1AL

This fat, old guy needs to update his repertoire......it gets old (like he is) when you have seen him like 7 times and it is ALWAYS the same show...verbatim.....without fail!

Ain't it interesting that the ones on these forums who are usually first to dip their noses in other people's business are the first ones to respond to try to justify why they make it their business to know other people's business! :-( :-(

We have been on that cruise and the first folks off the ship(just before us) were off by 8-8:30. The ship will arrive earlier but debarkation doesn't start the moment the ship arrives. I have no idea what time your cruise is scheduled to dock? NO one has ever been off at 7! The ship may arrive at 7 but it takes a while for procedures to take place to clear the ship. I would not expect to be off earlier than 9 unless you have FTTF or plat or diamond and are carrying your own luggage off.

LAX is a good 45 min drive without traffic so I'd not book a flight until at least 12:30.

I beg to differ. We were on the Splendor last month, 2nd week of May. The ship was berthed in Long Beach by 6am.

By 7am they were already letting people off, those who chose self-disembarkation and could carry off their own luggage.

Why don't people just mind their OWN business?

It is NO ONE'S business of who leaves the DSC/GRATUITIES/TIPS, (call it whatever you want)

in place, who adds to it, who adjusts it and who removes it.

Why are people so obsessed with what others do?

I hate to think what these busybody's lives are like at home ;-(

Mike,

These darn VISA and PASSPORT fees are getting out of hand.

I see you are a Pommy by birth, I remember my first passport cost me a whopping 4/6d back in 1971.

Remember that money designation.....lol...lol.....shows how old I am. lol

How times and the World have changed, no?

Perhaps NCL are on to something new here, in a real bad way.

A particular sailing not selling well? Just cancel the cruise and to hell with customers and their plans/flights, who cares!

Then revisit the itinerary and reprice, naturally at a higher price.

All of the above "for you convenience", naturally. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

oh come on now, you know that is not the reason for a cancellation, especially 6 months out. No one knows how well the ship is going to sell.

So, do you still think I was incorrect on calling NCL out on this one?

Nevermind.

Yikes!!! Yikes!!! Yikes!!!

Some you win, some you lose!

Cliffhanger,

Ain't LGB LA's hidden gem, for as long as that remains.

We are closer to ONT than LGB, we used to find insanely cheap flights out of/to ONT but not anymore, it is

now more akin to being the most expensive airport in the LA area. The cheapest always seem to be LAX

although occasionally we have found a good deal out of LGB.

Gotta LOVE LGB!!!

I can only say, one thing: as a senior and a frequent cruiser taking public transportation from Long Beach airport to the ship isn't my idea of fun. I doubt anyone, who is cruising is going to bother or not many anyway. :rolleyes:

Are you speaking from firsthand experience?

Have you ever ridden Long Beach's ULTRACLEAN, frequent, modern ZERO emissions public buses?

I am pretty sure you have not! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

This reminds me of a Hawaii cruise we did many years ago on Royal Caribbean which included airfare from LAX to Honolulu.

The cruise around the Hawaiian Islands ended up in Ensenada. So they bused us from Ensenada to San Diego, the border crossing at San Ysidro was a nightmare. Then after waiting for like 4 hours at the airport in San Diego, they flew us to LAX

and from LAX they flew us on a small commuter plane to Ontario, California. We spent the better part of the day travelling.

We live half-way between LA & San Bernardino........if we drove home from San Diego it would have taken us all of 2 hours!!!

That was the craziest flight itinerary ever!

If you do fly to/from Long Beach (LGB) and you can easily handle your luggage, you can take the bus from the airport to downtown Long Beach Transit Center and then the LADOT bus 142 from the same location to right by the cruiseship parking lot in San Pedro. Easy-peasy and very safe to do and it will only set you back $1.50 each ride. If you are a senior, it's even cheaper!

Posters here somehow think they and cruisecritic are important.

 

If they don't like something and whine enough, princess will change their mind.

 

Just as happened with Happy Hour BOGO. ... oh no, wait, all the whining did nothing.

This!!!

(y)(y)(y)

Perhaps NCL are on to something new here, in a real bad way.

A particular sailing not selling well? Just cancel the cruise and to hell with customers and their plans/flights, who cares!

Then revisit the itinerary and reprice, naturally at a higher price.

All of the above "for you convenience", naturally. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I will only say that when you read a review from just one person with perhaps an ax/axe to grind with NCL, then you can take that review with a grain/pinch of salt.

But when you have hundreds of negative reviews, for the most part, all highlighting the very same shortcomings of the white elephant that the Epic is, well, they do lend a level of legitimacy to the horrible reputation that this vessel has.

Like I said earlier, this build was such a fiasco for NCL that out of a possible order for 3, NCL only built one!

I leave it at that.

Cruise ships mostly get positive reviews with the occasional negative review.

With the Epic, the reverse is true, it gets for the most part negative reviews.

The EPIC is so bad, that even NCL themselves never built any more of that class (known as the F3).

NCL had originally ordered 2 of those ships with an option for a third one. The 2nd ship was NEVER built and the 3rd option was NEVER exercised.

That speaks volumes of how bad the EPIC turned out to be.

Ebay is a good source........I have a couple listed there.

I have a couple of yellow ones as well.

Was on the Splendor last month.....my 4th time on her...many outside areas of the ship are starting to show its age. Inside it is in impeccable/excellent condition. As usual, the Tandoor Indian eatery at the back of the Lido Deck was EXCELLENT.

The cruise director at the time, Alex Degmetich, was the most obnoxious ever ..... starting at 9am...constantly and I do mean CONSTANTLY harking out loud on the PA system this sale and that sale....he would go on and on and on and on......constantly repeating himself over and over and over again. And his announcements sounded like he was talking to passengers with a low IQ. What an idiot!

Other than that, the Splendor still remains one of our favorite ships, second only to the Elation!

I am Elite status through my sailings with P&O. We are going on a 3 night cruise on Sapphire Princess in October, our second Princess cruise and first as Elite, and I have a couple of questions about the mini bar I would like some help with.

 

1. Do you get the same set up on a short cruise?

2. If you swap the set up for a bottle of wine can you take this into the MDR?

Yes & Yes

We were upgraded a couple of times. The first time we were moved from the farthest forward balcony where the Promenade steps up and every body walks past your balcony. We were moved to a mid-ship Aloha deck balcony. Many would say, "Oh, no!" and tell me I would have lots of noise from MUTS and chair scraping. Nope. Totally peaceful 15 days.

 

On another cruise we booked a forward cabin, inside on Lido deck. Cheap cabin for sure. A couple of weeks or so before the cruise I noticed my personalizer now said we were in a HC Accessible balcony, midship on Caribe deck. Huge room. Huge balcony. Huge (but different) bathroom. We were quite happy.

 

We have a cruise booked for November and I'm hoping they don't "upgrade" us. We have an ocean view that we like. It's a OD category which is an aft-facing Ocean View. It's right next to the aft viewing deck (with loungers) on Baja deck of Coral Princess. We've sailed in that cabin before and liked it a lot. My fear is being "upgraded" to a "Premium Ocean View" cabin. I don't want to give up our huge "balcony" for a larger room.

Ask them to mark your booking with a "No complimentary upgrade" notation, Princess will do that for you.

You'd be surprised what a few nice, kind words can do, the doors they can open for you.

I have borderline sleep apnea, most nights I snore like crazy, or so my wife says....lol...lol.

On one of our cruises apparently it got too bad, so one morning I went to the Purser's Desk

and explained to them what was going on.....the pleasant young gentleman I spoke to

escalated the matter to the guest services manager who was kind enough to give

us another set of keycards to another cabin to be used as needed....I spent quite a few

nights in the "doghouse" on that cruise....lol.....it was a 15-day sailing.

Our best ever upgrade on Princess:

Booked last-minute 28-day cruise out of Los Angeles to Hawaii & Tahiti, fall 2016.

Booked guarantee inside, last-minute rate of just under $2K per person including port charges/taxes/fees.

Princess kicked in just under $900 on various obc between loyalty, future cruise certificate, shareholder and military.

To sweeten the deal, 3 days before the sailing we were upgraded to an unobstructed balcony, second from front on Lido Deck.

28 glorious days those were.

Going back a few years when NCL had FOUR ships plying the Hawaiian Islands, those cruises used to be some of the least expensive around. We had done an 11-day Hawaiian Islands & Fanning Island cruise on the NCL Wind out of Honolulu for $618 each including taxes/fees AND return airfare out of Los Angeles. Those days are long gone, the POA 7-day run is one of the more expensive cruises nowadays!

I certainly won't be buying, but u already knew that;p

You're cheap, I know that! lol..... :D:D;p

Any interesting flights lately?