laudergayle

One of my favorites. TIP OF THE DAY: Remember our shows onboard are complimentary for you to enjoy. IN other words…don’t ask for any credit for lack of shows (no Priscilla, no Beatles). However, a day later they did give passengers a $7.50 OBC each.

Here are the dailies for 2/5-2/12. I wouldn’t use these as a guide however since it seems that the Beatles and Cavern Club are back. However, it will give you an idea of what activities are onboard.

We like to make an index card showing the public decks —6.7.8–and 15-16-17. We list the restaurants, bars, guest services, entertainment venues snd note if they are aft, mid or fwd, along with port or starboard. This way we know the direction we’re heading and don’t have to hang with the crowds at the elevator. We take the stairs when possible—especially going down. When waiting for the elevator if you’re going up, stand in front of doors which are on lower floors. If going down stand if front if doors above you. Go to the front of the buffet where it is s little less crowded and grab s table before getting your food…then take turns getting your plate. Take two and use one as a cover to keep your food warm and covered. Go with the flow and have fun.

I think three adults in a balcony cabin would be really tight. The curve on the bed really would be an issue for someone tall. DH is 5’10” and I’m 5’2” and both of our feet hung off the bed. The sofa would also be short for an adult IMO. Plus the bathroom layout would be more awkward for three people in the room. The sink is right in front of the sofa in some cabins. we normally book club suite (Breakaway and Bliss) but did regular larger balcony for this cruise 12017. Loved the location of this cabin…close to Garden Cafe and pool. The balcony was perfect size for 3 adults…just need to request another chair. The size of the room wasn’t really any larger than a club. And since the bathroom/shower is funky…IMO getting a larger shower is not worth the premium. Shanghi food was just bad. We did dumplings and spring rolls…which were fine. The hot sour soup was drenched in chili oil on top with no authentflavor. DH had sweet sour pork which pork was over cooked. I had chicken shrimp fried rice which was bland, soft and gross. The green tea ice cream and walnut pastries were good. This was our second attempt at Shanghi and this one was worse than our first on the Jade. no insight on senior officers and no M&G.

Sorry, I didn’t pay any attention to the senior officers. Daniel was CD and he was awesome. There was no Meet & Greet.

Bars: Pool bar was always crowded and the drinks were WEAK. You can ask for an extra shot of liquor. Spice bar wasn’t as crowded. inside, atrium bar was always busy. O’Sheehans was busy but they were quick. Shakers was slow due to the complexity of the drinks, and Maltings next door was a good option. Our favorite inside bar was the Casino Bar…always easy to get served. POSH…we paid to get POSH access and honestly we rarely used it. We spent most of our time in port or lounging around the pools and water slides. It was really windy at POSH and very little shade. It also closed at 6. The bartenders did make the best drinks…but the Haven guests were a bit pretentious for our simple selves.

Dining: we ate in LeBistro…food and service were excellent. Cagneys was a bust. Too busy and not enough wait staff for volume of diners. Steak sat under heat lamp and then arrived 5 minutes before our sides. Tomahawk chop was still on Cagneys menu with $30 upcharge, $10 for Porterhouse. Moderno, sad to say the lamb chops are gone and they are serving lamb sirloin. So…if you want lamb chops…get them at Cagneys. LaCucina was basic food and service. Taste always had a long line starting at 5:30. Fortunately we had made MDR reservation 120 days out so we were able to skip the line. Food and service was fine…but it did take 1.5-2 hrs for each meal…so plan entertainment accordingly. Interesting observation: I believe the servers “eye up” the physical size of the diners and serve portions based on size. Several times DH and I would order same item and his would be considerably larger. It was especially evident at Cagneys where he got 3 jumbo shrimp and I got 3 smaller shrimp. My petite filet was about the size of a quarter and his petite filet was the size of a half dollar. Shanghi was awful…just awful. Garden Buffet was hectic at times, but we still ate breakfast and lunch there several times. Seats for two were fairly easy to find at the front of the ship. Also, the garden cafe outside was always a lot less crowded so we ate there many times. Food was basic buffet.

THE SHIP: Occupancy was 4350 so over 100%, but with the exception of right after the muster drill, it wasn’t really an issue. Waits for elevator less then 5 mins. There was minimal soot at Spice H2O most days. During our stay they sanded the balcony rail for varnish and bonded the steel that had started to rust. The rest of the ship seemed fine to us…but we’re not overly picky on some things. Lots of fun activities with the pools, hot tubs and water slides. Casino is huge…which we liked, although we’re not big gamblers. The stateroom bathrooms are indeed funky, but not a big deal for us. Mattress in cabin was perfect…must be fairly new. Answer to JADE on account profile. This mysterious designation on your NCL account page is indeed tied to the CAS program. We were identified as Jade and were told as soon as we ran our room card in one of the machines it would activate our CAS account. Looks like Jade gets a CAS boarding privilege…which might be helpful in the future.

DAY 1 FOOD: Lunch at O’Sheehans. DH has wings and Fish & Chips. I had the Grilled Chicken Salad Sandwich. The wings were soggy and lacked flavor. Fish & Chips…same as usual…frozen cod filets. Chicken Salad Sammy was excellent. Service fast and friendly. Dinner at LeBistro. TIP: 7:30 pm dinner and the restaurant was not busy. They said first night it’s always slower. Dinner exceeded our expectations. DH had the Dover Sole and I had the Filet with Fois Gras ($10 upcharge) cooked to a perfect medium. Salad was beets with fried goat cheese…OMG that cheese. But my dessert was by far the best dessert I have tasted…maybe ever. I had the Ile Flotante—meringue floating in vanilla crème anglaise with Raspberry coulis. It beat out Cagneys OMG Butterscotch Cheesecake.

I’ll post this in sections so as to not overwhelm myself…after all, I’m just back from an amazing cruise, no need to jump into the deep end so quickly. FLIGHT: Took NCL air offer ATL to SJU. $260 pp. got our flight details exactly 60 days in advance. They booked us on SWA with a connection through Orlando. Return trip had us arriving in Atlanta at midnight and we have a 90 min drive home. Plus this is when SWA was in their midst of their meltdown. We booked nonstop flights on Delta and ate the cost of NCL air. EMBARKATION: We researched embarkation at San Juan Pan American pier prior to arrival, and our arrival was timed perfectly. The chaos that was seen in January was due to carnival and bad traffic flow. Carnival is over and they have altered the outbound taxi/car route elevating some of the backup. We left our hotel in Condado Beach at 9:35 by taxi we’re at the pier right before 10. Taxi driver knew where to drop us off and pointed out the luggage porters. Cost $30 plus tip. We went directly through security into the warehouse and got a seat. We were about 1/3 away from the front. By 10:20, the warehouse was full and all other arrivals were held outside of security and outdoors until boarding, which was at 11:20. They didn’t call for any Latitude status…if you were inside the warehouse, you boarded based on where you were seated. They also didn’t check docs for checkin time…which we did have the earliest at 11 am. We were onboard by 11:30 and were about 3rd in line at GS to request Posh passes, which were successful (more about that later). Off to explore the ship. We were in our cabin 12017 large balcony, fwd by 3:00. Muster Drill at 4:30, for us in Bliss Lounge. We arrived at 3:45, drinks in hand, and waited for the others to arrive. There was no issue with passengers and drinks for our drill. I’ll post more soon…but I’m not sure dailies and entertainment options will be helpful as it looks like The Beatles are back on board starting this week (yay for future cruisers).

Lucky for them😊

Once back home, I will post a detailed review…new topic. I’ll share some tips that worked for us. We had a blast.

Just off the 2/5 Epic sailing. Entertainment options were weak. No big production except Burn the Floor 4-5 times. Newlyweds in Epic Theater. The Elton John tribute is merely lounge singers doing Elton songs in main theater. One of the Howl at the Moon singers also did an Epic Theater show Tribute to the Divas. No Beatles. Bliss Lounge was used for 18-21 get together. Cavern Club not used. Three comedians. Two musicians—one in Shakers the other in Maltings…both performing at the same time in open venues next to each other and over casino. Manhattan has some entertainment but we didn’t dine there. Besides lacking in entertainment…the cruise was amazing. 4350 on board but rarely felt too crowded. Go with an open mind.

Gotta love NCL. Thanks!

Two certs to same reservation…so you should be good on that. BINGO…until NCL gets really cheap (gets..haha) and Changes the ability to apply to existing. Good for you!! We sail tomorrow on the Epic…yay!

You can use 2) $250 CN on an existing reservation as long as it is 120 days away and a balcony above. if not a balcony or doesn’t meet the 120 days away, but does meet the 180 days (6months) or more you can use only 1)$250 CN. must be applied by Feb 6th. Systemically, you can apply 2 but they will reject one and I think you may risk the value of the rejected one (not exactly sure on that)..so be careful. here are the terms: DOUBLEUP OFFER! FROM CRUISENEXT Booking Period: Jan 13 - Feb 6, 2023 11:59pm EST Offer Details: Reserve a Balcony Stateroom or higher on any voyage booked at least 4 months in advance with TWO CruiseNext, CruiseNext Haven or CruiseNext Lite deposits Offer valid for travel 2023 and beyond: Guests must book at least 6 months in advance of travel for any departure in 2023 and beyond Terms and Conditions Offers only apply to NEW bookings. Offer is based on price category, excluding casino reservations.

They will adjust it in there side, no need to cancel. When we did it through our PCC it was a little convoluted on how it calculated what we owed. It said we owed for the excursion credit…which we paid because we were close to sail date and didn’t want NCL to cancel for owing a balance—even though we knew was for the excursions. We were refunded that amount to credit card a couple days later.

We sail on Sunday…yay! Yes, we are disappointed that Priscilla will not be on board. We’ve enjoyed great performances on our last cruises. Blazing Boots, Elements, SIX (2x), Burn the Floor, Jersey, Boys…all top notch. Als, this will be a switch for us…our previous post-pandemic cruises were 38-83% occupancy. 38% was like a ghost ship. 60% was perfect. 85% was still ok. This cruise is sold out!! Hopefully our prior cruises have given us the tips/tricks to navigate the crowd. All that being said, we are still grateful to be getting away and I am thrilled to not be preparing meals and doing dishes. And DH is happy someone else is making the bed. And…we’re escaping the dull-drums of January for a sunny, hot, humid🤔location. I’ll post back what theater entertainment is…and on what nights.

So for clarification…if DH wants beer in the cabin we should buy it at our first port of call…not when we embark? Insight appreciated.

Reporting back. Our SWA flights are less than 24 hrs away. While NCL says if changes are needed within 72 hrs go through the airline. I called today to see if we could cancel and the rep said that NCL owns the reservation snd she could cancel but we would be under the terms of our NCL agreement…which I’ve read is a $100 per person cancel fee. So…I guess we’ll just be no shows. Too bad☹️

We were very fortunate the first time we purchased cruise next we had a good CN director who explained how the credit worked. On subsequent cruises we had the CN rep who insisted it was a non-refundable credit that had to be used onboard. Fortunately we knew better. I suspect there is pressure, and perhaps incentives for the CN rep to increase OB revenue…esp. these days.

Darn…I hadn’t noticed the replacement. I can’t wait for the day when they start adding back the nicer/better ingredients to showcase their dining experience.

Yes, another correct example. I made mine more complicated to demonstrate how it plays out if you actually do have onboard charges like many of us do. Between your example and mine, the OP should have no other questions…😏