graphicguy

Never had an issue with the Nespresso machines in the Haven Cabins. They use the "small" capsules that the Butler replenishes daily. I ran some water through a couple of them for tea, and they always were clean with no coffee residue. For machine coffee, it's quite good. The "other" suites like Club Balcony "Suites" always had the generic coffee "pod". That coffee was barely drinkable, but better than the urn coffee in the Buffet. So, that should tell you all you need to know about "non-Haven" suite coffee, either in the cabin or the "stuff" they serve in the MDRs and/or Buffet. In the Haven restaurant, they serve French Press coffee that is brought to the table fresh.

Buffalo Trace (my go to) is available. Jack, 1792, the afore mentioned Wild Turkey....all included in the regular drinks package. They actually have a decent selection of whiskeys/bourbons. I like 1792. It has a bit more character than Jack D. I think I saw Whistle Pig, too. But, I only had it once and found it "meh".

Yet, here we are...LOL! I learned a long time ago (but I rarely heed the lesson), some folks here at CC are best left to talk into the nether world with no response.

I’ve done that more than once. Usually, if the steward sees me in the hallway, s/he’ll say something along the lines of “Mr GG….I thought you were in your room and I didn’t want to bother you”. Sure enough, I had the DO NOT DISTURB sign turned on, even though I wasn’t in the cabin.

Talk about efficiency.....can't be more inefficient than zig zagging from one cabin in one area and going to another cabin in another area based on the schedules the passengers have. IF you've observed them for any length of time, you'll notice that they tend to start at one cabin and work in a linear fashion through each subsequent cabin. They DO NOT jump from a cabin in one part of the hallway to another cabin in another part of the hallway further away. Whenever they encounter someone in their cabin as they come to clean it, they'll come back after their "regular" routine is done, which is normally much later on.

I don't think anyone will hold it against another for critiquing any of the cruise lines here at CC. It's the constant whining about topics that affect few or even one person. It's the whining about policies that affect a small minority of cruisers. It's the whining about minor inconveniences. Etc This incessant whining, many times about minutia, becomes exhausting. It seems some folks aren't satisfied unless they make themselves unhappy. I dunno? Maybe I spend too much time on these boards and have become hyper sensitive. I have never had a bad cruise. Some, I like better than others. And some, although I had a good time, I learned I would probably not repeat. But, none of them would qualify as a bad cruise. Even the one where we were hit by a huge gust of wind. I was on this ship. It actually ended up being a really fun cruise that most passengers regaled each other with what they were doing at the time. Some wanted to make it an "issue". A few had some bruises. I actually saw one couple on board throwing belongings around their cabin and out the cabin door into the hallway and filming the results, I'm guessing to get YouTube views or to get some sort of compensation from NCL. If you go into a cruise looking for bad, you'll find bad. If you go into a cruise looking for good, you'll find good....everywhere. Some people just want to complain, I suppose.

Again, lots of FUD here. You can get tea, coffee, milk, water, juices at any port at any time just about anywhere there’s a bar or food venue. The very few who don’t have the Free at Sea drinks package just can’t order an alcoholic beverage at those ports where the regs disallow it. You can BUY soft drinks at those bars, too….if you don’t have the FAS drink package. Bottom line, you can debate what or how they should do it. But, the numbers of those passengers who want to order an alcoholic drink, without the FAS drink package, in one of those ports, can not. I don’t imagine it’s more than a handful, but them’s the rules.

Haven’t had enough to drink yet! I’ll spill the beans someday…including the self proclaimed porn stars in the Retreat on Celebrity and maybe the drunks/stoners passed out on my Carnival Balcony. No doubt…every cruise line has a wart or two!

Not kidding at all. I have cruised enough to have a bunch of crazy stories. Sometime if I'm posting with a drink next to my keyboard, I'll relay the story about the guy who insisted on showing me pictures of his wife...NAKED! Have done MSC Yacht Club and the Haven. Both are good. Each unique in their own ways, but still quite good. Won't say one's better than the other, though. Where one falls down the other excels and vice versa.

See...that's what I like. I am retired and always looking for "cruise deals" on ALL the cruise lines as I have the time to do it. I know what the tips are for the FAS drinks and specialty dinners. I know what the DSC is for the cruise. I make a list and compare fares and perks to see which is really better. I like shopping and comparing. People will spend more time setting up dinner reservations than they will researching their cruise. Carnival is notorious for charging everything as extra. Heck, they originated the "Faster to the Fun" fees. Who would have thought people would pay more to be able to get on board an hour earlier? Royal....again, you can get drink packages but you'll pay dearly for them. MSC to me is just flat out dishonest given the way they treated me. Celebrity probably comes closest to NCL in the "all inclusive" category. But, even though they include tips, their fares are so much higher to negate the "included" part of the puzzle. I agree...if you don't want to do any compare and contrast while looking at cruises, just pick a cruise, pay the fare and don't choose any of the Free at Sea packages. Everything is a la carte. If you don't drink, no VAT or tips. If you don't want the Specialty Restaurants perk with FAS, go a la carte (wait until you see THAT BILL). But, you won't have to do any shopping as a result. You'll know as go what you're paying. Celebrity offers that fare, too (which is still higher than NCL's).

Don't see your logic...many people shower 2-3X/day. I'm thinking it all evens out. Again, the stewards I spoke to In April on the Bliss seemed to like the new schedule. They'd rather work one longer shift than two shorter shifts per day. Once their workday is done, they have more time to do what they want vs just hanging out until their afternoon shift starts.

Agree...all the cruise lines have their quirks. On a Royal cruise a few years ago I remember thinking "there's no way we'll drink enough to make the expensive drink package (sold pre-cruise) worthwhile. WRONG! I dropped well over the cost of the drink package, and not by a little. My 4 figure bill for drinks shocked me at the end of the cruise. It also taught me to check my bill every day of a cruise. About quirks.....Never sailed Princess, and for no particular reason, don't have a desire to. MSC tried to raise a fare that I booked, after I put a deposit down. Had to get AMEX involved to resolve that one. That pretty much strikes them from the list of cruise lines I'll never book again. HAL....I don't know how a cruise can be boring, but my one HAL cruise was exactly that. Royal...like them, but it's because I'm Diamond and get 4 free drinks every day. Carnival....they're their own thing. If the price is low enough, I'll sail them. But, you have to understand what you're getting yourself in to. Love Celebrity, but you pay a premium to get the "free drinks, tips..." etc! NCL, although they have really PO'd me in the past, provide what I like the most. I have sailed them a lot. So, I know their policies better than any other cruise line. That helps. Plus, I can find really good deals on NCL, too. Just got to be willing to do a little digging.

That's probably a moot point. Unless they knock on your cabin door, and you answer the door, they are going to go up and down the aisle cleaning the cabins in synch. So, they won't make a schedule of when you're gone. They'll just see if your cabin is empty and clean it when they come to it in their routine. If you're in the cabin, they'll tack yours on to the end of their cleaning routine later in the day.

Wonder the same about NCL's gyrations. All of the cruise lines have their head scratchers when it comes to policy. Mentioned before, I think there are so few people who buy drinks a la carte, that NCL just doesn't want to change their Point of Sale process/software to accommodate those few who may buy drinks individually given It makes no economic sense for anyone to do so. One of my "bugaboos" about NCL's processes is with their specialty restaurants. It's taken longer for them to work their processes when I check in for a specialty dinner than it does to make the actual reservation. I'm not sure what they're looking at on their screens, but even with a relatively empty restaurant, they make it look like an arduous endeavor to seat me.

Well…now you know!

I agree it’s not hard. But, NCL could put it in BOLD, 48pt font, italicized, painted on the hull of the ship, and someone, somewhere will say they were “blindsided”, “Unaware”, “want a refund”, etc.

As @DCGuy64 mentions, water (which is quite good out of the tap…I’ve seen their system…it’s cleaner than most you get in a bottle), coffee, juices, fruit “punch”, milk….are always available no charge. Those are available at the buffet and bars (which are about every 100 feet). The few (the VERY few) who don’t have a Free at Sea package probably don’t drink a lot of alcoholic beverages, if at all. If they do drink a lot, and insist on paying a la carte….well, they aren’t very smart cruisers as that’s a very expensive proposition if you drink more than a couple of drinks/day. Buying the drink package on board without Free at Sea is also a poor decision as they’re expensive (as they are on most cruise lines). So, in Greece, U.K. Or whatever European country you sail, you should probably now know that without Free at Sea, don’t expect alcohol because of the way the ports charge VAT and the way NCL breaks it out separately. It’s really as simple as that. If you want alcoholic drinks everywhere all the time, get the Free at Sea drink package.

I don’t know where some of this “double the workload” comes from. Stewards used to have two shifts….one in the a.m. with a break between the one in the p.m. This is how they have been doing it for a while. Now, they just do one cabin refresh/day instead of 2. Yes, they have more cabins, but they only have to refresh them ½ as much. So, workload is about the same, more or less. I have sailed on about 30 cruises, 15 of them with NCL. The last one on the Bliss after the new policy was put into place. Not once have I heard any steward complain. Matter of fact, they’ve always been cheerful and friendly. My cabin steward on the Bliss said he didn’t mind the changes. Once his shift was done, he could do whatever he wanted. Before, he knew once he was done in the a.m., he had to come back in the p.m., which limited his ability to get off the ship during free time. Truth told, I didn’t notice the late afternoon/early evening turndown didn’t happen. I don’t lounge around my cabin, though. I’m shaved, showered and out and about usually from the a.m. until late at night. I might pop into the cabin if I need something quickly, but that’s about it.

Yeah….the other cruise lines bake the taxes into the drinks. NCL doesn’t and breaks it out separately. If you have NCL’s drink package, that was part of Free at Sea you chose when you booked, you can get drinks, which is what the vast majority do. If you go a la carte with drinks, those fees (VAT) is added..it’s broken out separately with NCL, that’s not allowed in Europe. The other cruise lines don’t break out the VAT. They just add it to the drink and don’t break it out as a separate charge! You can get drinks with NCL. They just have to be part of the Free at Sea!

The way it was explained to me, it’s not an NCL problem per se. NCL breaks out taxes on their Free at Sea. Other cruise lines just add the taxes in and raise the fare to cover them. Plus, you don’t actually buy the drinks in port with Free at Sea. That’s a fare addendum that’s priced before you sail when you book! If you don’t book a Free at Sea fare, you buy your drinks a la carte, which can’t be served unless you pay the VAT/taxes! Europe doesn’t allow them to break out taxes separately. So, only Those with FAS (which is booked when you pay your fare before you sail) can get drinks! I think there’s an answer. But, it would involve a major reworking of their Point of Sale system that would allow NCL to add taxes to drinks ordered a la carts and without the drink package. That’s probably a very small number of guests without Free at Sea, and probably not a priority for so few guests.

They serve dinner before the show. Makes sense. They don’t want wait staff blocking your view of the show while trying to serve and bus tables. I think the concept is good. The venue just doesn’t lend itself to watching the show and being served a meal at the same time. I thought if they would provide a “sack lunch” as you enter the venue to eat once seated would be way better. But, they don’t pay me the big bucks for my opinions.

If it's anything like what they offered previously (before the shutdown), it's a mediocre meal served before the show. Usually a 3 course meal....app (salad), pretein and desert. Show was good. Meal? Not so much! Concept of a dinner theater is a good one. Didn't translate well because the tables are set up more for watching a show than it was for dining.

I agree. To block out such a large space for an entire cruise? That almost sounds like they chartered a good portion of the ship, and those who booked the rest of the cabins are SOL! That’s a lot of people who are going to be there a lot of the time. Corporate? My company blocked out spaces for an end of year bash one time. We had a restaurant closed off for our meals and an award ceremony. But again, that was only for a few hours a day.

I know this is going off the rails a bit, but this happened the Celebrity Apex a little while back. Was in a packed elevator which opened up to pick up another guest. That guest was not a small person, and it was clear we wouldn’t even be able to fit a blade of grass in the elevator. Doors opened and he stared at all of us and then pronounced “I’m a Zenith (Celebrity’s top guest tier)”. Someone’s going to have to get out so I can get on. No one budged. He kept staring at us waiting for someone to get off, and we just stared at him. He restated his demand for someone to get off so he could get on. Finally, the person by the floor selector hit the “close door” button. As the doors started to close, the guy could be heard raising his voice that he was a Zenith and someone had to get off to accommodate him. No one said another word, but we giggled as the elevator doors closed.

Wonder the same. I understand if you’re not an alcohol consumer. But, even if you only drink a couple of drinks/day, the FAS drink package is worth it to only pay for tips. So, bottom line, the sign should say “No Drinks Served a la carte because of local regulations”. And, if you want a drink in these ports, just get the drink package. I don’t think it’s a monetary thing. NCL makes a whole lot more money on drinks ordered a la carte than they do those served using the drink package. Mentioned in another thread, it’s how NCL does their accounting on the drinks that they are not allowed to serve a la carte drinks because they are bought and paid for at the time of order, not pre-paid as the FAS drinks would be.