mikenhe

thanks for the pictures. I was on deck 8 too and recognize your door signs!!

nice pic of the Fury in Key west - I was on htat boat at the time!

good cruise! thanks for the review!

the agents are professionals whose job it is to be up to date with the current regulations. they failed at their job.

I've seen it happen in the past as i have had various visa's and greens card and the regulations in entering and leaving the country weren't always followed. However it never cost me a cruise.

To still blame the OP for the failings of the agents appointed by NCL is beyond me. Some people just can;t accept they are wrong.

To the OP - glad you had it resolved. I hope you are able to take advantage of the offer by NCL. Frame the apology - it doesn't happen often...

the sport channel isn;t bad for football. I've seen early saturday games, a 10am (3pm) KO and the late game. you just end up getting what they show and thats it -

Liverpool city stands a good chance of being on. no guarantee you won;t get sumo wrestling instead though...

awesome. thank you for doing that.

south America is on my bucket list and those pictures are spectacular. great stuff.

just stayed in 8532. its what is called a "privasea" balcony so not fully exposed. see first picture in the linked post

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=45904116&postcount=2

an international cruise line didn't show an american school game while in international waters.

you didn't do rocket surgery at school did you?

Great summary. I can add a couple of things to it.

O'sheehans - Poutine - not bad - ask for extra gravy though because they aren't very generous with it! The fish and chips are pretty good (although its fish and fries - not "proper' chips) but I'm pretty fussy about my fish and i enjoyed it. my wife tried the cottage pie and said it was good. Its an Irish bar in the sense that it tries to be - the food is very american irish. they try but things like the country platter in the mornings doesn;t have irish sausage or bacon. Its pretty good but don;t get your hopes up thinking that you are getting a full fry. My kids used it quite a bit and enjoyed it - as did we.

Ginza - similar to you - the apps were good but the main course were lacking. I asked for their spiciest dish - and it really wasn't spicy. the fried rice dishes are ok. Order loads of apps and you'll be fine :D

Moderno - we enjoyed it. The lamb and the fillet are good. The salad bar was excellent - good selection including meats, good cheeses and ceviche. The fish you have to ask for - they don't walk around with it. Go hungry. If you ask really nicely they'll let you take a plate of cheese away with you for desert. its a step up from the blandest cheese ever on the buffet and you can then get some wine and enjoy cheese and wine on your own time :D

Mojito bar - I like this place - only a few seats at the bar but quite a few wingback chairs as well. The bar normally only has one person running it and they also do the drinks for Cagneys and moderno so it can get backed up. However I found it to be an excellent relaxed place to get a drink before (and after) dinner an the ambience encourages conversation with the other guests. Same drinks as elsewhere plus the mojitos!

Thanks for the review - looking very good!

1056 has a single sofa bed, no pullman.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Wasn't the answer I wanted , can you fix that for me? :D

sigh - now have to reconsider..

I've currently got a hold on 1056 on serenade.

Can anyone tell be how the beds are set up for 4 people. Is there a pullman or are passengers 3&4 sharing the pull out sofa?

TIA

I'm going on the Star today. We got our assignment at midnight!! it appeared on my ncl.

In my experience, the very last minute GTYs have the best chance at upgrades. Good luck, I hope you are pleasantly surprised.

Didn't work for me! We got our room assignment today for the star (I guess NCL are doing this at midnight for gty that don't have a cabin on that days sailing). Booked an inside gty. Got an inside! Oh well, its what we paid for.

Nice job on the balcony! Enjoy.

We will too - after all its a cruise!! and I still have the drinks package!

woohoo. I should pack...

That's what I meant. Promenade deck. I am a little confused on what deck that is on.

yeah, no worries, just didn't want the OP to be lighting up in the corriodr - or walking in circles looking for the smoking area :D

The Bier Garden or the 5th floor deck smoking section.

Theres no smoking on deck 5. You can smoke on the port side of the prom deck

(deck 7) but theres no chairs there. Smoking is also allowed on deck 12 in a small area port side by the pool (not sure about cigars there but I'm sure there are signs that'll let you know) and definitely cigars on the port side of the bier garten. both deck 12 and the bier garten have chairs and tables. In the daily there is a cigar gathering mentioned for the beir garten each night but I'm not sure how well attended it is. Just go, get a drink and light up!

When I called the other day they said it is available in your edocs at ncl.com 30 days prior to sailing.

not always. I'm 16 days out and have no assignment yet.

my ocd planning is melting down....

Is there a document that shows which times the restaurants are open? I would really like to know about OSheenans /buffet for Breakfast & dinner- but curious about them all. We are early risers.

I think O'sheenhans is 24/7. it may shut for an hour for clean up but if so it would be in the small hours (say 4am)

The buffet was normally serving by about 6.30am

So you’ve been ok taking last minute fares in the past - without caring if NCL gave credit to other passengers. And now you’ve booked early it isn’t fair??

I guess it was worth a try in asking but you didn’t seriousl;y think NCL were going to change policies just for you did you?

Anyway – you can accept it and have a great cruise – or take that grudge on board, bitch about it at the meet and greet (thereby inflicting your misery on others) and be “that” person.

I’d suggest you relax and move on with having a great time.

Interesting that the negative 12/15 message from cruzsnooze and the negative 12/22 message from piscesforlife are identical. Makes one wonder...

Looks like one was trying to quote the other..

 

We will try to squeeze another STAR cruise in before she leaves.

I was on her for thanksgiving.

you last sentence makes me laugh because guess where I'll be in 3 weeks.... :D

 

FWIW...Look at the picture of the star above. You can plainly see that the anchor exits the ship between decks 6 and 5. The OP stated that they were on deck 8 UNDER the anchor.

 

Thats correct. Under the Cabin for the OP is the Theater. The anchor looks as if if below deck 6.

I was on the same cruise (I saw the OP's name on the Roll call) and I was in one of the very few cabins on deck 6. They are right next to the theater at the front and near to where the anchor appears to be. As we docked at 3 of the 4 ports on this cruise I doubt the anchor was used. if I was then I didn't hear it and I was close to it.

The OP is making assumptions when it comes to the source of the noise. However if it was affecting the cabin that much then I'd be at guest services too. Better still I'd have been on the phone with the hotel director so he could visit me and hear and feel it. I met the hotel director on the first night and at the meet and greet. Nice guy.

The toilets - I did hear a few cabins were affected by that - thats never funny and more than once is good reason to raise the issue.

The art work - its a nothing really but once the other 2 issues keep recurring then its just something else thats irritating. At that point you feel like a 3rd class citizen.

I believe that the issues could have been resolved by bringing in the hotel director. His number was always available.

Once you are off the ship then its another ball game and it sounds like its been no fun. I'm not sure what the OP expects at this point - what could happen to resolve the issues? Or maybe just to be heard is enough. Either way good luck!

give up te value of the ubp and pay them money to upgrade. hell no.

for 14 days don;t give it up unless you don't drink...

The tendering was a pain. I knew that we'd have to do that at Belize so when I booked I was quite happy to see that we were the only ship there. Of course the weather must have messed up the Carnival schedule so we end up being stalked by two of their ships instead. So the tenders at Belize ended up having to look after 3 ships instead of just us!!

I was going to wait until they announced open tendering as we had no excursion planned but gave up in the end and got us a ticket. Ended up leaving the ship 3 hours after the first tender..

at least, as you say, we were closest and the boats were pretty fast!

I like the idea of the 28 day cruise :D

nice. Crabby Bills seems to be the place where our visitors end up too! and us on occasion.

O'sheehans was good. good bartender too.

I though the cheeseburger was ok. The poutine was great though - as long as you asked for extra gravy. Looking forward to the rest of the review!

thanks.

Everyone has different tastes and different expectations. I wouldn't worry about what you read just experience it for yourself and you decide.

 

Getting caught up in the little things will make your cruise miserable.

Most of the ship was fine. I did notice that there was an area on deck 7 that wasn’t kept too clean plus for whatever reason the elevators never seemed clean. The rest of the ship was fine.

Concierge? Never had one of them btu if I was entitled to those perks I’d make sure I read up about them beforehand and use them as suited my purpose. Seems much easier than bitching about it afterwards.

I had a great time on my cruise in November.

LOL.

I read that too. Whoever wrote that review is a total gimp. I was on the Star for Thanksgiving and had no issues over service speeds, pools or most of the other things that are being complained about. Looks like the propulsion issues have been sorted as the ship ran on time for the last trip.

Go with the right attitude and you’ll have a fine cruise. Go looking for problems and issues to complain about then a) you’ll find them and b) you are a miserable person to be on a cruise with.

If theres stuff to complain about then I’ll bring them to the attention of the staff and officers on the ship. I’ve done it before. I found nothing to whine about that was worth my time. Shrug it off and move on.