careyayn22

Oops. Found these too. 

My husband had the gumbo and someone had this chocolate thing. Sorry I don’t remember it’s name. I remember I liked the ice cream and the caramel popcorn on it. 

I had the black sea bass. I really liked it, but I’ve had better seabass. 

My my son loved his salmon (I tasted it and it was excellent). My other son had the fisherman’s platter as well as my mom. Both enjoyed it. 

My picky brother does not eat seafood. He also only eats fillet. So, my sil and he got two surf and turfs and she ate all the lobster he ate all the fillet. 

I had had the really excellent scallops as an app. I can’t remember what my dh had for an entree. I think it was the linguine. No complaints.  We all liked the clam chowder. 

Scallops, chowder, sea bass, fisherman’s platter, salmon

We were at Ocean Blue in June. I wish I could remember what we had for desserts other than the cheesecake in a jar that I had (it was very good). I’m sorry I don’t remember more than the one I took a photo of that night. 

We were on the Joy in June.  My twin 11 year old boys were OK with it, but they weren’t really into going back. If it would have worked out, they would have gone back during the unstructured time, but they didn’t want to do the organized “fun” this time around.  They felt it wasn’t enough of a step up from the last time when they were nine. They didn't really LOVE it at nine,  but as a whole, they did enjoy it and went a few times. THis time, at 11, they were content being with us or in the cabin with movies and iPads. 

Everyone is different, but I am not a big drinker (probably average 20-30 drinks a year and most of those in the summer/vacations) and I only got buzzed once on my last cruise drinking mostly foo foo drinks. I think six or seven was the most I drank in a day. I probably averaged about four.  I thought most were not that strong. Obviously six scotches or beers or glasses of wine would affect me more. 

I believe the sign said combined 280 or 285? I don’t know they enforce that. 

My husband loved the old standbys: Bahama Mama and mudslides. 

On the Joy last week: I liked the frozen margaritas at the pool bar, the ginger and regular mojito at the mojito bar, grass clippings at Maltings and I think my favorite was the passion fruit lime cooler on tap at the Local. Mr Worldwide was pretty good too. 

We were on last week.

We only had about 2.5 days that were ok for swimming. I’m sure later in the summer or just a different week could bring nicer weather. If you need warm weather to swim, I wouldn’t count on it, but if you are from hearty stock (aka colder climates) you should be able to get in some swimming most days. 

That said, the one water slide that goes over the side was never open the entire trip (that I saw).  The other one was open at least the first day because my kids went down it. 

The hot tubs and adult pool were open.  The kid pool was closed on the nicest sailing day due to an adult throwing up in that pool. 

I am not sure, but I do think the pools and splash/kid slide area were closed during the worst weather. I did see people in the hot tubs during heavy rain and 45 degrees though. 

9 hours ago, elwood_98034 said:

It's fine. We are going to Alaska again. All the pools are usually totally deserted, but we don't care about the cold because we are from Seattle, so the weather is totally normal for us. If you are on the Joy, and you see a family in the pool getting strange looks from everyone else walking around in down parkas and Ugg boots it will probably be us. 

We hit a storm out of Juneau one time and they had to come and kick us out because of the sloshing. It was like a wave pool. It was awesome.

That was my dh and I on our first cruise to Alaska on Princess. Total wave pool and had it to ourselves. 

This trip?  It was pretty darn cold most of the time (even by Minnesotan standards) and when it wasn’t, the family pool was closed due to vomit. 

I jumped in one day, but honestly, I find NCL’s megaship pools very underwhelming and unwelcoming.  This princess pools back in 2002 were nice—if my memory serves me. 

I was just on the Joy. I haven’t been on the Bliss, but I can say the observation deck was very large on the Joy. 

Unless you you are diehard thermal suite people, I can’t imagine spending that much more for the Bliss. They are both mega ships that are very much alike and all the good and bad that come with that. 

We were on that sailing as well. I plan on posting a review at some point. 

THanks for sharing. 

2 hours ago, zqvol said:

The Haven is NOTHING like sailing on a luxury line. It is not even close. The majority of people on the luxury lines do not care about or want the so called amenities of the mass market lines.

Well, I didn’t say they were the same exact thing. I said the Haven is a compromise between wanting a luxury cruise and a mass market cruise.

Myopically, you or I may not want that, but obviously there is a market. Sometimes people do both and might even like both styles depending on what type of trip they want. I don’t cruise regularly because I like to travel in a variety of different ways. I am sure my dh and I would enjoy a luxury cruise, but we also enjoy mega ships with our kids (but I’m trying a smaller ship next time). We rv camp, we hike, we are foodies, we travel for our kids’ hockey, we have stayed in Airbnb’s, luxury hotels and condos and the complete opposite (all in the same year).

We aren’t a one size fits all traveller. I think it’s a little strange that some people only seem to cruise, and I know people who look down on cruising. To each their own. 

Example of a possible haven guest: 

Grandma and grandpa may only cruise Crystal, but they want to take their kids and grandkids on a cruise, so the haven is a good option. 

Also, yes, I do think some people just like being a big fish in a little pond. I also said, I think on another thread, that pretty much no matter who you are, you’re likely just new money bougie at best if you are anywhere on NCL, but I’d venture to say most luxury lines are not that much different in clientele...just older and some with a bit more privilege and wealth. 

Old money multi millionaires have their own yachts and butlers and no need to mix with the peasants or merchants. 

We were on hold waiting for a supervisor for an hour when they messed up my food and beverage package. 

Glad it somewhat worked for you. 

My 11 year old boys were not as into the Splash Academy this time around. It wasn’t bad, but they felt the organized activities were not challenging like they were a couple years ago. I do think the 10-12 range is a hard one, but she might find a couple kids right away that she clicks with and that might help. 

We we did a lot together,  but sometimes we just left them in the room to watch movies after dinner. We always gave them the choice of splash academy or room. The sea days were the only time they got a little “bored.”

28 minutes ago, Msmojo66 said:

Please do a trip report!!!  Would love to see how things compare!!  Looking at booking NCL with 2 11yr olds so very curious!!!

We just got back from the Joy sailing with two 11 year olds. They didn’t care for the splash academy this time (did like it two years ago). My dh and I did Alaska in 2002 on the Princess Star.  It’s  hard to compare with that time difference, but I would recommend a glacier bay sailing (which we had on princess and not NCL Joy). However, I think the excursions are more family friendly for the kids on NCL. They liked them all and all were solid quality. 

I was cruising during the TCZ drama, apparently, so I am filling in the blanks here with all the allusions to the infamous post. I’m guessing most  of your post is sarcasm. I admit I am alarmed by some of the crazy posts I’ve seen about having to rub elbows with the unwashed masses. Ffs. Ship within a ship or not, “you’re” still just a cruiser on NCL. You’re new money bougie at best. 

I do bet it is a little easier to afford the haven if one doesn’t need to buy airline tickets. I never really thought about that. We have to fly everywhere. It would be great to live near or in a port city or area. 

5 minutes ago, gardengirl2011 said:

Sooo, I’ve only been on about 3 NCL cruises.  I’ve been on over 50 cruises on other lines.  What I don’t understand is the Haven.  If you want that type of cruise, why not sail Cunard or Seabourn? I get the total exclusive areas, but, if I wanted that type of service and was willing to pay for it I personally would cruise a different line.  NCL is a mass market cruise line.  Just don’t understand paying that kind of money for Haven.

I think it’s so one can have the amenities of a large ship and the service of a more elite line. It’s pretty brilliant, and I understand the allure, but I also think you have a point there. When they start taking away the pleasures of the ship away from the masses to give to the few, there is a line crossed, and if one REALLY can’t stand the masses, perhaps a mega ship isn’t the place to be. 

16 minutes ago, mugtech said:

I said a couple of times on this trip that maybe I need to sail on a smaller ship. We’ve sailed the Joy and Escape because, well, we have kids. This time the kids hardly used the splash academy, liked the VR pavilion but wasn’t anything special, liked laser tag, but it only lasts ten minutes and we had a big clustercuss with the speedway and never even got to do it (NCL’s issue and another story).  Of the two days swimming was an enjoyable option (Alaska not NCL and expected) an adult threw up in the kids pool and they couldn’t even swim. 

I understand people pay big bucks for the haven. Maybe some day I will too and I’ll want what I pay for, but I don’t think I want to do that at the expense of the other guests. If the haven needs to be bigger and more people want that experience, maybe something is fundamentally wrong with the mega ship philosophy. 

Anyway, I am definitely going to keep my options open for the next cruise. Maybe a smaller class of ship or another brand. It all started to feel just a bit too overwhelming between the issues we ran into, the largeness of the ship, the class system, the upcharges for everything...just “extra” as the kids say.  

Yeah, we just got off the Joy. There are a lot of great things and a lot of SMH things going on. 

This was only my third cruise (second on NCL). I am wondering if I’d be happier on another line or if their weaknesses will be just as annoying. I find the “public” pools ridiculously small and the MDR was very disappointing. It does seem like the general riff raff is supposed to just be happy to be on the ship and not to question anything NCL does. 

The pool thing is weird on NCL. Such small pools and only one for kids (and as we found out a couple days ago, kids are out of luck when it gets shut down due to vomit even though it was Alaska and only a couple adults were swimming in the very small “main pool”). 

It has been awhile, but I remember Princess having much more and bigger pools. 

Good luck with your group. Even in Alaska, we could only get about four loungers together on the couple decent days. 

I haven’t stayed in a suite or Haven, but I do think so much depends on tone. Beyond finding the correct tone, the rest is how you perceive the role and relationship between you and the service staff. 

For me, I don’t think I would leave a note for anything other than “needs” or maybe a couple very strong preferences. To me, these should be things you need/really strongly  want, the entire cruise. One time things should be communicated orally. I like a tone that makes it sound more like a partnership rather than master/servant relationship. 

I might say something like: (totally made up)

Hi we are the “Smiths” and we are looking forward to our first stay in The Haven and getting to see Alaska again from the point of view of a NCL cruise ship. 

We are fairly low maintence and do not wish to give you additional work, but we do have a couple things we will need. First, Joey, our eleven year old, is allergic to peanuts. So, please make sure our snacks are not nut based. 

Also, Tim, my husband, has a CPap machine. We would really appreciate a pitcher of fresh water every day for that and to take our medications. 

Finally, we do have a couple preferences. Suzy, our fourteen year old, really dislikes the smell of seafood and fish, it possible, we would prefer not to have seafood snacks in our  room. Also,  we love chocolate covered fruit, so whenever that is available, we would love that as an afternoon treat, but we completely understand this may not work out depending on availability. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  We appreciate all you do and look forward to getting to know you a bit more this week.

See you around,

the SMiths. 

On 6/8/2019 at 6:35 PM, hallux said:

It's not a simple matter of a tolerance for noise.  Had the ship been docked in Nassau he may not have taken issue with it.  The issue was the location of the ship and the hope for listening to noises from shore (or just plain nature sounds) and not being able to that bothered him.

Yes. I believe we agree. I suppose I should add we all have difference tolerance levels depending on the environment and our own preferences.

Everyone has different tolerance for noise, but we don’t base common sense courtesy on only our own tolerance levels.

I can be pretty immune to loud kids playing.  I have twin boys and I teach. That doesn’t mean I’m going to let my kids yell and wrestle in the middle of a speciality restaurant. We all have this cruising experience together. Some people are ultra particular and will always be annoyed by every little thing. We can’t cater to the lowest common denominator, but we should be able to step outside our own bubble and evaluate the environment and cultural norms. 

On 5/24/2019 at 3:06 PM, Defhermit said:

 

When I said "maybe it's an age thing" I was referring to behavior I've noticed that doesn't make sense to me, that I've only seen in older post-retirement-age people. I wasn't making fun of older people, I was speculating that maybe this behavior that seems unusual to me might be more normal for older people for whatever reason. That reason might be that they were exposed to better service decades ago and they are still holding people to that higher standard they became accustomed to, or it might be that people just get crankier and more nit-picky as they age. I don't know what the reason is but in my experience, I've never seen a younger (well, <60) person send something back to the kitchen.

I meant no offense and apologize if I upset you.

You’ve never seen someone under sixty send food back? I’m not someone who sends stuff back often, but I certainly have and will if the problem is particularly egregious/inedible. Haven’t done it on a cruise. I do think some people can be annoying about it. My sister in law is one of those and my father law used to be, but that was personality and not age. She was doing that in her 20’s.  I think sometimes sending food back or at least alerting the establishment to a problem  is just common sense and advocating for yourself. 

I’m in my mid 40s.