momofjohnjr

On 3/1/2022 at 5:23 PM, nattie said:

Thank you everyone for keeping me excited about our upcoming Haven experience! 

 

I have emailed NCL concierge and have received PDFs of the Haven menus. Attaching them here in case anyone needs them! Pics paint way better picture though, thank you Kirk2121!Haven Breakfast Menu.pdfHaven Pool Menu.pdfHaven Lunch Menu.pdfHaven Dinner Menu.pdf

I wish I had known there was a pool menu when I went. We would have totally tried the falafel. Hope the next time it's there. 

FYI: I forgot to mention that my son asked to borrow a fan for his room and they were able to accommodate. It was one of those skinny tower fans. ,(He was happy as he can't sleep without a fan.)

3 hours ago, jlabs03 said:

In May will bey first time in the Haven and I was wondering what time do you need to be out of your cabin and do they serve breakfast in the Haven restaurant on debarkation day?  My flight was originally at 11:30am but it has been changed to 1:50pm, so I have plenty time and do not need to rush off the ship but I also want to be respectful of the crew.

I kept all the letters etc. They ask that you leave your suite by 8:30 on the Escape. Haven Restaurant closes at 8:30. You should probably research the airport or area nearby and just find something to do. They will help you disembark fast also after breakfast. They say by a certain time but our concierge team was always available a bit after the times they stated. 

I know you don't need the letters etc. But if you are anything like me you will want to read them anyway.  Lol!!! Never know if I missed something or if u read something you didn't think of. 🤔 Just extra peace of mind. 

I also agree, after breakfast you really feel theneed to get off the ship. It would be awkward hanging out as staff are very busy preparing for the next arrivals.

52 minutes ago, cruising sister said:

I am glad you got to go on your cruise. Don’t worry about what the kids thought of the trip.  In a few years they will be remembering it as one of the best trips you took as a family. Traveling with teens and young adults is always unpredictable. 

Tysm! You are probably right! There were a lot of fun times and great memories and my 14 y.o. even did the scary zipline off the edge! It is unlikely with 4 kids that we will ever all vacation together again at the same time. 

I really wish it were easier to book far in advance. I'd really like to book at the end of 24 or beginning of 25 but need to book from Tampa and none are that far out. I guess I need to have hubby save the $ somewhere so I don't spend it. 

56 minutes ago, Kirk2121 said:

In September we were supposed to do Mediterranean.  They had only organized excursions.  We canceled.  Roatan, cozumel, private island, Costa maya are our ports. Upcoming feb 26 2022.

 

I haven't heard only organized.  When were you in Jamaica? 

Last week. Well I guess technically now a week and a half ago. We could go where we wanted in Cozumel though.

13 minutes ago, luckyinpa said:

 

good idea about the luggage. ill use it. i booked 2BR because it was so cheap plus gotta have the ocean shower. i never have been on epic but watched many vids. haven just has been renovated and theres the private posh area where you are entitled to go. almost looked like the biggest haven ive seen. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnWL47HCB24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arm3mAh8dGo

 

Very pretty!

18 minutes ago, luckyinpa said:

on bliss was this menu in 2019. if anyone has an updated one it would make a good post

No snack menu that we saw. Interesting!

This was copied over from the other thread, I'm not editing it because I have a migraine atm but I do want to add that they never opened the roof. I asked midway and they told me it depends on the weather but we barely had a breeze all 7 days so I have no clue why it remained closed.

Copied/pasted: I have a lot of pages to catch up on! My battery is low so this is just a mini post. I wish I had paid attention that you could connect to cruisecritic with no charge when onboard. Lol. My son bought wifi but only him. 

When we were in the lounge pre-board at first I thought we were ok and then the lady starts the questions and tells me they should all be no. I saw covid in 14 days and thought omGod what and hit no. 😳 she tells me she has to doubke check the kids vaccine cards and I thought that's it. [Because Hannah's positive also came from CVS]. Then she said Only 11 or under. So we did get to go but that was all nerve-wracking. Had I known that I would have felt obligated to stay home.

It's true. Once haven u never want yo go back. I'm definitely not looking "as" forward to our RC cruise next month. Lol. 

[Oh...we were on Escape February 5-12. ]

There were somethings we weren't super fond of and other things we loved like getting to go in the garbage and food elevators! Wish we had a pic of the garbage sign. 

4 kids on Haven 22 down to 5.. not as fun as I had hoped because 2 teens and young adult. Sophie our 5 y.o. got a bit bored but just because her fear held her back. She was happy most of the time. Teens complained quite a bit, 22 yo son complained a bit too. These generations. Ugh. But he liked it. Teens not so much. Hubby fell in love with the coffee maker and today his arrived from Kohl's. Lol. Nespresso Pixie by Delonghi with Milk Frother..that frother is for me. Fiod in Haven much better. Kids and I went to Savor one night and it was pretty awful. We did have some big misses in Haven though. Kept getting served pork even when we reminded them and the first night we got raw risotto. Not undercooked but raw. Seriously very raw. So when the waitress said I'm sorry it wasn't to your liking I kindly pointed out that it wasn't the taste that it was crunchy and uncooked and that would be a problem for everyone not just me. Maybe she didn't believe me but we had 3 bowls of raw risotto. 🤔 barely cooked on the outside I'm really not sure how that happened. 

I didn't try the pool til the last day and it was lovely and not too cold though I had Sophie with me and saw her lips turning purple so I sent her to the hot tub to warm up. Ship was I believe around 40% capacity. 

Our Butler was Jenzer. He was amazing 👏 😍 and steward was Radwell and he was also amazing 👏 ❤️.  We did a 50/50 tip with Jenzer as I just feel weird doing 100% upfront. Radwell got money somedays and a big tip at the end but not as big as Jenzer since he is part of the tipping pool. Concierge was great but we didn't tip. Maybe we should have at least done a little but I don't know. I wish we had gotten to know Jenzer better but he seemed more rushed. Radwell told us about his 6 year old son back home also starting to learn to read and things like Sophie. The room was perfect.  I had worried it would be too small but it was just fine. Sooooo much storage.  We were able to keep everything pretty tidy. 

Pre-concierge had the note about us also celebrating our Anniversary (since it was a few days b4 the cruise) and left us a card to give the waitress. We did on the last night and they sang a song and gave us a yummy cake. That song lasted way too long. Lol!  Sooo much more to say but most of the Haven stuff is covered. We really are going to try to do the smaller suite next time. We would rather do less cruises Haven then more cruises not. 🛳 They completely suceeded in hooking us. I don't think we will do it for the ships without all the perks though because I feel it's worth all of them but not some of them. 

I'm going to try to catch up some more b4 my phone decides it's had enough. I hope to post some pics and stuff later if there aren't objections. 

Feel free to ask anything and absolutely do NOT miss After Midnight. No matter what. Even one of my kids was hoping to see it twice! (My 14 y.o. daughter)

Btw- The cute teas are awful. Hahaha. 

Edited 11 hours ago by momofjohnjr

13 minutes ago, Tralfie said:

I could swear that at some point, I saw a spreadsheet of various requests that people had made (afternoon snacks, etc). I can't remember if it was buried within the pages of comments responding to Gary's original post, or if it was in one of the Facebook groups I'm in for the Haven. Anybody recall? Much appreciated!

Richard

I'll add my letter with requests at some point. We had a lot since there were 6 of us! Lol!

On 2/17/2022 at 3:10 AM, Kirk2121 said:

Hi Gary, 

 

Thanks so much for the guide! 

 

I read most of your past guide before we bid. 

 

Gf n i just got upgraded to haven for February 25th 2022 Joy!!! YES! Never been in Haven. 

 

We're about EIGHT (8) days out. 

 

Anything we should do differently being this close to sailing? 

 

Also:

couple things:

1.  We don't drink alcohol.  Jan 2nd this year on Encore One mdr waitress seemed mad at us when she got us two nights in a row thinking maybe she was hurting for money & we didn't tip extra.  Not her but We did later when we found a waiter we really liked (not wanting to go down tipping rabbit hole) 

2.  Gf loves Coca-Cola.  Is this complimentary or still have to pay? Not big deal but... 

3.  We like to walk from cruise ports to go snorkeling.  We won't be doing excursions instead spending our time in haven area.  Maybe walk to some snorkeling if we can find it. 

4.  Gf turns 50 in a few days.  Celebrating her 50th.  Beef stroganoff & creme Brule some of her favorites. 

5.  We have two specialty meals.  We'll maybe eat twice each day to fit our specialty meals in 🙂 .  We don't have reservations 

 

I've never met a butler before & I'm actually quite interested in what/how they do things.  Tempted to have them unpack my stuff.

 

Any advice appreciated. 

You might not be allowed to walk. Jamaica was super strict. You couldn't go anywhere unless you had paid for an excursion. 

On 2/13/2022 at 5:15 PM, BlueSeaz said:

Cruising from the San Juan port, is there a Haven lounge there or priority boarding? Normally would not care but I just tour ligaments in my ankle and hobbling.

 

Thanks

U should get the wheelchair service. Faster or not I bet it's still a very long walk.

On 2/13/2022 at 1:42 PM, Lionkingrichard said:

Good point about the call. Thanks

Agreed. Tampa is where we live near. Someday might be doing Haven out of there. 

On 2/12/2022 at 3:40 PM, Joebucks said:

I tried to get an idea of what cool things you can do with this expensive offer. The last two pages are dominated by hundreds of dollars of tips and strawberries. I got all of the answers I need.

I don't know if you will ever see this but my husband made a good point when I was saying but they haven't worked in a long time we should try to give extra. He told me I work hard for my money too. There was more to the conversation but it was like the one thing someone else said to take in account forced tipping. My first big job was housekeeping so I have a special interest in tipping there and the Butler isn't included which should be more advertised.  That's where our focus was. And my husband works at Wal-Mart so he really does know hard work. They are an awful company (he's legally blind so not many options as he needs rides or uber, close to home etc. Dentist by education). We paid for this trip over 4 years and we feel what we did was fair and we had brought extra money for extra special service but we didn't really get anything extra special outside our Steward and Butler. We really loved them and they worked hard for us. 

On 2/10/2022 at 2:31 PM, Sthrngary said:

I do not know if there is an official list.  Just ask for what you want.  The worst thing they can say is no.

 

Cruise well.

I got the impression after our list of likes and dislikes for 6 people that if it's on the ship they can get it, especially if it's free. We got numerous plates each day x2. Almost everything was eaten because he really did use our suggestions! (Except he gave us canned olives, no biggie but they did get wasted).

Important.  If u like getting meals or even leftovers brought to your room you probably want to ask for things to be consolidated. We asked that once and apparently needed to request it each time because the next day we were back to 1000 plates. Lol!!

Gary, I have a funny story because of your adult movies aren't included line. Lol. I called to ask thinking we never watch any but let's buy one while on board. Y not!? So I call to ask and I'm told we think not butvwe will find out. Puts me on hold comes back and says yes then calls back a bit later to say he was wrong that no they don't have them. Lol! Sooo FYI. Ncl doesn't have adult content and I had the embarrassing pleasure of finding out. Makes for a cute story for the right people. 

My son found out and was like why don't you just get it free online. I said I don't want to get a virus or cookies from that! (Can u imagine the ads after that!?). 

On 2/8/2022 at 10:34 PM, Starflyr3 said:

My kids get bored FAST at dinner in any restaurant besides the buffet, so the last several cruises, we have ordered dinner almost every night in the room.  It also let us order from multiple specialty restaurants in 1 night (we have 2 person SDP + 2 latitudes dinners).

 

this year, they’ll be 10 and 13, so they can get dinner on their own, with friends, if they’re so inclined.  (If Dolphins is running 🤞, or the 10 yo will be with us for dinners)

We had a small activity book and crayons for Sophie and some nights she brought her Kindle. 

I have a lot of pages to catch up on! My battery is low so this is just a mini post. I wish I had paid attention that you could connect to cruisecritic with no charge when onboard. Lol. My son bought wifi but only him. 

When we were in the lounge pre-board at first I thought we were ok and then the lady starts the questions and tells me they should all be no. I saw covid in 14 days and thought omGod what and hit no. 😳 she tells me she has to doubke check the kids vaccine cards and I thought that's it. [Because Hannah's positive also came from CVS]. Then she said Only 11 or under. So we did get to go but that was all nerve-wracking. Had I known that I would have felt obligated to stay home.

It's true. Once haven u never want yo go back. I'm definitely not looking "as" forward to our RC cruise next month. Lol. 

[Oh...we were on Escape February 5-12. ]

There were somethings we weren't super fond of and other things we loved like getting to go in the garbage and food elevators! Wish we had a pic of the garbage sign. 

4 kids on Haven 22 down to 5.. not as fun as I had hoped because 2 teens and young adult. Sophie our 5 y.o. got a bit bored but just because her fear held her back. She was happy most of the time. Teens complained quite a bit, 22 yo son complained a bit too. These generations. Ugh. But he liked it. Teens not so much. Hubby fell in love with the coffee maker and today his arrived from Kohl's. Lol. Nespresso Pixie by Delonghi with Milk Frother..that frother is for me. Fiod in Haven much better. Kids and I went to Savor one night and it was pretty awful. We did have some big misses in Haven though. Kept getting served pork even when we reminded them and the first night we got raw risotto. Not undercooked but raw. Seriously very raw. So when the waitress said I'm sorry it wasn't to your liking I kindly pointed out that it wasn't the taste that it was crunchy and uncooked and that would be a problem for everyone not just me. Maybe she didn't believe me but we had 3 bowls of raw risotto. 🤔 barely cooked on the outside I'm really not sure how that happened. 

I didn't try the pool til the last day and it was lovely and not too cold though I had Sophie with me and saw her lips turning purple so I sent her to the hot tub to warm up. Ship was I believe around 40% capacity. 

Our Butler was Jenzer. He was amazing 👏 😍 and steward was Radwell and he was also amazing 👏 ❤️.  We did a 50/50 tip with Jenzer as I just feel weird doing 100% upfront. Radwell got money somedays and a big tip at the end but not as big as Jenzer since he is part of the tipping pool. Concierge was great but we didn't tip. Maybe we should have at least done a little but I don't know. I wish we had gotten to know Jenzer better but he seemed more rushed. Radwell told us about his 6 year old son back home also starting to learn to read and things like Sophie. The room was perfect.  I had worried it would be too small but it was just fine. Sooooo much storage.  We were able to keep everything pretty tidy. 

Pre-concierge had the note about us also celebrating our Anniversary (since it was a few days b4 the cruise) and left us a card to give the waitress. We did on the last night and they sang a song and gave us a yummy cake. That song lasted way too long. Lol!  Sooo much more to say but most of the Haven stuff is covered. We really are going to try to do the smaller suite next time. We would rather do less cruises Haven then more cruises not. 🛳 They completely suceeded in hooking us. I don't think we will do it for the ships without all the perks though because I feel it's worth all of them but not some of them. 

I'm going to try to catch up some more b4 my phone decides it's had enough. I hope to post some pics and stuff later if there aren't objections. 

Feel free to ask anything and absolutely do NOT miss After Midnight. No matter what. Even one of my kids was hoping to see it twice! (My 14 y.o. daughter)

Btw- The cute teas are awful. Hahaha. 

On 2/5/2022 at 4:11 PM, cruising sister said:

Are you able to cruise? 

We made it!! Woot woot!! Lol!!

1 hour ago, Sthrngary said:

"Blotto"=Completely wasted.  I have been their a few times in my life.  During the time, you feel great, the next day, well; not so great.

 

Cruise well and drink responsively, (LOL)

I was assuming that but wanted to be sure. 🙂 Learn something new everyday!

13 hours ago, JustSomeLady said:

This is what we are doing. My husband doesn’t drink alcohol except the occasional one drink, and the Plus is just not going to be worth his one drink max habit. And it’ll encourage me to not be blotto and just enjoy the under $15 beverages in moderation. The Plus package would result in me having way too much champagne. 

What does blotto mean? I don't think I have ever heard that word. Lol. Thanks!

I have hope again! 😀😃

All 5 rapid tests say negative today and the 4 pcr we did Sunday came negative so just waiting on the new pcr tests from today and hoping this means we are not "GOING" to get sick. We need to all test negative Saturday morning. I'm not worried about my son flying in because he had Covid at the beginning of January. Our 14 year old is still sniffly etc. But her rapid was negative.

We are waiting on the pcr from today and then we are repeating rapids on Thursday morning. John delayed his flight til Friday morning so we will drive to the airport pick him up and head to Cocoa Beach where we rented a apartment style beach house. It's 18 minutes from the port. I'm so afraid that it will still go wrong but chances are we have already had it or just aren't going to get it.

FYI: Hannah and her sisters had just finished their 2nd dose of Pfizer on the 10th so it was really surprising when she got sick. And despite the fact that J and J boosters weren't needed til 6 months in the past apparently the CDC says now to get them b4 2 months. I read it over and over I was so surprised. Mine was Dec.3 and hubby Nov. 24. We will boost with Pfizer soon after we get home. 

[BTW- when John got Covid for the 2nd time I laughed so hard after realizing he wasn't joking...why!? Because I harassed him all of December and beginning of January up til he was positive (he caught it on his 22nd bday. Jan. 3 so a few days later the result. It really hit him fast. I think 2 days after).]

Is it ok to start getting excited again!? I won't feel perfectly safe until they give us the all clear and we are headed to The Haven Fast Track (I think that's a decent name for it)!!!

11 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

My dietician said that protein should comprise at least fifty percent of my intake.  

She suggested using dessert sized plates instead of dinner plates with half the plate being reserved for protein and dividing the remainder into three portions.  Two for vegetables and one for carbs.  That gives you 3/6ths for protein, 2/6ths for vegetables, and 1/6th for carbs.

BTW, speaking of protein.  Check out this website:

https://unjury.com/

My surgeon recommends them highly.

I particularly like these protein bars and especially the protein snack bars.  All three flavors are very tasty.  The brownie flavor does taste like a brownie after a few seconds in a microwave.

My dietician also gave me this hint: if after a meal, your nose is running or your sneezing a lot, you've eaten too much.  I'd never heard that before but I've found it to be true.

I yawn too much. Lol

13 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

The pre-surgery diets are crazy but there is a reason.  My surgeon explained losing the weight prior to the surgery makes his job much simpler.  Has to do with him probably having to move the liver around.

 

After the surgery, you'll be transitioning to a very high protein low carb diet.  More like Atkins than Keto.  

 

You're going to do fine.  

 

Gary is right about the portion sizes.  For example, I now have pizza now.  Not often, maybe every couple of months.  I used to eat a complete individual size pizza and want more.  Now, I get four meals off of one.   A standard prime rib is three meals.  You're perfect protein size is about the size of a deck of cards.  

 

This is actually inspiring me to cut back and lose a few of those pounds I've gained.

Yes. It's to shrink the liver! I found that so interesting and even saw a picture of the difference in the stomach. Ick but cool!

That is really awesome that you were able to do it on your own. Congratulations!!! You and your wife and daughter deserve a big congrats. The pre and post diets for the surgery seem 🤪 crazy but I understand the why. And sticking to Keto that long is incredible. I'm going to try to do that after my surgical tool as long as I can. I figure when your tummy is that tiny you should only be eating protein for a while and I think tbose people lose in general the most weight based on the group I am in. 

That is a great idea about sharing dishes. I will definitely return to cruising at some point. I absolutely love it. But I also am trying to limit any temptation to eat something just once because I know me and next thing I know carbs will be part of my daily even if a tiny amount. Hoping to minimize my hair loss with all that protein too! I already had hair loss and now I'm on medication that can cause it and add the surgery. I told my husband if I lose too much I will shave it. Lol. But I was serious.  Too bad I don't have a face to pull that off even thin. Lmbo!!!

When I have time I'm thinking of uploading my butler letter. It's a little cheesy but it authentically sounds like me. I embraced cheese and dad and mom jokes as I got older. Especially since my husband has the bad but good humor and we have our 19th Anniversary this week. (So 19 years of the following:)

This man can have the worse humor though at the worst times. One time I'm crying not quite one week into recovering from a huge shoulder and Bicep surgery where I have ro sleep on my back and I'm exhausted. He says "you only have 3 weeks left to go" over 3/4ths left. I started sobbing. It's really funny because I almost never cry. I tell everyone that story. He's the same way with our lids. Nothing like daddy making his lil toddler cry because he made it worse trying to cheer them up. Hahaha. -- like today I told him that my throat was even more sore. What does he say..."oh, then you are definitely not going to be better in time for the cruise.". Yep, so helpful but what can I do but laugh. It's just his nature. Lol. He is undiagnosed on the spectrum just as our 14 year old is. She tells it like it is too. But I'm still going through the motions with last minute things with 6 packed suitcases sitting in our bedrooms just in case. (I'm an overpacker and those are for 3 of the 6 of us) [we did have 9 fully packed but we went through them.](lol!)

I told him if we missed the cruise we needed to build a chicken coop. I'm sure he eants to go on the cruise even more now! Hahaha! 

Anyway, I should get some use out of the letter since I probably won't get to use it. 😉 🙃 😀