JustAPilot

4 hours ago, Sydneyberlin said:

As long as you can still get a good bottle of French champagne and any available drink by the glass through this package, it’s still amazing value to us. You can still get those or not?

The problem is actually finding “value” alcohol available onboard these days with all these changes. Bottles of Veuve for lunch and dinner was value, Moët bottles were value, Don Julio 1942 was value, Johnny Blue was value, Silverado Cab Sauv.
 

Now, I don’t see any wines on their “by the glass” list that are worth more then the premium plus package is worth.

Sure let me order bottles of your finest East West garbage in-house brewed wine. 

Those wings taste great as a midnight snack. 

Have they fixed the smoke stacks so they are not raining sludge when you’re in Spice H2O? Any visible rust in the outdoor public areas? 

So have they readded the Veuve by the bottle and removed Moet? I’m fine with that, looks like Hennessy XO has also been added, yeah I can do a lot of damage with that list. 
 

They also added the 1 bottle per package holder because it was probably getting abused with 1 person in the party ordering bottles for all of their table mates. 

1 hour ago, RobertDuff said:

Embarked in NY Dec 16. The H2O was fully opened. On Sunday Dec 18 it was warm enough that we spent most of the day at H2O. This was our second cruise on the Epic and the H20 was our favorite area to send the day. 

By mid day, my wife noticed my white shirt had rusty colored stains. then she noticed my hands were rusty colored. Later I noticed my feet and shins were the same rusty color. We had no idea what happened. We both thought that I possibly had rubbed onto a freshly varnished handrail as they were varnishing in the main pool area. 

The next day we walked the port area in Puerto Plata and returned to the ship and the H2O by noon. My wife went right to the hot tub, before she even got out of the hot tub, I noticed my feet and shins were rusty colored again. Then my hands. I had a dark shirt on and the same dark bathing suit and I didnt notice any staining on them. 

When my wife came up front he hot tub, she saw that my head was rusty colored. My hair, my bald spot, my face. I noticed her neck and face were rusty. She had that exposed while she was in the hot tub. Just as we were being wondering about what in the world is happening, we were hit with raining dark colored stuff. Falling from the sky it raining dark pieces of stuff that were hitting the chairs, the floor, people. the pieces ranged in size from tiny specs up to and including the largest piece that I saw of about 3 inches. I looked at my wide brimmed sun hat and it was a many black speckled hat now. My wife's newly purchased "beach" bag, just for this trip, was badly speckled on one side too. 

The dark objects that rained down on us dissolved as you touched it. As people walked out, the floor just looked very dirty and people walked on the specks and they dissolved into a dark mess. 

An epaulet was there and was immediately on his phone and that is when i saw him taking a photo of the largest 3-inch piece. I asked him if this is why the H20 was closed for a long time and he responded that indeed, this is why H2O was shut down. Within a few minutes they closed down the H2O. 

It was soot being expelled from the smoke stacks. If you look around the H2O, you can see areas that look rusty colored. In fact, they had a painter working the very day I was turning orange painting over rusty stained steel. 

We went right down and showered and then I took my hat and white shirt from the day before to Guest Services. After listening to me and my question as to what NCL will do about this,  he took my hat inside and after a few minutes returned and said that I should bring down all the clothing that was stained and they would launder the items. I told him my wide brimmed starched hat will be ruined for sure but I will at give it a try. I let him know too, that the bag was brand new. After some discussion he went back inside, came out and said they would do there best. Told him we would be back with all of the clothes worn the last two days. 

Arrived with the clothing, hat and the bag. He was to the left of a column and he said he would be right back, and walked to the next Guest Services lady who happed to be behind the column. We couldn't see each other but I sure could hear her. She was telling my rep, to make sure to do an inventory, have me agree to it and to make sure I am charged and that they would take it off if the customer complains. 

I immediately stepped around the column and asked, "excuse me, did I just hear right, that you are going to charge me for this laundry that was your fault? " She said no, that certainly they would not charge me. I said that is not what I heard you say and that you would only take the charge off if I complained. I said, "well, I am complaing now and you better not charge me" She apologized  and said they would not charge me and that it was NCLs fault and they apprciate my giving them a chance to wash the items. 

Thursday morning we received the items and we still had stains, although they did get alot of it out. But still left with a white shirt, a new bag and my sun hat with stains, not to mention the brim has lost its starch. We didn't say anything. We would not complain. We never got a good apology, never acknowledging that our items were ruined. Very disappointed in NCLs response to this but we were going to lets things go. 

As we were disembarking, they flagged us for "financial problems". Told to stand in line for a guy working on a computer right in exit area of the ship. We could not believe we had a "financial" problem as my credit card on file had more than enough of a limit plus, NCL owed ME money from cancelled excursions. I had visited Guest Services the day before and went over my bill since they had a small discrepancy. They corrected that. Not a word was mentioned about the money they owed me (assumed it would be credited back on the credit card as it has always been with our cancelled excursions) nor was any charge for laundry on the bill. 

So they pulled me from our self embarkation, made us wait in line for another 20 minutes for our "financial" problem. Looked at my app and the bill pn my phone app says they still owe me money but not what I am expecting. They had a new charge on the bill. $17.80 laundry bill. 

When I finally got to the guy, he said my "financial" problem was that NCL owed me money and proceeded to pull cash out of a manila envelope and give it to me. 

He said it was always their policy to pay people in cash. I told him it was rude to pull people out of a line and make them wait when they could and always did credit the card on file. That is why the card IS on file. He changed his story from "that's how we always did it" to "we have changed our policy". 

I didn't argue about the laundry charge as we wanted to get off the ship and start enjoying Old San Juan. 

I will call on Monday. 

H2O did open later in the cruise but we never went back. This has been an ongoing problem and they have yet to fix it. If I would have known the problem was never corrected, I would never have use the H20. I gave the benefit of the doubt to NCL. I assumed I could trust them. You know what they say about assuming something!

 

I’m with you mate, Epic needs to go into dry dock or get scrapped, it’s old, spewing sludge from the smoke stacks, rust in the public areas, state rooms are a crap design .

This whole they don’t care what you wear to the mdr on embarkation day is very ymmv. I wore a tank top and shorts on Epic this summer out of Spain because it was balls hot and was denied entry for lunch and had to go to the buffet. Told to go change even though our luggage hadn’t yet arrived. 

Interesting, at first I was of the mind set that there’s nothing to be proud of if your slamming back 15 alcoholic drinks a day for 7 days straight. BUT when I used the calculator and I was being modest with 2 speciality coffees, 3 beers, a glass of wine and 2 bottles of water, the cheers package still came out ahead. So definitely use the calculator! 

On 11/28/2022 at 1:31 PM, MTCRUISER2412 said:

Looking at booking another NCL cruise and I am curious if they offer zero proof whiskey, gin or vodka on the ships.  I have not drank for years but like to enjoy a "zero" drink when relaxing. If not is there any way I could request this if booking the Haven?  Thank you

To answer your question, other than non alcoholic beer they don’t have zero alcohol spirits. I don’t see why you can’t email the Haven concierge and inquire about bringing your own onboard though before sailing.

For our “ha ha” no alcohol crowd just remember the damage alcohol does to your body and the effects it can have being classified as a carcinogen. I commend this individual for their years of sobriety. 

There is nothing on that list that isn’t bottom shelf quality. Captain Morgan? Sailor Jerry? Are you trying to relive your college days or just get black out drunk? 😂

This has been discussed to death on the NCL forum, $21.80 per day is essentially 2 drinks a day and that doesn’t include some silly 15 drink limit like Cheers. 

The major lines now include the drink package as part of your fare. Nobody is running to their cabin these days to fill their cup with liquor. I’m on vacation, part of that is if I want a drink, I walk up to the many bars on the ship and order one as part of my included drink package.

Or switch cruise lines, what is this nonesense anyways with a 15 drink limit for a drink package that you paid extra for? Coming from the NCL forum I read some of the cruise reviews (which were very well written by the way) props to Meagan and other reviewers for giving us an inside tour of Carnival. Compared to NCL even without the fist fights happening where is the value with Carnival? 

It’s in line with the rest of their non-new ships, Star is even worse with that cafeteria style garden buffet. 

And you ask what recession we are in when your group can book the whole vibe to themselves lol. 

Now that’s one heck of a way to spend 21 nights on a cruise, enjoy friend.

3 hours ago, JM0115 said:

Love PPBP! Champagne and a beautiful bottle of wine with dinner at Onda on Encore

Now find out where they are keeping the Johnny Blue bottle for dessert. 😎

On 10/11/2022 at 11:57 PM, cruiserchris613 said:

Just off the Epic about 2.5 weeks ago and yeah, the entire aft upper deck area including the sports court was closed.

 

Got off at the first port of call in Ajaccio and looked up and the topside is just covered in this very unsightly and gross-looking brownish-yellowish stain. You can kinda see it in the photo below, but it's much more noticeable in person. Noticed 3 or 4 guys in Chantiers d'Atlantique (Epic's builders) shirts onboard, wondering if they were working on whatever's spewing out from the stacks.

 

Another rather unsightly (and quite embarrassing) thing I noticed was that some of the LED lighting outlining each of the letters of the "NORWEGIAN EPIC" nameboard on the aft sundeck was either malfunctioned or just burnt out, so the entire week our name was the "NORWFCIA PIC". Didn't notice this until we disembarked the ship just before sunrise. Embarrassing because we had the gleaming new Wonder of the Seas docked in front of us and we sailed past her at sailaway. Wondered what they were thinking...

Haha yeah we felt the same way when we were docked in Barcelona with Virgin’s brand new ship across from us. Made Epic look like scrap metal, the burned out logo is the icing on the cake though lol.

Hey as long as they keep the goose and patron in the $15 category it’s all good. But really, I would think that Grey Goose and Patron would cost NCL more money including it in the drink package then removing Bailey’s and Crown Royal. None of those drinks are premium especially in Canada where Crown Royal goes on sale often.
 

Even when we were in France this summer Grey Goose was considered premium and the pricing was equivalent to anywhere else you would get it. Patron even at duty free is not that cheap. 

Yeah no one is itching to go to Alaska this time of year. 

I just walk by them and think it’s silly, what annoys me is the groups you see of 10 or more checking in with the matching t-shirts. You just know they are going to be an annoying bunch crowding the bars and taking up the waiters time in the restaurants while they all hum and ho on what each person will order. 

We also all live in Igloos and ride polar bears to work in Canada. 

Exchange US dollars for CDN at home at your bank or exchange place, CDN dollar is ridiculously low compared to the US dollar, or use your credit card. 

Every year we get people booking hurricane cruises and every year we get complainers that they didn’t get to go to this port or that it was total mayhem when their ship had to divert to a non-scheduled port and immigration and tours were a total mess. I guess NCL is still filling ships and paying bills so the bad publicity they get every hurricane season outweighs it.

Just pause cruising for those months and focus on filling the ships in the Med until November then bring the ships back for the Caribbean. 

I still don’t understand what you are asking? If you “slipped” through the cracks and got a free premium plus package? The answer is no and if you cancel it then it will disappear and you will get refunded the amount you spent on it. 

A DUI in Canada is considered a felony offence and not a Misdemeanor like in the US and you most likely will not be admissible to Canada without an exemption. 

Ship looks fantastic, will see how the furniture makes out after a few spring break weeks in the Caribbean. 🙂