5/27/06 "Il pochi il fiero i blabbermouths" We *will* sail again Part 12

[scuba diver]

Thank you!! Good to be home.....and back "home" on the DIS!

Once you get settled, we would like to hear the plus and minus of Norweign compared to DCL? What do you like about each, what don't you like?

With our kids growing we are looking for options to DCL. Your thoughts?

 

[justmestace]

Once you get settled, we would like to hear the plus and minus of Norweign compared to DCL? What do you like about each, what don't you like?

With our kids growing we are looking for options to DCL. Your thoughts?

I need to start unpacking....Jay's wanting to start the laundry....
But briefly.....the food was the worst. I don't know....your family is better trained in the gourmet department than we all are, so you may find it more to your liking. It would be a major "plus" if you liked fish and salmon.

The kids did have fun with the teen club. They seemed busy all the time.
But they missed having a place to get a snack, like Pluto's. ALthough there were two buffets, one is outdoors (and actually nicer than Topsiders) but it was closed often, due to weather.

A lot of people I talked to felt that there needed to be more daily "family" activities....and I agree. They had a couple of game shows, for a half hour, but that was all.
The spa was nice, much similar to DCL....but it was the first time I had a massage where the gal climbed on top of me! I was on my stomach, and she knelt with her knees on my butt and used her elbows on my back. OUCH. I'm still feeling it. But no huge sales pitch!

The ship is beautiful, and they were REALLY good to the suite people. Garry's inside cabin was bigger than DCL's.....more storage space.

I think our main complaint was food. Especially lack of being able to get a quick snack anywhere....and having to pay for soda's even at dinner. But water is healthier for us, anyway.

The shows were good. They did a Cirque du Soleil show that was great. There was a hypnotist who thought he hypnotized me........

I guess a lot of it is in how you look at it. The cruise itself is/should be only half of it. For me, it's a place to unpack, and come back to, after a day in the ports. And a means of getting from one place to another easily and safely.
We saw places we wouldn't have been able to, were we not on a cruise....so it fulfilled that.
And it was clean. Although....more smokers than what we would see on DCL...I think, anyway. But they did have the rules of port side only, and only outdoors or in certain areas of certain lounges. But there were two places in a main area....the Champagne Bar, and another, where it was basically in a lobby area, and people could smoke there and you had to walk past that to get somewhere. But I guess you can always walk on the other side of the lobby. And this comes from me...a smoker. Maybe one of the non-smokers would be better off to say if it were miserable. I didn't think it was horrid...but it was there more than DCL.

Embarkation and Disembarkation was smooth. Photo stuff similar to DCL.

A big plus was the "extra" restaurants....although there is a service charge like Palo. Having more places to choose from for dinner is nice.

I didn't feel that the crew/CM's were as friendly as DCL, but our stateroom hostess and butler were FANTASTIC....and we saw them more than any other CM's anyway.
I think the soaps, lotions, shampoo, etc were far better than DCL, as was the toilet paper. I didn't have to take my own TP!

Virgil and Frances have a list of "minuses"......and Garry with his dive mess-up........
But for me, it was mostly the lack of "human" (okay, fine....JUNK) food.

 

[justmestace]

By the way, the Stenson family won the "Dysfunctional" Family Feud....big surprise there....
And Virgil, Frances and my Megan were the Casino Champions....holding three of the six top spots in the week-long slot tournament. Frances gained the top position in the first round, on the first day, and held it all week. Virgil gained second place on the last day. Megan stole my last place spot at the last possible moment.

The teen girls, Vanessa and Jordan, discovered that as long as they stayed away from the parents and grandparents, they could order any drink their cute little hearts desired. But once us old folks caught on, there was a stop to that nonsense! On the islands, not the ship.
Vanessa enjoyed being 18 and old enough to play in the slot tourney.

All of the kids managed to find groups of others to hang around with, but it really helped that they had friends along with them to take away some of that "new kid" shyness.

Oh..wait....there isn't a shy one in the bunch. Oops.

 

[justmestace]

Please make my house stop rocking! It's making me dizzy.......

 

[justmestace]

 

[justmestace]

Unpacked....everything put away....laundry nearly done. House still rocking.
Vicki called, they're in Kentucky. She said their world is still rocking, too.

 

[TiggerInNY]

Stacey - Welcome home and Happy New Year. Sorry your house is rocking. I hate that feeling. You'll get your "land legs" back soon hopefully. And, sorry to hear about your experience on your cruise.

I know you have cruised on RCCL, which ships have you been on? We're looking into a February 2008 cruise on either the Freedom or Liberty of the Seas. What do you know about those ships?

 

[Dancind]

Welcome home, Stacey! All in all, I'm sure it was better than being at home and working. How many times did you eat in the specialty restaurants? Was it hard to get in, or did your butler help you? I like the idea of a butler.

 

[WVMD]

Hi all..... Finally made it home at 1am this morning.... twas a trip from Hell......

It was fun cruising with Stacey and her family and garRy and his family....

Can't say that we enjoyed the NCL Sun..... but the ports were fun.....

I'll post more later....

At least WVU won today!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

 

[justmestace]

Welcome home, Stacey! All in all, I'm sure it was better than being at home and working. How many times did you eat in the specialty restaurants? Was it hard to get in, or did your butler help you? I like the idea of a butler.

Concierge made our specialty reservations. If we hadn't needed to fit 16 people in, we would have been able to make our own reservations easily. I think between all of us, we ate at least once in each specialty restaurant....and a few times we were able to walk in.
Garry and Vicki ate at Pacific Heights (healthier dining) on the last night as walk-ins, and really enjoyed it. Garry had meatloaf and Vicki had perch ( I think).
The steakhouse was good, and so was LeBistro. Virgil's family went to Tepanyaki twice, and liked that.
I never did eat at the Tapas bar.....just walked through it once.
We ate in the main dining rooms twice is all, and for one of those, we had a semi-private room.
The butler was pretty much like Bosco..he brought us our breakfast every morning, kept the fridge full of soda and water, and offered to do pretty much anything we might have wanted him to do. His name was Harry and he was a pretty cool guy. Apparently, there was another butler, but we never saw him....he must have worked the other suites.
I loved getting that phone call in the morning...."Mrs. Stenson? Your breakfast is ready. Shall I bring it up now?"
I want Harry to come live at MY house!
And yes, definitely better than working!!!

 

[justmestace]

Stacey - Welcome home and Happy New Year. Sorry your house is rocking. I hate that feeling. You'll get your "land legs" back soon hopefully. And, sorry to hear about your experience on your cruise.

I know you have cruised on RCCL, which ships have you been on? We're looking into a February 2008 cruise on either the Freedom or Liberty of the Seas. What do you know about those ships?

We've only done Norwegian and Princess. There were a couple of RCCL ships in some of our ports and they were HUGE!
From what I've heard, I think all of the other (other than DCL) cruise lines are pretty much the same, except maybe Carnival, and then the higher end lines. Or I guess I should say that I think Princess, RCCL and Norwegian are comparable. It does sound like RCCL might have more for kids to do, though.

 

[wdwgoose]

HAY ALL


WE BEE HOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



YES HOME




gaRRy

 

[scuba diver]

Now that all the cruisers are home.......Get up. It's time to go to work!

The holidays are over. They sure did seem to go quickly.

 

[chip&dale&fun]

Morning All - Back to the routine....Bah Humbug...

Christmas was Merry, New Years was Happy....we had a wonderful and blessed Christmas season....

I see the Stacey and GaRRy are back....will have to check to see if Virgil has posted his return...


Happy Monday - I mean Tuesday....(too much football yesterday....brain is mush)

 

[chip&dale&fun]

Thank you!! Good to be home.....and back "home" on the DIS!

Welcome back - it sound syou had all the excitement you could handle - the ship was hit by lightening????

 

[chip&dale&fun]

Thanks for the trip and ship report Stacey - it does sound like there were more food offerings than on DCL. Sounds like normal enough food to me??? Perhaps the absence of snack food????

Now that 2007 is here I must figure out where to use this year's points....

A DCL cruise? A HAL cruise? A bike trip to Califorinia?

Do we think DCL will go to Alaska?

What to do, what to do?

Mayhaps I shall get to work to earn money for vacation.....

Yeah, that's the ticket.

 

[WDWLVR]

Good morning cruisers


Happy Tuesday!




After a very nice, but quiet holiday season it is back to work for me. Have a great day everyone!
​

 

[WDWLVR]

Welcome home to all our NCL cruisers. Virgil and Garry I'd love to hear your take on NCL. Stacey thanks for sharing yours.

Woo Hoo - a UTOP with Virgil, Garry, and Stacey.

PDFG and all who need it!

 

[tinksdad]

Welcome home travelors!! Hope you get back into the swing as painlessly as possible.

I'll second that trip report question!


Disney does such a good job, that the other lines pale in comparison.

 

[justmestace]

I remember before we went on the NCL Dream last Christmas, my travel agent must have told me 100 times "Just remember, it ISN'T Disney...and you'll be okay". Well, it turned out that we really liked the Dream. It's small, and older, but the staff and crew were so friendly that it seemed like we were family. I think that because the Sun is so much larger, and maybe because they have that automatic tipping thing, it's more impersonal.

Yes, we have definitely been spoiled by Disney. There is just something so "magical" even when all you've done so far is enter the port terminal.

And yes, Irene.....you probably would have LOVED the food choices, as would the Tinks and Scubas......lots and lots of fish, lamb, pork......unfortunately for us, we're beef and chicken people. The young adults liked the sushi bar.

Vicki and I talked last night, and one thing we commented on was the difference in the passengers. It seemed that a lot of the parents were unwilling to make their children behave....we saw a lot more kids running "amok"...so I don't know if that's because Disney keeps them busier, or if "our" (DCL/DIS) kids are just better behaved.
Then again, I DID still have to keep searching (even on the ceiling!) for my door magnets! I definitely knew Gregg was onboard!

But...in all fairness...I noticed a major difference in the passengers on the Magic's cruise on the Mexican Riviera, too. If you didn't keep looking at the ship itself, you might have never known that you were on Disney. There was just something very different about the West Coast crowd.

I don't think that we'll cruise again until our group here gets to go in 2008...but I doubt that we were going to, anyway....unless we do the next free cruise with the Mirage, which is next fall, and I think they're doing the Western Caribbean....which would be 3 times in a row for us. So...I don't know.

I'm still waiting for Garry to post what happened to his dive excursion, I want to hear Kevin and Jim's thoughts on it.......