mkca

We did it a couple of years ago, just over the 24 hours and the only hangup we had was at check in.  There were 2 different list/manifests and they didn't have the name change on one of them.  We were super patient and understanding, because we were the ones who made this difficult.  They were very helpful and we got it all figured out and had a great vacation.

What was your room number?  I will be on deck 13 in a couple of weeks.

 Have you reported it to RC?

Our kids always get them with a soda package.  At some dinners they have even brought a pitcher of them to have at the table for the meal.  Never any question or additional charge.

That is great to hear!!  We are in rooms 13264, 13266 and 13268 and I was worried about the same thing!!  I have been looking into trying to change our room because I was worried about the noise.

Just back from a 7 day Epic cruise round trip from Barcelona and wanted to share my experience to anyone interested in reading it.

Let me start by saying we are loyal to Royal and this was our first Norwegian Cruise. We picked this cruise because of the itinerary and figured we should give Norwegian a shot. We have traveled on royal for 17 cruises so far. If you don't want to hear my comparisons... you can stop reading here ;)

Day 1-2 Flight into Barcelona arriving at 9 AM. Checked into our hotel which was the AF Forum (Marriott). Beautiful hotel with a great cologne smell when you walk into the reception area. They gave us a pass for the breakfast buffet which was still open and we enjoyed some delicious food, with a great variety of fruit, baked goods and coffee. Our room was very nice and clean as was the rest of the hotel. We sat by the pool later that day and ate at the restaurant for dinner and had a simple light meal. When we left to do walking around, we needed to get a cab because this hotel is off the beaten path. The cab stop is just outside the hotel which made this very simple to do. I would recommend this hotel to someone staying in Barcelona

While in Barcelona, we walked the Las Ramblas and around the old city which was a great walk with lots to see. Stopped and had a drink and some tapas!

Day 2 Woke up and had the buffet at the hotel again and then walked over to pick up a cab. We went to Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia which should be on everyone's to do list when visiting Barcelona even if you are only there for a couple of hours. You can enter for free the church down below and it was well worth it. Be careful of the people looking for coins that are not part of the church.

Went back to the hotel and packed up and headed to the port. Check in was easy and our room was ready so we stopped to drop off our bags and started to explore the ship. We have some friends who have been on this ship in the past, so they gave us some tips on things to take care of the first day.

First thing we got a drink, then headed to get our dining straightened out and booked. We had booked online, but when we wanted to switch, it said we had to call to do that...figured I would wait and do it on the ship. The online booking of restaurants and how clunky the website was to maneuver was somewhat frustrating. So we stood in line at the French restaurant and were able to book everything except the Cirque Dreams so because even though it is a dinner that can be used with your specialty dinner package (plus and extra $17), you can not book it with dinners, so we were sent down to the comedy club to stand in line to book that. We were there for probably 20 minutes in line and booked our dinner for the 2nd night. We were also told we had to book our tender group for when we were going to be Cannes. What?? I have never heard of booking a tender group. So we did it and were put in group D which doesn't have a time, but we were just told the first group would be starting at around 8:00 AM. More on this later! We also wanted to get reservations for the comedian show, but were told there wasn't going to be one on this cruise? Comedy club with no comedian....but they told us they would have opera singers and dueling pianos in that room. Neither are my cup of tea and I realized I still feel that way after trying to listen to the pianos and the awful, totally over rehearsed lines the piano players used thinking it was funny and original.

Stopped by the room and found our luggage was already in the hall...wow that was fast! Wandered around some more and stopped for a bit at O'Sheehan's the Irish pub. Great spot and atmosphere! Went back to the room and unpacked, cleaned up and got ready for dinner at Cagney's the steak restaurant. We had a really nice dinner there and the service was good.

I forgot to mention the room... We were in room 12086 which was a great location right near the elevators and with a balcony. Since we had never been on Norwegian, the room configuration was very different for us. There wasn't a real "bathroom" as we are accustomed to. There was a shower on the right with a sliding door and tub, and on the left when you walk in the cabin was a toilet with a sliding frosted glass door. The sink was just after the toilet room in the open of the room. At first I thought this would be hard to use, but found it nice to have them separate when 2 people were getting ready for dinner. Now to my problems with the room.... On all the cruises I have taken, I always bring Clorox wipes to wipe down the surfaces, doors and sinks in the rooms (one never can be too safe lol) I have always been impressed on the Royal Caribbean boats that the wipes remain white when I am done cleaning. This was not the case on this trip. Every wipe I used no matter if it was in the tub, toilet area or the surfaces of the countertops, they came up dirty. :( The other problem we had with the room was our air-conditioning didn't work and was never fixed for the whole week. We had our balcony door open whenever we could to try to cool it down, but it never reached "cool".

FREE OFFERS--- When we booked, we had 2 "free" offers and we took the drink package and the Wi-Fi as our choices.

Lets start with the drink package- On Royal our drink package includes specialty coffee, which for me is a Latte in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. NCL does not and I had to pay for this each day. We were just on Royal in January and my husband drinks Woodford reserve Manhattans which were included in our drink package on Royal, but with NCL it was an upcharge...suddenly not so "free"

Now for the Wi-Fi- On royal it is unlimited Wi-Fi package and when we got on NCL we were not given any information about our package or instructions, so we logged in and used our name and room number and were connected.... just one phone at a time though...there were 2 of us who each selected drink packages, but we were only given one Wi-Fi package for 1 phone. To me that doesn't equate to getting 2 "free" choices. So we started having problems later that first night with our internet, as did our friends who were traveling with us and had selected the same packages. We went to the service desk and were told we only had 250 min and if we didn't log off, it would just eat up the rest of the minutes, which had happened for both of us. Before everyone gets uptight about our need for internet when on a cruise, our daughter had been in the hospital and released the day before we left and we needed to stay connected to home. When we tried to get an unlimited package at the service desk we were told we had to wait until the next day and talk to the internet manager. We told her our need to say in touch, so she reset our minutes, but we couldn't say online or we would use them up again. Our friends asked to have theirs reset too, but were told they could go one night without internet. I couldn't believe my ears.... who was this girl to know what someone could or could not do without. They have children at home who they told could reach them and now couldn't... not this girls decision!

When we went the next morning to get the internet problem fixed, we were told for $85 we could switch the one to unlimited and for $29.99/day we could get the other phone switched. So much for a free perk for booking. I could feel my nickels and dimes being sucked out of my pocket.

Day 3 At Sea. We booked a massage for this morning and I was really looking forward to it after the long flight a few days earlier. This ended up awful. The woman giving me the massage had an awful cough and did not cover her mouth when coughing because both hands remained on me when she did it. She also blew her nose once during it and didn't wash her hands, but put them back on me and continued. I finally had the last straw when she was up by my head with both hands on my shoulders and coughed and I felt it on my face and jerked my neck to the side and the towel over my eyes fell to the floor.....come on REALLY? I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I went to my room and took 3 airborne and took a hot shower. Went and hung out on deck and got some sun the rest of the day and then got ready for the Cirque show and dinner.

Dinner was good and the show was great. I would recommend seeing it if you are on this ship. Very talented people.

Day 4 Naples- ALL AROUND ITALY-Fabrizio met the 4 of us at the port at 8:00 and he was amazing! He came recommended by friends and was better than we could have every hoped for! He took us up the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento and Pompeii ....so many stories, history and jokes. Private tour on our time at a fraction of the cost of the ship tours. Highly recommend! He hooked us up with a private tour at Pompeii with Bernadette and she too was great! This is a must see when in Naples!

Day 5 Civitavecchia-Rome -There was our guy Fabrizio waiting for us when we got off to take us to Rome. He again was awesome. He knows the ins and outs of Rome which was very helpful for us because Trump was in Rome the same day as we were and we avoided all of the traffic and problems getting around the city. I can't believe everything we saw in the one day!

Day 6 Florence - There he was again--Fabrizio! Today he was booked with another party, so he had Laura who works for him take us around. She was just as amazing and knowledgeable. We saw Pisa and Florence and all of the beautiful scenery and shopping in the area.

Day 7 Cannes - The Tender--- We went when our letter "D" was called and nobody checked us in to see that we were signed up for any certain letter, but we were lead to the theater and sat down until they counted us off as the tenders arrived....this was such a waste of time. We joked that the only reason they did it was to give a few extras on the ship a job for the day.

We booked a Segway tour on our own for that day which turned out perfect. The Film festival was going on so it was a great way to get around and check things out. We booked it with Mobilboard and Jeremy was really good at teaching us how to ride and showing us around.

Day 8 Palma de Mallorca-- Ship got in at 1:00 so we made this a beach day and took a taxi to Palma Nova beach. Nice, clean area with cushioned chairs and umbrellas for rent. We paid 13 euros for 2 chairs and an umbrella. Not bad...I know we have paid much more in the Caribbean! There are bars, restaurants and shops right next to the beach.

Day 9 Disembarking -- This was another confusing one for me. There was no information given in the room about how this worked or about luggage tags or times to get off. We just happened to see a woman one night with luggage tags in her hand and asked them where they got them. She told us they were next to the service desk. We walked up and grabbed a orange ones and that was it. On Royal they come to your room with instructions on how and when you can disembark, but we were on our own. Picking our own color and deciding our own time. We saw a room steward (not ours) and asked when the bags had to be out and he said by midnight, ok that was the same. The process was pretty quick when we got off the next day because we were not in any hurry so they had called all the colors and we got off and got our luggage.

Another thing about this ship is we had a hard time finding good entertainment in the evenings.

The Cavern was a nice bar with music, but way too small and not enough seating to enjoy.

Dueling pianos---covered earlier :rolleyes:

The lounge singer, a woman in the center of the ship every night...wow! She was awful. My husband said something to a bartender and he said "you wouldn't believe me if I told you how many people say that and at least you can go somewhere else, I am stuck here"

The casino- They have the "low rent" district filled with people waiting to get a spot at a table while the $25 minimum tables sit empty. Don't they realize the more people they have playing the more money they will make, even at lower minimums? Plus I only saw one waiter only one time ever serving drinks...once again...people drinking are more likely to play more.

My overall first experience with Norwegian was poor. I don't think I will be booking with them again anytime soon. The trip was great, the ports were fantastic and our tours were amazing, the ship was the only disappointment we had, but I would never let that ruin a vacation!

I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, I will try to answer!

I just tried from my husbands phone and it connected. When I redialed with mine it still says circuits are busy:confused: Thanks for the help

I have been trying to get thru to Royal Caribbean for 4 hours and keep getting a recording.... is anyone else having these problems or have advice.

I always bring magnets to decorate our doors. Not only is it fun, but it also helps find your door easily without having to look for the numbers. For our last cruise, I found animal butt magnets...it was just the back end of many different animals. The kids really got a kick out of it! We did have a couple of them disappear, but I expected that.

Was there a outbreak on the current cruise? We received the notice and I am very curious.....

What is the difference between a D1 and D2 Balcony on Oasis? The size looks to be the same. Is it just purely location?

Would you switch from a D2 to a D1 given the opportunity?

Thanks for your help!

Could you open the balcony to connect too?

Where on the allure can you get the specialty coffee?

I am glad to hear that they are not totally obstructed. I can't wait to hear how your room is..please post when you get back:)

Are the SO rooms on deck 9 an obstructed view? Is that where the lifeboats are? I would like the larger rooms, but would also like to have a view. If you have been in one that is not obstructed, what was the room number?? Thanks!!