Bxc53

We are looking at our first NCL cruise next year.  Past cruises have been mostly Celebrity and RCL. 
Wondering what the “ Free at Sea” package includes, drink wise. We usually only have 2-3 drinks/day, but do like decent brands. A typical day in warm climates might be a Vodka tonic in the afternoon, then a bourbon rocks or two in the evening. What would be some of the “ included “ brands vs premium at, I assume, extra cost. 
 

Thanks for any insights .

2 hours ago, CruzinMel said:

Just because I'm curious, why is it easier to embark from Alaska than Vancouver?

Having made the trip in both directions, I agree that the south bound experience is nicer/ more vacation oriented: Fly to ANCHORAGE, a mid size town that is easy to navigate, stay a little or a lot as you prefer, then catch the train from inside the ANC airport direct to Seward , a very scenic trip. Walk from the train depot a short distance to the ship.  Begin a wonderful scenic cruise ,.     Northbound, it’s get to Vancouver airport or cross the border by land, make your way through very crowded traffic to the cruise port where there may be two to four ships loading at the same time. Deal with the crowds and finally get to the ship worn out..  

It is open for breakfast and lunch, with a sorta buffet Windjammer light menu. Dinner is sit down and be served, with a Mediterranean type menu. We found the morning coffee quite acceptable. 

We were on the Quantum 10 day to Hawaii. We found the food on the main dining and windjammer just OK.. Chops was very good, we didn’t so any other upcharge  restaurants . Salads had brown lettuce towards the end . Surf and stream was also just OK, quite variable and had to be re-booted frequently. I did some speed tests, max was 3 mbps, we get over 900 at home, so quite a difference..

The ship was slightly above half capacity, per crew members . We saw a only a small handful of kids, mostly early grade school ages. There was an arcade, it was empty the few times we passed it. The Seaplex did have a variety of activities, times varied. The flow rider and skydiving simulator was active, once we got out of the storms . 

4 hours ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

It really doesn't matter what ship is best, since Royal and Celebrity are owned by the same company. If you like one line, you'll like the other.

I have to disagree. We are just finishing our second RCL cruise but have done 5 on Celebrity. They do share ownership, but are managed separately and follow different standards. In our view, Celebrity has much better food. We are not impressed with the offerings on our present  RCL cruise. Celebrity also has much less of the theme park ambience and more traditional onboard experience. One major difference is the pool deck experience. On RCL it was much more crowded with extreme “chair hogging” and no RCL enforcement of the policy. Much more refined atmosphere on Celebrity.   

21 minutes ago, KonaDave said:

How many Covid cases are you aware of on the Quantum now. I know of 5 in quarantine. Have you heard anything? I know everyone is getting tested who is staying on the ship in Honolulu. 

Not aware of any. Masks now optional for pax and crew. Maybe 15-20% are wearing them, some as chin guards, lol.  Crew seems happy and at full strength. Pretty much back to old school normal, drink prices excepted 😜

34 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

LOL Lynden is definitely not Seattle.  

And that’s why we live there 😎  Grew up in Seattle, then moved to Lynwood, Marysville, Arlington and now Lynden for our retirement home. Any farther north will take a different passport 😉

7 minutes ago, matj2000 said:

Prices are artificially inflated

 

In order to make drink package appear to be a good deal.

 

And it works.

Have to agree. At our favorite local restaurant/ lounge, an old fashioned is $7.50 or 5.00 on happy hour.  Got one yesterday onboard for $15.34 total and it was not as good ( or as strong) as my local watering hole… But a long swim to the next option 😉

12 minutes ago, motheroftwocats814 said:

Hi All-

Sailing next Sunday on the Voyager.

I drink Boost protein drinks at least once per day. I also have protein powder packets, that.I can prepare with milk.

I couldn't really find any info on the website as to whether that is acceptable to bring onboard.

Anyone know?

Thank you and happy cruising. 

We are on the Quantum now. The DW brought her protein powder collection on with no issues .

35 minutes ago, dc15 said:

Just noticed on the app a lot (if not most) cocktails are now up to $14. I could have sworn they were $13 before.

 

Has the drink package limit of $13 a drink increased as well?

I’m on the Quantum now.  Most drinks a la carte are $13 plus mandatory gratuity, so $15.34 total.  It’s helping me keep on my “one a day” plan… 😏

Long Beach has nicer choices, but the Doubletree in San Pedro is in a handy location and fine for one night..

6 minutes ago, rudeney said:

RCCL finally updated - no testing for Canada!

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/will-i-have-to-take-a-test-before-i-cruise

 

If your cruise visits Bermuda or departs prior to October 1, 2022 and visits Canada, test protocols for your cruise are in the next section. 

Still required for cruises 10 days or longer, like our Oct 3 Vancouver to Hawaii, but Non Supervised home tests are now OK 

We are on Quantum next Monday for the Hawaii crossing and looking forward to lots of hydrotherapy, aka pool time. Any recent Quantum cruisers that can comment on the pool temps? Thanks 

I guess I’ve been mistaken all this time . I thought the chairs with towels were thoughtfully setup by the pool attendant as a nice perk. I just pick one and settle in.
 

Being of a certain age, plus size and mostly deaf, if someone comes by to discuss chair ownership, I just point to my ear and say, loudly , that I left my hearing aids in the room. 

Works for me…

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

I talked to the Diamond Concierge. She has no new info on the repair work. She only said that they wouldn’t make the crossing if it wasn’t safe to do so. 🤷‍♂️

Ah yes, the Official Company line... I recently retired from a large multinational company and they had folks whoses  full job was creating and disseminating a "One Voice" to the customer facing employees to pass on to the customers.

We called it the Official BS... 😉    . I suspect, if indeed all engines were operating to spec, RCL would make an announcement to close out the earlier ones discussing the engine issues..

• We are on the upcoming Quantum repo to Hawaii. We initially booked one a one Device Voom connection, understanding ( hopefully) that the one connection can be shared , but only one device can be connected at a time. 
  We just decided to get the second device option so we could each have our phones available. 
• So to my question.  When pricing two devices, there is a significant increase if I order one each for the wife and I vs. one of us ordering two devices. Any reason I can’t order the two device option and assign one to the wife's phone?

I did a search, but didn’t see a definitive answer..

Specific to Quantum, can I use the ships WiFi for WiFi calling, with the Voom purchased of course? 
I ask  because  I have encountered situations where purchased temporary WiFi had calling blocked- onboard an airliner, for example.

And if WiFi calling works, does that include texts as well? 

Thanks 

Jumping in to follow. We are in a similar place to the OP, never cruised Virgin and intrigued with the Fall 23 TA.  We do like the longer cruises and have done a TA on Royal several years ago, plus other one way repo cruises. We like the No- rush schedule of many sea days, but also appreciate activity choices . We’ll be looking for reports from the upcoming Oct 22 TA to see how Virgin handles the week of sea days. 

6 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

I was informed that the engine maintenance will be completed in time for the transit to Australia.

 

They should be done as soon as they figure out where those extra parts go 🙂

 But what the heck, they have 5 more engines..

2 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Today was the first day we did not receive a paper copy  of the Cruise Planner.  Instead we received a QR code to scan.

 

 

scanning the QR code gave us this link. 
 

https://minio.rccl.com/compass/cruisecompass.pdf

 

(I hope the link works for you. )

 

No Joy. Goes to an 'Access Denied" error message. I suspect it's local to the ship server

DaKahuna, we continue to enjoy your onboard experiences vicariously as we count down to our Hawaii crossing in a few weeks .
One small, but important question if I may.. Morning coffee. DW and I don’t get too far in the AM until we get our dose of caffeine.

We’re in a standard balcony, so no in-room coffee maker, as I understand.

Does the Solarium Bistro have self serve coffee? Our room is close..  Thanks 

Catch the Vancouver to Hawaii reposition at the end of the Alaska season. 

25 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I'm far from an expert (i.e. don't bet on anything that I say) but there's a significant difference between planes and ships in terms of how power for thrust/propulsion is created.  Ships typically have generators onboard that create electricity.  The electricity is used to power everything on the ship, like the hotel operations.  It also powers electric motors that are used for propulsion, so there's a separation between power generation and propulsion.  There is usually enough redundancy built into the generators that they all do not need to be running while still creating enough electricity to meet all power consumption needs.  My understanding is that Quantum's problem is with the generators, not the propulsion motors.  She can run with 2 generators down, but with less power to the motors, meaning reduced ship speed.  Not something that they want to do, but not a situation that would cause any immediate safety concerns (although they're probably operating with little/no redundancy left??).  You'd know better than me but if you lost an engine on a plane, you could still fly/land, but then be grounded until the engine is repaired.  

 

 

You have good points  and I am generally familiar with the engine/ generator units feeding electrical power to the propulsion units ( Azipods  and bow thrusters) as well as the Hotel loads. My concerns are the remaining level of redundancy and the root causes of the failure(s) and the engine fire.  To your comparison of the commercial aircraft losing an engine , you are correct that in most cases it could continue to a safe landing. But as you note, it would not continue to fly pax until it was back up to full safety spec. 
 

I Apologize to DaKahuna for poaching his great thread.  I’ll go away now…

41 minutes ago, CanuckCruizer said:

 

 

We are a bit worried about 5 days at sea in the Pacific on ours, so hope they get it fixed for the Hawaii & TP crossing to Australia.

 

Canuck

I’ve  been following the engine issues since they were first reported. I’m not familiar with the maritime safety requirements, my career was in aviation.  That said, I confess I’m having trouble with the “ Well, two of the engines are not working, but we still have a couple more that are” message… Imagine hearing that from your captain as you buckle up for your flight to the cruise port..

Also, as I understand, one of the engines is down for scheduled heavy maintenance- that’s OK in my book, but the other was a reported unexpected major failure - and now an engine room fire. Those last two don’t help the confidence level.. in my aviation experience, unscheduled maintenance and major failures are too often linked to bean counter driven “ cost cutting programs” where inspections and preventative maintenance are scaled back to save $…

Hope they are able to get it all up to spec before the Pacific crossing. The redundancy of having all engines available is nice when we are 1000 mi from any assistance.

We are really enjoying your review, especially as we are on QoS in a month for the VAN to HNL run. Almost hate to ask, but any info on the reported engine issues?

Thanks