BirdTravels

- Free at Sea+: With my booking I received regular Free at Sea, but have been offered Free at Sea+ for an additional $350. Between the full internet package (to check in with family), premium drinks (not a huge drinker but love a fancy glass of wine at dinner or a cappuccino in the morning), and two additional specialty dining meals, it sounds worth it. Question - Is the upgrade worth it? I would say no. I would not make good use of the + features except the dining. What can’t you live without and price that separately. - Breakfast Dining: Straight to the point, not a breakfast buffet fan. For Carnival cruisers, I'm a regular at the MDR for the yogurt parfait and fresh pressed juices 😁 Question - What are the breakfast options on the Norwegian Escape/what is your favorite place to eat breakfast? The Taste and Savor MDRs are open. O’Shehan’s 24/7 restaurant is open. The buffet (which is good) is open. And the American diner may be open. All complimentary. - Coffee Shop on Escape: I've read some ships have a full Starbucks, but this one does not. Question - Does this coffee shop also offer pastries, hot teas, etc? The Escape does not have a Starbucks. The atrium coffee shop will sell specialty coffee. There are no pastries. (On ships with a Starbucks,’the pastries are for sale). The escape will have candies and macarons for sale. - Evening Dining: I've booked Teppanyaki one night, but wondered what other specialty restaurants are a can't miss. Also wondering about the complimentary/main dining room dinners. Question - What is your favorite specialty dining venue/what is your favorite meal in the complimentary venues/main dining room? Our favorite specialty restaurant is Le Bistro (French). And the lobster Thermidor (it has an upcharge from the standard dining package). - Evening Activities/Entertainment: Some folks have shared to not miss The Newlyweds Game and other theatre productions. Question - What's there to do after dinner for activities or entertainment? There will be shows in the Theater every night. They often repeat the shows in the smaller venues like the Comedy Club and Syd Norman’s. There will be a dance party by the pool most nights. - Port to Airport Transfer: Straight to the point, never used this with Carnival either. Question - Is this a good/viable option to get back to the airport after debarkation? It's currently $37 from NCL. I assume that you are disembarking in Europe somewhere. It is easier (for us) than worrying about drips for a taxi. We would do it. - What Else?: Any other tips, tricks, secrets, or comments to share for my first time on NCL? Thank you!! The following link is to one of my Live posts from the Escape. it’s a couple of years old, so the information is dated and it was a 7 night Caribbean cruise. But, it will give you a peek at the ship and its venues.

The concierge can help you with dinners. Or, you can do it yourself online 130 days prior to departure (that’s 10 days before steerage can make reservations). There are no reservable shows on the Jewel.

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. mostly Fake News. We’ve been on the breakaway about 6 times and she’s a good ship. You pull a tender ticket/boarding group number once you are onboard. They board by group number. They eventually will call open tendering around lunch time where no reservation is required. Without a reservation, you may have to wait until 10 min before show time and take whatever seats the people with tickets didn’t want. Ocean Blue has fallen down our list after numerous issues every time we ate there last year. Le Bistro would be our choice. wrt lines at bars, people just like to complain. If there is a line at a bar, there is another bar within 1 min walk with no line.

They are available once you get onboard. If you are on a NCL shore excursion, your shore ex ticket serves as your tender ticket. We have used the touch screen kiosks near public elevator lobbies in the past.

A very very very small number of people on the ship spend/wastes money at Starbucks. A ship like the Joy, over 15,000 cups of regular coffee is served every morning.

I do t recall any rules changing with FDR. Most of the current belt tightening came with Harry in charge of NCLH. NCLH missed projections last quarter, so expect more belt tightening and cost increases.

My memory must be failing me too. I thought everyone would get an individual package with two vouchers. One for Cagney/Bistro with wine and one for Monderno/Cucina. . I thought the “problem”’they were trying to solve was when you had mismatched status levels in a cabin. One person that was platinum and one gold where the gold would have to pay the cover charge (back before a la carte dining). Now, as long as one person is a platinum, two people in the cabin can eat a free dinner, a net plus. For two cabinmates that were both platinum, the change was a net zero. A net improvement to the benefit. The only downside was if two platinum people in a cabin don’t want to eat together, now they have to. The most recent change now allows you to eat anywhere. A net improvement to the benefit. It also helps overcrowding in the premiere restaurants Cagney’s and Le Bistro. The new benefit limits you to 1-1-1 (per T&C), but I have never had a waiter try to charge me for the second soup/salad/app on our multiple cruises a year.

Kinda depends. The timing on the last couple to be left behind looks like they would arrive back from their independent tour just before all aboard. They showed up “a few minutes late” and waved at the ship as it left dock. They blamed traffic in the rain.

The Thermal suite opens at sailaway. Prior to that, the spa personnel are busy selling Thermal Suite passes and constantly opening the sauna doors to show people around.

I totally agree. It used to add another suitcase for evening dresses, shoes, and a tux. All of that stays in storage now.

The CAS member has to travel. If not, you will be charged full retail price for the cruise. If the CAS member is not traveling, you should either switch the reservation to a regular booking or cancel and rebook.

For glacier day, we would spend most of it up on the sundeck. The Haven Sundeck has beautiful forward facing views. For that, we have a winter coat, hat and gloves. That, and a hot adult drink from the sundeck drink station 🙂 Haven embarkation starts around 11:00 am. We get to the port between 10:15 and 10:30 to get through security and check in. Then there is time for a cup of coffee before getting the party started.

Have you considered that these film crews are guests of the cruise line and would not put them in a negative light???? Maybe go to YouTube and watch pier runners get left behind or read the news.

There is very very little business casual and nearly no dressed up now days.

You can bring it onboard with you. But you'll be hauling it around through very crowded halls and elevators until your room is ready around 2-2:30 pm. Personally, we just drop our bags with the porters regardless of size. We don't want to be fighting to squeeze into elevators and trying to figure out how not to block the aisles in restaurants. Anything of importance is in our backpack which is easy to carry around.

If you are really tired, why post them? Sucks to be them, but they were late and got left behind. Good on the ship and captain for not screwing up 3000 other people’s vacations for people who can’t be on time. From the story, they would have barely made all aboard time if they were not delayed. Pretty poor planning on their part. An “ experienced traveler would not have made that stupid mistake. I suspect that this is a lot of CNN fake news Sensationalization and click bait.

The MDR and 24/7 dining rooms will have sit down meals in addition to the buffet.

Shorts are allowed in all Fiji g rooms for all meals except Le Bistro and Ocean Pacific MDR for dinner.

Likely for those who paid the Perspective Studio for a glacier portrait. Last year on the Encore, the random ship's photographers had a patch in the middle of the medivac dot to take photos with you and the ship in the background. They were very protective of their "turf" which we kinda ignored while taking pictures. On this cruise, our stateroom, was a forward facing Haven suite (one of the windows along the starboard side).

On embarkation day, go to Teppanyaki (Deck 6 midship) to make reservations. You can also try your app or touch screen kiosk near public elevators. If you need to change a reservation, you need to go to Teppanyaki.

Incorrect. Please review the 2024 program. Ruby (second from right column) get unlimited open bar which is the Premium package. Elite (right column) gets Premium PLUS package. No one gets FAS+. https://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/casino-cruise/players-club

While your cruise still has a few rooms, the cruise before you and after you are sold out. So 4600 pax seems very reasonable.

Earlier this month, we were on the Encore's last Caribbean cruise with 4900 (1400 of which were young cruisers).

We used to always book the Spa Haven because of the price point (considering the cost of the Thermal Suite pass). We love the tub!!! Now, we're booking the forward facing Haven rooms for the extra space and price point.

Now we go to Cagney's for lamb chops too.