cruiseny4life

9 minutes ago, DrUrsula said:

I said I loved the scallops. They no longer have the scallops. Thats why I said POOP. Never did I say that the scallops have poop. Jeepers creepers!!!

"I love those scallops. Poop". It's two sentences.

 

I was waiting for this post. 💩

3 minutes ago, Jack Durden said:

Is NCL going to change their Terms and Conditions for existing cruise contracts,

Yes.

47 minutes ago, Pablo Diablo said:

Food Republic menu is updated as well.  Presumably, NCL updated (or in the process of updating) all Specialty Dining restaurant menus.

 

For those interested, removed from FR's menu are firecracker shrimp (this was a favorite 😞),  tuna poke nachos, lamb kalbi gui (chops), ramen w/BBQ pork belly, dynamite roll & spicy pacific salmon roll,   

Noooooo!!!! The firecracker shrimp was one of my husband's favs and the dynamite roll, mine. Eeeeek - how will we ever survive? 

2 hours ago, lepidoptera said:

Gentlemen, if you have to stand in front of the screening station holding you pants up until you have your belt back you have chosen the wrong pants!

Ouch! I felt this personally. 🙂 I refuse to buy new clothes until they're threadbare and reduced to barely covering me. 

Now that I have precheck, I'm fine! Plus, I generally wear shorts as airplanes are just giant furnaces that try to reduce me to ash.

I love, love, love the photo of Mt. Rainier! Looking forward to seeing the trip through your eyes! 

1 hour ago, Spinelli1107 said:

Without taking you all for a full deck by deck tour, this should give you a pretty decent idea of all this ship has to offer. This 9 night cruise is likely not long enough to see and do it all since there's also the casino, a basketball court, a jogging track, several water slides, mini golf and believe it or not, so much more!

Just in case you were looking forward to it (I was), mini golf was removed a couple years ago. Unless it was put back in the dry dock last week. Which I don't think it was. Same with the rock wall. 

1 minute ago, ccm02339 said:

Can I ask a follow up question? Did you mean that your 10% was applied to entire booking g and then your husband’s 10% was applied on top of that?  I now have a discount on my account as well.  Thank you!

We each received 10% off the fare for each of us, individually. So, we received a total of 10% off the entire booking. I hope that's helpful (and makes sense). 

15 hours ago, debenson0723 said:

You booked a cruise???!! I thought you were done for awhile, LOL.  Please share when and where.

 

And OP, the information you received from @cruiseny4life is correct. Try talking to someone at NCL and they will help you get all the credits.

I know....I know....I'm a hypocrite! To be fair though 🙂 I did say we wouldn't sail in 2024. And we're not yet (as my husband said last night, let's look at a cruise for 2024...). Hehe

Western Caribbean, Feb. 2nd on Getaway, our first Norwegian love. 

Thanks to you, @ChiefMateJRK. This along with a random 10% coupon in our account got us to booking a Western Caribbean cruise for February. Can't believe we booked so far out!!

You can book with a travel agent or PCC. If you attempt to book on the consumer site, the site will only allow you to use the 10% and one CruiseNext.

You don't need to move the Cruise Next to your husband's account if you are also going.

We just booked a cruise using the 10% and two Cruise Next's on Monday. We called our PCC who added the 10% from my husband's (and my) account (we both had it). Then she also used the two Cruise Next's for us. If there is a Triple Up, then you'd be able to utilize the Tripe Up.

If your 10% off is like mine, you'll need to book by June 30th, so be sure you don't want too long to book. 

Happy sailing!! 

6 minutes ago, AlmiranteChurruca said:

On to another subject (but somehow connected to the recent NCL's/Getaway's string of "unfortunate events"), neither the webpage nor the app will let me do restaurant reservations. However, there is a link now (do not remember having seen it before) to updated menus for the specialty restaurants. The date on these menus is June 2024, so I guess we will probably be a bit of feedback lab critters for the company after this cruise.

 

Gone are the Oysters Rockefeller, the Tuna Tartar and the Porterhouse at Cagney's. Replacement for the two gone starters is Thick Cut Bacon. 🙄

 

At Le Bistro no more foie on top of the Rossini Filet Mignon and also no more Scallops.

 

I get it. Cutbacks. But...where is the thin red line between a great and an average offering? We will see...

Ooooo....(they weren't good anyway), but no more potatoes au gratin at Cagney's either! It'll be interesting to see the other changes as I peruse the menus.

14 hours ago, jgmpuma said:

One of my favorites is Rising Tide, by John Barry. It centers around the great floods of 1927, but also describes man's mostly unsuccessful efforts to control the river, and the unforeseen consequences of those efforts.

Oh, thank you!! This sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. I'll definitely be grabbing this one to read. 

1 hour ago, dolls123 said:

When my kids house sit for us hubby tells them they are staying at a fully stocked Airbnb so they should be paying us 🤣

The first time my mom asked to be compensated I was a wee bit floored...we live in a rural setting, not near any major roads, with plenty of acreage to roam....she lives in a super tiny apartment (with my grandmother) in a college town on a (for a small town) really busy road. But, alas, she's apparently happy there. And yep, we buy her groceries too!

31 minutes ago, pcakes122 said:

I think you just made a excellent case as to why Carnival should not allow "just someone" the ability to create fake accounts and cancel other peoples' bookings. 😆

 

The policy is terrible and actually pretty scary. No one should have that kind of easy access to someone else's money.

As for Carnival? Well, they're in the wrong. Their IT setup is obviously not secure which allowed this fiasco to happen. Should the woman have posted her deets? Nah. But in this age when "security" is supposedly a top priority, who'd have thunk a major cruise line would have so few protocols. At the very least, multi-factor authentication should be instituted when trying to change a reservation. So yep, I'd be highly ticked off if I were the lady too (and a wee bit embarrassed).

Popping this back to the top, so as not to start a whole new thread. I did a thread search for two hotels I'm interested in staying at, but didn't see anything come up.

Has anyone stayed at either Nopsi or the Hubbard Mansion? Google reviews seem to be great, but hoping a fellow cruiser has stayed there and can enlighten me on:

- service

- location to the port (I'm thinking Uber, but could a trolley get us there)

- are there interesting New Orleans sites nearby

- what's the neighborhood vibe

- any great Big Easy restaurants close by

- anything else you can think of

Thanks, y'all!

In February we'll be leaving from New Orleans. Disembarking the day of the Super Bowl. That's going to be an exciting day, said no cruiser ever!

I'm curious if anyone has insight on books, magazine articles, videos, movies, TV shows that might make me even more excited about this cruise as I wait for the next eight months to embark. I'm looking for fun, topical, pop culture references, but also more historical/scientific/boring.

I've read the very long New Yorker article by John McPhee from 1987 about the Atchafalaya River (granted it's old and outdated and more about water use/misuse than what most of us are looking for): https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1987/02/23/atchafalaya&ved=2ahUKEwj5u5y8-cGGAxUfm4kEHbLOAr8QFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1uEDR2HRuy4DJeoos0bYmQ

I'd also be interested in something more along the lines of The Path Between the Seas which many cruisers read prior to their Panama Canal sailing.

Many thanks!

1 hour ago, Matahari47 said:

 

Tuesday 11.50am:
Still in dry dock

All the lifeboats are still ashore

High tide at 4pm 

Will be watching the situation closely….🤣🙄

I'm hoping it all goes well for your cruise! You still have a day to wait...I'm sure filled with anticipatory dread. Hopefully everything is going according to NCL's plan so that you'll be embarking on the ship on the 6th (is that the right date).

You can be upgraded through embarkation day. 

12 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

According to all the news reports reports from a number of Bloggers at the moment, NCL has more ships sailing in 2024 to either Alaska or the Caribbean because re-deployments away from Baltic cruises and staying out of harms way in the Middle East.  They are having all kinds of sales trying to fill the various ships.

Well heck! I guess my thinking was wrong. I haven't seen the sails...well, I should say, I haven't seen a price I'm comfortable booking. Last year I coulda, shoulda, woulda booked! 

I think last year may have been an anomaly. For quite some time, NCL was offering a 50% off coupon to folks. It wasn't their normal 50% off, but a real 50% the price of a cruise. It seemed like there were just a glut of ships up there. I'm thinking for 2024, NCL has a better handle on the number of ships necessary for Alaska and/or demand is higher. 

But, will mking be allowed to wear his vest after 6 PM? 

In St. John, rent a car and drive to Hopewell Rocks. It's a gorgeous place, even more so if the tide is out and you catch it coming back in. The drive through the countryside is long, but beautiful! 

On 5/29/2024 at 1:56 PM, matthew.corrigan said:

I don't think their website BOGO air deal handles one-way flights very well. I live in the Los Angeles area so as research I searched a couple of Panama Canal cruises, both eastbound and westbound, and got outrageous results for the airfare quote. Like $4000 level of outrageous. As comparison I searched a Miami round trip cruise in June 2025 and it offered about $750 for the 2-person airfare, much more reasonable. If you're located in Florida and looking for the one-way flight home, then you're probably much better booking on your own.

If you work with a travel agent or personal cruise consultant (NCL PCC employee), they can easily tell you what it would cost for one-way fare on an airline. 

As an example, we paid $604 one-way, using the NCL Air BOGO program, for a flight from Syracuse, via JFK, then CDG, to Barcelona. We priced the same tickets on Delta's website (at the same time we received our air confirmation) and would have paid $3,600 for both of us if we had purchased tickets on our own. We were able to upgrade our JFK to CDG flight to seats that provided extra legroom (for an extra fee). We each were allowed to check two bags for free (we only checked one bag, for both of us), but it was an option. 

On 5/8/2024 at 7:27 PM, BirdTravels said:

We're talking about eight bucks,,, maybe. 

That eight bucks will pay for my American Diner milkshake!! 🙂

56 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Another reason and reminder to not join and engage those social media, private group and/or promote & use them for cruising ... M*ta has know cyber security issues and when folks willingly share just about everything without safeguards in place, you leave the doors open for being hacked and hijacked, and worst.  

 

And, some - of course, disagree and feel otherwise, to each her/his own.  

To each their own, for sure. I'm all for those groups - I've gained a lot of information from them, met some cool people (just like from here), and honestly I do find way more value from them than Cruise Critic roll calls. I also always find myself having to cross post which is annoying given the limited value here. The NCL board, however, is invaluable here compared to any of the groups I'm in at that other place. 

As for the security aspect, well we always have someone at our home when we're gone. I know that's a perk many don't have as it's costly. Even my mom requires payment for staying at my place...might have to do with dealing with four dogs and a cat. 🐶🐈

59 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

You're in the camp that says BOGO stands for:

Book

Our

Great

Opportunities

 

Others say BOGO stands for:

Better

Off

Getting

Own

 

People either love it or hate it.

If there is one thing that truly qualifies under the mantra of YMMV, it's BOGO.

And I'm in that first camp, because I know exactly what to expect. If more folks would educate themselves first, they'd either a) know NCL isn't going to give them more than the minimum, b) not book NCL BOGO Air. 

Plenty of folks can be Better Off Getting Own (Registered Trademark, @schmoopie17, 2024). I have no issue with that. I just truly do not understand why they have to constantly post about how terrible the NCL BOGO Air Program is. If you haven't experienced...just scroll on by. There's plenty of me's (that appreciate the program) and plenty of @rivkadr's) (that used and hate the program). Let us provide the facts, either way rather than the ranting and raving by unqualified folks who have no experience with the program. 

On 6/2/2024 at 8:51 AM, BirdTravels said:

And there is no "less formal MDR". 

Has this changed? Or are you speaking only of Encore? I ask, because I know on Getaway and Breakaway the Tropicana/Manhattan Rooms require the same attire as Le Bistro/Ocean Blue. Thank you!