Seanote

23 minutes ago, jennyct said:

I overheard one couple lament that they had rescinded their prepaid tips and now had to face the room steward again. 

Karma can be a real stinker.

We’ve been cruising NCL since 2002. There is definitely a pattern. Over time, the provisioners, chefs and/or the main office makes a decision to buy less expensive products in order to boost the bottom line. This continues until word gets out and threads like this start to become commonplace. Then with great fanfare, corporate announces spectacular new menus and the cycle starts all over again.

I remember, sometime in the past, maybe around 2010, the food quality in Cagney’s got so poor, people stopped going—the meat had really degraded to like B-grade prison food (maybe slight exaggeration). It was so bad, you could walk into Cagney’s any night of the cruise at 7pm without a reservation. And then, guess what? A new menu came out!

Threads like this do not surprise me.

Does this come with interpretation direction? If I was to take a guess, then the Canadian cruise may not be totally in the clear from rough seas or 'weather'....or it could just be a risk of a lemonade trail into the Bay of Fundy.:confused:

The black dots with the hours —24,48,72,96, etc. show where the storm is forecast to be at a certain time. The Dawn will have long returned to Boston long before the storm gets up there, if it goes up there. These long-term forecasts are not very accurate and should not be relied upon past 72 hours or so.

Excursions booked through the cruise line will be refunded in full. Independent excursions are buyer beware. Honest providers will refund any monies paid, others may not. It is unlikely you would have any recourse against an independent contractor in a foreign country outside of a chargeback on your credit card.

In bound ships have an “appointment” with the port. That is, an expected time of arrival. When a ship misses their arrival time, they essentially have to reschedule their arrival time. There are so many moving parts/people to coordinate the ships arrival:

Harbor pilots.

Longshoremen.

Stevedores.

Port agents.

Customer service staff.

Provisioning trucks.

Ground transportation, etc.

Many of these people had already completed their shifts or had moved on to other ships/berths.

Once the Star missed its calling time, all the shore-side providers needed to be rescheduled and the ship assigned a new arrival time. So if it seems they were further delays getting into port, this is the reason. Furthermore, disembarkation was probably a mess as the shoreside staff was most likely short staffed as the new arrival time was outside their normal staffing hours and the new crews had to be cobbled together.

These combination of events are what led to the disembarkation delays and service issues pax experienced upon return.

After 30-plus cruises, I have seen the embarkation/disembarkation chaos and resulting service interruptions several times due to a delayed ship. Unfortunately, it stinks for both the arriving and departing pax, but it is not out of the norm for these events.

IMO, the vitriol should be aimed at the jumper, the proximate cause of people’s misery, and not the cruise line. The cruise line was a victim too and probably suffered significant financial losses due to the event.

Lets not pretend a hotel at that time of night is going to be some refreshing oasis that is the perfect way to get things started. At best, after debarking and traveling to the hotel you may have 5 short hours before it is time to get up to prepare to leave if their goal is a 9am arrival at the port.

 

Travel in that time frame will be tiring no matter what you do.

Completely disagree. For those that do this frequently, five hours of comfortable sleep is a godsend. It can recharge you 90% for the next day. One to two hours of fitful sleep completely ruins me for full next day activities—makes it feel like a 48 hour day.

Only 80% of crew were Mandarian speaking, they would have to speak English also, so I am sure there will be jobs for the ones who want them. I noticed a few crew from China on the Bliss.

That’s going to be awkward trying to staff the Spirit with a Chinese crew on a seasonal basis. Sure they can redeploy some of the Joy’s crew to other ships, but to have to coordinate and swap out crews for a seasonal deployment would be a logistical nightmare.

Not just cruises. The weeks between thanksgiving and Christmas are the slowest weeks of the year for the entire tourism industry. Las Vegas goes to sleep during these weeks. The day after Christmas, all the people suddenly reappear like magic.

If you are on a budget, these are great weeks to travel no matter where you'd like to go.

I understand the frustration, and personally would be suffering some sort of anxiety if I was in this situation.

The islands of STT and SXM have indicated that they'll be ready for ships on or about 11/15/17. RCCL has already committed to start calling on these ports around this time. Though, the articles I've seen stress the immense logistics of making sure there are enough shore excursion providers and safe places for pax to visit. On STT, there is a rush to clean up Magen's Bay and the roads that go up over the hills to get there so there is a beach available for passengers.

I think the dates that people are discussing are right on the cusp of when these islands could reopen for port calls. So if there is hesitation on NCL's part, I can sure understand why. I know it does not help anyone's planning process, but given the unprecedented damage these storms have caused to the ports, and the cruise industry in general, a period of uncertainty is undoubtedly understandable.

It is too early to tell. As we've just witnessed with Irma in Florida, model accuracy in the 7-10 day range in not very reliable. But it is definitely something to keep an eye on.

Since we're talking about models, the 12Z ECMWF (European model) has the storm in the Canadian Maritimes on Wednesday 9/20. So, in this model's opinion, Canada would not be a place you'd want to be.

Friendly disclaimer: Weather model output should never be considered a forecast, but used as guidance for meteorologists to create a forecast. Best bet is to stick with the National Hurricane Center's five day storm track and heed the "cone of uncertainty".

This is a huge deal! Probably the equivalent of 10-15 jetliners of people.

Curious though, I'm guessing NCL would need or has received an emergency waiver for the PVSA.

Doubtful that Western Caribbean is the answer. There won't be berth space for all those ships. Berth space is something negotiated years in advance. To exasperate the problem, there is all the Alaska cruise ships returning to the Caribbean in a few weeks.

You just can't dump extra ships at some of the smaller western ports like Belize and Roatan, the infustructure is not there to support it.

I know it's not just the OP that will have these questions, and after reading some first-hand damage assessments this morning, I realize that answers may not be available for months.

The USVI's, BVI's, SXM are the most busiest cruise ports in the E. Caribbean. They are so damaged, basic infrastructure is destroyed. There are so many power polls down, there are not enough replacements. The hospital on STT has lost its roof. The tourist bars and restaurants are gone. Taxi drivers vehicles were flooded. Vast amounts of the islanders are homeless and without basic necessities. These islands will have to save their own populous before they could ever consider taking on a cruiseship, whether the pier is damaged or not. I don't know what is going to happen, no one does. I do know that it will reshape the cruise industry, at least in the short term, probably longer.

If you have a Caribbean cruise scheduled in the next--who knows-- 2, 3, 4, 5 months?-- it will probably be different than what you originally expected.

This is all aside from what could happen in the home ports of MIA, FLL and PC this weekend.

It's only a bad idea if people do not go there and NCL does not make money. They would not be trying it if their stats did not suggest that they could possibly make money. Only time will tell. If a land based margaritaville tried a one price cover charge of $14.99 I am sure it would be wildly successful but would almost certainly lose money.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This doesn't work if you assume you already paid for your food. What I mean is when I ate there I ordered the Cheeseburger in Paradise. I would swear it was the same piece of meat and same bun as the burger in O'Sheehans, with the addition of the Paradise sauce. So I paid $6.99 for something that was already free. Now they want me to pay $15+ for that same free burger minus the special sauce.

All I can say is :'):'):')

Sailed the Star several times. As mentioned, the Star is similar to the Jewel class. One thing I do not like about the Star/Dawn class is the lack of an aft bar.

The Star is at its best when both azipods are working, however.

I am speaking of customs at the airport, depending on how many ships are disembarking, this could take some time.

There is no customs at BCN. Passport control and security, yes and they move pretty swiftly. Your longest tie-up is likely to be the check-in line for your airline. Two hours early should be sufficient.

No, with excursions they do not. An excursion really can sell out online so that there is absolutely no availability for onboard bookings.

 

Some excursions just are limited by nature and they simply can't add more slots when the demand is high (for example helicopter rides, cabanas on GSC, etc).

 

I've witnessed Cabanas on GSC selling out months before the cruise and those booking the cruise or their excursions last minute were out of luck.

Thanks for your input, but we were not discussing cabanas or helicopters.

Inventory for regular excursions is held back in some instsnaces. We have booked excursions on the ship that were not available online prior to departure. In certain circumstances, like bus excursions, extra buses can be brought in if demand is high.

Alas, the contrary is also true. We have had pre-booked excursions cancelled on us at the last minute for failing to reach required minimum capacity.

You must have a good idea what you want to see on day one in the car so you can plan day 2 in advance. For example, if you want to go to Hana, it is 4.5-5 hours drive time round trip without any stops. Stopping along the way and spending time in Hana could take most of your day leaving not much time to see something else. If you don't go Hana on day one, you could do it on a tour on day 2.

Some of the popular tours will sell out, so there's no guarantee what you want on day 2 would be available.

If you want to do a beach day on day 2, it would probably be cheaper to keep the car for an extra day than paying for a ship excursion. It would also provide the flexibility to see something in addition to the beach.

It could be either or. Although NCL changes providers occasionally, it is more likely that the excursion is sold out, especially if your trip is drawing near.

Don't fret, however. If it is sold out online, there's a good chance that it would be available to book on the ship--as they holdback space for this purpose.

To be safe, you might want to book your #2 choice now and see if your #1 choice is available after you board. If so, you could cancel #2 for #1.

Stuff you don't claim when (or I should say if) you are summoned to the naughty room, is either held to the last night of the cruise or discarded. There is no "wine cellar" as a PP has stated.

We had an aft balcony. Although we spent some time around the ship and on the bow, most of the time was spent on the balcony (with the cabin TV on the "bow cam" channel for forward views). The best part of the balcony cabin was was the air conditioning you could immediately step into without loosing much of the view. The Canal is in the jungle and the heat indices are over 100F/38C. The short time we spent on the bow, in the sun, we almost melted.

Circa 2002 on the Norwegian Majesty (first cruise), a sea day returning to BOS from BDA. Sitting on the top sun deck with 60 or so other pax, laying in the sun and just dozing off, the abandon ship alarm sounds (you know--seven short and one long). One by one people become vertical in their loungers, heads on a swivel. As the resting heartbeat climbed from 60 to 120 bpm, several minutes pass. Well maybe it was like 45 seconds. A unidentified voice on the PA proclaimed "sorry, that was a mistake". The nap was ruined.

1.Oahu and Waikiki, you have Diamond Head and beautiful beach.

Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri museum

Polynesian Cultural Center

Haunama Bay for snorkeling

North Shore in Winter months; waves can be up to 20 feet

Lots of good dinner shows in Waikiki

2. Maui

Haleakula Crater-tour up and down great views

Lahania-this is where the ship docks

Hana: a long drive to other side of island; but there are some nice beaches

3. Hawaii(big island)

Kona; ship docks here

Hilo: ship docks here

Volcano National Park

Akaka Falls

Recommend doing a Helicopter tour out of Hilo

 

These are a few things you can do

Heads up: the ship docks in Kahului. Lahaina is on the other side of the island. ;)

Having 30+ NCL cruises under our belt, I can commiserate with the OP, to an extent. Under Kevin Sheehan, we found senior management helpful fixing a situation that apparently no one else in the company was empowered to handle. However, I now have the impression that the new regime does not care one iota about their most loyal customers. I would predict if the OP took his business elsewhere, NCL would not even notice....or care, IMHO. I wish the OP best of luck.

I'm sure the experience varies by airline. We too had an early flight and we're off the ship before sunrise. We made the mistake of getting to BCN too early (this is despite the fact that the taxi dropped us at the wrong terminal due my lack of Spanish language skills). The check-in positions were empty and not open. The staff finally arrived two hours prior to flight time and proceeded to drink coffee and ignore the long queue for 25 more minutes. Just relating/ranting , for what it's worth.