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We just booked a cruise on Independence of the Sea sailing 12/19. What holiday activities do they offer during that time? Anyone who's been, do you have pictures of decorations? Thanks!

My husband and I are trying to decide on the Drink Package. This is our 1st RCCL cruise, we are used to NCL. We aren't huge drinkers, but we do have a couple glasses of wine each with dinner normally. When we are cruising we normally have a couple drinks each during the day. Besides that, we drink tons of bottled, sparkling water and tea, not soda drinkers. My drink of choice is Tito's and he's a bourbon guy. Anyone with experience on drink prices with insight would be appreciated. We do like the idea of not having to worry about how much we are spending, but we want to make sure we are going to get our moneys worth by doing the package. From what I can tell we need to be drinking 4-6 drinks a day, correct? Thank you all in advance!!

I'm very disappointed with the way NCL is handling this. I have a group of 18 cabins (with more that were going to be booking into our group since we locked in rates months ago).

Now, we have multiple people that can't reschedule and have to cancel, multiple people that paid more than $300 for air ($300 is the credit NCL is offering to anyone who has already paid for air) and NCL won't guarantee rates or group space on another sailing until the entire ship has been rescheduled (which you need to make a decision by 4/25). So for those guest who were going to book (because they thought rates were locked in), now have to pay more because NCL chartered the ship. I feel like NCL should of honored our cabins that we still had in our group that weren't booked yet.

I'm just venting because it was my birthday weekend and now I have unhappy guests and I'm having to explain to people why they are out money for air (the ones who paid over $300) and why the ones who were about to book, now have to pay more.

Does anyone have recent experience parking at the port in FLL? Doing a 5 night cruise on CCL in May. Do you get charged by night or day? It's $15, would I times this by 5 or more? Trying to figure out best way to go...seems like it might be almost the same price as going through the hotel service.

What are the current themed nights on the Magic? Is it just Pirate Night and Princess Night (I've heard it's something along those lines). We are going on the March 29th sailing and want to make sure we pack the correct stuff!

Let me start by saying we had a wonderful time. We had a group of 18 adults and really enjoyed ourselves. This is my 4th cruise with NCL. I love their laid back feel of cruising and that's why we keep coming back. With that said, the past few cruises with them (3 of which have been in this past year) we've noticed a few things that have led us to try another cruise line.

This is my 2nd cruise on the Pearl. I love the size of the ship. We were on the Getaway over the summer and the spaces didn't seem to fit the amount of people. I realize the pool area always is busy, but we didn't like the children's area, there wasn't enough room for parents to lounge on chairs and watch their children (ours are 9 and 15). Enough about the Getaway, let's get back to the Pearl.

We loved the open feel of the pool area. Lots of chair space up top and below (we weren't cruising with kids this time). The restaurant sizes also seemed to fit the ship, unlike the Getaway in our option. It was easy for us to make a reservation once on board for 18 of us. We got into Cagneys the 2nd night with no problem. The staff was very friendly, we never ran into a rude staff member. The food was great, actually it was better than our summer cruise on the Getaway! We only eat at Speciality Restaurants on NCL. We like the different food choices and recommend paying extra for the dining plan. Great Stirrup Cay was wonderful, it was our first time there! Didn't feel too crowded, maybe because we were on a smaller ship. The tender was easy to use.

Our downfall with NCL....service! Over the summer and our recent cruise when we've had questions or issues, the service just wasn't there. Instead of trying to help us, we felt like we (as the customer) were the issue and they were annoyed with our questions we needed answered. That's really disappointing as a consumer. We weren't the only ones in our group that felt like this. We would have to chase people down to get our questions answered and sometimes that meant following up with them half to the day. One couple in our group got charged an extra $20 in tips at Cagneys one night. NCL took the word over the server over them and they refused to reverse the charge. The couple was shocked by this and it left a bad taste in their mouth (this was their 1st cruise). The wait staff we had were great! Unfortunately, they had too many table to wait on. At Cagney's with a table of 18 our waiter had 15 other tables to wait on BY HIMSELF! He was did his best, but we could see other tables were very unhappy with him. We found this at most restaurants, the wait staff had too many tables and not enough help. This was the 1st time we've noticed this.

Although most of the ship was clean, the Stardusk theater needed major cleaning. There was trash near the stage that looked like it had been there for months, it was pretty nasty. It was all over the place by the stage and multiple people in our party noticed. We did say something to the crew, but the next night it was still there.

Like I said, overall it was a great cruise, but most people in our group agreed next time we will try another cruise line. We still love NCL and I'm sure we will be back at some point. Until then, happy sailing everyone!!!

Thanks for the info. I have looked at the site, but I wanted to hear from someone that has experience parking there. The price isn't a concern, we just want convenience.

Has anyone had experience parking at POM? We have a suburban and I want to make sure we will fit. We are sailing out on NCL Pearl, how far will we have to park from the terminal?

Looking for a hotel that would accommodate 2 adults, 3 children with free shuttle to/from airport and possible free shuttle to Port (does this exist?!). Would love to be close to port. Thanks so much!!

Sorry you had dining reservation issues but glad you had a good time overall. I just booked Getaway. I am interested in the entertainment.

 

Were you able to see Illusionarium, Burn the Floor, Legally Blonde? Also, did you ever go to the Tropicanna Room?

 

How were crowds around the pools and do you know if there were long lines at the water slides?

Water slides had lines but they were too bad....about 5-10 mins wait depending on. The kids pool area is poorly laid out and was insane! People were leaving towels on chairs as early as 6:30am and somedays we NEVER saw anyone use the chairs, which is a shame. I went to Spice H2O a few times and never had issues getting chairs, only downfall was I saw at least a dozen children there every time I went.

Sorry you had dining reservation issues but glad you had a good time overall. I just booked Getaway. I am interested in the entertainment.

 

Were you able to see Illusionarium, Burn the Floor, Legally Blonde? Also, did you ever go to the Tropicanna Room?

 

How were crowds around the pools and do you know if there were long lines at the water slides?

We saw Burn the Floor and Legally Blonde. Both were great shows and I recommend booking them in advance! My mom saw the dueling pianos and loved it. We happened to be too tired on those nights.

Just got off the Getaway today and I have a few things to share.

First off, it's a beautiful ship! Doesn't feel as big as I thought it would....which was a good thing in my book. We had great seas and the movement of the ship was hardly noticed! I liked the activities offered and did the Carlos Bakery cupcake demo. It was worth the $40....you decorated 4 cupcakes, got a apron, and a free picture at the end. The food was a hit or miss. I'm not a picky eater and it was wonderful to not have to cook on vacation. There were nights I was highly disappointed in the food.....Cagneys was one of them (and it's always been my fav on NCL). My steak was Luke warm and the Macon cheese tasted like metal.....I wasn't the only one in my party of 11 that felt this way. Ocean Blue was good.....service was excellent. I personally don't think it was good enough to pay $50/per person. That's just my opinion, but I'm happy I tried it. The sushi and noodle bar where great!!! I couldn't get over the prices....so cheap compared to what we pay at home. Le bristro was our favorite meal.....wonderful!!! We had major issues with dining! This was a huge disappointment since that is the reason we fell in love with NCL. I've never had so many issues with reservations. Prior to cruising we reserved everything far in advance since we were a party of 11. 2 weeks prior to sailing I notice all reservations were done for all 5 cabins. We had to rebook and of course at thT point we could no longer all get the same times. They told us as soon as we board they will tAke care of it. It took us almost 2 days to get help to fix it....we kept getting passed off to someone else. Finally, we thought it was fixed. I went over everything with he dining desk, unfortunately almost every night we showed up to dinner with either no reservation or it was put in for the wrong restaurant. It was beyond frustrating. One night as we were trying to get it fixed, I said the the hostess "sorry for being so difficult" (even though the mistake wasn't our fault, I could tell she was frustrated with me) and her respond was, "yes, you kinda are being difficult". I was shocked!

Excursion: we did the Atlantis dolphin encounter. The encounter was AMAZING! We spent over 30 mins in the water and the staff never seemed to rush us....they were great! Getting there on the other hand was a mess! It took well over 2 hours from getting off the ship to arrive ( it's a 5-7 min taxi ride). If we do something like this again we will pay the extra to take a cab over. They have a free shuttle bus from the ship to the other side of the dock at port. I recommend it. We weren't able to see the aquarium at the Atlantis (which was included) because we didn't have time once we were done....which was disappointing as well since we paid over $1000 to do this excursion. Once we were done we paid to have a taxi drive us back to the ship because it was taking too long for the excursion transportation....it was $4/per person.

The staff overall was great.....we did run into a few rude ones, but we just let it roll off us. We had a few other issues I won't go into and bore you with, but it seems like some of the details are lost to NCL on customer service. Our family had a great time, but I think we will think twice before sailing on a large NCL ship again. We've never had issues with them before. After taking almost 2 hours to get off the ship today...I think that was it! I'm not sure why we had so many issues today getting off.....we talked to several people who have cruised many times before and they had never seen anything like it. For those who are about to go on the Getaway......you will love the ship! Like I said, we had a great time, but these are things I would want to know in going! PS room service takes forever to answer and forever to get....my husband waited 30 mins to order and another 1 and 15 to get food....be aware!

Anyone have any luck with this? Once you get to Port can you upgrade for a reduced rate? I know in the past we've done this on Disney, but I haven't tried it with NCL before.

Trying to decide on a cabin and I know the Breakaway is suppose to be just like the Getaway. Does anyone have info on cabins 11306 or 11906...looks like they have larger balconies, but I'm unsure!