tarheelmjfan

Simple answer, no. We feel the DSC is part of our cruise rate & don't really think it should be adjustable for anyone.

That's because NCL tossed in scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes in the new menu and fee. And well, the mere mention of those food tends to calm people down...:o

Where did you read pancakes will be on the new menu? I must have missed it. From the best I can tell, the menu doesn't mention pancakes. Then again, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be. Adding pancakes to what I can see on the new menu would be great.

Unfortunately, the more recent posts sound more logical & what I was afraid of.

We order breakfast room service daily. FWIW, we don't mind paying a fee for a hot breakfast. On Princess, we ordered the special, balcony breakfast for $35 three mornings. If they would have altered the menu, we would have ordered it more. :o The other mornings we were able to write in an omelet & bacon on the RS tag for DH. OTOH, we don't think NCL's continental breakfast options are worth a fee. Being charged for what was/is(?) currently available is ridiculous. We're now considering forgetting about booking Getaway & looking elsewhere, unless the menu improves substantially. A menu upgrade would be a best case scenario for us. Obviously, RS breakfasts are a major part of our cruise vacations that we're not willing to give up. We never use RS any other time of day though.

That's just way too steep of a surcharge. If they're going to charge that much, they need to redesign the menu. The stuff they have on it now, isn't worth it.

I agree. We order RS breakfast daily & would be happy to pay the surcharge for a hot room breakfast. To us, $7.95 would be more than worth it. That said, a surcharge on top of the lousy breakfast menu they've had is ridiculous.

Thank you airlines for paving the way. Next charge by ncl is bound to be 25$ for each bag brought on board. Oops....better not give management any more swell ideas.

 

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Noooooooooooo..... we're okay with the added 18% gratuity at specialties & would be thrilled to be able to pay $7.95 for an improved breakfast menu. That is, if the menu improves. I realize there's a good chance it won't. Baggage fees would be a different story. The airlines already break us up on baggage. We'd definitely be looking elsewhere, if a cruise line started charging per suitcase. The fare would have to be a really good deal to justify it. Hey, everyone draws the line somewhere. :D

One of the reasons I would like the half price deposit is splitting our group into two rooms...we are booking a 2017 cruise so why would i want to tie up more of our money than we needed?

The better question is, why would anyone care how you spend your money? :confused: For that matter, why would anyone think members here want financial advise from them or that others care how they choose to spend their money? Message boards never cease to amaze me.

I don't think it's irrelevant at all to post comments about one's experiences in Nassau (or any port). Isn't that, after all, the purpose of the Cruise Critic forums? The compilation of various views and experiences can inform others.

 

Prudence and caution are always wise, but why dwell on only the negative? As a single, female traveler I am focused on safety to be sure, but without all the fearful prohibitions. On my last visit (from the Breakaway) March 2015, I had a very pleasant time in Nassau. It's general shabbiness did not negate the charming waitress at the bar near port, or the kind vendor in the straw market who sewed my granddaughter's name on the (of course) Frozen purse I bought for her. Lighten up, be polite and friendly, and use common sense. No dire warnings needed, really.

I agree everyone has a right to post their experiences, but people should know not to take official warnings lightly. Many people post how much more dangerous their city is. First of all, if it was that dangerous few people posting here would live there. ;) I can relate to a dangerous city. We live in a beach town literally next door to Miami. Every morning it seems the news is reporting another murder. Most mornings it's more than one. The thing is they're mostly in the same couple of areas & not somewhere I as a local or any tourist would want to go. It would be disingenuous for me to say any place is safer than my city. :rolleyes: Where I live is perfectly safe & I know where not to go. It would be smart for any tourist to be aware that there are places in Miami you should avoid. The same is true for anywhere. If you live in the area, you know those places. If you're a tourist, it's wise to heed warnings & not take chances. Others experiences will not guarantee your safety.

I seriously doubt that paying $2.50 - 5.00 extra will stop anyone without the UDP from dining in the specialties.

 

People are on vacation.

The added fee wouldn't prevent us from dining in the specialty restaurants either. We always tip extra anyway. Most people are used to paying a tip at restaurants, along with their bill. First time cruisers probably won't give it a second thought & I'm sure we can't be the only veteran cruisers who'll be okay with it.

Good to know. Hopefully, the same is true for Getaway. Thanks for the feedback.

I'm curious about this also. We're considering an NCL cruise, but only if we can dine in specialty restaurants nightly. Now that they've started giving away UDP to the masses, I'm afraid the specialty restaurants will be too crowded or worse decline in quality. This could make a huge difference in whether or not we book Getaway.

No offense, but all you "big tippers" who are upset about this are hilarious.

I've sailed on NCL, PCL, & X. I my experience, the food in the MDR on NCL is comparable to PCL. PCL's service was better. Neither compare to Celebrity. I found NCLs food & service on par with a full service, lower end chain restaurant (i.e. Ruby Tuesday & Applebee's). If you like those, you'll be fine.

Disclaimer, my NCL experience wasn't on Getaway or Breakaway. Those seem to get better reviews.

I agree with the others that I wouldn't surprise him. What I would do is book a ship with a lot of activities & plan active shore excursions. Instead of saying, "we're going on a cruise", I'd tell him I booked our vacation. On the ship he'd be riding water slides, going through a rope course, bungee jumping, playing basketball, seeing a show he would find interesting or whatever your ship of choice may have that interests him. Follow that with, "In the ports, you can go ziplining, ride Segways, going amateur scuba diving, etc. Anything he would enjoy would help to get him excited about the trip as a whole & not concentrate on the fact he'll be on a lot of water. Tell him he'll have to go on a cruise to do all these things, but you feel sure he'll think it's worth it. Tell him all you ask is that he gives it a try. If he doesn't like it, you won't ask him to go again. That may help. Our DS went with us once. We didn't choose the right ship or itinerary & it took us a long time to talk him into going again. Since he had tried it, we didn't think it was right to force him. He's now ready to go with us again & we'll make a much more informed choice this time. Good luck. :)

Well, I for one have my favorites in candy and know that there are some that I wouldn't eat even if I was hungry and craving candy. Just because you like American candy doesn't mean others do. When I go back to Canada (where I was born) one of the things I bring back are candy bars and cookies. I would think a candy from their actual home countries would be more valuable then American candy.

 

That's why I give them cash. So they can send money home and if Stewart wants candy - he can have it shipped to him from home.

 

Oh, and they don't buy their candy from the gift shop. The would buy it from the crew store.

People are different. We would try anything & actually much prefer foods that we can't get often or haven't had. The last thing I would want is US candy, but that's me. As I said, we're not all the same.

My point is none of us really know the answer to this question, because the crew are human beings & not all the same. To affirm you know for certain what they want is disingenous. (not specifically you, but everyone here who says they know the crew wants money, candy, ???) Everyone is guessing, regardless of how many cruises they've been on or how much they want us to believe they are the definitive answer. The crew being human suggests what they prefer would vary. As I noted originally, our RS attendant wouldn't take anymore cash. It wouldn't occur to me to take gifts of any kind. We only take cash, so I don't know if he would have enjoyed candy or not. I just know he didn't want more money.

IMHO those who believe in cash only should give that. Those who want to give a gift should be able to do so without people here giving them a hard time for it. After all, one opinion is as good as another. Everyone here is just guessing, when it comes to individual crew members. No one knows all of them.

I don't know about the gift vs. money debate, but I don't think all the crew just want you throwing money at them either. As a matter of fact, I know that not all of them do.

We order room service daily & on rare occasions order RS lunch. Knowing this, we take along several ones & fives. We tip for each delivery, because we feel room service is going beyond basic service. On our last cruise, the same man delivered RS breakfast to us multiple times. Half through the 10 day cruise he refused our tip & said, "No you've given me enough. I'm happy to do it." I felt horrible thinking we had insulted him or something. In that case, some candy bars in lieu of money may have been more appreciated.

I can't imagine something consumable like candy bars clutters up a cabin for long. ;) As far as them being able to buy them, have you seen the candy prices on the ship? :eek: Plus, anyone who has been on many cruises knows you can't just buy American candy everywhere. In some countries that's a good thing, but some people may prefer to receive American candy they can't get elsewhere.

PS: For what it's worth, I don't see why some people get so upset over old threads being resurrected. As long as the info isn't obsolete, I don't see why it matters. Many of the same people would be complaining because a new thread was started for an often discussed topic.

Does worst day cruising better then work apply here :)

I see this posted all the time on CC & think some people must have reeeaaaalllllyyyyyyy horrible jobs. My job isn't the best ever, but I don't pay to go to work. Amazingly enough, they actually pay me, which many jobs people have on CC don't appear to do. :confused: When any cruise line not only lets me on for free, but pays me at the end of the week, this sentiment will have merit. Until then, this comparison just makes me shake my head. How can anyone equate a paid for vacation to going to work, which pays you?

To nacnac, I'm not picking on your personally. :) Sorry your post was the one I finally replied to, but I've seen this statement many times. For the record, it makes no sense at all, regardless of who posts it. Vacation shouldn't even compare to work. You paid the hard earned money that you suffered daily for in order to be able to vacation.

I have a few dessert favourites:

 

1. warm espresso chocolate brownie at Cagney's

2. chocolate volcano

3. Lemon sorbet (sooooooo good)

4. chocolate croissants on the buffet

5. grilled pineapple at Moderno

 

I do find some of the desserts on the buffet to be bland, however, I am very glad of that. Like someone else said, thank goodness they weren't all wonderful or it wouldn't be a good thing.

I can see why some people would think that, but I disagree vehemently. :p When I vacation, there's no such thing as too many delicious desserts. :D Too few is a problem. When I choose restaurants at home or on vacation, I start with the dessert menu. If it doesn't interest me, I don't even bother looking at the rest of the menu. I'd much rather have a bland/barely edible appetizer or entree than a subpar/boring dessert. Threads like this are particularly interesting to me. It helps me determine where we should dine. I want to go where I can get the most delicious/decadent desserts. If I can get a dessert at our local grocery store that's as good or better, that's not the place for me.

I had a 2-bedroom suite booked for 3 people on this sailing for .... $3,600. No, that is not a typo LOL I cancelled it :eek: because family decided to come, and we moved over to a different sailing date.

 

I doubt I will ever see a price that low again :(

Great price! I just priced it out for our family of 3 & the price wasn't even close to that. :( For that price, I'd book now.

I agree..........we took a cruise in the Haven in January, and there were lots of unruly kids, and uncaring parents. Was impossible to sit in the courtyard and enjoy yourself. Haven again? NEVER.......will go back to aft PH's.

DH & I would never book Haven for this reason. The only way we'd consider it is if we were travelling with extended family that have young kids. I'm surprised NCL ever advertised Haven as serene. Common sense tells you there's a high likelihood of having a lot of kids running around, when you have so many large suites in that area. It appears to me that Haven was built with large families in mind, which sounds like the opposite of serene & relaxing to me. As golfingfool posted, it can be the cheapest way to go for families with several kids.

I'm going to go against many & say I'd go to Disney with your family. Many seem to forget that kids are only young for a short while. DS is now in college, so DH & I have the rest of our lives to do what we want to. However, we can't go on a vacation with DS anytime we feel like it. I never felt the least bit deprived by choosing destinations, attractions or restaurants that he would prefer. As I said, we can now go anywhere we want, but really miss the time spent with DS. All that said, if your family goes to Disney yearly & never takes a cruise, I'd try really hard to talk them into the cruise. OTOH, if you cruise for most of your family vacations, they may just be sick of it. Our DS hated cruising, when he was young. As for WDW, my opinion is the first week in December is the absolute best time to go. The Christmas decorations & festivities are amazing & the weather is usually very nice to all but us wimpy Floridians. ;) This wimp think it's worth bundling up for though.

We have taken our 4 DDs on cruises each of the past 5 years or so on March Break. My DW has wanted to take the DDs (12, 10, 6, 6 this past summer) to Disney for the magic while they were young. We did that this summer in July to Disney World and to Universal Studios. Ever day, all we heard by noon was, I'm tired, can we go back to the hotel yet? NO, not after spending over $700 a day to get in the park! You are staying and are going to enjoy it!

 

The kids are over the moon that we will be on the Allure in a couple of months. As for our next Disney experience...nothing planned in the foreseeable future....maybe with the grandkids in 20 years or so, but for now, cruising it shall be.

 

I know this is not everyone's opinion or experience. We have Disneyaholics in the family who own points there and visit a couple times a year. (That said they had never done a cruise with their kids before til last March with us...now their kids keep asking when they are going on their next cruise....)

Unfortunately, you chose to visit the parks the absolute worst time possible. :( Your kids were probably tired from the heat. hat would have been a good time to hit the pool at your hotel, then return to the parks in the evening rejuvenated. You would have been much better off going during your March vacation time. Time of year can make a huge difference in how much one enjoys the parks. I hope you'll decide to try it one more time with them, but go at a better time & spend some time on DISboards planning the trip.

FWIW, DH & I love cruising, so this isn't coming from a Disney fanatic who thinks you should only vacation there. I just think both types of vacation have merits & can't imagine limiting myself to only one type.

OP, if you're looking for a really sweet, quality wine & don't mind paying more for it, look for Inniskillin Ice Wine. It's a dessert wine that's a true treat.

 

Another trick we learned from a sommelier on a ship is to put a piece of silverware in the open bottle, when you're ready to refrigerate it. (He used a fork.) Obviously, the top of the fork stops it from going swimming. I don't know how it works, but we've had champagne/sparkling wine taste fresh & bubbly a week later. We also have some of the replaceable corks like you mentioned. Most often we just use a fork or spoon now, but the resealable corks do work very well.

 

so, you dont use a cork or stopper or anything with this technique?:confused:

 

quote]

 

Exactly. Just put a silver fork or spoon in it, then refrigerate. When the sommelier delivered our 1/2 full bottle of champagne with a fork in it, we were as puzzled as you are. Somehow, it works. We do it all the time now & don't even bother with the resealable corks.

OP, if you're looking for a really sweet, quality wine & don't mind paying more for it, look for Inniskillin Ice Wine. It's a dessert wine that's a true treat.

We actually bought a "wine/champagne sealer" at Target for about $15. Works great. Made by Houdini.

Another trick we learned from a sommelier on a ship is to put a piece of silverware in the open bottle, when you're ready to refrigerate it. (He used a fork.) Obviously, the top of the fork stops it from going swimming. I don't know how it works, but we've had champagne/sparkling wine taste fresh & bubbly a week later. We also have some of the replaceable corks like you mentioned. Most often we just use a fork or spoon now, but the resealable corks do work very well.

so just to clarify on this...if I only want it for in my room at nights I don't have to pay the corkage fee? Great deal if so....had to pay the corkage fee on one of the other lines no matter what....

Keep in mind that Carnival only allows one bottle per person, unlike the cruise line you're probably referring to. They do charge corkage on all bottles, but you can bring on as many as you want.

It's a good thing we have a long time to plan this trip. Apparently, we're going to need it. :eek: You all have us thinking seriously about doing a land tour in Israel followed by some type of shorter cruise to end our trip relaxing before the long flight home. Now, we just need to find a tour that hits all the spots we want to see & find a short cruise in a region that appears to not have any. No problem at all. :p

I agree with the last statement in the above post. Our Egypt/Israel cruise a few years back was wonderful, but was just "a taste' even though we were 3 days in Israel. Since, we have taken a Egypt/Nile river cruise and a land tour of Israel. Saw and experienced a LOT more.

Thanks for the input. A river cruise combined with a land tour sounds great, if there's a way to safely do the land portion on our own.

I would first start with itinerary as many cruise lines have cut back on where they are sailing in this region.

 

Very few cruise line have issued itineraries for 2017. Once you have them then see who is sailing there and if they are gong to places of interest.

 

Then come back with your list and we can provide input.

 

But remember there is no best that fits all. What I prefer you might not or other issues comes into play.

 

Keith

I'll definitely be checking itineraries. With this post, I was hoping for some suggested cruise lines to give me an idea of which lines I need to monitor for 2017 itinerary releases. The sites that I know of that sell multiple cruise lines don't include all of them.

We have done a number of holy land cruises, mainly because we have family there and it is an easy way for older folks like us to travel there, my DH is 82, I am 67.

 

We just returned from a Celebrity cruise on the Silhouette booked because we had 3 days there, we are elite on Celebrity but also elite on Princess. We have done the holy land on Princess, HAL, Celebrity, Cunard, NCL and Crystal over the years.

 

Even though we are elite on Princess and Celebrity, of all the lines, I enjoyed the Cunard cruise on the Queen Victoria the most... found the cabin, service in the MDR, room service, entertainment the best of all the lines. But, Cunard is more formal... one must dress every night for the MDR and for other activities around the ship after 6 pm. We like that atmosphere, not everyone does. Men must wear a tie and jacket to the MDR every night, except the first and last night of the cruise.

 

Ref what line is best... for you, I would look at what is available and go from there.

 

We were not that impressed with our NCL Jade cruise in the holiday land by comparison to other lines. We don't care for freestyle, did not find the food and service any where near what we are use to but made the best of it, skipped the MDR, did the buffet in the late afternoon, it was fine. We paid about $1000 less per person on NCL, so we figured we got what we paid for, would do NCL again for the right price itinerary... once again they had 3 days in Israel which is not common. The cabin on the Jade, a mini suite was quite nice, comparible to Princess, HAL.

 

We don't do tours over there, since we have family so can't speak to what you can expect from the lines in that way. We have seen the holy sites many years ago, on our own.

 

On our recent cruise, I was disappointed with the guest speaker on the Holy Land that Celebrity had on board to provide information... went to one talk... he rambled... did not make sense to me.. so never when back. Since I knew something about the area, did not think his presentation made sense.

 

By comparison did a cruise to Spain in April on HAL, the Neiuw Amsterdam... the speaker was so good about Spainish history... the cruisades and how ancient history related to what is going on in the world today, I could not wait to go each day to his talk... we had 16 days and many of them seas days. You never know who the speaker will be...

 

Bottom line it really depends on what the cruise lines are offerring... the political climate over there, influences whether cruise lines are offering cruises.. Even if things are not good, hang in there, for the 3 months before our Celebrity cruise in October, Israel and Gaza were at war... many folks booked wanted Celebrity to made a decision on whether the cruise was a go or no go 3 months out. Celebrity did not - and we were glad they did not we made both ports in Israel, Ashdod and Haifa.

 

Hopefully other can offer more info on tours off ships to help you. Israel is an amazing place to visit.

Thanks for the suggestions. This is exactly the type of info I was hoping for. I didn't know I needed to be looking for 3 days there. That helps a lot.

Cunard sounds very appealing. We enjoy dressing up also. I'll check out the options on their site. Of the lines we've sailed, NCL was my least favorite. The only way we'd consider booking with them would be if the itinerary was excellent & the price was a lot cheaper than the others.

If lecturers are important to you, you may have mixed luck on the mass market lines. On the Princess cruise I took in the Med, there was NO lecturer other than the one trying to sell Princess tours. Same with my HAL Med cruise. Apparently HAL does have lecturers, but only on their longer (14+ day) cruises -- and even then, they may not necessarily be lecturing on the area you are visiting.

 

I have found the best lectures that are tied to destinations, are found on small specialty lines such as Voyages to Antiquity and Swan Hellenic. Their ships are small and service is very personal. On the minus side, there are few balcony cabins and not much onboard entertainment other than the lectures and some classical music.

 

If the Holy Land is your main reason for the cruise, be sure to get cruise insurance. Given the situation there, the itinerary may change at any point prior to (or even during) sailing. If the change is prior to sailing, you might want to cancel -- hence, get "cancel for any reason" insurance.

 

As Pris says, you probably should look for itineraries that spend 3 rather than 2 days in Israel. That's about as many days as you are likely to find on any shorter cruise.

 

One other thought -- lines that are not heavily catering to American travelers (e.g., those based in Great Britain or Italy, for example) are less likely to cancel ports of call in Israel based on minor incidents that flare up from time to time. (In cases of major incidents, like the one earlier this year, all bets are off.)

 

Having said all of this, had you perhaps considered a land trip rather than a tour? I've done both, and you see so much more of Israel on the former.

Thanks for the help & the suggestion to look for GB & Italian based cruise lines.

It appears guest speakers are the luck of the draw. The lectures on Celebrity to Alaska were great. The speaker for the Panama Canal on Princess was good, but a bit boring. I don't know about the others. That's the only lectures we were interested in as most of our other cruises have been to the Caribbean & Mexico. Now that I think about it, I don't remember a guest lecturer on our NCL cruise to Alaska.

Buying cancel for any reason insurance is a great idea. I already passed that tidbit of info onto DH. We'll definitely be doing that.

We wouldn't mind to add a land visit to a shorter cruise. We just have a reservations about going on a land only trip. There are days when I don't feel like walking all day. When you're with an organized tour, you have to go at their pace. Going on our own would take a lot of research to assure we did it safely. A cruise gives me rest time. It helps that there's very little walking to meals. The tours are usually different lengths, so we could choose how long we want to be on land each day. Combining a few days on land would be good, if we can stay nearby the attractions we want to see.