cruiseJMO

When the "dance host" program was in its heyday, there were a couple of untoward incidents. In one that I recall, a host was a con man out to get inside the trust envelope of women and then grab funds from their accounts. In another, the host actually raped a couple of women. HAL got sued over that one. They initially shut the program down and later reopened it with much more restrictive rules and more intense investigation of the hosts.

 

I was raised by a cop and I tend to remember criminal activity, not good things. I guess this is from being exposed to a lot of bad happenings in my youth.

 

Doc:o

Just popping in to say I think this was good to know as a reminder to always watch our backs. Thanks!

I've seen many of these ship dance partners and do slightly envy those who get them. They are so friendly, courteous, and attentive. I just don't have the stones to try dancing. 😞

I wish we could combine some of the answers on questions 4 & 5. By switching around which answers I choose, my results are so varied and extreme.

I just like the whole cruise experience.

Give it all to me! 😁

Sorry you had to go through all that.

Thank you for posting on here. I'm a cruiser, not a flyer. Thought about a Mediterranean cruise, but ended up booking a couple of Caribbeans instead after getting anxious looking into flight arrangements.

You've provided info that would be very easy to find by search, and would help prepare me if I get bold enough to fly. (It's not the actual flight that scares me. It's the extra anxiety of planning on top of cruise plans.). Very helpful for knowing how to handle it, just in case.

These are great. Thanks for the thread!

I don't understand why CC doesn't organize photos like these into their gallery. Maybe I just don't know how to use their gallery correctly, but it seems to be such a mess! 😧

We'll be there in November on a HAL ship. They are offering an excursion that we think looks like might make a great day.

Just letting you know about it in case it's something you also find interesting and may be able to find (don't know which line you're cruising with).

Good Hope Thrill Seekers Pass

5 hours

We booked a resort for a day. It was an all inclusive resort on the beach. They picked us up and took us on a 30-45 minute ride to the resort to hang out for the day. We went in the water, and hung out at the swim up bar overlooking the ocean. They had delicious jerk chicken for lunch as well as a drink or two or three or eleventy-seven or something. They then took us back and dropped us inside the fence and we made our way slowly back to the ship, stopping along the way to shop a little and try a beef patty, etc...

 

Good times.

Which resort? Looks like something I may be interested in.

I believe EPIC was touting as having a rock climbing wall and rappelling wall when she was first introduced. Here is a picture of the wall I took during a crossing earlier this year. See those openings up top, those are where you would emerge to repel down the wall. I never saw that in use some I'm guessing it quietly went away like the "ice" skating rink.

 

Rappelling is going down from the top, using a rope system to slow your descent.

 

As opposed to climbing up a wall with a rope to keep you from falling.

Wow! Thanks, both of you.

Sounds like something I might actually be able to do. 😊

Eroller, do you know why they "went away"? Both are things I would love to do while on a cruise.

A rapelling wall would be a nice change from the typical cruise ship climbing wall. Seems like just about every cruise ship has a climbing wall.

Can you please explain the difference to me? Unfortunately, I probably can't do it due to muscle damage in my leg from an injury. But, I like to know about things for my 15 year old nephew.

We've seen three different BB King bands and all had both a male and female vocalist.

I've only seen the one on the Westerdam a couple December's ago. They were fabulous! Had a female vocalist, no male.

I'm even more excited about our upcoming November cruise on the Eurodam now. 😁

So, how much are you charging to stay with you two, take us to the best for pre-cruise dining/drinking/entertainment, parking/shuttle, and take our pics while we wave to you from our balcony on embarkation day?

Kidding, but you seriously, probably could make some good $ doing this on the side. Could pay for an annual cruise or two.

The BB King band is miles above even the best set of HAL Cats we've ever seen. It's a male and female vocalist, bass, lead guitar, sax, trumpet, keyboards and drums.

Am I reading this correctly? The Eurodam has both, a male and a female vocalist in their BB King band?

Sorry, I know off topic. But, holy moly - snow?

I'm in Florida. Can't even be outside more than 5 mins w/o my eyeballs frying from the heat.

I use the Drag Decks function from http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/ and just hit Prt Sc when I allign two decks to have the see through effect while holding the deck with your mouse (using the elevators/staircases to allign). Otherwise it will just be on top of the other.

 

It's a great site, worth the membership.

 

The red stripes are from Paint. ;)

 

edit: not sure if you need membership to get to the Drag Decks function but the archive of stateroom pics was very worth it for me

http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/Norwegian-Escape

 

 

There is a specific tool called drag decks

 

 

 

top center

 

click on that and you can drag the decks over each other- using the elevators and stairwells to line up the decks.

I'll have to get the laptop out. I always use that site on my tablet. Never occurred to me the desktop version may be even better. Thanks!!

Not a fan of NCL's MDR's - but you won't go hungry.

 

for us the only reason to sail NCL is because of the specialty restaurants.

 

We are on Escape only because of the free UDP- and a reasonable rate in our opinion. Given what the cost of my cruise has skyrocketed to, even the free udp wouldn't have gotten us to book at this point.

 

The MDR menus have always seem so uninspired.

 

I have heard of changed menu's but that really does not mean it will be change for the better. And they needed change.

 

I hope the Escape will be worth it. I imagine it will.

I don't need "inspired", but good seafood makes me happy.

Are there at least ample seafood choices in the MDR?

I can't see your picture but if I align the decks with the stairs (only now that I see the tubs are not evenly on both sides!) it seems 18118 is more to the side. Not sure why deck 19 isn't as wide as 18 on those plans. The Haven cut out does fit though..

 

What site or program were you using to do this overlay alignment? It's great.

Did you ever eat in the MDR & if so, how does it compare to HAL?

We enjoy HAL's MDR and will experience NCL for the first time next year. I'm curious as to how much we may feel the need to book another restaurant.

There's a place called Le Tub, right across from where the Margaritaville hotel is located. It's a total dive, but has awesome burgers. It's one of the 20 Burgers You Must Eat Before You Die, coming in at #1.

 

http://www.gq.com/story/hamburger-death-eat

Thanks for the tip. Been meaning to ask u for this kind of thing. Any other local insider tips? Looking to budget low (but still get good) since we like to blow a lot on the cruise.

Also, we live in Tampa Bay area & have done plenty of Florida Beach resorts.

Oh, and would you like us to drop off any HAL prunes on the way home? 😉

You're being ripped off mate, $15 for 6 bottles of wine at Dan Murphy's in Oz. :cool:

Eww! What kind of wine is that? Hard to Down? 😫

Sounds like you're all about the buzz & not at all about taste.

Idea: Skip buying some of that cheap alcohol before the cruise. Save some money and enjoy a nice cruise experience. You might find that you feel good about your slimmer belly while enjoying a nice drink at one of the bars onboard.

When are you going? we leave the 8th

Same. 😊

We live about a 4 hour drive away. Still haven't booked anything just yet. Thinking about Hollywood Beach Towers instead of one of the boutiques. They renovated last year. If you look at the reviews, seems nice if only staying a night or two. Location is pretty good. Could walk over to the new Margaritaville resort for food & drinks. There's also two upscale seafood restaurants close by. As a couple, one of those restaurants you may really want to check out. On the intracoastal, they have these cute swinging picnic table pavilions. Looks very romantic. Pull up Google maps and search nearby. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll look it up again.

I love how these have been organized. Hopefully, the photographer will get to other ships soon.

I promise to upload pics to my website when onboard. You will find an album here:

http://escape.transatlantic2015.com/norwegian-escape/media/

Stay tuned :D

That web page is just too frkn awesome. Wish I was on this cruise with you. Y'all are all set to have non-stop fun. 😁

Thanks for the plug. :) The Lago Mar is where we put overflow guests who come to visit. It's nice and private - but it's not really close to a whole lot of restaurants or shopping. For that, you'd want to be further up the beach.

 

A hidden gem, IMO, is the Pillars Hotel on Birch Road. It's on the intra coastal and about a block from the beach, but their pool overlooks the intra coastal. It's also a whistle stop on the water taxi.

U do share so much good info. Trying the new follow feature in Tapatalk out on u. 😊

The Florida resident deal usually isn't as good as other promos they have going on.

The benefit of moving to Florida for cruising would be all the ports you could easily drive to and avoid the airline hassle.

Suggestions needed... My boyfriend and I will be staying in Ft. Lauderdale a couple days early prior to heading out on the Eurodam in November. Have stayed in Florida a TON but never around here. I have done some searching but anyone have any places they love and want to suggest. I would love to stay in a place that is more cottage style and right on the beach, you know, open door beach and water right there. Not sure if fort Lauderdale has that type.if not any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated, Got airfare booked tonight so moving right along!

We're doing Eurodam in November, not that it matters to your question, but I felt the need to cheer. 😄

Look at Hollywood Beach for cottage style on the beach. There are so many choices that are rated highly on tripadvisor and other places. There are some that have bicycles for their guests to use on the broadwalk. There are also many bicycle rental shops that have tandem and other neat bikes.

Hollywood Beach is very close to the beach and has many affordable places to choose from to stay. We wanted to do the new Margaritaville, but they're all booked up. So, we're just zooming in on Google Maps & Earth to see exactly where we want to stay & what will be nearby.

OP - no & no

I wouldn't frown upon anyone choosing to sleep with the balcony door open. But, at least one person commented that they don't know any reason cruise lines ask us to keep them shut. There are many reasons.

Yes, AC is one of them. Energy waste is an environmental concern. They've made great strides in cutting back on this, which has eased activists complaints about cruise ships.

Another would be the damage sea breeze can do to the carpet & furniture.

I'm sure there may be more reasons, but these two alone are enough to understand their request to keep the doors shut.

I agree with xcell. Actually, I'm doing the same. I've always wished to sail Oasis or Allure. And I wanted to sail Escape too so I decided to take the best of both worlds and wait for Harmony. I figured might as well wait and do the worlds biggest ship just a little over a year from now. So tell your son to be patient and practice delaying gratification. Then he can go back to his bragging friends and say that's great you sailed oasis, I sailed her new larger and more advanced sister who happens to also be 2000 gross tons larger and 6 years newer!! And I sailed the Escape!

We all seem to be on the same line of thought. So funny.