eileeshb

be careful about the dates you pick so it isn't spring break as those ships will be full of families at that time. I usually cruise in January with the odd one at different times. The closest I got to spring break was a february cruise that coincided with spring break for France and Quebec so there were hundreds of French speakers aboard.

Unfortunately some of us get physically sick from the smell of stale smoke. My parents thought I had motion sickness as a kid but once I had my own car and it came back from a service with the smell of smoke from the mechanics I realised it was the smell that was responsible. We always used my father's car for long trips and he was a smoker. Back then smoking as allowed on public transport too. I don't have issues drinking certain types of vodka but the smell isn't a problem.

I’m hoping the lingering smell will gradually reduce if they aren’t going to change out all the soft furnishings that absorbed that smell over the years. They need to douse the whole area between the forward and aft elevator banks from deck 6 to 8 in the strongest anti-smoke scent blockers they can source.

I've found you can usually get it at the whiskey bar on each ship. I know the first time I had it was at a dinner show on Getaway and I've been hooked ever since.

even something like a business card works in those power slots, I've used the card hotels give you the key in for those slots in hotels for years.

MDQ is probably a new cast and they typically schedule those sorts of shows to the back half of the cruise so the cast get a chance to rehearse in the theatre. As for the background smoke smell the only way to get rid of that, quickly, would be to rip out and replace all the soft furnishing and carpets. I'm hoping by the time I sail in January there'll have been enough cleaning rounds to have reduced it.

The studio lounge on Escape is nice and open on a single deck unlike the Getaway/Breakaway/Epic. There are usually some snacks there, and a coffee machine the coffee addicts seem to adore. You can get hot water from that machine as well to make tea or hot chocolate. There is usually a chilled water dispenser and some fruit. The first day you will probably bump into other solos who are checking out the lounge, then there will be the solos meet up. It seems like there is now a standardised program across all the solo hosts with some of them adding other activities. The one gotcha about the solo meet ups is that they will be at the same time every day regardless of the port times. The meetup on embarkation day may be a different time to the rest of the meetups and may clash with sailaway or other activities on the ship. No matter how busy the ship there's a good chance you will come across other solos from the initial meetup throughout the sailing. It's good to get to recognise the faces so you might spot them on excursions to sit beside on buses, etc, or when the buffet is super busy you can ask to join them. My very first cruise was as a solo on the Escape, I am still in contact with 2 of the other solos from that trip and I booked my second cruise within a week of getting home. The Spice H2O over 18s sundeck & bar area on Escape has a synthetic stone grotto with cold water to allow you to cool off from time to time.

I am hoping some folks here have had experience with either/both of these hotels, Eliza Jane (Hyatt) and The Saint(Marriott) . My travel agent is recommending these two for pre/post cruise. I’ve just succeeded in persuading my mum to come along for my trip in January. We are not looking for a place in the French district as we’re both well past the party hard stage of our lives.

Having experienced the tender process to Great Stirrup cay I prefer to avoid itineraries with tenders if possible. I know I won’t do the Greek islands on a breakaway/+ class of ship if I ever were to do that itinerary. In some ways my work schedule actually works in my favour for avoiding crowds.. I normally cruise in January but have done cruises in early October for itineraries that are not available in January. There are many places that want to cut back on tourist numbers or set additional requirements to help the local area. In my local area there is the most popular natural landscape attraction in Ireland, the day trip bus tours are required to stop in the locale for a meal or a stop for their passengers for 30mins+ in one of the nearby towns. We sell a LOT of our shop t-shirts to tourists. The local residents of Dun Laoighaire in Dublin blocked a proposed cruise ship pier development to discourage cruise ships including it on their itineraries. Right now it’s a tender port and given the weather in Ireland it’s a high risk one. Videos of the tour buses causing chaos in Cobh appear quite regularly and that’s with only 1 pier in operation, there are plans to upgrade a second pier to accommodate cruise ships as second ships have to go to the commercial port in Cork harbour. Tourism has always been a big industry in Ireland, my grandmother and mother both ran B&Bs in their homes at various times due to our proximity to a number of tourist attractions and big festivals. Those housewife run b&bs have practically disappeared from our region now because bus tours day tripping from Dublin have taken over so there isn’t the same demand.

I’ve done the behind the scenes tour on a couple of the NCL ships and they stopped at the recyclables sorting area. The crew are financially incentivised to sort recyclables from the trash collected around the ship. If their storage area hits capacity they then burn the cardboard as it’s the lowest value recyclable material on the ship. I try to keep recyclables in the bedroom area bin and non-recyclable in the bathroom area bin.

I’ve only used CNs as I’ve never seen CFs advertised on the EU website. the very first time I used a CN as a deposit it was possible to use it, and in my case that deposit was about half the value of the CN. Somewhere along the way something changed in the back end such that if I try to use one now it throws an error because the CN is worth more than the deposit. I’ve always had an issue trying to use a CN for a partial payment and that issue has changed over time. Initially it was a currency problem, the website only accepted $ amounts for partial payment but you had to guess what the value was of a € CN. They then fixed the currency issue but now it rejects anything less than the entire outstanding balance. Hence, phone calls whenever I want to use a CN. For the first time ever I’ve had a PCC that has stayed the same for my last 3 bookings. She can’t pronounce her own (Irish) name correctly but at least she hasn’t disappeared into thin air the way her predecessors did.

I’m waiting to see when they’ll jump onto reusable plastic glasses for the outside bars. they’ve just introduced a recycle deposit on plastic bottles/cups and metal cans in Ireland. My local stadium now requires a €1 deposit in addition to the cost of your drink and you get the €1 back when you bring the cup back to the recycle desk, I can’t understand why the cruise lines are not already doing this as the cups are heavier and less likely to blow off the ship into the water. They already use plastic glasses at the buffet beverage stations.

The metal is easier to recycle than anything else and those sorts of bottles are safely reusable as they can go into a dishwasher for cleaning.

I suspect the reason the “new reservation “/“at time of booking” terms are effectively ignored on the vouchers is because their website can’t handle them properly, it has a fit if you use one for a deposit as its not the same amount as the required deposit and it’s hit and miss at handling them for a part payment. I usually end up paying a deposit with my credit card and then calling the support line or PCC to get the Voucher applied. Also I contact my PCC to add the extra voucher when a double/triple up promo is running.

New item for the packing list then .. lid opener .. and if there’s a chance of a taste issue I’ll bring hydration sachets to flavour it.

ItalyTours will take signups directly with them, but you need to say it on your roll call that you are booking with them so people know it’s available to book. Unfortunately on my cruise it was just after the Covid resumption and there just weren’t enough people so they had to cancel the tour. Also at the time Italian authorities weren’t letting guests off the ships unless they were taking a cruise line excursion. I happened to be embarking/disembarking at Rome so I had tried to arrange the tour for disembarkation day.

I’ve used the Holafly eSIM in the other direction, using it for North America trips as I’m based in Ireland. On my phone you set the eSIM to take over only mobile data but leave your normal sim to handle calls/sms. Anyone who needs to contact me when I’m away knows to use WhatsApp or messenger. If you were to get a European SIM card you’d replace your normal number unless your phone can take 2 sims. I’ve done that in the past, but an eSIM is so much easier. The various providers offer a range of options to suit your needs.

The pair of you missed the key phrase “mode of transport”… Ryanair insist on a passport regardless of what European countries you are travelling between. That is a specific requirement from that airline, other airlines/ferries/trains may not require a passport within the Schengen area.

Woohoo!! they will have to rip out all the soft furnishings that the smoke smell currently permeates or enclosing the smokers won’t make a damn bit of difference to those of us sensitive to the smell. The level of smoke is very dependent on the guests on any given cruise, I’ve been on some cruises where there’s barely any and others where it has been so much that you smell it in the Atrium and outside headliners. What truly annoyed me was when we had to queue through the casino for tenders or disembarkation, stale smoke makes me physically ill 🤮 I’m due to sail on Getaway in January, so I hope the smoke situation is vastly improved from my last time on that ship.

That is a bit of a red herring.. it depends on your mode of transport, Ryanair will always look for a passport even just going between Ireland and the UK which have a common travel area. Legally you only need your Irish/uk driving license to travel between Ireland and the UK but Ryanair have required a passport for as long as I’ve used them. BTW if getting a passport for someone under 18 be prepared for all sorts of complications. One of my friends has been trying to renew the passports for her kids since January and one of them has been rejected twice despite the application having been filled out the exact same way for all 3. And these are not first passports for the kids either. In Ireland the u18 passports are only valid for 3 years whereas the adult passports are valid for 10 years.

My Sincere apologies to all, this cruise was the first time I had someone with me, previously I'd been solo so thought I'd have plenty of time for posting as we'd have so much at sea time. It was a great cruise but the shorter hours of daylight and the end of season nature of the cruise definitely impacted on what we could do in port. Skagway was like a ghost town with so many places closed, Juneau was dark by the time we finished our whale watching excursion, we didn't bother getting off the ship in Victoria and Ketchikan was definitely a bit of a rush around due to the short time in port

We docked when I was there in 2022 but cruising wasn’t back up to max capacity at that point. I honestly think NCL has taken to tagging every port as potentially a tender port for CYA reasons. I’d say try to find the schedule for the port and see how many other ships are scheduled for the same date. Generally the piers are allocated in order of arrival at the ports.

Assignment of a PCC is very random.. I usually call the main phone number and have had various PCCs reach out to me over the years, only the most recent has actually hung around long enough for me to use more than once. of course she has an Irish name (both first and second names) but is American and doesn’t pronounce it correctly so I have to remind myself that Ciara says Sierra instead of keer-ah. Thankfully she works Irish hours which is a first for an English speaking PCC I’ve been assigned. I use her for my payments on the cruises and to select my cabin since the ncl website doesn’t work consistently. I normally book my accommodation and flights myself but will check with a local TA to see if they can get a better deal. My mother is considering joining me on my next cruise so I’ll definitely use a TA for her bookings.

Roatan and Cozumel can potentially be tender ports if there are too many ships in port on the same day and they run out of piers. A rare occurrence. there’s also the chance of piers getting damaged and reducing capacity as happened in the past at Harvest Caye and Roatan. Harvest Caye currently only has 1 pier but NCLH controls the schedule there so unless someone wrecks the pier again you shouldn’t be at risk of having to tender there.

It's become more commonplace since the reduction in housekeeping staff. Previously most staterooms would be ready by 1pm but now it could be be 3 or 4pm on the larger ships. On Bliss in October the drop off was outside Q restaurant and on Escape last month it was in the Casino, crew told me the location when I checked in at my muster station.