Robkat

Thanks for your reply. What a great system, and we envy you having TG as your "MDR" ... nice! We've got to just be happy with a specialty thrown in every now and then! Hope you enjoy your afternoon and evening in Fort Lauderdale, and hope your upcoming Beyond and Reflection cruises are wonderful.

Really enjoying your review and we are absolutely envious of your multiple B2B's, especially since we're just a few days off our Reflection cruise. We did a 12 nighter on Equinox this past November, so we're getting a kick out of seeing all your ship photos. Have to ask though ... you often mention that Tuscan Grill is your "MDR" and you've been in there most nights. If you don't mind the question, how are you managing this? Do you have crazy OBC and decided to use it this way? Or is it just a personal preference to be in there for most evenings? If you feel this is nobody's business, I understand, but my curious mind is wondering! In the meantime, we're looking forward to your ongoing review. Thanks.

Yes!!! 🤦🤦 Thank you! Our last few cruises this year have had a Saturday departure, and I just defaulted to that automatically. BUT ... we are making our way down to FLL the day before, so it could be said that we're leaving on Saturday! 😂

Oh boy! 👏👏 We are also so excited and happy to read your review! We board next Saturday (we're also in Aqua), and honestly, all the recent reports and CC threads have been making us nervous. We were on the Edge in Sept '22 and the Equinox in Nov '22, and it was wonderful being on those ships with such reduced occupancy. We loved the E-class ships 4 MDRs, but didn't have a great experience being in the Equinox MDR. Felt understaffed and the service wasn't up to its usual standard. So, for this upcoming one, we're giving Aqua and Blu another try to see if the evening dining will be better. Very happy to hear your report about ordering from the MDR menu in Blu. Enjoy the rest of your cruise, and thanks again for this good news!

Enjoying your Live From tremendously! We love the S class ships, and are looking forward to our own cruise in 3 weeks on the Reflection ... albeit, not in the lavish, luscious RS, we will make do with an Aqua cabin. Our first MSC YC cruise was on the Divina. We loved it. We decided to try the new (at the time) Seaside next, and we loved it even more! Our subsequent YC cruises have been on the Seaside again and the Seashore. If, after your cruise, you really like the YC experience and would consider more, we'd highly recommend also trying out the newer MSC ships. On those, everything is located within YC, so you really, truly get to experience the "ship within a ship" model. On Divina, the dining room is at the other end of the ship. We didn't mind it at all, but truly love and appreciate having all the amenities together. Have loads of fun, living the Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams cruise life!

If you go into MSC, you'll find lots and lots of YC reviews.

Since you say that you're got specific times that you want, it's definitely best to get your dining booked at the 125 days-out. Even though NCL doesn't make all reservations available at that time, you'd risk not having your preferred time available on embarkation day. Can I just suggest that you call to get a Rep to help you get your times. I know lots of people swear by doing it online, but lots of other people find that they run into issues that way. As long as you find a time when it's not too a long a wait on hold, a Rep can (usually) go through the process with you in quick order.

We've been on most of the other cruise lines, and we've always felt that NCLs entertainment has been excellent, and quite a bit better than the comparable lines. We were just recently on the Escape, and we saw 4 fantastic shows. We saw Nashville Tenors, Choir of Man (this was our second time seeing this show and liked it even more!), Shadow and Black Light, and Malevo. The last two had been finalist contestants on America's Got Talent, and they were phenomenal! This is not to say that every sailing has so much variety (this particular cruise seemed especially stacked!), but we're never disappointed with the offerings.

This! Well and appropriately pointed out, @Morgsmom! Anyone who has looked at MSC pricing, or dealt with MSC more than once, is pretty cognizant and aware that many of the featured promotions don't apply to YC. And I wish the promo was still on so I could find the T&C's, as I find it hard to believe that the YC exclusion to this promo is not written somewhere, even if it is in itsy teeny print. However, even without seeing it written out, and never having pursued this promo, I was aware that it didn't apply to YC.

This!!! All day long ... and more! Love the outfit, love the sentiment, and love the respect and patriotism! Couldn't have been more impressed with this particular post! It gives me the warm fuzzies ❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸

Following! Looking forward to your impressions as we'll be on the Apex next year. We've also been on the Edge, so interested to hear how you think they compare. Smooth sailing!

Hi CGE, We've cruised several times on the Jewel and love that ship. We've cruised several times on the Getaway and we love that ship. Yes, you will notice differences, and hopefully you'll enjoy most of those differences. However, since your last cruise (which was your first cruise) had a lower passenger count, your upcoming cruise on the Getaway will most likely feel significantly different since there will probably be a higher passenger count (mainly since the ship is larger and this would be a popular itinerary). And obviously, this will make for a pretty different vibe throughout the ship. However, the Getaway is a great ship and can't believe you wouldn't enjoy cruising on her. Hope you have a great time!

Enjoying your review tremendously so far. Terrific pics. We're back on the Reflection in Feb for the first time since 2015, so will be eager to hear all your reporting. Thanks and enjoy your TA!

We feel like we've had more misses than hits at Le Bistro ... sometimes good, but a couple of times recently, very meh ... wished we hadn't wasted a meal there. Will totally concur about La Cucina ... we love Ocean Blue but love La Cucina even more. The beef tenderloin there, which we've had many times, has always been done beautifully. And we like the ambience in the restaurant. Have a great holiday cruise!

Lots of good suggestions ... we use most of these. One item we use that's indispensable and hasn't yet been mentioned: Collapsible cloth hanging shelves With NCL's lack of open shelves and drawers, we use these plus the scant few shelves the closets do provide. We like these better than the cloth storage bins since we can actually see what's on each shelf. Love these.

We sail on both Celebrity and on NCL, and really, we don't feel that NCL is a "downgrade" from Celebrity at all. The Escape is one of our favorite ships and is a beauty. There are definitely way more activities for the kids on NCL than on Celebrity. NCL ships have a greater variety as far as specialty dining, and we think the food overall is on par with Celebrity. Just be aware, though, that the vibe is quite different on the two lines. NCL is much more casual, and while you're still very able to dress up for meals whenever you want, you'll find more people choosing to be considerably more casual. And since there are generally more younger people on NCL, it can get a little loud and, can we say, a little less "laid back" than Celebrity. However, we love them both ... it's just good to know what to expect when getting on either one.

Concur and concur with @hcatabove. Also, depending on how minimum your bid, suite benefits and amenities are always going to be great. Given how wonderful the SV's and the 4 MDRs are though, why bother with spending even more. Maybe save bidding on a suite for when you haven't been able to score a SV?

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this review. Sounds like you're having a wonderful time so far, with so much more to come! Gorgeous photos!

Just had an aside:. The Bailey's substitute (Maloney's) is pretty good. When we ordered our usual Bailey's straight up on the Getaway in August, and were told that it was no longer included on the standard drink package, we were a little shocked. But the alternative Irish cream was offered, and when we tried it (really, prepared to turn our noses up at it!) ... it was pretty good. We don't claim to be Irish cream aficionados,, but we do know what we like and what tastes good. While we were initially disappointed to lose the Bailey's, turns out we're just fine with the new option, and it's quite a bit better than any "pretenders" we've tried in the past. Maybe once people give it a try, they won't be so worried about the increase in the Bailey's cost.

Lots and lots and lots of storage space!!! Big closets where things aren't squished in, lots of drawers where things can be neat and put away.

Really looking forward to following along. We have very fond memories of the Pearl, but our last cruise on her was fairly long ago. Can't wait to hear your impressions and read your review of her. This is also an itinerary we're really interested in, so we'll be taking notes as you go. Have a fantastic time and we hope you love your first cruise experience. Very excited for you!

On our very first cruise back in 1988, the TA put the fear of G*d into us about this issue. We've never forgotten it and never fail to immediately check our confirmations to ensure that names match up. All TA's should make sure people understand this.

We've been on 6 cruises since we re-started cruising last Sept '21. Some with really low occupancy, and some with pretty darn full ships. No Covid for either one of us. An interesting fact, we've never gotten off the ships on any of those cruises to go on excursions or even to just walk around the towns or visit shops. Not for any particular reason other than we'd been to so many of the islands quite often, and (especially in the early cruises), we didn't want to break our own little ship bubble. We haven't worn masks since the cruise lines OK'd it, and haven't gone out of our way to avoid people (although we naturally and normally don't hang out in large crowds). So, could that have played a factor for us having avoided getting it , even when a larger number on a particular cruise did report getting it... who knows, but we have thought it is interesting.

We went the week prior to Memorial Day, and we absolutely lucked out with the weather. Of course, it was very cold on the days we were cruising through Glacier Bay, and each morning was cold too, but we were prepared for that, and then, as it got to be mid-morning, we'd have lovely sunshine and we'd be able to take layers off and be OK with just a long-sleeve t-shirt. AND, all our ports of call weren't yet teeming with visitors. We thought it was awesome. This is not to say, however, that it's always guaranteed to have great weather, but that was our experience. We knew that the weather conditions in Alaska are always iffy, but we really liked going on the "shoulder season".

I think you mean occupancy level, rather than capacity. The capacity is a fixed amount. If a bus has 40 seats, the seating capacity is 40. If there are 30 passengers, the occupancy is 75%