david_sobe

Beautiful day for sail away today.
Bon voyage! 

1 hour ago, JIMESOPUS said:

It's a shame that you have to search the net for any news about the build. Just like the Prima and the Viva, it all comes down to CC members finding any glimmers of news, just doing my part in this quest. 

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.

34 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

https://www.quora.com/When-staying-in-a-hotel-why-do-you-throw-used-towels-on-the-floor

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.

7 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

This has pretty much become standard in hotels (and NCL) everywhere.  Look for the signage.

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?   

Interesting.  I applaud NCL for being brave and seeing what is not working or popular on a brand new ship.  No one should be drinking and then racing go karts so a Speedway Bar never made sense to me.

Those fancy Haven luggage tags make you feel special but I dont think they mean anything.  If your ship and cabin number is on your tag it will find its way to your cabin no matter the color or fancy gold trim that says "HAVEN PRIORITY."
To my knowledge there are no special Haven luggage handlers.  They all board together and then separated by deck.

2 hours ago, Cruiseforus0214 said:

Hi!

 

There were 2 whole days our rooms were not cleaned once. 

Thats not good.  Of all the cruises I have been on, I only had one bad room steward.  He was not terrible but not friendly and would not change out towels.  I asked him and he sort of was not happy with my request.  I could not understand.  I think he wanted the dirty ones to be left on the floor.  I would not have any issue doing that but I was not aware I should do that.  I think you can tell if a towel has been used even if its hanging up. Like you I always tip the room steward cash but that was the only cruise I never did that.  We always have such great relationships with our room stewards and love the job they do.

When you say the room steward did not make up the room twice.  You mean the entire cruise she made up the room twice?  

I have not heard anyone getting future latitude points based on an upcoming cruise. Points only get added post cruise.  My last NCL cruise I was only 2 points away from platinum.  I completed the cruise and the points were added.  

1 hour ago, gmbhardy said:

We’ve sailed in the Haven about 12 times on four different ships. The best by far was the Joy. It just proves that mass market cruise lines are consistently inconsistent. 

I think that shows that anything can happen on different sailings.  You may have an awesome concierge and butler.  I am the next cruise and the concierge left for their vacation and get a stand in who is not as good.  I can also get a less than stellar butler.  We both sailed the same ship a week or a few weeks apart but have completely different experiences. 

This does happen.  As they say, each ship, each cruise, each crew can give wildly different experiences.  The best Haven I ever experienced was on Epic in 2010.  EVERYONE greeted us from day one by our name.  Not one waiter or waitress ever wrote anything down and got every order right.  I never experienced anything like it.  3 years later I sailed the Epic again and the Breakaway had just debuted.  All the experienced crew was put on Breakaway and they had a bunch of new people on Epic.  The service was not bad but it was 100% different.  No one greeted us by name and waiters would write down orders and still get things wrong.  Drinks were always given to the wrong person, etc.  It did not really impact the cruise but I was in shock at how the service had changed.  They were also very short staffed.  Remember in those days they had the crew talent show.   The Haven restaurant was so short staffed that unfortunately the staff had to cancel their performance because they were needed to staff the restaurant.  Some waiters were not even exclusive to the Haven and we would see them in other restaurants around the ship.  Butlers can be the same.  Some people get butlers that go way out of their way while others get butlers who never even come introduce themselves.  Its all part of cruising and while on board all you can do is make the best of it.

What kind of animal would put a banana on a toilet?

Its really horrible.  I have never sailed out of Baltimore.  Are any NCL ships leaving soon or coming back soon?  What a time for a loss of power or whatever happened to the ship.  Its so sad it did not happen after the ship cleared the bridge.  There are 7 people missing the last I heard.

I suppose hash browns and cookies are out of the question.

The Sky was always like this.  Even when it was a party ship and took weekend cruises from Miami to the Bahamas, it was fairly limited compared to newer ships.  But NCL lately seems to treat the Sky with pricing as if its a new ship.  There is a saying you get what you pay for but I wonder these days if you are getting less.  The Sky used to be the best deal at sea.  I have not compared its pricing for awhile but I would see similar itineraries from the Sky and Getaway and similar prices. That should not be.

Its a smaller ship with a much, much smaller and limited buffet. 

IMHO forgotten items while on vacation are more a refection of us as human beings rather than the cruise line.  We all forget things on vacation even though we "double check" the room.  My wife is famous for leaving a phone charger at every hotel and every car rental. No matter how many times I say "don't forget your phone charger", it gets left behind.  People forget their cellphones too.  Showers are infamous for forgotten items.  These forgotten items are usually in the shower, in a remote drawer or night stand.  I had someone tell me once that they actually found $100 in a hotel nightstand.  All of us are human and forget things especially packing while on vacation.  I would never hold it against the hotel or cruise line.  Now if the room was full of abandoned items or things left all over the bed that's a different story.  I bet housekeeping could tell us the wildest stories of the items people left behind.  Its fine to complain about poor service or bad food or over crowding.  That's fair game while on vacation.  

I remember an Oprah Winfrey show in the late 80s of people complaining about fast food workers.  For the first half of the show the guests gave all their complaints about the workers.  The show then put the biggest complainer at work at a busy downtown Chicago Checkers for one day.  They invited her back on the show.  She completely changed her tune and was in awe how hard the people worked.  I am in amazement how much work gets done on embarkation day.  Imagine being assigned 40 rooms.  You must remove all linens, make all the beds, and clean all the rooms in 3 hours.  Ready.  Set.  Go!

8 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

no, just no. it's really not.

 

it does happen from time to time, and when it does it has a negative impact on the guest experience. again, we can choose to overlook it and get on with our cruise...  how we respond is up to us.

 

but this is not about us. it's about a cabin that hasn't been cleaned properly.

 

a messy or unclean hotel room or cabin or items left behind in showers or drawers or under the bed should not be any part of the expected hospitality experience and should not be endorsed or minimized.

Sorry but someone leaving a pair of socks in a drawer would have no negative impact on my experience.  Clearly by this thread something like that does really give people a negative experience (as you say).  To each their own.  If something like that bothers you just call house keeping.  The wild accusations from room stewards being lazy and equating it to the room not being cleaned is pure rubbish.  Of all the things that could impact a cruise, someone forgetting socks, a water bottle, or a sponge would never make my list.  People must make mental lists of what to complain about. You are 100% right about one thing when you say some can choose to overlook it. Put me in that camp. 

Does anyone remember about 10 years ago someone posted a video on youtube of how dirty their cabin was on the NCL Epic?  It was shocking how dirty the cabin was.  There were stains and dirt and mold all over the place.  It honestly looked like it has not been cleaned in months. The video is no longer on youtube because my memory was that NCL gave them compensation with the agreement they would remove the video.  Dirty cabins do happen.  Dirty hotel rooms happen and they are unacceptable.  If you find a dirty cabin no one should put up with it and call housekeeping immediately.  I dont know why so many hotels I have stayed at recently have mold in the shower. I don't complain because I am staying there for one night but a bottle of Tilex or bleach goes a long way.  I can deal with forgotten items but, mold, dirt, sand, or smell I cannot. 

7 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

You want to know what a bad cruise is….

 

 

 

I happened to be on this one….

 

 

Point being, you cruise enough, stuff will happen….99.9% is mundane…(hash browns?)!

Looking at the glass half full.  If one of these disasters happened or a tidal wave hit the ship, a sponge could come in handy to mop up some of the water.  Just saying........

1 hour ago, PATRLR said:

Could someone point me to a picture of one of these "shower caddy" that supposedly exist in Encore showers?  I'm quite certain mine didn't have one.

 

 

Your room steward removed it when you complained the toilet paper roll was put on the wrong way.

Here is what they do to the cabins on embarkation day:

Take off all sheets and bedspread.  Make the bed with fresh linens

Vacuum the carpet

Empty trash and remove trash

Mop the bathroom floor

Clean toilet

Clean shower and sink

For those that want or demand a deep cleaning of vacuuming under the bed, sterilizing all hard surfaces, and sanitizing the cabin please do not show up to embark until 7pm.  That means no embarkation day lunch and maybe no dinner.   The cabins are cleaned more thoroughly than most hotel rooms after a guest leave.  However those checking for dust bunnies behind the head board and other remote places will have to wait to board until 7:30 pm.  But I don't want to hear anyone complain.

Even if this did happen there STILL could be a possibility of a razor left in a shower caddy. And if it did you can hunt down your room steward and make him/her walk the plank.

Now are you happy?