Lunesse

Thanks! Great idea to ask for what's fast. Sorry to sort of derail the thread. 😃

That is very good to hear.  My Dad chose Cagney's for our specialty night, so I really want it to be a treat for him. ❤️ 

On 6/28/2023 at 11:05 AM, FLConnie said:

Haven perks are great for getting off the ship on port days!  Just meet your excursion bus and grab the front row seats. We also like being a little more secluded the rest of the time and the breakfast in the Haven on port days is fast 🙂

Why is it fast? Curious, as we will have morning excursions to meet and were wondering how to get a decent breakfast before going.... 😃

Hey everyone. Been reading up on Bliss Alaska reviews. I know many folks only write reviews when unsatisfied, but it's good to read them.  A lot of reviews are saying Cagney's isn't that great, steaks are tough. I'd like a larger sample size of opinions from folks who have been to Cagney's on the Bliss this year. Should we pick something else? Was there something amazing you DID get to eat at Cagney's we should aim for? Or avoid? Thank you!

On 7/3/2023 at 2:42 PM, McGarrett5oh said:

The "Retreat" guests have their own restaurant (oddly located right next to the MDR entrance and they have a private sundeck and bar in the front of the ship (which I accessed early one morning just to see).

Having Lumina right next to the MDR was actually really great. It made it very easy for staff to fetch something of the MDR menu if desired without running it up stairs or elevators or whatever from farther away, no delays when from the same kitchen. 😃  A hidden plus of the layout.

On 7/3/2023 at 2:42 PM, McGarrett5oh said:

 

 

 

 

 

On 8/27/2022 at 9:51 AM, styxfire said:

I SEVERELY MISS the dancing waiters’ conga lines in the main dining room.  !!!  The unexpected dance-through, of all the nicely-dressed men, and hunting to find your own waiters amongst the pack…. I completely enjoyed those brief but entertaining minutes during formal dining.  
 

Now, the large dining halls and weekly assigned waiters are basically a thing of the past, but I remember them fondly.

  Just a note: On Disney your waiters are yours all week, there are 3 MDRS you rotate through, and they come with you. You gotta put up with The Mouse, but the waiters are incredibly entertaining and yours for the week. 😃

Heyo, I'm back with another question. Trying to help my parents with their booking. They want to know if you can hear the sundeck at all when in a room on deck 18 on the Bliss. Or, is there any other reason to take a room on deck 17 in the Haven vs 18, other than balcony size (not an issue for them)? Grateful for any personal experience/advice! 😃

25 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

Well, sure, we have to experience the whole jewelry shopping thing on a cruise ... ONCE.  I have a lovely tourmaline pendant and earrings bought in St Thomas, probably in  the '80s.  That was great fun, but no point in doing it again.

As a metalsmith myself, a I love a good tourmaline. I bet they are gorgeous and worth a lot more now! ❤️  Maybe that's why I don't need to go to seminars about them. Also my work is not dainty and mainstream, or classic elegance. I think I am figuring out my viewpoint here. *laugh*

7 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

You can pay everything upfront on NCL as well. No need to wait until the end of the cruise to pay the DSC, you can roll them into final payment. 

that is awesome to know! Thank you! = )

2 hours ago, graphicguy said:

Exactly.  It is indeed a “big deal” for a server to go from deck 16 (where the Haven Restaurant is) to the Specialty Restaurants or MDRs on deck 6 or 7 (this was on Getaway).  Obviously, the Haven does not share a kitchen or prep area with any of the other dining areas.

 

Just imagine how that would work if you requested something from the MDR in the Haven.  REquest made.  HAven kitchen calls MDR or Specialty Restaurant to place the order.  Haven Waitstaff goes 9 or 10 decks down to pick it up (whenever it’s ready), brings it 9 or 10 decks up to the HAven restaurant to serve you.  That’s the definition of precocious.

 

You better be bringing not one or two, but a fist full of Benjamins to the Haven wait staff if they accommodates your request.

 

Or, you can just go to the MDR to dine and get what you want.

 

Which makes more sense?

 

Again, if you want something from the MDR, why not go to the MDR to dine?

I have not been on NCL yet, but I can think of two situations. People who want to cruise but are trying to lessen their Covid chances by eating in the same place with the same folks as much as they can, which the Haven would allow for, right? Or, mobility issues, if that is part of why they are in Haven, to have a smaller radius of where they need to get to, and how.  Or both. The layout certainly seems to make it a bigger logistics thing on NCL than other lines, but if other lines do it, maybe there's just an expectation of it being possible?  

4 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

NCL is set up a bit different. The Haven Restaurant is on one of the higher decks, typically 16, or so. The MDR's are pretty low. The truth is someone (server, runner, busser, head chef, captain of the ship) must go to the MDR to get the food...I kind of think it would be cool if they had those old school bank tubes to send food up to the Haven! 

Clearly the layout on Celebrity is what made it so easy to do, compared to NCL.

Pneumatic tubes are a thing to bring back in general, I would agree!  Heh. 

5 minutes ago, Calli50 said:

Don't know if it is controversial, but the muster drill. I know it is necessary but I hate it.

 I was on Celebrity recently and you watched videos on your phone, clicked "yes" at the end that you had seen it, they then told you in the app where your muster station was, you show up, they check you against a list and boom. Done. Took less than 3 minutes of actual time on the ship at the muster location.  You could watch the videos in your stateroom on the TV too, then go to the location.   Does NCL do it the more old fashioned way? I figured all the app stuff etc. was for Covid non gathering reasons, but it is pretty great! 

Celebrity makes it super easy to order from the MDR while in Luminae, their equivalent of The Haven Restaurant, I believe.  They will hand you the MDR menu right there at your table and you can get an app from one, a side from the other, deserts from both...  The two restaurants share a kitchen, are right next door to each other, so cross-restaurant ordering is super easy for them. I can see how once you do this on one ship, it's addictive and you'd want/hope/expect it can be done on others, esp. when, if I have it right, the menu is fixed in the Haven?  

A theory as to how this is a thing... if it isn't a written down thing. 

What do you love to do that everyone else doesn’t? What can you not stand that everyone else raves about? 

I don't care about jewelry shopping seminars, gently used Rolex events, Effy charm bracelets, guys on water taxis sponsored by Diamonds International in the Caribbean with the microphone who joke with the husbands about how all of them have been to Diamonds International, am I right, guys with wives? Any of that, and the shops are always crowded so it definitely is a delight to many, but not me.

I can't stand that as a species we have to bring giant, gas guzzling, complete machinery excess to the few wild places left, and are rejoicing that we can get farther into coldest, most remote reaches with our giant wedges of steel  because of the melting ice. I know many are so thrilled to see these places. They are amazing. Galapagos, too. We humans just have to stick our "Homo sapiens wuz here"  messy output every where so we can take pictures pouting with glaciers and iguanas in the background to try to make all our friends and frenemies jealous of our best lives on the other side of  social media. Feeling cute, might delete later while I ride a huge polluting floating metal box into sensitive geographic areas that really should be left alone if we want them to be the wonders they are later, IDK. And yet, I sail every handful of years. Guilty. But not to Antarctica or the Galapagos. Which is still no excuse for my few trips to the Caribbean and one to Alaska. Fight me, self. You suck.

I also get aesthetically irritated over ship asses. The way some of them are designed they got butts flatter than a 98 year old man. However, I don't think anyone delights over ship patooties so it's a controversial nonstarter... except in my head. I could be wrong. 

I adore taking horrible cruise ship photos, I have a great one where the wind was in all our hair just off a ship in St Maarten and we all have long hair and it was a giant Medusa Fiasco and we demanded, DEMANDED, she not delete it and we bought the matte finished 8 x 10. I met a woman who bought bad ship photos with her husband of people she didn't even know and I adored her for it. So I added perusing all the ship photos put up for display as a quality activity while on board in my to do list. 

I love crappy pudding desserts from the buffet  because PUDDING.  I will eat it all. 

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

 

I should add to my comment above that you are of course paying for all the "included" stuff as part of your cruise fare with Celebrity.  It's not "free"  -- it's just a question of when you are paying it.   (Celebrity has some "cruise only" fares that exclude the AI items.)

 

Whatever the cruise line, if it's "free" or "included" it's not really -- it's factored into the cruise fare.  So, as I said, do the math and decide what works for you.  🙂 

Having it all paid upfront really relaxed me a lot more than I think my upcoming NCL will be for this reason. It is just mental, I know, but it's just over, done, paid for, I can add extra at the end if I want but there's not a tally rising day by day that has to leave me at the end.  Having crap internet that doesn't have a time clock on it is preferable to me than the feeling of a diminishing resource.. same thing. Kinda a game in my brain, but I am more on vacation with Celebrity's mode, I think, when it comes to to All Included, etc. 

On 7/28/2022 at 3:55 PM, UKstages said:

my most controversial opinion is that the ship never actually moves, nor does it travel to distant ports.

 

technology has become so sophisticated that they have built elaborate VR and AR simulations of all cruise ship activities enjoyed before the pandemic began. the "ocean water" surrounding the "ship" is recycled over and over, much like the water in a mall fountain. and NCL employs a team of actors, many of whom double as performers in the scripted shows, that meet all guests as they disembark onto a controlled soundstage. they're good, but this is why the "tourists" look the same from "port" to "port," right down to their slogan tee shirts. there is no port... and those aren't tourists. they are actors!

 

the so-called "chair hogs" don't exist, either. there is just one guy, running around at 5 or 6 in the morning, placing towels on all the chairs. those sunglasses and books are "props" left by previous guests.  the chair hog guy actually works for the laundry facility on ship and the whole program was designed to cut down on the laundering of towels. he uses the same towels over and over again, from day to day and cruise to cruise. guests who can't get a chair use fewer towels, so there are fewer to launder. the program must be wildly successful because it still continues to this day.

 

there is actually only one del sol tee shirt shop run by a guy named murray.  (no company, except maybe starbucks, could actually afford to expand that rapidly around the caribbean.) what you see when you "disembark" and visit "del sol" is a holographic recreation of the original shop in key west. same thing with diamonds international. there is just one store! (and those are not diamonds,  by the way, but brilliantly lit shards of glass.)

 

my second most controversial opinion is that the soap, shampoo and conditioner dispensers in your stateroom are the single largest source of disease transmission on the ship.

 

 

*standing ovation* More, more! 

I read the official letter in this thread with "Yakety Sax" playing in my head and it helped.  Ooof. I hope it all ends up in a trip that is filled with good memories for you. 

Wow. Choose your own adventure indeed, or... not. ❤️  San Juan is wonderful! 

That little lip will be fine, it's the relatively giant step and steadiness needed to get over the tub wall. She can do it, it's just not easy, so the lip is a cakewalk in comparison. Getting old, it's not for the weak! I am grateful they are both still kicking around, my Dad still plays golf a few times a week at 83.  Thank you so much for the photos. I will send them on to her. 😃 

Hm, I don't know about the ADA room. But my Mom can walk, she just is very unsteady on stairs, etc., or climbing over a bathtub wall to get in the shower.  I would hate to block someone who needed it a lot more, but I will mention it to them.  She just called and said "when the day comes I need a placard for my card, I can do a room like that guilt free." She was grateful for the info, so thank YOU for that info,  and she said as the sail date gets close if one happens to be available still she'd consider it. 😃

Ah I should have mentioned the ship. Derrrrrrrrrr. 😃 This would be on the Bliss. It seems the same, and they don't need a two bedroom. Right now we have two forward facing suites booked, but they are juggling it with their age etc. They are totally mobile, and don't mind the walk now, vs. my Mom trying to get in and out of a combo shower tub, but it's next summer and you know, who knows what they/life will be like by then in your 80s. 😃 Sometimes her leg is quite painful and she will see what a Dr. says long before we go. Being up in Haven itself would be less walking and would help with that, but... the shower thing is the show stopper. It seems that is where we will (happily most likely) stay, then. 

I have a question about Haven showers. Is the forward penthouse the only room with a shower that doesn't require stepping over the side of a tub? I know the two bedroom family suite has a walk in shower separate from the tub, and the forward penthouse has the same. Do any others? The combo tub and shower is a deal breaker for my parents in terms of staying in the haven in a room of their own, vs. the out of the haven penthouse, which is a longer walk, obviously. They'd consider a room within the Haven if it had a shower separate and easy to enter, but I didn't see any other than ones that are much larger (owners, or family) in my online searches, if anyone can verify. 😃 

Some of them have clear glass down the front, but not all, which would make a difference if sitting down in a chair and looking out, in terms of view.  I don't know which has glass and which doesn't, though, I could just see the difference in photos and YouTube videos. 😃

Edited to add: I want that big circle in the ceiling to be a mirror, but obviously it isn't. *laugh*

I'd think they would be a little more snug on an Alaskan cruise, too, if the weather wasn't the best. In the tropics, different wants and needs, but if it was how I could afford a balcony room, I'd do it! 

4 hours ago, hallux said:

Actually, at least on the Bliss and Joy, I seem to recall that after around 6 PM Spice is open to ALL on board.  It's only adults-only during the day.

 Perfect. Since I had my info wrong I was thinking night stuff only was doable if you had a pass but pass is Vibe. Whee! Thanks! 😃