daddy_bunce

Before the story let me say I should have known better to shop for jewelry on a cruise. I have read all of the warnings and advice on these threads but the excitement of vacation and other circumstances clouded my judgement.

We took this cruise for Spring break with our 15 year old son and 11 year old daughter. Earlier in the school year our son came home with a class ring order form and asked if we would buy one for him. Knowing that after he graduates he will have no interest in wearing a High School class ring my wife suggested that we purchase him something while on this cruise. (Mistake #1 was not visiting jewelry stores at home to see what he would like and what the cost is here.) While on board my wife went to the shopping presentations to find out the best place to purchase him a gold chain as that is what we all agreed would be the best option for him. She was told by the shopping consultant that "A Touch of Gold" in Cozumel would be the recommended store to purchase this for him. So after spending half the day at the Money Bar snorkeling, eating and the parents drinking we had the cab drop us off at the recommended store. They were very helpful letting him try on multiple different chains and going through the exercise of comparing cost to size to get in the range we were looking to spend. We finally agreed on one because the sales person said it was very durable so he could wear it all the time and it wouldn't get damaged as you would expect a 15 year old boy might do.

He was very excited with the purchase and we were excited for him to have it and as expected he wore it 24/7. Fast forward to about 5 weeks after being home. Our Son comes up to my wife and says "this fell out of my chain" holding up a tiny thread thin link. My wife had him take the chain off and put the chain and link in a bag to take to a local reputable jewelry store. She was told that this chain was a nice chain but we were miss-directed as to its durability and they could fix it, but it will likely happen again. They did validate though that what we paid was a reasonable price for this chain.

After the Jewelry store visit I contacted NCL telling them the story and requesting to take advantage of their 60 day guarantee when making a purchase from one of their preferred vendors. I was directed to a marketing company called the PPI Group and given a phone number to call. I contacted the PPI Group and was asked to fill out a claim form and submit that along with a copy of the receipt and a photo of the damaged chain. They were very professional and easy to work with during this process and within a day or two were requesting I send the damaged chain and a copy of all of the previously submitted paperwork to an address in Los Angles for an exchange. Not wanting the same thing to happen to the replacement chain I requested something more durable like a rope style chain in the note that I sent with the package.

I sent the package out USPS priority on a Friday and according to the tracking it was received the following Monday. I inquired to the PPI group a couple of days later and was told that they would let me know when the replacement was sent out. having not heard anything I inquired again the Monday after they had received it and was told it had shipped and was provided a tracking number. When I arrived home from work that day there was a box waiting for me on the table and a 15 year old anxiously eager to see the contents. Inside the box was a shiny gold rope chain as requested.

So the summary of the story is there is a benefit to using the stores that the ships recommend if you are planning on shopping while you are in ports. My recommendation however is to do your homework before leaving to make sure you are paying a fair price for your items and it is probably worth a little more in price to buy something local and have the piece of mind that you can visit the store in person if you have an issue with your purchase later.

We asked ahead for our March 25th sailing on the dawn and there was a shower seat waiting for us when we arrived in the cabin.

My recommendation would be the Port Royal Golf course http://www.portroyalgolf.bm/ . Even if it is more difficult than you are comfortable playing where are you going to have the opportunity to play on a course where one of the four PGA grand Slam events are held?

Sorry to hear that! But thanks for the validation ;)

 

I thought it was so odd, like getting badly cooked rice at an Asian restaurant. Actually, though, I think rice is harder to get right than pasta. We had an early reservation, so maybe they just weren't quite ready for us and were trying to rush the order out. No matter, I was glad we weren't paying for it. I don't think it's on my to-do list for the future. I'd like to try Le Bistro one of these days, though!

Unfortunately we paid for it, no worries though when we are on a cruise we don't let anything get us down. We have eaten at the Le Bistro a couple of times over the years and have enjoyed the meal but memory from La Cucina from the last cruise was one of the best meals we have ever had on a cruise so we opted to go there again.

With the observations that you noted and I agree with them I still wouldn't hesitate to take the exact same cruise over again, we didn't have the pool noise above us though (that would have sucked).

BTW our vacations were very similar. Midwestern families traveling in early to check out Boston ahead of time and Niagara Falls on the way home.

We were on the June 13 sailing with you and I can agree with your review almost completely, right down to the under cooked fettuccine.

Thanks, I sent an email to the general Concierge address yesterday and haven't heard back from them. I wasn't sure how long I should wait before following up with them or if I should be contacting my TA.

Can someone tell me if I booked through a travel agent whether or not I need to continue all communications regarding my trip through the agent or if I can email the Concierge desk directly?

Specifically, we are in a suite and I wanted to make diner reservations as well as request a pillow menu prior to getting on the ship.

Thank you, this is just what I was looking for.

Hello everyone,

We will be visiting Bermuda in June and when we go on trips we like to bring authentic items of the places we've been for the people who house/pet sit for us. In the past when we have found items that appeared to be authentic to the locations we were we found the little "made in somewhere else" sticker proving them not authentic.

I'm hoping to get suggestions of some authentic Bermuda items for both us and our friends.

You got a good deal. We were booked in a SJ for the sailing on 6/13 two weeks after you and our total with taxes was $4,652 for 4 people. We have since upgraded to a different suite.

ps. we made the original booking a long way out, I think it was January of 2013

We are heading to Bermuda in mid-June 2014 and am looking for glass bottom boat cruises. Any suggestions?