Tommy3putts

19 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I've done a number of TA's and the Southern Crossing is generally the calmest.   Some have been so smooth that you hardly knew you were aboard. 

 

This crossing was rougher than most and we experienced 7-18 Foot waves during the crossing.    Most of the winds were coming from the north so the  predominant movement was from Starboard to Port Roll.  While not the roughest cruise we have been on it was far from calm. 

 

Just out of Toulon where we were hit with gusts up to 80 MPH and 20 Ft waves, the movement was pronounced and I got a little queasy.   I took 1/2 of a Bonine and it did the trick.    No additional meds were required for the remainder of the cruise.   As a side note a number of the crew reported they were feeling queasy also.

 

When I first started sailing I was very susceptible to motion sickness.    I found that if I took a motion sickness pill the evening  before the cruise and one the morning of the cruise It would calm down my inner ear and would not experience any discomfort.   I didn't need to take any more for the remainder of the cruise.   I guess over the years I got accustomed to the seas and no long affected (most of the time). 

 

Maybe others here can jump in and let you know what they use to prevent discomfort.   I see many with patches but have never personally used them.

 

 

I have very similar experiences.  We’ve only done the southern route on two previous occasions. Both TAs for us seem to have a day or two of rough seas after leaving the straits of Gibraltar.  After passing the canaries, the seas have been great for us.

I’ve been on 10 cruises.   Started off worrying about motion sickness and did bonine similar to your suggestion.   The last three cruises I forgot to pack it 

Enjoyed tagging along on your adventures. Well done. We board the Edge October 30th for next years WB TA. Your thread is very helpful

Cheers

Tom W

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

We are also looking forward to the crossing.   This will be our 11th TA and our 7th southern.  It is a little different from many as we have no stops after the Canary Islands.   It will be nice to have lots of sea days after a very port intensive itinerary of the last cruise and the beginning of this one.

Next year will be our third TA. We’ve sailed the Reflection itinerary previously.  We love Tenerife and the 7 Straight sea days. 

I have been following along since the beginning of your adventures.  Great stuff and thank you. But now it’s time to chime in. This is the part I’ve been waiting for,..... the TA.  We are on this same itinerary next year. It will be our third TA, but our first on an edge clash ship. I’m really looking forward to following along in seeing how your 14 night cruise goes for you.

Thanks 

Tom W

We just got off the Constellation on the cruise preceding yours (September 22 in Barcelona—10nt from Venice).   It was our first cruise on a Millennium class ship.  Let’s just say it wont be our last.  We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise, one of the best ever.  I may do a review of our cruise in a few days.

I hope your voyage is as good as ours was.

Cheers

Tom W

3 hours ago, cl.klink said:

Got some laundry done in the sink twice so far. Easy peasy. My one bag and it’s contents for travel has worked fine in this trip. I am so glad I stumbled on this approach years ago. I have plenty of stuff, it’s all very functional, but I only have to use one carry on as my travel bag needs. 

 

- Joel 

I have been doing the one bag travel for our European land vacations for years.  It is such a great way to travel.  The only exception now is for cruises.  I take a few more clothes since I’m only unpacking once.  

We board the Constellation on the 12th of September.  Looking forward to your review.

For early March, depending on where you are coming from, you should be okay.  Taxis are usually plentiful at Miami and agree would be a far faster mode of transportation.  Your issue will be the timing of the arrival of your flight.  If your plane suffers a lengthy delay or worse yet, cancelled, you could miss the cruise.  I hope you have trip insurance.

Have a great cruise.  

15 minutes ago, ourfamilylovescruising said:

great review!

Celebrity is our favorite too when it is just my husband and myself but with the kids NCL is our favorite it give us a little of both we have done RCCL about 6 times and still end up saying we like NCL better.

The oasis class ship are amazing  but never seeing the ocean view really was a disappoint for me.

where the water front on the away class ship is really my favorite thing from any ship.

We’ve done two Oasis class cruises (Allure 7nt and The Symphony 12nt TA). I agree they are amazing ships, especially when you consider the amount of passengers and crew they are carrying.  It never seems crowded on that ship.  Everything is well thought out and the service is amazing.  I really like the Central Park area.  However, as you and I point out all the sea views are blocked.  There is really no outdoors space (bars or lounges) to sit and enjoy an cocktail and experience the ocean, especially at  night.  That is a huge detractor for me.  Contrast that with Celebrity’s Sunset bar at the back of the ship.  That’s my favorite spot at night to enjoy the moon and the ocean.  If Royal could do something similar to the NCL Breakaway class and somehow move those life boats and open up deck 5 or 6 there’d be so much space for folks to sit and have contact with the ocean.  

7 hours ago, Ginnyfyr said:

Thanks for a great review! Hubby and I were on Celebrity Equinox the same dates (Feb 2-9) and were wowed by Bliss as we passed by on sail away. Sounds like a great ship if you're in their target market. We've only done one NCL cruise on Breakaway and we enjoyed it, but our bid into the Haven was also accepted and that definitely had a huge impact on our experience...I don't think we would ever sail them in less than a Haven cabin again. I guess it's safe to say welcome back to Celebrity! 🙂 

I loved the Equinox.  We sailed her last year.  The Sunset bar on celebrity is probably my favorite venue of any cruise ships.  We thought about bidding for a Haven upgrade but decided not to.  I wanted to experience my first NCL in a regular areas.  If I were going to do an NCL cruise in the near future, it would have to be in the Haven.

Cheers.

Tom

7 hours ago, tony0aces said:

Thanks for the review, did you happen to try your luck in the Bliss casino, if so can you share your thoughts? 

I ventured through the Casino several times but did not stop and play (While I love to play poker, craps and Blackjack I don’t gamble much if at all on cruises. My beverage package usually puts me at a higher risk of losing).  The Casino is nice and one of the bigger ones I’ve seen for a ship this size.  I like hte idea of a separate room for smokers.  The casino at night was always busy when I walked through.  I liked the bar.  I’d give the Casino 🍺🍺🍺🍺

True, you can get soft drinks from a bar.  

Hi al

The wife and I are Celebrity and RCI fans, but decided to see what it was like over on the NCL side of town.  Here are our thoughts.  Needless to say we liked the cruise but overall it solidified Celebrity as our cruise line of choice.

Cheers

Tom

Here is a link to my thoughts on our NCL Bliss cruise.  YMMV.

Hello everyone,  My wife just returned from our first cruise on NCL.  We had a wonderful week on the NCL Bliss and are glad we tried NCL.  What follows is our thoughts on the cruise.  

DISCLAIMER:  Admittedly My wife and I are RCCL fans.  Our first choice is always Celebrity but we also have sailed several times on RCI ships.  I’ve been intrigued by the NCL Breakaway class ever since it debuted several years ago and wanted to try it.  We finally did it this year.  The views are from the perspective of a grumpy horizontally challenged, bald fifty something, with no kids.  Admittedly, my views may be biased.  I naturally do a periodic comparison with our experiences on RCCL ships, so feel free to take my observations with a grain of salt.  

We sailed on the Bliss on February 2-9, 2019.  Overall we really enjoyed NCL Bliss.  She is a great ship with many outdoor venues that appealed to us.   However, while I would sail on NCL again if the the itinerary, ship, timing and price was right (Alaska??),  I think I’ve scratched my NCL itch for now and it’s time to go back to where we belong....Celebrity.  I’ll go into more detail below but to best summarize our view of the overall cruise experience I’d say it was a 3 beers (🍺🍺🍺) out of 5.   We found it a bit too noisy and crowded for our liking (ironically there was not a  lot of kids on this cruise).  The overall flow in most of the public areas just didn’t suit us.  That and the legendary “nickel and diming” stuff and NCL’s failure to address the finer details greatly lessened our overall NCL experience.  

Embarkation 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺. One of the highlights of the cruise.  Very easy and quick check in.  Not too crowded.  I liked the “assigned group card” boarding process.  

Disembarkation 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺.   Another highlight.  We left the ship around 0930.  I loved clearing border entry check (facial recognition) on board while leaving the ship.  Once we were off, getting our luggage and catching a cab was a breeze. 

Itinerary 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺. I really liked the E. Caribbean Itinerary (Tortola, St Thomas and Nassau).  We like sea days and the three port itinerary with a mid afternoon departure really made it feel like we had 4 days at sea.

OVERALL SHIP CRUISE EXPERIENCE 🍺🍺🍺 

The Bliss 🍺🍺🍺.   Overall like the open air spaces and their access/connection with the ocean.  So many of the big new ships (like RCI’s Oasis class) have plenty of open  outdoor space but block the views and access to the ocean with lifeboats, walls and water slides.  But that’s not the case with the Bliss, plenty of space to sit and enjoy the ocean views.  The furnishings and decor were for the most part pleasing and comfortable.  We had smooth sailing and felt very little ship movement.  The outside lounging areas on deck 8 were our main areas to retreat to at night.  Unfortunately, a huge bad thing is that there were many areas of the ship that are regularly crowded and noisy.

The Waterfront 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺  This was our favorite feature of ship.  NCL really did this well and clearly outshines RCI and Celebrity.  I wish the RCI Oasis class ships had evening outdoor sea view venues like the Bliss.  I love the return to the open outdoor promenade deck.  The Waterfront restaurants, bars and lounging al fresco areas were great!  It was a wonderful place to escape the noise and crowds in the other public areas of the ship, especially at night after dinner.  I wish there was maybe one or two more bars out there towards the back of the ship.

Spice H20 🍺🍺🍺🍺  This is where I spent the majority of the time on the ship.  It was a great adults only retreat with beautiful views and a great bar staff.  It reminded me a great deal of Celebrity’s Sunset Bar (but not as nice).  The covered bar area was great, there was plenty of sports on TV, beer and sea breezes. The big knock for me were the stationary bar stools. They are far too close to the bar for a big fat guy like me.  I hit my knee countless times...annoying.  Also It did get over crowded at times during the day with lounge chairs.   It was another nice evening outdoor venue if you were looking for music, dancing and overall good time.

Observation Deck 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 A great venue.  My wife’s favorite.  A great place to escape and get a cocktail, snack and great views.  Perfect for an Alaska or other bad weather cruise.  Also a great spot to grab an early morning cup of coffee.

Bars 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 I really liked the variety of bars and lounge spaces on the Bliss.  Wine, Scotch, Mojito, Cavern Club, H2O, Observation Lounge are just a few examples.  I think NCL overall has done a great job.....except for the Jimmy Buffet venue.  That’s a head scratcher.  

Specialty Restaurants 🍺🍺🍺 🍺.   We had the 3 night dining package.   La Cucina, Teppanyaki and Cagney’s.   Cagney’s was fabulous.  I think I had one of the best steaks I’ve ever had on a cruise ship.  The service was excellent.  La Cucina and Teppanyaki were both solid choices.  Good food and good service, but not as good as Cagney’s.  We also did a fourth night at “Food Republic”.  This was probably my least favorite.  The food and concept was good, but the service was not great and the “electronic menu” system was overly complicated and did not work. 

The Local 🍺🍺 1/2.  Sooo much promise yet doesn’t deliver.  Overall disappointed.  To me this venue is not a pub or a sports bar.  It’s just a restaurant venue with a few TVs and a bar over on the side.  The Casino Bar, Outdoor Cavern Club Bar and H2O are much better spots to watch sports.  Had wings the first day and they were great!  But the breakfast on the third morning  was just “so-so.”  Trying to be a food venue and a bar venue just doesn’t work smoothly in my mind.  It ended up being a crowded noisy central meeting point for most guests.  I never went back after the third morning breakfast.

Buffet 🍺🍺🍺 1/2.  We ate breakfast and lunch most days.  Great selections and usually didn’t have problems finding at table.  We especially enjoyed the outdoor seating.  The main disappointment was the inconsistent times that they opened for breakfast.  Some mornings it was 0700 and others it was 0730.  It caused a lot of confusion among the passengers.

MDR.  🍺🍺 1/2.  We ate at Savor twice.  The food was “okay” (not great), but service was very disappointing.  The timing of food service was rarely coordinated (my wife finished her first course before mine was delivered).  Also crowded and noisy for the space.  

Pool deck areas  (decks 16&17) 🍺🍺 Probably the most disappointing asepct of the ship for us.  The flow on both decks was the worst I’ve experienced on sea days.  Crowded and loungers moved everywhere.  It was almost impossible to get from one end of the ship to another.  The pool area is too small and desperately needs a third pool and extra deck space.  The water slides and that race track are the culprits and an annoyance for my purposes.  Thank goodness for the H2O retreat 

The running track is a joke, and for the most part useless, even in the mornings.  

Elevators 🍺.  Wow! Awful.  poorly positioned and crowded at almost all times of the day.  The waiting areas for an elevator made the experience even worse.

Public bathrooms 🍺.  The good news is there are a lot of them.  The bad news is most of them are too small and have one or two undersized stalls.  The smallest stalls I ever experienced on a cruise ship (old or new).  Most of the bathrooms did not have automatic door openers and they wanted guest to use paper towels to open the heavy steel doors.  Yet most of the paper towels dispensers didn’t work or were always empty.  Seems like an area, NCL intentionally cut corners on to me.  

Cabins 🍺🍺🍺🍺.   #14160, Mini Suite.   I thought the NCL Bliss cabins were great, well thought out and had a few nice touches.  The bathroom had a lot of space for a cabin this size.  With the exception of the unmarked main light switches and absence of a night light in the bathroom the electronics were well done.  Plenty of outlets and USB Ports.  The bed was disappointing for my taste (too firm and uncomfortable), but my wife liked it.

Entertainment 🍺🍺🍺.   This rating may admittedly be unfair.  Didn’t do much here and we skipped Jersey Boys.   The pool band wasn’t the best I’ve heard.  I think the lead singer was having a bad cruise.

SHIP GUEST AMENITIES AND SERVICES 🍺🍺 1/2

Internet 🍺🍺 Overall a huge disappointment.  Here NCL woefully is far behind RCCL.  The value for the price paid is ridiculous.  I got the premium high speed package and felt it was a ripoff.  Sporadic streaming and almost not ability to do live video.  Also iMessage quit working halfway through the cruise and the IT staff just blaimed in on Apple.  For normal email, social media and surfing, it was fine.  BUT NOT WORTH THE HIGH PRICES.  All of the different pacakges offered by NCL are really overpriced for the service provided.  

NCL ship App 🍺🍺 1/2.  “Meh.”  Without going into too much detail I like RCI/X’s Apps better.  NCL’s was harder to set up at the start and the features were less refined that RCCL’s.  I did like having access to my onboard account.  But the App went weird halfway through the cruise.  I think this is the culprit of the iMessage issue above, but the NCL IT experts blamed Apple.

Beverage Package 🍺.  Probably my biggest example to provide of NCL’s cost cutting and nickel and diming.  One of the highest per day prices for the “Ultimate Beverage Package” (UDP) (ours was included in the original booking) and delivers the least as far as I’m concerned.   The biggest shock and ripoff is the fact that water and sodas are not included in the “Ultimate” package.  So unlike RCCL, one is left to getting a soda or tap water in a plastic disposable cup from a bartender.   Additionally on the booze side, most of the premium liquors that are included in RCCL packages are outside the pricing that would make them included in the NCL package.  So the choices are fewer in the NCL package.  

Overall Bar Experience 🍺🍺🍺 1/2.  Most of the Bar and Lounge venues were great.  There is a wide variety.  The bartenders were all great (🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺).  Fantastic speedy service and fun to get to know.  We especially enjoyed the bartenders at H2O (Bryant from “south philly,” “Idaho” and Sam) that really made my afternoons in H2O fun.   The bad thing about the outdoor bar service is NCL’s policy of using plastic disposable cups for mixed drinks.  It greatly lessened the experience, when they should have been using Acrylic glassware.    (Also sticking this comment here, the disposable coffee cups are a joke.  You have to ask for them and the are small Dixie cup type cups.  Bring and insulated travel mug for hot and cold beverages)

Room Steward 🍺🍺🍺🍺.  Was okay.  Started off great, but I was disappointed when he clearly became less attentive as the cruise went on, especially the last 24 hours.   

So, Let me sum-up.  No doubt in my mind Bliss is a wonderful ship and we had a great cruise.  Depending on the cruising wants and needs of the individual I would recommend sailing on the Bliss (or a Breakaway class ship).  I really like NCL’s ship design of bringing the outdoor promenade experience to life.  I wish RCI would incorporate these types of venues in their new ships and go back to a fully open Promenade deck.  To me the Waterfront and the H2O areas are the main attractions of the Breakaway class ships.   But then there are the NCL detractors: cutting corners, crowds, pool deck organization/flow, noise and most of all those elevators!  

As older DINKS we are not huge fans of “family oriented venues.”  We want outdoor spaces to enjoy drinks, warm weather and the ocean. The focus of NCL on on placing family venues like watersides and a racetrack in a manner that interupts peaceful enjoyment in the upper open deck areas is something that will likely prevent us from doing more regular NCL cruises.  For us NCL will just be an option to look at for future cruises, but our first choice will continue to be Celebrity. 

Cheers

Tom

Hi.  We are Celebrity Cruisers (but not nearly as many as you) and we did our first NCL cruise last week on the Bliss.  I’m working on a “review” right now.  We liked the ship overall, especially deck 8 the Waterfront, but I think we are going to stick with Celebrity.   If you really like Celebrity and its service,  you may be disappointed, the NCL standards of service and amenities aren’t any where near Celebrity.  I have more details in my review.  I’ll try to post a link to my review, but if not it should be up this afternoon or tomorrow.

Cheers

Tom

11 hours ago, SAmome said:

Random questions....

 

If buying a beer flight at Playmakers, is it tacky to bring in a hotdog from Boardwalk to go with it?

 Not tacky at all. Several did that, including me.  

11 hours ago, SAmome said:

If have 10:30 reservations for Hairspray and it says 90min running time, would we just miss the ballon drop at midnight?

It will be close. The show is a full 90 minutes.  But promenade is right outside on deck 5

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

So I'm guessing Playmakers going in where Sabor is now, and dropping Sabor Bar to add Abyss?

 

BTW, care to elaborate on who 'he' is?

 

But no word on moving DL to Deck 4, or adding Wonderland?

The manager of PM’s “Mark”.  Is a great guy.  He’s on Symphony until March.  He’s going from ship to ship getting PM’s up and running.  Yes I believe the plan is to replace Sabor with PM’s. He wasn’t real sure on Abyss plans. 

No no word on DL or WL.  

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

What other Oasis drydock news have you heard?

 

Abyss and Playmakers.  He wasn’t positive about Abyss.  But it will be relevant to putting in Playmakers 

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Doesn't the crew have to do Customs/Immigration as well when coming over on a TA? That can slow down boarding for the next cruise.

Correct that’s what has the crew worried is immigration.  Must go to zero count as well. 

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

What other Oasis drydock news have you heard?

 

Abyss and Playmakers.  He wasn’t positive about Abyss.  But it will be relevant to putting in Playmakers 

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Doesn't the crew have to do Customs/Immigration as well when coming over on a TA? That can slow down boarding for the next cruise.

Correct that’s what has the crew worried is immigration.  Must go to zero count as well. 

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

I have seen and read that about Playmakers.  I even wonder if they have enough space for their popularity.

 

As for Customs in PC, I fully agree with you 100%.  Get that "s... show" done in advance of landing in Miami.  

They are putting it in on several existing ships in dry dock including Oasis next year.   Interesting to see how the designs are.  They need to get the “broadcast rights” figured out for more games, and they will.  It will just take time. 

Miami am will be chaos on Friday.  I’m thankful to be able to grab my bag and go. 

1 hour ago, sh2738 said:

 

I’ve never done a TA Cruise before. What sort of inspections do the passengers have to have done? 

Customs clearance for passengers is the same for any other cruise.  The ship coming from Europe however has to go through coast guard, public health and customs inspections 

Tom

Nits

1. Ultimate Dining Package.  Not being allowed to book reservations BEFORE boarding is ridiculous.  I was in a situation where I had 3 nights I could not get any reservations at any specialty venue.  Guest Services eventually booked reservations for us.  Kudos to GS. But there has to be a better way. At some point before the cruise Package  purchasing customers should get a chance to reserve times.  In the end while we like the UDP concept I cannot recommend doing it. 

2. Include a Playmakers Dining Package option. In the UDP, I would have gladly accepted $30-35 credit for a meal in PM’s

3.  Smoking Area on deck 15. It is terrible for both smokers and nonsmokers alike. 

4.  Solarium Bar is still not open

5.  Maintaince issues restricting access to some areas. Yes there is a “we are getting ready for Miami vibe now present. “Hey this cruise ain’t over. “

Again just Nit Picks. This is a great cruise!

Tom

Overall a great cruise.  Symphony is a great ship with a great crew. A few more nits to note but nothing to ruin an otherwise awesome experience.  Symphony will not disappoint. 

All the specialty restaurants are great and worth trying.  My favorite venue by far is Playmakers.  Great food and staff. 

We we are clearing customs on Thursday in Port Canaveral. Clearing the whole ship of passengers and crew. From 10-12 for inspections. Some folks aren’t happy with that but I’ll pay that price in Canaveral to avoid the chaos in Miami on Friday. 

Cheers

Tom

BREAKING NEWS!!!  Weldgate resolved???

looks like the bar covering is finished.  Could the bar be open soon???