rbird

Dang.  Cc only allows one edit.   I need to correct typos and punctuation.   So sorry for those errors.

The Haven on the Breakaway is nice albeit a little smaller than the Escape.  I’m still wondering why they didn’t put an elevator in there.  I’m assuming if you can’t to stairs you would need to leave Haven proper, take and elevator and then come back in through the door unless you were taking the concierge elevator.  🤔 

it never felt crowded except for the Harvest Caye day.   We brought our masks for the elevators and crowd.   No one looked at us twice.   No judgment, just do your own thing which I love.  Having priority disembarkation is the bomb!   We love the Haven for this reason.   
the concierge, Virginia also highlighted our trip because we did everything last minute.  We arrived in Costa missa to windy, rainy weather.  Can’t believe they could actually dock.   We Booked a beach day the night prior and didn’t read the weather.  Hey- reading on vacation was a chore.  Hah.  Virginia took one look at my face the next morning and said,  do you want to cancel?   I piped up and blurted out. YES. She said go back to bed.   I was so relieved.   I didn’t even ask or care about the excursion cost.   I noticed later in the cruise that I was refunded.  Wow.   The concierge can make things happen.  They are wonderful and allowed us to cruise freestyle.   Harvest Caye was great in my opinion and I didn’t mind paying on the island for extras.   My husband and son walked back to the Haven  to have lunch while I stayed parked in my beach hair and fasted.   I ate more than enough food and never felt hungry.  I brought my water carton from the room that held me over for the day.  
Roatan surprised me and again I added my zip line excursion the night before thanks to the concierge service.  Cozumel was ok.  We booked Isla Passion.  It was inexpensive and rightly so.   We did not eat anything there by choice.   
 

This was our 2nd time in the Haven and it did not disappoint.  The service was better than our last cruise. 

We visited OSheehan’s a couple of times for our Buffalo wings and they were quite good.   The bar service at the martini bar was subpar.   You could really feel the shortage of staff in the other parts of the ship.  Although, I was happy the kids club was open so the Haven pool remained relatively calm all week.   We walked past the American diner.  NCL should be ashamed at up charging that.  It’s not themed or anything.   I expected a Johnny Rocket kind of thing.  No mini golf or rock wall - just empty sad space.   
 

We stayed in the 2 BR villa 16106.  I declined  upgrading to the owners suite because of the 2nd BR for our adult son.  
Again, we did little planning ahead of time and did not have a letter for our butler.   No need for one.  We were honored to have Maria, one of the most experienced, professional, warm and exceptional butlers.   The mini fridge came with 3 things.  Water, sparkling water and something else.  We asked for a pitcher of water, afterwords two pitchers of ice water we refreshed daily.  Maria encouraged us to order breakfast in our cabin prior to an early excursion.  So we tried it.  Wow.   It was very nice.   We skipped the shows during the last two days of the cruise since there was a noticeable increase in passenger coughing towards the end.  We saw SIx of day 2 and went to the comedy club on day 3.  
Instead of cramming in with hundreds of passengers in the theater with obvious increasing viral loads we chose to enjoy a sunset from our veranda.   We used our veranda more than other cruises since we were trying to stay healthy throughout the cruise.  

At first I felt bad as everyone can see you boarding first as Haven pax walking down a hall in the terminal with glass walls.   But then I realized the NCL did this a marketing thing.  

The Haven restaurant lived up to expectations with surf and turf being on offer every night!   The menu is set all week and I never repeated a dinner choice.  The staff is exceptional.  We seldom waited for a table but we also eat earlier than most folks.  We ate in LeBistro and Moderna.  I was disappointed with LeBistro. The service was great but I felt my food in the Haven was better, JMO.   We enjoyed Moderno.  I don’t eat a lot of meat so the salad/ appetizer buffet was great, IMO.  
 

The Haven bar tenders are truly the best on the ship.   I contemplated upgrading my beverage plan but was satisfied with the wine.  DH like beer and an occasional fancy drink.   My son had the beverage plan and he doesn’t drink.  So NCL made out on him.   The coffee in the Haven is French press, so no need to trek downstairs for Starbucks.   
 

This is just another report/ review of the NCL Breakaway Haven May 29 sailing to Costa Maya, Harvest Caye, Roatan and Cozumel.  My travel party included DH, me and my adult son who claimed he was just “along for the ride”😊

This is our first cruise since 2019.   We booked about 90 days.  I waited until the cruise line dropped some of the testing requirements.  I was willing to test once prior to embarking and before flying to Florida.   I work in the medical field and am very familiar with the covid virus.   The stress of testing negative really affected our pre cruise excitement.  
I only booked two dinners outside the Haven and had no other planned activities.

We woke up of Friday and did our EMED proctored tests from home.   Very easy and I highly recommend them.  EMED test have an expiration date so don’t order them to early.

After our negative test, we started packing and then left the next morning to fly into MIA a day early.  Stayed at The Hampton Brickell.  Great stay as usual.  Clean and reliable. We took a short Uber ride to POM at 9am.  We had a 9-930 check in.  I had my   Printed negative test results in large ziplock bag and my vaccine card in there as well.  Simple -no fumbling through papers.  They just looked at them once prior to entering the terminal.  The Haven check in was super easy to find and well marked prior to even entering the new building. Not many ppl there at 915 am.  We masked up for our flights, Ubers, elevators and check in with the NCL agent and hand sanitized often.  The Haven Lounge is beautiful, with plenty of space and snacks to cover you until boarding between 11-12.   The butlers start buzzing around prior to embarkation and lead groups on board.   Once off the gangway, the groups waited for elevators few of which were masked.  We took the stairs from deck 6 to 16.   After the first flight we unmasked as no one was taking the stairs. No lie- we were huffing and puffing but it was worth it.  By now it was noon.  We arrived in the Haven passed by the bar and immediately got in a short line for lunch in the Haven.

On Breakaway last week too.   DH had beautiful Tommy Bahama linen pants and Mens sandals.   Le Bistro sent him back for close toe.   I was tempted to tell him to identify as a different gender.   Ladies can wear sandals.  
Haven also told my adult son no flip flops in the dining room.   Ummm, we saw plenty of flip flops in the DR. And he had worn them earlier in the week.   So, heads up to the Haven folks.   The no flip flops seems pretty inconsistent.

Awww, the SS Norway.   1st cruise as a newly married couple.   We had a stateroom that you had to stand on the bed to see out the porthole.   Hey, it's what we could afford at that time.   Loved the old ocean liners.  

Upgrade them to the Haven and don’t look back:)  

I personally cruise other smaller boutique cruise lines for port intensive Itineraries in Europe.   I use the Haven for itineraries with more ship time.

Good Luck and have a great time.

Thank you for taking the time to submit a review.  I agree about the smoking section being far forward.  It is disappointing to still smell the smoke when just trying to relax on the sundeck.  I'm looking forward to returning to cruising in May.  

Luckyinpa- what cabin number and ship had the mini window in the shower?

Just off the Escape too.   Branko was bartending in the Haven but he was leaving for a holiday today.    Disappointed in Bayamo as well.  The menu on the in room TV's is NOT the updated menu.   I understood the 12$ pp up charge per a message left the day of the ressie.  Once we arrived at this restaurant, we were informed of the limits with an app, entree,  and 2 sides.   The menu presented was different than the TV ( assume it was the outdated menu)  Now there were upcharges for shrimp cocktail and others...  It had surf & turf as well as fish and chips.  We could get surf and turf, sea bass and shrimp cocktail in the Haven.  And fish and chips, really?  Long story short - I felt like a bait and switch, nickel and dime with the upcharges and surcharges for this venue.  I really hope NCL does something different there in the future.  

Apparently giving a healthy tip to the porter does not insure that they will take you to some special security line.  We waited with everyone for the initial security screen which wasn't a big deal since it was early.   

We were happy with the Haven services.  The concierge and butler never responded with a "no" to any of our requests.   Only disappointment were the amount of young children in both hot tubs.   Otherwise it was an enjoyable spring break cruise secluded in the nest.  aka HAVEN;)

Thanks rbird for the vote for Aqua cooking class. I have been looking at that and thinking it might be a nice, easy thing to do on the day the ship arrives and departs from Civitavecchia. Do you know if he will do the class for just 2 people? Do you remember the timing of the class?

He did a class of eight people when I did it. He coordinated the others. It was a perfect group size. Just sent him a message on that big social media website that shall remain nameless.[emoji846]

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OK folks, I'm looking at so many ports and my roll calls are a bit on the quiet side so I thought I would put it out there on the main Windstar board.

 

 

 

Here are our ports of call on our Yachtsman's Harbors of the Rivieras, September, 2018.

 

 

 

Barcelona

 

Port Vendres

 

Sanary-sur-Mer

 

Monte Carlo

 

Cannes

 

Portofino

 

Portoferraio

 

Rome/Civitavecchia

 

 

 

Did you take a WS tour or hire a different tour/guide? Did you DIY? Any and all information about tours for these ports would be appreciated. And yes, I have read the boards for each of these locations and I started a role call but for those of you who have sailed on WS, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thank you!!

We did A cooking class in Civitavecchia at Aqua.

Did our own Monte Carlo along with the little train tour.

We lounged around Portoferraio.

Have fun on your trip.

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We get euros via AAA or the bank in the US. No fee and they will give smaller bills. We took care of it before a recent cruise. No worries once we were in Europe. Also broke a 5 right way to always have euro coins in our pocket for the

W. C. :)

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Just returned from a great Med cruise.

We stayed at Hotel Triano overnight at a very reasonable price and were able to walk to dining. The next morning we did a cooking class in Civitavecchia @ Aqua. We truly enjoyed our time pre-cruise! We walked the next seven days in seven ports to see landmarks. So the cooking class was a nice choice.

Good Luc:ok and do whats right for you.

Yes. They have a kiosk outside the theater. We just bought our tix after breakfast for an evening show. I liked the IMAX. I do wish the popcorn would be free though. It was nice to have especially during extra sea days due to weather.

Not an issue. Did it on the Vista all 8 days. One adult with a man 2 cheers cards, two alcoholic drinks and two bottles of water -all at the same time:)

Overall the new big ships are pretty smooth. I still know I'm on a ship and she is in the ocean so some movement is expected. lol. I am so happy to have booked a great "interior price" for the window. We enjoyed the Havana pool to ourselves just about every night after our early dinner seating. Still pleased with the overall cost of an 8 day cruise. Hope you enjoy and yes the view was way better than expected.

Our recent airfare was high too. Remember you can change SWA flights to a lower fare and have your refunds put into travel funds. Also SW Visa has 60k rewards points for signing up. Flying in January is subject to snow as you know. It's a gamble. Good Luck and Do what's right for you.

We self disembarked right after the first deck was called. It wasn't even our deck but we left anyways and were off by 8am. We booked a minivan via Hotwire (ended up with Dollar) for about $70 including all the fees and a one day sunpass from MIA Intl a/p. There is a free shuttle (tip driver please) from POM to MIA rentals. Do have your reservation available for the shuttle driver to see. He took all 4 of us and our luggage to MIA rentals. We were directed to pick out any minivan on the lot and go. Beware, check the gas level. We were to get a minivan with a full tank and expected to return it with a full tank. The first one we turned on had 3/4 tank. SO we just chose the next one to it with a full tank. Drove to Las Olas, parked for $15 and enjoyed a peaceful day and lunch at the Ritz instead of sitting of the floor of FLL waiting for our 5pm flight.

Been there. Done that. Flew in the same day as cruise departure. Flight circled for a long time and landed delayed. No luggage to be found. After trying to find luggage in spanish, we gave up and headed to the ship. We were THOSE people running to board and with no luggage.

They fly luggage to the next port if found.

Since then, we ALWAYS fly a day prior. We pack a swimsuit, one day and one night outfit in our carryon;)

This was my families favorite excursion on a recent cruise. It was completely worth the price for transportation, facilities, private beach, lunch, chefs and bartender with 40 of your friends. Being on a beautiful beach without the masses made this excursion great. Upon arrival, you are introduced to the staff and given the house rules. Afterward we moved into our beach loungers, although I spent little time just sitting around. Instead I kayaked with my son's and then swam and snorkeled with my son's for about 1.5 hours. There are rocks in front of the beach but there are two paths that with some research ahead you are aware of their placement. I am not a strong swimmer. I was able to navigate through the path with my snorkel gear including snorkel vest. The water was clear and you can see fish from the other side of the rocks once your out in the water. Not teaming with fish but it was adequate for some fun. After swimming and kayaking, I met crusher the bartender. We had so much fun with him and the staff that prepared lunch. Everyone was friendly and fun. The lunch was good and plentiful. I did not expect a mansion on the sea because I did some research ahead. All in all this was on a beautiful beach and being outdoors on Turks is what it's all about.

Took my family of 4 adults to Eagle beach for a beach day. We departed the ship as soon as it was cleared and headed to the taxi stand to the left directly upon exiting the port building. Taxi prices are printed on a sign. $13 to Eagle beach.

After waiting 10-15 minutes for a taxi, I asked our driver to drop us off at Eagle beach across from the Amersterdam. Instead, he drop us off about .4 miles prior to the Amsterdam hotel in from of a little beach bar and restroom. We walked out to the beach and there were a bunch of umbrellas and chairs set up for rent. I walked along the beach to the right toward Amsterdam ... to a set of 10 or so palapas. They turned out to be in front of the LaQuinta. LaQuintas attendant came along around 10 am and said that they were for use from the LaQuinta guests. I asked if I could rent them for a day and he said yes. I paid $30 for 3 sun loungers under a palapa in an uncrowded section of the beach. I even received an official receipt. Our friends paid $80 for umbrellas and chairs in a crowded area of the beach where alot of cruise pax were. I also walked down to Amsterdam and found a food truck along the way. Authentic fish, rice, potatos and drinks for 4 was $18 We stayed at the beach from 9am - 2p. Great non crowded section of the beach and easy to catch a cab at 2 pm. Best excursion we've done on our own yet!

Cabin 7205 4J