tarps14

Dude , Did you really think you could hide something from the MRS ??? They somehow know everything . :confused:

Now THAT was funny (and true, I might add). As a previous poster said, look out for the pre-cruise concierge info. It can come in the form of email or snail mail.

Concerning the pre-cruise concierge, that could be a great resource to still surprise her without her finding out. Set up something really special. A balcony dinner for two is one idea (the butler can help with that), just some sort of surprise gift (flowers already come with a suite so I wouldn't suggest that). There are still a wealth of things that can be done to surprise so don't give up on that. If it can't be arranged pre-cruise, most anything can be done with the help of the onboard concierge team and the butler.

I read your previous thread (and contributed, positively, I promise!) and I, too, am so very glad you were able to turn what could have been a negative experience into a positive one. Please post a review when you get back and let us know what you thought. Just remember.......there is a very serious illness out there. It's called repeat cruising-itis. Once you get infected, it's very difficult to recover from. This coming from someone who has had it for almost 30 (:eek:) years!!!

It's interesting.....we got the thank you card today for our cruise on the Getaway this coming May, however, we were on the Epic in the Haven in January and never got one prior to that cruise.

Anywho, so sorry the surprise was ruined. No worries though. The actual experience is so over the top wonderful, it will still be fantastic!

Schweppes in the can, some fountain mix at the bar and of all things, Shasta in our cabin (we had a Haven deluxe suite). How's that for a variety?

So I'm not at all sure how this happened, but, I saw this evening where our May 10th Getaway cruise had dropped $300 in price. We are within final payment so I figured what the heck, let's see if I can get an onboard credit. Well, we already have an aft-facing Haven suite and that came with $150 credit. Low and behold, they gave us the $300 in additional onboard credit so we have a total now of $450 plus what we got with the TA deal added in brings us to roughly $800 in onboard credit. Not too bad for about 2 hours (ugh) on the phone.

Do you know if they have shellac polish/manicures?

Going on the Feb. 22 cruise.

I can answer that! Yes, they do. And I will follow that up with....it ain't cheap. If you want a full pedicure and the gel/shellac polish it'll run you about $100.:eek: I decided rather quickly ummm, no thank you.

Honestly, I think NCL went over and above what was necessary with the onboard credit. As has been said on these boards a thousand times before, you entered into a contract with NCL at an agreed upon price and now you want to cry foul. This after they have offered you a better cabin choice which you refused because of location. This cruise consultant bent over backwards to make some sort of peace offering and it wasn't good enough for you. If you choose to not cruise with NCL again, that is your choice, however, holding the cruiseline responsible for essentially your bad timing in booking is a tad over the top.

Sorry guys, no VIP security line on the January 11th Epic cruise. We got there about 11:00 and went thru security with everyone else. There were two scanners but neither was designated VIP. Could that have possibly changed as more passengers began to arrive? Maybe. We were on the ship enjoying lunch at the Haven by then. :D The VIP check in was simply a large office off to the side but it was still nice. We were then escorted to an area that was separated from the main waiting area by partitions. It was right next to the huge glass wall and all you see is ship! Quite impressive. They had coffee, juice, danishes, cookies and small tea sandwiches. We were there maybe 15 min before they began the initial boarding and we were the first group on. You are met right off the gangway and escorted directly to the Haven area.

NCL does a fantastic job with the suite experience from the moment you arrive clear through the entire cruise. You are really in for a treat!

UDP includes all menu items.

Ummm, gonna have to disagree with this. We were on the Epic last week and had the UDP as well and I was definitely charged additional for the lobster at Le Bistro.

I do think the UDP was worth the price. Wish I had thought about the eating at two restaurants in one night though. We weren't near hungry enough when we ate at Moderno and I just didn't enjoy it like I might have otherwise. Later in the night we were definitely looking for something else to eat.

hahaha my family and I are laughing at these responses because you are so far off base its funny. First of all, nobody ever said anything close to what u just said. Second, I definitely do not need pointers from you about how to express my own personal opinion and reaction to a service i purchased and was dissatisfied with. Third, I would hope a reasonable person would be looking at all the reviews and not basing their decision on one person's opinion. Fourth, I wish I had thought to read reviews before we made our decision because if i had seen the preponderance of negative reviews we honestly would have made another choice. The bottom line is that the original poster was worried about the recent upswing of negative reviews. I responded with my own personal experience and my own individual (and families) advice. I am one of many but in this case unfortunately for him I am one of a growing majority. The last point is that obviously something is amiss if suddenly there is an upswing of disappointment/dissatisfaction. For most people, this is a noticable amount of money to spend on a vacation and like i said before in close to 30 years have come back feeling so satisfied that I never even thought to look at reviews, assuming all others felt as good. It may be that younger or more inexperienced cruisers do not have the history or knowledge of what can be provided on a cruise in regards to food, entertainment, comfort, etc. I think there are alot of people that just do not know better. All I can say is that I expressed my and my families feelings/ratings/views and I am sorry if it is not what you want to hear or how you want to hear it. Some of it is hard to put into specific words but in general is how I want to say it. It just felt like I was going to Kmart instead of Neiman Marcus. In addition and last, it would take way more time then I have to go into more specific detail. The truth is that there was nothing that exceeded my expectations other than the crew members performance at their talent show (the one spanish opera singer was amazing). everything else and yes i mean everything else was average/adequate to subpar. (my sons would like me to add that even the toilet paper was awful haha)....Just if you are ok with average or mediocre then you will be happy!

And in no way would you call this a bad attitude? Most times when someone feels the need to refer to someone elses post as sarcastically "funny", this says more than words could.

The question I have is you state yourself that you have not felt the need to write a review until this subpar cruise. Do you think maybe there in lies the problem? If you have had 19 positive experiences why not take the time to review those so others can make a truly informed decision? There are some on here that share each and every cruise experience, good or bad. These are the truly helpful ones. Then there are those, such as yourself by your own admission, who only feel it necessary to share the bad. When a poster only takes the time to write about the negative doesn't that then weigh the percentage of reviews to the negative?

Just to be clear, this is MY opinion on the issue. Not right, not wrong. Just little ole me. And in the grand scheme of things, amounts to about a speed bump (not even a hill) of beans.

Thanks for clarifying, Sparkygirl (that little bit of snarkiness from me came to you courtesy of my landing on the wrong side of the bed this morning.....very much need this upcoming vacation!).

The part missing is the pre cruise concierge menu of options. It clearly lists everything that is included in the complimentary alcohol selection. None of your requests were included on that list thus the charges.

 

"Below are some of the complimentary amenities that will be made available to you, our valued suite guest. Please select your preferences from the menu below.

 

Please choose 3 bottles from the list below."

Liquor

Beefeater Gin

Grant's Blended Scotch Whiskey

Smirnoff Vodka

Jim Beam Burboun

Seagram's 7 Crown

Bacardi Superior Run

Sauza Tequila

Dry White Vermouth

Sweet Red Vermouth

Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry

Sandeman Reserve Port

Jameson Irish Whisky

Kahlua

Alice White Chardonnay

Kira Private Reserve Merlot

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for the info Fishbait and Puddles.

Sparkygirl, we have been in suites twice before and never shown a list. Had I known of the existence of it, "clearly" I would have known better and would have known what was "missing from my post" (maybe next time the wording could be a little less "naughty child" and more "in the spirit of helpfulness"?).:o

I sent off our requests to the pre-cruise concierge this morning and received an email reply this afternoon. I included our three bottles of alcohol choices; Disaronno amaretto, Bailey's and Grey Goose L'orange. In the reply it stated that the "liquor upsell charges (which totalled $80!!) would be added to our onboard acct". Since when do they have "upsell" charges for the supposedly complimentary alcohol?!? We ordered the amaretto the last time we had an owner's suite and their was no additional charge. What am I missing here?

For those interested, the charges were $40 for the amaretto, $40 for the Grey Goose and $20 for the Bailey's.

Cash it is. You can pull money off your cruise card, however, you will pay a 3% fee.

Darn it, NLH beat me to it.

We were on Carnival for New Year's two years ago and we all agreed it was the best New Year's ever! So much fun. It was rainy so they did the countdown in the main atrium with dropped balloons and confetti. This happened to be a west coast cruise so when it turned midnight on the east coast (9p on west), where we are from, we were at dinner and started the countdown quite loudly. A table next to us was from New York and they joined in as well. By the end the whole dining room was counting it down. So much fun!

I had put about $ 500.00 in obc myself ahead of time. I found out they charge you 3% to use your own money at the slots.

Just to clarify on this.......if you pull money off your cruise card, they will charge the 3%. If you go in with actual cash and play with that, there is no charge. That's a bummer you didn't know this, however, it is the case on most cruise lines including Carnival and RCCL. Unfortunately the fact that it is an obc is never taken into consideration. It is looked at as a cash advance off of whatever credit card you may have tied to your on board acct (even if you are using a debit card to cover these charges).

Could someone possibly post a link to the list and prices for purchasing alcohol for in-cabin consumption? It would be most appreciated!:D

Here are some pics of 17030

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94634985@N03/

Ditto on your pictures! I love the Flickr layout. Seeing all of the pictures in collage style is really sweet. Thanks guys! I knew I could count on excellent info here. :D

17004 was without a doubt the best cabin ever.

 

You can find pics in my flickr account.

Wow. That's all......just WOW.

*to your pictures, that is*

Dlynn 0366......thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the kind of info I needed. We would rather not be "on display" while out on the balcony. And I like island music , just not each and every day, all day. :rolleyes: I think we will definitely stick with 17004. We have looked at all the pix on another 'cruise deck' website, but, pictures online can be very deceiving and 'objects in mirror are closer than they appear' apparently ;). At times we love to sit on the balcony and just watch the ocean go by and it sounds as if it would be more like watching the people go by instead in 17030. It's only the two of us this trip so no worries there. We've had the two bedroom villa in the past and liked it well enough. The only complaint I had with it is I'm not wild about the bedroom being so tucked back in the alcove where you can't really see out when you first wake up (that, and the fact that we were directly below the free weights in the gym. Learned a very valuable lesson there. Always check what's above and below you when booking!). The view might be the thing I'm looking forward to the most with the Epic DOS. The wrap around windows in front of the bed seem like they will be amazing to wake up to each morning. I'll look for your friend request. We're going in January so maybe I can return the favor and answer any questions you might have after we get back. Thanks again!

We will be cruising in January on the Epic and are having a very difficult time deciding. We are currently booked in 17004, however, 17030 is also available. We are cabin dwellers and like to spend time on our balcony. We have read that privacy can be an issue in 17030 because of the pool deck. However, in pictures it appears that the pool deck is some distance from the cabin balcony. This cabin also looks like it might be a bit larger in square footage and the balcony definitely looks bigger than 17004. Are we correct in these assumptions? Any advice you guys can give us would be greatly appreciated.

My DH sailed on her before we were married. His brother won the cruise but couldn't go so DH and his mother went. In the fall of 1985 (the year we married), he took me on my first cruise on the Norway. What a beautiful ship! We had an inside "cabin" (I put that in quotes because it was by far the tiniest cabin I have ever seen. It was basically wall-to-wall bed). I remember this cruise so well. Absolutely loved the promenade on that ship. We were sitting out there one afternoon playing cards and up walkes James Worthy. He asked if he could join us and down he sat. I was young and easily star-struck then and my DH was (and still is) a sport's nut. It was the absolute ultimate for him.

Funny thing.......just before we left, I got sick and had to be started on antibiotics. I decided to use the ear patch to help with sea sickness. About three days into the cruise I wasn't getting any better. Went to see the ship doctor and the first thing he does is look behind my ear and take the patch off. Amazing, within 24 hours I was so much better. We docked back in Miami and were getting ready to leave our cabin to disembark when I get horribly sick. Who gets seasick AFTER you've docked? About two weeks later, we found out why.....I was pregnant! Needless to say, we have wonderful memories of the Norway!

I do remember having to tender in to St Thomas and also into Nassau. Nassau was expecting a visit from the Queen the week after we were there and was incredibly clean and beautiful (been there many times since and have never again seen it quite like that). What a view that was coming back on the tender and seeing that magnificent ship anchored in the distance. Great memories! Thanks for bringing this thread back!