Tree_skier

I'm at 18 days. Ive never waited this long for cruise planner refunds. This is the first time I have sent an email to the M. Bayley's customer facing email. I sent this morning. We'll see what happens. My closing date is the 21st. I'll be annoyed if I have to pay it and before the credit comes through.

Wow! that looks exciting.

Have a great time!

I knew there would be differences. I didn’t expect them to be that pronounced. I’m sure a standard NCL cruise would be much more similar to what I’m used to. The experience in Hawaii was great and as I said I’m glad we went. This trip did help confirm in my mind the idea that the ship, at least for me, is a big part of the destination.

So just a quick summary of my one and only experience aboard an NCL ship, Pride of America. Most of my cruising experience is with Royal. I have had one MSC cruise and one Hurtigruten cruise and the Hurtigruten cruise is so different than mainstream cruising that it is irrelevant to my comparisons. Most of what I comment will be based on my comparison and experience with Royal. I just finished my post cruise survey with NCL and like I wrote in the comments there, it is hard summarize this very simply. We loved the trip and enjoyed each port of call immensely. However, the shipboard experience left a lot to be desired. I was told by two different staff members that we cruised with1700 passengers, which equals 3/4 capacity and that we had 3/4 staff. All should be good then, right? Wrong, the level of service was so substantially degraded compared to what we are used to experiencing on a Royal ship it was remarkable. The MDR was awful. The food was probably about the same quality but the service was just disappointing each night we were there. We aren't high maintenance diners but just getting something as simple as a cup of coffee with your dessert seemed to escape the ability of the servers. There were no recommendations for the evening. No followup to find out how we enjoyed the food. Not even when something was only partially eaten did they question my wife whether she enjoyed the meal. Just clear the table and bring the next course. I actually enjoyed the food in the buffet it is just that, again, the service lets you down. As a comparison to Royal. If you walk up to the omelette bar there will be a server there to take your order and then, depending on which ship you are on, hand you a buzzer to let you know your omelette ready or a little stick with a number on it and they will bring it to you. On this ship you have to line up and wait and then stand there while he prepares it. Often the line was very long. I didn't eat many omelettes last week. As I said, I actually enjoyed the food in their buffet. Clearing tables was very slow. Every morning when I arrived there would be no clear table for me to sit at. I bussed tables every morning myself. It didn't seem to make a difference what time I arrived. I ate breakfast between 7 and 9 each day and whether it was 7 or 9 or anywhere in between it made no difference to the amount of cleared tables. While seated I saw staff clearing tables but sadly whenever I actually needed a cleared table, when my hands were full with a plate and cup, none were to be found. That being said, I thought the quality of the meat that was served at lunch was better than anything I have had in the Windjammer. The Cadillac diner, similar to Johnny Rockets, was very good. The benefit was it is included as part of your cruise fare. There is no extra charge like JR's. Disappointingly, here the service is what keeps this venue from getting a high mark. Great food, poor service. There were simply not enough servers to service the restaurant. Trying to get the attention of the waiter to order desert proved impossible. After trying to get either one of their's attention for about 10 minutes we gave up and went to the buffet got dessert there. The specialty dining was very good. We dined in all four of the specialty dining rooms that were open, once each. If I ever cruise NCL again, which is unlikely, I'll be ordering 7 nights of specialty dining. We dined in Cagney Steak house, Jeffersons Bistro, Teppanyaki, and Il Cuccina. Each place exceeded our expectations. Service was impeccable and the food was perfect. We had two specialty dinners included as part of their Free at Sea promotion and pre-cruise I ordered two additional specialty dinners. I'm so glad I did. I felt they were money well spent. Bar service was exceptional, with one exception. I spent most of my time at the pool bar and the servers were personable and efficient. The drinks were well made and I would easily give them a 10/10. The one exception was at the John Adams bar. As a comparison, imagine the R-bar in the centrum on Serenade. This bar doubled as being the only place to get specialty coffee's. So kind of like cafe promenade/CAFÉ LATTE-TUDES combined with the R-bar in the centrum. They served regular drinks, specialty coffee and had a little cooler with snacks and treats. It was staffed by two people. Waits for Latte's were interminably long. It wasn't much of a problem for me but DW loves her Latte's and she spent a lot of time waiting there to get one. IT was poor. Fortunately, we were in port a lot of the time so I could just stick with AT&T but whenever we left port and I needed to connect to the wifi it was dire. We had included wifi but I paid to upgrade it to their premium unlimited package. That was a sad waste of money. The app has very limited utility. Beyond checking the on board account I didn't use it. There was little entertainment that interested us. My favorite is live music. There was one guitar players doing folk type music and a couple who did Hawaiian styled music. She sang and played the ukulele and he played the bass. We were in bed most nights by nine. All of that being said, the ports were fantastic. Each one was unique and the activities were a lot of fun. I have already posted some of what we did so I won't make this post longer than it already is and bore you with recapping those. We also did a river tubing experience on Kauai, rented a dune buggy at Kona and toured the area and then on debarkation as part of our shuttle to the airport we stopped at Pearl Harbor for 3 hours. All were excellent and leave us awesome memories and experiences that we will remember for a lifetime. I know large parts of this review are negative. Like I said it was hard to review. I so glad we went but I'd probably never go again. Hawaii was a bucket list destination for DW. This is a great way to see different locations in Hawaii without having to pack and fly to different islands. You just need to temper your "cruise" expectations and view it as hotel that takes you to awesome destinations and experiences. I'll drop a few more pics here to put this to bed. 56 days until I board Navigator of the Seas 🙂

I’m another with an 11/18 refund that still hasn’t shown up. I booked a cabana and then realized I booked the wrong thing. Canceled and booked the right thing. Hopefully soon…

Hi all, I’ve got 19 pages to catch up on that I’ll do on my flight home from Honolulu. However I thought I’d just drop a few photos from what was the most beautiful part of this trip, cruising the Na Pali coast. This is to Hawaii what the passage to the glacier is in Alaska. My pictures can not do justice to the beauty of this area. I’ll give a little synopsis of NCL’s Pride of America when I get settled at home.

Congratulations, from every I’ve seen you post you have a lot of reason to be proud of a great son. You’ve done well.

This is the location where I took the pic.

Updated volcano picture… This was taken at 12:45 am the pics don’t do it justice. Amazing!!

Shout out to @HBE4. Hoping everything is ok for you right now. Dave

If folks start missing final payment and ships are sailing under capacity there will be adjustment to prices and shops will sail full again. supply and demand is a wonderful thing.

I’m shocked by the price of deodorant. That being said I’m still purchasing it.

Immediately. The app doesn’t work right until you are logged in to there system.

Mega dittos

I realize my pervious report about NCL was a little negative. I want to update that. The bartenders at the pool bar are remarkably efficient. 🤪

Your intrepid reporter Tree_skier, checking in from the site of the great Manua Loa eruption. Sadly the closest I can get to the actual eruption is still a fair distance away. if you look really really close you can see the flames from the lava. If I had a proper camera with a proper zoom. Unfortunately this is the best my IPhone could do. Reporting from the scene for KCCZ news this is Tree_skier signing off. Updates at 11 tonight.

Thanks, I haven’t done any research about where we’re going or where the location of this current eruption is in relation to where we’re going. It be greAt if we could see something actually occurring but I doubt that is likely.

lol 😂 I’ve tried to get into BD after you mentioned it ages ago. I just haven’t been able to. Mind you this game is crap. Maybe I should try again.

We’re empty nesters and are stoked to get on Icon. You are only as old as you feel. We booked as soon as itineraries ere released. I can’t wait to get on board. we booked the first week of December. That’s usually a good time.

Currently watching Steelers v. Colts

I’ve always used Uber. It simplest and requires no pre-booking or scheduling. it was 70 each way if I remember correctly.

All correct. We have a bus tour to Volcano national park tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Correct they were aquarium pics.

We have an excursion scheduled to go there tomorrow when we dock in Hilo. I asked the shorex people and they said that it is on as far as they know. They said any cancellation would be last minute. I’ll let you know what happens. Lord willing, I will be reporting from the volcano.