evitacruiser

No, a balcony and a couple of insides.

I hve just booked a cruise for the end of March next year.

Final payment is 30th Nov, 16 weeks before sailing. This seems a long time to me, is this NCL policy (uk) or is it the TA I have used?

Thank you, we would want six of the seats so I think we would be really lucky if we managed to get it. I will try though. Do you remember what the menu was like?

I have just looked this and it seems it would be great for a special birthday celebration which we have planned our trip around. Has anyone done this and how easy or hard is it to get seats?

Yes, they seem to be in the same position on most cruise ships. They should reduce the casino size and put them indoors!!

Is this like the the Chef's table? I would be interested in hearing about this too, does anyone have any information?

I am an NCL virgin :D and so have some questions that you old hands can help me with.

We have booked the Epic for Easter next year.

Do you just decide each lunchtime/evening which place you are going to eat at and just turn up?

Are there any "formal" evenings?

Do they have sports competitions such as Table tennis, football etc.

On deck 13 how is the bridge viewing section arranged? and who has access?

Are there shuttle buses in ports?

Is there an outside eating venue?

How do you get passes for the Posh beach club?

Do all the cabins have the separated out bathroom components?

What are the charges like for hairdressing?

Thanks to anyone who answers.

Thanks, good to know, all my family play and love to keep up their practice whilst onboard.

Quick question - does the Epic have any table tennis (ping pong) tables?

That's right: The promo in the UK includes the 18% gratuity if you choose the dining package or a beverage package. (See the terms here.)

Great, thanks, we are a family of six, so it would have made a difference!:D

There are six of us travelling on one booking. We want to pay extras for 3 and the other three are indivduals. Can we have four accounts set up?

We booked today and got the free UDP and there was no mention of paying any gratuities on it. This was in the UK, could it be different depending where you book?

Even though I know she will never admit to seeing this reply, I have to say ...inaccurate information AGAIN, cb:roll eyes: Since you will only stay in junior suites (or you won't sail) as you have stated too many times to mention, how would you even know about a mere balcony room? I, personally, have been in cabins like #8088 and the long tunnel-like (cave-like) balcony is darker and tends to make the cabin darker than the norm. The light factor is not the same as on an ordinary rectangular shaped balcony. Cabins like #8088 are not pitch black , obviously, but they are darker than normal. Hope this helps those wanting accurate information.:)

I was in cabin 8088 on Brilliance 3 weeks ago. It is not noticeably darker than any other balcony cabin and that was one of my concerns before sailing. I was perfectly happy with the light, and that was on a Baltic itinerary where the light is not the same as in the Med or the Caribbean.

It is much longer than the norm and has much more space for loungers and table and chairs.

We liked it, but for those who like complete silence when in the cabin it may not be the right choice. There is Centrum noise, music mainly, sometimes up to 11.30pm. It didn't bother us but we are not in bed early and we can sleep through most things anyway.

Personal preference obviously, but it would be Venice all the way for me. We liked Istanbul for the scenery and location but the hassle from shopkeepers etc we could have done without. Venice is my passion though, it is an incredible city imo.

Well said, we have sailed most lines and MSC is on a par with most of them in our experience.

The airport location is fine for an overnight stay if you have an early morning flight, or on arrival the night before a cruise, but not ideal for sightseeing. You waste 30 minutes commuting each way!

I agree, Venice proper is where the magic is, I visit at least once a year but I would always stay in Venice or on the Lido at a push.

That link updates usually every Thursday evening. The C & A preview sale is available from Monday and open to all from Tuesday weekly.

 

While traditionally this weekly 'Tuesday Sale' was always on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with a preview for C & A on Mondays, they have recently been adding full week sales here as well on occasion.

 

When the sale lasts the whole week, that link sometimes does not update until the Sunday, Monday or Tuesday of the week following.

Thank you, it is a useful link to have.

Keep watching the weekly sale:

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/sales/royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

Some good prices there, but where is that link taken from? What do you bookmark to check the sales?

We heard one waiter give his 10 spiel and could clearly see that the diners were uncomfortable, it did feel like begging.

Our waiter simply said that the surveys were important to them and asked us to be sure to complete it. We have never had the WOW envelopes before but we did use them because the service was top notch.

I agree with other posters, Venice is the magic, if you can stay there you won't regret it. If you stay away from the St Marks area there are a lot of nice, but reasonably priced, hotels.

Thank you, I was told that staff onboard do read CC so I thought it would be nice to read a review showing that their hard work was appreciated. We were on MTD so had paid our tips upfront but we felt their service warranted extra so we tipped in cash on the last evening too, using the the WOW envelopes.

Forgot to add we had good weather, which was a real bonus.

We have just returned from the above cruise, and, as I probably won't get around to doing a full review, I thought I would jot down some personal observations, comments, plaudits and criticisms.

In no particular order here they are;

Embarkation and debarkation at Harwich was excellent, smooth, quick and hassle free.

Staff were, almost to a man, fantastic, smiley, helpful, friendly and efficient. The exceptions to this were the blonde woman officer at embarkation who barked orders at everyone as we boarded - not a great first impression, she was plain rude. The chap serving the cooked meat at Windjammer, miserable and sullen, seemed to want to put as little as possible on your plate and scowled if asked for more.

Service in the MDR on MTD was the best we have ever had, the wait staff could not do enough for us. The Maitre D was also very visible and pro active. Thank you Jonathan, Allan, Anthony, and Jose. Seating was a bit hit and miss due to guests not arriving at their booked time causing a knock on effect to those who had booked for later. Guys, if you book, stick to the time or call. Claudia did a great job with the seating, under sometimes very trying conditions.

Some guests clearly hate to wait in line at the MTD desk, and seemed to think those of us who were waiting were just there to be walked by as they leaned across to ask to be seated. Newsflash, that is what we were there for too!! Wait your turn please.

Cabin steward provided great, unobtrusive service and gave us a range of towel animals. Lovely, friendly chap named Asa.

We felt the wait for tables in Windjammer was too long, again, down to guests lingering well after finishing their meals.

Park Cafe, here the the tables need policing so that those who are just reading or dozing do not hog them and prevent others using them to eat at. We never got a table there due to this. Because it was a Baltic cruise and so a little "fresh" outside whole families were camped out at these tables all day.

We had a hump cabin with an over sized balcony. I had been concerned this would make the cabin dark, but this was nt the case. We loved it. However, there was Centrum noise till 11.30pm most nights, it didn't bother us but it may be an issue for some people. There was a door but it was never closed.

Food was ok, not very good, not very bad, just ok. There was variety but still some evenings not much appealed. It lacked "something" which is probably due to the constraints of mass production. My DH ordered a Chops steak one evening and I tasted it and the quality was very noticeably higher than the regular steak. Giving a sauce option with the regular steak would improve matters imo. Soups were good. Desserts were variable.

We did the Indian lunch demo and meal which was held in Chops and we really enjoyed it, but do remember to go hungry, there was so much (too much imo) food. It was a nice experience though and for $15 was well worth it. Skip breakfast would be my tip.

My biggest gripe was the choice of white wine on the $43 package - there wasn't one.

There was only one option available and that was a Chardonnay which I do not drink, had we known upfront I would not have bought the package. There were 4 red wines available, but as I do not normally drink red that was little comfort! I had to resort to red on a couple of occasions. I think they should either equalise the two or at the very least spell it out at point of sale. We felt the sellers of these packages were not well trained as they could not answer any questions about specifics of the wine that was included. In the end we bought it hoping for the best and were disappointed.

Ports of call were excellent and well organised, and guests were well informed about each of them. We missed two ports due to bad weather but the Captain and crew did a great job of sorting out two alternatives (and even possibly better) ports at very short notice. Other ships who were similarly affected apparently just had more sea days tacked on, so clearly our experience was much better.

Entertainment was mixed imo. The solo artists in various venues were great; Manda, Pedro and the Centrum band spring to mind. All very professional, personable, and had a good rapport with the audience. Ditto most of the headline acts. We felt the resident singers and dancers did not fit into that category, they weren't bad singers but they seemed to lack stage presence and the ability to engage the audience. Sad to say, but we did think that at least one of the dancers was a tad old to be doing the Full Monty, hot stuff they were not!!

Dru the Cruise Director was visible, friendly and a good host. The rest of the entertainment team were good too. They threw themselves into all the activities with gusto.

Bar staff were good, with a particular mention to Rochelle on the R bar, what a lovely chap.

All in all we had a great cruise. If anyone has any questions pease ask.:)

They had them on Billiance this week.

Yes, they did have chilled soups, but I only had the hot soups, all of which were very tasty.