NoahtheRed

I was wondering if that was an option ! As I know cruise prices fluctuate

 

It is, and it's a pretty common way in which people get deals. Worst case scenario? You have an oceanview and an awesome cruise. Best case scenario? The upgrade fairy gives you a call and you get a balcony (or better!) cheap and have an awesome cruise too.

 

The Escape will still be pretty new though, so it'll be a dice roll whether the prices ever drop. We booked a Christmas Cruise on it in January and the prices have only gone up since then (or at least for the period I've been watching). Either way, you are going to enjoy it. We've always gotten Balconies, but I honestly can't say that I'd feel bad if I was in an oceanview or inside room. There's so much to do and so much outside public space that you'll find you only really use the room for sleeping and storing your stuff.

On todays riveting episode of "Filling in the blanks with assumptions!", the gang tries to solve a mystery while only having part of the evidence!

 

Seriously though, I think we can all agree that it does ultimately fall on the passenger to be sure they have the correct information. Yeah, we can maybe say NCL needs to catch up on their documentation QA/QC.....but the fact of the matter is 3998 passengers got off the ship and back on within the correct time frame. If 50+ passengers were late, I could see there being a strong argument for the incorrect video display being responsible. But ultimately, who is the one who faces the consequences here for being wrong? If I'm wrong, I miss part of (or the rest of) my vacation and likely have to shell out lots of money for a flight home or to the next island. Even if NCL reimburses me, I'm not getting my vacation back. While on NCLs end, it's just a little more paperwork to do. So ultimately, I stand to lose a lot more by being wrong than they do. Thus, it behooves me to be sure I know the correct time to be back because it's going to suck a whole lot more for me than it will for them if I'm wrong.

 

And really, let's just be honest here: What's more likely? 3998 passengers decided to come back early or 2 people ran a little late? If it truly was NCL's negiligence that lead to them missing the boat, statistically I think you'd see way more people doing it.

So many litigious people out there. How about personal responsibility. Kind of like when a lady sued McDonald's and burned herself and won because the coffee is hot. Isn't coffee supposed to be hot? I bet the mother of the two knew when to arrive back just like the other 4000 people.

 

The case you are citing is actually a really bad example because there's a lot more to the story than what commonly gets recited.

 

Nevertheless, the point remains. NCL pretty clearly outlines in multiple places that you need to be on the ship by X time. No exceptions. On my last NCL cruise, there was no less than 3 signs between the elevators and the dock itself that said something to the effect of "Be back by....." That's on top of the Daily and itinerary. You are traveling in a (presumably) foreign land, so I really have a hard time feeling bad for someone that doesn't double check departure times when the consequence for being wrong is an expensive flight home and abrupt end to your vacation.

The Breakaway and Getaway both that've the third dining room, which is really just Taste being split into two. They have the same menu and I don't see any reason why the Escape will be and different.

 

Good to know! DW and I saw that on the Escape page and were curious about it since we've only had experience with the Epic and the Sun. That being the case, I'd say the chances are low that there's going to be lobster in Savor then. Given the choices on Escape though, I don't think any hunger will be left unsated :P

I really want to know more info about the Private Room at Taste. Where is it, what does it look like, is the menu the same as the regular Taste restaurant? And speaking of food, I will be on the Escape with my grandmother on Mother's Day 2016; she wants lobster. I'd love to know where I can get it, and if it's not complimentary, how much will it be?

 

This is something we probably won't be able to answer until the first passengers get off. It *probably* has the same menu, but just lets the guests have a more private dining affair. At least on the Epic, Taste was always pretty busy and there was lots of traffic. I can see folks wanting to have a quieter, more intimate dinner setting like that. The renderings on the website make it look like just a smaller room with the same decor as the MDR, perhaps slightly more dressed up.

 

As far as lobster goes, I know Cagney's has lobster tail (or has, in the past, had it), and probably Bayamo will have it. But realistically, until we get on and have some pictures of menus to dissect, it's hard to say :P There's a third MDR, Savor, that may offer it, but at this point it's strictly guessing.

 

For those of you going on the regular 7-Day Eastern Caribbean, I realize that Nassau is sort of an abbreviated day. Is it worth it to go to Atlantis or should we focus on Blue Lagoon?

 

We've been to Nassau, but generally prefer to stay on the boat. We've heard that Atlantis is fun, but that unless you have a good solid day to spend there, it can feel a little lackluster. I don't know much about the BlueLagoon though.

I'm not talking about someone who is still "in town" when the ship leaves, I am talking about pier runners, who are obviously late, but still trying to board the ship. In this particular situation, the ship CERTAINLY could have slowed the pace enough to ensure that the passengers would have had time to get to St. George and be on the pilot boat. I know this is not ALWAYS a possibility, but it definitely was in this case.

 

When in port, ship movement is VERY closely controlled. There's a certain minimum speed that they have to maintain for control surfaces (rudder) to actually work without being affected by current or tide. Additionally, it's not like you can just put on the brakes. If there are tugs involved, it can be even tougher because now they have to change their whole dance too.

 

Stopping/slowing 150,000 tons of steel is no small thing. Of course, this even assumes the pilot can take you in the first place. I know that in some places, because of the amount of traffic, the pilot boats leave before the cruise ships so they can be ready to pickup the pilots and have them back. In St Thomas, I watched the same pilot boat pickup and drop off pilots for 3 hours while different ships left, never even coming close to shore. Even as we left and our pilot got off, it was off to do more.

Am I the only one who finds it extremely heartless of NCL to purposely abandon it's passengers in Bermuda? We know the BA can make it back to NYC with less time since it used to stay in Bermuda till 5:00 PM. If they KNOW they have pier runners, why couldn't they purposely slow down their pace so that it WOULD be possible for the passengers to join the ship from the pilot boat, instead of wondering if they will make it?

 

Between the change in departure time from 5 PM to 3 PM and the fact that the passengers may not have advanced their personal watches by an hour, this leads to all sorts of possibilities why they may have missed the ship (never mind possible transportation issues on the island).

 

I find it deplorable that NCL would not even make an effort to recover it's passengers when they know that these passengers are making an attempt to board the ship. I will be on the Dawn in just over 7 weeks, but you can BE SURE I will be mindful of the time on Tuesday :)

 

Eventually you have to make a cut off, ya know? If they slow down for 2 passengers who were 30 minutes late, what about the passenger who's 45 minutes late? Do they slow down or do circles for the passengers that fell asleep on the beach and woke up an hour late? What about the passengers that now know they ship will give them a chance so they have an extra round of drinks at Maho Beach instead of getting a cab back to Phillipsburg to be on time?

 

Port scheduling is A. not cheap and B. not simple. Every extra minute costs more money (to the tune of thousands of dollars an hour). You aren't just keeping the cruise ship (and passengers) waiting, you've got a harbor pilot waiting too. What if he has to immediately go from one ship to another, or they have to pick up a pilot on ship A (that left on time), then catch up to another ship with a passenger who was late? In ports like St Thomas or Nassau, you can have 5-6 ships departing around the same time. Waiting for a handful of passengers can delay not just their ship, but the subsequent ones as well that now have to accommodate this change in schedule for the ship going slow.

 

If the ship says "We leave at 3", then plan accordingly. If you are on a non-cruise line organized tour or excursion, pad your return time in case of traffic or car troubles. It sucks getting left behind, but perhaps it'll be good motivation to be back in time, ya know?

 

Plus, I mean, yeah, it sucks. But it's not the end of the world. Most ports have representatives from the cruise line, or at least some kind of contact. Get to them and they'll be able to point you in the right direction to get things fixed. If you think its even a possibility, get the passport card thing too.

I believe the pilot is trained to know the specifics of exactly what's going on under the water of his specific port and guides the ship in accordingly.

 

Correct. Harbor pilots are the undeniable masters of their domain, so to speak. Every shoal. Every piece of underwater infrastructure. Every tidal anomaly. Every approach for every berth. They know their maritime territory better than most of us know our own houses.

 

Of course, this is all the hope. In some areas, there have been issues with pilots not being as well versed as one would think and ending up with boats stuck on otherwise well-documented reefs and afoul with channel boundaries.

Looks like a couple more Darwin Award winners to add to the list.

 

Heh, Darwin Award would imply that they get killed for missing the boat >.<

Carnival uses terminals D and E, I think. Norwegian is B and C. The walk will be very doable as they are right next to each other.

 

Here's a nifty map

The Cruise terminals are along the north side of Dodge Island on the main channel (across the water from the MacArthur Causeway).

Agreed. Also nice having a bar upstairs in that area.

 

Stairs are the natural enemy of the inebriated cruiser. I can stay up above the chaos of the Lido deck and still enjoy my drinks.....and then presumably go DrunkPutt-Putting.

We've stayed at the MIA Hilton and Embassy Suites. Both have airport shuttles and also have a shuttle to the port available However, IIRC, the port shuttle leaves at like 11 or something. If you are okay with getting to the port during the rush, then go for it. We typically we take a taxi around 8:30 or 9 instead. It's ~$20 + tip (I just give him $30 and call it a day). Same case for the return to the airport when it's time to fly home. Yeah, it's a few bucks more, but having the ability to get there early is fantastic.

 

Both hotels are nice. The Embassy Suites has their typical evening managers cocktails (Free drinks) and free breakfast, but is a little more expensive and in kind of a weird area. The Hilton has a bigger and nicer campus on the water, but breakfast is extra. You can sometimes find deals on free breakfast tickets though, so it's not a bad deal usually. But more importantly, their breakfast is fantastic. Makes a great segue to the cruise :P We tend to stay at either hotel when in Miami, but I think we prefer the Hilton over the Embassy Suites.

It's my dream to someday get pictures or video of people running towards a departing cruise ship, preferably while carrying or dragging shopping bags full of whatever. I don't wish that fate on anyone in particular, I just recognize that it's a thing that happens and I want to get it on film....because it's funny.

Admittedly, making mobile friendly websites is hilariously annoying. It's like trying to catch a greasy pig sometimes because device and browser updates don't always play nice and can frequently cause issues on sites that are otherwise well constructed. You can do everything right as a developer, only to see a Chrome/Safari/device/whatever update completely wreck your work. It's frequently a mystery too because unless their web team has people doing mobile testing all day every day, they generally won't know until someone external reports it.

Well, this just changed the entire dynamic of my Christmas cruise on the Escape.....

You can fly into Norfolk International (ORF) and taxi to downtown Norfolk. I think Amtrak now offers train service to Norfolk, but I'm not too certain about its frequency or reliability. Once out of the northeast corridor, Amtrak can be dicey.

Warning, there's another airport reasonably close in Newport News (PHF). I personally love it since I live near it, but taxi to downtown Norfolk would be very costly and would involve transit through one of our infamous bridge tunnels. Traffic often bogs down there. I'd avoid it.

 

Newport News (PHF) tends to be a bit more expensive to fly in and out of. Even though I live on the Peninsula, I still use ORF more often. It's larger, so there are more flights and they *tend* to be cheaper most of the time.

 

For those visiting, I'd definitely recommend ORF over PHF. ORF is around 25 minutes from downtown Norfolk and there are several reasonably priced hotels between the airport and the terminal that (probably) have shuttle service available. There are several hotels near the Newport News airport as well, and in general there's more within walking distance if you plan to fly in the night before, but you will probably pay $60+ for a taxi to the port and again when you get back.

 

If you plan to fly in the day of your cruise, the answer is without a doubt "Fly into Norfolk". The HRBT can get backed up and add 30 minutes or more to your trip if you are taking a cab down. The MMBT/MTT combo is a little less risky, but for some reason trucks like to jack-knife on the Western Freeway and close it down for hours. Plus, the flightpath approach into Norfolk Intl. takes you wide over the Elizabeth river and you can probably see your ship as you come in.

 

I've taken the train out of Newport News before a few times, but I cannot for the life of me imagine taking it from NYC to Hampton Roads and THEN getting on a cruise ship. The Northeast Regional is like....9 hours from NYC to Norfolk, assuming there's no issues. The station is almost within walking distance, but again, you're either leaving Friday morning AM and arrive in Norfolk that evening or you're taking a red-eye train and hoping nothing holds you up on the way.

Marinetraffic.com (free), just search for the ship and it will show a map, click the vessel track and it will show previous waypoints with speed etc. Fun to see!

 

They have a pretty awesome mobile app, too. I think it might cost a few bucks, but it's very useful if you're into that sort of thing. My office overlooks a pretty high traffic river and it's great to be able to just check my phone real quick and see what's floating by :P

Depends on the price of the beer. I won't be surprised, if it is over $11 😡

 

It would have to be pretty incredible to go over $11 a pint. I mean, even with mixed drinks you have to really try to break the limit, ya know?

I realise nobody has sailed on her yet but just wondering how wifi is in your cabin on other ships? Is it free or do you need to buy an internet package?

 

For outside internet usage, you need buy a package. Without a package, all you get access to is the ability to download the ship app AFAIK. From the folks I've talked to on past cruises (mostly on the Epic), the shipboard internet connection isn't BAD, but I don't think I'd want to pay for it unless I needed to for work or something.

My wife and I will be flying down to Miami on December 18th for a cruise that departs the following morning. Naturally, we want to see Star Wars before the cruise and figure we'll arrive a little earlier than usual so we can catch a show. Only problem is, we don't really know Miami that well and need to pre-order tickets when they go on sale. So our question is, for people familiar with the area (locals and regular visitors), do you have any recommended theaters that aren't too far from Miami international? We're staying at the Hilton there and will gladly get a cab to wherever we need to go. Thanks!

Periodically, you'll hear the PA chime and they'll announce various events, including sales events and such. I don't know that I'd call it intrusive, as you quickly figure out how to filter it out.

 

If you go through the duty free shopping area though, expect people to pitch stuff to you. It's not as obnoxious as say, walking through the mall, but it you do notice it.

 

Neither are particular bad though, and it kind of all becomes background noise.

Most of us are uninformed about the compensation procedures of private businesses because it isn't any of our business. Except for nosy people I guess. :rolleyes:

 

Some people don't want to give money to businesses that don't treat their employees fairly. It's not nosy to want to know what businesses you are supporting do with their money. It's the businesses choice whether they are transparent about it or not, just as it's our choice as a consumer whether we support them or not. Caring about the people that make your food, mix your drinks, clean your room, and keep you safe isn't a personality flaw. If you are content being ignorant about where your dollar goes after you pay for your cruise, then all power to you.

I am a watch guy and have bought quite a few Invicta watches in years past but have stayed away as over the past few years they have seriously diluted the brand among other reasons. If you Google Invicta you will find out that they have had some serious QC issues and have absolutely notoriously horrible customer service! I have also found that the contractors that they have on NCL ships have no idea what they are selling and have absolutely no information regarding the watches they sell.

 

Listen to this guy. In watch circles, Invicta is a bit of a joke. They had a few good ones for a while, but their CS and QC have gotten notoriously bad in the last few years. Seiko, Orient, Citizen, Bulova, etc all make better watches at that price point.

My wife and I are cruising on the Escape over Christmas. We're got the UBP through the deal, but went ahead and bought the UDP too. Needless to say, we're going to have to hit the gym in the intervening 10 months or else we're going to die on this cruise :P

I wonder if the non tariff restaurants will be serving lunch on embarkation day?

I will be dinning in the tariff restaurants in the evenings, but would like to experience the Manhattan dinning room, maybe for lunch on embarkation day when the Garden Café can get over crowded. Maybe I should ask on the Getaway boards what happens on sailing.

Tom

 

In the past, usually only buffets are open during embarkation. I think maybe Cagney's is also open as a buffet during this time.