KeithJenner

The issue with the bureaucratic mix up thing is that they really need to get their act together. Once is excusable, but 4 times suggests that there is a problem that really needs resolving.

That's interesting. Do you know whether that is permanent?

Not this again. I was just clarifying what I was saying. If you read anything else into it then that really is on you. It actually seems like it may be you that is struggling with people disagreeing. I am just stating my opinion and you don';t seem to like me doing so.

Let’s be clear on a few things. I’m absolutely fine for people to disagree with me, I was just clarifying what I means by it being an NCL thing. And once again, I’m not saying that this is “NCLs doing”. I’m saying that it is something that is happening on NCL ships and there is no evidence that it is happening on any other line. That doesn’t make it “NCLs doing”. I will just say though that it my opinion (which anyone is of course free to disagree with) is that there is not a chance in hell that this is happening in other lines and nobody has thought to mention it on cruise critic.

People tried asking last year and they ain’t telling. Speculation is all we have. 🙂

I think that people are misunderstanding what we mean when we say that this is an NCL thing. I do not believe that NCL are just making things up. There is clearly something happening involving the ports. However, in the last year there have been problems with drink service in Greece and Gibraltar and there are current issues in the UK and Italy. Only on NCL ships. It isn’t a case of people onboard not reporting, as a considerable time has passed since the Greece issues for example. I spent quite a bit of time on various other boards to look for any problems on other ships and found nothing, despite asking questions. Someone (I think on this thread) said they saw a report from another ship mentioning their wine at lunch in Southampton. Do people seriously believe that if other lines were to have these problems then nobody would have mentioned it at all? The NCL board is really no different to other lines on cruise critic for peoples speed to complain. This may not be of NCLs making, but it is extremely clear that it is a problem that is affecting them more than any other line, and I’ve not seen any evidence to say that it isn’t only affecting them. That makes it an NCL thing.

It was the same last year in Greece when NCL ships were reporting issues and there was nothing from other lines. One thing that really is clear is that this is an NCL problem.

The UK is not part of the EU.

Yeah, I did an round Britain cruise last September and there were no restrictions on alcohol sales. I am struggling to find any sensible explanations for all of these things other than that NCL don’t want to pay the tax.

I’ve not seen any reports of the new menus on any ship other than the Prima. We will know when it happens as there will be a 10 page long thread on this board within a few hours of the first report.

There has been some confusion lately regarding what OBC can be used to purchase cruisenext (paying the 50% post discount). Recently the terms were changed to say: ”Only refundable Onboard Credits and the Non-Refundable Onboard Credit given for purchasing CruieNext deposits may be used towards your CruiseNext purchase.” It is therefore unlikely that your TA OBC can be used, as that is usually non refundable. I’m sure others here will be able to confirm whether the shareholder OBC is refundable or non refundable.

NCL used to do regular Canary Isles cruises through the winter. Usually the Spirit (we did two of them from Barcelona). We we’re also booked on a similar one on the Epic a few years ago but the ship got repositioned and they were all cancelled. There haven’t been any scheduled for a few years, and it will be good to see them return. We would certainly do the itinerary again. As for the weather, we went at Easter and it was cool in the Med but nice and warm by the time we got to the Canaries. We have sailed on the Med in December and it was quite nice but we did need a jacket at times. The seas can be a bit rough during the winter and Casablanca is apparently a challenge in rough seas.

There are a few shops and bars/restaurants on the waterfront. https://www.vallettawaterfront.com

There are some very big differences between the Santorini cable car and the Barraka lift. Firstly, the cable car climbs about 4x the height that the lift does, so walking is much harder and more time consuming. Also, the alternatives are not good in Santorini, as the walk is very unpleasant (there is a very good chance of you slipping and the donkeys are a big problem), whereas there are various options for walking in Valetta and they are a much nicer walking. There is also the option of getting alternative transport from the dock. Basically, for most people the cable car is the only real option in Santorini (outside of NCL tours), whereas there are various other options in Valetta. If I was in Valetta and there was a queue for the lift then I'd walk instead. In Santorini I would either join the queue or just head back to the ship. Getting back is a lot easier as well.

Same thing, different wording.

You can stop there then.

Regarding cruisenext, don’t get confused by the wording regarding on board credit. That OBC gets used against the cost of the voucher, so it is basically half price. ie, buy two $250 vouchers and you will be charged $500 but then the discount gets applied to your account, meaning you only pay $250. You don’t need to find things to spend the credit on.

It is far from confirmed that these changes have no traction. These aren’t rumours, they are based on the new list of beverage issued by NCL in April. It would have been amazing, knowing NCL, if the change happened immediately on every ship. When changes happen it is very common for reports to appear saying that they weren’t applied on some ships. All that Seas2mountains report shows is that it hasn’t changed on the Sky yet (in Le Bistro at least). We need far more than that to conclude that the changes aren’t happening and even then it would be a reversal of policy rather than the reports were just rumours.

Obviously an advantage of this is that the organisation is taken out of your hands, which is an attraction for some. However, whilst Kent and Dover Castle are nice, if I had this amount of time on my first visit to the UK then I wouldn’t be leaving London on those middle two days. There is so much to do in London without blowing a few hours in a coach to get down to Dover. Something which is popular is to arrange a transfer to Southampton that visits somewhere like Stonehenge on the way and that sounds a better plan if you want to see something outside of London. Even better, add in another day or two and split your stay between London and the Southampton area. Having said all that, if you like the idea of having the itinerary set then it certainly looks like being an enjoyable (but probably busy) few days.

Yes, I suspected so. Those balconies are huge, and far bigger than club suites elsewhere. The large balcony rooms on the deck above (not club suite) are also a lot bigger than normal club suites.

That sounds like you were in a large balcony room, in which case that was the reason for the bigger balcony, rather than it being a club balcony. Generally the balcony and club suite rooms have similar sized balconies.

The latitudes tour is a different thing and is arranged with the cruisenext staff onboard.

Bands from the smaller venues (particularly the Beatles) have done one off shows in the Theatre a few times when I’ve been onboard, so it can’t be too much of a challenge.

Shorts are also not allowed in the aft MDR on some ships.

For future reference, you could have done your dining reservations 125 days out. Chances are that you would have got 6 people then (we are currently 120 days out from our Breakaway cruise and there is quite good availability for 6 & 8 at Teppanyaki).