UKstages

i'm only a lowly sapphire, but my understanding of the diamond upgrade is NOT that it has to be used within a year, but that it has to be used while you're still a diamond. (if you move up to ambassador, the diamond upgrade is forfeited.)

you should not listen to others at the expense of listening to yourself. never discount your own experience or instincts. most people can "read" other people pretty well. most people can realize after "listening" to somebody for a short while, whether that person is worth continuing to listen to. do their arguments make sense? do they propel the conversation forward and challenge the ideas of others respectfully? do they build upon the contributions of others, while sharing their own experience? in an online forum, you can tell pretty quickly who came to share their thoughts and opinions and who came mostly to be rude and to mock others. i'd listen to the former all day long, even when they disagree with me. the latter get put on "ignore" after a few transgressions. you are the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. putting people on "ignore" is not a sign of ignorance; it's a sign of strength.

as predicted by many up thread.

i'm not sure i know what is meant by "transporter tube" showers, but it implies that they they are tall and narrow. the showers are oversized and can easily accommodate people of size (those who are both tall and wide).

14 pages... i'd be hard pressed to find anybody looking for "compensation." nor would i be able to find anybody who seems "perpetually aggrieved," except perhaps those who repeatedly criticize folks for expressing their opinions on the decline of the NCL product. what i've seen here is, as laudergayle suggests above, a bunch of NCL fan boys and fan girls (huge consumers of NCL product who have returned to sail again and again) who have been disappointed and disillusioned by never ending cutbacks and what they perceive as an erosion in quality and service. they are the canaries in the coal mine. NCL can choose to listen to the feedback or not. the choice is theirs. the overall recurring theme is that you can't make many more changes without completely destroying the product. some feel they're already there. compensation? gimme a break. the false narrative that supports is that there must be a reason, a motive, for somebody to offer critical feedback. the motive is simply to be heard and understood and acknowledged, in the hope that NCL takes course correction and sets out to improve its product.

there’s a difference between making changes and diminishing the product. the indulge food hall is a change that’s been widely embraced and accepted as a good thing. it would be hard to find somebody who thinks the reduction in quality and variety at the buffets across the fleet are a good thing. once a day housekeeping doesn’t bother a lot people, but few people, objectively, would not agree that it’s a reduction in services. similarly, throughout the fleet, we can point to all the cutbacks and reductions in quality and service, as detailed in this thread. we can also point to increases in onboard service charges and nuisance fees and up-charges in restaurants. so, when somebody offers an opinion that states that NCL is not as good as it used to be and that prices are higher… i find that statement - objectively - credible. as i explained upthread, there is still a viable value prop for me and i continue to sail them. but that doesn’t mean i can’t credibly and objectively claim at the very same time that the product has been diminished.

both. it’s like asking a mom to choose her favorite kid. los lobos does both things very well, especially well on the prima. graphicguy has posted some great photos to give you an idea… most of that ain’t traditional tex/mex fare. my three favorite things are the table side guac, the mexican street corn and the margaritas. the flan and the churros are very good, too. But all the entrees have been good, from the fish to the shrimp to be tacos and burritos to the fajitas.

interesting about the incandescent bulb. i would not have thought about that, although i did recently experience the very same thing with regard to replacing a bulb for a lava lamp.

which ship? my experience is that vibe passes are sold at a table set up outside headliners or the social or teppanyaki, while restaurant reservations usually are made inside one of those venues. somebody recently reported that vibe passes were sold inside teppanyaki, but i have never seen that. others have said they are sold at guest services, but I haven’t seen that, except for day passes. once you buy a pass onboard, you may have to visit guest services to reprint and recode your keycard, if the sales desk doesn’t have a card machine. there are actually quite a few people, including me, who repeatedly report success at getting vibe passes on embarkation day. there is a current thread with a spirited discussion on NCL policy related to this, including the text of the policy. what your NCL rep and your TA told you is what comports with my understanding… that in almost every case, passes are held back for sale on embarkation day, albeit “a limited number” of passes, to quote the text of the policy. others still insist on offering contrary views. your NCL rep and your TA both have access to the full text of the policy. there are actually lots of encouraging remarks around here and real world experiences,… not just discouraging remarks and speculation from naysayers. and most of the naysayers are anti-vibe crusaders who not only have never tried to purchase a vibe pass at any time, on or off the ship, but they also see no value in the vibe concept (which they have never experienced for themselves).

the diamond upgrade maxes out at club balcony. the highest upgrade is from a balcony to the next highest category, which would be club balcony. also, the way the rules are written is that they will upgrade you from whatever you booked into the next highest category, which could be the lowest end of the next category, if that category has several different types of cabins.

i have been successful buying passes on embarkation day; i’m in that camp, so please don’t misconstrue my thoughts on vibe capacity on the joy. while it’s true it has just been through a dry dock and was expanded, there is no way they doubled the capacity. all they did, as I understand it, was take the upper deck laser tag area and turn that into useable vibe space. there is no way that doubled capacity. I’d be surprised if it added as much as an additional 35%. again, passes will most likely be available on embarkation day, but it won’t be because they doubled the capacity.

you haven’t noticed them going downhill, and yet you’ve noticed that they’re cutting entertainment. did their entertainment cuts improve the entertainment? if not, is it not fair to say they’ve gone downhill?

i did a ten day western caribbean on the gem a couple of years ago. it was easter week and it was madness... mostly teens and tweens, not college-age guests. but they congregated in the stairwells, especially around the buffet and they left their plates and glasses there and impeded the flow of traffic up and down the stairs, sitting three abreast on multiple steps. there was a lot of yelling and running and horseplay, especially on the pool deck. and not a single parent to be found. i was in the haven and was able to shield myself from most of this, but out and about the ship, it was a crazy pants spectacle.

your recollection is correct as to the way it was. to their credit, they do keep making subtle improvements. this is one of them. i was last there about five weeks ago, boarding the getaway.

correct. i said "prepackaged" up above and indeed some of the sandwiches and wraps were in paper and presented under heat lamps, ready for the taking. a better word might have been "premade." at breakfast, there was no ipad ordering. all the food, including sandwiches and bowls was premade and ready for to be snatched up. the one notable exception was the smoked salmon platter which had to be laboriously assembled by someone. i'd say it was about 50/50 as to the percentage of people who ate in the venue and those wh took it back to their cabins on the trays readily available in indulge for breakfast.

yeah, it used to be a grab and go prepackaged breakfast, but i understand they've changed that.

>>yes, "truly fightening" [sic] is extreme hyperbole<< there are no degrees of fear in your glass house? there isn't something you are frightened of and then something you are even more frightened of? "fright" is not like "hyperbole." when something is "frightening," the concept of degree is not inherent as it is with hyperbole; "fright" often takes a modifier to indicate how frightening something truly is.

it's considered more buffet-like than MDR-like, which accounts for the in-port opening hours. if staying onboard, it's a great time to go to indulge, as you should have no problem finding a table.

they do now, as described in previous posts. they're not separate for each elite level... but the manhattan cruise terminal now has a platinum area, and a sapphire and diamond area (presumably ambassadors are in there, too). they are nothing fancy, just roped off sections with the same uncomfortable chairs they have elsewhere, but they do indeed have elite waiting areas now.

selling girl scout cookies onboard is absurd, ridiculous, insensitive and inconsiderate. and that's why i've switched to fundraising by selling "the world's finest chocolate" onboard every NCL ship, to support my local rotary club. it's delicious, i can earn up to $30 a box, and it's available year round... none of this seasonal girl scout nonsense. i encourage you to do the same.

i think it's a truly frightening thought to know that the people who post on this board walk among us. not you, of course, you're swell. and so are you. and you, over there, you're just fine. but, you know, those other folks. of course, once on board, they will presumably act like normal people, when they can no longer hide behind their cloak of anonymity. ha! whom am i kidding? my best guess is that they'll be the exact same folks they are in here.

typically, a desk will be set up outside teppanyaki.

"blazing boots" is basically "burn the floor" with cowboy hats. i was underwhelmed by both shows. they can leave their hat on, as far as i'm concerned.

yes, on both counts, they will serve you wine, soda, cocktails and starbucks coffee. i've never seen anybody charged. they normally have a preselected red and a white that they pour... but i've also seen people request a particular wine.

i think it actually does, because when the manifest is given to various governmental agencies pre-arrival, they check the names against names on the passports... same as they do with flying. i've often joked that everybody on NCL is a likely presidential assassin. whenever they call your name for a poker or slot tournament, or to "come on down" on "the price is right," it's always three names... "john wilkes booth, come on down, you're the next contestant on 'the price is right.'" "lee harvey oswald, we're holding seat # 7 for you in our slot tournament. is lee harvey oswald in the casino?"