RVACruiser43

16 hours ago, Raleigh Traveler said:

Encore is having work done in late Nov this year. Goes to Southampton, arriving on Nov 17 and leaving Dec 3. A lot of speculation on the work during that two week break, mostly assuming similar to the changes the Joy had early this year. We are booked on both cruises so will find out then.

I am wondering if the Bliss will get that adjustment also.  Shame the Observation lounges are being reduced.  Sort of like the loss of the Spinnaker Lounge to suites on the Dawn and Star back around 2010

On 3/9/2024 at 6:30 PM, chengkp75 said:

Jade is due in March 2025, Bliss due in March 2026.  I just search the DNV (Det Norske Veritas, the classification society (that does the drydock surveys)) "DNV Vessel Register" that NCL uses, for each ship and see when the "bottom survey" is due.  Other lines use either DNV, Lloyds Register, or ABS class societies, where you can find the same data for other ships.

Bliss is actually going to drydock in Jan 2025.  I am on the Jan 4th TransAtlantic and it Returns to Miami from Southampton on Feb 2nd.

JIMESOPUS

I am surprised you didn't comment on the topic of entertainment.  The discussion that the reduced entertainment is saving $$ does not surprise me, but the part about customer reviews are positive blew my mind.  I have not seen any positives about the reduced shows being replaced by the game shows.  Although in my case lack of good shows in the Theater turns into some good work time - how warped is that positive LOL.

Tom

15 hours ago, JIMESOPUS said:

the last thing found was that tour of the shipyard, surprised no other news came out during the PR meeting this past week.

 The latest Oceania ship, Allura will be put in service one week earlier. 

“Thanks to the progress made by our valued partners at Fincantieri, we are thrilled to bring Allura into service a week earlier than planned,” said Frank A. Del Rio, President, Oceania Cruises

I still have hope that the Aqua is ahead of schedule as well and maybe jump aboard in Barcelona or Rome

 

Have a Happy Memorial Day to all and thank you to those who served.

And due to that early delivery my Allura 24 day cruise Nov 16 2025 was reduced to 19 days 😞  Reason was due to a change in the Inaugural activity schedule. What's worse is they didn't offer any bonus incentives for the change sigh.  The credit for 5 days was less than the pro rated cruise for 19/24 days by $250 and it will cost us $300 to cancel even at this early date.  Not near as friendly a policy as NCL.  I hope the experience makes up for this.

Tom

On 4/14/2024 at 11:21 AM, RMS Olympic said:

When NCL decided to build this Prima class I was happy to think NCL was going for a more upscale product with 3000plus passengers. Perhaps targeting Celebrity and not going for the truly mega ships ala Carnival and RCI.

Well looks like the decision has been made to follow the pack with these 200k ton ships. 
With ports restricting the number of passengers into ports of call, I question the decision. Even the new Sun Princess is experiencing tendering issues in the Mediterranean and even dropped Santorini due to port congestion.

Me, the smaller the better but-to each his or her own😉

I really question the sanity of the next class of ships too.  Figuring they will fill the next 12 years of deliveries, what if the Spirit/Sky/Sun/Dawn/Star needs replaced in that period.  Nothing is planned to fill the small ship cruises.  I also much prefer the smaller ships PofA exception.  My worst cruise ever was on Escape last April for the Latitude first annual cruise, 5200 on that ship is not my cup of tea.  I am on Escape now arriving in Lisbon today.  We have just under 4100 this cruise, and it still feels crowded.  Never had that feeling on the smaller ships when they were filled at double occupancy.

On 2/25/2024 at 5:51 PM, luv2gonow said:

Wow i thought the viva spa was the nicest i have seen at sea!! 
What makes the dawn and jewel class better?

When we sailed the Prima's Sept 2022 TA the thermal did not have a hot tub.  Or a therapy pool with jets.  They later added jets to the salt water pool.  My go to is to soak in the hot tub letting the jets work on sore muscles hence my dissappointment with Prima.  Plus the locker room was poorly designed and lockers very small.  I was hoping some of this might be fixed on Viva but We cancelled our Nov 2024 Viva TA so I will not find out.

3 hours ago, macewank said:

Gotcha.  My PCC mentioned it was probably a good idea to check back in sometime around April, but even then sounds like it might be too early.  I found that thread on the Viva and it looks like folks were able to start booking about 2-3 months prior to the first commercial sailing. 

I missed out on VBC on the Viva (first US sailing again) because I didn't know that chat/phone reps could book it ahead of 120 days (the website just said "check back later" until then) and ended up pivoting to a different ship, but I want to make sure I'm on the Aqua.  Very excited to see the changes+improvements over the Prima.

Ah that refreshed my memory.  I was able to book the Prima Thermal via the Platinum pre cruise concierge for the initial TransAtlantic.  In retrospect I shouldn't have 🙂  IMO the worst Therma, I much prefer the dawn and Jewel class thermals to the Prima.  A few smarter cruisers toured the thermal on embarkation and requested a refund.  

Tom

12 hours ago, macewank said:

Does anyone remember with the Viva how far out the Vibe Beach Club became available for booking? Will be on the US Inaugural and want to make sure I can get it booked, but NCL says it's not even in their system to look up yet.   

I have a Nov 29 2024 booking on Viva for the TA which is now 327 days out and already have Vibe booked for the cruise, not sure when I booked it.  Per prior posts I gather the onboard bookings don't become available until the crew is actually on the ship.  So for Aqua would not expect to see any bookings available until the ship is transferred to NCL and Crew is onboard.

6 minutes ago, texangal39 said:

Was looking to book a Solo Balcony and it says “Not Available” while the regular solo says “Sold Out”. Does anyone know the difference between these two statuses? I’ll probably call later today, but thought I’d ask here first in case someone already got the answer.

I would think regular solo would be the single design cabins.  The solo balconies are a limited  number of normal balconies sold as solos with the recent program change.

On 11/5/2023 at 11:37 AM, Steff79 said:

What show do you think becomes the Auqa?

Why Aquaman of course! 😝😝

6 hours ago, cruisewingman said:

Anyone ever have luck applying $X off next cruise to existing reservations before the final payment is due?

 

The T&C say new reservation but it seems pointless if final payment isn't due yet.

Not sure what $X is.  Cruise next yes I have applied, Cruise First is much more restrictive and requires a new reservation.  I would avoid the Cruise First.

9 hours ago, Steff79 said:

but it is not official yet from NCL?

still missing the third ship at he NCL Page.

Travel agents reported a couple months ago that Aqua hit their booking systems.

56 minutes ago, Steff79 said:

@FreestyleNovice are you motivated to open a thread for ship three? or do we wait for the Name?

 

here to see at 3:33 if i´m not wrong. be curios if NCL corrects error or make more? What destination the ship will be.

 

I thought we had a name - Aqua.  And I am going with Velva for the 4th ship 🙂  

1 hour ago, DanielNL said:

Maby I missed it, but what are they main big difference between the Viva and Prima?

Just the spelling! 😜😜

6 hours ago, JIMESOPUS said:

@david_sobe Sailed on the inaugural TA, never again in colder weather. With all the outside venues closed the ship felt crowded even though she is almost the same size as the BA but with fewer PAX.

Was looking for changes in the Viva, since there were many negative reviews, but sadly I only found one, the removal of Starbucks in the Indulge Food Hall ( more space for seating ?? ). In the past, the next ship in each class always had some change or improvement, but not this time.

They spent too much time on the drawing board looking for dollars instead of the consumer but that's the new way of thinking.

Love the cabin, the largest AA balcony we ever had. We didn't have one of those noisy cabins or a slide going thru the balcony.

We also liked the nooks and crannies of the ship, places to get away from the crowds. 

We will be sailing on the Viva, with warmer weather this time.

Having the Viva homeport out of San Juan makes sense, having the Prima in NYC during the winter is just plain stupid with the open-air Haven complex/pool, maybe they are planning on an infinity ice skating ring with a convenience fee.

 

Jim

 

You found Knooks and cranies?  And I was thinking you only used the seating at the bar 🙂  I think the whole iceland itinerary is a bit off too in addition to NY.  At least with Viva going to the Med and San Juan that is an improvement.  I am looking to see if any improvements were made in the Spa Thermal.  Locker room was really poorly designed and no hot tub or Therapy pool.  I enjoy the thermals in Dawn/Star and the 4 Jewel class ships much more than I did Prima.  I heard they did add jets to the smaller soak pool but that still doesn't make it a hot tub in my mind.

Tom

5 minutes ago, macewank said:

 

Interesting.. I had heard the 3rd was going to be Bella.

#4 can be Velva then so we have Aqua Velva! 🙂 

6 hours ago, FreestyleNovice said:

We (Reflection) seem to depart 20:00, all aboard 19:30, setting course for Napels so hope to see a glimpse of her. Thanks @hallux!

So much for that plan to stop at Messina.  Viva is thru the straight and didn't stop.  Chasing you - Maybe with a good zoom you can see her aft.Next stop per Cruisemapper is Salerno Italy.  She looks to be about 30-40 miles behind you.

15 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

This time we are higher up, so those who walk on deck #8 ( Ocean Walk ) can't look up into our balcony. Also, we are more forward so we can't hear the trap door opening and people screaming that they are stuck in the dry slides.

We have an ADA deck 10 booked Nov 2024 TA  That should give us a good view of the slide 🙂  We might even have the bonus of a super creaky cabin too!

Tom

10 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Is t that true of most cruise ships. The Prima is purpose-built for colder climates. It’s has a observation lounge that is right-sized for a 3K passengers. Outdoor eating areas have ceiling heaters. Pools and water park are heated. 

I would say Prima was purpose built for Warm weather not cold.  The TA last Sept had cold/windy/rainy weather the entire time and all outside areas were unusable.  I did use the race cars 3 times and the wind was so bad it felt like my helmet would be ripped off.  I didn't use the observation lounge once due to it being way too cold inside.  

1 hour ago, JIMESOPUS said:

OK, I somehow remember this story posted here in CC that said 8/17/23, https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/norwegian-cruise-line-delays-norwegian-vivas-debut-to-august-2023

 

 

Actually that article says first cruise is Aug 26.  Aug 17 was cancelled.  Did they change this?

On 5/28/2023 at 10:46 PM, Cruising Lynne said:

This Captain Hudson?

I like to say that the MDR Hudson's was named after this guy - Emma's cat 🙂  

Dawn is in Portland UK today.  Anyone on the Dawn?  Can you let us know if the issue has been resolved for the Dawn.  I am cruising on Dawn June 3 and will let our roll know how things are going.

Tom

8 minutes ago, Chayn said:

Have just received an email from NCL offering 50% of prepaid service charges.

Sounds like someone has a good response to the problem.

Just now, luv2kroooz said:

Agree. I am wondering if their financial liquidity situation is significantly worse than they've previously communicated. Maybe they don't have available cash. I have no proof of this, but something just doesn't make sense here. The "two day lack of notice" theory has blown up, as has the "oops someone made an honest mistake theory".

I saw another funny reason that it was the port merchants requesting no alcohol sales on the ship due to their lack of sales, they were upset people were not leaving the ship to buy their goods/drinks.  🙂  

3 hours ago, Greener123 said:

In Liverpool today 

 

so not totally sorted at all 

Do you have the beverage plan?  If so were you refused a drink in Liverpool?