Liljo22

You are cruising for the itinerary and not for the ship so it will not be as big of a deal for you I would think. I am guessing that you probably have no sea days with the amount ports you are listing.

Guests with you can drink from the bottle. The waiter will ask how many glasses you would like. As for 18-20 year olds, I am not sure if it it will be questioned if you signed the waiver for them.

Service charges on a 14 day cruise in USD is $305.20 per person which comes to an average of 2 drinks per day per person.

Is that Canadian Dollar? That might be why it looks off to us.

On NCL or Celebrity? NCL is 20% on the $109 value of the drink package so its $21.80 per day not $60.

The difference between European and US sailings is that 18-20 year olds automatically can drink beer and wine on the sailing. The US sailings require that the parents go to guest services and sign a waiver while on board. Since there is no need for parental permission, the under 21 guest gets the package included if accepted at booking.

I love NCL but just be aware that you are comparing a premium cruise line with a mass market one. You can have a great time as long as you understand some of the services are going to be a step down from what you expect from Celebrity. I don't think the step down is far but if you go in trying to compare Celebrity and NCL item by item, you might be disappointed.

There is a reason Epic was the only ship in its class. It’s a funky ship with lots of complaints. I would give NCL another try on a Breakaway or Breakaway+ class ship. Preferably the Escape or the Joy.

You won't but it depends on what extra you want. Joy has the Observation lounge and go kart track that the other two do not have. Getaway has Syd Norman's which is a great show/venue. Joy and Escape have the District Brewhouse if you like beer and live music.

That's because much like the people complaining on this board, the people complaining about Disney make up a small minority of people actually vacationing. The majority are people are ones that either are new and didn't even know there was a change or haven't been enough to really worry if something is gone. I know several families that have taken their first cruise this year and they all came back raving about how much fun they had. They don't know that there was once twice a day cleaning or that their favorite dish is no longer on the menu.

Tipping is almost exclusively an American thing. Restaurant owners are allowed to pay as little $2.13 an hour to an employee that receives tips so its on the customer to tip the worker a livable wage. Then counter workers started to put tip jars out asking for tips even thought they were not included in the tipped minimum wage. Now every POS system asks if you want to leave a tip. You could avoid the tip jar but now you are consciously telling the employee that you are not tipping them if you don't add a tip.

Taste and Savor feel more like your land based higher end restaurants while the Manhattan Room feels more like a cruise ship dining room with its wide open layout and tall ceiling in the center. It also usually has live music playing and a dance floor that will have the ships dancers come out on some nights.

Its is not a pay venue on the Prima so I doubt it will be on the Viva. People line up early to get a seat but there are no reservations and anyone can walk in and find an open space or even a seat if someone leaves.

The industry is looking to survive at this point with all the debt that was accumulated over the shutdown. Our expectations of a cruise need to be lowered or we need to find other vacations if we feel like they should not be lowered. That is the state of the industry right now. Its not cheap to cruise so you need to decide if cruising is still worth it to you. Personally, I believe it is. My family is going to Hawaii(non-cruise) next month for 6 nights and I can tell you that once food and excursion are factored in, the trip is going to be double what I have every paid on a 7 day cruise. Good news is that NCL is suppose to be reporting higher than expected numbers for Q1 so they are trending in the right direction. The issue is that once the expense savings genie is out of the bottle, its hard to put it back in. And this is not an NCL problem. My last two cruises were with Royal and I had a great time other than slow MDR service. Someone posted yesterday that the Oasis has gone down hill and most agreed it was Royal's cutbacks on every ship. I mentioned that I cruised the Oasis in December and didn't see any of the issues they were listing. I was told that the major cut backs were happening in the last couple of months in most areas of the ships.

Are you saying I am the straw man? The OP I replied to claimed that if you booked through NCL and flights got delayed or cancelled and missed your cruise, you are not going to get compensation from NCL. I have been firm on that is no different than if you booked directly with the airlines and missed your cruise. Some how its been devolved to priority of the booking which had nothing to do with the original post. People booking their airfare through NCL are expecting NCL to hold the cruise for them if their flight gets cancelled or delayed over something NCL has no control over. If you booked that same flight on your own, would you expect NCL to hold the cruise. No you wouldn't. Also, why would NCL be liable to compensate you for something that happened with your flight. They are just acting as the travel agent in this situation. I am not going to expect my TA to compensate me for missing my cruise because they put me on a flight that was delayed or cancelled. With the state of airlines today, there is a more than likely chance that your flight is going to have issues.

The person in the article was bumped because they waited until getting to the airport to check in not because they purchased their tickets through a 3rd party. The points guy is a terrible website for advice. The cruise advice they give is laughable at best and negligent at worst.

The whole reason its a fun show is that its in a smaller venue. You put this show in a space that can fit everyone in seats and it loses the energy that makes it great. It doesn't feel like a show in that venue. It feels like you are at your local bar with the house band playing that you have been hanging with for years.

Not true at all. The airline doesn't care if you booked through them, NCL or Expedia. Maybe its different in Canada?

I was on the Oasis in December on a sold out cruise and had pretty much the opposite experience a long with two other cabins with us. The only issue was MDR service was slow but that is a complaint across pretty much all ships on the mass market cruise lines.

But this is completely different than what you said before, if you booked directly through the airline and your flight gets delayed or cancelled causing you to miss your cruise, you won’t get compensation either.

How is that any different than if you booked your flights on your own?

More than likely that cash isn't going to the waiter either.

Saw Beetlejuice on Broadway and they do a very good job of changing the lyrics to songs to match the environment so I am betting they will add cruise humor to it. I would guess the opening number they will change the lyrics to say if you die on this cruise the ship will not stop. Also, the original Broadway death of Adam and Barbara was falling through the floor boards but since they don't have the trap door on the tour, its been changed to electrocution.

Now that all guests in a room 21+ get the drink package, there is no reason anyone has to pay the full price. The only possible reason I could see if if they sail away rate is so low that its cheaper to go that route and buy the package. On a 7 day, that would mean the sail away rate would need to be around $1k per person cheaper and I have never seen it that much lower. Its usually only a few hundred dollars lower if that.

Carnival offers the free package to a very small percentage of VIFP members on select off season cruises. The bulk of VIFP members only get the promotional rate with Cheers that ends up costing more than if you purchased Cheers on its own. The average cruiser doesn't have the ability to get Cheers free.