Deptacon

Just off escape. Facebook worked all week with my package while connected to wifi and the phone in airplane mode.

Messenger for ncl is just 10 bucks for the week.

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I had the tomahawk on escape a few days ago.

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I am on Escape right bow after Freedom and several royal cruises. Go with escape. I will be writing a lengthy comparison review and the "loyal to royal" crowd is not going to like it.

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In St thomas today. 3rd day on NCL after several royal cruises. So far, i am very impressed with NCL.

Food in the buffet is DRAMATICALLY better imo... But food is subjective. There is much more variety in restaurants and bars on escape than any royal ship i have been on except oasis class.

The shower in a standard balcony room on ncl is bigger.

Royal wins with pools hands down. The pool on escape is too small.... Its a sacrfice they made with have taking so much space for haven.

I found the crew, in general, to be more friendly and personable on royal than this cruise... Worth mentioning but not a big deal.

I def like freestyle dining better than royals traditional or mytime.

Information about what is going on seems more scattered on NCL.

The deck party at H2O at night is better than any other experience i have ever had at on any ship. Lot of fun.

The lines are similar in many ways but if u want to dress casual nightly and have so many dinner and lunch options you literally cant use them all u may like NCL (at least escape) better.

If u are a pool junkie.... Go with royal or get a haven suite.

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If anyone is driving down on the west side (Tampa/alligator alley way), please post what you are seeing. We plan on leaving Atlanta tomorrow morning around 3am to drive down straight since there are no hotels now.

 

If you could help by posting some things I would greatly appreciate it.

 

1. Biggest thing I am worried about is GAS along I-75 in Florida. Right now I'm figuring filling up in Valdosta and making it down to Ft. Myers area before filling up again. However I won't let it get below half a tank if possible before refilling if I see there will be trouble getting gas in FL.

 

2. The other thing is just sheer volume of traffic. I'm hoping by leaving early and hitting Florida around 7ish, that I can avoid a lot of that since hopefully people will be staying and eating before getting on the road back to home. I know I would if I was in a safe hotel.

 

Also, any advice on good parking for $10/day or so would be appreciated. To everyone, have a safe travel down. If you're the praying type we could sure use them too. This is looking doable now that we know where the storm will be on our trip.

We just drove 75 today, took turnpike down through orlando just now. No need for you take 75 all the way down to alligator alley. Gas was not an issue.

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Deptacon where were you flying in to?

 

 

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FLL - JetBlue from Nashville Thursday night.

Flights just got cancelled. took the refund. Driving down Friday.

We are currently on the escape in tortola. Still no word about nassau. Tomorrow is a sea day and friday is nassau stop.

Maybe they will announce something this afternoon when you all are back on board.

That is not correct. No one is calling for 40 mph sustained winds in Miami. It could happen if the storm wobbles west a hundred miles though. Will there be some feeder bands and gusty winds in Miami? Yes. Nowhere near 40 mph sustained.

No one is talking MIA or the port closing in Miami. They have not even closed the schools in Miami-Dade county yet.

The airport and port stay open. Do you realize what sustained winds are?

In downtown Miami as I type this the construction cranes are up and people working as normal.

Its not fair to create a panic to say everything is going to be closed. NCL already stated - NO CHANGES to cruises

Port of Miami and Port Canaveral has been announced for closures.

Airports close/shut down flight operations for 40mph winds or higher. FLL and MIA will shutdown tommorow.... if you want to place a side bet I will take it.

Weather Channel is report Tropical Storm winds (and the app if you look up FLL or MIA) for winds of 40-60mph Thursday and Friday. In South Florida then moving up to central Florida coast line Thursday into Friday. Those are SUSTAINED winds of 40-79mph.

Its not creating a panic. Pay attention to what is going on. I work disaster response....I know the logistics of these situations.

I think you will be ok. The airport stays open until winds reach 40mph sustained.

 

I am curious where the Sky will go this Friday? Will Nassau be open? GSC wont be open. I don't see any variations on the Escape this weekend. The hurricane will be gone by boarding time.

yeah the models keep changing. It appears sustained winds of over 40mph will continue into Friday afternoon in the FLL/MIA area now. The other issue is this.... Most likely a departing flight from origin will cancel if the destination airport is not open at time of departure.

Another point for the Saturday departure (which I am on): Even if Port of Miami is open early SAT AM for Escape to come in.... they may still delay departure due to so many passengers getting delayed arriving.

There is a difference between optimism and wishful thinking in this situation. At this point I would plan on MIA area airports being closed Thursday through sometime on Friday....and it looks to be later on Friday at this point.

I have a thursday evening flight. According to tonights models the winds in FLL and MIA will be over 40 mph Thursday afternoon until mid-day Friday (at least) which means closed airports. Additionally, the models keep being pushed back so that could extend later into Fri/Fri Evening for the South FL area.

Mostlikely will cancel and take mt refund tommorow, drive down on Friday.

Cone only covers possible paths for the central part of the storm. Winds of over 40 mph are still possible well outside that cone area... which would cause airport and port closures.

I am sailing NCL next week after several Royal cruises. Will be posting a "comparison" review after we return.

On the current track, Nassau and GSC will take a direct hit at mega storm strength. If the port of Nassau is closed or the tour operators aren't operating, the ship will reschedule to SAN Jauan which is a normal NCL port for souther Carib itineraries.

If the Bahamas are going to get hit as it is predicted, I think its safe to say Nassau could be skipped this week and next week. Pure speculation but its reasonable. San Juan is the only other port in the area they could stop at to "add a stop" after taking one off to meet the sailing time window.

You actually think the Miami Port could be closed?

 

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I think thats a given on Thursday rolling into Friday, along with FLL and MIA for a short time for flights due to the winds.

its on the front page. Click the weather alert button.

Anyone hear anything about diving being a option at Harvest Caye?

delete

Why? Did you think that was an OK thing to do? Think about all the money DH and I could save sharing a package. We could cruise once more a year. Please don't ruin it for everyone.

get off your high horse..... He had the integrity to truthful and honest to the original post and that is who he is talking to....

put your pitchfork and torch away.....

everytime this topic comes up "you" people come out.....

an 18 month old does not NEED a drink package of ANY sort. freely available is milk, juice from concentrate, iced tea and lemonade plus a flavored water as well as plain tap water.

 

the fact that someone else will 'finish off her drink' is irrelevant.

 

do I take a single sip of some of the beers my husband drinks on occasion? yes. does he take a single sip of my wines? sometimes. if I let him( I am very possessive of my fermented grape juice)

 

but that is not sharing to most people. especially since WE BOTH HAVE PACKAGES OF OUR OWN.

 

obtaining ANY drink on your package for someone else is sharing. even if that person only drinks half. or a third. it doesn't matter that the person whose package it was obtained under then downs the remainder. it was not obtained FOR THE PERSON WHOSE PACKAGE IT WAS.

See my post above....this applies to you..... Get off your high horse ..... its a soda and he was talking to the OP, not asking for you bring out your pitchfork. give it a rest.

Quick question...I just want to know if anyone who has NOT purchased the beverage package (alcohol ones) ever regretted not doing it?

 

I am seeing TONS of drink package posts and I have been reading them. I know there are a million people who are glad they didn't buy it. I want to hear the ones that regret it NOT buying it when they got that final bill.

 

I have never done the package before but I bit the bullet for this cruise for many reason (one being a 21 celebration and 4 ship days for us counting Labadee and the fact we don't like Grand Cayman). I have been back and forth on this since we booked a year ago and with the recent drink price increase I figured I should just go for it. We always blow up the bar tab the first 2-3 days anyway so adding it later in the cruise would make it worse.

 

TIA! We cruise in 4 days, looking forward to it!

I got it once, then on a the next cruise, a shorter 5 day, I "test drove" not having it but enjoying myself by not counting dollars.... one of the advantages of having it.

I cost me double what the package costs for a day to drink for a day.... I purchased the package on the morning of day 2......

To me, not thinking about money and worrying how much I spent everytime i get a drink is the best part.....

its there....not quite sure what you are asking.

ALL of those super premiums for NCL are included in Royal Caribbeans.... 20+ dollar cheaper per day, drink package.

No cruise-line is perfect. No cruise-line has ever been perfect. No cruise-line will ever be perfect.

 

NCL wasn't perfect before. It isn't perfect after recent changes. It won't be perfect after future changes.

 

I have and will have a good time on every cruise that I have taken or will take. Until that changes to the point that I don't want to cruise, I will continue to cruise. Since I'm not loyal to any cruise-line, I'm free to continue to look around at what other lines have to offer.

 

NCL's way of making changes bothers me more than the actual change. If people can decide to cruise months or years in advance (and NCL will gladly hold your deposit for the same time), NCL should be willing to announce changes in advance.

 

If (for example) Escape was going to be smoke-free in 2019 (nobody is booked, yet) and they announced it today, the outrage wouldn't be anywhere near the outrage if they announced the same thing in November 2018 to go in effect for January 2019.

This is a valid point, there is no need to institute changes immediately especially within 90 day windows. I will give you that. But, question still remains, why are people getting so upset over things like cases of water? If buying water onboard hurts your wallet or you dont like it.... you shouldnt go. Its petty stuff to worked up over.

This is a perfect example of why there is so much "negativity."

 

The complaints about the Jewel stopped once NCL did what their contract obligated them to do when a mechanical issue impacts a trip. It was NCL's ridiculous initial position that caused the issue.

 

The NCL-splaining that goes on only around here serves only to magnify the complaints. Life tip folks: telling people who are annoyed about something that they are being childish or stupid = throwing gas on a fire.

 

Better to let the outrage burn itself out than fan the flames. The now-infamous water thread would have been a lot shorter if those who weren't bothered by the policy change could have resisted the urge to respond.

I disagree..... Its like pulling up a lounge chair next to the customer service desk on board around here lately. People are losing thier minds over the mostly petty and trival stuff.

And in terms of the "I paid for a product and should receive it crowd" Its a ship with a crew and many passengers. Sometimes, it doesn't go as planned. Get over it.

I said it before and I will say it again.... the cruise industry has seen massive growth in the last 15 years. The honest answer they don't care about your petty complaints or if you offended its not as "awesome" as you think it use to be. Thier growth out performs the heavy baggage / constant complaining crowd that ends up stop going.... which means its a gain for them in the long run anyway.

Good ridden. So tired of complainers onboard.....

because thats all people do nowadays is complain and whine.... especially on cruise critic. Its the modern culutural norm... Me, Me, Me everything is a dramatic tragedy and was dont to slight me.

Look at the thread and outrage about the Pearl having to stay a day in Seattle for repairs. I mean, what else do you want NCL to do? They have to repair the ship? What do you want? a free compensation flight on a rocket to the moon in its place?

Oh and the crying about bottled water.... OH MY GOD. Like listening to 9 year olds who were just told no to ice cream.

Acknowledging everyone on here is an adult..... the majority of people here need tyo Grow up.