What is your best/favorite experience ever on an NCL cruise

[herrera139]

Staying in the haven & not having to worry about what to cook! Just sit, order, eat!

 

 

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[kathiewe]

Our first cruise as a family last July on the Sky. It had been over 20 years since I had been on a cruise and DH and DS had never been. We had 4 great days watching the water go by, having romantic dinners, smorkeling, and just relaxing.

 

Before we came home we had already booked 2 additional cruises. Since then we have been back on the Sky, are headed on the Getaway next month, Sky this summer, Dawn next March, and Epic Christmas 18. No doubt there are lots of great memories ahead but it all started with short 4 days on the Sky.

[Grampyb]

I know he is no longer with NCL, but our cruise director on the Spirit, Paul Sacally, was by far the best CD I had ever had, and brought the quality of the entire trip up a couple notches. It seems my DW (girlfriend at the time) and I did get some special attention from him since we met him at the M&M and from there were pretty active in the cruise programming and contests (we even won the "Perfect Couple" competition, which I think his familiarity with us pushed the final decision in our favor), so that may be tinting my opinion of him a bit rosey. Either way, more than any other CD, he seemed to be everywhere at once, and always happy to just have a short conversation or banter with any guests, and he definitely remembered faces quite well and made sure to make many people on ship feel like he was their new best friend.

 

 

 

I was especially impressed when one night he randomly showed up at the night club at 2:30 am and declared an impromptu drink special and did shots with us all, only to see he was hosting some morning calisthenics event 4 hours later up on deck. The dude was a machine, and while I know CC has mixed feelings about his humor/talent as a standup, I found his brand of comedy pretty refreshing for the cruise market at the time (2009).

 

 

Agree 100 percent. He was great! Sailed with him 3 times. Was ever present.

 

 

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[Sally Forth]

We were on the Pride of Hawaii's last cruise in 2008 before it became the Jade. My sisters and I were in the thermal spa tub at the front of the ship all by ourselves. We passed by the north shore of Kauai. Waterfalls were streaming over the cliffs, rainbows rising up, dolphins in front of us. It was like a dream sequence. I swear there were unicorns!

 

 

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[countrygirlny77]

So many good things to pick from idk. My family has sailed out of NY twice on thr gem abd once on breakaway. I love sailing past the statue of liberty. My wife and I also enjoy the weekend parties on the sky at great stirup cay

 

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[Hoppity]

First ever cruise with extended family, June 2011 on the Jade. Sail away from Venice down the Grand Canal - twice as it was a B2B. Magical

 

 

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[Frankie14]

Helicopter excursion : flying into the live Volcano on Montserrat Island.

 

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Wow that's sounds amazing

[biker@sea]

I know he is no longer with NCL, but our cruise director on the Spirit, Paul Sacally, was by far the best CD I had ever had, and brought the quality of the entire trip up a couple notches. It seems my DW (girlfriend at the time) and I did get some special attention from him since we met him at the M&M and from there were pretty active in the cruise programming and contests (we even won the "Perfect Couple" competition, which I think his familiarity with us pushed the final decision in our favor), so that may be tinting my opinion of him a bit rosey. Either way, more than any other CD, he seemed to be everywhere at once, and always happy to just have a short conversation or banter with any guests, and he definitely remembered faces quite well and made sure to make many people on ship feel like he was their new best friend.

 

I was especially impressed when one night he randomly showed up at the night club at 2:30 am and declared an impromptu drink special and did shots with us all, only to see he was hosting some morning calisthenics event 4 hours later up on deck. The dude was a machine, and while I know CC has mixed feelings about his humor/talent as a standup, I found his brand of comedy pretty refreshing for the cruise market at the time (2009).

Scally is still so funny= http://www.paulscally.com

 

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[justhappy]

My last cruise on the Escape, hubby and I were going to becruising with our best friends in regular balcony cabins to celebrate our friends 60th birthday, we surprised her (her husband knew beforehand)by paying for an upgrade to the Haven for all of us. The look on her face (and his too) when they saw the Haven was priceless😊

Sailing out of Miami at night watching from the Haven sun deck was awesome as well.

[murfette]

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[signora]

Meeting our two friends Joanne and Robert! Doing a great Jamaica tour with them, hanging out in Cozumel, and eating pizza in our suite on the Pearl!

[love2cruise99]

We are doing our first NCL cruise this summer. It has a great itinerary and the price was good. This thread had been so great after reading all the negative comments. People do like to complain but seriously I was beginning to wonder If we could even eat at the included dining restaurants. Thanks for the positive responses!

 

 

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[CantWaitToCrz]

Just one is too hard....

- After a brief shower scared all of the other sun bathers away in Spice H20, we moved to the hot tub. The awesome server kept bringing the drinks over. The shower only lasted a little while and we had the whole place to ourselves.

- Breakfast every morning delivered to our balcony.

- On one of the first nights on the Breakaway we were enjoying the Howl at The Moon performances. The piano guys were great, there were various people that would sit in on the drums with them. Someone requested a song (Journey I think) and the piano guy talked to this guy playing the drums, the guy agrees to sing it. We were floored by how awesome this guy was, it turned out to be the lead in the Rock of Ages show. The camaraderie of the performers was great.

[EmeraldCoastCruisers]

Took our first NCL cruise this past November and we loved it!!!! We've only cruise RCL and Carnival before. Booking our second NCL this year as we had the best time on our first. We loved that at any time of the day there was something going on, or you could simply relax at the pool (plenty of chairs). We really liked the sports bar where we could come back from walking around port or an excursion and have a beer and wings or a sandwich. We very rarely ate at the buffet!

 

 

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[tonit964]

In 2011 we were in a penthouse suite on the Star, Patrick was our concierge. He was awesome!! Well, fast forward to 2013, we were on the Pearl, not in a suite and ran into Patrick up on deck.

 

He remembered us and we chatted for a while. He said he could do some things for us but unfortunately, he could not get us into Cagney's for breakfast or lunch which we totally understood.

 

He sent treats to us in the cabin everyday for the remainder of the cruise and also got us into the Midnight Chocolate extravaganza early with the suite guests.

 

He didn't have to do any of those things, so it was a very thoughtful touch!

[WashyWashyHappyHappy95]

The last sea day on the gem cruising back to NYC in Jan 2016

 

Just me and my 2 college kids

 

Up on the sun deck in 80 degree sun

 

Sitting and chatting all day long with other like minded folks from New York who were also cruising with their college kids

 

The most down to earth logical thinking realistic people I've ever had the pleasure to meet

 

Parents and kids !!!! Not a snowflake among them...

 

 

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what do you mean by "snowflake"?

[Vinegarjoe10]

Nice thread ! My wife and I are 'glass half full' types, especially when it comes to first world problems like actually complaining about a cruise, lol. We have now been on 3 cruises (all NCL) and have enjoyed all three of them.

 

My two favorite cruise memories are:

 

1. My wife and I's first cruise, October 2013 on the Breakaway, which was our honeymoon. It was the Florida/Bahama's run and we were hooked after this cruise. Maybe it was because it was our honeymoon, but everyday of that cruise was amazing (weather, staff on the Breakaway, other guests we interacted with) and we couldn't wait to cruise again.

 

2. My wife and I taking her parents (ages 77 and 67) on their very first cruise this past December.

 

We booked a two bedroom villa on the Gem (her parents didn't know what type of cabin they were going to be in) and my wife and I stayed in the kids bedroom and her parents had the master with the GIANT bathroom.

 

We gifted them the specialty dining package and the UBP. For their first cruise it was 1st class all the way.

 

My wife's father has a mobility issue ( replaced knee, needs a new hip) so walking distances greater than 100 yards becomes a chore for him.

 

The staff of the Gem (in my opinion) went above and beyond and provided a wheel chair when necessary and ensured that embarkation and disembarkation were an easy process.

 

What made the cruise so special was that my In-Law's had that "5 year old child at Disney for the first time" look on their faces every single day of the cruise, from the special treatment at embarkation to the daily delivery of snacks by the butler, to dining in the specialty restaurants (especially Cagney's) to both of them enjoying their first ever 'PainKiller' on Jost Van Dyke and everything that happened in-between.

 

My Father-In-Law looked at me (while on Jost Van Dyke) and said, "This is the best vacation I have ever been on". That is why this cruise was so special to my wife and I, as her Dad is a man of few words, and him saying that means it truly meant something to him.

 

They too are now hooked on cruising and we are more than happy that they agreed to cruise with us again this coming December on the Epic.

 

 

Regards,

 

Vinegarjoe

[penwah2002]

Golf in Bermuda, unforgettable.

[DNorthrup]

Love the NCL Escape done it 3 times !

 

 

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[mrs raleigh traveler]

In October 2014, DH and I took our first TA from Copenhagen to Miami, although this was our sixth / seventh (1 B2B) cruise with NCL.

We were returning to the States after spending a number of years in West Africa.

After going through the Topsiders buffet, I was a little disappointed in the quality of the French Fries and asked the man behind the counter to let me know when the next batch was ready.

He in turn wanted to know where I was sitting, so I pointed out the table that I was sharing with my DH and returned to the table. Not long afterward, the gentleman came over with a plate piled high with fresh, hot FF.

But that's not all, every time he saw us in Topsiders, he brought over a heaping plate of fresh, hot FF!

Talk about going above and beyond!! [emoji568] [emoji489] ❤️

 

 

Cruising NCL [emoji925] with Raleigh Traveler

[reefgirl]

I was sitting at a window seat on the Pearl enjoying my book with my darling husband by my side. I was barefoot and a lady passing by remarked that I have pretty feet. Well, other than my pink pedicure my feet were anything but cute. They are size eleven. I'd provide a pic but I don't want to break the internet. Anyway, I will always remember her and the pure joy of just relaxing by that window.

 

 

We started off that cruise with my husband being surprised to learn that I had booked a suite. We were at the terminal before we boarded and he was dazed and confused as we were ushered to the priority suite line. I have not been able to get him to agree to a non-suite ever since. So we don't cruise very often but we have enjoyed every one

[cage keeper]

Hanging out with The amazing people we met on Cruise Critic.

[Kova15]

My favorite cruise memory has to be from my first cruise. On the first night after I had gotten ready for dinner I went out to meet my boyfriend on our balcony so we could head to dinner. When I stepped out there he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. <3

 

My second favorite memory was one night when we were all dressed up my family and I were running up and down a hall by the theater and jumping on different colored tiles (it was an empty area- we were not disturbing people!) and we were laughing so hard as a family my 12 year old daughter wet her pants! (we did our best to clean it of course!) but it was by far the funniest memory we have.

[sjbdtz]

I have 6 favorites. (Not in any order, after the 1st one) :)

 

 

1. Meeting CC pals. Lots of them. Finding out they're as fun in real life, as online. I consider several to be friends.

 

2. Winning $10k. I had an invite to a slot tournament, so Daniel & I did an Eastern Carrib. trip. Thanks to a couple of rebuys, I beat out the crowd (including some people who are friends now), and won not only the $10k, but a cruise 2 weeks later, in what they called the Millionaire-Maker (I didn't win that. :( )

 

3. Meeting an author. On the Millionaire Maker cruise, 2 weeks later, Daniel couldn't join me due to work, so I headed to New Orleans alone for a Western Carrib. trip on Spirit, that Daniel & I had done 9 months earlier. As I sat in Le Bistro on boarding day, for lunch...a gentleman approached me and asked if I'd care to join him and his companion for lunch. I agreed, and switched tables. We wound up hanging out at ShoreEx, and meals, and bar-time every day of the cruise. 6 years later, we're still corresponding and still friends. And it turns out he has 14 NYT Best-Selling books, one of which is currently being made into a movie. Genuine guy, and super-friendly.

 

4. Bumping into Andy Stuart on the EPIC TA. We were staying in a Spa Suite, but my keycard wasn't reading at the Haven. Was on my way to guest services when I literally crashed-into Andy heading into the Haven. Ever the gentleman, he let me in, and Adrian fixed the problem for me.

 

5. Having dinner with HD Rico Taubert on the Sun, in South America. On his birthday. With a randomly-selected other couple (friends) one of whom turned out to live in Canada, in Toronto, in our neighbourhood, on our street, and was best-friends with our friends to whom we had sold our last condo.

 

6. On my 50th birthday cruise. I knew who the HD was, and had been looking forward to seeing him again. Randomly, we got into an elevator with an officer wearing an HD badge. I asked if our anticipated HD was not onboard, and he confirmed the fact. We greeted him and made small talk, and went on our way.

 

A couple of days later, it's my birthday. We're having dinner at Le Bistro, and we see the HD, mingling near the entrance. Think nothing of it. He comes over, asks how dinner is, and observes the 2 glasses of Moet on the table (asks the waiter to refill them....no Moet charges on the bill). Dinner was excellent, we were just wrapping up the mains. 10 minutes later, he and ALL the officers are at the table, singing Happy Birthday, and presenting me with a 12" round, 5" high fraisier cake (the HD's fave) decorated for my birthday. Considering I hadn't mentioned my birthday during the cruise, it was impressive CS. We spent time later in the cruise with the HD, who was curious who we knew at NCL.... I'm guessing in restrospect he was encouraged to go big. I'm not sure why. Cementing the enjoyment, was the extra fraisier cake from the casino. :eek:

DSC_0344 by sjbdtz, on Flickr

 

DSC_0353 by sjbdtz, on Flickr

 

It was a very good thing I didn't hate strawberries! :)

 

 

 

Stephen

 

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Edited February 17, 2017 by sjbdtz

[herrera139]

Was on the epic for a Mediterranean cruise a few years back & we were so impressed with how all the excursions/tour guides were handle. All on time,professional,informative & fun.

 

 

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