dwp1127

We saw it on the Getaway last week, we enjoyed it.  Definitely not Blue Man Group, but it was fun and our boys (13/16) enjoyed it.   

1 hour ago, Yinster said:

Who is the concierge? Is it Omar? If it is, you need to say hi from me and if he had any fudge left?

Omar is on Getaway, now, we just got off this morning and had him this past week - we previously had him on Epic and he was amazing both times.

We are in Haven now on Getaway. Buffet in Haven is up.  They do have Lox, my wife just had this morning 🙂

1 hour ago, Carolina.girl said:

Our cruise on the Encore is set to sail in 6 days. Today when I logged in to NCL, the "Let's get you upgraded" banner was missing. We had bids placed on 3 room types, but still no email except the one that confirmed our bids. Last week they had already moved our room due to our selected room/deck being designated as the quarantine area....from interior to OV room (but a bad area of the ship - extreme forward). We would have preferred simply being moved to another interior room but weren't notified or given a choice.

My question is, since the upgrade banner is now missing, does this mean we didn't get an upgrade bid? Does NCL send an upgrade-rejection email?

You can check using this link:

https://upgrade.plusgrade.com/offer/NCL/
 

just need your name and reservation number.  If you see something like expired next to some of them (or gone completely), you didn’t get those.  Usually if you see either something like pending or processing next to the remaining one, it’s a good sign you probably got it. 

That being said..  I'm just coming over COVID myself and based on everything I'm reading on CDC and what I've been told by my doctor, an Antigen test (which is given at the port) will test positive only for "live" virus.   In theory, even if you had COVID, this should be negative usually within 10 days of your initial positive infection.   A PCR test is much more sensitive and can show positive for "Dead" virus in your system for weeks if not months after your initial infection.

So for those of us recovering (or recovered) from COVID, we SHOULD be fine at the port with the antigen test

This looks to be fleet-wide.  We received it this morning for the Feb 19 Getaway sailing as well, same letter.

My final payment was due March 18 for July 19 sailing on Encore, I just cancelled 2 days ago, and got a full refund of my deposit.

We absolutely love the Haven on Epic..  

On 8/9/2019 at 8:02 PM, CruisingNole said:

I cruise the “big 3” lines and I find NCL to be equivalent to Carnival but the food isn’t as good. It’s a good time, but not anything to write home about. The food in particular is awful. Similar “clientele.”

 

Royal’s Oasis class ships can’t be compared to NCL because there is no comparison. The entertainment, food, service, everything makes NCL inferior in comparison.

Just got off Ovation (Quantum class). I can’t compare Oasis class, so I’ll concede that 🙂

On 8/9/2019 at 5:59 PM, Deeliteful said:

Dwp1127 I think the internet issue was probably down to the fact you were cruising in Alaska rather than it being a RCL issue.

i did my first NCL cruise in June on the Breakaway, (usually cruise with RCL, Celebrity or P&O) and I was pleasantly surprised.

i am sailing on the Getaway in December so for OP I think you would definitely enjoy it. Younger demographic than X and plenty for kids to do.

It sucked in Seattle too.  Poor implementation on that ship.  Even the Internet staff admitted that the service was poor on Ovation. 

1 hour ago, pabrett46 said:

Hello there,

So I have pretty much exclusively booked Royal Caribbean in the past.  I thought I'd like to try something else for a change.   So.. I find it kind of hard to figure out what comes with your cruise and what doesn't.   So if you've cruised both lines can you tell me the difference?   We are looking at NCL Breakaway out of New Orleans.  I've mostly cruised the Oasis class ships with Royal Caribbean.

I have a teenager come with us... so I'm looking for something that offers things for her to do.   What is included with the cost of the cruise?  What would I have to pay extra for?  Ie drink packages, both alcohol and non alcohol, shows, meals etc.

Thanks in advance.

Debbie

We have traditionally been NCL and Celebrity cruisers in the past (along with 3 Disney Cruises over the years when the kids were younger).   We just got off RCL Ovation of the Seas from Seattle -> Alaska last week (our first RCL cruise), and while I won't say we "hated" it, we definitely came to the realization that RCL (or at least the Ovation) isn't for us.   I'm 47, Wife is 44, boys are 13/11.  We've cruised 9+ times, so have some basis of comparison.  We've sailed Haven on NCL, non-haven, etc.

To RCL's credit, I thought our Wait Staff in the main dining room was hands down, the BEST wait staff we've ever had on 9+ cruises with different lines.  They were truly excellent.

What we didn't like about RCL (or at least the Ovation):

1. WAY too many people crammed into the ship with limited options on Day 1.   Embarkation itself wasn't bad, but once we got on the ship it was a complete mess.  15-20+ minute waits for the elevators, and the only thing really open/available was windjammer (buffet) at that point.   Once you got up there, it was just a sea of humanity and good luck finding a table.   On NCL, we feel there are more things "open" and available on embarkation day.   Even after the first day, it just always felt crowded.  Never have felt that way on NCL.  We met a couple who had been on Oasis and they felt it was design flaw with Ovation, saying that Oasis felt much more "roomy", so perhaps it was just the ship.

2. VERY limited dining options.   We had a 5:15 Main dining seating (we were with my in-laws).   By 9pm I wanted a snack. I don't do Pizza.  I was pretty much out of any real options at that point.   NCL I feel like there's always SOMETHING available with some variety.  I never felt like I had to hunt things out on an NCL ship.

3. Internet was AWFUL compared to NCL.   We were in the Med last year on Epic and I was literally facetiming my kids crystal clear, as well as doing some stuff for work.  On RCL (Ovation), it (no exaggeration) took my wife 6 hours to upload 20 pictures to Facebook (and we did have the streaming package).

4. VERY limited entertainment.  Again, I'm hearing this may have been more of an Ovation of the Seas issue vs. RCL overall, but we were not impressed at all with the night time entertainment.

5. I felt like EVERYTHING was an upcharge on Ovation.  Granted, most cruise lines are heading this way, but I never felt like I was being nickle and dimed on NCL.

To RCL's credit, my boys (13/11) LOVED Seaplex.  They practically lived up there between Bumper Cars, Basketball, Xbox, etc.   My 11 y/o had ZERO interest in the kids club (we stopped by after registering him to drop him off, and even my wife and I said "no way".. they had a bunch of 10-12 year olds literally just sitting like it was a Kindergarten class room with not much activity.  Beyond Seaplex, my boys said the cruise was "boring" compared to other cruises we've done.

Hope this helps... I know it's just my personal opinion, but I really don't see us doing RCL again.  We're already booked for NCL Encore next summer, and we're all looking forward to it.

On 7/8/2019 at 6:36 PM, BirdTravels said:

Have you ever had decent pizza on any cruise ship?

Just got off the RCL Ovation of the Seas, and their Pizza was actually surprisingly good, and I'm used to good NY pizza.

We just returned home after sailing the NCL Epic from Barcelona April 22-29 2018. We booked ItalyTours EU for each of our 3 Port stops in Italy (Naples, Civitavecchia, and Livorno)

We loved EVERY single tour webooked with them! We booked (3)excursions, and each one was excellent. In speaking with fellow cruisers who booked their excursions through theship, we knew we made the right choice! We paid MUCH less and we feel like we got MUCH more! We were a bit nervous (we never bookedoutside of the cruise ships before) about making it back to our ship in time, but the drivers put us at ease every morning – they made it clear that theirpriority was for us to have a good time AND be back to the ship on time. We LOVED the vans and small groups - our drivers were literally taking us down side streets and through the towns where the busses would never have been able to get - we feel like we saw sides of Italy that our fellow cruisers missed out on!

All of the drivers were good,but Salvatore (in Naples) stood out. Hewas AMAZING! That tour was our favorite(Pompeii, Sorrento, and Amalfi Coast), by far in terms of the overallexperience and the itinerary. Salvatorewas extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and accommodating. For example, we passed some beautiful fields/winerieson the way to one of our destinations, and one of our fellow passengers said“oh wow, that’s beautiful!” – next thing we know, Salvatore is telling us “I’mgoing to pull over so you can get out and take some pictures”. That NEVER would have happened on the big busfrom the cruise ship! The stop at the Limoncellofactory was awesome and a nice surprise as well as stops at various points onthe Amalfi Coast for us to get out, sample some local food or drinks, or justtake in the view.

The guides we had in eachlocation were excellent as well (Francesca in Pompei, Isabella at the Vatican, Marco in Florence)

We are already talking aboutgoing back to Italy again and we will ABSOLUTELY use them again!

My luggage just arrived! Thank you all for your advice! I am so happy and relieved!

Glad to hear it and congrats! We are on Epic now and just left Naples 2.5 hours ago heading to You for tomorrow! We were a little late departing due to a passenger not making it back to the ship in time but the Captain announced we are good and will arrive just before 6am.

It must depend on when you get there. We did the Century in July, there were 2 other ships in the same day (Disney, and I can't remember the other), and we were through Customs in about (no exaggeration) 5 minutes. Granted, we got there early, but it was hands-down the smoothest embarkation we've ever had.

We were just on Century July 14 and had zero problems with bugs. No rain the entire week, so not sure if that helped things or not.