cadien

Mitsugirly cruises with her family on NCL insides and posts extensive reviews about the experience. They've done it many many times and everyone is still alive and looking forward to the next cruise, so that's a good sign.

A pants suit is polyester pants with matching tailored jacket. Some sort of tailored blouse underneath......yuck! I think my husbands leisure suit could still he found in the goodwill rack too!

A nice pair of pants and nice top can easily be dressed up with a scarf and sparkly costume jewelry too. Capris can easily be dressed up with the same accessories. Just dress up what you have....do not buy anything special.....save the money for excursions!

They still make pants suits in fine fabrics and many women still wear them.

The club on NCL called me at dinner the first two nights. The first night, he was sleepy but wanted a real bed instead of the mats they had. The second night, he was simply asking for me. I didn't ask how long he'd been fussing either time. And with time zones and jet lag, he was well past his bedtime anyway. We never heard from them after that though.

We went in April and our 3-year old absolutely loved it. He came with us on the first day for registration of course, and got so excited by seeing all the toys and activities that when we brought him the next day, he ran in without a backwards glance.

I received them in the mail about four weeks before my April cruise.

And just think' date=' kids would be happier not to encounter someone who doesn't like kids in general.[/quote']

 

 

I have a kid, but there are times it's nice to not have them around. You don't have to dislike them to feel that way.

The promenade deck is great for that.

The timing is the same on most ships.

They're open 8-12, 2-5, and 7-10. After 10:00, there's a fee. You can pick them up and drop them off at any time they're open.

They are open on port days, although some posts say they're not. You do have to pay for lunch and dinner on port days if they're in the club at meal time.

There's a small forward area on deck 13 labeled adults only, including a hot tub, but it's also a smoking area.

One reason we gave up considering some Puerto Vallarta options is people on this board were pretty consistent about saying that it was next to impossible to get a cab with seat belts. So the car seat wouldn't be usable.

In addition, visit the Ports of Call board here for Alaska. there is lots of good information there. EM

In addition, there is Alaska-specific information on the Family Cruises board.

We just did this itinerary with an almost-4 year old. We found plenty to do that didn't involve driving. We had the car seat on the ship with us because we flew to our port, but ended up not bothering trying to fit it into a taxi.

In Cabo, we did a ship excursion and that involved a standard shuttle bus.

In Mazatlan, we walked to Stone Island.

In Puerto Vallarta, we walked to a resort with day passes.

I'm a bit confused by you saying that there's an NCL cruise going there from New York, but we were also on NCL, so here's the review I wrote in case more detail is helpful. It's pretty kid-centric.

This Star review has a ton of photos of the ship : http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2221133

And it's from just last month, so it's after the remodel.

Sounds like you are already committed to having a bad trip. Do yourself and your family a favor and stay home. It is bad enough when you are miserable but there is no reason to make the whole family miserable too.

He already said that wouldn't be the case. That's not really fair.

I don't understand why anyone has trouble making the connection that higher levels of service and amenities costs money? :confused: I get this disconnect a lot on the line that I sail. In one paragraph someone will complain of "cutbacks" and in the next ask about price drops. Good is not cheap and cheap is not good.

But when a cruise costs twice as much, it's perfectly valid to ask whether you're really getting double the quality of service and amenities. That's just sound money management.

And in the case of Disney, not everyone agrees that is the case.

Silly NCL...they spelled Froot Loops wrong! It's a BRAND lol

They probably buy generic.

It's been 6 years since we sailed NCL, we're going next year. Is there now a charge for having your photo taken?

No charge unless you decide to buy the picture.

And the person taking your photo doesn't bring up the sales part at all. They snap and leave. It's up to you to go to the photo gallery later, look through the photos, and then the the ones you want to buy. No one approached us while we were browsing the photos or suggested we throw in an album or a bobblehead.

I was surprised by how non-aggressive the photographers were on our cruise, considering the complaints. There was one specialty restaurant evening where I'd have like to have had a photo but he skipped our table. And apparently waiting 20 minutes to get off the ship meant missing the costumed characters completely.

I did it for six weeks, so a cruise would be a piece of cake. I'd check on laundry options though.

I'm sympathetic to the OP's issues and can relate to many of them.

And I also understand the family pressure angle. It's not helpful to say "just don't go to the shows" and "just don't dress up" when everyone else in the group wants to do exactly that.

Plenty of families will be well-meaning and loving but still not understand why one person can't just go along with it. If the OP was trying to talk a reluctant relative into it rather than be the reluctant relative, the advice would be different. They'd be selfish for not sucking it up to make Grandma happy or whatever.

Also, I'm sure the OP could get past a "bad attitude." That gets thrown at posters more often than is reasonable. You can vent on a post without being a cranky, inconsiderate person.

I'd seriously consider sending your wife and daughter without you. It's much more of a compromise than all of you staying home. There really isn't any way around most of those (valid) issues you've listed. I cruised very reluctantly and ended up enjoying it but I wouldn't have with that list.

An Alaska cruise is pretty active. Also, going with a group of relatives means no relaxing even on a sea day. That was one downside to our trip. None.

And although Southeast Alaska is beautiful, you are going into some major tourist trap areas. (I grew up there. I worked at those gift shops. It's home. But it's cheesy what we push at you guys.)

Based on photos, the Disney Dream is the most beautiful cruise ship I've seen. Totally my idea of what a ship should look like. So whenever I see another review with pictures, I start to consider saving up for one just to experience it.

But the price! And it only goes to the Bahamas, which isn't very interesting to us. And although we have a 4-year old, he's not into anything Disney at the moment. I've never been to any of the parks, with him or as a kid myself, so I have no idea what the famous Disney service really means and whether I'd care that much.

It is a beautiful ship though.

This post is the perfect example of the exact demo that NCL no longer wants on there fleet. They want DINKS and millennials.

 

They want those who SPEND. And there campaigning for it aggressively.

I don't understand your classification of these demographics. I'm a millennial and a DINK. We have high income. Every cruise I keep my bill as close to $0 as I can. I don't gamble, drink, use the spa, buy photographs or shop on board. I don't buy ship excursions. The ship is a means to get me to ports; I expect food, entertainment, and a bed.

 

I'm both of those things you said- and they likely don't want me.

 

Regardless of age, they want spenders. Every business does. We certainly spend on some things (see Xpedition), but not all those little extras. To me, that is mostly just junk. And, they seem to want families. They don't seem to cater to the DINK market really. If they did, it seems like areas like the Haven would be child free.

And speaking as another Millennial family who cruised recently, almost everything we spent on board was kid-related. We would have spent far less if he wasn't along.

We were able to transfer OBC from one cabin to another, so probably.

Having a reputation and having it right are not the same thing.

 

Remember, the view of the writer was just his/her view: nothing more. Editors, whatever have opinions just like we do and often don't have much to back their opinions on. The article said: NCL has the reputation: a reputation may or may not be accurate.

The thing that puzzles me is the CC article itself. They discuss quite a few things with some detail. But in making the nickel and dime comment prominently in the beginning of the article, they neglect to give a single example of the nickel and diming. To me that phrase means you get on board for free (almost free) and then have to pay for everything on board, i.e. nightclub charging a cover charge, nightly shows have a charge, dinner has a charge, etc. With NCL you can sail for a week and never spend a penny more than the DSC. Multiple daily meals, entertainment, cruise ports, snacks, everything is included. They do offer many, many options that do have a charge, but they are OPTIONS!

As only one poster has observed, the article actually says that NCL has a reputation for nickle and diming but actual analysis of their prices shows that it isn't accurate.

The only thing I haven't seen mentioned already (now someone will quote it :p) is the fresh-squeezed juice in the buffet. That's not free.

We did buy a few things but all were indulgences we could have easily gone without and still had a good time.

I do hope NCL isn't really counting on millennials to attend the art auctions and jewelry shows and the casinos though...

I'm a bit intimidated by the Butler. Full disclosure we hate to ask people to do things for us (I clean for the cleaning lady); don't like to put people out. That being said, I do want to utilize the services that I'm paying for (almost 2x what I have paid for a cruise in the past, although some will be offset by the UBP :D).

 

Has anyone else had this issue and how did you deal with it? What are considered "standard" requests and what are considered over the top? Did you tip extra each day or just at the end?

We had this same issue. Especially DH. The suite was a gift and he was pretty uncomfortable with the butler idea.

The snacks come automatically. People disagree whether asking for specific snacks is considered above and beyond. We had bad luck with that. I knew from Cruise Critic what the standard snacks are and just asked that he omit one of them from the rotation. He wrote that down. We still got them twice. But our IL's have great luck asking for non-standard snacks and receiving them. Luck of the draw.

Our only other requests were two room service breakfasts and a DVD.

We tipped at the end in the envelope provided. We did hand it to him personally. We'd planned on a set daily amount and didn't adjust it based on the room service and DVD because those struck us as pretty standard.

Asking the butler to deliver something to you somewhere other than the ship (like in Vibe) would be an example of over the top but not uncommon. Like the sunglasses you left in your room.