UKstages

oh, i'm not "bothered" by smoke. i'm bothered by death. and so i'm concerned about the 7.000 chemicals in that smoke onboard NCL ships in their cassinos, at least five dozen of which are known cancer causing agents. there are indeed people who are highly sensitive to or are allergic to cigarette smoke, so i guess these would be the folks who are "bothered" by smoke in NCL casinos.

it's the ship. it's a very poorly managed ship, with dispassionate senior leadership. i have a long post/review here on cruise critic that speaks to this issue. i wouldn't write off NCL until you have sailed at least one other ship. in my opinion, the joy is among the best in the fleet. (good haven, too.)

many recent threads discuss this issue. do a search for "vibe pass." the chances of you getting a vibe pass on the day of embarkation are actually quite good (on any NCL ship) according to many reports, including my own, provided you can get on the ship as early as possible.

nearly everything the OP talks about here has happened to me at sometime or another on an NCL ship... but not all of these things on the same cruise. on balance, i think NCL offers a pretty good and reliable mainstream product. with regard to awful food and inedible meat... if you're talking about the steak in the main dining room, you're spot on. it is awful and inedible. most here would agree. but most here don't order it any longer. NCL generally gets pretty high marks for food. and as you yourself pointed out, the specialty restaurants are pretty darn good. respectfully, some of your concerns here could have been addressed by better researching NCL's ships, restaurants, policies and procedures before sailing with them. the generalization of the staff as "rude" and "awful" is just that... a generalization. any time you get 1000 or more people together on a team in the hospitality industry, there are bound to be some who could benefit from coaching. sounds like you had some bad experiences in the buffet and at the internet cafe. i have, as well. as for smoking in the casino... i spend an inordinate amount of time in the casino and i agree... it's 2024. nobody smokes anymore. get with the program, NCL! (and they have. all of NCL's casinos on its new ships in the past seven or eight years or so are nonsmoking, with purpose built smaller smoking areas contained within a glass enclosure.) to be fair, it's probably more like 14 or 15% of their guests that smoke (not 5%), but the trend is definitely toward nonsmoking gaming. and NCL has addressed that on their newest ships. THIS. a thousand times this. invariably, whenever i see staff behavior that's way out of line, it's in direct response to a particularly challenging customer. that doesn't make it right, but it does make it understandable.

gosh, i don't work for carnival and i can't define their terms or what they mean when they say they provide a plan that only offers access to social media. but they certainly can. and they have. from their website: "access the most popular social websites and applications. includes facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, facebook messenger, whatsapp, snapchat and the most popular airline sites. does not include access to most other websites or apps. it's called the "social wifi plan" and it starts at $15.20 per person per day.

yes, that's precisely what they do. they whitelist only social media sites and apps. they restrict access to anything not known to be a social media site or app. airlines do a variation of this... they don't want you using the limited bandwidth to stream content so they restrict access to netflix, showtime, max, HBO, hulu, disney, siriusxm, pandora, spotify, etc. (and that's all well and good, unless you work for one of those companies and try to access your web mail... you're shut out! i speak from personal experience.)

unless you're in the vibe, where i have found the "who you ask, when you ask, how you ask" philosophy is in full force and applies to cans of soda, cans of hard seltzer, cartons of water and bottles of beer. not just at the end of the day, but anytime you're departing and want "one for the road." YMMV.

when refilling, for safety and hygiene purposes, NCL requires at the buffet that you fill a glass with your beverage, then transfer that beverage from the glass to your reusable container. your container should never be anywhere near the beverage dispenser/spigots.

i did. i sensed it within the smithy of my soul. anytime a post begins with something "the cruise next people" have said, i know we're in for a good time.

i’m thinking the 2099 expiration date is because that’s the year that the prima will begin making successful port calls at isafjordur.

indeed.

well, when you first said this... that you don't get any less... i assumed you were talking about portion size. yes, that's true, the portions are the same regardless of whether you are paying through a FAS credit, a platinum voucher or buying a la carte. i knew everybody else was talking about the number of items. but now it appears, surprisingly, that you are indeed talking about the number of items, as well. and we're all very glad that you haven't come across this on your cruises and that the staff of each restaurant has bestowed kindness upon you and ignored NCL's terms. but a cursory search on cruise critic will deliver many recent threads in which this is discussed and in which many people say that the restaurant staff held firm to the terms. so, this is very much a case in which "YMMV," and for many of us, it has. even in this thread, there are reports that they are now more strict at food republic about sharing. if you haven't come across limitations when redeeming platinum vouchers, there is a good chance that you will at some point.

i haven't kept track, but i think it's done a bit more often than once or twice a year. they did it for black friday, and here we are, about five or six weeks later and, oops, they've done it again.

it's showing as complimentary for my cruise later this month on the getaway. i have to disagree with those who've said that this looks like the o'sheehan's (and the local) menu... while there are a few dishes that are the same or similar, many of the items in every category are different and, in some cases, unique. smoked fish dip, pulled pork sliders, chicken pot pie, meat loaf, bread pudding, chocolate mousse. i don't remember seeing those at the local or o'sheehan's, but i could be wrong. it's not the old american diner menu, that's for sure, (and not just because the lobster sliders are gone), and, yes, there is an up-charge for the milkshakes, but i think this is a place that i would eat on more than one occasion. previously, the only time i ate at at the american diner was on embarkation day, as a haven guest. add pizza, allow takeaway, and make the joint 24 hours and i'd be a very happy camper. (i do also wonder if they will be open for a light complimentary breakfast, as they have been on some ships.) this should make the MDRs more manageable on sea days on crowded ships. at least it should, once people find out about it. but the american diner on some ships is rather trucked away and inconveniently located, so some people never even come across this venue.

for $200? i suspect so. club balcony cabins are not traditional suites, despite the moniker. for the most part, the best feature is a larger bathroom. also, on the joy, actual suites do not have some of the benefits associated with suites on other NCL ships, chief among them that there is no special breakfast or lunch provided. that said, if this is a real suite for only $200 more, then, yes, it may be worth it just for the extra room.

it comes and goes quite frequently. or as dorothy gale quipped "[cruise first certificates] come and go so quickly here." i think the black friday "sale" was the last time we saw it and it lasted about a week. so, it's been about three weeks. i've been waiting for it to return, as i was unable to purchase last time due to web site login snafus. what's interesting is that the terms say a cruise of six days or more is required. i remember it as being five days previously, but perhaps i'm misremembering. not a concern, as most of my cruises are seven days or more... still, that caught my eye.

well, once again, as somebody who has spent decades in corporate america in the contact center industry, i know a thing or two about customer service satisfaction scores and surveys. they have absolutely evolved over the years. most are now handled by independent companies hired for the task and internal NCL departments live and die by these scores. while it's true that most comments are no longer read by a human being, it's not true that companies are not interested in their customers' words. in the same way they use voice analytics to monitor PCC phone conversations, survey comments and hero cards are scanned for positive and negative buzz words. anything outside the norm, on either side, is kicked back for human review for coaching purposes or to honor and reward the individual, or in the case of surveys, sometimes entire departments, policies or practices need to be addressed. the survey, however, is fashioned in such a way as to only solicit feedback after a negative score. and that is - in my view - misguided.

i don't think the availability of vibe passes onboard varies as much as the answers to this question do. there have been several recent threads which discuss and debate this topic ad nauseam, and i have participated in all of them, so i'll only say here that, as somebody who boarded the joy at 11:15 AM or so in october of this year in new york and then again at 11 AM or so in miami (on the second leg of a B2B), vibe passes were available... and there were quite a few, somewhere between 30 and 60, depending on how many were solo passes or double passes. the rep who sold it tio me said they always hold passes back for sale on embarkation day.

moi, aussi. as a solo diner, i routinely do this. every cruise. every time. i either give the wine to my cabin attendant (two bottles, on a back to back) or, sometimes, i take it home. so, while it's true YMMV, MMHNV (my mileage has never varied).

i don't get the duck thang, either. and my mind turns to the liability issues, with people tripping over the ducks, which is why i would think the cruise lines would frown upon or disallow the practice. and when my mind is turning away from the liability, i think of chico marx, who famously asked: "why a duck? why a no chicken?... I catch on a why a horse, why a chicken, why a this, why a that...I no catch on a why a duck!"

my experience, as noted above, is with a similar elevator to deck 19 on the joy. it is very easy to miss... there is no sign that says "elevator" or "lift." it's just a conventional unmarked door that opens up into a small room with the elevator door. some people, as they pass by, might think it was a bathroom or a "crew only"area. i first discovered it as i was leaving the vibe for the first time, then it took me a few days to figure out how to access it from the other decks. if you're on 18 and you press the button to call an elevator going up... that'll be the one that arrives. it might take awhile to get there, as it drops passengers elsewhere and few use it to go to 19. if you're on any other deck, it's unlikely you'll get that elevator. i think i got it once... just by chance. you'll have to transfer on 18 or simply walk up one flight.

the captain and the general manager have a monthly meeting at which the hero card program is discussed and "heroes" are saluted across all departments. in addition to the reward aspect of the program, this recognition and honor can mean more to some than the time off or any monetary award. yes, really. people are motivated by many different things. and while there is another current thread in which some people say "cash rules," the fact is... not always. particularly within the filipino culture, recognition in the workplace is a major source of job satisfaction.

the joy was my first vibe experience. (they say you always remember your first.) it was wonderful... super attentive bar staff, large bar (technically, two bars separated by a partition and kitchen entryway). great plush lounge chairs, umbrellas, lots of cookies and fruit and carafes of water. three or four very well-maintained bathrooms. two hot tubs. lots of friendly folks. never that crowded, which contrary to the belief of some, does not mean that people buy passes and never visit.. but that the vibe is only one of the things they enjoy doing on the ship. as for an elevator to the joy's vibe: there is one forward elevator, just one, that goes up there. on 19, it's located just beyond the stairwell outside the vibe and below what is currently the laser tag area. it's difficult to catch it and even more difficult to ride it express, but lots of people usually get off at the buffet, depending on the time of day. if you are ambulatory, it is much easier to take the elevator to 18 and walk up a flight. but you can transfer on 18 and - eventually - that elevator will arrive to whisk you up one floor. on 19, the elevator opens from the rear, which always shocks and surprises the people onboard who are not getting on or off at the vibe. and it is in a little purpose-built room.... with just one elevator... there is no bank of elevators, so it is easy to miss, if you don't know what you're looking for. i do see some comments above about the vibe elevator on the escape... perhaps it is similarly located?

i came across my first duck onboard the prima in may. i took it with me to a restaurant, i think it was onda, whereupon a server swooped in and claimed it as her own not five minutes after i had found it. . there was not even a possibility of saying no... she was an overpowering force.

that's good news for most of us. my condolences to the bird.