evandbob

I would bring a wrist bracelet that describes my wishes if I fall ill during the cruise, as well as a more detailed living will that my partner could produce if necessary. Antigua has some wonderful beaches, just go to a frequented one rather than a secluded one to lower the chances of petty crime. St Lucia has mountains, volcano, and snorkeling, St Kitts a nice beach club, Barbados has snorkeling with turtles and a beach close to port, as well as wild Bathsheba on the Atlantic coast, and Martinique has several beach tours you can pay for or arrive at using their ferry system. You can use the port of call threads to get more info. Enjoy your cruise!.

Watch for menu options for chicken or sea bass, these change as the week goes on if you don't want to do the filet mignon. We found the amount of food was ample, and way less than the enormous amounts we get at Tuscan or Muranos. The story line changes as well towards the middle and end of the sailing.

I pack what I need for a Caribbean cruise of 7 days, all in 23" luggage. If I'm away longer, I'll use the ships' laundry service to refresh my attire. 7 briefs, 7 tee shirts, 3 dress shirts, 3 shorts, 2 trousers, 2 hats, sox, and what I'm wearing when boarding seems to be the right amount of clothes for me. Hence no need for packing cubes.

Best to do the salt scrub early in the cruise, before any sun burn!

I've probably had over 30 Steakhouse dinners over 40 Carnival cruises, perhaps the service was sub par once when we were assigned trainees as wait staff? Didn't like the noise filtering into the steakhouse from a deck below playing name that tune on the Pride. Otherwise, all my other steakhouse experiences were certainly positive. Now the OP brings up a good point. When you reach NCL's platinum level (easy to get to) you get a free specialty restaurant dinner each and every cruise. I think I got just one free meal from Carnival, which makes NCL's specialty restaurants a much better deal!

15 yrs ago I thought Fantasy class ships like Elation were old and tired. Now I have an even poorer opinion of the last remaining one..

The OP won't know the answer to the question until he does some research and actually sails another cruise line. I like NCL for their relaxed attitude and dress, good entertainment and casino. I wasn't a great fan of their MDR, but NCL's specialty restaurants are good. But I also like MSC, Princess, Celebrity, RCCL's bigger ships and Carnival, which I've sailed on maybe 40 times? I would say my fav line now is Celebrity, I have an 18 day B2b this Aug and a week in Jan 2023 booked. Their overall food is good, specialty restaurants are the best I've sampled on the mass cruise lines, over service is exemplary, their new ships are fantastic, and I've won a few jackpots in their casinos. There really isnt much to lose in trying another line, I gave up top tier loyalty when I decided to try other lines, turns out the loyalty rewards (for me) were more of a ball and chain than a positive experience.

We moved to Ft Myers over 4 yrs ago. Now I can drive to Tampa or Ft Lauderdale in 2 hrs or so and Miami in less then 2 and 1/2. But that's not why we moved. We've probably done over 40 Caribbean cruises along with 30 land based vacays in the isles (mostly from when we lived in NY). So where do we want to cruise? Norway fjords, Iceland, around Cape Horn, So. Amer., and down the Nile. We had these sailings booked and then COVID happened and all were cancelled.

Sometimes a distinction is made between "solo" cruisers and "single" cruises. Solo generally are comfortable sailing alone, not looking for "dates", while singles may be open to interpersonal developments. A solo may enjoy dining, theater, excursions, etc. with or without companions. A single may enjoy a fuller dynamic that lends itself to other levels of involvement.

Thanks for your review and pics! We were on the previous Equinox sailing, and I just want to mention that there was hardly any cruisers (escept us and a small handful of others) who wore masks inside the ship. On day 4 or 5, the Captain announced the ship reached a positive COVID positivity rate of 1% of passengers, perhaps 25 total. Mild cases, but they were still quarrantined. He instituted mandatory mask wearing for the theater and casino. Seems like folks entering the theater complied until they reached their seats and then many removed their masks or lowered them to chin straps. There were no staff inside the theater to maintain mask wearing. BTW, he suspended drink service in the theater as well. Not the case in the casino, where staff reminded anyone removing or relaxing their mask posture to either put them back on properly or leave. Elevators had maybe 40% wearing masks and perhaps 60% not. It was not mandatory to have masks on here. We did not enter several elevators with 4 or more not wearing masks. OP, enjoy your cruise, and stay safe!

I stopped sailing this old class of ships 2 decades ago. They were OLD then.

Wow, maybe ask on the NCL board? https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/64-norwegian-cruise-line/ Might help to define what you think is "best". We all have different standards to rate a cruise by - ports, length, food, service, entertainment, etc.

As a Bronx born 2nd generation Italian, I never liked the Cucina entrees anyway. It takes some work to diminish peasant food, but somehow Cucina delivered sweet sugary sauce and overcooked cutlets whenever I ate there. Too Olive Garden for me. Only thing I would miss would be the antipasto. I have over 40+ Carnival cruises, so I got overly familiar with them and stopped going to the Plat/Diamond past guest parties. I still like to attend the Diamond get together, and my preference is for small group so I can chat with the Captain and we can tell stories about our G'Mas and their cooking.

Just a question: Was Viator quoting port time and was the OP on ship time? Was the ship one hour ahead of the port? Most Caribbean locales do not switch to a summer time frame like we do in most of mainland USA. Florida has passed state legislatio to not spring ahead but needs Federal Congressional approval to effectuate this change. Just imagine all the confused postings re ship port departure times vs. airline arrival time if it does get approved!!

Especially if the cruise line pays for the temporary license to open in foreign ports.

Sometimes having the casino open while in a port may be more influenced if the cruise has been designated for Ultra or Premium casino guests. Someone who is not eligible for these fares may not even know about that status prior to the sail date. Once on board, they might hear about drawings or special contests for casino guests. If they don't, they may erroneously think the open casino time in port is dependent upon the port instead.