Cruising Lynne

If you enjoy Vibe on all the Away ships I think that you would definitely want to get it on Prima or Viva, especially if you enjoy going in hot tubs, but I am not sure about Aqua. I did not go in the Vibe on Prima, but was able to peak in there. It looked really nice and was in a good location. We hung out mostly on deck eight and went in the infinity pools which were nice but there were no hot tubs out there, Just the two by the main pool. I told my husband that if we went on Prima again I would like to get Vibe passes. Another plus about the Vibe on Prima is that it is close to the grill area of the buffet. The buffet was often very crowded, and I thought how nice it would have been to grab food and bring it to Vibe to eat. That part of the buffet had breakfast food in the morning and eating it in Vibe while waiting for the coffee to kick in would have been pleasant. Of course it would depend on the itinerary and weather. I am hoping that Agua gets additional hot tubs. If not, I may book thermal suite passes since I am going on that ship out of NYC in the fall of 2025. I am really looking forward to checking out what differences Aqua may have. Prima was a great ship and our balcony room was spacious and comfortable. Aqua should be even better. I hope this helps a bit with your decision.

I never really thought too much about it. I guess if I am on a ship with Food Republic that would be a good place to go without a reservation. I have also gotten into La Cucina before without a reservation when we accidently went on the wrong night! Thanks for the suggestion that I do not need to always book all my specialty dining ahead of time.

Oh no, now that song is stuck in my head! I really enjoyed that show as well.

Its a big reason why I like NCL. I love not needing a reservation. It gives so much more flexibility to how you spend your time. I always refuse the Free at Sea dining since I get the two free specialty dining meals for being Sapphire and only want to have two pre set dining times to work around.

I am glad yo hear that you have enjoyed sailing on Jade. Yes, I will have to adjust my expectations. I have enjoyed Elements and Blazing Boots in the past, but after seeing each a few times, I wouldn't mind some new productions. I enjoy the NCL production shows almost as much as the actual licensed Broadway shows. I guess I do not actually always prefer Broadway shows. Six was good, but felt long to me. Not on NCL, but I also did not enjoy Cats. My expectations were way too high with that one. LOL

Thank you doing such a thorough review. Sounds like a mostly great family trip. The Boston to Bermuda cruise is one of my favorites. The additional comments about Princess were good to read. We are trying them for the first time in August. Hope we like it.

I do not think that there is storage under the couch on Star. The bigger Breakaway and Breakaway plus class ships have drawers under the couch. I like to bring a couple of collapsible fabric storage cubes to put smaller items away. I use the cheap ones from the Dollar Tree. I like them because they are light and do not take up much space in my suitcase. Reaching the items on the shelf is easier that it seems. We have sailed on Dawn which is a sister ship to Star and it had the same shelves. Not ideal, but not bad. You can also ask your room steward for extra hangers. I have done that before, and received several white plastic hangers to use in addition to the wooden ones that are already there. I also double up items on the hangers.

I guess that's why I enjoyed my cruise on MSC Meraviglia. The 80's were a fun time for some of us. I am still looking forward to my next NCL cruise on Jade in September to check things out for myself. I hope that there are some good shows to go to. I love doing dinner and a show at night. I guess I am an older cruiser though. Turning 60 soon, but I would hope that NCL still wants my business for the next 15 to 20 years! Great entertainment is a way to keep me around. I think that many of the younger cruisers do enjoy the Broadway style production shows. The two production shows we went to on Meraviglia were very well attended and the crowd had people of all ages. On another recent cruise of ours I noticed some younger adult cruisers who were amazed by the live shows. It was clear to me that some of them had never really seen a live show like that before and found it exciting.

Just came to say that taking away onion rings is just wrong.

O'Sheehan's may be open as well.

Times have definitely changed. Our very first cruise was also in 2002 on RCCL Adventure of the Seas. At the time, it was one of the largest cruise ship in the world.. Now it is overshadowed by the mega ships. It did get me hooked on cruising though! That and the warm Caribbean itinerary. We went to Aruba, Curacao, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Our first NCL cruise was the Wind in Hawaii in 2006. Much smaller than Adventure, but I really enjoyed that ship and itinerary as well. It was our Honeymoon.

Epic and similarly sized ships are the largest I will go on. I also enjoy smaller ships like the Spirit. It is fun to mix things up if you can handle all the extra walking you get on the bigger ships. Mostly, I am really looking forward to checking out Agua next year.

I agree. This is why I will not cruise on RCCL anymore. They insist on always having the "largest cruise ship" in the world. I feel that these behemoths overcrowd ports and give cruising a bad name. It leads ports to want to ban ships altogether instead of just allowing more reasonable sized ships.

I enjoyed being on Joy right before they refurbished it. I hope they have the entertainment figured out before your trip. We are cruising on Jade in September. This will be after having tried out HAL, MSC, and Princess. Have previously also sailed with RCCL and Celebrity, but mostly with NCL. I am hoping to feel like coming home again. I have always felt at home and enjoyed the Freestyle vibe on NCL.

Thanks for the review. Sounds like you had a mostly good time. NCL needs to step up the entertainment. The entertainment was what always drew me to book NCL cruises (besides the Freestyle dining) They really should go back to having two major shows per cruise. Not just adding the Beatles shows and game shows to the ship's theaters. They could still put games and Beatles in the theater, but at other times of day from when a major show would be there. I just came off the MSC Meraviglia, and the entertainment was quite good. Many great shows and lots of solo acts, duos and bands through out the ship to keep things interesting. So much happening every where. From Karaoke to silent disco, to theme parties, to dance classes taught by two dance professionals, to the dome shows in the Galleria. The only things I missed from NCL were Freestyle Dining, but MSC does have a package you can book to get that, and The Local/O'Sheehan's. NCL needs to pay a bit of attention to the competition.

We had a great time. It was our first time on MSC and we liked it a lot. We have most frequently cruised with NCL. It was a bit of learning curve figuring out how a new cruise line does things. I was impressed with all the live entertainment. The shows were good and we enjoyed all the talented individuals, duos and bands that played throughout the ship. There was always something going on. We both collapsed on the couch when we got home! I did miss the Freestyle dining on NCL, but we got a table for two after the first night so that we could dine at our own pace even if it was at the same time every day.

I am back from from our cruise. Yup, no couch in our deck 8 ocean view room. It was categorized as a Junior Ocean View. The ocean view cabins on deck 5 have couches. It drove me crazy because there was enough space for a chair or small couch. I do not like that the only place to sit comfortably is the bed. Plus it is nice to have the couch to put your day bag on when you are getting organized to go ashore. Or just returned back from someplace. I like to keep anything that may have gotten dirty off the bed. I did like that we only had to go down one deck to 7 to pop outside to check the weather and get some fresh air.

We just parked there for our cruise last week. It was $315.00 for the week. We drove in from Massachusetts. It was pretty easy on a Sunday morning with minimal traffic. We used Waze navigation which was a big help with the multiple turns after you get off the high way to get into the port. There are also flag men directing traffic when you are almost there. We followed signs for parking, but before we parked we were directed to a spot to pull in to drop off our bags. We arrived about 9:30 am and there were plenty of spaces. It was very convenient to park right in front of the ship. When we disembarked we just dragged our bags back to the car. We were on board the ship about 11:20. We had 10:00 check in time. They seemed pretty organized about calling the boarding numbers.

Sorry that you were stung. We were just there last week and started at the lagoon, but heard about the jelly fish. Hubby wanted to go in anyway, but I said no because the water was a little cloudy and we may not see a jelly fish until it was too late. We ended up swimming in the beautiful crystal clear water at Lighthouse Beach. No jelly fish there. Next time I want to check out Bimini Beach. I hope that you are enjoying your cruise. I tried to log on to cruise critic while we were in Florida to let you know what a great time we were having since I knew you were concerned , but was having trouble logging in on my phone. Hope that you are enjoying your trip.

Do not know about the NCL itineraries for these ports, but MSC Meraviglia currently has this itinerary with a stop at their private island, Nassau and Port Canaveral out of Brooklyn.

I don't think that Yacht Club needs a sub category on the forum. I do not sail in Yacht Club (so far) but may want to some day. Besides that, it is not difficult to scroll past the threads that do not interest you.

Seeing people with a lot of fruit is not bad as long they leave some for the rest of us. I think you will be fine as long as you know that some people may be a bit pushy.

So true.

My husband does most of the grocery shopping. I was shocked when he told me how much a bag of chips costs. It is good he was shopping because I am too cheap to pay that for chips, and I would miss having some with my sandwiches. There are definitely less appetizer choices, but it is in line with the number of choices we had on our HAL cruise. I love seafood and have been disappointed in the cut backs. My favorite appetizer at Le Bistro is gone. I understand making changes to keep things interesting, but they should replace items with something else. NCL needs to have something to set them apart from other lines if they want people to keep coming back. Another issue I have is entertainment. I told my husband that if NCL keeps cutting back on shows, we may as well cruise with HAL. So far NCL is still my preferred line, but this could change. We shall see after my next NCL cruise in September. By then I will have tried HAL, MSC, and Princess within a year.

I have enjoyed watching my husband, and other people do the go carts on Prima and on Joy. Watching on Prima was more fun because you could shoot the light on the top of the carts to give people a speed boost. Not easy to do, but I think I helped out a couple of drivers. My bad back keeps me from doing them myself. I am afraid of getting hit by some one who is trying to get past me, so for me it is not worth it.