NCL loyalist takes a solo Adventure

[natefish95]

Hello people and Karens of Cruise Critic! I'm coming to you live from the Nassau airport after an awesome week on Adventure of the Seas, which was my first ever Royal Caribbean cruise. As you can see from my signature, I mostly do NCL with a few Carnival sprinkled in (almost all solo). When Royal announced they would be starting up cruises from Nassau in March, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to get back on a ship and try something new. 

 

I have about 3 hours until my flight back to DC boards, so I'll start writing a quick and detailed review here. There probably won't be many pictures because I didn't take many and I don't want to deal with trying to upload them here. I'm happy to answer any questions along the way!

 

About Me: As you can probably deduce, I'm Nate and I live in Arlington, VA just across the river from DC but I'm originally from the Atlanta area. I'm a civil servant by day and my hobbies are cruising, aviation, and guacamole. 

 

Booking: I booked on line. No travel agents or anything like that. Super easy. 

 

Flights: Although I wasn't planning on it, I booked flights through Air2Sea because they were much cheaper than what American was showing on their website. I originally had connections in Philly (going to) and Chicago (coming form), but my flights were changed to the nonstop from DCA-NAS there and back. NO COMPLAINTS FROM ME!!! I also decided to book first class because I like my space and inflight vodka crans. 

 

Hotel: I stayed at the British Colonial Hilton (more on that later)

 

Planning: In the Cruise Planner, I pre-booked: the Beverage Package + Voom combo, a 6 pack of water, and a day pass to the waterpark on the second day at CocoCay. 

 

Pre-Cruise COVID testing: A couple weeks before sailing, we got an email about having do a mandatory PCR or antigen test taken 3 days prior to boarding (that was the gospel, but Royal's emails, website, and customer service people were all over the place with what was required. Not a good look honestly. I did a PCR test Wednesday (8/4) and had the results that night. I used a place called SameDay Testing in Virginia, which was super easy and free. Would highly recommend if there is a location near you. 

 

I think that's it for all the pre-cruise stuff? In the next post, I'll discuss the airport experience flying down and my one night in Nassau at the Hilton. 

[natefish95]

August 6th-Flying to Nassau

 

Since the ship is departing Nassau late, I know a lot of people decided to fly in the day of. Not me. If I'm paying for a 7 day cruise, I am getting 7 full days! If you don't board until 5pm, you miss 5 hours of drinking and getting into vacation mode!

 

Like I said above, I booked my flights through Air2Sea, first class on American Airlines. The Wednesday before I got my COVID test done. 

 

Quick Note: Regarding the health visa, I submitted mine before the new testing requirement. I applied for my health visa a week before and it was approved in like 15 minutes. It's pretty self explanatory. I highly recommend printing our a hard copy that has the QR code on it. 

 

Onto the airport...my flight departed DCA about 8:30am. Since I was paranoid about lines and delays, I wanted to get their 3 hours early. I set my 6 alarms (yes 6, I'm not a morning person y'all) and took the metro the airport at about 5:15am. Once at the airport, the lines weren't bad. I walked to the end where it was less crowded and said I was going to Nassau. She asked to see my Verifly, health visa, and COVID test. The COVID test to enter the Bahamas wasn't required for me, but I just showed her my health visa and Verifly. My verifly said "ready to board" but it didn't sync with my account and I couldn't check in on my own. She put me in a short line and the gate agent checked me in and verified my visa, vaccination card, and passport. It was a very, very easy process. 

 

Put all your documents in a folder so they're ready when needed and you don't look like a mess when trying to find the needed docs. Everyone in line behind you will be judging your lack of preparation (especially me). 

 

Security was a non event. I have precheck and Clear, which are a godsend! I was through security in 90 seconds.

 

As we were boarding, you had to present you health visa again, so keep it handy. 

 

The flight was super smooth and uneventful. I had several vodka crans (it's 5 o'clock somewhere and I'm on vacation) and some chips from the snack tray. 

 

Customs and baggage claim was also uneventful. They stamp the form you're given on the plane. Make sure you keep that form because while checking in to depart today, the checkin agent asked for that form (there is a back side to it). 

 

Taxis are easy to find as soon as your exit the baggage claim area. The taxi to the British Colonial Hilton was $35 and the driver and I had a nice chat about COVID in the Bahamas. Well, it's not a nice situation but I enjoyed chatting with him. 

[natefish95]

Before I get to the hotel, let me talk about my first major complaint with Royal vs NCL: the Cruise Planner.

 

The layout is clunky and it is difficult to find your booking details. NCL has all that information laid out very nicely and it's very easy to find. 

 

Also, why the constant changing of prices? The "sales" rarely mean anything is actually on sale. The beverage packages hovered around the same prices for several months. On rare occasions, it would drop by about $10-15 but it would not stay there long. I really wish Royal would standardize the prices so that you know what to expect. 

 

NCL clearly wins in the pre-cruise planning category for me. Carnival also has a much better organized planner honestly. 

[natefish95]

Hotel:

 

I won't say much about the British Colonial Hilton because that has been talked about at length. Overall, I thought it was overpriced for the quality. Very dated, low water pressure, and my room smelled like mildew. My room was ready about 1:30pm, which I was extremely grateful for because I needed a nap badly! 

 

For dinner that night, I walked over to the Fish Fry area. The taxi driver recommended a place called Fish Central, but it was closed. Instead I went to a place called Frankie Gone Bananas, which was just average. I got the blackened grouper, which was good, but the sides and the drink were average at best. Walked back to hotel, showered, and met someone from the [redacted social media site] group at the bar in the Hilton. 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, natefish95 said:

Also, why the constant changing of prices? 

If you were a business, you wouldn’t want to leave money on the table. 

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, natefish95 said:

Before I get to the hotel, let me talk about my first major complaint with Royal vs NCL: the Cruise Planner.

 

The layout is clunky and it is difficult to find your booking details. NCL has all that information laid out very nicely and it's very easy to find. 

 

Also, why the constant changing of prices? The "sales" rarely mean anything is actually on sale. The beverage packages hovered around the same prices for several months. On rare occasions, it would drop by about $10-15 but it would not stay there long. I really wish Royal would standardize the prices so that you know what to expect. 

 

NCL clearly wins in the pre-cruise planning category for me. Carnival also has a much better organized planner honestly. 

Enjoying your review so far. I find RCI’s pre-cruise planner very easy and simple to use. My guess is you are more familiar with NCL and Carnival planners while I am more familiar with RCI’s planner, so we are accustomed to the planner(s) we use the most.