Sonora5

Very interesting discussion. Thanks to all.

I'm not convinced that HAL would turn into NCL if HAL added suites only dining.

 

BTW, we had the same menu issue on Oasis with their suites only dining. They only changed the dinner menu once on a seven day cruise which might have been OK if there were a few more choices. I don't think they changed the lunch menu at all. Some people thought it was wonderful. We went to the buffet.

Just imagine that same menu every day on a 20 day cruise. I may never eat a turkey burger again.

We use suntransfers. We have used them in several cities including Barcelona. We like having guaranteed transport after an overnight flight, which we are big jet lagged babies about.

http://www.suntransfers.com/#?passengers=2&direction=1&legs=2

We have enjoyed the "suite Life" on NCL, Hal and Celebrity. The special dining options can be nice, but we by no means use them exclusively. On NCL one of the specialty restaurants is dedicated to suite occupants for breakfast and lunch. This works ok for breakfast. Mr. S is a slow riser in the morning so most of the time we get room service for breakfast. When we do go to the suite restaurant, it has a nice but limited buffet and the same menu every day. Same for lunch. For lunch this can be really boring.

On Celebrity we had a Royal Suite. We really didn't like the 2-room configuration. Although smaller, we prefer the Neptune on HAL. For the way we travel it works better. We were also very disappointed in the hot tub on the deck on Celebrity. It was filthy, the water came out of the jets yellow, and the butler pretty much refused to do anything about it. He also made long distance calls from our cabin. We complained but I am not sure the bill was even adjusted.

HAL has a great product with the Neptune Lounge. We try to get a cabin close to it. We think this is much better than having a butler bring around snacks every day. NCL and Celebrity do not have this.

We have been in the Haven on NCL once. It was nice but the dedicated dining room had the same issue-no change in the menu. The 2 bedroom suite we were in only had a 2 person dining table. We really had to scrunch in when we invited friends to dinner in our suite. It was nicely served by the butler, but the room service waiters on HAL do a good job also.

So be careful what you wish for HAL suite people! I think HAL has a good product now. Our big problem with HAL is the s-word. Mr. S cannot be around s-ing due to a medical condition, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for our HAL cruise this fall that it won't be a problem. Love to use the balcony, but it is not possible if there are s-ers close by.

"Puerto" and "aeropuerto" sound similar in spanish.

Try saying "el crusero" instead.

Sometimes the smaller ships dock closer in, kind of by the aquarium, but the Epic will be at the main cruise port.

This thread is very entertaining.

My husband and I are taking a neural plasticity class at our fitness club. There is a lot of emphasis on doing things both directions, using both sides of the brain, etc. This is supposed to help stave off dementia type illnesses.

Maybe we should ask HAL to reverse direction each day.

Fortunately I am married to a very knowledgeable artist and thus have been made personally aware of the junk Park West tries to sell. I just checked out their reviews on YELP and there is a very disturbing trend of artworks paid for and not arriving.

We go to our local antique auctions where REAL ORIGINAL art is often available extremely cheap. We often by things just for the frames, for $10 or $20. Park West is a hustle on the order of resort time shares-you may get something you like, you may not, but you will almost certainly pay an excessive price for it.

That said, if you like what you bought, continue to enjoy it. I don't understand casinos either.

Easier said than done!

Maybe so, but it seems pretty unethical for them to continue to sell these cabins. We spent about 13k for our aft penthouse suite, and it was unuseable at many times during our cruise. In addition, it was difficult to move around the ship, particularly the aft section.

My husband has a lung disease, which NCL knew about, so as you can imagine this was really troubling to us. And since we have returned we have really been getting the runaround with respect to our claim.

They have a huge steak now called the tomahawk ribeye. I did not try it, but a gentleman we ate with had it several times and liked it a lot. It was huge, like the steak Fred Flintstone orders that tips his car over.

My favorite steak on our recent cruise on the Sun was the regular ribeye in La Cucina. Much better than any of the Cagney's steaks. Go figure. I was never a La Cucina fan until this cruise.

My husband is mostly mobile but we sometimes use a wheelchair, borrowed from the ship, for embarkation/disembarkation. We used a wheelchair to disembark in LA recently for customs clearance. Ship staff were unable to leave the ship so I had to navigate the wheelchair myself.

It was hard to do! I apologize to everyone I almost ran over! If we got a little momentum going, and then someone stepped in front of us, I had a hard time slowing the chair down and averting disaster.

Carpet was also very hard to maneuver on.

So people even if you don't care about the wheelchair person, take care yourself! Give the wheelchair some space.

We were on the Sun this past April 9-29, Santiago-San Francisco, in an aft penthouse. The smell was awful. it started about the beginning of the second week. It was horrible in our cabin. It also was prevalent in the aft stairwells. People went up and down the stairs covering their faces. We did not go to the buffet but other cruisers reported the smell leaked into the buffet.

At one point the captain claimed the smell had been due to a hole in a gray water tank, and that it had been fixed, but the smell continued after that.

It was bad enough that we were unable to stay in our cabin on several sea days.

Complaints were not addressed. At one point 10 of us went to guest relations. The attendant tried to fob us off by recording our cabin numbers, but we were persistent enough to get to talk with a higher up. However the problem still was not fixed.

While on board we thought it might be related to the large numbers of contractors on board and the work they were doing. However per recent reports the smell seems to have continued post dry dock.

I would definitely try to move my cabin if I were booked on the Sun in an aft cabin on an upcoming cruise. As far forward as possible.

This has nothing to do with in-cabin floor drains. The smell was too strong and too pervasive in the whole aft of the ship. You could smell it outside on the promenade. Some days the doors to the promenade deck were propped open to try to get rid of the smell but it did not work.

This was far far worse than occasional sewer smells we have smelled on many cruise ships. It was really sickening, and I mean that literally.

Were you on the South American cruise? I read several reviews from that cruise that stated that toilets had backed up and ran out onto the carpet and all out in the hallways. I believe one person even said it got on their clothes. Is there any way sewage could have seeped into the air system?

Our room is midship, so I hope it doesn't smell. We were on Disney Magic a couple of years ago and it was smelling like sewage. We were so sick from smelling it, we practically ran off that ship when we got back and that was only a 3 day cruise.

There was a problem with the toilets but that started after the smell began I think. There was also a problem with water running blue. Several women had their hair turn green and had to get it fixed in the salon. The treatment was soaking their hair in ketchup.

The smell was in the aft cabins and on occasion reached the buffet. It was really awful-I have been on ships before that had a smell but it was never this bad, for this long, over so much area.

There were also a lot of contractors on the ship working. Insulation and dust were all over the carpets. The contractors had masks to wear but we were not given anything to protect us. This was especially concerning to me because my husband has a lung disease.

We loved the itinerary, the crew was mostly great, and since it was a long cruise at 20 days we really got to know a lot of our fellow passengers. Very nice group of mostly experienced travellers. So it wasn't all bad. Post dry dock reviews of the Sun seem to indicate the smell is still there. If you are stuck with the Sun switch your cabin to as far forward as you can go. If you have an alternative, rebook on a different ship.

Wow. Good for you. You have faaaaar more patience that I would. There is just no way that I could see myself even getting off of the ship without my bill being straightened out by guest services first. Just no way. I wouldn't care if the HD had to come down and do it himself.

Due to other circumstances, I had no time to even look at the bill before we left. I agree I should have disputed it on the ship. This cruise was a little fraught due to the problems with the ship.

When we got home and I took a look, I knew it didn't seem right, but was too busy for a few weeks to deal with it.

I really didn't want this cruise, which was lovely in many ways, to be about a billing dispute, or the problems we had with the ship. I know that NCL gets away with this stuff, partly by the long hold times, and I should hang in there with them until they straighten it out. It is easier and more fun to think about my upcoming adventures rather than dwell on the bad parts of previous ones.

I actually just got off the phone with NCL after a 53 minute hold. I got them to agree that the internet refund should not have been treated as a NROC. This means I should be getting refunded.

We will see. I am sure they are counting on the fact that if they do not refund me, I will not be able to tolerate trying to reach them again and will let it go. And that may indeed be true.

The irony is that if the conditions on the ship (the Sun) were not so horrible, we would have spent a lot more money. Instead, we spent a lot of time trying to find a place to get away from the sewage smell.

We are booked in an aft balcony 9277 that is on the starboard side. I always wanted an aft balcony on an Alaskan cruise. Now, after reading your post and several reviews, I wonder if I should try to move to another cabin?

 

The Sun was just in dry dock. Why didn't they fix the problem?

We were in 8277 prior to the dry dock and the smell was awful. It made the butler sick at one point. We were not able to stay in our cabin on several sea days.

I am on hold with NCL now and they are giving me the "put it in writing" runaround. I am happy to do that, but I was not told to do that while onboard. I was just given a card with a phone number and a claim number.

In any event I will not sail on this ship again, and if you can switch your cabin away from the aft section do it.

Pencils out!

I am reviewing my statement from a recent cruise. We had $620.00 in service charges, and $634.36 in other charges.

We had $450.00 in nonrefundable onboard credit.

We had a $499.80 credit because the internet package we purchased in advance of the cruise did not work.

We had another $200 credit due to unsafe and nasty conditions on board.

I was charged $420.00 on my credit card at the end of the cruise.

This does not make sense to me. I understand that the service charges cannot be satisfied with the NROC, but they could have been satisfied with the other credits. I think I should have ended up owing $104.56, not $420.00.

Can anyone shed any light?

thanks

You all might enjoy Bookcrossing.

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We have been in suites on HAL, NCL and Celebrity.

We were completely underwhelmed by Celebrity. The butler was a waste of time.

We have had good butlers on NCL, but often had poor luck with the concierge.

We like the Neptune Lounge on HAL better than anything they do for suite customers on Celebrity or NCL. Anyone can bring us room service, we don't need a butler for it.

We do like the NCL suite dining room, my husband has some medical issues and sometimes it is nice to be in a smaller environment for meals. But we don't go there exclusively, nor do we have to.

Bottom line, I like the suite perks they have on HAL now just fine.

Thanks. We have I think 4 consecutive port days after we leave Barcelona.

(BTW, one of my motivating factors when choosing a cruise these days is how much flying I have to do. Hence this itinerary, for which I only have to fly one way. I've done a LOT of flying in my time and I'm fed up. It's a pretty sad state when the horrible experience of flying is turning people off cruising.)

Hear, hear!

We are doing a TA on the Eurodam leaving Barcelona on Nov 4th. The itinerary states that we will sail from Barca at 11 pm.

Anyone know when we will have to board by? What about the muster drill?

Appreciate any help with this, it would be nice to have more time in Barcelona, maybe be able to hit one more restaurant on my list.

We have also found San Diego very easy and have used cabs. The distance to the airport is short. The cab ride takes about en minutes each way.

In fact you could probably book them to take you to the hotel, drop off bags, and then take you to Park Guell.

We have used suntransfers at Barcelona (and other places) with a lot of success. You can book a larger vehicle in advance. I am pretty sure they will pick up at the cruise port and take you to your hotel although they are advertised as an airport pickup service. We have had them pick us up at the cruise port before.

http://www.suntransfers.com/?gclid=CLbv6--65MwCFYkCaQodVm0OhA#?passengers=2&direction=1&legs=2

They have a minibus option which might work for you.

The pictures of the ship are beautiful. We amuse ourselves so I am not too worried about the entertainment part. I am thinking on a ship that small some of the suite perks like priority embarkation will not be missed-how long a line can there be?

We do use room service a lot so I am glad that most room service comes without charge. I have read that they will let you add items to the hang tag for breakfast room service, we are hoping this continues to be the case.

My husband is wondering how much the ship will move during the TA section.