Hikini

This is fun! We are in the planning stages of a Med cruise.

I have some, and it would be happy to email them to you, if you want to give me your email address.

I won't be able to send them to you until tonight or tomorrow night.

Congratulations on your 30 years of marriage. What a fantastic way to celebrate! We will celebrate 32 this year. (Remember when silver wedding anniversaries and beyond, were OLD couples?!) :rolleyes:

You can go to the front desk at some point and tell them you are celebrating your anniversary and they will give you a card that you fill out and then hand to the host/hostess when you go to the MDR the evening you are celebrating.

At the dessert time of your meal, they will bring out a small but very good cake and sing "Let me call you sweetheart." Beware: most of the waiters are not singers and shouldn't quit their day jobs! :D But they enjoy bringing this bit of happiness to your special day.

The small cake has been no extra charge whenever we have done it, for anniversary or birthday. You can, however, get a more elaborate version if you choose, for pay, but we think the cake they bring is just good enough.

Enjoy!

I guess I don't feel the NEED to meet them, but we've always enjoyed meeting them and make friendly conversation. At the end when we tip the extra, we always hand it to them personally, so I'm glad to have met them beforehand.

BUT, if I didn't meet them at all, and they did a great job, they'd still get a cash tip and all would be happy.

With my DH, my parents and myself we have over 40 cruises on NCL. We have never had a meal to complain about. Yes, maybe not everything is exactly to your liking, but in general we find the MDR food to be good to very good, with an excellent thrown in here and there.

We generally eat in the specialty restaurants, mostly because we like the smaller, more intimate feel of the specialties, and because we are platinum members and therefore get some complimentary meals in the specialties. But if we had no access to the specialties, we wouldn't go hungry by any means at all!

Enjoy!

We may have to drive to Portland from Seattle to get a glimpse of our Star. We've been on her 4 times and LOVE that ship - more than any other. I really miss that she doesn't come into Seattle anymore.

PDX is only about 165 miles south of us. Now to talk DH into a little drive....

This is fun. We've been on the Jewel twice and I can completely picture every area you are speaking of. Good job!

We won't sail with any line other than NCL and are considering a Mediterranean cruise. For those of who have done it, do you have ideas or suggestions? Itinerary? Ship? Time of year? Western or Eastern? Anything at all?

I think he wanted to axe the snow room on the new ship and they said no:p

 

He did a wonderful job and will be missed. Sorry to see him go....

And he did a great job on the Undercover Boss show. I wish him well.

We've had a mini 3 or 4 times and found the room to be very adequate, even with 4 people. However, in the mini there is no option of a bunk (at least not that we've seen) and 2 people would share the sofa. DH and I have shared the sofa in a mini and did just fine. We were comfortable and had room. I'm only 5'2" but DH is 6'.

On this last cruise we were in a penthouse but we had relatives in a regular balcony room. I was surprised at how much smaller it seemed than the minis we've been in. The sofa is smaller and when the sofa is made into a bed it blocks the access to the sliding deck door. I wouldn't want to have that room for 4 people unless there was no other choice.

Another difference is that the mini has a tub/shower in the bathroom, where the balcony rooms only have a shower.

Also, the decks on the minis are a little deeper than those in the balcony rooms.

Have fun!

Sorry for taking so long to reply - I didn't see this until now.

The master bed doesn't separate into 2 twins. I don't believe there is enough room in there to separate.

The couch does fold out, but it only folds out to a twin size. We asked for a demonstration and it was pretty slick how it folded in and out.

We loved this suite and will do it again, for sure!

Hikini, do you by chance remember what day of the week the VIP Party was? Since the upcoming Caribbean sailings out of Houston will also be Saturday sailings like Alaska more than likely the VIP Party will continue to be the same night of the week. Trying to plan what night we will be eating in the various restaurants :) Thanks,

Oh boy, I *think* it was Sunday night.

Thanks for the wonderful review' date=' Hikini. Great to read John D'Souza is concierge - such a nice guy and so helpful & sincere.

 

How were the other entertainment acts other than the production shows?[/quote']

 

We went to the Liar's Club, which was good and very funny, but with old words. They need to come up with some new ones.

 

We also went to the Newlywed, Not so Newlywed game and it was funny as is typical.

 

We didn't go to any of the musical performances in any of the lounges, didn't go to the White Hot Party or anything like that. We're too old! :D

In the shower is a dispenser that has shower gel on one side and shampoo on the other side, but no conditioner. (Unless it is a combo, and in that case it does not say that.)

We were on the Jewel last month and had 4 adults in this category. My parents are in their 80's and this was going to be their last cruise so we put them in the master bedroom and DH and I took the second bedroom.

The bed is a double and it was very comfortable. DH is 6 foot and I'm a whopping 5 foot 2. We had no troubles whatsoever.

We loved this suite.

No need to wear dresses. Neat, clean jeans are just fine or any other slacks if you prefer.

Looking forward to reading and seeing more! We live just outside of Seattle and have cruised to AK 10 times - twice on the Pearl. I'm sure you had a great time. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the info... I noticed a few people bringing on flowers in Seattle that appeared to be purchased from the local flower market for under $20. A much better deal than the $54 Tropical Delight arrangement waiting in our cabin.

Every time we cruise out of Seattle we see several people bringing flowers on board from the Pike Place Market. We have done it, and asked for a vase, or used the champagne bucket until we could get a vase.

I would think a cheap vase from IKEA or someplace similar would be a decent idea too, and then leave it behind. Then they'll have one to let someone else use the next time.

On our 7 day cruises we have tipped the butler between $100 and $150, depending on how much we asked for. (Meals en suite, DVD's, etc.)

With as busy as the buffet is, it's hard to imagine that they could get rid of it.

I personally don't eat much there, but find myself spending time in there with my DH who has 2 hollow legs. We could have just left the dining room and he'll say, "Let's take a stroll through the buffet just to see what's in there!" And then he'll eat a plate or 2 of food.

The option to take a little bit of several different things is appealing to many folks and I just don't think it's a good idea to remove the buffet from the major cruise lines.

I think he's saying that on some excursions they want to go on, there is a minimum # of passengers, and since they are the only ship in port on that day, the excursions haven't reached their minimum # of folks yet, so he's hoping he can get some others onto the excursion so it will happen.

But then again, I could be wrong! :cool:

I guess I forgot to answer the question as to what kind of movies were they.

They ran the gamut from kids movies to Les Miserables. Nothing X rated.

Secretariat

We Are the Millers

Jobs

Captain Phillips

Julie & Julia

Despicable Me

Bourne (I can't remember which one(s) )

Jack Reacher

And that's all I can think of at this moment.

Just wondering. How many movies do they give you?? What kind of movies are they?? Sounds cool to have during down time.

 

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We had a list of about 50-75 movies to choose from. When the butler first introduced herself she said that if we wanted to request movies to have a list of 4 ready, just in case some weren't available. We asked her for 4 movies twice, and each time she brought all 4, and we watched them all.

We usually head for the room after the show is over unless it's a night there is a show such as the Newlywed game that is later on. But we usually watch TV until around midnight anyway (falling to sleep here and there before the TV actually gets shut off.)

So it's pretty much the same as if we were at home. :)

Our 2 bedroom penthouse suite on the Jewel had one in the living room as well as in the master bedroom.