Sailing12Away

Wine, yes. Beer - only during ports of call. The wine we brought on at embarkation, the beer & cans of cider we brought back from excursions with no issue.

Having looked through those menus, I'm even more interested to see what was actually offered on Flora. I'm sure for most folks those menus look divine and they can't wait to taste everything - for me, I'm struggling to find something I would enjoy beyond a hamburger or roast chicken dish. If anyone has photos or recollection of what is actually served on Flora I would love to hear it. Especially for someone who doesn't eat seafood or mushrooms, which seem to be in >50% of the dishes in those menus.

My (limited) research has shown that the city of Quayaquil is not nearly as nice or safe as Quito, hence why they have folks fly into Quito. In talking with folks who have been to both cities, they advised us to skip Quayaquil as it was definitely more 'rough around the edges' with not much to see/do.

We just booked Flora this past weekend so I'm doing a deep dive into all posts related to her. This was definitely one of my questions as well, so glad to find it right away. I thought I had read/seen somewhere that you get fitted on the first day and that becomes 'your' wetsuit for the entire trip. Is that correct?

Depending on where your room is, they make it easy enough to do yourself if you're in one of those courtyard rooms on the larger ships as the bar is literally 5 steps from your door. But yes, one of those annoying NCL'isms that make you scratch your head and ask 'why'? On RCC's smaller ships we couldn't get drinks brought to our room either, but that was shortly after reopening so may have been more to do with Covid than anything else as they wouldn't even walk our food into our room for breakfast. Trying Celebrity for the first time in 2024 so we'll see how that compares.

I think it greatly depends on what type of excursion it is, and possibly even what cabin you're in. On our Alaska trip we wanted to do the private Hummer tour, but it was sold out. We were booked in the Haven on that trip so I reached out the concierge. Within 2 days we were notified that they were able to add on an extra car and we were booked before getting on board the ship.

It always makes me laugh when people claim there's 'no food' available on a ship that has food 23/24 hrs a day (24 if you count room service). Especially when they then proceed to acknowledge that O'Sheehans is open, and then proclaim that the food there isn't good, yet also proclaim they didn't actually ever even try it.

We brought bubbly, but chose to drink it in our cabin. While we're out and about there are folks who can run and grab us anything. The stuff we bring on board with us for when we're lazy in our room and want some fun.

The card only gets charged if you win the bid, so depending on how large of a bid you're putting in it may be a non-issue. Plus that's a fun way to announce the surprise.

I'm in the team Lattitudes bucket. Never used the casino once in our 8+ cruises.

I think those prices are for the entire trip. Meaning the difference of $750/couple by using NCL vs $780 of doing it on their own. Minimal savings for their peace of mind of having control.

Hence why I never understand why some folks swear by them and claim they're always 'better'. It's like going to buy a car and they ask you what monthly price you want to pay. Sure, they can get your payments down to only $200/month, but you're paying an extra 5K above sticker price for it to happen meaning over the long run you're paying way more.

When you drop it off and it goes through the scanners. Anything on the naughty list gets pulled out and I believe they check it against the tag on the bag to document who it needs to be matched up with at the end.

Owners suites and the garden villas are completely different. They have extra perks that the rest of the Haven suites do not. One is the free mini bar which includes cans and bottles of nearly anything you may want. But that same treatment you got in an OS will not carry over to say a regular courtyard penthouse.

I swap proteins out all the time in the specialty restaurants. Not a fan of baby cow, so I'll swap it for the adult filet version. Pig I only eat in bacon form, so same thing, if I like the sauce and sides of a dish, I'll just have them swap the pork with either a chicken breast or a filet.

They'll take that from you and hold it until the night before disembarking where you get it back. Nope, we brought about 4 bottles in our checked luggage and they were still in the bag when it got to our room in September. At the ports it will be on your room card. On embarkation I presume they look up the room number on the luggage tag to determine if you get charged or not. Pure guess though.

The only drinks at all that are included in the Haven is if you are staying in an owners suite or garden villa. Then you can get unlimited cans of soda, beer, mixers, etc and you'll have a few bottles (depends on length of trip) of liquor in your room with you. They can bring you glasses/pitchers of juice or soda, but not cans - although there will be some folks who say they've gotten it. But the formal rule is 'no'. There are ways around it, but again it's at the discretion of the staff if they'll bring it and if they'll charge you. Usually at the end of the night hubby likes to have a glass of soda in the room, we resign ourselves to carrying 2 glasses back - but when you ask nice enough some staff at the Haven bar will give you the unopened can to bring back to the room. With the plus package, you can without a doubt get unopened bottles of still/sparkling water to bring back, but we've never paid to upgrade to that package so haven't tested out if they'll deliver bottles of wine to you. But as a general 'rule' - no, you cannot have your butler bring you a pina colada or gin & tonic without there being a charge, even if you have the drink package. Stupid, yes. My guess is because there would be folks who take advantage and use their butler as a personal waiter to run and bring them cocktails every 20 mins. No harm in simply asking though if they're brining dinner to also bring a drink with it - depending on where your room is located it really isn't that hard to just get the cocktail yourself though.

Ok, guess I'll be the stupid one to ask..... why not leave them in your car? If you're doing private excursions that will require a car ride you can check with the tour operator to see if they can provide some.

We usually ask for a copy of the Haven breakfast menu to be left in our room. The night prior we'll fill out the little card with our choices and hang it up on the door. Then wake up to yummy breakfast waiting for us when we want it. In the Haven, you can write anything you want on those cards and go completely off menu. I usually opt for 'lots of crispy bacon and lots of hash browns, please'. They've only disappointed me once as our last trip they kept saying they had no hash browns and brought me breakfast potatoes instead.

Wow... so much conflicting information. We sailed in September and had several bottles in both our checked luggage, as well as carry-on (we were leaving from NY, so no flight involved). For the checked luggage, I taped a note on the bottles saying essentially "Hi, we have the drink package! Please don't take my wine, room #xxxxx". For the carry-on in our backpacks (champagne and a skinny bottle expensive dessert wine), no one said a word to us when the bags went through the scanners at the port. Coming back onto the ship during the cruise they would see our bottles, check our room cards to confirm we had the package and then send us on our way. The only thing they'll take and hold is hard liquor. Wine, beer, and cans of hard cider I was allowed to bring right to my room, no charge. On other trips that do involve flights, we have several of these bags that we bring with us. We'll pack bottles in that to protect our clothes in case of any mishaps, or if we buy more booze than we have bags for, we wrap them up in our dirty laundry like others have said. No mishaps yet, and we rarely come home from a vacation without local beer, wine, cider, booze, etc. Just put them towards the bottom of the bag (near the wheels when the bag is standing upright) with some cushion around on all sides. https://www.containerstore.com/s/jetbag-bottle-protector/d?q=wine bag&productId=10032365

There's always deals to be found. I just posted info for a February sailing on the Joy leaving out of LAX where you can sail Haven for <$300/pp/day. If you're looking for a quiet area to sit, read, play cards or board games... most ships have a library. It's not a pool area, but it is a nice calm place to go and veg out for free. The newer ships have the amazing observation lounges too with lots of nooks and crannies to curl up and enjoy the views.

No status until they turn 18, and then they magically jump up in rank on their first completed trip. https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program/faq

If you're getting specialty restaurant food served to you in the Haven restaurant, they're still using your free at sea (or lattitudes) dining credits, it's not free just because you're a Haven guest. Assuming you've got the free at sea package, I don't see why you wouldn't use those credits. I'm a picky eater, so for myself I really don't enjoy eating in the Haven restaurant more than 1-2 times. Our next trip is a big one, 15 days. So I'm planning on visiting the concierge on day 2 (day 1 is way too busy) and having some chats to see what options we've got with enough advanced notice for the staff. Last trip a group of folks arranged for a special Indian meal one night in the Haven restaurant, so I'd definitely be interested in seeing what else I could get for a one or two special meal off-menu.

That's interesting... we're doing the PC out of LA end of February on the Joy and got great flights. Direct from JFK to LAX, then direct from MIA back home. Going is with AA and we had to pay ~$50/person to move to comfort plus, coming home is on Delta who charged a similar price. We could have opted to just move and sit together for free in the back of the plane, but we're chunky and like the extra room.

For anyone willing and able to do a last minute Panama Canal trip, Haven pricing is < $300/pp/night on the Joy. Haven rooms have been sold out for a while, so there must be onesies twosies rooms popping up. Plus a bonus that you would be sailing with me. First bottle of DP bubbly is on me!