MrMike45

All the cool new stuff on the newer (Breakway/Plus) ships....on a ship that holds as many people as the jewel class ships, so no more 4000+ passengers and lines 

15 hours ago, Bronx12 said:

 

It must have been quite the jackpot lol 🙂

I'd be wondering the same thing. I won on Quick Hits and those machines became my "go to" machines, but they haven't paid out since 😞

Just under $17k at Jakes 58.  Picture of her win is on their facebook page some place in the "jackpots" section.  Needless to say, she gets the royal treatment from them whenever we go back lol 

Thanks all...and if my wife hits another Grand jackpot, I might wind up giving up tables for them as well! 

2 minutes ago, CasinoCruzGirl said:

They were on the gem 5 months ago. Try going on YouTube and search NCL escape casino

Think she tried that and all the videos were 6 months plus ago.   If not, no biggie, there's tons of slots to play.  But after she hit a jackpot, those are like her games (lol like she would ever do that again!) 

6 minutes ago, CookieShip said:

The definitely had it, see day 5 under Night and day 6 under Afternoon.

Thanks...thought it used to be every day, but glad it's still available at some point.  

Thank you for these...leaving Sunday.  

Quick question, did they stop doing Canvas By U?  My wife loved doing that last few cruises.  Didn't see it in the dailies 

If so...do they have "Lock it Link" type games?  My wife hit a Grand jackpot on one of those games about 7-8 months ago at a local casino here in Long Island, and has since become addicted to these games.  She said she tried searching for a list of slot machines on the Escape online, but couldn't find anything.  So figured I would ask on here 

Yeah we don't mess around with him, and follow doctors orders.  Without going into a bunch of specific details, when he was 2 months old, he spent 31 days in Pediatric ICU on a ventilator with Pertussis (whopping cough) that would cause BradyCardias (him to cough himself into stop breathing for 5-10 seconds at a time and his oxygen levels to drop into the 40's and 50's).  Knock on wood, he is a completely healthy, normal, and fine little guy, and that is long in the past.  But we don't take chances.  If his doctor says on Thursday it's not a good idea to go, we're not going and lose a few thousand.  Not worth the money to take a chance with his health.  

Anyway, thanks again all...very much appreciate all the advice and kind words.  

Checked that site (and one other) and both list that for pre-existing medical coverage, the policy must be purchased withing 14 days of the first deposit.  

I don't know if an ear infection classifies as a pre-existing medical condition.  Especially since he didn't have it when we booked, and this all only happened in the last few weeks.  I am quite sure there would be some fighting to pay out claims if we needed to file for cancelling from the insurance side.  

Our son is feeling much better.  Heck, you wouldn't even know he has an ear infection as of this morning when he was running around the house.  So we're thinking he should be fine by Sunday for us to go...fingers crossed.

Thanks all for the advice and links though.  Much appreciated 

Bryce Harper hit .249 last year with only 34 HRs.  This year is hitting only .233 with 6 HRs thru 30 games.  He also signed the richest contract in the history of sports a few months ago for $330 million.  

If someone is willing to pay you that salary...you're not overpaid.  Same as with any of you and your jobs.  If your boss came to you and said here's a $25,000 raise, none of you are saying, eh, it was an off-year...I'll only take 15k.  

Get over what Del Rio makes.  If you don't like it...move on 

2 minutes ago, dubroben22 said:

also check your credit card policy , if you paid with one. My credit card does give coverage if any family member is sick and cannot travel.

I have/use the NCL Mastercard, so doubt it...but worth a check 

Let's just hope the kid is better...been looking forward to vacation all winter 

@Crzicriter I don't think people are attacking you because you have a difference of opinion, regardless if they are NCL Loyalists or not.  I think people are attacking you because of some of the ridiculousness of your complaints.

- The lights...really?  Ok fine, maybe it took 10 mins to learn when you first walked into the room.  And maybe it took another 3-4 times coming into the room to remember what you just learned.  But really, this was that big of an issue to list as a complaint?  You couldn't figure it out after a few tries?  

- You said you have been on multiple other cruises on multiple other lines.  NCL is the only one you have arrived late into ports?  Somehow that is the Epic's fault?  Either you have been incredibly lucky to never be late or skip a port due to weather, sick passenger, or one of 20 other possible reasons, or you're lying to yourself in listing this as a critique when you know it has nothing to do specifically with this ship and/or NCL

- See post above.  Every other cruise line has similar announcements re: tenders.  Every other cruise line has some form of "daily handouts" listing tendering at the port the next day.  Were you oblivious to all that?  

- Shore excursions.  Did you read the instructions on the ticket?  When you walked to the end of the pier, did you not see people holding up signs with the exact name of the shore excursion that was listed on the ticker in your hand?  Or are you again being ridiculous in listing this as a NCL/Epic specific critique?

- Did you read/look up/research ANYTHING prior to your cruise re: food and room service?  How about one of the 800 threads on this site that mentions it?  Or how about on the actual room service menu where it's listed at the top?  And what cruise lines have you been on that they do not charge for room service?  

- The bed, can't help you there.  Subjective.  If you didn't find it comfortable, you didn't find it comfortable.  Can't argue with your personal taste on this.  I would have mentioned it to my room steward and ask for a topper, but that's just me

- The allergy thing.  While it might have been a bit of nuisance and delayed your meals, I believe the old adage "rather be safe than sorry" applies here.  Especially if you took the time to let NCL know about your allergy.  I also believe even though you told them it was non-life threatening, it becomes a legal issue when you notify them about an allergy.  And god forbid, your non-life threatening allergy resulted in shock or worse, they would be 100% liable if they ignored your allergy and didn't do everything they could to ensure you were eating safe foods.  

So while you might feel that NCL Loyalists are unjustly attacking you.  It seems to me (and clearly others), that you are an NCL hater who was just overly picky and regardless if it was the best cruise ever, you got pissed about the lights and from that point on, you were just going to dissect every possible bad thing that occurred, even if it was 100% your fault (i.e. ignoring the many many notices about tendering for example).  

3 minutes ago, brookie848 said:

You might want to go to the Insurance forum and do some searching/ask questions there. We now purchase pre-existing condition insurance (my husband is waiting on a kidney) and the posts there were helpful when we were trying to figure this all out. 

 

Good luck and I hope you get to go on the cruise!

Didn't even know there was a Insurance section on here...thanks 

Thanks for the quick replies @RedRover96 @goldmom @baflagg.  From a logistical business standpoint, it makes sense.  I'm sure with like what, tens of thousands of passengers boarding cruises weekly, situations like mine come up all the time, and they would lose money if they allowed people to buy insurance this late in the game.  But figured I would ask just in case.  

Hopefully he will feel better and we can go.  If he's sick, he's sick, stinks but obviously we cancel.  And now with a child, will definitely go ahead and purchase insurance for future cruises just to be safe.  Kids and germs, can never predict.  

Full disclosure, this might be a little sketchy, so if you feel like I am asking a question about potentially doing something deceitful, please just scroll on to the next thread and don't turn this into an argumentative thread.

We are scheduled to sail on the Escape in 9 days, 5/12/19.  It's me, my wife, and our nearly 2 year old son.  This will be our 17th cruise.  Have never used or needed insurance in the past, so after the first half dozen or so, stopped purchasing it.  So the whole "YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BUT TRAVEL INSURANCE" thing is great in hindsight, but it's just that, hindsight.  

Our son has been sick for about 2 weeks now.  Got an ear infection at daycare, turned into a full blown cold, was on antibiotics, started feeling better.  Took him back to the pediatrician Wednesday for the follow-up, and apparently he got worse somehow and now has a double ear infection and is more sick than he was.  On stronger antibiotics, staying home, all the normal stuff.  Doctor said that he should be ok for the cruise, that these stronger meds should clear everything up...but who knows right?  He was better than got more sick than he previously was, so whose to say that doesn't happen again.  

So here's my questions.  A) is it possible to purchase "cancel for any reason" insurance after the fact, so late to when the cruise is supposed to leave?  B) and if possible, and we then cancel a week after purchasing, will the insurance company deny any claim for being deceitful or whatever when purchasing?  

Did not know that CAS bought the rooms from NCL and then "sold" them to players, recouping the cost via gambling losses.  That is interesting.  

same promo has gone on FOR-EVER! 

31 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

It makes me wonder what the charge might be for someone with an OV requesting an upgrade directly to a B1Aft.  Would that really be $300 plus another $200?  Or would that have been cheaper to make it in step?  And what would it be from an OV directly to a Mini-suite.   Very strange pricing!    As  it's close to sail date I wonder if a different agent might have been able to do something better for you by checking with a supervisor. 

 

I can say for myself that I have been able to get the Large Balconies comped, but it always includes an approval from a supervisor.    Seems like the regular agents can only comp the regular Balconies or Minis.    Lately I have been offered Mini-Suites, but I have requested a B1 or B6 Large Balcony and gotten it with the supervisor approval.  On one interesting future comp they gave me a 9 day Mini with Large Balcony as the B1 Afts were priced higher than the Minis with Large.  Strange, right?

To me, it would seem it should just be straight forward.  From OV to Balcony is X amount of money.  If you want to move from Balcony X to Balcony Y you pay the difference in the 2 if you were booking a normal cruise.  If you want to move from Balcony to Mini-Suite, you pay the difference in the 2 if you were booking a normal room.  

The difference between an OV and Balcony is NOT $300 per person on this cruise.  It's actually only a $50 difference PP.  But I get it, we're comped the OV, so we need to pay something to move up to the balcony.  I'm ok with the over charge there.  

But then to over charge again, a random arbitrary amount, to move from one balcony class to another, nearly double what it would be if I had a normal booked cruise and upgraded, is like double dipping to me.  And to do it to a long time-well established repeat customer is just bad business.  

But it is what it is.  Either you abide by their rules, or look elsewhere.  

14 minutes ago, goldmom said:

I understand completely and agree with you.  Hopefully MSC will be more generous!  Good luck!

Thank...still going on a cruise right...can't complain too much.  Better than work! 

Just now, drvmywifecrzy said:

 

What you need to ask CAS rep is what your comp value is.  Then subtract that from list price of the room you want and that should be the cost of the upgrade.

Not a bad idea.  And we had no problem paying for the upgrade from the OV to the midship Balcony (think it was $300 per person, so $600 total).  But to now have to spend another $400 to move from a one balcony room to another, when the difference on the website is only $240, and if they would let me, I could call regular customer service and do it for that price, seems silly to me.  

Just now, goldmom said:

Sorry it didn't work out for you.  But that's what I was trying to explain in my earlier post.  CAS seems to have their own formula for pricing.  Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't.  But it is frustrating as we have no idea how they calculate things.  I figure that even though they are not as generous as they used to be, they are still offering me a free cabin.

Enjoy your cruise!

Agreed, and yes, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.  But...when we used to get balcony comps, and now only oceanview.  And used to get tons of perks, and now do not.  And we still gamble the same amount, but their formula/comp system has changed, yet the can't (or refuse) to explain those changes...then it's time to look elsewhere.

We're taking our first MSC cruise in October.  And from those boards, it seems like the MSC Casino system is very generous in terms of comps.  We will obviously be newbies, but we usually have at least 1, sometimes 2 future NCL cruises booked.  After the one in a week, we have nothing scheduled, and will wait to see what we get from MSC before deciding (and if we like that product).  

Update - 36 mins of being on hold, someone finally picked up.

$200pp to move from a Mid-Ship balcony to an Aft balcony.  I explained that on the website, there were still 9 aft balconies left, and the difference in cost was only $119 per person, so how could they be charging me more than the website.  The response of "CAS has different rates and ways of calculating upgrades" annoyed me.  When I asked can you please explain, since we paid to be upgraded from an OV to a BA already, so why would we now need to pay more than anyone else to move from a BA to a Aft? The response of "sorry but that is just how it is" annoyed me more and I hung up.  

Sad...this will be our 17th NCL cruise...16 booked thru CAS with comps.  And probably our last.  The comps and customer service is just not what it used to be.  And we gamble just as much as we have in the past.  

15 hours ago, Sand and Seas said:

Is your original Inside comp from a land based casino or directly from CAS?

If it is directly from CAS I think you may have a better chance at those type of upgrades.   

 

A couple of years ago we watched and when the prices of balconies dropped significantly we called to check on upgrading from our CAS comped OceanView as the price was now just $30 more per person.  They put me on hold, checked with a supervisor, and came back with a free upgrade to balcony.   It does pay to watch the prices and call back when closer to the cruise date.

 

On another cruise using a land based comped balcony we were quoted something like $170 per person to go from BA balcony to B1 Aft balcony.    Our booking was 'owned' by Caesars but booked through CAS.  Different story for upgrades!

Directly thru CAS.  I'm on hold again trying to get someone on the phone, since my email went unanswered.  Apparently, according to the message, "this is their biggest sale of the year"...

Was on hold for awhile trying to get someone on the line, waiting for an email back.  But just out of curiosity...

We are in a BA mid-ship balcony room.  Comped inside, upgraded to the BA room, booked thru CAS.  There are a number of Aft facing balconies left on the cruise that leaves in 12 days (5/12).  How much do they charge for an upgrade to a new category room within the same class?  If it's like $200 per person, totally not worth it.  

$5 per day.  Same as I would leave at a hotel.  Rounded up.  So on a 7 day cruise will give them $40