schmoopie17

Our last two cruises were on the Escape and the Prima. If you closed your eyes and used your imagination, you could almost taste something. Well, almost. Sounds like I need to try the Joy. But that would be a lot of money just to get a good soft-serve cone.

I only have good hearing in one ear, so whatever she says has a tendency to go in one ear and then gets lost in there.

Probably because most of us have never had the bad experience you did. Just another example of why we say here on CC...YMMV. Sounds like yours varied quite a bit...and not in a good way.

I keep reading how Wave Season is supposed to be the best time of year to book a cruise. However, I never seem to see any special deals fare-wise from NCL to celebrate this festive/joyous season. I mean, we put up our Wave Season tree and all our Wave Season gifts are wrapped and cards mailed, but all I get from NCL is a lump of coal and a big "Bah humbug". Wave Season is the first several weeks of the year. Is it better to wait a couple weeks to book something, hoping NCL pulls something major out of its *ahem* hat, or give up any hope of a fantabulous deal and just book something now? My CruiseFirst certificate is itching to be used and I'm ready to scratch that itch. Yes, I know you can always cancel or get the "new" price on a cruise if it drops, but I'm mainly asking if Wave Season is "a big thing" at NCL, or a big nothing.

It will appear at the top on your Vacation Summary as "$100 Onboard Credit." Then when you scroll down below the included amenities, such as FAS, etc, the credit will appear as "Non-Refundable Onboard Credit" in the amount of $100. In our case it is broken out as $50 each for me and Mrs. Schmoopie. It's a good thing we're married so we won't have to fight over it...as in the examples above. We have better things to fight about...

I doubt it's actually ice cream. Every soft-serve machine we've seen on NCL is actually fairly tasteless ice milk. HUGE difference...

Doesn't Platinum get to book restaurants at 125 days vs. 120?

Okay...but my question was about the so-called "hot" food... Many times food in the restaurants isn't hot. I can only imagine how "hot" it is by the time they roll it to your cabin.

YAY!! Someone who gets the fact that taking pictures of dailies and using up precious internet time and space is an enormous waste of time. YAY, again... *taking cover from all the dailies lovers picking up stones to be hurled my way*

The question is, will it still be hot by the time they roll it out of the kitchen, down the hall, down the elevator and down another hall?

We were told cans were not included with the basic FAS package. It looks like the times people were able to get cans in this thread they were in the Haven. We steerage folks have to settle for fountain.

We were on the Prima a year ago. Yes, it's a funky layout trying to get from point A to point B, the buffet is tiny, as are many of the public spaces. On the bright side, it's modern, the cabins and bathrooms are nice and it had that new ship smell. I assume the Viva is pretty much the same thing with a different name. Would we sail on Prima (or Viva) again? Maybe, maybe not. How's that for an answer? Our biggest complaint was with the creaking balcony wall. So loud that it woke us up, even though we sleep with a sound machine and ear plugs. This has been a common complaint with the Prima and I've even read some reviews of the Viva that mention it, as well. Bottom line...do what you want and don't let the naysayers or cheerleaders influence you one way or another. Do your own thing and YMMV.

Our experience was getting baked, even though we had a mesh clam shell. The problem was the mesh was on top and the sun came directly in. Not ideal if you want a clam shell for shade.

On our upcoming cruise, Mrs. Schmoopie was credited with $50 and I was credited with $50. No problem, because all of our investments are jointly owned. However, in the case where two friends (one being a stockholder) may be sharing a cabin and the $100 is split equally, what happens when the stockholder buys something onboard for over $50? My assumption is that their credit card would eventually be charged for the excess. If the friend buys nothing, their $50 OBC vanishes. In that case you couldn't "get the extra $50 from the friend" because the friend would be out $50...and so is the stockholder, due to the loss of $50 OBC.

I bought a CruiseFirst on December 29th. In my account it shows an expiration date of 12/29/26.

So...we're looking at booking a TA from New York to Southampton in 2025. Flying from O'Hare to NY and embarking the ship there. Looking at American for the flight back (using current dates, since schedules aren't out yet of 2025) shows one-way from London to O'Hare at around $1700 ONE WAY. Yet, round-trip between London and O'Hare is around $750. How can this be? Two flights are cheaper than one? Better off booking a round trip London to O'Hare and not showing up for the return trip.

I have a Kegerator. I obviously know how to pour a beer. Let me at it...

Shrinkage is a problem for George Costanza.

FYI...I'm not the one who made that statement. Go back and read post #11 and you'll see I was quoting someone else.

We've never had a good time doing anything at Q. Tried it twice...band was meh and the food was even meher (if that's even a word). Won't waste a SP credit there ever again.

I know how badly you want to surprise me on a cruise, but unfortunately we will just be returning from our Mediterranean cruise at that time. Maybe some other time. I'll keep an eye out.

Classic "Seinfeld" episode (who am I kidding, they're all classics): Jerry and Elaine are flying back to New York. They get into a disagreement about how much to tip the porter at the airport. Jerry ends up tipping the porter...Elaine doesn't. Next scene shows the porter putting the airport luggage tags on each bag. Porter puts one on Jerry's and says, "JFK". He then puts one on Elaine's and says, "Honolulu". Lesson learned.

Any sign of the infamous/famous bar mix?

I don't worry about expiration dates on the certs. I'll probably expire before they do.