res2cue

11 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

We cruised on the Valor earlier this month. We booked in late July, which is much closer than we normally book. Usually we do it at least a year out, so there's never been any worry about getting YTD, which is what we prefer. When we booked Valor, we got waitlisted for YTD and assigned late dining. Well, we definitely didn't want late dining because we knew it'd interfere with too many of our activities, so we changed it to early and just hoped that we'd eventually get YTD. I never knew you could get waitlisted for YTD. I mean, it's a 4 hour window to eat your meal when you have YTD, how does that fill up? Luckily, about 3 months later, we got confirmation that we had been switched to YTD.

 

I can see early or late filling up. Those are just two set dining times per night with a set number of tables. But with YTD and its 4-hour window to eat, I never would've imagined it'd fill up. It goes to show you how many people choose YTD nowadays.

 

Side note: that's the most I've ever written YTD in a single post. 😜

the popularity of YTD continues to grow and the popularity of traditional dining continues to decline.  Cruise lines will recognize this and adjust the seating accordingly.  I suspect in the not too distant future only half of 1 dining room will be designated for assigned time dining as YTD continues to grow in popularity.

21 hours ago, MisterOJ2 said:

I've done both, and nowadays I just don't care a lot for Your Time Dining - especially with younger children like you have. With traditional seating, the wait staff is much more efficient, because they are taking all tables orders at the same time, delivering appetizers, etc., at the same time. So everything just goes more smoothly and they get you in and out of the dining room in a more orderly fashion.

 

YTD is great if you don't want to have to show up at a particular time, but you have to sacrifice the efficiency of the wait staff. And for me, that's just not worth it.

taking orders together and delivering the food is exactly the same with YTD and assigned time dining.  There is absolutely no difference in the level of service.

The first explosion could have been a once off thing. The fact that they have found 2 more explosive devices on ferries since then tells me this is something to pay attention too.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

Maybe you should have done a search, this is the third thread about room service changes

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

Not too many years ago we were given a tumbler when we bought the drink package for our kids.. or maybe it was an option to purchase? Either way we got them each one. Do they not have these anymore?

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

Had the NCL package. To me is was the loser due to the fact they have so few servers and it takes forever to get drinks unless you go get them yourself. I'll take Carnival for the service alone..

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

She is just concerned about her kids and doesn't know what to expect. Why do people have to respond, if they have nothing helpful to add to the conversation? Just to be snarky? If her question annoys you you can keep scrolling.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Just to clarify, the Iconcierge app is free to download. You will now apparently pay $12.99 rather than $7.99 when you set up your account onboard. You can then use all of the app's features at no additional charge. There is no charge for calls or texts to others onboard the ship unless something has changed since I last sailed. Any calls or texts to off ship locations would have rates applied as indicated in the terms.

It is free to download the app. It is also free to use it to make reservations,view your account ect. You only have to pay the fee if you want the enhanced features of the app.

This week is seems like you have great disembarkation but it all depends on US customs. We were on the 04/24 sailing and customs were doing thorough clearances. We had a 9am disembarkation scheduled and finally cleared customs at 12:30pm. We were still in line on he ship at 12pm with a lot of people behind us .

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Janet Trompler is an idiot apparently.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Teach bartender to rotate beer so they serve the cold ones instead of cool ones that haven't had a chance to get cold yet.

Add more servers walking around so you can get a drink in timely fashion without having to go to the crowded bar.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Online I was only able to book reservations for the main shows : legally blonde and burn the floor. The rest had to be done once on board. Either use the reservation screens throughout the ship or on the NCL Iconcierge app.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Negative

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

I am still curious why there hasn't been news footage of the friends she was cruising with and who was her cabin mate that would not have noticed her not in bed at 2am. or she wasn't either.

Seems that more information can be gathered by asking her friends whom she was cruising with and would explain at what time they separated and find out what kind of mood she was in etc.. to get a sense of why this would happen.

I'm sure they have talked to all of those people over and over for hours. What confuses me is why you think what is said is any of your business and needs to be broadcast in the news . I actually praise the media for leaving those people alone thus far

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Possibly.. try to get as early debarkation as you can when they put the tags out... but seeing what happens from time to time you can never be sure. If our flight was that time getting off last Sunday we would have missed it for sure.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Hi, was this in a regular cabin? I have read about free movies in suites so I thought we wouldn't have them in our balcony cabin. Nice if we do!

Yes these were on a steady loop in all staterooms. Like 4 different movies,same ones all week.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Yes, the only Tender was in Belize. Please make sure you reserve your space on the tenders. They have the screens all around the ship and also on your tv so you can do this. If you have no excursion planned with NCL then you want to make sure that you try to get the earliest tender possible.

If you don't reserve a tender you can wait until 930 or so and just walk off right onto a tender, by then all the reservations were completed. Great review BTW. We were on the same cruise.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

They also played "Pan" in Spice H20 one night. On the stateroom tv it was "Ella" "San Andreas" and a couple others on a steady loop all week.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Thanks for your review! I too am a primarily CCL cruiser and will be taking my first NCL cruise on the getaway on June 5, 2016. Really pleased to hear about the food in the MDR being better than just edible. I wonder how much of the slow bar staff has to do with the UBP promo?

In my opinion they are just understaffed. In my cruises on CCL even on the busiest sea days on the Lido I didn't ever have a problem getting a drink and seeing 3 or 4 servers behind the busy bars. I can honestly say not once this time did I see more than 2 at any bar no matter how busy. The floor servers which CCL has an abundance of are pretty much non existent on NCL or they don't venture far before they have a full order :(

Like I said though.. all this aside I had a great time. There are bars you can get a drink easily from its just a long walk most of the time.

Again,in my opinion NCL blows CCL out of the water when it comes to food but I'm only 1 opinion.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

The luggage tag is the one in color that should say your room number and ship ect. It will say where to fold.. follow instructions, wrap around handle of luggage and throw 4 or 5 staples at it on the ends and that is all you need. If you're flying I wait until after the flight to do this. Yes I carry a small stapler.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

I should add we only ate at the complimentary dining venues with the exception of the last night we ate at Moderno. Delicious. I was extremely happy with the complimentary dining and because of this won't ever consider a specialty dining package. Portions are good, flavors were fantastic and service was amazing.

Breakfast we went to MDR also and we're very satisfied

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

I'm doing this quick to the point review to answer some questions I had, being on 3 past CCL cruises and this being my first NCL.

pros: I can confirm the Getaway had Clamato juice at every bar for Canadians and their Ceasars... however the quality of these drinks really depends where you get them. We found the Atrium bar made them the best.

The entertainment was much better than CCL. Burn the floor, Howl at the moon and Levity comedy are must sees.

The Glow party is also a must see.

I normally don't pay too much attention to the Atrium shows... on NCL I found there to be some very good entertainment in that area. Specifically the tribute to Bob Marley and the great Dance competition.

Entrainment quality is a winner on NCL

The food in the MDR'S is terrific and I loved the freestyle program. Taste was out favorite MDR.

It took us a few days to discover how peaceful the Spice H2O zone is and will spend much more time there next time in the waterfall

The waterslides and ropes course beat CCL hands down.

Cons:

NCL really need to increase their bar staff. Rarely even at the busiest bars was there more than 2 servers... usually there was 1 and unless you had a seat or were very aggressive it took forever to get a drink even with a tip. Now most your time is spent going to the bar yourself because servers walking around were a rare sight and because of this even if you found one they were overwhelmed so it was quicker to go get it yourself.

I was hoping it would be more like CCL where you have 2 or 3 servers come past to see if you need a drink before you even finish the one you have. Sadly this was not the case.

Beer... beer needs to be cold. NCL really need to get their bartenders to pull the cold ones and let the warm ones chill. Add to the fact that most are aluminum bottles and warm up faster drinking domestic beer was a waste.

Hands down CCL wins in the beverage service

Balcony dividers: officially can't be opened however we did open ours with our neighbor and were just behind the bridge so I know the officers saw us with it opened. However we made sure to close it everytime we left the balcony so it was never open unattended and we had no issues.

I did see some comments saying how small the balconies were. I didn't find them too small (conparable to Liberty and Magic) but I'm not hard to please either.

All in all we had a fun trip. The debarkation was a mess and we were supposed to be off at 9:55am but because of customs we didn't get off the ship until almost noon. It was 12:45 before we hit the curb. I can't blame NCL for this though as their hands are tied with US customs. I think the process would normally be very smooth.

Hopefully this helped answer a few questions.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

As I've posted in the thread linked above, the dividers are supposed to be fire boundaries, but were also required to be openable to allow the firefighters to access from one balcony to the next.

 

It was always NCL's policy to leave it to the Captain's discretion on how many and where the dividers could be opened, but then a couple years ago decided to take the onus off the Captain with the fleet wide ban on opening. It seems it is widely ignored.

 

To the OP's question, while the balcony dividers along the sides of the ship are generally openable, you are talking about forward facing balconies, and I cannot say for sure whether these are openable or not, on ships I've worked on, they typically weren't.

Fire boundary... that's laughable. The way those doors are designed they couldn't stop any fire with openings on all sides lol

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Not true. Last increase we had option to prepay under lower rate by a certain date. We had 2 cruises booked, one of which I did not think we would really take. So paid the one for our Epic 2015 cruise. Decided to go on the other, which is in a few weeks. Price is current $13.50 a person, not what it was when we booked over a year ago.

 

But I do think base on what occurred last time, if they increase it, those who already booked can prepay under the cheaper rate. (But if they wait, will have to pay the going rate.)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just pre paid my gratuities 1 week before my cruise which left 04.24. Paid lower rate dating back to 03/15 when we booked the cruise. Lower rate and exchange rate at time of booking. Not sure what happened with you in the past I can only tell my current experience

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Customs were doing a thorough search of every single person. We were scheduled off at 9:55am and finally got through customs at 12:45pm. They must have found what they were looking for as we flew through clearance once we got going. Can't blame NCL it wasn't their fault for this mess. Hands are tied when US customs get on a roll

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

It makes sense for Canadians.. sometimes. If the dollar value is better at the time of booking it makes financial sense to prepay and have the better exchange rate instead of paying the higher exchange rate at time of sailing. Other than that some people just prefer to pay as much ahead of time for whatever reason. It's a preference.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk