Lacaena

Sorry you had a crummy time on the Breeze. My husband I just got off of the Sunshine yesterday, we had a grand suite as well. I heard a lot of people on the ship complaining and we had our share of complaints just like you guys did. The little things really started to add up. Anyway, unfortunately it seems this is going on fleet wide and isn't limited to just one ship. I'll be posting my own review soon but I just wanted to let you know that you aren't the only ones. We will not be sailing Carnival again either, at least not anytime in the near future.

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As a sort of side note to my previous post... I think there is a higher percentage of ATD on Sunshine than on other ships. We booked more than 4 months out and all dining options besides ATD were full. My theory (just my own cockamamie idea) is that because they've added more cabins, and thus more passengers, the dining rooms can't handle the added diners in the traditional seating times so they've shifted more people to the ATD. I think that is part of the strain on the system.

As other people have mentioned our dining service was extremely slow even once we were seated.

We usually love a more freestyle approach; however, if you have the option to do an assigned time on the Sunshine I would do it.

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Just off the Sunshine today. We had anytime dining. We only did it once and we waited about an hour from getting in line to check in to getting food. Most other nights the line was so long we said forget it and ate at a specialty restaurant.

I spoke with one woman at brunch after formal night and she said that she waited over two hours on formal night just to be seated!

They give you a pager and you have to wait on deck 5, so you're choices are either a bar or the casino (at least on Sunshine).

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Hi everyone!

My DH and I sail on the Sunshine this Saturday. We would like to buy spa passes but have heard mixed reviews including broken steam rooms and broken to luke warm heated loungers. Does anyone know if you can tour the spa prior to purchasing passes?

Thanks in advance!

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I actually just got a call from the upgrade fairy today and it took it! It was a pretty good price to upgrade from a balcony to a grand suite on the Sunshine. We are cruising in 11 days. I wanted to respond to the post because of something the upgrade guy said to me on the phone. He said "I see you'll be celebrating your anniversary on this cruise. We like to offer upgrades to people when they have a special occasion."

Now, I have NO idea if this is true or not or just a sales pitch to remind me that it's a "special cruise." Anyway, food for thought. Anyone else have get an upgrade call when it was a special occasion?

Hi everyone!

I am looking at booking a Deluxe Haven Spa Suite for 3 in January 2016 on the Escape. Every time I look it says that it is "unavailable." I have checked numerous dates, including extending my window beyond January and I'm not getting any other results. I called my PCC to see if he had an answer. After telling me he had to check with the higher ups as to why this was happening he called me back and stated that there is only 1 of this type of cabin on the whole ship and currently they are having a fire zoning problem with having 3 people in there. This just sounds a little weird to me. Why would NCL invent a whole new category for one room? To complicate matters it seems this one cabin is on deck 16 and I don't see any cabins on the deck plan as of yet.

So PCC suggests that I book the cabin for 2 and add the 3rd later when, hopefully, this zoning issue is cleared up. He assures me that 3rd person will get the current promo if they are in the same stateroom even if the promo is expired.

I've heard too many stories on here of PCCs giving bad advice and incorrect information. Does anyone have any experience booking this room type or any other input?

Thanks!

Bump.

I'd really like to know the answer to this as well. My husband and I are trying to decide between the 12 day southern in a balcony or a 7 day on Escape in the Haven. If we don't go Haven we'd like to try Vibe.

Thanks!

My husband and I were in a Haven Spa Suite on the Getaway in October. We waited until the night before or day of to book all of our dining and entertainment (except chef's table) and we never had a problem getting a reservation. One day we checked one of the screens around the ship because we wanted to see Legally Blonde that night, it said there was no availability. We went to talk to the concierge, Ruth, and I asked her if we could make reservations for another night as tonight said there were no seats available and she said "I'll make them available" and she did. Keep in mind there were only two of us, for larger parties you may need to be more flexible as one of the above posters mentioned.

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My husband and I stayed in a 4J a few years ago on the Freedom. It was a last minute cruise and we wanted something cheap. We really liked the cabin! Got an inside cabin price but had a window onto the "secret deck." We usually get at least a balcony and use the balcony pretty sparingly. With the deck right there it was like having a semi-private balcony. We were usually the only ones out there.

As far as seeing in and the curtains, there is a curtain that you can close whenever you like. I found that during the day you couldn't really see in even with it open due to a semi mirrored window and the reflection but if you cupped your hand or it was cloudy you could. At night the room steward shut the curtain and there was a little brass plaque on the wall advising that you must keep the curtains closed after sunset. This is to prevent light spilling onto the deck and messing up the night vision of the officers on the bridge above.

There was quite a lot of motion in this room but it didn't bother us, in fact we quite enjoyed it.

Overall we would book this type of room again and would recommend it if you're looking for a good bargain.

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Another vote for the Osso Buco! It's one of my favorites out of all the specialty restaurants.

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I heard this from my PCC as well! No idea of the perks either, guess we'll have to wait and see :)

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Sure! On websites that have opaque rates (where they tell you the rate but not the name of the hotel until you book) you can figure out what hotel it is through a series of steps. This is what I was calling reverse engineering. This isn't fool proof but I find that I have a really high accuracy rate and it's pretty simple! Here is an article on it with step by step instructions: http://www.mymoneyblog.com/finding-the-hotel-name-on-hotwire-com-before-purchase.html

I find the opaque rates on last minute travel are even easier to do. You just pull up the trip advisor list of hotels for that city and scroll through them until you find a rough match for number of reviews and stars. From there LMT will tell you how many of the reviews were excellent, good, fair, etc. if that matches trip advisor then that's your hotel (in all likelihood).

Good luck!

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My vote is for the Intercontinental. I just got a great deal on Last Minute Travel (hope I can say that). It was an opaque rate so it needs to be reverse engineered but it was well worth the trouble. My fiancé and I have stayed there several times in the past and it's a good hotel in a great location. From there you can walk to Bayside which is a nice little outdoor shopping area/mall. There is also a pharmacy and liquor store within walking distance if I recall correctly.

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I too will chime in and say I agree with the above posters. We have used them numerous times and they've always been reliable.

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I don't know if this is helpful but this is a little trick I find useful... If you look at the weeks where the prices jump those weeks are usually higher in demand (ie: school vacation weeks) so these weeks tend to be more crowded in my experience.

I definitely recommend doing your research before planning to buy jewelry/watches on a cruise. They TRY to make you think these are terrific bargains but often they are not. Not that it's necessarily a rip-off... just not a bargain.

Thanks guys! I'm pretty familiar with them and what the prices should be. So I'm not too worried about getting ripped off, but I appreciate the warnings all the same :)

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Thanks for all the responses. DH (to be) is a fan and I was just curious. I know they are available on some islands but as you guys have said there are plenty of places on land to buy so I was just wondering about the ship :) thanks!

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Hi everyone! I've done a forum search but haven't found a definitive answer on this: are Breitling watches available on board? Specifically the GA. Thanks :)

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If you do a mock booking on NCL's site and then click on the details button it will tell you what the required deposit is.

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To me, it's not so much as to whether a suite is affordable (it is), but it's not a good use of funds. I usually cruise in an inside or oceanview and I can get 3-7 night cruises in one of those cabins for the price of 1-7 night in a suite. I don't know about others but i would rather have 21 nights at sea instead of 7 for the same price. Perks don't matter to me, i just want to be on the water as often as I can.

Unfortunately for my fiance and myself, he has a really hard time getting away from work. He usually takes about two weeks a year so when we do it, we do it up. So I guess we are in the cruise less often in a suite rather than more often in a regular cabin simply due to work restrictions. Hopefully someday we won't have to make the choice :)

Do couples ever share with another couple (sans kids) to make it affordable? Is it worth the inconvenience for suites where there is only one bathroom (e.g., Family Suite)?

 

I'm not sure I want to share a cabin, but have considered it in order to enjoy the suite life.

We are currently planning a trip to Bermuda on the Dawn in September 2015 (have not booked yet). My fiance (by that time husband) and I will be traveling with my MIL and BIL. We priced out 2 balconies but it was about the same price to get a 2 bedroom suite. IMO definitely worth it for the suite perks, even without the Haven.

Additionally, if you can hit it on "kids" sail free (which really means any 3rd and 4th passenger) then you can snag an even better deal. We are hoping that promo comes around again before we have to book.

My fondest memory is my now fiance proposing to me on the Freedom. Afterwards he told me that he had to juggle the ring box back and forth between his pocket and his carry on to get through security and he had no idea how he pulled it off without me noticing. But he did! And now I get to marry my best friend and of course for the honeymoon we'll be cruising.

As someone above pointed out, you may want to bring a power strip as outlets in the cabins are very limited. Depending on the type of cabin we get sometimes I bring a clear plastic over the door shoe organizer. It's not just good for shoes but for all the little stuff you have with you (toiletries, jewelry, tickets etc...).

The one thing I really wish I knew before I went is how addictive it is ;)

You'll love it!

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We recently booked a Haven suite, I received a very simple "welcome" note. It wasn't a letter per se but just a little white and gold card. That was when we first booked. We're still 6 months out so I haven't received anything else yet. But I hope to :)

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http://www.cruisecritic.com/price-drop/

 

Try that tool...

 

...otherwise you can do mock bookings on your cruise lines website.

FYI I tried that tool a couple of weeks ago to see if it caught my $600 price drop, it didn't. So you may want to periodically double check with a mock booking just to be sure.

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