PATRLR

There were only 2 ships at Havensight on Dec 21st when Viva was at Crown Bay.

Not so fast. The Dec 15 sailing of Viva docked in Crown Bay. While I *think* Havensight is what NCL mostly uses, you can't count on it always. Personally, I don't think it matters. You can walk to downtown from Havensight, but, St. Thomas downtown has really gone downhill to the point where we have no reason to go there. That would be the only advantage I can think of.

What you are saying certainly is plausible. But damn, I do hope you are wrong. When you think about it, I suppose when I changed from balcony to club balcony, I eliminated someone from doing an upgrade to club balcony. Of course, I opened up a balcony for upgrading, but that would likely result in less revenue.

Why do you feel the need to insult shoe leather like that? 😉 As the guy who threw that 10PM number out there, I acknowledge it probably isn't 10PM. But, I thought for sure I'd seen 10PM listed somewhere, but I can't find it on any of the paperwork I kept. The only place it might have been is the Vibe "welcome letter" which I didn't keep.

I obviously haven't looked at your specific cruise but others I looked at, the cabana cost about $100 more than the 2 passes that are included. In my opinion, the extra $100 wouldn't keep me out of the Vibe.

I don't understand why you are looking at the upgrade bid site. That should have nothing to do with what I think you are trying to do. If I understand correctly, you have found that the listed price for a club balcony is now only $50 more than you paid for your regular balcony. I know my TA had no problem moving my booking from balcony to club balcony (and it was after final payment, just as you are).

I don't know about an "upgrade" per se - I would just change the booking. When I was in this situation, after final payment, a club balcony was about $50 more than I had paid for my balcony. So I called my TA and had them change the booking to the club balcony, told them which stateroom I wanted and I paid the $50 difference. Easy.

RCCL thinks it's worthwhile, they actually swipe cards to record to your room when you take and when you give back.

But it only takes one port day to realize the sign-out list is a farce. You may indeed sign out towels but no one is signing it back in when you get back to the ship and are told to throw your towels into the big bin.

I do not know for sure. I do know that I have seen Vibe's hot tubs open later than the bar on multiple different ships.

You aren't wrong here. And yet good hotels manage to get you warm food. Yes, not all hotels, in fact most don't, but good ones do. If NCL wanted to get you warm room service meals, it could be done. They chose not to.

What you've described here seems perfect for Vibe. Using my recent Viva experience: Bar and service open till 7PM Hot tubs open till 10 PM We loved going there after returning from port Don't recall exact time Vibe opened in morning but we ate our breakfast in Vibe a couple mornings (because it located close to the ridiculously small buffet on the Viva).

They had it on Viva in December 2023.

Agreed. We were on Oasis last summer, first time on RCCL in five(?) years. It was an eye opener and when combined with the cuts were hearing and seeing in NCL entertainment, NCL no longer has that upper hand they used to in our minds.

We do Caribbean cruises as true rest and relaxation events - in other words we aren't doing them for the ports and the ports almost don't matter. The ship's entertainment (including but not limited to the shows) is part of our criteria for choosing a line. NCL used to have the upper hand, not so much anymore.

Agree 100%! Well said.

Right! Great summation. Some people on this board should stick to posting marketing pictures and leave the socio-economic analysis of various generations to the professionals. IMO.

Yes, we were on the first run from San Juan. Ship was full.

Then there was the group that occupied an outside table for most of the day playing some sort of board game. For multiple days. They were there through the lunch periods, not sure if they were there for dinner.

My dad was a WWII vet (Marine). He felt that way. He never understood all the fuss people were making over the "greatest generation" and thanking him for his service. His opinion was that they had no choice in doing what they did.

Dec 2023, Viva, unable to get into Syds (because I refuse to waste an hour+ of my vacation waiting in lines).

Did you look carefully at the times in port for these itineraries? Seems like I've heard some complaints about limited port times for some of the NCL itineraries. The other thing I would look into is if there are any issues early season getting up to Dawes glacier. I don't know if that is an issue or not, just something I'd look into. If you do the Bliss, I strongly recommend the "TRACY ARM FJORD & GLACIER EXPLORER" excursion. You leave the Bliss and get on an Allen Marine boat with 150 or so others and get up much closer to the glacier than the Bliss gets.

The trick I've used to find out if it's available is to join the roll call thread for the cruise in question and ask if someone on that thread (who is already booked) would check on Vibe availability. Could do something similar on the other social media sites. I don't believe a TA can book it along with your cruise.

RCCL has that or something very similar. I would think this is a very realistic suggestion (not that all the others in this thread weren't realistic 🙄😉)

Whoa!!!!! I too have had that complaint for years (I think we've discussed it in the past). Well, I just realized that on Viva this past December, I didn't have that problem. And because of the limited hours of the buffet, and the location of Surfside Grill just outside Vibe, we ate many burgers from Surfside Grill. Not one bun fell apart, they definitely had different buns! Maybe the provisions from San Juan are different? Maybe the problem is fixed on all the ships? When were you last on an NCL ship?