ljrfrm

19 minutes ago, Scubadoc said:

Very encouraging. We have booked an Aft suite. For those of you who have sailed in a forward suite what has been your experience with the wind? I love the size of the forward suite balconies , but I’m a little afraid of how usable it will be with the possibility of wind?

We sailed this past Jan in a forward suite (10500) and love it. The wind wasn't a problem at all.  When moving/standing it was windy at the railing but I loved the large balcony and loungers and could easily lay out in the sun and read while moving without it being windy at all. I always love leaving the balcony door open at night and we couldn't do that at night but the large balcony easily made up for that. 

20 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

The Dawn is currently docked in Dakar, Senegal.  Hoping that those who want to continue the journey to Barcelona, Spain will be able to re-board.

They will be interviewed on the Today Show this morning so maybe we'll find out where they are and what the plan is.

We were just there on Friday and there is in fact an infinity pool. We never made it there but they pointed it out to us when delivering our drinks.  We were in an ocean villa and it seemed to be all the way over on the far end of the lagoon villas. We had a great day there - enjoy!

8 minutes ago, AnnaRae said:

Did the review happen to mention whether they had the balcony door handle fully locked? We were just in a forward facing suite on the Sun and I noticed the same sound one day. However, when I checked the door I realized we hadn’t turned the handle down fully into the locked position and it was allowing just enough air in to cause that screaming sound. I know it’s a different ship, but maybe that’s what they experienced too?

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's exactly what I was going to say. We just got off a forward cabin on the Pearl and would have that whistle anytime the ship was in motion and we didn't have the outside door looked.  We would often keep both door open when in motion without any noise/issue but once closed the inside door was closed, we had to have the outside door fully locked for silence.

8 minutes ago, omahabob said:

 

He knows. That's why he posted the smiley face.

I probably should have added if/when that ever happens! (with my own smiley face).  I heard that also when we were there in 2010 🙂

4 hours ago, FreestyleNovice said:

If only there would be plans for a pier..  

When we were there the other day, they told us they plan to build a pier. 

We were on the Pearl that stopped at GSC the other day along with the Escape. It was a beautiful day there!!

Yes!! For about 3 weeks now I can't log in on Chrome - just multiple log in prompts. I cleared my cookies and I was able to log in finally once again - but the second I tried to pull up an excursion I was bumped out and prompted to log in again - and I'm right back where I've been with the repeated looping requests. So frustrating. I can log in without any problems with Edge - it's just a nuisance since I'm typically on Chrome and need to jump over anytime I need to get into my reservations.

16 minutes ago, shof515 said:

you dont need reservations for the mdr

While you don't need MDR reservations, I'm in the club that always makes them. I find it saves us time during busy hours - we'll get seated right away and often we end up with a great table near the windows. Some ships will also have separate lines as well so less waiting to be seated. I don't know about the Encore, but we've always been able to make MDR reservations on every ship at the same time that specialty dining opens.

16 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

You are right having to close the curtains is not a negative. I'm going to enjoy sitting on that big deck watching the stars

The balcony is what sold me!!!  🙂

13 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

I’m getting tired of saying this, but this is absolutely not a negative. Once it’s dark out, having your curtains open in your stateroom when your lights are on is really useless, because you can’t see out. You just see reflections on the windows. It’s no big deal to pull the curtains. Also, the darkness in the bow at night makes for incredible stargazing, weather permitting. 

Exactly, which is why we booked it.  Totally not a negative for us at all. Thanks for confirming.

15 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

 

We’ve sailed in this stateroom and 10000 next door (on the Gem and the Jewel) a total of four times, never heard noise from the theatre.  There are two decks of cabins between the theatre and Deck 10.  These are great suites. 

Thanks, exactly my thought (and hope!!) and I've only read good things about them.  Looking forward to it - so thanks for the confirmation!

41 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

If you had that much noise in cabin 9500 how much noise did the other cabins below you have? Did your cabin neighbors have a problem? 

 

This makes me slightly worried since we have 10500 booked on the Gem in June.

We are also in 10500 and it makes me wonder - I also did a lot of research on this cabin and didn't see any noise concerns over the years, but rather many positive reviews (with only concerns related to closing curtains at night and wind issues). We sail next month - fingers crossed that excessive noise outside any "normal" times won't be a problem. It sounds like these particular rehearsals will be finished but it does make you wonder what might be heard. I'm happy to share our experience with this after our cruise.

21 minutes ago, afn10305 said:

@MrsTocko
Gail, thank you for posting this original thread and allowing me to vent. 🙏🏼 
I think the most aggravating thing about all of this is the utter lack of communication by whomever decided to hijack.

I have learned a tough lesson, and will no longer wait to make a request-- even if it's two years in advance!!!  I wouldn't dare send in a request though, unless I made it known on a roll call, whether I was the roll call starter or not. And since plans and itineraries do sometimes change, it is beholden of the requester to keep people informed. I've seen people who have "handed off" the M&G when they've decided not to book.

Anyway, I think COMMUNICATION is everything! EVERYTHING

Just to add also, when I did schedule M&G, I always did so as soon as we had 25 people - so often it was pretty far out. I just found having the information to begin sharing with everyone sooner than later helped with planning for all.

21 hours ago, afn10305 said:

 

@casofilia @ljrfrm @MrsTocko

I know I am replying to this over a year and a half after this thread, but The VERY SAME THING just happened to me yesterday and today for a cruise we are taking in October!!!

This is not our first M&G hosting, but I've always heard that 2-3 weeks ahead of sailing is when requests for CC M&G's should be made. We booked this cruise back in November of 2021 (almost 2 years ago) and not only did I start the roll call, but I made it pretty clear in the first post that I would be taking the lead on it. So naturally, you can imagine how completely SHOCKED I was to discover someone had already made the request.  "Gazumped" as you call it! 

Anyway, I got the exact same response from NCL's Special Events, no info about when or who made the request and only one CC M&G per sailing.  I also vented on our roll call this morning and I'm still hopeful the person who did it will email me personally so we can either co-host, or they can relinquish to me.  I also didn't want to call out anyone publicly, and honestly I can't be sure who did it, but mind you-- if they don't come forward, eventually everyone will know who it is unless like in one of your cases, they are no longer sailing.

See my rant post here --> https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2816315-ncl-pearl-october-6-2023-quebec-to-boston/?do=findComment&comment=66018369

I would be very interested in knowing how things eventually turned out for each of you, and would be grateful if you contacted me. 🙏🏼 I hope this is not becoming a trend.

Please feel free to email me at nclcruicin@gmail.com and thank you for an input you can give me.
 

I'm happy to explain what happened in my situation.  I had volunteered to organized the Meet & Greet and we had a whole Roll Call here on CC planning for it.  When I reached out to Special Events, they told me that someone had already arranged it.  It didn't appear to be anyone from CC, and my guess is it was from the group talking on the other social media platform. I explained to Special Events that we had a CC group planning to meet and can we still arrange it.  She told me they would only host one event. In my situation, she reached out to the person who already scheduled the M&G and ended up canceling their request and scheduling ours - prioritizing CC. She did tell me that the free M&G are for CC and not any other sites, and they would prioritize that. On my end, it wasn't so much that I wanted to organize it but more that we had a Roll Call planning to meet (with lots of people not on that other site) so wanted the venue to do so. For us, all worked out fine and we had a great time with the M&G scheduled through CC.

We also sailed the Star last summer and we were happy with the food and didn't have any problems or concerns with our meals. I easily gained 10 pounds! We ate well and enjoyed everything we ate.  I only issue I do remember was when I went to order the Prime Rib at Cagney's. The waiter told me they've been having problems with sourcing and had to order the meat through a different distributor - and passengers had been unhappy with the quality of the Prime Rib so he suggested I might want to order something else. I took his advice and ordered the Rib Eye instead and it was great.

I just wanted to share this as food experiences can be subjective. Others we traveled with also felt they ate well also on our sailing.  My disclaimer is that it's been a year since we sailed on the Star, and I definitely can't comment on any recent concerns.  I also would never take away from other experiences - I just wanted to share ours as well.

2 hours ago, MiniJeffrey said:

 

Would you know how this works when you're in a party where only certain people have P+? If I ask a bottle of wine with my P+ and people without P+ are dining with me, will they be allowed to drink from my bottle?

Our friends didn't have P+ and they were offered and drank our wine at dinner without a problem.

14 hours ago, SEA DOGY said:

We are sailing on the Gateway next month on the  Haven with Premium Plus  

Me and my wife we both are wine drinks my wife drinks only white wines Chardonnay etc.

I drink reds carbs Merlots etc My question is at dinner time can we have 2 bottles one red one white

Thanks in advance 

We did that - no problem.

2 minutes ago, Grimix said:

Last October (so before your story, and things may have changed) nothing was told to us about this on the Bliss and we took the wine every night. If you just grab the bottle and walk out you're saying they will accost you and demand the bottle back?

 

If this is their new standard I'd probably make them hold the wine, and just order a new bottle every night and make them hold on to bottles I don't plan on drinking to emphasize I'm not happy with the new system. I may be spiteful that way though. 🙂

LOL, our bummer was really that we couldn't take the unopened wines. But, it wasn't an issue as we used our Latitudes dinner wine and our friends (fortunately they didn't drink) to take back to the cabin.  I'm not sure if they would have tackled us walking out with the open bottle or not?  I guess we just figured it was easier to drink the rest instead of finding out?  Makes you wonder?  LOL

18 hours ago, js said:

I'm still trying to figure out what this half full bottle of wine you all talk about? Ive never had that happen 🤣

LOL, on our end we had moved on to bottle #2 OR, we also were really wanting to bring an unopened bottle back to the cabin. 🙂

28 minutes ago, OnFlight1978 said:

Hi Friends -

 

It's been about 10 months since I have been on a cruise with NCL.  I was looking at some posts and was not clear if things have changed.  In the past I have upgraded to the Premium Plus Beverage Package.  Typically at dinner, if I have an open bottle of wine and want to take it with me, it was not an issue.  They would cork it for me and I could take it back to the room.  This would be a free bottle of wine with the package, let's say in the Manhattan Room.  I've also ordered the free bottle of wine and it was never opened and they allowed us to take it back to the room.

 

In reviewing some of the other posts, it appears they do not allow this now?  They end up tagging the bottle that was not finished and give you a tag and they retrieve the bottle the next evening, is that correct?  Just trying to see if that applies to those who upgrade to the Premium Plus Package and potentially what has changed.  

 

Thanks for your help,

Brett

 

We upgraded to Premium Plus in March and any bottles we got (from any of the dining rooms) were not allowed to leave - whether they were unopened or half full.  However, the "free" bottle we received with our Latitudes dinner we were allowed to take to our cabin. They were very clear with the difference - and wouldn't allow any deviations.  This was on the Bliss.

12 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

All the entertainment has knocked it out of the park

Agreed!!! And since I came home with 10 extra pounds, clearly I enjoyed the food and drinks too.

@ceilidh1We were just on board last week and while we had some delays (main dining room dinner was 2 hours both times and the waiters in there did seem new/confused) we didn't have many of the other issues you've encountered. The last night we arrived for dinner at Taste at 5:45 and just walked in -no line. We were also a jam-packed full cruise. I wonder why such a difference between weeks? I'm glad you're still enjoying your time on board - we enjoyed Steven also and went the The District each night to watch him.

BTW, we all got the mysterious on-board credit also and everyone I talked to received $29.37 each.  We not only had the voicemail message about it but also the last day all morning they were making announcements for certain people to come pick up their money.  I'm assuming it was returned port fees - whatever it was, I'll take it!!

11 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

Kenai Fjord with Major Marine

I second this recommendation.  We spent 2 days in Seward following our cruise and booked the Kenai Fjord tour with Major Marine. It was truly the best excursion and day I've had on any of my many cruises. We saw so much that day including all the Alaskan sea life you could imagine, up close to glaciers, and such fun!! It was the best day ever!!! We enjoyed Seward itself as well - stayed in a great Airbnb, ate well, wandered and saw all kinds of wildlife (both at the Sea Life Center/Aquarium and in the wild) and once it was time to leave, enjoyed the glass dome train from Seward to Anchorage. 

Just to add (as I realized I left it out), we had no problem if we wanted to order a second bottle at the same sitting and they offered to leave the champagne bottle with us several times.