Cruzn Bills Fan

We are thinking about doing the Rhumrunner Cat excursion when we're in Grenada in Nov. Reviews on Trip Advisor look good, but we're wondering if anyone here has done this excursion.

That's because you have to be less than 40 pounds to not bottom out on the darn thing.

I remember when we cruised Pearl and one of our friends who's a big guy went down the slide and soaked some people that were sitting on the wall close by. :D

We are down to 198 days til our Owner's Suite adventure outta San Juan on Gem! :D

I had to ask the concierge on Star for one in Jan. He "snuck" them (2) to me with a hand shake at the Captain's reception. I also hate for them to go away. Saying people don't want them is just plain ridiculous. If they leave them in the cabin just give them to the next guest! Just another money saving scheme.

Two hundred thirty two days to go.

We are now down to 247 days!

I remember buying buckets from O'Sheehans on board Epic.

We're doing the same itinerary in Nov. Looking forward to the recommendations you get.

No single malts? That's disappointing. I wonder if you can substitute.

We are also staying here for two nights starting the day after Thanksgiving prior to sailing on Gem on Nov 27th.

The only time I've ever seen this was on Getaway. The had BOGO on the 16oz Coors Lights if you bought 3 you got 6.

I target cruises that come out to the $650-$900 all-in range, and am probably more courteous and gentlemanly than most of the elite rich snobs that frequent cruise ships

You mean like MsTabbyKats? :p

Two hundred eighty days til our first Owners Suite!!

How about before final payment? 3 & 4 sail free?

Wow that's too bad. He was by far our favorite CD. My 1st job after retiring from the Navy was with CINTAS. While the pay and benefits were good I only lasted a month. Having to pick up scrubs and aprons from the Coroners office was the last straw. :eek:

Hello!

I'll be celebrating my 60th birthday on the July 31st cruise on the NCL Star in the Baltic. Family members have already booked picture window rooms on the 8th level port aft(8652, etc). We were also looking to book near them and trying to decide between being near them or splurging and getting an aft facing balcony on the same level.

 

The disco(Spinnaker lounge) is below all the above rooms. Any info on noise from the disco? It sounds like vibration and soot are non-issues from the boards.

 

Thanks in advance for the input.

 

Thanks!

On our cruise on Star earlier this month our friends were in an aft-facing Penthouse above Spinnaker and couldn't handle the noise. They were relocated to a forward-facing Penthouse.

Hello! We are sailing on the Star on April 3. Wondering if any recent cruisers can talk about the "getting cocktails" situation. We have the UBP and have heard/read that it's tough to get a drink around the pool and in many bars due to so many people having the UBP. Can any recent cruisers comment on whether or not it seemed to be an issue. I'm OK with waiting in line for a drink for a couple of minutes, but not an hour (as I've read on some of the posts on here).

 

I like the looks of the 5 O'clock somewhere bar, but haven't heard anyone talk about it. it's on the Star, correct?

 

Thanks!

Typically around a 5 minute wait.

Is there a special night to dress up for dinner (if you choose to), and if so, when is it?

We didn't participate in what's known as Norwegian Night Out. I believe it was the 3rd night of the cruise.

Yes, Roel went home for Christmas (1st time in 12 years). He left mid-November I think. Very happy for him. He should be back Mar. or Apr.

 

There were quite a few crew leaving to go home for the holidays.

He was on the Star last week.

Cruising the Star for the first time next month and booked an 11:30 AM flight out of Tampa is that too early? We will get priority disembarkation with Platinum and a Suite but hope that isn't a mistake. Your opinion please? Also is there a place to smoke at the Biergarten?

If you do early priority walk off you should beat the rush and be fine. First walk offs started around 8am. Yes there is smoking at Biergarten.

Any questions feel free to ask. I tried to put this in the review section but kept getting an error. message.

This was our 5th NCL cruise, 1st on Star. We became Platinum NCL Latitudes members after this cruise. We stayed in Aft-Facing Penthouse Suite 10726. Pre-cruise we stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Ybor City. Nice hotel, terrible location. The neighborhood is kind of shady. I can not in good faith recommend this hotel.

Embarkation-Check in at the cruise terminal went well. We went from walking into the terminal to Cagney's in less than 15 minutes. Roel the concierge greeted us in the VIP area and one of the butlers escorted us onto the ship and to Cagney's. Lunch was very good. Rooms were ready before 1:00. I will say that the priority luggage tags for suite cruiser apparently mean absolutely nothing. My wife's suitcase was in our room when we walked in. Mine didn't show up until 7:45 that night. The bliss bed is so comfortable. This cabin is a great location for relaxing on the balcony. Shower/tub were perfect. We ate the buffet for dinner that night. Let's face it, they're all the same.

Sea Day-The weather was overcast with lots of ship movement. It didn't bother me (I spent 20 years in the Navy) however my wife didn't feel well. We had reservations for LaCucina that evening but cancelled them for that reason. That afternoon my wife bought me a treatment at Mandara. It was a double shave and facial treatment with arm/hand and scalp massage. It was amazing! For dinner, the buffet again.

Cozumel-We had booked the Fury Catamaran excursion which we had done a few times before. These guys show you a great time. Now the reason for my title. I had a medical issue which landed me in the ship's medical facility. They took great care of me. Thanks to Jan the nurse, you're a true professional. Because of my problem we didn't leave the ship in Costa Maya or Belize. I will say that there were a lot of complaints about the tenders in Belize. Mostly how long the ride actually was as opposed to how long it was supposed to be. Also confusion at the pier with 3 ships in.

Roatan-We had booked Tabyana Beach but had to cancel it because of my medical issue. We did walk off to do some shopping. I would recommend if you plan to do this be extremely careful. There are warning signs to not wear jewelry and watch your valuables. We walked out of the port area, made it a half a block and turned around to go back to the ship. It's just not safe.

Sea Day-Beautiful weather early in the day, but it got nasty towards the end.

Disembarkation-After breakfast at Moderno we used the priority easy walk off. Getting off the ship was extremely easy. However Customs is a serious log jam in Tampa. There were only 4 agents. This is not the fault of NCL but you need to know this in case you have an early flight. It took us 50 minutes from the time we walked out of our suite until we had cleared Customs. We jump into one of the several vans available at the terminal and for $20 total we were at the airport in less than 30 minutes.

Entertainment-Fred the comedian was hilarious. The only other show we went to was the Crew Talent Show which is always entertaining. We saw the not so Newlywed Game and Best Couple games also. So funny.

Crew-Roel is a good Concierge. I asked him why no more ship pins in the cabin. The next time I saw him he handed me 2 pins. He was friendly and talkative. Our Butler, Made was his name was always there for us. The best butler we have had so far (our 3rd suite). Our room steward was hit and miss. Not bad and not great. The rest of the crew was very accommodating and always smiling.

Restaurants-We mostly ate at the buffet. Cagney's is always good. My steak was a little over done but still moist with plenty of flavor. My wife had the lobster and shrimp pasta which she loved. Moderno also was very good. Service seemed a little slow but it wasn't bad. Actually my favorite part of the meal was the pineapple. Delicious!

The Ship-She could use some modernization. Our last cruise was on Getaway so probably a bad comparison. But there are updates that need to be made. WiFi worked great. The pool deck was always packed (rain or shine). By 8AM all the loungers were taken.

Bars-With almost everyone having UBP there was always a line for drinks. Typically you had to wait 3-4 minutes to place an order.

I would recommend this ship/itinerary.

I've been a fly on the wall up to this point with this thread. I love NCL at least I used to. What drew me/us to NCL was FREE STYLE and this is no longer free style. My wife says let's make dinner reservations when we get on the ship next week. I warned her that there may not be any because nearly everyone is getting the UDP or whatever it's called now. I have next week's cruise and then a cruise on Gem out of San Juan in November. After that it's time to take a break from NCL. Flame away...

I sure wish there was an "ask a question" option on the review page like there is on Trip Advisor. Sometimes I'd like to ask about specifics. But really I would like the ability to call some of the reviewers out on some of their outrageous claims. :p Not that some of them aren't actual legitimate gripes.

Only 8 days to go, 7 to fly out!

Ugh.

 

I have to change cruise lines going forward. It's a shame, really, because we're Gold Latitudes, which isn't as high as many of you, but we're good customers. Anybody who knows anything about business knows it's much harder & far more expensive to get a new customer then to make an existing customer happy.

 

Booked a GTY cabin with UBP promotion about 10 months ago for a cruise in a few weeks. NCL has had my money for a long time.

 

Over the course of the last few days the price has dropped about $100 pp and NCL is now offering 2 complimentary promotions for new bookings. My ship is not sailing full as of today.

 

I called to see if NCL would do anything for me, even so much as dinner for 2 in one specialty restaurant or some Wi-Fi minutes, even moving my cabin from a BD to a nicer room. The way I see it, the new people are getting almost $500 more in benefits then I am receiving, plus NCL had use of my money.

 

The customer service rep was sweet as she politely informed me there was nothing she could do. I asked to be transferred to a manager. He was snide. Not a good quality in a customer service rep.

 

Has anybody had success in getting NCL to provide any concessions under these circumstances? I know what I'm going to talk about at my CC meeting on board! Because I know some NCL rep will make the announcement if anything on board is a problem to let them know before I come here and post. I doubt anything will be resolved to my satisfaction but I don't understand a business model which antagonizes customers & punishes early booking.

 

Every other cruise line I have ever sailed does something to make the customer happy. NCL could care less. In the past I was usually the one booking last minute so I didn't have to deal with these kinds of issues but this type of cavalier treatment is going to drive me to another line.

I was successful in getting a concession a couple of cruises ago. We were after final payment and right around a month from sailing. The price dropped more than 50% which totaled out to roughly $1600 less than what we paid. I called AARP EXPEDIA and they contacted NCL. NCL gave me 50% of the $1600 difference to be used on a future cruise. They placed $800 in my NCL "wallet" which I used on our cruise last year on Getaway. I'm not sure how they would handle the same situation today, but I was happy with the outcome. Enjoy your cruise.