Lilystar

8 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Here is a screenshot of the current language about only paying the difference onboard right now:

 

 

Thank you. What an extremely weird and complicated way to say you only pay the difference. 😂

Hi everyone, I’m planning to sail on the Seashore in the fall this year with my husband and this will be our first time on MSC. I have a couple beverage plan questions.

I know the rule is you must purchase the same plan for everyone in your room. However, I can’t and don’t drink alcohol but my husband does. On other cruise lines I’ve been able to call them and purchase an N/A package for me and a package that includes alcohol for my husband, is that a thing on MSC or are they extremely strict with this rule?

My second question is I’ve been reading that they don’t allow you to pay the difference if ordering a drink above the max cost of a drink in your package, but that was earlier this year. I have read that this either is, or has changed and they’re now allowing this. Can anyone shed more light on this that has experience recently? 

Thanks everyone!

Hello everyone,

I got off the Mariner a couple weeks ago and wanted to write a quick review! 

I went with my fiance on the 3-night Oct. 11 sailing out of Port Canaveral.  We originally booked the cruise with a friend who is a travel agent who had a group discount for this cruise. We booked in March and paid $630 including taxes for an inside cabin.  We bought the Deluxe Beverage (alcoholic) package for my fiance and I got the Refreshment package. I did have to call RC directly to book it this way since it is a "rule" that if you're both adults, you have to BOTH have the Deluxe package. I explained to them that I didn't drink alcohol and they gave me no issue at all booking it this way. It was pretty easy!

About 1 week prior to our sailing, we got the "bid to upgrade" email from RC and decided to try it!  We were given the choice of bidding on an OV, Promenade View and Balcony. I bid on all 3 and ended up getting an upgrade for $100 to OV. We ended up with a floor to ceiling panoramic window on deck 12. The only bad thing....it was almost all the way forward. Not the best place to be for seasickness...which my fiance has been known to get on previous cruises. Hey, we were willing to give it a try since we were going to be in a small inside cabin as the alternative!

Embarkation & Lunch & Bamboo Room

We had chosen an arrival time of 11:30AM and got there just about on time, if not a little earlier. Embarkation was super simple. We didn't even have to go to the counter since we had passports and had previously checked in online and brought our boarding pass with us. We went directly to the Windjammer and had lunch. While it was crowded, it certainly got much worse as the day went on. My advice....get on the ship as early as you can! One warning, I put gravy on my french fries in the Windjammer and it tasted so gross. IDK WHAT on earth that was made out of and I had to throw out my fries! That never happens. After lunch, we went to the Bamboo Room (Tiki Bar) as my fiance is a big tiki bar fan! Plus he had the drink package and those drinks are included and they're good authentic tiki drink recipes (according to him!). There were hardly any people in the Bamboo room on embarkation day. We sat at the bar for a bit and had a couple drinks (I had diet coke). The place is small but we would find throughout the cruise that it was never overly busy in there.

Main Dining Room

We did my-time dining but I did make reservations ahead of the cruise on the online cruise planner. We really liked the main dining room as far as the decor and the way it was setup. It reminded me of the dining room on the Titanic. The downfall was our serving staff was not good and the food was worse. I tried the steak the first night and it was not only tasteless, but they put that nasty brown gravy on it that I had at the windjammer earlier that day!  I don't know what the problem is with brown gravy on the Mariner is, but good lord, it was so gross. Gravy is supposed to taste delicious.  The second night in the dining room the food was a little better, but still nothing to write about. The server brought out the wrong wine for my fiance when he ordered a second glass. The head waiter had to come over and fix the situation. It wasn't THAT big of a deal, but it would just add to the mediocre service we received. The last night I had to send my salad back 3 times before they got it right. All I asked for was a different salad dressing because I don't eat Bleu Cheese. Then it came out with egg on it the 2nd time and nowhere on the menu did it say it came with egg. I don't eat eggs. I would have never ordered it had I known that. By the time we left the dining room I had spoken with the wait staff, the head waiter and the chef! I didn't ask for any of those people to come out, I just wanted my damn salad.  But they attempted to make it right, which was appreciated in the end. After eating in the main dining room 3 times, my fiance and I decided if we go back on the mariner, we will likely choose to eat in the Windjammer instead.

Availability of food

It seemed that every day around 4pm, we got hungry and there was virtually nothing available until 6pm when the Windjammer and main dining room opened. The only thing that was open was a hot dog joint on the pool deck that only served hot dogs and potato salad and a small deli on the promenade deck that served pre-made sandwiches and pizza. I wasn't impressed with that selection. 

Perfect Day on Coco Cay

We had booked parasailing and on our way out of our room we got a phone call saying it was cancelled due to winds. This is the 3rd time I've tried to book parasailing on a cruise and it got cancelled. We were pretty disappointed. But onward with our day.... we caught the tram from the ship and took it to the first stop and walked around to explore. It looks beautiful. We decided to settle on the far side of the pool not far from the swim up bar. We would later regret that decision and had to move. As the day rolled on, they turned on the music at the pool so loud that it was like a Vegas rave. It literally hurt my ears. We realized later that we could move waaaay over on the other side of the pool and it wasn't quite so loud, but by that time we were irritated and decided to move out to the beach. The pool became so overcrowded that it wasn't enjoyable anyway, especially over by the swim up bar. We were happy we went directly to the swim up bar when we first got there around 10am and enjoyed it for a bit before the crazy loud party started and the music was so loud you couldn't have a conversation.  There was a nice variety of food available on the island. We went to one of the places that opened early that I can't remember the name of and had fries and mozz sticks. They were both pretty good. There was no line there. Later we would go to the main pavilions to eat and I didn't like the food there as much, but there is something for everyone. 

Shows

We went to see the ice skating show on the first night and enjoyed it. The seas were choppy that night and I wondered how they kept their balance!  We also went to see the production show on the last night. It was a cornucopia of entertainment and songs, but that's what cruise ship shows are all about. I liked it and was glad that we went. 

Bars & Deluxe Bev & Refreshment packages

With my fiance having the alcohol package and me having the refreshment package (because they made me buy it if he had the alcoholic one), we tried to get our money's worth. We visited the Bamboo room a few times because that was my fiance's favorite place. They were good, well made drinks and we liked the atmosphere. We went to Boleros one night and he had a specialty drink in there and it was nice to listen to the latin music. We went up to the Viking Crown Lounge one night and realized pretty quickly that it was more of a teen hangout for some reason, which was disappointing. Perhaps it was just the time we chose during karaoke. We had a couple drinks at the pool bar....I had a virgin pina colada.  When we went to see the shows at night, I got Pellegrino with a lime to try and get my money's worth out of the refreshment package. And a couple times on Coco Cay I ordered diet coke and it was flat (all 3 times!). My fiance also had 2 glasses of wine each night at dinner and I had diet coke. They did give us refillable mugs in our room as part of the packages, but the only place that we found that we could fill them with soda was at the 2 soda machines on the promenade deck. TWO, that's it, that's all we could find. It wasn't always convenient to do that depending on where we were on the ship. Overall, we figured out that we likely broke even on the deluxe package but that I probably lost money on the refreshment package. As I mentioned, I wouldn't have bought that had they not made me.

Smoking

This was probably my biggest complaint. In this day and age, having the smoking area take up the entire port side of the main pool deck is uncalled for!  Especially on a ship where you could smoke anywhere inside the casino.  you could not enjoy the pool deck because of how many people were smoking there. I was shocked that was allowed. On all the other ships I've been on, there is a specific smoking area/deck and it certainly isn't in the middle of the only pool deck!

If anyone has any questions, just let me know!!

15 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

I thought it was 24 hours

Yeah, it used to be 24 hours, now it's 48.

6 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

If you are fortunate enough to have access to a concierge,  they can be very lenient in cancelling an excursion 😉

I wish. 🙂 We are only in an OV.  But regardless it's worth a try if we think the weather is really going to be bad.

I know Royal Caribbean's official word on you cancelling a shore excursion is 48 hours before you get to the port where it will be, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with doing it within a shorter time frame?  Like if there is going to be bad weather and we have a full day excursion planned and don't want to waste the money on it, are they lenient AT ALL? Or are you pretty much screwed unless Royal cancels it themselves? Or can I use some other excuse like a member of the party isn't feeling well... 😉  You're really spinning that roulette wheel when it comes to booking excursions so far ahead of time and then praying it doesn't pour rain all day. Just curious if anyone has experience with this on Royal?

Just thought I'd add in my story quick to this string. We are sailing on the Mariner on Friday out of Port Canaveral. I booked through a TA buddy of mine when he had a great group discount. We were booked in a standard inside, not sure of the exact category, but we were on deck 8 aft. Yesterday morning (5 days prior to sailing), I received an email from RC with an offer to bid on 3 different categories, Ocean View, Promenade View and Standard Balcony. I put in a $50 pp bid on OV and PV and $130 pp bid on balcony. As of this morning, the statuses said PV and Balc were "pending" and OV was "not available".  Then this evening, the "not available" OV became my upgrade!  They accepted $50 pp and we ended up with a great upgrade on deck 12 with extra sq footage and a floor to ceiling window. We're happy with that for sure!  Anyway, thought it was interesting that the 1 category that said unavailable was the one we got upgraded to.  So who knows what goes on with all that. It's all luck based on this experience. 

I worked at Kennedy Space Center for about a year and am local to the space coast. I would not choose the guided tour as you will be able to do things more at your leisure if you don't. There are a few things that you will not want to miss, which are all included in your price of admission:

1. The bus tour onto the base where you will get a bus tour of the facility and they will drop you off at the Apollo Saturn V center. Watch the presentation movie/exhibit, it's amazing. Then walk at your own pace through the other exhibits. There is a tribute/memorial to the Apollo crew that lost their lives that you will definitely want to see. After you're done, you just go out to board the bus back to the main complex. I do recommend you do the bus tour first thing when you get there.

2. The Atlantis Exhibit. It's the building with the big fuel tank and rocket boosters out front, right by the bus loading area. The actual orbiter from the space shuttle is there and it is built around an entire film/experience. Don't miss the movie/experience part and the big reveal later. It brings tears to my eyes every time and I worked there for a year!

3. Heroes and Legends- it's an experience/exhibit when you first enter the park. Save this for later in the day though as everyone walks in and goes directly there because it's the first thing they see.

4. If you are in the complex at the time of the Astronaut Encounter....go see whomever it is talk. It only takes about 35 minutes and they have an astronaut 365 days/year to give a talk 2 times daily about what he/she encountered while in space. I thought this would be boring, but depending on the astronaut, can be really cool!

Have a great time. KSCVC is an experience for sure and well worth your time.

We are going on the same cruise on the Mariner on Oct. 11, so thank you very much for your review and pictures! We are excited about the ship as well and feel the same way as you about how most of the 3-day cruises are usually on the smaller, older ships. We are excited to see the Mariner! 

Thank you again!

Hey! I have a question. We have been to Atlantis many times before, both as day excursions and also to stay there. We are going to be in Nassau on the Mariner of the Seas for a full day from 8:30am-9pm in October and buying the ships excursion to Atlantis is pretty much the same price as doing it directly through Atlantis. This is the full access to Aquaventure, pools etc. The only thing is it lists the excursion from 9am-2pm, which is kinda a short timeframe when we aren't sailing out until 9.  So I'm wondering if there is any reason that we can't take a taxi back later to the ship from Atlantis. Atlantis doesn't kick us out of the pools until they officially close them up right? I just wanted to be sure that the day pass wristbands aren't like kicked out at 2pm or something. Anyone have experience with this?

I've been to Nassau over a dozen times. I've walked alone (in my 30s), I've taken tours, I've gone to Atlantis, I've gotten into a jitney with the locals and gone to Cable Beach. I've never felt unsafe. Yes, you will have to say "no thank you" to the vendors peddling their stuff, but they are kind even when you say no. Now I'm not saying you should be unaware of your surroundings, be careful, but don't be paranoid.

I love LOVE the Bahamas. I would never stay in port in Nassau though, if you do, you'll be disappointed for sure. I'm assuming since you're going on a caribbean cruise, you like beaches and outdoor activities...if so go to Atlantis, it's pricey but it'll be a great day. We are flying to Nassau on May 16th and staying at Atlantis for almost a whole week! We LOVE it there. The water in the Bahamas is amazing and I am a highly critical person. If you don't want to go to Atlantis to see the outdoor aquariums, beaches, pools etc., then go down to Breezes (adults only) and get a day pass to enjoy cable beach. The Melia is also another option that is a little more upscale and allows kids. There is so much to do, you just don't want to hang out in port because it's just a little kinda unkept city. But don't miss the beaches!!

Hey! weather will be AMAZING in May. We've gone on cruises to Nassau, Stayed at Atlantis for a long weekend many MANY times in early May and the weather is so perfect. It's about 80 and rainy season generally doesn't set in until June. I live in Florida so I get cold easily as well and I think you'll be just fine. As a matter of fact my fiance and I are flying to Nassau on May 16 for 5 nights at Atlantis. Enjoy!!

No matter how you spin it, the water is going to be cold in the winter months. Some people are ok with that, some aren't. It's one of the reasons I don't cruise between Nov. and March as I live in Orlando and anything under 80 is cold for us! As for the air temp, weather in the upper 70s is absolutely beautiful. If you're from a colder climate, it'll feel like heaven.

Hi-

I am trying to decide between Balmoral or Blue Lagoon. Anyone have any opinions on just these two? I prefer to do cruise-organized excursions, so I don't want to go to a hotel and rent a room for the day.

I have difficulty walking long distances or standing in line for long periods of time; and I would prefer to insure we had a chair and an umbrella/cabana. (even for an extra charge).

 

I have not done the Balmoral, but I can shed a little light on Blue Lagoon. The island isn't very large so there isn't a lot of walking to do really. They let you off on the ferry and you have maybe a 5 minute walk to get to the beach area. They actually let you off on the side where they do the dolphin/sea lion encounters. The day I was there, I saw plenty of sun loungers, but that could change depending on the time of year/number of excursions going there. On another note, the ride out to Blue Lagoon is breathtaking. The greenish blue shade of the water is just beautiful, especially if the sun is out.

Following! I was just trying to dig up these questions as well. Somebody here said that you were not allowed to bring food/water but that you snuck them in. Do they look inside your bags and whatnot?

I have both gone to Atlantis on excursions from cruises and also stayed there multiple times on a long weekend trip. I have never been asked what's in my bag, never been searched or anything of the like. But you cannot bring glass containers of any kind. I have gone across the street and bought bottled water and brought that in with no issue as well as snacks from the convenience store. Unless something has drastically changed since the last time I was there a year ago, you're fine bringing these types of things in. Now I will suggest that you don't have a frat party with 3 cases of beer and tons of food, which would draw attention to you. But some soda cans, some bottled water and a few bags of chips aren't going to turn any heads.

Although we have never rented a cabana at Atlantis, know it is very expensive. We've looked into it multiple times. The cost for the cheapest one is $115 and that is not near the water park area, but adjacent to the Beach Tower pool. After that the cost ranges from $225-$350 or so for cabanas near the water park. That does not include any food, beverages or a credit. Go to Atlantis website to learn more. There is an email address that you can reach out to and they will tell you the prices/availability etc. You book directly through Atlantis. As to if they are worth it would be what you're looking to accomplish and what time of year you're going. As I understand it, there are times during spring break months (March/April) that are absolutely crazy and finding a chair is hard. Those might be months to do it. Or if your party is big and you can split the cost, makes it more of a value.

Different years seem to mean different rules. I was there once about 4 years ago and it included both Atlantis Beach (that's nearest the Beach Tower/Coral Towers) and Paradise Beach (in front of Bath's Colonnade pool). However, the next time I went back to do a beach day it only included the Atlantis Beach. Cove beach is never included. My recommendation is whomever this is offered through, that you confirm with them which beaches are included.

A few questions if you don't mind~

 

What was the cost for Atlantis at the ticket booth? Did it include visiting the aquarium (I think it's called the digs?) did it include a lunch? I read some packages include a lunch and the ones on NCL do not.

 

What was the cost of taxi from ship to Atlantis?

 

--

 

In Freeport what was the cost of taxi to Taino beach?

 

Thank you!

Hey there! If you go to the "Discover Atlantis" booth outside the Coral Towers at Atlantis, the cost of the package we went with was $80 per person. It included use of Atlantis Beach (not cove beach), use of chairs on the beach and towels wherever you picked them up from, included admission to all the aquariums (the Dig) and the predator lagoon (above ground and in the underground aquariums) and also lunch at your choice of 5 or 6 quick service restaurants (all served the same burger/chicken/salads). We thought it was a good value and allowed us to be on our own schedule to/from the ship. Jumped a taxi at the port for $4 per person and then back again from the Coral Towers taxi stand for same cost. Transportation for the 2 of us was $20 Round trip with tip.

In Freeport, I would not bother going to Taino Beach, it was a complete dump. If you are hankering to get off the ship, go into town and Lucaya Beach, you're better off. The taxi Round trip for 2 people was $30 with a $2 tip. Would have cost the same to go into town. Honestly, I'd take advantage of the staying on the ship after the experience we had in Freeport.

Thank u for posting ur review, I'm enjoying reading ur blog!!

 

Do u recall what time u were able to disembark? I'll be on this cruise in November and the Epic is scheduled to arrive at 6 AM and I need to catch an 11:05 AM flight.

Unfortunately I don't remember :(, but I can tell you that I did do the self carry-off process which meant I could be one of the first off the ship. I highly recommend that instead of having them take your luggage off.

We got re-routed to Freeport because of the storm over this past weekend. Because we did not find out that we were going to Freeport until the night before, we didn't have access to the internet to do any research. Freeport was a disaster area. Industrial port with no access to anything unless you take a taxi. Since we couldn't do any research, we opted to take a taxi at the port to the "Junkanoo Beach Club" on Taino beach. When we arrived, it was disgusting. I don't know what beach everyone is talking about that is nice because there was seaweed everywhere and this old disgusting pier that you could only walk out a few feet onto because it was falling apart. The "beach club" is an old building that is falling down and looks just awful. The $30 RT fare we paid was a rip off and would never recommend this disgraceful beach. We went back to the ship and stayed on it, it was 10x better than the beach. And that is sad because I'm not even someone that likes to stay on the ships in port.

Well after a stressful week leading up to the cruise waiting to see what happened with Hurricane/TS Erika, we are finally back. This is the first time I've ever cruised the Caribbean during August/Sept and it will be the LAST time. It is far too stressful with the weather. And I live in Central Florida!

Just a couple notes about my experience with the NCL Sky. I've cruised many times in October and April on various cruise lines including Carnival Imagination, Carnival Sensation, RC Enchantment of the Seas and RC Majesty of the seas and Disney Wonder and Disney Dream. I did sail on NCL Epic in August last year but that was in the Western Mediterranean and isn't really all that comparable.

I was not impressed with this ship in any way. I am not a chronic complainer, however I do compare trips to others I've taken on other ships and this one had more downers than good things unfortunately.

Compared to the other cruise lines equivalent ships on Carnival and RCCL, the Sky was sad looking. I gathered at some point that the Sky was supposed to have a Hawaiian theme, but man was that subtle. I feel like it's a good theme for a ship, but I think they need to be more committed to it. The loose theming here and there was kinda sad. Of course this is all my subjective opinion and I feel that the Sky needs some major upgrades to keep up with the others. And some of that is purely aesthetic. Paint, theming, ANYthing would help. The pool area is so boring looking...it didn't even look festive to me.

We chose an inside cabin for this particular cruise so I can't compare that to my other experiences on other lines where I had an outside or balcony, but I can tell you that it was the smallest room I had ever been in. We actually had them separate the beds just so we'd have more room to maneuver around in. The mini-bar/fridge didn't cool anything...it was plugged in and on because the light was on..but nothing actually chilled in there. They left a note in our room saying that "laundry pressing was 50% off but didn't leave a price chart. When I tried to call about it, I never got an answer so I called guest services who said they didn't know and to try calling room steward later, I finally just gave up.

We found the entertainment to be mediocre. Entertainment on Carnival is so much better. Compared to Royal Caribbean, I found it to be about the same, maybe a tad bit better. We enjoyed the "Vegas" Production show on our last night.

The day before we left, we finally saw that NCL had a weather advisory on the website and they had announced that our sailing would visit Key West instead of Great Stirrup due to the storm. We were really disappointed because we actually chose this cruise because of the visit to the island. That being said, it wouldn't exactly be fun to be on the private island if there was a big storm, so I do understand their decision. Then come Saturday, the storm moved west so Key West was out and they announced we would go to Freeport. Ugh. I would have taken Key West any day over Freeport. I was there 7 years ago and it hasn't gotten any better. That island is a dump, I'm sorry to say. I had hoped that they would have gotten their acts together there, but not so. We didn't have time to research anything on Freeport since we only found out we were going there the night prior and without internet access, we were at the mercy of my memory in what was there. We ended up taking a taxi to Taino Beach and it was a total mess. It didn't help that a big storm came in about 10 minutes after we arrived, but even without the storm, it was a dumpy looking beach with a run down bar. We ended up going back to the ship early and it eventually cleared up to the point where we could lay out by the pool on the ship.

We couldn't quite figure out why we couldn't still go to Great Stirrup instead of Freeport on that day. I think perhaps because they didn't have the island stocked or maybe because of the tendering process. Who knows...but we were pretty disappointed in Freeport and like I had mentioned, we chose this cruise because of the visit to Great Stirrup. We hadn't planned on spending any extra money that day on excursions since we had the UBP and planned to lay on the beach and drink/eat. With a visit to another port, that required us spending additional money. Normally this wouldn't matter, but we justified this particular cruise because of the low overall cost.

We really liked the UBP with the exception of having to sign receipts every 5 minutes (which got old). It was a great load off of our minds to have free drinks while on board. (the addition of Great Stirrup would have really made us happy) We enjoyed a couple glasses of wine with each of our dinners and that was nice. I tried some wines I wouldn't normally have. We chose to go to Il Adagio one night and was disappointed overall. It did not appear that they served anything different in the restaurant and nothing was special about it. AS a matter of fact, the night prior, I had the same italian dish in the regular dining room as had on the menu at Adagio. If you're going to have a specialty restaurant then I feel that it needs to be a little more special in its offerings. I ended up having chicken parm and it wasn't even that good. Overall I give the food on the entire cruise a B-. Carnival and RCCL far surpasses both of them in food choices, taste and presentation. (again, my opinion of course)

I don't think I'm writing off NCL all together at this point, but unless the cruise is basically free, I will not sail on the Sky again.

I realized this review sounds a little Debbie Downer, but I figured that someone might find some of the info helpful. We did end up having amazing weather in Nassau so it made the trip a success at least. We went to Atlantis and did the Beach Day on our own (bought it directly from the Altantis ticket office). Loved our day there. :)

In my opinion, the more sea days on the Epic, the worse off you are. If the ship is full, it was extremely crowded on sea days on my cruise last summer. The design of the outdoor areas is just not well thought out. Spice H2O has a tiny pool for adults to share (like the size of a big bathtub) and the main pool area has 2 small pools for thousands of people to share. I would be very apprehensive to take the Epic on a cruise with a lot of sea days.

I don't have pictures, but have been on all the beaches at Atlantis over the years. The beach they let you on with the day pass is the "Atlantis Beach", which is the main beach on property. It is not far from eating/drinking/bathrooms so no need to worry about that. It is very well kept up and I think it is a beautiful area no matter what. Is it the absolute best beach? Probably not, but I still think it would be great for you. When we were there a couple years ago, we went onto Cove Beach and nobody said anything, not sure if the guards will be checking wristband colors now or not.

I think the $80pp that you can get this for directly at the Atlantis Coral Towers Discovery Atlantis desk is a good value. You get admission to the Dig/Aquariums, Beach and lunch. (no pools or water rides)

We're planning on doing this when we are there as well in 2 weeks!

I loved your review. I've sailed solo before but this will be my first solo NCL cruise (Escape TA).

 

Dena

On a TA you'll have plenty of time to explore the ship and relax. Something I didn't have the luxury of. Have a great time! :)