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.

8 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

Terminal 10 at Port Canaveral is all messed up right now for luggage drop off. The front surface parking lot is under construction for an additional parking garage. Baggage drop has been moved to the front lower level of the main terminal building. Even the crosswalk at the entry drive has been moved for the construction. You will need to park first and bring your luggage to the drop area. Make sure you look for the Yacht Club drop area. Ask the porters to be sure. This may be the time to use off-site parking even though I hate that idea. The White Tent is still at the bottom of the escalator into the terminal. 

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

54 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

Yes.  there is a tent set up, closest to where you enter the terminal.  You won't miss it. 

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?

3 hours ago, CONCH65 said:

Wait, is there a separate baggage drop area for Yacht Club members at Port Canaveral? We are first time YC guests on this Sunday's departure as well.

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

2 hours ago, MechE31 said:

 

Now some bad notes, during the departure issues mentioned in the post above, she was standing outside the terminal for over an hour with no seating. YC was in the same boat as they stopped putting people through security. 

 

The scooter was not delivered until the next morning (but was obviously delivered to MSC before we left port).

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.

10 hours ago, Homosassa said:

Let's not hijack the thread any further (LOL- dress code and the chain mail dress incident).

Apparently, your hijack has ruined a very informative thread.

5 hours ago, StonePayload said:

 

 

We got very lucky and say a family leaving just as we were arriving, and managed to snag a couple of loungers that were under a group of umbrellas.  Good shade for me!

 

 

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?

34 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

 

Very often a certain cabin category comes up as "Guarantee"...which implies you have no choice in cabin or cabin location. However, a quick call to our PCC gets us a whole laundry list of available cabins in that category. Has happened more than once...

 

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.

On 3/8/2023 at 10:59 PM, janpa70 said:

We are going to Alaska in May and have booked the Italian restaurant and was wondering if they have spaghetti and meatballs on the menu?  Maybe chicken parm? Or something close to one of these two.

The lasagna is outstanding as is the Osso Bucco.  

11 hours ago, CTCruiser001 said:

Everything was just okay...Fleetwide, the Italian restaurant seems to be where Norwegian swings and misses for us - We have never had a memorable meal here.

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.

20 hours ago, ISABELLA said:

Will be in Haven for the first time. Please tell me if there is menu for snacks in the cabin? Is there a charge for these snacks, lemonade, juices?

Thanks

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 

3 hours ago, ASD19001 said:

They offered to give us a balcony room (not in the Haven) for the person who would have been sleeping on the sofa bed and that's all they will do.  So, they are asking me to somehow choose one person from our group to get kicked out of the Haven and sent down to a regular room even though they paid for the Haven just like the rest of the group.  They would not give any discount or money back even though this person would basically be getting downgraded.  They would be in a room by themself while the rest of the group is up in the Haven enjoying all the extra amenities we all paid for.  They specifically said the butler service would not go down to the balcony room. 

 

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.

Take a look at the floor plans. The Haven Penthouse Suites on Deck 14 are essentially the same as the Haven Spa Suites except they don't have complimentary access to the Mandara Spa and the Thermal Suite. They also have an in-suite whirlpool tub which takes up a lot of the living space. The square footage is also slightly less. I agree with @Coastalbreezes above that being in the Haven proper, with greater accessibility to the bar and restaurant is worth the additional cost.    

Thank you. Much appreciated.

It did for us.

Here's a link to the thread with a list of all the codes:

Are you bragging or complaining?

We saw it on the Getaway in December and it was enjoyable. The meal was really bad though.

1 hour ago, Bonobochick said:

Have the platinum & over meal vouchers been raised in tandem to cover the specialty dining price increases or do passengers just have to pay more out of pocket with the vouchers still at $35 maximum entrée pricing?

The limit is still $35, but I had the filet which is now $45, and they did not charge me extra. My bill was $0.

Here's Cagney's menu::

We just got off the Dawn on Sunday. Practically every menu item at the specialty restaurants has been raised. Including a $25 Dining Package Supplement for the Lobster Thermidor, up from $10. Here are some of the menus.

Thanks for the fast response.