nicsmama649

I am leaving on this same cruise next Sat and am interested to read more of your review. Its great so far!

We are leaving in this cruise next Saturday. I'm glad to hear there is not seaweed problem in Costa Maya right now 🙂

On 1/9/2020 at 3:01 PM, mapleleaves said:

People like to complain and even more so if there's an audience !!  

 

How many people would you say cruised with NCL the first week in December?  And if you read 20 complaints, what percentage is that ? Negligible.  Far more people enjoyed their meals, but they didn't feel compelled to post about it like the chronic complainers.

 

To be honest, if I listened to the nonsense on this forum, I would have cancelled my W Med cruise on the Epic last Sept.  Instead, the 4 of us had a fantastic time!  We LOVED everything about the ship;  the food, entertainment, staff, cabin ( even the bathroom layout). 

Our first cruise was on the Epic and everything was great! I even didn't mind the bathroom situation, we have a 10 year old (he was 5 at the time) and EVERYTIME someone would get in the shower he would have to go to the bathroom. Having them separated I didn't have to hear whining about how he has to wait. We didn't love everything we ate, which is just personal preference, but we definitely found lots of things we loved! We have another NCL cruise planned next month and I am already looking forward to the hashbrowns and corned beef hash lol

35 minutes ago, JimnSuzie said:

Hi Kim,

 

I was wondering what your suggestion would be for Costa Maya.  Is it nice just to stay at the cruise port?  You went to the amusement/water park and it looked like fun but we are not big into amusement parks but the water park looked like fun.  We are in our late fifties and wouldn't zipline or any of that.  Have you ever done anything else at this port?  Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions.

 

Sue

I am not Kim but I would highly recommend Maya Chan in Costa Maya. We went on our last cruise and are going back in February because we liked it so much. Super relaxing all inclusive with awesome staff. Food and drinks were super good. I think it's like $65? Per person which includes transportation to and from cruise port. 

Of you want late night food without a charge run down to the sports bar, usually O 'sheehans and and grab something. The fajitas, chicken wings, and spinach artichoke dip are really good. They are open 24/7

Last week my cruise dropped by close to $100 per person so I called and rebooked and saved about $200. Today is my final payment due date and I checked last night and they had raised the price back up by $150 per person. I would imagine they did this to be able to drop the price on black Friday and make it look like a really good deal. 

Also to the OP, you do not need to burn your money. If your trip isn't until Jan 25, 2020 you are still well in your cancellation window. If you decided to cancel right now you are not going to lose money. So there is no need to be that dramatic about it. 

Yes I assumed I would have to book onboard in order to use them. Hopefully the excursion we want isn't sold out before we board. I guess its a risk I will have to take. 

I assume you can but does anyone know if you can combine OBC and the $50 port excursion credit and put both toward an excursion. We will have $100 OBC and usually put this toward booze, but for the first time we will be sailing with SPD and UDP so I was thinking of using this toward an excursion. 

Cool Cruiser Thank you for posting these links. They were informative, I had also seen different things regarding the SDP on the Escape and this helps clear things up directly from NCL vs things I have read on here.

We have cruised twice with NCL and have a third cruise booked for the same sailing of Jan 25 on the Escape. We have loved both of previous cruises and can not think of another way we want to spend our vacations. That being said you must go into it with a good mind set. If you are going into it with a predisposition that you will be unhappy then you will find the faults others point out. If you are going into it with the attitude that I am here to have fun and book some fun excursions, you will have fun and may even get hooked. For every person that comes back complaining about how terrible their cruise was there are 10 people that are on their 10th+ cruise and are already looking to book the next. Get involved with the roll call, meet some people you are cruising with. If there is a meet and greet sign up to go, they are fun. If you are going to be a negative Nancy you should probably just cancel your cruise, but if you want to have a great vacation and get to go to fun places, eat some pretty decent food (and lots of it), and get your drink on for 7 days then stop reading the negative comments and go for it. 

I am in the same situation with my son. If she takes the court paper work with her she can get her children passports. I always carry my son's passport with us and bring my legal court documents and his birth certificate with me with me and lock them in the safe just in case I would need them. So far I have not needed them and no one has asked. As long as you have passports and ship cards for the children I highly doubt anyone will question anything. I have always sailed with NCL tho, Carnival could be different, but I doubt it.

Thanks everyone for the input. I think he will love the show. I just didn't want to take him blind into something and then find out the hard way it was really inappropriate. Like I said we are not prudish in any way but there are somethings I do have to draw the line at lol 

We are sailing on the Escape for our 3rd cruise in January. My 10 yr old son loves to go to "the show" when we are on board. He loves music and was in awe of Million Dollar Quartet on the Getaway. I am not that into Jazz so I don't know that I am too interested in going to After Midnight but I have heard that Choir of Man is really good. I was wondering if this is a show that I can take my son too. I am pretty laid back and don't mind some swearing and drinking, but I don't know much about this show and I don't want to take him to something that is really inappropriate and adult themed.  Also does anyone have any opinions on the Escape the Big Top show? 

We are sailing the Encore next winter (2020). We are super excited and it is fun for my son and I to follow along the thread to watch the ship being built. Just curious, has anyone heard any leaks as far as what is going to be the entertainment on the Encore?

We had a spa balcony on the getaway last year. It was less expensive for my husband and I to upgrade from our regular balcony than pay $400 for spa passes for both of us. We waited until a month or two before sailing and I called to check upgrade price. It was only $300 for the upgrade I believe. Im sure it will depend on how full the ship is, cruise price, ship etc.

We had the thermal suite passes on the getaway last January. To buy the passes on there own I believe they were $229. Im not sure what type of cabin you have but when my husband and I decided we wanted passes I called ncl and it ended up being less expensive for us to upgrade to a spa balcony room which included the passes then to purchase passes separately and we were practically down the hall from the spa so we ended up using our passes quite a lot. We both loved it. The huge hot tub/pool was amazing and I loved the steam room. When we were there the room was never busy and my husband and I both said it felt almost like we had a private pool and hot tub. Occasionally the hot stone lounges would be full but there were tons of lounge chairs for relaxing. The spa is fairly loud so if your looking for super quiet I would bring head phones. We both agreed it was worth the upgrade.

Slightly off topic but I have a question about my cruise certificate. If I book a cruise during the $50 deposit special for my husband, son, and myself. Will the cruise certificate cover my sons deposit since it is $250 or will I still owe the deposit for him since the cruise certificate covers deposits for 2 passengers? Just curious before I book thanks

My husband, son(8), and I have been on 2 NCL cruises and have loved both. We have sailed the Epic and the Getaway. I am currently looking at booking a southern carribean on the dawn in 2019. I really want to do a southern carribean intinerary. My only concern is that we have only sailed the big ships. Without the water slides and extra activities will there be enough to entertain my son without getting bored? He does love the kids club and would have lived there on the getaway. How do the childrens programs compare between the bigger and smaller ships?

What I would do if your torn is book the inside cabin and watch the prices on the balcony. This us what we did and eventually the price on the balcony dropped and we were able to call and upgrade for less than $300 for all three of us and the perks had changed so we were also able to get free gratuities as well. If the price doesnt drop then its not meant to be. You can save your money and have a wonderful vacation in an inside room.

If you are thinking about fetting spa passes you should call and see how much an upgrade to a spa balcony room would cost you. My husband, myself and our son(which we have 3rd sail free perk for him) are going on the same cruise as you only the first week of February. I called to see and it cost $300 to upgrade to a spa balcony from our regular balcony but 2 spa passes would have been around $400. So it was a better deal to upgrade and you may get to choose a perk or 2 and not all the perks cost money. It cant hurt to ask.

We were on the Epic in 2015 and we had to use a card to turn on the lights. We never had an issue with room steward telling us we had to remove our card while we were not in our room.

We had an aft balcony on the epic the year before last. I get very bad motion sickness, I did take bonine the entire cruise for precaution but I never got sick and rarely felt any movement. The room and view was beautiful and being it just being my husband, I and our 5 yr old we didnt have any trouble with the bathroom layout, to be honest it worked well for us not having the shower in the bathroom cuz someone always had to go potty the second you get in the shower lol. The balcony was amazing and big enough for lounge chairs and regular chairs.

If the kids are 8/9ish maybe your friend can use this vacation as an opportunity to let the kids have a little freedom and see how they do. Start with a half hour and go from there. My son is 7 and we went a cruise when he was 5 and we are booked again on Getaway in January. He loved the kids club and is super excited to go back, it is all he talks about. If the kids dont like being separated from mom there are a lot of activities to do as a family. It didnt say if the kids go to public school or are home schooled but if they go to public school they may look forward to some time away from parents and interact with kids their own age. Its good for parents to get some time to themselves too, even if its just dinner.

My #1 gripe would have to be people complaining about not having assigned dinner times like such and such line, not getting to know the waiter like such and such line , people not dressed up enough at dinner, etc.

NCL has been free style for a LONG time now, didnt you do any research before you booked? If your that into formal and like such and such line so much why aren't you sailing with them?