xkritter

Just got off yesterday and here's a few things:

- You can usually find a seat to eat at in the Havana bar - the buffet dining area gets really crowded

- The omelette stations are in the Havana area (one on JiJi's side and one on Cucina's side)

- For lunch JiJi's does stir fry for free and Cucina does make your own pasta for free

- The steakhouse was the best Carnival steakhouse we have dined at

- JiJi's for dinner was amazing - do not miss it

- Cucina Capitano (imo) was not worth it. For one, they also lost our order and it took 45 minutes for our appetizers. The entire meal was a 2 hour process - which is fine for really good food - this should not have been a 2 hour dining experience

- Definitely get in line early for the comedy shows

- Trivia - on sea days - seemed limited to us. There seemed to be more held on port days - but we were not aboard at that time.

- Sea Day brunch was very good

Hopefully you see this. We just got off of the Sunshine yesterday and were in 8335. We did not have a lot of noise from the Havana Bar - a few nights it was a bit loud but nothing that really kept us awake.

However, if you are cruising with 3 people and someone will be sleeping on the "sofa" - it is only 5 feet long. We have never had a problem with 3 people before however, this made for a very uncomfortable 8 day cruise. It was myself and my 2 sons (ages 16 and 20) and since I was the shortest of the group I took the sofa bed however it meant I either had my feet in my sons face - or my head had to be on his bed.

Now - this aft cabin does have a larger than average aft balcony which is great.

Adults do actually win - even with kids playing. My son was chosen to play and his team did win - and an adult ended up winning the overall game. He loved playing though - and won a card game and a $10 Hasbro card - or maybe $20 - I can't remember for sure.

I have been on the fence about our Iceland trip in 2018 and had both the NCL Jade and Meraviglia booked. After reading some early (non-yacht club) reviews I had committed to the Jade. However, when I went to cancel our Aurea suite - I saw the price had dropped - and began to re-think the trip.

I have decided that the 3 of us will give a deluxe balcony YC room a try on the Meraviglia. It is almost 1/2 of what the NCL trip would be and we've traveled fine in balcony rooms on other lines. I think going YC will eliminate the food quality concerns, etc and we'll have plenty of deck space to get a little space. Plus, I think on this trip (Iceland and UK) we'd probably not be able to use the balcony whirlpool all that much anyways.

So now it's time to start planning tours, etc again..... :D

Kikki / Lugi - just curious - did you happen to get any video of the interior of the cabins? I'm wondering if all the insides are arranged the same / same size.

Thank you so much for such a great review. I simply cannot believe those plates were allowed to leave the galley. I think we are going to move forward with doing our Iceland cruise on NCL and wait and book a shorter cruise - probably from the states - for our first MSC cruise.

 

 

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:D If we keep our

Iceland booking that will be our balcony....right there above MSC Meraviglia. However, the tapas pictures and then the scallops have me thinking I need to do this route as well - and just make it a foodie cruise.

Oh that whirlpool tub - I was hoping it was the nice big square one. This is going to make my choice very hard. I cannot wait to see the video. The spa looks wonderful, and I'm not a spa person....LOL.

Thank you so much for all of the pictures, etc. I'm addicted to this thread....LOL.

I cannot wait to see all of your pictures and here about the trip. I will definitely be following along!!

I cannot wait to see your room. Once I see it I can decide which Iceland cruise I'm going to stick with....either Meraviglia or NCL Jade.

No matter what though - I see an MSC cruise in our future....

We did an over the water cabana in April and absolutely loved it!! It is definitely an experience that we want to repeat.

I am definitely not interested in the Teppanaki. We have plenty of Japanese here where I live.

 

I saw lobster as a house specialty on Cagneys menu. Is there an surcharge over the dinning package???

 

I also saw where someone else who had package was having trouble pre booking Cagneys, is there a trick to it? I plan to pre book all the restaurants when it's time.

 

Mango meltdown. What's in it? Sounds good. :-)

It is rum, amaretto, strawberry puree, and mango - I think that is it. I've been thinking about trying to replicate it here at home.

I'm trying to think if lobster was still on the Cagney's menu when we sailed on Epic. I think all of the lobster dishes had been removed (I had lobster at Le Bistro on the Jade and I know it wasn't on Le Bistro's menu) at that time - but hopefully they've put them all back on. I know my son had Sea Bass in Cagney's and loved it.

We didn't have any trouble pre-booking Cagney's - however we were in the Haven and could book early. However, I think the seating was either earlier or later - and then we changed it once on board.

I'll be in the Aurea Suite on the 7th July & will be reviewing & will take photos & video. I choose it as the space looks enormous & YC was more expensive & I didn't really need all the YC with an included drinks package etc

 

 

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I am going to be stalking you once you get back....LOL. :D

I am thinking that we will spend a lot of time off the ship - so we would probably not get full use of the YC spaces. And, maybe it is better to do the YC on a spring break cruise - from Miami - when I'll only have one son with me (since their spring break dates will be different and I highly doubt the college bound son will care to spring break with mom...LOL).

So - Aurea suite it probably is. Now to decide between MSC and NCL..........

We loved the ice bar - and enjoyed the 2 drinks that we had in there. If we go on the Epic again - we'll visit it again. It isn't big - but it was fun - however, we were in there with a fun group as well.

Our favorite specialty restaurant is Le Bistro - on future cruises we will probably do more than one night here. We also really like the Teppanyaki restaurant and Cagney's. We had really bad service at La Cucina - both on the Epic and the Jade. We didn't eat at the Brazilian restaurant on the Epic because we didn't really enjoy it on the Jade - except for the salad bar and grilled pineapple.

Can't believe I forgot the Mango Meltdown - a must have drink....LOL!!!

Ok - I cannot decide between MSC and NCL - and then if we go with MSC - YC balcony or the suite w/ the whirlpool tub on the balcony.

I currently have an Iceland cruise (in June 2018) booked on both NCL Jade and MSC Meraviglia. It'll be myself and my two sons (they'll be 20 and 16 by then) on the cruise and I keep going back and forth on which ship and which cabin to go with. If we go NCL we'll be in a 2 bedroom suite - with no Haven access. On MSC we are currently booked in the suite with a large balcony that is at the corner of the front of the ship and has the whirlpool tub on the balcony. However, there are now yacht club balcony rooms available as well - so we could change.

We have sailed NCL and we know we like their ships, we like the Haven, etc. A couple of things that we really like about these are having escorts off the ship - that allow you to get off quicker and start seeing the ports sooner. We also enjoy having in suite breakfast on port days - and of course the extra room in the 2 bedroom is great.

Now - the suite we currently have booked on MSC looks like it has a very large balcony - which is a perk for it. And, it seems to have good space. However, we won't have access to the yacht club areas (does yacht club have priority disembarkation at ports?). But, from what I've seen so far, the ship looks absolutely beautiful.

So - if you have sailed both lines....or sailed yacht club and aurea - what are your thoughts? pros/cons? This will be our first European cruise, as well - and both are pretty port intensive. I'm just trying to get opinions and thoughts on how the two compare, etc.

I have NEVER seen an airport this crowded in my life! Like ever. It wasn't this bad when we went to Orlando with all the screaming kids. There was no place to sit, there wasn't even a place to stand. It was worse than the pool on the ship! Everyone was in my personal space!

I agree - we flew Southwest out of Ft. Lauderdale the Monday after Easter and it was crazy. I've never seen such a busy terminal either. (And we were at the Orlando airport the Monday after Thanksgiving....and I agree...it wasn't nearly as busy.)

We were on Splendor in April and absolutely everything about the ship except our steward. The decor was no problem at all and the bartenders at the aft pool were amazing!

Other than our steward our only other "issue" was with the steakhouse service. We had great service one night at the steakhouse and then the other night the service was not up to the normal steakhouse standard. I'm not sure what was going on that night but if the service had been like that on our first night we would not have been back. However, the food - both nights was very good.

I'm wondering this as well. We've been to LFK and love it - but the sloth and monkey reserve really look great. We'd love to do both.

Thank you for these great pictures. We'll be on the Jade - sailing away from Bergen in little over a year - July 4th, 2018. It looks absolutely beautiful.

Do you have any must sees during our time in Bergen?

Charlie on the Jade and Orlando on the Epic - both were absolutely wonderful!!

Our steward on the Splendor in April finally wore me down.... First, I've always met my steward on the first day - this time he was no where in sight. I left a note for him when we went to dinner, requesting twice a day service, ice (we didn't even have a bucket), and some extra pillows - plus a $20 for him. We came back - and the room hadn't been touched - and again - no one in sight. We left again, not for long - came back - nothing - sat out on the balcony a bit - went out some more - and at some point he made the couch out into my son's bed.

The next day - we went to breakfast - came back - nothing - back and forth a lot - nothing. Later in the morning we were on the balcony and he came out and asked morning or night. I requested both. He then told me he has all these cabins on the port side plus all of the aft cabins (we were in the aft wrap starboard) and therefore he'd have to service us last so morning would be after Noon and turn down would be after 9 pm. I figured there was no way they'd be that late - wrong.

So, Day 3 we changed to morning only. It was still done after Noon.

Needless to say - he didn't receive any extra tip. This was the first cruise where our steward didn't know our names, say good morning, or greet us in the hall. Mostly because except for the one talk we had we never saw him again - so odd.

We were just there in April and loved it....except it was Good Friday and they can't serve alcohol until after 6 pm on Good Friday - all aboard was 3 or 4. LOL. Oh well.

The water is beautiful - a great beach to swim at - a good pool to get the salt water off - and lots of fun. I think if we go back we will rent a golf card though - and go explore a bit more.

We were on the Epic, over Thanksgiving, in the Haven and my oldest son received the free soda card. I signed the form for him to have beer and wine and asked about changing his soda card to Corks and Caps and it was a no. He could buy wine and beer but could not have the package - or buy the package.

Yes - I got a drink in a fresh pineapple one day on the Dream. They were only doing them at the bar outside by the pool and only that day - it was the drink of the day - and really good - but I can't remember what the drink was.

For those who have been on the Splendor recently... is the aft pool & hot tubs adult only?

We were on the Splendor 04/09 - 04/16 and the aft pools and hot tubs were not adults only.