UKstages

mushroom flatbread is my favorite haven menu item, but i discovered that the recipe, taste and presentation varies somewhat. they completely nailed it on the gem. but i felt there was no joy in the flatbread on the joy.

i did find something for past customers on the canadian NCL site offering $200 for any cruise on the getaway... in 2015. why that page is still out there and hasn't been cleaned up, i don't know. but that's the only offer of this type i was able to see.

of course, i remember! how are you? it's homecoming week here, what with you, me and kwok all in the same thread! i was on the prima in may and do not think it's the best of the NCL ships, for a variety of reasons. many people do like it. i think it has many things to recommend. but i also think it has a lot of poorly designed features and venues. and one very dirty shameful secret. i did an extensive review of sorts. you can read all about my (mis)adventures on the prima in this thread...

i'm having problems with a wonky NCL site tonight... what else is new? i had to go to three different browsers and then every time i tried to access my account, it would ask me to log in again. rinse. lather. repeat. over and over again. an endless loop. but that's not the interesting part. on one of those page reloads the homepage displayed a black friday banner that advertised a $200 onboard credit on every cruise. was that a test? a harbinger of a true black friday discount? or just another instance of a wonky website and poor design? i hate to start rumors, but i know what i saw... and now it's vanished. fyi, it wasn't the credit card banner that advertises $250 OBC for a new card... it specifically advertised a "$200 onboard credit" - on "all" cruises or "every" cruise - as part of a black friday promotion. and it was a banner ad, a gif or jpg or png file that a graphic artist had to prepare... not just a wayward text field or coding mistake or something left over from a prior promotion.. anybody see this? or know anything about it?

cabins these days tend to be ready between 2 and 3:30, depending ion a host of factors. higher decks are often ready earlier, as are haven and suites. there is usually a place where you can drop your carry on bags and pick them up once cabins are ready. i haven't sailed the viva, but on the prima, its sister ship, bag drop was in the improv.

but, but, but... what if they change the rules and you can no longer bring a bottle of hot sauce onboard... how would you ever know? have a great time... bon voyage!

i get that message all the time. just a temporary glitch or server misfire on the backend. try it again literally five seconds later and it should work. the offer has not been maxed out. my best guess is that the website hadn’t finished processing the previous offer that was requested to be added, hence the error message.

booking a prima room is like playing russian roulette. er, i mean, italian roulette. there are known dangers and hidden dangers. i personally wouldn’t book a room with proximity to the slide, but everybody has different tolerance levels for noise and everybody has different sleep schedules and preferences for what they like to see when sitting on their balconies. there is always a chance on the prima that you could get a room far from the slide that is plagued with internal noise problems. you pays your money, you takes your chances. they haven’t yet addressed that problem on the prima.

i was just going to make the same recommendation. neither of those include pool access, but both generally include hot tub access. spice H2O tends to be a bit crowded and chaotic. the vibe is an oasis of serenity and expedited drink service, with limited occupancy and guaranteed seating at plush lounge chairs. i just spent 19 days on the joy with a vibe pass and it was wonderfully relaxing.

amending my own post to say i believe it's called the penrose bar. the penrose does double duty as the casino service bar.

yes, agreed... but that's because they technically don't have a dedicated casino bar on the prima. all drink service for the casino is handled by the atrium bar... and they are often overwhelmed. you know, as much as i spend a lot of time in the casino, i have never done a slot pull! those are typically held as a M&G after party and i rarely go to the M&Gs. if you're looking for a secluded place to meet up that's close to the casino... i can recommend the so-called VIP casino. nobody knows it's there. it's sort of discreetly hidden behind the atrium bar, accessed by doors on either side. there are two video poker machines that i went in there to play... a lot... far from the madding crowd, with great air conditioning. there are also two or three table games in there, but i only ever saw one other person in there. there are also... snacks... usually a few pastries. of course, if you have a lot of people, belvedere is better. be aware, though, that it's not always open. so if you're meeting in the morning, the bar will be closed. you can sit there, but no drink service.

currently on hiatus, but if you haven't heard them before, they're all new to you: the randy rainbow podcast and just to make this on topic, i will say that randy and his chums have done broadway-themed cruises on NCL, i think, miost recently on the gem. one of those sixthman deals. also: the moth this american life storytelling at its finest. and just to keep this on topic, i will add that many NCL cruises depart from american ports and i have never seen a moth in any NCL shipboard closet.

are you thinking, perhaps, of the metropolitan bar? that's where trivia is typically played. deck 7. lots of foot traffic. the belvedere is nestled between cagney's and the commodore room on deck 6. very little foot traffic.

that's good, but i think paul mccartney may have said it better. i'm mostly an EWR guy, but i believe delta runs an airside shuttle bus at JFK between terminals 2 and 4. non-delta passengers have been known to hitch a ride to avoid going through security again. not sure if that's still allowed.

you will find decidedly mixed reviews of the prima, here and elsewhere. it's one of NCL's newest ships and is very different than many of the previous ships. there is much to recommend and also some serious lapses in judgment and design. it's either the best ship in the fleet or a horribly misguided experiment, depending on whom you talk to. earlier this year, i spent nearly three weeks onboard. i thought the truth was somewhere in between...

clearly, the uptick is driven by all those 10% off coupons.

i can assure you that chat GPT has not been to those restaurants and attractions! it’s really just a content aggregator. the things it has recommended have most likely been written about a lot on the web and in guidebooks. so you’re going to get directed to the most popular things that people buzz about. there’s some value in that, to be sure. but, to me, these would be lifeless, soulless, impersonal recommendations lacking nuance and a full understanding of my particular needs and desires. (then again, I was married to a lifeless, soulless person who lacked nuance and a full understanding of my particular needs and desires. so I see where you may be going with this! carry on. but do be open to aimless wandering and serendipitous discovery.)

well, technically, the hot tub’s posted rules limit capacity to six people. and I have only rarely seen more than six people in there. it’s usually only two or three. at least that was my experience on my two recent cruises with vibe access. i never saw any hot tub action that I would describe as “packed” nor did I see anything that I would label as “community style.” not even sure I know what that means… certainly people talk and develop friendships over the course of a week or more in the vibe, yes. but it’s not some sort of forced conviviality nor is it limited to the hot tubs. the packed hot tubs? you”ll find those in spice H2O. that is the adults only venue that you don’t have to pay for. but you’ll also find cigarette smoke wafting through the place from the section where they allow it.the vibe is nonsmoking. it can also be hard to find a space in spice. and it’s a bit of a party atmosphere because while it is an adults only venue, most of the adults are very young. and many don’t act like adults. for what it’s worth, i didn’t find anything “defensive” in the quoted post. it was just someone assessing your situation and drawing the same conclusion you have… that the vibe is not for you. also for what it’s worth, I am not a big drinker myself. in the vibe, i had mainly sprite zero and mocktails. but I find value in this quiet adults only venue, the attentive service and the guaranteed availability of plush loungers and umbrellas.

i haven’t sailed RCL. i take it the cup is the indicator that you’ve purchased the drink or soda package? and that is how bartenders know they can do an authorized pour? on NCL, your keycard carries that indication, both printed on it and embedded in a chip within. FYI, bottled water or water in a carton is not included in NCL’s entry level drinks package.

except the decision isn't made by corporate. it's made by the captain, who then informs corporate, and maybe even consults with corporate along the way (and they may offer an opinion), but ultimately it's the captain's decision. and it's based on a number of factors, with guest satisfaction usually somewhere at the bottom of the list. the safety of the crew, the ship and its passengers is usually of paramount concern. without knowing particulars, it's difficult to say why one ship was able to get to port and another wasn't. my best guess is that it was not a fiscal decision based on saving fuel or money, but one borne of safety concerns due to winds and some sort of inclement weather. i can't say why the breakaway wasn't able to get to port, but the MSC ships were... but it's never an apples to apples comparison. in the end, it's risk assessment and a lot of that has to do with what the captain believes to be true 18 - 36 hours out. the MSC ships and the breakaway each have different captains. and each ship may not have faced the very same weather challenges, nor could the ships have been prepared to handle those challenges in the same way. i've been on a lot of cruises on which there were skipped ports. in fact, i've never been to great stirrup cay (which i understand may not be that great), even though it's been on my itinerary for three cruises. it's always been canceled due to weather. on my most recent cruise, we skipped. st. maarten. as upsetting as these things can be... it's just what happens when cruising.

not a part of the haven at all. the joy has oddball suites, different from the rest of the fleet. you don't get much extra. you get a really nice room and an imaginary concierge. typically, it's the same concierge team as the haven, but they'll give you just a cursory letter introducing themselves, but will be otherwise distant or unavailable and unhelpful unless you press the issue, which is hardly worth it. i did a B2B on the joy last year. the first week was in an SC suite; the following week was in the haven. the concierge treatment was night and day... same team, but they were completely invisible when i was in the suite. you don't get breakfast or lunch by virtue of having suite accommodation on the joy, as you do on other ships, and you won't get nightly treats (other than what you would from latitudes or casino status) nor will you have a butler. what you'll get is a very large room (by cruise ship standards), in a premium location, with a good sized bathroom with shower/tub combo, plenty of storage and a nearly double wide balcony, large enough for a table and chair and lounger. this is based on my experience in september 2022. i'm not saying these are not good rooms... they are indeed excellent rooms. but they should not be booked expecting the NCL suite treatment that you get on other ships.

perhaps. while GE doesn’t do you much good returning to the US from a cruise, if you plan on traveling by air - and returning to the US - it can really expedite your passage once you arrive, sometimes by as much as an hour or more. the thing that many people don’t realize is that, in most cases, global entry includes domestic TSA pre check clearance. TSA pre check is never guaranteed, even for those who have specifically signed up for it, but, in practice, you’ll get it 99% of the time. so, too, with global entry… as a “known traveller,” you’ll almost always get TSA pre check when traveling domestically. the price for global entry is only a bit more and the application process is virtually the same.

well, most people who upgrade to the vibe cancel their vibe reservations. so that would help fund part of your upgrade cost. i'd go for it, make a bid, no harm no foul... as far as "attention" goes, minimum bids get a lot of attention... on cruise critic! in the world of upgrades, not so much. very few minimum bids succeed unless the cruise really is as under-booked or sleepy as you suggest.

the joy haven library is the quietest place on the ship. as for other asian influences on the original joy... my understanding is that there used to be two tea houses on board.... a fancy one and an ordinary one. and also a korean hot pot restaurant and a noodle bar. some of these occupied the spaces now housing teppanyaki and district brew house. there was also a karaoke bar and a lot more retail space. and only a very small gym. and no starbucks. and, of course, a lot of the original art was chinese. that's all gone. and in an ironic twist, they took out cabins to create the observation lounge! and we all know how that story ends.

so what have we learned here, folks? my takeaway is that katy perry and luis fonsi may not be nearly as popular as NCL thought they were. if you chart the stock dips, you will no doubt see that the stock plummets after each of their recent appointments. we can only hope somebody in miami has convinced taylor swift to be the godmother of the aqua. she saved the NFL, surely she can save NCL.