david_sobe

Depends on ship Depends on sailing Some NCL ships dont have a Haven complex while other ones have small Haven complexes and others very large 3 deck Haven complexes. The Haven bar is never crowded of all the ships I have sailed. Always got a seat. On the newer ships people claim the Haven bar area is a ghost town and they have the most suites and most Haven passengers.

You missed the point completely. You are assuming that is why NCL discontinued towel animals. NCL never said any such thing. What you wrote is probably true but NCL gave a fantasy explanation why they were stopping them. THAT was my point. Whether you are for towel animals or against them, the point I was making was the gaslighting from NCL with their ridiculous explanations for some of their decisions and the people that believe those explanations and defend them.

Its about time NCL built a pier at GSC. I am on Aqua in Feb 2026 and I hope the pier is finished by then. Construction is always delayed and this year is supposed to be a brutal hurricane season so I will be surprised its finished by then. But it would be fantastic if it is.

NCL wants and targets new cruisers so they got them. I don't think they care their private yacht experience was not up to expectations. There will be new cruisers to replace them. BTW, you reminded me again to never cruise during spring break.

Unless things have changed again, NCL stopped mailing luggage tags a long time ago. As mentioned by someone you can print them online. They were still mailing Haven luggage tags but maybe they stopped that too. My last NCL cruise in 2020, they were still mailing Haven luggage tags. As platinum you will get to board from the Platinum line. Sometimes it is faster while other times not so much. I think luggage is not given any sort of priority no matter your status or where you are staying. At least my experience is I have never noticed my luggage arriving faster just because I am in the Haven.

Welcome back and thanks again for an awesome review. Any major changes since your last Encore cruise?

I think the airlines have suffered the most post pandemic. I have no idea why people think they can act totally insane and expect to fly 30,000 feet in the air. There are endless youtube channels of the airport meltdowns where police have to fight or arrest unruly passengers. I flew on the second day the airports opened after 9/11. You could not even be dropped off in front of the airport and the check in lines were a quarter mile long. We all stood there silent. No one said a word. No one complained. We were silently praying to ourselves that we could get to where we were going. That did not last very long though. Several weeks later people were fighting over their toe nail clippers. Personally I hate to use the pandemic as an excuse for behavior changes. But people are rude and parents don't teach manners anymore. Talk to anyone working on schools. The kids are out of control and the parents are even worse. I expect someday cruise lines will be like airplanes where they must increase security and have bouncers booting people off in ports every cruise. Who could forget this?

You brought back memories of my Encore cruise in 2020 right before the shutdown going to Long Bay Beach. It was the best beach day I ever had. I had never been to Tortola before and was not thrilled about going. This beach is in my top 3 beaches in all of the Caribbean.

Wow. I forgot its peak spring break.

Interesting they put sun loungers in the laser tag area. I suppose they have to pick them all up for the nightly games. I suppose they need more deck space and loungers.

True or false. Does it say the guests will be reimbursed for their travel costs? OMG people love to fight around here. So in reality NCL paid the people to get back on the ship? The 8 got to another place on their own. Seriously, that's your point you want to argue? I am out of this conversation. This board is bad for mental health. Lets fight about the dumbest things to keep the thread going. Ready. Set. Go!

They needed no travel insurance. The article I posted said all 8 made it back to the ship and NCL reimbursed them for all travel costs getting back to the ship.

So I see all 8 passengers have rejoined the ship and NCL has reimbursed them for travel costs to the ship. There is a happy ending after all!! Norwegian Cruise captain refused to let eight passengers who were late reboard ship (yahoo.com)

That all makes sense. Being it was a tender port makes it even more difficult. THANKS

I went back several pages and looked at several news reports but cant find information on how late the passengers were. The stranded passengers allegedly said the ship was still in port but the captain refused to let them board. Did the captain delay the ship at all? Most times its usually reported a ship will wait about 20-30 minutes before final board time to make the decision to pull away. Does anyone know if that happened? Without knowing these details I cant give an opinion. If the captain operated with "typical" late passengers and waited 30 minutes or less then I think its reasonable for the ship to pull away and deny boarding. But if the plank went up immediately at the all board time while knowing passengers were coming late then maybe I think I could change my opinion. I think it comes down to what is reasonable for a ship to wait. I think 15-20 minutes is reasonable. On those Mega Ship documentaries this is what other captains have done. But I am not a captain and there could be reasons why he/she cannot do that.

Without a doubt they are. Miami is like an entirely different country and not part of the United States. What tourists see is not real Miami. We have the largest percentage of uninsured motorists. Every day on the news is another hit and run. People run over people and never stop. Its every day. I went over to introduce myself to new neighbors (how I was brought up) and they looked at me like I had 2 heads and looked like I had suspicious motives. Many years ago people would say New Yorkers were rude. When I went to NYC I found the people very friendly and even very flirtatious. Miami is in a class of its own.

Everyone has gotten more rude. Manners are no longer taught. But to my surprise my co-worker originally born and raised in Miami (the rudest city in the USA) took a European cruise and came back complaining how rude people were. I wont mention the country that had his biggest complaint but he said he was routinely shoved out of line in the buffet and physically pushed all the time. I was watching the Ben and David cruising vlog and even before their MSC fiasco they were mentioning how different the European crowd is on MSC. They also mentioned rude kids and adults pushing and shoving. So its not just Americans that are savages 🙈🙊🙉

What is the meaning of chef's table? A chef's table is a private dining experience that allows club chefs to showoff their culinary skills to members in a more intimate environment. Hash browns anyone?

Beautiful day for sail away today. Bon voyage!

Someone posted here awhile ago that during a Latitudes party and NCL promoting the ship, NCL staff said that Cruise Critic members knew more about the ship than they did. If you were around for Encore, it was Cruise Critic that alerted NCL to the "wonky C."

Wow she's really coming along since the last photos.

They were frantically searching for cookies and hashbrowns. A local bakery kept telling them 5 more minutes and the cookies would be done. Lesson learned. I would rather have a doughy cookie than miss the ship.

I was told to look for signage. So I will ask again, where does it say on any NCL ship to throw your towels on the floor. Did you even read what you posted? Many say in that opinion post you posted they consider this rude to the house keeper. I have NEVER seen a sign on a NCL ship nor in any hotel. I do know the old urban legend that clearly its a sign you want new towels to leave them on the floor. However every time I have cruise fresh towels are always replaced and don't do this.

I am glad they still do that. I stayed in suites before they started to do that and it makes a huge difference in achieving preferred latitude status quicker.

I have never seen a sign on NCL stating leave your towels on the floor. What signage can you point to? Can you please show one?