ryarger

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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Say you want to order form le bistro, will they provide you with the menu from le bistro if you eat at the haven restaurant?

They will, but you will have to pay ala Carte or use a dining plan meal to cover it.

Only items that are on the Haven restaurant menu and items that are free elsewhere on the ship are free in the Haven restaurant.

Items that are extra outside the Haven are also extra when requested in the Haven restaurant.

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You’ll have those “door hanger” sheets like in hotels to choose breakfast room service every day. We had coffee and juice delivered every morning. Except for a small tip to the delivery person, it’s absolutely complimentary.

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A fresh burger, complimentary as well, is even better at O'Sheehans...:)

Gotta disagree. I found Margaritaville’s burger to be much better than O’Sheehan’s. Buffet was somewhere in the middle.

The Haven burger was probably the best.

Though I was in Harvest Caye last week and the Landshark burger was even better!

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I’ve found the best Haven deals to be in the first couple weeks of December on Caribbean cruises out of New York. It’s sort of the “perfect storm” of price factors:

* It’s between two major travel seasons (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and during school session so a lot of folks aren’t traveling.

* It’s the tail end of the rainy season in the Caribbean

* It’s cold in NY so you lose two days to cold weather on either end of the trip - but in the Haven that’s less of a worry.

I did a Haven Penthouse (in the Haven itself) on the BA for $4500 total a year ago (Dec ‘16) and it was fantastic!

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Be warned that if you call NCL to purchase a room decorating package - Birthday, Anniversary, Bon Voyage, etc - for a friend it WILL show up on their amenities list!! I tried to surprise our friends for their first cruise but they saw it the day before sailing.

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It is probably the minibar, as the other poster said. However, when we sailed PoA in 2014 we asked our butler asked if we had any soda requests and we said Diet Soda only. He cleared out the minibar and kept the fridge stocked with Diet and there was no minibar charge at the end of the week.

That is NOT an advertised perk of suites/Haven and not one I would expect, but it was sure nice!

When I did Haven on BA last year, we had stopped drinking all soda so I had no opportunity to find out if it would happen again.

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A suite deposit is often more than $500. You should be able to use your regular CruiseNext certificate (maybe two depending on the promo) on a suite but only as money towards the deposit, not as the entire deposit. That's what I did when sailing BA Haven. I used my CruiseNext plus cash to pay the regular suite deposit.

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Escape has a Snow Room but BA/GA is all hot.

That said, I found the Thelassotherapy pool to be cool-ish and the attached hot tub to be lukewarm.

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Excellent video, thanks!

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I had the same problem. It worked when I had something in the cart that charged money, but not when all of the items were free.

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Ha! Very, very true.

But since it's 6 of us (two kids) and it sounds so luxurious. ;)

They do look luxurious! I almost got one on GSC and love the idea, but it was just a little out of our reach. If you can swing it, why not?

The starter was a salad with prosciutto, mozzarella cheese and tomato over greens. The main course was surf & turf (shrimp, not lobster) with potatoes and broccoli. Note that they did not ask anyone how they wanted their steak done so some people were quite displeased with what they received (I lucked out and mine was cooked to medium so it was still edible). Dessert was a sampler of red velvet cake, berries with cream and chocolate cake.

It's interesting that they specifically advertised "new menus" when this sounds *exactly* like the menu we had in December. Oh well, I enjoyed it once, I'm sure I will again!

* Bring an extension cord. Voltage is American, it'll plug right in.

* NCL will provide filtered water on request if he uses a humidifier with the CPAP

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Anyone know if this is still true? I don't recall seeing it on the list of suite perks. If so, I at least won't have to worry about using up my OBC with my chai lattes and whatever drinks my boys get!

OP is referring to the in-room espresso machine that comes with Suites. It used to be Lavazza (with the milk frothing wand to make lattes/cappucinos) but has switched to Nespresso on many ships. Still, it's all the espresso you care to drink. Your butler will bring you as many extra pods as you want!