ks

8 minutes ago, racefan1965 said:

i am hoping they do not do away with Spice H2O or Vibe Beach.. they are the best part of the cruise IMO. I will be very disappointed as I'm sure others will be too

 

Is it possible that Spice H20 will be eliminated and that Vibe will become much larger so that they can sell more passes?

How much gambling time on the cruise or accumulation of points is expected when accepting a free cruise with Casino at Seas? Does it depend on the category of cabin your are given? 

4 minutes ago, SullytheBFG said:

Only about 40% of the ship would disembark that day. The balance will stay on board or be on tours.

 

thanks for the answer.

If 40% are disembarking the cruise than 40% will probably be embarking. The cabin steward will want you off by 9 A.M. so that the cabin can be cleaned for the new passengers. Having done this cruise on the Epic I can verify that 9 A.M. was the latest departure time.  

Does anyone have any experience playing slots on an inaugural cruise? We are going on our one and my husband thinks that the slot machines will be extra tight as they are brand new and have not been played.   He is going on the assumption that not enough money put in means no money coming out?

4 minutes ago, tomservo said:

Did you just happen to eat there, or they told you it was complimentary?

The concierge told us it was complimentary on the first cruise day. 

On 1/30/2019 at 9:27 PM, tampadee said:

We just cruised in the Bliss Haven 1/19/2019.  There was no lunch at Margaritaville offered but they did offer 1/2 off at Food Republic

We were on the 1/26/2019 sailing on Bliss in the Haven and had lunch at Margaritaville the first day and were not charged.

12 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

That's good to hear!  We will be on the Bliss in a couple of weeks. 

Which Specialty Restaurants did you like best?

Cagneys and Los Lobos were excellent.  Q was also very good. Very disappointed in Le Bistro on this ship.

Just off the 1/26 Bliss Cruise. Was told the voucher would cover entrees up to $25.

Have watched a few of their posts and found them boring and full of complaints. On one they complained about the salad in La Cucina for what seemed to be hours.

On another note I have stopped going to Cruise Critic Meet and Greets because the last two I went too were very poorly organized and I was wondering at the time if the organizers had volunteered just for the chance to get VIP Treatment from NCL?  Many Meet and Greets have been great but the last two were very disappointing.  

Great!  We will be in a 2-Bed Room on the 17th Deck in January so will be following and learning from your blog.  Thanks again for taking the time to post.

Thank you for the reply. Did you e-mail the pre-cruise concierge with the lounger request or with the concierge on the Bliss? Can you book the race cars with the concierge?

Thank you for sharing your cruise.  Were the lounge chairs already on the balcony or did you ask the butler or room steward for them?

Can Haven Guests make reservations for the the race cars with the concierge? 

Hi

We are 6 booked in a Haven 2 bd. We decided to get more space and book an additional balcony (non haven) cabin. We had previously been told that we could do so. Now being told they will charge the PP taxes/port fees twice - which we know is not correct since they are PP not per booking.

 

Other option was to move the kids out of the haven and into the balcony cabin and link them to the haven so they can use the perks (since kids can do that while adults can't.) Now being told that they can't move both under 21 into a cabin by themselves - though they do this all the time when they "link" to parents cabin (kids are 20 and 18).

 

Any advice?

Thanks!

Kids can only be alone in a balcony cabin without an adult if there is a connecting door to the adjacent adults cabin. I do not think that you can have this situation if the adults are in a 2-Bedroom Haven Suite as they do not connect to balcony cabins.. If the adults are in a Haven Penthouse Suite with a connecting Balcony Cabin this would work. There are some Haven Penthouse Suites at the back of the ship that have this situation but they are not as large as the 2-BR Suite. Also, they are not in the Haven Proper and it is a long walk to get there.

Getting there at 8:30 is should definitely be good enough unless they're taken up by Haven and VIP passengers. I've had luck arriving much later with boarding group 26, but was stressing about it. Escape has a bigger Vibe area than BA and GA because they eliminated the cabanas, but it's still limited.

 

Unless the embarkation changes, you come in on deck 7, and immediately head down the stairs and walk past the atrium and guest services and you'll see Headliners.

 

Good luck!

Haven guests do not need to buy Vibe passes as they have their own private area similar to vibe.

You can see the current Martini Bar menu and the list of spirits in this post.

 

The menu is all weird cocktails served in a martini glass. If you want a classic martini, just tell them what brand of gin(/vodka) you want and how you want it prepared.

It reads "20% discount with ultimate beverage package" at the bottom of the Martini Menu? That would bring the cost below the maximum amount allowed per drink.

I would LOVE to know that actor's name who played Jerry Lee on our Transatlantic. He was absolutely brilliant. I forgot to ask while on board, and searches I've done have revealed nothing. I'd love to know his resume.

We saw MDQ at Harrah's Las Vegas and I believe the actor who played Jerry Lee Lewis on the Escape was the same actor who played Jerry Lee Lewis at Harrah's Las Vegas.

I've been doing CAS cruises for many years (listed below). It is not a set price.

I have had detailed conversations with the CAS rep where we have dissected the upgrade price. I've had the same conversation with more than 1 rep. because I like to know what the parameters of my deal are.

I was told: MA is $x,xxx and the SE is $ x,xxx and the NCF is $ xxx. So if the difference between the SE and the MA changes downward, we can re-price.

And it happened in real-life on my 2016 cruise. Nearly a 75% reduction because the suite prices dropped, but the mini-suite prices didn't....

Have been booking with CAS for many years and my experience has been the same. We have been comped a Penthouse Suite on every cruise and several times have upgraded to a 2-BR Villa. The price has been the difference between the two categories at the time of booking.

The only time I was quoted a set price for an upgrade was when I booked a cruise through CAS as a Caesar's Seven Stars Player. That was many years ago and I only book through CAS now as one of their players. I have found that CAS is more flexible booking with them directly rather than with a Certificate from a Land Based Casino or as a Caesar's Total Rewards Player.

Just upgraded from a Penthouse to a 2-BR Villa on the Escape for Feb. 2016 and got the 3rd & 4th passengers free. Paid the difference for the 1st & 2nd passenger between a PH and a 2-BR at the day of booking.

My husband and I will be doing the December 10 Day Epic Sailing. We are expecting the weather to be in the 50s F and probably a bit rainy, but not anticipating snow and ice. We were on a B2B on the Epic for a 2 week September Med Cruise a couple of years ago. On those sailings the ship stopped at Cannes and Marseille. This time it goes to Sardinia and Sicily. More of a closed loop sailing, stopping only at Italian Ports and not going to France. We are hoping for calm seas like we had that September but realize it can get rough at any time of year.

This will be our 6th time on the Epic. We stayed one week in a balcony, 2 weeks in a minisuite and the other 3 weeks in Haven Suites. Never had an issue with any of the bathrooms.

When you book a transfer with NCL (port to airport), does it show on myNCL? Do we choose a schedule pick-up when on board? If anyone has used NCL transfer, what's the latest pick-up?

Our experience has been that there is only one pick-up time for everyone and it is generally very early in the morning.

Just curious what your casino status is? I am VIP and never, ever get comped anything above a balcony and find that frustrating. I also pay the difference to upgrade to the Haven but it would be nice if my base began as a mini suite.

 

Tracy

The last time I booked with CAS I was told that the room comp was not based on my Casino Level but on my play from the last cruise as well as the consistency of my play over several cruises. It may take one player 2 cruises to achieve VIP level while it takes another player 3 or more cruises. The player who achieves VIP in 2 or less cruises will get a better room comp than the player who achieves VIP in 3 or more cruises. With this in mind a player who only cruises once per year but is Gold may get a better room comp than a player who is VIP but cruises 3 or more times in that same year. the Gold player may have racked up more points on that one cruise than the VIP player.

Did they charge you 3% on the $1,300 you pre-purchased as OBC for the casino? I have sailed with Princess and Holland - we liked purchasing our casino credits ahead of time. Princess and Holland, never charged a fee to use the casino credits.

The 3% was not charged but it may be because I am VIP with Casino At Seas and they do not charge the VIP Level a convenience fee for getting cash in the casino. It is one of the benefits listed.

Wow your post has me concerned now

I put a additional $2,000 of OBC on my upcoming cruise to specifically use in the casino ......I asked twice before purchasing it AND explained it's for the casino

 

I was told Yes no problem because it's just like cash n I'm purchasing it and it's fully refundable and can be used for ANYTHING ON THE SHIP including in the casino

 

I'm going to call them in the morning to once again to verify this

 

Anyone else ever run inti the problem the this person had?

On the Getaway this past July I used $1700 in OBC for the Casino. $400 was OBC given to me for booking a suite and the rest was pre-purchased OBC bought in $100 increments from the NCL website before boarding. I downloaded money at the slot machine charging it to my onboard account. The money I downloaded was de-ducted from the OBC. I have also purchssed OBC for my up-coming Epic cruise and assume I will be able to use it for the Casino. I am assuming if I get cash advances at the Casino Cage and charge it to my onboard account it will be deducted from the OBC I have pre-purchased.

If you let small things like this bother you it will ruin your cruise. There are many other big things to worry about like EBOLA and ISSIS. This is not a big deal in the scheme of things.

We went on Breakaway back in May and I saved our two pins to give to my nephews. I have three nephews so our neighbor gave us one of theirs. I've been procrastinating but decided I should go ahead and mail them....guess what....I LOST one!

 

I looked to see how much on Ebay and wow people are greedy! $5.50 plus shipping for something they got for free![/quote

 

How do you know they got the pin for free? Even if they did it is a bother and takes time to list on EBAY and EBAY charges a fee to the seller for the listing and again for the sale. Than the seller has to mail the pin to the buyer and that takes time and effort. If I needed the pin I would be happy to find it for $5.50.