gizfish

Just so long as the floor is not lava. Sorry I couldn't help myself.

The OP has been trying to enquire by email. Last time I called NCL they were still answering the phone and still had supervisors. Hence my saying "speak" with a supervisor.

We couldn't see which balcony it was coming from. But the smell was strong enough even though it was not near enough to see the source, that I would think it was smokinug. If someone were to be carrying weed on their person, I doubt security would catch them as there were no drug dogs at embarkation. Also, does gaping cause such violent coughing?

I would think free out perks all the other perks. But maybe that's just me.

I made a request through accessibility services for a two top and they emailed me saying it would best be handled by calling. I called the number in the email which turned out to be a regular customer service number. They told me the request was in my records. We went to the dining room where changes were being made on embarkation day and had no trouble getting the two top, and even getting a better time. I didn't even have to explain why we had the need. The next day we received a call from guest services making sure we had been accommodated. Relax and look forward to your cruise. Your key card will only say the table number and time, so verify at the dining room mentioned in the welcome aboard daily (ours said they would be there until four) that you are at a two top. Worst case scenario, you may have to explain why you need it, but most likely they will just accommodate you.

OP, speak with a supervisor at NCL and have them locate and listen to the tape of the call where their agent told you the certs were refundable.

Have you tried clicking through leaving the picture off and choosing cash instead of a credit card (or clicking through leaving credit card info off)? They almost always retake the pictures at check in anyway. And many have found they still have to activate a credit card on board.

I would be surprised if you requested the pasta Bolognese in the YC restaurant and they couldn't make it happen, since it is something available every night in the MDRs.

Just to clarify, a closed loop cruise is one that departs and returns to the same U.S. port. It it returns to a different port, a passport is required.

Actually, we have cruised more than 30 times across all mainstream lines except Celebrity and I have always requested (and tipped for) a lounge chair. This was the only time I asked the room steward for a lounge chair and was told no. (BTW to make my long story short I didn't mention the stewardess' supervisor said she couldn't okay it but I should ask at guest services. I didn't just go there trying to manipulate, complain, etc.) Also the officer's reason was due to safety, not due to the class of room. When people ask where we are going on our cruise I jokingly say "the balcony and buffet." Seriously I spend most of the cruise on the balcony and ake all my naps there. I'm thinking of bringing one of those folding camping lounge chairs next time, as even with my feet up, the regular chairs are too uncomfortable to nap in. We also found the beds on Meraviglia to be horribly uncomfortable. So good napping is a deal breaker.

Jaime, have you tried to get a lounge chair for that angled balcony? I asked on Mera and had such a weird response. Cabin stewardess said she had to ask supervisor who ultimately said it was not allowed. When I asked at guest services, it was like no one had ever requested this before. Finally an officer told the guest services clerk that it was not allowed because it could "break the glass on the balcony." Guess the large balconies and YC balconies are immune to that safety issue. Wondering if this is a fleet wide thing.

In the Haven, you can basically request anything as long as it's available somewhere on the ship. If it's something from a specialty restaurant, you will be charged. But if it's something from the MDR or something the Haven galley would normally have on hand, you can ask for it. If you know that you will want a shrimp cocktail every night, or see something on the MDR menu posted earlier in the day that you want at dinner, try to set that up in advance with the Haven maitre'd.

FYI, MSC has a policy that people without a drink package or with different packages cannot be seated at the same dining table. Take a look at this forum to see more about that, as I believe people have had experiences where the policy was not enforced.

The bigger bathroom in the club balcony, IMHO is not worth $150 more per person than the regular balcony. Personally I would only bid on the regular balcony. Good luck.

Virgin does not allow children which OP says will be sailing with them. Check out MSC.

With regards to the two shows in the Carousel Lounge that have a fee, it is $12 per show if purchased before sailing and $18 per show on board. There is some sort of discount if you have purchased a dining plan. The shows are both cirque style, one being about Houdini, and the other being a rock music show. The rock show was really, really good. I thought the Houdini one was just meh. You get to choose a drink from two signature drinks (a mocktail is also available) at each show. I have heard they leave additional drinks out during the shows, so some people have reported having addition drinks. But I have no personal experience with that.

That's actually a fallacy. Tip is not an acronym. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tip-sheet/

The 20% IS the gratuity. If you want to tip on top of the tip that NCL has already charged you, that's your choice. I don't know how true the statement as usual it's common practice to tip actually is, now that the gratuity is already included.

You are correct that the chairs are not something you would want to sit in for very long.

If the fitness center was above you, you would risk hearing the treadmills and weights dropping. You shouldn't have a noise issue being on the same floor. If you are prone to motion sickness, take something to prevent it. Doesn't really matter where you are on a ship if you are one who gets seasick. That being said, yes, the higher and more forward one is, the more obvious the motion. Yet the Haven always sails full, so people do find the motion tolerable. We had a Haven spa cabin once, and agree, the lack of seating due to the in room hot tub is an issue. I would never book that again as I want a place to comfortably sit during the day other than on the bed. I don't know what you mean by creatively using the space since it's not like you can request a sofa or fill the tub with pillows lol.

No

To clarify, the room was serviced twice daily. This is the norm on all MSC cruises, and the female stewardess uniform was literally a French maid style complete with black pantyhose and lacy apron. Sorry, still can't get past that one lol. But back to the point, if your room was not being serviced twice a day (cleaning early and then turn down and tidy at night) you should have complained. I also would have complained if the waiter told me he didn't have time to complete a reasonable request like after dinner coffee. BTW I did find the MDR staff to be disorganized and not up to standards I am used to on other lines. I don't know if it was a bunch of new contracts getting acclimated, but I think it may have been poor management and training from senior dining room staff. I didn't mention it in my previous post because it wasn't a bid deal to us getting a spoon instead of a fork with dessert or little things like that.

We cruised in September 2023, and I did not experience most of those issues. While I agree that the cabins are poorly planned for storage, our standard balcony cabin was equivalent or even larger in size than other cruise lines. For instance the sofa in the room could easily seat four people, and the pass through area at the foot of the bed was wider than in other lines cabins. It might be that we arrived at the port later, around noonish, but we had virtually no wait to enter the parking lot and actually got a pretty good spot. There was no wait to clear security, and while the check in line snaked around a lot, it moved relatively quickly and we boarded within about twenty minutes at most. While late night snacks were limited to burgers and hot dog type of things, I was happy there was some sort of food available at all times except maybe for a few hours overnight. NCL for example has stopped any buffet food after dinner and only has a relatively small sit down restaurant that is open late. And no line can compete with MSC's always available pizza. Also, the buffet desserts are deceiving. They look like the usual cruise buffet desserts, but OMG most were delicious. The buffet desserts surpassed any mainstream line desserts in their MDR or buffets, and I have been on them all except Celebrity. Keep an eye out for the chocolate panicotta. It will look very plain in a silver foil dish. We did not have any issues with portion sizes in the MDR. While the portions were not as large as one would get at a regular restaurant, where you often take some of that home, they were certainly appropriately sized. The temperatures for us were not cold. However, some dishes were over salted. Also while the buffet coffee was the best I have ever had on any ship, The one time I succeed in getting the MDR waiter to bring me a cup after dinner, it was lukewarm and tasted like it had been diluted by more than half. The MDR food in my opinion, surpassed NCL's by far. I agree that Hola was an excellent choice with reasonable prices and portion sizes, especially since they packed our food to go and we enjoyed it in our cabin. Since MSC is pretty much the only line sailing year round from NY to places other than Bermuda at a more than reasonable price, the Meraviglia is our new go to. The fact that they are offering pre-covid service (no one else is cleaning cabins twice a day anymore for example) at a price point much lower than the other lines $1200 or more on a trump beautiful ship, makes MSC an even better choice for us.

There will be staff all over the ship at muster drill time. Let them know you are unable to do stairs, and they will accommodate you.

A lot of the time they retake the picture at the pier. So you may not want to bother with that since you can complete on line check in without it.