mrneva

5 minutes ago, cruiselover1484 said:

On the odyssey, looks like we are inching closer!

Maybe you guys can give each other a wave!

2 hours ago, colesc15 said:

Solarium is the only tolerable place outside right now.. And even that is iffy with the wind and cool temp, but we're parked here for at least the time being. They said we can expect another update around 9 or so. My guess is that we'll start heading to Nassau. It's a weird feeling sitting at the dock but feeling the waves and the vibration from the thrusters to keep us near the dock

Like you sexy legs 😁. How warm is it out there?

1 hour ago, topnole said:

This isn’t uncommon weather in January.  Probably one of the worst months to cruise imo due to either relatively cold weather or relatively rougher seas.  

Agree. Did one in Jan from New York to The Bahamas. Sailed past a snowstorm by the Atlantic coast. It was like 30F or -1C outside and with wind driven snow blowing sideway. Ship was rocking. Our balcony window was frozen. Also the shorter day is not fun. Much less time to enjoy the sun. 
Never sail in dead of winter again. 

6 hours ago, colesc15 said:

Interesting. We may have to consider that for March. I'm guessing when you order a drink you just tell them you're prime so it doesn't pull from your diamond drinks? 

I remember giving the bartender both my room key and players card when ordering. We don’t remember what they did when we ordered from a server though. The players card was in the slot machine so the server couldn’t take it with him. Maybe they gave my wife a drink card.. sorry don’t remember. We didn’t have a drink package to worry about. You might want to talk to the Casino Royal Desk or a host to make sure. 

9 hours ago, colesc15 said:

Anyone who is Prime with the casino, can you tell me more? This cruise we have the drink package so the free drinks don't matter, but, I'm guessing only I'm able to get the free drinks in the casino and not my wife even though we have the same seapass card? Is the internet discount a true discount or a Royal Caribbean discount? How do you go about taking advantage of the discounted internet? Lastly, being diamond, and say we didn't get the drink package, I'm assuming the casino drinks being prime wouldn't count towards our four each? 

We always skip the drink package and just get our free drinks from the casino bar. We’d usually go before dinner, order a couple drinks and head to the MDR. 

 

Yes only my wife got free drinks but all we did was go to the same bar and find the same bartender every time. Tip him/her good. And s/he usually would do anything for you including giving you 2 drinks at once or give more booze upon request. In addition to the drink, we always ask for a bottle of water. Water doesn’t counts towards the “free drink” apparently. We never run out of bottle water.  

Thanks for sharing. We’ll be on the Allure end of march. I must say the ship looks kinda eerie and lonely without the crowd but also nice at the same time. I actually enjoy company. Seeing other people having fun on the ship also makes me happy.  I’d say ~50% passenger capacity is the sweet spot. 

4 hours ago, PelicanBill said:

That's too bad about your Oasis experience.  We have been on NCL Breakaway a lot the last 6 years but went on Anthem from NJ last time so I can compare those two.

 

For overall effect, NCL is better for us. Ship is well run. Officers are approachable. Entertainment is high quality and varied.  Anthem's entertainment was amateurish... like community theater.  Breakaway's main shows are professional - stage, Piano Bar and Syd Norman's combine for a much stronger set of evening shows. Anthem had a good tribute band that only played twice and conflicted with other important shows.  Both had good lounge and pool entertainment.

 

On food quality: NCL specialty is better and more varied.  Main Dining room is equivalent - both are flawed with convention grade food coming out lukewarm.  Anthem had a way better Buffet set up and better food choices, especially at breakfast. Love that Royal's beverage plan included water, coffee and fresh juice. 

 

For the ship, Anthem beats Breakaway by a mile.  More public space, bigger spaces. More top deck available to everyone (hate how much is lost on Breakaway to Vibe and Havens). Love that there are more pools on Anthem and a great adult solarium area (and no smoking there.)  NCL has a real problem with one decent pool and not allowing teens. Teens don't want to use the kiddie pool. Anthem wins there too.

 

With all that comparison, I have a slight favor for NCL but would take a similar Royal cruise with no hesitation.

I second all these. I went on the Ovation last year. I’m not into your time dining. RCCL is also letting you dine at the MDR any time now like NCL but NCL definitely gives you a better experience.  Shorter wait for a table. More room between tables. Shorter wait time for food, etc. 

If you got a vaccine, it prevents you from getting ill if you contract the virus. You still carry the virus and could still spread it to others. 

We have taken our 6-year-old daughter on 9 different cruises since she was 1 year old and never had any problem in the MDR.  Although the majority of them were on NCL and they have the freestyle cruising. We never did any my time dining even for our cruise on the Ovation.  We just went the the MDR when we're hungry.

 

All of the MDR staffs (NCL or RCCL) were very accommodating.  Most of them would take special requests if it's not too much of a pain.  Like getting a banana flavored ice cream (not on menu) for my daughter from the other section of the kitchen.  Yes sometimes we'd just take her to the kids club so we could have a more peaceful dinner.  After that, we'd just pick her up and take her to the buffet.

I've been seeing NCL TV commercial for the past couple months here in Illinois. As for brochures, we have not received any from NCL but RCCL is sending us a lot of mails.  I have a Bermuda cruise booked on the Joy for June 2021 and now I'm kinda wishing it would be cancelled.  I can't wait to be back but would not want to be the first batch.

On 2/9/2021 at 3:54 AM, ScratchTheRat said:

Hah 😄

 

Okay let's do a new question.... What is the ONE thing you love most about Norwegian specifically?

To us, it's the offers from the Casino. 😅 It's much more flexible than say RCCL.

Yes Freestyle cruising, too.  But other lines are starting to adapt. We could go to the MDR anytime they're open during our 2019 cruise on the Ovation of the Seas but NCL's is still smoother.  Overall NCL provides a better dining experience than RCCL.

I personally think the coffee in the buffet is pretty good and it’s available any time the buffet is open. There’s no need to pay for a cup of Starbucks or Lavazza IMO. 

 

I think the buffet only serve juice during breakfast. For lunch and dinner, the same machines serve punch and lemonade. 

Don't mean to steal this thread but I also want to know if someone has any experience with a room near the kids club Splash Academy?  Or does anyone know if its entrance is right be the elevators or in the hallway?  The room we're looking at is literally right next to it... the only things that separate our room from Splash is the hallway and a wall.

Has anybody flown on an airplane recently? Were there a lot of empty seats?


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To my experience, it’s really up to the employees at the front. I’ve been turned away by the Le Bistro staff because I was wearing jeans and a tshirt without collar. Yet I’ve seen in another cruise that people are eating in Le Bistro in shorts and flip flops. I’ve got into Manhattan Room in shorts without issues. To be safe, wear long jeans.


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Yes we’ve tried that on a Caribbean cruise. We got our cruises through comps so it’s our cheapest way to vacation. To us, the reason to get on a Caribbean cruise is to do nothing, sleep in, and get fed like a pig!


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These are all good signs I suppose. I hope it will stay this way or get better by the time we board!


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If you’re currently on a NCL ship or if you’ve just got off one, do you notice anything different or weird on board? We’ll be on the Joy in end of March.

 

Do you notice more cleaning being done?

Do a lot of people wear face masks?

Do they put out more hand sanitizer stations?

Anything worth mentioning?

 

Thanks!

 

 

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That is a different incident. The OP of this thread witnessed the fight on the Encore first hand and posted his own, personal photos of it taken at the time. He is still currently on board the ship. The article you posted is about an MSC ship that had been denied ports. The Encore has not been denied any ports.

I see. Ha you beat me to it!


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And it seems like the fight in the video is in a different boat than the pics that the OP posted. Sorry for the confusion.


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Is it really the Encore? Below is the link but it doesn’t say which ship. But it does say everyone on board will get a full refund?


https://abc7chicago.com/video-captures-fight-erupting-on-cruise-ship-after-coronavirus-scare/5980955/


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Having a sit down meal won't stop the transmission of COVID-19. You're still in a room full of people where the staff is going from table to table.
 
Haven't you seen a passenger cough as they pass your table?

Of course it won’t but to me the chance of getting virus or germs from the MDR is less than from the buffet. The buffet is also full of people and passenger could still cough as they pass your table in this case, multiple times. They could also cough as they get their food.


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We usually go to the buffet only when we don’t like the MDR’s menu that day.
We’re the kind who like to sit at a pleasant environment and be waited on. Yeah sometimes the MDR could be loud and service could be slow but we still like it. It’s a personal preference. With concerns about the corona virus, we’ll definitely eat at the MDR.


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I think the ventilation in the casino is quite good. The only place we smell smoke is IN the casino and by the pool on deck 15 near the smoking area.

We were on the Dawn. The ventilation in its casino was non-existence. We smell smoke when we're just near the casino.