MagnoliaBlossom

My guess it is the manpower to set up and breakdown the event as much or more as it is the food and beverage.

I’ve lays thought the food was an incredible waste. Aside from coffee p, I’d say 90% of the food on most MnMs went untouched. On a ship with a plethora of food choices, why would you care about a few pastries?

We are Diamond on othe lines. We were on the Jubilee in May out of Galveston. It was a lovely ship and a very nice crew. It was nothing like the older and smaller ships. It was a complimentary cruise for us, as have been most of our CCL cruises. I prefer NCL by far, but if you know when to cruise CCL and where, it can be a good experience. (Go ahead and flame me). If ynot u do a short cruise, during a school vacation yu are asking for a miserable experience. If you’re u do a newer ship, more than seven days, you will have a very different experience. I will not comment on NOLA vs Tampa as I’ve never sailed from Tampa, but a have sailed NOLA numerous times. good luck on your cruise choice.

MDR reservations vary by ship. I’ve been on ships where they gladly did it and others where they absolutely refused. You’ll just have to checkin at restaurant reservations when you’re u get onboard. Let us know what they say.

We are booked in January of 26 for a 14 night out of Galveston

Glad to hear you have a date. A date no one really wants to have, but that’s out of our control by now. My only advice, is to for us on the long game, not the immediate pain. If they give you ant exercises prep to strengthen muscles, do it religiously. If you plan on sleeping in your recliner post op, test drive it in relation to, how much pressure does it take to kick out and release the footrest, if it is lever operated, is the lever on the operative side? If your doc prescribes a cooling machine for at home use, make sure you have a steady supply of ice. Make sure you have some baggy legged pull on pants rot reduce stress on the incisions. If you have steps into your home develop a game plan for getting up and down, get some nice old , soft sheets to drape over you ur lounger for comfort as well as to cool you better than upholstery. wishing you well. You got this! 😉

Graphicguy, did you finally get a surgery date?

We were on the Dawn this month in the British Isles and our T Mobile worked fine most days. The one day I desperately needed it,Edinburgh, (we couldn’t dock and I needed to speak with our private tour guide) it wasn’t available. But all in all I was pleased and it is included in our plan at no additional cost,

I was raised in NOLA, so I love sailing from there. Now that we are in Texas, it’s about a 6-7 hour drive, but still better than flying. But the itineraries from NO do not usually differ much from those fron Galveston, which is only 4 a 4 hour drive,

Just noticed on Cruise Hive that the Jewel is to start sailing from Philadelphia part of the year. Don’t remember when that begins, but will add a new port to the NE coast.

I read this in Cruise Hive a month or so ago, don’t remember the start date.

Amsterdam has moved ALL ships, even the river cruises outside of the city, Venice stops are now in a place row hours (I’ve read) away and charge a day pass fee for visitors. There was a article in the news yesterday about Baecelona residents descended on tourists eating in an outdoor cafe and blasted them with water guns and brandished signs saying, “you’re urge not welcome here”, etc. Big cities are growing weary of the congestion and strain on their public resources (trash, water) It hasn’t helped that ships are now carrying a monstrous number of passengers. I believe Juneau residents are up in arms as well.

Yeh,the Houston area is a mess. Still lots of folks without power, but I did see that Galvestons port was open to cruise ships again. Only very large ships with serious size drafts are still restricted. Up here we had 7” that night.

We’ve done the British Isles several times and it is one of our favorite destinations, if only it wasn’t a ten hour flight and so expensive 😬 it was our first cruise for our teenage grandchildren and we had a wonderful time.

I always fly in at least a day early, not because I doubt the service of the car company, but the unreliability of air travel these dats. Plus, it allows me a day to rest and acclimate a bit before embarkation.

If we reach the “group” number of cabins, I don’t mind setting that up with my PCC. I’ve never done this with NCL but' what the heck, I’ve got enough helper bees on this thread to drag me through it.you in wine. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Disclaimer: I’m so jet lagged from our Dawn, British Isles cruise, that anything I say should be viewed as totally irresponsible 😵‍💫

I feel your pain. BUT … I’ve been mostly retired for quite some time, and you are gonna looove all the cruise time when your day comes - but - then, there’s that fixed income thing. dang! Which is why I still do some contract work to get some extra cruise bucks.

Well, count me in!

The coffe pods are not bad, certainly better than the buffet. I usually make my own pods with our favorite coffee and bring them with me..

There are several companies wh do this. I would not do it outbound unless your are spending the night in SH prior to boarding, or on inbound if you have a flight before 6:00pm we just got off the Dawn Saturday and we used express taxi, a subsiderary of Pink Berry Inc., we did not do a side tour, just straight service from LHR to SH, Holiday Inn and from pier to LHR. Very good service. Good communication. Central office called to give us update on driver’s arrival. When disembarking we were set for pick up at 9 but got a call at 8:15 to confirm, we said we were actually ready and he said driver would be there in 20 minutes. We got off the ship just as he was walking from his car. Professional, safe, comfortable. i found them through the wonderful site londontoolkits.com, so much info there. Lots of options.

I think the thermal suite needs bar service 🥂😉

They are on the older , smaller ships like the Dream and Breeze. If yI u look at decks 6 thru 9 (I think). They are full forward. There are either six or eight of them if I remember, certainly no more than that. I know at least one of them is handicapped equipped because we were in it once. There may be two.

We just got off the Dawn on Saturday. It was the 6/26 sailing. months before sailing the Orkney Islands stop was cancelled due to limitations placed by yhe locals on the number of cruise passengers. More locations are doing this and it wil l certainly I,pact cruise e periences. Venice started it last year and Barcelona is making changes as well as Amsterdam. Big sigh. Can’t blame them but it is disappointing. We wound up missing our stop in Edinburgh because of crazy hgh winds and waves, it was not safe to tender. I’m not such we could have even docked if that had been an option. I do not believe NCL is doing this intentionally, they lose revenue from excursions, and have increased strain on food and beverage venues while they have people on board. Plus, it’s just bad for customer satisfaction. Just Mu humble opinion.

I’m spread sheet challenged and ant figure out to input info, so maybe you can enter it for me, pretty please Magnolia Blossom and her hunk a hunk a burning love, 2 people, we’re booked on Viva 1/10/26 from Galveston and Prima 3/21/25.

We’ve not been on the Dawn since 2015 and t that time the reservation desk was set up in the Asian restaurant. Is it still that way for embarkation day or has it moved? thank you. MB