mcd2745

thanks....I decided to set it under the assumption it was a daily limit and will check with guest services once on board.

When setting the spending limit...is it a daily limit (preferred), or for the length of the cruise?

13 hours ago, BBigfoot613 said:

 

 

John is correct you should see a warning. When you put in your pickup and drop off points it'll calculate a price for all available car types. when you click on the circle for the car type (X or XL) it'll say something like "Fares are higher due to greater demand". Where I drive the surge rarely lasts longer than 5-10 mins. If you aren't in a rush or stuck in hot sun and don't like the price you can wait a little and it'll go down to no surge. 

Thanks. It may have been there, I just don't remember seeing it. Given how many ships were debarking at the port that morning,  the surge pricing probably was going to last a while. 

Anyone have experience getting from POM to West Palm Beach airport after debarkation? I'm looking at a flight leaving PBI (for JFK) at 12:20pm. It is far cheaper than any of the flights leaving MIA or FLL, not to mention also right about the time we would really prefer to fly.

We were given the fare estimate before booking. However, don't recall seeing anything specifically saying that surge pricing was in effect.

Last month, we (family of 4 who tend to have to much luggage) sailed from Miami but flew into/out of FLL. Took an UberXL both ways. From the hotel near FLL to port of Miami it was $67 but after debarkation going back to FLL was $122. Guess there was some kind of surge pricing in effect with all the ships returning that morning. 

Is the amount a daily amount, or total for the length of the cruise? A daily limit would be preferred. 

You want to "pre-tip" to try to ensure an elevated level of service? That's fine. I have no issue with that. What concerns me is if that generally becomes "required" in order to receive the basic, standard level of service one should reasonably be able to expect without doing it.

We got off the Bliss exactly onexweek ago. This was our second NCL cruise (1st was also on the Getaway two years ago). We are fairly experienced cruisers  - 6x on Disney, 3x on RCCL besides the NCL cruises. I thought the ship was very nice. The Observation Lounge was a real nice space and must be great for Alaska. Although, I assume it is like the pool deck during the Caribbean sailings....get there before sunrise if you want a spot. Pool deck was a disaster. Go-karts seemed like a fun idea, but was a disappointing waste  of a lot of real estate. We also had a mini-suite. Room was nice, balcony a little small. Room steward was awful, making us 0-for-2 on NCL as our steward on Getaway was also terrible (they should put the room back together every morning - putting the sofa and Pullman beds away - without us asking them to). Food was good across the board. We only did regular dining room one night and service wasn't great. It was better in specialty restaurants. I liked the Local, just like we did O'Sheehans on the Getaway. It's a smart venue to have open 24/7. Very disappointed they didn't have the darts and pool table like there was on Getaway though. Entertainment was good overall. Bar staff was great throughout the ship. While I do very much like the "Freestyle" approach to dining and vibe overall and not getting dressed up at all, I'm not sure we'll do another NCL cruise. Perhaps, if we are going along with a big group like we did for the first one. Otherwise, not on our own. We're trying a Carnival cruise (Horizon)  for the first time next,  and we will see how that goes. 

Almost everything ends early on dcl. Very different from other cruise lines. The only thing that annoyed us was that pools close early. One thing they do is they usually show movies in the theater. Sometimes quite late. If you are on board for a movie opening they will show it at midnight. My kids went to one of the star wars openings and got back to the room around 2. Dh said he slept through it. Lol.

I agree the pools closing early is annoying and a big pet peeve of mine. All pools and hot tubs (on all ships on all cruise lines) should generally be open 24/7- only closing one at a time somewhere in the middle of the night for cleaning/maintenance and then re-opening them once completed. However, if DCL wants to close the family and kids pools..whatever (and, yes I know they have to for things like Pirate night). However, the adult area pools should always stay open.

Can you tell me what nightlife a Disney cruise offers? We have adults and older teens in our group and was wondering if everything pretty much shuts down at 10pm.

There is little to no nightlife on DCL. You get something going on in the nightclub (usually a featured performer / comedian or a "game show") at around 10-10:30, and once that is over there is not much. The DJ in the nightclub will start playing music at insane levels given there will likely be no more than 6 people left in the club. The other bars are open but will generally have only a handful of people at most.

I've always felt that since DCL will never have casinos, that a "Dave & Buster's" type of venue would be a great compromise.

We took a cruise on NCL's Getaway last February. The one area that was a real standout to me was their Irish Pub-style area (O'Sheehans). First and foremost, it is open 24 hours, and you can get (included) food like buffalo wings, nachos, etc. What was really nice was there was also a pool table, darts, mini-bowling, "hot shot" basketball. The games did cost extra, but it was nominal (a buck or two). A nice venue for a group to hang out late at night and have some fun instead of in an ear-splitting nightclub. DCL should incorporate some of these concepts into O'Gills (are the pubs all O'Gills on all the ships now?).

Royal also does perpetual "flea market big sales" in the Grand Promenade which cheapens the experience in my opinion.

 

We enjoyed all of our cruises on RCCL (2 of which were on Liberty's sister ship Freedom). However, the constant hawking of merchandise in the Promenade annoyed me too. I feel the Promenade is a great design feature of RCCL ships and filling it with tables full of cheap goods and having aggressive sales people pushing the merchandise on all who walk by really diminishes the enjoyment of the area.

I'm not in favor of repeating the shows on back-to back nights. It would never happen, but I always wished they had 3 performances nightly - with the the 3rd being after second seating dinner (so roughly 10:00 or 10:15pm). There is so little else going on around the ship at that time. We always have second seating for dinner and would love to still be able to see the shows after dinner and free up our pre-dinner evening time when there is a lot more going on (character greets, game shows in D Lounge, or just extended pool time while half the ship is at early dinner, etc.). Besides, "dinner and a show" - in that order - just seems more natural as opposed to "a show and dinner".

You do not get any other benefit (other than reduced deposit, I guess) on the future cruise you book with your CruiseNext certificate, correct?

Thanks for the review. I'm very interested in MSC for when their new ship - Seaside - is completed later this year (I believe) and will be doing the Caribbean. Also, the private island they are developing in the Bahamas looks impressive with some ships staying until midnight as the island will have restaurants and a theater for the evenings.

I wouldn't be surprised if it means one of the ships will be designed and built specifically for the Asian market. Disney, and so many other companies, have been "all in" on China - which I believe will prove to be a big mistake over time.

 

Can I bring a case of water on board? YES

 

If so, can I check it with my luggage and will it be delivered to my room? NO

 

If I bring just some bottles, should it be in my carry on or checked luggage? Carry on.

 

Answers in red.

Soon, someone will reply with how wonderful the tap water is aboard the ship and how you shouldn't bring bottled water on board. Disregard those replies. If you want to bring bottled water, by all means, go ahead.

Very nice. Six weeks until that will be us!

My husband thinks with seven ships the price will come down bc they're saturating their market a little more.

 

 

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I could be wrong, but I don't see how they can fill 7 ships full-time charging the premium over the other lines that they do.

We are recently off the Getaway also (3 weeks ago). Completely agree with OP on several fronts - especially about the service. It was abysmal. Particularly our room steward as well. Debarkation was an unorganized mess. Saw the same things at the specialty restaurants. No reservations available, but always 1/2 to 3/4 empty. However, it seems if you walk up to the restaurant, they likely will get you in - and usually pretty quickly. Balconies are ridiculously small. You have to turn the chair sideways just to be able to sit in one.

Where I would disagree is that we thought the food was pretty good overall (lousy service getting the food aside), and with it being too "casual". Being our first NCL cruise, that was one aspect that I really enjoyed. I very much liked not being tied to the same dinner time each night, and not having to worry about dress codes.

Just off the Breakaway this past Sunday. This is my sixth cruise with NCL, and was very apparent this cruise how burnt out the staff has become. We heard from numerous staff (spa, room attendant, waiters) that they have to work seven straight days for 8 months, then get two months off. I have never heard so many speaking as loudly about this in past cruises. They were t as friendly or cheerful as in he past. We could see this play out too with lack of service in our room (some days not getting cleaned at all, needing to call for night servicing, etc). The executive housekeeper Carmincita took good care of us and went to lengths to make things right (helps to have her number from meet and greet mingle).

 

Thoughts?

We got off the Getaway 10 days ago. It was our first NCL cruise. We cruised previously on DCL (4 times) and RCCL (3 times). This was by far the worst staff/service of all our cruises. The service provided by the room steward in particular was very poor. I will say, it appeared to me that he had waaaaaay too many rooms that he was responsible for - which falls on management. Many of the other staff members we encountered were generally unfriendly.

Isnt the problem with HC that we only get the bad things with a private Island and not the good things?

 

Bad things, no private excursions or any way to leave the area except for on ships excursions.

 

Good thing with a private Island, the food is included. On HC it's not included.

True...with one exception, I guess. You do get one of the good things in that you don't have 6 other ships in port with you.

mcd2745 - may I ask what time you typically went to dinner?? Did you eat breakfast or lunch in the MDRs? If so was it more efficient than your dinner experience? Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

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We typically went to dinner 7-8pm.

We only ate breakfast at the buffet. As for lunch, we were off the ship 4 days and the 2 sea days, we ate at the buffet once and Margaritaville the other day (service was okay there).

Some repeats from previous posts, but my playlist includes:

Life's A Beach - Heymous Molly

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems - Kenny Chesney

Beer In Mexico - Kenny Chesney

Bar At The End Of World - Kenny Chesney

When The Sun Goes Down - Uncle Kracker & Kenny Chesney

Toes - Zac Brown Band

Island Song - - Zac Brown Band

Castaway - Zac Brown Band

Where The Boat Leaves From - Zac Brown Band

Come Sail Away - Styx

Sailing - Christopher Cross

Island In the Sun - Weezer

Some Beach - Blake Shelton

Breezin' - George Benson

Cruisin' - Huey Lewis & Gwenyth Paltrow

Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

Boat Drinks - Jimmy Buffet

Margaritaville - - Jimmy Buffet

Cheseburger in Paradise - Jimmy Buffet

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

Stir It Up - Bob Marley

Sea Cruise - (many versions, but i prefer) Yo La Tengo

Beyond The Sea - Robbie Williams

We were on the same cruise. It was our first on NCL (after 4 DCL & 3 RCCL). Unfortunately, we found the service/staff to be very poor. We had the opposite of you as our room steward was awful, and our dinner service was anything but efficient. Our dinners at Taste/Savor/Tropicana and La Cucina were all close to 3 hour affairs. Basically killed our evenings. Only reasonable meal, time-wise, was at Moderno.

We were cruising with a large group of great people. Those people, along with the phenomenal weather made the cruise for us.