Fogfog

Heard some folks using The Drop earlier today.

Nice flat seas.

Going to try that fish you had the other night at Palomar.

@Sugar Magnolia did the posse make it to the club or did long dinners time change do you all in?

17 hours ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

Glad you are enjoying the Haven.  We sail both Haven and YC.  There are differences, but I will say that I enjoy the NCL experience outside of the Haven much more than MSC outside of YC.  I did want to ask you about check-in.  We have always just dropped our luggage with first porter we encounter, then proceed to Haven check-in, which usually has a private lounge to await ship clearance.  Then, you are escorted onto ship by one of the butlers.  Was that not available on your cruise?  (We have only done NCL from the US so not familiar if starting from overseas; MSC we have done both Genoa and Miami.)

Check in in NYC was a nightmare.

Plenty of blame to go around. While we were disappointed, many others had it far worse.

Prima arrived late..and we knew she would. She berthed at 10am.

Our check in was 12.

We arrived at MCT about 11 as cross town traffic was lighter than expected. taxi was about $18.00

When we arrived we gave bags to porter, tipped and went in to cool our heels.

When they opened lines around 11:30 ish we were about 24th in Haven line and I am guessing about 400 in other lines. I couldn’t tell when the high status latitudes folks were. Have some first hand accounts from friends re that if you’d like more. It isn’t pretty.

At 12:40 they open the facial recognition and carry on bag screening…multi stations. And only 1 for Haven.

Then the survival of the fittest race down the terminal to cue again to check in…lots of open agents for status..yet only 2 for Haven. Very slow.

Got put into a room with metal chairs like the DMV…and told to complete an immigration form for Canada…which was pure theater as many on ship in gen pop told us they didn’t do it and we are US passport holders.
 

We watched them bringing off pax from previous sailing ..still..at 1:20pm

About 1:40pm they announced to the room of now about 100 Haven pax that we were going up to Haven..again a free for all.
There were Haven pax dragging their own 30” roller bags, people pushing elderly parents in wheel chairs..it was crazy. 
Arrive into Haven lounge onboard after almost 3 hours.

Friends in gen pop had it far worse.

Our Haven tags were supposedly mailed in March…never came.

we are told Haven doesn’t get any priority for bags for embarkation.

They certainly don’t tag and handle them like YC does at the piers in Fl…we haven’t sailed from Genova.

The Haven pier lounge had juice, small bites..MCT, not Brooklyn.

Many of us were feeling full on “BettyWhite” after it all.

Interestingly…with YC we are all in with prem bev pack and wifi

Not so with Haven

So every time you order a drink they need your card…all cruise long..both at the bar and dinner table

And..while in port they tax you on every drink for embarkation.

IDK if we paid taxes while in Iceland. We are at sea and arrive in Amsterdam in the am.

With YC we don’t get nickeled and dimed like that since it’s all bundled. 
No one was happy with embarkation.

12 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

Why am I not at the Prima Club right now? Because we finished dinner at 10:45pm. 
 

We have a standing reservation for 8:00pm so we were seated immediately. At 9:45pm our dinner plates were still sitting in front of us and dessert menus were nowhere to be found.  I ordered mint tea but was given a green tea bag in hopes that I would not notice that they did not have mint tea available. Green tea would have kept me up all night, so hot water it was for me. Someone else in our group ordered tea with milk but the milk never came. 

On the positive side it was a beautiful sunset tonight with no supplement charged. 
 

Yikes. So sorry. Big difference between green n mint for certain.

We had started recruiting folks for Abba, then met a couple from Dublin…got distracted at the bar, in conversation, watching marine traffic and lighthouses. I wanted to move our 4..but by then it was 12:30am. I believe the others made it.

Last night was the night to go out in spite of losing an hour.

We have last SD tonight at Palomar

Lock transit and Amsterdam tom.
Sent out second laundry yesterday in prep to pack-as we stay over in London a bit. We get the boot before too long.

14 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Sunset was about 9:30 PM and smooth sailing this evening, doing 21 kts w extra calm seas, waves of 1 to 2 m, maybe 4 to 6 ft. at most - approaching the North Sea ahead ~ after midnight.  One hour ahead on the clock again. 

 

 

Was fascinating watching the lighthouses and marines traffic late last night port side. 

17 hours ago, mking8288 said:

View of the lifeboat on Deck 6 and the open deck below (Deck 5 with Oceanviews & Inside cabins) where it appeared to be closer for public access unless it is for emergency egress & Assembly Station staging use.

 

Calm seas and barely feel any movements, waves & swells, etc.  Going at 20.3 kts with ETA to Amsterdam as early as 6 AM - per MT - on Thursday vs. 10 AM scheduled arrival 

 

 

 

 

We understood Captn out to mean we arrive at the locks at 6am for the lock transit

@mking8288

tracking the marine traffic.

Russian fishing ship port side

Naval ship passed us port side

Been interesting 

1 hour ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

Yes please do! But just to be clear…you have to attend as well, not just ask Susan to go and check it out as your proxy. 
 

We lose another hour tonight.

You may need an espresso martini or Red Bull cocktail to bring it come Abba time.

15 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Wait...this is actually a thing? (Pun slightly intended).

 

I would think having this museum in Iceland would result in a significant amount of shrinkage.

Compared to the shops in key West, I suspect so 😆

Maybe just paint is damaged on the quarter round?

that is the end of the bar. Staff hovers there. Pax stand there. Service door not far. So kicked often

Sink around the bar on that side too.

@mking8288 how was the chicken parm today?

Did Hudson’s step up their game?

With Commodores busy for F2F immigration lunch crush etc.. yet dinner should spread out.

We got about 20 min of sun behind a wind screen today in spite of the temps and..20knts.

Have things improved at Hudsons do you think?

Or do you prefer Commodore?
With the buffet, Local, Indulge, and 2 mdr options… I do wonder about crowd control and if folks have gotten into routines

With sea days I think there is missed opportunity for “taco Tuesday” for lunch at LL, etc to spread out folks at some venues.

3 minutes ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

It is Abba and Bee Gees tonight so you really have no excuses. All you have to do is flutter your arms a bit. Expect you and R to be there. Even @mking8288.

 

Glad that FB, IG and so on didn’t exist a few years ago…being older than google has its rewards. Less evidence 😘

Re Haven food

Should clarify…being 15 days TA…the flex is things like changing up sides etc..things in Haven. Not bringing outside things into dining.

Dining is also offering an additional choice lunch and dinner for sea days as we are a long sailing..such as chicken cordon Blu. 
 

So lack of flex could be due to ship, length of sail etc.

With YC, we got flex doing 4 b to b, as we were seeing the same menus weekly for 4 sailings over and over. We were fine with menus in general as they rotate, we just had been on awhile.

Had seen pics of earlier versions of that party…we had forgotten to pack vinyl shorts and boas to attend….

Let’s just say this body is not 21 and not ready for prime time and it’s been awhile since I’ve been dancing on top of a speaker at the Limelight …

🤣

Well yesterday they called for 4 folks, 4 times, every 5 min who were late….

Hear they made the ship ONLY because 2 trucks ran late provisioning.

Experienced cruisers observe the on board times

On 4/29/2024 at 6:23 PM, pamelanj said:

Hi

 

We will be doing our first Haven trip in June on Joy. Many balcony and suite cruises in the past.

 

Today we received our sticky luggage tags that have our room number and PRIORITY. The letter that came with it states we are Haven.

I could have sworn my cousin who did Haven last year had some sort of gold plastic Haven tags. Did they eliminate them or are they given at the terminal?

 

Not a big deal either way as long as our tags are good enough.

 

Thanks. 😊

 

Fwiw

Our Haven tags never came…

currently on Prima TA.

supposedly mail March 15. 
 

Believe color is ship not deck.

we printed ours and put in plastic covers

We don’t make work

We ask that things like coke, soda in fridge be replaced with juices.

Ice daily.

Smart Wrist bands show status both YC and our voyager status so we never have issues around the ships.
They do such a great job and I believe there are notes in profile so they know what to  anticipate from past sailings. Crew that have know us from previous sailings greet us like family. We enjoy hearing from them and seeing them again

On 5/3/2024 at 3:44 PM, Best Cat Mom said:

For us, there are only 3 things that we found to be "better" in Haven vs. YC:

    - One full bathroom and one half bath (we only sailed the suites with 1.5 baths)
    - Two sinks in the full bath
    - One entire mattress for the bed

 

Since there is just one bathroom on MSC, BCD will sometimes use the bathroom by the concierge desk.

 

The other two items seem to not matter quite so much when we reflect on the overall holiday experience, especially the Italian aspect of food and service. And we're thankful to return home to our one bed mattress where a huge divot does NOT open up every time we use it. 😁

We have a 2br, 2ba for this TA.

DH is using full second br as dressing room, bath, closet while I use master closet and primary bath.

Second BR goes unused except for pass through though butler does vacuum etc 

For 15 nights it’s been nice to have 2 baths and the extra closets on a cold weather sailing

Some thoughts on dining and Bev.

The Haven dining here on a Prima is solid.
Great food and service. Whether a double cut pork chop, panchetta wrapped lamb chops  or surf and turf for dinner, or a Caesar salad with shrimp for lunch, chicken Milanese etc, the dining has been solid.

After 10 days… we are still happy.

So much so that while we have specialty dining in our package and will eat again elsewhere one last time…we have not needed to do so.

We can mix and match..meaning if you want different sides, leave off sauce or have dietary requests, we find Haven staff very accomodating.

Dining on Meraviglia in YC had been solid for B2B in early 2020 as was for 4b2b in 22.

Dining on Seashore in YC in Feb was outstanding.

Our March Divinia YC we found the dining weak and wanting in YC. Things weren’t executed well, came out without sauces, poorly seasoned etc. Whomever was running Divinia YC kitchen in March..it was not great…and we had 8 previous YC sailings to compare.

We like MSC for the Italian flair and typically are happy with dining with the Divinia exception. 
That said, so far Prima Haven has knocked it out of the park.

Only 1 lunch item was a little weak and that could have been a 1 off 

Wines and Bar

MSC prior to Cvd had great prem bar and wines in YC. That dropped off a bit in ‘22 and as of Feb and March we saw a bigger drop particularly on the wine side.

Its a puzzle because the Italian tradition of food and wine, one would think would matter in YC.

We found limited choices in wine..if you wanted a dry white, dry rose, or unoaked chard. Was told none existed in several cases.

NCL Haven prides itself on its Haven mixologists and craft cocktails as well as wine options. We have had no complaints in this area either. We came onboard expecting to have a struggle in this area and that’s not the case.

Also there is plenty of Haven lounge seating in small areas to gather… the online pics of the bar with 4 seats are deceiving..yes there are maybe 6 stool seats on either side..yet plenty of other spaces folks gather. So you don’t have to be a bar fly to get a cocktail 

7 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

the galaktoboureko dessert was also fabulous.

Best dessert on the ship.

We like Palomar. Moving our 3rd SD back there after ok LB.

Heard the fish baked in salt is great.

We had the Dover sole the other night. It was good.

We were up early and did immigration at 730a. 
Had breakfast. Sent out second laundry so we will be ok to repack in a few days
R. Headed to the gym.

Busy days ahead

3 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Yes to nurses' week, older cousin of mine in San Francisco, CA was going to retire but kept going due to global pandemic and one of my young nephew as ER nurse in the Bronx (NY)

 

As we're returning to the ship after dropping our rental AWD off  - we saw 3, maybe 4 crew members with roller boards and carry-on luggage heading into the terminal building before noon. 

 

 

 

Sadly 🙏 I come to the realization that more than 3 passengers will not be onboard again to continue the TA to reach mainland, EU ... up to 3 guests were taken off the ship for medical emergencies - and while we do not know for sure of the outcome. Pray that they & their love ones are doing well & as best as they can be. Wish them speedy recovery and in good hands. 

 

 

We had heard the night befor we reached Iceland that 3 were leaving. Sad to hear that was true.

Prayers for them and their families.

Saw some of what looked like maybe crew changes too.

God speed for all traveling

3 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

Whoops…that should be je ne sais quoi. Better brush up on my French before they let me loose in Le Havre. The French will likely snicker at me regardless. 
 

I was thinking that but didn’t want to correct it and seem snarky.

xo

@Sugar Magnolia

Looks yummy.

Similar to open faced sandwiches of Denmark?

Thought of you the other night re LB.
 

Talking about food…

well L.B was not as we remembered, and was loud etc. Filet was HUGE. slightly underdone which says a lot because I like tartare…

Nice sized piece of f.g. On top.

Escargot was missing salt imho, and idk what..I salted. That helped.

Endive salad was heavy on Blu cheese…

Had the marron clementine pastry. Delicate. Would have liked more clementine inside.

Moved our next SD back to Palomar 

Iceland was great.

we had a Golden a circle at our with access friends here yesterday..11 of us experienced lovely incredible sites, walks and short hikes, laughs, rain, sleet, hail, sunshine, local brews and food at an off the beaten path wine-gastro pub that also had hydroponic greenhouses.

Since we were in Iceland early..we were up and out to use the free shuttle yesterday to explore town before lunch on the ship and then the tour. Back to the ship late..in bed by 1130p.

We took s historic tour via ship tour today which was a good way to see the area, burbs etc ..and despite the rain, we had fun.

We were onboard and sat for lunch with the snow flurries.

sail away is sunny and gorgeous.

Iceland showed off in lots of ways. Don’t like the weather, wait 5 min.

On the Face to Face..nothing said Iceland in the daily..clearly caused confusion with poor editing. 
See ya in the Commodore tom.

Need to look at entertainment…got so busy with Iceland we forgot.

I thought tonight was 80s in Syds, no reserv, and something later in theater..dancing..no reserv?

On room service..if we use it..it’s normally early am

Anyone know if those late 4 pax made the ship?

seems like they ran late provisioning..as we left late

We asked this am and were told the in person is for UK.

Since we got here early we took the free bus into town and walked a couple hours to see sites. Need the exercise.

Back onboard for lunch.

About to meet our CC group for our GC tour. 
Hoping the weather cooperates with no rain.

We will be gone 8 hours and miss dinner service and do dinner during our tour.

No shortage of food, I just had soup and crudite for lunch… 

@mking8288

well you called it right this am about Iceland. Just heard the  PA