OrcaGirl

Debating between booking Celebrity's Great Bay Beach Experience in St Maarten versus DIYing a water taxi and chair rental, but I'm curious which specific beach club / area that the ship excursion uses. Anyone take it recently that can report back?

Will be on this sailing too. There will be something in the theatre every night, be it a production show, a comedian or illusionist, the 'Beatles', etc. Plus other musicians in various venues, game shows, etc. For my last few sailings on NCL since the pandemic started, the big production show hasn't been listed in the entertainment section of the planner, perhaps because it's more likely to be cancelled last minute due to cast sickness/injury? (On one sailing of the Bliss, a couple was overheard demanding a refund because Jersey Boys was cancelled 30 min before showtime and apparently that was the entire reason they cruised? 🙄)

My Celebrity Solstice cruise disembarked at Berth 46 unexpectedly in October (due to too many ships at the regular berth), and yeah, there's nothing much there. Check the communications from NCL for your cruise closely, as they may have a shuttle from the normal parking lot / check-in to the ship.

I usually leave a note for the cabin steward on the first day asking for the mini-fridge to be emptied; they've always taken care of it.

May I also recommend the Eastern Legacy at Maltings? It's my favourite drink on board Norwegian (barring perhaps the Espresso Martini but that's more of a cold weather drink for me).

Yes, doing ABC + St Lucia + St Kitts. I'm planning to do a 'semi-live from...' thread, so watch for it and remind me there. 😉

I'll be on the Epic in early January and will report back on the Starbucks situation.

I was able to upgrade my wifi package without upgrading my husband's, and we're on the same booking. They didn't make it easy or obvious, but it can be done.

I load any Starbucks gift cards onto my Starbucks account before a cruise, and then use the Starbucks app on my phone once onboard. It worked perfectly fine on Bliss and Encore (except for one morning when the internet was down for the entire ship, then I had to charge my Americanos to the cabin).

My favourites that I've seen so far... 1. SIX (Bliss) - amazing, loved it, fun AND educational; enjoyed it so much I tried to get tickets to the Broadway version but $$$ 2. Choir of Man (Encore) - not Broadway-quality and not much of a storyline, but a really good time; energetic and fun 3. Kinky Boots (Encore) - great cast, good songs, it helped to have watched the movie version beforehand to know the plot (based on a 'true' story of a British shoe factory owner who teams up with a drag queen to save his failing business); note: it's not about Cyndi Lauper as suggested above, but she did write the original music and lyrics, winning Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Score 4. Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Epic) - great cast, bright and fun, amazing costuming; I appreciated that they didn't try to water down the adult themes; but the stage version just isn't as good as the movie version IMO Jersey Boys was cancelled last minute (literally 20 minutes before we headed to the theatre) on our first post-restart cruise, so I haven't seen it yet but it's not a must-see for me on sea or land. Is Rock of Ages still playing on any Norwegian ship? I've seen it many MANY times on land (Broadway, Vegas, touring productions) and would love to see it again.

In Cabo, we'd recommend Manta Scuba. Their shop is quite close to where the tenders drop off (be sure to get on the earliest tender you can!) and my husband enjoyed diving with sea lions and alongside a giant bait ball. The shop he booked in Puerto Vallarta cancelled on him last minute because not enough people had signed up. He didn't book any dives in Mazatlan since that area isn't really known for diving.

My double points showed up 2 weeks after my October cruise on the Solstice, to my surprise. I didn't think I'd qualify since I booked it 'free' through one of the Blue Chip Club offers.

Here's the Christmas Day dinner menu from last Christmas on the Bliss: I don't recall seeing eggnog on offer but also wasn't specifically looking for it. Same for services.

Also curious about this... headed to Bonaire in January, and the ship excursions are leaving a lot to be desired. The one I booked ended up being cancelled by the cruise line. What's typically available at the dock in Bonaire?

Earlier this year, I received and accepted the free cruise offer via the Blue Chip Club for a sailing on the Celebrity Solstice. At the time, I was offered any cabin in the 2B category. Now that the Blue Chip offers are including Caribbean sailings in early 2023, I'm tempted again but I'm specifically looking at the Edge itinerary and I know its cabin categories are quite different... If anyone has booked an Edge sailing through one of the Blue Chip Club offers this year, can you let me know what cabin category you were offered? I like to do some research before calling so I know what availability is looking like in the most likely cabin class.

Yep, I was logged in. Perhaps a technical glitch? I get zero results and the greyed out 'past guest offers' on Firefox but the 200 cruises when logged in on Chrome. However, when I actually hover over the 'past guest offer' for one of those 200 cruises, it only mentions 1 extra latitude point per night. 🤷‍♀️

What's interesting is that the NCL T&C page currently says: TWO EXTRA LATITUDES POINTS PER NIGHT ON SELECT CRUISES Booking Window: November 9, 2022 - December 5, 2022 11:59 pm EST Applicable sailings: Fleetwide - 3+ night sailings in 2023 only But the link to 'select cruises' returns 0 results. And if I go to the NCL.com mainpage and try to filter, 'past guest offers' option is greyed out. Hopefully that gets fixed soon. 2 extra points is way more enticing to me right now than any 10% offer or Black Friday 'deal'.

Espresso martini at the Observation Lounge, Eastern Legacy at Maltings, BBC poolside, and the Coco mojito at Sugarcane.

I also noticed a significant price drop this week for my January 2023 cruise, and called in to NCL. Like others had mentioned, NCL doesn't offer OBC anymore, just FCC that has to be used within a year. But since my family isn't planning another NCL cruise in that time frame, I also inquired about switching to a higher cabin category instead. We had booked a regular balcony, and the agent immediately offered me an upgrade to a club balcony. However, I had done my research before calling, and knew that there was at least one aft balcony still available. It took a good ~15 min on hold while she checked with a supervisor, but she was able to move me into an aft balcony, and we are absolutely happy with that outcome.

I think it’s fair to say we did enjoy ourselves IN SPITE OF the tour guide and the missed stop. Bus tours aren’t my favourite thing (the glare from the windows means the photos never come out) but we did enjoy our independent time in Santa Monica and not having to deal with our luggage until the airport. So as a time-killer, it served its purpose. Poor Fox, though. Her flight home got delayed by over two hours due to (get this) a fishing pole stuck in the overhead compartment of the plane. I told her to come to Disneyland with me instead… 🤣

sometime between 7:30am and 8am for self-disembark … YMMV if the ship docks in its usual spot at the regular pier.

No official masking requirement, plenty of people coughing without any attempt made to cover their months, move away from others, etc. 😷. Honestly, sometimes it felt like we were the only ones who remember that the pandemic is still a thing. The Fox and I wore masks anytime we were in an indoor space that wasn’t our cabin unless we were actively eating/drinking. We’re also both relatively anti-social people, so for the most part we kept to ourselves. I’ve managed to go on four cruises now since the restart without getting COVID yet; the Fox had COVID earlier this year and had no desire to repeat that experience. So we were more cautious than most seemed to be. We both had second thoughts after the vaccination and testing requirements were lifted, but by that point we were emotionally invested (and were both able to get our second boosters just prior to the cruise). And we both were more nervous about the flight down than anything else. I brought a couple of COVID rapid tests with me just in case, but never felt the need to use them. If either of us get sick or test positive, I’ll report back.

Day 8 - disembarkation Woke up early to the melodious sounds of port workers and Solstice crew yelling at each other. Who needs an alarm? We grabbed a final breakfast and final mimosa, said a final selamat pagi and terima kasih to my fav waiter, grabbed our bags and said goodbye to our cabin (7130), and headed to Quasar to wait for our final excursion. Customs and immigration was perfunctory, and we were soon herded onto a shuttle bus to a luggage tent. Except the luggage for most people on the excursion wasn’t there yet, and more non-excursion people kept arriving and it was a bit chaotic. But our luggage showed up on the next cart, and we headed out to our coach bus. Our tour was billed as ‘Beachfront Santa Monica, Malibu & Beverly Hills with Airport Drop-off’. I’m going to sound like such a b%¥€& but this was a very disappointing tour. I don’t think my expectations were especially high, so it was a low bar, but nonetheless a strongly worded “I’m not mad I’m just disappointed” email will be directed to Celebrity Shore Excursions once I’m home. So the positive things: The coach bus was comfortable and in good condition. The driver seemed like a nice and interesting guy. The weather was great and traffic was surprisingly not bad. We enjoyed our time in Santa Monica and got to ride the Ferris wheel which was AWESOME! And then the big negative thing: Our guide made a dumb-but-understandable mistake but then lied about it. Even though the first two rows of passengers heard him tell the driver about his mistake. (Basically, he misread an email from the tour company and as a result, completely skipped going to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. But then later claimed he intentionally decided to skip Beverly Hills because he thought traffic would be worse and ‘in the past, guests complained if they missed Malibu’.) So yeah, we would have been understanding if he’d fessed up, but the bald-faced lies really irked us. I could b&$@% more about other stuff but won’t. We got dropped off at the airport, I bid a fond farewell to the Fox, and I’m now sitting at LAX, waiting for my husband to arrive so we can head to Disneyland for a couple of days. Feel free to follow along that trip too over on IG stories (erin_braincandy).

Day 7 - Ensenada, afternoon/evening Upon returning to the ship, we wanted to take naps in the cabin, but holy heck there was a very strong smell of varnish on deck 7 forward. Never did find out what it was, but we relocated poolside instead until sailaway. But first, a pit stop to grab my free scoop of gelato. It was delicious. We finally decided to get ready for dinner but got distracted by SO MANY SEALS in the water right by the ship and stayed up on deck for sailaway. Dinner was in the buffet. And then it was time for Broadway Cabaret. Less of a production show, more the singers belting out their favourite Broadway songs. And it did really showcase their voices. The Fox and I are both musical theatre nerds so we enjoyed ourselves immensely, and I was impressed that they included songs from more modern musicals like The Book of Mormon (You and Me But Mostly Me) and Hamilton (The Room Where It Happens). And that the choice from Rent was Take Me or Leave Me. Alas, after the show we had nothing to do but return to our cabin and pack. The Solstice was set to dock at the ‘outer berth’ (Terminal 46) and the disembarkation instructions said no carrying off luggage, so we set out our luggage and retired to bed for the evening.

Yes, we ended up having four different time changes and as a result I never knew what time it was.