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SuiteCruiser

By SuiteCruiser,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Spaniel Lover

Spaniel Lover

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Regarding the fact that you had two different incidents where you keycard would not work...

 

Are you storing your keycard within a few inches of your phone? I'm not sure if NCL's keycards use a magnetic strip like Carnival's do... but I learned the hard way on Carnival that I should not keep my keycard in my shirt pocket next to my cell phone. The routine transmissions that the cell phone makes even when you are not using it will wipe out the data on the magnetic strip on the keycard.

 

Now I generally keep my cell phone shut off and stored in the cabin safe. On days when I do want to carry my phone for some reason, I put the phone in my pants pocket and the keycard in my shirt pocket. I have not had any further problems with keycards since I started doing this.

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Day 2

 

Woke up feeling awful. Assumed it was that last margarita ;) and went back to sleep for awhile. Woke up again and felt fine, but tired, so did a little bit of work, caught up on email and then back to sleep. Woke up very nauseas and then got sick. I couldn't believe it, after all of these years, I was seasick. Back to bed, and woke and felt a bit better, by this time it was 3:30 PM. It took every ounce of strength to get my self up, cleaned up and upstairs to join the others.

 

Played for a little bit, and then went to meet up for a drink at Tobacco Rd before dinner. I got there first and ordered a soft drink, people watched for about 10 minutes and then had to send my friends a message that I was going to lie down again, and hoped to make it to dinner, but wasn't sure.

 

I slept for about twenty minutes, but it was enough to perk me up to go to our dinner at Le Bistro.

 

Ran into another friend outside of the restaurant who said they'd been in bed sick all day, and had never been seasick either. The seas are about 24 ft, but the ships seems to be corkscrewing more than just side to side or front to back, and that may be why it's affecting more people. A lot of the staff are feeling it too.

 

Dinner consisted of a bowl of french onion soup, which was way better than the old version, lots more cheese in this one and the broth was nice and light. I didn't feel up to eating anything more, so due to the a la carte system, my dinner was $3.99 plus tip.

 

The others had escargot, veal, filet, creme brûlée, and some chocolate hazelnut dessert and all was fantastic. Judy's filet was the best ever.

 

We went back to the casino for while and I went to bed around midnight, straight to sleep and slept all night. Woke up nauseas again, and back to sleep until noon, then woke up feeling great.

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Regarding the fact that you had two different incidents where you keycard would not work...

 

Are you storing your keycard within a few inches of your phone? I'm not sure if NCL's keycards use a magnetic strip like Carnival's do... but I learned the hard way on Carnival that I should not keep my keycard in my shirt pocket next to my cell phone. The routine transmissions that the cell phone makes even when you are not using it will wipe out the data on the magnetic strip on the keycard.

 

Now I generally keep my cell phone shut off and stored in the cabin safe. On days when I do want to carry my phone for some reason, I put the phone in my pants pocket and the keycard in my shirt pocket. I have not had any further problems with keycards since I started doing this.

 

My phone and my keycard are close together in my purse, but it seems to be fine now, they were having some issues with them early on, many people needed muliple cards

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Just a couple of extra random things:

 

My oceanview cabin came with the usual soap dispenser by the sink, shampoo/condiioner and shower gel in the bath/shower, but also came with a bar of soap and a body lotion, which is great

 

Lots of teething issues onboard, the District Brewhouse has several taps with nothing in them, many beers are not available, they're down to only a few types of white wine anywhere on board, which is ridiculous. All of the prebooked shows needed to be changed, meaning some ended up double booked and all of everyone's planning was out the window.

 

They are now charging for items in the Main Dining Room, which is incredibly chintzy

 

Bar staff in the casino are much quicker than before, not sure about the waitstaff in general, but I"m usually in charge of the bell at my table, and have only rung it a few times this whole cruise.

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Thanks for the updates. Do you see any signs of the casino remodel, in order to provide a separate smoking area? Do they have a portion of the casino blocked off for it? How are the machines playing - winning anything?

 

The aft pit is the most sensible, the one not around the atrium, and it could be closed in. No sign of any of that work, likely nothing will move forward until after Miami.

 

Machines have been okay, Judy won $1600 on a machine last night. Interesting note, NCL asked for ID and since she could show she was Canadian and lived in Canada, there was no tax witheld. We don't pay taxes on lottery or gambling wins. I thought they would tax us, then we'd have to file to get the taxes back. Much easier this way.

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TraJon9

TraJon9

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I must tell you I love your reviews.. We are casino people, maybe that is why. Plus you all seem to roll with it (probably not the best choice of wording right now with the seasick).. I went back and read your past reviews so I would understand who you were surprising "Judy". I am turning 45 next week so I know how these trips become more enjoyable as we get better.. Cough, age. I do miss your gay husband, I assume they could not join in on the fun.

 

I think my favorite was your villa with penis everywhere.. Hysterical!

 

This must be really different being on the first voyage. The new must be fantastic but along comes the bugs they need to work out..

 

Good luck in the casino!! If you know anyone with bonine it takes the edge off without the sleep induced effects.

 

I will be enjoying your vacation as you report in. Well until Sunday, we leave on the Breakaway. CAS cruise but then we got a offer to upsell to the Haven.. I am excited to relax there next week..

 

~Tracy

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Day 3

 

Walked up to the UTH table and played a couple of hands, then said to the guy at the end "what's your name?", he said "Steven" and I said "I thought so! So great to finally meet you Steve, I'm Sally, Suitecruiser" We've chatted a lot over years, and I was happy to finally meet him. We played most of the afternoon, good cards, bad cards, lots of laughs, lots more to come too.

 

Mindi and I grabbed a quick bite in O'Sheehan's because I had to go back and get ready for Halloween. I had a burger and I must say they've been really good. Mindi had the shepherd's pie, and we went off to get ready.

 

We were meeting in the Skyline bar at 7:00 to our annual invite to join the Friends of Dorothy clan's halloween party and parade. Lots of really great costumes this year. Mine was the Queen of Hearts, a fairly elaborate gown, with hooped petticoat. It took up valuable suitcase space, but I'm a fairly light packer, flew business, so the extra weight wasn't an issue. I had a gold crown with hearts on it, and a scepter.

 

Mindi was an angel/devil half and half and Judy was a gold digger. Our friend Jason was a tree with a carefully located Squirrel coming out of a hole, holding onto a bag of peanuts and he had a sign "Want to see my nuts?" Well, poor Jason should have worn a cup, because he had a lot of people grabbing his squirrel through the night ;).

 

2 great group costumes, an amazing Village People group who were bang on, and Scooby Doo with the whole gang. Thelma was well played by my friend Brian, who looked good in a short skirt.

 

Steven and Daniel were salt and pepper shakers, and very cute. A Jack Sparrow that was so well done, Chad and Alessio were a steak and a butcher, everyone did a really great job.

 

Around 7:45 we started our parade beginning with Manhattan, where we were met with cheers and clapping, onto Taste, where someone was giving out treats, through Savour and then out to the Atrium. The rest of the gang continued to the Supper Club that had been closed and turned into a haunted house. We didn't go in, as I'd been standing much longer than I should have, but apparently it was really good, and very scary. Nice touch NCL :)

 

Back to the tables, where I lost a bit of money, but nothing big, still was playing with my original money, so that was good. The casino staff was not in costume this time, it wasn't planned ahead, and they'd been onboard in Germany, and there was nowhere nearby to get a costume anyway.

 

I have this one dealer that I've know for years, first met him on the Sky and he's really nice, and we played together a lot, I will call him Dealer so as not to get anyone in trouble. Next time I saw him was on the Jewel in Dec 2012 and he came over for hugs, and asked about my kids and specifics on my business, which always surprises me with the number of people the dealers see. His then girlfriend was a supervisor who was kidding around that she was jealous of Dealer and I. Of course there was never anything going on with us and I thought it was funny at the time. So the first night the dealer with his back to us gets up to switch tables and comes over to say hello, and it's Dealer :) I asked him about his girlfriend and he says they aren't together anymore, but she's here. I saw her from across the pit, so went over to say hi and remind her where we'd met. She said "Oh, I know who you are" and walked away. I was dumbfounded. I know most of the casino staff on board and have a great reputation with them.

 

Well tonight I was playing at a table with Dealer and the plastic heart fell out of my scepter at the end of the night. I gave it to him and told him he could put it on his wall as decoration in his cabin. He got the okay from the pit supervisor, we were laughing because it's a worthless piece of plastic, but it was funny. Later his ex comes by, picks it up, and gives it back to me and says "I believe this belongs to you" I laughed and took it, but gave it back to Dealer. He finished his shift and said we was putting it on his wall with all of his other hearts LOL.

 

I'm hoping she's joking, but she's becoming frostier and frostier. I'm trying hard to be nice to her to warm her up a bit, but I don't think it's working.

 

Mindi and I went to O'Sheehan's again for a midnight snack, I tried the new fajitas on the menu, but they taste like a stirfry and not real fajita taste, but were okay. Off to bed around 1:00, and another clock set back night :)

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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I must tell you I love your reviews.. We are casino people, maybe that is why. Plus you all seem to roll with it (probably not the best choice of wording right now with the seasick).. I went back and read your past reviews so I would understand who you were surprising "Judy". I am turning 45 next week so I know how these trips become more enjoyable as we get better.. Cough, age. I do miss your gay husband, I assume they could not join in on the fun.

 

I think my favorite was your villa with penis everywhere.. Hysterical!

 

This must be really different being on the first voyage. The new must be fantastic but along comes the bugs they need to work out..

 

Good luck in the casino!! If you know anyone with bonine it takes the edge off without the sleep induced effects.

 

I will be enjoying your vacation as you report in. Well until Sunday, we leave on the Breakaway. CAS cruise but then we got a offer to upsell to the Haven.. I am excited to relax there next week..

 

~Tracy

 

How sweet are you! I know my style of writing is not for everyone, too many details, so I love hearing nice feedback :) So glad you enjoyed the rest of our adventures too, we always have so much fun and meet amazing people. Would be great to cruise with you sometime.

 

Have an amazing cruise on the Breakaway next week, we finish on Sunday, which will be sad, the days are just flying by. I'm a full day behind on my blog, but can't seem to find the time to do it. If the weather was nice, I'd be in Vibe updating.

 

The Eric(k)s have kind of dropped off of the face of the earth, but Allen and Scott are still very close friends. We were down in Nashville twice this year to stay with them, and they were up in Ottawa twice, also did two cruises with Allen.

 

Thanks to others too for your comments, I really appreciate it. Nice to know I'm not just talking to myself on here :)

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emcelh

emcelh

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Thanks....

so with the exception of Prime Rib, entrees that haven't been offered in awhile.

 

I thought I read on another thread that the prime rib is a larger cut than what they had on the regular menu. Is that true Suitecruiser?

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Day 4

 

Slept late again, the seas are still quite rough, which makes sleeping really easy because you're constantly being rocked and the beds are very comfy.

 

Went the the casino and could not hit a thing, it was a pure donation day. My supervisor woman came to our table and looked at my purse that has a big fake diamond on it and said "I see you like stones" I said "yes" and she said "try not to lose that one" I laughed and Judy told me not to engage with her, that I should just not talk to her when she comes and stands beside me (which is a lot). I'm not sure I'm capable of that though, but I'll try a bit more.

 

Lunch was at Margaritaville which was really great. Very impressed with the food and the service. They have the entrance set up from the outside, so you come in and have to walk through to the outside, even on days like today, where it's raining! The staff are in rain jackets and the other downside is that it blocks up the jogging track if you're waiting to get in. They should move the check in spot to the inside door which alleviates both of these problems.

 

I had the fish tacos, which were fantastic, Mindi had the conch fritters and pretzel sticks and Wayne had a club sandwich. All were really, really good.

 

Back to the casino for another large donation, and then to dinner at Cagneys with Judy, Gavin and Mindi. We had to a wait a few minutes even with a reservation, but it wasn't very long. We told the waiter that Mindi and I were a la carte, and Judy and Gavin were on the SDP, and they asked if there were any restrictions. He said they could order as much of anything that they wanted, which was great. The service was good, though it was a long time between ordering and getting our apps. I had the baked potato soup and the prime rib. Soup was the same as other trips to Cagney's, and the Prime Rib was amazing. Best I've ever had, side of au jus, horseradish. Mindi had the crab cakes as her main as she has no appetite, but said they were really good too. Gavin had the oyster Rockefeller to start, bone in rib eye, and a bunch of sides and all were great. Judy also had the oysters and then had the lobster, which was also really great. Only bad thing was that out of the 2 plates of oysters, each plate only had one oyster, the other two shells actually only had the toppings on them, which is very strange, either an error, or like most other things on this ship, perhaps they are running out. We told the waiter who offered to get new ones, but it wasn't that big a deal and there was plenty of food. We just wanted him to tell the chef, so they are a little more diligent about it. If someone was paying a la carte for those, they'd be a bit more upset.

 

Judy and Gavin had the SDP, and Judy had a big hand pay win of $1600 yesterday and told Mindi and I as we got out our cards to pay ours a la carte that she was treating which was very sweet. When the bills came, the waiter said, I only put the mains on the 2nd bill, all else he put on SDP, so that was really nice of him. Not to be expected going forward, but for sure a nice gesture.

 

Back down to the casino as I was sure my luck would have changed, but no, it hadn't. Off to bed for another sleep.

 

The weather has really been cruddy, looking forward to some days of lying in the sun.

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Day 5

 

Woke up early today and got cleaned up and headed to the casino, thinking that my luck had to have changed. Saw Steven (sjbdtz) and sat and played with him for awhile. No luck still. Moved around to different tables, and nothing was happening.

 

Saw my friend Jason and we grabbed Judy,Gavin Mindi and Jason and Barb and headed back up to Margaritaville for lunch again. We shared the nachos, which were really good, then I had the fish tacos again, they were so yummy, and others had the volcano burger, conch fritters, pretzel sticks and all were declared fantastic. It's finally sunny today, but 55F, so chilly, with a fair bit of wind, so everyone was bundled up in jackets.

 

Back to the casino and back to no luck. Mindi and I went to pay three card and a game we've called "Yell at the Dealer" where we only play the bonus spots (pair plus-looking for a pair or better, and 6 card-looking for a good 5 card poker hand with our hands and the dealer's cads), and play blind. We only play our version when no one else is playing because it slows down the game. Since we're playing blind, we have the dealer reveal our cards one at a time and we both call out what we want to see. So if the dealer already has two threes on the table, we will call out Three three three until he flips a card, and if it's a king, we'll yell King King King, and if the last card is a Jack, we'll yell Queen Queen Queen to try and make a straight. The dealer, Mindi and I are laughing our asses off and it's really fun, especially if you've been losing because we'll only play $5 or $10 a hand, and it's exciting. A gentleman came to join us and we were going to stop and just play normally, but he was playing blind on the full game and he got right into it too, and he was doing really well. Suddenly we had a huge crowd behind us all watching us and cheering us on. It was really fun. I still lost, but we had a riot, and the casino staff loved it too.

 

We played an "emergency slot session" rather than having an "emergency nap" as Judy coined it. Sometimes we need to break up our table time, especially if it's not going well. We played a few machines, and I broke even, cashed out and we saw Wayne and we all went to dinner at Food Republic.

 

You order your food all on the iPads there, pay for it, except for drinks if you're on UBP, you have to have the wait staff get that for you. You can order drinks on it if you're paying for them though. Wayne's iPad didn't work, so the waitress came over and helped him reboot and eventually took his order. Mindi used the one I was using after I'd cashed out, and it needed rebooting too, so there are some glitches there on the IT side. There are no glitches at all on the food side, though. It's really really good. My new favourite is the buffalo shrimp, covered in crumbled blue cheese. The shrimp are deep fried in batter, then covered in buffalo sauce and then the cheese. So amazing.

 

Back again to the casino and played Let It Ride with Nash, one of my favourite dealers from the Epic and won a full house :) Phew. What a long dry spell of losing. Then onto UTH and Jose, another Epic dealer, whose new name is Jose, and his name is actually Raoul. I met him 3 Epic cruises ago and nicknamed him Jose, because he has a Spanish name, but isn't Spanish, so I just gave him another Spanish name. He loves it and now the dealers all call him Jose. Well I sit down with Jose and 4 hands in a row, he gives me flushes, straights, full houses, I'm on fire :) Finally making a bit of money, which is nice. He put a flush on the board, so we were all yelling Jose! Jose! Jose!

 

It was really fun, my luck started turning after half an hour or so, so we went off and played some other games. By 10:30 I was falling asleep on my feet, so headed back to my cabin. I put my key card it, and went in, opened the bathroom door and there was a man in there shaving. I screamed, he screamed, his wife screamed and I said OMG, I'm in the wrong cabin, I'm so sorry!! Apparently either our keys are coded the same, or their lock doesn't work. Really threw me off and once I got into my cabin, one set of doors down, with my heart racing, I checked the closets and under the bed before turning the light off.

 

I had very vivid and nasty dreams, so woke up for a few hours in the night, checked on CC to see what was going on and internet surfed for awhile, eventually falling back to sleep with the light on like a child. I woke again wondering what the stupid light was shining in my eyes, finally turned it off and slept well the rest of the night waking early though since I'd gone to bed so early.

 

We also set the clocks back another hour last night. I'm finally all caught up on this, as I was a day behind, so I'm not sure what the day has in store for me, though I'm hoping some big wins are in my future. Still too cold to lay out, but getting better, I'm hopeful for a chance to use my Vibe pass at some point. May ask for a refund, as it's not even set up yet because of the weather. Many others have been refunded. There are still 5 full days left, so maybe I'll get my money's worth.

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whenisthemidnightbuffet?

whenisthemidnightbuffet?

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Sally this review is too funny. Love the Halloween "parade". My husband Scott and I met Steven on our Breakaway cruise a few years ago and spent many nights int he casino together, if you see him again tell him I said Hi! I can't believe you were able to walk into the wrong cabin, wow, I'm sure that couple didn't sleep too well that night either, LOL.

 

Glad you finally had some luck at the tables. Why did Judy not want you to talk to the supervisor, was she cranky or did she just think she was bad luck?

 

Hoping the weather improves for the second half of the cruise.

 

Can't wait to hear more about your sailing, love all of the details and your writing style.

:):):):)

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numberguy

numberguy

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Day 5

 

Woke up early today and got cleaned up and headed to the casino, thinking that my luck had to have changed. Saw Steven (sjbdtz) and sat and played with him for awhile. No luck still. Moved around to different tables, and nothing was happening.

 

Please give Steven our best (Mike and Chad from Illinois). We met him on the Star last year on the Iceland/Ireland/Faroes/Norway/general North and Norwegian Seas cruise. We hope they are doing well.

 

--Michael

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Day 6

 

Okay...so yesterday I had a bath / shower. Afterwards I was sitting on my towel blow drying my hair and my butt was really sore. I thought it was really weird, but thought I'd just been sitting funny or the towel was uncomfortable and didn't think anything about it. Went up to the casino and it hurt again. I was out most of the day, but noticed in the bathroom that my skin was all weird and hard on my rear end. I've never had anything like it, so was totally confused. When I came home last night (late) I looked in the bathtub, and could see the outline of my butt cheeks (TMI) in the tub. Overnight it was itchy and my skin started peeling off. So I just woke and called guest services saying I wasn't sure who to call, but that it appeared there was a corrosive material in their bathtubs, and I was concerned about families bathing their kids and them getting burned. They said "oh, no, that's impossible" and that I should call the medical centre and I said I would, but that I wasn't going to pay for the visit, and there was no offer for them to cover it. I would go mostly to show a nurse my rear end so they knew I wasn't crazy. Nurse said she would call my cabin steward to come to check the tub. Guest services called back again and said someone would come to look at my tub. Now I wait.

 

Back to yesterday...

 

Played a bit before lunch, then went back to Food Republic for those amazing buffalo rock shrimp, Judy had the tiger roll and Mindi had the scallops. All were good, scallops were in overflowing garlic butter in an escargot dish, with two scallops per slot.

 

Back to the tables where we bopped around a bit, up and down, then to the slots for a bit and made $200, back to the tables, and gave away $200, back to the slots to win $200, back to the tables :) I finally played at the UTH table in the aft pit for the first time, and lost my $100. Mindi went to cash in to go back to slots and I decided to put another $40 in (which I never do, I had more than $100 with me) and next had I got a straight flush! $650 :) I really needed that hit :)

 

Back to the other side for a little bit and then off to Tobacco Rd for drinks before dinner at La Cucina. Checked out the shops a bit, we had a late reservation, as Judy and Gavin were at the After Midnight show, which was good.

 

They reported that the other guests were incredibly rude in that the performers were coming out at the end, then off of the stage to the exit to greet people and before they could even do that some people right in front of the stage got up and blocked the end of the show, talked through the whole thing, others pushing their way out. Some people have no class at all. You've got nowhere to be for 5 days. Others in line before hand were saying the food was all terrible, couldn't wait to get off of the ship. Judy doesn't hold back and said "have you tried Food Republic, Margaritaville, Bayamo or Pincho?" but they hadn't. Likely had only been at the buffet.

 

Back to the casino, more up and down, back to bed and just woke up, called guest services and around we go :) Cabin steward and officer just arrived and looked at the tub, guest services will be calling, likely going to send me to medical for inspection LOL. I hope they get that I keep drilling home the worry is more for the little kids next week coming on and taking a bath and getting burned, way more than for just myself.

 

Off to meet Judy and Mindi and Margaritaville for lunch.

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