kiberkid

Thank you!! My Mother & I are really excited about this short but sweet cruise. We were just assigned our cabin and it is in the perfect location!

Thank you again for your kind wishes!

Sandy

They all left today. Suspect an all new bunch in San Diego. Abba fab schedule is on their web site. Link on my blog.

Thank you. I am sure the new entertainers will be great!

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We embark the Amsterdam in San Diego. Are any of the entertainers staying on after San Diego? or is there a complete turn around? I would love to see the Bernie Fields, Terry Davis and Abba Fab.

I know you will be glad to get home, but I will miss your blog terribly. I have so totally enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time and money to post for us.

Yes....I will continue thru May 16

And we board in San Diego the day you get off. Love your blog. Very well written & entertaining.

Thank you for taking the time to allow us to enjoy the World Cruise through you.

sounds like a very nice getaway. :) Happy to add that for you.

Thank You!!

Amsterdam - May 16 - 5 day Pacific Coastal from San Diego - Kiberkid & VicSuperDane - just a nice get away for Daughter & Mom

If I don't bring any alcohol onboard, but instead buy the Vivo Vino package direct from NCL when I board, I don't then have to pay an additional $15 corkage fee for each of those wines for them to open at dinner when I want to drink thm do I?!

 

Also, we will be going to a different specialty restaurant each night (UDP promo). How/who do I ask to retrieve one of the wines I paid for? Should I ask before I go to dinner or just wait until I get to dinner and then ask?

 

Thanks

No corkage fee with the Vivo Vino package. When you purchase the package you have your choice of getting the bottles or a receipt for each bottle. You take either the bottle or the receipt to the dining room & they will get &/or server the wine. If you do not finish the bottle, they will 'receipt' it and store it for you. At your next meal, give them the receipt & Voila.. your partial bottle appears.

We found it to be a great deal...although we didn't have too many 'partial' bottles... :p:o:eek:

But Marivik really really stood out. On our last cruise, on the Star, I don't think we saw our butler more than a handful of times, but we saw Marivik a couple times a day, checking to see if we needed anything or would need anything. She was especially considerate of my mother and checked on her without asking a few times during the day when we were on shore.

Marivik was our butler as well. Absolute top notch. Could not have asked for anyone sweeter, more caring or more professional. She was our first butler experience & I have a feeling no one else will measure up to her standards.

If you haven't already identified them through your original search, I would recommend BCAA for travel insurance for a BC resident, they have annual packages as well as coverage for individual trips. If you are a member, you can also get a discount on the premium.

 

Good luck!

I highly recommend BCAA travel insurance. My girlfriend has worked in the Insurance business for 30 years in BC & she says nothing can touch the BCAA package especially if you have pre-existing conditions...and she doesn't even work for BCAA anymore. :o

We watched the exact thing happen in Port Everglades Nov 2011 with Princess. We had never seen so many white uniforms run at the same time. There was a lot of yelling & other than feeling sorry for everyone, it was quite interesting to watch. They did not bring in scuba divers, but one poor sole did jump into the water & hand up some suitcases.

I found out afterwards that Princess was extremely good to the affected passengers & the only thing that was damaged beyond repair were their chargers. The people at the pursers desk charged their electronics for them as needed. Their clothes were dry cleaned or washed by Princess & they were compensated somehow as well..... AND they had great stories to tell everyone when they got home.

I can only assume that NCL would be just as gracious.

We had a wonderful cruise and had so much fun. Here is a quick review of some key points on the cruise. All in all it was an outstanding 14 days.

Embarkation

Extremely easy & seamless. Got to the port around noon and was onboard & in our cabin by about 12:30.

Staff

A few to mention:

Virginia - Concierge

Virginia did her job. She made dinner reservations for us at the times we requested, give or take 15 minutes, which is totally acceptable. She came & introduced herself to us at Cagney's on the 2nd day of the cruise & we mentioned we would like to talk to her. She told us she would be at her desk all morning. After our breakfast (which was about 10 minutes after we talked to her) we went to her desk. She was not there. We waited for 15 minutes & left without talking to her. About 3/4 the way through the cruise, one of our group had a medical situation late one evening which we were not aware of. As we were waiting for a table at Cagney's the next morning Virginia came over and asked if we had heard of the situation. We didn't know what she meant. She then went on to say one of our Gramma's had a problem in the casino the night before and that her daughter in law was there & they took them away. That is all she would tell us. We didn't know if she had had a heart attack, fell & broken her hip or wrist or even died!! As it was a late night for them, we didn't find out anything until after lunch and as it turns out, all was ok. We were really upset that Virginia would tell us part of the story & leave us hanging as well a breaking a confidence. In her position, it was not up to her to tell us the news.

Marivic - Butler

Excellent, sweet, efficient, professional, polite, respectful. She anticipated our needs before we realized we had needs. I am not sure, if we ever have another suite, that another Butler will be able to measure up to her.

Windsor - Cabin Steward

He was not our Cabin Steward but was for 2 cabins in our group. He was amazing, caring & efficient. He knew that we were relatives to people in his cabins & he knew our names. We all just loved him.

Rolando - Cabin Steward

He was our Cabin Steward. He was very efficient, polite, & helpful We had a few maintenance issues in our cabin which we did not mention to him, but he was aware of them & he brought a maintenance man into our suite to address the issues.

Alvin - Cruise Director Staff

Extremely rude. We tried to partake in the telephone scavenger hunt which he facilitated. He showed up 20 minutes late and then only gave us 15 minutes to find 7 or 8 areas in the ship and call him from the phone in that area. When we found the first correct phone and I called him, he was rude and told me I was wrong. My sister in law called him back from the same phone he was rude to her as well, but said we had the correct phone.

Lady from the US in shore excursions, I believe she was the supervisor

Our tour in San Juan was supposed to be 3 hours and we were dropped off after 2 hours. I went to the shore excursion desk to address our concern & was snapped at by her. She stated that the reason the tour was only 2 hours was because it was a holiday & there was no traffic. I asked why he could not have just driven us around for an hour or so & explained more about the area. She told us that we got what we paid for and that was that!!

Officers

Really had nothing to do with them except a polite smile when we went to the Latitudes party.

Cabin - SJ Family

This was our first experience in the Suite Life and we loved it. The cabin was an amazing size. We were able to host 4 or 5 get togethers with our group of 14 and we still had room to spare. We loved the retracting wall and used it at night & in the morning to shade the bed from light. The coffee machine as a really nice touch and the bathroom was large enough for a party. We did have a leaky window and shower. That didn't bother us as we just put down a towel and sopped up the water.....we don't wash the towels anyway!! Ronaldo kept the towel on the window changed, but it only leaked when it rained. Being up so high (deck 12) and so close to the bow, we really felt the ship movement, but both of us enjoy that. We would definitely book this suite again.

Shows

Patty & Jose were a hit. We enjoyed their shows and saw them several times. It was the NCL troup's first cruise & they did need some polishing, but they were not bad. The Irish singer was the favorite of lots in our group. We did not enjoy the comic. We didn't see the hypnotist or juggler but the juggler did embark with us in one of the ports & security did not want to let him onboard as he had knives in his suitcase. Once he explained who he was they let him on. We appreciated the fact that they questioned him. There were a few other entertainers that we were unfortunately not able to see as we had other activities going on with our group.

Food

The food was good, but not 5 star. I didn't care for some of my choices, but it was not because the food was bad, it just was not for me. La Bistro & Teppanaki were extremely good We really enjoyed going to Cagney's for breakfast & lunch and the service & food was excellent. My husband loved the double shrimp cocktails. The staff in the Garden Cafe was extremely helpful and attentive when we brought in the Grammas there with their walkers.They carried their plates & drinks for them & were 'johhny on the spot'.

Restaurant Service

The service in the Venetian restaurant was not good the night we were there. We were a group of 14 at 2 different tables each with our own wait staff. One table received excellent service & they were almost finished their dessert and we did not even have our salads. Once we made our waiter aware (he had forgotten about us????) he panicked & rushed us. He gave us our dessert menus at the same time as our main course. While we were eating our main course he brought the desserts. It really was not a pleasant experience and we did not go back to the Venetian we also voiced our concern to the head waiter. I think they are understaffed & the staff is overwhelmed. After that we went to the Aqua and had good service there. With the exception of a couple of birthdays, we tried to keep our groups down to 5-7 people as I think that the number 14 overwhelmed them, even though we would be at 2 different tables with 2 different sets of wait staff.

Bar Service & Photographers

They were present and easily found, but did not hound us. If we wanted a drink.. presto... there was a waiter/waitress. The photographers offered to take our photo, but when we said 'no thanks' they didn't bother us again. This was very much appreciated. I know that they have to 'drum up business' but they did it in a very professional and unobtrusive way.

Casino

As a non smoker, I found the casino a very unpleasant place to be. They seem to have an adequate (not wonderful) air exchanger but we still found the place to be very smokey. Along with the very stingy machines (I guess it is a way for NCL to make lots of $$) it was not a place I wanted to be. This is a shame as on other lines my mother & I love to go to the casino after the show, but on NCL Dawn, the smoke filled room was not the invitation we needed to donate our money to the machines.

Debarkation

Very organized and easy. Port of New Orleans is large and it is a long walk from the ship to the taxis/transportation. Luggage is taken off one luggage tag color at a time, so when you get to the luggage area there is not a sea of bags. Just your color and the few left over from the previous colors. It is not chaotic as some ports. Very much appreciated.

Depending upon which ship you are booking, these rooms may also have a vibrating plate in the floor, as an additional alert feature. I can only speak to the Getaway on this particular aspect, but whenever the phone rings, the doorbell is pressed, or the ship's alarm system is activated, the strobe lights will flash and also the vibrating plate will activate.

 

I have no idea if this feature is on other ships, so perhaps others with personal experience can advise.

 

:)

When we were on the Sun in 2002, the floor did not vibrate. That would have really freaked us out until we found out it was a hearing impaired room, then we would have thought it was a great idea. Not sure if it has been updated since then.

Does anyone know about the hearing impaired rooms? What are different about them?

 

If you get one of these rooms, is it considered hearing impaired because it may be in a "loud" location, which would be the best for someone that might be hearing impaired and won't hear it? Or is it because it's equipped with special hearing impaired equipment?

 

We have booked a room (8313), which doesn't show hearing impaired and are also booking a few more rooms along beside that room and I had just noticed that 8312-8308 all have the round circle indicating it's hearing impaired and it got me wondering.

 

 

 

 

Also, does anyone know what the blank white section is between these rooms? Is this housekeeping? Storage? Employee elevators? Do you think there will be a lot of noise in this area?

 

Thanks in advance for any info you could provide. :)

We were in 8311 on the Sun and did not realize it was a hearing impaired room until we were well into the cruise. We just could not figure out why the lights kept flashing. :o

The room had a nice layout and was quite roomy for an inside. The layout was more of a square than a rectangle like the balconies are. The white space in the middle of the cabins is where the staff access the different decks. The only time it was a little noisy was the last night when they were taking out all the luggage. Other than that, we only heard a few bumps and bangs as they were moving their carts around. We did not find it disruptive at all.

The location was great. We loved the cabin.

Yes. You can go to guest services, get vouchers for those tips and sign fot them on your OB account.

Awesome. thanks.

Do you have to pay your Butler & Concierge cash for their tips, or can it be added to our on board account.

We don't usually take much cash with us.

This is our first suite & we want to be prepared.

I prepaid online today with no problems. I guess I got lucky. We sail in November.

We stayed at the Copenhagen Marriott precruise, but we booked our room through Priceline and got an awesome deal. It is within walking distance of Tivoli and all the sights.

Post cruise we stayed at The Square which is right across the street from City Hall, Tivoli & very close to the pedestrian shopping street. Again we booked this on our own.

We were happy with both.

Excellent info. Thanks very much.

We are staying at the Embassy Suites Logan Airport.

I believe it has an airport shuttle, but not a cruise port shuttle.

We will be a group of 8-10 people staying at a hotel near the airport in Boston & need transportation to the Boston cruise port.

Are they any reputable shuttle companies in Boston that are not super duper expensive, or would a few taxi's be a better option? I am not sure how far it is from the airport to the cruise port.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I believe, and could be wrong, that she was our CD on our Hawaii-Tahiiti cruise in 2008 and our friend's CD on Tahiti-Hawai in 2012.

If this is the same lady, she used to be a singer/dancer/performer for Princess prior to her becoming a CD and has been with the company for over 20 years. She is a nice lady but not very organized. We have had much better CD's than her....but maybe in the 5 years since we were with her, she may have improved.

By no means did she 'ruin' the cruise for us. It it is still one of our highlights, but we did find her unorganized.

UPDATE:

We totally UNderutilized the butler.

.....suite just wasn't worth it to us.

I believe we would under utilize a butler as well as I can't imagine having someone unpack my clean underwear & pack my dirty ones... :eek::eek:

We like to have coffee in the cabin in the morning, but I believe we would make it ourselves in the machine and we always eat in one of the restaurants.

Just can't see how we could keep him gainfully employed so I am really confused on the tipping.

We want to book the suite for the size of the real estate not for the services of a butler.

I don't think I am alone in those thoughts. Am I?

Does anyone know if NCL allows door signs? My husband would appreciate it. On our last cruise, first night out, he left the room for some reason or another, forgot the room number and was lost for 2 hours before he finally manned up and went to the desk to find out his room number! :)

They sure do. We always have a door sign on. I would never remember where our cabin was without it. lol

Our 1st cruise was on NCL Sea. We did a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas! We had an inside cabin which was 110 sq ft. Pretty cosy!! We cruised in the November after 911 & docked in Maimi the day the plane crashed into a residential area in NYC. We were "locked" on board until early afternoon when the officials realized the crash was due to mechinal issue & not a terrorist attack.