Just got off NCL - thoughts.

[Kwami]

Been on NCL, HAL Disney and Celebrity always had towel animals and always met and saw our Cabin Steward.

I'm sure that NCL had towel animals when they still offered turndown service. Now that they only service rooms once per day, they don't seem to have towel animals anymore.

And they didn't reduce the fares or gratuities when they cut those services, either.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

As a fellow Diet Coke lover, do not be shy about asking for 2 glasses anytime you ask! I've done the same on my NCL cruises and eventually they just started pouring them as soon as they saw me walk up which is both embarrassing and also just the kind of personalized service I'm looking for.

 

[DCLMP]

Why do people care about towel animals and how is that even a service?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Why do people care about towel animals and how is that even a service?

Because it's cute and fun. The service is that they took the time to create them.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Why do people care about towel animals and how is that even a service?

If you don't appreciate the towel animals you can ask your stateroom attendant not to bother. They can certainly find something else to occupy their long hours.

 

[auntlynne]

Thanks for posting. We cruise on the Escape in 2.5 weeks. It's our first NCL too. After 1 Disney and many Carnival and a handful of Royal cruises. Curious to see how it compares.

We were so loyal to Carnival and were getting up there in the loyalty program but then felt they went too far downhill for us anymore. Last couple cruises were more disappointing than good.

So we started doing Royal and thought maybe they'd be our line of choice and....they too began to slip in quality, IMO.

So now we are venturing out. Doing NCL and have Virgin also booked. May try to do a Celebrity or HAL but we aren't quite HAL age yet.

I have to say I already have 2 stikes for NCL though things may be redeemable.

One thing was we had no clue the adults only outdoor area l, Vibe, was a pay you play and sells out online pretty fast. We didn't get it. And our cruise, being in March, is in spring break times so it should be a packed ship.

We heard we can try to rush on the ship and go to some desk or something and try to book it. But we go 11am boarding and heard others got as early as 9:30. So...prob won't get it.

The second thing. We booked an inside on black Friday for a great deal. The balcony was about $1k more, if I remember correctly. So I put in a upgrade bid for a balcony way back when, not long after booking. About a month ago, on a social media group, someone posted they got their balcony up bid for $150pp. We bid $300pp.

Then, about 12 days ago, I got an email saying they declined our bid due to no availability basically. But gave a counter offer of $60pp for an Oceanview. It had and accept offer button and I clicked on it. Then later got an email basically saying we had a new bid and would be dependant upon availability. As of today, we still have an inside cabin. Not sure why they called it a counter offer and had accept offer button. Maybe they just wait to assign us the OV last minute. I am hoping.

Though I do worry about the OV locations so may be a good thing to keep the inside. But a 7 day is a long time to be in an inside with no seeing outside. Especially with a hubby who likes to spend too much time in the cabin watching TV. If we could get Vibe then I could go there when he wants to sit in the room.

We also got 1 free dining plus bought the 2 dining package for 3 soecialty dining nights. Most was already booked in Nov. I could only get 9pm for Cagneys and couldn't get the fish place at all. Did get the French one and the Japanese steakhouse one. Will try to change Cagneys to earlier.

So we shall see. Excited to give it a go. We did manage to snag a resie at Choir of Man. Heard that show is going away end of March, I think. So it's nice to get to see that.

The food I have had at Le Bistro has been good. Especially the French Onion Soup. Their beef filet was one of my top three (the best being in Onda on NCL Encore).

Cagney’s also has a great French Onion Soup.

Like Palo on Disney, specialty dining may have more seatings available once onboard. Teppanyaki was very lively (loud) with lots of singing. I just went with it. The amount of food was overwhelming. Don’t fill up on the rice!

O’Sheehan’s (The Local on many ships) should offer a good spot for fresh eggs at breakfast. Also fries to go at night (for movie watching).

I spent more time in my cabin the last cruise (14 nights, Nov/Dec) than usual. Free movies. Ask Guest Services for a time schedule for them - it is not On Demand and there was no onscreen TV Guide with start times. I came home with Covid (don’t know if I took it with me or acquired it), so I was tired. Thought it was just lots of ports.

If you don‘t need the pool but want some sun, the Waterfront on Deck 8 may provide seating you can’t find on the pool deck. It’s more couches and chairs., but it is available to all, whether using the bars or not.

The biggest drawback for me on Breakaway Class is using the atrium for trivia and movies. It is too small. If you like Sudoku or Crosswords, pick up a daily game in the a library.

Bon Voyage.




Lunch on Great Stirrup Cay: drinks and dessert are in a little building off the food building. On side of the buffet seemed to be busier (The side closer to the tender arrival area).

I was surprised by the amount of developed beach. Some people were playing mini golf behind the dining area. And you could see the Royal ships docked At Coco Cay.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Update to cholera quarantine (post #10) -- it was gastroenteritis and everyone is feeling better, and the ship was able to dock.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/ne...r&cvid=2913ae6cba53461a99fb4927b1f41f47&ei=16

 

[DCLMP]

If you don't appreciate the towel animals you can ask your stateroom attendant not to bother. They can certainly find something else to occupy their long hours.

It's not something I'm going to complain about if they stop doing it. Trust me there will be people on here that will.

 

[DCLMP]

Because it's cute and fun. The service is that they took the time to create them.

Yes it's cute and that's about it. It certainly not something that's going to influence which cruise line I choose.

 

[tink1970]

I was being serious. I've never had two cabin stewards in a lowly regular stateroom. I've also never cruised a high end cruise line like Viking. Sorry us lower class aren't up to speed on such things.

I wasn't trying to be classist, just pointing out that even DCL has some cabins with two room attendants. On our Viking cruises, the two stewards assigned to my area seem to work well together and laugh and joke when they were making up rooms and it reminded me of my grandmother would say "many hands make light work" and that was my impression on our two voyages with them so it seemed to stick out in a positive way. I didn't mean to be contentitous nor sound pretentious, merely to edify.

 

[loislane]

Thanks for posting. We cruise on the Escape in 2.5 weeks. It's our first NCL too. After 1 Disney and many Carnival and a handful of Royal cruises. Curious to see how it compares.

We were so loyal to Carnival and were getting up there in the loyalty program but then felt they went too far downhill for us anymore. Last couple cruises were more disappointing than good.

So we started doing Royal and thought maybe they'd be our line of choice and....they too began to slip in quality, IMO.

So now we are venturing out. Doing NCL and have Virgin also booked. May try to do a Celebrity or HAL but we aren't quite HAL age yet.

I have to say I already have 2 stikes for NCL though things may be redeemable.

One thing was we had no clue the adults only outdoor area l, Vibe, was a pay you play and sells out online pretty fast. We didn't get it. And our cruise, being in March, is in spring break times so it should be a packed ship.

We heard we can try to rush on the ship and go to some desk or something and try to book it. But we go 11am boarding and heard others got as early as 9:30. So...prob won't get it.

The second thing. We booked an inside on black Friday for a great deal. The balcony was about $1k more, if I remember correctly. So I put in a upgrade bid for a balcony way back when, not long after booking. About a month ago, on a social media group, someone posted they got their balcony up bid for $150pp. We bid $300pp.

Then, about 12 days ago, I got an email saying they declined our bid due to no availability basically. But gave a counter offer of $60pp for an Oceanview. It had and accept offer button and I clicked on it. Then later got an email basically saying we had a new bid and would be dependant upon availability. As of today, we still have an inside cabin. Not sure why they called it a counter offer and had accept offer button. Maybe they just wait to assign us the OV last minute. I am hoping.

Though I do worry about the OV locations so may be a good thing to keep the inside. But a 7 day is a long time to be in an inside with no seeing outside. Especially with a hubby who likes to spend too much time in the cabin watching TV. If we could get Vibe then I could go there when he wants to sit in the room.

We also got 1 free dining plus bought the 2 dining package for 3 soecialty dining nights. Most was already booked in Nov. I could only get 9pm for Cagneys and couldn't get the fish place at all. Did get the French one and the Japanese steakhouse one. Will try to change Cagneys to earlier.

So we shall see. Excited to give it a go. We did manage to snag a resie at Choir of Man. Heard that show is going away end of March, I think. So it's nice to get to see that.

We were with a cruise group, so had a pretty good offer upfront and booked a balcony room. We did inside on our first cruise and never again for me. I get too claustrophobic and need light and fresh air! I did look at upgrade big options and the whole system seemed very confusing to me.

Quiet areas do seem few and far in between, but there ARE designated quiet areas on the ship. It will show on the deck map I believe where they are. We didn't know about Vibe either and but not sure I would've done it either way as there isn't a pool. Felt like you had to get up and at it early if you wanted pool time on the ship since there's really only one big pool. We only managed to get pool time on one day - I believe it was St. Thomas day.

Keep checking on dining in the app during your cruise or stop by and chat with the dining team. Reservations were constantly opening up throughout the cruise as people switched things up. So you may snag better times or other places.

The Choir of Man is AMAZING. Definitely the don't miss show on board. I loved it!

 

[loislane]

Yes it's cute and that's about it. It certainly not something that's going to influence which cruise line I choose.

It doesn't influence us and is by no means a dealbreaker. It's just something we found that we missed. For me at least, it was fun to go back to my stateroom each night on DCL and see what our host had created for us. We've had some pretty stunning ones, so I just missed that little element.

 

[loislane]

The food I have had at Le Bistro has been good. Especially the French Onion Soup. Their beef filet was one of my top three (the best being in Onda on NCL Encore).

Cagney’s also has a great French Onion Soup.



The biggest drawback for me on Breakaway Class is using the atrium for trivia and movies. It is too small. If you like Sudoku or Crosswords, pick up a daily game in the a library.

Bon Voyage.




Lunch on Great Stirrup Cay: drinks and dessert are in a little building off the food building. On side of the buffet seemed to be busier (The side closer to the tender arrival area).

I was surprised by the amount of developed beach. Some people were playing mini golf behind the dining area. And you could see the Royal ships docked At Coco Cay.

I think I had French onion soup three times on our cruise - it was so good!

I agree about the Atrium. Too small and also just an overall bad location - especially if you're trying to get something taken care of over at guest services. It gets so loud for some of the activities that you can't hear anything else. Definitely not enough seating, even when they brought out the folding chairs. We ended up standing for many things.

I forgot about the mini golf! Not the typical course with obstacles and such, but still something else to do on the island.