meggie711

One of my favorite topics! Cruise planning! Hubby laughs at me because as soon as we start talking about planning a cruise, I begin my spreadsheet. I include all of the important information (Ship, itinerary, date ranges, type of stateroom, ports, driving distance, price, and additional pro's or con's of the ship). We bounce around the ideas and usually end up eliminating the more expensive, the ports we don't really care about, the ships that don't have as much to offer, etc. By the end, we have a couple that we're deciding between, and we can usually whittle those down pretty easily.

We've been hoping NCL would sail out of Port Canaveral.. only about a 3 hour drive for us!

We had 11313 aft-facing balcony on Epic and it was perfection! We would absolutely book an aft-facing on Epic again. The only "noise" was that gorgeous sound of the ship's wake behind us. The view was phenomenal. The halls were incredibly quiet as there was hardly any traffic back there. The balconies were very private as the back of the ship is straight up and down, so none of the balconies are exposed. I can't stress enough how wonderful these staterooms are!

How exciting!!! Enjoy this treat and fight like a girl!!

I'm so very sorry for the loss of your friend. I'm glad to know NCL went above and beyond for your group during an incredibly tragic time. Along with most everyone else reading your post, I have tears. Please share my deepest condolences with your dear friend.

first of all, if you like escargot, they make the best, same with the mushroom soup. I haven't had a bad entre, but my steak on the Sun a few months ago wasn't as good as days past. Hubby loves the lamb.

 

Oh I had almost forgotten about the mushroom soup! Yummm! Had that, swordfish, escargot, and a French Kiss martini. Le Bistro on Epic was fantastic. I don't remember much about the décor, but do remember sitting closer than I would have liked to the next table. The service and food were wonderful! I don't remember any noise issues, so we must have went at a good time! :)

Only one NCL cruise under my belt so far, and I can tell you that I was treated like royalty on our cruise! We had a balcony, not a fancy, exclusive one by any means. We noted the entire trip about how well we were treated. Doesn't cost extra on NCL. ;)

Sidenote, this is the first time I've heard passengers referred to as 3rd class...?

We used our credit this month to book a cruise using the free upgrade and $100 obc promo.

 

 

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Moderno and Le Bistro were both fantastic! Great food, great service, and both were great experiences. Agree with SDMike, we didn't do Teppanyaki because we have those type restaurants here, and most tend to be the same.

We did Le Bistro for our "formal night", dressed up and had a more formal experience. Moderno gave us an awesome view, and the food was never-ending. Both are on my must-do for our next cruise.

No idea about the Haven life, but wanted to congratulate you on being cancer-free!! Whoop whoop!!!

I can tell you that an aft-facing view on Epic is fantastic.. it's a very quiet area of the ship, and the views are phenomenal.

Congrats again!

Help! We are going on a much needed but very last minute cruise and I'm really torn here....

We haven't yet been on any of the newer mega ships so we've decided we wanted to give'm a try. So NCL or RCCL?????

I have been on Royal several times and have always had a good experience..(old and newer ships). Our last cruise was in 2011 on Royal's Liberty of the Seas, and it was fabulous.

We did a NCL cruise back in 2008 on an older ship and we were soooo disappointed! Everything from the service to the food was subpar....It's the only NCL cruise we've done and it was an old ship and many moons ago. I've been told that they have since revamped the company..... Being that the Getaway is their newest ship, I thought maybe we could give NCL another try but I'm a bit nervous given my past experience....I know it's not always the case, but I'm thinking, you get what you pay for...

Here's the thing: I have the option of a 7 night, Eastern Caribbean-balcony (upper deck-mid ship) with $150 on board credit on NCL's new Getaway (which sounds fabulous), or, for the same price, a 7 night Western Caribbean -inside, mid-ship promenade room with a $100 on board credit on Royal's Allure of the Seas.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

 

We always compare prices of RCCL, Carnival, Disney and RCCL when we start cruise-shopping. To make a long story short, I create a spreadsheet and list everything from the name of the ship to the date sailing, type of stateroom, length of cruise and destination, year of ship, ports, and amenities on the ship. The last two times that I've done this, NCL won out over the other lines. RCCL's price for a comparable stateroom and itinerary always works out several hundred dollars more for us, so we began choosing NCL. We are so far very happy with NCL, and will continue using them in the future.

I just asked when we booked and she was able to tell me immediately about obstructions, bed placement, etc.

Some of us count the vibrations of ship's engines pulling into the port as a plus. Kind of a gentle alarm clock.

 

Never had a problem with the "stacked" balconies above us seeing into ours below. Met some new friends that way.

 

Another great advantage of the aft balcony is that part of it is covered by the deck above so unless the rain is pelting down toward the stern of the ship (unusual), you can sit outside and still be dry in the rain.

 

Definitely right about the gentle alarm clock! It was so great to wake up and watch us come back into Port of Miami while everyone else slept! The city was all lit up and it was great to watch the other cruise ships that were already there or coming in behind us. One of my favorite parts of the trip!

We bought a future cruise credit on Epic. We started looking at cruises about a month ago for the 3 of us, decided the one that we wanted, selected our cabin online, and then called in to NCL within 24 hours to place the deposit (as required). When we called, they asked if we wanted to apply our FCC, and we did. That held our room for 3 people, instead of requiring a deposit from each of us (which I think would have been $375, if I'm not mistaken). Pretty nice!

Good deals to be sure. We're lucky in that we're in GA and can drive to port. We like our little 'road trips' .... we take our time, usually stay somewhere within an hour of the port, have dinner, get a good night sleep and head out for a short drive day of. I got our parking in POM yesterday ... now just have to find a place to stay somewhere not too far off the night before. Maybe you'll luck out and get a good airfare at some point to take advantage of these kinds of fares! Good luck! :)

 

So glad you were able to book Epic AND to get to sail so soon! We have a 400+ day wait till our next cruise! :eek:

 

Epic's a fantastic ship! We're also from Georgia, so it's a long but fun drive to port. We ate at the complimentary restaurants mostly during the week, but did go to Moderno and Le Bistro. We ate at Moderno the very first night, and had the restaurant almost to ourselves. We had a great view by the window, and it made the experience that much better. We were very pleased with the food throughout the whole week (complimentary and specialty dining included). I highly recommend O'Sheehans for breakfast and lunch. It's also complimentary, and had some good options, easy to get into, etc. We preferred it because we don't particularly like buffets and liked not having to look for a table, as the hostess seats you in O'Sheehans.

 

Blue Man Group was so much fun! It's apparently not for everybody, but this was one of the many, many highlights of our week. They did Fabba one night at Spice H20, and that was so much fun (IF ABBA is your thing - again, not for everybody). The service was phenomenal. We're not "suite people", just your average passenger, but we were treated like royalty all week. It was absolutely amazing. Kinda crazy that we took a 7-day cruise on a cruiseline that I'd never been on, and had not one single complaint.. it was fantastic, and I would recommend it over and over.

 

We did the Ice Bar. A really cool experience (downright freezing is more like it)! We were in there with a bunch of northerners, so it was more difficult for us to deal with the temp.. lol

 

SDMike has great resources in his signature! Definitely check those out if you haven't!

 

I hope you love Epic as much as we did!

If I remember right, it was adults-only during the day, but opened up to everyone at night for the parties.

Had our first aft-facing on Epic and it was amazing! We loved it, found it to be incredibly beautiful, relaxing, and just.. just different (in a good way). It felt like a view and experience that others were missing.

There was more movement, vibrations, particularly when coming into port, but we were expecting it, so it wasn't a surprise.

One thing to keep in mind is the layout of the ship when choosing an aft-facing cabin. On Epic, it wasn't an issue as the back of the ship is flat, so we didn't have an exposed balcony with others looking down onto our balcony. However, some ships will have a stacked back (not sure of the correct terminology), which leaves you pretty exposed to those on the balconies above you. Just something to keep in mind.

We have cruised several times with RCCL, and most recently with NCL. I found the food on NCL to be great. We ate at O'Sheehan's darn near everyday for breakfast and lunch. We ate at some of the included restaurants for dinner, and also did a couple of specialties. The food was memorable, which I can't always say for what I ate on RCCL. I can honestly tell you what I ate for most of the meals, and the cruise was a year ago. lol

The service was fantastic. We have kept in touch with some of the crew members, and have nothing but good things to say about our cruise. We booked with NCL again, and had purchased a future cruise credit on that last cruise, as we were left with such a good impression. In talking with NCL as we booked this upcoming cruise, we have had great experiences with their customer service. I am very impressed with NCL.

Thanks for posting! Can't wait to read more! Only 460ish days left until we check her out for ourselves! :)

Epic was fantastic when we sailed last year. I didn't notice any of the things you mention. The ship and crew more than exceeded my already high expectations!

Never too hot to cruise, IMO!

I called this morning and it's only good for sailings April-Sept 2014, I believe (which is great for a lot of people) on the Breakaway class. Our cruise is in May 2015, so it was a no-go for us. Super-friendly customer service though, so yay for NCL! She was disappointed that it wasn't going to work for us. :)

All very helpful! Thanks, y'all! We are now at about a $500 difference. Not sure how much we will use it, as little man will have us out and about often. We are going to keep watching and see if anything comes up that makes us move.


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Sweet!!!

 

 

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We are considering upgrading from our balcony to a spa balcony. A little background.. we are booked on the Getaway for next summer, cruising with our son for the first time (not our first cruise), and have never had a spa balcony. Are the areas spacious enough for everyone with access to the areas to use the areas at will, or are is there a chair-hog type problem? I'm hesitant to book a spa balcony if I'm never going to get to use the thermal chairs, whirlpools, etc. I hate to sound stupid, but this is an area I have no familiarity with. We got a pretty good deal on our balcony, but we figured we would look into the spa balconies if we can get another good deal. As far as price, is there another time that we should look into upgrading where we might get a better deal, or is this likely to change at all? Thanks for your help, as always.