canadian-nurse

Thank you so much for this! We board on March 3 & you are really helping us survive the time until then!

Thank you so much for answering my questions!!! I am even more excited now!!

Thank you very much for taking the time to post your review! 

I have three questions! Do you remember which day was formal night with lobster in the MDR? We don’t want to book Pinnacle Grill that night. And second, did you see crab legs anywhere on the ship? And lastly, did the lido or anywhere else have free ice cream- soft serve or hard scoop? My father-in-law is an ice cream junkie but would not want to pay for it!! Thank you so much!

We went on the NS sister ship Koningsdam 3 yrs ago & loved it! We just turned 40 now. We’ve done Oasis Class RCI x3, Princess once, HAL twice, Disney once & NCL twice. Upsides to Koningsdam we’re the itinerary (ABC islands, Turks, Half Moon Cay etc), best buffet food we’ve ever had (lobster on gala nights, steak every night), amazing pizza & burgers, movies under the stars (2nd of the night was always dead- there were maybe 10 of us with staff bringing free popcorn), shows in the World Theater, wonderful staff & roomier showers. The ship was very quiet after 10:30pm & it was us and the staff, which we enjoyed! You will definitely feel young on the ship! Last time while we waited to board, I had a lovely lady come up to me & say “I hope that you have a good time on this ship- you look far too young to be here with all of us dinosaurs.” We laughed & said that we were sure that we’d love it! 

The one one thing we miss on HAL is RCIs Quest game. It’s just so funny! They are two completely different vacations- HAL is relaxing, quieter noise wise, better food, better staff, nicer rooms but RCI is close too. HAL has way less kids, which makes the pool area more enjoyable for us. 

We love the Pinnacle class ships, but would not go on the Veendam again. It was just too small & old/run down when we went on it years ago. 

I’m so excited for you!!! You will love this ship I’m sure!! I hope that you post a review when you get home!! 

We second the Woodwind snorkelling tour in Bonaire. We are avid snorkellers & they taught us a few things & even helped to get our masks fitting better. Their pick up is an easy walk from the ship! 

I think that the price is pretty good for a 10 day cruise! I would book a guarantee cabin if you don’t like the choices. We did that same cruise on the Nieuw Statendam’s sister ship, Koningsdam & we loved it! Very different from NCL & RCI but it’s nice to have a break from the noise & busyness. The food is much better, especially comparing the buffett’s. HAL has lobster tails, great steak, prime rib etc on certain nights in the buffet & it was excellent. The passengers are definitely older on HAL, but we’re in our 40s & didn’t mind having the ship to ourselves after 10pm. 

The ABC islands are wonderful, especially if you like snorkelling. Curacao has great shopping too. 

We've never booked last minute, so I can’t help you much there. I would do it in a heartbeat though! 

We are booked on the Mar 3 Eastern Caribbean NS- so we definitely think that you should go on the ship! 

Thank you so much! This is very helpful!! 

1 hour ago, lovelights said:

We parked a Midport Garage. NS, I believe, was at terminal 26. It's easy to get to. You just go straight, after you get through the security gate. It was really tight inside the garage. You can't get to the surface parking at the top (Level 6 or 7), unless you drive through the inside of the entire parking garage. We got there around noon, and had to park at the very top level. We could see our vehicle from our balcony.

 

We were driving a Terazza, which is long, but not tall, and it felt like we were going to hit the top. I don't remember what the clearance was.

Oh gees. That sounds yucky!! I’ll have to look at alternatives!!! Thanks for the heads up!

Thank you for your review!!! I have one question for you. Do you know which terminal the NS was docked in at Port Everglades? I am asking because we have a big lifted pick up truck that needs surface parking or at least 7’3” clearance in a parking garage. 

I'm a bit confused - why would you have to change plans for 5 days? It sounds like the only change is that the last port is a single day instead of an overnight.

They changed day 3 (second day in Maui) and moved all of the other days forward. So nothing lined up anymore. It has been a big hassle for any tours/rental cars etc not booked with the ship.

Well, I can't say what exactly the PR people are trying to say, but there really isn't any such thing as a one day drydocking. It takes 6-8 hours to pump out the dock, and the same to refill it. With the time needed to shift the ship to the Pearl Harbor drydock, that would only give less than 12 hours, at absolute best, for whatever is needed. Her last drydock was about this time in 2016, which was at the far limit of the statutory drydock interval. So, I believe that what is happening is that the ship is undergoing a "UWILD" (underwater inspection in lieu of drydocking), which ships less than 15 years old can do rather than drydocking twice in 5 years as required. This entails divers videotaping the entire underwater portion of the hull, and all underwater equipment like propellers, thrusters, stabilizers, sea chests, etc for the class surveyor to review. I'm a bit surprised that NCL was caught on short notice for this, but I believe that since the drydock was at the late end of the statutory window, they felt the UWILD could be done up to 2.5 years afterwards, but in fact it needs to be done within 12.5 years (plus or minus 3 months) of her delivery date, which would be Dec 2017, plus or minus 3 months, so Oct 2017 - Mar 2018. NCL has always had trouble with the regulatory differences between US flag ships and foreign flag ships, and this may be one more example of this.

That makes sense! I don't know why they wouldn't just say that!! Thank you for your insight!!

Would you rather the cruise ship not fix whatever the problem is and potentially put future cruisers lives in danger?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Of course not! But if it was that urgent, should it not be taken care of immediately? It seems strange that NCL was caught off guard by this.

Has anyone tried contacting NCL or your Personal Cruise Consultant at NCL regarding the itinerary change? I spoke to my PCC and he had no idea of the itinerary change and directed me to the telephone number on the letter. Well, as luck would have it they are closed until tomorrow.

 

I just want to make sure we have hotel accommodations for Friday the 9th, can change dinner reservations and reschedule an excursion.

I spoke with them earlier and they are putting everyone up in the Hilton Hawaiian Village, so you will be good for the 9th.

For those of you that want to see the exact wording:

"Due to it's regulatory compliance requirements, Pride of America must undergo an unscheduled technical dry dock and the ship's March 3rd itinerary is being modified as a result. The necessary maintenance that will be conducted during this dry dock will in no way impact the safe operation of the vessel during your cruise.

The cruise is changing from a 7 day to a 6 day voyage, and the ship will now call on Kahului, Maui on March 4th from 8am - 6pm instead of staying overnight as originally scheduled. "

We have had port time cut short, itineraries changed due to hurricanes, mechanical failures etc, but we have never had our actual cruise cut short by a day. And the way they modified the itinerary means that we have to rebook/cancel/reschedule 5/7 days of the cruise. I'm sure they did that because Kauai is seen as a better port than Maui, but we would have much rather they worked it the other way and only have 1 day affected.

I understand that there is a cruise contract, but this is 2/2 cruises with NCL that we have major issues. We are going to take our measly credit for that day and move on.

We got the same thing. I don't understand how they can do this so late. They are literally inconveniencing thousands of people!! Dry docks are scheduled months in advance. I think there must be something that they are not telling us!!

I just received this too- and am furious. We are literally leaving in a few hours. Half of our party is already down there. So now I will be up all night trying to figure this out. We are done with Norwegian. This is the second bad experience for us.

I just received a letter from NCL saying that our cruise from March 3-10 is being cut short by one day and the whole itinerary is messed up. I am furious. This is very last minute- half of our party is already on their way to Hawaii and we are leaving in the morning. All of our excursions, which are all with the ship, are messed up now. Every single one! They are putting us up in a Hilton hotel to make up for the night and are giving us a 25% future cruise credit. After this, we never want to sail with NCL again. This cruise was over $5600CDN for an inside cabin- that takes a long time to save. Has anyone else ever had this experience before?

We were just upgraded!!

Pride Of America March 3, 2018

From inside 13005 to balcony 10th floor.

$105 each person X2= $210. Minimum bid was $100pp.

Thanks so much for your review! We are going in May, and it was very helpful!

We have been on HAL twice, Royal Caribbean's Oasis Class ships, Disney and Princess. We loved the HAL Koningsdam! It has all the niceness of HAL on a more modern, younger ship. It is definitely an older crowd, but there way more kids on it than when we were on the Veendam. And it has movies under the stars every night, great shows in the theatre (with a wrap around TV screen for very cool effects), and a killer pizza bar! Disney would also be a great choice for you, but it is expensive. The Oasis class ships are amazing too- skating rink, mini golf, flow rider, rock climbing wall, fun shows and a huge kids club. There is never a lack of things to do. But we have never gotten a free beverage package, so if that's important you may want to stick with NCL.

Thanks again!!! :)

Hi Everyone,

I just thought that I should let everyone know that Aruba Bob snorkeling company will no longer accept cruise ship passengers. We had heard about Aruba Bob on Cruise Critic and were very excited to try their power snorkeling, but unfortunately they have decided not to take any cruise ship guests anymore. This is the response that I received from them...

"Thank you for getting in contact with us.

I am afraid we no longer offer tours for people coming to Aruba on a cruise. Unfortunately, some of the experiences we have had in the past with taking cruise ship people have made us have to do this. We would take a deposit of 50% and when people still would not show up they would start demanding their money back threatening us with bad reviews even when the fault was theirs. We are only a small company and can not afford to be treated like that.

Please accept our sincere apology. We really have had some great experiences with our cruise customers in the past, but a few people have managed to ruin this for everyone else.

If you ever come to Aruba and stay in a resort please let us know- we would love to take you snorkeling!"

I guess we are on our own for snorkeling in Aruba! Have a great day everyone!

Oh man... those are the rooms that we have booked. Those balconies are not any bigger than what we had on the Oasis of the Seas. And it was half the price. They were boardwalk balconies, not aft balconies, but still... hopefully something on deck 9 or 12 will open up before our cruise!

Thanks so much for all of the help!

Hello! I am so sorry to bother everyone! I have been all over cruise critic and the Internet trying to find photos of a B1 balcony on deck 13 of the Breakaway. We have 3 aft balcony cabins booked just for the bigger balconies, and I don't want to let the group down when we arrive with a small balcony!

Thanks so much for all of your help! :)

Thank you all so much for your help! It's very appreciated!!! :)

Somebody at the Vendors' Plaza may be selling plates. The current plates are mostly blue with fish, and the expired plates are yellow and black. It's my understanding that selling current plates anywhere is illegal, but people sell them anyway all over the world.

 

Lots of plates on eBay even for St Thomas.

Thank you so much for your help! :)

Thank you so much for your help! My DH will be so happy! :)