A couple of changes I noticed on Breakaway last week

[Travelicious]

Two things I wanted to report so all can be prepared:

 

1.  Shampoo dispenser in my shower was so diluted with water that I couldn't get a lather no matter how much I tried.  When  the button was pushed, it was just running water and no need to push multiple times.  I have no idea if this is ship or fleet-wide, only that it was in my cabin.  The shower gel seemed somewhat watered down, but usable.  You probably want to take your own shampoo and possible soap.

 

2.  Previously, if you were too full to eat dessert in the specialty restaurant, you could have it delivered to your room to enjoy later without charge.  Now the room service charge applies - $11.94 including 20% service fee for your convenience.

 

I know they are trying to recoup some of the billions in lost revenue during the pandemic, which I support, so I ain't mad.  Just wanted to give everyone a heads up so you can plan ahead.

[pandncruisers]

Thanks for the heads up we are boarding Sunday 01/15 for a b2b and I can live with these couple items

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, Travelicious said:

1.  Shampoo dispenser in my shower was so diluted with water that I couldn't get a lather no matter how much I tried.  When  the button was pushed, it was just running water and no need to push multiple times.  I have no idea if this is ship or fleet-wide, only that it was in my cabin.  The shower gel seemed somewhat watered down, but usable.  You probably want to take your own shampoo and possible soap.

Sounds like an isolated case. And kinda irresponsible to generalized to the ship, let alone the fleet. 

 

We sailed a couple of weeks ago and had no such problem. 

[SunshineGal2022]

Will they box up the dessert for you if you cannot finish it and you could take it back to your room yourself?  Often times I am too full to finish the entire dessert after dinner, but 2-3 hours later things have shifted around enough that I want to eat the rest.  I never waste good chocolate!

[PATRLR]

15 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

And kinda irresponsible to generalized to the ship, let alone the fleet. 

The OP specifically did NOT generalize it to the ship or fleet and stated it was their cabin:

6 hours ago, Travelicious said:

I have no idea if this is ship or fleet-wide, only that it was in my cabin.

 

[European_CruiseGirl]

34 minutes ago, SunshineGal2022 said:

Will they box up the dessert for you if you cannot finish it and you could take it back to your room yourself?  Often times I am too full to finish the entire dessert after dinner, but 2-3 hours later things have shifted around enough that I want to eat the rest.  I never waste good chocolate!

No they don’t. No take out from restaurants or doggy bags. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by European_CruiseGirl

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, PATRLR said:

The OP specifically did NOT generalize it to the ship or fleet and stated it was their cabin:

 

"I wanted to report so all can be prepared:"

[BirdTravels]

51 minutes ago, European_CruiseGirl said:

No they don’t. No take out from restaurants or doggy bags. 

We do it on cruises where we are not in the Haven. Our past couple of Haven cruises, they are fairly insistent that our butler come and fetch the dessert for us. 

[julig22]

50 minutes ago, European_CruiseGirl said:

No they don’t. No take out from restaurants or doggy bags. 

Just off the Jade, no issue getting leftovers prepped to take with, didn't ask about delivery.  Last I knew, only O'Sheehans/Local doesn't allow takeout.

[wcook]

My mom - who came from a generation where waste was simply not acceptable - always went to a restaurant prepared. A few zip loc bags in the purse and what not. 

[pandncruisers]

We have asked for our dessert to be boxed to take back to our cabin from different specialty restaurants on different ships several times without an issue never asked for them to deliver it.

[debenson0723]

I always take my dessert to go...the last couple of times they insisted on delivering it to my cabin.  I was surprised to get a knock on the door and it was my server from the restaurant standing there with my dessert.  It was great to see her again (she was awesome) but I thought someone else would be my delivery person.

The only time I was denied 'takeout' of leftovers was in Food Republic last February on the Escape. I just couldn't finish the sushi rolls and was told because it was raw fish, it couldn't leave the restaurant due to the heat.  It was a health concern and as tempted as I was to put them in my purse, it wasn't large enough. 🙂 

[New2cruise2022]

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Sounds like an isolated case. And kinda irresponsible to generalized to the ship, let alone the fleet. 

 

We sailed a couple of weeks ago and had no such problem. 

They provided a disclaimer that they didn’t know if it was just their room or not. I don’t think that the report back is irresponsible. The comments were critical but were measured and far from negative. 

[New2cruise2022]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

"I wanted to report so all can be prepared:"

Exactly. Poster was mentioning it so people could bring their own products and be prepared. 

[SeaShark]

11 hours ago, Travelicious said:

I have no idea if this is ship or fleet-wide, only that it was in my cabin.

 

11 hours ago, Travelicious said:

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up so you can plan ahead.

 

Given that the OP failed to mention which cabin, I'm not sure how exactly we can plan ahead.

[mking8288]

4 hours ago, European_CruiseGirl said:

No they don’t. No take out from restaurants or doggy bags. 

Oh mine, here we go again.  A couple of ziplock bags, that often works wonders  - sweets called for tupperware with covers.  It's not as if folks are taking food items against government regulations to go ashore for health & safety reasons.  

 

NCL tried and did this several years ago (i.e. no takeout & nothing permitted to be taken out from O'Sheehan's and Garden Cafe, etc. with the crew police watching ... )  and there was plenty of uproar with the differential enforcement and/or lack thereof.  Guess what, didn't take long for corporate to backpaddled on the unpopular move. 

 

One of the updated, fine print sentence stated no takeout and sharing allowed in specialty dining.  Funny thing, last September - server in Cagney's not only wrapped our layered cake to go but escorted us out to the AFT elevator, ready to "help" us bring it up to our room.  

 

The way I see it, Sail and Sustain perhaps could result in less "incentive" to tip really extras on top of the DSC as higher "fees" being passed back to us. For we, the customers, the battle could be a tie but the crew members could - might - possibly be the loser - especially if they are "prohibited" to do it.  Sad.  

 

Vacation Heros - pretty difficult for the ordinary crews to earn them in 2023, unless they are fortunate to have Haven assignments.  Just my two cents and IMHO, feel free to disagree, for your convenience.   On the other hand, I am going to start pre-writing those Dear GM comment notes as feedback to management, I am sure it will fit right into Sail & Sustain.  

Edited January 11, 2023 by mking8288

[BirdTravels]

50 minutes ago, New2cruise2022 said:

Exactly. Poster was mentioning it so people could bring their own products and be prepared. 

"Hey room steward, could you please empty and refill my shampoo... it is full of water"

 

versus

 

Cruise Critic "Warning Everyone: Bring your own products and be prepared because NCL is going to recover a billion dollars by watering down the shampoo"

[New2cruise2022]

The poster wasn’t mad. Or dramatic. Give ‘em a break. 

[Sand and Seas]

Just off the Breakaway  two days  ago.  We were in a Club Balcony  and had no problems  with our shampoo  and bodywash.  Loved our great  room steward Beth. Sounds like OP had a different kind of  steward!

 

We were told we couldn't  get our Cagneys dessert  boxed up so we ate what we could there.  We have had different  experiences on different  ships.  Sometimes it's yes and sometimes no.  Not really a problem  for us.  We had a great time 

 

 

 

 

[Mississippian]

13 hours ago, Travelicious said:

Shampoo dispenser in my shower was so diluted with water that I couldn't get a lather no matter how much I tried.  When  the button was pushed, it was just running water and no need to push multiple times.  I have no idea if this is ship or fleet-wide, only that it was in my cabin.  The shower gel seemed somewhat watered down, but usable.  You probably want to take your own shampoo and possible soap.

I rent out a cottage next to my house plus rooms in my back wing on Airbnb and Booking-dot-com, so I have occasion to buy hotel-sized soap and shampoo. I loathe body wash and don't care for the push-button shampoo dispensers, so it's really nice to have my own bars of soap and shampoo to take on trips. It's possible to buy relatively small amounts of this. Don't buy anything under one ounce, as it will be too small to use.

[Travelicious]

9 hours ago, SunshineGal2022 said:

Will they box up the dessert for you if you cannot finish it and you could take it back to your room yourself?  Often times I am too full to finish the entire dessert after dinner, but 2-3 hours later things have shifted around enough that I want to eat the rest.  I never waste good chocolate!

Not sure.  Thought about it later, but didn’t ask at the time.

[Viajera7]

On 1/10/2023 at 11:50 PM, Sand and Seas said:

We have had different  experiences on different  ships.  Sometimes it's yes and sometimes no.  Not really a problem  for us.  We had a great time 

 

 

 

 

I agree. I was on the Jade for my birthday last year and I had ordered a no sugar added dessert while I was on Cagney’s. The waiters brought it and a cake and sang Happy Birthday. I ate the dessert that I ordered and only tried a little of the birthday cake. They offered to box it but we declined.

[JGmf]

On 1/10/2023 at 11:31 PM, mking8288 said:

Funny thing, last September - server in Cagney's not only wrapped our layered cake to go but escorted us out to the AFT elevator, ready to "help" us bring it up to our room.

 

I don't eat dessert, but the same thing happened to me, but it was shrimp cocktail that I couldn't finish and wanted it later.  I got an escort to the elevator like I was going to sell them on the Waterfront or something. 

[CruzinMel]

On 1/10/2023 at 6:11 PM, SunshineGal2022 said:

Will they box up the dessert for you if you cannot finish it and you could take it back to your room yourself?  Often times I am too full to finish the entire dessert after dinner, but 2-3 hours later things have shifted around enough that I want to eat the rest.  I never waste good chocolate!

It might depend on the restaurant.  Last week they boxed up my daughter's dessert from La Cucina and she left with it.  

[DCGuy64]

Funny about the alleged "no take-out" issue. Last month on the Epic, we twice got desserts to go because, as usual, we were stuffed to the gills after dinner and couldn't finish them. One time was for my wife's birthday and I told the server we didn't need anything, but "thank you." She brought it anyway, and said "don't worry, you can't take the rest with you." Didn't seem to be a problem.