barnacle_boy

Wow! Thanks for all of the advice, everyone 😁

I'm definitely going in with an open mind - looking to have a lot of fun no matter what!

So far, sounds like I've definitely got to try:

• Piano Bar

• Chocolate Melting Cake

• Blue Iguana - Arepas & Bowls

• Welcome Aboard Show

• Anything that gets me a "ship on a stick"

Carnival's already been successful in getting me to spend a little extra for both spa thermal passes & premium WiFi. Pricing for both seemed very reasonable compared to the competition, so I'm curious to see how they turn out too!

Hello Carnival folks!

We're leaving this weekend on Carnival Magic, and we're so excited. We've been on dozens of cruises with both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, but this'll be our time trying Carnival.

Does anyone have any thoughts of how the different cruise lines compare? We've heard that Carnival has bigger cabins, more complimentary food options, and a very energetic atmosphere. Looking forward to seeing it all in action!

Not sure if it's the same for Carnival, but the other lines we've tried have fan favorite dishes, drinks, activities, shows, etc. that can't be missed. Do any folks here feel like there's something that's classic "Carnival" worth giving a try? 😁

Spirit used to have a Cinema, but it was removed years ago to make way for more shopping space.

Hey all

 

This post has inspired me to write a post about my favourite ship. I absolutely love the Norwegian Spirit and hope that they don't change it too much in the refurb! I hope that they don't change the atrium or the pub...

 

http://cruisingisntjustforoldpeople.co.uk/2016/10/15/ncls-norwegian-spirit-my-favourite-cruise-ship/

 

It's really interesting to look at pictures of the ship when it was owned by star cruises vs now. See below the atrium :)

 

The photo on the left is SuperStar Virgo, Norwegian Spirit's sistership that's still with Star Cruises in Asia.

Spirit's atrium is almost untouched from when Star owned it.

I know that Captain Evans Hoyt left NCL last year and is now with Carnival UK,

P&O Cruises and Cunard. Does anyone know what ship he is currently sailing?

He'll soon take command of P&O's Azura.

The one mention I saw of it on here is he didn't get along with FDR or "impeded" the new administration in some way.

Yep. He had the gall to politely disagree with the new management. Didn't last long after that.

Johnny Rockets was introduced on Voyager of the Seas in 1999. For several years, the food was complementary. Then they added a cover fee, which is currently $6.95 per person for most ships. However, it's now a la carte for Royal's newest ships.

The new Panama canal dimensions could be a hard demand in the design of the newer ships but didn't (not sur) Cheng said that the new ships are probaby too high for a certain bridge over the canal, with a reference to a NY bridge which Breakaway can just pass under?

It's true that the Bridge of the Americas is lower than the Verrazano Narrows, but Breakaway and Escape are short enough to pass under both. Doesn't make much sense to design a ship that will fit through the new canal without taking air draft into consideration.

Harvest Caye is quite different from Great Stirrup Cay. Since it's the result of a partnership between Belizean government and NCLH, it's going to be treated like just another port stop. UBP will not be honored. All food will be a la carte.

Especially odd is the Breakaway being absent after September 2017. I would think they would not want to surrender any early bookings to Royal Caribbean out of the competitive NYC market.

There's a good reason why Breakaway's schedule isn't up yet. Wait and see. ;)

When we reflagged the Sky to the Pride of Aloha, the crane couldn't reach high enough on this side to raise the new logo for the funnel. They were actually considering using a helicopter to lower it into position until I told the pilot he would be hovering in the exhaust gas coming from the running generator. We finally had to rig up hoists and drag the darned thing up a couple of decks and then repair the handrails we bashed doing it.

All that work only for that new logo to get trashed at Freeport in July 2008 :(

I'm always amazed by your Sky/Aloha anecdotes. NCL America is definitely a cruise industry tale for the ages.

I have to admit, I don't like the Spirit. Just an odd layout and feel. You can tell it wasn't built by NCL, it's just odd. It's not symmetrical in design, walk down one side and you end up in the theatre, the other and you end up at a dead end. For those who don't know, it was designed originally for Star I think to be an Asian casino ship.

Dawn and Jewel Classes aren't symmetric in layout either, and all of these ships share the same "DNA." Spirit is absolutely the direct predecessor for the bulk of the NCL fleet. After Star Cruises purchased NCL in 2000, they transferred several unfinished newbuilds to their new subsidiary. SuperStar Libra and SuperStar Scorpio were essentially bigger, improved versions of SuperStar Leo and SuperStar Virgo. Libra and Scorpio were finished as Star and Dawn for NCL with minimal changes to the original Star Cruises design. Leo was transferred to NCL in 2004 and renamed Spirit. The Jewel Class is based on the same Dawn Class platform with some modifications.

Leo (Spirit) —> Star (Libra) and Dawn (Scorpio) —> Jewel

Some of the cabins have a bunk bed for the fourth guest.

What deck is the bridge?

Is it like BA/GA or Escape?

Deck 14, which is the same as Breakaway and Getaway. It's a deck lower than Escape to accommodate the new public areas.

Is that a Photoshop of BA/GA?

The forward facing ocean view should have one more deck, right?

Not Photoshop. It's a completely new rendering of a radically different design.

If you are there early enough-would they board after Haven guests? Like an airplane has priority boarding?

That's not how boarding for the Haven works. An escort will bring them to the front of the boarding line regardless of group number. This system allows Haven guests to have priority boarding no matter when they arrive at the terminal.

If you want a chance at being first onboard, arrive extremely early and ask for special assistance. No guarantees, but occasionally the earliest disabled arrivals get a chance to board first.

I don't know how much internet is on other lines to compare to this.

Cheaper. Much cheaper. And for Royal Caribbean, it's much faster too. NCL provides the slowest connection at the highest cost amongst the major mass-market cruise lines.

RCI offers $15/day for Voom (free on some ships in the future). Carnival offers an extremely innovative and flexible pricing structure: $5/day for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. $16/day for everything but heavy bandwidth applications (VoIP, streaming, etc.). $25/day for unrestricted access.

So paying $30/day for headache-inducing slowness on NCL is hard to justify when you can get broadband-like (I've streamed Netflix on Voom) speeds for half the price on their competition. NCL is so far behind the curve in this regard.

I am surprised at the light colored beige carpeting in the last picture, looks like it might be in the Atrium. I would think this would be hard to keep clean with the amount of foot traffic on the ship. I love all of the photo's, keep 'em coming. : )

That's Pink's Champagne Bar, which overlooks the atrium. The old carpet was a similar color, albeit a darker shade with a busier pattern.

No, still lots of work left to do. I've heard the spa still won't be ready to open even by the end of our cruise.

It'll be another several weeks at least.

We are on deck 12 in an Sg suite. The ship looks very nice. We just ate in the Bistro and the have added a beautiful room walled like a library. It looks great and the service was excellent. All the cabins have been upgraded. New beds and furniture I will take pictures and post them tomorrow . Sailing out of San Francisco was lovely [ATTACH]379916[/ATTACH]

The "Library" was original to Jefferson's Bistro. It's not new.

The emotions are typically leverage against Frankie as the top dog in all these but Andy has been with the line for 20+ years and risen up the ranks, correct and he should take leadership responsibility for not "micro-managing" this ... no ? Oops, preaching to the wrong audience ;)

FDR and his Prestige buddies have been the driving force behind this drydock and the absurd schedule. They are the ones who've been down at the ship constantly and have overseen the work. They are to blame, no one else.

Write a letter to corp---now thats funny. Ncl has basically zero customer service at any level

It's more of a therapeutic exercise than something to get clear results :D

They won't listen to you anyway, but take it easy on the people onboard who have to make this ridiculous crap work. It's not their fault. Don't direct your frustration at them.

I told you folks a while back that the chances of finishing the ship on time were slim to none from the start. The amount of time allotted for the various projects was ridiculously short.

I only ask that you please take it easy on the shipboard staff. They've been to hell and back trying to get the work done with insufficient support from corporate.

If you want to blame someone, write an angry letter to NCL corporate about the need to listen to their own shipboard employees. These new Prestige executives are so incredibly arrogant, but at the end of the day, they have no clue how to run a company the size of NCL. It shows through in clusters such as this. Let them know that this kind of stuff is unacceptable to passengers.

Yeah, "stuff" happens. Despite having the contractors "walk the job" months in advance and giving a timeline, staging materials months in advance, and working with huge "critical path" spreadsheets from NCL, contractors and the yard, somethings always seem to interfere with another job, or a brand new component out of the box fails. Good that they had a day in hand.

 

 

 

When we reflagged the Sky to the Aloha, I think we had 6 hours between completion of sea trials and embarkation.

Yep, "stuff"! :D

Unfortunately, it is true that the transpac back home is delayed. For now, it's only a day, but I wouldn't be surprised if it stretches a bit longer than that. Either way, it will be several weeks minimum before all of the new features are fully up and running.

Do you know if they wetted her at all? I remember the last time the Aloha was in BAE SF, we had a several hour delay due to poor fit up of sea valves in really confined spaces. This is one of the most common reasons for delaying an undocking. Looks like a couple of launches alongside for technicians to board.

 

Tuesday is embarkation, right?

I'm not sure why it was delayed, but they've been having a lot of different issues overall. Some projects either are incomplete or not where they should be at this point. Contractors will be onboard for the upcoming cruise to finish up some of the work.

Would you happen to have an approximate time please ?

There was no sea trial today. I've been periodically checking the web cam, and POA has not moved from her dry dock at all. Perhaps it will occur tomorrow. Hopefully everything is going okay and that the rain all these days has not slowed down anything.

Trials were postponed. Not many are usually up at this hour, but she's afloat now and in the bay :)