optimusprime82

How far in advance does NCL post their schedule for cruises departing from Boston? I'm an adult learner and it looks like I'll finally be graduating from relatively well know university that's approximately an hour away from Boston in May 2026. My wife and I are planning to take cruise right before or right after the graduation ceremony and I'm anxious to get planning. 

We're planning on inviting family members to cruise/celebrate with us and I'd like to give them lots of time to prepare. My parents are very experienced cruisers having completed more than forty sailings on a multitude of brands, while my in-laws have only sailed once. The rest of the people we'll be inviting will fall somewhere in between. 

Having looked at the 2024 and 2025 schedule, I think NCL will be the only brand sailing from Boston in May. HAL and Celebrity also sail from Boston but not in late April or early May. I think most of my family would prefer sailing to Canada but I think Bermuda will be more likely based on past/current schedules. I'm hoping NCL, and any other brands, will post more of their 2026 schedule soon.

And for some visual flare, here's a couple shots from our stop in Boston last fall while sailing on the MSC Meraviglia.

1 hour ago, Let Me Travel! said:

WOW! What a wonderful photographer! The bottle caps! The donkeys! The dolphins! The buildings and the homeless man sleeping in front of the building! Your photos moved me!

Thank you. I try to remain respectful when photographing anyone that appears housing challenged. With that said, it’s also a part of life that I don’t think we should pretend isn’t happening around us, especially when we’re visiting places that are often beautiful on the surface near the tourist hotspots. Over the years I’ve taken a few other similar shots that I’ve tried to frame in a similar way. Below are examples from Martinique and Chicago.

19 hours ago, ArizonaStorm said:

Sometimes I think I'm a fairly good photographer -- until I see photos like these.  It takes a keen eye to really see the photo-worthiness of random objects.  Professional equipment is helpful, but such tools are wasted in the hands of someone with limited imagination.  If I had a hat I would tip it in your general direction.

Thank you. Good hear certainly helps but a lot of what I showed here was shot with a very good, fixed focal length (28mm) point and shoot camera (Ricoh GRIII). I've only been "seriously" shooting since 2016. You can learn a lot on YouTube. My best advice, learn some of the basic rules of photography so you can break them and find things to photograph that interest you, not where all the tourists go. With that said, there's nothing wrong with touristy photo spots but it's hard to make something standout when you're fighting for time and positioning. 

Good luck in the future don't be afraid to experiment. 

1 hour ago, lgonquin said:

Beautiful pics.  You have a keen eye!!!  Well done.

Were the donkeys/mules from Aruba?  Near Baby Beach?  They love apples 🙂

It was at the donkey sanctuary in Aruba, I don't recall if it was near a beach. We usually have our cab stop at a grocery so we can cut carrots, they love those too.

Photos from our sailing onboard the Emerald Princess from 02/23/24 through 03/06/24 leaving from Fort Lauderdale with stops in Basseterre, St. Kitts, Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe, Castries, St. Lucia, Kingstown, St. Vincent, Scarborough, Tobago, St. George's, Grenada, Willemstad, Curacao, and Oranjestad, Aruba.

Night two dinner photos. 
 

Not that there’s too much interest but I’ll keep posting for the few that are interesting.

Below are a few of dinner menus and photos of what we had. I think the MSC food is a lot better than many people’s photos make it out to be.

I think we forgot to take photos of dessert on night one. 

Photos from exploring Newport, ME. We walked around, had lunch with my parents who were also visiting Newport when we docked, and then took a lobster boat tour. 
 

13 hours ago, New2Cruise76 said:

Great pictures! Please tell me you "took care" of the Spotted Laternfly in the 13th image, very destructive and invasive species.

I didn't actually. At the time I didn't know what kind of bug it was. Then, throughout the trip, we saw people stomping bugs constantly. I don't think during our last trip to NYC in 2019, they city was grappling with them. We just assumed the bug stomping was par for the course, sort of like seeing someone using the street as their bathroom - just something we see at least once every trip to New York lol.

34 minutes ago, wikoffclan said:

LOVE your eye for composition... and timing! Truly fascinating to see

Thank you!

4 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Having been on the other side of this sort of issue (not in the cruise world), once the vendor gets a dispute, they are not going to process a refund until the dispute is resolved one way or another.

 

The risk is that they process a refund and then the dispute completes and the same amount is removed from their account even if it has already been refunded.

 

The correct procedure should be for the card holder to cancel the incorrect dispute first, so if that has not already happened that would be my first move.

 

There will be delays even then as the communication to the vendor of the cancelled dispute will not necessarily be immediate....

The dispute was cancelled in August, the same day we became aware of it. MSC has acknowledged that the dispute has been cancelled, they keep saying they’ll refund the money, they just haven’t done it. I appreciate the perspective, I don’t have any other experience quite like this. 

The clock just struck midnight, it’s been three months since my last post about this topic. This may come as a shock but we’re still waiting for the $500 to be returned/refunded. Two “billing cycles” was in early October and we’ve now doubled that time frame. It’s really frustrating and is one of the reasons we didn’t book with MSC while on board. We love the onboard experience but the customer service from shore has been less than helpful. 
 

Any suggestions? Would contacting the Better Business Bureau grease the gears a bit?

Some pre-cruise photos and one post-cruise photo from New York City. Some assorted subway shots, exploring the flower district near our hotel, graffiti in Soho, and the Statue of Liberty when we returned to Brooklyn.  

On 12/8/2023 at 5:44 PM, Fissues said:

Great pics! Like the tunas eye. 

Thanks!

On 12/8/2023 at 11:21 PM, buffet24 said:

HAHA!!  😄  I live right down the street from that bookstore (Brattle Book Shop) in downtown Boston.  Matter of fact, we just walked past there this evening after our dinner... 😉

Interesting fact... the new movie that is out now "Holdovers" starring Paul Giamatti was filmed there last year...  😉

That’s very cool. We just stumbled across it, possibly on our way to Cheers lol. 
 

On 12/9/2023 at 2:43 AM, sverigecruiser said:

 

I wonder why, I have never eaten a fruit on a cruise!

I’ll  partake in some fruit, but nothing like what I saw on this cruise. 

I meant to provide a lot more photos from the voyage. Between coming home sick, and having to immediately jump back into work and school, I haven’t been able to share much more about what we saw off the ship.

Hopefully this display in the right orientation. 
 

From Boston.

Well, we’re finally on the road to recovery. Both my wife and I have been fighting the flu (tested negative for Covid) since we returned home and have been pretty sedentary aside from working (we both work from home).

Overall, we had a very good time but we did not book another cruise with MSC while onboard like we had originally planned. Some of the service was exemplary, some was just okay. We never met our original cabin steward, on the fifth day a new steward stopped by with our Aurea room diffuser, some slippers, a box of tissues and said that some robes would arrive later. The robes never arrived and that was the second to last time we saw him for the rest of the cruise aside from when our laundry was delivered.

Our head waiter was friendly but quiet and never outgoing. The assist waiter was wonderful, as was the hostess, they were the dining room highlights as far as the staff goes. We were always happy with the food aside from one Caprese salad that had a half inch of water in the bottom - otherwise we were very happy at dinner in the MDR. 

Breakfast and lunch in the MDR was a lot more hit or miss. Rarely could we get a table by ourselves, which was never an issue at dinner, and the service was chaotic at best. One day at lunch it took seventy minutes for us to get a lunch that consisted of nothing but two Caesar salads and one bowl of ice cream. At another lunch during the last sea day we had to leave prior to our dessert being served because of our wine tasting was starting soon in an adjacent dining room.

The buffet was like the Wild West without gunfights. I don’t know if it’s a change with me or a change with cruisers but it’s gotten pretty cutthroat. We went up to the buffet for lunch on prior to sailing away in NYC and an older lady was already giving one of the dining room managers an earful about the staffing. That set the tone for the buffet for the rest of the cruise. In terms of food, we always thought the buffet food was decent. It wasn’t terribly noteworthy, buffets typically aren’t, but it was perfectly fine if you could tolerate the behavior of the other guests around you and find a table.

We managed to see all the stage shows, including both shows of the The Conjurers (who sat next to us at dinner twice). The Conjurers were lovely and put on an entertaining show. The rest of the stage shows were a bit of a disappointment mostly because the music was geared towards such an older crowd. Two nights in a row we heard the same song, “The Lady is a Tramp” from two different performers. Then a few nights later we heard “September” from Earth, Wind, and Fire in two different shows. I counted eight total songs that were sung in the theater during the entire cruise that were released since my birth in 1982. The entertainment felt like it was almost exclusively geared towards retirees, more so than we were expecting versus our previous MSC cruises.

The only major issue we had, which is a design flaw of the Meraviglia that we knew about from our last sailing, is the location of the Guest Services and its proximity to live music. I don’t understand how MSC reps, many of which are bilingual, are meant to effectively communicate with so many international guests who can barely hear them and vice versa. If the music played there was more background piano music it would probably be okay, but it’s not, for much of the cruise it was reggae. It’s frustrating trying to communicate a billing issue with someone when reggae music loudly plays from behind you.

Like I said in the beginning, we had a good time but we feel that the MSC experience has changed. They don’t feel like the same company we fell in love with in 2017. If we sail with MSC again it will likely be from Europe so the US influence is less pronounced.

Departure dinner menu with a few photos. 

I can't seem to get the photos to rotate the right direction and we forgot to take photos of the desserts. 

12 hours ago, gizfish said:

I am enjoying your review.  But, please edit out the reference to a person's nationality as that is not at all important to note.

Can't edit the post but it was an oversight on my part not not mention that the confusion/agitation seemed to stem from a language barrier issue. MSC seems to have plenty of staff that can handle most European languages near the Broadway Theater, that doesn't appear to be the case for the Asian cruisers. That has led to some frustration at different venues. No offense was intended. 

The ups and downs of the cruise continue. 

The good... dinner in MDR has been continuously good, the evening shows have been entertaining, getting on/off the ship has been a lot easier since Newport. 

The "bad..." we were double charged for our "Anne of Green Gables" shore excursion, photo package, and laundry package. We went to the excursion desk before leaving NYC and talked with someone who said it would be taken care of, went to the main reception desk the next night to get the laundry and photo package dealt with. This visit also included a question about why the laundry package, which was advertised as being cheaper pre-cruise was $12 cheaper on board. The rep said they'd cancel both laundry packages and one of the photo packages. 

Fast forward to Monday night, we received two shore excursion envelopes (one for the morning, one in the afternoon excursion of the same excursion). Went back to reception, because the excursion desk was already closed, and the rep said there were no notes in our account about any of the issues we reported so I had to go over everything again. This is just under $500 of charges that I'd like to get back for we disembark since I doubt MSC will be easy to work with post-cruise. 

Breakfast and lunch service in MDR hasn't been great, honestly it's been pretty miserable. Not sure why, we see a lot of the same staff at both but it's just a slow and disorganized mess. 

Guest behavior has been been appalling. An elderly Asian gentleman became outraged outside the theater because he didn't have a ticket and tried to run pass the staff and they had to restrain him as we walked in. Lots of cell phone use in during the shows and people will constantly show up late and/or leave after 5-10 minutes. The buffet is even more chaotic than usual for a cruise ship. An entire bowl of oranges will be set out and within a few minutes 30+ will be taken, with people walking off with two or three in each hand. 

Overall, we're having a good time but the repeated negative customer service experiences are beginning to take their toll.

On 10/8/2023 at 11:53 AM, dexddd said:

Does Newport have YC line to tender back in Newport?  How long did it take to get back? 

On 10/8/2023 at 3:54 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

On my sailing, there wasn't a separate line for YC, they were just allowed to cut it into the main line from the side at the very front of the line.

JamieLogical nailed it. There's not a specific YC line but a YC rep will walk up and down the line trying to find YC passengers to move them to the front. 

Time lapses of the morning in Newport and leaving Newport after a decent delay on 10/05/23.

7 minutes ago, Fissues said:

10’ seas expected tomorrow here in Boston. Safe travels. 

Fingers crossed. We have two days at sea and then we’re docking in Corner Brook on Monday (Canadian Thanksgiving).

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Sorry to hear they haven't improved the tendering process from the last sailing! I know some of it isn't their fault, but there was definitely room for improvement on MSC's part that we observed.

Agreed, some it it isn’t there fault but having a thousand plus people, many of which are elderly, just standing along a busy road for hours is a recipe for disaster. They also need to have staff organizing and directing the line instead of just letting the crowd police themselves.

Time lapse of the Meraviglia leaving New York on 10/04/23.

13 minutes ago, dexddd said:

How was embarkation?

Relatively easy. First time using the Brooklyn cruise terminal. From dropping our bags off curbside to signing in our credit card at the terminal station on the ship took about thirty minutes total. 

This will be a work in progress. I prefer working from my Ipad but I’ll only have internet on that device when in port. Lots of photos from our three days in NYC before the cruise, we’ve been trying to remember to take photos of food (sometimes we forget), some arrival and sail away timelapse videos, etc. Getting ready to leave the ship for explore Boston. Arrived a few hours late due to fog this morning. Tendering in Newport, RI was a disaster yesterday, lots of frayed nerves and some tempers flaired.

The dissipating fog in Newport, RI.

The evening sunset approaches in Newport, RI.

More to come, I’ll try to answer any questions the best I can.

MSC hasn't mastered verbal communication yet. They need to learn how to walk before they start running with an online chat option.