JustAPilot

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

I have done many live reports with pics and posted here.  Posting pics takes a long time with typical internet speeds.  And, aside from the time involved you are using your minutes to post.  I hope some of my posts are useful to others.  I'm just trying to figure out how useful old dailies might be.  Same with crew and management.  I kind of understand knowing who a particular concierge or Butler is on board, as they get personal and have something of a reputation people want to know about as they CAN directly affect someone's cruise in the Haven and/or Suite.

 

I personally have been chastised in a live report because I couldn't find who the crew are to post it in the review.

 

This was when I was on a Celebrity cruise a few years ago, but someone in the Celebrity threads wanted me to track down a particular waitress for them to deliver a message as they allegedly became close and fast friend while on board.  Waitstaff move from venue to venue.  So, finding this person was like finding a needle in a haystack.  By happenstance, I did note this particular waitress by her name tag.  When I mentioned the guest who wanted to communicate with her, she had no idea who I was talking about.

 

Point being, waitstaff are paid (monetarily, recognition, promotions, etc) to engage and be nice to guests.  

I’m actually legit laughing out loud. Are you telling me the Philippino waitress wasn’t actually interested in seeing pictures of my family skiing in Aspen, laying on the beach  in Costa Maya and seeing pictures of my dog?? Oh wait maybe it’s because I kept tipping her $5 for every drink she brought.. but we were legit best friends!! 😂

8 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

• Not meant to be snarky, but I've always wondered why someone would want the Dailies from past cruises?  I mean, generally speaking, if anything changes, it changes from cruise to cruise, so past Dailies wouldn't be helpful.  Plus, those things that don't change (e.g. trivia) never changes and would be the same.

Additionally, the dailies are always available once you board.

 

So, what is the purpose of posting past dailies?  I do want to understand.

Eh, it’s like the same as asking members to post who the senior officers are on the cruise, like who cares? Captain so and so isn’t going to remember Jane Smith and her husband from Wichita Kansas who sailed 2 years ago to the Caribbean. 

Pretty much, you’re paying another $500 to drink NCL branded Prosecco and are happy with this change? Vs a proper champagne house.. Next up Kirkland branded vodka to replace Grey Goose on the P+ and you’re going to tell me it tastes like Goose? Lol. 

Epic main pool bar that serves liquor gets busy, they have another bar by the pool but I think it only served beer and no cocktails. So yeah unless your in Posh or planning on going indoors for a proper cocktail good luck by the main pool bar on a prime season cruise. Regardless Epic is old with rust stains showing in public areas, personally NCL needs to scrap everything older then getaway and escape.

If I had a passenger be vigilant with me about a request when they’ve already been told no I would have them offloaded on the spot and authorities waiting for them at the gate. Don’t care if your a million miles flyer. 

Pretty much this, your sailing on a mass market cruise line that so happens to have a separate section on the ship for guests willing to pay extra for a dedicated area. Get over yourselves thinking that you’re sailing on the Ritz ship or Ponant. We chose YC because of not having to fight for loungers by the pool and having a more 1 on 1 service. You dressing up in a tuxedo or dress is not going to impress me anymore or change my vacation.

The Cunard forum is leaking into others again, back you go 😂. We will be sailing with our toddler in YC, I will make sure to pick out his finest onesie for the top sail. 

Trigger word Cunard has been activated, paging @RocketMan275. We will now cover another 3 pages on how dare Cunard would make you wear a coat and tie for dinner on a cruise ship! 

4 minutes ago, The Med said:

Thank you but for  logistics we wanted to cruise from New York. 

Take a look at MSC and their Yacht Club rooms leaving from New York also. YC is the same concept as Haven so your own private ship within a ship concept and their interior YC rooms are priced competitively and much cheaper then what NCL wants for Haven.

New York is probably the worst port to embark from if you’re looking for a chill cruise experience and especially in the winter on a ship the size of Getaway. Ship will be packed, New York is driving distance for most of the passengers that will be onboard so expect a near capacity sailing.

its also going to be cold for the first 2 days of the cruise so all 4,000 passengers will be indoors. 

There’s also vacation mode dressing which can be casual for dinner ware ie jeans and a shirt and then there’s bragging about wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt to the Haven restaurant..

Seems like a recurring comment that everyone keeps mentioning outside of YC the ships are a zoo. I don’t understand, even NCL outside of Haven or Vibe club you are not getting any lounger near the pool after 7am and on sea days the main decks are packed, so what is different about MSC? 

Is there a different list of wines by the glass available in the YC area? I know someone mentioned the YC restaurant has a different wine list? I’m not really seeing anything premium plus about this list of wines..

Any other cruise line still sailing to Alaska in October? It’s like going to Bermuda in November and expecting Caribbean weather and then picachu face that it’s the opposite. 

It sounds like a cruise is really not what your looking for, Book an all inclusive beach vacation to Punta Cana or Cancun.

Well we ended up booking MSC Yacht Club for next year’s Greek itinerary. NCL is out of touch with Haven pricing reaching $12,000 a person on the Pearl. 

Wrong demographic to try and poach, Virgin is an adults only cruise and the vibe they try to portray is that Miami pool party look. Drop the adults only requirement, extend your cruises to longer than 5 days and I’m sure they will sell out. 

The problem with Cagney’s is when 90% of the ship has the free at sea package how is it any better then the mdr? Who actually goes to Cagney’s and pays full pop off the menu? 

3 hours ago, graphicguy said:

IKR?  I actually called Delta to make sure I was reading it right.  I was.  Pretty nice surprise on my end.  That said, I'm a 2 Million Miler with Delta.  And, I used to be "Platinum" with them every year before I retired a couple of years, ago.  Not sure if that had anything to do with it.  They normally don't care how much you've flown with them in the past.

 

But, these days, if I fly 10K miles with them annually, I'd be surprised.

 

The original flight was earlier, and this one is a "red eye" and a long 3 hour layover in Paris.  The original flight only had a 75 minute layover.  But, on Delta One?  I'll take it.  Just bought one of those fancy-shmantzy  "flight pillows" from Amazon to nap on.

 

We're actually embarking/disembarking in Marseille.  But, no worries about drinking champagne.  I'm not a wine/champagne kind of guy.  Bourbon?  Different story.  But, I'll leave plenty for you.

 

And, great advice about checking flights frequently.  The sooner you know about changes, the better your choices will be.  Delta is usually pretty good about texting me with changes when they happen, though.

2 million miler all continental US travel or international? That’s an insane amount of time to be in the air if it’s just jumping from one city or state to another. 

Holy Batman, they were $60 a person last year in July. 

Agreed on Posh, great place to hang out, personalized bar service, nice loungers with umbrellas and no need to worry about leaving your stuff while you head out for lunch. The not so positive is that no pool near by, you’ll need to either head back to the Haven courtyard or take the elevator down to the main deck pool to cool off and on the Med cruises in the summer that pool feels more like a hot tub lol. 

Amazing, Greg is one of cruisecritics’s top trip reviewers. I’ve been this close to booking a Carnival cruise because of your reviews and then the whole fist fights and drunken stupors that happen  and I go back to NCL lol. Since you have the premium plus drink package take advantage of any drink by the glass, if you see a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue, ask for a glass. Margarita? Yeah make it with Patron Anejo. 

It’s fine, we’ve arrived at port with no E-doc’s, app wasn’t working when we tried to pull it up and they processed us fine with our passports/ID

Interesting enough we were debating the same thing with our infant who would have been 8 months but instead chose an all inclusive. Here are some of the considerations that we came up with, very few ports on the Med are actually in the city center.

“Florence” is really an industrial port you dock at and requires transportation to even get out of the port, there is nothing around there. You would need to take a cab to the train station then hop on a 40 min train ride into Florence. Rome or “civitavecchia” is also no where near “Rome” and there is nothing in Civitavecchia to see other than a none working fountain. Barcelona while in the city, the port is far from any sites and again requires transport to get to the city center. Research the actual cruise port and logistics required with an infant to transport them. You will also be limited to enjoying the shows and amenities of the ship if your baby is like ours and is in bed by 7:30 unless you plan on bringing a grand parent to stay with them. With all that we just decided to wait until he is older and out of the nap schedules ect..

NCL is out to lunch with their early booking prices. Just looking now at the Greek islands for May 2024 and they want over $2500 for a balcony per person to sail on the Pearl or Dawn? Viva ok but your oldest ships in the fleet.. yeah no.