c-cruise

4 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

 

Best to let the ship know ahead of time so they can  plan for for best service and to have adequate provisioning on hand. That way those who do need these special diet accommodations are not limited by those who chose not to notice the ship upfront.

I agree, best to let them know in advance. I wouldn't think most people are intentioanally choosing not to notify them, but it is pretty easy to overlook the form or not even know about the food alergy form to begin with (I totally forgot about it on our last cruise). With or without the form, I would still notify the wait staff so they are aware. Particularily if doing as you wish dining with a different waiter each night. 

We cruised out of Seattle a couple weeks ago. Nobody was checking or asking for the assigned check-in times. We had a 12:40 assigned time. Got there around 11:30 and were onboard by noon. I would definitely arrive earlier than 1:00.

In our experience the form isn't strictly necessary. I've done it beore, but also forgotten to do it. Either way just let them know on the first night and they will bring you the next evenings dinner menu in advance. This works well even with "As You Wish" dining as they will record your cabin number on the menu and then whatever waiters you have the next evening will be able to reference the pre-order by cabin number.

Lido is still a challenge with food alergy...

Sure, see attached. This is from the Koningsdam, but should be exactly the same. The Pullman bed folds down over the main bed which is less than ideal (watch your head). There is a small removeable ladder that will connect on the end. Having the sofa bed out also makes it almost impossible to get to the balcony. It was workable when our kids were little, but now we've gone to getting connecting cabins and putting the kids next door. We've been on other lines where the pullman will fold down over the sofa making a bunk bed setup which is a much better arrangement.

Eurodam last week had no classical music. The former Lincoln Center stage area just sat empty. The only time I saw it used was as overflow seatting for people waiting for tables in the dining room.

Fortunately the BB King band was fantastic so we spent most of our evenings in there.

The "entertainment" they have in the world stage now is pretty uninspiring. The couple shows we went to were maybe 1/4 full.

We are cruising HAL again in Dec so I hope they get this figured out soon.

We were on the Eurodam to Alaska last week and wore everything from t-shirts and shorts to sweatshirts and stocking hats. We brought raincoats, but fortunately never needed them as we had good weather. I would skip the winter coat, but definitely bring sweatshirts, hoodies, and hats. I would also still bring a raincoat/windbreaker. We lucked out this time, but have needed them in Alaska on previous trips.

23 hours ago, atruss00 said:

Thanks for sharing these!  We're on board the Breakaway on Sunday.  Did you know about the 80s party before your sailing?  Curious if people were dressed up.

Lol, news to me that there was an 80s party. I didn't know anything about it before, during, or after our sailing. Maybe I should look back at the Dalies and see what else we missed. 😉 

I make a daily itinerary ahead of time to keep track of important info like flights, hotels, rental car, excursions, etc, but find that I rarely reference it once onboard. It's more just to give me something to do while leading up to a trip and also acts as a record to look back on after the trip is over.

The Covid stuff definately complicated it, but take that out and it seemed pretty much like any other cruise line online checkin to me.

I have the dailies from our Feb Breakaway cruise. Are you looking for anything in particular? I attached pictures of the Daily from the first day at sea.

IMG_2648.HEIC IMG_2649.HEIC IMG_2650.HEIC IMG_2651.HEIC

Seattle has become a dive (and I live here). I would probably just stay out by the airport and rent a car for your 3 days. Consider looking for sights outside of the city to go to. Somebody mentioned Mt. Rainier NP which is a great option for a day trip especially on a weekday. Museum of Flight is also definately worth a visit and keeps you out of downtown. If you head north you could also kill a day at the locks and zoo. If you do decide to go into town you could catch the light rail by the airport so you don't have to drive and then hop on the monorail to Seattle Center (Space Needle, MoPOP, Chihuly garden, etc). Morning of cruise you could return rental to airport and then taxi or whatever to port (about 30 min).

We were on the Breakaway in the Haven a few weeks ago and those were the same menus we had. There was also another "special" steak option at dinner. Loved it, hardly ate anywhere else outside the Haven. Don't miss the Brie Burger at lunch. 😉

We were on the Breakaway a few weeks ago and while we didn't really use the Haven sundeck much, our tween/teen kids did pop out there once in a while to take a look at a passing ship or whatever. Nobody stopped them at the door or seemed to mind, but then again they were out there for maybe a minute or two at a time, not actively sitting out there using the space or disruputing anyone (which I assume is what the age restriction is there to prevent). Anyway, it didn't seem overly enforced, but I didn't really see any kids hanging out up there causing any issues either. In the evening it was essentially empty out there so I wouldn't think it would be a problem then either. I'm sure an almost 16 year old would be totally fine on the Haven  sundeck. They were enforcing the age 16+ age in the fitness center though! My 15 year old XC/track runner was upset she couldn't use the treadmills. 😉

iMessage (text only) worked fine for us (sending and receiving) on the Breakaway a couple weeks ago. Push notifications from other apps also came through. We had an internet package, but iMessage worked when logged out as long as connected to ships wi-fi.

We only tip at the end of the cruise (last night or last morning).  Just got off the Breakaway and I tipped the Haven Restaurant Maitre'd as he did a bunch of custom pre-orders for us for things not on the menu due to picky eaters (kids) and food allergies. Room steward did a lot more for us than the butler so we tipped him extra as well. Gave the butler a small tip for bringing the snacks, but we didn't really utilize him for anything beyond that. Had we asked for more we would have tipped more for those services. I'm assuming cash tips are likely pooled anyway, but who knows. I would say just do whatever feels right to you based on the service you receive.

We were on Feb 20 Breakaway and told roughly 1,300 onboard with a hard cap of 1,400 passengers. Said this was up some from the previous week. I would imagine they would steadily increase as I don't think there is a shortage of demand with mandates being lifted, etc.

Side note: we were in Haven and were told Haven was booked fully except for a few rooms on deck 15, but seemed like a ghost town to me (along with the rest of the ship).

33 minutes ago, MtnCliner said:

Just took that cruise two weeks ago - the time changes were the oddest part of the whole cruise. Happily, we were willing to ignore watches and clocks altogether for the most part, so it didn't have much effect on us. Just odd.

Is staying on ship time just an NCL thing? I haven't been on NCL in a while, but I don't recall every going on a cruise where they didn't change to local time. Mostly sailed on Disney, Princess, and HAL.

The discounting (via upgrade bids) after final payment ticks me off a bit since we are paying for Haven in advance and likely end up spending way more than the upgrade bids. However, I am also of the opinion that you should be good with the price of the cruise when you book it and not expect any sort of refund or credit after final payment. It makes sense that they would give you the new price before final payment so they don't have to deal with people cancelling and rebooking at the new price which just creates more work for everyone. Ideally before final payment if the price is reduced the cruise line should just automatically make that adjustment for everyone.

We've been hesitant to cruise primarily because of the testing requirements. We've flown, gone on road trips, gone to Disneyland, etc. during covid without any concern. However, the idea of possibly testing positive at the port and getting denied boarding, etc. is what has turned us off on cruising. We just cancelled an already re-scheduled Disney cruise for Feb as there was no option to covid test in advance. Too stressful to fly all the way across the country and then not know for sure that you can sail until the covid testing at the port. We are looking at rebooking for the same week in the Haven on NCL as we could do an observed at home test before we leave and then still be able to cancel before we left home if someone happened to test positive. This seems a little less stressful to me to hopefully know before we leave home that we are likely good to go when we get to the port. I'm a little hesitant about potentially getting a FCC (and how long we have to use that) instead of a refund if we have to cancel for covid. Still trying to decipher how the FCC/refund would work if we also have CFAR insurance.

I think it would make sense to temporarily suspend the PVSA requirement to visit a foreign port on closed loop cruises (i.e. no real transportation involved). Leave the distant foreign port requirement in place for one way cruises. I would also like to see cruises to nowhere be allowed again.

I could see the "demand" for cruises initially being for short, close to home sailings with few or even no ports. Not having to stop at a foreign port for those sailings would also eliminate the need for those countries to be open to accepting US citizens before cruises could resume. 

Aug 2015 to Alaska on the Crown. Been mostly cruising Disney since then with the kids, but keep up on Princess and plan to return.

We should have been on a plane today to Anaheim for a week at Disneyland and Universal Studios.

I don't mind the Lido pizza... the nice thing is you can just grab it and go. The NY Pizza is definately better, but it can be painfully slow as well. Sometimes you just want to grab a quick slice and be on your way.

I would say port days... then I have the option of touring or just staying onboard and enjoying the ship when it is less crowded. I also enjoy watching the mooring operations and just the sailing in and out of harbors, etc.

Changing cabins in the same category should cost them anything. Is there some specific reason they booked you in that particular cabin (adjoining, or connecting to them, etc)? If so, then I agree it might be tacky to ask to change cabins. Otherwise I don't know why it would matter to them if you moved within the same category. Good Luck!!