david_sobe

If these are your complaints so far you are on track for a miserable cruise. There is no such thing as priority luggage. I have sailed Haven and non-Haven cabins and never found the luggage arrives earlier in the Haven. Those Haven tags may make people feel special though. Just because you are in the Haven does not mean you get to run on to the ship. Its boarded in an orderly fashion and in groups from the Haven. You need a Haven escort to jump the lines that will bottleneck through the process. NCL does not stop the boarding process until all Haven passengers are boarded. There will be plenty of non-Haven passengers who got there really early and were in the first boarding group. I have waited in the Haven lounge with families with lots of kids with complicated passports. I sit there impatient too while I see hoards of people boarding the ship. This happens at every port and every ship. This is reality and should not have any impact on your cruise. You can always find odd things under the bed or a sponge in the bathroom that were left behind and not removed during the cleaning process. This again happens at every embarkation on every ship. This is not a rough start. Its a typical start. Now go have a great cruise. The Encore has an incredible 3 deck Haven. Soak it all in. Just because you got on the ship 15 minutes later than you expected is not a rough start.

Thats another good story about the NCL PCC who left their position for a promotion but still was able to book your friend at the same price even though the prices went up. Perks booking directly with the cruise line are rarely mentioned.

NCL calls them Personal Cruise Consultants (PCP). I am in the tiny minority on these boards and book directly with the cruise line. I have been using the same PCP since 2008. Ironically I got her cold calling NCL for my first NCL cruise. She has worked there forever and knows everything. When I booked my Aqua cruise during Xmas, she was out but actually called me from her house on her day off. She monitors emails on her days off. How about that for service. Any changes or questions I just email her and she responds. However I think my situation is rare. Many PCPs are entry level and are new hires that may not understand everything or have remotely the same experience she has. When I booked Epic in 2010 I cold called and was routed to the NCL call center in Arizona and this person did not know anything. That is when I came back to my original PCP. Most vent their frustrations at the PCPs that are not that knowledgeable. This is why many book with travel agents. I think I am in the minority who has been working with the same PCP for over 15 years now. I suppose its a crap shoot who answers the phone.

I would imagine this summer there will be lots of news. We just have to let our imaginations run wild for now.

Exactly. Both sides over-reacted poorly. The issue I have is the video is edited. We never see or hear what the cruise line said to them. How can anyone bash or criticize a cruise line for what they said when we never hear what they said. Yet almost everyone if falling for that. It was overly dramatic to leave a cruise while still at sea. Clearly done to get more views and more money because of it. But the worst part for me is they got a personal meeting with the cruise line over this. Are they royalty? People suffer far more on a cruise than those 2 and would never get a face to face meeting with a cruise line. There is a big bunch of arrogance about that IMHO. But I will say BOTH sides were wrong in their over-reactions. Yet the cruise vloggers everywhere are treating them as victims as if they were forced to walk the plank in the Artic. Come on people, its not like they were forced to find hash browns or cookies or something while diverting from Paradise Bay. Mark it on your calendars. If I cant find cookies on my February 2026 Aqua cruise, I will leave the ship in Tortola and live stream on my Youtube channel that has 8 spam subscribers. Since I live in Miami, I will drive to NCL headquarters and get a personal meeting with the CEO and report back. Stay tuned!

I remember back in 2009 that one of the biggest perks of a specialty restaurant was how tranquil it was compared to the MDR and buffet. Tables were spaced apart and during your meal there would be empty tables around you. Besides the increase in food quality it was worth the price just for the experience. Once NCL started building Breakaway and beyond they started cramming more and more tables into the specialty dining. The tables for 2 are so close together that you are literally sitting next to another couple inches apart. Then came the "free" at sea promo which gives everyone access to specialty dining. My last cruise on Encore, Cagneys was so crowded that they had to put about 8 tables outside the restaurant into the Mix bar area. The experience has completely changed. Specialty dining is actually more crowded than the MDR at some times.

Very true. But the thread is not about IF anything we pay in gratuities is paid to crew. I met an older couple on my first cruise that cruised all the time. They told me the first thing they do every cruise is remove the auto gratuities at the customer service desk. They gave cash to all the room stewards, waiters, etc. that served them. Your premise could be true, NCL is ripping us all off and especially Haven passengers who pay more gratuities than anyone. But that's another thread.

I am surprised that no one mentioned that Haven guests pay a higher auto daily gratuity fee than other passengers. With the increased DSC the Haven staff such as house keeping, waiters, and bartenders better get the DSC. The Haven rooms are made twice per day compared to the rest of the ship. We can assume this increase in fees covers this additional work. The only members of the Haven team that are not part of the DSC pool is the concierge team and butlers.

This thread reminded me that its the 40th anniversary of "Where's the beef?"

People steal the craziest things. I was a store detective when I was in college and they would teach you there were 2 types of thieves: The professional who goes to the store to purposely steal things and the spontaneous thief who just thinks no one will notice or care and takes something relatively small. People steal the dumbest stuff. In my first apartment I used to have a pair of flip flops outside my door to take the trash out. Old, worn and just used to walk to the trash bin. Someone stole them. You would be amazed how many little lawn ornaments are stolen from people's yards all the time. Someone drives by, admires it and then just takes it. As they say: If its not locked down someone will steal it. Sadly the same is for cruise magnets 🥺

Wow. NCL is forcing us to become vegetarians. No hash browns, no cookies, no beef 😲

Its nice if they show empathy but they have an entire section devoted to this. You realize how many calls and bag issues they deal with on a daily basis? We all look for empathy but I would rather they find my bag than hold my hand and cry with me.

She works hard for the money so you better treat her right!

Keep us posted if your luggage is ever found. They are not supposed to give you compassion but are enabled to find your bag. This is not the first time they had to deal with such a situation and they have experience in locating lost bags. This never happened to me on a cruise ship but has happened a few times at airports. The worst feeling in the world is waiting for your luggage at the carousel and it stops and everyone from your flight is gone and you are standing there alone with no luggage. The airline has always found my bag and delivered it to me the next day. Keep us posted.

I applaud NCL for keeping it open on port days.

If you can smuggle a lobster tail you could dine in your cabin and heat your tail while baking cookies! I can see NCL having a naughty room for all the easy bake ovens smuggled on board. As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures 😁

With the alleged shortage of cookies on NCL ships, you would be welcomed with open arms. But I doubt NCL would let anyone sell anything on one of their ships. But what would happen if you could make your own cookies on board 🤔 ******smuggling the easy bake oven******

Both ships are almost identical so maybe the route or ports can be a deciding factor if there is any difference in those. The only differences the Encore and Bliss have is that Encore has Onda, a slightly larger race track, and a much better, bigger laser tag area in the Aft. I think Bliss has a Spice H20.

These are more like giant bathtubs and not hot tubs. But this discussion brings up a good point what breeding grounds tubs are. Hot tubs are full of chemicals and checked daily. The tubs in the suites have no chemicals to kill bacteria and viruses. They are like big bathtubs and the only way to properly clean them is to drain them and clean them like a bathtub. If they were real hot tubs they would stay full and chemicals added daily. Who wants to soak in a tub with no chemicals after another family has marinated in it right before your cruise. 🤮

If NCL ever put out such a policy this board would have lit up like a Christmas tree. I think this was discussed here and this was found out to be a rumor, correct?

I want you and Bird to do the perfect couple game together. Popping balloons on each other's lap would be the highlight of the cruise for me. Possibly even worth an upcharge to see. The Perfect Couple game is one of my favorites.

NCL has been cutting entertainment for years, even years before COVID. Does anyone remember The Grammy experience on Getaway? That did not last very long bringing aboard Grammy winners to perform in their club. Even Fireworks were nixed. This was when Burn the Floor was debuted. Were they not doing double duty of performing in Legally Blonde too? Even going back to 2013, I saw on Epic the Cirque Dream show was so watered down compared to how it was in 2010. We are going back to 1 big show and a bunch of smaller filler stuff with game shows, etc. Is not ICONS the same performers doing double duty from the main show? We may all be playing Hungry Hungry Hippos in the main theater pretty soon. 🙈

OMG they got rid of the computers? Then what is the use of an internet cafe?

I am very old school. The live trip reports I have done, I have went to the internet cafe and used one of their computers and my minutes to log in each day for a live report. I don't post any photos until I get home. That's a really old school way of doing things since most use phones for everything. I am even typing this on from a keyboard on a tower computer. 😁

The Goth cruise trailer