JimJoan

What a lovely review and stunning photos.. I have to say I fully agree with your observations regarding the Spiegel Tent - and the Peter Kay reference had me ROFL.

ps not sure if you noticed but you seem to have a place holder for a name in your review for the guitarist at Maltings. I cant remember myself :confused: but Im sure someone here will remember the name - It should be in your NCL dailies if you brought them home.

Thanks for the responses.. Off to get on line and book the restaurants - Cagneys I think for the first night.

Different topic buta cpl of thing thats confusing me about the online bookings page (which is good and well set up to a point) are

Can I go back and change times through this page or are they then fixed in stone and have to be changed on board -

I only seem to have one "entertainment" to book for the entire week -Burn the Floor (- Are the rest just walk up or do you book on the ship)

From my experience of price watching nothing much moves in high season especially for the Caribbean (they just add packages on to tempt you)..

The Med situation though seems to be rather different .. In lower (out of school hol)seasons UK prices seem to tumble in the last month, sometimes on a weekly basis as the sail date approaches.

I see your point but I just wondered if it was worth eating in there (MDR) just for the room ambience etc

We were given a full dining package with our upcoming Barcelona cruise on the EPIC so I have been reading away at the various reviews;

So after comparing my tastes with others I suspect I will want to eat at Bistro a couple of nights and perhaps Cagneys and the Italian. Im not over fussed for the Brazillian Meat fest or the Japanese knife show (I came away from that still hungry at EPCOT).

Its a six night cruise so my question is if you have the full dining package do people tend to visit the MDR on the first night or is it better to book in to a better venue to celebrate your first night. Or do people ignore it all together.

Any other tips are welcome. Im really looking forward to this cruise (even though I prefer the smaller boats) as I like the idea of the freestyle dining; especially after a very lacklustre HAL cruise last year (food wise).

Also do people ever dress up or shall I leave the tails at home.

Just booked for the Epic on the 20th Sep to join friends and got an excellent cabin filler deal on a Family Balcony mini M2 with Ultimate Dining Package thrown in for £649 .. (I can only think this is an off peakish time - no school hols in Europe & UK (thank god))

As the Friends had paid significantly more and paid for the Dining I was quite reluctant to tell them but they went ahead and looked.

They decided nothing was lost in making a call and they got the dining refunded and added for free but NCL wouldnt budge on anything else.

Its just the way it works.. You could play the waiting game and end up in a cabin from hell or no cruise at all.

haven't been able to get on all evening

I totally agree that it is the cruise lines (not just HAL) that have dumbed down the formal nights and the dress. There is no difference these days in the MDR between a regular night and a formal night. When we started cruising over 15 years ago on Celebrity (which I consider equal to HAL) the formal nights had the wait staff dressed in tuxes, white linen chair covers, and 13 pieces of silverware set around a charger at your place setting. The meals were wonderful and presented beautifully on the plate. Now the meals are more like a moderate priced restaurant and nothing at all special. There is no longer any reason to dress up when the ones throwing the party have eliminated the incentive to dress up for anything special.

I agree .. All the cruise lines seem to have turned into lets please everyone and everything as cheaply as possible. It used to be something special, now its just mediocrity at sea most of the time

JimJoan - if you take your daughter and book two staterooms on a Saver basis, have you been able to link the cabins to be able to dine together?

We just book on the internet.. I think using agents doesnt really happen much in the UK anymore however to answer your question.

It specifically states on a saver fare as you book two rooms that you cant link them or words to that effect (though it specifically states you cant select dining either yet as you can see thats easily change once onboard).

However on the three occasions our daughter has accompanied us (she always takes a flight back before us and only makes the westward trip) we have always had adjoining staterooms even on saver fares. However don't take that as a guarantee - as I say when you book online using the saver fare it specifically says you may be separate and obviously you don't get to choose your stateroom.

Re dining we just turn up together and ask - its never an issue - though I think from memory we always have the same to start with anyway (I suspect most of the saver fares do)

With tongue firmly in cheek though perhaps looking back in time through rose tinted lenses I do wonder if part of the problem has also been created by the cruise companys themselves wanting to be all things to everyone at any price..

I would rather sit in a corner stabbing my eyes out with a fork than interact with some of the guests onboard certain ships.. :rolleyes:

Ray makes a good point.. Not every cruise gets a saver price in the late offer section.. One other thing to note is while the TA prices may get slashed by 50% its more like 30% to 20% for cruises.

Another small point to remember is sometimes the only rooms they have left are doubles only ( so you cant put a third person in there at the reduced price)

Interesting question..

When it comes to cruises I would say there a little like HAL and P&O and far away from the likes of Royal C - whose new boats seem to resemble floating shopping malls crossed with a theme park that went wrong.

I actually think HAL do the cruise side of things a little better and have a better range of boats more suited but for me Cunard are all about Transatlantic and its here I think they win hands down. (Then again they dont really have any competition)

Cunard (Thank the Lords) have one of the most relaxed wine policy's. If your not flying just take a case or two of your favourite wine and pay the reasonable corkage fee.

Put it this way.. A fine wine that you buy + the 20$ corkage is much better value and more enjoyable than some of the overpriced supermarket garbage they have on the lists.. And the better wines are stupidly overpriced meaning your still better off supplying your own.

I do recommend tipping the sommelier a little more though so he doesnt do a vanishing trip with your bottle at the most inconvenient time (when your glass is empty) or just tell him/her to leave it on the table.

There price always seems to be per person rather than per room which hikes it up a bit. If it includes transfers your probably ok but if you staying more than a cpl of days it does start to feel like your on the loosing end.

The other issue is if your flights included they probably are recovering some of those costs here.

In the UK when you click late offers you get saver fares (tends to start 6 weeks out)

So for instance the Eastbound Crosby Stills and NAsh is £699 Saver instead of £1749 Cunard Price for a Balcony BV flights included.

the westbound 5th of Nov is offering DF Balconies for £599 instead of £1299 Cunard (again flights included). So its around 50%

If we take our daughter now we actually go with the saver price and take two state rooms.

Use the saver fares quite regularly now to visit grand children (beats the hell out of flying)

QM

Saver

Allocated balcony on arrival (out of 6 trips we have had only one obstructed though I suspect its pot luck ( and to be honest as long as I have fresh air its good enough on Transatlantic as there's not much to see mid cruise and the atmospheres much better on deck for arrivals/departures)

Have been allocated both early and late sittings - if we get late we simply ask if we can change to early after the first night - never had a problem other than you may have to move to a larger table on some nights - If they cant fit you in we book into Todd English

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