AllHandsAstern

Just got off Viva a week ago. I was fortunate enough to go on several cruises pre-shutdown and haven't cruised much since. Did a week on Celebrity Reflection for my honeymoon in Feb'23. Part of this post is to sanity check my own opinions, part review. Would love some feedback on this.Overall really enjoyed the experience. So I don't want this to seem like a gripe fest. 1) Free-At-Sea plus seems like a great deal. NCL loves the upsell and I thought the FAS+ package took a lot of that away with wifi included, practically every beverage included, Starbucks included, plenty of speciality dining. Really enjoyed it. 2) the open hours of eateries seemed silly in the context of our port stop and messed with what few places were actually open. All aboard time was around 3:30 generally, but the powers that be only had the seaside grill and the local open after 2:30. The net effect was that both options seemed overwhelmed. The local had a wait for tables but then service took forever too. Between waiting for the table and waiting for the waiter and waiting for the food it took an hour to get fed, which seems like a long time for what the venue is marketed as, 24 hour quick bites. I would think that shuffling opening hours isn't so hard, but I don't know. 3) having to pay for an adult only area is ridiculous. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if there was more pool space but there's like 5000 people on this ship and like 1000 square feet of pool area. Seems like they could make the infinity pools on deck 8 (9?) adult only and let people enjoy themselves. Coincidentally we went over spring break, so it could be there were just more kids. Ymmv. 4) the food was generally great! The MDR on viva was better than anything on reflection. Probably not a fair comparison but so be it. There were some duds, the buffet was generally bad, all of the sushi was not good, but overall very solid. Los Lobos was excellent. I live in California so I can't walk to work without tripping over great Mexican food, los lobos was legit. 5) the speedway is a waste of space. Between the straight up vandalized shooting gallery, the never-open speedway bar, and the sheer *slowness* of the carts and the layout, the whole affair gave abandoned mall vibes. There were supposed to be 12 or 15 blasters but there were only 3 and oh by the way the scoring system didn't work at all, so I'm sure NCL is writing off that asset. That's it! let me know if I'm right or wrong! Overall viva is a weird ship and we didn't really like it in the moment but in retrospect I think that's just what they're doing for big ships now. We're booked on Ascent in April '25 and Prima in Feb '25, looking forward to both!

I haven't seen Mr black on this sailing, probably for the best cause I'll get it as a night cap then wonder why I'm so awake!

That's not correct, but I will clarify. In food Republic everyone got 4 plates per credit, we used 2 so it was 8 plates. In onda, each credit got 2 apps, 1 main (either a pasta or a protein), 2 sides, and 1 dessert. Further, if you wanted a pizza you could get that as either an app or a main, roughly 10", we got one and shared it amongst the 7 of us. So last night, all of 16 hours ago, I used one dining credit, got hamachi crudo, a burrata caprese dish, filet mignon, a side of mushrooms, and a side of spinach. We skipped dessert because we had to dash to see Beetlejuice. The math isn't the same for every restaurant, for example Cagney's was 1 starter, 1 main, 2 sides, and a dessert. Los Lobos was also 1 starter, 1 main, 2 sides, and a dessert. I'm sure the policies are subject to change, I'm simply sharing my experience from the past week.

Im on Viva right now, we've been able to use the dining package at any venue. At venues that charge a la carte vs a cover, you get to pick a number of dishes and that then gets comped to 0 on your bill. For example, we ate at food Republic one night, we both used a dining package so we got to pick any 8 dishes we wanted. Last night we ate at onda, we got to pick 2 apps, a main, 2 sides, and a dessert. The dining packages have been an absurd amount of food and they haven't seemed to care about sharing at all, even on the drinks plus package

There were/are 7 people in my group so having half a bottle to take hasn't been an option 🤪. On cruises past if we didn't finish a bottle they basically cork it, stick your name on it and hold it in the back. I will say that upgrading to P+ for us has been really good value for us. We did free-at-sea plus so between the drinks and the wifi it's been great.

I think the real question is how did you end up with 1250$ in OBC and what else could you possibly spend that all on??

I don't know where you're coming from but if you can take brightline into Miami I would recommend that, my wife and I went from Miami to Ft Lauderdale first class and we had a blast, it was like hanging out at a wine bar

I have a hypothesis: there is a direct correlation to how much junk someone puts on the door, and how insufferable that someone is as a table mate in the dining room. I don't want to know about your nephew's baby mama! Or your skin condition! Or how you didn't like your last table mates cause they asked for a different table!

There's 7 of us so it's been a little awkward getting a rez so far. NCL wouldn't book that many seats prior to embarkation.

How difficult/easy was it to get dinner reservations?

My wife and I will pile our stuff into one lounger, out of the way, when we go to the pool. If there were lockers we could use we would use that instead of a lounger. Separate issue from chair hogs, but keel hauling customers wouldn't go over well with corporate 🤠

@poona1How far out were you able to make your reservation?

I second that, I was up 60$

Your itinerary is going to play a big part in the vibe of the trip. A 7 night Mexican Rivera is going to be a lot different than a 7 night western med, and that'll be a lot different from a 7 night Antilles out of San Juan. Fwiw if you guys are really into music you should consider Holland America

Sharing a table is great advice but it could be anywhere. My wife and I shared a table at sailaway with a group of guys from upstate NY. Long story short, we're best friends now

Gin martini, 50/50, splash olive brine, shake the snot out of it and garish with olives (50/50 means equal parts dry vermouth and spirit) Edit: someone complaining about bruising gin is like someone complaining about putting ice in scotch. Somebody is gonna tell you off but you can ignore it. The oils of a dirty martini will float on top like a split vinigarette if you don't shake it.

They'll give you "promotional" chips, basically monopoly money. If you cash promo chips it goes back as OBC, but if you play promo chips and win your winnings come back as real deal chips you can cash for real deal money. Had 400$ on the last night of my honeymoon cruise (on reflection!) And ended up putting in a 4 hour marathon at the roulette table trying to win my money back. Not sure if it's still the case but they had a single zero table so better odds for the players.

Im skeptical about the infinite verandas. If the fuel savings they get from decreased drag outweighs annoyed passengers the person who came up with them is probably gonna get a raise.

I feel like people get lost in the sauce when it comes to dress codes, some people feel like it's showing up to a wedding naked, I feel like it's showing up to a pot luck. What you bring doesn't have to be Michelin rated but people will appreciate it if you put a little effort it. Others have alluded to it here; your behavior is what people are going to remember. I'll share this pearl: a clean pair of dark Levi's works for any occasion, including chic night.

Did you get a tattoo on your voyage? How'd that go? How has your tattoo held up? How did it compare to your tattoo experiences ashore?

It depends on what specifically you're ordering, some of it is gonna get a little fuzzy, bear with me, we're gonna get in the weeds a little. Tldr generally it that is doesn't work like that Essentially, it breaks down to costs, what's a mixed drinks, what's a cocktail, who's your daddy etc etc You referenced a mojito so we'll start there. The bar has already priced out the mojito so have some quantity rum, some lime juice, some sugar, ice, soda, mint leaves, and probably the time it takes for the bartender to make the drink. When the bar does the pricing, they're assuming the bar tender is gonna use well rum. When you call for zacapa 23 (aside: I hope you don't it's not gonna taste very good) they're gonna fudge the price up based on how much more expensive the rum you've called for is. Generally, it's not additive like 18 +12 because you're substituting not adding, but it is gonna be more, everyone's costs are different, so shooting from the hip, guessing, it's gonna be 18-22$. "Mixed drinks" are different from "cocktails" on how low effort aka fast aka cheap they are to make. So if you order a zacapa soda or a zacapa and 7, generally they're gonna charge you for the shot price because it's so easy to make and the inputs are so cheap. A good rule of thumb is if you're asking for more than 2 ingredients or anything more complicated than thing goes in cup, it's a cocktail

I'm of the opinion an extra 20$ a day is worth it to get the Gucci beverage package, but you have to actively make use of it or it's a waste The bartenders will 100% use the shitty well booze unless you call for something nice so get used to saying "Goose and soda" or "Patron margarita". My wife and I took a cruise with Celebrity for our honeymoon. At the time (Feb'23) they were still offering their equivalent of Princess premier. On the face of it, it seems that Princess premier offers a better value but the way they go about this seems largely gimmicky (ex "premium desserts"? I like sugar too but who is going to have more than one of these monsters?). We're going to Alaska on Princess in May so I'll have a better idea then.