Malamel

We are in Central Park balcony room

12-253.  I originally wanted an ocean view balcony, but really couldn't beat the price with this.  Including insurance we're paying $750pp.  As soon as rooms are open, I'll get some pictures of ours.

While we were eating, we booked a few shows we didn't want to miss.  Dinner we're playing by ear, made a couple reservations.

We did stop by the spa and book massages.  First day special was a 75 minute for the price of a 50.  Still pricier than at home, but it's a "treat yourself" kind of trip.  I have reservations for the Aroma Stone massage at 2pm.  Still leaves me enough time to make it to sail away (even with this darn rain".  Then our 6pm reservation at Giovannis.

I'll try to keep this going through this whole cruise.

I'm Mallory, usually a solo cruiser, this time I'm with my Aunt Judy.

We left home (Northeast PA) at 7:30, checkin time was 10:30, we were hoping to beat traffic.  We did, and by 9:30 had our first glimpse of the ship.  10am we were parked, and 10:45 on board.

I have only cruised out of NY so far, first impression I'm very impressed with Cape Liberty.   Super fast and organized checkin.

Due to another cruise leaving yesterday (per the lot attendant), and the previous cruise not fully disembarked yet, we were parked in one of the overflow lots. Still not a bad walk into the pier.

23! Breakaway to Bermuda!

 I bought mine for the Breakaway 9/26 when I booked last month

I’ll be on my 3rd solo cruise in a few short months! NCL Breakaway 9/26 to Bermuda, I can’t wait, it’s been 3 years since the last one!

9 hours ago, NW Pacific said:

No crystal ball, but starting to think they may follow royal Caribbean lines, unvaccinated can come onboard with restrictions in place for their access to dining, entertainment  on the Ship??

I hope not.  I booked NCL bc of the 100% vaccination.  While I understand being vaccinated significantly lowers my chances of getting sick, I don’t want to have to be quarantined if an unvaccinated passenger contracts it.  

Does anyone have the menu for Onda on the Encore?  I've been searching and found a few reviews, but not the actual menu.

On 12/24/2019 at 3:38 PM, Sashenka07 said:

I can't explain how encouraging this post was! I am also an older 20s/approaching 30s solo cruiser and I just hate to wait for someone to travel with when I'm capable right now. I did one solo on NCL Epic/Med cruise and it was amazing. Thinking I'm going to book solo for either May or Sept/Oct (when younger kids are in school).

Same here, well, in the early 30's solo cruiser, always nice reading reviews from other solos.

I don't know why my edit didn't save. But yes, in Bermuda we did the Ultimate catamaran snorkel and sail excursion. Booked through Carnival, we were on the Rising Son II. Paid $89 for this, worth every penny. They took us out to a beautiful area, usually has a beach, but bc of high tides, no beach. We had caves to swim and snorkel in and a little cliff to jump off of.

We also spent a few hours at Horseshoe Bay Beach. Relaxed, let the waves push us around, and climbed to the top of the rocks.

Those were both on our full day there. First day we went around exploring and shopping, last day we didn't get off the ship.

Well, I've been back since Saturday, but now I have a few minutes to do this.

I'm not hard to please on vacation, as long as I have a chair to lounge on and a cold drink, I'm fine. And speaking of chairs - the Chogs were out in full force, but it was still pretty easy to find a chair late in the morning. But it would have been alot nicer if they didn't get rid of so much deck space.

I spent most of my lounging time up in Serenity - there were a few parents who didn't see/chose to ignore the 21 and up sign, but the workers up there were usually pretty quick to get them out.

NCL kind of spoiled me when it comes to shows, I'm not a fan of Carnival's, so I didn't see any of them. I did go to the Love & Marriage, Hasbro Game Show, and Quest, and those were all a blast.

Dinner - We ate at Cucina the first night (Loved it, left absolutely stuffed), the main dining room 3 nights (Hakan and his team were amazing), and the buffet the other few nights.

Lunch - Cucina for the last 2 days, which was delicous. I had Guy's once, it was good, but not worth waiting in the long lines the other days. We mostly stuck to the buffet, which I was underwhelmed by.

I'm not a huge drinker, but we did have a few ... or more banana daquiris from the Red Frog bar. And I didn't stop at the Alchemy bar until the 5th day of the cruise and that was a mistake - I wish we knew about it earlier. It was amazing, I loved the cucumber sunrise (even though they ran out of cucumbers the last day).

Emma was an amazing cruise director, very bubbly and energetic.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask, I'll add more as I remember to.

I found their names. There were Parviz and Bojan. There was a 3rd, but I didn't interact with him

I loved the cucumber/watermelon one. They ran out of cucumbers on our last full day, so I missed out on my final one.

No, I didn't do the martini class. We hung out there the last 3 days of the cruise after trivia. I wish I found it earlier than that.

I went there a few times this week and it was awesome, but I wanted to fill out my survey and I cannot remember the names of the bartenders that were there. I wrote them down and can't find my list. Can anyone help me out with this?

If you booked through Carnival, there won't be a problem ... your excursion might start a little late, but you won't miss any of it.

Here is a really good picture review someone did of the Sunshine.

They stayed in this type of cabin.

The pictures are at the bottom of the first page.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2169332

Thank you!

Yes, those are the rooms :( I was hoping someone who was on them could let me know what they thought of them.

Has anyone stayed in the rooms on the lobby deck beneath the theater/night club? How bad is the noise?

When I was on the Splendora 3 years ago, they were open on port days, but with more limited hours

Down to 46 the! Sunshine here we come!

We had 3 women in an inside room (22, 26, and 27). We didn't spend a whole lot of time in there, the only time it felt crowded was when all 3 of us were trying to get ready for dinner. So we decided an order for showers (basing it off whose hair took longest to dry). Worked for us.

Congratulations!!!!! I'm so glad you're back with another review, I read most of your solo reviews before I went on my first solo cruise.

And if yes, does anyone have pictures of the menus?

Thank you!

Are there any caves you are allowed to swim in? The only ones I saw so far are Prospero's and Cathedral, but they are only open to resort guests? Any help would be appreciated.