Fogfog

🤣 "down to just 4 green plants. They are strong and required minimal moisture, a bit of "natural" light daily to be happy ... going in the Home smart app to set the daily schedule, switch on/off UV plant light as the window blinds will be closed. " @mking8288 Back in the day my mother and I would put all of her houseplants into the tub with an inch or so of water..african violets, spider plants, ferns etc. They would do great while gone for a couple of weeks. My style of gardening is "survival of the fittest"...if possible they are outside/shady area that will get rain and if they survive, voila. You'd be surprised how hardy orchids, christmas cactus, prayer plant etc are. Our house sitter/dog sitter will be watering the tomatoes and is going to trim the fig tree that should have been trimmed earlier in spring. May have mulch delivered to be spread too. Need to make the "to do list" while we are gone. My better half joked that maybe I should ask to have him paint the house ! ha

@cruiseny4life orchards and acreage sounds divine. good luck with the Edge 😉

Inside open right now $1200... according to ncl dot com And know you are going to know a few folks 😉 at the M&G

On a recent sailing I was putting my card on the onboard acct and the concierge asked if I wanted my spouse's charges on my card.. Gave them a funny look.🤣 Meaning after more than 30 years you are asking me...

@mking8288 Your post just reminded me to charge y earbuds and that they re noise cancelling. Clearly I don't make use of them nearly enough! They were not even on my "pack list" so THANK YOU! Just did a bank run here for US$ The Halifax stop. Private tour/tour guide prefers being paid in cash US or Canadian. We have Euros from a last trip that will help us make due for tips and odds/ends when not using cashless. Plan to do UK cashless as possible. It is looking cold for Sail Away Saturday. I'll take that over rain. I remember when we have had snow in late April. Right now wunderground is calling for cloudy and 53. Haven't met a reliable weather service yet Ha!

It would seem that the status of the stock relationship to the pax is the issue NOT the relationship of the pax in the cabin So whomever holds the stock--lets say in an IRA--the whole credit goes to that pax acct.. regardless of who else is in the cabin. Right? In our case--we hold it jointly. One would think it is ripe for a class action lawsuit to transfer-split a stock holder benefit just because there are other occupants in the cabin. If the occupants use the same account credit card--that is not germain to the stockholder benefit in question. Again--not a lawyer here-- but see this as an issue

hmm Not a lawyer here-- but are you suggesting they give/transfer a stockholder benefit to Non-stockholders?

Worth a try Ours was turned around in about a week. Since the 100 shares holding is jointly--NCL split the credit between us (husband/wife) for the cabin, $125/125 as its a longer sailing instead of just putting the $250 on the cabin. Same things for us yet they were attentive to the legalities I guess.

Hope the packing is going well. Was thinking of you all as I am piling things on our guest bed (we are on Prima) and wondering if you were already packed/flown and in NYC Your trip sounds fantastic. Some great ports. We loved our Baltics sailing and its one I'd do over for certain. PS Re "snake away"? and does it help? We did have a pool at one time (another property) and near wetlands. We got a baby gator in it once. And my bigger worry was water moccassins. Had one once that was sunning itself between the pump and the wall of the garage!

As avid MSC YC pax I thought we’d give some firsthand insight into our first NCL Haven experience and I will update this thread from time to time during and after sailing. We completely enjoy the MSC YC experience from embarkation day, lounge, dining, pool deck and stellar service. We feel that the MSC YC experience both in its culture on the ships, to the menus, and the YC perks makes it a win for us every time. We selected a Haven sailing only after exhausting every avenue to get on an MSC ship for a TA this spring. It was to be a surprise trip for me and my better half had researched various sailings and then watched and verified (on the selected MSC sailing more than 18 Y1s available on a Fri afternoon). On Sat am when it was announced we were going on this trip—and went to book-they were all gone. Boo. We think an agent had secured them, just don’t know. So, having to choose from competitors we landed on NCL Prima in Haven; Choosing a 2 Br, 2 Ba suite. Having a second bath seemed like a good idea for a long sailing. The stateroom looks very nice and we will know in a week. We are looking fwd to the sailing, the ports, and seeing what the Haven experience is like compared to MSC YC. We have “met” several nice folks here on CC with whom we are doing private excursions and/or are keeping up with them here on CC – and we expect to do the same on the ship. That’s the beauty of CC, the community. This post is about comparing two different products/services – How we see Haven stacking up against MSCs YC To compare the MSC vs NCL pre sail experience and what we know so far 1- MSC YC is far more inclusive. Including premium bev package, water, proper espresso, some included minibar in the room, and included wifi. YC Lounge offers small plates/small bites all day and into late evening. With Haven we have “Free at Sea” like every other pax on the ship that bought under that promotion. We must pay to upgrade to a premium package. Anything in the minibar in the room is charged including water. We can ask for all of that to be removed and for “pitchers of water and juice” to be left in the fridge. From everything we read, there are no small plates/snack offerings in the Prima Haven Lounge. Wifi “included in the “Free at Sea” is limited to 300 min, so we will have to upgrade. (15 day TransAtl sailing. 2- On NCL -Haven: Butlers and Concierge are NOT included in gratuities. So in spite of the high daily service charge for Haven, pax are told ahead that your butlers and concierge are being left out of the mix. This seems terribly unfair to the Haven pax. Where is the higher daily rate fee going? Daily service charge fees are distributed to those eligible by contract – so seemingly front of the house servers/dining/housekeeping. NCL charges grats on the bev packages so the bartenders are covered. And when you get a “free promo” bev package, pax are charged those grats separately on top. We Do always tip our Butlers, Waitstaff etc in YC and expect to do so in Haven. We find this policy to specifically leave the Butlers out of any portion of the Daily Service Charge dubious. My guess is those funds are shuffled elsewhere (subsidizing something else) 3- NCL Haven pre cruise Concierge. We are hoping that things go as seamlessly onboard as the preboard concierge has indicated. Prior to embarkation we have been able to make specialty dining reservations as well as make requests for the stateroom (remove for charge items from fridge, etc) MSC YC: On our two recent MSC YC sailings we did get contacted by MSC prior to sailing asking about preference for daily newspapers and choice of liquor for the room. At embarkation our Butlers did verify with us our choices and asked about preferences in the fridge. 4- In Haven, the Beverage package is NOT applicable to your Haven Room. If we ask the Butler to bring drinks to the room, it will be charged a la carte and not included in our purchased bev package. On MSC, we enjoyed having cocktails sent to the room while dressing for dinner (such a lovely perk). Won’t be doing that in Haven. 5- Smart Ship/Wristbands. MSC’s smart Ship YC wristbands were a great feature for room access/elevator control. As we understand it, NCLs Prima (even as a new ship) does not use that technology even in Haven. 6- Embarkation. Luggage MSC YC has always had a dedicated Tent with porters who tag the YC luggage and put it on carts together with only YC luggage. Our YC luggage has always been in our cabin shortly after embarkation lunch. NCL supposedly mailed us “Haven” tags 45 days ago. They did not arrive. At the pier, there is no special Haven luggage drop off. And no special handling for Haven bags until the bags are on the ship with the rest pax bags. We have heard from other seasoned Haven pax to not expect expedited handling “just because we are in Haven”. 7- Cruise Critic M&G Prior to Cvd the MSC’s M&G was outstanding. Lovely small plates, canapes, chocolate covered strawberries, cake and cocktails. Officers attended and pictures were taken. Since cvd those have been suspended. Like other lines, MSC has not reinstated them. There is a Cruise Critic M&G scheduled for the sailing (as well as many other gatherings). No canapes/cocktails expected. MSC Voyager Loyalty- As Diamond/Black card holders we have a variety of perks including specialty dining and a cocktail party with the Captain and Officers. 8- Dining. MSC’s YC dining has rotating menus. Haven’s menu is static. As MSC Diamond/Black we get some specialty dining perks which we use. With this sailing and booking Haven and “Free at Sea” we have specialty dining for 3 meals which we will use. If we upgrade- we will have 5. 9- Captain and Officers Reception. MSC YC Captain and Officers Reception. In MSC YC the Captain, CD, HD and several other Officers come to the YC Lounge for a private gathering of YC pax. Cocktails and canapes are served. It is a nice time to meet them. Haven. TBD. Haven’t read if this is offered during sailings. Those are some of our initial thoughts. Best. FOG

On the older ships, it was the way the fish were swimming. Funny no one told you🤣

We hear you on the price. It is a ride. And a whirlwind tour of sights to get an overview of the city (we got a good lunch too) I do want to say--that on our excursion--we had unanticipated traffic/rerouting both directions due to construction on the roads. Because we were on a ship tour that ran over an hour late (like 90 min)-- and a few buses were late--the ship had a late dinner in the buffet with a local music group performing, local food brought in etc and going late. We didn't miss out.

We would do every port for some sort of outing/meal/culture thing- and choose carefully. They are certainly old enough for this trip. We started traveling with ours at 3ys and 6 mos ... August you will contend with the heat and a couple of those port stops- have longer bus rides. If you can swing it--choose the smaller bus/van excursions. Bring water bottles. Plan an ice cream budget. You've got this!!

The one disadvantage with these roller bags is the bag weight for certain. We have some very light "travel Lite" roller aboards and duffels that I bought years ago from a UK company. The roll-aboards were made to fit Ryanair specs. We used them for years Just in Feb my better half said enough is enough because dragging the duffels was a pita--and we bought the hard side roller bags. Wow--so much easier for self assist disembark this past Feb-March when we did semi B2B and had to change ports. They were great. We have an early disemb at Southampton so we will self assist-roll off again (here's hoping Haven does what they promise) And like you--I like packing cubes. My better half doesn't use them..so if we share bags to spread out the weight shoes 😉 ) at least shoe bags help. Toiletries/liquids double bagged. Goal is for under 40#. Re the rainy weather Sat....That's really going to make it a bad hair day 😞

Your guess is as good as ours. Check Wunderground--which only goes 10 days out for Halifax. Otherwise, sites that tell you seasonal/typical for late April for Iceland and beyond