travelerblue

24 minutes ago, goldbullion1212 said:

I would have to agree the condition of the ship is a bit surprising… all the interactive features of the Putt putt golf are not working as well. The ship is a labyrinth and is a bit frustrating to navigate but what I found to be most shocking ia that state of the furniture obviously keep in mind it’s a brand new ship and most of the outdoor cushions have stains and parts of the decking is extremely worn and discolored. 

That is exactly what my son said...deck chairs stained with what looks like soot and he also mentioned the mini golf. It is just not what they were expecting on a new ship at all.

Thank you for the link to the live feed!

My son and dil are also on the ship now. They are so disappointed to miss Harvest Cay but that is just one of numerous issues. They have mentioned that slides are either not working or are closed, there's a broken staircase, only about 30% of one of the Escape Rooms is working and someone "stole" the key to another one and there's no backup key, lots of the statues in there are broken. Overall it is definitely not what they were expecting and my son has been on close to 20 NCL cruises. They were looking forward to the "new" ship but it's overall in the worst shape of any ship they've been on over the years. They did say the food is great and the ship is beautiful, just many things ate already broken or not working.

Hearing from family onboard that they missed Harvest Cay as engines are malfunctioning. So many things are broken or not working (water slides, Escape Rooms, staircases, ingredients not available for common cruise drinks). Said it is really bad, certainly not up to the price paid on this cruise. We've cruised with NCL over 20 times and have never experienced these conditions especially on a new ship. Has anyone sailed recently? Did you experience similar things?

I'm so glad I came across this thread. We always buy the deposits but have never been able to use more than 1 even though we book a balcony and always more than 6 months out and for 7 night cruises. And we always use our personal cruise consultant at NCL. I don't know why she has never told us we could apply 2. She always knows how many we have left.

Thanks for the information! I called the Accessibility Desk and was told as long as the batteries aren't leaking, they are fine. She said they would never turn someone with a scooter away because it's a medical device.

MY DH has a fairly new Go Go Sport that we planned to take on our cruise this weekend. I see those types of scooters mentioned in threads often so didn't see a problem (we have an accessible cabin). Yesterday he wrote to the scooter company to try to determine what type of battery the scooter has. We assumed since he just recently bought the scooter and that they are recommended and used (we have seen them) on cruise ships, that it had gel batteries. But the company said it has AGM batteries which he doesn't believe are gel batteries. Does anyone know anything about these? We are new to all of this. Does the Go Go Sport have different battery options? Not finding information regarding the batteries on line. Thank you!!

We did just get this same email. I started purchasing my travel insurance elsewhere for better coverage. My DH has many pre-existing conditions and I wanted better coverage than NCL could provide. This is the first time we have received an email like that one.

They use to offer a 25% discount if you booked for the first night. I am wondering if that is still the case.

There are videos of how to fold and roll your clothes so you can pack for a two week cruise in one carry-on piece. There is a real neat one about how to roll pants, jeans, socks and shirts into a kind of burrito. It actually worked well.

 

An Example:

Now that is some crazy rolling! I would never have the patience to roll all my clothes up like that but it was helpful! I have actually used the bundle packing technique once and it did work great. Our clothes had hardly a wrinkle but you have to fold everything as you unpack it which was kind of a pain. The 2nd time I tried it, I couldn't get it to come out right. I think I was going too fast. Thank you for posting the video. Even thought I won't roll everything quite like that, I did bookmark the video for later use.

We were one deck above a small club where they did karaoke every night until about midnight. It was loud but we survived just fine. I would probably bring the ear plugs and hopefully it won't be so bad.

We stayed in one of those same family suites on the Dawn in 2013. It was the best cabin ever! We didn't miss the balcony at all as we were a few steps from the pool deck. My son and his girlfriend used the butler to serve them dinner in the room a couple of times. We used her when we had our friends over on a rainy night. She brought beer and drinks and also burgers from the Blue Lagoon. It was so much fun and she was great. As a side note, it had the best bathroom! We stayed in a mini suite on the Breakaway. Although the bathroom was nice, there was no comparison between the 2 cabins.

We have a group of 10 on the 6/17 sailing. The drop down box on myncl.com would only allow to book for 8. I was told by a representative when I called on a Sunday to call "group events" during regular business hours. I called Monday and (after a very long hold wait) was informed that group events is for 12+ guests. The agent did assist me with reservations but could not book 10 either. All our cabin reservations are linked. She had to split the reservations, 8 /2 Cagney's, 6/4 Le Bistro...etc. She told me that the restaurants did not book parties of 10. I'm sure we'll figure it out when we get on board...but just wanted to pass along my experience.

I have had this same experience with trying to book 10 people. We had to be split into 2 tables that were kind of close, meaning we could see our friends but couldn't talk to them without leaving our table. It was not a good set up. This time there will be 20 of us so I don't think we will even try to get any reservations for more than 6 or 8 of us at a time. It is just a big hassle. I think we have only been successful in arranging this once in many cruises.

I've been looking into packing cubes as well. I'm especially intrigued after watching this video:

I just recently purchased some packing cubes for our upcoming cruise in May. I watched the video you posted and all I can imagine is a lot of very wrinkled clothes coming out of those cubes. LOL I don't think I will squish my clothes quite the way she did! But I hope they work for us just to keep our clothes from falling to the bottom of the suitcase.I am going to look for another video to see how to best pack them. Thanks for sharing.

Can you bring any alcohol into the thermal spa?

 

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No, I don't believe you can bring any food or drinks in there. We have had spa passes several times and I have never seen any food or drinks other than the water they have in the spa.

Thank you for the menus! Very helpful.

I'm glad you are enjoying the review. Ill try and post more tonight.

Melissa was back to herself within a few hours.

Yes, it was a bit of a shock to see the bill. I'm glad we had the insurance, but we paid almost as much as the bill for the insurance. If she had been removed from the ship or God forbid med-evaced, it would have been so much more. That's why we ALWAYS get the insurance. You just never know. I'm filing the insurance claim with her regular medical insurance tomorrow. They will deny it and then I can put in my claim to the travel insurance.

Thank goodness it was only a UTI. We use to always purchase the insurance with NCL until I did some research and found out if you do need to be med-evaced, their coverage is not nearly enough. My DH has numerous medical problems now so I always get trip insurance somewhere else now. It's no more money, sometimes less, and the coverage is much better, especially to be airlifted (a million vs $25k). Cruise critic has tons of helpful info on it. So glad it never got to that point for your family. Love your review. We are booked on our 3rd Breakaway cruise in May. Do you happen to remember if they still offer a 25% discount on the Cirque show if you book the first night?

The Cruise Planner is part of Royal Caribbean's website:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruiseplanner

Thank you. Found it, and found the different packages, but not a price in sight. Hmm

Is your cruise offering 20% off the deluxe package in your cruise planner. It's being offered on many cruises. If that's the case you would be lose 10% if you can use gift cards. (Don't know if gift cards can be used.)

Just booked our first Royal Caribbean cruise since 1993, before computers! Can I ask what the cruise planner is? How would I know if there is a discount on the beverage package on our cruise? Thank you!

I've been thinking about buying these, and maybe this is a silly question - can these be laundered? I don't really want to put dirty clothes into a packing cube that I'll then later use to pack clean clothes. Thanks!

That is a really good question. I am thinking of purchasing some of packing cubes, but do you put your dirty clothes in them to come home? I would think you would have to. Can the cubes be washed or do you just wipe them out before using them again?

I was recently told by an NCL rep that they sell about 25% of the passes online. At that time they were showing as unavailable for my cruise. Someone on my roll call then posted that they were available again and sure enough, I was able to get them online. So maybe check again.

We have been to Bermuda three times, once on the Breakaway. We have been on the Breakaway twice and are going in May to Bermuda. So you can see that we like both the ship and island. Bermuda is beautiful, easy to get around and the people are friendly (no Hey Joes). You can get a 3 day transportation pass for pretty cheap and it inlcudes buses and boats to get around. We did that the first time we went there. There is lots to do in the Dockyard where the ship docks if you like water activities. My kids have rented wave runners, gone parasailing and a couple of other things. One also did the Segway tour one time. The first time we went on the Breakaway we were with a large group. We liked the ship ok, but thought we preferred the Gem, Jewel and Pearl ships better. However, the second time, there were only 4 of us and we loved it. We had such a great time and really enjoyed some venues that we never made it to the 1st time, especially Howl at the Moon, Dueling Pianos. They were awesome and we saw them several times. The pool area is very small and not nearly as nice as most other ships, but in 19 cruises I have never gone in the pool so it doesn't really bother me. We usually sit in the Spice H2O adult area most of the time. There are lots of things for the kids to do: rock climbing wall, mini golf, bowling, the ropes course, walk the plank and zip line. I think it is a great ship for kids which is why we are going again with our friends and all the kids and a couple of grandkids. We can't wait. If you decide to go, I hope you enjoy it all as much as we do.

 

 

Maybe it's because we like the music and know how the songs should sound? Most of the singers were ok but one of the girls was really bad.

 

 

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Lol maybe but I hear most of those songs on the radio station I listen to and it's definitely not a country station. I think there were two that I didn't really know.

 

There was one girl we thought was really good. Hope it's not the one you didn't like!

 

You're right about differing opinions. I agree with sotermarler about Blazing Boots, that most of the singing wasn't good. I was on the ta's performance. I'm a country music fan and was really disappointed in the choice of songs and the way they were accompanied by the stomping of the boots.

 

That is probably the difference of opinions. I hate country music but loved the song choices which I guess would be country pop. I knew all but 1 or 2 of them and I NEVER listen to country stations. So I thoroughly enjoyed it. If it had been true country, I am sure I wouldn't have liked it half as much. We still thought the singers were amazing. My DH even made a comment this week about how good he thought they were and he usually doesn't like the singing shows on NCL. As a matter of fact, we walked out of the tribute to Whitney Houston and at least 20 people followed us. It was literally hurting his ears.

We were actually the first ship to dock there. It was either the NCL Sky in 2000 or the NCL Wind in 2001 (have pics but I'd have to dig em out). I remember it distinctly because we were the first ship to dock there & the dock was so small. The people were so excited to have us there...the kids got the day off school & we were greeted dockside by a group of musicians & dancers. We loved it!

It was basically just a small fishing village at the time; and although there was some poverty, it was not anywhere near what I witnessed this time.

It seems that the rich have gotten more so. We did see the mayors house...and it was quite luxurious:-(

Sad situation indeed...

And I felt that our backpacks were a good idea but probably just a small drop in a large bucket...

We went there on the NCL Sun in 2002. The kids greeted us by begging for quarters. They were swatted (literally) away by a "police officer". It was very sad. We have since gone there 3 times (this cruise being the 3rd and we didn't even get off the ship). I do agree that is one of the poorest stops, if not the poorest. It looks that way at least.