JustAPilot

American Citizens will not work for the peanuts in salary and 10 hour day shifts that cruise ships pay like their Filipino counter parts and the poa must have a certain amount of US citizens employed on it for them to sail. 

Pretty much, you also have to realize that a lot of the ports that the Epic stops in on the Med are not near the actual sites. Rome is nowhere near Rome where the ship docks, Florence is some industrial port and again no where near the town so you have to take account transport. When I did these ports recently it was even hard to get cabs to drive you to somewhere close because they all wanted $$$ for the longer rides.

Shame that we always joke about the Sky being a booze cruise and just laugh it off but in fact it really is just a booze cruise. Are the clientele mostly Florida residents blowing off some steam on the weekends? 

Bought 2 bottles of wine in one of the ports recently aboard Epic, asked to see my cruise card with the beverage package and waved me through. 

2 hours ago, TheycallmeDrew said:

Is it only available to prebook on certain ship or after a certain date? Not in my entertainment section for Epic but my cruise is not until February. 

Epic does not have Vibe, they have posh club which is a shared sun deck area with a bar reserved for Haven guests and they only sell a handful of passes which are still done at guest services. 

Had no issues with shorts in Cagney’s with my running shoes. Interesting enough they denied me access to the mdr on the first day for lunch because I was wearing a tanktop. Like yeah it was balls hot in Spain and our luggage haven’t yet arrived. I thought they were lenient on the first day? 

I’ve never had luck getting my bid accepted in the poor range, most people here are getting them in the fair or better range. 

No way.. I can also promise you that if you fly business class you will never want to fly economy again. 😂

Don’t drink soda but they had cans of Coke Zero on the Epic a few weeks ago and didn’t seem to charge extra for cans vs the soda gun. 

I say keep it, if you test positive on a anti-gen test more then likely you already have symptoms and I’d rather you not spoil my vacation and get me sick.

2 minutes ago, complawyer said:

im sorry, what is the cc statement, i was under the impression we'd get an email confirmation if the bid was accepted and wouldnt hear anything if it wasnt

If you haven’t won it by now expect the automated “unfortunately we could not accept your bid” email 24 hours before you sail. That was my experience last week anyways but I only bid the minimum amount.

When you say you are foodies what does that mean? Do you dine in Michelin star restaurants? Epic holds 4,000 guests, the food is good, nothing exceptional nor considered “foodie” type and again my definition of a foodie is Michelin star quality. Luminae on Celebrity is foodie type, NCL does not have that. 

13 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Typically, those who can't get ashore (and more back of house types are in this category than front of house), arrange with friends who can, to pick up things.  There is also a very busy "flea market" on crew decks, at least twice a week, where those who went ashore sell items to those who couldn't, or barter services (laundry, tailoring, haircuts) for items.  There are also ethnic "Mafias" that tend to take care of their compatriots.

Haha so true Cheng we asked one of the crew on our recent Med cruise what their favourite stop was and they mentioned Naples because how close it is walking and they have a Filipino grocery shop and it was rammed with crew when we walked by it, all covid precautions were out the door in that shop.

We just did the Med on Epic and the ship was close to capacity. Lots of international guests especially from South America, NCL did both English and Spanish announcements. We also had lots of guests from Israel to, so yes ships are back to capacity with lots of international paying passengers with money.

Covid is alive and well on the ships as I was walking back to my room and saw the hazmat suits and someone getting escorted with the spray behind them. I did a 180 and took the long way back.

9 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

So that I can knowledgeably respond to the entertainment, I'm actually going to attempt to partake next month. Until then all I can do is respond based on what I've heard here, seen in reviews, and heard on Podcast reviews. NCL's music sounds like it was designed for those that are 60+. 

 

I'm almost 40 and don't want to listen to the old music being played in Syd Norman's, Burn the Floor, or any of the venues. The only potentially acceptable live music may be karaoke as someone my age might sing a song I care about...you from the 2000's...

9 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

 

Gen Y but I did enjoy the Beatles Show, get there early like others suggested the band put on a good show and sounded great. 

The entertainment needs to be revamped , burn the the floor? Snooze fest unless your 70+, dueling pianos sounded like karaoke tryouts. Good, premium drink package Grey Goose and Patron included ohh yeah. 

OP never said it was a 2bdr, all we got was that all the adults  staying in the same room paid the same. My burning question is who got the master bedroom if all the adults paid the same? Did we have to pull straws or what, no way I’d volunteer to be on the couch 😂

I like how the whole cruise critic NCL group could all agree that stuffing 5 adults in a room for 6 is a bad idea lol. 

Beyond the rant I didn’t know about this numbering system and phone app that must be used. I wouldn’t chance it regardless if everything went smoothly and just pick a cruise line like Disney if my kids need club access. 

On Epic now, everyone’s favourite Bong the bartender is onboard and serving at Posh. 2000 passengers onboard for this cruise. We have a problem though, Virgin cruises is right next to us and that ship looks sleek, makes Epic look like scrap metal 😂 . Already had the Sid special, Margarita with patron silver, ok maybe a few of those. 

This is also a port intensive cruise, ie no sea days, most passengers would be returning late afternoons for departure. You really won’t have much lounging time unless you plan on staying on the ship.

Agreed price point is getting out of hand, if the whole reason you are booking Vibe is to be away from kids why would you book a family cruise line to begin with? Virgin Cruises is adults only and they have lots of padded seating.