DaisyGoldberg

I don't find it that confusing. NCL owns both Oceania and Regent, so it makes far more sense to position O between mass market and luxury rather than compete with themselves.

Xpost with njhorseman!

Just be sure you checked all available times.  Some are offered twice in a day on a sea day, so if at first glance it says "this class is sold out" look if you can pull down to a different time on the same day that may be available.  All of mine "appeared" to be sold out, but in each case the later time was open.  

Just means if she wants the insurance or to book stuff on her own card she'll need to log in separately.  You're fine.

They tied down our lounges in the Garden Villa on the Pearl, but I think it was weather dependent and not every day.  There was a specific guy assigned to keep the area set up/broken down, check the hot tub temps, etc  and he came and went freely, mostly through hidden access doors, though he occasionally came in the main door and said hi before going out to check the area.

I think they care less about whether you watched it or not than being able to document that you were provided the opportunity and directed to watch it a number of times and if you chose not to and later tried to sue them for some issue related to shipboard safety/evacuation, that's on you.

Seeing posts mentioning the option of sharing a table because of scarcity of two-tops makes me wonder if it's going to be hard as a solo traveler to get seated?

2 hours ago, gzmtlock said:

 She is 5'10", so maybe she can get on the bed herself?  She's fairly mobile at this point, only using a cane, so while she'll have to move slowly in constrained spaces, I think she'll be okay.  Love the suggestions for requesting a shower chair and bringing a mat - they're on the list now!

What are "snap on support grips"?  She might need help in the toilet room. . .

At 5'10 she should be fine. The edges of the bed are a bit squishy, so shorter people sometimes have a hard time sitting on the edge and transitioning to lying down. I'm 5'5" and have to sometimes fling myself in!  

It sounds like she's more mobile than my mom which is great. If you're doing excursions a stepstool may still be useful for getting in/out of tour vehicles, depending on your plans and her abilities to step up into a bus or van. Again, she may be tall enough that they're not necessary. For those shorter, you can throw the stool in a backpack in case it's needed. 

I was trying to think of the term off the top of my head and failed - I was referring to grab bars. If you google removable grab bars you'll get an idea of what we bring. Usually you just press a suction cup against the smooth surface and snap a lever and it suctions to the wall.  Can provide an extra stabilizing point when moving in and out of the bathroom/toilet, especially if someone's unsteady.  I grabbed my mom's a time or two when the ship was rocking!  The large main shower has a grab bar installed, I think, but she may want an additional one in a different position. At the end of the week you just snap the levers and take it off.  

There's plenty of storage in the master cabin for two people, but the 2nd bedroom on this class of ship has less storage than on the Jewel class.  There are some shallow shelves which are more of a gesture than really usable space. Fortunately, everybody's suitcase will probably fit under the master bed. 

We've stayed in those cabins many times with my elderly mother.

My first suggestion would be for somebody to sleep with your Mom in the master -- the bed is enormous,  you don't even feel the other person there, and it's far more comfortable than any other option. 

The master bed is very high and you may want to bring a small stepstool unless Mom is very tall. There also is very little room passing from living room to master bedroom and if she uses a walker/strollator it may not pass through the narrow doorway.

We had to collapse my mom's walker and physically aid her to move from the bedroom to living room and vice versa, as well as between the side of the bed and the wall.  The bed is immediately inside the doorway, so there is no real turning radius and it's hard to even have a 2nd person side by side. We had to stand in front of and behind her to guide her in and out of the room. The opening to the large bath is perfectly wide. Moving about the living room was fine with a walker. 

Definitely request a toilet riser seat and shower chair.  The shower floor is EXTREMELY slippery, so bring a mat of your own, put down towels to stand on, or use the shower in the 2nd bedroom. 

On our last few trips we brought along those snap on support grips.  It may be helpful to place one inside the toilet stall as there isn't much to hold onto given the glass door.  They won't attach to most walls, but where there's tile/ceramic it may be helpful.

NCL insurance covered my mom and her friend traveling in the same cabin when mom had to cancel a week out because my sister needed her after emergency surgery.  Needed to provide documentation, but it still all went through in about a month.

The weird thing was that the restaurants were virtually EMPTY.  If it's 6:30 and there's literally one table of people in the restaurant, something's off. I've been on ships where a restaurant was listed as full but only was half full and chalked it up to staffing, but we've never been the ONLY people there at the peak hour before.

Both Q and Food Republic are a bit out of the normal traffic pattern, so maybe they don't get the last minute walk ins when people see them listed as fully booked.  So definitely worth walking over to check in person. 

Multiple times on our Joy vacation last month we saw no availability listed for desired restaurants (understandably as we hadn't booked ahead). We asked our concierge for help once and he got us right into Food Republic.  When we got there it was empty. Another time my sister went back to Food Republic when it was listed as full and it wasn't and they were seated immediately.  

Another night we went to Q, were told they could "fit us in" and there were only about 4 tables occupied in the whole restaurant at 6:30.  

I don't know if it's just the Joy, but it's probably always worth walking to the desired restaurant to see if you can get in, even if the only "openings" offered are at 9:30 pm.  

I have 3 of them that I've been avoiding tossing as well if anybody wants them!

Just got off - best Haven I've been in. Staff is wonderful. 

One caveat if you haven't stayed Haven before - if they have tubs not showers, it's REALLY hard to get in and out. You can see from the photo above how high the tub side is - you need to lift your foot above your knee, which could be challenging to many folks, old or young.  There is a grab bar inside (which is an improvement over my Breakaway Haven tub/shower which didn't have it), but there's nothing to grab onto coming out but the glass doors which seems incredibly unsafe.  Although the sink counter is there, you can't really put your hand down without leaning around the glass.

I wonder if they've gone with a different design on the newer ships, because this has always seemed incredibly unsafe to me. 

That said, wonderful cruise, wonderful people. 

On 6/8/2024 at 1:52 PM, Nitemare said:

To be honest, I googled it.  Wasn't hard to find the official info

I had done that, but am not familiar with NYC or traffic patterns/gridlock/bottleneck points there so just knowing where the parade was didn't tell me how it would affect port area traffic. 

Good onion rings I'd regret, but not those onion rings. Literally grade school cafeteria frozen out of a bag onion rings with zero seasoning. 

8 hours ago, havoc315 said:

This. I recently had a phone call with the concierge to book dining. It ended up lasting 30 minutes as they kept suggesting things I might need.  Things I wasn’t even planning on asking. We are in a Garden Villa— the concierge went through what extra pillows for which bedroom. What mixers we need for our bar. Etc.  

Did they raise the transportation issue? I had read online that they would provide a car to take GV people home, but it was never mentioned to us when we booked the GV... then on day 3 of the cruise the Concierge asked if we wanted him to do that for us.  At that point I'd already booked somebody and didn't want to reneg, so opportunity lost.

Of course NCL might have discontinued it, but ask just in case!

58 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

Agree with above but this is also what you are paying a professional driver for. 

I just wanted an idea of how much worse congestion might be. I had been thinking of leaving a bit later in the morning than we usually do to arrive around noon and avoid sitting in the terminal lounge for hours, but if the traffic was going to be awful, we might have needed to leave earlier.

Either way, I will sit back once I'm in that car and we are on our way!

Just the information I was looking for!  Thank you!

We will be coming in from our NJ hotel the morning of the Pride Parade. Should be plan to come extra early to avoid traffic? Expect major traffic anyway? It's always quite congested in the port area to begin with -- just wondering how much more busy it might be that day.

We'll have a car service. 

We sail with my mom out of Boston all the time. She's mobile enough that she can get by in regular rooms using a walker, but there certainly are handicapped accessible rooms available.

Others have linked to the accessibility form. Aside from alerting them to his wheelchair, they can provide other items like shower chairs/toilet seat boosters, etc. that might be helpful.

If he is not in a power chair, be sure to request boarding and disembarking assistance for ship staff to push him up the numerous ramps to board (there are elevators within the port authority building, so that isn't an issue).  Those ramps are pretty steep so assistance will be welcome.  

If you're sailing to Bermuda, I can't remember whether there's a ramp to board/disembark, but I seem to recall it being pretty level. Some of the ramps in Canadian ports are super steep, depending on tides. 

Will the captain be doing the usual photo ops in the atrium?

I've found Cagney's disappointing in recent years, but some of our family isn't keen on Le Bistro, so Moderno is a good compromise for a group of people getting tastes of different things. It's a change of pace, not fine dining. Between the large buffet and the meat selections, it's kind of an upscale buffet variety meal. 

For those who love the pineapple, we were thrilled to find it offered as a late night snack at the back of the Jewel a couple of years ago. Not sure if they still have a mini late night buffet back there, but it appears that's where they sent all the ship's evening leftovers - there were soups from that night's dinner, etc.  It was a nice stop after a show, especially if you'd had a very early dinner and just wanted a little something more before bed. 

2 hours ago, goldmom said:

 I've heard of others making special requests for the next night but it didn't work for me even though I asked in advance.

It's  dependent on the policy at a particular Haven, apparently. My sister had one cruise where she asked if it was possible to get a lava cake and they had one for her every night without her having asked. 

Next cruise (different ship) they wouldn't pre-arrange it even once, and told her to go to the dining room for it.  Really soured us on making a special request. 

On 3/11/2024 at 8:39 AM, detroitlions said:

I think folks hope the second bed can fit a adult in them. And I know I would not be getting much sleep in the couch bed or those beds that come down from the wall.

I've never tried one of the sofas or beds that flip down, but there are suites on the Dawn with Murphy beds and they're AMAZINGLY comfortable for an adult. Full thick mattress (not a cot). These rooms are up front with floor to ceiling windows. Highly recommend! Waking up to a full wall view is awesome.

My mom got amazing care on NCL Getaway - she got covid/pneumonia and after the initial workup/diagnosis we went daily for nebulizer treatments and antibiotics. The facility seemed as fully/modernly equipped as any emergency room I've ever been to. I know they had 3 doctors (because one of the nurses laughed that we'd seen all three). Seemed very well staffed. Smaller/older ships may of course have lesser facilities, though I imagine it probably has more to do with date of the most recent drydock.

Frankly, I think her initial care was far better than what she would have received in a busy ER at home with the same symptoms. That said, it's phenomenally expensive (her bill was 11K, to be paid upfront).

On a NE/Canadian cruise you'd probably only ever be a few hours from a hospital, so you should do well.