gingersvp

I've done one Star class pre-covid and one post covid, with one coming up in October out of Galveston. I personally preferred the WhatsApp communication and definitely saw more of our Genie - he was able to easily track us down and deal with changes in our plans. Every morning he'd message us a good morning with the intended itinerary and we could make changes and tweaks. He met us at each of our on ship meals, as well as any other activities like the escape room or shows. We had a wonderful bridge tour on the first sailing, but bridge tours were not re-opened for my second sailing. This time, my daughter will be old enough to join us and I'm looking forward to requesting as many behind the scenes tours as they will allow. Some notes, for getting the most - anything you can ask in advance, it's easier for them to say yes. If you say "I want a special cake tonight" it's gonna be hard for them to accommodate. But if you let them know ahead of time that you love cake and have a special celebration on day 3 of your sailing? Probably gonna try to find a way to surprise you. The more you communicate your preferences and the more advance warning you provide - the more they will be able to do for you. Personally, I do all of the planning and logistics for our family. So what I love about the Star experience is that I can just let the Genie handle everything. I don't particularly care about hibachi - so I won't make an effort to reserve it. But if the Genie has a spot? Sure we'll go with the flow. So far we have 6 in our Aqua Theater suite, but we may add 2 more. We'll be a full room and ready to have a blast - but I won't have to plan for all 8 people. And that's the real treat for me.

While there is no lounge, bar or restaurant - I found that the pool valet was our favorite person. He served us breakfast and lunch plus drinks in the Courtyard. I was traveling with my almost 2 year old and it was so much nicer dining in the Courtyard where she could toddle about rather than the confines of a restaurant. It was the same menu as the Cagney's/Moderno's offering. During the day the valet would bring us drinks - it was uncrowded and super relaxing.

On Escape, you don't need to reserve the shows ahead of time. When you board they'll have a quick session to go over scheduling with you. For the shows, there's a reserved Haven area but the concierge will walk you down early for front row seating also. I forgot to book my dining and couldn't get the slots I wanted online, so called the pre-concierge line. They told me that the Haven will be able to get the tables. But also, on prior sailings I need to move some around last minute and they easily found good dining times for us. The entire point is to not have to worry about it!

I've sailed Escape once and am back on her in January. I've also sailed Royal on the Oasis twice so have a good comparison. We'll be on the Harmony next October. As you can see, I like both lines and ship styles! I liked the Escape enough that we're going back on her, but I think that the Oasis does a better job of spreading people out. However, I love that Escape has more spaces that let you view the ocean. One of my main complaints on the Oasis is that everything opens inwards, and unless you have an ocean facing balcony, you see very little water. But - because Escape dedicates so much space to the Waterfront, the interior ways feel more crowded. You win some, you lose some here. I'm extremely sensitive to smoking - more so than most. I did have problems with the smoky smell - mainly because the casino is on the middle floor of a spiral staircase, so everything around the staircase had the smell. Le Bistro is at the bottom and has some atrium seating. I could not sit on that "outdoor" atrium area, but once inside the restaurant I was fine. I really stuck to the Waterfront area as much as possible. On the Oasis it was much easier for me to avoid the smoky Casino since it was contained to one deck and didn't have that central staircase attached to it. I think the buffet and main dining rooms are better on the Escape. Specialty restaurants between the two were about the same for me. O'Sheehan's being 24/7 was great for sobering up late night. If you like suites, I think the Coastal Kitchen is better than the Haven Restaurant, mainly because the menu rotates. If you have children, the layout of the kids area on the Escape was a little weird - there's no seating around the side of the pool. Instead it's bracketed by the slides. So you'd have to sit on the edge of the pool or be in with them if you want to stay within visual area. Luckily for me, my daughter just wanted to go on repeat on the slides instead. I found pools on both ships to be equally crowded. I like them both. There are things I dislike on each ship and things I like about them. I guess that's why I've been alternating my sailings! Even the Haven vs Star class discussion has different perks about each.

Dillip ❤️ I wanted to package him up and take him home and just let him run my life.

I work a stressful job that is filled with solving problems for people. I do all the logistics at home. The real value of the concierge, for me, is taking a break from all the thinking and planning and doing. I can talk to the concierge, and voila, all the things happen. For one week, someone else takes care of me. If that's not valuable to you, don't use the concierge and don't tip. For me, it's the reason why I book Haven and I will tip well for people who take the burden of thinking off of me for that lovely time I'm on the ship. It's not that I am not used to doing regular things myself, it's that I value getting a break from doing everything for everyone.

I was underwhelmed. I prefer the YC on MSC or Coastal Kitchen on Royal when it comes to suite dining. It's well prepared but uninspired and I was bored with the menu not rotating. I go into my next sailing with this in mind and will do more specialty dining and perhaps make more special requests. But I will say, it's perhaps generally inline with the level of quality of Royal and MSC - it just feels too "safe" and they're not taking enough risks on flavor variety or trends.

I am also the crazy over planner, and I do it because I enjoy it. I like to know all that there is available - not that I plan to take advantage of all of it, but you can't action on something you don't know about. Our first Haven sailing was Alaska on the Pearl. I had a spreadsheet of excursions, pre-sailing hotel, everything. I had a job I was miserable at, and spending time researching gave some something fun to think about. I made the reservations and had everything to go. And then I got on the ship and we had an invitation to a party that conflicted - and for the first time ever I made use of the concierge. THAT WAS LIFE CHANGING. I mean not really, but perhaps it was vacation planning style changing. Here was this magical person that just VOILA shuffled everything around - and last minute! And all those hours of carefully mapping out dining and show times no longer mattered. So, I still do a lot of research about ports and shore excursions. I endlessly watch people's cruddy vacation videos on YouTube (my guiltiest of pleasures). I read through all the menus. I look at all the ship amenities. I arrive armed with information of my endless possibilities. But then, then I let the butler and the concierge make it all happen. And I fully expect halfway through the cruise to change my mind about something. I guess, it frees me up to only think about the things I want to think about and let go of the detailed logistics that may or may not all change at the drop of a hat once on board. Ultimately we'll move to the smaller luxe lines, but my daughter is turning 8 next month and she likes the bigger ships. As she gets older and is more willing to try new foods - we'll make the switch. I like that the Haven gives us the nice mix of activities of a larger ship with the service of the Haven.

My 7 year old is a rather picky eater - one of the ways we really took advantage of the Haven, was to have her dinner delivered around 5pm/6pm by the butler - where we could really be very explicit about how the food needed to be prepared. I found the servers at the Haven restaurant tried very hard, but were challenged by specific requests like (plain grilled chicken breast, no salt, no pepper, etc). She would eat in the cabin and then we took her to the kid's club. From there we could enjoy a more leisurely dinner. My daughter has also never really been a fan of kid's clubs, but the last sailing we made friends with another little girl of the same age, also in the Haven. WOW was that amazing. She had a friend in the Courtyard and also a friend at the kid's club. We were able to spend family time but also she was able to avoid the looooong dinners in the Haven restaurant.

WE did not have to make reservations but we were encouraged to avoid peak times.

They'll definitely substitute but they have the mixed drinks all prepared and ready when you enter - it had been my intention to substitute but I found myself just reaching for the prepared beverage instead.

Definitely do the Grog walk. Agree that I wouldn't worry about which bars you're hitting - it's about the social aspect of meeting the Happenings Cast and other sailors. I'd imagine they have the 2 starting in different places to accommodate the increased demand. Eat before you go. You need a solid food foundation because you wind up mixing liquors. It turned into a very fuzzy night for me.

I didn't love it either, but I didn't hate it. I've been twice - I don't eat beef and another in my party is allergic to mushrooms. The first time they took our orders, cooked my mushrooms and then cleaned the surface before cooking the beef. All was a-okay. The second time we went, she conveyed her allergies and then they didn't ask anyone what they wanted - just decided to bring out a variety. Unfortunately they didn't ask *me* and so no mushrooms came out and all the meats were cooked with the beef, leaving me nothing to eat. I was stuck in the back of the circle so it was hard to chat with the server. I'm sure I could have said something and gotten them to come back, but it was just as easy for me to walk out to the food truck/self serve area and grab something to eat on our way out. I've just learned it's not the place for me.

We frequently travel with a friend who has a TON of allergies and they're complex - like she's allergic to gluten but also allergic to almond. Mushrooms and spinach are also major things that she cannot eat. VV was extremely accommodating and very good with her restrictions.

You just have to look. I just booked the 2 bedroom Aquatheater suite (A2) for 7 nights in October 2024 for $7350 for 3 people, that's $350/pp/day. In March 2022, 10 days out (last minute) I booked the Ultimate Panoramic suite (UP) for $11,000 for 4, which came to #392/pp/day. We just sailed the 2 bedroom villa on escape for about $8500 which is $303/pp/day (7 nights, 4 people). I use cruise plum to find the dips and then book them.