Kenlorz

Depending on when you’re cruising, every night may actually be the same menu. NCL is introducing a fixed menu (a menu that is the same every night… like in the specialty restaurants) on the Prima next month. If it is received well, they plan to roll it out across the fleet over 2023.

I have looked everywhere…

Does anyone know what side of the room the bed is on for cabin 8736 on the Encore? Just booked this cabin and I’m hoping it’s closer to the balcony and not the closet. 

Thanks!

I just signed into my latitudes account and see that under my account, under the coupons and credits section,  I have an “exclusive coupon” for $1.00, LoL. Anyone have any idea what that’s about? It expires today, LOL

On 6/12/2022 at 9:24 PM, lbrandon said:

Just got in NCL Encore cabin 8736. the balcony is huge and we only paid for a standard Club Balcony room.

Can you tell me if the bed is closer to balcony or closer to the cabin door? I prefer it closer to the balcony, but haven’t found details on this cabin yet. Thanks!

On the reflection we had the 'ultimate barbecue'

What is the ultimate barbecue?

While getting to the pier early is your only shot at getting into VIBE. Unfortunately, getting to the pier early is not a guarantee for getting a low boarding number. On our cruise, one of our roll call members was a guy who was on BA for the fourth time in two years. He got to the pier early and got boarding number 21 while their friends with them got a really low numbered group (like 4 or 6 I think). We got to the pier at 8:30 and was the 15th or 20th person in line before security even opened up and they still tried to give us boarding group number 21!!!! Luckily, we actually found out at check in that we had priority boarding so that rocked and we got a cabana (can't tell you why, other than we had a lot of pre-cruise issues with many phone calls, so maybe somebody looked out for us). My friend just went on the GA and got to the pier early, they are first time cruisers and got boarding group #4 and made it into Vibe, but cabanas were sold out despite their running to service desk like the Disney line drop. Her friends got there around the same time and got a much later group and missed out. I WISH SOMEONE COULD EXPLAIN THE RHYME OR REASON BEHIND THE RANDOM HANDOUT OF NUMBERS AT THE PIER....UGHH!!!

Glad this was brought up. I was thinking about bringing a small foam pad, the type people use to kneel on while gardening. Need something that will fit in my suitcase. The question is will it make any difference with the seat?

Personally, I don't think it would make much difference because it's not the cushion that's the problem, it's the lack of give (or lack of adequate angle) to the back of the seat. It's not hard, it's just awkwardly angled... You expect the seat to settle slightly backward, but you kind of hit a wall as you go to lean back.

Here's my two cents...

When you initially sit down your but hits the cushion and you think you're about to nicely lean backwards into a similar cushion of comfort, but you abruptly come to a halt as the back has no give due to the awkwardly located support bar on the back of the seat. So you're first thought is, "well that IS uncomfortable. They were right." But then you get yourself situated and settled and forget all about it and enjoy the show. We were in the theater three seperate times and other than the initial awkward discomfort as we got settled, we never gave it any thought nor did it detract from the shows.

Granted we didn't go to the slides on sea days, only port days; but we never experienced more than five people in front of us on the slides on our Breakaway cruise in June. It took longer to climb the stairs than to wait for your turn.

As for the chairs in second city, if you can sit and enjoy yourself in a kitchen or dining room chair, you'll have no problem in the venue at all. I never gave it a second thought.

I really liked the French kiss they have on the menu @ le bistro. Wonder if that's covered under ubp

Yes they are covered. I had them in multiple locations around the ship and never had a problem with it being included in the UBP.

We LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the spa on the Breakaway. We were on the first week in June and rarely found it crowded, but then again, the weather was GORGEOUS and the outdoor pools were very crowded. So, I think most people were outside enjoying the sun. I imagine in colder months or inclement weather the opposite would be true.

As for the Thermal Pool, YES you can swim in it. I never saw anyone doing laps or anything like that, but you can definitely paddle along with plenty of room. The pool has a circuit of jets along the sides that you can stand and have the jets beat against your body. The back wall has a set of steel bars designed to contour to your body so you can lay down and relax as the jets massage you. The water is very warm... not hot... but like getting into a nice warm bath at home. I found the pool to be much warmer than the outdoor hot tubs.

I, personally, really enjoyed the salt room. I didn't taste any salt, nor smell any salt. The way it was explained to us by the spa attendant was that all the other areas of the thermal suite (saunas, steam room, saunarium, tile loungers, pool) are designed to heat your core body temperature up. The salt room is kept in the low 70 degree fahrenheit range, so it is recommended that you relax in the salt room after a thermal treatment to bring your body temperature back down gradually. The salt that is pumped into the air is supposed to act as a microbial that cleanses your respiratory system. I don't know if that actually was true or not, but the nicely cooled room with the spa music pumped in (which is hard to hear in the main thermal suite area due to the pool waterfall and jets) was wonderful to relax in.

We seemed to get into a routine with the circuit. We would first do the pool and get nicely beat up in the water jets. Then we would head into one of the thermal rooms (sauna, saunarium, steam room) for about 15 minutes. Then cool back down in the salt room. And then finalize the relaxation on the stone loungers for a good half hour (usually falling asleep). It was HEAVEN.

I have been going through SERIOUS thermal suite withdrawals since arriving back home. I work a stressful job and found relaxing an hour or two every day in the spa was heaven on my body. I came home so refreshed. If there was someplace like it near my home I would buy a year's pass in a heartbeat.

On our Breakaway cruise last month we took breakfast back to our cabin from the buffet at least half the week and often took a late night snack back from the buffet. We always stacked the empty dishes neatly on our vanity top and they quickly disappeared as soon as the room was made up.

On the other hand, a connecting cabin further down our hall followed the leave in hall form of disposal and it was gross. They always haphazardly piled their plates with food melting and slopping over the sides. One particular night we walked back to our room only to pass their pile of melting bowls of ice cream piled together with the melting ice cream forming a puddle that was actually running about 8 inches into the hall. I saw this and realized immediately what Del Rio was referencing when he tried the ban on food in cabins. These people had no sense of decorum :rolleyes:

Whatever form of disposal you use, please be "neat and discreet" :)

I agree with the OP. Reading the reviews of the BA, we were prepared to have an "OK" time on the BA, but weren't expecting to LOVE the ship. We went in knowing that any day at sea was better than a day at work and we wanted to give her a try regardless of the naysayers... I'M SO GLAD WE DID!!! Previously, our favorite cruise by far, un-toppable in my book, was on the Allure of the Seas. Guess what?! We loved our cruise on the BA so much we aren't even going to use our next cruise certificates on RCL (we are gifting them to my dad) just so we can either sail again on BA or try out the Escape. How's that for a complete OPPOSITE experience from the Negative Nellies?

Personally, I think the vast majority of the times the problem doesn't lie with the cruise line, it lies with the passenger. It amazes me to no end that people pay all that money for a vacation and have absolutely NO IDEA what they have purchased. We spent a year planning our last cruise. We knew all the ins and outs of the ship. We knew its faults and planned how to overcome them. We weren't shocked by the smell of smoke or by the crowds by the pool, because we knew they would be there. If people would spend as much time researching pre-cruise as they do complaining and nitpicking post-cruise, they would end up much happier in the long run.... just saying....

Thanks everyone! That will be a relief to my sister :)

We are wanting to book the Escape for next year (loved Breakaway!). My sister would like to book with us, too. We want to book before the end of the month to take advantage of the free beverage package. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my BIL's business, he won't know for quite a while if he can join her or not. If he can't come, her best friend will join her. We would be booking for next summer (2016). Is it possible for her to book a cabin now without knowing who her companion will be?

We were on the same cruise, also had a cabana in Vibe, also went to St. Georges the first day, Boston Whaler the second day, and Dockyard the third day. ALSO LOVED IT! I'm curious what time you got to the pier and what your boarding number was to get a cabana. We had priority boarding, so didn't have problems getting into Vibe, but know that it did sell out very quickly.

We just got off the Breakaway and found Facebook Messenger worked the best for us to stay in touch with the kiddos back home. We got a 100mb internet package for $29 and had plenty left over. We probably sent 4 or 5 messages a day to the kids and got an equal amount back. You have to turn your wifi off immediately after you use it or somehow your data will get used up (we found this out the hard way the first day in the first hour at sea when we accidentally left it on and had all of our data gone within 30 minutes). They kindly gifted us back 60mb and we still had 25 or 30mb left at the end of the cruise. The nice thing is that even though our wifi is off, our iphone 6 would still ding a facebook notification when the kids messaged us and you could see a preview of the message even though we weren't connected. This way, we always knew if the kids were trying to get ahold of us. Worked awesome! Would do it this way again in a heartbeat. Tip: take your devices to the internet specialty person at the internet cafe first thing and have them turn everything off that need to be turned off. We took ours directly to ATT before we left and thought they showed us everything we needed to turn off. They showed us everything that uses cellular data, but some apps (like icloud and itunes) are set to only update using wifi and never cellular, so those apps could eat your data if they updates aren't turned off.

Thank you...

I had expected so much more from the initial concept photos I saw a year or two ago.

It was not improved on Quantum Class. They have actually reduced the 'footprint' of the Thermal Suite with only one steam and one dry sauna and one shower. The only improvement is that they have window at the ceiling level that lets some exterior light in to the venue.

 

Even though Steiner runs the spas on NCL as well, they are completely different. Those new NCL Thermal Suites are absolutely fantastic.

 

http://www.beyondships.com/RCI-Quantum-Tour-2s.html

Thanks for the info. How disappointing :(. I had such a good experience with the size, the facilities, the view and the overall atmosphere of how the BA class does their spa. I was truly looking forward to returning to Royal and recreating the experience. Looks like I should cross my fingers for the Harmony of the Seas. Perhaps they will improve the spa by then :confused: One can only hope :rolleyes:

Hello,

JUST got off the NCL Breakaway this past week and we were wow'ed by their thermal suite. It was QUITE pricey ($200 pp for the weekly pass), but totally worth it. Super Large, with 15 heated stone loungers situated in front of floor to ceiling windows overlooking the bow of the ship. A large heated thalassotherapy pool, saunas, steam rooms, salt room, lots of cushioned loungers overlooking the side of the ship, piped in soothing spa music... all co-ed, so dh and I spent hours relaxing there daily.

We are considering the Quantum or Anthem next and love Royal, but remember being severely underwhelmed by the spa on the Allure of the Seas. Can anyone comment on the Quantum class? Is it improved greatly over the Oasis class? Anyone have any pics they can share? Is it a co-ed thermal suite? Price? We just don't want to be disappointed...

Hi, Sailaway. Thanks for your review. I've been nervous about having booked Breakaway for November 2015 and all the negative reviews. So glad to read some positive notes! My vibe question is - I heard there is little shade there yet I've seen orange umbrellas in photos. I am a sun worshiper; husband likes his shade. One said to have shade, you must opt for a cabana, which I want absolutely nothing to do with. Will I find sun and he find shade? IF we're lucky enough to score vibe passes.

We were also on this cruise and had a cabana. I am very fair and have to be careful of the sun. I found that the cabana top only slightly covers the lounger and is also sheer, so it was a very sunny situation and I slathered myself in sunscreen. The big umbrellas offered much more shade than the cabanas. So, one of you can lay under the shade, the other fully in the sun on the regular Vibe loungers, no need for the cabana in your particular situation :)

Loved to read this as this includes all of our plans for our upcoming trip in 2 weeks... my husband is so excited to go flyboarding (which I described as Iron Man on a jetpack but with water) in the dockyard and we will do a Boston Whaler near St. George too! I am glad to hear good things about both! :-)

Hi, we were the couple that the OP mentioned that went to St Georges one day and did the Boston Whaler the next day. Just to clarify, that was two separate days. We rented the Boston Whaler from H20 Sports in Sommerset. We did their early bird special which was 5 hours for the price of 4 and included snorkel gear, but brought our own (ours is much better quality). It was a quick 10 minute cab ride from the pier and cost us $15 each way. The boat rental ran us $205 after gas usage added in. We snorkeled off of some tiny islands just off of King's Point and saw huge blue Angels, tons and tons of sergeant majors, parrot fish, fan coral, brain coral and lots of other great stuff I don't specifically know the names of.

The show Mighty Ships has been a wealth of information on travel times, distances and speeds. Also, my uncle does scheduling of flights for a major airline and has clued me in over the years on the same types of information.

For instance, a flight COULD and WILL WHEN NECESSARY make it to a destination in a much shorter duration then scheduled. Flights are scheduled to fly at the perfect speed for minimal fuel consumption. The more the plane is pushed the more fuel is burned; the more costly the flight.

The Breakaway Maiden Voyage Mighty Ship episode had them going off course to skirt a major storm. Because of this, they had to pick up their speed to make up for the time lost and the extra distance they had to cover. The captain explained that doing so would require firing up all four engines (which is rarely done and burns much more fuel) and would make for a much more uncomfortable voyage for it's pax. Just look at the many reviews for BA and you will see people speak about little to no rocking on the way to Bermuda (which takes from Sunday to Wednesday), yet when she picks it up on the way back (which only take from Friday afternoon to Sunday AM) the ship rocks much more.

So, really, the slower speeds has to do with optimal fuel consumption coupled with optimal passenger comfort. Add to that the docking schedules of multiple ships needed berths and how many passengers a port can handle at one time. All these things come into factor when arranging the dates and travel times. Scheduling can be a very intricate process.

I have read through some of the comments so my point will most likely have already been cover but I've not had chance to read them all...

I sent an email to Mr Stuart regarding the new policy and asking for confirmation on the 'new rules' as my husband is disabled and sometimes is reliant on me collecting something to eat from the buffet (not a snack) yes, yes, I know I can have room service but as I explained in the email when I booked and paid for my vacation the room services was complementary dining.

The next day I recieved a call for NCL, who have confirmed that yes the rules are now In place and being enforce (hmmmm not sure how this is enforceable) but as I mentioned my husband is disabled so not always able to make it to eat, when I explaines again my situation I was told this is the policy we are sorry you feel let down! The lady told me the reasons for stopping food been taken is to maintain high standards of cleanliness etc...ok ok I get that so how??? Can room service be any different to me collecting food for my husband ..I assume the room service will arrive on a plate?! she was unable to answer this question only kept saying this is the new rule and it is beefing enforced! .... I am now awating a reply from the access desk to where I go from here! I booked and paid in full! in good faith that my husbands needs would be met. Now I am not feeling quite so sure! Any advice welcomed!!

When I sent my email to NCL I specifically mentioned disabled people needing to eat in their cabins and mentioned three specific instances that were referred to in these threads (thereby having the ammunition of actual NCL cruisers). I also addressed multiple other reasons why this policy greatly affects many cruisers. The VERY FIRST THING my representative told me when she called was "First off, we will NOT discriminate against the disabled. We want you to rest assured of that. Passengers who have a disability that necessitates them being brought food to their room will be able to have a travel companion bring them their food with no problem. For us to try and say otherwise would go against very strict disability and discrimination laws."

I did not ask for specifics as to how to go about getting approval for a companion to bring back food. I do know, however, that there is an access officer on every ship. You can ask for them through the front desk. I would call NCL Access Desk (which you did) and have them note your account that there is a disability effecting mobility in your party. If anyone tries to stop you from bringing a meal back from to your room, I would gently remind them that they are discriminating against a disabled person and then ask to speak with the Access Officer if necessary. You could always stop at the front desk first thing and ask to speak with him/her beforehand and ask how this should be handled. I think this is what another poster was describing as "a case-by-case basis on board". Because, I don't think "Joe Shmoe" is going to get the access desk to approve taking all his meals back to his room simply because he gets a little hypoglycemic every now and then. They would probably recommend he take some fruit or a small snack back to his room to have on hand (which is allowed under the policy), but someone in your case...they would have a hard time refusing and still stay within the law.

My sister has a severely disabled child who has a large service dog. A few years ago an Asian nail salon refused them entry due to the dog. My sister figured they did not understand our laws, so she tried to explain many different ways that the dog was a medical device and to refuse him entry would be the equivalent of taking away someone's wheelchair and making them walk, or taking away someone's oxygen and telling them to keep breathing. The owner still refused and my sister had to call the police. Needless to say, the police officer explained to the owner that they were, in deed, breaking the law and then actually stayed and played with my disabled nephew while his sisters got their nails done for a special occasion. Sometimes, establishments just need to be reminded of what is and isn't discrimination. An Access Officer has full knowledge of the companies requirements to accommodate your disability...even if the phone reps don't (which seems to be the case when you called). This is why there are lifts by the pools... because to deny a person access to the pool due to their disability would be discrimination. Just as, in your case, to deny food coming to your room would be discrimination. You should be fine. I think a call back from the Access Desk should alleviate some of your concerns. If not, please report back. Because THEN further action is required.