KKB

I LOVE to be busy on a ship. I learned on another line this summer to be prepared JUST in case. LUCKILY I had prepared & loaded numerous movies & books on my iPad. Beauty of a cruise--you can do everything...or nothing at all. Regarding Syds--it is WORTH IT to be in line early. Every night...(if you like 80s hits...) It is my absolute FAVORITE NCL offering (well, might be tied with Waterfront--sitting on comfy chairs reading or eating dinner out there on sailaway...ah....)

I'm gonna say their success is due to the price point.

I tried MSC for the 1st time in Feb in Caribbean (Divina) after 20 cruises on most other mainstream lines. AMAZING price. Uh...didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Had another amazing deal for Europe in May (Preziosa). Uh...I pretty much feel the same. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. I can get into details but I found passengers on both sailings (really 4 sailings as each was a B2B) to be remarkably rude--no concept of general guidelines regarding lines, politeness, etc. I observed people ramming others in the back with buffet trays, physically moving children (not their own) aside, etc. More than once. One both ships. This was bizarre to me that 2 very different demographics had many similar behaviors. I am a glass is half full kinda gal. DH & I say we could have had fun on that Carnival ships that got stranded at sea for 3 days. I got to see new places in Europe for an amazing price & I'm glad. I did manage to meet a few nice people on all the cruises (love those Canadians--just nice people, right?) I always managed to find lovely crew members who got to know me, my preferences & helped make my experience better. But I'm not sure I will sail MSC again. And I LOVE a good deal... (one of those cruises was free on a casino match offer...still might not be good enough!) ALL OF THIS BEING SAID--I'm only telling you this to help you with expectations. It will likely be DIFFERENT. But the basics of the cruise remain the same. Go in knowing it will be different, expect to have a good time anyway & I'm sure you will! I do believe attitude is the game changer.

I was stunned to see such an early check in time, I've never seen that before! We are on the NCL Breakaway in August. Has anyone had personal experience sailing NCL from hear & what we can expect. Thanks!

Vegas? Nope. Attrition took care of some smaller rooms during COVID. But the Horseshoe (Ballys) just renovated & expanded their poker room. It is still going strong in the upscale casinos--Aria, Bellagio, Caesars, Venetian, Wynn.

Enjoying your TR so much. Excursions for our cruise next year opened today so I was thinking about what I had done at each port, and what I WANT us to do at each port next year! Looking at what you are doing gives me some ideas as well--THANKS! Sadly we are not hitting Belfast this time. I snagged a cab who took me to the HOHO bus drop off. The HOHO bus was FANTASTIC--sounds very similar to your cruise. Wish I was there!

Yes T11 bus. It was a a great tour at an an exceptional price--20-25? I didn't pay, a friend did--they don't take credit cards? (DH & I are going to do this next year) The town is small but very cute.

Yeah, will report back on actual flying experience. So far pleased.

We booked our Aug Med cruise 2 years ago via Casinos at Sea...thought the whole family was going. 3 from OMA/2 from DFW In the end just DD & I are going & we need to fly from DFW. Called beginning of April to switch me to DFW...air went from $1K RT (for 2--HECK of a deal) to $1500RT--still VERY reasonable for 2 during high season. June 1 we got our flights & breathed a sigh of relief. We had asked for a 2 day deviation but ended up with 3 essentially--Fly out Aug 1, arrive in Rome Aug 2 for Aug 4 embarkation. So 48 (ish) hours in Rome. Air Italia DFW to JFK to FCO (overnight). Reasonable flight & layover times. Return direct on AA FCO to DFW departing 2PM on disembarkation day. 1 checked bag allowed on each flight (plus carryon & personal item) each Called Air Italia to choose seats this week. Called AA to choose/upgrade our seats also...strangely I have not gotten an email nor has it gone thru my credit card. If nothing goes thru by Monday I'll call again.

THANK YOU FOR POINTING THIS OUT! THIS is showing up on both cruises. FINALLY! Weird, tho, on Nov cruise only, it shows up in Reservations at a Glance as well (the $100 On board spending $). NOT sure why it isn't consistently being shown that way. BUT WE HAVE THE OBC FINALLY!

@new_cruiser_75 I'm pretty much the same as you 20+ cruises on various mainstream lines & I got a DEALon MSC. Caribbean on Divina in Feb. Well...it was a HOT MESS from day 1. And never really recovered. But I had already booked Proezia in Europe in May. Had hoped Feb was situational...and yet, it wasn't as much as it should have been. Rude passengers in Feb...and rude passengers in May. TOTALLY different demographic...and yet, the same. LOOK--I am VERY much a "the glass is half full" gal. And yet...NO real interest in sailing MSC again... MAYBE if I could get a DEAL on YC. I'd be willing to try. But not otherwise...

29 cruises in 20 years...9 Celebrity, 3 RCCL, 1 Carnival. Enjoyed every one & find them more alike than different (along w/ Princess, DCL & NCL as well). Celebrity is our fav & all we heard going into our 14 day Carnival cruise in Jan was that we would hate it--NOPE! Loved it! RCCL: best production shows & "bells & whistles" Carnival: best comedians & endless trivia Celebrity: best service & food overall I find attitude is the key to everything--if you think you will have a good time, you probably will. Not every cruise has been perfect but had a good (usually great!) time on each one.

When ordering at the bar, all the nearby Medallion accounts pop up with pictures. If you look similar to someone at the bar, the busy servers may accidentally put it on the wrong account. It seems the majority of passengers get Princess Plus so it isn't a huge issue generally.

THIS is why we always take a look at that bill a couple times during the week. We discovered this a few days in last summer. Went straight to guest services, showed we had Princess Plus & all was resolved immediately.

I cannot comment on Whittier. We did Juneau, Ketchikan & Skagway (changed to Sitka at last minute) last Sept. ; SEA to VAN on Discovery. We had poker tournaments each morning on sea days & the casino was open late each night EXCEPT the last night. Rather suddenly the last afternoon (maybe 4:30?) they announced everyone needed to close out there account w/in the next hour as the casino would close then. We thought the casino would be open until 7 I believe--the dealers all looked confused as the Patters said 7 & that is also what they thought.

Update...the 1st request never "processed" as worded in the email (remember, the email for our Nov cruise isn't worded that way & DID post that day). I sent a 2nd request w/ form & documents on July 5. On July 10 I got the email--with that same damn "will be processed" wording. NOTHING on the reservation yet. 🫥 I tried to resolve via chat & they said since it is a Casinos at Sea issue to contact them. I contact them & they say this it handled via another dept.🤬 3 weeks out & I leave 2 weeks from Monday--maddening not to get this resolved. Reminds me of trying to cancel Vibe for the 2nd week of a BTB while onboard the 1st week. (they told me I would need to call--from the ship??!! Then they would email & "try"...never happened) Sigh. Gotta say NCL, there are things I LOVE LOVE LOVE about you (Syds, Waterfront, production shows) but the runaround I get on things like this, the labor cuts & production cuts make it harder & harder to consider you for our hard earned $.

We noticed an uptick in crowds at Local after the buffet closed so if we were eating there, we tried to go a bit before the buffet closed (unless we went LATE)

Appreciate this info about Southampton—have never sailed out of there, but we r 2x in the next year!

Just quoting my Carnival Miracle bartender, no personal experience here

Yeah it’s still a significant price difference, I’ve looked

Interesting. Really didn't notice it in March--I'm sure it depends to some extent on passengers onboard a particular sailng.

I LITTLE higher price point than I pay on my mainstream lines... I believe Celebrity is the only mainstream lines where the casino is fully NS (except for a couple allowing vaping...I don't suspect that would be a huge issue). NCL has some newer ships with the smoking casino room...but with the service cuts there the last few months not sure how much longer we will be sailing them.

I see a lot of threads about Celebrity allowing vaping in casinos on a couple ships even tho they are NS casinos (which I love). Overall I am rarely bothered by smoke in casinos--most in Vegas have pretty good "smoke eaters" But there have been 3 ships in the last 4 years where smoke was so intolerable that I just didn't play or wore a mask! (I have sailed 29 cruises on 20 different ships) NCL Getaway (Encore wisely made a smoking casino area separate) Discovery Princess (strangely have not noticed it on other Princess ships!) MSC Preziosa (Europe cruise) Anyone else notice it bad on particular ships?

We get to the port about 9:30-10. We like to be onboard early & figure we wait at port or wait at hotel, no difference. Celebrity now allows you to drop bags in room (YEAH) even if they aren't ready so we usually do that first (AFTER getting a drink), grab some lunch (grab a drink) & then wander the ship. We try to see everything & get our lay of the land. We don't usually do the pool on day one but with kids I could see that being a priority!

Did our 1st Carnival to Hawaii in Jan after 20 cruises on other lines & LOVED it. THAT BEING SAID--our bartenders said avoid cruises of 7 days or less in Caribbean & MX Riv unless you are into booze cruises. I'd go RCCL unless prices was hugely different.