Cruising Lynne

Royal has more ships than NCL so they can offer more cruises.

People expressing their disappointment in some of the recent changes does not necessarily mean that they "never want to spend money with NCL again". No need to be so dramatic about it.

Reduce Del Rio's salary and bonuses. This could help a little!

Yay!! Have a great trip. I recommend Indulge Food Hall for lunch tomorrow. Also recommend the drink Banana-rum-ble. Happy New Year!!

All these cut backs individually are not deal breakers, but they do add up. Pretty soon one of the small changes will be "the straw that breaks the camel's back" , and we will look into other vacation options. I really feel for families with multiple people in a room. There is only room to hang up a couple of towels to dry and re-use. I think a quick refresh of the room to check if dry towels are needed and empty the trash is nice to have.

Any time you did not want twice a day service, you could let your steward know, or put on the do not disturb sign. I don't see why you would want it taken away from every one else.

Silly me. I thought that since they just raised their DSC more than any of the other major lines, I thought that meant we would get to still have twice a day service if wanted. This is not good.

My husband and I prefer the Manhattan Room. This MDR is bigger and more open. There is also often a band or duo playing music, and if you time it right Burn the Floor does a few dance performances. We never have a problem getting a table for two. A lot of the two tops are near the windows. Once they tried to give us a room near the door the servers went in and out to get food. We very nicely requested another table since we were celebrating our anniversary and I wanted to be closer to the entertainment. They promptly gave us another table.

LOL. I think you are right about a lot of it being too well done. I have made the rooky mistake of filling up on rolls and salad there, so I did not really care about the meat. Asking (demanding?) for rarer meat is a good idea.

I actually liked the food just as much at lunch time. Shrimp Pad Thai being one of my favorites. The thing that was better for us at dinner time was that it was much less busy. It made it a much more relaxing experience.

I enjoy the food from Teppanyaki, but it has lost the wow factor for me. as well. I have more of a "been there, done that" feeling about it. Other than Teppanyaki with the "show" and Moderno with the festival of meats, I never understood how paying extra for specialty dining ever became so popular. If people think it is too expensive, just don't go, or only use the free at sea meals. On a side note, I am not that excited about Moderno. I don't like getting meat that some one else before me may have breathed all over. Or even worse sneezed on.

I would like to say that I am never going to pay more than 20% for a "mandatory tip!! I may, on a special occasion, or at the holidays voluntarily go above that, but I do not think it should ever be required. That is just ridiculous. Also, I do enjoy the two meals I get for being Sapphire, but most of the time I prefer not to have a reservation to worry about. I enjoy the MDR and like to show up when we are ready. Hubby likes certain nights in the buffet.

My husband and I really enjoyed the Priscilla show when we sailed on Epic. That being said, we saw Six on Breakaway in September. It was a good show. I did not find it to be "blah", but felt that it was a little long. Epic should get it's own headlining Broadway type show, and not also Six. To me Burn the Floor always feel different whenever I see it. I feel like Six would be the same every time, and is not something that needs to be on multiple ships.

Whatever you want to give in addition to the DSC should be considered extra. We always give the room steward some cash at the end of our trips and do not remove the DSC.

I am getting thirsty!! I am ready for a Bananarum-ble. 🍹 We went to most of those bars on our 5 day, but definitely need to do a longer trip to try them all. I would like to try the bottled drinks from Belvedere. I did not realize until the last day that they are made by the bar tender, and not a commercially made, sealed bottle. Even though I do not drink whiskey, we enjoyed the atmosphere at the whiskey bar. I was able to get a Grey Goose and cranberry while hubby had his whiskey. Thanks for posting all these great photos!!

I have had the Dover Sole a couple of times and it was good. Last cruise I tried the Filet de Loup de Mer (Mediterranean sea bass) and really enjoyed it. The Roulade de Crabe et Saumon (crab and salmon appetizer) that is listed under the salads is very good. Light and fresh tasting. And I love the Marquise au Chocolate dessert.

Hi Gary. It looks like you are having a great trip so far. I must admit that the title of this thread has been throwing me off. I almost missed this great review because of it. I like to play slots, but I tried a tournament once and did not last very long, so I don't do them. This almost made me not open this thread. Carry on and enjoy your trip!!🥂

That is good news! Next time I will spring for a thermal suite pass.

I will be glad to get one of the hot items delivered for the new lower price, but it is more chipping away at what makes the cruise experience special. At least it is one flat price like it is later in the day. I hear that Carnival started a la carte pricing for room service after breakfast. I do not know how it works on Carnival for breakfast, since I have never cruised with them. That could add up really fast.

It would be nice if NCL kept the information on their website up to date. We always seem to get rumors, and info from other sources first.

Isn't @Ken the cruiser's post enough evidence??? He posted a picture of the door hanger that spells it out. Now there are posts about it from multiple people on different ships.

If you don't really like Starbucks, I would give the ship's complimentary coffee a try. On all our recent cruises we have had regular balcony cabins and requested a coffee maker for our cabin. Hubby likes to have coffee at various times of day. Not the best coffee, but it works for us and is complimentary. They will replenish the supplies when they clean your room. I like milk in my coffee so I get some at the buffet to bring back to my room. At breakfast they have the small milk cartons out. You can get complimentary coffee all day at the buffet, and with any meal in the MDR. If you think you may want ice coffee, it might be easier to make if you bring a large travel cup to make it in. At lunch time you could get chocolate sauce from the ice cream station for an iced mocha. Sometimes I make coffee in my room that I put in the room's fridge to use for iced coffee later on. The buffet drink station also has hot chocolate packets, which my husband sometimes adds to his hot coffee. Also, you can get French press coffee at Le Bistro if you eat there.

Sounds like Joy's bubble maker could be broken. We had bubbles in the hot tub at the main pool area on Prima. What you may have heard is that the pools in Prima's thermal suite do not have bubbles. We also had bubbles on Getaway in March, Pearl in May, and Breakaway in September.

Oh no. I think I would miss late night buffet, especially since I like to have early dinner.

Thank you. Have a great trip! Can't wait to hear what you think.