Jericabenton

OP here! :) This continues to be a fascinating and informative conversation! I'm a big fan of being able to offer monetary appreciation for pleasant service any time it is appropriate. I'm just not always 100% clear on what/when is appropriate. The comments here have been enormously helpful.

I have no interest in finding a loophole for getting out of leaving a generous tip! If I am excited about the fact that I can "afford" to spend thousands of dollars on a suite, I should be equally excited that I can "afford" to practice the social niceties that come with that privilege.

When I booked this stateroom, I understood that the Butler and Concierge services (even their mere availability) come with the expectation of a separate gratuity. If I weren't willing to play along, I'd have booked a balcony like I usually do. Luxury isn't cheap, but it sure is FUN!

Thank you all for the terrific responses! This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. It's so nice going into a trip feeling relaxed and prepared!

If you are on the May 21st cruise you are encouraged to come visit the roll call and also attend the Meet & Greet. I don't want to hijack the thread but the details for the Meet & Greet are on the Roll Call.

Yes, we are on the May 21st sailing! I'll have to check out the role call! :)

My husband and are doing our first Alaska cruise on the Jewel next Saturday. :D This is our second time sailing with NCL but our first time in a Suite on any cruise line. I've spent hours reading threads about tipping protocol for suites but I still have a question for which I haven't been able to find an answer.

I've found great information about tipping the Butler/Concierge at the end of the cruise. However, I'm wondering if there are additional tipping "expectations" for these nice folks at the onset or throughout the duration of the cruise. I would love to not have to think about having cash handy at all times, but it seems weird to say to the Butler, "Hi! Nice to meet you! Yes, I'd love for you to unpack my luggage! That would be amazing!" and not have them expect a tip right then and there.

Another thing I'm really looking forward to is having room service breakfast on some mornings. Do we tip when it is delivered? Or does the Butler "trust" that we will be generous in our gratuities at the end of the cruise.

I have a knack for making simple situations very awkward and I'd love to avoid that on this once-in-a-lifetime vacation! :o

And we're back. Let's talk food. We opted for Celebrity Select Dining because we can relax more completely when we're not watching the clock. There was a note in our stateroom explaining some of the intricacies and recommendations of Celebrity Select Dining. For example, reservations are recommended and can be made by phone up until 5 pm. After 5pm, reservations can be made at the main dining room entrance. On the first night, we stopped by around 5:30 to see about making a reservation. They said it wouldn't be necessary, and just to come back when ever we were ready to eat. They did advise us that the busiest time for dining is between 6:30 and 7:30. Keeping that in mind, we showed up for dinner around 6 or 8

each evening, depending on our other plans, and never had to wait.

There are two levels to the main dining room - Deck 4 and Deck 5. After being consistently seated on the Deck 5 level, we realized that Deck 5 was for the Celebrity Select diners, and Deck 4 was for those with Traditional early or late dining. We were also offered the option of a table for two or a table with others and I really loved being able to have a table for two every evening. We were social and we did make friends throughout the week, but it was really nice to enjoy dinner just the two of us.

The food in the main dining room was excellent. By far the best we've had on a cruise so far. There's a standard menu of safe, familiar stand-bys (shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, French onion soup, sirloin steak, pasta, etc.) available every evening, and then a second menu of the evenings specialties. My husband loves lamb and there was a different lamb entree available on at least four of the evening each of which was superb (according to him. Try as I might, I'm not a huge fan).

Some of my stand-out favorites were the Roasted Red Beets, Crispy Thai Spring Roll and Salmon Tartare appetizers (I would have eaten the Salmon Tartare every day if it were available - but it wasn't - I asked); for entrees, the Beef Tournedo was to die for (I'm always on the fence as to whether to order beef medium or medium rare, because often medium is prepared a little too well done, but I took the chance that they would do medium "right" and they did. It was perfectly melt-in-your mouth pink but not at all under-cooked). The Seared Salmon and the Duck a L'Orange were also excellent.

Portions were small, but big enough, considering everything we'd already eaten throughout the day. And you can ALWAYS ask for more! :) For instance, on lobster night (the second formal night) I asked for two lobster tails right off the bat because lobster is something I ONLY get to enjoy when I'm on a cruise and I absolutely love it.

Service in the main dining room was good. We were never waiting long, and on the odd occasion that we were left waiting a bit longer than ideal, our waiter was aware of it and apologetic when he got to the table. The sommelier was always friendly and helpful. We are fairly ignorant in regards to wine (red meat = red wine; fish = white wine - that's about all we think we know), but we do like it with dinner, so we would ask for a recommendation based on our entree choice, and they were pleasant and spot-on every time, and we never made to feel patronized or foolish. The only minor disappointment was that on the second formal night, a photographer never came by our table. It didn't matter much, because we never purchase the pictures (@ $23 a pop!!) but we do like looking at them because they're often the only good pictures we get to see of the two of us together. There were however, photographers were stationed near the entrance to the dining room with a pretty backdrop had we really wanted to get a picture to look at later and not purchase.

We ate at the buffet for dinner twice and found everything to be very good. The build-your-own pasta was fantastic - lots of fresh veggie options, a good variety of pasta (including a whole wheat pasta which I liked), fresh garlic (!), and several sauce options. Pretty much every day between sun soaking and getting ready for dinner, I piled up a plate of sushi to take back to our cabin to enjoy on our balcony. This was usually right around "sail away" each day. That fresh sushi was a wonderful surprise to have available every day! I would have loved (sushi nerd alert) big, fat Sashimi, but was happy for the Nigiri...I just left a lot of rice behind.

The pizza was great, too. There were four kinds every day - Pepperoni, Cheese, Veggie, and the daily special. My husband usually had a couple slices of the daily special when I had my pile o sushi. Oh! And the ice cream! That was fantastic. There was such a great variety of flavors and they changed daily. You can get a little cone or a cup with toppings. Also, regarding the toppings, I overheard one guest approach the ice cream station and ask for "just some sour patch kids" - so if you've got a candy craving, stop there for a handful of M&M's, Reese's Pieces, or Sour Patch Kids (or some other sour gummy candy). There's also gelato available next to Cafe al Bacio on Deck 5, but there is an additional fee for it and the included ice cream was so good, I didn't feel compelled to pay extra for gelato.

We also ate breakfast at the buffet a couple of times, but I have to confess, we only ever made it out of bed in time for "late breakfast" which is a limited breakfast offering available between 10:30 and 11:30. Still, we were happy with scrambled eggs and salsa, bacon (good bacon! not all fatty!), sausage, and McDonalds-like hash-brown patties. This is good "we were up until 3 am" breakfast food.

I had lunch from the AquaSpa Cafe a couple of times and I wish I had been responsible enough to get there in time to try their breakfast. Lunch is available until 2-ish. The chicken salad was SO GOOD and there was also a really tasty quinoa salad. My favorite offering was a peach bread pudding. Eggy and peachy and not too sweet. Who knew wet bread could taste so delicious? A word of warning...I tried a Detox Smoothie. It was kind of awful. While I was pretending to be healthy, my husband was getting a hamburger or hot-dog and fries at the Grill near the main pool. They were good. Just know that the burgers are NOT cooked "to order" - my husband was entertained by the people in line ahead of him asking for a "medium" or "medium rare" burger that was obviously being prepared exactly the same as every burger before and after. He wasn't asked "how would you like that cooked?" which was just fine. Forewarned is forearmed. :)

Finally - Room Service. We had room service breakfast on our first two mornings. Scrambled eggs with asparagus and mushrooms and a ham & cheese omelette, bacon, sausage, coffee, and apple juice. It's kind of a blur (the knock on the door was our wake-up call), but it was good. Breakfast in bed (or on the veranda) is always good.

That was a lot more than I imagined I'd say about food, so I'm calling it a night. I'll be back soonish to prattle on about the FUN we had on board!

~ Jessica

Thanks for all of the encouragement, everyone! This is fun...it's like I get to keep living it even though it's over! :D

First, to answer some questions. I'm sorry if I'm not tagging or notifying people correctly. I speak Facebook far more fluently than I speak Cruise Critic.

@forceten: I can't say definitively, but I feel pretty confident saying that "yes" you can bring a blow dryer from home. I think people would go INSANE if they couldn't. I brought a straightening iron from home and it was just fine.

@poffles: We've sailed NCL on the Norwegian Epic (like you!), Royal Caribbean on the Liberty of the Seas, and the Allure of the Seas, Princess on the Ruby Princess and I've been by my lonesome on Holland America on the Westerdam (long ago and far away). All have been Caribbean itineraries. We're from Minnesota. We only ever want to go places where it is tropical. :) We've had a blast on every cruise.

The Epic really stands out has having outstanding venues and entertainment, but I did miss the formal nights. I (and especially my husband) did appreciate the relaxed atmosphere, but I secretly kind of like forcing the hubby into a coat and tie every now and then. We love Royal Caribbean - they are FUN all the time...non stop...I'd sail them again in a heartbeat. But I've heard it described here on Cruise Critic that where RCI is WOW...Celebrity is Ahhhh. And that is a PERFECT differentiator (made up word according to spell check). We've had a crazy winter with work and weather and life and were desperately in need of an "Ahhhh" vacation. We loved on Celebrity how there was always something to do - if we wanted to do something. We appreciated the absence of belly flop competitions. :) I like a good belly-flop competition as much as anyone, but I didn't miss it this time around.

Another big factor for us, I think, is that on this cruise we only left the ship ONCE! We only got off at Barbados. We did a Beach Break excursion through Celebrity which was delightful and easy. And after that, we just chilled on the ship. It was quiet and peaceful and easy. We'd been to St Maarten and St Thomas before. We also feel certain we'll be back again, so we don't feel like we "missed" anything in staying on board the whole time.

Additionally, the food was the best we've experienced, and we had a great time interacting with the staff and participating in different activities (I'll say more about that in my "Part 3" post).

@Corgis mom: Yes! There was escargot on the menu on the 2nd formal night (second to last night of the cruise). Delicious!

Part 1:

Today marks one week since my hubby and I disembarked from what we agree was the best cruise of our lives. It's taken this long to even almost, sort-of, adjust back to "life as usual". I'm not going to lie. Life on a the Summit beats life in the Real World any day! I've never written a cruise review before, but we had such a wonderful time, I want to share our experience with you! As I write this, I'm trying to keep in mind questions/comments I read during my pre-cruise research here on Cruise Critic. I tend to use more words than necessary, so please bear with me and my stream of consciousness. :)

We flew Delta non-stop from Minneapolis to San Juan on the day of departure. Typically, we like to arrive in our embarkation destination a day early just in case there are any silly weather or mechanical issues that delay our flight, so I was a little stressed this time around at not having much of a time-buffer, especially considering the ridiculous winter we've had.

Fortunately, there was nothing to worry about. We arrived in San Juan right on schedule at 3 pm, claimed our baggage and went off in search of a taxi. I'm SO glad we didn't pay extra for cruise line or pre-arranged transportation to the pier. We just followed the taxi signs from baggage claim and quickly realized that the "official" taxi people were all wearing matching bright green t-shirts. They directed us into the taxi queue, counted our bags (3) and wrote up a receipt for us for $24 -- $19 plus $1 per bag. As soon as our taxi arrived, someone guided us to it and away we went. Easy as pie. The ride to the pier couldn't have taken more than 20 minutes.

Embarkation was a breeze. We'd booked a GTY Concierge Class stateroom, not so much for the CC "perks" but because it was the best price we could find for a veranda stateroom with a guaranteed unobstructed view. We ended up in a category C3, Stateroom 8177, which unbeknownst to us was perfect as it was Aft and we spent the majority of our time on the Aft end of the ship. However, the Concierge Class moniker came in handy at embarkation when we got to hop into the specially designated queue which was empty...as compared to the main queue which was about 20 people deep. We got on the ship and were greeted with smiles and champagne.

Once on board, our first order of business was to purchase a Premium Beverage Package. The route onto the ship led us through the Martini Bar on Deck 4 where a station was set up where we were able to easily purchase our package. We opted to do this on board as opposed to in advance because we had $175 in on-board credit and wanted to apply it to the drink package. The price on board is currently exactly the same as it is if you purchase in advance...$59 per person per day for the Premium package (we didn't qualify for any of the 1,2,3 or Pick Your Perk promos). This is a question I read MANY times here on CC. At one time, it may have been less to purchase in advance (and that may very well happen again some day) but currently, there is no advantage to purchasing in advance. Another reason I wanted to wait until we were on board to purchase is because I couldn't find clear information regarding refunds in the event of an unexpected or emergency cancellation. We had travel insurance to cover the cost of the cruise and airfare, and I didn't want to pay more for insurance just to cover an $800 beverage package.

A quick additional note about the beverage package: For us, it was worth every penny. We've considered and declined similar beverage package opportunities on other cruises, but having paid those final statements, we can't kid ourselves anymore about how much we end up drinking on vacation. (For the record...this doesn't ONLY mean alcohol. :) We also enjoyed unlimited bottled water, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, Americanos from Cafe al Bacio, and smoothies at the AquaSpa Cafe.) However, the glorious bonus to to beverage package was the number of top-shelf options available: Hendricks, Makers Mark and Grey Goose topped our list.

Stateroom Check. Our stateroom was perfect. I've read things here about the rooms seeming "tired" or "dated". I think the only way a person could think that is if they walked into the room already believing that and determined to find proof of it. It wasn't until after the cruise that I even remembered reading those comments. It never crossed my mind. The bed and pillows were comfortable. There was ample lighting and closet space. The bathroom amenities were just what I would have wanted (shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and lotion). There was enough room for the two of us to move around at the same time. The balcony was sweet and comfortable for eating breakfast or relaxing in the afternoon. Our stateroom attendant, Julio, was delightful and very patient with us. We had a knack for staying up very late and then sleeping until at least 10:30 (one day, we slept until noon). And yet, no matter what time we rolled out of bed, when we came "home" next, our bed was made up and everything was tidy.

A note about stateroom amenities for the ladies (and some gentlemen, I suppose, to be fair): Bring your own blow drier if you use one (I did not)!! They do provide one (thankfully) but it is terrible. Very low powered and you have to hold it "on" manually the whole time. I don't slight Celebrity for this, safety first and all that, but if you can fit one in your suitcase - do it.

Okay...time for a pause. If you're still with me, I'll be back with an overview of the Food (delicious!), Entertainment (fun!), and Staff (delightful!).

~ Jessica

Thanks for all the great tips! Leaving on Friday for our first voyage on the Epic!! Can't wait! I'm determined to come home on Dec 8 with at least ONE new and helpful tip. :D