cruiser2015

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

So, we will be boarding the Jade in a couple of hours. This morning, our Tampa hotel decided to prank us by putting out hash browns (aka greasy hockey pucks…actually triangles…not sure how hockey players shoot triangular pucks). 

Not being an NCL hash brown fan, I was reluctant to try one. The grease sponges never seemed appetizing. But in the spirit of taking one for the team, as well as our impending boarding, I gave it a go.

Surprisingly, not awful. I even took an extra one.

No fair posting a pre-cruise HB teaser.

😒

3 hours ago, wilsonhold said:

Say you decide to give an extra tip on a reposition transatlantic cruise to either England or Europe,  should the tip be in usd (now NCL only currency) or attempt to give them the tip in the final destination currency?
 

Not sure the hoops and difficultly the stewards, etc  have converting usd to either euros or pounds.

I'd say it depends on the line.

All of the US operated lines use US dollars as their base currency, even if they don't restrict to it like NCL.

Getting tips in dollars should not be an issue for crew. If you have already purchased Euros, and wish to tip in them, it should be fine if your itinerary is covering part of Europe.

There are very few places in the world where the US dollar is not readily accepted.

22 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Why?

 

If the forum response of a "ballpark figure" was $250 per person per day would you tip that much just to fit in?

 

Would you ignore that amount and tip an amount that you feel is appropriate?

 

 

EXACTLY!!

Wow - you sure to bring out the CRITIC part of this being CC - that is, a critic of others.

The OP's original question is perfectly reasonable.

Sure, the "answer" could be anywhere from zero to hundreds (probably excessive).

This sort of question gets asked all of the time - everywhere.

Examples include - how much to tip tour guides and/or tour bus drivers; restaurant/bar servers (where there isn't already 20% added); taxi drivers; newspaper delivery persons, etc.

So, for someone who may be clueless as to what goes in the wild world of tipping in a situation, soliciting opinions seems fair to me.

1 hour ago, dbrown84 said:

right, I'm assuming your total bill was at least $500.  But if your total owed was $450, for example, you would lose $50 in value as they do not give you change or anything.

Gee, I forgot about all of those under $500 cruises (fare + taxes + port charges + DSC + FAS grats. (if any). Oh, how about any pre-purchased shorex or possible upgrades or other add-ons.

For the record, my Club Balcony for 2 for 15 days, even with discounts, ran several thousand dollars.

16 hours ago, grossguy said:

What's the difference?  The pics and floor plans look similar. Specifically on the Joy. 

Exclusive Club Balcony Suite Amenities

7 hours ago, D_And_K_gocruising said:

We got it  the larger bathroom.  But the other stuff listed is nice too.  And also think you get a different color card. 

 Suite Purple

6 minutes ago, Miss Ellsworth said:

I kind of figured that, but do you think it's still expected? When I went in the past, my observation was that cash tips at point of service were common, but we didn't have prepaid tips for drinks and dining bc the packages either didn't exist or were not very common

 

I'll still tip. I'm just wondering if people have adjusted the amounts of their cash tips downwards now that prepays are in place

 

 

"Prepays" have been in place for cabin stewards and MDR staff foe decades.

With NCL adding 20% onto everything else, even though those servers are not necessarily getting all of that in direct value, I believe that that is sufficient for gratuities in most cases. There would have to be something truly exceptional to warrant anything extra (what's enough - 30%, 40%, 50%? - it's not like those %'s are being added to cheap pricing).

For my cruise last month I tipped my steward an extra $50 cash; all else was at the standards automatically charged. We had few drinks (20% there anyway), no wine (bottles) with multiple pours, no special requests - no extra tips.

16 hours ago, thesnoopster2 said:

Free kids meals for those 12 and under.  The 13 year old will be 13 years plus 14 days old.  Will they force her to eat/order from adult meals?  Like when we show our ID, will it allow her to have a kids meal or would it kick back the kids meal as invalid option because she is no longer 12?

 

Secondly, it is well documented you can't give away specialty meals to others but can you switch plates?  Or would this be a up to the specific specialty dining staff?

 

My situation is we have Grandma in a cabin with a 13 year old granddaughter and a 10 year old granddaughter.  On the reservation is gma, the 10 year old and then the 13 year old so the SDP is under gma and the 10 year old.  There is no way that either of these girls would eat a $30 steak plus apps and sides.  They can barely eat a happy meal.  Just trying to figure out a way to utilize the 4 specialty dining credits (2 people X 2 meals)  I don't really want to accept I will be forced to use a specialty dining credit on an already free kids meal

 

Is it possible to do this?

Meal 1

Specialty meal, kids meal, kids meal

 

Meal 2

Specialty meal, kids meal, kids meal

 

Meal 3

kids meal, Specialty meal, kids meal

 

Meal 4

kids meal, Specialty meal, kids meal

 

with meals 3 and 4, the staff would put the bill meal under the 10 year old and then gma could just switch plates or something?

 

Any thoughts, ideas, ect?  I called NCL to ask about it and they were less then helpful.

If the older child were 12 + 14 days, I would think you could slide by on the age. But you're a whole year beyond that - not so great.

So, you want to use the 13 Y/O's free meal on 2 nights and do kid's menu's for both 4 times? Yikes - talk about pushing the envelope - it just tore through.

You're only short by 2 meals - buy an upgrade.

1 hour ago, dbrown84 said:

nice thing about CF and CN, they are full deposit (for cabins below Haven) no matter what.  so even if you had 4 people in the cabin (which would require a $1000 deposit), the cert would be all you need.  I usually have to go thru the exercise of getting my bill to be at least $500 so that I don't lose any value of the cert, which isn't always easy

Lose value?

Wouldn't the entire amount be credited to your account?

As I mentioned, my deposit was only required to be $250, but the full $500 was immediately credited to my cruise bill.

43 minutes ago, Slyfox16 said:

Does the Prima have down or feather pillows in balcony cabins?

I'll take a wild guess - a hard no.

This is not a Westin Hotel room. Just a mid range cruise line's ship's cabin.

52 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

In my scenario, I see NCL reducing the number of staff servicing the Observation Lounge as they would only need to go to the dirty/nasty party trays of partially eaten food and dirty plates. Have you ever seen those trays at the fancy parties? Ewwwww and I've worked a lot of jobs with unpleasantness haha. But, anyway, I'd think with a reduced number of staff, they wouldn't clean tables as much.

 

Then again, and I'm not being facetious, I'd be totally ok if there was a disinfectant station with spray and towels for passengers to use on their own. I do it at Costco before we devour that $1.99 slice of pizza and $1.50 hot dog! I wish more places would. And, yep, this Havener would lower himself to cleaning off the table himself. 

Okay, I see your point.

But, as for those (truly) nasty trays you speak of - are they worse than having the same crap spread all over the OL?

6 minutes ago, DuckTollerFans said:

I'm weird in that I like the excitement of waiting in the terminal.  It's a great people watching exercise. 

 

On my first cruise ever, the woman who organized a lot of activities walked through with Mardi Gras type beads asking if they were part of the CC "gang."  Talk about a great welcome!

 

I'm one of those people who like to guess where folks are from, what's their story, figuring out if it's their first time, all that.  And wondering who I may make friends with by the end of the week - and who I may want to avoid.  (such as rude behavior to staff)

 

So when it's time to complete check-in in a few weeks, I'm going for early!

Go for it!   ☺️

5 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

That would be the best option. Though this would limit the number of staff circulating to identify if an area needs to be wiped down or cleaned more thoroughly. For folks like me, who grab a scone or egg thingymajig, take a seat to eat the whatever item, it would be very helpful to have a clearly marked area to place dirty dishes....kind of like those stupid cocktail parties you go to ahead of a gala dinner that have trays setup for dirty dishes. 

I don't really agree with your logic.

It takes the same effort to lift a dish, regardless of where it is left.

Now, if the crew spent a LOT of time cleaning up the drop area, yes, they would circulate a bit less - but not necessarily going to happen if they prioritize cleaning tables an not simply hang around one spot.

On 11/22/2022 at 7:53 PM, New2cruise2022 said:

I’ll be on the Bliss so I wouldn’t expect to see these beauties, but perhaps on my NEXT cruise. 🍻 

Yup - no dispensers on the Bliss.

Bars & restaurants will serve in the reusable plastic tumblers.

Disposables - not sure, but maybe used in the outdoor bars.

4 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Hey @detroitlions - I'm a day late. Yesterday's time in the bakery was crazy so I didn't have time to reflect on the vegan chocolate chip recipe! 

 

So, here goes, at a bakery scale, so you may need to reduce it just a tiny little bit. Also, we weigh ingredients, so get that kitchen scale out!

 

4,000g flour

4 tbsp baking powder

4 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp baking soda

2 tbsp salt, preferably of the sea

2 tsp sea salt

3,000g chocolate - I hope you know not to use milk chocolate 🐄

 

1,600g turbinado sugar - you don't want any of that pesky bone char white stuff!

1,760g brown sugar

1,968ml vegetable oil

1,120 ml H2O

 

Here's the directions, probably not verbatim, but I'll try not to confuse them.

 

In lg. bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Be gentle with the chocolate chips. Don't be scurrying that whisk around haphazardly! Instead fold them like you fold your unmentionables. The cookie texture will thank you. 

 

In another bowl - yup, you're going to have dishes! - whisk all the sugar, vegetable oil, and water into a smooth, lovely mixture of love. 

 

Add flour mix to the sweet yum yum mix. Make sure the flour disappears and you can't see any more of it. This means the entire mixture is well incorporated. BUT, don't be mixing, mixing, mixing to Little Mix! The mix can't be over mixed. Yuck on those kind of cookies. Remember. Texture! Is your friend. 

 

Chill dough in the fridge for 12 hours. Kind of like where you want to be on a sultry afternoon in the Mississippi Bayou. 12 hours can equal overnight if you want to nap after all the mixing. 

 

Photo of yeast donuts frying to break up this long text!

 

 

Use a mashed tater scooper like they use in prison and schools to portion out those lovely little lumps of dehydrated taters. One scoop equals one cookie. Lay the cookie out on a parchment-lined parchment tray. After using your scooper, take a pinch of sea salt and top cookie with a nice little pinch. I like to roll the salt between my thumb and index finger feeling each grain as it gently sprinkles the cookie from about 6 inches high. 

 

To bake in a convection oven, set the oven to 350 and bake 12 minutes, turning the tray at the 6 minute mark. Once the cookies are nice and lightly browned on the outer edges and the center looks ooey gooey so good and unbaked, take those suckers out to cool. Be sure they cool! That chocolate is like Carnival's melting cake. You know....like lava! 

 

And enjoy each and every lovely, vegan morsel. 

Hey, when did you upstate guys switch over to the metric system?

1 hour ago, CruiseeCrazee said:

This is basically what I needed to know, thank you! I'll be arriving at 9:30.

 

For the people wondering why I selected an early time if I wasn't necessarily going to arrive then, I thought I was signing up for a boarding time (while marveling "wow, Norwegian boards so much earlier than other lines!") rather than an arrival time. And then when I realized those were two different things I wasn't sure why arriving so much earlier than boarding would make sense.

If you're having second thoughts about your "early arrival", just show up when you want.

While many CC posters say that they never see anyone checking the arrival times, no one cares at all if you show up later. 10, 11, 12 - doesn't matter.

Your choice.

57 minutes ago, rsachek said:

Can anyone comment on the logistics of using the CruiseFirst certificate if booking through a travel agent? Do you still pay a deposit at the time of booking with the travel agent? Then once the cruise is linked to your Lattitudes account, can you apply the certificate and the cerifiticate amount is then deducted from the final payment balance? Does this sound correct? I have tried contacting NCL and two different travel agents and nobody seems to have a confident answer.

Last year, I booked a cruise through a TA and purchased a Cruise First while booking (the $500 version). The certificate was instantly applied to my account, covering the deposit.

There was also a reduced deposit promotion then - half off. The required deposit was only $250, so my CF covered that plus an additional $250 prepaid (or would have covered a normal full deposit of $500).

27 minutes ago, Nipo said:

I tested cruise booking last time like a month ago and it added me the gratuities for the Free at Sea packages which made them not worth purchasing. Now I tried again and it says nothing about the gratuities and really looks like they are included, so the price of the package seems reasonable.

 

Even more confusing this becames with the Free at Sea rules which first says that the gratuities are additional and then states that they are included. So which is the case at the moment? (And yes, I know they were additional still a month ago or so, but now it seems different).

 

INCLUDED COMPONENTS
Government taxes, port expenses & fees, discretionary onboard service charges and/or gratuities are additional
Cancellation Fees also apply based on the booking/sailing date; therefore, Norwegian Cruise Line strongly recommends the purchase of travel protection on all bookings
This is a cruise only offer. This promotion is not applicable on the land portion of cruise tours
Components included in this offer have no monetary value, are non-refundable and non-transferable
20% gratuities on the retail value of the dining and beverage package are included
Offer and combinability with other promotional offers is subject to change at any time per Norwegian Cruise Line's discretion. Other restrictions may apply

I expect that you either did something different in your test bookings, or the web page used a different approach to the booking structure.

For example, i recently did a test and there was no option to select only a portion of the FAS or to reject them all. The page included everything and added the gratuities to the proposed price.

Usually, you get a page where you check all FAS or different combinations of them.

Also, if you only checked the grand total price when you compared the two, the base cruise price may have decreased.

On 2/14/2024 at 1:07 PM, TheycallmeFlip said:

We're taking the Breakaway out of Miami in May and I am looking to book airfare from Boston - Miami roundtrip.  The itinerary has the ship at port at 7:00 AM.  My past two cruises were on the Pearl and they did a "virtual" customs/immigration check in on the ship so we could get off the ship, grab our luggage and head home. (The last stop on the cruise was Bar Harbor ME which may be why they do it that way.) Do they do that on the Breakaway?

I'm thinking of looking for the flight home to depart the airport around 12:30 and trying to figure out if I am giving us enough time to get off the ship and head to the airport for that time frame.

 

Thanks,

Flip

We were off of the Bliss in Miami 4 weeks ago.

Carry off of our baggage was not a good option for us, so took the earliest available time of 8:45.

They actually called us at about 8 and I was very pleased.

Except that the process of disembarking got stalled and we did not hit the street until about 10:15.

Then my Lyft was delayed for a bit, then cancelled and replaced.

So, hit the terminal at about 11 - and missed our 11:20 flight.

Fortunately, we were able to catch a 1:45 by waiting on a long line to get to a Delta agent; one we were texting with through their app on the way to the airport out us on a connecting flight through Atlanta to NYC nearly 6 hours later than we arrived.

Bottom line, generally 12:30 should be okay - but you never know for sure.

For me, part of the choice depends on what's the next flight you can grab after that - if it's much later, go for the 12:30.

2 hours ago, hallux said:

Nothing is assured, the ship could rotate while anchored (it did when I was there in 2019) so you may not always face the arch.  When I was there earlier this month the port side of the ship kind of faced the arch when I was able to see (when I wasn't on my excursion)

Same for the sailing before yours in January.

1 hour ago, D_And_K_gocruising said:

When i made our 1st ever reservation I was assigned a cruise person at NCL.. I stupidly assumed (yea I know) that anytime I would make a reservation I would be assigned that same person if I booked on NCL.com..  Well, guess that ain't how this works..  Is there anyway to make sure a PCC gets some kudos for helping me even though it wasn't assigned to them?  Or what I'd love to do is get them a gift card or something, but no clue how that would work.. I'm just frustrated that I dont know how to assign that person this last cruise I had booked. 

 

 

Why not call your PCC and ask him or her how NCL assigns the agent of record status?

And if it is with the "wrong" ask the PCC who you can speak to about it.

28 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Not necessarily. 

 

Depending on how it's reserved and who reserves it, the system could assume that everyone on the reservation has the SDP and will use it at that restaurant. People can "pay" however they want once there but the system won't automatically charge if reserved before the cruise. 

It's been stated on CC many times that if you are reserving (pre cruise) to always reserve the flat fee venues first, as those are billed if the system sees that you have used up all of your allocated dining slots. The a la carte ones are never billed in advance.

What it does with a large party - wild card there. If they allow the one person to book a group that large, they could slide by.

13 hours ago, complawyer said:

you are correct, it's 8 seats to a table. i think (if im not mistaken) there are only 3 tables in the restaurant, and only 3 seating times per day. if everyone has a ding package you can use them at teppanyaki. that being said, however, as far as the 4 kids are concerned, youre probably better off going to la cucina and letting them order pizza

Size may vary between the ships, I suppose, but on the Bliss, the seating is much larger than you stated.

There are ay least 8 seats per table, which loops around to another table forming a U around the cooking station.

Then , there are at least 3 of these table groups. That's 48 seats minimum ( I can't recall for sure, but it seemed like there were more diners than that.

Now, as far as loading it up with kids, could be an issue. But when you make a reservation on board, they won't know about the kids.

On the other hand, it would be really hard to get a block of seats like that - and even if you could get the block pre-cruise, you'd have to pay in advance for anyone without a package coupon.

Messy situation.

38 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

Guess what?  Only 2 more years till my next NCL cruise on the Aqua.  God willing I will boarding today February 22, 2026!  Please feel to check back for my semi-live report.  Will I be able to find cookies or hash browns?
Stay tuned!

 

Has anyone ever booked a cruise this far out?

Watch out.

Could be all you'll get is MRE's and soft serve by then.

😨

14 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

Food is subjective. It is totally up to your tastes. 

 

Personally, I book Le Bistro on every cruise and pay the upcharge for the Filet and Foie Gras. I would also book Teppanyaki (totally fine as a solo) and Ocean Blue. 

 

I am not a big Italian fan, so I would not normally book La Cucina, but there are those who make La Cucina their first-to-book restaurant. 

 

Most people would go to Cagney's Steakhouse. Cagney's is actually at the bottom of my list because the food and service across the fleet. 

 

People like to complain about "cut backs", but food comes and goes. After the pandemic, NCL made a big attempt to upscale and simplify their menus. You can't image the uproar when the mac-n-cheese left the menu at Hudson's. Some consider the evolution of the menus to be good (we do). Some consider it as being cheap. A few years pre-pandemic, there was a similar uproar with fish fingers were removed from the MDR lunch menu and was replaced with poached salmon. Or when chicken noodle soup was removed and replaced with pho. Today's uproar is the removal of cookies and replacement with brownies. And the uproar over the removal of hash brown (which are made from the cheapest of left over potatoes not good enough to be sold as spuds) and replacement with hand-cut country potatoes. 

Brownies for cookies? Sounds like a good swap for my taste.

But, they took away our cookies on the Bliss and I don't remember seeing a single brownie in 15 days.

I guess the fleet is scattered regarding these modifications.