PATRLR

Back where you got it? That would be wrong, you got it from the clean plate pile which was right near the unserved food. I don't think used plates go there and I don't recall a station or some other location to return dirty dishes. Staff took care of the dirty dishes.

Exactly. The OL and in particular the early morning just as you describe is one of those significant "plusses" that NCL had going for it, IMO. Now there is one less.

Who says the staff is only there to remove drinking glasses and not half eaten plates? The OL serves food, who was supposed to pick up those plates? And who said that passengers MUST eat everything on their plates (i.e. don't leave "half eaten plates"). If you could point me to the rules for the OL that explains this, that would be most helpful (or point me to whatever documenation you have to support your claims). Unfair? Not unfair at all, especialyl considering NCL's well established track record for cost cutting. You may not agree with my statement, you may have your own opinion as to why this cut was implemented, but that doesn't make my statement, my opinion, "unfair".

So hire extra staff to pick up plates and such. But they didn't do that, they chose to cut the food out entirely. Why? Cost savings. Don't kid yourself, this is just one more example of NCL nickel and diming (this one being on the cost side of the ledger).

Exactly. I've made similar statements in the past. NCL simply doesn't consider quality communication to it's guests to be a priority. It's something in their culture.

Try to follow along. I'm not the one that said this specific issue was cost cutting, someone else suggested it might be. And you then replied that everything isn't cost cutting. That statement of yours is what I responded to.

Sure seems that way to me. I can't think of any significant change that wasn't done in the name of cost cutting (despite their ever present claims that changes are made for our "convenience").

We did RCCL last summer (their MDR and buffet were about the same, their specialty dining was head and shoulders above NCL's) and we're trying Princess this summer.

Agreed. Viva in December the food in general was awful. It's really the only word for it.

What would you say to the people on the Dec 15 2023 Viva cruise who's bags were left out in the rain, to the point where all of their clothes were being laundered by NCL on the first evening, if the tampons (or any other necessities) they packed "for emergency" were ruined from that rain? The NCL apologists on this board continue to amaze me. There is no reason for NCL not to stock and have accessible basic human necessities, yet out they come to make it the passengers problem.

According to the @BirdTravels, the cookies were supposed to go in the trash. I can't believe you actually ate them. smh. 😉 (We also got them in our CBS on Viva and also in Vibe and I agree they were very good)

A little over 48 hours after dropping this "review", it's still OPs first and only post. I wonder how many other places s/he dropped this bomb? I'm not going to bother with any further responses because I suspect OP will never see them.

You absolutely answered my question. Thank you.

You say Prima so I didn't vote. If you'd said Prima or Viva, my vote would be yes, but, it would have to be for the right itinerary (warm weather only).

@MNcruisingcouple thanks for posting. We agree with you on NCL's slipping quality so have been trying other lines lately (while still sailing NCL too). RCCL last summer, Princess this summer. Can you speak to the overall "vibe" and clientele of your VV cruise compared to what you typically experience on Norwegian?

Carnival has the best molten chocolate lava cakes. We're going on our first Princess cruise this summer and I was hoping Princess might have the same version (seeing as they are owned by the same parent company).

That was part of my thinking when I booked it. Being that this is our first Princess cruise, my thinking was, I don't know what I will or won't want. But, after really looking and thinking, I'm pretty sure most of the extras are stuff we just won't use.

thank you. I think your experience would very closely match ours except I'm pretty sure we'd use a couple specialty meals. To those that commented about Premier being part of package, not to worry. I asked the TA to add Premier (he was preparing to add Plus), so, no way ti was part of a package. Thanks for everyone's help.

Thanks. We're on Sky for the fjords cruise July 13. I just don't see us using the casual dining option and even if we use it more than twice we can pay as we go a few times and still probably be ahead of the game. And I have no doubt we will not use the photos. It's been years since we allowed a ships photog to take our picture - we tend to avoid them entirely.

Hi folks, I recently booked a cruise and had the TA select the Premier option. The more I read, the more I realize the only thing we are likely to use from Premier is the 2 specialty dining options. We won't use the extra internet, fitness classes, deserts, casual dining, expensive drinks and we avoid the photographers. Just doesn't seem we need the Premiere, Plus will do just fine. We are not at final payment yet. FWIW, we're in a guarantee category. Before I call the TA, I like to be at least somewhat informed about how this should go. So, should I be able to call and request a downgrade to Plus? Anything I should be aware of in doing so? Anyone actually do this?

OK, so this begs the question do people get bumped from cruises if they can't get enough "Move Over" volunteers? Or in airline parlance, involuntary denied boarding?

We are debating what the acronym stands for. The acronym is going to be for the formal name. You showed text that included "a discretionary service charge" which is much different from something labeled with the formal name "Discretionary Service Charge". No where was I (or Google) able to find the formal name Discretionary Service Charge on the NCL site.

This came up a while ago and at the time I didn't believe it so I talked to my friends at Google. I learned that they had never seen NCL give it a proper name of "Discretionary Service Charge" (as you know), they only had record of it on NCL sites as described that way in a few places. But the fascinating thing is just how many non-NCL sites (bloggers, news, forums, etc) changed NCL's descriptive term ("a discretionary service charge") into a formal name ("Discretionary Service Charge"). There is a marketing lesson in there and I am sure the name was changed precisely to break that connection to "discretionary" (and for our convenience, of course).

I don't. Damn, I really wish I did, I just struggle with finding the time to take notes during and then writing it after.