maggie cruises

10 is max. My daughter is iffy as she will have lots going on next summer. My gf's daughter will be 18 but not until end of June.

 

 

 

So there has to be an adult per cabin? Our tentative arrangements are:

 

 

 

• 
   
  
• Me and gf in balcony
   
  
• My son and friend in interior
   
  
• Her two daughters plus 2 friends in interior
   
  
• My daughter and friend in interior.
   
  

That's 4 rooms and only 2 adults and one almost adult.

The ship definitely has age requirements as to how you book and for related family members if those members are underage. Also you and your gf are only related to 2 kids each.

You need to consider this so just look up the FAQs for rccl

I know that you will need to book you and your gf in separate cabins...and 3 other kids with each of you. So that covers 8 people and therein lies the issue. Imho I believe you need a 3rd adult but I could be wrong and rccl might be able to work out the logistics correctly

Btw 18 is not considered adult in the cruiseship world and you will need authorization to take those non related minors on a trip with you for medical issues etc

It's probably able to be worked out but it's more complex than you realize so you need an expert to advise you. Not sure anyone at rccl is an expert on anything but perhaps a travel agent could help but the way you currently want to book the rooms doesn't seem to be possible as you need an adult in the cabins but if those cabins are very close to you and there is a related underage occupant in each of those cabins it could work

My main point is you need to be sure the cabins are booked properly

You and your gf can switch once on board but you need to book yourselves separately initially as you are with minors that must have cabin supervision

I'm sure posters here will chime and say it won't be a problem however I've read many cc threads where it may well be an issue

Also please insist that all in your group get travel insurance

Not only for cancellation reasons but with 8 kids under 18 with you the possibility of injury multiplies and you don't want to be stuck paying the medical bills in some foreign port for your kids friend do you?

You are taking on massive responsibility considering the ages. I'm not sure how school groups do this stuff but the chaperone to kid r ratio is definitely an important part of the equation. Plus they usually sell group school insurance on those kind of trips

Again it's not your 4 kids that really matter as they are your kids and you can certainly travel with them even though you will need authorized from your own kids other parent don't forget. it's the other 4 kids that change the game plan and put the load on your shoulders

Just cover all bases that's all I'm suggesting

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Are you saying you are going to be a party of 10?

If so you need another adult with you unless rc has some sort of cabin that fits 5 or some kind of outrageously I assume priced suite deal that fits 10

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Why does it happen when school is back in. I would have thought th opposite was true.

Kids get it from close quarters in the classroom and from riding germ infested school busses

Also lots of religious holidays in sept so kids being taken out for cruises

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I'm sorry if my comments hurt you. No..I'm not angry. However..you swingers seem to be rather angry. Why? Why aren't you accepting of others? Why can't you accept not everyone wants to be like you?

Nevermind..I know why ...because you are apparently every other person out there...

Um ok...bridge for sale?

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What an extraordinarily bigoted position to take. Much like the antiquated position that gay men are all pedophiles. If you want to see a disgusting person, I suggest you simply look in the mirror.

Yes I'm disgusting because I don't believe married people should engage in group sex with strangers

We really have reached rock bottom if I'm supposed to like what you do....and not have the ability to have my own opinion

And you call me bigoted.

And you think you are tolerant

Sorry tolerance means I can have an opinion different from yours it also means I do not have to approve of your lifestyle. As I posted I wouldn't hurt a fly ...but once I knew the real you...you would be someone I choose not to know. Period

Now if I mentioned race or religion that's a different story but I didn't

You guys continue the discussion among yourselves. I'm just as happy to leave this thread as you are to see me go. Maybe I'm actually happier

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Perhaps Maggie is the type that no one wants to “swing” with? LOL

Yup that's the case!!!!

However your post does prove the "swinger" attitude. Apparently your lifestyle is not as nice as you like to portray it and are defensive of what you claim everyone is doing...Lol.

I on the other hand would never swing because I took marriage vows. Also I'll never portray myself as a "really nice" person...because even though I'd never hurt a fly...I also won't be a phony and say..."oh to each his own" when what they are doing is just .....I can't even find the words.

Also I'm sure all swingers are super models And nope look nothing like the average human. Lol Just like all the other cruisers I see on every cruise I've ever taken ....full of gorgeous tanned tall thin people...not

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Read that line across, Michael Bolton is doing one concert for Diamonds and up. Others only get to watch the live stream of the concert in either Studio B or the Aqua Theater. Suite guest are likely in the live concert too.

Michael Bolton was at our local movie theater turned has been concert hall Plenty of empty seats too.

I've seen him many times...mostly in the early 90's and then again last year...

No great loss

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To the average American a unicorn is a cute mythological creature. My little Pony, The Last Unicorn, The Little Unicorn, etc..

 

What I find particularly disgusting is the thought of an adult looking at, say, a six-year-old girl wearing a T-shirt with a unicorn on it and turning it into sexual thoughts.

 

This thread started out fun and lighthearted but turned ugly.

 

Dan

Dan it just goes to show that these "lifestyle" people are not the type you want around kids.

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I have to say swingers seem quite defensive. Seem to need to prove that we "know nothing's " are just oblivious to the fact they exist.

And for the kids not knowing what their parents do? Um ok

Hey you folks can do whatever you want and defend it all you want but it's not the "everyone is doing it" lifestyle you try to portray it as

Of course for those that think "everyone's doing it" well the "kool aid " has done its job on you

Oh and please don't be jealous of those of us that don't swing and are happy as we are....

Disclaimer: save the snarky comebacks please because I just view it as your insecurity showing through.

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Not myths - different parts of the country have different ways of signaling. Wife an I both have black rings, and we've met others by way of asking why they have a pineapple sticker/magnet/key chain. We do however, like watching vanilla folks freak out lol. :'):')

 

 

 

 

 

If only everyone knew what a "Unicorn" really was they wouldn't decorate their little ones in Unicorn apparel anymore ;p:eek:

If you only knew what the wreath on my front door meant

If you only knew why we have nurses clogs on our front porch

If you only knew why I park one car in my front driveway and one in my back driveway

If you only knew why I plant tulip bulbs every fall

If you only knew why I wear birkenstocks until November

Yup all signs of a wonderful home life....with 2...yes count them....2 very prominent wall decorations with pineapples on them...

Swingers...get over yourself..

Those posters who now swear they will throw out their pineapple decorations...really?

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I'm quite certain that it happens on every cruise, some of them just charter the whole boat, others just coordinate their small group. I'm also pretty sure that the pineapple myth is just put out by the swinger groups so they can watch all the paranoid vanilla folks freak out. just like the anklet myths, the toe ring myths, the black ring myth and any one of another hundred other things that people supposedly do to signal others about their secret society.

lol I'm not paranoid vanilla at all....I just think it's rather disgusting that couples ...married or otherwise...swap spouses/partners and think that those who don't follow this lifestyle are the paranoid ones

Do they swing in private or is it group? Just wondering

Btw...yup I'm guessing it goes on all over the place....I live 30 minutes north of NYC and just heard of a little town a bit further north where it's a very common occurrence

No wonder the kids minds are all messed up...

Hey Colton...I hear your dad fooled around with my mother on Saturday night

Oh Tyler..was that your mom? I thought it was Mackenzies mom

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I love cruises but considering everything...and that you just need to escape...and your vacation day issues...just go away locally for several nights

Make it 2 long weekends if you want to avoid family on both Christmas and New Years

Anyway for a cruise my vote goes to 8 nights on anthem

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That’s correct. With fixed dining times you need to have your reservations linked. With MTD you do not need to link reservations.

I have mtd

I just made "fixed" dining reservation times in mtd for us and I want them linked

Do not confuse this with linking 2 cabins under traditional dining as we don't have traditional dining

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Add guests from another reservation is what we had such a hard time accomplishing.

Exactly

It wasnt terribly difficult but it took some legwork to link them nonetheless a few weeks ago when I did it but now it's disappeared

I have email confirmations of the linking saved fortunately from several weeks ago

Fortunately all 6 of us still have the correct dining times after this "new" website update ...just not linked as far as I can tell

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That’s correct. With fixed dining times you need to have your reservations linked. With MTD you do not need to link reservations.

I have reservations for mtd. I made them for all 9 nights

We have 2 cruise confirmation numbers as we have 2 cabins

When we all show up at 6:30 I do not want them saying they don't have a table for 6 ready for us

I'm calling tomorrow to make sure they have the reservation for 2 from one cabin and the reservation for 4 from the other cabin duly noted that we are a family of 6

If I don't link them they will not know we are together

I want them to expect a party of 6 not a party of 2 and not a party of 4 but a party of 6

I have no issue calling and speaking to a human about this and asking them why I can no longer see my linked ressies

Prior to the last website update I was easily ably to see all 6 of us from 2 different cabins were set up to eat at the same table at the same time for all 9 nights

They didn't offer me traditional dining

They only offered my mtd dining when I booked

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This sets my mind at ease a little. On other threads some have suggested that a party of 6 Without reservations would have LONG waits.

Well I have 6:30 ressies for our entire cruise but I want them linked because I don't want a table of 2 and a table of 4

I want a table of 6

Thus I'm making sure the ressies are linked and a 6 top table is waiting for us

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There is little need to make reservations or "link" as long as you all have MTD. Simply show up and that's how you'll be seated. It's like a land-based restaurant...they seat your party alone.

If you want a specific time, you can reserve that on the ship.

I want mine linked because we are a family of 6 in 2 cabins and I want a table for 6

I don't want to hear the nonsense that they don't have our table ready or they can't seat us together

I want the 6 of us together at the same table for all 9 nights at the same time each night....which is what I arranged for weeks ago and the planner and the person I spoke to confirmed they are linked...but now everything but the link is showing up so that's why I'll be calling this week.it's 7 months away...that should be enough time to get them linked

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Several weeks ago I had all our mtd linked for our 2 cabins for 6 of us

They showed on the planner. I emailed the confirmations to myself. Etc etc

I even called the dining phone number and a rather clear well spoken rep also confirm the linking of the 2 cabins dining etc

Everything was fine...all 9 nights linked for the proper times for all 6 of us in 2 cabins Great I thought.

Of course now the planners for each cabin are showing the cabin dining times correctly but not showing them linked

I'll be calling dining again but not today to get them linked

They really just can't get things right on the website can they and one would think they would know this by now and have figured it out. Sheesh

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And who would prefer a socialist economy, where everyone gets the same price and benefits?

Only people who don't know what socialism really is I guess

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Haha, yeah, I kind of feel like that. And "filled ships" and selling out cruises is not a direct indicator of a strong business. It speaks nothing to their retention, profitability, etc. You can fill as many ships as you want if you invest tons in marketing, but that's the difference between profitability and margins. Going back to what you pointed out before, retention is extremely important. I think someone got confused about customer acquisition costs. From my understanding, it is sometimes cheaper to acquire a new customer compared to bringing back a customer who has stopped using your service or who has a negative opinion of your service. That's not to be confused though with customer retention. Retaining customers (ones who have generally enjoyed your service) is significantly cheaper than acquiring new ones, from everything I know. Retaining vs bringing back customers who have moved on is not the same thing, and I think the person before might have confused the two. I'm guessing, by many of the posts in this forum, NCL has a retention problem and that's going a long way to sinking their valuation.

 

 

 

Very interesting. Seems to make sense - after 2015 now or any time recently seems like a bad time to buy. It wouldn't be surprising if the stock took another dive I think. Also interesting about other cruise lines. You're definitely correct. RCL just seems to be a much stronger, high growth stock. I guess their customer-centric approach is working... I wonder what their retention looks like compared to NCL.

They are taking my dollars away from ncl in 2019 this I will tell you

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It's also easy to fill ships when you cut the prices for the locals week before the cruise because cabins are still unsold

From what I gather everyone I speak to on cruises these days "just booked last week"

Maybe so...maybe not but the point is many pax apparently can and do wait for last minute bargains

I guess that's why ncl accepted my "poor" bid on my spring break 2018 cruise and upgraded us from inside to balcony for close to no extra $$ and sold my inside to a local and brought more heads on the ship which in turn means more dsc more casino revenue more bingo cards sold etc

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If business was suffering due to their compensation policies, they’d change them. They’ve been pretty consistent over the years. New cruisers spend more than repeat cruisers. I’ve been reading these vents for over 10 years, nothing has changed.

So have I been reading these vents and adding a few myself and I can honestly say I feel good about leaving ncl for at least the time being and not staying with them out of some misguided sense of loyalty.

And before others post the worn out phrase...."it's good to have choices" ....let me add that I'm jumping ship next time because I didn't like some of the choices ncl has made with their itins and especially their prices. So it's all good. Lol

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If they had offered a good percentage off a future cruise, in the beginning, we would have booked onboard. But after all the run around and miscommunication and lack of response as the cruise went on, any offers like that will fall on deaf ears. Any percentage off is still money in their pocket and now we have no desire to give them any more of our money. At this point, they owe us. Period!

 

We were on that Disney cruise in 2004 -- when our 7-day became a 10-day and we were the first 10-day Disney cruise LOL. The care and communication they showed was outstanding. Even if you didn't book your air through them, they took care of everything, including ground transportation (we had to port in Fort Lauderdale instead) and hotels the day we finally docked. They stopped in Galveston to restock, got permission ahead of time for passengers to be allowed to get off the ship and look around, and even offered free bus service to Houston for those who wanted to fly home. While in Galveston, they had made arrangements to fly more entertainment in from L.A. and we had there new shows for the next three nights. It was amazing. We went through another hurricane with them in 2005 (Hurricane Hillary) from L.A. that cancelled a port, but they quickly booked another and added new excursions. I guess I was foolish enough to expect the same kind of care and communication from NCL. Lesson learned!

It really is a small world isn't it?

You got it all correct about what dcl did for us but you forgot the best part lol

They offered free transport to Orlando and I believe a free night or 2 in the Disney onsite hotels to those pax that couldn't secure flights back for several days. I recall those pax on air Canada couldn't get flights until Friday

I loved it when the CD announced that they were bring on some Disney movie that had been released either while we were on the cruise or was set to be released shortly thereafter...because as he said.."we own it".

Loved that the mayor of Galveston woke the town shopkeepers up that morning too.....because DISNEY was coming to port!!!!

They also offered 20% off the next cruise if booked on board..but of course every time I tried to go to that desk they shut it down because the captain came on announcing an additional day was being added to the cruise so all crew had to go do something regarding that.

Also dcl kept all pax apprised of the parking at PC and the conditions of cars parked there

So I never got to book onboard but a month later when I was able to think straight again I called dcl and explained what happened and they said not to worry we are taking good care of all of the pax from that cruise and gave me the 20% off and then some

So many pax on that ship missed 1st day of school for the kids and there were lots of teachers missing their 1st day as well and Disney realized this and did what they could. The free busses to Houston is a perfect example. I recall them saying 600 pax took advantage. Lots of brain surgeons and rocket scientists had to get back I'm guessing. Lol

Kudos to jet blue for getting us home the day we docked as well. They actually sent planes to FLL to accommodate the 20,000 stranded cruise pax that couldn't debark in their original port

Thumbs down to FLL airport though for letting a drunk pax cut the security line because he was running late ...but...actually put my then 3yo through secondary security all because our plane tickets...which had just been issued as our original flights home were long cancelled...showed one way last minute booking status..

Other than FLL not using common sense (I still can't believe they graciously let an irate obnoxious drunk cut the line and skip secondary screening just because he was getting loud but my demur 3yo had to step aside..and I had to stand 6 feet from her while they

used the wand over her and asked her ridiculous questions.

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Amen to that. It works in most industries. Those that provide excellent customer service retain customer business. I will give you a great example. September 11th ,2001. That tragic day and my office was in WTC 1. We had to relocate to a back up site in New Jersey and I had to drive everyday to work where I normally would have taken public transportation. I quickly realized that I was going to go over my car lease mileage limit so I contacted Chrysler and told them what happened. Their immediate response was " don't worry we got your back" and they covered the excess miles. I have been a loyal customer ever since. A fellow worker tried to do the same with GM and got the run around for months before he got a token gesture from them. He never got another GM car again. Its that simple.

This is so true with so many things..

We drive 20 miles away to avoid our local Honda dealership when leasing our cars

We stay with the same salesman 20 miles away because he takes our cars back no problem...but of course we realize all of that is factored in one way or another on our next lease. Car salesman really need to get new "lines" especially when dealing with baby boomers as we've heard it all. Their "lines" might work on millennial but not on us. Still we continue to do business with him because he simply makes it easy for us and that is our priority.

I left my long term online TA because he didn't seem interested in our business any longer. Of course we are still cruising only he's lost the commission

I left a longterm doctors office because of the idiocy of the employee who answers their phones. Of course we still need the care but now we are with a much more efficient office

I stopped having my local newspaper delivered due to their political slant but of course I'm still well informed only now it's free

I've stopped watching most tv shows and newscasts for the same reason but of course now I've read some great books

We've stopped booking ncl due to their price gouging for next April but of course we are still cruising only on a better priced better itin

Point is that I am actually a very loyal customer but I'm not stupid nor gullible and it does take some serious consideration before I dump something. (Took me years to stop,newspaper delivery)

There is nothing wrong with expecting good service and to get less from a company and still continue to defend them seems a bit ridiculous

All ncl needed to do was offer % off your next cruise. That offer alone would be worth millions in good public relations and word of outhouse referrals. I'm still raving about how well DCL took care of us during hurricane Frances in 2004. I'd be happy to detail the considerations they gave if anyone is interested.

Some will use it some won't but initially it costs ncl zero dollars to offer it and by the time those credits are used ncl will have raised their prices by 25% anyway. Lol

Is it any wonder why 2019 cruises are so much higher than before?

Well my take is that they offered so many % off due to 2017 hurricanes that those cruisers are using them now so ncl raised the prices

While I recognize this other cruisers won't and will think they are actually getting 25% off. Ncl is smart when it comes to stuff like this.

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Frank del Rio is still around, unfortunately. While I don't feel the service onboard has been negatively affected by his reign, the decisions they make shoreside nowadays are questionable at best, and that trickles down. I have no doubt the decision on whether or not give anything to the guests who were rerouted came straight from him. He is a penny-pincher, often to the detriment of customer service, IMHO.

Thanks for the info

My family of 6 cruises quite often (especially since my 3 oldest are now self supporting and of course pay their own way)

That said I still do the bookings of course and look for great deals and while I've been please with the last several cruises on ncl pricewise and itin wise for our April 2019 cruise I jumped to rccl

Better itin

Better dates

Longer cruise

Better embark port

Much much better price (we don't want the drink packages anyway on ncl)

Ok not they newest ship in the fleet on rccl but we are fine with that

Point is...my kids see how I operate when booking a cruise and are learning from it so I can venture to guess they will operate the same way I do in the future

When I told them we were jumping to rccl they were more than receptive to it

We have all cruised ccl princess Disney and ncl previously so all I'm saying is that ncl lost the opportunity to gain some very well educated and well paid 20 something future cruisers but so be it

As they say...if mama ain't happy..nobody's happy...

Ncl take heed of this...it would be beneficial to you lol

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