mtrancher

On 4/27/2023 at 9:08 AM, TimCruise23 said:

wolft927: In response to your question, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and when I was younger carnival. 
 

I read in detail the forums but there is no excuse for staffing a 24,000 USD suite with staff who don’t understand basic English. Nor is there an excuse that the haven pool area has no service or attendants checking in ever except promptly at 4 to remove the water, juice, and gummy bears. 
 

I eat at McDonalds and pay $10 for a meal and expect $10 in value. They usually deliver that. Paying $24,000 and getting what I’d best describe as mediocre to poor service isn’t what someone should expect. 
 

Having Haven butlers understand basic English, having someone check in on pool area even once an hour, having the bars have the cocktail and drink lists they have not what’s at other bars, isn’t a absurdly high standard. 
 

Tim
 

Sounds like you are headed back to Royal and Celebrity!  Enjoy!
 

 

18 hours ago, vickyelse said:

Hi, it’s noted as aft on the map even though it opens on the side, because it’s still at the back of the boat—the last cabin before the ones that open to the back. The concierge did everything she could but the ship was full. 

It certainly is not the last cabin before the ones that open to the back. It might be considered in the aft third of the ship, but it's in the forward section of that third.

Glad to hear the concierge did everything they could and I guess if the ship was full than that's the reason for the lack of options. You didn't lose your Haven privileges did you? You retained full use of the concierge and butler and Haven courtyard?

1 minute ago, libtrek said:

Well, I put a small refrig magnet on our door to help my slightly fuzzy DH. Of course, I do try to keep him in sight at all times.

You are a dear!

We had the premium plus on the Bliss. Several bottles were available under the package. They made it clear very early the bottle could not be removed from the restaurant. We discovered some selective enforcement, but that came when the restaurant was closing and we had just ordered another bottle.

Other than the bottles not being allowed to be removed from the restaurant, we really didn't notice any other downgrade on the P+ package.

I agree with sporadic enforcement. We recently came off the Bliss and a few doors were decorated discretely. The decorations lasted all 15 days.

5 hours ago, vickyelse said:

To update on our situation in the noisy/shaking aft Haven on Norwegian Jade (room 14514), we were finally moved to a standard balcony room and able to sleep after 3 days. NCL has refused to refund the vast difference in cost between Haven and balcony, offering only a token amount. We therefore canceled two forthcoming NCL cruises and will not be sailing with them again.

?? Room 14514 on the NCL Jade is NOT a Haven Aft Cabin. It's a Haven Courtyard Penthouse with Balcony. The Jade does not have any Haven Aft Penthouses.

Sorry to hear of your issues. I was going to ask if the Concierge helped at all, but I'm curious how you felt you were in an aft cabin when clearly you were in a side balcony cabin. It's hard to confuse the two.

So last week I dug a little deeper into your issue of the room being smaller and the deck being smaller. I hesitated to bring numbers into the equation but hope these may ease your mind on what you are receiving. From your 1st post you said you booked a Haven Aft Facing Penthouse with Master Bedroom and Large Balcony and are now re-booked into a Getaway Haven Aft Facing Suite. Here is the square footage of each Suite and Balcony:

                                     State room                         Balcony
Viva                                  550                                   175

Getaway                           700                                   266

The Getaway suite was for the regular Haven aft balconies and not the 'large' Haven aft balconies. NCL gives a range so I just averaged the numbers.

So it would appear on your re-booking you are receiving a larger cabin than originally booked and a  larger deck than originally booked. The word 'large' in the Vivi description does not match to the use when describing the Getaway cabins.

Now of course none of this changes your discussions with customer service nor their perceived treatment of you. But, it just might rest you mind to know you will be able to enjoy a larger room and larger deck than originally booked.

Enjoy the win!

Because I'm familiar with NCL and it works for me. My 1st cruise with NCL was on the Star in 2000. I booked a room below the sun deck so we wouldn't have to use the elevators. I did not realize it came with concierge services (we had a partially obstructed port window, so  not a fancy room). Our concierge was fabulous and made the trip for us. At that point I realized I the value of extra services and have always booked rooms with concierges. Then the Haven came along and it offers a lot more. They continue to improve the service and I think the price is increasing as well.

Having the Haven allows us to participate in far more activities without having to plan ahead as much. The atmosphere of the ship is likely younger and NCL ships have a lot of different activities; enough to keep us busy. Finally because the Haven is a subset you do get special treatment which I think may be negated on a luxury liner. We rarely stand in a line and do get priority for tickets. Since a luxury liner offers it all to all their guests, I wonder if lines can albeit short can be more prevalent.

I suppose at one point, such as what you are facing the cost of a true luxury liner will be the same for an itinerary for which I am interested. And it's likely I will take the plunge and give it a try, but I think that's a couple years down the road for me.

Good luck on your choice, I suspect your vacation will be fantastic regardless of which choice you make; after all getting aboard a ship and having a staff work to make your days perfect is always enjoyable regardless of what name is on the ship!

5 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Vibration issues in the aft of the ship are not unique to the Joy.

Thanks for your response. My question stems from many posters saying the vibrations were excessive on the Joy over other ships. As a members have posted there are several reasons for vibration and no two ships are the same. With the Joy it appeared perhaps some of those reasons were more prevalent.

We have stayed in a Haven Aft Cabin on both the Bliss and the Getaway and love them. The distance to Haven facilities is well known ahead of time and while I agree with you some may not like the distance, we have never found it to hinder our use of the bar, pool, hot tubs and restaurant.

After posting my question I do see the Joy is scheduled to be refurbished in dry dock in early 2024. My guess is if something, likely with the props is causing excessive vibration than it will be addressed then. Our cruise is currently booked after the refurbishment so my concern is somewhat diminished.

Wondering if this issue was addressed during the covid shutdown?

Has anyone been on the Joy in a Haven Aft cabin and NOT experienced the excessive vibration?

On the Getaway the difference in the deck size of the Haven aft cabins in minimal. We were in a 'regular' Haven aft cabin on deck 14. We had a party of all those cruising with us and had 14 people out on the deck. Plenty of room.

NCL gave you three options, you chose to go on the Getaway, and the Getaway does not have perfectly equivalent cabins to the Viva. If you chose, your vacation does not have to be negatively impacted at all. You will have a very large balcony, by comparison to others, and if there are only four or five of you; the balcony will easily accommodate lounging, dining and sightseeing.

Hope the birthday celebration goes well.

15 hours ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

Common courtesy to chair hogs??
Common courtesy to people that straddle two parking spaces??
Common courtesy to people that cut in line??
Common courtesy to people that claim entire rows in the theater??
 

”Thank you sir. May I please have another??”

Strange way to go through life - being nice to the bad guys…

You could not have read my post more wrong. Common courtesy to fellow cruisers by NOT being a chair hog. Common courtesy by NOT straddling two parking spaces. Common Courtesy by NOT cutting in line. Common courtesy by Not claiming entire rows in the theater. Common courtesy to read a post within context of the conversation before going off shift.

Not arguing, but what a shame common courtesy to your fellow cruisers has to be likely replaced with either technology or patrols. 

It sounds as if they haven't really been enforcing check-in times lately so perhaps they just decided to do away with the time slots.

I think most cruise lines have policies but the enforcement has be completely lacking. If Royal enforces their policy as you have indicate I think it's great! Back in the day before there was widespread chair hogging, it seemed their were always chairs available. Nowadays, very few chairs are available after 11:00am even though  a fair amount are empty/unoccupied.

Kudos to Royal for addressing this problem; I hope they are able to enforce without a lot of issue.

We were on the same cruise. We got off the ship at 8 and were curbside by 8:50. The long line was forming almost instantly after we entered the terminal. When we reach the counter, they were using facial recognition, it's the 1st time I've gone through using that type of system. The agent was very friendly and quick. Our friends used the porters in the terminal and they got to go through the expedited line. Took them about 10 minutes to get out of the terminal.

Our other friends waited until later to leave the ship and said it was by far the worst part of the trip. I think they left at nine; not sure when they got curbside; but they did make their flight so all ended well.

As for us we had an 11:50 am flight, little traffic Sunday morning made our drive to the airport extremely fast. We ended up with an 1 1/2 wait at the gate. That was the worst for us, our terminal was packed.

Just off the Bliss; yes to the leather Haven Key holders, you will find them in your stateroom. @BrownEyedGirl686

Yes to potato chips with or without sandwiches. We started asking them on another plate so they wouldn't absorb the humidity from the sandwiches. . @vacation44

What if any are the advantages of booking a future cruise while on board a current cruise? We know the next future cruise we want to take and am curious if there is any additional benefit to wait and book it while we are onboard our upcoming cruise. We currently have some cruise next certificates we need to use, so buying some on board and then using them would not be a benefit. Are there any other benefits offered when booking aboard? Thanks

6 hours ago, LloydJr said:

Help me out here.  If I have Covid and there is a major outbreak on the ship, it's my fault?

Possibly. If you broke a policy you were informed of and chose to LIE to avoid following the policy, then yes it's possibly you would share some culpability if others were negatively impacted by your deception.

We did NOLA in March of 2020. There was an enormous line to go through security. I asked a port employee where the Haven line was and he directed us up to the front and left of the line. This also served as a handicap or special needs line. We had our own security line which was very short, then to check in where we received front of line status, then a room where the concierge greeted us. Since it was about 12:30pm we were directly escorted onto the ship and to the Haven lounge.
I think NOLA can be very confusing and agree information can vary. My suggestion is ask employees, and if you don't get an answer that makes sense, ask someone else. I think the port security is handled by port employees, and then you get to NCL employees to check in, so that can add to the confusion prior to getting through security.

5 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Gary, on your most recent cruise did you attempt to share a bottle of wine with table mates, and if so were you successful?

3 hours ago, LDIdeals said:

We just got off the Bliss and loved our Panama Canal cruise.  Onboard shopping is pretty much limited to Jewelry, some handbags and sunglasses.  Otherwise the standard booze, T-shirts and some clothing items that are ehhh and not much.  Enjoy!  We loved the ship.

Oh, but don't forget the art show and opportunities to buy!! You even get a free gift for attending the auctions.

@ChiefMateJRK   and 1

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

That is really funny partner!!!  😎  I wonder how many will miss the joke?  Fifty percent??

Might go as high as 70 to 80%