Ellis1138

I was using a french press with whole bean Molokai coffee that I would grind each morning, but it went up to $70/lb, so I switched to Illy. Then back in 2107, in prep for cruising, I decided to switch to instant coffee and chose Cafe Bustelo. It actually tastes really good and I can bring it along, in case the cruise coffee is awful. But I always used to be able to find half and half or cream on a cruise.

That's been my guess as to why regular coffee on cruises has just been getting worse and worse. I also dislike Starbucks' actual coffee and for health reasons, I can no longer get their "cupcake in a cup" drinks.

I'm not a cheerleader, but in the terms of service and all the fine print of every cruise line I've been on is the basic "your itinerary can change at any moment." As an example, we'll be doing Pride of America in Hawaii in February, so I'm aware that giant swells could keep us from docking at Hilo or tendering at Kona. On the Escape this upcoming September to NE/Canada, I'm aware that a hurricane or Noreaster could cause us to miss ports. I accept that as part of the risk of cruising. Bait and Switch would be if you booked a cruise with NCL and, instead, they have a guy with a donkey and a cart there to take you places.

I believe that the Studio Lounge Room as a space is available to Studio cabin guests who have the key card, but that at, say 3 am, there won't be any coffee or food or drinks.

$170 a night is amazing for a Studio, with all the taxes/fees/DSC/FAS included.

It should not be possible to do that. If anyone was able to, it was a happy glitch.

Ugh. I mean it's understandable, but unfortunate. I guess when I go, I'll have to ask what the coffee machine hours are. And hope nobody on my sailing in the Studios does the 'bring all the family and kids into the lounge for a party' thing.

For teenage boys, the buffet pizza should be fine.

I don't know if this helps you, but I bought a $299 Thermal Suite pass for a 7 day cruise on the Escape. (I have a Studio cabin.) Essentially, I'll have 6 actual days to use the thermal area, since embarkation day is usually spent scrambling around, plus they might be doing tours.

Did they ever fix the coffee machine in the Studio Lounge? o.o

They usually have you choose the color tags and times a night or two prior to debarkation day. You could also look up Freestyle Dailies from the ship and itinerary, which might give you a heads up on the available times for your sailing. Suite-wise, I haven't had the experience with it, but it probably means you get off whenever you want to, once customs has been cleared.

I live in NJ and it's horrible. Thankfully, we have air purifiers in our condo.

I'm not sure what you mean by a stop, but you could take a Bus to Jersey City's Exchange Place, at which point you can take the PATH train to anywhere in Manhattan. Or Uber/Lyft from Bayonne to Manhattan. By car, the fastest route would be the Holland Tunnel into Manhattan.

It was a really weird happenstance, but we wound up in a Grand Suite. So with that giant suite came access to the Concierge Lounge and the coffee machine. No hoi polloi. Honestly, hardly anyone in the suites seemed to know about it, either. I started drinking coffee when I was 3 years old. My father kept trying to get me to drink milk for breakfast, but I wouldn't. So he made me coffee with lots of milk in it and called it "coffee milk". And that's how I have been drinking my coffee for my whole life.

Amen to this. I'm always in touch with NCL ahead of time due to allergies and mobility, so during those back and forths, I ask for the topper, too. And then, because of my skin/dust allergies, I have to bring mattress encasements, allergy pillow enclosures, my own sheets and cases and spend an hour on embarkation day creating my bed. But once I finish, it's super comfy. 🙂 That machine is the same one that they had in the Explorer of the Seas (RC) and I adored it. I'm glad it has milk in it and not Coffee Mate (for those following that thread.) Thanks for the in depth stuff. I love your reviews so far.

My husband and I hadn't traveled since pre-Covid, and I had never checked and it never came up in the last few cruises or flights, I guess. So, during 2021, when our passports needed renewing, all of a sudden the middle names were important. When I went to book cruises with NCL, the customer rep told me that everything had to match the passports, and it was the same as United Airlines. So, even if this wasn't brand new, I suddenly had to get all my ducks in a row.

I recently had to have NCL and United add our middle names to their systems, due to the new "everything has to match the passport" thing. I figured to get it done ahead of time than to be denied a flight or cruise when I get there.

The $250 CF certificates have come back up 3 times since January 2023. Go to the NCL.com main page and note the countdown of the current sale. Then check back when that one ends, to see if the $250 is back.

Programming a webpage that works well on all browsers is a very difficult task that most web page programmers are not able to do or they don't want to spend the extra effort on it. I'm betting most of them don't bother to follow the W3C standards, either. I have 3 different browsers on my home computer because of this and each time a web page doesn't work for me, I keep trying in a different browser until it does work.

If you're in a suite/Haven, ask your butler. For other rooms, either see if you can pre-tip a bartender to give you a carton, speak to someone at one of the restaurants or maybe your room steward? For this particular cruise, my cabin will have no fridge.

Even when I was with my husband on cruises, he wanted to eat at the buffet and I wanted the sit down dining, so I would go alone to the MDR. They gave me a choice of my own table (a table for 2) or did I wish to be seated with others. So, you get to choose.

I wish I could drink tea. I used to be able to, but gradually over the past decade, I developed an allergy to each type of tea until about 4 years ago, when my final kind, black tea, was taken from me. 😞

I really don't want to have to lug as much Mini Moos as I will need for a 7 day cruise. If there's absolutely no milk or cream on the ship, I'll just bring caffeine pills and forgo my morning coffee. I won't have a fridge in my studio cabin, but I wonder if that Automatic Coffee Machine in the Studio lounge has actual milk in it? That would work for me. Or I could hunt down cream at the bars. They have to have actual heavy cream at the bars, right? They aren't making Mudslides or White Russians with Coffee Mate, yeah? Sorry to all the Coffee Mate lovers, but I can't do the artificial creamers or sweeteners.

In addition to what others have said, I'm sure every line gets the same bad reviews. Each line does have a vibe and I use the bad reviews as much as the good reviews to decide. Sometimes, it's a complaint that doesn't mean anything to me (towel animals, crew subservience, turndown service), and I discard that. The Coffee Mate/No Cream issue is a bit more important to me, but will I not go on my NCL cruise because I have to hunt down cream or grab a carton of milk from the buffet for my coffee? No. Is the Pride of America aft sewage smell concerning? Yes, but what I did was research the possible causes and what I can do about it and, if it's that bad, I'll go seeking FCC. I have special needs, so I contact NCL ahead of time and I make the preparations for what I need. Many times, when I read the negative review, it's as others have said; The cruiser didn't research or pay attention. I mean, yeah, you can totally wing a Freestyle time on NCL, but they aren't going to handhold us if we need or expect certain things. TLDR; Read the good and bad reviews, decide what's important to you and make Plan A, B, C for what you want to do in case of the important thing to you.

I thought NCL wouldn't allow us to bring those on? Don't they count as a beverage?