luv2kroooz

Welcome to post-Covid NCL, with once a day stateroom service and cheap food included, for your convenience, of course. We've never experienced a dirty ship, though, with dirty public restrooms. It's been about 5 years since we sailed Gem, but we truly loved the layout of the Jewel class. Hope the next cruise goes better for you.

We had never been to Cannes, so we opted for the walking tour. Quite informative and free. Also, you might have success posting your question in the ports of call forums on these messages boards. Have fun. https://whattodoriviera.com/cannes-free-walking-tour/

Interesting. We've had the opposite experience. If you can find a decent price base fare on Princess with some onboard credit, we think Princess beats NCL. We just did an 11 day. We bot the package onboard for $660 pp applied $300 pp of on board credit, which left us an out of pocket $360 pp, $33 per person per day, for daily gratuities, a far superior beverage package, gratuities on the beverage package, drink taxes included, and unlimited premium wifi. NCL is $20 daily gratuity, plus $21 beverage gratuity, plus whatever taxes they want to charge. But yes, if you make out better on NCL, you should crack on. Edit. Base fare was interior for $698 plus $194 of port charges.

We sailed Princess from Brooklyn a few months ago. No add-on taxes passed on to passengers during the cruise or in Brooklyn. We always joke that NCL adopts a Spirit Airlines approach where there are a lot of little add ons.

We did it last year. Weather was unusually warm during the crossing and actually for all of our ports. We took good advantage of the Sapphire level free laundry service. We packed too much cool weather clothes and not enough shorts and t shirts.

Ok. That is cool. You are free to believe that about CCL. I mean you clearly have reason to. Just sayin' lots of posts that contradict that on CCL boards. I've read horror stories on these boards about every cruise line, and I've personally experienced them. They are the exception. I've yet to have a cruise on any line that was horrific. Happy cruising.

Great answer immediately above. Fog can be a real issue.

Well, Freedom doesn't do 3 days CTN from Baltimore....reported to be a lightning strike. Try again. This doesn't fit the narrative you are pushing.

.....still undefined, though.

Brilliant. Now we have an undefined "true" Carnival experience. What is the "false" Carnival experience????

There is a lot of truth to it. Just go on a three four or five days cruise and you'll see it. However, the question asked involves longer sailings from NYC. An informed cruiser picks their itineraries carefully to match the experience they desire.

You'll have a great time. We used to exclusively sail Carnival back in the day, then switched to NCL, but have now switched back to Carnival. We prefer longer itineraries on their newer ships If you are sailing out of NYC on the new Venezia, that ship is one of the most beautiful I have seen. It was designed for Costa originally. Also, if you are sailing out of NYC to the Caribbean, you'll be on a longer sailing which typically attracts a passenger base that is different from a 3 day cruise from Miami - less partying, less families. Don't believe comments from confused members that don't sail Carnival about "partying hard" and being "drunk all day". I.mean there will definitely be opportunities for that as on any cruise line, but you can enjoy a classical trio, Latin band, movies up on deck, comedy shows, etc. something for everyone. Enjoy your cruise.

High end sipping tequilas at Blue Iguana and specialty sipping rums at Red Frog can be in excess of $20.

No. That would be something new. Not sure they have a legal right to keep port taxes for a port you never visited, especially if the taxes are assessed on a per passenger basis. Carnival either needs to turn the funds over to the ports or refund them to you.

We get a deli sandwich at lunchtime and then take it down to the mini fridge and enjoy it after midnight, if we are hungry ( or drunk, lol).

I don't know man, too complicated for me to wrap my simple mind around. Still trying to understand why NCL needs $20 per day to make their model work. First world problems. Everyone have a good day.

Yes, add that to list of hypotheticals. I think what you are saying, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, is that their wage expense is less and they can use the savings to do whatever they want with it.

Something doesn't add up for me. NCL charges the highest DSC in the industry on a per passenger basis. Why? Do more NCL passengers remove the DSC requiring them to have a higher daily rate just to "make ends meet"? Probably not. Is NCL crew compensated better than industry standards? If true, why would anyone work on Carnival or Princess at a $16 per person per day rate? Is a higher percentage of DSC retained by the company to offset non crew operating costs? Put another way, does NCL require it's passengers to pay a higher percentage of crew base salary, by shifting that cost to the customer? What I know is the NCL DSC has reached a level that requires some more explanation. They, in theory, collect the most amount of DSC money in the industry. A family of four is now asked to pay $560 for a seven day cruise on NCL vs $448 on Princess or Carnival, for a similar service model. Princess offers twice daily stateroom service.

This simply isn't true. NCL, like other lines, contracts with its crew to pay a fixed minimum salary. This is typically largely funded through tips/DSC/service charge....whatever you want to call it. If the tip pot gets too small, NCL still has to fulfill the contract. Here is the problem with the system. NCL collects all the DSC money on behalf of its crew, pays out the minimum contractual requirement, and then keeps the rest to pay for crew uniforms, pensions, parties, enrichment etc. The guy in the laundry room or your waiter never directly sees any extra money generated in the DSC pool. We fully support anyone who wants to tip more and we also support the removal of tips when passengers feel economically harmed by something and the company refuses to address valid concerns. To each their own.

Yep, so much to do with itinerary. We are booked in an 11 day in April. The longer cruises that don't fit into a typical weekend-weekend sailing tend to attract a different crowd, with less kids, more experienced cruisers. Totally different experience than a three day weekend sailing to the Bahamas from MIA.

I guess this has come full circle for us. We jumped ship from Carnival many years ago when they went to their Playlist Productions shows. We tried NCL and loved Blue Man, Priscella, etc. Now we are going back for our 2nd cruise on Carnival post pandemic. We've also done a Princess cruise post pandemic and only 1 on NCL that was a Transatlantic at a giveaway price. The playlist shows on Carnival are far better than Deal or No Deal, Press Your Luck and Wheel of Fortune. Plus, the dining room food on Carnival is decent, with complimentary Lobster, Filet Mignon, and Salmon.

Same issue here. This was weeks ago. Sent email and heard back from Princess like three weeks later. Their advice was to just keep trying. Must be a known issue.

They live in the chaos they create. NCL is like a magnet for bad publicity. They went through it with the NCL Sun construction cruise a few years ago. They learned nothing from that mess, evidently.

Yet, cruise lines repeatedly violate the terms of the contract they create by offering compensation, OBC, etc. well, most cruise lines do it. Not because the contract requires it, but because it is the right thing to do for their passengers. I think it was Royal that had a ship delayed returning to the embarkation due to weather. Those booked with RCL air got rebooked on new flights.Those that had independent air were reimbursed change fees. NCL would have said, go file a claim with your insurance company. Of course, RCL stock is 6 times more valuable than NCL and RCL have the latest, most innovative, cutting edge ships unparalleled by anyone in the industry.

Haha, no worries. To date, "Contemporary" is an abstract, undefined term, so no one really knows. It can be whatever you want it to be. I suppose you could be "contemporary" today and old fashioned tomorrow. It's a beautiful thing. I have seen it used on these boards to explain away flaws in ship design. It is also regularly trotted out to disguise cutbacks in the customer experience onboard ships.