Lisakauai

On 2/15/2020 at 2:48 PM, Kenswing said:

What's sad is they're only giving you one year to sail again with your Future Cruise Credit.  For the people on the Diamond Princess they only have to book by February 2021

It's a little frustrating... we have 5 cruises booked between now and February. We have been trying to squeeze another cruise in so as not to lose the credit. We were just about to go back on the Grand Princess (which we just did in January) but now it's  having issues... running out of time/options.

It was an expensive inconvenience... unexpected airfare from Perth to Sydney, 2 hotel nights,  transportation to airport, etc. and back to the USA. We should at least be given the option to BOOK by Feb...

On 12/25/2019 at 1:28 AM, Tracyken said:

We are travelling on the Sun Princess from Perth in March 2020.  There has been some discussion as to whether the PBP can be added for £35 per person.  However I usually drink wine so it might be better to get the gold wine package but I don’t want to get on board and they don’t offer a gold wine package.  Does anyone know whether the Sun Princess is offering a wine package?  Thanks for your help.

We are sailing out of Sydney in February and somewhere I saw where they don't  offer the wine packages in the Australian market. Trying  to confirm. I REALLY don't  want to lug our wine suitcase all the way there but... my understanding is the wine list is different from other itineraries. If you happen to see (or anyone knows) any info on this... please share! 

On 1/2/2020 at 5:27 PM, Peckishpixie said:

My daughter in love has celiac and she is very worried about the cruise. Princess has reassured her and I have reassured her that the dining venues know about her illness abs will take good care of her. She is still anxious. Has anyone who is gluten free traveled on Princess and can you tell us how it went? I'm sure she would love some recommendations for favorite gluten free foods onboard too!! 

I have Lupus and am on a Gluten-free, Nightshade free diet (I can only eat cardboard...). My cruises on Princess have been amazing. They have a delicious GF pasta and made special sauces without  tomato. The Maitre'd gave me the menu for the next day so we could decide together which items could be made GF. They are very careful and take it very  seriously. 

4 minutes ago, skynight said:

Interesting. We found Matt to be one of the best CD's we ever experienced.

However, I do not like the practice of not turning on the theater lights until the CD completes their talking. It's a safety issue with people leaving in the dark. I mention it on every survey. Eliminate the after show blabber turn up the house lights and let people leave safely.

That's what we said! Matt was the BEST... not that we did things with him but the level of participation was incredible. 

Wings all night long at O'Sheehan's... other things too but I love the Thai Chicken Wings! We usually stop by around 2am :-)

I have three formal Long dresses and “cruise clothes”. They pretty much stay packed all the time..just in case. Turned out to be the smartest thing ever because they always stayed on the highest shelf in my closet. We took on five feet of water in Hurricane Harvey. I have no day to day clothes but I’m ready for cruising! Just had to buy new shoes :-)

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For family cruises with the younger ones, we enjoy bigger Norwegian ships in the Caribbean. The kids love the slides, mini golf, bowling and on the Getaway and Escape...the ropes course. Sometimes they offer drink packages included in the price.

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Short version - loved it! If I'm able to sail on Escape again (doubtful since it's moving to NY) I'm pretty sure I would have to have passes again.

I LOVE Rommel!!! We have sailed with him a couple times on the Epic. He actually remembered our names when we walked up a year later. Then we went on the Escape and didn't know he was on the ship. So bummed!

Long version - keep reading.

I've waited a longtime to sail on Escape, and I was intrigued by Vibe. I vacillated about passes though since it sounded like such a stressful situation. Several years ago four of us bought day passes for Epic's Posh. I believe there were only two other people there when we visited and we didn't stay long. We considered it a bust, so DH was never interested in spending the money for our Escape voyage, even though I told him it should be a totally different and better experience. Somewhat fortunately I had a long time (11 months) to bring it up often and share pictures and stories of all the wonderful experiences to be had there: sun! hot tub! He's not interested in either. Exclusivity? Him - why do we need it? Oh yeah,and if the weather is bad we won't really get any use out of it. Ugh, this is gonna be a hard sell. We also usually travel with friends who probably weren't interested in Vibe. Turns out our friends were not able to join us, and we arrived early enough for Boarding Group 1!

 

I told DH it was meant to be and I'd worn him down enough that he agreed to try for passes. (It also helped that this was for our belated wedding anniversary.) I warned him some people run to Headliners for the passes and assured him I won't be running (because he never would) so if we manage to get them great, and if we don't, we don't. Yes, I was trying to not get my hopes up.

We got into the security line about 9:40. Maybe we were 25-30 people back from the front of the line. Shortly after 10:00 the line opened and we proceeded upstairs. There was barely any wait at all for check-in. Finally in the waiting area I wasn't sure which row was closest to the actual boarding line so I just sat next to the largest group thinking they must be after Vibe passes also.

I think just before 11 the staff made an announcement that they would be making another announcement soon for boarding and at that moment the 10-15 people next to us (other people had sat indifferent rows) jumped up and RAN about 20 feet over to the staging area for the line to board. It actually startled me but of course I jumped up too (but didn't run). The end of the line wasn't far from my seat so I didn't have far to go. And I thought, these people are not screwing around. I will never get a pass at this rate, as I'm sure I will get trampled before I make it to Headliners.

We watched one or two large wedding parties and Haven and Platinum and all the Priority people board. I felt like my chances kept dwindling by the second. Our line finally opened and that first group of people took off running some more. Even though DH didn't want to get the passes initially, he's great about completing a task, so he's questioning me if I'msure I know where I need to go. Yes! And if nothing else just follow everybody else that's talking about Vibe!

You enter the ship on Deck 7 so it's an easy walk down one flight of stairs to get to Headliners. There was a group of two or three young men who heard several of us talking about Vibe passes and they yelled out (as they walked in the opposite direction) "Too late! Vibe's sold out!" I was so sad but knew I had to be a big girl about it and we all kept walking anyway. Of course we want to hear it from an employee. And there we were and we snagged passes 59 and 60! Not sure what the purpose of the misdirect was. Bless their little hearts.

 

We made it up to Vibe about an hour later and Rommel, Vincent (aka Vinny, Vince, Curley) and Michael made this experience fantastic for us. They learned our names immediately, and always had my DH's beer at the ready for him. I like to vary it up and they fulfilled every request and offered up great suggestions when I needed them. They said several times if they don't have what you want at their bar they'll get it so don't be afraid to ask for whatever. And of course - Shot O' Clock!

 

The only small drawback for us having the passes was not visiting all the bars and other nooks and crannies of the ship because we spent all our free time in Vibe. And we were ok with that. There was almost no point going anywhere else when you knew the service would be so attentive and fun, not to mention visiting with other passengers we met, some of which we hope to sail with again.

Oh! On the last night everyone was saying good-byes to the guys and we got caught up in it all and DH forgot his room key in Vibe, and we didn't realize it until almost 8, long after they closed. We thought we heard that Michael would be in the Skyline Bar that night so we went there and a bartender there tracked Michael down in his room and Michael actually came up to that bar, told DH he/the guys at Vibe saw the card was left behind and somehow knew we were eating at Bayamo/Pincho Tapas that night and had sent the card there for us already! Michael then called over to Bayamo (from Skyline) and they brought they key over to us. This was so far above and beyond the call of duty! When the Skyline bartender first told us Michael was coming up (he even could have relayed the info over the phone but didn't) I left to go to our room to grab some cash to give to Michael as a thank you but it took too long for me to get back and he couldn't wait for me. I felt so bad I couldn't give him a token of our appreciation.

And yes, we did know that we could've just gotten the card replaced at Guest Services. However, the Vibe bartenders will sometimes (often?) put stickers on your card and we wanted to keep it for sentimental and souvenir purposes.

Thanks again Michael and Rommel and Vincent. You guys are the best!!

I LOVE Rommel!!! We have sailed with him a couple times on the Epic. He actually remembered our names when we walked up a year later. Then we went on the Escape and didn't know he was on the ship. So bummed!

We missed two ports on April 2017 NCL Getaway TA to Copenhagen. We received automatic refunds for the two ports we missed....

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We want to do this too. Probably not forever on a cruise ship but certainly a year or two. But our plan is to take a TA to Europe...watching prices..if there is a good deal on a cruise in the med we'll take it...if not...stay 1 month in several of the major cities in Europe (train or Easy Jet to get there)..then take a Suez canal cruise to Dubai. Stay on the ship thru to Singpore/Perth/Sydney depending on the deal to be had. Spend several months in Australia staying in the major cities. (We will use Air BNB etc) Depending upon the time catch a repositioning to New Zealand...stay there a while. Then it's time for a Transpacific home. Stay home until the next TA...repeat with different destinations ie Northern Europe and Japan/China/Hong Kong etc. The plan is to fly as little as possible, watch our spending. We will not have a house waiting for us. Our money will be invested to help mitigate the costs. Yes we will sail on insides unless a really good deal is to be had. We've sailed in suites, balcony's and insides..you are only in your room when you sleep. When we are tired of being on the move...we'll rebuy a house/condo. I've been watching another couples travels that have done exactly this. They have a travel blog called worldwidewaftage. Very inspiring couple.

We are actually currently sailing with Tom and Jessica (worldwidewafting) on the Celebrity Infinity. Fascinating couple! They sold everything and have been on the move for six or seven years. It is a mixture of land and sea... they just finished four months (I believe) in Costa Rica and are doing b2b from Ft Lauderdale to Buenos Aires. They will stay there a month. So many adventures and great hints for doing such a thing. They each have a suitcase for clothes and one suitcase for “supplies” like ice cube trays :-)

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We had a fantastic trip! There was something for everyone. Six year old cried leaving Splash Academy. Starting out with two sea days made us extremely relaxed by the time we got to first port. Staff and passengers were all so cheerful...we met many new friends. We enjoyed the "adult only" Brew House! We have crossing on Epic booked for October but decided to add another Escape for next January!

Just got off the ship yesterday...spent bulk of our time in the Brewery! Floor to ceiling windows, comfortable chairs and couches and adults only. They ran out of a couple beers for a day but we're ready to go by the next. With so many to choose from, it wasn't a problem. We would leave during "game" time. The venue is used for a couple of musical games (45minutes) but emptied out after. Just a purely relaxing place to hang out...

Just returned yesterday...we had cabins on 10th floor both sides of ship. Sitting on the balcony we had full, uninterrupted ocean view. If we stood up and looked down, we could see the walkway along the waterfront. I was worried about noise but surprisingly the actual waterfront areas aren't crowded or noisy. It's nice being on the 10th floor because it's only 2 flights to restaurants during busy elevator hours :-)

We just got off yesterday...booked nothing in advance. We chose to really "be free" (new phrase replacing freestyle". We were able to book a 6:15 party of 8 in Moderno (FANTASTIC!) on a port day...just before sailing. Easily got in early seating to Cagneys...late for Teppenyaki and early for La Cuchina and ale Bistro. Booked shows while on board...they always leave room for standbys at "sold out shows" we sat near the front at Million Dollar Quartet with no reservations.

Just asked my daughter...she and her husband had to. Show their actual birth certificates checking in pre-cruise and disembarking back in Miami.

We just got off the Escape yesterday. All three port stops required room key and photo ID. No slow down for getting back onboard. There was a couple in front of us where the wife forgot a photo ID in Nassau...they gave her a hard time, short lecture but let her back on. I have a passport but left it in the safe and brought only my DL.

Fantastic show!