Harratine

Congratulations on your newest cruiser!

Our daughter was 20 months when we first returned to cruising.  Check NCL terms of service would be my first recommendation.  It’s tough with a little adventurer in terms of pool time as you need to be potty trained.  Staff will help a lot with removing diapers.  Our daughter didn’t quite get the cruise thing to start, by end of the week she was lining up for kids crew.  We planned excursions to where she would be able to engage (Disney World and hotel pool day).  The Disney is one of our favorites.  
 

A lot may have changed since we first went as that toddler who rode on top of my shoulders all day at Disney is now a sophomore in college and Platinum with NCL.  Babysitting may be tough to find, though the bright lights and people on the ship can be entertaining.  Beach days were easy days.  We also planned the first cruise with minimum ages so she could attend kids club.  The crew was wonderful with helping on food, even finding a chafing dish of macaroni and cheese when she was having a day.

Both Boston and New York are readily accessible by car (park near or on the pier depending).  

Not me but, Grandpa Fred packed a coffee maker and glass carafe on a Christmas cruise out of New Orleans.  I was really confused when he was complaining how his bag got mishandled at TSA shattering “his glass coffee pot”.  Oh this was useful stuff? My Bad.

On 9/19/2022 at 10:03 AM, UKstages said:

regarding solo travelers... there is a big difference between solo travelers and solo diners.

 

i don't believe anybody has mentioned this!

 

up to now, when a solo platinum (or above) traveler received a platinum dinner coupon, that solo traveler could invite a new onboard friend to dinner and the coupon would absolutely cover two meals consumed by two people dining together, regardless of whether they were sharing the same cabin. i can't imagine that has changed or that NCL's intent is to deny a two meal per coupon benefit to a solo traveler who invites someone to dinner.

 

so, does the rule really apply to solo travelers or to solo diners?

 

in my view, it applies to solo diners and NCL is just using sloppy language in the disclaimer, as it so often does. in any event, this is not new... the "one meal for platinum members dining alone" policy has always been in place with these dinner coupons.

 

regarding the rationale behind this... several people have said that many (not all) solo cruisers pay nearly double for their cabin on a per person basis and that is why this is unfair. while that may be true, that logic shouldn't really apply to the redemption of an earned benefit.

 

as a platinum (or above) latitudes member, you've earned two dinners, each consisting of two entrees. and two entrees (along with apps and dessert), regardless of whether consumed at the same time or consumed separately, cost NCL essentially the same amount of money to fulfill.

 

that's the problem. that's the rationale for why this is unfair. you've earned the equivalent of four entrees, but solo diners are only be given the opportunity to enjoy two and don't receive full value. it's about the value of the promised benefit, not how much you paid to sail.

 

NCL has made an arbitrary decision to limit redemption to two coupons, probably because it would be too confusing for their staff to distribute four solo dining coupons OR two coupons for two meals for those traveling together. so, they give all platinum (and above) members two dining coupons and insist that they each be used for two meals consumed at the same time by two people.

 

they have every right to do so (their ships, their loyalty program, their rules), but it's not very customer-friendly for solo "travelers." 

My daughter is the third platinum in our room.  She takes either me or my wife when she uses her meals, so it’s solo diners.

On 10/10/2022 at 2:46 PM, CleverUserNameHere said:

 

I'm so bummed you all are skipping Norfolk (although I bet you're not!), we were excited to see the ship in dock!

Would have liked to see Prima coming into Norfolk and Roads.  Sorry to hear it didn’t happen yet

2 minutes ago, mtrancher said:

It's a funny observation! Do you think guests will start to get up early and place a personal item at their favorite bar chair to reserve it all day? 
I agree with it's a great place to meet interesting people and share a story or two. Growing up in Montana, bars were social places to gather, so I'm always at home at the bar.

Probably not.  I’m guessing it will be really hard to put a book there and wander off.  Bartender will prolly notice as they are 3 feet away

On 10/12/2022 at 9:24 AM, CDR Benson said:

In my trip report, I made mention of the perpetually occupied seats at the Haven Lounge bar.  It was intended as merely a wry observation.  I understand some folks enjoy the camaraderie of the bar, but it's never been a thing for the Good Mrs. Benson or myself.  

 

As noted, the lounge waiters are almost always Johnny-on-the-spot to take the orders of the folks who occupy the nice comfortable couches and armchairs in the rest of the Haven Lounge or the Horizon Observation Lounge, so we preferred that seating.  A couple of times we met interesting couples, leading to entertaining conversation.  Most times, it was just the GMB and me, and we were fine with that.  We wouldn't have enjoyed the sociality that is imposed by sitting at the bar.

 

For those who do, but never get the chance, because they're always beaten to the barstools, I think the answer is to add another bar, in the Horizon Observation Lounge.

 

 

Apparently The Haven in Prima is expanded to accommodate more bar hogs.  Looking forward to being a hog next March and reporting back.

NCL Freestyle doesn’t have Formal Nights.  Currently you need pants on gentlemen for Le Bistro and the Manhattan Room on some ships.  The range of dress will be what it will be.

On 7/18/2022 at 4:10 PM, jetact said:

Hopefully NCL moves on this soon as I have been holding off buying our e-med tests for our cruise in August.  

Heard from the GM during a meeting on Epic that this will be no more on 8/1.

On 7/27/2022 at 10:51 AM, Trimone said:

I can’t understand why someone would want to eat in their room, with a exclusive dining room next door…remember hijacking the butler possibly does someone else out of simple service, they are not exclusive…

for context, eating in your room is a useful butler function. We typically do this when we have a long day of excursions.  The dining room can be very busy on these evenings.  As far as hijacking the butler, help them when you know this is going to be the case.  Request a menu the night before and let them know.  Order before you leave so they can plan with the restaurant (including Haven).  Give them a time to shoot for for your return.  Call them when you are done so they can clear.  Remove the guessing.  So basically communicate. 

The soda package and Wi-Fi upgrades are easy to add before you go in the NCL.com supine.

Unless you really want to make the first few things of vacation being finding and purchasing these items on trip.  A treasure hunt perhaps?  

Also it’s usually cheaper before you go.

5 hours ago, Eivind said:

 

From how I'm understanding @Harratine, the taxes on the drinks when the ship is docked are covered by the beverage package you might already have. So they remain "free".

 

But if you don't have such a package or are going off-package, you will then have to pay whatever taxes are applicable when the ship is docked. And there will (usually) be signs at the bars telling you when taxes are added, according to @UKstages.

 

Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding how it works.

I think your summary is spot on.

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

No, not really.  The systems were always running, remember, there was crew onboard all the time.  If the toilets are left too long without flushing, the water in the  bowl will evaporate, and this can lead to loss of vacuum and smells.  So, the toilets in the guest cabins would be flushed weekly or every other week, to keep the valves working.

Interesting.  Thanks for information.  You are always on point with the technical responses.

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I considered this to be a foregone conclusion when cruising restarted, and am frankly surprised that there haven't been more complaints about blocked toilets.  And, it could very well have taken 4 days to resolve, depending on what was flushed, and where it lodged.  I've had two events that took days to resolve, one where a passenger decided it would be a good idea to flush their bikini down the hopper, and it lodged in a bend in the pipes that was particularly hard to reach with the roto-rooter to chop it out.  The second was when a passenger decided it would be great fun to flush a hand towel down the hopper, and this also lodged where we were lying on top of ductwork, in the overhead against a steel bulkhead, trying to chop this out.  Due to that position, it required three plumbers at a time to operate and feed the roto-rooter in, and then it took days of cutting to get it clear, working shifts around the clock.

Thanks for the feedback. I am also wondering if the down time of the cruise ships is playing a part.  Restarting a vacuum system after not using it for a year and a half would seem to be something that could cause havoc.  

No charge on the Epic a few weeks ago.  You do want a reservation as no one with our a reservation was able to partake.

You can order them on the website.  Our cruise that is 157 days out and the other thats 350 days both have as an option.  The running of the vibe bulls days may be numbered.

You can also purchase a cabana with two passes as well.

Just back from the Epic.  For the premium beverage and premium plus package they will only add the taxes if you go over the package amount (I.e. more than the $15 per drink in the PBP).  Biggest one to watch is Starbucks if you don’t have the Premium plus.  That cruise is a serious port hog (like most waking hours next to a pier).  Awesome trip, be sure to plan some down time as the cruise is non-stop go.

We typically tip the butler at the end except when they service exceeds what we consider “normal”. It is up to you. We have never had a butler that wasn’t engaged.  I find it helps if you help them by telling your wants early and confirming when it is going correct.  The feedback loop is critical as what I would want is not exactly what you want.  Talk with them and make their job easier, and you get superlative service.

Air Travel through NCL and dealing with health agencies

we booked our Air Travel to Barcelona through NCL.  The initial plan was to fly through Toronto Canada to Barcelona with a 5 or so hour layover.  This didn’t feel like a great choice as Canada is fairly strict on transiting in the age of Covid.  We are all vaxxed and boosted, so that was not a concern flying further west and north to go east and south, not my preferred.  
 

June 3rd our flights post for our June 30th departure.  A direct from Dulles to Barcelona on my usual business travel United for the flight there.  Return trip was on an airline that I hadn’t seen an IATA for before TA965 and TA212 with an hour layover.  
 

As we paid for the trip years ago and this was a Covid revenge travel flight, I convinced my wife to upgrade the United leg to business class.  our plane on the Friday we upgraded was a 737-300 that they returned to service.  The cabin is basically a business class layout with a 2 2 2.  All the seats we found were next to the window, so we would have a neighbor to share our flight with.   
 

The following Monday, United swapped in a 787-300 instead.  The Boeing Dreamliner was the plane the Polaris was built for.  Kinda fell up and then swapped seats around until we were all together.
 

In United parlance this is called Polaris and is a a completely different level of service if you haven’t tried it.  IAD’s Polaris lounge opened late last year.  The lounge is separate from United club and is pretty crazy.  It has a sit down restaurant, buffet, full service bar, sleep rooms, shower rooms and telephone rooms for privacy.  A wonderful way to start our trip.  Knowing we were to have access to the restaurant, we arrived earlier than the 3 hour before.  This made checking in at thePolaris checkin gate quick.  The ticket agent came out from behind the desk to greet us and handle all of our bags.  After clearing security and a quick train ride to the infield concourse we made our way into the Polaris lounge and had a wonderful lunch.

we stayed at the lounge until about 45 minutes prior to our departure and boarded the flight once they started.  The Polaris seats are set up in a 1 2 1 configuration with every seat having aisle access.  I am 6’-2” tall and normally can not sleep on a plane.  The lie flight seats were just a little too short to lie down on my back, side sleeping however was perfectly fine.

Easiest flight to Europe I have ever had.

Spain has an online health form that you are required to fill ouT and have approval before arriving in Spain.  You bring the QR code with you.  Except for the timing of the application, it went incredibly well.  
 

So the mystery IATA airline? Royal Air Maroc through Casablanca.  Guess we are going back to Africa?  Airline was really good, the quick layover required us to change terminals, go through two passport checks, a ticket check, an escalator up, a bag check, a jetway and stair down to a bus parked in front of the plane we just got off of located 100’ away.  The half hour obstacle course finished at a 787 parked midfield and boarded on a portable jetway.  I felt like I was POTUS.  Airline was a bit chaotic, overall well done.  Food was pretty good and flight pretty reasonable even though we started in Barcelona at 8:30 AM getting onto the transfer bus and walked into our home in Ashburn at 9:00 PM that same day, six time zones later for a really long day.

7 hours ago, Mommapadraig said:

Thank you! I am enjoying this so much. We were on the Epic on a TA in April and loved the sea days. It was the most relaxing vacation I can ever remember. Our Haven bartender was a wonderful man named Ivan. Am I reading this correctly that he is no longer there?

They appeared to move around a lot of folks on the staffs.  Didn’t run into an Ivan

Food was excellent all around. 
 

Ate in LaCucina and LeBistro twice, Teppanyaki, Moderno and Cagneys once.  Had a 3rd planned in LaCuccina that we cancelled.

LaCuccina is our go to.  Took us a few cruises to go there, surprisingly good.  Lasagna is back on the menu.  Dining plan included appetizer, pasta course, entree and desert.  Got pizza for the first time this cruise.  Not as good as the pizza in Naples (high high bar).  I’m a fan of the lasagna, so had that twice.  Veal chop was awesome as usual.

LeBistro was a good one to repeat.  Our favorite is the escargot.  If the servers mention that it will be a few minutes on the escargot, give them the time they want.  Our second visit had this occur and the escargot was at another level of taste and chew.  
 

Teppanyaki was its usual noisy crazy meal with too much food.

Cagneys, while excellent, is a step from the Haven restaurant. So if you have the Haven restaurant, it becomes okay.  The rest of the family is indifferent on red meat.

Moderno was the first time we ate there.  Seriously.  Been on a lot of cruises and just didn’t do it.  Partly due to the red meat comment before.  This time we had so many meals and not a lot of choices, so we went.  Oddly enough after we decided to go to Moderno back in January, my work schedule the last two months included lunch meetings at Fogo de Chao.  From that I had a pretty good idea of what it was to be.  The buffet choices were numerous and varied.  The pickier eaters had a lot to choose from.  The sushi was a nice surprise.  All together we would go back to Moderno.

For the “included” restaurants, we went to Taste 3 or 4 times and O Sheehans 4 times.  One night post-Rome we ordered Noodles/Shanghai to the room (this why we like the butler).  Taste was never crowded which is why we go there.  Meals were solid, staff attentive.  O Sheehans has changed some.  The shepherds pie is now turkey based and wings are a little over sauced.  Sausage Sliders were awesome.  Wife and daughter became huge fans of the chicken salad sandwich.  My go to the 2 Coney Island hot dogs, no fries.  Most days was uncrowded and service was quick.  Drinks took longer than food.

Noodles in the room took about 45 minutes longer than expected.  We ordered the morning before our excursion to assist the butler with planning.  Ask for the menu the evening before to be able to make your requests.

Haven restaurant was excellent as usual.  One evening after excursions, the dining room was chaos.  It felt like everyone in the Haven was trying to eat the same time.  The staff was challenged to say the least, though they performed well.  Our daughter is a big fan of pasta.  The Haven menu doesn’t have pasta as a choice.  The Assistant Maitre D offered early on to bring food from LaCuccina if she wanted (pizza and pasta) whenever she wanted.  They made pasta for her a few times without blinking, not surprising that they have this level of service.  Did see one child eating a hot dog at breakfast too.  New additions (at least to me) were the Surf and Turf with the lobster tail, Israeli CousCous and shrimp salad (shrimp grilled and were huge) and avacado toast (which I didn’t try).  Menu stood up over two weeks of the same menu.  For breakfast, ask for “crispy bacon”, that was to die for.

On 7/21/2022 at 9:15 AM, Cruise-mom said:

Thank you, can you remember anything about Priscilla, days/times?

Didn’t go to any shows.  If memory serves it was Tuesday and Thursday with shows at 7 and 9:30.  One of the days was only a single show (7?)

Adventures in B2B cruising

Our transition from week 1 to week 2 started with a meeting in Le Bistro hosted by the General Manager of the Epic, Nelson and his staff.  
 

Really informative meeting.  For our week there were a total of 12 passengers going B2B.  According to Nelson, this was a very small number, a big number for his staff is 300 passengers doing B2B.  For week 1 there were 3600 passengers (ship felt empty) and rose to 3900 for week 2.  They expected the next few months to be over 4k every week going forward.

During a back to back, the account you have is kept opened and they just roll everything over and make sure your card says the new week.  We were a little concerned with this as each week we had an astounding amount of OBC ($700/week).  That’s enough money to keep my attention and we’re assured that this would be seamless.  We also added the spa passes and premium plus package for week 2 as the in-laws were there for week 1.  Any guesses on what happened?

Our keycards got horribly screwed up.  They had to replace them 3 times in 2 days and continually were deactivated.  Phyllis in Finance and I are no longer on friendly terms.  The times that the cards were deactivated were during meals and other really inconvenient times.  The OBC took three days to get resolved and the poor folks at Starbucks started handling our key cards as if they were some kind of an explosive.  We came to resolution over most of the items and NCL zeroed out all the Starbucks charges (even the first week) rather than dealing with the spaghetti mess.

To make it even more fun, remember back when I said my daughters age would become part of a story?  Well week 2 is when it became fun.  Our daughter has cruised with us since sometime in 2005, as a child before this cruise she had 84 latitude points.  Your first cruise after your eighteenth birthday, the child becomes an adult in NCL parlance.  So week 1, our daughter was a child.  Week 2 she become the youngest Platinum latitudes member in the NCL fleet.  That comes with some really big perks, laundry and the two free meals for two are like big money.  With the three of us as Platinum and my wife and I getting the two meals, it means we had 12 meals or enough meals if the daughter brought one of us as a guest on her tickets for 4 nights of specialty dining.  And this took an act of the NCL gods in Miami to resolve as normally the next cruise isn’t the next day.  Eventually figured out and our newest Platinum member was happy to finally be in the club.

An interesting side comment from the Nelson meeting was that as of August 1, NCL will no longer require pre cruise COVID testing.   
 

Tomorrow we can hit food as a topic

Building Your Own Sea Days - 2 Ways and some different things to do 

With all the port days and no sea days we got inventive on making our own sea days.  Easiest in Cannes as you aren’t tied up to a pier.

Plan 1 - Haven Pool

Go to get breakfast late, watch everyone leave and pick your favorite chair pool side. Rotate between the pool, sauna and hot tub.  Move with the sun, get drinks from the outside bar and eat lunch in the outside haven restaurant.  There will be at most another couple at the pool.  Peaceful and great to read a book.  When your shipmates return, depart your private pool.

Plan 2 - Spa Passes

Epic has a really good spa.  Limited accessibility on a sea day. With the port plan, you may see (sea?) maybe another couple.  So quiet and empty that the staff will literally mop behind you as you walk about.  Plenty of heated chairs.  Go outside on the back porch and take a nap overlooking the latest port in quiet.  Make sure to visit the steam room, a hidden treat.  After you finish in the Spa, walk to deck 15 by the pool to the secret Haven Elevator (aka the Bat Cave entrance)by the outside food station on left.  Badge in with your Haven card, take to floor 18.  Enjoy the infinity mirrors and elevator air conditioning as it whisks you up to the Posh bar.  Chances are during your personal sea day, the bar service will be only for you.  Order up your favorite libation in your private bar.  Finished upstairs, back to the Bat Cave elevator to 16 to the Haven bar.  Refresh with another libation in your other private bar.  
 

Add on activities depending on what you like to do

1. Join a fitness class - they are usually the same time as the port arrival.  It’s annoying if you are leaving.  BYO C Day means the classes are pretty empty.  I am a big Peloton rider, the Ryde spin classes were a good workout for me.  Wanted to get a Boxing training in, but never got the class to align.

2. Meander to Starbucks, no line, little waiting.  Enjoy the cup of Joe

3. get your guest services annoying stuff done.  No line, little waiting.  It’s like having your own lobby.

4. Eat early breakfast and get secondy breakfast with your family.  
5. Slides. And if you haven’t figured it out, no lines. You can move so fast from slide to slide without waiting the stairs become a great cardio workout.

6. Get your toilet fixed.  Oh this was my problem, so hopefully you won’t have it happen to you.

On 7/18/2022 at 3:20 PM, CTCruiser001 said:

Nice start - Looking forward to the rest of your review. 👍

Welcome aboard!

On 7/19/2022 at 1:13 PM, Cruise-mom said:

Looking forward to following along, we are on the Epic July 31st.

Awesome! Please let me know if you have any specific questions