Stealthdog

it’s been awesome! Thanks! We love the ship so far. Some places feel packed, but overall the ship is designed well enough that it doesn’t feel crowded. We don’t do the pool and every time we pass through, that area is really busy.

I’ll look tomorrow. We decided to leave the ship this afternoon and walk to the downtown area for lunch, so probably won’t head to gym today.

I am mostly caught up, though there are probably a few things I forgot. When I upload my photos to my laptop, I’ll probably see a few things I didn’t post. Today is Day 4 - and we are enroute to St Thomas. We don’t arrive until noon, so have some free time on the ship this morning.

While Eric had his spa day (really spa afternoon) I went to the gym. The gym isn’t the biggest I have seen on a ship, but it never seems busy. Even on the Sea day it wasn’t packed. The layout is nice with all the cardio machines outfacing with window views. There are a variety of machine weights and a free weight section across from the cardio machines. It will have everything you need to keep up any workout routine you want to continue on board. I saw some spin bikes, but didn’t check out that area. I also haven’t seen any kind of class schedule (spin, yoga, etc) but will look again next time I am there.

Last night (Day 3) we ate at Cagneys. We liked Le Bistro much better. I got the onion soup and Eric got the oysters. The Cagneys version of the soup had alot of bread in it and the cheese was more chunkier than Bistro. If you like that type, you will prefer Cagneys. I like the simpler version. Cagneys was not overly salted - so both versions didn’t have an overwhelming salt taste. We both got the Ceasar salad. I liked it, but Eric didn’t because it comes out with heavy dressing. For those who like anchovies, they put a big piece on each plate. I promptly removed it and put it off to the side. 😂 For the main, Eric got the lamb and I got the filet. One of Eric’s lamb chops was overcooked (probably between medium-well and well) and portions of my filet was overcooked. The filet comes out with a nice char, but it was a little rough once cutting into it. For sides we had grilled zucchini, potato au gratin, mushrooms, and fries. The potato au gratin was great - it’s really rich, so if you don’t like rich foods you may not like it. The zucchini and mushrooms were pretty good too. The French fries come out as little string fries and after about 15-20 minutes they cool quick. So if you get the fries, eat them right away. For desert, we got the OMG cheesecake and the crème brûlée. The deserts were the star of the dining for us - both of them were great. Overall, the food was disappointing in Cagneys, but the service was very good and ambiance nice. We will definitely prioritize going to Le Bistro on the 2nd cruise. At the end of this first leg, I’ll do a rollup summary and rank all the speciality restaurants.

This is what the pier and shuttles look like. You can get the shuttle at the end of the pier.

Taino Bay is really nice. Note - we move ahead one hour so be aware of the time change. It was a little confusing because the time on the navigation channel on the cabin tv didn’t change, so it was difficult to tell what time it really was - our iPhones didn’t change until we got off the ship Wi-Fi and onto regular internet service in Dominican Republic. Because we are T-Mobile customers, we have cell service in DR. Even from our cabin while docked and throughout most of the ship, we had reliable internet service while in Taino Bay - so we were off airplane mode and ship Wi-Fi all day yesterday. Check with your provider to see if you have free data in other countries. Taino Bay is really nice. You can leave the ship and stay in the port area with tons to do without ever leaving the security bubble. In port, they have a couple restaurants and bars, beach access, pools, and a lazy river. There is also a long row of shops where you can get your typical gifts (tshirts, magnets, mugs, etc). Immediately past the duty free shop is an area with parrots and other birds. The port area has the same feel as a private island and you can easily spend your whole day there. We got off the ship for about an hour for an obligatory walk around port. We did see some lockers near the lazy river, but there didn’t seem to be many. All you need to leave the ship is your NCL card and a photo ID. The port provides little shuttles for people to go up and down the pier area, so if you have mobility issues you can avoid walking the long pier and use the free shuttles. The shuttles being present were disappointing for watching for pier runners because many who may have been running to the ship were in the shuttles instead. We did get lucky to see a few runners (I don’t post actual runners).

Docking into Puerto Plata (Day 3) was awesome! There was already the NCL Pearl and a RCL ship in port when we got there. We backed all the way in which was impressive. As someone who watches Below Deck, next time I hear one of those Captains brag about how hard it was to back their yacht into a port, I’ll probably snicker. 🤭

it’s worth it. I would have had no problem paying for it - it’s great that it’s free for platinum and above. You will have a great time and it will be an opportunity for him to ask alot of questions since he is so knowledgeable One thing about the tour - alot of people ask for photos of the current ship officers. We haven’t seen a photo board in any of the public places on the ship. You will see a photo board in the ship tour - I don’t remember exactly where it was. It may have been on I-95 or near the crew bar. They don’t allow us to take pictures during the tour (they claim security reasons), so I wasn’t able to capture that for people.

I’ll start taking pictures of the decorations to post - was waiting for them to get everything out. They already have some trees, wreaths, and other decorations across the ship. They have one menorah at guest services for Hanukkah. The atrium is the most decorated area, and some of the restaurants look nice as well.

Last Day 2 post - Meet and Mingle. Special thanks to @GuelphCruisers for organizing it. The meet and mingle was the best organized and attended I’ve seen on a cruise in the last 5 years! We had the district brewhouse completely reserved, many of the ship management were there, and it was a great opportunity to meet fellow cruise critic people and put faces to usernames. If you have an opportunity to attend yours, do it!

Day 3 daily.

One of the NCL excursions was late. But, we still got to see 2 pier runners, though I think they were doing it for show for our entertainment. 2 others started to speed walk, then jog briefly before walking again. Because they have little shuttle carts that transport people up and down the pier, I think we got cheated of some good runners! Best place to watch pier runners at Taino Bay is Spice H2O or aft at the waterfront.

Have a little more catchup to from yesterday, but just got done with the gym, and need to get cleaned up and ready to watch pier runners in 25 minutes!

Day 2 was the loyalty Behind the Scenes tour at 745am. If you are platinum or above, I recommend you take advantage of the perk and do it. At worst, you have the opportunity to ask the cruise next guide loyalty questions. Our guide gave us our tender tickets for Great Stirrup Cay at the end of the tour. It wasn’t as extensive a tour as a paid ship tour we have done - this loyalty tour does not take you to the bridge or engineer spaces. But, it does show you the behind the scenes of laundry, the galley, and the theater. We were split into 2 groups of about 15 people. If you are unable to use stairs, that’s ok because security accompanies the group to help escort people who need to use the elevators. We were able to see the crew bar, crew dining room, and several other places in addition to the galley spaces, laundry areas, and theater. Really interesting information from the cruise next guide, security, and reps from each of the stations we visited. We would definitely do it again on a different ship!

We also went to Howl at the Moon. We have done it on a prior NCL ship and had a great time. Last night was also a blast. Similar to the Supper Club, almost all the seats were “taken”’when we got there, which was about 20 minutes before the show. It was particularly annoying that one person was holding a whole row of empty seats - there were several cases of that. NCL should enforce first come, first serve and not allow one person to block 6-8 seats. We got the last laugh because oddly 4 seats in front of the piano were empty. I guess people were afraid to sit there, thinking they would be targeted by the singers. Nope….wrong type of show. 😂 For those unfamiliar with the concept, 3 singers rotate between 2 pianos and sing songs on request by audience members. If you provide a small donation to the performers, your song will be done. If you just provide the song request on its own, it may or may not get done. Donors get front of the line priority. Most of the songs done are well known songs that people can (and often encouraged to) sing along to. It’s a fun environment. All 3 singers were ok - but it’s more about the atmosphere and the crowd involvement. We stayed for about 2 hours and had a blast. It looks like they do it 3 times per cruise - we probably won’t go again because i suspect it will be the same songs played every show. When we got there, both pianos were filled with song requests.

Catching up from Day 2. Supper Club - West End Show. The show was great. All 4 singers were really good and did a great job harmonizing through a very wide range of songs from West End musicals, Broadway, and several other singers (like Beyoncé and songs from Frozen). The venue itself only seats about 200 people and it has an old school lounge feeling to it. if you are fewer than 4 people, you will be sat with others. It looked like all of the tables were 4 or 6 top tables, and booths. The food we could have done without - it’s a fixed menu of a basic mixed salad, chicken Parmesan (or eggplant as replacement) and Carrot cake. I get that they are mass producing the food quickly for a couple hundred guests. I personally found the salad boring, the chicken basic and the pasta what you get from the buffet. But, if you are picky with food, plan to eat elsewhere (we ate at Osheehans later). Still go because the show itself was worth it. We got there about 15 minutes before the show and it looked like people had been waiting on line for a while because the venue was already almost full and all the best tables were gone. The show itself could have been a little longer. The entertainers were done before our desert arrived. I love the small venue entertainment concept in venues outside theater because the audience is smaller and it feels more intimate. We saw the guys in Taino Bay today and that’s fun seeing entertainments off the ship.

I’ll look, but haven’t seen anything yet. They are still getting decorations for the holidays done. In the ship tour we saw all the gingerbread decorations being made in the galley.

Day 2 daily. We just backed into port - watching a huge cruise ship back into a port was awesome!!!!!

I’ll post the Day 2 and Day 3 dailys this morning. My Day 2 are upside down, so have to retake them. We are Day 3 onboard and approaching Puerto Plata. I’ll post day 2 reviews today - Eric wants to have a spa day on board, so we probably wont be doing much. Yesterday we did the Latitudes Behind the scene tour, cruise critic meet and greet, putt putt, supper club, howl at the moon, and a few other things to write about.

After our engagement with guest services, we had 3 different people reach out to us. One was the Executive Housekeeper. Everything has been resolved and we will chalk it up as just bad timing or miscommunication on Day 1. 😁

Now for a negative critique. We are more than 24 hours on the ship and in the room and we still haven’t seen our room attendant. We only had 2 towels in our bathroom and there was no turndown service last night, so we had to use still wet and dirty towels this morning. After we left this morning for the ship tour, we had a late breakfast before heading back to the room late morning, and the room still hadn’t been serviced. If this keeps up, we will be making several visits to guest services or will just call the hotel manager directly.

Last night we did Le Bistro, and overall it was fantastic. We used our AMEX dining perk, and I don’t know if it made a difference, but we were told we could only order one from the appetizer/soup/salad list and one from the entree list. We ended being to get one appetizer, one soup/salad, and one entree. The escargot was ok - it’s standard for cruise ships with 6 pieces of escargot in the buttery sauce. Eric loved the scallops, but one of them was undercooked. So, always be careful with scallops and cut into them first to make sure they arent raw. The onion soup and goat cheese salads were both great. One of the better onion soups I have had on a cruise ship. It wasn’t overly salty and the cheese wasn’t too crusted on top. Eric loved the lamb - it was cooked exactly medium rare, which is often a challenge in restaurants (both ship and shore), and he thought the quality of the meat used was very good. Eric did think the sauce used in the lamb meal was too salty. I had the Coq Au Vin and it was pretty good - especially the sauce and the way the mushrooms were sautéed. I wouldn’t normally use a dining for chicken, but because we will be in Bistro a couple other times I went with it. It wasn’t a disappointment. We had standard deserts - I got the flottante (a variation of crème brûlée) and Eric got the strawberry desert. Both were very good. We both got an ok port wine that is covered in the beverage package. The service in Bistro (from the maitre D, to the server, to the sommelier) was fantastic. We will keep our future reservations and go back on the second cruise again. Definitely recommend Le Bistro as a solid option to use a dining package on.

One of the perks of the club balcony is the size of the bathroom. It’s is really nice. Many other room classes don’t give you much space. The shower is a tub/shower which may be challenging for taller people. I’m 5,8” and I only clear the ceiling by an inch or two. So for anyone above average height, you will have to duck while taking the shower. A few bathroom pics below to show how it’s laid out. Standard shampoo/conditioner combo and body wash are in dispensers. If you prefer bar soap, or need more specialized shampoos, bring them with you.

After boarding yesterday, we knocked out all of our required reservations. First stop was Cruise next to book the Latitude loyalty events - ship tour and wine tasting event. The line was really short and we got the reservations completed. After that we split up to do the box office and restaurant reservations. At the Box Office you can make reservations with a NCL rep or at a kiosk for Choir of Man and the Supper Club. We already booked Choir or Man online, so only needed Supper Club. When I tried to book them, I was told I could only book 1 show, even though there were different shows. Not a big deal to me, because we are B2B, but pretty crummy for other cruisers who can’t see all the shows. We will see the West End show this cruise and the Divas on 2nd cruise. The Box office also gives all the information for all shows that require and don’t require reservations. So even if you aren’t making a reservation, stop by and get the pamphlet. Dinner reservations were able to be done at Teppanyaki. We canceled and added the extra dinings we needed to make with no issues getting reasonable times. We made most of our reservations already when the app opened reservations.