PATRLR

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.

Thank you for posting that. I'd lost the link and CC's search feature isn't very robust so I couldn't find it again. I agree with your assessment, I trust his statements based on his history on these forums. I also like his reply #46 in that thread in response to my question comparing crew compensation before DSC and after.

It's a shame that some people feel the need to tell others how to enjoy their vacations, as if it's any of their business what others choose to do. I once paid extra to rent a condo in Vegas where the owner intentionally made the washer/dryer available to his tenants (almost all others did not). I'll be damned if I explain why that was important to us on that vacation.

We've been on HAL, CCL, RCCL, DIS, NCL and a line that's now gone. Lately, NCL had been our primary, but, they've fallen off so much since the restart we are openly cheating. Went back to RCCL last summer (MDR/buffet food was worse, SD was way better, entertainment much better) and will do them again. We've got Sky Princess booked for Norwegian fjords this summer. I would like to get on Celebrity but their price point makes it difficult to justify the jump.

Umm, that's exactly what I wrote: You are the one who felt a need to state that it wasn't your job. Glad we are all in agreement that it isn't your job to respond. Perhaps your job is just to complain? You are very good at it.

The part I missed, and I did go back and look for it, was the part where someone tried to make it specifically @SeaShark's job to respond to any post, let alone one requiring "spoon feeding". In my experience, these boards work much better if, when one doesn't want to answer a question one simply doesn't answer it, vs replying complaining about the question. Often times someone doesn't mind answering the question (e.g. @OceanDreaming2 in this thread) so they do and all is well. But these aren't my boards so if you feel the need to add your complaints, we'll just have to tolerate it.

@ozziebound - You asked about the culture on NCL: My observation is there are many kids in that pre-teen age that enjoy the ship unsupervised. Many of them are even well behaved.

This!!!! But what about the folks next to you, I wonder if there food tasted any different? Some might have you think it does! 🙂😉

What I read is people saying it's OK to wear certain clothes, not that people should NOT wear some other specific clothes. Big difference.

I have this same question as I expect to have OBC that I otherwise probably won't use. But, I don't want to end up with no transfers. Anyone have any thoughts of booking ahead of time vs onboard? This is for the July 13 Sky Princess (so July 20 return to LHR).

I don't know but I'll bet cost savings of some sort for NCL is part of it.