Vyhanek

Yes, at the sail away party and all day on that first embarkation day, Posh is open to Haven children. They will be strict starting the second day. My 15 year old is 5'8 and mature, she wanted to sit up with me in Posh and since she's taller than me and would sit there and read a magazine, I didn't think it would be a big deal. They asked her to leave....... But she was welcome at the sail away party and it was really fun!

I think it might have to do with expectations. I think the cruisers that get doted on and catered to and never forgotten at things like disembarkation are the one's that are high maintenance. You know the kind, they are up the concierges butts all the time. You walk by the concierge desk and you just know who's going to be there asking a question. If you overhear the question it's a stupid question....one that I could have answered for the cruiser.

I think the concierges just naturally give less attention to the cruisers who can answer their own questions and can figure things out themselves. I'd never ask the concierge where the spa is for example. I'd walk out to the elevator bank and find it on the directory. Other higher maintenance cruisers would actually wait at the concierge desk behind someone making a dinner reservation just to ask where the spa is and to get directions.

I imagine you're like me. Relatively independent. Patrick may have had a bunch of ninny's that just needed a lot of hand holding and you weren't needing that so he was just less attentive.

It's the old 80/20 rule.....like in school. 20 percent of the kids take 80% of the teachers time because they are so high maintenance.

After the door that requires a card key.....it is conceivable that you could slip in when the door is opened by a legitimate Haven guest.......

Then you'd have to walk past the Haven Conceirge desk which is staffed usually by 2. Both staff know you. They address you by your name!

Lets say you were able to get in another way.......if you are up on the sun deck, they know you to. They know you by name and they know what drinks you like! They even know you by your stateroom number!! They know you.

Your person does have a point. If you really don't want to pay extra for specialty dining, the Epic isn't a great ship choice. Also regarding the entertainment, you do have to work to have entertainment every night. It's not like other ships where the nightly show is all pre-planned and a given. We found that by night 4 or 5 week, we didn't have any more shows to go to and we were also walking around bored wondering what we were going to do with our evening. We were up in the Haven and had made some friends many of us were of the same opinion......All Platinum cruisers. Several evenings in we had all ran out of entertainment!!

First night we saw Howl at the Moon in the bar. It's fun but bar entertainment, sitting in a bar listening to a band play.

Our second night we saw Cirque. We did the dinner/show combo and it was all over before 8pm. So the rest of that night we walked around with no plan, nothing really else to do. By 8pm we'd eaten, drank, our tummys were full and we'd seen our show.

Then we went to the Blue Man Group. That night was fine.

Then the next night was the Hypnotist but her show as at 11pm. We walked around for hours with nothing else to do before her show.

I had no desire to see Legends.

That was the extent of the entertainment in the evenings. I don't know about people waiting for hours to eat on the Epic but I know on every other ship I've been on this is very common in the free resteraunt. I don't think I've ever cruised NCL without having at least a few nights holding a pager, waiting for dinner. Unless I'm eating at a specialty resteraunt and dropping another $100 for my family to eat dinner waiting is very common.

I think for your family, a different cruise line is more suitable. They want specific dining times, they don't want to pay for specialty dining and they want organized entertainment every night. Entertainment they don't have to think about!!

She's telling you exactly what she didn't like about the Epic. There is a world of other cruise choices that will better suite her needs.

The menu is set the same every lunch and dinner with the addition of a daily special.

It's by design obviously. If the menu in the Epic Club changed daily the Haven guests would eat only in the Haven. This way, Haven guests dine around and drop another $100 nightly on the surcharges at the other restaurants.

You will be tired of the menu in the Epic Club. From my experience on the Epic, they weren't very accommodating as posters above lead you to believe. In fact, just simple changes to the normal menu sent the servers into a tizzy. For example, at lunch I ordered the fish sandwich with arugula. I loved the arugula and wanted them to put extra on the sandwich or just bring a side of arugula. She "wasn't sure if she could do that but she'd ask her Supervisor". Another time at lunch we were sitting in the outdoor dining area right outside the epic club. It has a different menu and you can order from either the Epic Club menu or the casual bar food type menu. I wanted a sandwich front he casual menu and then shrimp cocktail from the menu at the epic club.......Again, a different server this time was uncomfortable with that request and she had to "ask her supervisor"!!

It worked out fine, I got my shrimp cocktail but it was most definitely out of the ordinary. I felt the servers didn't feel they had any sort of authority to accommodate me. Both times they had to ask their Supervisor.

So to come into the Epic Club and have an order of escargot from Le Bistro and the fries from Cagney's and then maybe some sushi..........I'm pretty sure that sort of things won't fly at all.

I think you're going to have to use the Butler for those types of requests. You'd pay the surcharge and then you'd need to tip the Butler separate. It would be expensive.

This is not that uncommon for NCL to switch rooms on customers right up to sailing. It doesn't matter if you have a cabin number, obviously.

There have been several posts similar about this issue over the years on this board.

I remember a year or go or so a woman booked 2 rooms next to each other for her largish family. She has her cabin numbers and booked specifically so her rooms with her children could be side by side. She gets to the port and is told one of her cabins is down the hall. They'd double booked the one cabin and she was SOL.

She came on here and told the story about how she refused to board the ship until they got them two rooms next to each other. NCL gave her a bunch of jumble about not being able to switch cabins, she thru it in their faces that her cabins were switched. So they moved someone else, the day of sailing before they checked in so this woman would get her two rooms together.

It definately happens.

I was cruising on very calm seas, so you have to take that into account.

I felt a lot of vibrating. A weird vibrating even sort of loud that I haven't really noticed on any other ship....(I'm platinum). But the good news is that after about a day of it, I didn't hardly notice it unless I was somewhere really quiet, even then it didn't bother me.

As far as the general movement, rocking and swaying, it wasn't bad.

Yes, you will have no problem.

Do self disembarkation. Get a taxi to get you to the airport.

I always get these morning flights. It's very rare for customs to have issues or the cruise line. NCL's goal is to get passengers off ASAP so they can turn the ship around for the next sailing. They want you off the ship asap.

I'm always at the airport by 9am. You will be fine.

NCL will not allow any flexibility with this at all. Not even if your child is traveling with a group of kids and misses the birthdate deadline by a few days! They are completely inflexible.

However, Carnival and Royal have both been a little flexible in the past. To address the previous posters, no cruise line is going to put a 5 year old with the 12 year old group or put a 9 year old with teenagers. What they will do is fudge a little for a couple months or they will have the older child move down to the younger level group. Other cruise lines will have a customer driven flexibility with this issue. Not NCL. You have to know this going in.

You won't be pressured away from the MDR by the employees. They don't care if you eat in the MDR or not. The one exception is on embarkation day. On that day I am pretty sure the employees are instructed to push, push, push everyone up to the buffet. Just pay attention, you won't hear one employee suggesting you eat lunch in the MDR....but you will hear 100 times how you can get up to the buffet for lunch on embarkation!!

There are major service issues on all the ships in the MDR. We could list them here but the same basic bad service issues have been going on fleet wide since Freestyle was created probably 10 years ago. You have to accept that or eat in the specialty restaurants or the buffet.

Here is a tip on embarkation day. You will be herded like cattle up to the buffet on embarkation unless you insist that you want to eat in the main dining room. This is the one meal all week that they do try hard to keep you out of the main dining room. Other than that one meal, NCL doesn't specifically try to keep you out of the main dining rooms.

My theory is that they instruct their employees to "encourage" all passengers to the buffet instead of the MDR on embarkation day. My theory is that the reason they do this is to have some data to take back to corporate that says..."hey, there is very low interest in lunch in the MDR on embarkation, see look how few meals we serve in the MDR on embarkation.....lets close the MDR and save money on staff for that meal". So the employees are instructed to herd you up to the buffet to intentionally keep you from the MDR. Otherwise, wouldn't one employee along the way not herd you up to the buffet?!

Then you have to focus on the things NCL does well. The other lines have NCL beat by a mile on the food but NCL has better entertainment, much better suites and VIP things, the ships are decorated fun and funky, young and hip. Focus on what NCL does well.

Then you take the cheerleader attitude which is either...."food is subjective" (good food isn't subjective!!) or the other favorite is....."Well, as long as I'm not cooking I'm happy".......(really?)

I think once you get on board you talk to your butler and they will arrange for a separate cot for a teen. Your situation can't be all that unique. I think they can accommodate you though!

You want everyone to have Haven access.

One suggestion. You might pay for a spa pass for a couple of people in your group. This way they will have access to the showers and during those times when everyone seems to be in the cabin getting ready at the same time.

But it is possible for your room number to change. People post about it on this board every year. Passengers book cabins....even adjoining cabins because they are traveling with family and/or children. They think all is set with their cabins and then they get to check in at the port and guess what?! The room numbers are changed!

I remember last year about this time, a woman posted about this and when she realized a check in that her cabins where no longer adjoining, she absolutely refused to get on the ship. They wanted her to go make nice and they would work it out later. She absolutely refused to accept that until they got her adjoining rooms. But then of course they had to kick some other unknowing passengers out of the cabin they thought was theirs to accommodate this woman.

It's probably sort of rare. Not too rare though because if the passengers actually make it to this board to post about it, it happens!

Here's a tip from a loyal passenger....I'm Platnum on NCL but also on Royal and Carnival.....Here's a universal tip!!

NEVER, NEVER,NEVER book your cruise early for this exact reason! Unless you want a highly, highly sought after cabin like an aft suite with wrap around balcony, you don't need to book in advance. Even for Haven suites you don't need to book early. You will never get a good deal booking in advance.

In this day of many, many mega ships, you can find a great deal last minute and a great cabin. Book as late as you possibly can wait! Always.

The same thing happened to me. It just isn't like me to book two shows on the same night. I'm even questioning whether I actually did that?!

It's absolutely crazy that NCL has a website where you can book your shows in advance and it can easily take our money. But you can't make a date/time change of any sort?! ***H!! How could they have developed a computer program that won't allow making changes?! It's ridiculously un-customer driven and customer unfriendly! In this day and age......not very impressive NCL!

You're going to want to bring your own and keep it in your refrigerator. The creamer is watered down half and half sort of thing.

Good idea making your own coffee if this is your thing. You will not get hot coffee anywhere on any NCL ship.

I also love the Olive Garden and the Outback. Nothing on NCL compares in any way!

The MDR is your average banquet food.

Cagney's is like Ponderosa steaks. The atmosphere is much better on NCL but we're talking steaks, and they rival Ponderosa. Nothing in the range of Ruth Chris!

Teppenyaki, again the atmosphere might rival Benihana but the food on NCL is more like the chinese food you'd get in the mall food court. The presentation is fun but average food court level food.

Does NCL have any restaurants where they serve warm bread?! It's all room temperature. Even at the Olive Garden and the Outback, you get warm bread. What about salad dressings.......NCL waters their dressings down so much they are bland. At least at the Olive Garden and the Outback the salads are delicious!

Same with the coffee......You will not get a hot cup of coffee the entire week on the ship. You go to any of the chains we are talking about here and if you were served a luke warm cup of coffee it would be sent back and the tip adjusted!

Also, what chain resteraunt do you go to where your drinks come 20 minutes after you order them?! Never. Even if you get a soda on NCL, you won't see it for 20 minutes. You go to the Outback and you have all drinks within 5 minutes of sitting down! Again, if you were at the Olive Garden and you had to wait for your soda that long, you would ADJUST THE TIP DOWNWARD!!

If I went to Applebee"s and dinner took 2.5 to 3 hours I certainly would be adjusting the tip! I mention Applebee's because I would say the meal is on par with Applebee's.

This problem has been going on since NCL went to Freestyle dining probably around a decade now. I think it's far too long to continue to be patient with the system. I've been on no less than 15 NCL cruises and they re all the same. Like you say, very polite wait staff, very apologetic but completely and totally inefficient. When you are in the dining room at 6pm and you have to leave before dessert to make an 8:30 or 9pm show, that should make the average customer IRATE!

A good customer, a good consumer would respond with adjusting the tip AND notifying the Management on exactly why. But like you said, the Management KNOWS, they've known they are inefficient and it's going on a decade now.

Yes, I believe if the tips are adjusted downward, and the staff as well as the consumer are complaining, then maybe there will be process improvement.

I would pick another ship for your first NCL cruise.

I say that because the Sun is an older ship and was built before NCL went to the Freestyle concept. So there aren't the dining options on the Sun and mealtime can get really crowded with really long wait times. Long waits for a table in the main dining room and then really, really, really long waits to get your food. Expect dinner to take 2.5 hours or more. it really is that slow because they get overwhelmed and paralyzed.

Unless you are willing to eat at a specialty resteraunt or the buffet every evening. That would be a good solution.

I love the Aft suites on the back of the ship. The one's that have the wrap around huge balcony, I can't remember the name of the exact suite. I didn't want to leave our suite! Other than the dining situation, the Sun is a well run ship. It is smaller but there is plenty of room around the pools for all of the guests that want to be there. The newer ships have so little outdoor deck space that you are just sitting around like sardines.

If you're going to give NCL a good try, I'd recommend the Pearl.

I remember the good old days when NCL had laundry facilities on the ships and you just went and did your own.

Did your kids go to the teen club?

We've used them a few times. When you have family members and teens who are active and all over the ship it really isn't so easy to just set meeting times and places.

I will say that they don't work very well. One person can't be on deck 4 and the other out at the pool bar. You would need to be in closer proximity without the signal having to travel thru too much metal.

But they are very helpful for...."Hey, bring my sunglasses when you go back to the room"

I have never seen anyone tip the dining room staff after a meal. The servers do not expect it!

However, they are very hopeful that you will write a very positive review for them on a special comment card. When they get so many special good comments they get a bigger piece of the DSC. "Hey, I'd like to write a nice compliment about your service, I'll mention you on my comment card". They will be very happy. This is tip enough for them.

It is a good point a pp makes about why we feel the need to tip in the specialty restaurants though. Why would we tip one set of servers but not the other?!

The hot tubs in the actual spa itself will actually be HOT.

The other hot tubs, around the pool will be hardly warm.

I'm on the Epic in a few weeks. About the motion, it's funny you mention this because years and years ago, we cruised on the Dream a couple times. I remember being shocked at the motion on that ship. And this is 2 separate cruises on that ship. It was like we were a bobber out at sea there was so much crazy motion.

We were on the Dream on New Year's Eve once way back...probably like 1991 or 1992'ish. So it's New Year's Eve and women dressed up big time. Like serious formal gowns. There was so much movement....like a bobber, we were sitting in one of the lounges and a woman actually fell out of her seat, in her formal dress. Her dress flew up over her rear end and we all got a good view of her granny panties!

There's something ab out the design of some of these NCL ships. The Dream had a horrible reputation I remember for it's movement and bobbing. You would think 2 decades later they could have figured that out!

I'm thrilled to hear the good news about the Haven. I can't wait for that. But big bummer about the kids/teen activities. You would think with a ship the size of the Epic that they could make some really great programs for that age group. My kids have always love the kids programs in the past.

^^^ That's not right about 18 plus

I've taken my tweens for facials a couple times. I don't know what the age is specifically but that can't be right.