Liljo22

The Escape casino is no bigger than any other casino I have been on other ships even on other cruise lines. It doesn’t come close to taking up the entire 7th floor because you also have the theater, O’Sheenans, and the Manhattan Room on that floor.

They still rebate differences and missed ports on a case by case basis. I have received a small OBC this year for the per passenger amount coming in lower than expected. If they miss a port and the per passenger amount is still higher than they charged passengers, or course they are not going to return port fees for that port.

These are the two main difference I find between the two: Dining NCL is all My Time Dining and they have pretty much perfected it. Royal tries to jam their MTD into the regular dining rooms at least on their Oasis ships. Can’t remember how it was set up on the Freedom class. NCL also will pull staff from other restaurants to help during a rush so I rarely have the 2 hour dinners I have had on Royal. You also get a number of specialty dining credits depending on cabin and cruise length. Atmosphere NCL caters to the solo cruiser market and I feel it keeps the ship a different atmosphere. They usually are there to make friends and have a good time. There are solo M&Gs and they will usually go to places in groups. It’s not uncommon for a group to strike up a conversation with non solos or encourage you to join them. It gives the ship more of a refined party atmosphere trashed than the a drunk fest you might find on Carnival. On Royal I have felt that most keep to themselves.

The drink package works on GSC. It doesn’t on Harvest Caye.

The fact that you spent the first 1/4 complaining about the embarkation just proved my point. After that point, there was nothing that would have saved this cruise for you.

If you are going to buy the drink package, always do it as a perk. The regular price is $109 per person per day plus 20% gratuities($130.80pppd). As a perk, you only pay the gratuities which is $21.80 per person per day. For wifi, are you saying the speed is capped? It is and you would need to upgrade to the premium unlimited for the higher speeds. The unlimited plan alone is the same as the perk wifi. The Epic is on Starlink but the speeds are still slow even for the premium at least in the Caribbean. If you plan on just web browsing, the perk/unlimited is good enough.

Waiting breathlessly for the OP to make their comeback where we are all accused of being cheerleaders or NCL employees.

I don't ever tip per drink and I have never had a problem getting a drink over someone who tips extra. I have even had bartenders that know what I drink and already have one being poured as I walk up. At the end of the cruise, I give $20-$50 to the bartenders that made the trip better without me having to bribe them.

I agree with you. NCL and probably cruising as a whole is not right for you. But you already know that because, as you say, you are correct about everything. Looks like you bailed but so far this is what we got:. -Pre-Cruise NCL was great (probably the most surprising part of this rant) -Buffet Staff was great -Customer Service was great -Room Steward was great -Captain was great -Food was 9.5 of out 10 -Entertainment was good(could have used more Polka) -Weather sucked -Because the weather sucked, you couldn't use the outside areas. -The gift shop didn't have enough variety for you. -Embarkation was bad -You skipped a port I have been on this board long enough to know that the main issue here was Embarkation. Some people can't get over something that happens before they even step on the ship and it ruins the whole trip for them. After that point, everything is magnified in there eyes. The hostess at dinner didn't smile? The whole staff is rude. They had to wait more than 5 minutes at 1 bar? The bartenders are terrible. If I was on this cruise, I would probably have had a great time.

How do you know they didn't design it bigger. NCL just announced the bigger ships a few days ago. Are you saying that BA should have put in their write up from months ago that NCL was planning on having bigger ships? Is that how the bigger ships should have been announced?

I don't think that means that. The Breakaway Plus class ships are just the biggest ships NCL currently has. This isn't a press release from NCL. Its from the architectural firm that doesn't have that information.

We were on the Prima but I pretty much had the same experience except for the Speedway which we loved. Here are my thoughts on your topics. 1. 100% agree. I don't think I can sail without at least the Premium Plus upgrade but can easily make FAS+ work. I think we covered the cost in Starbucks alone. 2. My biggest gripe with the Prima was the lack of free options during the day. Indulge and the buffet closed to early and there is not really any grab and go options. Everyone has to go to the Local for late breakfast and after coming back from the port. 3. We never saw more than a 10-20 people at any time when we were looking down from the Speedway Bar during the day. Felt it could be better used as a Spice H2O since there is limited space by the pool. 4. Overall the food was great both in the MDR and SD. A few misses but most was good to great. Onda was our favorite SD. 5. We rode the speedway 3 times and could have done it more. The Speedway Bar was always open during the day and was a nice quiet retreat with one of the best bartenders. I do agree about the guns though. They didn't seem to be working. For me, the waste of space was the Galaxy Pavilion. Every time we walked by on our way to the OL, it was closed. It seemed like it was open during the pass time and very little outside of that. I felt the same as you. Prima was a weird ship and we enjoyed it at the time but I think back and remember how much fun we had all week. I think another cruise on a Prima class would allow us to take advantage of its weirdness. I do think that it lacks a big meeting place around the pool and in the atrium. Wish it had a balcony around the Lido deck so they can have bigger crowds. We also spent a ton of time at the Penrose bar area listening to the bands play or learning different dances. It needs to be a bigger space if you plan on using it for that.

Made up person but created by the team behind Rock of Ages for NCL. There is a separate company that NCL contracts with to license the shows. They do restrict where their performers can sing even outside of Rumors.

They are pull out sofa. They are pretty comfortable but are on the smaller size. If you are putting two people on it, I would only do smaller children.

They were playing all the televised NFL games on my last cruise. They were even on the cabin tvs.