FredZiffle

If you enjoy riding around in a stuffed motorcoach for several hours, then ship excursions are exactly what you're looking for. For entertainment, they will even make sure that every bus has at least one couple who can't be bothered to get back on time at the stops, so you'll end up waiting on them which will, of course, shorten your time elsewhere. We're actually going on a couple of ship excursions on a cruise next month, but there is actually a good reason. We're in separate cabins, so each of us has the $50 excursion credit. The ports are nothing special, so just riding around looking at scenery is fine with us. Since the excursions are less than $50, they'll be free after the credit.

Just got off the Getaway, and the vouchers were not good at any of the specialty restaurants other than the same 4 they've always worked at. I had packed my slacks planning on Ocean Blue, so we ended up eating there anyway and just using OBC. Blah. I would never eat there again even if it were free, and I feel taken advantage of for actually paying for my meal. The damn $38 fisherman's platter came with two shrimp, two scallops, and a piece of fish. Asked for tarter sauce as well as the remoulade sauce it came with. They forgot it, so I asked again. After a good ten minutes, they brought something out which the waiter said was tarter sauce even though, as he said, it looked just like the remoulade. Funny thing was it tasted just like the remoulade as well. My wife got one of the fresh fish and said it was unremarkable at best. Honestly, I would rank Ocean Blue right alongside La Cuccina at the very bottom of the specialty restaurants.

I read somewhere in this forum that NCL had started allowing Latitudes vouchers to be used in other specialty restaurants beyond the Cagney's/Le Bistro and Moderno/La Cucina. Is this true across the fleet or just on certain ships/sailings? I'm on the Getaway in another week and am wondering whether to throw in a pair of slacks so I can eat at Ocean Blue.