The Traveling Man

The Garden Villas on the Star and its sister ship the Dawn are probably the best suites on any NCL ship. You have three bedrooms, your own hot tub, a huge living room with a dining table for eight, and a private sun deck on the deck above your room that's as large as your entire suite. Sorry, I don't have any specific information about the menu available to you, but you probably can ask for just about any combination you want and your butler can get it for you.

A tour through the areas of a ship which normally are closed to passengers can be an interesting diversion on a sea day, but I personally would never pay for it, not even if I could apply a $50 discount. The only reasons my wife and I have taken more than a dozen are A) the tour is free after you have cruised enough to reach Latitudes Platinum and B) occasionally the tour guide includes an additional area of the ship that you haven't seen on other tours. If you've seen one commercial kitchen, you've pretty much seen them all, although you might enjoy checking out the photos on the wall of all the menu items. The laundry facilities, especially on the Breakaway class, are kind of interesting. You can learn some interesting factoids about how they process thousands of pieces of laundry per day. The main thing about them that we enjoy, though, is getting to meet some of the ship's personnel whom you might not otherwise get to know and hearing their perspectives about life on board a ship.

Sorry, Behind The Scenes.

We usually book tours on board, so I didn't realize that they were handled differently.

They weren't jam packed when we were there, but they were quite full. I've never seen so many gigantic tubs of ice cream in my life.

The $50 credit is applied to your on board account only after you have taken a tour. If you book a tour, pay for it, then cancel at the last minute (or miss the bus), you don't get the $50 discount and probably won't get a refund for the tour ticket if you wait too late to cancel.

Harry Dean Stanton

You are correct that the Latitudes tour does not include the bridge or engine room. Depending upon availability, though, it may include the provisioning areas. In my previous post I tried to remember all the places we have visited. I forgot to mention the provisioning areas. Thanks for the reminder. As I recall, it was included on just one of our dozen tours, so don't count on seeing it on any particular tour.

I'm a little disappointed that the $50 FAS shore excursion credit can't be applied. I guess that's because they manage it as an "activity" rather than an excursion. I wonder if the tickets that they issue for this tour look the same as shorex tickets. Even with a $50 discount, though, I wouldn't pay $79 for a BTS tour. The typical Latitudes BTS tour is shorter than the one they sell, and it usually only covers the laundry, I-95, backstage (usually just one of the entertainers' dressing rooms), and the main galley. Sometimes, though, they throw in an extra stop. We have taken the free Latitudes tour more than a dozen times on at least ten different NCL ships. On one tour or another we also have visited the crew mess, crew training rooms, crew nightclub, crew exercise room, crew lounge, bakery, butcher shop, walk-in freezer, print shop, and recycling facility. We even have been under the stage to see the mechanism they use lift stage props and performers up on stage. In addition to the free BTS tour, one other Latitudes benefit is the opportunity to have dinner with an officer. We have dined with more than 30 NCL officers, including the Captain on a couple of cruises. One of them invited his dinner companions to a private tour of the bridge the following day. As others have posted here, the bridge has not been a regular feature of any NCL BTS tours for many years, so it was a real treat to be able to spend a half hour with our Captain on the bridge.

We were on the Sky in February. This looks like an almost complete turnover in senior staff. I don't recognize any of these officers as having been on our cruise.

Nickel and diming. I don't object (in fact I really prefer) to pay only for those products and services which I find useful, interesting, or desirable. I'm not a big fan of "one size fits all" pricing. I'll probably never take a turn on the go carts, don't care to spend $20 for a game of darts, and there probably are at least a dozen other things that some folks truly enjoy while cruising that I can live without and would prefer not to financially subsidize those who do wish to indulge in them. There likely are a number of things on board which I do enjoy, which cost extra, and for which many other passengers have no interest at all. I rather enjoy shopping around, finding the best price (or at least a reasonable one) for a cruise that looks interesting, adding in those extras that pique my interest, and skipping those that don't. Once so selected and recorded, however, I'd like to think that I'm all set, that I won't be hit up at every turn for a little bit for this, a bit more for that, and "Oh, you should have read the fine print more carefully to see that there's an extra charge for that." I'll pause briefly so you can get the Innkeeper's song from Les Miserables out of your head. I do wish that NCL, as well as many other companies which follow similar marketing policies, would be a bit more straightforward in presenting the costs and benefits of purchasing their products and services. "Free" means free. If they want to offer something at a discounted price, then advertise it as "discounted," not "free." It's misleading and no amount of fine print on page 17 of a 23 page contract (full disclosure - exaggeration for effect) will leave their customers happy in the long run if they feel they have been duped by a misleading advertising offer. The price of most everything else we buy has gone up significantly in the last couple of years. It's reasonable to think that the total cost of a cruise should be greater, as well. My one request for NCL is that they not cheapen the quality of their product at the same time they are raising the price. When I'm on vacation, I want to enjoy myself, to find my smile. That can be difficult when memories of wonderful meals, great entertainment, and excellent service in days gone by are overshadowed by the shortcomings which many on this and other threads have reported about recent cruises. My two cents worth.

Late night buffet has not been a regular feature on any NCL ship for about a decade.

Yes, but that is reserved for Suite / Haven passengers. The OP's question was about lunch in a specialty restaurant for any or all passengers who choose to eat there. I remember a cruise on the Breakaway in February of 2016 when they had a variety of cuisine offerings for lunch in Moderno on sea days. One day it was Indian food, another day it was tacos and enchiladas, and hamburgers on another. We ate lunch there a couple of times.

Your hotel is about a mile north of the main railway station in Rome, known as Roma Termini. I would suggest taking the Leonardo Express train from the airport to Termini, then walking or taking a taxi to your hotel. For info on the train, visit https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

He, Gary, made it clear in the first paragraph of his initial post to this thread that his purpose in selecting the title was to pique the interest of others, particularly those who have read many of his thousands of his previous posts on other threads and who are aware of his fondness for and devotion to NCL.

We haven't seen towel animals on a NCL ship since before COVID. We did get some on the Celebrity Beyond in February, but none on NCL in a long time.

There is a Cruise Critic roll call for this cruise. It's just getting started, with less than a dozen posts so far, but you may want to check there to chat with your shipmates.

Actually it was a couple of cruises after yours. We sailed about the middle of February. I agree with you that the entertainment, both on the main stage and in the lounges, left something to be desired. One of the lounge singers, in fact, would spend about ten minutes yammering in between each of his three minute songs. Our principal disappointments, though, were service related. One morning in the MDR, a three-stripe officer, apparently the restaurant manager, was heard barking orders to his staff via the radio intercoms they use in the MDR. Most of the servers, busboys, etc. had earphones, but several did not and had their radio volume turned up so everyone around them could hear the manager berating his staff. A couple of days later, we had breakfast in the MDR prior to meeting for a shore excursion. We allowed more than an hour. At the 45 minute mark, they still had not delivered our meals. At that point I begged any server that I saw to bring us something, anything, so we could eat and run. After several minutes, I spotted a waitress who was carrying a plate of food back to the kitchen. Apparently the person who had ordered it had given up and left. I snagged it and we managed at least to wolf down a morsel or two before dashing off for our tour. On embarkation day, we stopped by the Cruise Next office to register for Latitudes benefits such as the wine tasting, dinner with officers, etc. We were given the date, time, and locations for the events. When we showed up at the venue at the time listed for one of them, no one else was there. We walked down to the Cruise Next office where we were told "Oh, that was two days ago, you missed it." We showed them the notice that they had given us which listed the schedule. They just shrugged their shoulders and said "Sorry, nothing we can do now" before turning to walk away. Our cabin attendant typically did not get to our room until 3:00 or 4:00 PM each day. We advised him one day that we would be leaving a bag of laundry the following day for him to turn in for us. When we got back from our tour that next day around 4:00 PM, our dirty laundry was still sitting on our unmade bed. Naturally, it was not finished and returned to us the following day as promised, but came back a day late. That meant I had to wear a previously worn shirt one day instead of a clean and pressed one fresh from the laundry. The final issue we had with service on the Sky was a problem which we also encountered last September on the Prima. In the past it usually has taken us about 30 to 40 minutes to exit a ship on the last day of the cruise. We carry our own luggage, and we try to time our exit to avoid the crowds of people whose bag tag identifiers are being called. We don't need to stop in the port terminal to find our bags, so we generally have been able to waltz through the terminal, make a brief stop at Customs, and then we're out the door. Prior to COVID, it never took us more than 45 minutes from the time we left our stateroom until the time we reached the curb. Sometimes we have done it in under 15 minutes. On the Sky in Miami in February it took just over 90 minutes. Some of that time can be attributed to the terminal personnel and CBP officers, but NCL seemed to make no effort to plan for it, offer assistance, or even forewarn passengers of the expected delays. Fortunately we were in no rush in Miami, but we noticed many other passengers who obviously were encountering difficulties with standing in line for an hour and a half. Last September on the Prima in Southampton, the delays in disembarkation caused us to miss our bus, for which we had allowed two full hours for the four or five blocks from the pier to the bus terminal. We ended up taking a taxi all the way to Heathrow. NCL could at least have informed passengers of the anticipated delays. None of these issues, in and of themselves, are all that terrible. Many of them can be shrugged off, taken with a grain of salt, and forgiven. Taken as a whole, however, they cumulatively left a sour taste in our mouths. As @Sthrngary put it, the result was that we didn't leave the ship with broad smiles on our faces. I happily would have paid a bit more for the assurance that the MDR staff would exhibit more professionalism, the Cruise Next staff would check their calendars more carefully, the cabin attendant would have been more attentive to our request, and the staff in general had been a bit more proactive in dealing with getting 2000 people off the ship and on their way.

You and I are on the same page. Put a smile on my face and I'll be back. Cause frustration and I'll look elsewhere for a place to spend my money. Or, as I frequently tell the vendors with whom I deal on behalf of my company, make it easy for us do business with you and we'll do more business with you. Make it difficult and we'll look elsewhere.

I heartily agree. All I ask is that cruise lines, restaurants, hotels, and any other service industry venue simply put a smile on my face, leave me with a great memory of my experience with them, and make me think kindly of coming back for another wonderful encounter with them. It doesn't have to be an "OH MY GOD" moment, just not one where the shortcomings overshadow any positives that might come of it. Let the experience make me feel welcome, like a friend, or better yet, like a welcome guest. I'll happily pay for such an experience, offer gratuities above and beyond what is expected, and cherish such a memorable moment. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case recently with NCL. Many guests, myself included, have reported recently on Cruise Critic of the shortcomings they have experienced on NCL. I won't repeat here in detail what I already have cited on other threads. Suffice it to say that recent travels on NCL just haven't seemed to measure up to what we had come to expect on prior cruises. I think NCL can do better. I certainly hope that they do.

My last NCL cruise was on the Sky in the Caribbean this February. Before that we sailed on the Prima's second-ever cruise last September. The shortcomings on each were minor, but they added up. I may not have expressed myself well, though. The cruises were OK, maybe even "fine." They just lacked the pizazz that we have come to expect of NCL. I wouldn't mind paying a little more to come away from a cruise with a great big satisfied smile on my face. Instead, it was a solid "meh."

We have tucked a couple of bottles of wine into our luggage when changing rooms on a B2B. The cabin attendant transferred our bags to our new room and nobody said a word about it.

@Sthrngary you certainly got my attention with the title of this thread. That obviously was your intention, so, well played. It's human nature to want more bang for the buck. We're always looking for a great deal, a special price. Most of us spend a lot of time bargain hunting. You're right about cruise lines facing a steep uphill climb to return to a level of profitability that resembles their pre-COVID results. That being said, I'd like to propose a somewhat different perspective. There's an old adage that the sour taste of poor quality is remembered long after the temporary sweetness of a cheaper price has become a distant memory. When I go on vacation, I want to GO ON VACATION. I don't want to have to make my own bed, prepare my own meals, do my own laundry, or worry about the day to day cares of my regular life. I want to kick back and enjoy myself. Sure, just like the rest of you, I would love it to sail today for the same price that we paid ten years ago. That's never going to happen. Just about everything costs more now than it used to, but I would rather pay a little bit more, maybe even quite a bit more, if we could really enjoy our vacation. I don't like waiting for an hour for the waiter to serve my dinner. I don't like my stateroom attendant to be so overworked that he can't do an outstanding job of cleaning my room in a timely manner. I really enjoy the outstanding entertainment that has made NCL's reputation over the years. I really enjoy it when the waiters, cabin attendants, and others actually seem to enjoy their life on board the ship, don't feel overworked, always have a smile, and are experienced enough to know how to do an outstanding job. Like many who have posted recently on Cruise Critic, I have been disappointed lately with the level of service, the quality of the experience, that we have found on recent cruises. When we go on vacation, I want to come back home with a huge smile on my face and a head full of great memories that will last a lifetime. I think NCL, as well as some other cruise lines, are missing the boat (pun intended) by cheapening the product. So, my choice, if anyone at NCL's headquarters is listening, would be to raise the prices a bit in order to bring back some of the amenities and services that have been cut back recently. That's my two cents worth. YMMV.

We always have chosen to get out and about to see the town on turnaround day between the two legs of a B2B. In addition to our new key cards for our new stateroom, the Guest Services folks also have given us wristbands, special name tags, or lanyards indicating that we were B2B passengers. We usually put those in our pocket while visiting the port city, then put them on upon returning to the port terminal. The tags allow us to bypass the check-in lines and head straight to the gangway.

We usually wait until the turnaround day to turn in our bag of laundry. That way it comes back to us in our new room the day after turnaround. We just leave it next to our packed suitcases. The only time that we turned it in a day early, we checked with our cabin attendant to make sure he knew we would be changing staterooms and that the laundry needed to go to our new room, not our old one.