dasmonkey

I guess everyone has their own opinion, but I wouldn't put the Breeze in anywhere near the same league as the Allure.

The poster said they had more fun on the Breeze. Maybe like me they just prefer a more ship like experience vs a trip to the local mega mall.

I sailed the Allure, once..........

I find it funny that this situation is blamed on "Spring Break".

Based on the verbal "skills" of the VAST majority of the people in that video the closest any of them ever came to a college was driving past one.

Has any adult ever slept on the pull down bed that can assure me that it is not like a public changing table? There are times that I have my daughter on one of those and I think it's going to break off the wall! I am well below the limit, but still nervous that it wont feel sturdy.

I am 6' and 173 lbs and slept like a baby on them a couple of times.

It felt solid as a rock to me.

 

We at ate Cagneys for breakfast three times and once for dinner. As usual everything was great. Really enjoy the crab benedict.

We ate at the Italian restaurant once and thought it was very good. Lebistro was disappointing. From all the good things I have read I might have had my expectations too high. The food was not seasoned that well

and was lukewarm at best. I will say the wine list was excellent.

I love reading reviews just to see the vastly different experiences to the same venues when I was there, especially food.

I ate at Le Bistro twice on the same cruise last week, Tuesday and Thursday evening. Both nights had almost the exact same thing, French onion soup, escargot, the duck and walnut salad and the filet. One night I swapped the snails for the scallops.

Was warned each time they placed one of those hot items on the table about it being hot. "Cindy" was not kidding as they were all straight out of the oven and smoking hot. Nothing I had either night was "lukewarm". All my dishes were seasoned to perfection.

The only problem is it made it "tough", pun intended, to eat the beef items in the MDR the other nights.

I am Platinum so it was all gratis but wouldn't hesitate to pay the extra $20 to dine there.

Some days these boards make it clear I live under a rock.

 

I have no idea what this song sounds like.

 

I think I'm going to leave it that way.

Oh come on out from under the rock into the sunshine! :D

Did you tell him it was unfortunate that it hadn't been him, or did you show more tact than I would have?

I didn't feel like having my beach day ruined and stayed out of it. People like this will eventually get theirs. The line cutting stunt he pulled in the lobby will eventually get him cold cocked.

And unfortunately, if they did that, and something happened to a passenger, guess who is going to be sued???? :rolleyes: That's the way of the world these days, sadly.....people don't take responsibility for their own actions and want to blame someone else for the consequences.

Exactly this! The very same people that say they should toss a blanket over the body and warn passengers would be the first in line to call their ambulance chasing lawyer to sue when one of their family members gets popped in the head over a cell phone.

The Jewel cancelled Roatan last week so we had an extra sea day. We received a written notice onboard informing everyone that a crew member from the Pearl had been murdered.

 

Most passengers took it in stride and seemed concerned for the crew member and family. Booked excursions were refunded along with port fees. Others were annoyed and wanted compensation.

I had the unfortunate experience while in Costa Maya on Friday of having to listen to some ******* drone on about how a NCL crew member getting killed shouldn't have kept him from stopping at Roatan.

Of course it was no surprise then to see the same gentleman and his brood of about 8 cutting the walk off line in the atrium on Sunday morning. :rolleyes:

Sun > Dawn

Sun is very similar in size to the Spirit and also has The Great Outdoors which the Dawn does not have.

I enjoyed the Sun very much.

Would love to hear about the current piano bar player that just took over for Fabrizio who went back home to Italy.

Is there any news what, if any, ship will take the Jewels place in Houston?

Looks like the Jade.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2007254

We always park at Fulton Place. In the past I've always paid $12 a day (in advance) but this last time when I went to their site, it kept saying to pay upon arrival. I finally gave up and just paid the $84 when we pulled in.

 

However, we met a couple who - like us - park there every time and like us, always paid in advance. I don't know how they managed it but they went to another site (they said Fulton Place was evidently bought out by a parking conglomorate), paid in advance for January's cruise and they were charged $10 a day for doing so.

 

I will try to figure it out next time! I've heard about the $8 roof top parking. It's never offered/mentioned as you pull in, nor is it on any sign. Do you have to specifically ask for it? Just curious as I'm not sure I'd pick it over covered parking.

I have been parking at Fulton for years. The $10 a day turns into the normal drive up rate with taxes, fees etc on-line so there really is no advantage to booking early. Well perhaps if you feel the effort is worth .60 cents.

This is what sample early booking looked like,

Pay Online = $83.40

$70.00 + $5.00 service fee

+ $8.40 tax

Due at Lot = $0.00

Total Amount = $83.40

Wife and I were on the Jewel in December. Enjoyed the ship. Had to wait a bit for dinner a few nights. Embarkation is a pain though. I'd go back on the Jewel....

Interesting, I have done at least a dozen with just NCL alone out of NOLA have found it to be nothing other than a piece of cake.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fulton+Place+Parking+Center/@29.9416682,-90.064654,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xd9f6377409ce26c4

Fulton Place Garage. $12 a day and they shuttle you to and from.

Smooooooth as silk process.

Wow. I am so glad I asked the question here instead of relying on NCL's description of a tranquil spot. If I am going to spend that kind of money, I want a different experience than what it sounds like I will get. Maybe I need to re-think my plans and look at different lines!

 

Thank you everyone for the information.

Clearly you hate upscale children. :D

We prefer to avoid taking the elevators if we can. We'll probably be spending a lot of time on the 12th deck, and it would be quite a hike to continually go from the 4th to 12th deck and back.

It truly will be pot luck. I have had inside guarantee rooms be assigned anywhere from deck 4-10. Some of which have had portholes.

My husband and I are looking to book a last-minute Caribbean cruise. We were looking for an inside cabin (ID category), but as we went book it, the option to pick a specific stateroom disappeared. There is now only the option for a guaranteed room. The price did not change at all.

 

We are fine with any inside room at and above the category we are considering because of their locations on the ship. However, we do not want to end up with an oceanview room that winds up being on the 4th or 5th deck. What is the probability that we would be upgraded from an ID all the way up to one of those oceanview cabins? Are we pretty safe to assume that we'll remain in the inside category?

The only thing I would "assume" is you will have a room on the ship.

You could get bumped up or you could stay in an inside.

Just curious as to what would be wrong with a 4th or 5th ocean view if you are fine with an inside?

This coming from someone that truly doesn't care where my room is as long as I have a bed and a hot shower. So again, just curious.

Boops is right on the money. We requested to sit with others, and usually ended up with a group of at least 3 other couples. Needless to say we met some great people, and had great time during those meals.:D

 

I forgot to add, that Carnival doesn't have the entertainment that NCL has. I also prefer the more subdued ships of NCL.

The nice thing about "optionally" dining with new people is you aren't stuck with them all week unlike traditional assigned seating. Sort of like dating.

If you don't like any of these people try again the next night. Find some people you have a lot in common with and like hanging out with, meet them the next night for dinner at an appointed time.

Oh wow! Everyone is selling me on this ship for sure. It sounds like a great time! German buffet??? Yummo! I love German food. Is it true that the Jewel only tenders in Belize? I will be staying on the ship that day and enjoying the amenities. Hate tendering! Someone mentioned a Martini tasting? That will be date night (afternoon) for hubby and I. Ha.Ha. We really aren't big drinkers but def. looking forward to that!

ALL cruise ships tender at Belize. As long as the water is calm it all runs very smoothly.

We've sailed on her five times since November and never noticed a sewer smell. The food compares favorably with other cruise ships. Not spectacular, IMNSHO, but definitely edible,

3 times for me in the same time period. I was all over the ship and never smelled any sewer. As noted MDR food was comparable to any other MDR food on the other 4 lines I have sailed.

User ratings on CC give the food on the Jewel a 4.0 and on the Allure a 4.3

Seems negligible to me.

Not really sure how that turns into the food is "terrible".

We are so sorry for the confusion, but we are not dropping Costa Maya from our itinerary this season. We will notify the ship that the itinerary has not changed. Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we hope to see you on board for a cruise in the very near future.

I would believe them more if my cruise on 1/5/2015 had excursions listed for Costa Maya like they do for every other port, including New Orleans!!!

Well the quote does say "this" season.

Gee, OP, I thought this was old news, as I had researched itineraries prior to our Dec. cruise on the Jewel. When aboard I asked the CC about next season and was told Costa Maya was dropped from NOLA. That and the lack of Great Outdoors and forward Obser. Lounge on the Dawn was a deal breaker, so we'll be cruising out of Tampa next Jan. Pity, since we love NOLA. steve

I searched the forum via Google prior to posting and saw no mention of it.

It seemed like a pertinent topic to those of us that routinely cruise out of NOLA.

I was on the week of Thanksgiving and "Natalie" was the CC then and made no mention of it. So it sounds like it went missing in December then.

Seems odd then that it took several months for them to correct a "typo" since "Romeo" the current CC on the Jewel said customers had been e-mailing NCL complaining about the dropping of Costa Maya for "several weeks".

I never look at that paper schedule on board but he actually brought up the topic and pointed it out to me on his office wall last week.

Glad to see that it appears to be safe for now. I will certainly miss the Great Outdoors as well but I can drive a couple of hours to NOLA or drive 14 to Tampa so I will just deal with it. I love the Sun so hopefully it makes it to NOLA at some point.

We are considering a CCL out of NOLA in 2016. I like the fact they have 2 itineraries. We have never been to Key West and would like to go and don't mind the Bahamas. I wish NCL would vary their Western ports.

They actually have 3 they rotate, East, West and Bahamas.

Last fall NCL was rotating between a East and a West but as of the first of this year it was back to just the Western side.

Here is a link to the schedule.

http://s13.postimg.org/wqmwchdhj/ncl.jpg

Somebody would have to prove to me that the sheet that supposedly doesn't have Costa Maya on it is actually correct and that someone didn't accidentally leave Costa Maya off of it BEFORE I'd start raising the alarm over something that may not even be happening.

There is no "supposedly" to it as I have the same schedule form posted on the cruise consultants wall in my hands and it has been removed.

I would love to think Costa Maya was "accidentally" left off but for now the cruise consultant, Romeo, on the Jewel is telling customers it is gone.

Just got off the Jewel and noticed on the itinerary list that was circulated with the Free Style Daily that Costa Maya is being dropped from the NOLA run starting with the Dawn which is arriving in NOLA late this year.

I asked the Latitudes/Future Cruise Consultant guy as well as a few ship officers but nobody seemed to know why or if they did, weren't talking.

It is however still on the Tampa ships itinerary which is still doing the exact same 4 stop itinerary as the Jewel is doing out of NOLA.

Also the NCL website still shows Costa Maya as one of the 4 stops. Seems rather lazy considering it would take about 30 seconds to update that change. Why create aggravation for customers who book that cruise expecting to get 4 stops when you have cut the route to 3 stops.

Not thrilled about the cruise being cut to 3 stops. Of course none of the other lines in NOLA are doing 4 stops either. What was once a slam dunk for NCL will now be more of a toss up along with Carnival and RCCL.

My guess is they figure to make more money with another day of a captive audience on the ship. But that doesn't explain why they didn't drop it from the Tampa itinerary.