RolandofGilead

my 15yo and 13yo boys shared the sofa bed (neither wanted to use the bed that drops from the ceiling) and found it plenty comfortable and this is coming from my 15 yo soccer player who always finds a reason to be sore. we used an inflatable for my daughter. just be sure to test the inflatable before you leave. We purchased a new one and it ended up having a slow leak.

I was not planning on playing at all til I saw the table. I am spoiled with 10x odds  at my usual casino so I had to adjust a little how I played. The dealers as mentioned before did well and were friendly. The boxman was also possibly the pit boss so would walk around occasionally which was weird.

I don't believe so other than games vs dealer.

our experience was quick as well. the only issue we had was that another passenger grabbed my son's bag. thankfully they noticed it before they left the terminal. They would have been in for a rude awakening when they opened it and it was smelly 13 yo boy clothes.

yeah, we did hear that someone got a prop bite last week when an inexperienced captain left the motor engaged. It made me check the language on the ticket which has the typical lawyering of excursions purchase through MSC are not provided by MSC (or something along those lines). we had a large groups which made a private charter an option but i dont think you could do that if not in the yacht club because of long tender waits. All of the boats looked overcrowded. when we got to stingray city it was crazy busy.

we were at playa Mia last week and left after only two hours. it was way overcrowded for me and my kids were also ready to head back to the ship. 

The table was usually opened at 5ish but generally only busy after the first show let out then would taper off around midnight. the table was rarely full with usually only 3-6 people playing. part of this was probably that there were often lots of people just observing making the table look much fuller than it actually was. The lack of hop bet helped speed up the game. they were also good at enforcing no late bets. Its hard to judge point accrual because i played a little differently with how the big and odds were set up compared to my usual casino and my sessions were shorter that if i go somewhere to just play.

We usually eat earlier but try to communicate ahead of time who we expect on a night and have no special demands for a combined table. They aren’t perfect and honestly the parents are probably louder trying to keep the children in line. The staff have been excellent with the children. My daughter thinks the boys are barbarians.

I’m just glad I haven’t seen any comments about our large group. ;). I always appreciate a teaching moment for the kids though. I could tell them they are famous for all of the wrong reasons.

There are still two roulette tables. 
 

Vig is payed upfront on buys. Talking with the dealers last night I am not 100% sure I heard them correctly on it being temporary but that’s still probably dependent on play. The table has been there since October 8. I have to say that the dealers are pretty darn good for only being a month in. They started the table with only one side open. It never got 100% full.,They do not have hop bets displayed.

Yeah, or the dealer assisted. I’m curious how the dealers are. I plan on playing tonight. Craps can be pretty hard on new dealers. I’ve had first time dealers tear up and that was working with an experienced team.

It’s at the very forward end. Last table closest to the center walkway by the blackjack tables. My first msc cruise so I’m not sure what was there before.

There is now a craps table in the casino on seascape. I was surprised to see it as I have heard that they were against having them. I asked one of the dealers and they said it would only be there for a month. 
 

$10 min 5/4/3 odds

If you have already checked in on the app click on the primary guest to review and edit. In the bottom of the next page there should be an option to email your ticket. This should resend the packet for all guests.

7 hours ago, Dashikda said:

Hi again,

have just received my documents. Don't have diamond status indication anywhere. No extra onboard credit, no priority check in... (((

The app still shows "10000 points, no status"

the agent tells this diamond will work for future booking only, after the end of this first cruise

I would call MSC directly (maybe multiple times if you do not have success the first time). I status matched to diamond a couple weeks ago with an already booked cruise. i called MSC the same say as my status match and got it added to my booking and the discount was applied. they were also able to add part of the  OBC.

click [get it] next to the zip code

I believe that you put in your zip code first and it fills the city and state

@hmeacham79 we were supposed to be on the same cruise as you. your 25% back offer is honestly better than we received. Is the money they are returning just port fees and gratuities? If you are fully paid you could potentially wait a little bit longer to cancel on the chances that the cruise is cancelled. I think that no matter how close you wait they may give you that back, though judging by my experience in that last month don't trust my expertise. 

if 5+ vaccination would have been approved I would have been fine (3 6-11, 1 13yr). The timeframe even if approved now would be super tight.

Yes, its 61 day prior for cancelation, i subtracted instead of added when relaying my days. Cancelation date was one day before I called on final payment day.

I considered paying off the little I had left to pay in case the cruise was cancelled but when I attempted to the price increased 4k.

Yeah, its my fault for not reading the contract correctly. My main point was to be kind even when things are crap. you could hear it even in the NCL reps voice that they were kind of desensitized to these calls by now. Especially with everyone stretched so thin in the service industry a fewer number of workers are having to deal with the expectations of the many. I saw a man berate a you lady this weekend at papa john s because it appeared that he called his order into the wrong location and she wouldn't help him beyond giving him the phone number. She had 10 other people waiting in the lobby.

i though i put it in there but it looks like i left out that i lost all of my credit.

This has been a frustrating couple years trying to take my kids on a cruise. We were originally scheduled to cruise on the Escape in march of 20 (me and 4 kids in a 2 bedroom family suite). I decided to cancel my cruise at the insistence of my business partner for credit. One hour later the announcement was made to allow refunds or credit+. In Oct/Nov of last year I decided to use that credit to book a thanksgiving cruise on the Joy. I believe at the time i had to use the credit by the end of the year prior to the extension so i went ahead any applied all of my credit so that i would not forget which ended up being a little more than 1k short of the total cost. Then in august NCL made the announcement regarding extended vaccination requirements. Here is where i messed up again. I should have just cancelled immediately but still held out a little hope for child vaccination or something. So, i waited until the last minute to cancel/reschedule to a spring break cruise. This did not go as planned however as i incorrectly remembered the fine print. I thought the cancellation date was the same as final payment, it is in fact the day before. 59 days vs 60. I talk to my pcc and and the escalation desk and was told that i had no recourse. Here is the thing though, i caught myself starting to be frustrating and angry towards the person on the phone. I had to stop and remind myself that they do not make the decision, they do not make the policies and they have to deal with way too many of these calls lately where even if they wanted to help there is nothing that they can do. I apologized to the representative i was speaking to for venting my frustration on them and said that i was sorry that they have to be the ones that have to administer these kinds of decisions.

I may or may not ever decide to cruise again. Right now it feels like not but i also know how these things work and a year or so down the road my outlook on these things will probably soften. You can see above that this is a large part my own responsibility and regardless of wether or not i felt that NCL should have done better my frustration is no reason to treat another human like crap. So i guess this is just  reminder to treat people kindly.

What I enjoyed about the haven is the feeling of a small community within the ship. I am a social person and enjoy meeting new people but prefer to have a little bit more sustained engagement. I generally stick to a somewhat set pattern in my day and was able to get to know a few groups of people that would be typically in the same places as me at different parts of the day. I had some great conversation with people at the bar at night after the kids were asleep. I enjoyed being able to meet people with different perspectives and from different stages in their lives.

In response to the haven questions:

Additional drinks perks - the only additional items i think we received (outside of owners suites) was a bottle of champagne in the room at embarkation.  You do have access to the haven bartenders who i am told make excellent custom drinks.  I am not one for fruity drinks or martinis so i did not sample these.

cabins with baths (getaway) -

the two bedroom suites (on the breakaway and escape at least) have both a shower and a bath that have windows.  

The deluxe owners suite has a similar setup.  

The owners suite has both interior.  

The aft penthouse has both interior. 

forward PH has both interior.

Spa and PH suite have whirlpools in the room.

all of the baths/showers are separate i believe.

Is it worth it?  IDK, it depends on what you like/need at how much you want to utilize what is available.  It makes sense for me.  i have 4 kids and the 2 bed suite works perfect.  One of the benefits I like is being around a smaller group of people for the week.  I would rather meet a few people and get to know them better than meeting hundreds.  If get somewhat overwhelmed by crowds it is definitely worth it.  you can have your own lounger in the sun without having someone 5" from you.  The priority debarkation/tender is awesome and definitely has a value to it.  The butler was helpful but is not a decider for me.  The concierge was very useful.

for me the values rank:

1. best suite for my family

2. private area/ smaller subset of people

3. priority debarq

4. haven lounge

5. concierge

6. butler

Really its about calculated risk. Do you need to travel on a specific date, from a specific port, on a specific ship?  This is usually how it works for us with school/kids sports/work schedules.  The majority of the time costs increase after I book.  Do you live near a port and/or have a flexible work schedule?  Then you are probably better to hold out for an undersold sailing, especially if you are flexible on cabin type/ship/itinerary.

I booked a late march cruise in january after final booking and it promptly went down 1k 24 hours after booking.  I filled the guaranteed pice form out within 48hrs of booking and had confirmation of a refund within 2 business days.  Then the price again went down about 1.5k this last weekend.  i called and once given a "one time offer" of 25% obc.  I asked about an upgrade instead but since the price difference to the only option for my 5 in a cabin was still higher that the price decrease it was not an option.  so yes, you can ask for an upgrade but it has to work within their cost formula.

That being said, with the current situation it is also a calculated risk for the cruise lines.  This is more of an isolated situation.  There is really no win for them.  

They can reduce rates and fill ships.  Then they get probably break even rate, have a chance of additional on board spending and they can get the service charges to pay the staff. (i don't know how the staff compensation works but i would guess they get a lower guaranteed wage with and "expected" bonus or gratuity from service charges).  The question is, are these the kind of guests that you can make more on the back end with?  are they more likely to be more loyal?  

The other option is to hold prices as sail with less volume.  The early booking won't feel like they got a poor deal.  The crew may not receive what they expect.  This is probably not a huge issue if it is an isolated sailing but this is most likely a pattern for a least a few months in a row.  This could become a huge HR/payroll issue for them in which they have to compensate them from a reserves or debt to maintain a crew.  The other issue is that passengers may not want to see lower prices than they originally booked, but sailing on a half empty ship (for most) would i think be an even worse deterrent for future sailings.  who wants to go on a cruise where there is no one in the bars after 9pm and the shows are half empty?  You may like being able to find a chair at the pool but part of having a good experience is created by the mutual benefit of others experiencing that with you, even if you do not socialize.

Sorry for my rambling, but at this point I think they are just trying to minimize their losses at this point. I am not asking you to feel bad for a multinational corporation but it is what it is.  My business partner has even offered to "buy me out" of my trip so that i don't run the risk of being quarantined on a ship.

related to this.  if you book after the final payment date be sure to check pricing for 48hrs after you book.  If the price drops within 48hrs you can get the cruise repriced via the best price guarantee.