Laszlo

12 hours ago, kalypso333 said:

How in the world did they do that. Total US brand using dollars everywhere.  But in the lamps put EU 220v. At the desk across the room 110v.  Shockingly thoughtless. 

For 20 bucks you get two of these.....   https://amzn.to/3TBrmgA

2 hours ago, Sim1979 said:

I don't remember exactly how expensive is the water package on board, i would need to buy the 24x1L bottle (gonna share with my parents) and those show as 59.94 pre-cruise (with 63% off... supposedly...).

 

I know on board you don't have taxes added in (only service charge), so i'm wondering if it's worth it to buy it pre-cruise or i should get the same price on board (without taxes)?

 

Any recent cruiser could tell me what's the onboard price for the 24x1L

 

Thanks

Maybe it's me but I never understood buying water on the cruise ship. You do realize the same water that comes out of the tap is used to cook your meals and make your drinks at the bar.

Save the $60 to spend on something else

NCL should send them a bill. Look at all the extra places they got to

Dumb question about Passports. I saw it mentioned their passports were giving to someone at the port. When we cruise we cruise with our passports. Sometimes we put them in the cabin safe and sometimes they are kept in our luggage in a pocket. How does the NCL crew where to know to find them? 

I almost forgot about this, in 2014? we were on the Dawn doing a Western Caribbean cruise. One of our stops was in Belize City, back when NCL went there. It was a tender port. We did a ships excursion to some Mayan temples. It was an all day event. 60 mile bus ride then another 20 miles on a boat and back again. We got off at 7am and were supposed to be back at 4pm. The bus broke down about 40 miles from the port coming back. Our tour guides were on the phone with the tour company and NCL. It was 7:00pm by the time we got back to the tender pier in Belize City. The tender had 4 NCL workers on it, we quickly got on and were boarding the ship at 7:20pm. 

58 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

I'm with you.  

 

They are making a pretty obvious and concerted effort to block the fact that the tour operator was so late in getting the tour participants back to the tender that the couple missed the absolute LAST tender that would have got them to the Dawn.  The "fluff" about the tour operator being a high school football coach was (in my mind) a feeble attempt at lending an air of what a "responsible" person he was.

 

The fallout from them being late, especially if they had assured the group they had nothing to worry about as they would be on time, is several thousand dollars just in flights, hotels, additional transport, etc.  I don't recall, but does it mention if the tour operator had insurance? 

 

In either event, they're trying to swing the pendulum to the innocent party of the group...NCL...they have deep pockets.

 

The only thing NCL did was safely dock on time, and safely leave on time.  Not sure how they end up being the bad guy in all of this.

I wonder when the Go Fund Me Page for them gets started Lol

I've been on 13 cruises, on 7 of them someone along the line forget to check their watch or had a small non NCL excursion that ran late and they missed the ship. On our 14 day we had people who ran late on the first stop, the second and the third. After the first stop the Captain made and announcement after dinner. He basically said everyone has had their wake up call.... when I say the ship is leaving at 5pm we are leaving at 5pm... not 5:01. Yet at the second and third stop people still managed to not make it back in time Lol

14 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Had an aft Suite (non Haven) on the Gem.  The crew, the concierge, the Butler, the Cabin Steward....all were outstanding.

 

Loved sitting on my aft balcony early in the a.m. and late at night, just watching the wake and listening to the water rush by.

 

We did a cabin crawl on that cruise.  The final cabin was the Garden Villa where the hosts had butlers serving snacks. What a great cabin, overlooking the entire center of the ship.

 

That was a memorable cruise.

Our very first cruise was on the Gem in an Aft balcony suite. We had no idea what to do with the butler Lol. Our next cruise in June to Bermuda is in a forward balcony suite on the Gem. We made friends with the people who were staying in the 3 bedroom Garden Villa and one afternoon they invited us in and up to the their sundeck. That was pretty spectacular 

My wife and I have sailed in a suite on the Gem once, soon to be twice and had a Haven Cabin on the Escape and the Getaway. The Haven crew including the our butler and concierge could not have been better. Our cabin stewards on those cruises have been better than on the cruises we have had regular balconies on. 

On 3/29/2024 at 7:15 PM, sjmbruce said:

Yes, we'll be at the Dockyard. Thanks for the Hitch info!

We have gotten taxis at 7am for both going to the beach and over to H20 sports. 

14 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

(855) 625-4283.  Have your reservation number, date of sailing and ship you're sailing on ready to give to them so they can confirm you're in the Haven.  There will be a couple of "menu options" before you get to the NCL Concierge.  They've been great doing my pre-cruise choices and planning.  Pillows, coffee, snacks, dinner reservations, etc.  

 

I'm all set once I board.  I use the Concierges for changes on board, but mostly, I'm all set by using the Concierge Phone Number.

Is this strictly for the Haven? Our next cruise in June on the Gem we have a forward suite

52 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

YES.  Communication is key.

 

I always call the Haven Concierge, probably at least a half dozen times, before embarkation.  I have them make note of my preferences BEFORE I even step on to the ship.  My Butler already knows what I want upon our first meeting.

Interesting, never knew you could call before the cruise. I always just send and email and ask for a couple different pillows, extra bath towels and oak milk. Its all been in place when we arrive

12 hours ago, nhtravels said:

Thank you @cruiseny4life.  We will have a great trip, regardless of where my parents decide to book their accommodations.  Just being fortunate enough to experience Alaska together is a dream come true.

 

I felt a little foolish this morning reading CC. I have a brain injury and don't always realize how my words come out and in re-reading my post I realize that it may have made us sound entitled in a way that was not intended.  I truly apologize for anyone who may have taken offense.

No worries

19 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Always communicate! 

THIS!

As I sometimes have to remind my wife I am not a mind reader. We give a very short list of what we would like to our butler the very first day. French Press at 6am (wife) a small cheese plate and crackers in the afternoon around 4pm.... thats about it. 

5 minutes ago, Denise T said:

I am scheduled on the Sky to disembark in Baltimore in October 2024. This may or may not change. I will patiently await NCL to notify if there are any changes to the itinerary. 

Carnival announced all its Baltimore cruises are now out of Norfolk 

On 3/26/2024 at 10:52 AM, hgrant said:

 

Too much overthinking.... My wife and I have done the Haven twice while friends had balcony cabins. It was no big deal, we are doing it again on the Gem in June. Not an apples to apples comparison since we are in a forward suite and not the "Haven" 

21 minutes ago, dcipjr said:

Just noticed that as well on the ferry to St. George!

 

And another update: not only are we not staying a bit later, we are leaving early. The captain announced that we are sailing Thursday at 6 PM to avoid worsening weather conditions on the way back to New York. 
 

This seems a bit dodgy to me—Windy shows poor sea conditions on Friday that seem to get better on Saturday. I’m wondering whether they are covering for propulsion issues. 
 

They’ve issued us another $100 of OBC, but I’m less than thrilled. 
 

I’ll write up thoughts when we get home, but we have definitely seen evidence of cutbacks. The food has been decidedly lower quality than in the past, and the entertainment hasn’t been great. 
 

We’re booked for August on the Joy, and leaning towards keeping our reservation, but this trip has been somewhat disappointing. Some of that is due to weather, which is beyond the control of NCL, but the product has suffered a bit. Not as dramatically as I’ve heard on here, but enough to notice. 

At least you have two mostly sunny days. Hit the Frog and Onion for dinner

Just happened to pull up the Bermuda web cam and I see the GA is docking. Looks like she could use some touch up paint lol

Kind of surprised they did not pick NYC or NJ or Norfolk 

43 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

What kind of animal would put a banana on a toilet?

 

For whatever reason Harr Travel never says what cabin number they are touring

37 minutes ago, Scubadoc said:

We will be on the Norwegian Pearl for 10 days in September and we are booked in a category SM aft penthouse suite with large balcony. Cabin 10664. 
 

We have stayed in suites on Royal Caribbean and Princess and from the pictures I’m seeing I’m not overly impressed with the size of the suite. The bathroom looks very small for a high-end suite with only one sink. It doesn’t look like there’s actually a separate area in the suite for a living area. Maybe a curtain? Anyone have comments on the suite? I might consider a switch to the forward facing suites, which look larger to me, but we really love aft!

 

My biggest concern is we spend a ton of time on the balcony. I saw a video that says it is our category of cabin, but the balcony looks so narrow that I’m wondering if it’s actually not the large balcony suite.  Does anyone know if this category has a deep enough balcony to face to the water instead of having to turn them sideways?

 

Overall, would you stay with this category or look for another option? I would be nervous about the wind on a Forward facing cabin. 

The forward cabins are not much larger with the exception of the balconies which are huge. Bathrooms and layouts are very similar. If you need a larger bathroom on an older ship you might want to book one of the Haven cabins

3 minutes ago, ready2cruzagain said:

 

 

NCL Sky has a sailing out of Baltimore this September going to Quebec 

Might be possible, clearing the channel will the #1 priority for now. The bridge..... that will be 2-3 years away

38 minutes ago, paulypride said:

“There is absolutely no indication that there's any terrorism, that this was done on purpose,” Chief Richard Worley said at a news conference.

Not going to argue but they have not talked to the crew. Reports are the lights on the ship went out twice do to a power failure. It only takes 2-3 crew members on a ship of that size to shut power off. Not saying that happened but that is one possible scenario. You can see a huge black fume of smoke right before the ship hit, most likely due to getting power back and trying to go full reverse 

16 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

No, the cargo ship would have cleared the span, it was a dead on hit the main channel support.  Some video show what appears to be a power failure on the ship before it hits the span.

From reports on ship tracking it looks like the ship lost power twice, slowed..... went off course (no steering) and hit the bridge. Since the ship had a harbor pilot onboard will know sooner than later