jasbo49

...plus "Most cruise lines..." is an extreme exaggeration.

Can you define "extreme exaggeration"? I can define "most cruise lines": Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, Holland America and I believe Disney allow at least two bottles of wine without a corkage fee (correct me if I'm wrong). Royal Caribbean is even stingier than NCL. Last I heard it was "bring no booze, period."

And I've been known to pour a glass of wine in our cabin and take it to the MDR for dinner. Yes, we're thrifty, but that's how we have the money to cruise.

Jim

 

I think your observations are spot on except for the furnishings. That varies by ship. If you like curvy, I think the Epic has that on lock.

I should have been more specific on the "square and metal" furnishings. Mostly it's the cabins, and a little bit the seating in the buffet area.

If you compare balcony cabin pictures between NCL and Princess (or almost any other major line), you'll see NCL's tables, chairs and bedside tables are just plain plain. They're functional but ugly. There are worse things, but it's noticeable.

Jim

Thanks for all the info. We'd never need 12 but it's good to know we could take that many if we needed too.

At 15 bucks a throw I'd think they'd be glad to let you bring anything aboard. NCL is out of step with the industry on this. Most cruise lines allow you to bring two regular bottles of wine aboard with no charge if you consume them in your cabin.

Jim

Thanks for the replies. Maybe my biggest concern is the main theater (I guess that's the Stardust on the Dawn). Is it cramped like the one on the Jewel?

Jim

Hello all. My wife and I have been on just one NCL cruise, the Jewel to Alaska in late spring 2012. But on that cruise we got some impressions in relation to our other cruises, more on Carnival than others, but five lines. I'm curious to know whether others would be able to confirm these recollections or correct them.

Here goes:

1. Entertainment overall seemed superior to Carnival, Princess and any other line we've been on. Partly the production shows, but mostly the individual acts (Fire & Ice, magician-comedian J.P. a hypnotist whose name escapes me).

2. The main theater seemed really cramped. Never seen so many seats squeezed together with no room to move. Much tighter than any other cruise ship we've sailed.

3. Buffet seemed more interesting that other lines, with more "action stations," as they call them. Not just omlets at breakfast, but fresh pasta at lunch or dinner and other things.

4. While the buffet impressed us, the MDR didn't seem to offer anything remarkable. There were some fish entrees we enjoyed (maybe because we were in Alaska), but really nothing else memorable. This is an issue to us because we don't eat at the extra-charge places.

5. The furnishings in cabins and some other places seemed kind of Spartan. More metal than wood, more square than rounded.

6. More small, intimate spaces and fewer huge, grand ones? Again, just an impression.

So I'm curious whether people think these seem on the mark, or whether they are notions that came from one ship, one cruise and aren't accurate.

Jim

I'm glad you enjoyed the slideshows. I'll pass on your comments to my wife. It's great to know they helped you make a decision. Take lots of pictures. Happy cruising!

Let me throw in my thanks, too. I checked out those two slideshows plus Tulum and decided Lamanai, which I'd barely heard of, appealed most to me. Tulum looked like a mob scene.

Thanks again. We too are ...

Jim and Nancy

No Captain Circle party but you do get one voucher for a free drink.

The voucher is only if you're Platinum or Elite. The Captain's Circle host told me that we wouldn't get one (as Gold) even though lots of literature said we would.

Jim

Seems like a lot of angst over a free bottle of very bad sparkling wine.

More about honesty, I think.

Jim

We returned from the Golden B2B a week ago. Just thought I'd close the loop on this since I posed the question to start with. On our cruise they had the stairs to deck 8 chained off every time I looked, so the Promenade did not go all the way around the ship.

On the Sun Deck, you could also walk part way around but eventually the path led indoors to some suites. So realistically there was nowhere on the ship where you could walk or run a loop, at least when I was there.

Jim

You could switch over to anytime dining, then go either early or late. If you like the serving team you get, you can ask for them again on succeeding nights. This will put you pretty close to what you wanted to begin with. We had anytime dining on our recent cruise and were always able to get a table for two at dinner.

The only way this would backfire is if you decided you wanted to eat at 7 or something. Generally the tables are full until the early diners clear out.

Jim

Plus an excellent Yiddish word to boot!

And a few days ago, she (she? not sure) managed to use "vituperative" in a sentence. Nice.

Jim

We always book a balcony when we can . We're not affluent. We just have a rule (so far) that we won't spent over $100 pp per night. If we can't get a balcony for that, we'll look for another cruise.

Jim

Interesting info on the pools. On our Oct. 13 cruise, I tried the aft pool on Aloha deck and it was pretty close to frigid. I couldn't stay in it long enough to get acclimated.

Jim

I'm on the Golden right now. Two things: we left port at 5:30 pm, somewhat earlier than has been usual. Just before we sailed yesterday, I saw a guy escorted off in handcuffs. It was exciting! No idea what he did.

Cool. Just when you think they've run out of reasons to sail late comes a new one: We had to wait for the cops to come round up the ne'er-do-wells.

Seriously, I'm glad you guys got to sail away in the daylight and enjoy it.

Jim

The Royal and the Regal have amazing buffet's. They are well laid out with rows for you to go down. No one could say you couldn't find anything to eat. Then also what is great is it's easy to find a vacant table because they put in more then any other ship. I usually do not eat in the buffet but while on the Royal I was in seventh heaven.

Well, I may have to rethink my aversion to the mega-ships. I've just considered those two too big.

Jim

Multiple stations are WAY better.

I agree that multiple stations or islands is best. What they had here was multiple lines colliding in the middle.

Jim

Jim,

Could you give a little explanation of what you are looking for. We have sailed the Ocean a number of times and never felt pitted against other passengers. However, I can't say of she has the arrangement you want.

Thanks, Paul. My problem with the Golden layout was that each side (port and starboard) had two different entries that met in the middle. When you got there you ran into people coming from the other entry. You simply couldn't follow one line through all the selections.

I don't have a particular arrangement in mind, but I'd never seen a buffet so poorly designed from a traffic flow standpoint. The best buffet I've seen, by far, was the Norwegian Jewel, where it was all islands and probably was twice as big as the Golden's spread with lots of "action stations" for custom-made items.

Jim

Having just finished 7 days on the Golden Princess, I'm determined to book our next cruise on a ship that has a well-engineered buffet. Any thoughts out there?

I'm told the Golden's approach of pitting grazer against grazer isn't repeated on later ships. Does that mean you have to go with the newest and largest ships? I really don't want the Regal or Royal and would like to try one of the smaller ships (Pacific, Ocean, Island, Coral) but I guess those aren't likely to have updated buffets. Thanks in advance.

Jim

I can't tell you the menus, other than to say day one will feature prime rib. What I can tell you is that if you don't call the DINE line the day you board, you probably won't get in at all.

We called fairly early on Day Two (the first full day) and there were no reservations available for that night or the next.

Jim

I received an "emergency notification" not to arrive before 12:30 for the October 27th voyage.

 

Please consider a cruise to Hawaii on the Grand or the Star with ELUA or Dave Cole. I believe you will enjoy the experience.

The "emergency notification" is just the standard non-emergency spreading out of arrivals.

We did have David Cole as the cruise director, and I should have mentioned he was good. I did mention it on the Princess survey. I find most cruise directors grating with their endless rah-rah, and David was a little more subdued and dignified. Next trip for us is likely to be Panama Canal or Alaska. For us, Hawaii is about plopping down in one place for two weeks of exploration and relaxation, not the port-of-the-day approach.

Jim

Hopefully we'll sail on time today! :)

Let us know if you get a chance, OK? I'm curious to know. I never did figure out whether the ship sailed on time for the Oct. 20 cruise.

Jim

OK, time to finish up. I'll apologize in advance, again, for talking more about problems than bright spots. As a former newspaper editor, I find looking for trouble comes naturally.

THE BUFFET FROM HELL: Apparently newer Princess ships have better organization and traffic patterns, but those sailing on the Golden should know this is one poorly designed and chaotic buffet. You can enter the main food line from either of two directions, but once you get to the middle, you'll run into people who came in the other way. No matter which way you go, you're convinced that everyone else is going the wrong direction -- or maybe you are.

While breakfast was good, lunch sometimes had little that looked appetizing, just a lot of generic-looking stuff on trays. One day I decided since nothing looked good, I'd just have a big salad. My plan was foiled when I discovered there was no lettuce. There were six or eight bowls of spinach, but no lettuce of any kind. I asked the buffet host whether they could scare some up and he went back to inquire. I asked three different people over a 10-minute period, and no one could seem to find any lettuce. I finally piled a bunch of spinach on my plate and of course that's when the lettuce showed up -- along with a dozen other people who pounced on it. They had all been waiting for lettuce too, but not saying anything.

The Horizon Court lunch buffet is open until 3:30 p.m., according to the Princess Prattle. So why is it that if you arrive at 2, they're pulling the trays and closing it down? My wife asked one day, and they said they were getting ready for tea. I wouldn't think it would take them an hour and a half to remove the lunch food and replace it with crumpets or whatever they serve, but if it does, they should note in their newsletter that lunch is available only until 2.

YOU CAN TRASH CARNIVAL, BUT: On Princess, if you don't want the buffet and the MDR isn't open for lunch, your only choices are burgers, pizza and a pre-made sandwich at the International Café. On the same Carnival ships that many bad-mouth, you'd have a sandwich deli, Mongolian grill and burrito bar as choices along with burgers and pizza. Princess should offer some of these custom stations along with the other options.

ENTERTAINMENT SO-SO: We really enjoyed the British Invasion production show, and thought Caliente was pretty good. The mariachi group that played around the ship was fitting on a cruise to Mexico. The comic and the magician, however, were not so hot. I'm not sure whether this fits under entertainment or not, but I wish there had been some kind of enrichment activities or lectures. I know you'd get more of that in Alaska, or on a canal or transatlantic cruise, but some kind of talks that weren't aimed at selling anything would be nice.

QUARRELSOME CREW? Most of the crew we interacted with were great, but my wife and I each witnessed shouting matches between crew members. I'm sure people working long hours in close quarters are going to have problems now and then, but they really should keep it away from the customers. On the bright side, both of our room stewards and most of the waiters were great. One waitress, Sladjana ("No one can pronounce it; they just call me lasagna") was particularly fun.

STRAY FOOD NOTES: If you've got two hours to blow, go to breakfast in the MDR. I'm serious; it took two hours for us to order, receive and eat our food. Someone at our table suggested, "Maybe we should order lunch too while we're here." As you've probably read elsewhere, if you like real coffee, you should buy a coffee card. The stuff they serve at the buffet and in the MDR is from a syrup. In other words, it's instant coffee, and it tastes like Folgers Crystals, or whatever. I'd heard the card was $31, but on our cruise it was $29, probably because it was a short cruise.

IN TRANSIT: It's really no fault of Princess, but the process of getting out of our cabin, waiting to get off, going through Customs and getting back on the ship took three hours. That was largely because of a backup at Customs, and most of our wait was in comfort, but it's still three lost hours. My advice to anyone waiting for disembarkation or waiting for the turnaround on a B2B is to go to the back of the Wheelhouse Bar. It was nice and quiet and comfortable.

So, to wrap it up, despite all our fault finding, we got a couple of future cruise certificates and will cruise Princess again. I think I'll be more careful to pick a ship without the hellish buffet, though. And I'd say we're finished with the shorties.

Jim

Thank you for the review of the excursion. My DH asked me to book this for our sailing next month but I was skeptical. Now I know better and saved a few dollars. Think I'll stay on the ship and do my own wine tasting:D!

I missed your post while I was writing mine. Even though we didn't go to the actual winery, we enjoyed the tour. We had a smart and enthusiastic guide, Belen, who made it fun. In addition to the tasting room, which was not that exciting, it went to Riviera del Pacifico, a depression-era casino, now a civic center and museum with some interesting shopping in the courtyard. And we got a mini-tour of Ensenada.

While it wasn't all we'd hoped for, it's hard to beat $29 for a three-hour ship-sanctioned tour.

Jim

I hope you made the appropriate comments on the post cruise survey Princess should have e-mailed to you.

Yes, I was pretty clear on the survey, though they seemed to have a word limit on some of their "essay questions." My wife wanted to fill one out too -- since they sent us each one -- but when she went to fill it out, it said they'd already heard from us. Oh, well.

To respond to other comments along the way:

-- I did visit the shore excursions desk after the tour and the guy there really didn't seem to understand or care about the distinction between a winery and a tasting room. I should point out too that the excursion (Bodegas de Santo Tomas) was actually pretty enjoyable, largely because of Belen, the tour guide. Just wish we'd gone to an actual winery.

-- For those who suggested I shouldn't complain about the late sailing (I guess that was the part I read as a lecture), my main complaint was that people weren't told. I knew we were leaving late on the first leg, because I'd read it here on CC. Most people didn't have a clue.

Also, I disagree that the only things we missed were shops and casinos and sailing around in circles; we missed the event of sailaway, the sense of beginning a journey. It's hard to celebrate that at 11:54 p.m. (OK, keep it clean.)

-- It's nice for some people that they are not bothered by repeated sales pitches at the dinner table, but we were.

So now that I'm over my little snit about getting lectured, I'll try to finish up later. Thanks for hearing me out.

Jim

Hello all. Apparently the Princess faithful don't like hearing anything critical. I was 30 minutes into take 2 when I hit the wrong button and lost it all. But given the defensive tone of many here, I think I'll just keep the rest to myself. I really don't need the lectures.

I'll just say that the buffet is build for chaos. If no one ever points out problems, Princess won't know what to fix.

Jim