willsears94

NCL did this ~5 years ago. With the Edge class gaining popularity, it feels like they are just regurgitating and churning what happened with NCL in the past.

NCL then retracted the premium (plus) limit and updated menus to state the included premium (plus). It's only a matter of time before Celebrity does too.

Now goal posts are just moved by taking the wines from the lower drink package to the higher one (both Celebrity & NCL).

8 hours ago, New2cruise2022 said:

I will say, one of the surprisingly well seasoned dishes was the Pad Thai in Food Republic. One of my favorite things from the entire cruise. The noodles were cooked well and weren’t overly starchy. The spice was just right. Could have used a squeeze of lime … which I added. (Also, we swapped shrimp for chicken. Personal preference)

That pad thai was good though, I agree.

49 minutes ago, drwbrt said:

I looked at the whites on the menu pretty heavily and didn't notice anything absent from the list.  Sorry I can't speak for the reds. 

 

The sparkling was stocked. 

 

This is all by the glass. I didn't do any by the bottle.

Most Reds were available in the wine bar. The male sommelier was more helpful than the other attendant in finding a comparable red.

We also preferred the Pommery to Veuve.

Very clean and smoothly sweet.

We were on this cruise. If you leave out of this port, I do recommend Hilton Doubletree. With a 1 year old, they were very attentive to our needs to and from the port.

Balconies will go away this weekend as upgrades go through, or it sounds like they already have. Expect to see more insides available. And outside of holiday cruises, NCL is supposedly trying to keep cruises at 75-85%. I guess we'll see if that is true when we get on-board as I am skeptical of that messaging. 

We are boarding with FAS+ on Bliss on the 22nd, as well. We will be drinking 2 bottles of Veuve/night since dinner runs 1.5-2 hours anyway. Italian water will be nice, too.

I don't usually drink liquor nowadays, but I will have to try some of single malts.

We had been on Celebrity but with their price increases on their beverage program, I want to see if Norwegian has in 2023. I'm not getting my hopes up, but we are trying NCL again since it was half the price.

I'll look forward to reading your reviews.

Thanks Jamie 😊 I have not been on cruise critic in what seems like ages. We were lucky to go on the Breakaway the week before the cruise industry shut down. We had planned to go on the Bliss but a very good rate on a angled Spa balcony. We certainly missed out on the Robert Mondavi Wine Bar.

We are now scheduled for the Apex and will be upgrading to the premium package. We will likely not be thrilled about Apex's spa in comparison to Norwegian, but are giving it a go. Unfortunately,  the solarium on RC and Celebrity do not make up for the spa in NCL. We are just hoping that Eden will entertain us as much as a Broadway show on Norwegian. The dining on Celebrity is the kicker for us as well. 

4 hours ago, tomservo said:

Hopefully this helps anyone who was on a recent sailing feel a little more at ease, especially with the reports of a 2 year-old on the 3/1 sailing testing positive.

So does it make it selfish that I was on a cruise last week? What is the difference going on a cruise this week versus last?

5 minutes ago, denverj said:

Damn.  My family and I are supposed to be going on the Breakaway (first time on NCL) on the 14th and have been going back and forth trying to decide to cancel.  I have until midnight tonight.   I was hoping that NCL would cave and offer full refunds instead of FCC, which would make the decision easier.   On the other hand we really want to go ...

If it makes your decision any easier, I found the Breakaway to be very clean last week and the staff were observant to cleaning areas fairly quickly. It's a risk either way, but I would say if you are over 60 years old, you may want to strongly consider canceling. 

On our 02/29/2020 Breakaway sailing, we had consistently been told in our first 2 SPD restaurants that we were entitled to 1 appetizer, 1 soup/salad, and 1 entree. This killed the ambiance as I had to refer the servers to the Terms and Conditions. After these two negative experiences, I made a complaint to the Restaurant Manager, and Hernan Gonzalez Rios did follow-up with me. He did send a bottle of wine to the MDR one evening to try to make amends. Yet, he was insistent that we were only entitled to 1 appetizer and 1 soup/salad, but would make a concession to include unlimited appetizers/soups/salads at our 3rd SDP like he was doing a favor (which he was not). 

In the restaurants, I had only ordered 1 additional appetizer/soup/salad and this is what became frustrating to me. On past cruises with NCL, this had never been an issue with servers or the Restaurant Manager. The Terms and Conditions allow for additional appetizers and soups/salads (see here): All Specialty Restaurant menu items are included except Seafood Platter in Raw Bar. Premium menu item upcharges may apply. Additional entrée charges may apply.

These situations cause distress when I am trying to relax on vacation. As prior guests, we understand the terms and conditions and don't appreciate the misinformation from servers. 

Either change the Terms and conditions OR stop the misinformation. I know Herman knows better (with 20 + years on-board), as well. Luckily we had a great server in the MDR (Benedicto from the Philippines) that made our cruise a better experience. 

1 hour ago, blcruising said:

This story made it on YouTube, Don's Family Vacations. He is not a huge NCL fan to begin with. But he basically blasts their customer service beginning at the five minute mark. Love it! Well done, Don.

Yep; I just watched this. It's great to watch the video, but Don literally reports on anything cruise-related. If a drink was spilled on the pool-deck, he would 'report' on it. Socially media is great but Don's opinion is not the end-all-be-all.

Not related to Don but... :Anyone can post a video on YouTube; it doesn't make them smart or insightful. 

@RedwingHockeyFan @Duffield Any suggestions for disembarkation? I have a 1:45p flight and pre-arranged transportation. Should I walk-off or were there no issues with pulling a tag?

Right on time.

Hi Jim! We are millennial cruisers out of Arizona and subscribers to your YouTube channel. 

Thanks for the information on the Joy! We have never cruised Haven, and have not had much interest in the BA+ class after Escape, but may consider the Haven at the price point you mention. That would be worth it in my opinion. 

If you have time to answer, what is your next cruise? We will be following along on YouTube regardless. Thank you for all you do!

This has been in every major international airport for over a year. Maybe it can expedite some of their processes as they are often short-staffed. Maybe.  

I, for one, welcome our Skynet overlords. 

Thank you for another wonderful, transparent review, Sid! Your pictures share what I already knew: I will never sail Encore. 

Back to Jewel Class and Celebrity in 2021. 

57 minutes ago, TheDougOut said:

 

I don’t think anyone (here) knows where the less-than-favorable decisions were made.  From my perspective, there was a distinct change in direction when Stuart started reporting to Del Rio in 2015.

This is the correct answer. 

I don't think NCL will completely go the route of Oceania. Certainly, they will do whatever is most profitable. I expect NCL to acquire a new cruise line in the next 5 years. 

Best wishes to Andy. 

5 hours ago, newmexicoNita said:

Thanks, I did look up the final day of the regular season and learned it was Sept 29th. Holy Cow, I didn't realize they would be playing til next spring.   seriously our oldest daughter was born during the World Series in 1959. I had a chance to go to one of the games but choose to go into labor instead. As luck would have it, our team did win and went on to win the series;; Hoping for another world championship this year. Can we play the guessing game: our team was the team that produced one of the greatest pitcher of all times. This year they lead their division by 17.5 games as of this morning🍸!!!

Dodgers suck😏

Luckily, they have a good history of have great regular seasons, and utterly self-destructing come playoff time. 

May the best team win though 🤷‍♂️

As a millennial and a person who cares not to think about looking at the incurred cost on my cruise sheet daily, I would like the option of a drinks package. 

Unless these drinks are merely $2-8 dollars per drink (yes; that cheap as I would expect prices beneath land-based operations), I would be very concerned I may be racking up quite the bill. 

I don't go on vacation to do math and create a budget (that is what my pre-planning is for). I go on vacation to order whatever drink I want knowing I have already secured the cost of the beverage and not feeling concerned for not finishing the drink if I don't like it.

3 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

But the OP posted the menu from the Dawn.  NCL is going to charge the same fleetwide. 

Oof! 🤦‍♂️ I missed that. I guess it just hasn't changed for my cruise yet. 

I was thinking that NCL was doing something similar to RCL in which Oasis-Class ships have a higher costs than other ships.

I am thinking this is only on Breakaway Plus ships because other ships are not seeing this increase. Neither mine, on a non-Breakaway Plus ship. 

I may have 2 of the 3 next cruises booked on other lines, but increases aren't going to push me away. I'm not a cheerleader, just someone who understands basic economics and how corporations work (I don't love it, but that is the way of Corporate America). Plus I always book on Celebrity as a switch to NCL on my 2 cruises/year. 

When the next recessions hits, NCL will feel it, but only because they are entry-market competing against CCL and RCCL. They all will. 

If you scroll down further on the terms and conditions page, it discussed more on the SDP for Food Republic:

ARE ANY MENU ITEMS EXCLUDED FROM SPECIALTY DINING PACKAGES?

All Specialty Restaurant menu items are included except Seafood Platter in Raw Bar. Additional entrée charges may apply.

For Food Republic and Pincho, an SDP meal includes 4 items.