GUEST080219

@chengkp75 looking at the news coverage today the plan to get attention worked. So can’t blame them. 

But it not all ships traffic is equal. Even though some cargo traffic is questionable, do we really need all year round products that have to get shipped around the world when they are not in season here? In general it serves a purpose for prosperity world wide. At least in theory. 

In contrast to that hardly any of the >800 cruise ships and their itineraries have any value. And with nearly 30 or so cruises in 11 years I am part of the problem. I like to pretend it has at least some cultural value but with the restricted port times that is just a lie. And with ships that have a ho-kart track oder laser tag on board no more needs to be said.

Not even talking about the $299 med cruises or 3 day Caribbean booze cruises. 

31 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

And, I'm a bit confused why the protesters were protesting, since Kiel is bounded by two of the strictest air emission zones in the world.  I understand, from some of the comments quoted in news articles, that they are relying on the "studies" done by a German environmental group that has little scientific basis to the study, but even so, choosing Kiel is ironic.  First, all ships in EU ports must switch to low sulfur diesel fuel while in port, second, Kiel is within the Baltic ECA where all ships must either burn low sulfur diesel fuel or use an exhaust gas scrubber, and the Baltic ECA is bounded by the North Sea ECA which has exactly the same restrictions on ship's emissions and extends north almost to the Faeroe Islands and west to Ushant in France.

 

And, finally, as of 1 January 2020, less than 6 months from now, the worldwide sulfur limit for marine fuels will drop by 86% from 3.5% to 0.5%, which is likely to produce a dramatic negative impact on the oil refining industry in its capability to meet this demand, and a negative impact on world shipping (90% of world commerce, not just cruising) through higher fuel prices, but the world's maritime nations have agreed to this measure, despite any harm to the world's economy.

Isn’t it think global act local?

But your points are a good one and what I would take away from this. Should we allow, and with enlargement and new builds of cruise terminals support, a growth of an industry that still has no short term plan for a nearly zero emission business. 

It always ticked me off that cruise lines proudly talk about their low whatever fuels in special areas and no one is questioning them why not use the environmental best fuel all of the time. If it is not possible due to demand or cost that would be another indicator for a not sustainable industry that has to be stopped or at least severely limited. 

Were any of the passengers and crew harmed, attacked or in any danger. Was property destroyed or the integrity of the ship damaged? As far as I know not at all and there have been no attempts to do so. 

If that is correct true judgement of the master can’t have been so terribly wrong.  

Some make it sounds like a group of terrorists attaches explosives to the ship and it was just a minute from sinking 😂 

16 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 

Interesting.  Would the two of you say that the port, perhaps, had a hand in promoting this protest by standing back and allowing it to happen?

I doubt that. Its probably impossible to avoid. I am traveling at the moment so I haven’t had the time to review all pictures and videos but from what I could see so far. The activists had professional equipment and probably had planned that for weeks. 

And a group of 50+ people with the skills and physical capabilities showed are not getting stopped by a fence or two. 

Mans after they blocked the ship it was the job of law enforcement and considering that there was no danger for well being of anyone they just followed their usual protocol. 

I am still surprised that the tug boats couldn't help to either bring the ship to a complete stop or at least push/pull it far enough away from the pier to get more time to slow it down. 

From the way the scanning process when leaving the ship works it shouldn't be a problem. Cruise lines can more easily spot when a minor tries to go ashore without an adult family member. But it would be really challenging tagging the adults cards appropriately especially with a bigger family group. 

17 minutes ago, JOHNHOWARTH2 said:

I have just booked a 7 day cruise on the Epic sailing from Rome on 24th July in studio cabin 11510. This is the first time I have ever cruised alone having recently split up with my Wife. I am a little wary about a solo cruise and would love to know of other solo cruisers who have been in a studio on the Epic. Are there any tips that would be useful to be aware of. Any help would would be appreciated.

The key is being confident and happy traveling solo. Enjoy the ports, drinks, listening to music, watching the sea go by. The studio cabin isn't to bad but to small to use it for anything else than taking a shower and sleeping. The lounge is okay if you like specialty coffee but otherwise rather useless the times a was on ships with studio lounges. No outside view so no reason to stay there while being on a ship.

Just now, jcathers1 said:

 

Why choose a particular cruise line if you "don't care" about what their standards are? Are there any other cruise line policies that you feel free to disregard simply because it is inconvenient for you?

I chose itinerary first and price/value second. I only had one issue when the assistant maitre d didn't want to let me dine in Le Bistro on NCL because I was wearing a crewneck sweater with t-shirt below, so no collared shirt. I wasn't in the mood to fix it then so I just changed into a running shirt with collar to make him happy. But I discussed that later with the HD and never had an issue again.

Other than that no issue with NCL, MSC, Costa, RCI, Celebrity. So one incident with an over eager staff member in more than 25 cruises isn't to bad.

It is pretty easy, it is their ship and policies. If we disagree on something I will obey, check with someone in charge if it is the fleet/ship wide policy and if we can't come together I will adjust for that cruise and add that to my decision for the next travels. 

16 hours ago, marco said:

I do take jeans on a cruise, but ya.....what' makes jeans "dress jeans"...what' s the difference, somebody's name on the pocket?

Quality fabric and manufacturing, most of the time dark colours and most important proper fit depending on the body type works not just with jeans to look like you made an effort. I just think of celebrity's evening chic, as I travel with hand luggage only including the upcoming 21 day trip on Meraviglia. So no space in my luggage to care about what exactly the cruise line or other guests expect. It has to be multi functional. 

It is still calories in vs calories out, whatever you call your diet. The biggest problem is that macro and micro tracking gets so much more difficult when not buying and cooking yourself. That is where most people mess up. Especially with high caloric drinks. So I either don't drink or make sure to only eat nutrient rich less, processed food to make up for it. Use a food tracker to guesstimate your calories and macros every day and try to ramp up the metabolism as much as possible. 

There might be different expectations of service but not a different expectation to get the contract fulfilled and the product you paid for. If you think europeans (political, geographical, cultural?) would just accept that, you better cruise out of italy or france, watch and enjoy the show.

But if most bartenders are rude to you, we all know where the problem was. That is virtually impossible. On no cruise, american style, european style, departing from all different regions I was able to experience that. Unless of course you p* o* one of them, in the beginning as they talk about guests and the word spreads quick. Good and bad equally. 

And of course people they know for a while, have cruised with them before, doing a b2b and have been pleasant get a bit more attention. That is even more so an american cruise lines. If I come back there I don't have to wait forever if the bar is busy but get taken care of in between as they know my to go drink anyway. 

Done Haven once, regular NCL penthouses twice. On a good itinerary maybe 250€ per night solo absolute maximum. The haven back then was 138€ per night, which was a good value but no way more than double than that. So not even worth looking nowadays.

But MSC Yacht Club 205€ per night solo next year so will try that out. I am always surprised what people are willing to pay for some things. 

The most disgusting thing is actually seeing young filipino women getting hugged and touched by old obese western guests. How many young female crew member do you think actually dream of getting touched in such a way by a random stranger?

To many guests actually see friendliness and politeness of service staff as an invitation for crossing all borders of acceptable behaviour. 

Actually that the officers on the ship have no influence and can't do anything is wrong. It might be that NCL nowadays just doesn't care anymore but for example on MSC the beverage manager was able to contact the shoreside to relay the complains of the guests and got part of the menu reincluded in an old package.

So confronting highly paid people on board with concerns about policies implement by their employer, who they represent at those meetings is completely in line and when you deal with a good customer oriented company would even be beneficial for everyone.

I see a similar thing going on at the Hotel and Captains Q&A were critical questions about sanitation, environmental efforts and similar get just PR blabla and evasive answers. 

I didn’t read the post but I was on board. The medical evac patient died as we were informed at the b2b party. Was a bit surreal along the line: btw because people asked the person evacuated died. And now enjoy the music and drinks. 

Fire on the promenade deck near or in the life boat was extinguished really quick and no damage visible after they reopened the promenade deck. Yeah we had a complete stop after leaving Semarang and the azipods were turned sideways without us moving a bit. Tug came and gave us a very minimal push if at all. But as a common theme no communication on this cruise about what exactly happened. 

Worst thing though the first time ever that I experienced that no individual guests were allowed into tenders for nearly two hours as shore excursions had absolute priority. Maybe Haven got escorted but platinum up were only announced and afaik strictly enforced after nearly two hours. Made us miss a couple of spots in Bali on our tour. Absolute no go and will absolutely remember that for other more unique itineraries like the spirit to South Africa. 

Yes they do. IIRC at 2pm after the lecture at 1pm. 

Instead we had a little fire yesterday in one of the tenders on the promenade deck. So at least some entertainment.

I can be annoyed about any disruption of travel plans and still be happy that guests can be evacuated when necessary. Some flexibility helps 😛

Still believe might be a good idea for cruises with sea days to require a doctors letter similar to Antarctica or similar expedition cruises. Even when unrelated to this case. Just a question of probability. 

Once again. Evac by helicopter and now delayed 8 to 10 hours for our overnight in Darwin. Interesting how often captain and CD repeated that it was by order of the Australian coast guard that we had to meet the helicopter near Cairns, where we departed yesterday evening. 

Wonder how much profit they lose with added fuel and loss of shore excursion and maybe some goodies for people complaining every time those medical emergencies happen. 

The only thing of the list I believe is hard to find somewhere else, especially relatively consistent across the fleet is the specialty dining.

Otherwise of those that I tried (Costa, MSC, RCI, Celebrity) all are pretty much interchangeable and the differences between the classes of ship and destination/length under one company were much greater than between the different companies for a similar itinerary on a comparable ship. 

At the moment my best suggestion would be MSC. Interesting itinerary still moderate on board spending costs. Reminded a bit of NCL 5-8 years ago.  

5 hours ago, SlipperyVic said:

I trust the cheapskates belly aching in this thread will not be booking another NCL cruise? That suits me just fine.

Or just use the sailaway rate and cut the onboard spending close to zero. Everything has its time. I remember getting blue label for $3 or $4 dollar surcharge and stoli elit included. But traveling the world is far more important than getting drunk so the priority on where to spend the money is an easy one. 

Not anymore. I have probably done more than 180 days with drinking packages, most UBP on NCL. But now the difference between sail away rate and the cheapest cabin for the drinking package promotion and then added fees is just not worth it. And the quality of included drinks has dropped so significantly over the last years as well. 

Oh and of course > 50 days a year with free drinking is not healthy at all over time. 

35 minutes ago, casofilia said:

If there were just less french/italian/german people on this ship .......

 

??  Was that you Mike, from Germany?

Yep, I wasn't talking about citizenship, not checking their passports, but the language and group building. Same with huge amounts of for example chinese travel groups on NCL. If the group is big enough the cruise line caters imho to much towards those special language groups, which in turn then approach the staff in their first language which annoys the heck out of me and the whole atmosphere on board changes. I have met great people from a lot of different places all foreign to english just like me on primarily english speaking cruise lines as everyone expected to get out of their language comfort zone.

On MSC, same with costa, it is more like 500 italians, 400 french, 300 german, 300 spanish, 300 english, ... completely changes the experience. 

Sorry for offtopic 🙂

btw: I have been drunk enough on cruises that people thought I was british not german 😉 

9 minutes ago, roger001 said:

It's time for me to look at MSC maybe.   Do they honor NCL's latitudes guests' status?  

Yes, platinum+ matched to their highest black level. Afaik regular platinum does as well.

It is closer to Costa than NCL, RCI or Celebrity but MSC definitely has potential. They messed up their beverage packages, they exclude drinks from special menus, and actually put out a new "special" Caribbean menu with standard IBA drinks like bahama mama with well liquor but refused to honour it on the package even though the price was the same like a mojito from the regular menu. By the rules it was probably okay because of the "special" menu. But the bar manager promised to check with their office to get permission to change it due to negative feedback and two days later the supervisors were distributing the new rules to the bar staff to include drinks from the special menu for the package.

Reminded me of NCL a couple of years back working hard to balance company interests with guest satisfaction. Every time we met somewhere he checked if I had any suggestions and was honestly interested in how his department was doing.

Same with managers and asst. managers helping out behind the bar when it gets to busy and actively moving staff around to cut down wait times.

If there were just less french/italian/german people on this ship or at least more of them with an international mindset. 

Lol. It's not about less than $3 dollar but the platinum voucher is part of thank you for being a loyal customer. That makes it sketchy and actually a negative motivation to come back. Just getting rid of my last cruise next credits. Actually been on MSC recently and the senior officers were genuinely interested on feedback and ways to improve the onboard experience. Yes most of the fellow travellers sucked but the product itself was more than comparable for a much lower price than NCL. 

On 12/10/2018 at 10:58 PM, Triciadf said:

Question:   I booked in March 2018 a Aurea Suite for January 5, 2019. It comes with Classic drink package. I have been reading this thread and I see they will honor the no longer offered classic drink package. My question is are they honoring the old prices as well? Seems they have raised all the prices of drinks. So do I now have to pay the difference if a cocktail is over $8 or glass of wine over $7.50 as stated in the classic drink package? Just want to be able to know what I am getting into before we get on the ship.

All the bar staff is very much aware of the situation and will check the drink package code on your card before making you the drink. The only drawback I felt is that you have to trust them unless you are an experienced MSC cruiser or have all the old bar menus and old terms and conditions on your phone.