Em2mb

Before you depart, go to the liquor store and look for a six-pack with the plastic “snap on” lids to keep them together and take the lids with you on your trip for carrying open beers back to your room. It’s a trick we use at baseball games where they have to sell beers to you open, but you don’t want to get up from your seat for that second beer. 

On 10/8/2018 at 9:46 PM, lenquixote66 said:

I would send a letter to the CEO of the line and CC the NY Times

Reporter here. I guarantee you, the New York Times doesn’t care. Your local newspaper (if it hasn’t gone under), maybe. But not the New York Times. 

That said, I sympathize. I had to eat the cost of a trip earlier this year because I was hospitalized, and now I know to buy trip insurance every. single. time. Good luck with your treatment — there will be other cruises. 

Being in my early 30s, I am not going to cry a river. I will continue to sail RCCL and NCL as they do not have a cap on the number of drinks you may have.

I know there are a lot of different conversations happening on this thread at this point, but I see over and over again on this forum, “Who actually can drink enough to make the UBP a good deal?” Well. Millennials can. I shudder to think what my bar bill would be if not for the UBP. For our next cruise, the difference in cost between a Sail Away balcony and a guarantee was $130pp. We paid $124pp in gratuities for the UBP. I would definitely be facing a bar bill in excess of $254 if not for the promo. I’m under no illusion my drinks are “free,” nor are any of the friends I’ve cruised with. But we’ve found a cruise fare with amenities that make it worth it to us.

And really, that’s who I think NCL is chasing with the Free at Sea promotion — the next generation of cruisers. There’s a lot of talk about people being surprised by how much they’re paying, and I’d argue my peers who can afford to take even a budget cruise on NCL are pretty good with money. I guarantee they’re looking at total cost, not just the per person cabin rate, when they book. And honestly, now that my friends are a little older and more settled in our careers, we cruise NCL because we can afford to take a nicer cruise than four of us crammed in an inside cabin on the greyhound of the seas.

Was that the spam cruise? Carnival and family had those problems with the ships and I don't recall what ships had issues when.

I don’t remember any spam, but we were really lucky — the ship couldn’t go anywhere, but still had power and plumbing and all the important things, so everyone just chilled for 4 days until we were towed back to port, at which point they let us use the ship as a floating hotel until it was time to disembark. I was 10 or 11 so I don’t remember this, but apparently they opened the bars one of the nights and let the adults drink for free. In the days before beverage packages, that was a good deal!

We also got a full credit with travel vouchers for another cruise, and I do remember my parents telling me there was no point in getting upset like many passengers were because it wouldn’t make the situation any better. It was an important lesson in how to travel and always have a good time.

You mention that you've never had a bad cabin and you don't mind the stall shower so IMO save the money.

We try to be very easygoing cruisers. My whole family was on the Carnival Destiny in the late ’90s when it lost all engine power and didn’t make a single port. We all joke that drifting aimlessly toward Cuba is the best cruise we’ve ever been on.

I think we’ll stick with the balcony we’ve been assigned ... it’s a good cabin, no need to tempt fate. Spending the money on spa passes instead!

Booked a GTY on the Dec. 14 sailing of the Star (thanks, work, for deciding to send me to a conference in Los Angeles and letting me take the next week off!). We already have our assignment -- 9180, which is a BA cabin on the mid-ship side of the dividing line between mid-ship and aft. It appears to be over O'Sheehan's. We'd paid $829pp for a BD cabin and category BA is currently going for $1,679pp.

I wasn't expecting the GTY to be assigned so quickly, so I was planning to at least bid on a mini-suite. Never been in one before, but I figured it would be worth it to try this one time, especially if it saved us from an undesirable GTY. (Not that I really think there's such a thing as an undesirable cabin on a cruise ship. We've been in plenty of noisy rooms, but it's really amazing what a nightcap can fix!) The minimum bid on a mini-suite is $75pp.

Is there any reason at all to bid on the mini-suite? We honestly don't mind the stall showers that are standard in most cruise ship cabins. FWIW, this is my tenth cruise as an adult but only the second cruise on Norwegian. I loved the Epic so much this spring, though, that I've booked two more for next year. Just don't want to miss out on anything!

We just did a tour with Rony's. It was easily the best day I've ever had in a cruise ship port. Arnold, our guide, was amazing. He took the list of "OK, maybe we want to do this ... " and turned it into the perfect day for us. We ended up at the sloth sanctuary, going to a scenic area for photos, ziplining, delicious lunch by the beach and enough time for a quick dip before heading back to the ship. He answered every question we had (and there were a lot, seeing as we're both journalists) about the island and what life on Roatan is like. I'll specifically be looking for Caribbean iteneraries that include Roatan so we can request him as our guide.

A friend and I were just there last week as part of a private tour we arranged. We're both in our late 20s and felt very comfortable, though we admittedly are both seasoned travelers. The monkeys were funny (they'll steal bobby pins from your hair!), and we got to hold the sweetest sloth. It's not a big sanctuary - it'll probably only take you 45 minutes to see everything AND play with the animals - so you'll want to schedule it with other excursions in Roatan.

Definitely Nachi. We saw a couple of kids there last week, but they weren't loud.

Massage prices weren't bad. They were running a $50/50 minute special the day we were there. Both members of our party thought the masseuses did an excellent job.

We were just at Nachi last week and LOVED it. I'd been to Mr. Sancho's on previous cruises and found it to be a little too crowded for my taste (I'm a 28-year-old woman, for what it's worth). I thought the food was excellent at Nachi because it wasn't the standard fare Americanized Mexican. Yes, you could get your tacos and enchiladas, but we asked our waiter for recommendations and enjoyed some of the best seafood I've had in a while.