Oakman58

The one thing I would like to know, what was the name of the tour operator that caused those passengers to miss the boat. I do have sympathy for those passengers who missed the boat. They made a terrible mistake not booking through the cruise line, but it was a mistake. We all make mistakes, some more grievous than others. And how many times on CC has someone asked about taking an excursion through the cruise line only to have many members tell them to book through an independent tour company because it's cheaper and better than the ship's tours.

I wish I could sit down to dinner with the folks that got left behind. I'd bet the story of getting from San Tome to Gambia and then to Senegal would be incredibly interesting.

Knowing how I am, if this happened to me, when I rejoined the ship, I would give the Captain some grief every time I saw him. "Thanks for leaving me behind without my medications Captain, I almost died." "Thank for leaving me in a 3rd World country Captain that didn't accept my credit cards." Knowing my personality, I would probably push the issue until I ended up in the brig.

I'll say one thing, NCL is getting a whole lot of bad press because of this story. This story even showed up on our local news, and I live in the Midwest. Leaving U.S. citizens behind on an African island isn't going to bode well for NCL, and it doesn't matter who's right or who's wrong. The way the press is telling the story, NCL is the bad guy.

I’m sure we don’t have the full story, but even so, I think that situation could have been handled better. I’d hate to be left behind. From the story. “The harbor master tried to call the ship, the captain refused the call.” “Eventually, the São Tomé and Príncipe Coast Guard loaded all eight passengers on a boat and took them to the anchored ship. They said the captain told the Coast Guard to take the passengers back to the island.” If those two quotes are true, I guarantee you I’d be more than upset with NCL and I’d bet every NCL cheerleader on this forum would be just as ticked off at NCL if it happened to them. Perhaps the Captain, who is just as human as the rest of us, was having a bad day and decided to be a jerk. Regardless, I always book excursions through the cruise line.

That's good to know. The Explorer of the Seas did not have a station like that when the WJ was closed.

Is there anyplace on the Brilliance to get a complimentary cup of coffee before the buffet opens in the morning? Room service is out because I don’t want to disturb my wife. When we were on Explorer of the Seas I could go down very early in the morning to Café Promenade for my complimentary morning coffee. Is Café Latte-Tudes like this also? If not is there anywhere else on the ship with an available coffee urn?

I'm Platinum with NCL and finally decided to try other cruise lines. As I mentioned in my previous post, we just did a cruise on the older Carnival Spirit out of Mobile, AL. We really enjoyed that cruise. Here's a link to my review of that cruise. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2993261-we-love-our-cruise-on-the-spiritmobile-al-not-so-much-wpics/#comment-66967737 I didn't notice any difference in the passengers on Carnival from those on any other cruise line. Personally, I think the only thing NCL has going for it is the Free at Sea. I do have a New England/Canada cruise booked on the Breakaway this September.

Sorry, I'm new to Royal Caribbean. I chose a 5:30 assigned dining time on our cruise. If I fail to make that dining time, can I just show up at the main dining room and use My Time Dining? I'm old and sometimes an afternoon nap runs longer than expected.

We've done two Carnival cruises in the past 6 months and had a great time on both. On our 7 day cruises there were 4 comedian on each sailing and depending on the ship, the cruise director is almost as good at comedy. I personally thought the food was better on Carnival with a bonus of the complimentary Guy's Burger Joint and the Blue Iguana. Main Theater entertainment isn't as good as NCL but the comedians in the punchliner comedy club make up for it. The bands were awesome on Carnival. We chose assigned dining time on Carnival and I had forgotten how nice it is to have the same servers every night and how they get to know you and your preferences. As far as I'm concerned Carnival gets a bad rap from many cruisers who have never cruised with Carnival. We were just on the Carnival Spirit (launched in 2000) last month and it looked to be in better shape than some newer ships of other cruise lines. We have a Panama Canal cruise booked on the Spirit for next Mar after she comes out of a dry-dock. I have no issues with Carnival. Also Carnival not only still does towel animals, at some point during a 7 day cruise those towel animals will take over one of the pools for a few hours in the morning. Carnival is fun.

Wait a minute, this was a Haven cabin in this discussion. If I paid that kind of money for a cabin, I would expect no less than spotlessly clean. I would have demanded the cabin be cleaned including the bedding. And that cabin steward should have been reprimanded for doing sloppy work.

When we took our first Princess cruise it was last year on the Diamond Princess. When they did the champagne pour with the pyramid of glasses, they only pour a few bottles of champagne. It seemed to be just a photo op event. So my question is, was there ever a time when they poured enough champagne to fill all the glasses?

In my opinion, Mobile is a NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME cruise port. I will never sail from that port again.

My wife and I go to the Deal or No Deal show but, other than the first time we saw the show, we never buy the cards. The only person that has a chance of winning anything of real value is the person who gets called up on stage.

You speak the truth.

I'm sorry but I had to Laugh Out Loud at your crowds on the pier comment. This is what the Costa Maya pier looked like last month when we visited and there were five ships in port.

The last time we were on the breakaway the only thing they used the Spiegel Tent for was for a Latitudes Party.

Daily activities aren't what they used to be, especially on NCL, but also the other cruise lines. My wife and I enjoy the trivia games and not much else. Our favorite daytime activity has become people watching. We find a place on the ship with high people traffic (hopefully near an open bar) and then make fun of how they look, how they dress, etc. as they walk by. Shallow I know, but it is fun.

"We're sorry that happened to you, thanks for informing us and we'll inform the port authority this is unacceptable" would go a long way in this case. Lack of compassion and caring isn't the best way to keep customers coming back.

I think great cruise directors are becoming a thing of the past on all cruise lines.

Thanks for your review, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. IMO entertainment was NCL's strong suit when I began cruising on their ships years ago, with the cutbacks the past few years it is no longer the case. RCL rules the roost when it comes to entertainment now.

I wouldn't say I'm looking for a Norwegian Vibe although yes, I'm Platinum Level with Norwegian. Norwegian had made so many reductions in service and quality that I started looking at other cruise lines in 2022. Since that cruise on Princess in '23, I have been on a Holland cruise, 2 Carnival cruises, and a Royal Caribbean cruise. They were all head and shoulders above the Diamond Princess cruise. I have two more cruises booked before the Discovery in Jan, one on NCL in Sep and one on RC in Nov. I will be interested to see how Discovery handles tendering Cabo San Lucas because on the Diamond in Maui it was an absolute cluster, the worst we've ever experienced.

I must be nuts because I’ve decided to give Princess another try. I did a 16 day Hawaiian Cruise roundtrip out of San Diego in January 2023. This was our 17th cruise but our first with Princess. There were so many things go wrong and the ship was short staffed. My wife and I, and my sister and her husband swore we would never cruise Princess again. We did that cruise on the Diamond Princess when she was last Princess ship to restart after Covid. She had only been back in service for two months when we did that cruise. So I’m thinking that perhaps we didn’t give Princess a fair chance to impress us. I found a good price for a balcony cabin on Discovery Princes to the Mexican Riviera next January so I booked it. Hopefully this will be a much better cruise and I will understand why Princess has so many loyal customers.

i love Guy's burgers and IMO the donkey sauce is what makes the burger. I also love the fries. It is without question the best burger at sea.

For our first cruise with Princess, we did a 16 day Hawaiian cruise roundtrip from San Diego in Jan 2023 on the Diamond Princess. There were 4 of us and we all agreed it was the worst cruise we’ve ever been on, and we would never cruise Princess again. Our cabin like yours was the smallest we’ve ever had with just one chair to sit on and no couch. Our balcony was flooded for the first two day and yet it hadn’t rained. They finally solved the problem but never told us where the water was coming from. We had dinner reservations at two specialty restaurants but they were cancelled. We rescheduled but those reservations were cancelled too. They said it was due to a staff shortage. We had a lot of sea days on that cruise and the daytime activities sucked, with lectures, choir practice, etc. Nighttime activities weren’t much better. Musical entertainment was mostly easy listening or ballroom dance type. With the exception of one 50’s night, there was no rock and roll, no disco, no R&B, etc. Food was just average at best, and I actually laughed out loud at breakfast one morning when they offered what they called French Toast. It looked like a hamburger bun, but the hilarious part was it was topped with crushed up Fruit Loops. Another laugh was their chili dog offering on the Lido Deck. Tendering in Maui was an absolute cluster, and we would have missed our shore excursion had our tour operator not waited a half hour for late passengers. Returning to the ship was another huge cluster. In my opinion, the only thing Princess has going for it is the Medallion, that worked perfectly for us.