rbxlady

You're welcome, and now that I think about it, I'm sure there was an escalator up because I would have remembered lugging suitcases up a flight of stairs!

Were you on the Getaway leaving on 10/29? We disembarked the Getaway on 10/29. I know the couple that the four of us were following made the same mistake we did by not being vocal about being in the Haven, so that was 6 Haven passengers whom I know for a fact were misdirected. While waiting in the Haven lounge, a group of four people came in and sat near us. We started chatting, and they said that something similar had happened to them, too. They spent a LOT of time at the concierge desk when they arrived, so I believe them (and I have no reason not to, as why would anyone make that up), but I didn't want to share that all on these boards when I couldn't verify it with 100% certainty. So perhaps with (at least) 10 Haven passengers' being misdirected, forcing the Haven concierge to have to scramble to fix others' mistakes on an already busy day, they tightened things up for the 10/29 embarkation. Whether that's the case or not, I'm glad to hear that it was very obvious where to go for your sailing! Hopefully it won't be a problem for anyone in the future.

OK, to follow up, we took a shuttle from our hotel to the port. All the buses/shuttles are dropping people in this one area and unloading luggage, and the porters are picking it up and putting it on carts to send on board. I would describe it like a parking bay/bus depot. There's a sidewalk section in the middle with buses/shuttles pulling up on either side. There's a wide staircase (I don't recall if there was an escalator) that goes upwards from the sidewalk, and that's where everyone goes into the port terminal. There was no special Haven entrance like the video I posted shows. Once we got up there, we told the first person we encountered that we were in the Haven, so they directed us to a person who checked our passports and had us go through security. This was no different than everyone else except that we didn't have to stand in line like everyone else since it was just us four and a couple who were also Haven passengers who arrived at that particular moment. After that, you're just sort of let loose into the big room with everyone sitting and a long line of check-in desks along the right side with big windows and the ship behind them. You do not go to those check-in desks. I repeat, do not go to those check-in desks! Haven passengers are not supposed to be checked in there. Go all the way to the back left of the giant room. Someone will inevitably try to stop you, but if you insist that you're in the Haven and show proof if need be, they'll get you to where you need to be. We had some confusion on that, so don't feel like a jerk announcing your status and be vocal about it. Enjoy your cruise! More details in my comment here:

No, it didn't. It was definitely different. I posted about it on the big Haven post. Let me track it down...

That's funny because the Joy is at the top of my list of ships I really want to cruise, preferably in the Haven.

The toiletries are L'Occitane. The lotion is pretty good overall, but I have eczema, and it didn't cut it for places on my body (like my elbows and hands) that require thicker creams. My less-eczema-prone skin did fine with it. The hand soap and body wash were very nice, and the shampoo smells amazing and reminds me of Neutrogena Rainbath, which unfortunately they don't make a shampoo to match. Anyway, it was very drying on my hair, though, and the conditioner didn't make up for it, so I ended up going back to my own hair products. However, my kids used it, and I was constantly sniffing their hair because it smelled so good! I actually bought the shampoo on sale* as a sort-of joke Christmas gift to put in the their bathroom (they loved that I was obsessed with how good their hair smelled). My husband used the provided toiletries and loved that he didn't have to bring anything into the shower. Don't forget your toothbrush, though! Mine somehow disappeared between the hotel we stayed at the night before and the ship, so I asked concierge if there was a place on the ship I could buy one. They offered to hunt one down for me (I still offered to pay), and what they gave me was a toothbrush in the loosest sense of the word. I wasn't charged, thankfully. I made a point to stop at Walgreens before getting back on the ship in San Juan so I could buy one to use for the rest of the cruise. *That stuff is expensive! Definitely a one-time purchase for me. I joked with my husband that next time we cruise in the Haven, I should bring empty travel bottles to fill before we leave the ship.

The Haven had been sold out for about two months prior to our sailing, and we only ever had to wait for a table at the Haven restaurant once, for maybe 7 or 8 minutes, because we were a party of four. Service was always quick, too. Maybe we got lucky. The bar stools were full many times in the late afternoon, though, which made it tough if we wanted to walk up and order something to drink and bring back to our cabin (we were in 16120 on the Getaway, so literally right next to the Haven lounge), but if we had wanted to sit in the chairs in the lounge, that would not have been a problem. I don't think I ever saw them full except maybe on disembarkation day.

Wow, that's a great deal! Enjoy!

Just curious, and sorry for possibly taking this post in a different direction, did they give you anything for losing a day of your cruise? That's a pretty big change, especially since that may affect your travel home or other post-cruise plans. I would be pretty sad to lose an entire day on board, for whatever reason.

I found this to be the case on the Getaway in October. Two of our ports were US ports (St. Thomas and San Juan), so our phones worked as they normally would, but Verizon had a $10 per 24 hours for cellular service elsewhere. It worked OK enough in the Bahamas and great in the Dominican Republic, far better than the ship's internet, which always seemed to be terrible whenever we were in port.

In October, the Getaway Haven pool deck was all tables, too. The only loungers were in the pool. We were cruising the Caribbean, so it was hot out there when the sun was beating down on the tables, which is presumably why I never saw anyone eating meals out there.

We ate there on the Getaway in October, and it was lackluster. We did not get any milkshakes, though. Honestly, next time we'll just eat lunch in the Haven, assuming it's open.

I thought the food at the Silver Cove buffet was far better than the buffet on board the Getaway, but it wasn't anything to write home about, and I have no idea how it compared to the food elsewhere on GSC. I will say, though, that having a villa was fantastic. I know it's a lot of money, and even if you have the Free at Sea Plus, you still only get $50 off because it's a one-passenger booking. We like the quiet, though, so I considered it an investment in our port day because if we'd been on the island in larger crowds, we'd probably have gotten back on board within an hour or two. We had a lagoon villa, which was super quiet and nearly empty. The villas on either side of us were booked, and that was it. The kids played in the water with the kids from the next villa over, and we had the beach mostly to ourselves, since our neighbors weren't rowdy or anything. I would 100% book it again.

I would still call and ask to change to the B1, then ask for OBC or FCC for the cost difference. At worst, they deny you the OBC or FCC, but you get the better cabin at the same amount you were paying. Still a win in my book, unless I'm totally misunderstanding.

I've never seen you as attempting to increase your "status" for some sort of personal gain. Internet clout is pretty meaningless in the real world. I have always seen your posts as offering help and ideas for no other purpose than to provide information for others to use to make the best decisions for themselves. I did not think you received anything in return. I find your posts and comments extraordinarily charitable and helpful.

We didn't book spa reservations but decided to use our OBC to buy thermal spa passes if there were any left (on the Getaway). We went to the concierge the first day, and they literally pointed us to a lady who was handling spa stuff on day 1 right next to the concierge desk. It was a pleasant, 60-second interaction to buy spa passes. I did see a lady in spa uniform from time to time in that same spot, so I suspect they might hang at the concierge desk when the spa is running specials. So, long story short, concierge couldn't do that for me, but they had a person right there for it. Depending on the ship, the spa isn't a long walk.

Yeah, our sailing right before yours, we were escorted up/down for everything, including embarkation/debarkation at the beginning/end. We ate at the American Diner for lunch that day, so I don't know if the Haven restaurant was open, but we were permitted to drop our bags in our cabin so we could go to lunch. ETA our checked luggage arrived before dinner. It was surprisingly fast. I was able to unpack pretty quickly so that we could enjoy the evening.

Alex was fantastic! I sent NCL a glowing review of him personally. Also, I heard rumors about Starlink and am very excited! I also want to sail on the Joy next, so that works out well for us if we do in fact do that.

Where has this site been all my life? So useful. I greatly appreciate the tip!!!

We were at GSC and booked a Silver Cove villa (lagoon villa-- it was so quiet, so if you love quiet, I highly recommend it, would totally book again), and when we were shuttled back, they handed us off to someone to be escorted to the front of the line for the tender. If we hadn't had a villa, though, we would've had to take the initiative to ask someone, so your advice holds for GSC and probably any other tenders as well. I know I feel like a jerk announcing my "Haven status", but you're right that they are trying to make our experience as special and easy as possible.

I think I shared that video from 2020, and it was different when we were there a few weeks ago. Just don't be shy about telling every employee that you are in the Haven so that you get routed properly. I just responded to someone else right above this comment with the story of how we got misrouted and how the Haven concierge had to fix it, plus we lost precious cookie-eating time.

We just cruised on the Getaway in the Haven out of Port Canaveral 10/22-10/29. Nobody checked our appointed check-in time, which was honestly useless because instead of giving us an option to check in together, my husband and I had one check-in time, our 11-year-old son had a later one, and our 9-year-old son had one a couple of hours later, all because that's what was left when we finished check-in. (The NCL site went down mid-check-in, then went back up, then down, etc., for the rest of the day, so I was checking us all in piecemeal.) My advice, though, which I shared a few pages ago, is to be vocal about the fact that you're in the Haven. We, along with the people in front of us, were sent to go through the first security checkpoint apart from other passengers where we didn't have to wait. After that, we followed the other people to the main check-in area, and nobody said a word to us about the Haven, just sent us to wait for a rep to be available to check us in. Apparently that is not where we were supposed to go. Nobody was shepherding us or asking us if we were Haven passengers. When we got to the check-in desk, the lady went through all the questions about illnesses, etc., then disappeared for a few minutes. She said she couldn't find our keycards, so she printed some "fresh" ones for us. I then asked where the Haven waiting area was, and she pointed to the priority boarding area (non-Haven passengers can pay for priority boarding), showed me it was full, and told us to go sit over in some other area. Shortly thereafter, they started making announcements, but we couldn't hear jack from where we were sitting, so we went up to ask a lady about the Haven waiting area. She said it was full, so we should go back to where we were. My husband and I were looking at each other, like, this doesn't sound right, so he specifically said something like, "We are Haven passengers, and we've heard that there's a Haven waiting area with coffee and pastries and such." The lady looked at our keycards and told us we were not Haven passengers. I told her that we are definitely booked in the Haven and gave her our cabin number, and she got confused and grabbed someone else to help us. He realized what happened and took us back to the Haven waiting area, where they told us we should not have gone to the main check-in desk and that the check-in rep had messed up by doing what she did. They took the new keycards and gave us the original ones, which gave us no trouble on board (I was waiting for that to happen). We had coffee, pastries, and cookies until they started letting Haven passengers board the ship starting a little after 11AM. I think some of the port staff just have no idea what to do with Haven passengers, and I felt bad being all insistent that we were entitled to special treatment, but we should have been more vocal so we got routed properly from the start. ETA that I guess the best way to explain it is, when you get into the big room after the initial security checkpoint, go all the way to the back left. There will be a couple of people probably trying to redirect you, but just tell them you're in the Haven, then you'll get to the Haven podium where they'll check your names and bring you to the concierge desk at the Haven waiting area. They need bigger signs.

I felt so bad for your sailing, seriously. Nassau is not my favorite port. I've been there and just not gotten off the ship before. When they handed me the letter at check-in, I was afraid it was going to say they cancelled DR on us as well. That's crappy that you didn't find out until day 2, though. Did anyone ever explain why?

I don't know anything about Taino Bay, but Amber Cove does have a little shopping area and a pool, plus you can rent paddleboats, presumably at a cost. There was a bar there that looked cute, but it appeared to be for pay. Everything was in USD in the stores.

As an update, the FCC still isn't showing in my Latitudes account (CruiseNext certificates and the welcome back $100 coupon are still all there), but I just got an e-mail today confirming that the FCC been applied to our accounts, so now I have two e-mail confirmations backing me up if I have problems with it later.