PATRLR

I'm struggling to parse this. The blue highlighted text seems to contradict the yellow. The yellow says the drive engine and the electricity are not the same source, but the blue seems to say they are connected. What am I misunderstanding here?

Seems they'd have a better chance of finding enough busses for NY/NJ seeing as they can pull busses from all the northeast population centers north, south and west of there.

I agree and this is the primary reason that I am skeptical of what @UKstages writes. I want to believe him, but until someone corroborates I remain skeptical.

PLUS is 2 per cruise, is it not?

If it's warm and not too windy. On Encore in Caribbean, Ocean Blu, there was a young couple sitting outside because he didn't have long pants (or so said our waiter). They were essentially right next to us, but we were inside and they were outside. They looked cold. I felt bad for them.

Agree 100% - forgotten items in hotel/cruise rooms happens all the time and isn't going to affect my cruise. But "forgotten items" isn't what most of the people commenting on OP's " A razor and a loofa in the shower" are discussing.

Because OTHER people are saying or implying that the shower was in fact cleaned. I'm not the one saying that it was cleaned, I'm just pointing out what would have to occur for the shower to be cleaned and the items left behind. What I believe happened was the shower was never cleaned at all. I am not saying the steward has a "complicated (and seemingly malicious) way of cleaning", I say the steward just didn't clean it at all. Edited to add - You @Distinctive-Destinations are actually helping to make my point. Either the shower was not cleaned at all, or, if it was cleaned the steward must have a complicated (and seemingly malicious) way of cleaning. I find the former to be much more believable than the latter.

Really? You are better than that. You know damn well I didn't say that.

At the risk of too much identifying information, I grew up in Newington, graduated Newington High early 80s. Go Indians! (Yeah, I know they are something different now). Left there in the mid 90s and don't get back much since the parents passed. It's been a while since we've been on Carnival but we considered them to be quite similar to NCL - they are both mass market cruise lines. I agree with what another poster said and would try to avoid a school vacation week on Carnival if I could. I say try it. We are actively trying other lines now due to NCL not being what it used to be, in our opinion. RCCL last summer, Princess this summer. I think it's good to try other lines - none of them are so bad that you won't still have a good time.

Yeah, I was kinda thinking that after I wrote it. I'm sure it happens (but never to one of MY projects 🙂 ).

I think you are reaching at this point. But if in fact NCL corporate policy is to leave toiletries in the showers, then IMO that's a terrible policy for exactly the reason we're discussing here, it risks leaving the impression the room is not clean.

This says it all right here. You claim that mold is a problem but you are willing to put up with it. That's fine, you do you. Clean bathrooms are important to me; dirty bathrooms are not something I would tolerate. Toiletries in a shower make it hard for me to believe the shower was cleaned (what did s/he do, clean around them? Pick them up, clean under them and put them back?). Nothing I said mentioned dust bunnies or debris left under a bed or any of those other innocuous strawmen people have been positing. The only thing I've been writing about is what would appear to me to be a shower that was not cleaned.

I believe you meant to write the first 90% uses 10% of the budget, the remaining 10% of the project uses the other 90% of the budget. (Although I believe the more common numbers used are 80/20 and newer project management frameworks have come to flatten those curves quite a bit)

I shouldn’t be surprised that you’ve resorted to attacking me for pointing out your false narratives and strawman

There's a strawman if ever there was one. Could someone point me to a picture of one of these "shower caddy" that supposedly exist in Encore showers? I'm quite certain mine didn't have one.

But my expectation is the shower is cleaned and disinfected, top to bottom, side to side, 100%. I'm not sure how one misses a couple of items in the shower if in fact it was cleaned top to bottom side to side, 100%. OP said "in the shower". If I found the items sitting on the counter, as if the intent was to throw them away, I'd be more understanding. But if they were in shower and the shower received a thorough cleaning it means the steward moved the items from one location to another in the shower while cleaning - I just don't think that is plausible. Or the steward moved the items into the shower after cleaning it - even more unlikely.

As someone who loves Vibe and generally won't crusie NCL without it, I agree with @BirdTravels here. It's going to be very weather dependent. Late June/July/August you might have some nice sunny/warm days where you would be comfortable in the Vibe. Earlier/later season, not so much. We did not have Vibe for our Bliss Alaska in June 2018. We had nice weather, we probably would have used it, but, as it turns out we didn't really miss it.

I agree with everything you listed as signs a room wasn't cleaned. I happen to also include personal hygiene gear (not 1, but 2 in this case) in the shower as a sign the room isn't cleaned. You mentioned "shower caddy" - I've not stayed in Haven but just looked at a couple videos and I don't see any "shower caddy". if those things were left behind they were right out in the open, presumbably sitting on a shelf or something that should have been getting a deep clean. If anything is a false premise, it's the idea that the steward forgot s/he was doing a deep clean between guests. Exactly, we don't know and that's the problem. Agree on all those points. Especially the items under the bed, behind the couch etc that a few others have mentioned - those are understandable. They still shouldn't happen, but, I get it. Not toiletries in the shower. It's obvious different people (cultures?) have different views on cleanliness. It's all good.

NCL: "Hold my beer...."

Really? I can only assume it is OK with you if they simply didn't clean the bathrooms. It has to be OK with you because if there is a razor and a loofa left behind, there is no way to know that they did clean the bathroom. But that's OK, you can enjoy (or at least not be bothered by) someone else's filth. I'm going to insist my room is cleaned and if that means someone gets fired, so be it.

Exactly. Incompetent (at least with respect to cleaning) is another word that comes to mind.

50% when rooms ready? That's really good compared to my experiences. I'd say maybe 50% before sailaway is more like our experience (assuming a 4-5PM sailaway). Very seldom (if ever?) have we not had them by dinner time (7-8PM). We check in as early as we can, and if we can't checkin early our bags will still have been dropped with the porters early.

I don't know what kind of places you normally stay but a razor and loofa in the shower makes it crystal clear to me that the room (at the very least, the shower) wasn't properly cleaned. That is not "a typical start" in places I stay and I don't consider it a typcial start on any cruise line. I'm not sure exactly how I would handle it, but, I have a feeling nothing less than the hotel manager would be at my room. As someone else stated, I'd be worried about the sheets and to that end I could see myself stripping the bed and dumping it all in the hallway insisting they get me new bedding. Prior passenger's personal effects left in the bathroom is 100% unacceptable.

Pretty sure you can't on CC. They've disabled that feature, unfortunately.

Great Bay is for those who enjoy the crowds and the busy beach party scene. If you are concerned about crowds, then Great Bay may not be for you. What we did was took the water taxis over to Great Bay so we could do a little shopping and then grabbed a cab from there to Divi. We enjoyed Divi, it's quieter and has a restaurant/bar with good food and drinks. I'd recommend it.