Sailing12Away

Garden villas do get free cans of soda in their room. Our most recent trip on the Joy we were in an HH cabin outside of the Haven on deck 15. We had asked one night at the bar when they were closing up if it was possible to get a Coke to bring back to the room, they said no problem. The rest of the trip when we were closing out the bar they would just ask "A Coke for the road?". But again, it's not something they have to do. Might just be because we spent so much time there and we did definitely have the drink package. The ship was losing a lot more money on us in booze than on that $3 can of Coke.

We were in Alaska last September on the Encore. Best excursion we did was Tracy Arm Fjord out of Juneau: https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/JNU_15/Tracy-Arm-Fjord-Glacier-Explorer ?destination=Alaska+Cruises&port=JNU&sort=searchWeight&sortOrder=asc&perPage=12&startingRecord=12 You have time in the morning to explore town, then hop on your excursion as everyone else is returning to the ship. Your smaller boat goes ahead of the cruise ship and you get to see lots of animals, small icebergs floating by, and then you get really close to the glacier. You'll see the cruise ship start to catch up to you, but they dock much farther away. You eventually return back to them, hop back onto the ship and continue on your cruise.

If you'll be on the Joy, definitely consider upgrading to the HH, HI and HJ cabins. They're outside of the restricted Haven area so no need to walk anyone to your room. But you still get full access to the Haven perks, and the rooms tend to be bigger and less expensive.

Not sure what you mean by H1 - there's no category for that on the Joy. The aft rooms are either HB/HC for Haven, M6 for aft club balcony, B1 for regular aft balcony. If you have your heart set on an aft cabin, then it comes down to price and the perks that come from upgrading from a balcony, to the club balcony, to the Haven. As to whether it's 'worth it' it depends on your budget and what is important to you while on a cruise. I personally don't like aft Haven rooms, but others love them. Depends on what is important to you. Moving from regular balcony to club balcony gives you some small perks like snacks brought to the room 2x a trip and a free bag of laundry. Moving into a Haven room gives you the butler, concierge, and access to those Haven only areas. It's not necessarily about whether the ship will be crowded or not, you can always get a Vibe pass to avoid crowds, and that is a lot cheaper than moving into the Haven.

Butler will give you pitchers of anything you want for your room. As for cans, they are technically not covered unless you're in an Owners Suite or Garden Villa. Having said that, if you ask nice enough at the Haven bar and don't make a habit of it, or act as though it's something you're entitled to - the bartenders usually have no problem giving you 1-2 cans to take away to your room.

From my experience, your minimum bid is based on your current room you're located in. If we're both bidding on an entry level Haven and you're currently in a balcony, and I'm currently in an MA - my bid will be lower than yours. Not by much, but lower. Last trip I had a friend in a BA and my folks were in an M4, their minimum bids for Haven were different.

FWIW I've had 5 total MMR vaccinations, 3 as an infant/child and 2 as an adult. I'm still not immune to measles. There's folks like me out there who are at risk of catching all sorts of things from the rest of you based on our various immune system deficiencies. I don't think the OP had any intention of going on the trip if it truly was a varicella diagnosis, but for folks suggesting it would be ok if they did... wow. I hope I never cruise with you in the future. You're probably the same person who sat behind me on the excursions coughing their brains out that gave me Covid last trip.

We had to take them off for the pre-boarding check in photos. At the dock at check-in, the agent offered to let us retake the photos with the glasses on. Our particular sailing only attempted the facial recognition one time, had to scan our cards the rest of the times.

If you have the beverage package and 2 dinners, then you most likely already have the free at sea program. Check your receipt - in the top right corner there will be codes showing exactly what perks you have. I think the CHOALL4M is the free at sea one - but there's an entire thread here on the boards dedicated to deciphering each code. Being in Haven doesn't give you any other perks from the free at sea - it gives you access to the exclusive Haven only areas on the ship. There's a separate restaurant (if you're foodies, many folks rave about the food in there, so that sounds up your alley), private bar, private observation lounge with snacks during the day, private pool, private hot tubs, and private sun deck only for Haven guests. We were on the Joy last month and the Haven on that ship is lovely. If you're able to put in a bid, I definitely recommend it. Consider the category HH, HI, HJ rooms. They're just outside of the Haven complex with a short elevator ride up to the Haven amenities. For being outside of it (rather than steps from your door), the rooms are much larger and much cheaper. Access and service is still the same. BUT.... I personally won't ever do an aft Haven room on a ship with a full Haven area (which the Joy has). That's just me... too much walking from aft to front and down and up. Those HH, HI, HJ rooms are fine as they're mid-ship, so only need to go up.

Yeah, if there's a memo about clothing and makeup requirements I must have missed that in my last 8 cruises... As for the toilets, I just wish NCL would stop putting them in closets smaller than an airplane bathroom. I really don't need to brush my teeth at the same time someone else is pooping.

At least you have "Default".... I got nothing for my February trip beyond the date. Guess it's still a mystery where the ship is taking us. September 2023 trip looks fine at least.

Our sailing is still very much messed up on the NCL website. Despite getting multiple emails that Costa Rica & Nicaragua were dropped, Costa Rica is still showing up as a port - but the entire trip isn't even showing up as a Panama Canal journey. You can only find it if you search for the Joy - if you search for Panama Canal transits it doesn't show up at all. But when you try to price it out as it looks like prices have dropped yet again, you get this dreaded message.

No offense taken, so don't worry. I'll continue to bar stool hog, but honestly do encourage anyone traveling with us to belly on up next to us. Believe me, if you're on a sailing with us, you'll know who we are. I'll be sailing out of LAX in February. Not sure if that's too far away to help you.

Our last trip had a different bartender during the day then at night. We only saw the daytime one on embarkation day. Some folks like to lounge around the bar and lounge on sea days, during the day. We don't. At night when we would arrive around maybe 9pm, if there were seats available at the bar, we would take them. To us it was fun seeing familiar faces seated around us or in the couch area just past the bar. Never once thought 'ooh, I'll skip this open seat here and leave it for someone coming in after me'. I dunno, maybe next trip I'll have to camp out and people watch more. There always seems to be groups who prefer bellying up right at the bar to keep the crazy cocktails flowing nonstop. Then there are folks who prefer the quieter areas just past the bar so they can chat easier as a group of 4 (rather than 4 in a row down the bar where person 1 & 4 can never really hear each other). Then there are folks who take whatever seat they see, and folks who stand and jump from conversation to conversation. If we ever do sail together, you have my pull permission to tell me I'm being a bar chair hog and I will gladly give up my seat. Late at night it always tended to be the same group of 4-5 of us with at least 1-2 chairs still free, so it never occurred to me that someone else wanted in on our little group of belly-uppers.

Once you have that record locator number, you can upgrade your seats (maybe not from coach to 1st, but at least to comfort plus) either on the airline's website or by calling them. Again, it all depends on the airline what options will be available, but they do use big name brands (AA is who we've always been assigned to). They have a soda package for $10/day/pp. So if you don't want to pay $20 for (mostly) anything you want, then downgrade to the soda package for some savings. Or pay as you go. Still cheaper than what RCC charges as our one trip with them cost $59/day/pp. For the excursions - you're still a LONG way away. My next trip is February and NCL just keeps changing our ports of call. So I have options for one port only, on a 15 day cruise. I'm not worried, more will open up - we're still many months away and I've only seen 'good' excursions book up and sell out in Alaska where space was limited for the glacier tours.

Absolutely agree about the Haven bartenders being the best of the bunch. We're notorious bar chair hogs, but in our defense we're rarely there during the day. And we're good about noticing folks who are waiting to place an order and helping them get noticed. The bar staff outside the bar (in the lounge area) is great too - so don't worry about sitting away from the bar, they still have you covered. Our trip last month we had about $300 in unused credits. Hubby bought a bottle of Dom Perignon to share with the passengers in the Haven bar to use some of it up and celebrate the end to our trip. No need to go to guest services - let the concierge help you with those things the day before you disembark so you can just walk right off the ship with them when you're ready.

Haven't tried the big ships, but last year around this time we were on their smaller Jewel of the Seas. It was still early after Covid reopening, but the buffet wasn't open at all outside of breakfast and lunch. So your only option for dinner was MDR or specialty dining. We definitely missed our O'Sheehans on that trip. We didn't have a problem just walking in for MDR, but we only had 2 in our party, the ship was only about 40% capacity, and we tend to eat later than normal.

We've used the NCL air about 4 times and have never had a problem. Who booked your cruise - was it directly through NCL or through a travel agent? If through NCL, just call them to request an air deviation and let them know how many days pre and post you want to stay longer. You'll get a $25 credit per person for each deviation. If you booked through a TA - you need to have the TA make those changes. If you don't want the NCL transfers, you can call right now to get those removed. They're not mandatory at all. So when you call for the deviation, you can also request the transfers be removed at that time too. The biggest key is to keep checking for your documents about 60 days out (don't quote me on the # of days, it keeps changing). Once the flights are booked you'll get your record locator number. Take that directly to the airline website and use it to secure whatever seats you want. Depending on the airline, you may be charged for the convenience to pick seats - that's an airline thing, not NCL. If you have status with the particular airline, you can enter your account info in to get all your perks with them. It honestly depends on where you're going and how much flights are going for now. Even if its far away, just get a ballpark feel from google flights or something. If the average price on your own is $900/person but NCL is giving it to you truly for half that... it's up to you to decide how nice that extra $450 is.

You'll be fine. I was on the Star in May and we had a great time. Ship is smaller, but sometimes that is nice. The crew was wonderful to us so no complaints there, and food is subjective but we had no issues there either. We got lucky and had a band called Ice Bucket that played a lot of great rock & roll cover songs. We sang along with them every night they played. I don't think they're still on board, but there were other options too. Not sure what cabin type you're in at that price, but for a 10 day cruise it sounds decent to me. Airfare - again, you'll hear mixed reviews. But if you can't find anything cheaper on your own, with the international flights it can add up to a big cost savings. If you do find something better on your own before 60+ days out - call and cancel the NCL flights. You can't wait too long on that though because once they book you - you're stuck. The other option too - see if you can fly in 1 day early. Give yourself a day in London to explore and that will also save a little bit of money and take out the anxiety of flying in day of for an overseas trip. We've done the NCL air about 4x so far and have not yet had any issues at all with it. Drinks - again, subjective to everyone's own preference. But if you can drink 2-3 drinks a day the charge for the gratuities works itself out in your favor. It adds up quick, mimosa for breakfast, beer at lunch, frozen drink near the pool, wine with dinner, cocktail before the shows.... Figure each drink on average is about $10. If you'd rather pay as you go, just cancel the drink package and you'll get that $400 back if you cancel before you sail. If you like to try new things and don't want to have to debate if it's 'worth it' to try that jalapeno mojito (it is, it's great) having the package lets you be adventurous and just enjoy your vacation.

Yup, that's our sailing too. I would really like to know where we're going before final payment next week. Not that it will matter much, we booked it for the canal transit. But there's a big difference between a 15 day cruise with 9 ports and a 15 day cruise with only 5 port stops. Definitely want to know the final (for now at least) itinerary before I commit and go all in.

All of the Joy Panama canal sailings are messed up right now. We're booked for February and were sent 2 itinerary changes (no change in the 2nd one, but the first one that went out had the wrong ship name for some folks which caused an uproar). But now my sailing doesn't show up at all on the NCL page. We were supposed to leave from LAX-MIA and that sailing doesn't show up on the website currently at all.

You ALWAYS get double points for booking Haven. You sometimes get double points for booking lower category rooms depending on the current promotions at the time of booking. If you book during one of those special times and also book Haven - you get quadruple points. We've had all sorts of permutations of bonus points across our trips. Quadruple points on a long cruise is the fastest way to get up there in status.

If you have the FAS drink package you can bring wine on board with you for free. Just have to deal with schlepping it to the port. We brought 4 bottles last cruise of sweeter dessert wine to have in the room.

I'll take anything from MikKeller before Evil Twin any day. Evil Twin is just too inconsistent for my liking, at least his brother's beer actually tastes like what it's supposed to taste like.

Sounds like we just got upgraded to single A-ball. Next stop major league!