brookie848

9 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

 

 

Okay...I just had to say this. When I was quickly scrolling through your pics, I initially thought those four rolls of wrap in this picture were eyeballs of something looking over the meat or cartoon eyeballs added after the fact.

Really enjoying reading about the Viva. We sail on her in February.

2 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

I’m guest 1 on our booking, and I’ve got the higher status. So why do all charges go on my husband’s account and how come all ‘special offers’ delivered to our stateroom are addressed to him?

 

Where does he stand alphabetically compared to you?

On our cruises, my husband is Guest #1 on the booking (and he pays for everything), but he never gets anything in his name. They are always addressed to the third person in the cabin and me. All of the NCL mail we get to our home is addressed to the third person in the cabin (even though they don't live with us).

Initials are DF (3rd person), BG (me) and KG (husband).

Yeah...lots of posts about this on Reddit yesterday. It's always sad when things like this happen.

We're booked for the Viva in February of 2024 and February of 2025. We really hope we like the ship!

Both of these sailings have zero sea days, so we're curious how that's going to work out with things like tastings and other events. On the 2025 cruise the port times aren't that great, so there will be time for those things. For the 2024 sailing the port times are what I consider to be pretty stellar, so I'll looking forward to how that all plays out.

7 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

I asked that same question on a BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR during a Christmas Holiday sailing a few years back.  The galley went "all out" for their presentations.  The Chef who conducted the tour said they loved it, as it breaks up the monotony of preparing and presenting the same dishes all the time.

I thought that might be the case...sometimes a chance to do something different can be welcome. And if they really enjoy the decorating it gives them to opportunity to go all out. It also helps that I think the cruisers really appreciate it all.

I'm enjoying this report!

You have to wonder if the staff enjoys creating all the "fun" stuff for the holidays or if it is just an additional task to them that takes extra time. I could see it going both ways -- but it certainly looks fun in the pictures.

4 hours ago, Annies88 said:

May be a dumb question but are they a hard no on a guest that isn’t platinum going with a platinum guest on behind the scenes?

On the Epic earlier this year they wouldn't even allow us to switch someone with a Platinum that didn't want to go. Like others have mentioned I think it depends on the ship/people working at Cruise Next.

I thought the Getaway had a martini bar, but I was confused.

We did a martini tasting on the Getaway and I believe it was held in the mojito bar.

9 minutes ago, CruisingFun2023 said:

Thank you for the information. Were you asked to provide proof of vaccination. If not, that is good.

It was never even mentioned.

We've traveled to all of these islands and taking this itinerary again in February. We've never run into any necessary additional vaccinations.

1 hour ago, Nunswithknives said:

Hi there, how did you book the Vibe Beach Club? We were on the Bliss a few years and had to run to get it after embarkation, but I saw that a few people said they booked it online.  That would be much easier.

 

Hope you enjoy the rest of the cruise, loving your updates!

Vibe is now available to book before you sail. In fact, I'm assuming that's just about the only way to book it now.

I'm looking forward to your review! We have two cruises booked on the Viva -- one for next year and one for 2025. We hope we like the ship! Both cruises have zero sea days, so if we hate the ship, we'll have something to do every day (except for St. Lucia -- not our favorite).

I drove from Pittsburgh back home to Albany last weekend. The colors on the trees were nice, but the Thruway was a cluster on Friday (like it always is on the weekend).

Enjoy your trip...I'll be following along.

On 10/24/2023 at 5:51 AM, hallux said:

Considering the international nature of the staff, having the name pre-filled might be appreciated.  However - I'm not giving it back to them, I'll deposit it in the appropriate place.

We take pictures of their name tags and let them know why we are doing it.

Our favorite was an obviously new server in La Cucina. He was trying so hard and took care of some special requests for us. Later that night we realized that we never took a picture of his name tag. We went back down to the restaurant and asked the host if we could see him. He was SOOO nervous -- he thought we had a complaint. He was definitely relieved and delighted when we told him why we wanted to chat with him.

We've gotten a few cards with the names already on them. We always tell them that we will turn them in when we turn everyone else's in to Guest Services. The last day of the cruise we usually end up at a bar, have a drink, and fill out our hero cards.

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

Right now, restaurant reservations open 130/125/120 days prior to departure (Suites/Priority/General). 

 

Show reservations open 25/21 days prior to departure. So, we still can't book Beetlejuice or Icons for our December Viva cruise. 

 

The show schedule is itinerary specific. So the European schedules would have nothing to do with the Caribbean itinerary you will be on. 

I know whatever is going on now is worthless for the Caribbean itineraries, but I was hoping that they would be open when people made their dining reservations for the San Juan sailings.

I wish NCL would open up both at the same time so we wouldn't have to move things around once the shows open up.

Our sailing will open up for restaurant/show bookings next week.

For those of you whose sailings have already opened up, were shows available (specifically Beetlejuice) for booking? If so, which nights? I'm trying to mentally prepare our schedule around this very busy cruise.

3 hours ago, graphicguy said:

No big deal.  As in life, some people are just narcissistic posteriors!

 

Funny story….I made a suggestion that the suite light switches are not marked with their function.  There are 8-10 of them….no markings on what they control.

 

I made an off handed comment about it to the GM during the Capt’s exception.  

 

No fewer than 2 Concierges and my Butler want to put labels on my lite buttons.  Not necessary!  Funny, though!

We were in a 2-bedroom on the Epic in February -- our third time in that exact suite. The first or second night my husband got up in the middle of the night and proceeded to turn on EVERY light in the master bedroom/bath -- all at once. I did a middle of the night yell-complaint.

For our next cruise, one of the musts is to figure out which light buttons can be touched in the middle of the night.

We had a great cruise in February with a great group. But we have definitely been on cruises with "those people" -- and do our best to avoid them.

When we have a third person staying in the second bedroom, they generally request an egg crate topper. It is definitely a viable option.

If you are on the Prima or Viva, the bed in the second bedroom is an actual queen-size bed.

On 9/26/2023 at 10:50 AM, cruiseny4life said:

For a luxury experience, and price, NCL really does F up the Haven bar experience. It's absolutely atrocious. The bartenders themselves are great, but are dramatically overworked. It's really a huge pain point on Joy and Getaway (from my experience). I'm interested to see what it's like with two bars on Pr1ma. 

Thanks for your review! I'm glad it sounds like you had a really nice time. And yes, the Haven Restaurant is so freaking YUM!!!!

We were on the Epic in February and actually had a great bar experience, which I was happy about. The main bar was never too crowded and when we normally would get a drink (9ish) it was pretty calm. The bartender, Ron Ron, was awesome and I never had the same drink twice. There was another bartender in the Courtyard area who was also very good.

Our experience on the Getaway was not great, but we had okay experiences on the Escape, minus some really crappy fellow passengers.

We're hoping for a good experience on the Viva.

We usually get a liquid exemption and it is noted on our boarding documents. On all the cruises where we've had this, we've only had it and our liquids questioned once (at Miami).

3 hours ago, www3traveler said:

The way I read the story because this was a closed loop cruise, the girls did not have passports.  Yes, things are usually gathered and taken to the Port Agent's office, but if these girls werre fairly new to cruising, would they have known that? How many people actually take notice about the Port Agent's Office printed in the newsletter or take the newsletter with them when they go off ship?

I take a picture of this information before we get off the ship...just in case.

How well do you do you know this couple? It looks as if along with losing the second bedroom, I believe you are also losing the second full bath. Would that lack of a second shower bother you?

Plus, if you are on different schedules having people sleeping in the living area can be awkward.

59 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

My suggestion for St. Maarten

 

 

 

Yep. We got to see the KLM 747 on our first cruise back in the day. We're disappointed that one that size no longer lands there, but Maho Beach is the main point of our stop. The friend who sails with us isn't looking forward to this, but she considers it her "payment" for her free stay in the second bedroom of our cabin.

13 minutes ago, Stratford1950 said:

I think you’ll enjoy Barbados…my parents moved us to the island in 1967, 4 kids and a total culture shock.

Saint Lawrence Gap is interesting but exploring Bridgetown can be fun…if you like rum. I could go on but there is not enough space to talk about living there. 
Have fun…

These are actually all repeat ports for us -- every San Juan cruise has been a more southern route. This will be our third time in Barbados.

Our current thoughts are to make solid plans on three islands (Tortola, Antigua and St. Maarten). We will just stay on the ship or wing the rest.

2 hours ago, HxFx said:

I know you mentioned your ABC cruise next year but I’m not sure what other Southern Caribbean islands you have gone to so far. If you’re going to have to fly anyway, I highly recommend cruises out of San Juan (a relatively short distance flight with minimal time change) . A lot of different ports from Florida ports. I loved Dominica and Grenada especially and they have a lot of varied scenery to offer. Ships out of San Juan routinely hit St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Antigua, and Barbados. I’m hoping to hit Martinique in the not too distant future. They are often very port intensive cruises.

San Juan is now our preferred cruise port. We've done three cruises from there with our fourth in February. We did the ABCs earlier this year along with St. Kitts and St. Lucia on a 7-day cruise.

I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but our February cruise has zero sea days (Tortola, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados). It will be interesting pacing ourselves.

Definitely the Epic. The only way I'd sail in the Haven on the Getaway/Breakaway is if there were no other options.

The restaurant on the Epic is huge, plus you have the cool indoor/outdoor grill area with its own bar.

I'm not in love with the whole Epic ship itself, but the Haven is outstanding.