david_sobe

29 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Have you watched any of the cruise line shows on, IIRC, Discovery channel.  Every episode, regardless of the cruise line, has a scene where the cruise line waits for passengers returning late from shore excursions.  The cruise line, in these scenes, always waits....

Yes I've seen them. You are really going down a slippery slope.  To answer your question there is no rule of thumb how long a captain will wait.  Being there were film cameras on those specials I bet the captain waited longer than usual.  Again your post does not answer the murky question "how strict is NCL?"  It varies.  Sometimes a bus will wait for someone running down the street while other times the bus keeps going.  A pilot may delay pushing away from the gate for a minute or two.  Each scenario is different and every captain is different.  Its impossible to answer that question because its a ridiculous question.  With the recent passengers stranded in Africa supposedly they made contact with the ship and it did not matter.  Bottom line:  No matter what line you sail, get your butt on board 30 minutes before sail away.

You could always do an experiment on your next cruise.   See how long the captain waits for you and then report back to this thread 🤨

I think the question has an incorrect premise asking how "strict" NCL is with on board time. NCL is like most other cruise lines that require passengers board 30 minutes before sail away.  Is that being strict?  Does not every mode of transportation have a board time?  Imagine airports if planes had no set time for departure but waited for all ticketed passengers to board.   Its common sense and not an issue of being "strict."  If there was no set time ships would be constantly waiting for passengers.  Is there not a set time we start work, attend school, get the bus, etc?  Its confusing to me to think of this as strict?  Maybe the OP meant to ask, when does NCL require passengers on board before sail away?

I have a question to the masses.  I can only speak from personal experience but has anyone staying in the Haven found their luggage actually getting priority?  I never have and I know people complain about it.  But I am curious what others have experienced.

The last Haven cruise I took in 2020, the luggage tags were gold but not plastic.

The color or priority word on them don't mean anything.  All the luggage is boarded together and in the order they are dropped off.  Each piece receives the same priority no matter what deck you are on.  I have stayed in Haven and balcony cabins.  I have never found that luggage arrives faster in the Haven.

Enclosing the casino or making it smoke free is a great idea.  It was a bad design because the Away class ships had these "open concept" venues to save space.  Restaurants like La Cucina and the Asian/noodle place was open to the outside with no wall enclosing it from the walkway areas.  NCL put their casinos in these open areas and the smoke would just linger into these restaurants while you were trying to eat.  I remember sitting at the table outside at the noodle bar and my eyes burning from the smoke.

The 2 cabin suites on Epic 16001 and 17001 are always highly sought after because they are wider than all the other 2 bedroom suites on Epic.  They are forward and have a solarium instead of a balcony. We loved the solarium because it was so big and like another room.  It even has its own thermostat.  Deck 16 is the same floor as the concierge, pool, and restaurant.  If you want a bigger suite and you dont mind a solarium, see if one of these are available.

I dont know why NCL made these center forward cabins bigger than the rest.  The living room is 2 feet wider and the second bedroom is also 2 feet wider. 

I did not open the thread awhile back about the Joy's dry dock because I had no interest. I was watching a video last night of all the changes and I was pretty impressed.  The Joy had pretty much no spa at all and now it has the largest spa at sea beating the Epic.  They converted the gaming complex into the spa.  They showed the observation lounge and you would have swore it was not reduced.  It still looked a good size.  Then they expanded the DOS in the Haven and removed the top part of the Horizon lounge.  Originally that area was a Haven casino when it was in the Asian market.  The DOS has 3 bedrooms now and some bedroom windows look down into the Horizon lounge.  I dont think anyone would miss that area since it rarely was used.  I can definitely see these changes coming for Encore.  Laser Tag took up the most valuable deck space on a cruise ship.  So these changes make sense IMHO.

However its sad the Joy could not get a "real" spa.  I suppose they could not put in a thermal pool.  While the square space is huge and they have countless loungers there is only one small hot tub and a 1 person cold dunk pool.  The saunas are normal sized though.  I just feel that cheats the purpose of the spa.  A very large thermal pool with additional hot tubs like on the other ships.  So that is the only downer I see.

5 minutes ago, hallux said:

I think there have already been some reports that the laser tag is going away in favor of Spice on Encore.  I'd expect it to disappear from Bliss as well, to be replaced with more Vibe space (which matches your assertion AND the work that was done on the Joy, to make the Vibe on all 3 ships very similar).  In fact, I'd tend to believe it if Encore loses laser tag as if she doesn't lose it and Bliss does it would leave Encore as the only BA+ ship with LT and NO Spice.

 

Sure, some variety from ship to ship is appreciated, and there's still some, but was LT really THAT popular?

That would be interesting.

She's beautiful.  Most of this board always flames the new hull art of NCL ships until it grows on them.  This I like right away.  Very colorful.  Not tacky but elegant.

1 hour ago, gknep said:

I was kind of up set by this, but then I thought about it and I'll take the smaller Observation Lounge if it gets rid of the laser tag and adds a spice H20. 

That ain't gonna happen.  Everything added is to increase income.  Fee based activities wont go away.  I remember when NCL ripped up the Spinnaker lounges and what was left over looked like a fire sale.  But NCL stopped doing it to their Jewel class ships. It was supposed to be all of them.  Is not the Encore already sailing at maximum capacity.  They really need 20 more passengers this bad?

I think its a bit extreme to rip apart such new ships to add more cabins.  So they will build an owners suite on deck 15 nowhere near the Haven?  Part of the appeal of the Encore Haven is having everything in the same complex.  So they will make the Observation deck smaller for a few more bucks.  Its going to cost a pretty penny to do this too.

How about making the race track one deck and removing the track from one deck and put cabins there too.  The Laser Tag area would provide some great Aft view for cabins too.

2 hours ago, PATRLR said:

Of course you not seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.  I'm another one who has seen trained dogs walking the halls of a cruise ship.  I don't remember exactly when/where, but if I had to guess it was probably Bermuda.

Of course.  But its sort of impossible to hide dogs walking the halls during a cruise.  Of all the cruises I have been on I have never seen them in the halls and going in sniffing cabins.  What I am saying is there is a ton of intelligence data behind the scenes that you are not aware of.  If they are bringing dogs on board there is intelligence to do so.

The point I was making is the countless threads of people seeing dogs at the port and people post here they were checking for narcotics.  Not always.  There are multiple kinds of dogs.  Its all done for passenger's safety.  Its also like when people see police on board thinking someone is being arrested.  Not always.   Cruise lines do not let police to board with drug sniffing dogs to blindly go on excursions and start opening everyone's cabins or random cabins to sniff for contraband unless there is some sort of reasonable suspicion.
Lastly these port calls are pick up places.  Even if someone is suspected of smuggling drugs they usually will wait until the ship gets back to a U.S. Port to discover it and make the arrest.  Not saying it cant happen but ports of entry are much more intrusive than sail away ports.

10 hours ago, LadyBerard said:

In Bermuda, they walk the drug sniffing dog up and down the corridors when you arrive in Bermuda.  I've seen it numerous times.  Now for another story, we were on a Holland America ship last year (the Statendam), not going to Bermuda, but sailing the Caribbean.  The very first night, we were sitting in the aft pool area (the smoking area).  One guy came and joined our group and lit up a joint."  We were at a table very close to the bar area.  I told him it was not allowed on cruise ships.  He said it was legal in his state and he didn't care.  I told him that did not matter, and if he was going to smoke weed, he should be a whole lot more discreet about it other wise, when we get to port, he may be arrested. Now, he also smoked cigarettes, as did we.  This is the area the majority of people go who smoke cigarettes.  Well, we never saw hide nor hair of him after that night.  We think he may have gotten arrested and put in the brig and then put off the ship at the first port of call.

Exactly.  The dog did not hit on my purse, (or on our person), but continuously hit upon the safe.  We tell anyone we are traveling with that we know who smoke weed this story and tell them, do NOT try to bring any drugs with you to Bermuda.  Well, one of my husband's cousins did NOT listen to our warning and brought some a couple years ago.  He said, "It'll be fine, I have it in shoe, wrapped up with baby powder", yadda yadda yadda.  Well, he did get caught, got thrown off the ship, had to spend a couple days in Bermuda (on his dime!) and was charged a very hefty fine (which he could not pay).  Thank God his father was with him and paid it (but took it out of his inheritance).  It was thousands!!!!  He learned his lesson!

Many of the dogs you see at ports are not exclusively are the ones trained for narcotics. To keep the port safe they have dogs that sniff explosive materials.   An island like Bermuda is going to keep itself safe and not allow certain food items to come in either.  Its a false pretense to assume every dog at the port is looking for drugs. I have never seen a dog some to someone's cruise cabin before.  Its likely there was a source of information on that one.  There are dogs that sniff currency too.  Each dog is trained for a separate contraband.

For authorities and a dog to go to a certain cabin tells us there was an informant or someone snitched the person out and they went to investigate.  There is simply not enough time in the day to keep doing drug sweeps in every cabin after every port.

Here in Miami people are profiled all the time.  They take a cruise, get off in port, wear different sandals back to the ship filled with cocaine.  They are profiled and watched or again there is an informant working with authorities.  Its put under wigs, in wheel chairs, sandals, etc. 

18 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

At that point, I would have asked the concierge to intervene.

There was no dispute to intervene.  I actually started with the concierge and he was not really an advocate for it.  He was the one that told me it would have to be up to the Haven restaurant manager.  I mentioned it to my butler and he also did not accelerate the request either.  It seemed like it was going to be a big deal so I just dropped it.  A better reservation came up at Onda that night and we decided on that instead.

Maybe it could have happened if I pressed the issue.  But I could tell right away it was going to make people uncomfortable and no way I wanted the rules bent for me or given special treatment.  I could take a hint this was not a great idea.  No biggie.  I seriously could care less.  I used to read all the special requests in the Haven all the time.  Its just something I pondered but the subtle resistance made me change my plans.

50 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

why not ask  your butler to fetch your special requests to be delivered in the Haven restaurants?

That is what I asked.  I was told it has to be cleared with the Haven restaurant manager.  The facial expressions that I got were of someone in pain so I never bothered to take it further.

The butler is supposed to bring things to your cabin, not the restaurant (which I was sort of told). 

Special requests seem to not be common in the Haven anymore.  Remember the days when people would get specialty dining appetizers for free with their Haven meal.  

They dont like bringing any outside food into the Haven restaurant for a few reasons.  Once someone sees something that someone else got then its a slippery slope with waiters running back and forth between restaurants.  The Haven staff want to feel they are exclusive and bringing any outside food in cheapens the experience in their minds. 

Many years ago they would actually offer you something from the MDR and deliver it to the Haven restaurant.  Back in the day when NCL had lobster night in the MDR, the Haven staff would inform you it was ok to order it and it would be delivered.  They dont like to do any such things anymore.  I asked once on Encore and got this painful look and I told them its ok and forget about it.

The Haven menu for dinner has an excellent selection.  Unfortunately they dropped the wild mushroom ravioli that was a favorite for years.  But I could easily eat 4 different dinners off this menu and be happy.

As long there is Cagneys, Onda, and Los Lobos, I'm happy! 😁

Throw in a few cookies and I'm ecstatic !

24 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

We were torn between booking one of those or another deck 17 next to the bar.  We settled on the bar.

Question:  how would  you characterize the size of the balcony?

Good size. You see by the photo it can have several loungers, a table and table chairs.

I was on the sister ship Encore.  I also would go for the larger balcony.  But the way the Haven is designed there are no terrible choices and every location has a perk.  Deck 18 has the Haven restaurant just steps outside your door.  Deck 17 has the concierge and Haven bar and pool just steps outside your door.  Another perk on deck 17 is the Horizon lounge is on your floor.  However on Deck 18 its just down one flight of stairs.

There are no bad choices....decide which you prefer to be on your deck.

We had the front forward 2 bedroom suite on Encore and we loved being so close to the Horizon lounge on deck 17.  We opened our door, turned left and walked 20 feet through another door and we were in the Horizon lounge.  It almost felt like an extension of our cabin.  Need some juice, coffee, cookies or treats...just steps away.

On 4/14/2024 at 3:22 AM, julig22 said:

On the Jewel right now - here's my cookie haul from Great Outdoors. Choc chip not fresh baked by any means, chocolate ones are the same as they've always had.

OMG those look like Chip Ahoys 

The Gold card lost its charm

😞

For some schools it is spring break that early.  When I was in college we had our spring break the second week of March and I could not understand why they called it spring break when it was still winter.   But the second week of March will be spring break for some.  It hits its peak mid march and runs to April.

I used to live on south beach and you are aware exactly when spring break is.  I avoid all cruises in March and April. 

26 minutes ago, Destaw71835 said:

I have a cruise booked for May 2025 that stops at GSC. Looks like I’ll need to book another to see the improvements.

My cruise is February 2026 and I would not be surprised if the dock is not even finished by then.  Construction is always delayed and this summer is going to be a brutal hurricane season.  But I have something to look forward to if the dock is finished by the end of 2025.