gbickle

10 hours ago, franktown said:

There are no cell phone towers in the middle of the ocean so you cannot connect directly with Verizon.   If you leave airplane mode off you will connect to Cellular at sea (I think thats what it is called) and you could get a very huge bill from verizon.  You need need to turn on airplane mode than enable wifi calling and connect to the ships internet.  Everything than will e routed thru the ships wifi.  When you are in port you should talk to Verizon.  The have all kinds of different international plans.

I am confused here.  Are you saying that you are able to make voice calls from your cell phone while in airplane mode?  Would this work as well for incoming calls?  The reason I am asking is I am semi-retired but still providing remote support for people.  Even on a 28 day Tahiti cruise I will still be on call.  I thought the only way I could make voice calls while out to sea was if you use Cellular at Sea.  Do you generate your calls the same way?

On 12/14/2019 at 10:17 AM, wilmingtech said:

That doesn't seem right - 

 

There is a balcony cabin right above 14296, Mandara Spa above that, Pulse Fitness above that and then the racetrack.  Maybe they had honeymooners in the cabin above them...  😁

Then I am not sure what was going on.  Every single day starting at about 9 AM there would be a loud rumbling every couple of minutes and this went on all day.  Maybe it wasn't the karts but it was certainly something which was obnoxious.

I was curious how we managed to get a beverage package, free flight, and 3 nights of special dining so I started to look around and realized we paid 1500 per person and Princess offers the same cruise for 500.  Makes perfect sense now.  We most likely will not be back.  

1 hour ago, WilsCM said:

 

52 minutes ago, WilsCM said:

I think was on the same cruise -  a few more review points/opinions:

·         The crew worked really hard at cleaning the ship after the Noro on the last Panama Canal cruise.  Constantly wiping walls, doors, railing, etc.  The last thing they want are sick, angry people!

·         We had 3 medical events.  First they thought about airlifting with a Mexican port/military helicopter.  Seeing it circle the ship multiple times, hovering near the bow with a guy hanging out was . . . interesting?  Would have been nice had they not waited until the following day until making an unscheduled stop in Cabo to get the person off on a tender (couldn’t do the airlift – not the right equipment) to tell us what the heck it was doing out there.  Someone broke something at the pool on the ship in Mazatlan – not sure how that ended up.  Someone collapsed the last day at sea on the way back to LA and we went full steam ahead to get there earlier Sunday morning to get the person off.

·         Main dining food was ok, not great, La Cucina was good, Cagney’s and Q were great.  We had only one waiter/waitress the whole time with a personality though, no matter the venue.  They weren’t necessarily bad, just rushed, distracted and most likely overworked.  Definitely not like it used to be.  First time I didn’t find anyone to give tips to beyond the DSC.

·         Stateroom staff was hit or miss for our group.  The other two cabins in our group had the same gal, and she was great.  We never saw ours and we didn’t get fresh towels twice, although the ones on the floor were taken away (I kept grabbing from the carts in the hall).  Again, not necessarily bad, just meh.

·         Go carts – why on earth they let 10 year olds out there with adults I’ll never understand.  It had the potential to be fun, but instead the crew ended up shutting off our carts (they have a kill switch for them) every time one of the kids got stuck in the wall and couldn’t get off (most laps), or took up the entire track allowing for no passing because they just don’t know, despite directions given.  In our slot they put the kids out in front and the adults in back.  Why?  I would never do again unfortunately. I pin that on the crew and the way it is managed, not the kids.

·         Elements was meh.  I was disappointed.  Footloose was enjoyable, Po was very good in his own show.  Cavern club was a disaster – too small, and unlike everything else, no reservations. You had to get there an hour early for a 45 minute set.  Doesn’t make sense.

·         Funny.  I didn’t find Clinton Jackson very funny, but did find Carl Guerra funny.  Different tastes!

·         If you want a good cocktail, go to the A List bar outside of Cagney’s/Le Bistro.  Best drinks on the ship by far!  Try the Black Manhattan and Woodford Old Fashioned.

·         We liked our mid ship balcony room – its been a little while since we’ve cruised, and the shower was much larger and more comfortable than any before.

·         We didn’t choose the ship for the ports, and if not for the rest of my party wanting to go ashore I would have been much happier lounging on the ship the whole time.   A couple of our party have limited mobility, so the one bus tour was the standard couple of sites, tip the divers, go shop here, blah, blah, blah fare.

·         We had the beverage package, and the one night in Cagney’s that I ordered a glass of Moet for an additional $4 the bar staff brought the bottle back and essentially gave me 1 ¾ glasses for that $4, which was nice.

·         Shops on ship.  That was it?  Smaller ships I’ve been on have twice the selection.  Not sure what that was about.

·         Loved having Starbucks for decent coffee.  The MDR coffee was abysmal and I gave up on it pretty quickly.

·         Go to the back of the buffet.  Apparently no one wants to go past the crowded stations closest to the entry doors and the back was wide open.

·         Get the charcuterie platter in Q.  It was excellent.

·         The district ran out of the dark beers.  Put more on tap in the first place!

·         Go see the Beatles show in the main theatre and save yourself the waiting and frustration.

·         Live entertainment was lacking.  Some were OK, but overall?  Not great.

·         We liked The Local for lunch – easy to get a seat and a decent casual snack/lunch menu.

As with the OP, just my random opinions and thoughts.  We had a nice time and I thought the price we paid for cruise/drinks/specialty dining/air all included was a good value.  We also had $470 in onboard credit per cabin so the perceived nickel and diming wasn’t a big deal for us. 

We were on the same cruise as you.  We were on the port side aft in 14296 and we literally had to leave our cabin during the day because of the race cart noise thumping the ceiling every few minutes as they drove around the track.  As I said in my review if I ever hear the wods "happy happy washy washy" again I am going to throw up.  We did not like the layout of the Buffet.  The walls seemed to close it off to much.  We much prefer the open buffet concept on Princess.  Also did not like the nickel diming us to death every time we turned around.  Also found checking out towels to be a PITA.  Are there really people who want to steal towels with the NCL logo plastered all over them.

We will probably not be cruising NCL again.  Not enough positives to outweigh the negatives.  We booked this cruise for the free drink, meals, and air flight which we ended up not using because the return flight got us home 8 hours after simply driving there and NCL would not change it.  Wanted us to sit in LAX for 10 hours before a 1 hour flight back to Sacramento.  Then I get home and find out we could have done Princess for 1/3rd the cost.  Now I know why the drinks were free.

Back to Princess for us.  

1 hour ago, WilsCM said: