DaCruiseBug

On 4/14/2023 at 8:00 AM, raphael360 said:

I was very excited to do a 7 day Venice to Venice cruise until I checked the airfare. $3500 to $4000 round trip Miami to Venice in economy plus. Ouch. 
 

Last year I bagged a Rt first class ticket on Air France for $3250. 
 

Oh my how times have changed. 

People have gotten too used to airfare prices that aren't profitable for airlines.

Greyhound charges $250 each way from Miami to New York...on a BUS!

$3,500 round-trip in Economy Plus isn't really that expensive if you look at what you're getting for the price. You can also book regular economy for under $2,000 (my guess) which is still a good price considering you're traveling over 10,000 miles round-trip.

4 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

But what about when relaxing at a beach club? 

Then instead of eating 1 juicy burger I eat 2.

1 hour ago, mfs2k said:

 

You spend a lot of time thinking about hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken tenders.  

I do, and I spend a lot of time eating them as well. Can't beat a nice juicy burger and french fries while partying and getting tipsy at a pool party.

6 hours ago, Back to school said:

Lechon Asado so good.  I’m tired of cruise “private island” eating shitty hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken tenders, again, and again.  I want experience more healthy and more interesting food.  That’s common sense!

Great...so you eat the foods you want to eat and let the majority of people eat hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders etc...

Why should there NOT be at least one of those options for people that want them? Should everyone be forced to eat what you want to eat?

6 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

VV set out to be different.  hot dogs/hamburgers/garbage food like that are just another (US-centric!) cruise line thing.

Oh really? Is that why all those items are offered onboard the actual ship? How does that make sense?

9 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

if i wanted crappy american BBQ food, i'd either take carnival or stay at home haha

Every cruise line offers this kind of food on their private island. Including RCL, NCL, and Disney.

It's not a Carnival thing. It's common sense.

7 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

This is a little old, don't know if it has changed at all....

These are still the food options offered.

43 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

 

You're traveling the world.  You're not in Kansas anymore.

I have flown over 5 million miles (most outside of the US). This has nothing to do with geographical location but rather knowing what your clients want and what food to serve for a specific occasion. If you want to serve chicken curry and fish filet at a pool party you're ignoring the wants of a large chunk of your customers.

37 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

You make good points but you lose me when you over generalize what "most people" want. There are "some" people like yourself who want burgers and fries but there are others who want something different.I think the intent is to serve foods they can prep and cook on the ship and still serve warm at the beach club. Burgers and fries require cooking on shore which have logistical issues. 

Personally, I wasnt crazy about the food choices at Bimini, and I think they could do better.  Speaking only for myself, Im not sure burgers and fries would have been better. 

I based my "most people" on the fact that nearly everyone was complaining about the food options at the beach club while waiting in line, while sitting at one of the tables, and even people around us by the pool.

If you want to keep serving your fancy food that's fine...but to not have a single option of either burgers, hot dogs, pizza, chicken wings, chicken tenders or whatever else you generally eat at a pool party is a mistake.

2 hours ago, jon81uk said:

Why is it weird to get Caribbean style curry on a Caribbean island?

Because when you're at a pool party most people aren't looking for curry chicken. Most people want finger food.

Having sailed on most other cruise lines and having recently sailed on the Scarlet Lady i'm going to have to disagree with the assessment that the food is great on Virgin.

First off, I was excited to try the Italian restaurant as it had great reviews. I was born and raised in Italy so I can speak to good Italian food and what was served in Extra Virgin was anything BUT good Italian food. The highlight of our meal was the meats and cheeses they brought out. We then had the Bucatini Carbonara which was very bland and was probably one of the worst carbonara i've ever seen...looked and tasted more like bucatini alfredo with a few pieces of bacon. Also had the gnocchi which were incredibly overcooked and tasted like balls of mashed potatoes.

We also sailed on the Celebrity Apex last year in Aqua class and both service and food quality put Virgin to shame.

Seems like Virgin is more interested in hiring staff that fit their "hip look" rather than hiring individuals good at what they do. Our room steward wasn't good. Room was quite dirty when we first embarked the ship. Asked the room steward to give us 3 big towels each day instead of just 2 and each day we had to request the additional towel anyways.

The staff on Virgin did actually look like they were happy and enjoying themselves much more than staff on other cruise lines but as far as service...lots of room for improvement.

Another thing I noticed is that there's a lot more staff running around on their time off in the ship areas with guests. We regularly saw ship staff in all the dining rooms and entertainment venues. While this is nice for staff...it's annoying to have a staff member scream in your ear the entire time during one of the nightly shows and waiting in line at the pizza shop at night and watch an employee come in and grab 5 pizzas at the busiest time of the night. It's like there's no etiquette or respect for guests so that crew members could enjoy themselves more.

The beach club in Bimini was great other than the food options there...maybe someone should tell Virgin that people don't want curry chicken and other weird food while at a beach club. Having burgers, fries, pizza, and other simple foods would have been much better.

Also, the Scarlet party was perhaps one of the coolest parties on a ship i've seen. Kudos to that as well.

Lastly...my BIGGEST complaint is the size of the bathroom and the shower. *****??? We had a standard balcony cabin and that was the smallest bathroom and shower i've ever seen on any cruise ship. I'd compare that to the bathroom and shower in the studios on NCL. Absolutely terrible.

Step 1: Prohibit fans

Step 2: Reduce air conditioning allowance

Step 3: For only $29.95 per day you can have unlimited A/C in your cabin.

We did an upgrade a few months ago from Balcony to Mini-Suite which had higher amounts but pre-paid before the upgrade and weren't charged more.

I'm one of NCLs biggest critic but in this instance the port change is solely due to the weather. Tomorrow the forecast calls for 25 mph winds with gusts up to 45 mph. The Nassau stop is useless but I guess they have to make a stop in a foreign port somewhere and outside of Bermuda that's the only option.

The one area where they could have done better is with compensation. 20% isn't good enough. It should have been at least 30-40% and the option for any passenger to not embark with a full refund even if last minute.

57 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Food is definitely subjective. That said, the menus I've seen on MSC YC look to be of higher quality than the menus in the Retreat--filet mignon any night, etc. Of course, I need to taste and experience for myself, which is why I booked a low-effort sailing out of Brooklyn--a short drive from my home.

Maybe the menu items on paper may seem higher quality but for example I had to send back a burger 3 times on the last YC sailing because they kept bringing it to me raw.

I haven't sailed in the Retreat but I have been on several Celebrity cruises and have sailed in the MSC Yacht Club 3 times.

While the service in the MSC Yacht Club is very good, the food is terrible. I would take Celebrity main dining room food over what was served in the Yacht Club.

Also, the common areas in the Yacht Club are very spacious but I wish they would have more shade on their top decks.

5 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Yes, those are things like stevedoring (handling baggage and stores) and security services.  So, NCL is charging hundreds of dollars more per person to have non-existent longshoremen and security personnel?  And, those third party concerns are required by the port authority, not NCL.  I really love how everyone gets on the hate FDR bandwagon and makes everything a way for NCL to make huge profits.  Done here, had enough tin foil hat for now.

This is what it can also include...

"Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses may include U.S. Customs fees, head taxes, Panama Canal tolls, dockage fees, wharfage fees, inspection fees, pilotage, air taxes, hotel or VAT taxes incurred as part of a land tour, immigration and naturalization fees, and Internal Revenue Service fees, as well as fees for navigation, berthing, stevedoring, baggage handling/storage and security services. "

Lots of room for a large corporation like NCL to make money by using the model I posted about for stops in GSC. Maybe stop trying to defend them so much?

It has nothing to do with having a tin foil hat but when most cruise lines charge X amount of dollars in port taxes and fees and NCL is usually X+60-70% then it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that something fishy is going on. If it looks a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck...it's probably not an elephant.

There's only 1 reason you'd choose NCL over Celebrity and that's if you have kids. Celebrity isn't really kid friendly.

Other then that...Celebrity blows NCL out of the water in every possible way.

Ok ok...I will say that the Thermal Suite on the newer NCL ships is nicer than on Celebrity.

8 minutes ago, sailorusvi said:

 

 

 

 

 

Already happens.  Cruise lines can negotiate port fees (typically in a contract for a few years).  Yep, in addition to all the other stuff (tonnage, passenger counts, etc), they could have also negotiated better fees/taxes.   You come to an island year round, you will get better rates than just winter ones.   I doubt it's 1/2, but all those difference can add up.

Like I said, the difference may be 5-10% more...but not 70%+

Each cruise line knows exactly what the other cruise line is paying thanks to the CLIA.

11 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Sorry to burst your conspiracy bubble, but "port taxes and fees"  cannot include charges to other than governmental or quasi-governmental agencies (like a pilot's association, that has a governmental license to operate).  Many people think that things like line handlers, garbage removal, water, and so forth are part of "port taxes and fees", but those are operational costs, and cannot be part of the "taxes and fees".  Since the private islands are part of the Bahamas, the only entity that sees income from "port taxes and fees" is the Bahamian government.

Hmm not quite...you forgot something...

"Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses, as used by us, may include any and all fees, charges, tolls and taxes imposed on us by governmental or quasi-governmental authorities, as well third party fees and charges arising from a vessel's presence in a harbor or port."

You forgot the "as well as third party fees and charges arising from a vessel's presence in a harbor or port."

Luckily, Princess cruises has it all on their website...

4 hours ago, sailorusvi said:

 

Same tonnage ship?  Same amount of passengers/crew?  Same day of the week?  Same dock?  Literally one or more of those things could trigger a difference.  

 

In the BVI arriving on Sunday or a holiday would trigger OT costs.  We could take the same amount of passengers on Saturday and Sunday and the fees would be different. 

 

Port fees/taxes are not a linear as everyone wants them to be.

 

If the difference was 5-10% I could MAYBE see it as justifiable. But it isn't 5-10%. It's more like 70%+

4 hours ago, Jim40 said:

I did mock bookings NCL and RCCL out of Miami to private island and Nassau , NCL $149 more in taxes and port charges .

Bingo!

So NCL sets up a shell company to operate GSC that charges NCL double or triple what the standard rate is for services and "port fees" compared to the other private islands. Those increased costs are passed onto the consumer as "port fees" and the shell company ends up raking in a ton more in revenue from it. All perfectly legal.

Some will try to find any and all excuses to justify NCL doing this but the reality is that the actual port fees for each cruise lines are very similar. Imagine RCL finding out that NCL is paying only 1/2 what they are...not gonna happen.

NCL has considerably higher "port taxes and fees" than all the other cruise lines because they overinflate the charges and funnel them to their coffers.

Don't believe me?

Ask NCL for a breakdown of what the specific amount of port taxes and fees are for your itinerary...they'll refuse to tell you.

What they do for example when they have a stop at GSC is have their umbrella company that handles GSC charge considerably more than normal and in turn that money makes its way back into the same bank accounts that NCL has. Compare an identical itinerary with CCL/RCL and NCL where the only difference is that each cruise line stops at its own private island and you'll see exactly what I mean.

2 hours ago, skeeter195 said:

I cannot believe how many people are commenting on bringing ziplock bags to put food into for use later on.  I get the frustration over no late night grab and go options but I just can't bring myself to take food away from a place in a ziplock bag.  To me it would feel cheap.  Yes NCL is depleting their brand quite a bit lately with these little things but we all are still paying a lot of money to go on a cruise and want a nice experience.  Taking food away in a ziplock is just lowering yourself down to NCL's level, IMO.  Some may disagree but I think it looks cheesy.    

NCL has a horrible selection of late night food. It's either O'Sheehan's or room service...that's it.

I had a friend on the Bliss over New Years and obviously the entire ship was going to be awake well past midnight...doesn't take a genius to figure this one out. At 1:00am the line for O'Sheehan's had over 50 people in it (host said it would be about 2 hour wait) and room service wasn't answering. They ended up going to bed hungry.

Did it kill them? No.

But come on...it's total BS. Open up a pizza stand or extend the hours of the buffet at least on certain nights like this.

On 11/4/2021 at 9:12 PM, MoCruiseFan said:

 

 

The company that sells the cards in not based out of Florida.  It is in Iowa.

It doesn't matter where the company is based out of. Florida law clearly states..

"A gift certificate purchased or credit memo issued in this state may not have an expiration date, expiration period, or any type of postsale charge or fee imposed on the gift certificate or credit memo, including, but not limited to, service charges, dormancy fees, account maintenance fees, or cash-out fees."