neurosurg

I found that the kids loved utilizing the app to communicate, and much preferred it. We had the option of calling as well, but would also have a standing starbucks coffee delivery in the morning, and snacks (sushi, sweets) in the mid afternoon so we could check in face to face as well. Certainly if you prefer more of a personal touch, let your genie know! I think a previous poster's poor experience was genie specific -- we saw our genie at least half a dozen times a day. Prior to the cruise we all let our genie know our soft drink / juice / snack preferences, and these all made it on the ship. These were things not available on the ship somehow found their way into our suite (things like diet mountain dew, orange fanta, applesauce in pouches for the young kids, granola bars, specific beers). We enjoyed the musical Grease so much we had dinner with some of the cast one night and was able to get on stage and dance on Greased Lightning (the car) for some pictures, as well as pictures with the entire cast after the last show for the week (arranged by the Genie). If you've ever wanted to see "behind the scenes" of a specific department of the cruise, or meet any of the cruise staff, they will try hard to make it happen for you. Have a great time!

The Wizard of Oz did have the 16 piece orchestra split into two groups, conductor and strings on the stage left, horns and percussion stage right. I did see them also occasionally (4 or 5 of them) playing out in Central Park as well. The show was one of the best I have seen at sea.

Some of my thoughts (I was on the 2/17-24 cruise with 1700 kids on winter break): Royal Promenade: completely agree that the Icon version is much improved, ocean views, open air feel when walking through, and for the most part, never felt crowded. I thought the pizza tasted better too. I wish they would have made better use of space, as it was virtually impossible to get a seat in the dueling pianos / comedy clubs while Boleros and Schooners were virtually vacant. AquaDome area: unfortunately impossible to get the best seats in the lookout area here unless you got here early (and I'm sure the people in the pods would get a bit annoyed having new people walk up the stairs every minute as you can't see if it is taken unless you walk up). Thrill Waterpark: also agree this is much improved, as they feel like real land based water slides (I even hurt my neck a bit on one of them!) Lines were manageable even with 1700 kids on board. The 2 level Pool Deck: pool chair hogs again out in force. Many of the pool chairs on the Icon seem to be in the shade compared to Oasis, and we could not find a group of 4 chairs in the sun on sea days the entire week as we didn't lay our towels out before 9am. On the February cruise, chairs in the shade were too cold with the wind to be comfortable. The actual variety of pools are nice, but all relatively small and packed the entire week. Central Park: I wish they would remove the high end shopping (I only saw one customer in the store the entire week, does this make any money for Royal?). The addition of Lou's Jazz club seems nice in theory, but it's a large space that was never close to being filled (the jazz musicians and bartending staff/waiters outnumbered the guests every time I was there). I did miss the Vintages wine bar experience. Elevators: every single cruise ship elevator needs to start using the Icon's type smart elevator system. Extra charges for food: I can understand why Royal wants to charge extra for some food, but it's just not going to be a successful venture to do so (unless you're Starbucks). To pay extra for wings in Playmakers or shrimp Bao buns in Basecamp is just not going to happen for most people. Specialty Dining: The quality of Giovanni's seems to have gone way down (it was nearly unanimous from everyone we talked to). Chops Grill was also a severe disappointment (the wait staff blamed it on their new chefs, but to have your Wagyu steak extremely overcooked (three tries!) is unbelievable from a high-end steak restaurant (to their credit, they were extremely embarrassed after I cut into it the third time and refunded the entire dining charge without us asking). I'm not sure Hooked is worth the upcharge either. Chef's table was the best meal on the cruise. But the Oasis seemed to have a better variety of specialty dining. Embarkation/debarkation: well done, both ways were hands down the easiest and quickest experience. Each way was less than 15 minutes. Would I do it again? Of course. Would I do it (and pay double compared to an Oasis cruise) as they reach capacity with an additional 2000+ people over the summer time, no thank you.

If you do a car rental, just be sure to either return it first thing on the day of embarkation, or return it the day before. The small rental offices in Port Canaveral are overwhelmed with people as soon as they start returning from the ship, and there was more than a hour wait of 100+ people waiting to get shuttles back to the port as I was standing in line to pick up a car after disembarkation. MCO rentals have never been a problem. So summary, avoid the lines if you return before 9am or after 1pm. Otherwise I would just take Uber for convenience and huge time savings.

To followup - I had sent my information to them three times, starting 3 weeks before sail date 10 days ago. I did not get any notification from them regarding any credit. Magically on day 5 or so, there was a mystery $100 credit which showed up in the account. So I'm guessing they finally got around to it. Have a great cruise everyone!

Excellent review. I was on the escape last week too, and agree, except for the first day "freezing" in Florida, the weather was great. Being from Maryland, I agree the crab cakes were horrendous. Basically inedible if you're used to crab cakes from Maryland. My steak from Cagney's was fine, but there were a couple of people at my table that had to ask for another steak as they were way too overcooked (e.g. asking for medium, and having the steak come well done). I just figured it was because the chefs were cooking steaks for more than 200+ people at a time in their dining room, by far the most crowded specialty dining venue. I did order extra sides and appetizer, and was charged the ala carte price, despite having the specialty dining package. However at Food Republic, I got a wink and a nod and an extra dish was not charged. They did announce signups for the tenders two or three days before Stirrup Cay but if you wait more than a few hours, you will get a 12pm+ time. So if you do intend to get there in the morning, make sure you sign up right away. As for the muster drill - they do require everyone to gather together but essentially they just scan your card. After mentioning to the crew that there was no easy place to sit, they shrugged their shoulders so we just decided to wander over to the atrium to listen to the announcements.

Well, I guess I am going to try this route, as I haven't yet received the $100 in my account. I sent an email three times over the past 4 weeks, including another one today (I guess maybe resending it hurt me?). We leave tomorrow on the Escape. Moral of the story, I should have sent it a few months ago.

Well, just to add my datapoint here - I applied via email at about 21 days prior to sailing, and didn't hear or see anything in my account. Resent again at the 13 day mark, this time with the header "second request". I did get the boilerplate thank you for contacting Norwegian email back. 4 days out, still nothing in my account that I can see.

I once got lucky (Norwegian), won $20k on a slot machine and was told they would hold onto the cash (they made me open a front money account) until the last night of the cruise. I'm guessing either they were low on cash at the time, or just were hoping I would lose it back. On the last night they offered to give me the cash, or get a check. They gave me the cash, no problem.

Just to add more to the original question. Yes there was a slight bump in the pay table on Harmony (at least this summer) for the video poker if you played the $1, $2, or $5 denomination. It went from the "worst" 6/5 pay table at 25 cents to "worst minus one" at the 7/5 table when betting $1 or above. (this was for Jacks or better and Double Double bonus - I don't remember the other games). The two video poker machines in the high limit room (corner) did not have any better pay tables.

Hi all, I'm hoping we can get some advice here. We are one month away from a big family cruise, and our family of 4 is with 2 adult relatives in a Haven 2 bedroom family room. After a bit of family tension over the holidays, these 2 adult relatives want to move out to their own non-haven balcony room. So I called NCL and they told me: - $3300 "cancellation fee" to remove these 2 from the Haven reservation PLUS the $3000 or so to rebook them into a balcony room! I can tolerate a little family squabbling for $6600! So I searched the boards here, and I couldn't find anything about this specific situation, but did see that many people just "swap" rooms at guest services as soon as they board, e.g. get key cards for the other room and just physically sleep in the different room. We do have that option, as there is another party in our group with a balcony room, and would be willing to swap. But my question -- is that allowed? As the two people getting swapped in would not technically have a keycard coded for the Haven, would that cause some trouble for us? The two people moving out of the Haven don't really care about any of the Haven amenities, but I'm guessing we can't actually swap the names on the rooms once on the ship? Or does anyone have a brilliant idea on how to avoid this "cancellation fee"? Thank you all!