Jump to content

ashank1m

Members
  • Posts

    131
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    Fairfax, VA
  • Interests
    Traveling, trip planning, drinking (and shedding that calories)
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    NCL(Dawn Class), MSC
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    FL

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

ashank1m's Achievements

Cool Cruiser

Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  • Great Review Rare

Recent Badges

  1. Forgot about Encore. I think Joy also has one. But not on Breakaway, Escape, Epic. Not sure about the newer ships.
  2. Ward Cove is a mess, getting off ship is easy but getting off the Port was not. Once gathered at the Warehouse/shop/meeting points. Left side is the line for shuttles to the Downtown, right side is for Excursion lines. There is no walk ways after the warehouse. We walked through the dirt road and hiked 1/2 mile up to the street along the shuttles/buses traveling on that hilly dirt road then crossed street to hop on Ketchikan city bus to go to the Totem Bight State Park (2 miles 5 min ride at $2 per person.) Coming back to the Port from the downtown, there would be a LOOOONG line by Birth 2 (right by the Ketchkan City sign/ visitor center). The shuttle time to/from port to the downtown is about 30 min.(line was about 45 min)
  3. Yes. Prior to cruise you can make reservation for most specialty restaurant but there is no option to make reservation for Food Republic. You can only make reservation on the ship at the Teppanyaki checkin. At Food Republic they would not make reservation, they will tell you to go to Teppanyaki restaurant to make reservation.
  4. Its like buying a car, more options and dealer fees. NCL port fee/taxes are higher than others in same port and same itinaries. Then you add gratuities for drinks about $150 per person on 7 days and dining package, about $20 per person. Then add Daily gratuities of $20 a day per person (compare to $14.5 for Carnival/MSC and $18 for RCL), I think Suites get bumped to $25 a day.
  5. Cruise companies would loved to see all passengers adhere to their checkin time. I get off ship at 8am and I see people waiting to get on board. As travelswithK mentioned, porters should be there to accept your bags. So check the big bags and just carry personal items. Interpid is only couple blocks away.
  6. Go to your NCL online account, In your reservation, you can purchase 2 dining package/s for others in your cabin that does not have the dining package. The package is not restaurant specific, so after you purchased the package, you will see that in your reservation. About 30 days prior to trip, you can go online to make restaurant reservation. In your trip page, click on Specialty restaurant an your will see Reservation button, click on that and all your room party that has Dining package will show and you make the date and time for the reservation. Purchase of everything else is same.. You get 150 min of internet for the room (only first two passengers will have account but it can be shared with same log in information-click on your NCL Apps/internet-type in last name, birthdate.) If one needs unlimited internet, you can purchase individually and share (only one device at a time.) One of my kid had some online classes they needed to attend so we purchase 1 unlimited and 150 free min. with 2 pc andd 4 phone we managed to do what we needed.
  7. Ship: Beautiful and big ship, it seems to be the only NCL ship with huge observation lounge in the front, where light meal/snack and a bar was open most of the time. This is where the Glacier Bay NP rangers hosted presentation overlooking the Glaciers from 8-noon. ship layout with one central point with two elevator banks on forward and rear. As typical there is no indoor pool/Solarium which would have been nice in 40s in Alaskan cruise. This being fairly a new ship with refurbishment in 2022, I thought ship would be smoother but in cabin 13270 which is right by rear elevator (2/3 of ship), I felt ship vibrate throughout the trip, standing still, I felt like I was a vibrator. The vibration was mostly throughout the ship more noticeable in center to rear in every floor. The fitness center was small but has about 3 dzn cardio machines and about a dzn workout machine, full rack of free weight and virtually no extra room for stretching or individual work out. Unique to the ship, it has a very decent go-cart track, $15 for about 10 min ride, it was nice but the speed seems to be limited by central controller, where at the beginning no matter how hard you press the accelerator, it wouldn’t move until they give you the power then suddenly pops forward and if you drive fast, they seem to throttle you back. 8th floor has various restaurants and boardwalk, forward port side had District brew which has several specialty beers on the tap. We avoid 8th floor in the center due to heavy cigar smoke near Cavern club area. Cabin: in Fam Bal 13270, was by far the smallest room I have been onboard with virtually no storage space. Other than closet with 4 shelves, there are no real drawers in the cabin. There is two large drawers under the couch but it had couch cushion when converted to a bed, main desk/vanity had two area with shelves but one was just enough to put clothes other with about 3-inch width, it really didn’t serve much. The bathroom actually had more storage space than the room! Bathroom size avg but sink was big enough, and shower actually had enough space to move around. Although nearby elevator it was far enough no noise yet quick access to most rear of the ship facilities (2 floor up for Fitness and Spa, elevator down to 7 for Main dining, 6th for two alt main dining Savour and Taste. This is one of few rooms that narrow mid ship expand to wider body thus giving you extra 20 sqft of balcony space with forward view. With the latest change, the daily gratuity is $20, which is almost 35% increase mean while you get only 1 room cleaning a day. (get the math, 35% increase to get half the service?) I don’t really mind on cleaning but making up bed should be done 2x a day. With bunk dropped from the ceiling and couch being a bed, you really don’t have any room to lounge and move around in your room. Dining: Main cabin dining presentation was good, food was very mixed some good some bad. One biggest gripe was all chowders/creamy soup had one flavor, no matter which soup (clam chowder, Salmon Chowder, etc) I had it always tasted like a raw flour and had small rump of flour floating. I don’t think the chef on NCL knows the concept of roux for chowders. If due to dietary restriction, veg oil can be used for roux. Service was mixed as well, sometime decent other times not even getting a water or see a server for 20-30 min. Buffet was set up with similar food on both sides. starting with drink station, cold food (right side had desert with ice cream section) that connects to middle that served egg stations in morning, pizza/burger bar in the afternoon and dinner. Across that center section will be hot food and carving stations (egg and hot breakfast in the morning), similar set up forward except, left side will have Indian food section and right side with Asian food (had one type of noodle soup, one stir fried item, one stir fried noodle and rice), food quality is very lacking. Like the food you get from cheap Chinese carryout in a bad neighborhood. Indian food was decent in taste (I am not a fan of Indian food but as a foodie I will always try different food.) Other free meal places are at the 15th forward for Observation lounge where they usually have drinks and light finger food/fruits. Local bar has various bar food which also was hit and miss. Wings were ok I prefer more deep-fried type, had hotdogs and bugers which was good. Fish and chip was weird as when you bite into it you will only find inside with half empty. They could cut back on amount of fries with food to cut back on food waste as we left about 2 large McD portion of fries with 3 orders we had. if you choose to have a dining plan (2 meals) or purchased a plan, you have access to Cagney’s Steakhouse, Ocean Blue Seafood, La Cucina Italian, Los Lobos Mexican, Le Bistro French, Q Texas Smokehouse, Food Republic Fusion, Teppanyaki, American Diner. For me, paying almost $50 for a meal to have Teppanyaki (typical in my area for $40 a meal), Mexican, or American Diner for burgers didn’t make sense. So I opted for Cagney and Food Republic. Cagney, with a meal plan, you get 1-App, 1-Salad or soup, 1 main course, and 1 dessert, and you cannot combine 2 meal plans for a Porter House. As you can see from the menu, steaks weren’t either Prime or Choice and my opinion, I have had better steaks at Long Horn/Outback than here, the meat was flavor less and was not juicy even at Med rare. This was the same for Prime rib, NY strip, and Filet Mignon. Fries and veg were good, but the baked potato were not. it was a lump of potato in a nice dish, you cut it and a server will load the toppings but my potato was not hot enough to melt the butter and was dry. I also tried a NY Stip in main restaurant and I like the free steak better than at Cagney’s. Food Republic was a good choice, each meal plan will give you any 4 choices from menu. They had 10 diff rolls, varying Asian food and some Latin fusion food. Rolls were good but rice was too wet and over cooked (you shouldn’t be paying to eat at a sushi restaurant if rice is like this, wet and busted/broken due to overcook) cut back on water by 10% should solve this problem. (I would cut back by 15% and after cooking pour mirin/rice cooking wine to simmer in room temp.) Most of other food was acceptable although bit off from authentic, especially spicy Korean fried chicken was not very good. But, I do recommend this place for varied food. Hint: you cannot make pre-reservation for this place, but you must make reservation at Teppanyaki restaurant for Food Republic as this place is small and is always packed. Next time I will opt for Q-smokehouse instead of Cagney’s. Bar services were typical, but did notice Local Bar had only couple bar tenders working and wait was long. District bar is good place to go for beer as they had several special, including NCL’s own brew. Entertainment: As mentioned above, go-cart was nice. Game room is on 5th but also some in Local bar with 2 lane mini bowling alley. Six and Jersey boy’s had two shows each. They are very long (1:25 min for Six and 1:45 for Jersey boys) it is full production show. Overall, it’s a nice ship and plenty to eat and do. I do wish, NCL can cut back on food portions a bit to reduce the food waste. (I don’t need 3 egg omelets along with plate full of other items. People tend to count how many they can eat not how much (volume) they can eat.) It has been 3 years since last NCL cruise and will be on another in couple years. (we cruise once a year and alt with other cruise lines.) Note for Alaskan cruise: Rockslide in Skagway port. You cannot walk to town from the ship. You need to use the screen by the stair (around the corner from elevator banks) to make shuttle bus reservation or go to guest service. You will disembark and walk up the ramp then walk 200 yards of container ship made tunnel to board the bus for about ¼ mile to the parking lot by the entrance to the port. From here you can purchase a town shuttle for $3 one way or $5 all day pass. Getting back to the ship the same way. Line are very long so prepare for this. Our time was Shuttle 8, shuttle 1 was calle at 8:30 but we went out at 8:30 and no one seems to be checking.
  8. That is a standard service. Steward will come in the morning when you leave to put it away. When you leave your room for dinner, he/she will come back and pull it down for the evening. But then they have cut back on 2X daily service to 1.
  9. shame on me, even with ASA 101 cert, 2 years of not sailing and cruising did my brain a damage.... thanks for the correction.
  10. Yup, sometimes it works but mostly, it works when you are onboard and linked to the ship WIFI, you don't need Internet package to connect, you can book activities, see expense, see ship locations like one you have in room TV. About TV, on/off button is useless. Just press a number and will take you to the channel. Push a Content button to get to the main menu to see your Onboard activities (expenses).
  11. If my memory serves me right, $50 for inside/window; $75 or $100 for Bal; $200 for YC. And gets double the points.
  12. I did the "Miami Depart MSC Seashore review" and food opinion, yes food is subjective. I live near DC, I have been to few European cities, frequently eat out. Based on food I have ate at standard to good restaurant and mostly I enjoyed and liked. So based on that mass standard taste, plus experience from several cruises, food choices and quality has definitely went down. Especially, consistency as one day good then bad, salty then good then bland. If this is a restaurant, I wouldn't go again. But for cruise, I can pick and choose, if I don't like it I can get a different new dish and cruise is not always about food so, yes I will go on MSC again. It is all about knowing the taste of masses and have the cook taste that before sending out to serve to ensure food quality. When TLC is in the food it will always taste better.
  13. Just got off the MSC Seashore on 4/9, here is what I have observed. - MSC is still departing from the Terminal F, next to Carnival (same place as before), entrance is to the far East of the terminal F. Long line to X-ray bag then go up to check in. Then you are ready to go on board. - I did Fantastica/Bell balcony but realized the YC tent is out there but no lounge for embarkation due to the construction, but was a snack corner at the far end of the terminal. (Construction is ongoing to accommodate the new Carnival ship and MSC to move far end of other side next to RCL to new MSC terminal AA). - I had check in time of 10am - 11am but didn't arrived until 2pm, but no one was taking note of check in time. - As for checking, YOU WILL NEED THE PASSPORT, VACCINE CARD AND PROOF OF COVID TEST (NEGATIVE RESULT) - Compare to Seaside, this ship doesn't have zipline, due to messy turning buffet to sit in restaurant couple years back, there is no buffet on lower level but regular Main dining for assigned dinning: Tribeca, 5th Ave, and Manhattan (for Aurea only) - Staff was very friendly, especially at Casino there were too happy to take you money! But everyone seem happy to get cruise going again. My waiter at Tribeca, Manesh was super! - Food: it really seem took a huge dive. One day all food was bland, then next day too salty. Dried meat was very common. Food presentation at restaurant was good but as I have wondered for years if these chefs actually taste outside food to know the common taste? + My biggest wonder, for Italian ship how can the pasta taste so bad. It gave a new meaning to al dante as pastas were literally crunch yet outside mush for sitting out in sauce for long. Sauce? Marinara was normal, but every other sauce taste like not a jar of Ragu but canned Hunt sauce. I highly recommend you to try Meatball and lasagna, you will know what I am talking about, also the Penne pasta on Classic menu on for everyday. For a guy lives off pasta and pizza and loves cooking Italian dish, I had none after the 2nd day. + First night food was too bland yet French onion soup was great. Then next day, I had another that sat so long, I had to use knife to cut the cheese+crouton to get to the soup and the soup was an onion sludgy. No more after that. + Pizza - it used to be the best pizza on the sea, but now in the bottom as sauce is salty tomato sauce with hint of cheese. only had white pizza, pep pizza and pizza with sauce only on buffet. Room service order can have different toppings. + Only the half of the buffet is opened with front right (starboard side) has one carving station, one hotdog/bugger (dried in warmer with warm lettuce) & fries and toco bar. One station of typical pasta (again hard to my liking), soup and couple hot food items; 3 sandwich stations, 3 salad stations scattered. One Chinese (2 times) in the back (aft)/This is where omelet and egg sections (2 in the morning). + 2 drink station where you can get coffee, tea, water, juice/lemonade in the afternoon served by staff and one in the back. + From before food variety was bit lacking, again meats dried out. Always have some sort of curry item. + several section had fruits but often only one section had bananas, third day I saw bucket of bananas in all sections with all yummy brown color. + In main dining, NY strip is $9.95 addition, but on Elegant/dress i[ night (3rd night) it was on the menu as regular item. THIS was by far best steak I had in last 10 cruises from the main dining. Temp was done nearly on spot and not dried out from sitting out or hanging out in food warmer. There was no diff in free steak vs paid. Of course you will always have better steak at Butcher's! - Theatre: made reservation on MSC for Me, didn't seem to be checking when entering but need to scan. Lots of seat were empty. Production was decent, gone are the MJ imitation. - Since ship seem to be about half full, pool was not as crowded and able to find chairs. - With free drink promo, drink quality was bit down, I paid for my drinks and wasn't good as before or maybe YC serve better drinks. - Since I stayed in YC for Seaside, I couldn't really compare the room size, but compare to Divina the room was about 30% smaller, so was the bathroom. My room had couch (pull up to make 2 bunk beds) next to the closet. With bed up, I could barely get to the closet since it had about 10 inch between.(well it wouldn't let me upload pic, space with of my wife's show size 5 1/2). Good thing I had two cabins (1 with 4 and 1 with 2), I had 4th person change to other room other wise, I wouldn't have access to closet as room service is done once a day and the room steward was not putting bed away to make a sitting area. It had half size sink with about 5 inch width served as sink top for your stuff. Shower was slightly smaller, I am 5'8" 175LB medium built (size 40), I could barely move around. I wonder how the plus size folks take shower as shower door is about 24 inch wide. - I usually haul my own bags since I don't over pack. So getting off the ship was quick. Heard the disembark announcement around 7am and we were headed out at 7:30am, after getting off the ship, we walked long way to far East side of the terminal when down stairs where porter and bag pick up area in one side and customs on next. We were able to clear after 3 min wait then 1 min to scan our faces to the camera for check and off the terminal. The exit was literally front of the Garage G, where I parked so only took 1 min to garage. (Parking rate $22 a day/full 24 hours), outside parking were charging 8 days for parking as Port only charged 7 so difference was not very big so parking at Port made sense. -Those not in Aurea or YC wanting a spa/Therma area. 7 day pass is about $210 and couple for $400. I couldn't find the daily pass rate anywhere but after 2-3 days into cruising, they were offering buy one get one from day pass for $80 + 20% tip. But I was charged only $79. - GYM had limited machines, other than cardio, Techno GYM had machine for chest, shoulder, lat pull, leg press, crunch, leg extension, leg lateral. One set of free weight from 1 kg to 40kg(?), 2 racks for free weight bar. 1 multi pull machine. - Some how entrance to 8th floor walkway outside in midship was closed most of the time. - MSC trying to be technical (wonder why the web site and reservation seem like amateur) MSC for me works most of the time and chat function to talk to others with out the internet package. Elevator has a touch screen out where you touch the floor your want to go and it will tell you which elevator to take, make sure put correct floor because once in the elevator, you cannot make a change as there is no floor button inside. With RFID, your cruise card will transmit signal so instead of scanning you will just touch the reader for your purchases. ***If you have a fun pass for your kids, make sure to let them know don't get too close to the machine with card other wise it will read the card and activate the game thus you will be charged. Games are less arcade type but more of amusement type. If you purchase pre-cruise $80 package will get $140 but onboard, you will be charged $100 for $140 worth games. - Infinity pool on deck 8 is for adults only located aft (back), it has a bar and gelato shop. Smoking located in Port (right) side by the bar. Another smoking is on deck 18 by the pool bar also Port side. - There is still, white night, dress up and flower night, pool party is there but not as lively as before. Some lounges have dance but it seemed limited in numbers. Also gone but not is the Italian night, on our cruise Italian night but meshed with White night, so I wore White not Italian color. Italian food was the theme but not to be desired. Braised Short rib used to be good but this time it was very tough while it seemed to be lived in the sauce way too long and every fiber of meat was salty. - Maybe I am missing some but before you had one bill, so everyone in the room had different account but linked to one primary. But this time you can link the credit card but accounts were all separate. You have to go down to Service Desk to link the account to one main. If you don't if there is balance to OBC for one account don't assume it will be deducted from overall account unless you link the account together, not just credit card you link on kiosk when you get onboard. (Deck 5, 6, mid ship) Couple gripes: 1) I had booked this back in 2019 before the pandemic. It was a family cabin (3room) for Meraviglia for 8 then pandemic made the change and ship change to Seashore, which also changed itinerary from US VI to Nassau and each room got $200 OBC. I had few changes along the way and some how one room changed from Bella to Fantastica when I had to cancel one member due to health reason and OBC went away. I tried to get this but gave up. 2) As mentioned above why are they separating accounts in the same cabin? 3) MSC execs have you ever eaten on your ship? Please have your chefs and cooks eat out to know the taste. When you waste good quality material and serve crappy food it is a sin. After all, most cruisers are well to do folks yet why are the food quality less than Golden Coral? Heck hire me, I can do better than what is there and I am only a amateur cook. 4) Those of you looking to take advantage of Status Matching, do it before you book so you can get a member discount (5%) and make sure use the highest category of your memberships. When I did mine in 2016, I did it after the booking, so no discount. Not understanding the program, instead of using Hilton Diamond or IHG Spire Elite, I used NCL Silver, but what I got was a Classic with 1 point, then I made a mistake of pooling onboard expenses and accidently made my daughter take credit for that, I have tried to get that credit back but no avail.
  14. Yup, ship arrived around 6 am, got the announcement around 7:05, I walked off around 7:25 (on Sat 4/9), long walk to the baggage area, customs line was really short with 5-6 agents checking, no need for passport but face validation on a camera (for US citizens). then out the door in 1 min towards West side of the terminal F. Walked to garage G which is far West garage, which was right front of the exit.
×
×
  • Create New...