trivimp

I was in a mini-suite on the Pearl earlier this year -- the closet doors are sliders, but my over-door organizer worked fine with the bathroom door, no problem. We put it on the outside of the door so we wouldn't cover the towel bar.

You literally walk off the ship onto their island.

Please read this with zero snarkiness: Isn't that the way all of the private cayes/islands work? Not just NCL, but all of the cruise lines who have developed a private caye. I thought they were sold as some exclusive thing for the use of the guests of the cruise line, but if there was a lot of traffic to/from the mainland, it would kind of defeat the purpose. I haven't done a Caribbean cruise yet, though, so I might not understand it correctly.

I, too, find the whole "nickel & dime" argument to be pretty specious.

Bringing drinking water or soda aboard is way more trouble than it's worth to me. But it seems logical to me that NCL would like to eliminate or at least discourage it, because it's more work for the porters & stewards, as well as being something of a safety concern.

I was more than happy to pay the 18% gratuity on my UBP for my last cruise -- in my mind, it was analogous to the as-seen-on-teevee sales pitches that offer you something "FREE (just pay shipping & handling!)" I knew what the actual cost was going to be, and if it didn't seem worth it, I would have passed. For that matter, I gladly tipped my favorite bartender an extra buck per drink for learning what we liked & giving us great service the whole time. (We nicknamed him Salvy, because he resembled the catcher for the Kansas City Royals. Salvy makes a great dirty martini.)

Room service seemed silly to me -- why eat in your not-terribly-roomy cabin when there's much nicer spaces to enjoy your meal? However, if that's your thing, a small fee is reasonable to offset the time & trouble of someone prepping & delivering your food order. I pay a convenience fee when I order from GrubHub, same idea.

I know some people think these things are dealbreakers & will disagree with me. Doesn't bother me in the slightest... it's all just opinions. (I do think the medical waiver thingy should be granted, though.)

I may as well jump in with a naïve general NCL question: rather than having to keep track of our own expenditure aboard, does NCL offer any form of daily account tracker? Yes, I know it's laziness but we are on vacation! :p

If you download the iConcierge app, it's got a tab that lets you track your spending. Some folks have reported trouble/bugs with the app... it took a little fiddling to get it working, but then ran perfectly for the rest of the week for us. Purchases showed up pretty quickly (within minutes in most cases.)

I'm sure it's a personal decision, but I did a mock booking for the same cruise on the cruise line's website & compared the costs. I assumed the lowest level stateroom in my chosen category (balcony -- I assumed I'd get an undesirable obstructed.) The hosting company that I was shopping pays all the port fees & taxes, so that all got factored in.

In the end, I found out that I would be paying a premium of less than $8/day in order to have access to the various hosted events -- dining with the group, singles mixers/cocktail parties, speed meeting, booking shorex with the group, and so forth.

Is it worth $8/day? For me, yes.

Do they all come out to be about $8/day? I don't know, but I suspect not. You might need to shop around & see who's offering the best rates.

Now, if I end up in an unobstructed balcony or better, I'll be happy... it's all gravy!

Ditto all of the above. We had three adults in a mini & it was borderline claustrophobic. It only worked because two of us were fairly compulsive about keeping things tidy, and leaned on the third one moderately hard. If your boys have any degree of sprawl (heh... I know how teenaged boys sprawl) it'll make you crazy.

The "Big Shew" on Saturday night is Legends in Concert.

We also saw the variety show dancers & a comedian whose name I forgot...

There was also supposed to be a juggler, but he got injured on the day of his performance (!) and they substituted a different act at the last minute... nothing too elaborate, it was a singer with a seven-piece band behind him. Which sounds like it should be sucky, but that was actually one of the shows I enjoyed the most!

I guess the moral is, even if you know who is scheduled, there's no guarantee you'll see him. But the entertainment was all solid.

Just off the Pearl, I really enjoyed the Mr. Worldwide... vodka, strawberry, champagne, Pimms, some other stuff. A little fruity without being too sweet.

I just booked a singles cruise through one of the hosted companies, and I opted for the roommate match because, well, makes it affordable & I was feeling adventurous :) I won't know who my roommate is until closer to sailing, next spring.

How does the beverage package work? I'm not a huge drinker, but will I be forced to purchase it if my roommate does? I'd rather just purchase my one or two drinks per day with my cruise account, it'll come out to less at the end.

Did you have any time to tour Seattle? We are going to have a half a day there to sightsee. Probably will hit the Market and Space Needle.

Pro tip from a friend in Seattle: If you're in the mood for a swanky dinner, make reservations at the restaurant in the Space Needle. The menu prices look pretty steep, but when you factor in the free ticket to the Observation Deck (which is normally $22/adult,) it looks a whole lot more reasonable for a fun evening out. Call well in advance, though, they book up fast.

I'm Boo's sister... a little more info....

We did the Mendenhall Glacier/Evening Whale Quest, and thought it was great. Saw lots of wildlife, including a fantastic breaching/fin-slapping display by a mother whale & her energetic calf, and about a hundred bald eagles. My daughter & I did the lumberjack show in Ketchikan, and thought it was good cheesy fun. We all enjoyed the Original Streetcar Tour in Skagway. The drivers/narrators are what makes it come alive.

Desserts made almost no impression on us; in fact, they were so meh that we just stopped ordering them by the last couple days of the cruise (which always seemed to confuse our server.) Daughter ordered steak several times, and seemed to enjoy it, but I generally preferred the fish & didn't have a bad seafood dish at all. In particular, the salmon tartare appetizer was good enough to order several times. But the menus get a little repetitious (not all the same every day, but some things appear over and over. We were ready to get something different by day 7.)

Yes, the spa is all that. I want a heated tile chair in my house now.

I'm still working out how tipping a buck a drink comes out to "hundreds" of dollars. Let's see, if you average 18 drinks a day....

Maybe just set aside two or three bucks per day for particularly good service, if you feel so inclined, and let the UBP 18% gratuity do the rest.

Edit to add: I'm not a heavy drinker, maybe 3 a day on vacation, but not being judgmental to those who drink more. Everyone's got his own level.