PATRLR

I wasn’t. I stumbled upon it on the website when I looked at our cruise.

I was just using the number @BirdTravels used. I haven't been on Prima, but, I have been on Viva. I have my doubts about the 80 number but I don't know for certain, nor do I really care so long as I am one of them. I'll bet for a ship like Encore that has a huge Vibe, 300 is about right.

300 of the 3500 passengers get the privilege to pay and do so. We'll never know how many more would pay if they had the opportunity.

We've had Vibe on Viva and mulitple Away class ships. Yes, in our opinion, Vibe is worth it and necessary on Viva/Prima. Someone mentioned the infinity pools on deck 8, our experience is those seemed just as crowded as the main pool deck. Vibe looks down on that area and we looked a few times to see if that might be a place to go to hang out and swim. We ended up there one day, very late in the afternoon when some space freed up.

This guy seems to think it's part of the song: 🙂

Don't say that in Boston or they'll likely run you out of town. Don't say it inside Fenway Park or YOU will be the one keelhauled. The problem I have with Sweet Caroline is the fact that Caroline Kennedy, age 11 at the time, was the inspiration for using the name "Caroline". The song is supposed NOT about her but about Diamond's wife. It's just that Diamond heard her name while writing it and decided to use it because it fit better than his wife's name. "Touching me, touching you..." still creeps me out when I think of the inspiration.

Right. And venues like a piano bar or dueling pianos (e.g. Howl at the Moon on NCL) an important part of the gig is taking requests.

Then you probably didn't go into a Howl at the Moon venue (not all NCL ships have them) because they most definitely do have tip jars out. And I am pretty sure the piano player in a lounge had a tip jar, but, it's possible that was on RCCL last summer, not NCL as I'm not certain which ship we were on where we spent time at a piano bar.

yes

For our 13-July Sky Princess cruise, we just got our cabin assignment today (17-June).

Or, if we're talking about a port you haven't been to, take the day to explore that port and maybe save yourself a hotel night pre or post cruise. Years ago we did a B2B with Aruba being the embark/disembark port. We rented a jeep and explored the island. Saved us from staying an extra day to see/explore.

Great. I did agree with you that there is discussion of cutbacks in all forums, so not sure what your point is here.

True, but it seems like NCL's are quite a bit more extensive. As we are actively taking our business elsewhere, I do spend a lot of time on other forums. Princess being our next to try (under a month away now, Yeay!) I've been on their forums a lot lately and I don't see anywhere near the discussion of cutbacks that I see here.

Of course not. I shouldn't even dignify this ridiculous strawman (you're better than that), but, I think it's important to point out the distinction between "profits" and "record breaking profits", especially during a time of high inflation.

If NCL is increasing their prices in response to their increasing costs, why is the quality going down? Sorry, "inflation" is not the reason NCL's quality is down. The reason is the corporation wants/needs to make more money. It's that simple. During the recent period of high inflation (early 2021 through early 2023) corporations were making record profits - I have a hard time blaming anyone but the corporations. In NCL's case, they had to (and continue to have to) increase their profits to pay down the staggering debt from being out of business during Covid. Inflation isn't the reason for quality cuts, increasing profits is the reason (and their earnings calls have essentially told us that).

As I haven't hit retirement yet, I can't say I've achieved that understanding. But, I have on multiple occasions made it clear to my wife that I have no interest in dying on a pile of money and I've made it clear to my daughter not to expect to inherit a penny.

Not true. A cancelled BOS-MIA flight is far easier to work around than a cancelled BOS-BCN or BOS-ATH. Heck, even BOS-LHR has far few options than BOS-MIA. Don't get me wrong, I am not an advocate for NCL air, but, I can see less risk in the short hauls.

The savings would come from avoiding the single supplement if you went solo in the cabin.

No, it demonstrates that NCL has become the Costco of the cruise industry: high volume, low quality. I know that may seem like a smart a$$ comment, but, I think it's the reality. I would much rather you tried to make your point in a full service supermarket seeing as cruise ships really should be full service vacations (IMO). But alas we know those days are long gone from NCL and the other mass market lines. So, just like Costco has only a few low quality items in any given category, so do the MDR menus on NCL ships.

they could also have chosen to maintain quality and charge more. That would have been my preference.

They ended because we let them end (we being the overall cruising clientele). I am as complicit in this as anyone.

On NCL, we often order the vegetarian entree to split between us in addition to our main entree. It essentially becomes a side for us. I would be disappointed if we could no longer do that.

Why?

Strange but predictable from that poster. The extent they will spin things to try to make NCL look good is astounding. Tilapia is far less expensive than salmon, the change is as simple as that but some posters refuse to accept that NCL makes changes solely due to cost.

Not much different from ordering drinks from your drinks package and giving them to someone without the package.