mking8288

Bargain sales, used to be $10, now up 50% to $15. CAS players with lots of OBC to spend, I found items in Photo Shop ... besides watches & jewelry items and duty-free buying. Hi, to @fstuff1 where are you cruising to lately 😉

Go with the flow, look beyond the changes and maintain that sense of humor, that's how we are doing to best enjoy this cruise vacation ... while looking at things critically. Our breakfast was good and most of the staff are trying hard while getting stretched.

As expected, the MDR are jammed packed this morning for that last full sea day sit-down breakfast, must be about 75 to 100 waiting for a table in Savor and Taste, holding that pager. Priority restaurant seating really doesn't mean much this morning, everyone gained back that extra hour of sleep - hungry and wants to eat. AND, they are asking folks to share tables too if they show up as solo, 2's and 3's Got our own table of 4 a few minutes ago ... Menu has 2 Daily Features Sliced butter instead of wrapped ones ... supply logistics in provisioning

Good & beautiful Tuesday morning, 69 degree F outside, light wind and 450 nm to NY, cruising at 20.2 knots and small waves at 4.9 ft. in calm seas. Time for another relaxing breakfast at sea.

Ship's satellite WiFi crashed about 2 hours ago (2.4 Ghz band only) ... maybe just overwhelmed when majority of 3,900 pax decided to go online. Anyway, Pixel 7 Pro locked onto 5Ghz band & I could do things again online, speed remained fine too ... others onboard might not be lucky as the iCafe help desk is closed for the evening

Almost forgot, our CAS friends said, if you need a mid-morning bite & coffee, feel free to stop by the casino area, starboard side near the table games in the center atrium ... and cookies (only) after 11 pm - no more wings, finger sandwiches, cheese, etc. for your convenience, of course.

No, they weren't touch and before we lifted our forks or chopsticks. I am not kidding, absolutely serious with my comments. I try to go easy and post with a sense of humor, but it was just pathetic as in WTH. I got more update, fresh off the ship (Getaway) that we are still on, they no longer served edamame beans for whatever reasons - I knew something was missing from all the tables that evening at Teppanyaki. Compare the salad, it's the new healthy, cooking light series returning to NCL from 20 years ago. We ended up going to the buffet shortly afterward for coffee & fruits.

Room Steward just returned our 2nd free load of (Platinum/Sapphire) laundry, washed & dry, folded into the basket and ready to repack most as clean clothes for our next trip - going to be fly & drive at staying in a studio suite, 450 sq. ft. Impossible to do just 1 load over 10+ days for 2 adults, traveling light, with the downsized thin paper bag these days ... we came prepared & also Woolite it. She's getting a new job title next month as "Room Attendant" ... Closets are ideal for using medium packing cubes (also slim & small ones) to keep everything neat, clean & organized - normally we fit them perfectly into 22" spinners & rollerboards, but used 24" ones as it's a longer cruise.

Tomorrow's Day 12 FSD & a little extra, info-mmercial on Spa w specials 😷 Meanwhile, we should be getting priority disembarkation luggage tags by now as Sapphire to use, but ... Besides, we aren't in a hurry to disembark on a weekday morning into the colder weather. Come to think of it, never received a Welcome back/abroad letter about anything either. Oh, did I mention ... cannot find, access or open any of the dining menu at all ... not on the NCL app, not stateroom TV. Go with the flow & not going to allow the annoying micro details to disrupt our days.

Just posting now, comments & replies later ... as some folks are sailing soon on the Getaway & following these, just wanted to get the details & facts out ASAP. Tonight - one 7:30 pm showing of MDQ and repeat again tomorrow, final evening again - one show again ... Impossible to get into Syd Norman's small venue with long lines forming up to 1 hour early, and it's packed full & standing for many inside. Welcome to the new normal. Tonight's MDR menu compiled together & photos ... Soups lately aren't salty or high in sodium, unlike previous cruises. Flan de Coco was very good as always.

Compare to previous NCL cruises, not finding really more than 1 to 2 vacation heros to write & recognize. The friendly, smiling, cheerful & helpful energies that come to symbolize NCL's crews & team spirits, not - not coming together on this ship unlike a year ago & with almost the same senior team. None of them, as we've seen over the last 12 days, in going above & beyond, as the synergy seemed missing. This is a personal opinion of mine & ours alone. Frankie & Larry should pay attention and listen & find a solution, with the recent wave of changes. But, I am afraid ...

Tech geeks - here's a picture of most of our gears, gadgets, smartphone, and iPhone SE on wireless charger. Mophie 10,000 maH power bank is a must, has both USB and USB-C port for dual charging 2 devices. A 10 ft. USB 3.0 extension + a 6 ft. extension to pair up with a 1 meter charging cord allows us to reach the bed & into the balcony easily to use & charge the device. There are no USB ports to use at the bedside reading lamps - NCL didn't upgrade them.

Beautiful & sunny, picture perfect end of January ... winter afternoon sailing back to NY, temp is 83 deg. F, seas 4.9 ft. and head wind from the bow at 23 knots, 480 nm to go at 20.5 knots - should put us at Ambrose around 5 am for the pilot boat & in the Lower Bay around 7, docking before 8 am - don't see any chance of early arrival. Tonight, we turn the clock back by 1 hour at 2 am. g

SH Noodles @ lunch earlier

Disembarkation schedule for Wed. as listed & posted.

It's a zoo at Shanghai Noodles while waiting for the first seating to finish eating & tables to get cleaned up, already 1:10 pm. Poker tournament being held right next to the restaurant with another crowd hanging up. Keeping our 3-ply face mask on with coughing heard. Rapid testing result onboard 3 nights ago were negative, 1 line only for the control - good 👍 and feeling good & fine (thus far, staying healthy)

Day 13 onboard, a little commentary about food & dining on the GA as we see it on this cruise. OSH gets the top score for mostly fast services, mostly friendly & almost served as they arrived at our table, hot & not just warm. It's a rating that 4 of us collectively agreed upon, YMMV and this is our subjective opinion, when hot food is served at or barely above room temperature, it does not meet expectations. OSH serve up a hot, juicy burger - try that in the MDR, guaranteed you will be disappointed. There was a line waiting to get seated but not too bad, about 10 minutes ... several empty tables w dishes & plates waiting for extra help, yet to arrive, to clean things up. Crew shortage as assigned & deployed are clearly unmistakable. When the white uniformed "officer" is helping to clean up the tables & doing asst hostess duties, you know ... I'll write up a bit more post-cruise.

Good morning, our onboard navigational instruments showed that we are in the Bermuda triangle, traveling 900+ nm since we left Amber Cove after 4 pm yesterday with a cruise speed of 20 nm. Subtle changes are noticed in just about everywhere, see if a recent frequent cruiser can spot it. I will chat about this later. OSH for breakfast shortly 👌

Thanks all and happy to share the recognition with other fellow CC'ers ... we all learn from each other in making a better cruising experience for this community, which I've gained & learn so much, it's only fair and the right thing to give back & contribute. Along the way, get to meet & connect the real faces/names with some of the virtual CC screen names or ID "handles" in person - and, staying in touch as new friends after the cruise ended. Another "name" comes to mind for me ... shadowmeboy Henry a/k/a mking8288 - posting "live" on my Sony Vaio, northbound leaving the Caribbean Sea into the North Atlantic, well east of Bahamas & surprisingly, NCL's satellite WiFi (non-StarLink) isn't too bad for me while away from land signals.

Apparently, the solo coordinator onboard the GA is very good - location(s) & time of the solo events are posted ahead in the FSD, tomorrow (Monday) - they are meeting in the Illusionarium - must be a very sizabe group. They're planning to do dinners together & getting them into the shows as a group, etc. An old colleague of mine onboard this cruise sounded pretty happy with things as a solo cruiser.

Happy & pleased to know that the efforts made to do another "Semi Live" report 2.0 on the GA is helpful and useful to more than a few CC'er as being informative - as after Laszlo's Live Report, wasn't sure if there's much else to add ... apparently, lots of areas for someone to cover - his work helped me to look for ways to compliment & supplement. Haven & Beverage packaging, areas that I do not cover but pretty well answered thus far. I was set to just lay low and slip under the radar, stay discrete & only do a very limited coverage or report ... then, with all the purported changes by NCL rolling out ... not good to just leave stones untouched. On my Sony Vaio notebook PC again, switching among multiple devices and it's much easier for me answer questions & followup on specific issues with a keypad & mouse ("hate" using touchpads to scroll around) - once I try to log in, the NCL server network warned & asked if it can disconnect the "other" device for the current/newest device to go online - since the user "profile" is limited one device at a given time, as many registered devices as desired (3 smartphone, 1 iPhone, 1 Windows PC, and 1 iPad Mini that I haven't used much ... should've left it home & save a little weight or 1 lb of "extra" but backup gear if the notebook PC crashed on me. Answer to your questions is yes, you can (and, IMHO should) upgrade 1 of the 2 users only - especially on longer cruises like ours at 12 days, and as I mentioned - upgrade at 00:01 on Day 2 (with 2.5 full sea days ahead) - and just share the minutes. DW's "free" 300 minutes remained usable after "my" upgrade to basic unlimited. She & I used it for quick online access when the other person is on the unlimited mode - and there's still about 7 minutes remaining, and unlikely to need any large block of extra MB/minutes to be added as we are now en-route back to NY. Someone else, I believed, confirmed that it's possible to call in & upgrade only 1 person - give it a try. But, if you have any non-refundable OBC on a NCL cruise ahead, wait until you are onboard & then do the 1 person only upgrade - and OBC will cover some/all of the charges, like we did. Our net cost for 11 days of 1 person basic WiFi is just $85 after using $100 OBC to help offset it. Not bad - still more than my Google Fi's 1 month worth of Unlimited Plus coverage in cost/charges. DW's Google Fi will get billed about $15 extra in data w taxes/fees as those aren't covered on her Fi plan. DW was in retail banking for nearly 40 years until our planned early retirement together, and it was pretty difficult for her to do extended cruises - especially in the month of January or February until then. Looking forward to doing a lot more ahead ... plus other forms of vacation & travel. Just start planning ahead toward those dreams.

Tonight's MDR menu as used on Day 11 - braised beef short ribs was good, food temperature just warm. Just passable & edible, even Mrs M started noticing the little details ... Subject opinions, strictly personal.

It's Showtime tonight at the Tropicana Theater - Million Dollar Quartert at 7:30 pm. Rushed to dinner at 5 pm, informed our server & we finished at 6:30, made a bathroom stop & became first in line at 6:40 and tonight, doors opened promptly on time at 7 pm. Choice of best seats aside from maybe 20 from Haven already escorted inside via the side door. There's a separate standby time to the right ... looks more organized than last week.

@poohdreaming Tropicana, Taste & Savor all served & use the same rotating menu system. Speed seemed to be slower with the larger Trop, as the gallery is 1 deck below via escalators. Hard to say which is better or good, part of it depends on your server team & you table's grouping. If you have a large group of 8 or higher from multiple cabins, definitely speak to one of the host/ess to help plan ahead, try to agree on an early group dining time together as it's easier for everyone. Taste has more flexibility with large & long tables than Savor. We prefer round tables but that's usual for 6, 8 and some 10's in Tropicana. I know Taste has 2 elevated semi-private sections that can seat around 20 in total with 2 pairs of long tables combined.

4:15 pm and we are on the move, homeward bound for NYC. 14x power zoom Puerto Plata is 20 minutes away via highway route, beyond the hills & not exactly close or easy to walk there or back Not quite a colorful rainbow Wind farm for energy (and plenty of solar power) in use on these different islands.