MagnoliaBlossom

🤣🤣🤣. I remember what a pain it was to fill out the certificate amd mail it and pray that it didn’t get lost. When they went digital it was so nice.

Remember if you spend it on NCL you get triple points. And if you take the OBC, yu leave money onthe table. You will get no points for your onboard sending. If you use your NCL card to pay your onboard bill, yu get triple points and once home you can get a statement credit to pay off the OB charges.

No, I have that one, too. This is a new offer.

No idea why this happened. I was on the Prima last week, bought Eight CN cents and booked a cruise. Came back and booked two more with our CNs yesterday and today, Shazam, we have a 10% FCC. No idea why. I’m Diamond but the only offers I’ve had were for the latitudes cruises. Any insight on its? I’ve emailed my PCC but it’s after hours and she may not know either.

When we did our Golden Xircle tour yu could book it with or without the Blue Lagoon. We chose not to do the lagoon and were transferred to another van and returned to Reykjavik so they are close enough to be on the same tour. There was news last week that the geothermal park, forget the name, but it’s where they geysers and other remarkable phenomena are, was closed. There has been extensive damage from lave flows to the ht water supply system in that part of the country. These are very large pipeline “tubes” on the surface (the way you would see oil pipelines above ground in AK, they provide the heat to homes, businesses and heat ovens in commercial bakeries and restaurants. Just saying there is significant secondary damage to the area, even if it didn’t see a drop of lava. the Icelanders are resourceful people and the situation may be normal in short order, I hope so because I have a trip planned there next year but im watching it closely

When we were on the Dawn off the coast of southern England they did a rescue by helicopter. Dropped the basket, waiting for pt to be loaded then came back to retrieve. It took about an hour and a half. Very interesting to watch. We could not dock because of hgh winds and waves, so it was a very tricky maneuver, but eventually it was done.

The Golden Circle is a great excursion but the volcanic activity has affected that area so not sure what’s open. The southern coast is lovely too.

Not this trip, I had heard they had been there on earlier trips but this sailing was brownie bites and cake

It is indeed, a serious question. But they are consistently inconsistent!

MDR lunch is my favorite venue on embarkation day. After being herded like cattle through the shutes to get onboard, it is simply such a civilized way to begin a journey. White tablecloth, real menu, adult beverage, nice glassware, and generally quiet. Yep, when we travel a non NCL cruise line wh doesn’t offer MDR I’m not a happy camper.

My least favorite MnGs are those with events, prize swaps, etc. one of the better groups I attended asked everyone before hand to pick out one or two destinations, I.e Panama Canal, Baltic Capitals and put that across the top of some oversized name tags she had (‘‘twas before NCL provided them). Everyone could mingle around and find someone to talk to about booking a cruise to wherever). Very productive. If it’s a real hung ho activity driven meet up, I skip it except to drop in and collect the phone number list for the officers. I think it’s fine if someone wants to organize a slot pull or whatever outside of the meeting, but I’m not dragging a gift swap item to and from the ship.

Along with all their personal items. They brought them nboard took their clothing and incinerated it, gave them new clothing and has them attended to by the infirmary. He said they had not had food or water for 20 days. A few fish they managed to catch and some rainwater but he said it was pitiful, the condition they were in. Two of the women were pregnant. They consulted the head chef about a diet that would not overly tax their GI system as they had been fasting for so long and he took care of them. They returned to Costa Maya to deliver them to the Mexican authorities, which is why they were late arriving back at port for disembarking. off the subject but as he told us about ports that can be difficult, he said the captains refer to CM as Costa Maybe. I thought that was cute.

We just got off the Prima yesterday, our first sailing on her, but our 36th on NCL. At first I found it very confusing but by day 3 I had the quirky deck plan figured out. The ship is beautiful, more reminiscent of a high end htel, rather than a cruise ship. Beautiful glass and pottery art pieces throughout. it was warm on our cruise mostly, but embarkation day in Galveston was in the 60s so it drove lots of people indoors as they waited for their cabins to be ready. It got to be a bit claustrophobic and difficult to find seating. the staff was lovely and her captain was everywhere and a delightful man, whom the staff clearly adores. Which is why it is such a happy ship. food was good overall, and we especially loved Onda and Indulge. she will be leaving Galveston in ‘25, but we have the Viba booked for a 14 night sailing in January of 26.

I’m surprised the strawberries haven’t been removed before now. Ours have usually been dark chocolate. DH lives them, so I let him have them all, but I see a lot of uneaten plates of them m the hallways.

I am truly a Cookie Monster. Would rather have cookies than most deserts, especially warm fromthe mid afternoon buffet. But on the Prima last week I was told they no longer do cookies. It’s no biggy but I remember from our very first NCL cruise years ago, they would set up a table at the entrance to the buffet with four types of cookies. All very good quality then, and still warm. 😋

While on the Prima this week I saw that the $25,000 offer is back. Y’all may have already known that, but for anyone on the fence now would be a good time to apply before it reverts to $20 K.

MSCDivina, I see you changed your profile photo. Is that your new ride?

Nope, I’ve never met any of the folks I mentioned in person. But some of us have been chatting online for years. What a treat it was.

I am fresh off the Prima today and want to report that the CN staff was fabulous! The best I have encountered since Future Cruise Consultants changed to CN, driven by the sell of CNs. Christy and Stuart did actually act as concierges to some degree, and they were happy to do so. I met Stuart, a lovely British gentleman, on the Sea 20 or so years ago when he was a shopping consultant, and Christy is a 13 yr veteran with NCL from the Dallas area. If every CN team was as customer oriented as them, CN departments would be held in higher esteem.

Jphome safe and sounds after a wonderful cruise on the Prima. Best part was meeting GraphicGuy, ggTexasGal, and LindaM. Great people. we were lucky enough to get in on the BTS tour and dinner with the Captain. I was seated next to the captain at dinner and during some silliness we were all having about things we’d like to do on a ship, I replied that I wanted to blow the hen. He turned to me and said “we can do that”. So he invited everyone who was at the dinner for a bridge tour the next afternoon, which he personally conducted for 30 minutes and as we were leaving he stopped me and said, “let’s go blow the horn rn”. And I did!!!! He is such a delightful man. DH thinks roughly enjoyed the Veterans Gathering. Well attended, nice snacks, and a group photo was taken along with each attendee with the three officers who were there. Later that night each attended their photos and a group photo. Nice touch. the common area furniture is all very comfortable and very heavy. And our balc My furniture was the best ever!

Not all ships have been doing it, which is a shame, but it seems more are returning to it.

We are Diamond on NCL, we did a 7 day on the Regal Princess in December and it was the best cruise we’ve done in many years. Als we are Diamond, we have found the services on NCL to be declining. We got an offer for a balcony cabin at an incredible rate and booked it. The experience was beyond wonderful, it reminded me of why we fell in love with cruising so many years ago. It’s hard to walk away from NCL Diamond perks but the experience was superior to what we have received lately from NCL, at a similar price. But I think when cruising in the future, I’m going to look at Princess vs NCL

On the ship there are employees with bright colored caps and a vest who will direct you to your station.

There was an NCL review about 20 yrs ago that I still remember, “Cruise from Hell” or something similar. It went on forever and had scads of comments. It was an AK cruise, forget the ship, but this supposed physician slammed her room was filthy. She supposedly found a dog biscuit under the bed, a variety of other housekeeping errors, but the icing on the cake was a poop filled dirty diaper in the bedside table drawer. It was hysterical.

CFs are more restrictive than CNs but still a good value if you understand them. in terms of CNs, it is lure to purchase and spend more onboard. Some folks fail to understand that when you get a CN and it is half price, say $500 for $250 (for 2 CNs) they give you that $250 off in an OBC. If you decide oh, look I got half price cents and $250 free money, let’s go spend it! You’ve fallen into the trap (which is exactly what they hope for). If you want to preserve your discount don’t spend the discount. It will apply to your account but don’t go out of your way to use it up, unless you’d already decided to use it that way.