jazzydiver

Here is my situation - I am booked in an interior cabin on the Jade with two friends. I have sailed several times with in three in an interior cabin and find the storage space in Jewel-class ships to be fine. I am fine with interior cabins - I nearly always sail in them.

I got an upgrade offer and was strongly tempted to put in a minimum bid, but have pretty much talked myself out of it. I did some research on the balcony cabins, and three in a balcony cabin seems to make the balcony almost unusable due to the door being blocked, and the sofa/chair bed doesn't sound like it's nearly as comfortable as a pullman bed.

So I was still considering bidding on an OV...but then it occurred to me, would NCL "upgrade" three people into what is normally a two-person OV cabin (no pullman) and use a trundle bed for the third person? I like the idea of possibly having a window or porthole, but the trundle bed sounds really unpleasant.

I have pretty much made up my mind not to bid, but just thought I'd put this out there to see if anyone has had any direct experience with this happening.

I'm brave enough to eat in the buffet, so I don't bother to wipe down my cabin. Sometimes it crosses my mind to look for bedbugs, though. But I'm not consistent about that.

I'm glad I have photos from my early cruises, but I'm OK with it disappearing. Like others have said, everything was very pretty to look at, but the flavor of the desserts was lacking and I was always disappointed most things didn't taste as good as I expected.

:confused: Hmm...I didn't think it was possible for a ship to be uglier than the Epic.

...although upon further thought, TracyE's comment that it looks like party streamers makes me reconsider somewhat. I guess the Epic still wins the ugly category! But not by much! ;p

OK, thanks, I will look into The Dive Bus some more for Curacao. I may wind up just snorkeling in Aruba - looks like it is easy to take the public bus to the beaches to the north and a couple are rated as decent for snorkeling.

Going on a cruise this fall to the ABC islands - I have previously visited Bonaire on a week-long dive trip and am familiar and comfortable with the shore diving there. I already have plans there for my diving (unguided, with same buddy & travel partner).

My question is, are there any dive shops in Aruba and Curacao which have any easy, close-by shore diving? From what I can tell, there is easy-entry shore diving available on both islands. But when I research specific shops, it seems that all I'm seeing for shore diving is guided diving. Does any place have a nice house reef where we can rent gear and just dive? And not have to rent a truck? There are many places you can do this on Bonaire without having to hire a guide - how about Aruba & Curacao?

Thanks in advance for recommendations.

And for those people who buy one bucket of beer, and maybe three or four cocktails throughout the week, UBP makes no sense but the bucket of beer does. My math is usually pretty good (unless I drink the whole bucket of beers at once ;p:D:')).

I don't drink enough to bother with the UBP (and yes, I mean I don't drink enough to make it worth getting it as a "freebie" and paying the 20% fee). I *do* drink enough to make it worth getting a bucket of beer. The nice thing about the buckets (aside from actually having a bucket) is that you get a discount on the price of beers. So "get as many beers as you like" and "bring your own bucket" are NOT solutions. I hope NCL continues the bucket of beer offers for people like me.

The Miami Days Inn Airport North had a free shuttle to the port when I stayed there in January. (Hotel is *very* basic, no free breakfast, but the port shuttle was handy.) Note this is the Days Inn *North* - there are two at the airport. I believe we had to put our names on a list when we checked in. (The shuttle that picked us up at the airport was very slow service, but the port shuttle was pretty good, considering the number of guests they were managing - no complaints about the port shuttle.)

This October I have reservations at the La Quinta Inn &Suites Miami Airport East - also has a free port shuttle; definitely looks nicer than the Days Inn North.

After Midnight had no props or sets? I think BNBR & I must have seen different shows.

I have to put in my 2 cents' worth. If a story is super important to you, then no, don't see After Midnight. If you are OK with more of a variety show type event with songs that have a common theme but don't actually tell a story per se, I very, very highly recommend After Midnight. I thought the dancing, the singing, the musicianship, and the production values were all fantastic. It was one of the very best shows I have ever seen on a cruise ship.

As an aside, we asked Darryl Williams at a Q & A about how the tap shoes were miked - was very interesting to hear about the tech side of the show.

Without jumping into the judgment fray about door decorating, I would simply like to advise the OP to tell their kids to always double-check the cabin number even after finding the door with your magnets on it, in case other passengers move the magnets to the cabin next door as a practical joke. Seems like I heard on here once about someone wondering why their key card didn't work before they noticed their door marker had been moved down a door or two.

Five out of my six cruises have been insides. Balcony would be nice (have sailed with friends who got upgraded to one), but wallet doesn't really allow it. I'd rather cruise more often. I did enjoy the porthole cabin I got years ago (I think it was an upgrade).

I am used to insides and don't mind them at all. I nearly always turn on the TV to the bridge cam channel upon waking up to "see out". That suffices well enough for me until I can actually get out on deck.

I have cruised three times with three adults in a cabin. On the NCL Jewel-class ships I felt we had adequate room for fully unpacking and each person having a decent amount of room for their own stuff. However, on my cruise on the NCL Escape I thought it was ridiculous how much less storage space the inside cabins had! Only two shelves apiece and no drawers at all? Are you kidding? And unfortunately didn't figure out until too late that the little square stool had storage space inside.

I would certainly sail inside again, and am doing so 3-to-a-room on the Jade. But would not want to ever have 3-to-a-room on the Escape again.

Go Ducks!!

I enjoy walking the decks at night and nearly always take a stroll outside before going to bed. No, it isn't absolutely ideal for stargazing, but depending on the moon phase you may have some lovely moonrises or moonlight on the water to admire.

A couple of my favorite nighttime memories are being on the most forward part of an outside public deck and just feeling the entire ship rushing forward into the darkness (no moon that night) and the rush of the air & wind - it was rather eerie but beautiful. The other was being on the port side of the ship on a promenade deck I think only one or two decks below the bridge. I think it was after 1:00 AM. I could see another ship off in the distance but not really *too* far away (see "shipping lanes" references above ;)) - could fairly easily make out their lit-up "X" logo (they were a Celebrity cruise ship - I was on an NCL ship). They were headed the opposite direction that we were. As the ships passed, I noticed a light somewhere above my head (the bridge lights? I'm not sure) turned off & back on a couple of times. And then, the X on the other ship winked off & on twice back at us. I thought it was pretty cool that the ships were saying "hello" to each other.

The outside decks are nearly always very peaceful and empty or nearly empty late at night, even when it's not quite so late that the nightclubs and bars have shut down yet.

Yup, just did it a few weeks ago from northern Florida to Miami.

I misread this as "northern Florida to Maine". In six hours??? :'):'):'):')

I'm not sure about in the dining room. But in the buffet they have a whole station with Indian food every day and I have always found it to be very good.

Yes, I agree - from what I can see, the cabin is not directly under the galley. Here is a handy link that allows you to drag the deck plans to compare what is actually directly above or below: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/dragdeck.php?ship=Carnival-Victory&zoom=1

I was wary of going on a bigger ship as well (I'm used to the Jewel-class size ships). But I really enjoyed my recent trip on the Escape. I thought the After Midnight show was *fabulous* - in fact, my friends & I all went back to see it a second time the next night. (Our first time at the show we had reservations, and I can't remember if we made reservations again the second night, or if we just walked in - sorry.)

We had dinner in the Manhattan Room every night, and once or twice had to wait for maybe 15 minutes or so - but there were six of us and we always asked for a table at least somewhat near the dance floor. So I imagine normal wait times are usually quite a bit shorter. We had breakfasts and sometimes lunch in Taste & Savor, and sometimes there was a wait, but not long. We would always just pick the one that was emptier or had the shorter line. There were a few issues with slow service in all the dining rooms, and not every dish was great, but overall, the food was very good and we had good experiences.

I only went in the pool once, and it wasn't crowded, although it was cloudy & windy that afternoon. (The ship was rocking a bit, and I enjoy the "wave pool" effect.) If you are OK with your lounge chair not being right by the pool, there always seemed to be plenty of chairs elsewhere, even when it was sunny. I'm not as much of a pool/lounging person as I used to be so YMMV, but that's what I noticed when I was paying attention. I hardly ever even made it out to the Spice H2O area, so not sure how crowded that was/wasn't. I did get a peek at the neat water grotto area back there and wanted to go back, but...just was busy doing other stuff!

I went on the Escape with the expectation that there would be giant mobs of people and that I just needed to get over that, but honestly, the only time the size of the crowds seemed truly nuts was for the muster drill. Not that there weren't other times & places where it seemed crowded (like trying to get a seat for trivia), but that was the only time it seemed ridiculous. Oh yeah, the buffet was a bit of a madhouse at peak lunchtime, but it's so huge it wasn't actually all that hard to get food and we could always (eventually) find a seat.

If you want a quiet place to sit & hang out, the seating areas on the Waterfront outside of the designated restaurant areas were always very quiet. Didn't usually have issues finding seats there, either.

I thought I was going to dislike a mega-ship, but the Waterfront, the shows (especially After Midnight), the music & dancing in the Manhattan Room, and the water slides and ropes course (both extremely fun!) all made me wind up really enjoying the Escape.

I haven't been on either the Breakaway or the Getaway, but from what I gather, the Escape has the same layout but it has just enough more open space to have less crowding issues than those ships. That is my impression - I will let people who have been on both ships speak to that.

Yes, I will miss the dance floor in the Manhattan dining room as well. It was very nice on the Escape to be able to dance to live music at dinner every night on a decent floor! And I enjoyed watching others make use of it as well - all ages and all dancing styles. I'm surprised they left it off of Bliss.

I am appreciating all your photos, thank you! ...From what I can tell of the floor in the Manhattan Room, it looks like there is no dance floor! Is that true? I *really* enjoyed having live music and being able to dance at dinner every night on the Escape.

and NOT florinated tap water (which would be every municipal water source in the US).

Actually, not every municipal water source has fluoridated water. (Fluoridation is the process of adding fluorine to a public water source - not fluorination.) Several states have less than 50% of their population receiving fluoridated water.

Oh, "cringed" makes sense - I should have thought of that since that's what I was doing as I tried to read that review! ;)

I agree that both Chaco and Teva make sandals that are very comfortable for extensive walking (I own both brands). A word of warning about Chaco, though - the arch is rather high and I *almost* returned mine, but after finally getting used to them I really like them. If you have a low arch I think Teva would be the better brand choice.

"As people grinched I watched the waves climb from 4,9,11,21, reach8ng before i tried to fall asleep 23-32 feet waves."

"As people grinched"? I truly, honestly have no idea what the reviewer means. :'):') Maybe it's a combination of "grouched" and "flinched"? Since it was a February cruise, I assume they weren't talking about stealing Christmas presents. :')