Mississippian

I saw numerous notices on signs and the daily newsletter, but it is wrong for them to just keep your money. Livorno was ridiculous, but the Valencia s**tshow was way worse. I think I walked eight miles that day.

I think he knew. But as I understand it, even getting to pay is discretionary.

I don't doubt that a bit.

At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest, I met a guy on my recent transatlantic cruise who said he and his parents had been allowed to join his uncle and aunt in the Haven restaurant. It was a one-time deal, though.

I was on the NCL Breakaway about a month ago. The JOB machines were 8-5 at the quarter and dollar level (97.30%) and 8-6 at the $5 level (98.39%) which is about as good a vp machine as you will find on a cruise ship. I played a quarter Double Bonus machine and the quarter paytable was 9-6-4, or a 96.38% return with perfect play; I suspect dollars are the same. I don't know the $5 paytable. Double Double Bonus, 25 cents, 9-5, 97.87% return; $1 and $5 unknown. I think this makes the Double Double Bonus the best play in the casino for quarters. If the $5 version improves the payout to 9-6 (98.98%) it is likely the best game on the seas. But oh, the volatility! The above figures are for "perfect" play. Most players will lose an additional 5-7%. Reasonably good players will lose an additional 2-4%. Really good players will still likely lose an extra half percent or so. The reason I have all of these numbers is because about a year ago I started taking a photo of every quad hand, as well as straight flushes and royals. It's clearly a habit I need to continue. If a cruise line has better paytables than these, I'd love to know it. There were a lot of things I didn't like about NCL, but when the other lines are holding out an extra two or three percent on coin-in I'll go with NCL.

Not really. The Haven is only twice as much! I have been shopping for a T/A cruise. I suspect this will be the biggest bargain to be had when they finally get the pricing right. I will be sailing solo, so it doesn't matter that the bathroom is essentially open to the stateroom.

I have received a number of mailers from Princess touting their casino program (I played a decent bit on my last cruise). The mailers are kind of confusing. I recently did some cruise searches and found that I was entitled to a number of Alaska cruises for free. Further searches showed some heavily discounted Europe cruises, but no transatlantics. My question is, if I book one of these heavily discounted cruises, do I get a drink card? I know that on NCL I can drink in the casino for free, no hassle, but would like to know how Princess operates. Does taking a free or heavily discounted cruise make me a VIP?

A couple of thoughts. My experience is that the buffet on all ships tends to be slammed for the first 24 or 36 hours. After that, it's a bit easier to get food and a table. I would advise anyone, regardless of the ship, to spend a good 15 minutes or so early on just walking around the buffet to see where things are. There are so many nooks and crannies that it's easy to miss things that the buffet offers. I think the OP is on Day 4. Is the buffet still unreasonably crowded? Maybe the MDR could be an option. Second, a ship's officers are people, too. If they are used to doing cruises of 14-30 days, a switch to 7-day cruises is going to present some challenges. I think they were just sharing a problem that they are having to deal with rather than signaling that your 7-day cruise isn't worthwhile. I was pretty unhappy with a recent NCL cruise, but I still had a good time. Make the best of things, and if you aren't happy either strike Princess from your cruise list or else move them down a few notches.

This is going to do some real damage to NCL in the long term. A tremendous share of times when people might want a drink are in port or within a few miles of port. Most people will cruise elsewhere so long as there is fear of not being able to have a drink in port. In addition, there will be more people not taking the drink package and just bringing some wine on board and paying the corkage. And no one can be expected to have any guilt about using Rum Runners to bring spirits on board. Yes, it is against the rules, but so is not providing drinks that people have already paid for. At this point, all NCL can do is compete on price, because all of the other mass-market lines are providing a better cruise experience.

The Breakaway is my brother's favorite cruise ship, but he said the downgraded beef at Teppanyaki was terrible; he described it as "dog food," and the chicken was way overcooked. He said the shrimp were great and so that's what I ordered, and they were indeed good.

There has reportedly been a huge decline in food quality on ALL of the mass-market cruise lines since Jan. 1, 2023. I never found the "stellar" dishes on the buffet; the four or five dishes I tried, other than bacon, sausage, and pizza were one-bite bad. I didn't starve, and there were things I liked about the cruise. It's hard for me not to have a good time. But my experience on other cruise lines has been better. If the price is right, I'll cruise NCL again, but at the same price point, my choice is Princess or Celebrity, without a doubt.

You are right, everything is subjective. I thought the NCL food was pretty bad in the MDR and awful in the buffet. I didn't get to see much entertainment because everything was sold out or required long waits in lines. When I was a kid I thought the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta was the greatest thing ever, and the newer Celebrity ships have that same "Wow" factor.

I think 14848.

Celebrity is head and shoulders better than NCL. Costs more, too.

I just took my first NCL cruise, April 20 to May 6 Breakaway transatlantic and was a little disappointed when comparing it to Princess or Celebrity. I took a transatlantic on each of them last year, and they were overall just much better. BUT, before I get into things I didn't like, I'll describe what I did like. 1. I paid a low price with no single supplement. It was the same on Princess and Celebrity last year, but this year NCL was the only one offering no supplement. (It can be argued, I got what I paid for). 2. The boarding process was easy. We ended up having to sit around for about an hour, but I wasn't harmed. 3. My stateroom was nice. The shower was plenty big and I liked having a shower door, so no curtain clinging to my legs. The balcony was incredibly small, however. 4. I've read complaints about drink service on Breakaway, but I didn't have a problem. There were a few times when it was difficult to get a drink, such as at the Mix Bar, but it was easy to get to another bar in about 90 seconds. Overall the servers were very nice and friendly. I liked the Shakers bar. 5. I liked the Manhatten Room, with live music during dinner. 6. I liked the Premium Plus drink package, but halfway through the cruise they were suddenly "out" of the nicer champagne. The expensive whiskeys were still available, but I just wanted a single glass of nice champagne at night to start my dinner. If they are going to offer something they ought to make it available. 7. The casino was huge, at least twice as big as those on Celebrity and Princess. Almost all of the machines were newer and in good shape. Oddly enough, the eight or 10 video poker machines at the bar were in terrible condition. A third were completely broken, and another third had sticking or non-functioning buttons (you could still touch the screen, but this increases the chance of mistakes). Now for the bad: 1. I found the food to rarely be good, sometimes fair and often just plain bad. Some examples: a. My overcooked filet at Cagney's was almost cold. The big pat of Mâitre d' butter was right-out-of-the-fridge-cold, so not a bit melted on my steak. b. I was rarely able to find anything decent on the buffet. The pizza had a floppy crust, but that might be intentional, and it was pretty good. In the mornings I got a couple of pieces of bacon and a sausage link, which were reasonably good. The sliced salami was good. I got some cottage pie from the buffet -- one of my favorite dishes -- and the filling tasted like Manwich. That's right, they used Sloppy Joe filling in cottage pie. It was vile. I tried numerous other things from the buffet and was simply unable to eat them. c. There was just a feeling when looking at menus or food that every effort is being made to serve the cheapest food possible. I understand this, but I think they have gone a little far. For example, the gumbo at Ocean Blue was reasonably good, but not great. The smoked sausage was the most thinly sliced I have ever seen, and the shrimp were the most tiny bay shrimp I've encountered as well. They took something that should have been really good and made it just okay. The salads and appetizers are now just listed as appetizers. There's no problem ordering two, but NCL is clearly trying to cut a course out of dinner. d. I should note that I am taking tirzepatide. Food tastes good to me but there is a limit to how much I can eat. So I could pick at the not-very-good courses and not go away hungry. I could see how those with heartier appetites might have been quite frustrated. 2. The design of the ship is a bit wonky. On Princess, the Lido deck has a large bar on each side of the pool. On Breakaway, it's just not a great design. A lot of this seems to be because of the Haven, and NCL is making a huge profit on this program, so I understand. But it makes the top deck less fun. Instead of a view of the ship's wake Spice H2O has a giant TV screen (washed out in the daytime) blocking the view. And they've turned the Atrium area, which ought to be a main social hub of the ship, into something awful, with trivia games and all the guest relations desks. They removed all the bar stools from the bar after a couple of days so that it would just be a service bar, because apparently people were socializing. This doesn't make sense. 3. I'm not a big show person, but I really got to see no entertainment at all. "Six" was sold out on the second day. The comedians performed behind closed doors and often or always required an advance reservation. So you can't just walk along and hear people laughing and snag an empty seat. At any given time Princess has a lot more going on in a lot more venues, and no reservations or long queueing are required. I would much rather pay a cover charge to get into a place like Syd Norman's than have to wait in line for an hour. The need for meticulous, advanced planning just doesn't do it for me. 4. The port information provided in the daily newsletter was almost non-existent. In Valencia we were told we could pay $16 on the dock and take a shuttle into town. There were no shuttles. When I asked about the shuttles I was pointed to the exit. What nobody told us is that it was a 2.5-mile walk just to get out of the cruise port, and even then you needed to walk more because there weren't many cabs available. It would have been really easy to inform guests that if they choose to walk it is a 2.5-mile journey. I ended up with blisters on both my feet; there were some folks who really struggled with this walk. There was very little information for any of the ports as to how we could get off the ship and into town. 5. For the last two days people without a drink package couldn't get any drink at all on the ship. I understand this is the case in a lot of European ports, and I suspect it is a matter or not having to pay some type of extra tax. Those with a drink package could get beer and wine. If NCL is going to restrict alcohol in certain ports they need to make it available in advance for people to keep in their cabin. These are just my views. I had enough play in the casino that I might get a free cruise offer, and if so I might take it. But at least I will know what to expect.

The waiters never knew the status of the champagne, and it was almost always listed on the menu as available and recommended. They would substitute the Chandon, which was fine with me, but on the last night they served me something truly dreadful. I didn't know I had that fancy a palate, but I guess it developed.

Just curious, are they still "out" of the Veuve Clicquot and Pommery Brut rose champagne? They ran "out" after about eight days on the April 20-May 6 transatlantic. When the supply wasn't replenished in Cannes, I started to suspect that they just had a quota of how much they were going to allow people on one cruise to drink.

Don't worry, I'm a lush. But after a full day of guzzling there is just so much I can handle at dinner.

I'm taking a transatlantic on the Breakaway in a few days and there was no single supplement on any of the staterooms for the longest time. Now I think only the inside cabins have no supplement. Last year there were a lot of transatlantics with no supplement, but this year only NCL has been offering them. Based on the roll call for my trip it looks like a singles excursion, as all the single travelers have congregated on one cruise line. I find the vacations to go website to be helpful in finding cruises with no supplement, as it allows you to price singles and shows the amount of the supplement. It does leave some cruises out, particularly Celebrity, but I still find it very helpful.

I am traveling solo and have the Premium Plus drink package. The only reason I would order a bottle of wine at dinner rather than by the glass is because drink service in cruise ship dining rooms tends to be slow. In any event, if I start my meal with a glass of champagne there is no way I could drink more than half a bottle of wine. Will they store the wine for me overnight? I know Princess does this. I realize that since I am "entitled" to the bottle of wine I can just leave it, but I don't like waste. Also, I've heard that if I am at a shared table I can offer a glass of my by-the-bottle wine to my tablemates. Is this correct?

I buy the drink package in advance, and beyond that I spend almost nothing on a cruise. I have zero desire to buy "things" in overpriced shops. Sometimes something will have a small charge attached; in such cases I just spend the ten bucks and have it over with. I've had about 10 cruises on various lines and I've never been nickeled and dimed. I know some people might be upset about a room service charge. I've almost never used it when it was free, and would much rather it be charged a la carte than priced in the cruise fare. Same for a lot of other things.

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Why is it a safety issue? When they have a really weird rule like this people ought to be told why. If they decide to ban blue t-shirts or Crest toothpaste, I want to know why.

I probably dreamed this, but I think I read somewhere that Premium Plus beverage package guests didn't have to pay cork fees on wine brought on board. This seems reasonable, since PP guests have the right to any drink on board, regardless of price. In any even, am I remembering correctly?

They have changed things, and Veuve is supposed to be served only by the glass. Some have reported that this is being ignored. Others have reported the opposite.