Sailing12Away

I'm struggling soooooo hard right now to not say the things that I know you and I are both thinking. But I need someone to help me understand how "communal soap" with a single use dispenser that aliquots (hey look, I'm a fancy scientist too) your portion out to you at one time implies that I am lathering my body with such said soap and returning it back to the original container for the next stranger to reuse. What in the bloody world did this divulge into? I think I'm going to hop on Amazon and see if I can buy a bottle of bubbles to get here before my next trip in <9 days..... oh mylanta.

Prices below are for 2 people for a 7 night cruise. I dunno.... those prices are decent to me. Guess it all depends on when you're looking to sail and where you specifically want to go.

My parents were in a club balcony on the Joy in September. The photo below is their bathroom - it was almost nicer than mine in my Haven room. Similar, but their shower was a simple walk-in whereas mine had a tub with a very large lip to climb over. They got snacks 2x during our 10 day cruise, and got a free bag of laundry which was nice. I had booked all our dining reservations so they didn't use that perk. But it had a smidge more space than a regular balcony room and was perfect for the 2 of them.

The port access is restricted, or it was when we were there a few years ago. We rented a car day 1 on Maui and watched the sunset on Haleakala. Dropped the car back off at the airport, then took an Uber to the port. To get back into the port all of us had to show our room cards and photo ID to be allowed through the gate. If you're trying to plan a super early excursion for day 2, just work out the logistics of where you're getting picked up from. Your tour guide may have trouble getting into the port for a close pick-up that early in the morning.

Only in the Haven restaurant, or in the specialty restaurants with an upcharge.

If you book the 3br garden villa you get your own personal steam room for free.

3 chairs will be tight, if they even fit at all. If she's petite she can sit on the table, but otherwise it will be standing room only out there. The photo below is a regular balcony room on the Encore, a similar ship to your Bliss.

September on the Joy when we sailed to Canada & NE. I'll be back on the Joy in 12 days... will report back with any changes. I'm in the minority as I'm not a huge fan of the Haven restaurant. I'm a picky eater, so finding enough things for me to want to go back more than once is hard. We'll be on a 15 day trip, so definitely will look into options for pre-planned non-Haven menu options to be eaten in the Haven area.

The HH is a huge room with a curtain for privacy. The 2br is 2 district rooms and 2 bathrooms, but feels like less overall space. We're lazy and the walk to Haven amenities from the HH is fine for us. So for us, unless we need true bedroom separation the HH is a much better bargain. American diner... Look for the shrimp & grits. It comes with andouille sausage and I don't eat fish, so I got double portion of the sausage with no issue.

Another option on the Joy is the HH cabins, the Family Villa. It's not a separate bedroom, but the space is enormous and there's a curtain that can be pulled across for privacy. Fold down murphy bed in the wall, plus a couch bed. Room itself is big and cheaper than the regular courtyard rooms by a LOT. I'm planning on going to the American Diner for my sausage & grits in 13 days... will let everyone know if that is no longer free and we much somewhere else.

Regarding beer... .just ask your butler. There are things that are advertised as what is included, and there are things that are allowed if asked. We had mentioned on the Star (no Haven, but we were in the garden villa) that we could go for a nice cold beer when we got back from excursions, the fridge in the middle bedroom was stocked with lagers that afternoon. We mentioned we liked bubbly mixed with juice during breakfast, every morning with our breakfast order he would bring a bottle of bubbly for us. Go in with the expectation that it's not guaranteed, but you'll never know if you don't ask. We've never been told 'no'. Our first experience in an OS on the Jade we met our neighbor next door in the 3br villa. He had an entire cooler stocked with beers in there the entire trip. Ask nicely, or hint at what would make your experience nice, and they usually deliver. In an OS or villa I usually ask for a blender so I can make my own slushie concoctions. They've never told me no once.

11% Go big it go home baby! Although James drank most of the cherry one of course. He doesn't know I generally taste tested it when I poured it out.

That must be the one I was thinking of. If I remember right though, 14 is with many people (kids) on fold down beds from the ceiling and on couches. The actual shared spaces outside of the bedrooms was somewhat small though compared to the NCL garden villas. So I wasn't overly impressed. The balcony was a long bowling alley, as opposed to sun spaces, dining spaces, hot tub spaces, sauna spaces, etc etc.

Actually, you're incorrect. If you're in an owners suite, your mini bar is fully stocked and free. Soda, water, juice, beer.... plus you get bottles of liquor in your room. The # of bottles depends on the length of your trip. Ask and you shall receive.... Owners suites and garden villas are on a whole different level of service in NCL. Welcome Aboard SSL H1, H2, H3, H4.pdf

Our last 2 trips were quadruple points in Haven/Garden Villas for 9+ nights. So it adds up quickly when you can cash in on those promos. Only our first cruise was at single points. We've had double 3x, triple once, and quadruple 3x. When we get on board we'll see when the officers dinner is in case we need to shuffle some dinners around. That's why they're there after all. (please marvel at my correct usage of 2/3 'their' usages despite being 2 imperial IPAs deep tonight...., my barometer for wanting to do work and not giving a F and already being in vacation mode has tipped the other direction... 14 days is it?) You need to start experimenting more, especially on ships with a brewhouse. Get creative with those black & tans. Black moon (blue moon + guinness), peach moon (blue moon + shot of peach schnapz), ..... so many things to experiment and it's all free with that marvelous drink package.

There's someone on the Joy now posting who said it was available, so that's why I'm thinking it is for my journey at least.

Early, I think we were at the hotel before our room was ready. Left our bags at the desk and went to the space needle and gardens nearby.

You have to call them for some rooms. Some cabins they make you put a minimum number of people in them, and their website is not designed to allow online booking for more than 4 in a room. There's a 3br available on one of their ships. Took me a while to realize it will never be listed as available on their website. Had to call for pricing. Haven 3br garden villa was a much better value for what you get so didn't pursue booking it

It's not an official rule to my knowledge, but we were not stopped at ports of call when we brought back a few unopened cans of beer in September. Testing it again in about 20 days, will let you know. The official rule for embarkation is wine only.

We'll be on the Joy in <20 days, and rumor has it that the dinner is back on. I'll let you know how it goes. Going in honor of a fallen friend who would have loved to chew the ear off of anyone who is lucky enough to work on these amazing ships. Hoping I can pull up the tidbits of ship trivia he shared with me over the years (rat guards, always remember the 🐀) and make him proud.

Just the 2 of us. Sometimes we bring my MIL along, but her health is declining rapidly so not sure if she'll be able to travel with us again. The retreat is on our list to try as well, but same thing, just can't justify the price yet. All the Celebrity loyalists love to come out of the woodwork and say for what you get it's a better value and NCL is nickel & diming.... but again, depends on what is a value add to you. We have a Galapagos trip booked on the Flora, so that will probably be our first Celebrity encounter, and not sure if it's fair to start there since anything else will pale in comparison. It's not even a real cruise ship, more of a glorified large yacht, so I expect we will be blown out of the water with that whole experience. I would love for NCL to come up with something similar for small expedition type sailings either for antarctica or even just the smaller less visited islands in the carribean. But that 7 day trip on Flora is nearly costing us the same as our 10 day on Prima in an H4. A one vacation a year type of trip at those prices.

We were booked on a NZ cruise a few years back, and then Covid happened. Have been considering trying to do it again, but leaning more towards flying there and getting a car to do it on our own. But we would be missing the scenic sail around the sound. Hearing that your cruise completely missed over that part would be a big bummer. Has the crew hinted that this was unusual, or expected for this time of year? We're still trying to plan out a do-it-ourselves trip for around this time of year 2024, so wondering if pushing it to March would be better.

I'm intrigued by Star class, but have never once found a sailing even orders of magnitude close to what I've been finding on NCL. I guess it all depends on where you're looking to travel and the time of year, but last 5 Haven trips averaged about $450/pp/day. That's with cabins ranging from an HH (Joy) to an H1 (Star & Pearl). I haven't been able to find a Star class trip for anywhere close to that price. Just looked up a 9 night great barrier reef trip for 2024. Grand loft suite would cost us over 1K/pp/day. Sure, it comes with wifi - I don't care about wifi, I get free wifi on land and nothing happening back home is that important it can't wait 1-2 days while I'm at sea. I dunno, you're going to have a hard time convincing me there's double the amount of value packed into that little genie guy.

What lattitudes perks were they offering for sign up on embarkation day? Wines around the world? Behind the scenes tour?

That will be my sailing on the 24th, but it's now saying berth 46 for us. I'll report back in 21 days...