nolatravelgirl

Love the photos. More photos around the ship please like the colonnade breakfast/lunch offerings 🙂 so we can live vicariously.

🙄 OMG! Someone has a differing experience than you so it must be false! Everyone's experience will be different. I am relaying MY experience and I had never felt so unwelcome in all my travel. I was not expecting Applebee's pricing but if I am going to chunk down my hard earned cash, I at least want to feel like a welcome guest. All the shop owners looked completely disinterested in us and before you comment, we were dressed in sundresses and leather sandals so it wasn't like we were the Beverly Hillbillies. At that point I was done being treated like a second class citizen so I headed back to the ship and was very glad to enjoy the remainder of the day and evening onboard.

I have to agree. I felt so unwelcome on the island. The restaurants were incredibly over-priced and it seemed like nobody wanted cruise ship passengers, including the shops. Save your time and money and stay on the ship to make it an unofficial sea day.

If you are eating in the main dining room, buffet or any of the complimentary dining venues (like O'sheehan's or the asian noodle bar) then kids can order off of the main menu for no extra charge. We would sometimes ask for sauces on the side to make things more kid friendly. Specialty dining is a different beast but you didn't mention whether you were concerned with specialty or complimentary dining.

Just because you had a direct flight last time is no indication as to what you may receive on a future cruise. NCL is only interested in the cheapest flight possible. There is no real rhyme of reason and just because person X gets a non-stop perfectly timed flight this week has no bearing on what flight they may book you on months from now. Assume that you are going to get the worst flights with connections and lengthy layovers and be pleasantly surprised if you get anything better. As far as having an airline credit card I would read the terms and conditions of the card. Many of them limit your ability to check bags on a flight complimentary only if the ticket was purchased using said card.

I am not sure why you believe you are the absolute authority. The budget per person/per day on food is almost certainly lower when on shorter booze cruise type sailings than on specialty sailings that have a greater per night cost. People don't go on 3/4 night sailings for $349 per person (less than $100 per night for room and board) and expect gourmet meals as opposed to those who are spending for Med itineraries which are easily north of $200 per night for room and board)

they are using external contractors for all excursions. Just google the name of the excursion and you can likely find the exact same excursion and you can usually book it at as a private tour which means no big tour buses and big groups. If you list the excursion I am sure we can direct you to an alternative source.

I think you are misinterpreting my point. I believe that recipes are the same but there seemed to nicer and more diverse offerings on the Spirit. For example on the Sun/Sky the MDR lunch never changed AT ALL but yet on my Breakaway cruise a few months ago there was a variety of items everyday on the MDR lunch. Also on the Sun/Sky the buffet seemed to mainly have the basics such as chicken tenders, burgers, fries etc but there were less specialty items such as paella received on the Spirit. The burger and chicken tenders were of the same quality across the ships but there were definitely more selection of gourmet offerings on the Spirit.

Also note that if you have a non handicapped accessible room there is a small step up to get into the bathroom. It was mostly just a toe "buster" but could be an issue for someone with mobility issues.

I probably don't have enough data points but I think itinerary and length of cruise could play into the food. I sailed on the NCL Sun and NCL Sky each doing 3 or 4 night "booze cruises" out of Miami. The food in the buffet really seemed to be limited, especially at lunch time. However, when I sailed on the NCL Spirit (similar sized ship) but on a 12 day Grand Mediterranean voyage and there always seemed to be some sort of special food presentation on the pool deck and the generally nicer food presentation.

We were on the Breakaway in April 2022 and it did not feel old at all. I think the TA sounds like a great itinerary. You have 5 sea days and can see and do all the ship entertainment then it is followed by a lot of ports so you won't get bored.

I am not platinum and was using the dining plan. Minor annoyance as we had plenty to eat. It wasn't like I was asking for two expensive items. I was just asking for soup/salad not caviar and lobster.

Some waiters are real sticklers on saying that this is all you can order. I wasn't interested in an appetizer but did want a soup AND salad and asked if I could forgo my appetizer and get both soup and salad. He flatly told me no.

No.