hitch-04

Priscilla was not offered on the 22-29 May Barcelona sailing. Burn the Floor was the only real production in the main theater. There was also an aerialist show in the Spiegel theatre that wasn't super well advertised but was very well done - I'd keep an eye out for that one and make sure you reserve seats.

The ship will provide masks in your stateroom and at disembarkation for shore excursions. That said, we were in Italy for the 22-29 May Epic cruise and the mandatory wear of face masks was only very loosely enforced. The Freestyle daily said they were required in indoor areas while in port in Italy, and we went to breakfast with one on and quickly realized we were very much in the minority. No one really seemed to feel strongly about it given that in all the other ports in France and Spain they weren't required and we were around the exact same people. Up to your individual risk tolerance - we felt confident given that we had already been vaxxed, boosted, and recovered - and also were flying back to Germany rather than the US - I'd perhaps have been more risk averse if we hadn't already caught it from a delightful tour of the Champagne cellars in Reims in March. I'm glad we did the Champagne tour and glad we did the cruise, and felt that getting sick at our age (40) was low risk.

Just got off Epic 22-29 May. In Barcelona, they wanted to see a negative test prior to boarding -the letter from NCL said 3 days, the check-in agent wanted to see 48 hours - a rapid antigent test is sufficient, PCR is not required. Also, there weren't any nights where people were particularly dressed up, except for small groups dressing up to dine at Cagney's or Le Bistro, but even there, they were accepting resort casual and basically said no ripped jeans or swim coverups.

I'm sure there are those who benefit from it, but I've never had a problem that Costco or other TAs weren't able to solve, and while saving me $$$ and adding in extra perks. But to each their own, I've just done a lot better with my later NCL cruises after going through Costco compared to going through the PCC.

Always shop around - I usually find that the value of booking through Costco travel is way better than going through a PCC - especially if you have a set date window/itinerary you're interested in looking at. I will go through the comparison with NCL.com, Costco, United cruises, check Travelocity, etc - sometimes there are some super wonky good deals - and I've never found NCL and the PCC to have the best deals.

Agree, I was more thinking of her coworkers in the bar - she was the only one not there. My personal risk tolerance for the trip was high since it didn't require a test to travel back to Germany, and we had already had COVID after fully vaxxed and boosted after we did a trip to the Champagne cellars in Reims back in March. The air of secrecy just seemed odd.

I live in Germany - and we are routinely notified if someone in our building/workplace tested positive. It does not require quarantine or testing if you are fully vaccinated and boosted, just encourages everyone to be extra vigilant about not dismissing any symptoms or cutting any corners. So I guess that's where I'm coming from, I think there should have been shared information to allow people to know where confirmed positives had occurred. And honestly, the part that was more concerning to me was her coworker being afraid of reprisal when I put 2+2 together and came up with 4 - she had been sick but still serving (that was a concern, because she did pull down her mask for coughing fits and to wipe her nose), and she disappeared after the crew had a 100% test. It wasn't a significant leap in logic.

Not sure how to feel about balancing the medical privacy of the crew members versus awareness of exposure to guests: Just got off a week on the Epic 22-29 May out of Barcelona. Enjoyed our trip. We had a great connection with the bartender at Shakers, let's call her N, and went there consistently the first three nights of the cruise. The last night we saw her, she was complaining of a headache and dry cough (!!!!) while continuing to serve and prepare drinks. The next evening, our waiter mentioned that he was up early as it was the day for the mandatory 100% testing of crew required by Barcelona every two weeks. Guess who wasn't at the shakers bar that night? There was nothing shared with the guests to warn that we might have been exposed, and I only confirmed N tested positive because here coworker verified when I asked her directly, and she was concerned that I not say anything to anyone that could get her in trouble. I really enjoyed talking with N throughout the first half of the cruise, and I totally understand respecting her privacy as an individual. I don't think the ship should have announced that she specifically tested positive, but I did feel that there should have been something about a confirmed positive - they know who swiped key cards at the bar in the time prior to her positive test. Especially knowing that so many guests were flying back to the US and would require a negative test the final day of the cruise, it seems like sharing exposure would be important. Anyone had other experiences where NCL did notify of exposure? Is it worth providing formal feedback or is just the new age of COVID and cruising?

We just came off the Epic in a Club Balcony Suite - the bottle of water and the canapes weren't worth anything, but the mid-cruise free bag of laundry was super helpful (neither of us has sufficient status for a free bag), and there was an absolute ton of storage space. We were in 8170 and the location was incredibly convenient

Okay cool, I remembered having to pay while still in US territorial waters for the last cruise I did in 2019 even on beverages covered by the drink package, and it added up just from sail away champagne and such. I was starting to have visions of a super unexpectedly large bill at the end of next week. Thank you for clarifying and relieving that worry.

Awesome, that makes me feel a lot less worried considering we're leaning towards more time on the ship (and its bars) and less time on the excursions 🙂

I'm okay as long as it's just the Spanish ports, but had read it would be for the entirety of the week if there weren't any non-EU ports.

Anyone recently off the Epic out of Barcelona? Saw a brief mention in an old thread about upgrading to the PPBP that EU itineraries out of Span have to pay Spanish VAT on beverage purchases for the entirety of the cruise. Trying to figure out a) is this true, and b) how much of a sticker shock are we in for after a week of taking advantage of our upgraded PPBP.

We’re excited to get back to cruising next week on Epic in the W Med. We opted to upgrade to the Premium Plus Beverage Package and I’m slightly confused by the terms. It says in one section it includes wine dispensers but then also says it excludes vending machines - are they different? An anyone verify successfully using the self serve dispensers using the PPBP? Or help me understand the difference