oteixeira

This has been an interesting thread for me. For those of you thinking this is isolated to NCL, you should go check out the Celebrity forum right now and the full on pictures of each night in the buffet where they have cut out tons of fan favorites to save money. And that is supposed to be an "upscale" line. It is happening everywhere I am disappointed the the Wellington did not make it to a cruise I might have been on, I really wanted to try it. As for mac and cheese....I can get that from a food truck around my house most days, and that is not what I consider fine dining. People go on cruises for different things. I tend to try to eat upscale, I know others love comfort foods. To each our own.

I would love to see/know where this is from, because I have not seen nor heard anything about this.

That is not true, a lot of the ones they took during the shutdown were very unfavorable towards them due the the nature of their current business (not making any money). All of the lines have said the short term debt they took on was not at good term rates.

The sold new senior notes expiring in 2028 to pay off senior notes expiring in 2024. The took on no new debt. Basically they were shuffling lounge chairs on the lido deck. Much ado about nothing. They are no better or worse off then they were a month ago. All of the cutback news is them trying to make as much money as they can to get back to where they were pre-pandemic which is going to take a lot of time and profits.

I am loving the photos because it shows me things I never see. I am a never buffet kind of guy, so it is interesting to see the cutbacks and quality of food there. Thanks for everything so far, I want to try Celebrity but it would almost for sure be in the retreat on a revamped ship.

I used to have one of my big customers there. Would stay at a hotel on the bay, and eat every night at this great open air bar and restaurant right on the water. It's been 15 years so they are probably gone, but I have great memories of Tampa.

Now that is how you do a pre-cruise hotel. I love the look! Sorry to hear your friend is under the weather, and I agree they did the right thing staying back. Can't wait until you get onboard and we get more great pictures! As for our stocks, they have done crazy well this past week with no news, so....I expect a pull back. :)

I am here for the adventure!

I feel so alive when I can come read threads about tipping and chair hogs!! Thank you world for opening back up and giving us back the dreaded 'how much should I tip' posts once a week. All that said, you do you boo. Tip what you want when you want, or not at all. I am guessing by now you figured that part out. As for me, what does it matter how I tip, I am not you. Just know that the folks you interact with work very hard and usually have family they send money home to. Ask them about life at home and family, they are usually great folks and love to talk to you about it.

That is correct on price being the same, but at least if you wait until you are out to sea you don't have to pay tax on it. That is what I do each time I cruise, I buy it on the first day, but after we are out to sea.

I misunderstood their post since this thread is about ships being diverted to Amber Cove from PP, and not Nassau from PP. Apologies.

It wont change. We were never told onboard in November, it just showed up on our dailies that we were going to Amber Cove. As far as changing things, it wont, the ports are not very far apart and you can still do anything you booked...and honestly, the Puerto Plata port looked messy and still under construction, we drove right by it. In the end, I was happy we were in Amber Cove instead. If it was a huge change I would agree with you, but nothing other then where you park is really changing. Also, I knew before we left as I checked Amber Coves site and we were listed as expected to dock there that day. You could do the same, and then let your private tour operator know, but my guess is they already do as this has been happening for many months already. As I said, the ports are close enough that your private tour company wont cancel, they will just pick you up at Amber Cove.

Please show your work (proof). It has been talked about on here for years and NO ONE knows how much the employees get from the DSCs.

If I wasn't just off a 15 day Panama crossing....darn the timing.

Yea yea, you gave it up!! Mine. :)

I am book in 14778 for a 15 day Panama sailing this spring! Can't wait to have this room.

You mean the thermal spa?? The joy does not have one.

Let it go, you have helped so many of us, one person getting upset is not on you!!

Alex is now the head concierge, with Ivan and Maria?? (saw her very little) as the two assistants.

David? Can you be more specific? I have the 2 concierges, the Maitre 'D, my Butler....those are the ones I tend to get on every cruise I go on (as I get to know them during the cruise). Maybe I am forgetting someone?

Agree, I just didnt want it to sit here unchallenged so that a new person might think it true. I want them to put up or shut up, I have all the contacts on Getaway, we can go up the chain. I think it would be very easy to see if they were on any recent sailing.

Alex went so far as to get reprimanded by letting too many of us in to Syd Normans for the rock show. He basically said he would take the hit for us and just spread out so we weren't all in one spot. He is all about the guest! Ivan is going to be taking a head concierge gig soon but on one of the smaller ships. I think he said the Gem. He is also the one who confirmed to me that Starlink is already being tested on Joy as of last month!

The more I read through this the more confused I get. We had the best Concierge team we ever had on the Getaway, Alex and Ivan were amazing. Signs up every day on where to meet and when to get on and off the ship, and to get into anything you wanted to see or do that required reservations, you could cut the line and no reservations at all. I saw all three Syd Norman shows with no issue, while people waited in line outside for hours and never got in. Rooms were ready on my sailing at 1PM which is totally normal. Can you tell me when you sailed, I actually have emails for people on board, we could ask what happened, because again this sounds very different then everything I saw just 2 weeks ago. Also, the Haven restaurant is NEVER closed the first day of the cruise, they just WANT to try to get you to go to the diner, just refuse and at 11:30AM the Haven restaurant opens for lunch, we also ate there for dinner day 1 and it was service as usual. I also have the name and email of the head Maitre 'D onboard for the Haven restaurant, and I am sure Dariusz would be happy to clear it up.

Interesting, we were on her on Oct 29th and we had the escort, special area, all of it. Not sure what happened on your sailing but my guess is it was a one time issue, maybe a lack of port workers that day.

Yes but then we would be picking another tour on short notice with no at home research, which is not something that has worked well for me in the past.