seemoreroyals

We just pulled the trigger for our cruise in Dec of next year on Escape.  Went through CAS.  Tried to buy vibe passes while booking but CAS agent said I would have to wait until 4 months before cruise.  Tried to argue with her to no avail. 

After completing booking I went to my new reservation to look around and lo and behold vibe passes were available for purchase.  Even though our cruise is almost a year away I was able to book our vibe passes and not risk being left out.

IMO even though you have to pay for them in full if you buy them ahead of time, it is better that waiting to see if they have one or two available when you get on the ship.  We try to do everything ahead of time even though we board early and often have to make last minute changes.  

@Roses_Are_Redall you have to do is get in touch with room steward, let them know you want coffee maker, reg or decaf coffee and how many single serve packs of coffee.   They will bring you cream, and or sugar if you need as well.

4 minutes ago, Roses_Are_Red said:

Hmm.. that's a bummer if there aren't coffee makers available for the room.  I will just have to figure out the nearest restaurant then I guess.  I was hoping for coffee before I have to see people. 🙂

 

 

You can still get coffee makers in room.  We just got back from NCL cruise and had no problem getting coffee and coffee maker in room.

18 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

We're have a shore-side breakfast last week with another CC couple discussing plans for 2024 as we'll all be on another cruise again, oddly enough ... they seldom, if ever, received those post-cruise NCL eSurveys and they are just short of reaching Diamonds.  They do fill out those Hero cards as they see fit and being friends in touch with some of the crew members over the years, some promoted to junior ranks since, reaffirmed the importance of those hero cards, that management onboard and even Miami do take into considerations the comments & feedbacks.  

 

We almost consistently received those eSurveys, cannot think of any single NCL cruises over the last 10+ years where we didn't get one, the format - contents - questions - and focus are always changing & seldom the same, dynamically to reflect what NCL's marketing & survey teams are looking out for.  Not an expert in statistics, but reasonable to conclude & believe that they are looking mostly for numerical scores and totals, and not necessary in details ... maybe a summary of 2 or 3 pages for each reporting period for a given ship, a given timeframe, that's a lot for a junior VP or AVP to go thru by itself, let alone reading some of the highlighted quotes, positive and negatives.  

 

As for the Vacation Hero, concur that taking a quick iPhone/smartphone photos is useful & helpful ... accurate in capturing their name spellings ... one can fill one out post-cruise, include all (as much as possible) details from the card, and email that directly to NCL - address on that "card" as follows: vacationheros@ncl.com  

 

 

On the other hand, if there are onboard issues, best to address it while on the ship - give the assistant or junior team supervisors or asst manager, etc. a chance to deal with it - and escalate to the GM (there is a note to write out, and drop off into a locked "mailbox" usually at / near Guest Services) for a response.  Oddly enough, that box and the card was on the opposite side of the atrium lobby area on the Prima, for whatever reasons.   

 

Now, curious who else were invited to join the "NCL Inner Circle" ??  apparently, fairly new ... 

No inner circle for us.  Don't even know what it is.  Guess we are not profitable enough to NCL.  We are loyal but we only cruise once a year and rarely play in the casino or purchase shore excursions and other extras.

 We did pay about $500 extra for our vibe passes this last cruise so maybe we are headed in the right direction and may some day be part of the inner circle.  Whatever it is.  

29 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

Just want to make sure everyone understands the door to enter the one elevator bank is not actually in the Vibe, but on the wraparound path in that area.    I believe my son discovered it when we were in the Vibe the second time which was on the Getaway.   The next year we were on the Escape again and it was there too as well as on the Joy.  We will definitely look for it on the Encore in February!

Thanks for showing where elevator to vibe on Escape is located.  The way deck 19 is laid out it looks like it would be easy to eliminate public sundeck, make vibe larger with added hot tub and extra revenue to NCL.

45 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

This did not happen on an NCL cruise (actually a HAL cruise), but the concept is the same as all cruise lines want to know what employees are going above and beyond to make your cruise experience special. There was a server in the buffet area who just kept keeping my lemonade glass full. I called her over and said I wanted to fill out the card saying how she had made my cruise special, but to do so I needed to know her name. And the only way I could do that was either stare at her chest where her nametag was which I thought was rather impolite or ask her. She told me her name, and in fact often after that even after I told her the card was filled out would come over refill my glass, cover her nametag, and ask me her name.

 

And BTW, even though this was way back in the summer of 2018, I still remember her name, Honeyeyeo.

 

 

We had a couple of NCL over achievers we still remember from an Alaska cruise on the Jewel in Sept of 2015.  Ivana or Ivanka can't remember which and Agus.  Both gave us fabulous service in one of the bars throughout.  If hero cards were around back then we would have filled them out for them.  We still look for them on every cruise but so far have had no luck seeing them again.  

5 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Hero cards directly impact the crew member and are used as part of their evaluation for advancement. NCL seeks feedback with hero cards, post cruise survey heros, and emails to the heros desk. We always take the time to recognize superior service. And crew are happy to let you take a picture of their name tag for use in writing cards. 

 

So,,, NCL really doesn’t want your written feedback. They get 10’s of thousands of surveys a week. And no one wants to read written feed back (especially about a cold potato). NCL is really looking for metrics created with numerical ratings. And they send out different surveys to solicit different metrics. (E.g., we have received one survey per guest on the past and they were different). 

Like your idea of taking picture of their name tag.  The young waiter who we received exemplary from at the vibe all I could remember was that his name was Made and he was from Indonesia.  He also told me he was one of several Mades on the ship as it is a common name for the part of the world he is from.

@JGmfI think we are about to pull the trigger on the Escape for our next cruise and with it the Escape Vibe.  Looking at the deck plans it appears vibe is on deck 19 and am trying to determine if elevators go to deck where vibe is at or if we have to use stairs last couple of decks. 

On the Prima we just got off of,  elevators drop you off just outside the vibe for easy access.   Please advise how this works to get to Escape vibe.

We are once a year cruisers and have been for the past 10 years with the exception of one year when we did two.  We are very loyal to NCL and would like to see them succeed and at the same time make improvements to their product and reward employees that provide their guests with exemplary service.

In regards to hero cards we filled out four of them on the cruise we just returned from a week ago this Friday on the Prima.  One of the cards went to a young waiter in the vibe beach club that always had a smile on his face,  kept our drinks coming, kept our carafe of water filled with ice cold water, and in general seemed to appear out of nowhere whenever we needed anything.  We gave another one to a bartender at the Metropolitan Bar who called himself Dr. Bong.  Whenever we ordered wine he would put the wine glass on top of his head and pour wine in it.  And considering the circumstances a pretty good pour I might add.  We also gave one to our room steward because he always met whatever request we had, and we gave one to the best entertainers on our ship IMO Familiar Strangers.  Don't recall the lead singers name but he can sing anything.

To what extent do these hero cards help NCL in recognizing which employees promote their brand the best?   Hopefully more than just a pat on the back as there were several instances mainly in the Hudson MDR where we encountered less than our expected level of service.  And also when filling these out,  in addition to name and cabin number,  they also wanted to know what our email address was for some reason.

In regard to post cruise reviews, we did our duty and filled one out like we do at the end of every cruise.  The manner in which the survey is written does not really allow you to go into detail unless you give whatever item you are ranking at the time the worst rating possible.  When whoever gets their hands on these post cruise reviews looks at them what happens next?  Maybe it is just me but when we filled out our post cruise survey I was unable to provide NCL with what I was hoping to provide regarding  our cruise experience.

In summary I want to see NCL succeed.  Just curious what part the Hero Cards and the post cruise survey play in this process.

6 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

The Getaway would be double the passes sold as it is now on both sides.   If I remember correctly, the Escape sold 80 passes both times we were on the Escape.  If it were our choice, we would pick the Escape over the Getaway as we do prefer the smaller size Vibe.    On our two cruises on the Escape, the Vibe never felt crowded.   However, a benefit to the larger Vibe is that you can switch to the other side if the side you are on is either to sunny, to hot or to windy.   We did do that a few times on the Joy.      Again, we have never had a bad Vibe experience and it is a must for us.

 

Happy planning and let us know what you decide.    Just remember to secure the passes immediately upon booking your cruise.   

Thank you.  We always book through CAS and usually finalize something first week of Feb once NCL announces which cruises qualify for CZR 7 Star Cruise.  

Last year we changed our mind from Encore to Prima in May.  I made sure while I had CAS on the phone that I was able to get vibe passes. We used CN certs for deposit and paid in full for vibe. 

Galveston is drivable for us so that may be the tie breaker and have us going on Escape in December.  

21 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

I am so happy that you came back and reported your experience!     

 

We have been on both the Getaway and Escape (twice) and both Vibes were wonderful.   The Getaway is double the size as it is now on both port and starboard.   When we cruised on the Getaway the Vibe was only on starboard.   This would not stop us as the Joy's Vibe is on both sides and we also had a wonderful experience.   To sum it up, all are wonderful as all of the bar tenders are top notch.

On the Escape deck plans it appears to only be on one side.  It seems that it may be smaller than vibe on Getaway.  On our sailing in the vibe only about 80 passes were sold and we can't remember a time when there were half that number using the vibe.  

I was wondering if you had any info on both Escape and Getaway in regards to how many vibe passes were sold on each and if one felt more crowded than the other since in print anyway Escape vibe appears smaller?

We recently finished our sailing on Prima where we experienced the vibe beach club for the first time.  Absolutely loved it.  It was even better than what we were expecting.  Don't see how anyone would have anything bad to say about the vibe if they have experienced it.  

No smokers, no screaming kids, private bar, quiet tranquil ideal for reading.

Now the problem is we don't really want to take our next NCL cruise unless it has the vibe onboard.  To those that have experienced the vibe on different ships which one has the best vibe?

We are trying to decide between the Bliss in Nov 24, Escape Dec 24, and Getaway Dec 24.  

@laudergayle we stayed at Gaidos Seaside Inn. Price with taxes was less than $80 for one nights stay. 

Gaidos is located on the seawall less than 3 miles from the cruise port.  It is older but when I did my research and read the reviews it had as good of ratings as the more expensive places.  It was clean and well maintained for an older property.  They have a full breakfast free of charge.  Gaidos also has two restaurants on property including Gaidos Seafood Restaurant, probably the best seafood restaurant on the island.  

While it is probably not as new or as plush as Tremont or Moody Gardens it provided a great inexpensive place for us to stay and eat the night before our cruise.  Uber for 4 of us was only $16 total each way.

ETA -  free cruise parking for those driving to port.

@rmfortinWhat did you get at Palomar?  Maybe we ordered the wrong thing there.  Two of us ordered the dover sole, wife had the sea bass, and out other friend had a steak.  All three of us that ordered the seafood dishes were dissatisfied.  Must have been pretty good to finish ahead of Los Lobos. 

While the "show" at Hasuki wound have been better received if we had some 4 year olds in our group we all thought the food was pretty good there.  

We also thought it was a bit strange the times that complimentary eateries were open.  There was one day we really wanted to try lunch at Hudson's and it was at 11:30 and it was not open yet.  It was the day they had Monte Cristos on the menu.  

When we did our post cruise survey we tried to let them know about our feelings about the strange hours that the free dining options were open.  Not a very good survey by the way.  The way the survey is designed unless you give the worst response possible they do not give you a chance to expand upon your experiences they were questioning with the survey.

Prior to taking this cruise I spent quite a bit of time researching experiences by others who had previously sailed on Prima.  I can now understand why there is such a wide variation of responses to Prima.  In some ways it was the best ever.  In other ways it was severely lacking.  The post cruise survey is one way NCL can improve in areas where they need to improve. 

Frankly, I don't know if they spend much time focusing on the issues that many cruisers consider shortcomings.  I am sure they are aware of them, and they are now baked in.  They have decided for whatever reason to leave things as is.  It is a shame because there appear ti be easy solutions to many of these issues that diminish the potential of what Prima has to offer.

2 minutes ago, Liljo22 said:

Palomar didn’t seem like one we would have liked just knowing my family.  
 

I missed that each credit also got two sides probably because we sadly didn’t touch them.  Not because they weren’t good.  

We were hoping Palomar would be like Ocean Blue which we liked very much on two other ships.   Sadly was not the case.  Next time we sail on a ship that has Onda we are definitely going to give it a try.

@Liljo22Somehow we missed out on Onda and went to Palomar instead. Lucky for you you picked the right one. 

7 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

Thanks.

 

Makes quite a difference knowing the facts and how many ships in port and distances involved.

BTW Gaidos Seaside Inn ended up being a bargain as far as a place to stay.  We paid $69 plus fees.  Ended up being $79 and some change including tax.  That included a hot breakfast the next morning and free parking while we were on our cruise.

It was an older property but well kept and right on the seawall.  We would stay there again next time we cruise out of Galveston.  After booking Gaidos and paying our share of uber to get to and from port we spent less than $100.  Parking by itself at the port was going to be $150.  

It's not Tremont or Moody Gardens but we did not want to pay that much for a place to stay before our cruise.

14 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

Which hotel? Which port? Was it a sunday?

Gaidoos Seaside Inn (Approx 3 miles from Port), NCL Prima out of Galveston, on Friday to Friday cruise.  12-15 only one ship in port, 12-22 three ships in port.  Same price both ways.

@Liljo22 Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on debarkation.  What a mess.  I read on FB that some people had to wait in line for an hour and a half to get off.  I guess we were lucky.  We only had to wait in line about 45 minutes.  We were in the chaos on deck 6 when one of the NCL people told us to break the line and sent us in a different direction.  I am glad she did.  

Evidently the FBI was looking for someone and held up the debarkation so that they could take care of their business.  Meanwhile Alvin the CD who was coordinating the debarkation kept sending people down to deck 6 where it was already congested.   We were all relieved to get through the process to claim our luggage.

4 hours ago, Liljo22 said:

Do Onda instead of Palomar if you don't have it booked.  It was our best meal all week.  You get so much food with the dining credit and it all came out perfect.  

In hindsight that is what I wish we had done.

On 12/3/2023 at 10:20 AM, seemoreroyals said:

You are supposed to be able to text back and forth on ship using imessages on iphones.  I think you have to have your phones in airplane mode and use ships internet.  That way you do not have to pay the $9.95 fee. 

 

We are going to try it in a couple of weeks.  

Just back from cruise on Prima. I can confirm that this does work.  Us and couple we were travelling with all had iphones.  It works amazingly well to keep in touch.  Do not know if it works if one or more of parties does not have iphone.

What we did was go to settings and put phones in airplane mode.  Set phones to ships internet.  Worked great throughout trip.  Texting only; will not allow texting of pictures.  Only works on cruise ship.

WE DID NOT HAVE TO PAY THE $9.95 FEE.

If person you are texting has phone turned off you will get message not delivered in response to your text.  Upon turning phone on they will see where you texted.  

21 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

I know everyone raves about the Vibe. We've never done it but have gone to Spice H20, which is also adults only. How is Vibe different...aside from having to pay extra for it?

Main thing it is not crowded and no smoking.  The vibe we experienced was bigger than the spice h2o's we have been to on other ships.  At least it seemed bigger because it was never crowded. We have done  the spice h2o on other ships and the vibe blows it away.  You have your own private bar so there is no waiting in lines for drinks..  There are several good utube videos that I watched before we decided to pull trigger on the vibe.  

If you are a smoker you probably would not like the vibe.  If you are travelling to a colder weather itinerary the vibe might not be worth it.  If you are going on a port intensive cruise the vibe might not be worth it.  In our case we went to the west caribbean a place we had no interest in getting off ship for extended times.  

We like to read and it was real quiet in the vibe.  They only sold less than 80 passes on our cruise and there was never more than 30-40 people there at any one time.  It was real easy for everyone to spread out and have privacy.  Well worth the money IMO.

15 minutes ago, destar said:

You get an appetizer, soup or salad, an entree and dessert. 

We just got back from Prima.  We were able to get two apps instead of app and salad therefore were able to get quacamole and queso both were very good.  Also for entree the grilled fish believe it or not was amazing.  The churrros for dessert very good as well.  

On 11/29/2023 at 6:30 AM, seemoreroyals said:

We will boarding Prima on a Friday in a couple of weeks.  Only one ship in port day of departure.  Three in port day of return. We are staying in hotel about 3 miles away.  I have done  research but still no clear answer of what to expect coming and going from hotel to cruiseport.  Does anyone know if there are ample amount of taxis serving Galveston for this purpose and about what we should expect to pay?  There are four of us and would prefer to take a cab together assuming they have bigger cabs for this.  

 

How do taxis compare to uber/lyft in our situation?

Just wanted to follow up to this thread in case in may be helpful to anyone staying at hotel in Galveston and needing transportation to and from hotel to port.  We were able to use uber large enough for 4 of us for $16 each way.  

Couldn't agree more with your comments regarding the vibe both in your review and in attached video.  We were on your cruise and also in the vibe.  

Did you notice how many young people were on our cruise?  I talked to one of the bartenders in the vibe and he said there were 3700 passengers on our sailing.  It seemed like there were over 1000 of them that were 16 and younger.  The vibe was a great way to escape the sardine effect that comes with an overcrowded ship.   Especially one with a disproportionate number of young people aboard.  

The vibe was worth every penny of what we paid.  Going forward it will be difficult to book a cruise without it.

In regards to the Prima we have mixed feelings.  Our standard balcony room was fantastic.  We had 4 specialty dinners at Cagney's, Palomar, Los Lobos, and at Hasuki.  The only one we were disappointed in was Palomar.  For us it was a step down from Ocean Blue.  Wife got the Sea Bass, I got the Dover Sole, maybe because of the bread and choice of appetizers and having to navigate through crowded buffet to get there we just were not impressed.

Cagney's, Los Lobos, and Hasuki all exceeded our expectations.  The meal at Los Lobos overall was probably our best meal on the ship.  Great Mexican food.  Cagney's steak cooked to perfection.  Hasuki entertaining and delicious.

In regards to the two main dining rooms Hudson's became our go to place for breakfast.  The one time we did Hudson's for dinner the service was terrible and the meal was forgettable.  The Commodore dining room for us was much better for dinner.  Embarkation meal was at Indulge Food Bar.  It was outstanding,  but we ate so much for lunch there that night we bypassed dinner on the first night for light appetizers and hot fudge sundae at the Local.

Typical day after breakfast and exercise we would settle in at the Vibe from around 10 until 2 or 3.  The Buffet Grill was just outside entrance of Vibe so we usually found something to eat there for lunch. While not outstanding the Buffet had a decent salad bar.  Unfortunately we had to navigate through kids running and screaming and a mass of humanity walking 10 different directions at once.  But when we got back to the Vibe be thought how lucky we were to have this area to escape an otherwise crowded ship.

Inside the Vibe we would either get a couple of padded lounge chairs or a private cabana type area to settle in and read and enjoy the peace and tranquility.  The Vibe was never crowded.  The waiter said only 76 Vibe passes were sold for our cruise.  We never saw over 30 or 40 people at any time we were there.  They provided a carafe of water as well as whatever drinks we decided on.  It was great.  Can't say enough good things about the Vibe.

In regards to entertainment we got lucky and went to the first night in the theater where they featured the best entertainers on the ship,  Familiar Strangers.  They did a heavily Smokey Robinson laced motown set that lasted a little over an hour.  That lead singer was one of the best we have ever seen on a cruise ship.  The problem was when we went to try to see the group later a number of times throughout the cruise the seating areas provided in the Penrose bar area  was so small it was impossible to get a seat.  Therein lies one of the major problems of the Prima.  There are a multitude of design issues IMO.

They Prima is indeed a beautiful ship.  But in an effort to provide a multitude of intimate areas it is sort of awkward at times.  Over all it was a great cruise thanks to the Vibe.  Getting on the ship was easy.  Getting off was a pain for us any way.  We were a little concerned for a while as the couple we were traveling with had an early flight out.  It all worked out and all's well that ends well but the way they handled debarkation was a mess.