when I get to the pier.

Sorry I offended you cle-guy. Out of about twenty cruises I have used a TA twice. I frequently change cabins as prices change and am a bit OCD about things like customer service, having run a health care facility with about 150 employees. The issue is not whether I am high Maintenance. The issue is customer service. I presume that Celebrity's poor IT doesn't bother you either. The shore side operation just doesn't match the operation at sea where Celebrity excels.

Vulcan might be on to it. Over the last several months I have either made reservation changes or tried to solve problems like disappearing luggage tag requests. I have called the Captains Club first assuming that the staff would be more experienced. Because of slow resolution I have probably made about 15 calls. Wait time for the Captain's Club has been fifteen minutes to one hour and the reservation line has taken zero to fifteen minutes. If anything the staff on the general line have been better problem solvers. It appears, however, that no one else is having this problem. I have noticed increased hold times, AT&T over an hour, for a variety of businesses. Have we come to expect that companies will either reduce the number of call staff or ship their call centers overseas. Thirty five minutes should not be acceptable service.

edited.

Vulcan might be on to it. Over the last several months I have either made reservation changes or tried to solve problems like disappearing luggage tag requests. I have called the Captains Club first assuming that the staff would be more experienced. Because of slow resolution I have probably made about 15 calls. Wait time for the Captain's Club has been fifteen minutes to one hour and the reservation line has taken zero to fifteen minutes. If anything the staff on the general line have been better problem solvers. It appears, however, that no one else is having this problem. I have noticed increased hold times, AT&T over an hour, for a variety of businesses. Have we come to expect that companies will either reduce the number of call staff or ship their call centers overseas. Thirty five minutes should be acceptable service.

Does anyone know why the Captain's Club wait times, up to one hour, are significantly longer than those for the general reservation line.

Hi Payd,

 

Yes! We took the Canadian North Charter out of Moncton. I will soon add my comments on this. We were lucky enough to fly the logo'd plane back to Moncton and the flight crew was from Edmonton. (The ex-city of champions) So now you figured out I lived in Calgary for 12 years with that comment right?

 

You asked for it so you shall receive some snow filled picture we took yesterday and today.

 

This first picture is of the little snow bank in front of our garage.

 

 

Next picture of Donna standing in our driveway just before we made our attempt at driving to work in Charlottetown this morning. Of course our road was blocked / impassable and headed north for about a 25KM detour instead of 4 Kms.

 

 

Donna works at UPEI and they had delayed until 1:00PM and later cancelled for the day. Donna took this picture with her iPhone when she got back from town, Road had opened up for the return trip. (more like a tunnel than a road)

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Looks like da' UP.

What's the best and calmest place to have lunch on Epic on Embarkation day?

????

Where is the best place for a quiet lunch on Epic embarkation day?

On the balcony do the mini-suites have chairs, chairs with stools, or loungers? Can I assume that the cabins have no conditioner, no bar soap, and no Q-tips?

Colinillinois. thanks for the url.

It appears that there is neither shampoo nor cream rinse nor Q-tips in the cabins. Is this so? What about bar soap?

Because of medical issues, I need a shower stool, an extension cord and distilled water. Do I contact a special services office ((How?) or my TA?

Just wondering if anyone on the April 19th Silhouette TA has planned a private group tour of Normady or if anyone has a recommendation for a good tour operator.

 

thanks

Check the roll call.

Hi Everybody! New member here.

I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly, or if I'm even putting it in the right section.

 

I went on a cruise with my parents on Carnival to Cozumel over 13 years ago, so it's been a while. (And I was a whole lot younger and only responsible for myself at the time . . or maybe someone was responsible for me. Haha!)

 

We're booked to go on the NCL Epic Mediterranean on May 10, and we're finalizing our excursions. The Italy ports were easier to choose because we already had an idea of what we wanted to see and where to go.

 

However, I'm having a hard time with Cannes and Palma Majorca.

The excursion we wanted to do in Cannes is not available for this trip due to the fact that the Grand Prix (? I think) will be around the same time.

 

Does anybody have any ideas on what we should pick?

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

Travelers:

Me (29 yo)

Husband (33 yo)

Daughter (2 yo)

Mother In-Law (65 yo)

Father In-Law (67 yo)

 

Thank you in advance! :)

Palma is walkable. The two Riviera sites we found most interesting were Eze and Grasse.

I have read conflicting reports. Are the prices the same pre-cruise and on the ship? Are 5 dinner packages the same price before and during?

I believe that Celebrity shoots for a steakhouse with an Italian flair. Princess does Italian better. That said, I prefer everything about the Celebrity specialty restaurants, except for the price. With the exception that, in my opinion, Qsine is more of an entertainment than a serious restaurant. I have been on 15 Celebrity cruises, almost all of their ships and in every restaurant except the grill. I have never had any dish that I considered hot, in fact, to make the pad thai served in the Asian restaurant resemble anything I ate in Thailand, I had to add considerable heat. That said I realize that there are some people, like my daughter-in-law, from rural Indiana, who finds a little black pepper to be incredibly spicy.

I was on the Eclispe last week - getting home on 10th may.

I had upgraded to premium package for the wines primarily - although I do enjoy other drinks.

I was most disappointed. The wines I had specifically upgraded for were now outside the premium package leaving with a choice of two that were included only in the premium package. The only wine I could drink was the Pinot

Grigiot at $9 - included in the Classic package.

Also the choice of wines ( red and white) in Cellar masters was poor and limited- nothing like previously.

I could obtain the better wines ( for me) in the dining room and cellar masters at extra cost ( just paying the difference ).

I took this up with the cellar master as requested by guest relations and he apologised saying the prices went up on 1st May.

I had little choice but to pay the difference for the reminder of my holiday - my choice I know.

My friend had the classic package and there no Martinis she could have and she was disgusted when having ordered one was told it was outside the package.it didn't help that the martini drinks list had no prices on them. There were also far fewer marines on offer than previously in the summer of 2013.

It seems a shame to reduce and restrict choice so much.

I knew that Celebrity was gay-friendly, but I didn't know that they used to make marines available.

String trios and quartets.

Thanks for the excellent review. There are a few points where our experience was different or things you didn't mention. We enjoyed the intimacy and class of a smaller, more traditional ship. ship. Our shipmates were more interesting and well travelled. Blu is very comfortable for breakfast, but service can be spotty. As to dinner, our ranking would be Azamara MDR, Celebrity MDR, and Blu. Our favorite showers are the standard showers on Celebrity. We found the Aqua showers uncomfortable with the extra jets on.

If you can afford Crystal, book a suite on Silhouette and buy the dining package which allows you to always eat in one of the specialty restaurants and the premium beverage package. Live it up. If you book for Spring of next year, you will get all of the above plus a designated restaurant , lounge and other benefits, depending on the suite booked.