FLSteve11

According to this, there's no change in current deposit structure, so cancelling after booking this way could become quite expensive. I'll reserve judgement for now, but that certainly makes it less appealing for early bookings.

It does mention in the second form that if you cancel the cruise, you do get a future cruise certificate, good for 1 year, minus the $100pp change fee. So for a party of 2, cancelling the cruise will lose you $200 of deposit and require you to rebook within a year.

Because wheelchair seating on Royal and Celebrity in their main theatre sucks. On Carnival, wheelchair seating is dispersed throughout the theatre where you can actually go into the theatre and see what's happening. On both Royal and Celebrity, you're at the top, at the back. We have tried shows on both lines but left with a feeling of "you can't see much from up here."

While I don't use a wheelchair, I have sat at the back of the theatre a couple of times and never had a problem seeing the show and what was going on. It's not as good as prime seating in the center, but they don't put you behind obstructions On the new RCCL mega ships, a lot of the shows are not in the theatre (ice skating show, aqua shows, 270 lounge shows) so the seating will be different on those. You should try them if you ever go on one again, it could be a lot easier. Newer ships tend to be more handicap accessible as well thankfully.

I don't do main shows very often. On Disney occasionally and Carnival occasionally. On Royal and Celebrity - never (not after our first experiences). I like things like the casino bar, the dive in movies, the lido deck DJ, constant trivia, etc.

 

Watching a bunch of people sing and dance on a stage doesn't "float my boat" anymore.

If you don't do the shows on the Royal mega ships, then you're missing out. Why on Carnival and not on the big Royal ships, where the shows are SO much better? Disney shows are good, but very Disney-ized obviously.

I have already said I didn't realize that the schnoor bar was a piano bar (though funny enough when I walked through it after being in the casino late at night I didn't hear anyone playing but whatever...).

 

When Royal has a comedian, it's their main show. We don't do the main shows (have you tried sitting and seeing anything in the wheelchair seating in their theatre?). Carnival has actual comedy shows IN ADDITION to the main show.

 

The Star lounge and Boleros are NOT night clubs. The star lounge wasn't used for much on our cruise other than the 1 nightly thing scheduled for 8pm (can't go to with late dining) and then of course - Bingo. Boleros is a bar area. While they may have had some music there, it's a far cry from Carnival's nightclubs. The Viking lounge was closed frequently for private functions on our cruise.

 

Every night in the middle of the Promenade, they were setting up tables to sell stuff (in the middle, not around the edges of the stores). On port days, they had water guys doing their hard sell on the promenade. On embarkation we were asked by no less than 6 people about specialty dining - even after answering that yes, we had already booked 2 specialty restaurants, they wouldn't stop and tried to tell me that I should book more and that they could get me a better deal (no they couldn't). We were approached later in the cruise in the MDR asking us to book specialty dining. While we were at a specialty restaurant we got a hard sell to come back on another night. We were asked by at least 10 people on the first day to buy drink packages (even though we had the non-alcohol package - they kept pushing the alcohol upgrade). Going from our cabin to the Café Promenade (which was a common hangout for us) was like running a gauntlet saying, "No thank you." probably 5 times for people trying to push us to buy something. I've never seen such aggression.

 

I've sailed Royal before this (3 times before this last one) and it wasn't as bad as this one. It was never our first choice but if I could get it cheap enough and it was convenient, it was a go. Now, I won't consider booking Royal again.

On Quantum class ships, the nightclub is the Music Hall I believe. They also have dancing in the 270club after the show there (at least until 1am in that venue).

I will say Carnival does do some things better then RCCL. Royal is trying to catch up with comedy clubs on the Oasis class. They'll have comedians but it's not as frequent as in the clubs on Carnival. In general they do more trivia, but that really depends on the ship. I've had Royal ships with a lot of trivia on them, and at the same time our last cruise on Carnival (the Fantasy) had almost none. Trivia on the Breeze was fairly frequent, but so crowded that people sat on the floor or left. Just too many people, and too loud with the RedFrog pub next door.

I also will say there is probably more sales pitches on Royal. Though the Promenade IS their shopping area, so you might expect it there. Maybe it's more noticeable as it's more centralized, because I've gotten pitches walking through the Carnival shopping areas as well. But I feel it happens on Royal more. I've never had hard selling though, I give a no thanks and don't get bothered by them again.

It's a shame you missed the shows, because Royal does have the best shows of any line I've been on (at least on their mega ships). NCL has some that are close, but Carnival can't touch them on those. It's not the standard cruise shows you see elsewhere, and heads and shoulders over the playlist production, Hasbro or regular walk-on entertainment.

I was looking forward to using the Mobile Passport app on our cruise in 2 weeks. Dang

We still need to do immigration, so don't get rid of the app yet :)

We sailed in late February through early March and had excursions that we had booked on line pre-cruise. We simply went to the desk and asked if we were eligible for a price adjustment. In a matter of minutes all of our excursions were repriced to the lower rate giving us a credit balance on our on board accounts!

Just realize in either case the discount for on-board shore excursions is only for adults. Even if your child has been on a bunch of cruises, they'll pay the full rate for excursions. This includes teenagers, who are charged the adult rate for the excursions.

We had no customs form on our 4/8th cruise on the NCL Escape either. There was a note I read somewhere onboard that they were not required as of March 3rd(?) I believe. Though I've not seen any other notice of that. It said you only need to fill out the customs form if you have something to declare

I thought it was max 3 points (or triple points) per cruise though, or am I remembering that wrong?

It is the same reason that people in Texas want ships in Galveston, people in AL want ships in Mobile, and people in LA want ships is New Orleans. There are no ports that are serviced from there that were not already being serviced before there were cruise ships located there either. As far as a "need" for ships, new cruise ships are being built right now so apparently the cruise lines feel there is a demand for more. The up side is reduced travel cost. It costs us as much to fly as cruise fare sometimes. If it is an easy drive we can go more often. People in the Houston area and in Florida (as well as other areas nearer a home port) have this advantage but we are half way between the northeast and FL ports. Port Canaveral is a 9-10 hour drive and Miami is closer to 13. A lot of people in southern VA, the Carolinas, TN, GA, AL, and even WV & KY would see an upside in being able to drive in for a short cruise.

I think what they were referring to is what is the upside for RCCL? Will they look at it and say it's more cost advantageous to put their cruise ships elsewhere? It's the same reasoning they use for not having a ship on the West Coast (which I think they would do before Charleston, if I had to guess)

There are a lot of people living in Charleston, including many businesses, that are opposed to having a cruise ship based in their city. They are afraid it would destroy the historical, old world charm.

 

If you have spent much time there, you will see what they are talking about. Tourism there is not a problem, they have

plenty of tourists year round and the traffic that goes with it.

If there are plenty of tourists and traffic there already, what will be the difference of some more?

Some valid points also already kicked around. The main point is that "they" are looking and the the fact that renderings have been done for soloman bear out that somebody is serious. Coco cay comes to mind and the fact that the locals are willing to spend millions to redo roads for the new Miami pier. $'s talk. Airports an hour away, nothing new at all.

I would never say it would not happen

I wouldn't say never, but I would say very highly doubtful.

Not my experience. We have watched cars "disappearing" into the tunnel while at the 8:00 dinner seating. Katherine

Same here. When we sailed on her last summer we were in the MDR having dinner and watched it from the windows.

I am surprised to see that this thread is seeing so much action. It also seems that some people pretty passionate about these soda machines. These machines have a big upside in that they have lots of flavors. Aside from that they are full of detractors. I have seen several posts where the poster says their is no downside with the machine. Check my previous post about all the issues these things pose. These are real problems some compounded by being away from a tech that can fix them when they go down. As far as I know they cant be purchased, only leased from coke. Coke is also designing these machines so that they can have ultimate control of the manufacturing and distribution of the cartridges that go in them. You have to buy them from cokesmart.com and they have to come out of Georgia where cokes headquarters is. Look ultimately its a money making ploy through coke. The end user does have some advantages of more choices, and the quality is great so far that I have seen. I know coke is working out the bugs on these and there are multiple models out they will continue to perfect them.

 

I also saw someone post about the hygienic aspect of these machines and touching the screen. Just an fyi I actually saw a guy in the restroom in the stall taking a dump. I know he did cause I could smell it. He finished, walked out of the restroom went straight to his girlfriend, got his cup and proceeded to touch the screen and get his drink. That was not cool, and it happens all the time. I know what your gonna say people like this are everywhere. I just don't want them near my drinks if I can help it.

I know this will sound snarky, and don't mean it too. But the regular consumer doesn't care about most of the downsides and detractions you put. Those are things that might be issues for Carnival, but for the guest onboard, they couldn't care about it. You have to get them from cokesmart.com? Has to come from Georgia? Coke is designing to have ultimate control? Who cares. As a person using the machine to get a drink, all of that is immaterial. Now if it's broken I would care, or if that effected the price of the drink. But otherwise I would just care about the experience of getting a drink, what drinks I could get, and the quality of them. The first is easy with the machine on a cruise ship (from seeing them on RCCL), the drinks I can get are much more plentiful with the freestyle machines, so long as the quality is fine I don't see the downside. And if it's broken, I get the old warm can with ice at a bar. Really, seems like the worst case scenario with them equals the regular case without them.

As for hygiene, that person will just be pressing elevator buttons and using handrails instead. It IS a good lesson for why to use your knuckles when using the machine though (or pressing elevator buttons :) )

We were disappointed with the food on the Ruby Princess back in January. Princess is now doing an odd three day rotation in the buffet. Not ABCABC but AAABBBCCC.

 

 

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That way they can use the leftovers the next day ;);)

I run 12 fast food restaurants and have installed and then taken out these freestyle machines. I cannot say they wont be in all places in the future, however there are several real drawbacks to the machines. yes they can dispense more drink flavors. The advantage just about ends there. They are more expensive, about 15% more. The machines break a lot and cannot be easily fixed or fixed at all at sea. It takes a special tech to work on them. Traditional bag in the box is much easier to fix and parts can be easily kept on hand. They also take a lot of daily maintenance from the wait staff to keep going. Too much fiddling with the machine wastes time= wasted money. I also read a few posts up that soda beverages are the biggest profit maker in the food business. Wrong. This used to be true however soda costs are now equal to most food groups in the business. You still make pretty good money most of the time, however you have to be careful its not like the old days when soda was cheap and you could just waste it. You can thank the federal government for mandating that ethanol (made from corn) be put in all gasoline for that. Corn and corn syrup which is what soda is has gone thru the roof in the last 10 years.

 

Operationally and cost wise I don't see cruise lines jumping at putting them in place. You might see some tests in some cruise applications, but not ship wide and industry wide, not for a while.

Most of the RCCL ships have them now I believe, so it's fairly fleet wide there.

I think some of the difference on cruise ships is that soda otherwise has to be handled by bartenders. While they're doing soda, they're not doing alcohol. So it's get more bartenders, or sell less drinks.

Not a passenger but a crew member. My wife broke her ankle on the first day of a ten day cruise. Well this cruise was full and all the wheelchairs were spoken for so my wife was given a set of crutches. We were in the casino with one of our favorite dealers( who we had cruised with several times). The dealer comes back from a break with a wheelchair saying she found it in the slot area and my wife could use it for the rest of the cruise. As I look at the wheelchair I notice a tag property of so and so ( not celebrity). I tell the dealer who freaks out worried about repercussions. I take the wheelchair back to the area she found it and sure enough there is a older lady perplexed where why I had her wheelchair. I told her I saw some kids playing with it and was just bringing it back.

 

On a side note the doctor , medical staff and captain were great. The first stop the captain went ashore and bought a wheelchair so my wife could be enjoy our trip. The doctor and medical staff set my wife's ankle with no issues.

 

 

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I wonder if she's now going around telling people how it's another example of how parents don't watch their kids on cruise ships and how rotten it is to cruise with them :)

They were not on the April 8th sailing.

Spice is an adults only sun deck with a bar, and a grotto water feature to cool off in... vibe is on the other side of a wall from it, but that area you have to pay extra for.

Spice H20 also has 2 hot tubs in it as well. It's the aft section of Deck 17. The Vibe is on the other side of Haven. You have to pay for it (I believe it's $99 for the week) and has it's own set of loungers and hot tub. Vibe is very limited, so if you're not one of the first one and buy it then, you won't get it.

The Spa is also adults only, as well as the casino. The casino bar (Skyline Bar) becomes the nightclub and is adults only at night.

That did not take long!

Well, considering it IS the most likely reason :)

I agree change the aft pools back to adults only. And then be sure to tell all the adults to use them, because I think the under utilization is what triggered the change. That will also solve people complaining about kids splashing since all adults will be in the aft pools on the handful of ships that had them.

 

As far as bad behavior, that's up to the individual. I see adults clearly feeling as if they are on vacation and can let loose just as much as kids. Rude obnoxious misbehavior is not, by far, limited to just kids. And I don't care whose paying, nobody has a right to be that way. I can speak to a child and tell them politely to stop. Try that with some adult usually full of whatever they like to drink to maximize their cheers and see what you get back.

I'm guessing that is the reason for the aft pool change as well. Here's what I see happens on cruises. Children want to go to the pool. So the parents take them to the one pool they can use. They want to watch their kids, but every lounger (and sometimes the pool) is packed with mostly adults (or towels saving them). So their option is let the kids play on their own, or have children who can't go in the pool. Then they go to the back pool, which is basically pretty empty most of the time. Kids see this nice pool with no one in it and loungers for the parents to use...but they can't use it. So the parents complain naturally, and Carnival sees and hears it.

It would be 7 nights. The first cruise from Miami isn't until May 10th. They could easily do a foreign port in that time.

It has to be a "distant" foreign port. So most of the Caribbean (outside of the ABC islands) don't count. I'm not sure if Halifax would work, though then they need to go north then south. Also not sure if Bermuda works either, but that's out pretty far.

I didn't see Howl at The Moon mentioned. Does anyone know if it will be on the Bliss. My wife and I cruise the big ships just for them.

I don't see it mentioned either. The way it sounds, they're either going to be in a different lounge, or they're not going to have it. (We enjoyed it too, it always seems to be very popular!). I'm guessing (and it's just a guess) the 11pm adult comedy show is gone also, as they mention 2 shows, 6 nights a week. I'm guessing it will be a 7:30 family show, 9pm adult show, and then become the nightclub for the rest of the night.

I wonder if the Prohibition show will be similar to the one they do on RCCL (with their own music and songs)

The Cavern Club probably replaces the Supper Club/Spiegel tents. I thought the Beatles show on Epic was ok. It was just a bit odd seeing old guys playing early Beatles songs. :)

Sounds like they're also going to the virtual windows as well. Which makes sense, people generally really like them on Disney and RCL. I suspect those will become standard on inside cabins through the industry eventually.

Does NCL standardize their shows across the line? We are going on the Dawn in June and would love to know if we will see the same shows...hope so!

No. For the most part each ship has their own shows, and only the newer mega-ships has the broadway production shows. On Dawn you'll get the standard cruise headliner type things. 2-3 singer/dancer shows of some type, and then guest comedians/jugglers/magicians/etc

We are definitely in the more cruises category. We rarely book suites, because we would rather spend the money to go on more cruises. We'll book anything from inside to mini-suites. It all depends on the cost and itinerary.

New to NCL and starting out w/ Escape....RCCL has always been our go to because of larger ships. We are looking forward to the waterfront environment and more casual environment.

 

I'm a little concerned w/ the small and crowded pool so wondering if we should invest the $100 in Vibe. (?)

 

I am trying to learn ahead of time what restaurants are an additional charge and what are complementary. If anyone has a link or info on this that they can share, DH and I would appreciate.

 

Happy sailing and thank you in advance for all the tips!

We just got off the Escape a week ago, and have sailed many RCCL ships as well.

We enjoyed the Escape, it was probably my favorite out of the NCL cruises I've done. I enjoyed the Waterfront for hanging out, with the padded chairs and couches to sit on. It was a good place to relax, read or do puzzles.

We didn't do the Vibe, but note there is no pool in that area (there is a hot tub though I believe). While it was almost impossible to get a lounger by the pool on sea days, there are loungers all over the upper levels and you can find two together if you head up a deck or two. Deck 18 (two above the pool) forward in particular had a lot of loungers and quite a few available. There is a hot tub up there as well (outside of the Vibe area).

We enjoyed the entertainment, particularly the For The Record:Brat Pack show. It's not quite Oasis-class level (really, no other ships are that I've found), but it's definitely better then most ships. If reservations aren't made yet, you can book them when you get there. You can use the iConcierge app to book most shows (but I could not do dining on that). You can also do it through your TV in your cabin, or go to the box office when open. Like RCL, they limit how many online reservations they allow, so there are quite a few once onboard. I found the shows have room for standby's anyway. The Comedy Shows only can be booked onboard. Also, Howl at the Moon is a lot of fun!

Same goes for specialty dining, book online if you can (you can always change them), or book when you get onboard if you want to do any. A few of them will get full, but you can try stand-by on those as well, might have to wait for the more popular ones then.

Speaking of which. The Manhatten Room, Savor & Taste are the free-MDR restaurants. Manhatten room has a band playing music sometimes, and allowing people to dance, but otherwise they're all the same and have the same menu. O'Sheehan's is a free pub type place (outside of the ice cream sundae's), and the Garden Cafe is the buffet area. Everything else basically has a charge (Moderno and Teppanyaki are an upfront charge, everything else is basically ala carte).