This also effects other NCL brands like Regent and Oceania

Money must be tight, but the CEO must've pulled the trigger on this. He does seem to be somewhat of an uber-optimist, but a very like-able fellow. I'm talking Harry not Frank.

We are new to NCL , having sailed on a dozen of so Celebrity.  Our Canadian friend has refused to join us on a 15 night Oanama canal as he says the food & service in the main dining areas is “lousy”

I am fairly confident this is a bit of an overstatement and would welcome views from others .  We already have a 5 night spec restaurant package and will upgrade to more if the main dining room isn’t up to our tastes

Would also welcome any thoughts /tips on sailing with NCL 

Thank you in advance 

Chris 

BUT, let this thread be a positivity thread! A place for us optimists to hang out and discuss the good stuff!

Let's start with me asking "What is your favourite NCL menu item?" and if you have a photo, please show! 🙂

Thanks for your help.

I think will make this one Lol

The cruiseadvisor said that it is true that they have lifted the prices because they still want to earn money from you.

So, we are beïng scammed! We really wanted to take our first cruise, and find it reasonable if we had to pay a little bit more, but this is really too mucht. Escpecially because the give a discount of 25% an when you book again an discount, but when you first uplift the prices with 50% is not a worthy to a good company.

Now we will try to receive our money. That probally will be another long road to take....

Conny Dijkstra

The Netherland.

Went on to NCL’s website to potentially book a cruise on NCL Joy. Was specifically looking at the 2 bedroom Haven suite. I saw that they have a 2 bedroom Haven Suite with a large balcony for only slightly more so decided to look at that one instead. Here’s where my confusion started: When I clicked on the Haven 2-bedroom villa with large balcony (H5), the picture and floor plan is a different cabin, even though the description is accurate. The floor plan and picture are correct for the Haven 2-bedroom villa with regular balcony (H6). So, I started to investigate. Looked on other websites for NCL Joy for H5 and H6. Another website showed the NCL Joy H5 as the Haven Courtyard Penthouse, and yet another showed it as the Haven 2-bedroom villa with regular balcony. Am I missing something?

A little about us; my son just turned 12 on the pre-cruise portion of this trip, I am 50.  We travel with my Mom, 72, and my sister, 49, in 2 rooms.  We leave the husbands at home for our yearly Mom & Girls & Grandson Trip.  We are seasoned travelers and have learned not to sweat the small stuff, which allows our trips go very well.

Mom had been to Alaska previously, but it was new territory for the rest of us.  It did not disappoint, it was even more beautiful and stunning that anything I had read or seen.  You have to experience it to understand how captivating it is.

Our southbound trip started with a pre-cruise land trip surrounding Anchorage, followed by the 7-nt cruise (Seward to Vancouver).  Temperatures ranged from 50-75 degrees through the trip and it rained at least part of the day for at least half of the cruise.  Because Alaska just had a heat wave, I packed more shorts (which I didn’t need) and could have used more pants.  I was glad to have my warm raincoat and umbrella on several days.

Pre-cruise

We were tossing up doing the land tour to Denali through NCL or do our own DIY land tour.  We decided that creating our own custom land tour on our own schedule would suit our family better.  In a nutshell, we ended up selecting the sites we wanted to see and building hotel and transportation options around that.  Our destinations were; Alaska Native Heritage Center (Anchorage), Visit cousin Lee (Anchorage), , Helicopter Glacier Dog-Sledding (Girdwood), Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (Girdwood), Kenai Boat Tour and/or SeaLife Center (Seward).  We left the last day in Seward open in case the sledding tour had to be moved due to weather.

We did 3 nights in Anchorage as our home base and 1 night in Seward.  In reflection, we could have skipped the night in Seward, and come straight in on the day of our cruise to do either Kenai or SeaLife before the cruise left at 9 PM, but it was nice to have the extra day in case the sledding tour was moved, get a sense of this lovely, small coastal town by staying the night, and be right there at the cruise departure point.

We stayed at the Comfort Suites Airport in Anchorage 3 nts, and I would highly recommend this place.  It was only 4 miles from the airport but nestled in the pine trees.  There was a lounge to eat dinner with limited bar-food / entrees which also doubled as the included hot breakfast area.  There was a shuttle that picked us up from the airport and the driver offered to drive us to a local restaurant and took us back to get a rental car at the airport the second day.  The staff were all helpful.  We would stay here again.

The first day was a travel day into Anchorage.  Three of us came from Northern and Southern CA, and sister came in from NC.  Both of my bags were held in SMF and did not arrive in ANC until late in the evening after I had gone to bed.  Luckily the hotel gave son & I complimentary toiletries to get through the night.  The hotel held my bags in a locked room until I came down for them in the morning.

The next morning after breakfast, we headed out to the Alaska Native Heritage Center (Anchorage).  It was a wonderful stop.  We learned about the Alaskan Native tribes and how they lived, including the types of home they lived in, which were actually built here around a pond on a walking trail.  We watched live tribal dances and games on the center stage and saw handicrafts and talked with artist’s at their booths.  There was a theater and a nice gift shop.  It took about 2 hours to go through.

That afternoon, we stopped at Mom’s cousin Lee’s house near the Cook Inlet (Anchorage), and went to Simon & Seafort’s for dinner to celebrate kiddo’s 12th birthday.  Talk about the best King crab of the entire Alaskan trip! Overlooking Cook Inlet (of Captain Cook fame), the restaurant had a large share of tourists dressed in all attire.  It was loud inside and would be great for those with children, though prices are on the steep side but not too far off from food prices overall in Alaska as we came to find out.

I will continue to write the review in the evening after work and hope to be complete in just a couple of more days .. 

So what do you all think?  Will we be cruising like it's 2019?

The agent indicated that these cabins can not be booked unless you need a wheelchair.

The NCL site appears to allow me to book these cabins without any warnings about needing to be disabled.

So I come here for the truth....

I dont see huge crowds.  Believe it or not on Sunday night was at the Mojito bar with Bong and Chocolate Cowboy and only 4 people there at 8pm and that was including me.  4300 on board this week.  Did the go carts yesterday.  We had reservations and no line at all.  I came in 6th of 7 so I sucked.  Some crazy girl who crashed into me won.  Good for her because she took no prisoners on the track.

Haven is top notch.  only 3 people in the Horizon lounge this morning.  Water is very hot.  I was shaving in the sink and steam was coming out of the sink. One of the best shaves Ive gotten.  Spa is crowded.  Yesterday was the first sea day and it reminded me of the Huey Lewis video "if this is it" where the family wanders the entire beach with their towels looking for a place to sit.  Chair hogs reserving the heated loungers like crazy too.

Ship smells so good.  No smoke.  My last ships were Getaway and Epic that allow smoking in the center casino.   

Very rocky so far.  Could not sleep the first night.  But we are forward on deck 17 which  makes it worse.  Its hard to keep up with everything with so many reservations.  Pool deck is crowded but like any other ship. We had a great chef at Teppanyaki last night.  Also saw Choir of Man.  Good but dont understand how people keep saying "best show at sea"  Hardly.

More on that later.  It was the first night and lots of empty seats too.  No problem getting drinks but since I could not sleep I have not been drinking.

Will try and post more later but will do a quick review when I get back.   

Off to lunch at the Food Republic!

Oh BTW, internet works amazing.  SO much faster than my last cruise and unlimited wifi def worth the upgrade.  No need to wait in any line. Instructions are waiting for you in your cabin when you arrive.

Oh we had a blast at the Virtual reality area with Jurassic Escape and the Zombie experience.  Doing more later