the_lovely_voyage

Hello,

 

We sailed on the Freedom of the Seas in December and received a Crown and Anchor discount for the premium drink package. Gold members received 20% off, Platinum 25% off, and higher amounts for Diamond members. We were told this discount also applied to the ultimate drink package.

 

Does anyone know if this is a fleet-wide benefit? If we sail aboard the Independence or Libery of the Seas, can we also anticipate this Crown and Anchor discount when contemplating whether to buy the unlimited drink package?

20% off for Gold would be FANTASTIC. That could definitely persuade me to purchase it when I'm on the Indy in November. That or the punch card that has been floating around for a while. It's hard to get excited about drink package deals when so much can change in 10 months though...I'll hold onto this info and stay hopeful that this will continue!

NCL had a great deal last year that included free beverage packages (like actually free, not now where you have to pay the taxes on it still) and I booked with them instead of Carnival. I'm not going to say I regretted it, but I definitely feel as though Carnival has more activities and things to do, instead of the Freestyle mantra NCL has that seemed to lack planned events during the day. Sure, the free drinks were great and cruising is ALWAYS a wonderful and welcome time, however I feel like we would've had an even better time on Carnival. My two cents, so decide what works for you.

I don't think so. He stayed on schedule pretty much since we didn't want to be late getting back or miss having time for all the stops (we went all over it seemed). Maybe we got lucky, but we saw plenty of planes. It was near the end of the tour, so we were pretty tired anyways after drinking all day and it was really really hot out (and we're from Florida). So we were ready to go.

 

Talking about St. Maarten, I am now super jealous of you :)

Alright, well I appreciate the feedback! Hah, I'm super jealous that you've already been, I still need to wait a year and 10 months! =[

Oh yes! We some some planes very close up landing (and felt the exhaust across the beach too during takeoff). I seem to remember a plane schedule was posted next to the nearby bar outside. So you could start looking when a plane was supposed to land.

Awesome, thank you so much for your insights and the pictures! Do you think that there is any flexibility in the amount of time? such as extending it to 55 minutes or an hour instead of 45?

We did our first ever private tour in St. Maarten last year on our honeymoon with Bernard's Tours. It was great! Scheduling with the website worked out well and can't beat free rum punch and beverages. (the rum punch was yummy and waaaay strong). On the plus side, it was like half the cost of a similar ship tour with no free drinks.

 

Our first anniversary cruise is March 13th on the Conquest. If it was going to St. Maarten, we would be doing this tour again.

Thanks for the suggestion! I discovered Bernards for our honeymoon stop in St Maarten but was a little hesitant to actually consider them. Did you do a tour that included Maho beach? My fiance really wants to see the planes at Maho, but I'm worried that 45 minutes won't be enough to actually enjoy it?

Just know that a reduced deposit comes with a catch.

 

If you call back and upgrade or see a price reduction and ask for it,,,,, you WILL be required to pay full deposit at that time. Sometimes they tell you, sometimes they don't. If you don't pay (even if they didn't tell you) you may find that your entire cruise has been cancelled because full deposit was not made.

 

Clearly understand the Terms and Conditions when booking with a reduced deposit sale.

THIS.

I booked with a reduced deposit, great! I called two days ago to get OBC added under the new promotion, great! I logged onto My Account a few hours later to see if the the OBC was on yet, it was, great! I also saw: Deposit: 250, Due 12/17/15, NOT GREAT. They didn't tell me I needed to pay my deposit ASAP. Thankfully, I called back and the new phone rep said it did need to be paid that night or I could lose the booking. That was SCARY.

It's all good now, and I'll see the Vista in 2017, but I really wish the first phone rep had told me that I needed to pay the rest of the deposit now that she changed the promotion.

Subscribed! Loving the review already and your daughter is adorable. Going on the IOS in November and super excited about it!

I thought I read something about the private Cabana deck being closed to the general public before 5 pm, only being for Havana Cabana users, but will open to everyone after that. Can anyone confirm this? I felt a little crazy booking for 687 days out too, but I'm so excited!!!

Thanks for the input cruiseonthebrain! I had read about the Bacardi factory too, so I could always see what we could do there. Saving money is nice too!

If the excursion isn't offered, that makes this option way more possible.

that's 2 years dude, relax

 

if it's driving you crazy go to Viatour or put in different dates for San Juan, tours won't change too much

My bad for being excited about my honeymoon. I think a lot of people would agree with me that planning is fun and relieves stress and unknowns. So thanks for that.

Are you sure about the date of your cruise? I didn't Vista going to San Jaun then.

Yep, Vista, sailing leaves 11/4/17 and it visits San Juan on 11/7/17

Hi there,

I couldn't decide if this should go in the San Juan board or on Carnival, since it's specific to Carnival, so here I am! I was wondering if there was any way to tell if an excursion I'm interested in will be offered on my cruise. I'm sailing the Vista in November 2017 (YAY HONEYMOON) and they haven't set up any excursions yet in the online planner, otherwise I'd just check for myself. We're supposed to be in San Juan from 1-8pm, and I'm really interested in the Rum Mixology and Salsa Dancing excursion. I'm so hoping that they'll do an afternoon tour, but part of me is afraid that this tour is generally only offered in the morning for ships that dock earlier? Someone please tell me that I'm wrong and that we'll be able to do this excursion? If anyone is on a similar itinerary for next year and is able to see if their afternoon San Juan stop offers this, I'd super appreciate it!

Cruzncouple, any chance you could try to post your findings when you return? I really want to do this and recently saw a spa menu and it wasn't listed =[

This is so exciting! Sailing on Indy in November 2016 and can't wait to see this! I'm guessing this will be an upcharge entertainment?

EDIT: Okay so now that I read some stuff (after I posted, of course), I think I was wrong about the upcharge. SO, how will ticketing work if it's free?

FRIDAY- DEBARK

When we woke up, we were in port and there were announcements about debarking. Vacation was really over! *cry* We finished packing and getting ready for the airport, took all of our luggage with us, and headed up to get some breakfast. We had breakfast in the Great Outdoors and contacted MJS Transportation about getting picked up at the terminal. To our surprise, there was a very long ling to debark at 9:15, which was completely different than our experience in January where we literally just walked off the ship and into the terminal for customs. Thankfully once we got through the line to get off the ship, there was no line for customs and were outside quickly. We waited 5-10 minutes for MJS to pick us up, and off to FLL we went.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

-I know a lot of people have written reviews and expressed at how long it took to get a drink. Maybe it varies from cruise to cruise, but I really didn’t encounter any wait time that was ridiculously long. If there was a long wait, it was rare. Getting drinks in the MDR was not hard at all either.

-The mixed drinks and cocktails were strong almost every single time, which was definitely a huge plus and made up for any wait time we had. Seriously, there was only like 1 or 2 drinks that we encountered and wished it had more alcohol.

-We met our room steward once and it was on the last day as we were leaving. I was honestly a little put off by this. On all my other cruise experiences, the room staff made themselves visible and checked to make sure things were okay. We didn’t have any problems with the room or its cleanliness, so I guess it’s not a huge deal, but it definitely was striking as different. Side note about the room, the large porthole definitely lived up to its name and I didn’t feel like we missed anything compared to getting a full window for more money. I definitely would choose a porthole over a window again if it meant saving money.

-The staff didn’t seem as friendly as our RCL experience on the Enchantment of the Seas back in January. Another small factor, but it was nice that all the staff we saw in the hallway on the Enchantment would say hi to us first or at least smile and nod. On the Sky, we would say hi to staff and would sometimes get a response, but hardly ever received a “hi” from them first.

-We felt that there was less to do during the day as far as scheduled activities go. Instead, there seemed to be a lot of downtime and the work fell on us to decide what we wanted to do for hours at a time. I wish there would have been more activities such as trivia and competitions to do during the day. Maybe this is the Freestyle mantra in play and NCL doesn’t want cruisers to feel like they have to be somewhere at a scheduled time. I don’t know, but personally we wanted more entertainment options.

THURSDAY- GSC

We were so thrilled that we were able to visit Great Stirrup Cay, as the captain mentioned rain the day before and we were a little worried about tendering. We really enjoyed our beach day at Coco Cay back in January and were looking forward to exploring GSC, since we had read it was better than RCL’s island. We were also really excited for our excursion, Stingray City Bahamas. This was my fiancé’s first time interacting with stingrays and he was so looking forward to it! This would be my second time, but I knew that it would be more interactive than my first time. In 2009, I went snuba-ing with stingrays in Grand Cayman. We were swimming with stingrays and got to watch a handler do a feeding. I also received a “love bite” from a stingray, which was basically a hickey on my wrist that left a scar. It’s a fun icebreaker to share that story!

So, we woke up around 8:30 and headed up to the Great Outdoors for breakfast with a view. We decided to head down to the tender area at 9:10 and were on the boat by 9:15. The Freestyle Daily said to allow 45 minutes for tendering and I didn’t believe that. Let me tell you, it was true! From stepping on the boat, waiting for it to fill up, riding over, and getting off took almost exactly 45 minutes. Didn’t help that the tender boat capacity is 400 people and we got on when the boat was pretty empty. We got to Great Stirrup Cay around 10 am and were amazed by how beautiful this private island is. Hands down, GSC has way more curb appeal than Coco Cay. From the moment we approached the docking area, we were in awe of how aesthetically pleasing the view was. We walked around and had no problem finding two loungers to claim. We stayed there under 10:50 when we decided to get a drink before we met up for our excursion at Stingray City. Not a big deal, but I will mention that there was always a line for drinks at the bars we visited. It was never more than a 5-6 minute wait, and I know that the bartenders were working quickly to serve everyone, but it was a noticeable wait.

After our drink, we headed over to the tour booth area and signed in for our excursion. Our group had a five minute walk to the backside of the island and there we met the captain of our speed boat and one of the stingray handlers. He explained to us how to interact with the stingrays in an educational yet funny way. After the discussion, we took a short boat ride over to the stingray pen off of Stingray Island. We docked at the pen, got out of the boat onto a pier, and took a few steps on a ladder down into the water. The water level ranged from mid-thigh to mid-chest, depending on where we walked in the pen. At no point was the water too high or did I feel like I had to swim instead of stand. I’m just under 5’ 8”, in case anyone wants a reference point. The water was clear and it was very easy to see the stingrays and where you’re stepping (to avoid stepping on them). We had a chance to snorkel, feed the rays, hold them, and take pictures with them. They have a camera that they take pictures on but also allowed us to use our personal devices and even offered to take some on my phone of my fiancé and I holding a ray, which I really appreciated. The entire excursion was at least 1.5 hours but probably was 1.75 hours. The stingray wranglers were so so friendly, informative, and very willing to talk about the rays, their jobs, life in the Bahamas, and even asked us questions about ourselves. I would definitely recommend this excursion!! I know we felt safe the entire time and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

After getting back from the excursion, we got a drink and ate at the BBQ on the island. They serve it from 11:30-2, and things were still in full swing when we stopped by at 1:30. After lunch, we went to the Bacardi Bar and enjoyed a drink with a GREAT view of the ship, the beach, and the water. The DJ played some pretty good music while we were there. We went back to the ship around 2:30 and sat on deck and took a nap. I have to say that there was live music on the deck and they were pretty terrible. They were doing covers of popular songs and it really wasn’t that great to listen to. We watched Sailaway and the sunset on the Outrigger deck again, where we knew we would have really great views of the island.

We went to dinner at the Crossing MDR that night. It was our only visit to the MDR on this vacation, which is weird for me because I’ve only missed a maximum of one night on all my other cruises. I guess the Freestyle aspect of NCL made us feel like we didn’t ever have to visit the MDR. That and the menu options posted outside never seemed that appealing. The food was pretty good, no major complaints about that. The service was great. Our waitress and her assistance were both quick with their service, eager to please, and pleasant. Overall, we were glad we went and had a nice dinner, but we’ve definitely been more impressed with MDR experiences. If anyone is interested in seeing the menus, I think I have pictures of each night.

After dinner, we went to the Perfect Couple show, which was something I was completely unimpressed with. It was odd and raunchy but in a really dumb way. It’s a certain type of entertainment that didn’t interest me at all, but my fiancé was enjoying it, so I stayed for him to have a good time. After that mess of a show was over, we went to the Longboard Bar and watched a football game and had some snacks. I tried the tomato soup and it was pretty great, like my fiancé kept raving about. We also tried the prosciutto and mozzarella panini which was awesome. Eventually we went to our room and packed for tomorrow morning. We were sad to be leaving vacation but were looking forward to seeing our dog! This was the first vacation we’ve taken since we adopted him in July and even though we knew he was in good hands with family, we really missed him!

UP NEXT: FRIDAY and FINAL THOUGHTS

Any chance this can be brought back to life and have someone find out the exact recipe they use on board? I'm craving these! I'd super appreciate it!!!

Thanks so much for the spa menu!! Your picture from the Solarium today makes me really hate the 8 inches of snow in my backyard!

WEDNESDAY- NASSAU:

We had a really late start to the day as I wasn’t feeling too well, but since we had been to Nassau back in January and didn’t have any concrete plans for this visit, it wasn’t too disappointing. We walked around the pier area, looking at the other ships in port with us (Enchantment of the Seas, Carnival Sunshine, and another Carnival ship, I think the Fantasy), taking pictures, and enjoying the weather.

After 30 minutes off the ship, we got back onboard and went to the Great Outdoors for a snack and beautiful views. I had my massage appointment at 6pm, so my fiancé stayed on deck to watch sailaway while I went to the spa. The massage was a 55 minute appointment, but I think the entire process took about an hour and 15 minutes. The cost was $119, plus 18% gratuity. I found out afterwards that I was charged 119 because the ship was already sailing, but if I had set the appointment for 15 minutes before when we were still docked, it would’ve been 109. No one told me this beforehand and I felt a little cheated, but I guess that’s business. My massage therapist was Marshelley, and she was very nice and did a great job and relaxing the muscles in my shoulders, which are always a problem area. At the end of the massage, she did the spiel about selling me products they used during the massage, which I found a little annoying, but I know that they’re required to. I just hated the idea of being relaxed and pampered and then feeling pressured to buy things. Overall, my first cruise massage experience was enjoyable and relaxing, I just hate the price tag that is attached to it.

After the spa, I met up with my fiancé in the Longboard Bar, where he couldn’t stop raving about the tomato soup with basil cream. Seriously, all night he would keep commenting how good the soup was. Here's a menu of the other food options they serve there (after 6pm).

After dinner, we went to Deal or No Deal again, but it wasn’t as fun as the first night. I think the contestants had a different attitude than the people the night before. Oh well, it was still some fun entertainment! We also went to see the Comedy of Alvin Williams, who was pretty funny. My fiancé enjoyed him more than I did, so I guess different strokes for different folks on that one. He did have some really funny jokes that we were cracking up over, but there were also a few jokes that really fell flat for me personally. During the show, we tried our first Mango Meltdowns, and I can’t believe we waited so long!! What a great drink! The waiter made us aware that there’s a lot of alcohol in it, but it certainly doesn’t taste like it, so be careful! I think my mouth is watering at the thought of one right now, honestly. So good!

UP NEXT: THURSDAY/GSC

Huge thanks to everyone else reading along; I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! I should be able to squeeze in the rest of the review before the end of the week!

Glad to read you had an enjoyable time. :)

 

I'm boarding Norwegian Sky next Monday, and will request Mark to be my server on both evenings booked for Cagney's. Thanks for the 'heads up' on his great service.

 

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That makes me so happy to hear! He really made our Cagney's experience special and I hope he makes both of yours just as wonderful! I'll definitely try to finish the rest of the review before you set sail!

^ I'm also interested to know the prices of a Corona bucket.

Also, do you think you'd be able to swing by the spa and take a picture of the menu? I'd super appreciate it, but if not, I totally understand!

Not from personal experience, but I've been reading ckrobyn's live review from the Indy and she posted some of the compasses from a 5-day, and it looks like both day 1 and 2 had different 18-20 meet ups, including for karaoke, comedy, and dancing at the labyrinth (dance club). I would bet that there are some meet-ups on other days too.

I do agree though, the 18-20 year old group has always been sort of ignored on cruise lines but I'm glad there's starting to be some more activities for that age group!

TUESDAY- FREEPORT:

We didn’t have any excursions purchased through NCL so we took advantage of sleeping in (it was 8:15, but still, it was nice to not feel rushed to be anywhere). We went to the Garden Café for breakfast, ate back in the Great Outdoors, and enjoyed the warm weather until we decided to get off and head into the port. We were in the port area by 9:30 after our quick detour back to our room. This was my 6th cruise, I probably should’ve remembered this fact, but we get down to the gangway and hear “don’t forget your photo IDs.” Well of course I didn’t have mine on me so we had to go back up to the room. I’m not blaming anyone and it’s probably my fault, but I do wish there was a reminder somewhere other than when we were about to get off the ship.

We walked around to find a taxi and it took us a few minutes to figure out how to get one. There were a lot of taxis advertising Lucaya and other places, but we wanted to go to the Sands Bahamian Brewery, which I knew was the opposite direction of the beach and Lucaya area. My fiancé eventually asked a guy who walked us to an area where two women were creating groups of people for taxis. About 5 minutes later we were picked up with another family also heading to the brewery by our shuttle driver Ms. Rolles. She was very friendly and gave us her phone number to call when we were ready to leave the Brewery. We paid $4/pp, so $16 round trip (plus tip), which was fine with us.

The Sands Bahamian Brewery was a very nice experience and I would recommend it for anyone looking to hear some culture, have fun, and drink a lot of beer. We paid $15.05 for the two of us, which we were a little annoyed by the tax, but we paid it, and off we went! Our tour guide was Krista, and she was very interactive, both during the tour providing a lot of information and afterwards during the sampling, engaging in multiple conversations with us and the family from our taxi. The tour includes tasting of their 7 beers, and unlimited sampling of your favorites afterwards. My fiancé and I both liked Sands Light, and I liked Bush Crack and my fiancé liked High Rock. We stayed for a few cups of beer after the official tour was over and had a very nice conversation with Krista. We definitely could’ve stayed longer if we wanted, but were ready to get back to the ship to get some pool time in. We went downstairs and the staff had no problem called our taxi driver, who was about 5 minutes away. Overall, it was a really nice experience, and for a total price of just over 30 dollars for transportation and the tour and tasting, it was really affordable too! If you’re a fan of beer and want to see a little bit of Freeport, head over to the Bahamian Brewery!

Once back on the ship, we went swimming, had a few drinks and lunch, and laid out on a few chairs. The weather was beautiful! Eventually it was Sailaway and we watched that from the front of the ship just outside the Outrigger Lounge. Definitely a nice, secluded deck spot that we never saw that many people at. That night we had sushi at the Plantation Club, and it was so good! I had a spider roll and my fiancé had the 10 shades of grey; both were very big and filling. We sat at the bar and were able to order very quickly, and it didn’t take a long time to receive our food either. We paid 12.50 for the 2 rolls, which was a good deal for us. Another highlight of the dinner was that Mark, our server from Cagney’s the night before, came over and said hi to us! I was VERY surprised and delighted that he remembered our names and took time to come say hi and say that he hoped the rest of my birthday went well after dinner. So very nice, and I was sure to tell NCL about his fantastic service.

After dinner, we went to the Deal or No Deal show, which was fun to watch and get involved with as a crowd member. We didn’t buy a card, but we liked taking guesses between ourselves and making suggestions with other audience members. We also went to the Not So Newlywed show, which my fiancé and I both enjoy a lot. I know a lot of people say the show gets old and the questions are the same, but we just really enjoy the people, answers, and the comedy aspect about it all. After the show, we stopped at the Longboard Bar for some wings, and my fiancé said they were awesome.

UP NEXT: NASSAU

From what I know, beverage packages are available as long as you have at least 4 days left in your sailing. So if it's a 7 day Eastern, I think you could wait until day 3