freeholdfriends

My friend and I booked the Jade TA last year and for convenience booked the NCL platinum insurance. I have had several bouts of cancer and their pre existing condition was fairly liberal. Sure enough, I had a problem and had to cancel. One phone call, a simple form and within 2 weeks we were cancelled with a full refund. I had to cancel a cruise 9 years ago when recovering from cancer treatment and had used one of the most popular travel insurance policies. Well, six months, 3 denials and finally I received the refund. I will add that my career was in insurance review and resolution for a mayor company. Without this experience I would still be fighting over the denials. So, the NCL insurance ended up being the right insurance for us. On a happy note, we have booked the same cruise on the Escape for this April.

1 hour ago, casofilia said:

@freeholdfriends

 

 I tend to use my AMEX card or a Travel Visa card

 

You had better check that you can charge currency exchanges  on the ship to your Folio.   I would imagine that Euros will have to be paid for with US bills

 

I should clarify that I do take some US currency and since I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Europe a few times I also now save any unused Euros now rather than exchanging them back after the trip. I know this isn’t for everyone but I am hesitant to use ATM’s in other countries. I was burned once so I just feel more comfortable doing it on the ship. I use Bank of America and they are willing to give you their reciprocal banks in European countries so that’s another way to get money in foreign countries.

20 hours ago, mbleackl said:

If you do it on the boat you will pay a higher exchange rate than doing it at an ATM on land or at your bank before the cruise.

Yes, we are aware of this but it’s just for the sake of convenience. I tend to use my AMEX card or a Travel Visa card that doesn’t charge exchange fees so the higher fees on the boat is just easier. 

I’ve done it several times before leaving as my local bank will order the euros for me. However, we’re going on the TA next spring and I will probably just do it on the boat. I never use as much as I think and end up having to exchange again back home. I will just take some out a needed on this trip.

6 hours ago, Named-Tawny said:

This, exactly.

Different insurance policies will have different periods of stability required (from none to two years, from what I've seen).  If you fall within that, it's not the insurance for you.

But yeah, this is an insurance issue, not an NCL issue, unfortunately. =(

I had to cancel TA last year due to a reoccurrence of cancer. NCL insurance refunded 100% because I had not been treated 90 days previously even though it was a pre-existing condition. 8 years ago I used a different insurance co and they denied due to cancer issues. I appealed 4 times and finally did get all my money refunded. As others have stated, it is the insurance company you have to fight with. Last year I used NCL’s policy and it was handled within 2 weeks. I know ship’s insurance is not considered the best but in my case it was superior to an outside company.

Thanks. We’ve only cruised on Carnival, Princess and Celebrity and have never been charged before so I just wanted to confirm NCL’s policy.

I am sure this has been addressed before so please excuse this repeat question. We are booked on the TA Escape next April. Since the ship is leaving from NY we won’t have to fly in beforehand so we want to take some wine onboard. I know that NCL charges a $15 corkage fee but if we just bring on wine for our room do we still get charged? Thanks for any info. This will be our first cruise on NCL so I am just trying to get a handle on their rules.

We are booked on the Escape transatlantic and also received an email that we are skipping Barcelona. Terragona sounds really nice but one of the main reasons we booked this was Barcelona. We are thinking about our options right now. Do we know why NCL is changing ports? The email just mentioned something about overbooking the port. But it sounds like this is happening on more than one cruise.

Thanks for the info. Appreciate it.

does NCL normally offer an excursion that ends with a drop off at the airport? If it does, what is the cost. Thanks for any help

This is my first NCL cruise. We are on the TA from Ny to Rome. Does anybody know if NCL usually offers a debarkation excursion that ends up at the airport? We’ve done this on Celebrity and it helps to kill time until our flight. Thanks for any info.

The ship's water (free of charge) can be had at several locations throughout the ship. No beverage package needed for water.

Is the ships water bottled water or just plain water in the buffet? Also, no martinis at most bars? This is going to be my first NCL cruise and we took the beverage package as one of the “freebies” but with a 20% gratuity this is going to cost a lot of money on the TA cruise. The rep told me it included water and speciality coffee. Seems he was mistaken

I still smile when I recall the teeny, single scallop that was the starter one night. I think this cruise may have been atypical and have good hopes that you will enjoy your next X cruise.

I also had the single scallop appetizer. My table mate was served first and burst out laughing and then mine arrived. It was comical.

I was on Silhouette for the British Isle cruise last July. This was our first Celebrity cruise. We have had many fun cruises on Carnival with lots of friends a kids. We decided to upgrade and tried Princess. Nobody in our group of 25 liked it. Several of our friends had moved up to Celebrity and raved about it. Our experience was very mixed. Ship was very pretty, stateroom service was excellent but the food in the buffet was horrid and the MDR was only slightly better. I actually lost weight on the cruise. However, we feel we may have just hit an off week and are booked on Eclipse for the Antarctica cruise next year. When I booked directly the lovely girl advised us to eat in the speciality restaurants rather than upgrade to get Blu. I thought that was funny but probably good advice. We live outside of NYC so we are used to great restaurants and the food on Carnival Breeze was significantly better than on Silhouette. That was the huge surprise to us.

LOL. I thought much the same! I must say our 'preferred' wait staff (we were in select dining) were very good. On seeing my reaction they spontaneously advised us that we could order a second plate which I did without feeling guilty or difficult!

As you say, food is highly subjective but I did think there were cutbacks in the MDR and a couple of the appetizers were very meagre (six tiny cubes of beetroot anyone?)

Also, despite several alternative or second helpings over the course of the cruise, I also lost weight (not a complaint -- just an observation :D )

Well, maybe they should market it as a new weight loss cruise. Lol. Still, the cruise was wonderful but next time I would opt for some of the upcharge restaurants

We have just returned from a 12 day British Isles cruise - the experience to be described elsewhere - and were positively impressed with only one dining experience, Q-Sine. Murano, The Porch and the buffet rated an OK, Lawn Grill was over-priced and under performing (the story of this cruise), and the main dining room left a lot to be desired.

 

First, the good thing; Q-sine. It's a different approach to dining with a large number of "small plates" covering a wide range of foods. You can order as many as you want and each is served in serial fashion in its' own unique presentation for sharing. Service is attentive and excellent. Well worth the added cost.

 

It seems as if the menu in Murano has slipped (based upon our Murano experience on the Constellation), the food was well prepared and service was very good but not worth the up-charge. On Silhouette there is only a view of the bottom of the lifeboats, so - sadly - an inside table is just fine.

 

We ate breakfast at the buffet and aside from there rarely being enough seating - and what can you do exciting with breakfast? - this was just fine. Pizza was the best I've had a sea and the pasta service, while time consuming, offered a good product. After the Tattoo fiasco the buffet was open and a welcome place to get some hot food.

 

The Porch is an interesting concept with cold seafood served under cover on the top deck. The food was well prepared, there was more than enough shrimp, lobster, and scallops to satisfy our needs. Small venue with very good service. The view is excellent and all you need is decent weather.

 

Lawn Grill; let's start recognizing that I think having a lawn on a cruise ship is just plain stupid but that's not completely relevant to the dining experience. You are seated on Deck 15 under cover (like the Porch) on one side of The Lawn. You get a four course meal; "flatbread", salad, entrée, and dessert. "Flatbread" translated into English is "pizza"; yes, you can customize with items from the salad bar but the bottom line is you pay an up-charge for pizza. Then there is the salad bar - yep, a salad bar; if I wanted a salad bar I would go to Ruby Tuesday not an upscale restaurant. Yes, your waiter will prepare a salad for you should you wish. The entrée; you select your meat and side dishes. The meat we were served was top shelf - the waiter messed up the order - and well prepared. Side dishes were not memorable. Dessert was fine but again, not memorable.

 

Last, and definitely least, the main dining room. The menu selections were not interesting and when they approached interesting they were poorly prepared. Some standouts; my wife's "Hungarian Goulash" starter was more soup than substance, her country pate was primarily fat with little meat or flavor; I found no ham on my veal cordon bleu (and the veal had not been pounded), Chicken Kiev was a fried chicken breast with an herbed - very lightly herbed - butter sauce, and there was meatloaf .... meatloaf, really? Enough griping, service was fine and we had dinner with some interesting people.

 

It seems that if you want a decent dinner you have to go to a specialty restaurant - we checked the menus at Blu and the Luminae the last night (a small sample to be sure) and were not impressed so upgrading your cabin doesn't seem to upgrade dinner - and pay the price which seems to be the message Celebrity is sending.

Our experience was very similar. I actually lost weight on this cruise. We all know food is subjective but I am not particularly picky and I had trouble picking entree's each night. One night there was scallop rockefeller on the appetizer menu. I ordered it as did a tablemate. We started laughing as soon as they brought out the plates. Mine was one small scallop cut in half and he also had one scallop. They tasted fine but the portion was ridiculous. We did love the ship and our service was impeccable. But I felt the food in the cafe was horrendous for lunch or dinner and the choices for dinner in the MDR to be disappointing.

In the past 2 years, we have cruised Celebrity 4 times with our 2 adult sons--Eclipse and Equinox in the Caribbean, Silhouette in the Baltic, and most recently on Millie from Vancouver to Seward, returning a week ago. Our sons prefer to eat the evening meal in the buffet, because they prefer casual dress, eating at their own pace, being in control of their portions, and trying new and varied combinations of food. Up to the last Millie cruise, they had been delighted with the buffet, both lunch and dinner, but we all were extremely disappointed with the buffet in Millie.

 

I know that Millie carries fewer passengers and the buffet layout is different compared to Solstice class ships, but that can't explain the difference. I had trouble finding appetizing lunch offerings, often resorting to a tuna salad sandwich. Often the entrees were some sort of mystery meat floating in an oily sauce, and some of the evening entrees appeared to be warmed-over lunch entrees. (The sign posting "gourmet entrees" was a joke.) No daily Mexican offerings (fajitas and tacos) on Millie but lots of weird Asian entrees. I know Millie had just returned from Asia, and it looked like they were trying to get rid of their Asian food.

 

We have an Australia/NZ cruise booked on the Solstice for later this year, but our sons say they will not go or they want us to change to another cruise line. The cruise food is pretty important to them, and they would not want to face 2 weeks of food like the recent cruise.

 

Has anyone else observed a decline of buffet offerings, especially on Solstice?

 

Thanks in advance......

We are trying to decide between late seating or select time dining on our upcoming British Isles cruise. I believe the late seating is 9pm, which is a bit late. What time are the shows? Would we have to go to a late show or early show if we decide on the late seating. Not sure I would make a l 1l pm show!!

 

thanks for your help.

Just got off the 7/18 British Isles cruise. Shows were at 7 and 9. We did select dining and found the flexibility to be perfect

I am doing a similar cruise on Celebrity. What type of excursion did you do in St. Peter Port?

Thanks for the info. With all the troubles in the world now its probably best to allow the extra time for security

Important travel information – Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Important notice for all travelers departing from Amsterdam: we ask you to be present at Schiphol Airport 3 hours prior to departure for all destinations (Europe and intercontinental). This is due to capacity constraints and waiting times at the security of Schiphol Airport.

Schiphol is having some issues with the large® passenger flow this spring and summer, please plan accordingly if you fly out from Amsterdam, disregard previous given advice.

 

Peak season: school breaks (this week) and summer peak season which ends at the end of August. Expect lots of ques in the morning and mid day, as the day continues less ques. After customs some reconstruction going on, lots of reopened public space, no issues with finding food & shops and plenty seating around. For "extended" stays in Lounge 2 and 3 (US bound flights) be sure to check the upper level for additional seating and restaurants!

 

Feel free to ask!

We are booked on an SAS fight at 6:20 am. Will we still need to get to the airport 3 hours before the flight at this early in the morning?

Thanks for the quick answers. It did sound to good to be true but, nothing lost by asking. I think we are going to book the British Isles cruise. Everyone I speak to always rave over Celebrity. Time to upgrade:D

Where did you read that RCCL matches status?

I was reading some reviews on RCCL and a poster mentioned it. I was quite surprised as I had never heard that before. Sorry that I don't remember what thread it was.

hello, I am new to Celebrity. i am platinum on Carnival. I have cruised on Princess and currently have a cruise booked on MSC and NCL. We are looking at cancelling our NCL cruise and upgrade to Celebrity. MSc matched my platinum staus and I recently read that RCCL also matches. Can anyone tell me if Celebrity will match my platinum status? Thanks for any info.

We just booked that cruise too! We are on the August 23..which one are you on?

 

 

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We are also on the August 23. Part of our deal was the dining and free alcohol package.

Thank you to everyone who answered.