GUEST080219

Of course no statistical data but from chats I had I guess most people cruising solo don't even bother to attend those meetings. IMHO there are a lot of things cruise lines can do to be more attractive for solo cruisers but a meeting is none of them. 

It is ridiculous that I can't do it myself as in literally 100% of all the other message boards and accounts I am subscribed to. Guess a good time to cancel this account when I retire my current email used at new year.

37 minutes ago, Tapi said:

Once onboard the ship, initially a bartender directed me to the “easy package” selections, but then he consulted with another bartender who quickly corrected him and told him that I was “grandfathered” in and showed him how to look up what I was entitled to. He then proceeded to show me from the bar menu what was included in my package as listed above. I inquired a few more times at other bars to see if there were any differences. Each bartender would swipe my card and all were consistent with what I was entitled to, so I guess that what I was offered was the official word. 

 

Great to hear. Sailing next weekend in an Aurea Suite booked before the change and as I have no idea what I was actually entitled to under the old conditions I kind of have to rely on the staff. 

On the Constellation at the moment somewhere close to half-way of our 16 day cruise. 

I skipped the MDR but food in the buffet for all three meals is pretty good temperature and taste wise. Although especially for breakfast and lunch I feel there is a lack of variety. I haven’t seen so many officers eating dinner in the buffet so either the officers mass is really bad or the guest buffet pretty good 😉

But tbh no idea how celebrity can use the slogan modern luxury, pretty ridiculous. good cruise but on the level of RCI, NCL and Costa. 

9 hours ago, JennyB1977 said:

This thread really has me in a quandry. Manners are supposed to help define human interaction. When you introduce yourself to someone new, you hold out your hand for a handshake and vice versa. If the other person does not hold out their hand it becomes awkward. At what point do manners not matter? Eating filet mignon with your hands, talking with your mouth full, sneezing and wiping your hands on your pants then reaching for the salt shaker are these acceptable? When someone holds the door for me I say "thank you". If I am on a bus and someone older needs a seat I stand. If a pregnant woman needs a seat I stand. If I am passing someone on the street and their grocery bag were to break, I would stop and help. These are good manners and polite. Walking to the right, saying excuse me as I reach around someone at a grocery store, simple please and thank you to those that are working the cashier lane, have these become pointless? Is it laziness, self absorption, are we too busy? I honestly want to know how y'all feel....

There are so many different things getting mixed up in this discussion. One is etiquette stuff like the butter knife, those things that only exist for their own existence and have close to no practical use. You could get the same result just using a regular knife or even a fork or spoon. Similar with the baseball cap at dinner, no harm to anyone. And by the way I would rather see someone in good shape wearing a well fitting baseball cap that is well balanced with the rest of the outfit instead of someone wearing a traditional suit that might have been good fitting and looked sharp 20 years ago but now um not so much. 

Other examples like handshaking and walking to the right are not even universal but specific to some places and cultures. I personally think one of the rudest things possible is entering the personal space of another person be it touching the arm or shoulder, grabbing the hand, hugging, ...

Normally I would say if a business wants to cater to animals I just go somewhere else. But as taking cruises is less frequent for most of us then going to a bakery or grocery shopping the cruise lines better stop it ASAP and make it public. 

Annoying, I agree with Brandis. It seems to be quite useable on the mobile using a web browser but still no comparison. I see no ads when using the new message boards on osx or iOS devices anyway so they probably made more revenue when I used the tapatalk app. Makes a difference if you can comfortable go through the boards while commuting with all the other forums in tapatalk or explicitly browser to this site. No doubt that will vastly reduce the time spent here for me.

I have been on this eating plan for 2 weeks. I have lost a few pounds but I have noticed when I get hungry I am REALLY hungry and it comes on fast. I can get home from work and be that way. I do snack on a piece of cheese or olives till I can fix dinner. My husband is not on this diet, so sometimes it's a little time consuming to finally get to eat. Also, I notice that I am kind of irritable when hungry. For some people that is normal, but this is amplified. So I guess it will take time for my body to adjust. How do you all fast for 16 hours? I do ok with about 14 hrs, but only on weekends will I do it.

It all depends on your personal daily schedule. For me it is doable during the week. Last meal around 10pm, then skip breakfast, no snacks at work and then with an 18 hour fast I can have some light snacks at 4pm. Then workout and refueling properly afterwards. Just be careful to track your macro and micro nutrients and overall calories especially when doing any weightlifting or HIIT. The hardest part for me is to actually eat healthy nutrient dense food in the 6 hour window to cover everything needed.

Just out of curiosity. For how many people were those 5k airfare costs?

No doubt that the stress would be a horrible way to end a vacation but whenever those big cruise delays occur I check some random transatlantic prices for the next day and even though the routing is sometimes not the greatest I never saw highly inflated prices.

It is not common practice on a ship. In fact they ask you not to do that. Hallways are small and people in wheel chairs or scooters can not often get by. It is also a hazard if there is an emergency.

That is the most insane argument always brought up. If the hallways are so tight that a plate or tray is a safety hazard that ships design should have never gotten into service. Most of the time during the day the hallways are blocked far more by the armada of room stewards cleaning carts anyway.

The only thing people should do is pour any remaining liquids in glasses or cups into the sink before putting them into the hallway.

That will be a wonderful change; especially if they actually control what happens in and round the pool.

Actually I saw the lifeguard today stopping adults from drinking out of plastic cups in the whirlpool. I would rather have NCL add staff in other departments though.

Sorry for missing the news about adding lifeguards dated from last year so I guess we can let this thread go die now [emoji3]

Interesting. Never experienced it before and never heard of it. Thought that would have been big news the cruise lines had an interest to make public.

On a different note the more important change no more pre batched drinks here neither in Sugarcane nor Shakers. Love it.

First time I remember to have seen that. Now at the pool of the Jade. Is it fleet wide already?

I am not even sure if that is something that works in many hotels outside of Vegas.

Apart from the ships often booked to near capacity, and that doesn’t have to mean every cabin is sold, i don’t think there is any tradition to do so on cruise ships. But as i have changed cabins on board more than once they are able to find you a new one in case of maintenance issues. So if you spot the right staff at the desk you can try. I think they do need supervisor approval though. But just having a sign at the desk that the ship is fully booked and cabin changes are not possible doesn’t mean that is true.

Thank you Andy for your dedicated service to Norwegian and Best Wishes

What an altruistic career...

Let me add this: don't take the concept of Freestyle anything goes too seriously in either direction. You can wear shorts and a Tshirt to the dining room but you will feel horrifically awkward and only do it one time. Women dress at night- by which I mean a light sundress and wedges or capris and sandals and a nicer shirt. No one eating anywhere besides the buffet will be in super casual clothes. Men will want long pants and a collared short of some sort. Other end- very few ladies had on stilettos and the only time men had a jacket on was the first night for pictures. You would look absurd in formal or cocktail attire on any night.

Umm no. I have been wearing shorts at cagneys tons of times and felt great and not awkward at all.

Do you think the bartender is looking the other way because of cash tips? I’m assuming they keep their cash tips?

 

When I tended bar, I would give drinks to people who tipped me big. It wasn’t 100% free but throughout the night they could get 2-3 drinks free.

 

Before the lectures start, the owner of the bar was dine with giving free drinks here and there for the usual stool dwellers- so it wasn’t stealing on my part. I just knew how to use the system to maximize my tips.

 

 

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When I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise the head bartender told one german guy, who was always alternating between two bars to bring drinks on his package to his family/friends at a table out of the line of sight of both bars, he will still get the drinks he just shouldn't act like the bar staff would be so stupid and didn't notice. And the guy wasn't tipping. There are probably tons of reasons why the staff doesn't care.

I normally either keep my bar tab open or leave my card open in front of me and they know if they need to charge anything they can always use my card as long as I don't have to sign. But I try and stay at the fun bars with the relaxed bar staff and I have never noticed anyone getting in trouble for being creative with cards/packages/free drinks.

Normally it works in a different way. Someone without a drink package pays for their drinks, later in the cruise when you hang out at the same bar the bartenders just grab the UBP cards and all is good. The last cruises I got the feeling the staff is even caring less as long as they get one card for every two drinks regardless if the people even know each other.

Is long as you don't insult them by acting like you trick the staff they are cool about it.

I cannot understand the logic of this constant tipping for everything which Americans do but no one else in the world. You have already paid 20% which is excessive why give more? I have been on several NCL cruises and pother lines and never tipped extra and the service is no different too so one waving $ bills around

I can't bring together those thread where it looks like nearly everyone is tipping with the reality on the ships where I hardly ever see it to that extend. But that is the internet I guess...

I've been considering a solo cruise and had settled on NCL because they are known to organize the solos. But if this is true, that solos are now on their own and that it is "their job" to get tickets to shows and dinner reservations, I won't bother.

How do you think couples or group of friends and all the people who just met on board get their show tickets or dining reservations??

Those discussions explain why I don't even bother to go to the solo meetings anymore.

This helps a lot! It's hard to ask the right question with the right lingo on the internet ;p.

 

 

 

So, for example, go ahead and book Burn the Floor on Tuesday and Le Bistro on Wednesday, because it is unlikely the coordinator will get a group together for these sometime during week.

One quick addition. The solo coordinator is one of the cruise staff people. Those who normally run a session of trivia or karaoke. They do have a bit more karma to make things possible compared to the people washing the buffet area at night but that pretty much is it.

Quick question, we have not yet used NCL but can see you have had the odd cruise with them. How do NCL deal with these 3 issues?

Not an expert on this so just my personal observations, keep in mind that most of my cruises have been longer not standard 7 day Caribbean cruises so the demographic has been different.

a) dress code

pretty easy as at least one of the MDRs allow shorts and t-shirt with pretty much the same menu as the "dress code" mdr which on NCL means for men jeans and collared shirt with closed shoes. There are no difference between the nights. Most specialty are casual as well(shorts and t-shirt). I think as the guidelines are so soft there are not really people trying to bend those limits in a gross way. No one seen in damp bathing suits but as board shorts and t-shirt are okay there is not much of a reason to push it. I have kind of violated it as well on occasions (jeans and hoody, jeans and logo t-shirt, shorts) and never been rejected. Most of the time you already know the staff after a couple of days and even when bending the dress code a bit you can still look presentable. All other occasions are casual including VIP captain receptions, haven suite parties and so on.

The beauty of NCL is that as there are no dedicated nights people just celebrate their personal events so it can happen that someone sits in an nice upcharge steakhouse dressed up for their special meal next to me in shorts who is there the 16th night and couldn't care less about the atmosphere in there.

b) sanitisers

In front of all restaurants, lounges, casino entrances, ...

In front of the buffet they have staff with spray bottles as well reminding the guests but not forcing anyone. That is where NCLs "washy washy, happy happy" sing sang comes from. Same as MSC it is an offer and encouraged but if a guest uses soap in the washroom or their cabin, their own sanitising stuff or NCLs spray (or nothing at all) is up to them.

c) smoking

as a non-smoker not even sure what the policies are. I do know though that they enforce no smoking at the outside bar counters or food lines even when the smoking area is at the side next to it. The staff does make them move the 3 or 4 meters. In the casino smoking is allowed but only when the casino is active and the guest is actively smoking, that is often not enforced though.

Thanks for that but it is their word not mine, in all honesty they are direct un-edited quotes from head office.

Actually I meant the manager. Normally you just get some marketing blabla

Very honest and realistic answers, I like that.

Theme nights have nothing to do with the dining rooms!

But according to the layouter of the daily program they have something to do with the dress suggestions for the dining rooms and the seriousness.

I will go with what is good enough for the haven restaurant and most specialty restaurants on NCL has to be good enough for the MDR on MSC. I am happy to discuss the definition of a dress suggestion with the staff.