Sand and Seas

I've never known NCL's CAS to run their own promotions. I just watch NCL for their promotions.

I have a lightweight 'packable' down jacket that you can fold down into it's own small storage pouch. It's easy to take along but oh so warm on a cold airplane........or when I arrive back home during a snow storm❄️🥶❄️

We always stay at the Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon. Free shuttle from airport. Free breakfast in the morning. Across the street from a Publix and a Cuban restaurant. You can get anything you need in Publix. If you have forgotten any items of clothing like sandals, etc, you can find it in the Burlington store by the Publix. They also have a sign up for a shuttle to the cruise port. (I think it's $10 per person?) Never had any problems walking around in the area and the Hampton Inn is nice.

Indulge Food Hall was great on Prima. It's a complimentary venue that has a huge variety of small plate items. Each table has a tablet to place your orders. Easy to over order so suggest you start with just a couple of choices. Servers deliver your selections.

Yes! Lobster Rolls at the Ocean Blue walk-up window. Much better (in our opinion) than the lobster/shrimp rolls at American Diner. Only open on 'at sea' days during lunch time, so check your Dailies. The first time we tried them was after noticing several officers lined up at that window on the Waterfront 😎

Very common in casinos. Otherwise, everyone would be in a line for the Cashier Cage just to cash out a small balance ticket. They usually are combined with an ATM, but I make it a practice to NEVER use an ATM at a casino😬

I'm guessing that post refers to the 'bill breaker' machine in the casinos. It cashes out your slot machine tickets but also breaks down large bills to smaller ones.

Yes, we still have a CN for $11 we will never use that was left over from a cancellation during covid.

We love the Bliss! Looking forward to your review😊

If you don't mind a walk to the elevators, we loved our Forward Facing Haven. It has two rooms and an awesome bathroom with a separate walk-in shower plus an oval tub.

That's interesting. Hard to picture as a casino space, but I guess for high rollers perhaps 3 or 4 gaming tables? It would be fun to see pictures of what those spaces looked like originally. It's been reported that the Joy Haven library area will be closed off during the upcoming renovation to become part of two larger suites. We checked it out during our cruise last month since we knew it would be gone before we return to the Joy. It appeared larger (to our recollection) than the same space on Bliss, but the Bliss Haven library had a stairway down to the Horizon lounge. We used it several times on the Bliss. You really had to know the library was there to find it on the Joy.

@smillerholmes, love your 'random musings' and can't wait to hear more. We are looking forward to our upcoming Breakaway from NOLA. Hope the casino continues to treat you well😊

The Joy Haven has a beautiful Horizon observation lounge, plus the private Haven Sundeck. These would give you some awesome views on an Alaskan cruise. The Haven restaurant is the best on the ship. The Horizon lounge also has an awesome machine to make all kinds of coffee PLUS some really good steamed & frothy milk hot chocolate😋 We were in the Joy Haven (southern Caribbean) last month. Also, we did an Alaskan cruise in the Bliss Haven which is very similar. We felt the Horizon Lounge & private sundeck really added to our experience. However, I do understand the value of two bathrooms and those aft balconies are great too!

I find it amusing that it's called 'The Black Friday Preview Sale'. So after the 'preview' will they try to sweeten the deal with something extra? The cruise price I'm tracking hasn't changed in the last two weeks. It was $100 per person cheaper a month ago.

The pretzel roll bun is from the fish sandwich on the lunch menu. Hope you enjoy it! Another good and casual Haven lunch is to ask for the courtyard menu (Haven pool & hot tub area). You have to ask the Courtyard attendant or someone at the Haven Bar to have the menu brought to you. On our Joy cruise last month it was available until 3:30pm. Look at post #79 of this CruiseCritic thread:

We were in the Joy Haven for twelve days last month. Order two or three appetizers, no problem. Order extra shrimp for your Shrimp Louis, no problem. Ask for a shrimp cocktail (not on menu, but everything available) no problem. Order your own version of customized Surf & Surf (crab cake plus shrimp or maybe lobster🤔), again, no problem. Order two or more lobster tails and sit back while your server removes them from the shell for you. You can order whatever you want for dinner as long as it's available somewhere on the Haven dinner menu. They are happy to customize it for you. Recommendation from DH, if you order the lunch Brie burger, ask for it to be on the Pretzel Roll as it holds up much better. Also, if you want the grilled onions, have them on the side. (We think the grilled onions & cheese made it a little soggy for the regular bun to handle.)

My mom made hash browns like that! Delicious😋

Items we had seen on our prior April Joy cruise were not listed anywhere so perhaps they decided to remove them from the menu. For example, we enjoy the Elotes which is grilled Mexican Street Corn on the Cob, but it was no longer on the tablet menu. The prior menu had 3 or 4 types of dumplings, while the one on our October cruise there was just one. While we still enjoyed our FR meals, it was just surprising how few items were available.

We ate at Joy on two evenings during our cruise last month. Did anyone else notice that the menu wasn't as extensive as we have seen on prior cruises? It was very good, but noticed a few items we had seen on our April Joy cruise were no longer listed.

I wonder if they will remove the 'within one year' requirement for the CasinoNext certificates? They are treated somewhat like the CruiseNext.

I recall reading somewhere a few years ago (here or ?) that some would save those plastic hotel shower caps and turn it into a plate cover. Not sure I could be comfortable doing that with a Cagney's chocolate cake🤔

I forgot to mention a couple of others from our recent Joy Haven. We did not have the drink package, so we didn't expect to utilize the Haven bar that much. (Free drinks in casino.) However, did have the 'soda' package and a couple of the bartenders would see me, smile, and promptly hand me two Diet Cokes! Needless to say, they added to our experience and I handed out some tips on the last couple of days. Also, we enjoyed a couple of Haven courtyard pool side lunch deliveries. Great burgers (with onion rings) and really awesome tempura vegetables delivered pool side. There was also a couple of friendly & helpful attendants that worked in the Horizon observation lounge. The attendants in these areas definitely contributed to our experience and deserved recognition 😎

On our first Haven cruise, we didn't meet our Butler until the third day. We got the impression that he had some very 'difficult' cabins that kept him too busy to do anything else. However our steward, concierge and the Haven restaurant staff were outstanding. You can guess how we distributed our tips for that cruise. Now that we have taken a few more Haven cruises, we have learned there are all types of Butlers😊 On our most recent cruise, we finally decided enjoy breakfast deliveries for a few mornings. We had the two room suite and could let our butler deliver to our outer room without us having to let him in. Our butler was amazing! He really made our cruise extra special and our tip reflected that. He was devastated that he was unable to provide Hash Browns for us....but we convinced him we would be just fine without them😉 Also, we had a new room steward on her first cruise. (We were outside Haven proper in a two room Forward Facing Suite). She took care of our simple requests for extra towels and extra laundry bag, and we could see how hard she was working every day. It was a joy to hand her a nice tip on that last day and see her face light up as she told us "This is my very first tip!" We had great meals in the Joy Haven restaurant, however we never got to create a relationship with any of the staff . On a twelve day cruise, and eating at least one meal in Haven each day, it's strange we never had the same server twice.

On the Joy two weeks ago they let us take dessert from Ocean Blue and Q. It was common to see others carrying covered plates around the ship. It never hurts to ask, but we have also been told 'no' on some other ships in the last year or two.

Yet, if you look on the hangtags for breakfast delivery, Hash Browns are still listed as a choice🤔