adonisr

We will be on Discovery Princess in July visiting Glacier Bay.  I know that NPS Rangers join the ship while we are there.  Do they bring Park souvenirs on board to sell or does the ship shops have them?  We collect magnets from the parks we visit and really hope we can buy one while on this trip. 

2 hours ago, butterfly55 said:

Isn't Royal in Aruba? Is there one in Bonaire also?

https://royalcarrentalbonaire.com/en/rent-a-car/

10 hours ago, Flyinby said:

On our trip, the Havly Cafe was not free except for those with Havila Gold packages.  It may just be a temporary promotional feature that it's free for all with the round voyage, but I don't know for sure.  We did have the gold package since it came with the Jr. Suite, and it was really nice having the option of eating at the café whenever you felt like it.  The food was very good, and there was enough variety, along with the regular items and snacks, that we never tired of it.

 

If nothing has changed, eating in the main dining room, you can (I heard) just ask for something from the Havly instead. I always found something on the menu, so never verified that.

 

We also got a couple of free dinners at the Havrand, and one was some sort of special night, where there's no menu (for choosing), they just brought you 7 different items (one at a time), and explained thoroughly what they were.  Just small servings of each, but I was surprised at how good they all were.  I'm not an adventurous eater (when in doubt, head for the burger and fries 8^), but all were good and I ate and enjoyed things I'd never have even tried normally. Even better, we got a northern lights alert in the middle, and as we left they assured us that we'd be able to continue on when we got back (which we did).  The staff there was great.

The latest from Havila is the voyage includes breakfast, lunch and dinner and baked goods in the cafe.  Not sure if that means we can do any of the three at the cafe or we have to use the dining room.  We're looking at it as an adventure and plan to roll with whatever they offer/allow.

I'm curious how the dining works.  I understand there are 3 meals per day in the dining room.   But what is the availability of food at the cafe?  Are there included items available all day for those who are on a voyage?  I'm trying to get an idea of how food availability compares to a normal mainline cruiseship. 

We've booked the northbound route for the end of next March.  Really hoping to see the northern lights.

We have a private tour of the Acropolis and the museum booked for August 27.  Our guide says the time slots are enforced and told me to purchase a 8 am to 9 am slot.  We plan to use the combo ticket to visit some of the other sites on our own on the 26th as well as after lunch on the 27th.

Did you stop in Santorini?  If so, what time did you get there?

Just now, amypintx said:

@adonisr  They honestly weren’t that bad (going down... I'd never attempt it going up!) My 17 year old son did them in 20 min. My husband and I walked with my 76 year old mother and it took us about 40 minutes with breaks. We just took it slow. There are plenty of places you can move over out of the way if you need a break. She walked on the sides to hold on to the wall as needed (there aren’t hand rails). The steps are very wide. You just have to watch your feet the whole time because some of the rocks are so smooth they’re slippery (we saw several kids who were racing down them fall but we were careful and didn’t have a problem) and also you have to watch for donkey 💩. But even that wasn’t too bad. All in all, I’d definitely walk down it again vs waiting in that cable car line. My mom agrees.

Thank you for the info.  I was hoping that was the case.  We do a good bit of hiking, so I think walking down will be the way to go for us.

1 hour ago, amypintx said:

We walked down it before it was dark so I don't know how it looks on the actual steps, but here's a picture I took from the ship. Looks like there are lights at each turning point but not in between.  

What did you think of the walk down?

We just sailed on Celebration and thought I'd post my thoughts on the ship.  These are our opinions and I know they may differ from yours.  That's ok.

Overall – a beautiful ship.  Very different than the other CCL ships we’ve sailed on.

Cabin - We had a balcony cabin on Deck 14.  The cabins are definitely smaller (narrow).  We kept hitting our knees on the end of the bed as there’s not much room between the end of the bed and the wall.  Bathroom was small, but workable.  The many USB outlets were a welcome change.  Our room AC was unpredictable.  One night it’d be so cold we would need the blanket.  Other nights it’d be so warm we’d wake up sweating.  And we never changed the thermostat setting.  Additionally, the room would get cool, but never dry.  It was always a damp cool.  Not optimal to say the least.  Our room steward did a good job – we hardly ever saw him.

Public Areas – The public areas were all very nice – concentrated on Deck 6, 7, 8.  The main theater was smaller than typical since they have what they call Celebration Central.  CC is a replacement for the normal central atrium and is a cool looking space.  But from a functionality standpoint -  a major fail.  For a ship of 6000 pax to have a main show area with only a handful of seats with good views of the performance is very disappointing.   If you want a good seat – you need to show up 45-60 minutes before the show.  And with the main theater has some really bad sight lines as well.  And since it’s smaller, you need to get there 45-60 minutes early for a good seat.  The other public spaces are arranged basically in a row along Deck 6, 7 or 8.  So there is quite a bit of “traffic congestion” in the evenings on these decks.  On Deck 8 there is a outdoor area outside with large sliding doors for access.  The deck is popular and therefore the doors are open a lot.  This makes for a very warm zone in the middle of Deck 8.  And speaking of automatic doors – major issues here.  There was no rhyme or reason to how the doors worked.  Some worked well as you approached.  Some you needed to wave at a button on the wall.  Some you needed to wave at a button on the door.  And all of the public restrooms had automatic doors that opened WIDE open and stayed open for several minutes.  This creates some very awkward sight lines right into the restrooms where doing your business is on display for everyone in the area.

Dining –

The main dining rooms are nothing special.  Low ceilinged, dark food halls.  We found two nights where the menu looked appealing. Service was very slow.   Otherwise we ate in specialty dining venues.

Steakhouse and Rudi’s were amazing – food and service, but for the extra charge they better be.

Cucina food was great – service was a little slow, but the servers were very good.  We ate here twice.

ChiBang was ok, once was enough.

Pig & Anchor was great.

Emeril's - was ok, service was not at all good.  They totally botched our order.

Big Chicken - their chicken was very good.  The biscuit was dry and not really good.

Deli - had a very good cuban sandwich here.

Guy's Burgers - very good burger.  I had seen several comments before the cruise saying the fries were not as god in the past, but we thought they were good. 

Miami Slice - good pizza, not great.  Moving it down away from the Lido made it less desirable for us as a lunch option.

The buffet – just not good.  Slim choices.  For the most part, ½ of the buffet stations were never open.  One of the things I’ve always enjoyed on cruises is having pineapple from the buffet.  Never saw pineapple all week.  Watermelon was a rarity.  A major decline in this department.

Overall – for us, this ship class is just too big and poorly thought out.  It’s almost like CCL just took the same amount of “stuff” to do onboard and increased the passenger count by 2.5 times.  Resulting in longer waits, longer lines, and higher rude to normal passenger ratio.

Excel class is a one and done experience for us.

On 6/16/2023 at 4:00 PM, cwtravel said:

I do not believe there are any “dress up nights” on this or any other NCL cruises. This is a very port intensive cruise (especially the Israel stops) unlike say your typical Caribbean cruise. Feel free to dress up but fortunately there is no formal/smart casual, etc type evenings.

 

Getting in/out of both Ashdod and Haifa is a bit of a challenge as you must deal with Israel security and procedures at each port. Ashdod certainly took the longest, once off the ship you went into another building (think customs facility) where you line up, answer a few question & then go through metal detectors before being allowed out. The various tour companies were waiting in the public area.

Haifa took a little while just to get off the ship as the Israel security people were checking passports on the ship before going thru the metal detectors. It seemed to be pretty well organized but you will not just walk off the ship. I doubt you could walk out either port though there was/is a shuttle in Ashdod to a local mall where bus transportation is available.

 

The only real negative I had with NCL was the evening return at Patmos. Most guests returned around 10:30-11pm and the only place open for food was O’sheanes which could not handle the volume. I was surprised they did not have stuff in either the buffet or Great Outdoors.

 

Overall I thought it was a great cruise. I would certainly sail on the Jade again and for a Europe sailing would definitely use the BOGO air promo. If you read the kind of small number of people complaining about BOGO on this board the vast majority did not seem know or understand the terms and conditions with the air promo. 
 

Have a great trip!

Thank you so much for the info.  We are celebrating our daughter's college graduation (three years late - she graduated in May of 2020) and are excited about the stops that we are making.

We're doing this cruise in August. 

Can you tell us what nights were the "dress up or not" nights?

How easy/difficult was it to get in and out of the port areas in Ashdod and Haifa?

On 6/6/2023 at 9:45 AM, Homosassa said:

There are advisories out for travel to Florida....

 

Yeah - a bogus travel advisory in FL is comparable to what this topic is about.  Good grief.

Would never get off the ship.  Jamaica is a dump.

They act that way on the ship, it's likely they act that way at home.  Parents don't care. 

On 5/30/2023 at 3:11 PM, Jenora2012 said:

I recently was on this cruise but took a shore excursion. However, I found a copy of the Freestyle Daily for the Ashdod port day. NCL runs a complementary shuttle all day at the Ashdod port that goes to the Sea Mall in Ashdod City Centre. 

Thank You !

Amazing that no one has any info or tips on this.  I will post our experience this fall after we return - maybe it will help someone in the future.

We are stopping in Ashdod on the NCL Jade in August.  From what I've been able to find, you can't walk from the ship to town, rather you ride a shuttle to leave the ship.  Does anyone know Where the shuttle take you?  How often does it run?  Any info on how the shuttle works would be appreciated.

OK - so I booked for 4.  Another question - our package includes 2 dinners at specialty dining.  We use one for this reservation that requires a "cover charge".  How do the dining passes work at the spots with A La Carte?

1 hour ago, KeithJenner said:

Just reserve for 4 people. The table sizes are even numbers which we assume is why they dont usually offer reservations for odd numbers.

 

The only problem is if you are booking Moderno or Teppanyaki and you don’t have dining credits to cover them. In that case you will have to pay for the extra person and get it refunded onboard or wait until onboard to book.

Not a fan of having to try to get a refund for the 4th person.  I guess I'll gamble that we can book once on board.

We have 3 people in our cabin.  I'd like to book some specialty dining, but when I try to book through my booking, the web site only gives party size options of 2, 4, 6.  Do they not serve odd number parties?

I'm a little worried about moving from deck 9 to deck 11 below the pool deck.

We're sailing on the Jade in August and have a balcony cabin booked.  Just got an email regarding bidding on upgrades.  Is a Club Balcony worth a few hundred more than the standard balcony?

We have the Charming Oia Village tour booked through NCL.  If the port schedules I'm finding on line are accurate, we're the only ship there that day.  Hoping to stroll around Oia for a few hours then do dinner in Fira before taking the cable car back down to the tender.

We have a subaru reserved with Royal Car Rental in June.