ryarger

2 hours ago, sargemrs said:

But for clarification, are you saying the butler will deliver from the MDR dinners to our cabin?

I’ve only done it for specialty but I’m sure they’d do MDR. It’s just not something they like to do more than one or twice per suite because it’s very time consuming.

But as you say you’re traveling as multi-suite group, it won’t be as useful for you. I suppose you could all dine on your balconies and shout across the barriers at each other. 🙂

1 hour ago, erisajd said:

Hey - does anyone know if we have FAS+ if we can get water in the Haven room?   My guess is no - since everything in the room is charged AFAIK . . . except coffee, ice, cream and juices

They won’t deliver it to the room, but we would pick up 2-4 boxes of water every time we left a bar with our FAS+ and we had a good stash built up quickly.

Wines by the glass under $14 (which is most of them) are indeed included with the package.

Corona is definitely available, the British pub will definitely have it and most other bars should too. I don’t recall seeing Modelo.

Table minimums vary by time of day. The lowest I’ve seen is $10 but it’ll get higher during peak times

8 minutes ago, vaindioux said:

I read that the package is lowest at $75

Drinks start at $8

 

So 5x8 = $40

If your drink of choice is Bud Light then sure.

Cocktails are almost all $14, with a few specials here and there ($11 or $12). There will be a token wine under $10 but pretty much all others are $10+.

5 per day is definitely a solid guideline unless you’re only drinking beer then it’s more.

Even though there is no Haven restaurant, don’t forget that your butler will deliver supper to your room on request.

It’s not something most butlers like to do more than once or twice per cabin because they’re so busy but it’s worth taking advantage of.

We had La Cucina delivered to our balcony while in Kona. Eating good Italian while watching the sun set over Kona bay was magical.

Since you’re paying for a suite already, I’d consider adding several nights of specialty dining. It’s not that much more and will solve the issue of not having a Haven restaurant.

4 hours ago, cooncat_mom said:

I got one of those emails too and our Joy trip isn't till October! Do they still do an email for the Haven folks with the pillow menu and that stuff? We don't have many requests -at all! We're terrible Haven people! - but I do better with email than with the phone now 👵🏻! 

We received the email also for our sailing next May, so I suspect they did a mass mailing to all open Haven bookings.

The email for OS+ suites contains a link to the preference site where you can pick your pillow, drinks, etc. Except for that link it looks identical to the email shared above.

Since you’ll be in the Haven, also be aware of the option to enjoy your special dining meal in your cabin. Your butler can arrange to have the entire meal brought in to your cabin and will set up your table for the experience.

The only downside is that the entire meal arrives at once so the entree can cool while you’re enjoying the early courses but it’s still a fantastic experience.

Just to be totally clear, that charge is per order, not per item.

So you could order a huge five course feast for both of you, or order a single basket of French fries and the cost would be $7.95+18% either way.

So it’s a great deal when you’re ordering a lot, and not so much if you’re ordering a little.

The Ice Queen (Frozen) for sure.

Not too long ago someone in the same situation posted and what they ended up doing was this:

* Get in the no reservation line early the first not. They got in within 15 minutes.

* At the end of the meal, talk to the waiter about how you have no reservations but enjoyed their service (assuming you did) and would like to have them the rest of the cruise. A little tip at this point might help things, also.

The waiter may then be able to arrange you have a table in their section each night.

Great live report, thank you!

If Laser Tag is not open, then it’s generally allowed to use the space however you want.

If it’s open, you can’t go back there without paying for the session (and then only for the length of the session).

5 hours ago, roddy good boy said:

Am I remembering this correctly? I recall when we first starting sailing in the Haven (2013 or so) Haven passengers didn’t have to pay gratuities on the beverage package or specialty restaurants. They also included 5 nights of specialty restaurants. For that reason, during that period we only ate in the Haven a few nights each cruise! 

Not to mention how reasonable the prices were then… 

You are remembering correctly. Haven was exempted from the gratuity charge on the FAS package plus at that time, FAS had 4 specialty dinners for a 7-night sailing.

Our 2014 sailing was one of the last ones where the dining package was truly “unlimited”. You could go to any specialty as many times as you wanted. They’d even hawk it with the idea of going to one restaurant for your appetizer, another for main, and then a third for dessert; or having two (or more) full meals.

Those were the days!

We’ll be on OOTS this summer from Barcelona and I’m reading about how the ship only boards half the pax in Barcelona and the other half in Rome, creating effectively overlapping itineraries.

So what’s it like on the ship those embarkation days? We’ll probably get off in Rome because, well, Rome, but if we didn’t would it be a like a typical port day on the ship or would it be more hectic like an embarkation day?

Does Barcelona or Rome get the Welcome Aboard menu in the MDR? Both?

Are there midnight sail away parties leaving both ports?

Any other unusualness caused by the overlap?

I wonder if anyone’s tried to stow away after their week since they don’t empty the ship and live in the solarium for an extra few days. 😂

The main dining room accepts reservations (at least on some ships) but American Diner and O’Sheehan’s/The Local do not - they are strictly first come/first serve.

American Diner is rarely busy because many aren’t aware of it, or that it’s complementary (it used to be upcharge).

We ate at O’Sheehans (the Local predecessor) on the BA last fall going to New England and it was just fine.

The MDR would likely be less crowded but we were served quickly enough and got to watch the pax board as we ate burgers and sipped beer. I’d recommend it.

10 hours ago, beastlet said:

What in particular were you looking to know? The suite was huge and wonderful. The only issue I could see with it is price. 🤣

I was mainly wondering if the floor plan the other user shared above was accurate. It seemed so different from the Haar video from last year.

But understanding that they expanded it by removing the Haven library makes sense. That separate formal dining room looks so much nicer than the little table that was in the old DOS.

Thank you!!

I see that as part of the January refurb, Joy's DOS suites are now "Premier Owner's Suite". Any info on these? Videos? Photos?

Are the layouts and photos on NCL.com accurate? The newest video I can find is Haar's from a year ago which I assume doesn't reflect the new configuration.

There are websites that will show you the price history of a sailing. If you're looking at Jan 2023, you're past the final payment date so you should already see whether the price has dropped since final payment or not. If the price has dropped, it will likely keep dropping until it flattens at some point.

If the price hasn't dropped since final payment, it probably won't. There are full, prime cruises that go up after final payment so there is no guarantee that you'll get a better deal. Looking at the history will give you a very good idea.

We'll be on the same sailing and also watching the weather!

Right now we're booked for the Maple Sugar Shack Tasting in St. John. I figure that will be fun in rain or shine and it's early so we'll have the rest of the day to wander the town.

In Halifax we've got Peggy's Cove and Hop-On/Hop-Off - The rain might cost us some views but with the Hop-On/Hop-Off we can just hang out in a pub if it's rainy. 

I've consistently seen the best deals for BA in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In '16 we were actually able to afford a Haven suite the second week of December. It was awesome because they were decorating the ship for Christmas while we were cruising.

I just checked and most of the larger NCL ships have big dips in price the 1st/2nd week of December.

NB: One of the reasons for the big price drop was (then) BA sailed out of NY. Sailing out of NY the first two weeks of December means that at least 3 of the 7 days you'll have pretty chilly weather. But with the Haven to retreat to, it certainly didn't dampen our trip!

Apparently Login is still not working for iOS. Any word on this being fixed?

Combined with our dining package we had our butler serve us dinner on our balcony, during sunset over Kona Bay while the ship was anchored.

It was La Cucina and it was fabulous. He brought in the cart with all of the courses, set up the white tablecloth and place settings and then when we were stuffed to the gills, he came back and cleaned up after us!

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It would have been great for them to do something and I understand your disappointment. Please don’t get too down by the responses you’re going to get to this because they may be a little rude.

All that said, this is *exactly* why everyone should always get the insurance. Consider it a part of the vacation budget because nothing sucks quite so bad as missing out on a vacation (especially because of cancer!) *and* missing out on the money you spent.

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Most likely we will put them down at night - but why?

This is standard for cabins with front-facing windows on all lines. The light from the cabin can reflect up the bridge and distract the crew from seeing what’s in front of the ship when it’s dark.

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