bostongal

4 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

That's their plan 😁. I went without instead most days.

I know! 😲 Just one more reason for me to choose HAL for my cruises. 

Espresso based drinks are the only thing I will order at Starbucks. Their coffee is undrinkable. I would have loved a way to make it in room but loaded a Starbucks card ahead of time. Last morning and my 1,000 cold coffee at breakfast I skipped until home. 

The coffee was awful! I had cold coffee served to me repeatedly in the dining room. I ended up drinking cappuccinos from Starbucks all week. 

We're not really drinkers, can take or leave it. Our rule of thumb is if it's part of the cruise deal we book we enjoy the ease of it. Otherwise we just pay as we go if we want a drink. We don't drink enough to make the beverage package worth it. 

We bring refillable bottles and a travel mug for coffee. We're happy with water, iced tea and coffee. My husband brings water enhancer drops for flavor. 

Hope this helps. YMMV. 

Meg

Don't flame me for this question, I'm just curious....Did any of you get some compensation for flooded rooms etc

New Cruzer - We didn't get compensation for our cabin mishap but we were not looking for it either. We only wanted to be in a different cabin and we did get that, although it did take alittle bit of effort on our part. After we were moved and settled, Wednesday afternoon, we did receive a bottle of red wine from the Front Desk but we do not know if that is because of our problems with the cabin or our problems with room service. Either way it was very nice to have.

Meg

Nautica - Thanks for your reply. Our cabin was in several inches of water and my husband's CPAP machine was sitting in a puddle next to the bed (after it rushed out of the bathroom). We went to the desk to talk to a supervisor and had to wait 2+ hours for one to be available. When we had waited 2 hours we spoke to a gentleman (I did not get his name) about speaking the supervisor because our cabin was flooded and his reply to us was "we'll send a letter to your cabin". That still makes us laugh. Luckily we did get moved and all of our things were fine.

I am with you on the not being able to understand the Captain during his announcements. Often I thought he was mumbling. I gave up trying after the comment about the seas calming down in 4-5 hours (9 a.m. on Monday) and then having it just get worse.

I thought the crew was for the most part nice and genuinely trying to do a good job in awful circumstances. We did hear one crew member yell at a passenger to stay away from the door when the rolling seas caused it to crash open. I also heard another passenger tell the crew member not to yell at the passenger (a young man around 21 who was not near the door when it slammed open).

As for the food - we were mixed. The buffet was awful to my husband & I except late at night when there were good french fries there. My daughter did like the pasta station at the buffet. The dining rooms we enjoyed but we found servers that were pleasant, capable and then booked their tables every night. It made a big difference for us. I enjoyed most everything we ate. I had a few things that were not to my liking but that has been the case on every cruise we've done so no complaints there. We did not eat at the Pizzeria or do any of the on deck buffets. We never ate at the Trattoria. We did one night in Le Bistro and it was a pleasant evening. Room Service was forgettable but we enjoyed having breakfast delivered every day.

Coffee onboard - just awful. We had trouble getting cream but I had been forewarned about that by reading the posts here. I bought a few cups from the coffee bar and made my own in my room after I tried it in the dining room. I am glad that I packed my own.

Irishj&m - We've cruised out of Boston 6 times now. You cannot judge cruising out of Boston on this one experience. We did 5 sailings on the NCL Majesty, a smaller ship and one of our cruises we were just ahead of a hurricane with 25 ft. seas - that cruise was bumpy. Our other 4 (1 in August and 3 in October) were smooth like glass. It's just the chance we take when we cruise in the fall.

I am sorry to hear about the wall panel in your cabin. That would have scared me half to death!

I did notice a few people with crutches but didn't know if that was from the ship or not. I am sorry that people got hurt but it doesn't surprise me at all given the movement onboard.

I just watched the Dream sail out for this week's cruise. I hope they have smoother sailing and blue skies.

Bermuda was absolutely beautiful.

Meg

Hi - We just returned today from this sailing. This was our 6th NCL cruise (our 20th cruise overall) and it was one of our worst. We tried to make the best of it but are glad to be home now. Our family hopes that those on board this week have a better time of it.

We had extremely rough seas beginning on Sunday night and continuing until late Monday night. The outside doors were chained, the elevators were not working on Monday and there was no room service on Monday as the crew was completely overwhelmed. Our cabin on deck 6 flooded twice on Sunday night with sewage and we were eventually moved to another cabin on another deck.

The captain did announce that they lost a significant amount of liquor due to the heavy seas and we personally saw furniture overturned and the shops in disarray. The coffee bar was unable to open because of damage & shifting from the seas.

As for the crew - some were fantastic, some were rude. We witnessed a few crew members yelling at passengers or making rude comments. We also witnessed some that went above and beyond to make it a pleasant experience.

Meg

Gotta have those croissants and coffee, sometimes some eggs, corned beef hash, fruit.

Meg

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do then by the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)