Sand and Seas

Oh yeah.....this review is going to be fun to keep an eye on🧐

We have carried it out also. Perhaps it is legal since it is not 'sold' to us🤔. It's a complimentary bottle that comes with our Platinum dinner.

@Cruise Bliss, In regards to your hubby not drinking Starbucks, I don't think it's required for you to both buy the package. (I often purchase Soda package for myself only after boarding.)

We loved the Joy Haven! Two of our favorite butlers were onboard in late October- Justo & Dennis. The Haven Horizon lounge and restaurant were awesome. Great staff that made everything very special for our cruise.

We rented from Enterprise at MCO, and then had a nice stay at Best Western Cocoa Beach. You can walk out on a pier that's close by. Lots of nice options for restaurants in area. Just a few miles from there to the rental car drop-off at the port. As you said, easy free shuttle from rental car agency to the port.

Our favorites on Prima were Onda & Los Lobos. We have enjoyed both on other ships and found them to be just as good on Prima. And to echo others, Palomar was a disappointment for us.

I just checked their chart and it lists small SUV for 1-4, and large SUV for 4-5 passengers. Prices depend on which airport as IAH is a longer trip. The larger SUV are $80 from HOU and $130 from IAH. The smaller SUV listed as $65 HOU and $110 IAH.

It also depends on which airport (IAH or HOU) that you are using. They have a chart on their FB page.

We can recommend something like the Carne Asada, Grilled Shrimp or Braised Pork. All are served with tortillas to make your own tacos with. Easy to share with each other. You also get one or two sides. We love the Elotes (grilled corn) and sweet Plantains. Both are delicious😋

@HoosierShipmate, really enjoying your descriptions and the pictures! If you can make it into Syd's, the show is definitely worth it. A tip from me, if you don't like the dessert in a specialty restaurant....it's perfectly OK to go back for dessert in the MDR! Did I tell you I love the MDR Soufflé😉

try looking for 'Galveston Saltwater Moms'

Tell Josh there is still hope🤞 We haven't ate at La Cucina for a couple of cruises, but I do recall getting a good filet in there😉

DH loves starting with a double order of the Italian Meatball appetizer. For me, this evening usually has a great Soufflé for dessert😋

Yes, read those requirements many times. Nothing about women's footwear. (Sorry, they do seem to give women more leeway on dress-code and many 'ladies' could use a little more guidance!) And yes, my husband always brings closed toed decent looking shoes for required restaurants. However, no where did the Haven signage say anything other than 'footwear required', which I take to mean no bare feet. If you ever see me in ANY restaurant with bare feet I have clearly totally lost it and need to be safely locked in my cabin😲 Just wanted to give everyone here a heads up. It appears to be only Breakaway Haven at this time as I and others have noted in our recent cruises on other ships. The haven hostess was telling me EVERY ship had been doing this for the last three months. She was clearly misinformed.

Sorry- I noted 'dressy sandals' as they were clearly more upscale footwear than the gym shoes (for wearing on plane) that I had to change into. I am not complaining about wearing closed toe footwear covering up my pedicure, however, no where did the signage say that women (or men) needed to wear closed toe shoes. I brought it up here to give others a 'heads up'. I suggested to them they should give us notice prior to boarding the ship so we could pack appropriately. I do have some 'dressy' closed toed shoes also😉

Yes, we used to take a Tux for my husband and I had a beaded evening gown or two! I don't know how we managed to carry all of that luggage on board🤔

@HoosierShipmate, surprised that you said ship was late clearing passengers before your boarding. We were in Haven lounge before your cruise and Concierge told us we all 'must disembark now' about 9:10am. She hadn't said anything prior to that time. She rushed 3 full elevators of us out at the same time 😒. Normally they let us know how long we can wait there if regular disembarkation is going slow. Customs was fast as they used facial recognition. Didn't need to see passports. Have a great cruise and don't miss Rumours show at Syd Normans😎

We just got off of 5 days on Breakaway and had two platinum meals. Also pleasantly surprised when Ocean Blue told us we would get one app,one soup or salad, entree and dessert. Terms listed above only have one starter but some will give you two😊

Just pointed to the same sign as above saying 'footwear' required. Apparently my dressy sandals are not footwear? Maybe only on Breakaway? Confusing 🤔

They did have this sign on hostess desk. Does anyone see something about sandals in this wording?

Interesting! May Getaway and October Joy definitely allowed sandals for men and women in the Haven restaurant.

My husband has always worn shoes to Le Bistro and Ocean Blue, however I have worn dressy ladies sandals. Guess the Breakaway is no longer giving us ladies that option. ....and they looked much dressier than the gym shoes they made me change into. Strangely Ocean Blue was fine with my dress sandals.

Has anyone been told of a new Haven restaurant dinner dress code? Just got off Breakaway and was surprised to be sent to change from sandals to shoes. It was a bit of a hike back to our forward facing suite on a different deck but we did go and change to shoes. They said change was fleetwide 3 months ago? Sandals were allowed in Joy haven restaurant in late October. (I did see a lady in a sundress and flip flops that same night....but I didn't report her🙄)

It definitely depends on who the Butler is for us. We just had a butler on our 5 day Breakaway that was pretty much useless. Had a great time anyway. However, our October Joy butler was awesome and really added to our experience. He listened to our likes and dislikes. We love the Haven restaurant and easy disembarkation. We don't need escorts to shows.

I am Ruby tier (35,000 plus tier pts per year ) which is 2nd highest CAS tier. In all the years since they added the ability to download cash at the machines it has always added the fee. Fees are removed by host at end of cruise for top tiers. If you look at Casinos at Sea page on ncl dot com there is a chart that shows removal of the fees as a benefit for upper tiers.