xriva

So that is probably the biggest reason I like tipping, I know it actually goes where intended.

Do you?

Some restaurants were collecting portions of tips from the staff (see various lawsuits.) Many places pool tips, to cover busboys and runners. There is a rumor that should come back in about five posts that Norwegian collects cash tips and redistributes them.

There is a system in place. It is badly named. Why not just use the system?

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Booking a suite does nothing for making the common areas less crowded, or keep me from being shut out of restaurants and shows.

Suite people have a Concierge to help with booking tables and a reserved area in the theatre.

My conclusion is that some people are just not megaship people - I am one of them.

I much prefer the Jewel class to the Breakaway class.

To me, the Haven is not the problem with wasted space - it’s the rock wall and the water slides and the go kart tracks and all the fun stuff the kids want. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m not going to use any of that stuff, but if you left it out and put in another bar, I might spend some time there.

My wife loves the Epic (she’s in the minority, I think.) I enjoy the Epic because I know where everything is - we’ve done four Transatlantics on her.

We’ve sailed the Breakaway (Haven) and the Getaway (twice) and I’m always left just a bit underwhelmed. I can’t explain why, it’s just what happens. I prefer the openness of 6-7-8 Ocean Place to the sealed environment of the Epic, but they’re not ships, they’re floating resorts. I prefer ships.

If I could only sail one Norwegian ship, I would choose the Jade. I love the layout. Ironically, we had a Haven suite on the Jade at Christmas, and never went to the actual Haven. We had the Owners Suite, which has a forward balcony, so we spent most of our spare time there.

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That is horrific. I think lawsuits will be coming.

Read your cruise contract. Arbitration may be coming.

By the time this hits the bottom line, it will be lost in the data. Some executive will think of some new program that will "fix" everything.

 

NCL already has a name awareness problem. When I say we're cruising with them, very few of my friends recognize the name. No doubt this incident will increase the name awareness - but not in the way they would want it to be.

 

Interesting thread here at a Cruise Law blog: http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2018/04/articles/passenger-rights/norwegian-sun-ncls-panama-canal-fiasco-cruise/

 

I wonder if NCL has people scouring these blogs to see what the sentiment is.

I think Norwegian may look at CruiseCritic (since their survey asks if you know about it), but I doubt they care about Cruise Law. I’ve never understood why he is chasing an industry whose contracts all have clauses preventing class action suits. I guess there aren’t enough ambulances in Florida.

Every time a cruise line does something stupid, the haters scream about the demise of the line, the people who don’t sail scream “now, I never will - for sure”, and the fans leap to the line’s defense.

In a week, this will be over. It always is.

People were never going to sail Costa after Concordia. People were never going to sail Carnival after the stranded ship had supplies dropped from the Navy - and the “poop ship” was after that. People were never going to sail Norwegian after the Star had propulsion problems.

If you go far enough back, I’m sure nobody was going to sail the White Star Line after Titanic, but they lasted long enough to merge with Cunard.

If you have a product at a price point people consider affordable, and it provides services they want, the occasional hiccup, no matter how grievous to those involved, will pass rather quickly.

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Can someone tell me what FDR stands for? I keep thinking of the president. Thanks, Sheryl

Frank Del Rio, the head of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (Norwegian, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas)

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Priority check-in simply means there is a line reserved for Latitudes members. That’s what starts at Bronze. This is basically pointless since you will be in that line unless it is your first Norwegian cruise. Suites and Haven have their own check-in area.

“Priority” check-in is not canapés and special treatment. It is a banner that says “Latitudes.”

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Cue the broken record. “Read the rules.” “But I’m special and I should get what I want!” Repeat for 20 pages.

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There will still have to be some midsize ships, just because trying to tender 5000+ people to an island takes too long. So, unless you want to go to the same islands where behemoth ships can dock, you will have to find some smaller ships.

I think it’s interesting that Project Leonardo’s design is smaller than the Breakaway Plus class.

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Our cruise this past January was the first one with muster inside. After it was over, I was still completely unaware of where I was supposed to go in the event of a real emergency. I’m assuming I wasn’t supposed to return to the MDR! I liked having them outside so I knew exactly which lifeboat to show up at.

 

 

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One main purpose of muster drill is to show you where to go in the event of an emergency. You DO return to the MDR.

Did you see the sign the crew was holding up? The one with the letter and number? The letter and number that matched the ones on your keycard? That’s your muster station. Muster station is not the same as your lifeboat.

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Wrong!..... and I'm not gonna enter into a pi$$in' contest with somebody who didn't read my post carefully and is quick to defend a perceived slight concerning NCL.

 

 

 

~Brian

It’s not a pissing contest. I did read your post. You said it would be nice for Norwegian to do “old school” as an option since the other lines are copying Freestyle.

My observation is simply that it is very difficult to take a dining methodology that is “anyone, anywhere, anytime” and carve out of it “some people, same time, every time, same people.”

It’s much easier to fake Freestyle by putting some two tops in an unused part of the dining room and assigning them waiters, which is what Carnival did on our one cruise before we came back to Norwegian.

Not having traditional dining is a major selling point of Norwegian, so I doubt there would be many people choosing it.

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Like the OP, we prefer a set dining time with regular tablemates. However, we have not let this dissuade us from sailing NCL. (we sail based on itinerary, ship and price). The other mainstream lines have made accommodations and now allow you to choose anytime dining if that is your preference. It would be nice if NCL would return the favor and allow those who prefer the "old school" seating arrangements to have them as an option.

 

 

 

If you are fortunate enough to find a server who you believe is exceptional, you may request him/her on subsequent nights. We did this.

 

 

 

~Brian

They do. Make reservations for the same time in the same restaurant every night. Problem solved.

The “old school” system was based on having to feed the entire ship (or close) in only one dining room in two seatings. It was not designed to help you “meet people.” It was designed to get everyone in and out in a fixed amount of time, and being able to predict how many covers the kitchen had to produce.

Freestyle dining has more than one option. There are multiple restaurants. There are no seatings, because there are enough options to no longer require people to eat early or late, and that’s it.

If you really want to be forced into the same tablemates at the same time, don’t do Freestyle. Just beware the other lines are coming around to more than one dining option (or the buffet) and dining when you like.

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Tendering is port-dependent, not cruise line-dependent. If a ship can’t safely dock, then tenders (“small boats”) are used. In the Caribbean, it’s usually because the island is protected by a reef which larger ships cannot cross.

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True.

 

 

 

81 years ago smoking during pregnancy, particularly early on, wasn't a big deal either.

 

Feet were x-rayed at shoe shops for fitting purposes.

 

Lead was in petrol, paint, and pencils.

 

 

 

Times progress.

Also, 81 years ago, people drank from the tap or the well because marketing hadn’t discovered that putting tap water in a plastic bottle with a cute name would make people pay more for it.

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Plan to sleep in on sea days. With port times, there are some days I get up earlier on the ship than I do at home.

Don’t forget you’re on a ship! Find a quiet place, and watch the ocean waves go by. It is very peaceful.

Plan, but change. My wife and I plan because it’s fun, but if the plan changes, it changes. Whatever you don’t do, you’ll be doing something else. You’re not being graded!

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They do not carry my size in the ship’s shop, so unless I want to wrapper myself in a lot of small t-shirts (or sew them together), I need to bring clothes. On the other hand, my wife could overpack for a nude cruise, so it is an ongoing struggle in the house.

We have a small carry-on each with medications, a change of clothes to board the ship (we go a day early and stay near the port) and a suitcase each. The carry-ons become our walk-off bags.

We do still overpack but we’re getting better.

When I was in college, we hosted high school students for a “Welcome to College” weekend. I was picking up students at the airport, and one girl arrived with a steamer trunk. It took up my entire back seat. This was Thursday afternoon. She was leaving Sunday.

My wife is not that bad, but it’s because I’ve been hounding her over 16 cruises.

When traveling on business, I would take five days of clothes no matter how long the trip, and send stuff out to be cleaned.

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A balcony guarantees you a view at the rail, with a seat. The mock-up for the Bliss shows lots of room in the observation lounge because there are no people in it. We went to the Spinnaker once for sail away, and had a difficult time seeing around the masses that had the same idea.

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Yes, the crew use them in the laundry department. They are huge!

There aren’t any machines for passenger use on any Norwegian ship.

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Cleanliness - assumed. Decent food - assumed. Decent crew - assumed. So, if any of these weren’t met, I would be a) surprised and b) exceedingly annoyed. (Food is what keeping my wife from going on Carnival again.)

The most important thing to me is the ocean under me. I sail to be at sea, which is why I love sea days. Next is calling on places I haven’t been, which is why we have to branch out from the Caribbean.

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What ship are you on? We’ve been in port at Cozumel with other Norwegian ships and tendered. Cozumel is prepared for a swarm of people - they handle them all the time.

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Interesting. I didn't know that.

If one person can’t get a tour, do you really want forty people wandering around a private area?

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I understand the phrase "ordinary people" was off-putting. Maybe English was not their first language and perhaps the word choice was just a bit off?

 

I can see both sides of letting you tour it or not. You'd like to see if it's worth it. But also, if I was paying the premium to stay in the haven, not sure I'd like my expensive tranquility being interrupted with random tours.

 

Agree with the advice above to join the roll call for your next cruise and go on the cabin crawl.

“Ordinary people” is preferable to “riff-raff.”

On cabin crawls, often the same rules apply - if you’re not booked in the Haven, you don’t go in the Haven. If a Haven guest asks the Concierge, it may be allowed, but I’ve seen crawls that did get in and crawls that didn’t.

YouTube is probably the best source - or reviews here.

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Is there anything to stop you from bringing a 12 or 6 pack of water back on board (as long as it is obviously sealed) from your first port of call??

You can’t bring liquids on anywhere. The only exception is wine, which has a corkage fee. If you buy alcohol in port, it is confiscated and held until the end of the cruise. Any other liquids are discarded.

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I think it depends on the definition of “near.” We’re in Dallas, but we can be in Galveston in five hours or so (depending on traffic) and while I-45 can get boring, it’s not too bad. It would take about the same time (with much more hassle) to fly to PortMiami or New Orleans.

I think when people think “close”, it may mean “I don’t want to fly” or “l want to travel on embarkation day.”

I think the time savings comes from not flying (and especially not connecting). When I was working in Houston, with having to drive to DFW (in traffic), arriving an hour before flight time, security hassles (and this was pre-9/11), flying to Houston (which as the comics say, has two airports, one in Dallas, one in Galveston), and driving to my apartment, it was almost faster to just drive.

I would like to be closer to a major port, but Norwegian left Houston, so geographically closest to us now is NOLA, or Galveston for Carnival, RCCL and sometimes Disney.

My fear (as others mentioned) is moving close to a port that then is then abandoned. We sailed on the Jade twice before she left Houston, and she’s my favorite ship, so we probably would have done the same itinerary a few more times if she had stayed, even though it was not the most exciting (Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Cozumel).

We have other lines still in Galveston, so we may have to branch out (did one Carnival cruise from there, spouse hated it.)

I do agree that PortMiami has the most choices for now, but as ships keep getting larger, there are less ports where they can call - who wants to tender 5000+ people? I love Cozumel, but really don’t need to go there every year.

It may be time to graduate to $maller $hip$ for different ports.

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Watching the live stream. Wow. I thought it took me a long time to get my wife out of the house.

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Stream is running now.

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