UKstages

so they can loudly proclaim that they offer "steak" in the main dining room for "free." it's a marketing technique.

thanks, @cruiseny4life. i posted that same link not too long ago in another thread when folks questioned the fact that cruising was harmful to the environment. i pointed to the poor air quality in midtown west (chiefly caused by the ships using their own power and not shore power, as noted in the article), but also mentioned the illegal overnight idling of trucks along the west side highway.

no, in many cases, it's a transparency thing. (or lack thereof, to be more accurate.) let me begin by saying that i myself have never adjusted the onboard service charge (f.k.a. "daily service charge" or "DSC.") when i tip 20% or 25% in cash to a server in a land-based restaurant, i feel pretty confident that they are taking that home at the end of the night. even if the staff pools tips, i feel pretty confident that the cash is going to human beings working in the restaurant on the night i visited, with a proportionate amount going to my server, the one with whom i developed a relationship and whose service i wish to reward. when i leave $5 or $10 on my hotel pillow, i have full confidence that the person receiving that tip is the same one cleaning my room. the onboard service charge doesn't work that way. no way, no how. NCL doesn't disclose specifically how the onboard service charge is allocated, and that is the problem for many folks. NCL actually says that the service charge can be used to fund various employee incentive programs. and that could mean anything from painting the employee bar to buying a ping pong table, to paying for a pizza party to providing a bus to the airport for employees taking their leave to providing wi-fi credits to team members. yes, it may also mean cash bonuses or tips to certain team members. but we don't know how much, if any at all. and my spidey sense tells me that most of the money we pay as a service charge does not go to directly compensate employees monetarily. (the folks who instituted an up charge for the filet in le bistro and took smoked salmon away from the buffet don't strike me as the same folks who would fork over millions of dollars in cash to their employees without first siphoning off a good portion to fund baseline employee programs.) but why do you believe this would be stiffing the workers? what if it's NCL fleecing its guests? NCL would have you believe that the money you pay for the service charge goes directly to compensate its employees. it seems pretty clear that it doesn't. a lot of it seems to go to fund baseline employee programs that should be paid for directly by NCL. i maintain there is no direct correlation between what you pay as an onboard service charge and the compensation that employees receive, both front and back of house. NCL doesn't say what it does with the money. until somebody can provide an accounting of where that money goes, i will continue to assume very little of it goes into a tip pool to directly compensate employees and i will tip cabin attendants and other staff members directly for outstanding service. again, i myself have never adjusted or rescinded the onboard service charge, so this isn't about that - for me, anyway. but i would argue that if you do have a beef about the quality of customer care onboard an NCL ship. you would be doing a great disservice if you didn't report it to guest services and you didn't adjust the onboard service charge. NCL would continue blithely on its way thinking everything was just fine... it's only when people express concerns about something that NCL knows it may have a legitimate problem. and a heavy volume of complaints carries greater weight. this... a thousand times this. i've done 48 business trips to the philippines in the past ten years and always have a supply of pesos on hand. if the staff member is filipino, i almost always tip in pesos. it brings a smile to their face, and, quite often, they are just about to head home on leave and the tip gives them a running head start.

show starts exactly at 3:34 pm and runs till about 3:47. get there early or you'll miss out on the complimentary foie gras. if sitting in the first two rows, bring a rain poncho... it gets kinda wet and you'll be in the splash zone. management requests you do not sing along with the ocelots, nor do you feed them. photography is not permitted under any circumstances, nor is pantomime.

as i previously said, i have absolutely no doubt this is what you were told by NCL employees. incidentally, the 120 day "commit" is common in many businesses seeking to order the right supplies for their customers and anticipate staffing requirements. as for the west side highway and the cavalcade of trailer trucks... they are there the night before any ship disembarks/embarks. sometimes twenty or more trucks backed up to 59th street. many more if there are two ships in town on the same day. it's a source of much consternation to the community as the trucks idle, which is prohibited by law. it's a big problem.

we've been through this umpteen times. NCL fails to make a distinction between a solo traveler and a solo diner. because, you know, english is hard.

how many other cruise line forums have you visited here on cruise critic? spoiler alert! they talk about the very same things we do in those forums: declining levels of service, nuisance charges, higher fares, higher fees, bad seats in restaurants, inattentive servers, reduction in housekeeping services, absentee senior leadership, poor design choices, atrocious food. but they also talk, as we do, about rockstar team members, outrageously tasty food, impeccable service and memories made at sea. what makes you think there is a correlation between a higher onboard service fee and the level of service provided? did NCL indicate the service fee would be used to hire more team members or train them to be better brand ambassadors for NCL?

you think all those trucks lined up on the west side highway in new york, waiting as long as twenty-four hours for the getaway or the joy to disembark, have come from miami? all those trucks with beef and chicken and fish have traveled 1200 miles just to get to the pier in new york city? you think all those trucks from sysco have come from miami? all those trucks with the names of different local purveyors on the sides of the truck have come from a central NCL warehouse in miami? forget about new york... you think all provisions for cruises departing from seattle, los angeles, boston and san diego come from miami? i can certainly appreciate that this is what you believe you were told on a BTS tour, but it's simply not true. it may be true, if you departed on a ship from miami, but fleet-wide, it just isn't so.

hmmm... i've never tried to get ice cream in the buffet when the buffet was closed. i'm pretty sure they frown upon that. also, the soft serve machine has to be maintained... a human being has to pour in the mix and monitor the temperature and such. i seriously doubt that someone is doing that at 3 am. or 11 pm. whenever i've been at the buffet for breakfast, the soft serve machine has not been operating. my best guess is that the machine would be empty overnight. there is 24 hour ice cream onboard NCL... but only from room service. (delivery fees may apply.)

um, i’ve lived all my adult life in manhattan, but thanks for the edumication. if you really want to get technical about it, it ain’t a diner without a rotating refrigerated dessert museum and repeated insistence that there’s “no coke, pepsi.” but you guys do realize you’re on a cruise ship, right? one on which the italian restaurant serves no chicken parm, the fresh fish isn’t fresh most nights, the BBQ restaurant doesn’t actually smoke any meats and lox and bagel with a schmear is served on a half bagel with lettuce? the salient point being that they had an existing underutilized pay for play property that was branded as a diner, they jettisoned the more expensive or complex items on the menu and turned it into a free restaurant, using the same space, which is still branded as a diner. the old american diner menu wasn’t a diner menu, either, by the way. so, it’s a little crazy that people are disappointed that the new american diner menu isn’t an authentic diner menu. the “diner” refers mostly to the stereotypical decor of the joint, which resembles a japanese tourist’s fantasy of what an “american diner” should look like.

odd in which way?

i prefer cruises without a lot of kids and the end of the second week in december is actually my cut off. in my experience, there haven't been a lot of kids on cruises departing that first week of december. it's too early in december to pull kids out of school for most people, and i personally wouldn't count on the intersection of cruising families and home schooling families to be very large. anyway, i've done several cruises in early december and there have been few older children (tweens and teens) onboard.

very frequent UA flyer here and i stopped flying all versions of the 737 MAX after the last debacle related to the MAX. yes, this is a different version, but i won't get on them any longer. related to the topic at hand, i'm on an upcoming 10-day getaway itinerary that includes bermuda and I have no reasonable expectation that we'll be stopping there.

sounds like fun. was there pressure or hard sell tactics used to try to get participants to purchase bottles of the tequila?

i haven't done it, but not for lack of trying. i can only tell you that every time in the past three years i've been to cozumel (which is four times), this excursion consistently sells out. whether it's any good or not, i couldn't tell you... but it sure does seem to be popular. i met a family that did the "amazing race" excursion in cozumel and said it was great. it is exactly what it sounds like... tasks and detours modeled after those that you might find on the "amazing race" tv show. they loved it. so if you're looking for something different, that may fit the bill.

there are usually wine tastings and whiskey tastings. but even without the formal tastings, some venues have flights of whiskey and tequila. wholeheartedly agree that the haven bartenders can keep you endlessly supplied with new and novel drinks. all you need do is indicate what you're in the mood for and they will take it from there, exceeding your expectations at every turn.

i haven't been on the escape, but i have been in many club balcony accommodations. they are pretty uniform across the fleet in that they generally offer a larger bathroom and a little extra space within the cabin. are two of those adults a couple and will be sleeping together? if so, three to a room will be fine. if not, i'm not even sure there are three separate sleeping areas.

no, as explained above... not yet converted. no NCL ships have starlink as a "legacy" system.

i think you've completely misunderstood my comment.

taking advantage of a lower price is gaming the system? which system is that? i'm confused. are you suggesting that cell service is somehow affected by the number of mega ships in port and by the number of passengers? cell service? ah, that's the thing... the OP issn't you. it's a completely different person, with different preferences and different perspectives.

well, that's a rather cryptic teaser. are you saying that they agreed to make the change? don't stop there! demand evian water and a bowl of blue M&Ms be placed in your cabin every night.

please note: the "mini-golf" on the joy is a mere notion of a course. it's reminiscent of an elaborate astroturf course with a tin cup set up in an executive's office. it is nothing that anybody who has ever played miniature golf would really call a miniature golf course. your kids may be bored by its lack of novel features.

do you have kids and want to know if they will make new friends onboard? or are you trying to avoid kids? (in which case, july would be a horrible month to sail)

it is indeed different in the northeast. the northeast corridor route (washington to boston) is generally well run, generally on time... and the revenue keeps much of the rest of the system afloat. the "high speed" acela service is even more reliable. very little risk you'll be delayed, but it's not a zero per cent chance. as for the distance between the train terminal and the cruise ship terminal... it's a relatively short walk if you're not overburdened with luggage and are ambulatory. it's about 18 - 20 city blocks.

i think they are more likely to be because they forgot to update the email template or haven't gotten around to it yet.