david_sobe

Thats a tough call. Since you got the successful upgrade maybe they will send the letter. You can always print your own luggage tags if you have a NCL account or link to your booking.

I love the photos. I hope some day to travel on her. Love that they were able to move the game shows to the theater instead of the noisy atrium that every ship since Epic has had.

Favorites Onda Cagneys Los Lobos Teppanyaki Food Republic Shanghai's (On Epic if they still have it) Least Favorites Le Bistro (I know I am in the minority but this is the most over-rated place ever) La Cucina (Dennys on the high sea - most everything is MDR quality)

OMG. That is a huge loss for NCL 😨 But I wish him well and hope he has a better job which I am sure is the case. He should be working at 5 star exclusive resorts that pay big bucks.

Contrary to the urban legend the concierge cannot make miracles happen. "Most" times they can score you a reservation no problem. But there are always exceptions. Once on Epic a singles group cruise booked the entire Cagneys during peak hours and the concierge could not over ride this sell out. On Encore, Onda was so popular and sold out the entire week. It took several days of asking for the concierge to finally get a reservation. I even asked the concierge if Onda could be delivered to the Haven and the concierge hit the pause button and made a big deal about it so I nixed that idea especially when a reservation finally came around. They do the best they can and well over 90% of the time they can work magic but there are some hurdles that impact their job. Several years ago when NCL gave the meal package to just about everyone made their jobs even more difficult because there are more fish in the pond. Having said all that, we have all experienced excellent to poor concierges. Most are so fantastic but we have gotten that one that really could care less about working extra hard. Unfortunately not everyone is like Adrian.

Bringing this thread back to cruising and the short answer is NO. Cruising will not go down in price anytime soon. Airfare is at record levels yet sold out flights. Car rentals are highest level ever even if you can get one. Hotels in south Florida are over 90% occupancy. People are traveling more than ever even before the pandemic. Cruises will not go down in price and could actually go up in price.

These times are unprecedented and nothing makes sense anymore. Inflation is at record levels which if it continues a recession will definitely come. However even with high inflation, it was just released that consumer spending was up 1.1% in June. Even with high prices people are spending more which again does not make sense. Every business is hiring and unemployment is low. Inflation usually does not happen in a recession. Record car sales which is another indicator of a strong economy. Recession alerts happen when hiring stalls, unemployment ticks up, inflation goes down and consumer spending slows or goes backwards. NONE of that is happening yet GDP is down. It makes no sense. People compare it to the late 70s when there was stagnation with high inflation yet the recession did not come until late 1981 early 1982. Businesses cannot even keep open because they cant find workers which also does not happen in a recession. If the Fed is successful maybe they can delay the recession which is inevitable at some point.

The question is based on a false assumption. We are in unchartered territory since Covid and everything is upside down. If someone would have told you that gas would go over $5.00 per gallon and interest rates would keep rising, that would be sure signs to tank the economy. GDP is down but hiring is through the roof. Those two indicators are usually never going in opposite directions. Until hiring slows and people get laid off or lose their jobs there is no recession. The job numbers last month were some of the best of economic booms. Christmas hiring is coming too which should also yield better job numbers. Other indicators are not great especially with inflation but until the hiring slows the economy churns on. It seems nothing can stop this roaring economy, not Covid, supply chains, inflation, high gas prices, etc. Its something for the history books. Cruise prices will not come down. People are flying and taking vacations like crazy. I dont know where everyone is getting this money but everyone has it except me 😲 The media keeps talking recession but the economy is not listening.

LOL No. Nothing physical like crawling around. I dont want to say anything to ruin your experience. When your team gets desperate there are clues and you must try and interpret the clues everyway possible while the clock ticks. When you are desperate, you try anything and everything. The crew will laugh at you while trying to figure out how to unlock your next clue.

I don't like Le Bistro. Sad French food imitation. People rave about their French onion soup that tastes like something you would get at Dennys. I want to take those people to a real restaurant with real French Onion soup for them to see.

Some are confusing the Escape room with another venue. I was not aware the Epic had an escape room. They never had one so when was it added and where is it? The Encore has one and there definitely is a charge. You definitely need reservations because the times are limited and you can only do it in small groups. Its fairly clever and it made me feel like an idiot. My team was fairly experienced with escape rooms but we still failed the test. The crew did help us out towards to the end otherwise we would have never gotten through it. Not really for kids. Its for people that love to solve puzzles at any expense because you have to do some wild stuff to solve it.

You are overly simplifying the situation. Did I say I was happy? NO. Never said that. I just live in reality that clogged nautical cruise ship toilets happen every day. Sewage backs up and you also can get a sewage smell and guess what soot also can fall on your balcony. These are not a crisis for me because I know sailing on a ship these things happen ALL the time. The part for discussion is what can a cruise line do about it. The OP was in the Haven and the Haven is sold out. Nowhere they can move them without downgrading. It also is not worth packing up an entire cabin when the toilet will be fixed in a few days. In the meantime use the 3 restrooms that are in the Haven complex that hardly anyone uses. NCL did refund them some money. Is that enough? I guess it depends on the person. If they threw in a meal at Cagneys I would think I was ahead of the game. A clogged toilet on a luxury cruise liner is a first world problem. You do realize the major tragedies that can happen while cruising. I would not allow myself to melt down because an idiot before me flushed personal items down the toilet. I would not allow myself to melt down because it took a few days for the NCL crew to fix the problem. That's all.

You may want to go back and read what you wrote that it "Should NOT' take 3 days to fix a line problem. What expertise do you have to make such a statement? You are a maritime plumber who was on board and diagnosed the problem? Sometimes it takes more than 3 days. I never twisted any of your words. That is what you wrote. Now you are saying NCL does not have properly trained mechanics and plumbers that have no expertise? Just wow. How would you know that? Clogged toilets happen on ever cruise ship almost every sailing. Its not NCL's fault someone flushed personal items down the toilet. Its not NCL's fault it was so bad it clogged major lines and impacted many and took a few days to fix. You realize if cruise lines cancelled a cruise for a few clogged toilets that ships would never sail.

Not sure what you are saying. You may want to read my post. I am not the one that is questioning the OP. That was someone else. Many are playing like expert maritime plumbers who were on board and allege it could have been fixed in one day. Pretty silly argument and childish IMHO. These things happen every cruise. You must roll with the punches while cruising. A little inconvenient for a few says but you will survive. Many posts blame NCL for the problem and then blame NCL for not fixing it on purpose for 3 days. I don't believe either situation because that is silly to believe. If it rained during the cruise is it NCL's fault too? They cant stop dumb people for flushing personal items down a nautical toilet which clogs major lines which impacts multiple cabins.

So NCL purposely took 3 days to fix everything when they could have gotten it fixed in one day? Not only is NCL to blame for someone's pratfall but now they are purposely delaying to fix the problem? Not a good thing to happen but clearly there are much worse things that can happen on a cruise ship. Its fine to vent but the conspiracy theories of NCL delaying repair is getting a bit ridiculous. Clogged toilets happen every day on every cruise ship. Sewage will also sometimes creep up in your sink and shower too. This is the nature of sailing ships. Some want to twist my words of not being sympathetic. Not true at all but some of the things written here are a tad crazy. If this happened to someone in another cabin, they would be offered to move. However when you sail the Haven, its sold out and there is nowhere to go except downgrade. Every time I have sailed the Haven, there are 3 restrooms that NO ONE ever uses in the Haven complex. Throw in a meal at Cagneys and I would be content for just walking out my cabin door and down the hall to the restroom for a couple of days.

I wasn't comparing anything just sharing a story. Broken toilets are very common on cruise ships because people flush wrong things down them. You realize this situation happens somewhere almost every cruise on any given cruise ship. Its not great but when people dont follow the rules or have common sense, what do you expect. I never said it was not inconvenient for anyone. There is usually a bathroom around the concierge desk that very few use. You did remind me of a video I saw of a semi-popular cruising couple that is always trying to shake down cruise lines. The went live on Facebook to complain about their toilet and demand compensation. Not the way to handle it. IMHO. Once we had a horrible sewage smell coming from all our drains. It was really bad. But this is just the nature of ship life. If free cruises were given to people with clogged toilets, sewage smells, or shower issues, the cruise lines would be out of business.

On Epic we were in a penthouse suite and the water valve between our penthouse and Owners suite was always malfunctioning. We could not shower in our cabin for a few days and had to go all the way to the spa for showering (On Epic, Haven is forward and spa is aft). It was quite the walk to shower. No one offered anything and I would not insult myself to ask for anything. IMHO being in the Haven has no impact on something like this. It would be just as inconvenient being in a balcony or inside cabin. I just did not want to go through that "we will give you a bottle of wine". I suppose there are many people who complain about trivial issues and a bottle of cheap wine wins them over 🤣 Cruise cabins are like apartments. Things break all the time and need repaired. Its just what life throws at you.

Brace yourself because they are very difficult to obtain, even more difficult than the old Vibe passes. Posh is part of the Haven and they only sell a handful of passes. If you do score one, it will incredible.

Yes but far worse. It was a Panama Canal cruise and construction was going on everywhere and 25% of public areas were closed. It was the last cruise before dry dock or something and they started early. The photos and scale of those construction zones was insane. The noise too. After backlash that started here, NCL did a big refund to guests. I don't think closing Spice H20 would be the same scale though. Its a nice place to visit and watch a late night movie on the big screen but never hung out there so much.

Not great. I never like when cruise lines and esp NCL close down parts of the ship during a cruise for maintenance. But something must need fixed and needs fixed now. Not the end of the world. Epic is a great ship (been on her twice) and you will have a great time. Aren't cruises not packed like crazy anymore? Perhaps that will blunt the blow for chairs. Prior Covid this would be a bigger issue when 4200 passengers cruise the Epic.

Loving all these phots.

You can speak with the butler when you get on board. Dont email a list of requests to a butler before you board. On embarkation day you will discover who your butler is and you can tell him/her your requests and give a list. Personally I don't like written lists. They do this for a living and will remember what you want. Over planning can sometimes backfire and I learned this the hard way. I once requested a butler that could also speak Spanish since my inlaws were from Argentina. All that did was create a headache for me on embarkation day because everything was sent to my room in Spanish. I had to correct that once on board and I learned a lesson not to pre-plan so much.

No one knows but I would guess the tests will not stop for awhile. There has been a big uptick in Covid cases on land and cruise ships. Just imagine not having the test and letting infected passengers on board. It just would not be smart. We will have to live with Covid probably for a long time if not forever. In the fall there is supposed to be another fairly large outbreak. However maybe by next summer we can guess the Covid tests will end? So many vaccinated people are getting mild breakthrough cases. Its taking years with infections and vaccines but soon most of us will develop an immunity to it. So many have had Covid and vaccinated.

The Galaxy Pavillion was the surprise of my Encore cruise. I did not think I would enjoy it so much. I did not get a package so I cant comment on that. However we all paid separately for each gaming experience. We did just about everything and it was fun family experience. The movie with the moving seats while you shoot the zombies was so much fun.