xenagurl

It was a little over $20 a day for Premium when I sailed a couple of weeks ago in Valiant Lady, $150 for the week.

It was a good price considering that I wanted to have streaming service.

I haven't received a thing, and I've every intention of calling them out on social until I receive each and every cent. 

This is the third cruise they've cancelled on me, and I harbor no bad feelings about that, things happen. 

I do however have a problem with not receiving my money back in a timely fashion. 

The next step for me is contacting news outlets.

Le Bistro

La Cucina

Sushi Bar

Whether solo, with my husband or with friends I/we always eat alone. That's the largest reason why we tried NCL in the first place. I only do so when I'm on another line and have no choice but to dine with others.

I've no desire to eat with random strangers. If they were people we met on the ship and liked, that would be a different situation. However in this instance, you don't even know their names...too random for me.

In the time Covid-19, it's an even bigger "no-no" in my book.

For those who are interested in just going to Cuba, you can still fly there under "Support for the Cuban People" currently those rules are the same.

I wrote a blog on what I didn't and didn't bring while going there last month. Depending on where you go will depend on what you encounter of course, but I didn't experience the "abject hopelessness" and lack that I assumed would be there. In fact the opposite. I will say that doesn't mean that people aren't experiences a lack of basics, because it's definitely happening. High taxes and low wages don't help. Etc. A Doctor makes about 40CUC a month which is about $45USD 😕 So supporting the people by visiting via other means is definitely something appreciated by the hard-working people of Cuba. 

This might have been mentioned here already, but for those to whom Cuba was the main attraction, as an American you can book a flight into Havana under "Support for the Cuban People".

That hasn't been restricted further, as yet. Thankfully I went last month on a direct flight from JFK to HAV, but I am looking to go again this summer. I've posted about it (still working my way through photos.) if you're interested in how I did it and want to see photos of Havana and Vinales. HTH

OP you don't need it unless stated otherwise and no I would not take it with me, unless you feel there is a good chance you might miss the ship. A photo of your passport will help in obtaining another if you need it. 

In 25 cruise I think I've brought it with me about 4 times, twice I had to (Egypt overnight), once I didn't realize I didn't need it and the other time because I thought there was a good chance my plans would have me miss the ship. In general I leave it in the room safe. I do however carry state or government issued photo ID usually my enhanced Driver's licence or Passport card. (Occasionally Global Entry card.)

2-3 Swimsuits and 4-9 dresses/dinner outfits depending on cruise length. 

Better on-board App, similar to the one that RCCL rolled out.

I agree with the other posters. Occasionally I/we have better seating in a restaurant, but I've felt I've sometimes had the worse. It's a toss up. I've not noticed anything with entertainment seating but I don't go to many shows anymore and when I do, I usually sit in the back whenever possible to avoid the "traffic" in trying to leave the theater.

They leave from New York (I don't cruise CCL and I don't want to go to Jersey for RCCL.) So it's easy to hop on when we want a quick trip and don't have the time to, or feel like flying.

You don't have to share tables.

Sometimes you run into familiar friendly faces either with passengers or staff.

The perks from Platinum plus are nice but not a deciding factor.

I do cruise with other lines but we know NCL and are used to it. And this combined with #1 & #21 are the biggest reasons of all. If I'm going on a vacation to relax and not for adventure, I prefer not to be surprised. I know what's going to happen with NCL and have probably been on the ship at least once before. I like the familiarity.

My laundry came back neatly folded on NCL (actually neater than my laundry on Celebrity). BTW, Celebrity also puts small tags on the clothing with cabin number on them.

Mine have as well. They're either 'pressed' and folded or pressed and on hangers. My trip on the Spirit last month was the first time though that it seemed they used fabric softener. My clothes were soft and had a nice light scent. It's definitely an upgraded service if that's to be done fleet wide.

That's wonderful! I'm glad it was returned to you. Thanks for sharing.

I can spare the time, so I'd go for more cruises. For me, more experiences are my goal in life.

Same here. I work, but can take the time to go away when I see fit. So I'm cool with multiple vacations a year that are less expensive.

Honestly If I only had a week or two of vacation a year and I wanted it to be water based, I'd go all out and rent a yacht for the week. If I definitely wanted to cruise I'd book the Haven or Multi-bedroom suite.

If you're considering the alternative and have the time to take more cruises it seems you already know what you want to do OP.

Awww I hope you get it back. I had a Curious George monkey that I lost when I was about 4 when we were on a trip. A family friend replaced him but not with a duplicate. I still occasionally think about that original little dude some 35 years later. LOL

I've come to realize that many people stop parenting when they board a ship (walk into a store, restaurant, insert here) and time my cruises accordingly.

Palermo

http://travelxena.com/palermo-sicily-le-grand-tour/ More photos at the link.

Stepping off of the ship in Palermo I felt like I should perhaps go back inside, from what I could gather it seemed I was smack in the middle of an industrial town and I should have booked an excursion. This turned out not to be necessary. There were taxi drivers with signs as well as HopOn-Hop Off bus options. After not having a great experience with the red buses in Malta I decided to go for the Yellow bus this time. (Note: The Red buses were not City Sightseeing brand)

I had one goal to start with...buying Bottega Verde skin creams. I love them. Absolutely love them. They are the best face creams that I've ever used. (And they can't be ordered from the U.S.) The minute I made my way to the bus I checked out Google to find if there was a store nearby and there was. The attendant on the bus told me that it would be close to stop 12 or 14, and so I took a tour around town first. Check out some of the sights below. While there is an element of buildings that have seen better days it is a beautiful city.

Along the way I found myself at the cathedral of Palermo. The architecture was simply beautiful but as I was still on a beauty supplies mission I decided to take off and make my way to stop 12 or 13 as recommended. Once I found my way to the stop I walked the few blocks over to Bottega Verde on via Roma, one of the main shopping areas in the region. I told the ladies in my broken Italian about how whenever I take a trip I look to see if there's a shop in the area. We had a nice little chat and 6 items later I was walking out of the store and decided to walk back to the pier, the long way. Don't do that. Palermo can be a bit sketch and crossing the streets there is challenging.

I have a Roman friend that looked at me hard when I said I was in Palermo, and I met someone from Sicily that wondered why I'd visit Palermo so that gives you a bit of an idea of what it could be like. I however liked it. I'm from Brooklyn so few things phase me. I liked it. :)

After dropping my items off back at the the ship, I went back out to grab the bus, and went through the tour again, jumping off at the Cattedrale di Palermo walked down Vittorio Emanuele to have a lunch in a square at a restaurant called something like Cafe New York.

I was drawn in my the accordion players and the surrounding ambiance. I had fish, vegetables and of course French Fries. The garnish on the side was lemon and Orange, and this orange was one of the most orange I've ever seen and was juicy and delicious. I'd consider moving to Sicily to just eat those oranges on a daily basis, and frankly that stuck with me more than any other part of the meal.

After a lot of wandering I made my way back to the ship and prepped for dinner. I look forward to actually having the chance to explore Sicily one of these days and see the country side.

We used it once on the Epic TA last fall. We were trying to switch around reservations and had trouble doing it on the TV and reaching anyone at the reservations desk. So hubby called the concierge (the number must've been around somewhere) and asked them to do it for us. The assistant handled it then and there no problem. Other than that I don't use them.

Wait there was one other time on the Jade a few years ago. He reached out to me, and we chatted but I don't remember asking for anything, if so, it was minimal.

(For reference DH has Plat and I have Plat +.)

Me too! Following along...

Thanks! I hope that you had a great time on the cruise too. :D

I was hoping someone from this cruise would do a trip report! We were on it as well and had a great time. I'm looking forward to the rest of your review.

I'm glad that you enjoyed it as well! I found it an exciting as well as relaxing cruise. Thanks for checking out the posts. I hope to have another up by tomorrow. :)

Post 2: Valletta and the Mdina

http://travelxena.com/the-mdina-and-valletta-malta/

Leaving the ship and making your way around on your on you encounter a host of travel industry professionals offering to drive you around by taxi and HoHo bus (Hop-on , Hop Off) I often opt for a HoHo bus and was faced with either taking the red City Sightseeing brand that’s seen all over the world (€10) or a more local yellow bus version (€7.50).

In riding hood fashion I opted for the red, and my goal after checking out the map and doing a quick google search was to go to the Mdina. It’s an old fortified city within the country founded by Phoenicians in the 8th century. It still houses residents, government buildings, churches, schools and a couple of restaurants as well as many shops.

After walking the few steps from the bus stop to the Mdina gates I wasn’t sorry that I’d chosen to go there. The area was beautiful. It was like stepping into time and rewinding hundreds of years. It reminded me of a Limestone Mykonos.

Streets that wound around into each other and back in the main squares it was impossible to get lost. And walking to the edge led to beautiful views of the countryside below. If you few places in Malta and you have limited time this is definitely a place you’ll want to see.

I slowly meandered taking photos of just about everything that I saw from multiple angles. I whirled and swirled through the streets until I reached a small restaurant with countryside views. I ordered Carrot cake and red house wine, an odd combination but there you have it. I didn’t find either very tasty but it was nice to sit and enjoy the view. However you could have the same vista peering over the stony fortification of the city toward the back.

After leaving the Mdina, and alighting the bus (after a 45 minute wait) I didn’t have a plan. I decided to sit up top and take photos of what I saw passing by until something made me want to jump off or until I reached the pier. I took a bus doing a Northern route, since the bus I was waiting for still hadn’t arrived, but I figured it wouldn’t take long and I could head back to where I came from and start again. Little did I know that I’d signed on for a 2 hour ride, on which the bus stopped at very few points of interest but did stop at a few hotels along the coast to pick up passengers.

I did take photos but the day was a bit chilly and in all honestly after hour one had passed without seeing anything of interest that I wanted to exit the bus for, I pulled my wrap tight around me and settled in for the ride.

I don’t know if I can fairly judge my time there as the only thing I really saw was the Mdina and didn’t walk around Valletta. From the bus there wasn’t anything that really drew my eye until I was about 30 minutes from to the port, and considering how long it took for the buses to come, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving and assuming there’d be a bus available when it was time to head back.

So while I wouldn’t book a vacation there, I’d be interested in going on another cruise that stopped there and having the chance to explore it more as I know there must be other fascinating areas to delve into, even if a visitor doesn’t have a yacht moored in a port. ;)

Hi Cruisers!

I'll be providing my write up in installments as I post to my blog. For tips and all of the (many) photos, which are too large to include here according to CruiseCritic.

I'll include the link to each post but I wanted to add this here for anyone interested. Hopefully it'll help in your decision of "where to do next". I'm not on CC a lot anymore but I will pop back before next post to answer any questions.

Happy Cruising!

~ Xenagurl

Full post: http://travelxena.com/leaving-barcelona-norwegian-spirit-stateroom-10072/

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take myself on vacation. There were things that I wanted to buy from Europe that are some of the few things that can’t be ordered online overseas. So what the heck I said to myself, let me go to Europe. Initially I thought I’d fly over to Barcelona or Paris spend a few days and come home, but with exactly one week to go I booked the Norwegian Spirit which these days does ‘Le Grand Tour’ to several cities that I haven’t been to.

So I found an inexpensive albeit connecting flight to Barcelona and I hopped on.

I flew into Barcelona the night before, went out to dinner at a Tapas place on Carrer de Blai called Taberna Blai the food was good and I ate about 7 Tapas as 2 or 3 glass of wine for about €14 (Tip: This street is full of Tapas bars and has a lot of locals, you’ll probably spend less then you would on a Tapas bar on Las Ramblas)

Afterward I made my way back over to Hotel Sehrs del Port where I had a chat with my family and then went to bed.

The itinerary for the cruise was:

Valletta, Malta (Island)

Palermo, Sicily

Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome suburb)

Livorno, Italy (gateway to Florence and Pisa)

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Marseille, France

La Palma, Majorca Spain (Island)

Valencia, Spain

I’ll go into each area separately but here are some photos of the Norwegian Spirit, photos my balcony in stateroom 10072 of Barcelona port and of the stateroom itself. The Spirit is an older but elegant ship and I wouldn’t hesitate to cruise on her again with a few 10+ itinerary like this one.

With the instatement of Platinum Plus it made boarding the ship that much easier as I was in the first group to board and one of the first people to get on the ship. It gave me time to do some exploring as this was the first time I’ve been on the Spirit and meet Oumah who works in the watch store. We had a great chat and realized we had a lot in common personality wise, and became buddies. I look forward to seeing her again.

I flew in the day before and stayed a Hotel Sehrs which is close to the port.

Tip: If staying at hotel Sehrs near the port. Go outside and grab your taxi on the other side of the street. This will save you about 4 or 5 euro. This was told to be by my cab driver to the hotel. The cost from this hotel to the port will be about €12-15 depending on traffic, amount of luggage etc. This includes the fees incurred from traveling to or from the cruise port. Rounding up the change is an acceptable tip but none is fine as well.

Thank you, xenagurl!

:) Have a wonderful trip!

I've no issue at all asking anyone to take a photo of me, but if that bothers you I'd suggest using the timer and remote features on your camera. If you're using a camera phone you can still use the timer feature. Buy a small tripod to make it easier.

I doubt anyone is thinking you're self absorbed for asking someone to take your photo. I've never thought that of anyone I've taken a photo of and I'm always happy to take a few so that they can choose from more than one.

If you carry a nice camera and you're concerned about someone stealing your camera, ask someone that's carrying a nice SLR or DSLR, they already have something of value and won't be interested absconding with yours.

Royal Caribbean has MyTime Dining or something like that.

I used it once when I was cruising with friends and they wanted traditional dining and I wanted to eat at another time. The issue with that was the long wait. Most people there were family/couples so I don't know if there would be table sharing, but you could ask and I know you can set up table sharing with the cruise line or TA ahead of time on RCCL.

95% of the time I'm on NCL one of the reasons is non-traditional dining. Either DH and I are together or I'm traveling alone and want to be alone though I'll eat with people I've previously met on board.

I'd suggest attending Solo Meet Ups. Upside, you will find someone to eat with, often the host for the groups will put together group dinners. Downside, you may or may not enjoy the company.

Whatever you decide, give dining solo for dinner a chance. Change clothes, look fabulous and show up at dinner with a "Mr. Demille, I'm ready for my close up" face and attitude and you'll have a great time I'm sure. :)

 

I know one of these cruises when I go solo again, I will put on my big girl panties and dine solo - in one (or some) of the restaurants. Until then, I'd like to ask what do other solos do for dining? I was thinking maybe sign up to be part of a table of 8 or 10? Sign up for a table for one? Does Royal Caribbean set up a table or two for solo diners?

 

Thanks in advance!