Da-Painter

A taxi for 2 from the airport to downtown, Ramblas hotels will be about $37E.

Usually 2 bags are included, they may charge extra for 4 bags, only $1-2E each.

I would not do public transportation, buses, with 4 bags. :rolleyes:

If your flight arrives at 4PM, by the time you get to your hotel, it may be 5-6, and after your flight you may be exhausted, DW usually is, but I still like to stroll around.

As mentioned, get your tickets online early, and the audio tour should be fine, by 1PM you will be tired from walking and the creak in your neck from looking up at the amazing architecture, and be ready to leave.

If you have your bags, you can stroll to the water on the Ramblas, from top to the water takes about 20 - 30 minutes. Cross the street towards the water at the Columbus statue, go to the right and catch the bus to the ship, departs about every 10-15 minutes, about $2E pp.

Enjoy!! ;)

We were just on the Spirit in December, and it is our favorite ship of all we have been on.

It had a dry dock in 2014, and a lot of the minor items were taken care of.

We did not see any signs of neglect on it.

Its smaller, holds about 2,000 passengers, so getting on/off is easy, and its never too crowded. We are not interested in the mega 4-5000 passenger ships.

It was built for the Asian market, so a lot different interior decoration, which is nice.

Food: everyone has their opinions, we thought the MDR was fine, never had a cold, or slow meal there. The buffet is adequate, not too crowded. Love the Blue Lagoon on it, great location and food. The aft has a great covered area to eat and view from.

Entertainment: that will vary with which shows/entertainers are on there, that will change continuously.

Shops: well, that's what the ports are also for.

If you want ritzy and flash, there are plenty of mega ships out there for your entertainment. We would not bother with the Epic, would only do the Spirit.

Was just on the Dawn in January, ehhh.

Just our opinion. Good luck. ;)

Hi All,

I am searching for connecting staterooms on the Escape and I just want to see all of my options. I seem to remember at some point being able to enter a specific stateroom number while doing a mock booking on the ncl website but I cannot seem to find where that option is now. Can anyone tell me how I can go about doing that? Thank you!

The old NCL website use to allow you to look up individual cabins, the new one does not. We have our TA look up individual cabins for us now. :o

I've been struggling with the same question (aft suite or penthouse suite) and finally bit the bullet yesterday and booked aft suite 9210 on the Sep 18 2016 Med cruise from Venice to Barcelona.

 

I *sure* hope that was the right decision as I've read pros and cons. The two YouTube videos I've seen of these suites is enticing, and there are only 3 such suites on the ship (not counting the ultra-pricey owner's suites).

 

The aft suite balconies are very narrow but wide for a panoramic view. I'm hopeful that the engines down below don't cause too much noise or vibration while at sea. Maneuvering in port I could understand.

 

These aft suites are also directly below the rock slide on the pool deck above, but hopeful that we'll have fewer noisy kids and pool activity on a mid-Sep cruise, being the crusty old curmudgeon that I am. :)

 

This will be our first trip to Europe and a life long dream to cruise the Med so wanted to make it extra special for my special girl on our 46th anniv.

You do not feel or hear the engines on the Spirit, we were on the Dawn aft, and those you hear and feel coming and going into ports.

The kids pool was hardly ever used, so never had any noise from there.

Enjoy, they are great cabins, we will only book aft suites in the future. Had the forward once, but not very usable, lots of limitations.

We ate at the Asian Fusion Specialty restaurants with our Platinum free dinner rewards on the Spirit in Dec, and on the Dawn in Jan, we were about the only ones in there.

We really like the food, but the places are a ghost town, empty.

;)

BUT also,

In 9212 we had a terrible odor of cigarette smoke in our cabin, coming thru the ventilation service. Our Butler and the ships maintenance folks knew about it, prior occupants of the cabin had brought up the issue.

At times DW would awake up in the middle of the nite as the smell was so strong. You could stand under the ceiling vents and smell it.

They would spray air cleaner in our cabin, it only masked the odor.

When we would return to our cabin, we would open the hallway door and sliding balcony door for a few minutes to air it out. It created quite a wind tunnel effect, but it helped.

NCL never gave us a good answer regarding it, we wondered if the night shift crew were smoking and the air got sucked into the ventilation system.

Sometimes we would smell cigarette smoke in the hallway, port side, rear portion.

Do not know if it ever got addressed for good.

But I would take that cabin again, in spite of the smell.

We were in 9212, the center aft, last December, and its a great suite. Lots bigger and roomier I think then the normal suites.

Check out the pics we took at cruiselinerooms dot com

Think you would like it.

We were just on the Dawn aft suite, and its half the size and not as nice.

These aft suites on the Spirit do not become available often, they get booked up fast.

Enjoy which ever you do.

With the addition of all the new fee's, NCL will soon be changing their slogan from "Freestyle Cruising" to "Feestyle Cruising!

Well, it is more appropriate. :rolleyes:

Welcome to Coin Operated cruising.

No, just charge it all to your cabin card. :o

Great response.

But as Tom Hanks said in Forrest Gump: "stupid is as stupid does". I think this applies here.

:eek:

Everyone has great responses here, thanks for all your feedback.

Our biggest use of room service has been on the 12 day Grand Med cruises, as we book lots of shore excursions, and want to have a light breakfast in the cabin, before heading out for all day excursions.

Or other cruises with excursions early in the morning.

Since there is a coffee maker in the room, (we bring our own coffee), it saves us time in the mornings.

But this additional new 'convenience charge' from the new management, has become another unattractive reason to cruise with NCL anymore. Informing the DW last nite about this, her comment was after our next booked trip, to not bother with NCL in the future. Which I see a lot of similar comments about.

Years ago J.C. Penny's brought in a new CEO who dropped all the promotional advertising for the company, as he knew how to run a business. The stock dropped from about $85, down to $8 now, almost putting the company into bankruptcy. Well, they got rid of the CEO, and started the advertising promotions again, to try to save the company. Sometimes these 'Know-it-all' CEO's, do not 'Know-it-all', and destroy well ran, established businesses.

We have been loyal NCL customers, but this will be changing, there are many other vacation options available. :eek:

If this is true, then their communication director needs to be fired. I understand increasing prices, but this is ridiculous. They shot themselves in the foot when they increased gratuities on drinks and added auto gratuities to the specialty restaurants. Now, they have reloaded the gun, and are shooting off vital organs! :(

 

It seems that management thought by increasing costs on gratuities only, it would be easier for the cruise community to accept, but this is way too much too soon. Most of these won't effect me much at all. We don't use room service, and rarely eat at specialty restaurants, but they way it has been handled does leave a bad taste in ones mouth.

Oh, they fired the PR folks a few weeks ago.

Suppose they gave them a 'convenience white slip'.

Next week on the BA $5.95 per towel animal and the following week $2 per day for a beach towel unlimted exchanges per day. ;)

Plus 18% 'Convenience' gratuity. :eek::eek::eek:

9702 & 9202 are guarantees on the Spirit you want to avoid. Just do a Search, to see the problems with these staterooms. Book a BD if the price is not much different.

Most of the Spirit balcony's are good cabins.

yeah, I see it as a gimmick too.

 

new mgmt is looking more and more like PT Barnum.

(ie: higher auto-tipping charge for suites vs lower class rooms, and double dipping on tipping in specialty restaurants)

 

wonder what other fast ones they're going to pull in the future and make it look like a customer 'benefit'?

I agree, its a gimmick. I like your comment about the new NCL/Barnum company.

The cruise prices are the same, I have a FCC, but the deposit is not what is keeping me from booking a cruise now, its the higher prices, which started about 6 months ago Am not interested in the other promotions, would not take advantage of them.

I get daily emails from my NCL PCC about taking advantage of these offers before they expire. But it seems they never expire and they keep sending the same promo. All I can imagine is NCL is making a fortune with lots of bookings with the UBP and UDP. Even more now that the UDP has increased in price from $119 to $141.

 

I can drink a lot but I could not or would not want to drink 9 drinks a day to make it feel I am getting my money's worth with the UBP.

 

I see quality declining and prices going up in the UDP. I no longer think its even a good deal especially since the MDR menus have changed and I really like them. In addition, I always thought the specialty restaurants were the best deal ever. Where could you get a good steak meal for $20, then $25, then $30 and now $35 (with the double gratuity added). I used to say you could not get the Cagneys meal on land for $25 so it was worth it. But now you can walk into any land steakhouse and get an equal meal for $35. IMHO the specialty restaurants may have passed the line of good deal.

 

The cruise prices are high and claim these offers are over $2000 in savings. Do you think these promos will stop? If so, will the cruise prices go down?

I am wondering the same thing.

DW does not drink, I may have 2 beers in a week, we do not drink sodas, we are each Platinum, so get free Specialty restaurant meals, so the promotions are of no interest to us. Agree with you, we have found the MDR's dinners very good.

The suite perks of Cagney's are getting old, same ole menu for breakfast & lunch for years. On our last cruise, we skipped Cagney's half of the time.

But we have really noticed the prices increase in the last 6 months, there are cruises we are interested in booking, but we are not interested in them at the current prices. So will not book now.

I would assume when these promotions end, the prices will drop to compensate for the cost of the promotions.

But if not, we will change how we vacation in the future.

We like cruising with NCL, but will spend our vacation dollars in other ways.

We also can not go to the Caribbean every year, that is getting old.

May be selling a couple of FCC's in the future, bought 2 more last December.

Thanks for posting a good question.

We stayed on deck 10, didn't hear anything, but the aroma of the bakery at nite is wonderful.

For the price of the suites, I would not stay on the 8th deck, and put up with that.

Its only 25-30 minutes via taxi from the airport to the cruise terminal.

Walking, pulling bags, longer.

There are countless accounts of servers telling PAX that cash tips must go into the pool. They do not keep the cash you give them, so on the ship this theory (which I agree with you on land) does not hold true.

 

6&8

We have never been informed how the tips/DSC is distributed, and to who.

How much goes to management, and how much to the actual workers.

From what I have seen in the corporate world, a department gets a lump sum to distribute. Not the best or hardest workers always get the most. Favoritism plays a part, so the manager disburses the money, and determines how much to give to themselves.

So when I leave a cash tip for dinner, it never really goes into their pocket, to be rewarded for their good service.

Nobody here knows because NCL keeps this all a secret.

So should I leave a tip for service in the MDR or specialty restaurants, as it just goes into the same pool as the DSC.

With the DSC also going up, should I tip my butler and concierge?

The strange thing is that I have asked about this 3 times during the twitter session yesterday with no reply back.

 

The strange thing is I have asked in NCL's FB page as has others about this yesterday with no reply back. However, someone from NCL has replied back to others who have posted there but not about this question.

 

The strang thing is NCL has not replied once here, on this thread.

 

Makes me believe not only is it true, they just don't know how to respond at this point.

 

However, any of us that have either purchased the UDP or have it as a promo won't have the 18% added so I'm sure many don't even realize it's there. Only those who actually PAY for the specialty restaurant on a specialty restaurant per specialty restaurant basis will see this at this time.

 

Harriet

Maybe Del Rio did away with the Public Media folks also, calling it unnecessary, to save money.

I did not see the NCL hidden CC members here, blasting away at every negative comment anyone made here; telling folks they are wrong, evil, stupid, and misinterpreting NCL's actions.

Yeah!

Agreed. I do not foresee us purchasing FCC on our upcoming trips, and that is a shame. I do not like sneaky, underhanded behavior ... and this takes the cake.

I do not mean to sidetrack the original posting, but we purchased 2 FCC on our cruise in December 2014, and with the sneaky promotions have not booked anything. This circumstance is another nail in NCL's coffin.

JC Penny's had a new CEO take over years ago, changing sales and promotions, and came close to bankrupting the company in a few short years. The stock went from the 80's to about 10 in less then 2 years. I wonder if this is part of the CEO's ideas. Sometimes they think they are infallible, and they are quite detrimental to business.

No more FCC's for me.:eek:

Yes! Agree. Waitstaff are already getting the $12.95 per day or $14.95 per day through the DSC and with this additional 18%, no matter how small it is, no matter that it's the same or less than I would leave in cash for them or not, it's still double dipping......IMHO.

 

Harriet

If this new charge works out, the Shore Excursions will be next, think it will also be 18%????

Yeah, I have more cruises booked, but maybe time to move on from NCL.

On the Dawn in January, it was in the theatre, there were about 20 people playing, would think they would eventually stop offering it, as not much interest anymore.

And down 12% in price in the last month, ouch.