Nudibranch

My family were Haven guests November 30 on the Breakaway. When we got to the terminal, I kept saying to staff that we were Haven guests. After the security checkpoint, we were directed to the back of the terminal. As we walked, I became a bit confused at first given that we passed the photo op and other service stations. I almost turned around but asked staff again. They pointed to a Haven gold symbol/flag further back. There was staff there to greet us and we were directed to the Haven check-in lounge nearby. Staff then took us on the ship and told us to meet on the 16th floor if we were separated. There was staff to assist us getting on and off the elevators and we were taken the to Haven on the 16th floor where we met our concierge and butler. Lunch was available in the Haven but we opted to go to our suite first.

Lilystar, I gave general information on the topic and later re-read your question and saw that you had checked with your bank. The short answer is that it was less expensive to withdraw euros from the ATM of the affiliated European bank which was on the next street over and had several branches conveniently located in all the towns we visited. After doing the math, the question is how much does one want to pay for convenience.

First, call your bank to see what foreign conversion, transaction and any other fees it charges to use your credit and debit cards abroad, and find out if it has affiliated banks you could use in the countries you're visiting. Check their website also. In May, before we traveled to Europe, my sister looked into purchasing euros at her local branch and they were charging her $1.47. I told her to wait, that we could use a debit card at an affiliated bank abroad to withdraw euros. Good thing. Based on her account, she paid no foreign conversion or transaction fees at $1.38, the wholesale exchange rate at the time. The ATM card has to have symbols such as a Visa or MasterCard logo and be used at the ATM and not a teller. It's my understanding and experience that buying euros locally is usually not best.

I don't get an opportunity to plan dive trips often (as I do other trips) and was glad to be able to book dives while on my cruise. I liked the dive shop NCL used in St. Thomas for certified divers, even though the group was a good size from other cruise ships. They paid attention to detail and safety. Everyone was friendly. They broke us up into smaller groups to dive and there was a sufficient ratio of dive masters/instructors to divers and we were buddied up with other divers with similar experience. They were also people from the other ships doing discover scuba, from the dive boat, and they were attended to by an instructor. However, family members who went on NCL's discover scuba excursion went with a dive operator that started them out from the beach and I was thankful for that. Overall, I found it to be a pleasant experience and had no complaints and my family had an awesome experience on their first dive trip.

I dove St. Thomas through NCL in November 2012. There were divers from different cruise ships in port; just two of us were from NCL. The dive shop was busy and no one onboard was there just for the ride. Non-divers many not find this relaxing and may be in the way. I liked that several times they kept account of divers by name, not counting numbers only, so that there would be no "Open Water" experiences.

Does anyone know if you are using one of the cabanas on Great Stirrup Cay, whether can you hear the live band playing music from that location. My family enjoys the music and we'd want to be close enough to hear them. Thanks.