cruisinmeme

We didn't have a gratuity added on the Feb 16th sailing of the Pearl. I went up to the bar in the atrium and bought it there, came to $51.75 for the 9 day cruise.

That is the math OP came up with. I think she should of made another trip to the desk to plead my case.

Guess we will hit the MDR on embarkation and sea days.

Our first ncl cruise 4 years ago and I can't remember what we did. The next two cruises we had a suite and went to cagneys.

Even if the menu has changed some we liked all the choices in MDR.

Thanks for the info

For recent cruisers on the dawn. Was the MDR open on both sea days and port days.

We will be suite guest but prefer the menu in the MDR. I know that cagneys will fetch items for us, but I am not about to ask for them to get meals for 4 people for us when we can go to MDR.

Now it is a different story for breakfast, we like cagneys.

Thanks

You would have to pay international rates for time in either of the islands, Bahamas international is very expensive. So yourself a favor... leave the cell phone turned off on the ship and enjoy your vacation!

Much cheaper to use ship phone.1.99 per min. And no tax

Lock up the cell phone and forget about it.

Thanksgiving 2012 ncl star- wonderful evening thanksgiving meal in MDR

Rather cheesie thanksgiving decorations.

Thanksgiving 2013 ncl jewel- had a thanksgiving meal but wasn't as yummy as last year. Same cheesie decoration. Lots of so called Black Friday sales.

Will be on dawn this year.

Carnival always had Christmas decorations up by mid November , but nothing on ncl by end of November on star or jewel.

Thank you everyone for your quick response. All I ever remember is showing the cruise card.

They tell you in the daily paper and announce it to bring a photo ID. Out of 18 cruises I have had to show it very seldom, but I do ask they say and bring it.

It would be at the port check point, on returning to the ship that we had to show it not at the ship itself.

We are also booked on the April 3,2016 cruise. If you do a B2B you will be going to different ports each week. How meet is that.

Thanksgiving 2013 we were on jewel. Meal was not so good in MDR

Thanksgiving 2012 we were on star. Meal was fabulous in MDR.

Will be on dawn for thanksgiving 2014- TBD

Here is a thread where comment no. 2 includes a price list from 2012 (it is from the Jewel, but the services are pretty much the same on most NCL ships) - look under the point called "Teen & Kid spa - under 18 only":

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1835564

Exactly what I need. My husband and I love massages also. We will do the mother/daughter, son/dad thing.

Taking the granddaughter Saturday for us a pedicure and manicure. She loves all this fun stuff.

Thanks

Sorry this was not a joke thread.

Yes, very we'll know spa in my town does children's massage. Now talking about a chiropractor , but a massage.

I guess I have nothing but excellent experience's so maybe I am too trusting.

Talking to two of the grand kids today about our upcoming cruise. They are 10&13. They have cruised many times. Wanted to know what type of excursions or specialty resturants they want to eat at. Sadly they didn't want either. Guess that comes with so many cruises.

They would like to do a massage. I know at our local spa they have reasonable priced massages for kids. Like 30.00 for 30 mins. Realize it would easily be double on a ship, but just got to thinking "do they even work on kids" so has anyone ever treated their kiddos to a massage?

After 12 ccl cruises and one with rccl we tried ncl and love love love it. My goodness if you ever get a suite with ncl it rocks!! A little perk with ncl starting on second cruise you get little perks like discount in gift shop. Then comes discounts on photo's. Only had a balcony room and suite 3x. The balcony cabin was smaller than carnival but was not a big deal.

For us we liked the dinning better on ncl.

For the heck of it I checked out the web site. I have bought very similar bracelets in Bahamas at straw market. I wore it back to the ship and on the ship. I saw lots of other ladies with same braclet. U should be able to return home with any of that stuff.

Ok don't buy the insurance, it is that simple. It is not mandatory .

I might add most people do get tired of the people do get tired of someone that didn't buy insurance and want to cry about their unexpected problem.

I know you want believe this, but there has been more than a few cruisers that wasn't old and in poor health that had emergency issues.

As a Non-Smoker let me say that this is an awful policy and will entice me AWAY from NCL, not to it. What they're saying is the casino is open season for smoking. This will drive the non-smokers away from that spot for sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see it keep smokers away too given the amount of smoking that will be going on down there now. And what about the poor employees working down there?!

 

If they wanted to do something constructive they should have set the Casino as smoke free and allow smoking on one side of the open deck area.

 

If this was a new policy intended to appease the non-smoker, they sure didn't think it through.

I thought the same thing as a non smoker (former smoker). Can barely bare the casino now. But..... In the policy change it did say active casino players only can smoke in casino. Now who will police people just sitting around in there smoking and hitting the slot once every cigarette is yet to be seen.

The casino is nearly unbearable now - I can only imagine what it will be like when all of the smokers are congregated there!

 

Oh well, I can avoid the casino. I can't avoid a smoker next door whose smoke drifts over to our balcony and into our room.

 

I'm going to get some popcorn ready too and see how this plays out. :D

Correct about the casino being unbearable. I was thinking it will take a mask to get near it now.

Sadly I love love the casino. Not too awful in early am.

They don't require them but they certainly help. We just got off the Dawn and had reservations four nights, 2 for Aqua and 2 for The Venetian. The only take so many reservations but it does save on the wait time.

 

In my opinion is is a terrible system. It certainly helped us but it did create very long wait times and some pissed off passengers.

Just curious.... But since you had reservations and if you got to MDR and there was a Lon line, what did you do. Is it ok to send one person from the group to the counter (off to the side of the person already at the front of the line) and tell someone "smith part of 4 has 6:30 reservations and we r here"

We have cruised the last three thanksgivings and will again this year also. They do make a special meal for the day, so sure Christmas would be the same.

We have had the SJ suite on 2 cruises and the aft suite on the last one (small with larger balcony and only allows 3 people) all suites sell out super fast, so good luck getting one this close to Christmas.

You also tip when they deliver

I just got off the phone with my PCC because we needed to add an interior cabin next to our suite. According to the NCL PCC, suite passengers can invite up to two guests to join them for breakfast or lunch at Cagney's.

We were on a cruise last November where 3 families had a suite and 1 family in our group did. Once and only once was this family of two allowed in coneys for breakfast. The concierge ok'ed it and told my daughter keep it quiet!

So if they are saying it is fine to bring guest, something has changed. Personally I find it hard to believe. If every suite brings guest space would be an issue. Also the cost of the fancier food.hummmmmm.

I always book thru ncl and you give them your aarp member number and that is all you need.

It is sort of a rotating thing. Usually does the key west, Bahamas once a month.

We r booked for dream for April 2016 out of New Orleans for those ports. It is crazy how New Orleans is cheaper than Galveston.

Thanks for the replies. Mimd made up, booking next week.

I am wondering about the inside cabins just inside from the pool. Not the ones on the other side of the front elevators. Is it really loud there?

We have never had this location but interested in trying it.

Any input would be great.

We have been on the elation three times in E124 or E127. The sideway cabin.

I notice the deck plan now shows these cabins have two twin beds that does not make into king. This has never been the case before.

Anyone been in this cabin lately. We were on the elation January 2014 and it was a king bed then.