WhatshouldIsay

For those who have cruised to St. Maarten what ship did you sail on. We are fairly new to sailing and have only used NCL,

I am sure this has been asked and answered but I can't find it. My bids currently say Pending. A few days ago that was not the case. Does this mean anything?

We are leaving on the same day as well BUT we haven't found out if we are in Amber Cove or Taino Bay so it has been difficult to plan.

49

So, if I were to be on the sundeck, I wouldn't care, I most likely wouldn't notice. Having had a very quiet teen daughter who would have preferred the 16+, I still would not allow it. If you look at the overall ship, and the rules on the ship, how many are broken daily? If the 16+ rule is broken in that area of the ship, does it mean that rules beyond that area like Spice H20 can also be broken? Are children then allowed to gamble as well. Perhaps have a few cocktails and maybe save 10 loungers by the pool. This is an extreme example - but my point is, if one is broken then are we to say they can all be broken? Whether it is a soft or a hard rule?

Let me begin by sayng, I can be quite sarcastic in my writing, so take it with a grain of salt please. Our very first cruise was with Holland during Hurricane Michele. Yes, we booked during hurricane season, but our TA assured us we would be fine and what did I know? I ended up in the cabin (low deck, mid ship) for most of the cruise, I was miserable. I was sick, I couldn't eat and I thought for sure we were going to die. Fast forward 21 years, my hubby convinces me to try again. Hey, its a Christmas cruise, our adult children have their own plans this year so why not. A week later, I booked the Escape leaving 12/24/22. Again, I used a TA and although it is located in a small rural WI town, she assured me she had booked many NCL cruises. We are in mid ship again, this time in a Club Balcony. Hoping to put my fears to rest, I joined every CC forum that pertained to the cruise and on to the Face page to join every single group associated with the Escape and NCL. I wanted to learn about touring on our own, as we were not truly excited about any of the excursions. Looked for information regarding which port in Puerto Plata we were actually going to. Best restaurants to go to, etc. Did I find my answers to many of my questions, not really. What I found made me shutter, sarcastically and not so much. Instead of reasonable information, that I have indeed gone out and searched on my own, I see threads of folk arguing for the sake of well, I say arguing and the social shaming was shocking. This is what I've learned. Since we have grey hair, it seems we are boomers, retired, have grandchildren and have cruised many a cruise. We are far from that, but I guess for the sake of assuming, we will be in that grey haired boomer couple category. Please do not hunt us down, we are only there for the entertainment. We are also out of touch with technology and will have a difficult time with the NCL app and will need to find a millennial or younger to figure it out. For pool enjoyment, I will have to get up at 3:30 a.m., and go put my valuables on two chairs in order to have any lounge chairs if I am to enjoy the pool. Then I guess I can go back to bed, wake up enjoy a breakfast and my pool lounger will be there when I return. I am allowed to leave my treasured valuables on said lounger for the entire day and NCL will say they will remove it, but they really don't, so rules are not meant to be followed. I will go to bed at 6 p.m. in order to have the sacred lounger for yet another day. Oh Good God, I smoke. A dark cloud will follow me around the entire ship. I actually had the audacity to ask about smokers on this cruise and my post was removed. I understand that it was most likely removed because the mods didn't want chaos within that particular group or a mod is against smokers. For the sake of the drinkers, bar hoppers, partiers and cigar smokers - its okay, no one is going to bother you. So if you happen to be on this cruise, for fun sake, let us have a meet and mingle for smokers who are early risers and like coffee only. YIKES! The dress code. NCL has made it quite clear over the years that dress code is casual, with the exception of hats and in several of their fine dining restaurants. But, oh my goodness, if I could only see into the posters eyes, the rage they must feel when typing out their opinions of others. I wish I had known I was going to be judged by so many people. I cannot say how many times my mouth hit the keyboard at some of the things I read. I don't know what to wear now, my string biking to Cagney's or the lovely formal dress that I have hanging in my closet for that last 25 years. I am terrified what people will think of me. Will they take pictures of me and post them to their live feeds? It is so stressful. Sigh. The packing lists. Help me. oh help me. If I pack the top 50 cruise essentials, where will my clothes go? Should I go out and buy another suitcase from the dark hole of Amazon? Last time I went, it was a simple carry on, now you want me to bring a shoe holder for my door, a lovely makeup mat to lay across the sink, and some heavy bulky other things? Please, if you bring all 50 of the items, I'd like to see a picture of your cabin so I can see where to place all of these things that are a "must have" for cruisers. Yes, I can see the value of a few of these items, but 50? My take away from the face pages and some forums, is grim. I believe that everyone should have the cruise they deserve. Cruisers opinions are wide and varied, I get that. But what about that person, who maybe shy, who just wants an answer to a simple question be barraged with so much hate and judgement. I have thick skin and can take it, even laugh at some of it, but what about that one person who just asked a simple question? I realize that many questions can be researched first on this forum and the face pages, but often that information was posted years ago or is the post is 800 pages long and who wants to wade through all of that? So let them post their question, even if it has been asked and answered many times over. The pages and forums were not designed for only one certain group of cruisers, I believed they were designed for many to find answers and maybe find another group member they click with who will also be on that particular cruise. I would ask that next time someone asks a question, answer gently with your own experiences, not what you perceive others should or should not do. I wish everyone on this particular Christmas cruise a happy, healthy, enjoyable vacation!