The Traveling Man

For many years, mostly a century or two ago, lobster was considered trash food. The genteel folks in major cities as well as small towns all up and down the Eastern Seaboard would turn up their noses at it. Lobster was seen as unfit to eat by those who could afford anything else, so naturally it found its way into the kitchens on onto the dinner tables of the poorest of the poor, Southern slaves. They managed to keep the secret of this delectable dish to themselves for decades until someone else finally tried it. Today it is among the most expensive and sought after foods in the US as well as in many other countries. Or, as Mark Twain was once quoted, "Twas a brave man who first ate an oyster." Food preferences are inherently personal. There are many delicacies found in the cuisines of other countries which we Americans wouldn't dream of tasting. I'm sure there are a lot of things which many Americans relish which those in other countries would never consider eating. So, we'll keep eating foie gras, sushi, etc. and you can stick to steak.

Duck heart is a bit gamey, but tasty. I really do not care for beef heart, and I can't stand the taste of beef liver.

There's a reason that Baskin Robbins carries 31 flavors of ice cream - not everyone likes tutti-frutti. Many people, myself included, really enjoy the flavor of foie gras.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I did not realize that you could use World Points as full payment for your cruise fare. My understanding was that they could be used for OBC and upgrades, but not the full fare.

We just got off the Sky on an 11 day cruise that went to many of the same ports. There were only a couple of tours listed when we booked, but many more were added as the departure date neared.

And with so many cruisers wearing their cards on lanyards, it’s easy to spot the first-timers, the suite people, and the Haven folks. There also is another card color that I would call lavender which can be used to designate special cases. We have received them twice. Once was on the Epic on a Western Mediterranean cruise. That itinerary can be booked Rome to Rome or Barcelona to Barcelona. Most folks travel from Barcelona, but to be able to easily distinguish those who embark at Rome, the staff sometimes issue the other color key card. Another time we had made prior arrangements to disembark the ship part way through the cruise, so they gave us the odd colored card to make it easy for the security officers to spot us.

Yes, I do. Did you know that the first step in preparing a beef steak is to hit the cow in the head with a hammer, thus killing it? Personally, I am a card carrying member of PETA, People Eating Tasty Animals.

For beef liver, I heartily agree. But duck or goose liver, properly prepared as foil gras, YUMMM!!!!!!

But recently they HAVE been reducing services. Stateroom attendants today are assigned almost twice as many rooms as they were a few years ago. First they cut out the towel animals. Now NCL only provides room cleaning once per day with no turndown service. With more rooms to clean, your attendant may not get around to your room until mid-afternoon. The laundry bag you left in your room before 9:00 may not be picked up until late afternoon, meaning you won’t get it back the following day as promised. Meal service, especially in the MDR, may be considerably slower than it used to be. The theater may be dark several nights during your cruise because they have cut back on entertainment. Some of the shows and lounge acts which they do have may not be worth your time because they aren’t paying enough to attract the best talent. We experienced each of these on the Sky earlier this month. YMMV.

I don’t think that will pass muster. When you upgrade using world points, your reservation carries the codes for both the “from “ and “to” cabin types. You get to travel in the upgraded stateroom, but your benefits, terms, and conditions remain as those associated with the lesser category. When you try to use your roommate’s upgrade, it likely would try to start from scratch with your lesser category, not with your already upgraded room. No harm trying, though. YMMV.

But for those of us who usually travel in a balcony, occasionally take an inside, and rarely splurge on the Haven, the Diamond benefit of upgrading a balcony to a club balcony is a nice change of pace. You frequently have stated your lack of enthusiasm for several other benefits available to Platinum, Sapphire, Diamond, and Ambassador members, and I have just as frequently expressed my fondness for them, so why don’t we agree to say “to each his own” and quit flogging this deceased equine.

This has come up before and several persons have reported that on ships such as the Epic which do not have OV cabins, it is a double meta to use points to go from inside to balcony.

That has not been our experience. We have used points to upgrade more than ten times. On each occasion we were able to specify our new cabin number at the time we redeemed our points.

Agree!!! I don’t mind spending a few minutes standing in a crowd if it means that everybody has at least actually stood where they are supposed to be in an emergency.

Maybe one-third of the time we have been told in advance who the officer would be, usually when we dined with the Captain, Chief Engineer, of the GM. The rest of the times we found out when we got to the restaurant. We have had dinner with two Captains, two Chief Engineers, five GMs, about a dozen three stripe officers, and almost 20 junior officers.

In Cagney’s I usually order either the lamb or the grilled fisherman’s platter. If I want a steak on an NCL ship I either go to La Cucina or Le Bistro.

We really enjoy it. The opportunity to meet the officers as well as the chance to chat with other Diamond members can be entertaining and often quite enlightening.

Platinum Latitudes members and above can sign up for dinner with an officer by stopping by the Cruise Next desk on embarkation day. Other passengers can request to be put on a standby list in case there is an opening. At our most recent dinner, there were two senior officers, the GM and Staff Chief Engineer, one Ambassador, seven Diamond, and two Bronze who had not sailed with NCL in over a decade.

I don’t know how NCL works their internal accounting system, so I don’t know who actually pays, but I do know that when an officer invites a passenger to dinner, the passenger pays nothing.

Most of the dinners that we have had with officers have been in an MDR, but we’ve had three in Le Bistro and one in Cagney’s. We are on the Sky now and had dinner with GM Jean-Michel in the MDR a couple of nights ago. Last night we had dinner in Cagney’s and saw the Captain having dinner at the table next to us with six passengers. When an officer invites you to join him or her in one of the specialty restaurants, the dinner is on them. Also, regardless of where the dinner is held, the wine flows freely, regardless of whether or not you have a beverage package.

Sounds like another typically wonderful evening with Alain. We always enjoy cruising when he is the GM, and really loved having dinner with him on our last Dawn cruise.

@sid_9169, this may not apply to you if you have the super-duper internet package, but for those of us who just have the regular internet connection I discovered something wonderful today on the Sky. NCL has for several years stated that there was free access to their own website as well as to Cruise Critic. No need to burn up your precious minutes looking up a future cruise or something else on the NCL site, plus chat on CC to your heart’s content for free. The only catch has been that the “free” sites have been interminably slow. I gave up on trying to access CC for free when we were on the Prima last September. I’m on the Sky now, browsing CC at almost normal speed, and not using any of my internet minutes. YAY!!!

That information appears to be correct for the cruise on the Escape which the OP mentioned. I would caution, however, that there can be other considerations on different itineraries of closed loop cruises from Florida to the Caribbean and/or Latin America. We currently are on an 11 day cruise on the Sky out of Miami, with several port stops before we return to Miami. I do not recall receiving any notice from NCL prior to departure that anything more than a driver license was required for ID. When we booked a tour for our port stop in Panama, however, we received a letter advising that we would not be allowed off the ship in Panama unless we each had a passport which was valid for at least six more months after the date of our port stop in Panama. There may be other port stops on other closed loop cruises from Florida which require this, or ours may be an anomaly. I haven’t attempted to research every possibility, but I know that I am glad that we always travel with our passports and we always make sure that they are valid for at least six months beyond the date of any travel we have planned.

The only advantage that comes to my mind is that it might develop some muscle memory of having actually stood in the area where you would be expected to gather in the event of an actual emergency.