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This is a sensitive topic that I'll try to handle respectfully.

I am sure that budget and savings is always a compelling reason for a company to cut a show. However, I wonder how much Kinky Boots being a show centered on a drag queen is perceived as more controversial for NCL's customers in 2023 than in the past, now that it's become a political topic, especially in Florida. I don't think that drove the decision, but it may have made it easier to axe.

I ate there with friends in fall 2017. The building is interesting and the service was good. As everywhere in Bermuda, prices are high. The menu advertised steaks from Nebraska which were fine. If you have options for fine dining at home, I wouldn't call this a "do not miss" experience.

Looking through my past emails, the 2017 cruise was announced on June 29, 2016 and the 2016 cruise was announced on May 6, 2015. Past performance yadda yadda.

OP mentioned a March cruise out of San Juan. Any idea which ship it will be on, and what the date will be?

 

 

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Doing some Google searching, some sites have a "preliminary" listing for Jewel of the Seas for March 18-25, but I don't know if that's confirmed or bookable.

7. Why you can't tab the 'back' arrow and get back to the page you were previously on. Instead it takes you back to some random starting point.

Ha, this is a common problem with web sites and actually hard to do well. Back navigation within a web site and back navigation at the level of the browser often don't match up and trying to "fix" this can break many other things on the site we count on to work. The back button works much better at taking you from one web site to another than taking you to different pages within a website. I don't blame Celebrity!

Cuba is "open to tourism" for Canadians, Brits, Spaniards, certainly. But surely people recognize that Cuba opening to American tourism would increase the number of potential visitors by a factor of 10, which would require massive changes and expansion in infrastructure.

Im coming from Australia to do a US holiday from mid August to mid September and was thinking of going solo on Oasis or Allure. Wondering if many gay guys go on these ships or is it purely families?

 

If anyones going let me know:)

We did Oasis in February 2013 and found there were very few gay men or lesbians, especially considering the size of the ship. Only one other couple showed up to the gathering. If you see people you think might be family, you'd better say something then because you may never see them again that week! :)

The one thing they really lack is communication. Its in your best interest to keep an eye on rates, because if they go down, odds are they will not inform you. If you have questions they are super slow to get back to you and most time better off finding the answer on your own. For example when we did the Pied Piper Australia rep in January 2012, two of my friends were have problems getting their Australian VISA's and Pied Piper offered no help or suggestions. This will give you an idea on communication, we traveled to Australia/New Zealand in January, finally received the group picture sometime during the summer

That's interesting. It's been a while since I've sailed with them, but in my experience with several of the post-Thanksgiving cruises, the owner (Derek) was always very quick to respond to emails and questions. I'm sorry that wasn't your experience with the visa issue.

That post is now gone.

 

Question for you : why did you post a link to it and repeat what it said? :confused:

Because I was appalled when I came across it there and that it had drawn no response. And in the past, I've seen people link out to homophobic posts on other boards from this forum to draw attention to stuff that otherwise might fly under the radar. I am glad it was cleaned up and my original post may as well be deleted.

The poster has probably never been on a gay charter.

He was almost certainly not gay and was trying to insult the group. The mods have edited his post, thanks mods.

A poster on the Celebrity board describes an Atlantis charter as a "private gay sex cruise."

Also...anyone know if they have Splenda in the coffee bar/on the table in any of the dining areas/cafes/restaurants? Or should I just bring my own? I realize I'm pretty picky when it comes to my coffee...but I just want to make sure I'm fully awake and alert so I can enjoy my cruise as much as possible!

We saw Splenda all over the ship, but it's possible they could run out in some venues by the end of the week and only have the pink and blue stuff, so it couldn't hurt to pack some of your own.

NCL's policy for their villas is not quite as pervasive as Cunard's three classes, with their own bars, dining rooms and deck space.

NCL has been moving more in that direction with each new generation of ships... first with the Courtyard Villas with a private pool, and then with NCL Epic which has its suite-level "box" at the front of the ship with a private night club and restaurant. However since Epic seems to be a one-off it remains to be seen how far they take this in the future.

To the contrary... NCL doesn't have a class system. You pay for the access to that part of the ship because it comes with your stateroom accomodation (eg Courtyard Villa). If everyone was allowed to go up there then it would be over crowded and the accomodations would lose their attraction to those cruise guests. It's not a class system at all.

In what way is that not a "class" system, though? I don't think it's a bad thing, NCL has every right to do it and it's surely good business practice... but it seems to be essentially the same thing Cunard is doing, and to a lesser extent, what Celebrity does with Blu. I think maybe there's confusion between "class" as a neutral term used by ships to denote different levels of service, some exclusive, vs. "class" as a term which has a certain meaning in Britain and a different one in the U.S. where almost everyone, no matter how much money they make and how much exclusivity they can buy, thinks of themselves as "middle class" because they don't have aristocratic heritage or habits.

Well, David, you've convinced me that we need to give Pied Piper a try at some point. All your voyages and experiences with them sound nothing short of stellar. Is there a particular reason the post-Thanksgiving cruise is so popular? Just the time of year maybe? I wonder if they always do the Caribbean for that one.

Low price, right duration for working people (7 days), south Florida departure ports, basic Caribbean itinerary means it suits the largest number of people. I think only Alaska 7-day cruises are as inexpensive, and not everyone wants to go on a cool-weather cruise or fly to the west coast. We found Pied Piper because we were looking for a basic 7-day Caribbean like this, and then kept coming back because it's a good repeat experience. It is always in the Caribbean but they've varied the ship, line (RCCL vs. Celebrity), and itinerary (western vs. eastern) over the years.

Since we are not party people it makes the trip wonderful since we can relax under the canopy.

It's funny you should say that... the only advantage we saw on the aft balcony was that we could have many people over. For our own use, particularly in the Caribbean heat, we didn't need the extra space.

One thing to be aware of: the door can lock behind you when you're out on your balcony if you don't pull some curtains through the gap between the door and the frame.

Fortunately the one time it happened to us, tprime76 and his wife were outside and next door!

I was in this cabin two weeks ago.

Yes, sometimes you hear furniture moving upstairs in the evening. It's a little weird, but if you've lived in an apartment building, it's pretty mild.

I am a light sleeper on cruise ships--often waking up at 5:30 in spite of myself--and I never heard any furniture move at night or in the early morning. It did not affect my sleep.

You should not give up this room. Celebrity is not in the business of making certain cabins unliveable, and we found the balcony was great for having people over for sailaways and such. It was too hot to sit out there during the day, whether we were at sea or in port, but that won't be a problem in Alaska. Enjoy, you haven't made a mistake.

I have this exact cabin on Constellation, departing on 11/26. I'll try to check in after that, but I'm sure it will be wonderful!