rajones007

Ran down to the buffet and got us some breakfast...

I notice you have done ^this^ on more than one occasion. Is there a reason you won't use the butler?

I totally understand if it just isn't your thing and you'd much rather do it yourself. Seriously, I can relate. But you sure are missing out on one of the perks you paid for when you can just phone a guy and say "hey, bring me this-this-this & this, lots of that, a couple of that, some of those, and a pot of this and that" and have it here and set up at x:xx AM, please and thank you!" It certainly makes the morning much more relaxed when you have an early excursion.

Nice to hear that more cruisers visiting Costa Maya are beginning to 'spread out' and go beyond the cruise port area. When we were there on the NCL Star in 2011 (2010?), the only other ship in port was the Carnival Dream and the port area was PACKED.

At about 10am every store, every bar, every restaurant, every place you went was PACKED. Anywhere you turned there was people. Even the pool with the swim-up bar was packed full of people.

We shuffled around for about an hour then went back to the ship. It was a planned 'rest' day for us. We had a long hot day in Belize prior to arriving at Costa Maya, so we just wanted a quick-look-around-and-do-nothing-day anyways.

We liked what we saw, but were a little bewildered at how packed it was with only two ships in port. It's nice to see it's gotten better with people not hesitating to venture beyond the gates.

Anyways...Please carry on, OP. I'm very much enjoying your review.

Just an FYI that we learned back when we were on our Carnival cruise...NOXEMA!!! It works wonders when you are burnt....I mean wonders. You feel absolutely amazing when you put it on a sunburn. I swear I will never buy aloe again. :p

Still following this thread with interest. :)

 

And I wanted to chime in and second the Noxema recommendation! Amazing stuff, cools the burn instantly.

Yup. That's all my mother ever gave her boys as we were growing up without sunscreen in the 60s and 70s. In all my life I've never had anything else that worked so quickly and so well on a sunburn.

Todays useless trivia: First sold in 1914, Noxzema was originally intended for *TA-DA* sunburn relief. It wasn't until post-WW2 that it became more popular as a facial cleanser.

For us, it's more of what we're in the mood for. Cagneys is more relaxed and some nights that's what we need. Modernos, on the other hand, can seem hectic when those meat carving people start appearing out of thin air and they keep dropping delicious meat on my plate. I can't decide between them, sitting here at home, not on a cruise. I wish I had to make that kind of decision for supper...right now. :(

I personally don't care for the Moderno salad bar. On the Epic it was just full of weird stuff. I went up looking for the ingredients to make myself a basic garden salad, and came back with a bun, a slice of tomato, and two olives. I couldn't even find lettuce, for heaven's sake.

Didn't matter, either way. This is my take on salad anyways-----

(Linked because embedding won't jump to the correct part of the video.)

http://youtu.be/ERwMRe1Mml4?t=33s

(I realize your dreams have been shattered :( , but I'll respond anyways in the chance someone in the future might be wondering the same thing)

I think it can be done. It'll feel tight when everybody is scurrying around in the morning and wandering around the cabin, but that's expected for most any cabin on a cruise ship. You might have to get creative on who sleeps where, but it can be done quite comfortably.

If it was me and my kids were 11 and 8 again *sigh* I'd put my parents in the master bedroom, my wife and I in the double bed in the small bedroom, our 8 year old in the single bunk over us, and our 11 year old out on the sofa-bed. (side note: a murphy-bed, if available, would be preferable in the living room over the sofa-bed for the 11 year old. It would make the room looked less full, less cluttered, and would leave more room to maneuver in the morning. In our 2br Haven suite on the Epic I'm 99% sure there was a murphy-bed over the sofa.)

I say I'd put my parents in the master bedroom out of sheer respect to my parents. I'd secretly be hoping they'd offer to sleep in the smaller bedroom with their granddaughter. ;)

re: Roatan. The only people bitching about the temporary loss of Roatan are the ones who actually missed the port. I can sympathize, but they are missing the big picture. Everybody BUT them completely understands.

re: The Tip Amounts. We've stayed in an OS and we found the tip amounts mentioned here in this thread to be quite excessive as well. $150 for two people on a 7 day cruise for the butler who they rarely used is definitely excessive. To each his own, I guess. Total tips for all 3 (butler/concierge/steward) worked out to almost $30 per person per day!!! Whoa. I tip according to the services rendered. I keep mental notes about each individual service they provide and think about how much I would have tipped a comparable waiter/valet/porter/maid/etc. Then I kind of work it out from there.

That's why it's the room steward who always comes out on top when we cruise. He/She always does way way waaaaay more for us than the butler and concierge combined.

Anyways, I'm enjoying this thread. The differing opinions of the people who were actually on the ship (especially the opinions regarding the food) are entertaining!

Yes, they will fit. We had a Haven 2Br on Epic and the butler grabbed a padded lounger from the courtyard for us. It fits just fine with your head at the window and your feet at the railing. It'll lay back a couple notches, but won't lay fully flat. You could turn it perpendicular to the railing if you really needed it to lay flat.

We only requested one lounger and kept the two chairs and small table. But I imagine if you got rid of the chairs you could probably fit two loungers out there. You might have to do a hop, skip, and jump to get in and out, so I wouldn't recommend two loungers.

I'd show you a picture, but it doesn't look like I have any that show our balcony layout.

Great information. Thank you.

 

Two questions:

 

What is Tin eye?

 

Can I delete cookies for just one site (like LMT.com) without deleting all the rest of my cookies? How????

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Forums mobile app

1. Tineye.com is a reverse image search engine. You show it in an image and it tells you where it's found on the internet. (Google has a reverse image search function too, but Tineye was the first and most popular and is the easiest to work with, imo.)

Soooo, LMT shows you a picture, you show it to Tineye, and Tineye will tell you where it's found on the net. You click thru the links that Tineye provides and most likely it will have found it on the actual hotels website or on a travel agency site that lists the name of the hotel.

So that's your definitive answer on which hotel it is.

2. I use Chrome and I can pick and choose which cookie I want to delete. It's in the settings somewhere. I don't know about other browsers.

(I also have the Tineye extension installed in Chrome. So whenever I see a picture and I want to find out more about it, I just right-click it, choose "Search Image on Tineye" and it opens a new tab with the results.)

For a 2 day stay, like others have already said, I'd choose the Intercontinental or the Holiday Inn POM. At least there's something to do within walking distance.

If you stay out by the airport you'd probably need to rent a car for a couple days or take a taxi back and forth to where you want to go.

You might be able to get the Intercontinental or the Holiday Inn POM even cheaper if you use Last Minute Travel and select from the list in which they hide the hotel names and just list the number of stars (a system that is very similar to the Hotwire system). Unlike Hotwire, Last Minute Travel provides photos of the hotel in question (while still hiding the name). Just reverse image search the photos on Tineye and chances are you'll find out which hotel you are buying blind.

One caveat about Last Minute Travel - browse/search all you want, but if you're not buying right away, delete the cookie they give you before re-visiting the site later. If not, when you go back later they will see the cookie and most likely jump the price a bit because they will know you looked at the same thing before and assume you're very interested in it.

 

 

I've been to 2 private cup viewings with Rocky Wirtz, owner of the Blackhawks, and everyone there touched the Cup. The guard guy with the white gloves said we could.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

It used to never be like that. When I was growing up and playing we were always told that you can't touch it unless you earned it. When I went to the Hall of Fame a couple years ago and had my picture taken with it - I still wouldn't touch it. I realize it's a replica, but still....

 

I think it was the Oilers back in the 80's who sort of let the "nobody touches it unless you earned it" tradition slide. Now everyone touches it. I accept and acknowledge that traditions change, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Oh. My. Word. I just realized that there is a possibility that we may be on our cruise WHEN the Boston Bruins enter the final round for the Stanley Cup. Please, please tell me they will likely broadcast it onboard. I'd hate to cancel my cruise and lose all that money but I will if I have to!! I should have planned this better LOL!

No need to worry. They'll never get past the Habs in the east.

#12022 on the Dawn is a Penthouse suite. I don't know what a regular suite is. Are you referring to a mini suite? I always learn new info when I read these boards. It's great!

No, I'm not talking about the mini-suite. I don't consider them a true suite.

Sorry, I couldn't think of another term other than "regular suite".

What I meant was all the other suites that are NOT the Owners Suites, Deluxe Owners Suites, or the Garden Villa's. Those three have a reserved balcony seating area. On the Dawn, there's one area on each side of the theater. It's roped off with a little sign that says only OS, DOS, and Garden Villa passengers may sit there.

I was not aware that the other types of suites, like your Penthouse Suite, also had a reserved seating area in the theater. It looks like it's on the floor and near the back. Correct?

Lovely pictures, btw. Thank you for sharing them. And please continue...:)

Our view of the stage from the reserved seating area in the Stardust Theater.

Wait, I never knew that 'regular' suite guests had reserved seating. I guess it paid to get out of bed today.

We've sailed in the 2bedroom family suite (on the Star) and we weren't aware we had reserved seating. Dangit!

edit. We sailed in the DOS on the Dawn and had that front row balcony reserved for us. It's on the right in your photo, the 2nd closest balcony to the stage (not that little one that's practically ON the stage). I just wasn't aware that the regular suites had reserved seating as well.

Anyone know if you're allowed to take left overs (pizza or entree) or dessert back to the room with you?

I've done it, but the restaurant asked that a waiter bring it to my cabin. Not sure if it's always done that way, but not a problem for us.

That's right. I had forgotten about that.

On the Star and the Dawn they loaded up the left over pizza on a plate and put one of those plastic room service lids on it and we were allowed to carry it out.

On the Epic they said they'd have it delivered to our cabin. Which they did. I believe it was in a small pizza box this time and seemed to have been warmed up a bit. It arrived about 30 seconds after we arrived and was brought by our butler.

(We never asked for anything but the pizza, so I can't speak for the desserts or entree.)

Not positive, but I thought I read one review, where it was the TV's with DVD player built in....(nothing to plug in)

 

Curious about this one myself...

 

If not I can answer two weeks from tonight when I get home from the Dawn.

The main TV in the DOS+2balconies had the built-in DVD player.

The main TV in the 2 bedroom family suite on the Star and the Epic (Haven), if my memory serves me correctly, also had the built-in DVD player.

The master bedroom TV (in both of the above rooms) had a separate DVD player, but it was the old composite cables. Yellow for video, and Red & White for audio. I remember thinking if I brought my old video camera with those types of outputs I might be able to play back some movies I saved on an SD card. But a camera with those outputs is old and useless today and not worth the effort of bringing on a cruise.

What really ticks me off is I'm 99.9% certain I took pictures of the tv back panels and the plugs and such, in every cabin I've ever been in on NCL. I figured some day somebody might ask at cruise critic. And here I am, unable to find ANY of the damn pictures!

I hope you enjoy it. We always go to La Cucina at least once, usually more. I rank it right up there with Cagneys (yup, I said it. And for $10 it's a hell of a deal compared to Cagneys.)

I think it has a bed rep around here because most people think that Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Dominos, etc, serve authentic Italian food. Then they get to La Cucina and are disappointed because their pizza doesn't come with a doughy chewy crust smothered in cheese and pepperoni. Or that their chicken parmesan isn't an over-processed pre-cooked flash-frozen piece of chicken-flavoured edible protein that the kitchen staff simply warms up in the microwave with a spoonfull of Ragu and a Kraft mozzarella cheese slice thrown on top.

-While on the Epic I had the 14oz ribeye in La Cucina. It was one of the best steaks I've ever had. Ever.

-My son and I always split a pizza for an appetizer, and take the left over with us back to the cabin for a snack later. Sometimes my wife and daughter will also order a (different) pizza too, for the same reason.

-They will always ask if you want anchovies in your Caesar Salad.

-They serve a fantastic Caesar Salad.

I was in the Owners Suite w/2 balconies on the Dawn and the HDMI port on both TV's was disabled.

In the 2-bedroom family suite on the Star, it was disabled as well.

I don't drink regular coffee, but my husband does. And I remember that with Breakfast in the Haven restaurant on the Epic (plus in Cagney's on other ships if you are in a suite and have breakfast there), it is a cafetière for each table - where you kind of "press" the coffee yourself. Below is a photo of what I mean - this is not a cafetière from NCL, it is just an example to show a similar one to what NCL have:

 

Yup. That's a French Press.

The only place I've personally seen it used on NCL was the Epic Club. If you ordered coffee during any meal at any time of day it came in a French Press.

For breakfast in Cagneys on the Dawn and Star, they always just gave us our own thermal carafe containing very good fresh brewed coffee.

I've not been on the newer ships, and I wouldn't be surprised if they make more use out of the French Press due to it making much better coffee.

I'm really picky about my coffee and I found the NCL coffee acceptable. I've had better, but I've had a lot worse. I've only sailed in a suite and I can never get those Lava-something machines to make me anything but a tiny espresso, so the first thing I do when I meet my butler/steward is to place an ongoing daily order for a pot of coffee every morning. It's fresh brewed and actually quite good.

Be thankful you're not sailing on Princess. They had two types of coffee: A) mediocre coffee, which was barely acceptable but still disappointing, and B) terrible coffee, which is the off-ramp-gas-station-vending-machine type of terrible. It was 50/50 for the morning room service whether you got A or B. And I'm in no mood to play games at that time of the morning. The only way to get a good cup of coffee on Princess was to go to the coffee bar and pay about $3 for an 8oz cup.

This is NCL new Patton dropping prices after final payment. It has effected many loyal ncl people. Who feel they did not get justest from NCL.

NCL should do something before they get to be known for this

I'm fairly certain they all do it, not just NCL. I see threads like this on the Carnival boards quite often.

On my Princess cruise they slashed the price about 2 weeks after final payment. It wasn't minor either, they cut the price of my suite something like $600 per PERSON. I called, but was told "too bad, that's the way it goes." The people on the Princess boards are pretty much resigned to it being handled like that. I was told it's best to not even bother checking prices after you book or you'll just ending up feeling pissed off. Good advice for Princess.

So at least NCL will do something, while other cruise lines (in my case - Princess) will do nothing.

I always phone, regardless if final payment has been reached or not. After final payment my rep says their rule of thumb is 25% of the difference in OBC. I consider that fair.

I've done it on our first 2 NCL cruises. I asked nicely and respectfully. I didn't demand anything. And they always came through for me.

I think the OP's experience is about right for anybody in a suite below the level of the Owners Suites and the Garden Villas.

(note to the OP: regarding the following - I'm not trying to be rude. I just don't know how else to say this. Please don't take it as a personal attack. That is not my attention.)

I think the OP somehow missed his name being called back in the suite embarkation waiting area, and he got in with the wrong group.

And as for disembarkation, he needs to speak up and find out. Ask questions. Be assertive. Do this ahead of time. You're disembarking a large cruise ship at a secure entry point into a country. You need to know the formalities, and if you don't know - ask.

There aren't enough crew members on board to look after each passenger individually. Someone said earlier in this thread about "hand holding", and I think this is a good case where someone was expecting too much. It doesn't quite work that way.

We've been on 3 NCL cruises, all in suites.

1. We were in a 2 bedroom suite on the Star. We checked-in in a special area, like the OP. A woman called our name among other passenger names, and she led us onboard in groups. She took us right to Cagneys. We were never offered, nor expected, a tour of our cabin.

Disembarkation - we had all the paperwork in our cabin a day or two prior. We just left at our leisure and walked off. We didn't need an escort, nor did we expect one. Matter of fact, I don't even remember being offered an escort off the ship.

2. We were in a 2 bedroom Haven suite on the Epic. We checked-in in a special area and were led onboard with a few other couples who were also in the Haven. We were taken directly to the Haven area, given a quick tour of the facilities, then sat down in the Haven Restaurant for lunch. By the end of lunch, our cabins were ready.

We did not expect a tour of our cabin, nor were we given one. When we were getting acquainted with our cabin, our butler came in and introduced himself.

When we disembarked, we walked down to the Concierge's office and said "we want to go now". Someone took us down in one of the crews' elevators and showed us the exit. We walked off.

3. We were in a DOS w/2 balcony's on the Dawn. We checked-in in a special area, our names were called, and we were led onboard with a few other couples who were also in DOS and OS. We all followed the butler and he'd open the door to each cabin and let the passengers in and told them he'd be back later. We he got to our cabin, he walked right in and gave a very brief tour of it. He said we could eat at Cagneys right now, or he could bring us something. We went to Cagneys.

(^^ That ^^ is why I think the OS, DOS, and GV embarkation process is a little more personalized.)

Disembarkation, again, our schedule was done well in advance. We went to the Spinaker with plans to disembark at a specific time. When the crew member said "for those who want to disembark now - follow me", we got up and walked off.

(I've simplified all of that, but you get the idea.)

So, yeah, I think the OP was expecting too much. A person needs to speak up and be a bit assertive and the crew will bend over backwards to accommodate you.

(I personally think it's because some of the crew are gun shy, meaning they've probably tried to jump up and assist without asking many times prior, but had a strip torn off them by an arrogant self-righteous passenger who took offense to it. I've seen it happen.)

I was in the Haven on the Epic quite a bit. No. Nobody used them.

Except for a bunch of hyperactive kids who would lay in them....for about 5 seconds at a time. Then they'd run around them and play tag, or jump and climb on them like a jungle gym, or do something else equally noisy and annoying.

One thing I really hate is when the very first response to a thread is completely incorrect. I wish that person would come back and delete it.

I pick my cruise based on the ports because I want to see new and different places or possibly return to a memorable place.

But, when it comes right down to it, I'm ALL about the ship. I could do a 15 day cruise-to-nowhere if I had to. I love sea days...no schedule, no agenda, just wandering around doing my own thing. I don't have to cook a meal or mix my own drink, I never have to clean up anything, and I don't have to make my bed. What more can a person ask for?