MikeandAmy

Motegi nailed it. While our line if choice is Celebrity for Caribbean we bounce around, agree NCL better for suites, very casual. When we booked our Magic cruise for December got call back asking alot about our opinions on suites and what we feel is missing. Was honest so I'll give you my opinion after cruise on CCL.

Look forward to it.

All you have given my DW and I and some great insight! :cool: The 3 deck high serenity sounds great since its for 18 and up and we dont have any kids. Thanks for the advice on the Asian restaurant we will definitely give it a shot, since its 8 night and we wont do the main dining room every night. I believe someone said they have a Steakhouse which is great on NCL they have Cagneys for their steakhouse and its always pretty good. Any other specialty restaurants we shouldn't miss out on?

I want to give a thumbs up to all those who gave great insight of Carnival and being to compared it to NCL. Like you said I just need to go in and be open to difference and not compare.

Thank you letting me know about not having to dress up, because my DW and I just dont want to do it, 5 plus days a week of doing so its something I dont want to do on vacation. I dont know if my wifes family is trying to give me a hard time but they said you have to go formal or they send you to the buffet lol. It reminded of the soup **** episode from Seinfield no soup for you!

Sorry for the attitude from people, ran into it myself. Carnival is way behibd NCL, RCCL,Celebrity, MSC, etc in suite perks.sorry

Dee

Did you enjoy Carnival overall? I am reading more on the suites and they are behind a bit when it comes to perks for suites. But thats ok, I understand that. Its like the airlines they all take time to catch up with one and another.

I agree, if you go into it with the mindset you won't like it, then you will probably not. Carnival is a good cruise line with a huge following. Yes, there are those who complain about everything and those who never have anything but very positive things to say. If your intention is to relax and have a fun cruise, I believe you will!

 

 

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Thank you Cdavid for not gaining up on me! have you ever taken the Sunshine?

Which perks are you referring? I'm just curious. BTW, I'm an NCL fan after I sailed the Escape last year ......

We usually stay in a suite with NCL so we are use to the Haven with the private area for guests and specialty restaurants for breakfast and lunch that are just for suite guests. Also I enjoy the fact I dont have to participate in formal nights, and still be able to dine in the mine dining room. I wear a suit and tie all week, the last thing I want do is dress up on cruise. I am glad you enjoyed NCL. Did you notice a big difference between NCL and Carnival, or pretty much the same?

Well, with that negative attitude, you probably aren't going to have a good time.

Carnival is about having fun, it isn't about frills and perks.

I didnt come in here with a negative attitude I said I was afraid I am not going to like them compared to NCL. I am looking for those who have been on NCL and Carnival to see if there is major difference between the 2. If you dont have any constructive to add, then please dont respond to my post.

Ok my wife have taken about 10 cruises on NCL and love them. But we are taking Carnival for the first time next year, and I am afraid we arent going to like them. Only reason we are taking Carnival is because my wifes family is taking the Sunshine and they want us to go with them. We are in the Grand Suite which seems nice, but we dont seem to get the perks as we do on NCL. Has anyone moved over to Carnival from NCL and how did you like?

Hello,

My wife and I are thinking about taking NCL out of Copenhagen, we know the cruise arrives into port at 7am, but the flight is at 1250pm flight to early? Or do you think we should wait to the next day?

This is why my wife and I have stopped cruising. They are getting fee happy just like the airlines. We have started to do all inclusive resorts, where you don't have to worry about extra charges. Pretty much eat, drink and do what you want for no extra fees. We went to Costa Rica back in May and didnt have to pay for a single thing. We are going to Aruba in December same thing, only thing we will have to pay if for wifi in our room, or we can use the free wifi in the lobby.

Our cruising days are over pretty much, which is a shame we loved NCL.

I'm going to do one more post. I know exactly who you are. We were neighbors, we saw you at disembark. Listened to your conversation. And saw you when we left. Saw you four or five times a day, every day and at the meet and greet.

Bye!

We did not even do the meet and greet... :mad:

So that shows you right there you have no clue who my wife and I are.... so move on!!!!

Wow!! Sensitive much?? We were there when you talked to Elvina. You sent your bags out the night before and that doesn't work for early disembark. When she took us off the ship they hadn't even opened the cargo doors to start unloading bags. No place to go and wait on shore until bags are unloaded, so she explained to you about waiting until they offloaded baggage. If you wanted early off all you had to do was take your bags with you like the hundred or so others with us did. Of course she had you wait, the instructions were very clear about what you had to do to get off early, delivered to each suite in writing!

No cow here!!! Just wanted to note the correct date. We know you guys were not happy, all of us knew! Every suite guest that followed the instructions got off at 7:40, only ones that didn't were the ones that wanted later departure or didn't follow the instructions.

 

For the other poster that mentioned getting escorted off the ship, never in the last five cruises in a suite did we get walked down the ramp. What Elvina did was have security hold all departing guests until the suites were down to customs and then release the general early walk off guest. Then later the line was interrupted to allow another group of suite guests off.

We still have the letter from Elvina stating that if you checked your bags the night before, you could not go with the early group.

You have no clue who I am so please dont say you know who we are... She did not have to explain a thing to us... My wife and I did not say anything to Elvina until around 830 and we were very quite about it... Now others in the room were getting a little upset but not once did we raise our voice or cause commotion.

Hi, Mike and Amy! We cruised together a few years ago. We will be on the Jewel January 12. Thanks for the warning about the spa and we will look forward to meeting Elvina and dining in the specialty restaurants. We will be in the haven, too. (Yippee!!!) How were the two butlers?

Hey Debbie!!!

Tell Elvina we said hello!!!

Just to clarify the disembarkation process. We too were in the Haven for this cruise. Most of the Haven met Elvina at 7:30 and were escorted off the ship. We were the first two through customs and by 8 am were already passing the NO airport heading home!!! After general disembarkation starts, there is not much the concierge can do to get you off the ship, you have to join the same line as everyone else and by then the backup for customs can take a half hour or more. Food in all venues was great!!! Reserved seating for the show was good if you liked the balcony, if not, then not so good. One elevator had a minor card key issue but otherwise that all worked well. Elvina was a good concierge and Bagus was a great butler.

And just to clarify, the cruise was Dec 8th.

OMG lets have a cow my wife but down the wrong date!!! Lets get something straight we were down with Elvina at 715am and she was not able to get us off until around 830am, yes if you did not have bags waiting for you, you could leave earlier, but we had bags... We were not the only ones who said something about this while waiting in the Chin Chin restaurant others were throwing a fit, but we did not say anything until about 830 when we had been waiting an hour...

Hi Debbie,

We didn't use the butler that much but he was good.

Hi, Mike and Amy! We cruised together a few years ago. We will be on the Jewel January 12. Thanks for the warning about the spa and we will look forward to meeting Elvina and dining in the specialty restaurants. We will be in the haven, too. (Yippee!!!) How were the two butlers?

It was our first time out of New Orleans but I think what held it up was the easy off process. It seemed like half the ship chose that slot. We did have Elvina escort us off but it took forever for the easy off debarkation to ease up so we could be cleared to go.

As for the spa hopefully they will do better. Our issue was escalated to the Hotel manager and I'm sure they were going to discuss and make changes.

Have fun on your trip!

Thanks for the review, MikeandAmy. We're on the Jewel in 7 days. Since the Pearl is our all time favorite NCL ship, we're glad to hear the ship is comparable - as it should be, since I believe it's the same build class.

 

Glad to hear your concierge was a good one; we'll look forward to that.

 

We've been in and out of New Orleans several times, and have never had any problems with either end of the cruise. Hopefully your disembarkation issues were a one time thing...did you have Elvina escort you off?

 

Sorry to hear about the dining room food, but we've never felt it was anything other than pretty run-of-the mill on any NCL ship. The specialty restaurants usually are very good, as you say.

 

My DW will be very upset if the Spa is not up to par; she loves getting massages on our cruises!

 

Tnanks again for the review!

We sailed on the Jewel the week of December 9th. It's a beautiful ship and somewhat comparable to the Pearl. We were in the Haven suite for the first time and we are hooked. The Haven area is wonderful you have a small pool (not saltwater), plenty of comfy lounge chairs, private sun deck and jacuzzi. You can have breakfast and lunch in the courtyard and snacks in the afternoon.

Embarkation was a breeze in New Orleans and we went straight to Cagney's for lunch. We met our concierge, Elvina but didn't meet our Butler until that evening. Elvina was the best concierge we've ever had. She's such a pleasant person and will do anything to make sure you are happy.

Bad: The main dining room was a disappointment. This was our 6th cruise and we've always enjoyed the main dining room but the food quality was not good. The specialty restaurants did not disappoint. We ate at Chin Chin, Moderno & Cagney's and are well worth the money.

The Spa (Ugly): Our first and last time using an NCL spa. We both got a massage, hot stone for myself and bamboo for my husband. The day before we had gone to Belize for cave tubing and was sore. My husband told the masseuse 3 times not to touch his lower back and she kept on ignoring him. Needless to say he was unable to walk straight that evening and next day. Elvina, our concierge quickly took action and saw how much pain he was in and spoke to the Spa manager. The masseuse argued with us that she was never told not to touch his lower back and we had to continue to argue until finally the Spa manager refunded his massage. My massage was not relaxing as she was rough and did more of a deep tissue than hot stone. I would not recommend the Spa on the Jewel at all.

Our keycards to the Haven area was hit or miss with the elevators. It was an inconvenience at times but the staff helped out.

The casino was nice and wasn't too stingy but a lot of the slot machines the first few nights didn't work and the ATM on the first night was not working. Seemed like a lot of electrical issues on the Jewel.

The shows were great especially Noodles the comedian. The staff on the Jewel was great minus the spa experience.

Debarkation was chaotic. The easy off seemed to go on forever for us that waited for priority service. New Orleans was to blame for that and partly NCL too as I think some people used easy off when they shouldn't have just to get off the ship.

All in all despite the bumps the cruise was wonderful. Will definitely continue with NCL and the Haven suites.

Feel free to ask questions just note I don't have any dailies to attach.

I would like to see her retired... We took it last year not at all impressed...

Thank you everyone for your information!

Not trying to rain on your parade. Just pointing out that upgrade is the wrong term. Hope you have a great cruise and a great Thanksgiving.

Thanks you do the same...:)

Hello,

My DW and I will be leaving on the Jewel next week and we will not being getting off the ship in Costa Maya. My wife wants to do a spa day, dont they usually have discounts on port days? If so does anyone have any dailies for port days showing what they offer and the price.

Sounds more like the Upsell Fairy rather than the Upgrade Fairy to me.

who cares upgrade upsell, its worth the $500.00... Always one to rain on the parade... :mad:

Congratulations! & thanks for keeping my spirits up. I have been praying every night that some day the upgrade fairy calls me! Enjoy!!!

Only took 9 years LOL so hang in there...

I was starting not to believe there was such...

We were already booked in a suite cat SE, but we got the call for the HAVEN! 2 bedroom suite... $500.00 more could not resist.

I will be on the Sky in November :)

 

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