Falckon

I just got off the MSC Seashore this past Sunday. I submitted a request for distilled water and got a reply that they would provide it. When I arrived, they had supplied a bottle of distilled water and an extension cord. They refilled the bottle upon request. Here's a photo of the bottle they provided.

Thank you for the warning! I guess we will manage.

Actually, our question is whether you can drive up to the white tent and drop off baggage, or do you have to drag your bags from the general baggage drop off area before parking?

I think this might receive more responses in a thread of its own. Try that.

Thank you. I hope things are better on Sunday.

We will be in the Yacht Club this coming Sunday. My wife recently injured her knee. She can walk short distances with a cane. I called and arranged for wheelchair assistance for embarkation and disembarkation, and we rented a scooter that will be waiting in the cabin. How far will she have to walk before she gets a wheelchair at check-in? I read another post where the porters didn't want to be bothered with luggage for the Yacht Club. Will we have a problem getting our luggage to the white tent? We never had to worry about accessibility before.

Apparently, your hijack has ruined a very informative thread.

Thank you for you review. Your comments are extremely helpful for our planning of our upcoming cruise. I can't help to notice how few umbrellas there are on the YC beach. I realize that you found some that were left by others. Do you know if they were rented by the original occupants or were they free? Were there enough loungers available for everyone? Are there towels available at the YC area or do you need to bring them from the ship? Finally, would you feel safe leaving your belongings on your loungers while you went snorkeling or to lunch?

That is exactly what I perceive as a problem. When I do research for a cruise, I like to see specifically which cabins are available and at what price. The specific cruise I am looking at is the Escape out of Port Canaveral on Jan. 20, 2024, a Club Balcony Suite. The NCL website says that Club Balcony Suites are "Guarantee". Their definition is, "A Guarantee stateroom has no cabin number assigned at the time of booking. You are guaranteed to sail in the category you have chosen, or higher. The deck and location can be anywhere on the ship and assigned up to one day prior to embarkation." Club Balcony Suites have 5 different categories on 8 different decks, all with different prices. Why would I book a "Guarantee" cruise on the NCL website when I can go to a third-party website that shows me the exact cabin, deck and price category? We are five months out. Why would NCL only have "Guarantee" cabins available? As for our PCC, as much as I love working with her, there is no such thing as a "quick call". She is a busy person and rarely answers a call immediately. While she always gets back to me within a few hours, I don't have time to play phone tag when I am just researching cruise prices. As for NCL selling their cabins to travel agents and the cabins not being available on the NCL site, why would I be able to purchase one of those cabins listed on a travel agent site from my PCC? Why would NCL make it so difficult to pick a specific cabin at a specific price point?

I just booked a cruise for January. As usual, I did mock bookings on both the NCL website and a third party website before booking with my Personal Cruise Consultant. I thought that it was unusual that the NCL website didn't allow me to see the Club Balcony Suites that were available, yet the third party website showed over thirty Suites available on deck plans. I mentioned this to my PCC and she stated that she had received a lot of similar complaints from her clients. Why would NCL not show which cabins are available? Secondly, when going over the costs she said there was an additional cost of over $400 for Taxes and Port Fees which didn't show up on the NCL website. When I questioned her on that, she said they changed the website to only show the Taxes and Port fees when you complete the booking entirely. I feel that this is a bit deceptive. I would like to know the total cost up front before booking. Bottom line, I think that NCL is intentionally designing their website to deceive their customers and instructing their PCCs to pass it off as just a website problem.

The lasagna is outstanding as is the Osso Bucco.

That is the way I felt about La Cucina until a couple of cruises ago. I tried the Osso Buccco, which was melt-in-your mouth delicious. Recently they changed from a veal shank to a lamb shank which is still excellent. They have also brought back lasagna which is some of the best I have had anywhere. In May we will be on Encore, which has Onda rather than La Cucina. The Onda menu does not have lasagna or Osso Bucco and I am afraid that I will go back to being disappointed with their Italian offerings. BTW I'm really enjoying your review.

There is no note for snacks in the cabin. We learned about the availability of the various snacks through Cruise Critic and experience. I should note that on our recent Haven and Suite cruises since the Pandemic, the variety of snacks has been greatly limited. Candy and bar mix are almost always available, but we haven't seen shrimp cocktail since before the Pandemic. One butler said that he had discussed our note with the Concierge who told him that they would be limited to what the kitchen had to offer. On our most recent Suite cruise the afternoon snacks were pitiful; most of which we didn't touch. I hope that your experience will be better.

Why rely on someone's recollection of a cruise from a year ago. Read the current "Terms and Conditions". They have changed recently. https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions

Cruise fares are based on guests one and two. The rest of the guests are free. So regardless of what payment arrangements you made with your family, NCL owes guests three, four and five nothing.