SGCruiser2013

LE BISTRO was awesome. I ordered the lobster thermidor with, yes, the 25 upcharge. No claws. However I thought it was excellent and worth it IMO. We had a great bottle of Bordeaux and had excellent, if ever so slightly slow service. Pics: Escargots delicious DW had Scallops in an amazing sauce Dma had some great French onion soup Goat cheese croquettes salad, 7/10 DW with a fabulous Dover sole The famous lobster thermidor Pear marinated in wine with chocolate sauce 10/10 Strawberry Frasier for DW 7/10 Overall super impressed. We also had 2017 Pichon Lalande which was epic.

AT SEA WAVY CAKES well at least the temp is up and the rain has halted but the winds are moderate to high and Captain has the ship on tilt headed towards Cozumel. The outsides are starting to be used. There is actually a fair amount of outside that is covered or mostly covered near dining areas, much on Deck 8. We braved Indulge for a little lunch. The Haven concierge suggested might want to wait until not a sea day since then it is most crowded, however when walking through at Noon I found an empty table and DW happened to walk by shortly thereafter. Can confirm that service once you order is very fast. Interesting, am sure it’s been discussed and I just hadn’t read/focused on it, but there is booth and table seating around that can order from anywhere. And then there is space to sit at the counters of some of the specific eateries but at those places it looks like you can just order from that eatery not anywhere. I will confirm this at multiple places not just the one I was near. As a result, most groups seem to fill regular tables which get quite crowded and many of the counters have some spaces open. I would say crowd level was 9/10 at Noon. I lucked upon a table but proceeded to see a constant stream of table searchers walking around. I sat at a table that could fit 4 people (which most are like that) and for the five minutes I was alone before DW joined me, the ‘searchers definitely eyed me with a tone of judgment 🙂 lol. Maybe another unwritten rule - if you are a single can’t sit at a four top! If you don’t mind being patient and opportunistic, you can likely get a table within 15-20 mins or faster even at crowded times, it’s a large place. However if you can’t stand circling for a parking spot at the Mall the week before Christmas, then it’s likely not your deal and I’d definitely avoid peak times and/or prepare to be a little frustrated/frantic. Food pics: Shrimp pad Thai tasty Pulled pork Sammy also tasty Indulge home screen

EMuster makes so much sense glad they are bringing back. Our in person Muster yesterday was similar to other comments…incredibly crowded, couldn’t hear, waste of time IMO. The video we watched was 14 minutes in Stateroom.

ENTERTAINMENT 1 Last night we had an Improv at Sea performance but in the Prima theater. Was family friendly. Guy was funny…but does anyone else like “family friendly” just a little less than not? Ha. Felt like he was ready to go a couple steps further a few times which woulda been funny. Of course, I understand and there is in fact a 10pm comedy tonight that is 18+. The Prima theater had lots of people but didn’t seem crowded. At least for this performance. Really nice theater.

DINNER 1 WINNER 1 We had dinner last night at the Haven restaurant. Great start! pics and menu below… Steak tartare was killer Prime rib rare no veggie just like I asked DW had filet and lobster, loved it Chocolate cake dessert w ice cream 8/10 Caramel butterscotch cheesecake, was 7/10

DAILIES 1! Here was yesterdays daily.

My first impressions on this topic is to agree the inside space is more limited and potentially crowded when the ship is full. Yesterday was embarkation so maybe a special situation but both Indulge and Seaside were incredibly crowded. It was cold in Canaveral yesterday so not much outside was being used. Today, in transit to Cozumel is a sea day and it’s currently a bit rainy with weather supposed to improve this afternoon. So I will try to snap some pics of Indulge and the boardwalk areas to gauge crowd levels.

A few more: Syd’s Le Bistro Nama Hasuki Hudson’s Observation Lounge

From around the ship:

THAT SHIP HAS SAILED and onward we are to Cozumel. Explored this beautiful ship this afternoon. Met our Butler and cabin steward, both extremely nice. Went through (ridiculous) old school in person muster drill. Didn’t we learn how great it was not to do that anymore? Crowd size is impressive. The atrium, waiting and bar areas super crowded. Seaside buffet? Good golly. But we managed to grab an ice cream swirl. Met Rommel at the Haven bar and jumped right into the Veuve by the glass. We will have dinner tonight at Haven restaurant. Some pics to follow.

LUNCH at Haven restaurant. Fritto misto was 💯 and Cobb salad was 8/10. Pics and menu…

The croissants….I agree they are yum and they look fantastic but only an 8/10 on taste for me.

EMBARK Amazingly easy boarding. Took the hotel shuttle ($10) which dropped the four of us off at the Prima. Shuttle at 10:30 and dropped at 10:45. We were escorted into a short security line and then into the Haven lounge. The croissants are real. When we entered the lounge we were given a number but not really told what to do with it. So we checked in, took about 5 quick minutes, and got our boarding cards. Then, we juiced and croissants for another 10 minutes before heading on to the ship. As we were eating croissants, they “called our number” to check in. Oops. Sorry #45, we accidentally jumped you 😉 A 5 minute walk and elevator ride and we were at the Haven lounge and restaurant. We quickly dropped our carry on bags in our stateroom, and got ourselves a table for lunch. All told about an hour from hotel shuttle to Haven restaurant. Awesome! More pics when better Wifi.

SMOOTH……trip to MCO last night from the hometown. For transport, we used Orlando Transfers LLC. Driver met us on time at baggage claim and had a great ride to the hotel. DINNER last night was at Sage Bistro which the hotel concierge recommended. Looked like a local place and was only a mile from hotel. We thought it was great. No pics (sorry) but we had salads and for entrees: Coconut Shrimp (outstanding), Triple Tail special (good), Shrimp pasta (outstanding) and Seared Tuna (good). Staff was quite friendly - would recommend!

Spent an excellent night at TownePlace Suites in Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach. Nice clean hotel and breakfast included.

Awesome!

Hello CC friends! All hail the great recent Prima threads from @sid_9169 and Sistah @Greenpea2 (and others)! I've read them with delight. And since we're lucky enough to try out the Haven this trip, of course I've read the definitive Haven Secrets thread from @Sthrngary and feel like we are ready to give this a go! A little background: DW and I are heading to the Caribbean with the parentals, let's call them DDyo and DMa. Celebrating an 85th birthday of he-who-must-be-named and so we are doing it Haven-style. We have two HE cabins and will be ruling over Deck 14. We are periodic cruisers - each couple averages 1-2 per year - but we are NCL inexperienced! First time for DDyo and DMa and we were last on the NCL Epic (not Haven) long ago when entertainment was Blue Man Group, a Cirque show and a great MJ tribute. Why we like to cruise: to getaway from the hustle (or try to at least), to try specialty restaurants, to enjoy the entertainment and games, to explore the ships, to drink margaritas, sometimes to enjoy ports and to have new great shared experiences as a family. So that's what we'll be doing for the next week! On this cruise, we all have FAS+ and want to see if we can try it all - specialties, slides, BTS, go karts, arcade games, bingo and maybe even the uber-$ darts. We'll see! We successfully made advance reservations for dinner at Hasuki, Le Bistro, Palomar and Cagney's. We have Donna Summer and Price is Right Live tix. All of us have done these Ports before, however, we have newish shore excursions planned in Cayman and Jamaica. In Cozumel we will likely just have Margs locally and at GSC currently just thinking about traveling in for lunch. We are traveling in tonight to the safe confines of a Marriott brand hotel in Cocoa Beach and will travel over to the Port in the morning. I like to take & post pictures, so will endeavor to do so here. I am also happy to answer questions if I can so feel free to post 'em if you got 'em!

It's an interesting topic of "line saving". I dunno to me it's not quite the same as chair hogging or taking someone's handicapped seating. But I'm not as protocol-experienced in this area as many of you fine folks! I would think maybe proportion comes into play here? Like the 1 person who saves for 6, but then the 6 let in 6 more, so it's 1 saver for 12 people...I can see how that would be frowned upon. But if it's 2 people that take turns in/out of line (particularly with 90 minute or 2-hour wait?), that would seem different. Or, if the late joiners are my older parents who might have difficulty standing for 2 hrs. I could see that. Chair hogs? Nah. Handi-stealers? Nope! But me plunking down and reading the Cruise Critic boards while saving a line space for DW at Syd's so she doesn't wait the full 2 hours...well at least she wouldn't be mad at me about it! 🙂

This was my experience as well. Haven passenger and could book 26 days out from March 19 sailing.

I've seen in other threads sometimes hard to post about Covid without it becoming either personal/political, etc. so I didn't mention it much in this thread! That said...since you asked 🙂 here are a few of my own personal observations (not a doctor 🙂 not medical advice 🙂 not judgmental 🙂 haha) Since beginning of pandemic I've been on the more cautious Covid side of equation for various reasons and have been fortunate to have a work position that has allowed me to work from home a lot. I mention this primarily to add context to the fact that I did ask around quite a bit during the cruise about how Covid was going (cabin stewards, Club Orange, Neptune lounge, etc.). Pretty much the universal response I received was along the lines of "pretty well" "not much Covid" "not as much as some other cruises". As for masking, there was not a lot of masking. Maybe 10-15% if I had to guess? You will see more masks at Lido buffet, particularly getting food, but still a minority. *This paragraph for Covid nerds only lol* I actually have a little device that measures CO2 concentration in the air, which is useful for work as I travel frequently and it can help with better understanding of room ventilation, quality of air, etc. which can inform risk of not masking vs. masking, etc. I did take this on the ship with me and was interested in how the various venues or locations would show. In large part - was about expected. Higher measurements (airplane - particularly before takeoff, Lido when crowded, smaller vessel for Tracy Arm excursion, bus to George Inlet lodge, BB King bottom floor when crowded), Lower measurements (pretty much everything when not crowded, anything outside or with outdoor air ventilation, and venues with high ceilings). There is another thread that was started recently in this HAL forum on Covid & risk and I thought a lot of different & varied opinions and perspectives offered there. My own opinion is pretty simple (and consistent with the themes that some were suggesting in that thread) - that a) there are definitely ways you can try to reduce your risk through masking, venue choices, crowd choices, excursion choices, etc. if you are Covid cautious, however, b) the current Covid variants are highly infectious and even someone who is Covid cautious & risk mitigating can easily catch the virus as all it may take is a very short period of time in close proximity to someone who has it. Hope that is helpful!

EPILOGUE post Thanks for following along and we had such a great time on Koningsdam!! Overall 8.5/10 Stateroom: 9/10 loved our Neptune suite cabin 7069, spacious, great big balcony Food: 8/10, meal at Sel de Mer was highly memorable, main dining was good sometimes great, honestly thought Lido was not great and always seemed very crowded, Club Orange was awesome venue and their specials were interesting. Lattes at Grand Dutch we’re tasty Activities and Entertainment: 6.5/10, just seems like wasn’t a whole lot planned each day/eve, I’ve posted the Daily Programs so you may have different view. Exceptions - BB King’s band was consistently excellent, lead singer was extremely talented and energetic Service: 9/10, shout outs to Erza, Teneda and Oscar in Club Orange, Dewa and Anom our cabin stewards, and Cathy in the Neptune Lounge. Across the board was great Alaska: 9/10, itinerary was great, excursion options plentiful, weather held together and was super nice at the end Thanks everyone! If any final Q’s let me know

Final sea day - attended “Ask the Captain” which I thought was super interesting and informative. He did a 40-minute or so slide presentation about various aspects of the ship (in lieu of bridge or behind the scenes tour) and then answered some Q’s. Did NOT win jackpot Bingo. Disembarkation was a breeze. We were Black group (8-9:30) and left around 8:30, moving right off the ship. No ArriveCAN random test selections this time. Collected luggage and out the door with ease. I will say that there were some decent lines at YVR getting through everything including US customs for flight back to US. From start to finish took us about 80-90 minutes so you might plan accordingly.

Thinking tomorrow I’ll do a wrap up review and summary with some ratings, but we loved this cruise. We have cruised maybe a dozen times, half in Caribbean and then once each in Med, Scandinavia, British Isles, and now Alaska twice. We have sailed HAL Kdam twice now, but we have tended to bounce around cruise lines (RCCL, Princess, MSC, Carnival, Norwegian).

We are on Schubert Deck 7, Starboard Side, across from entrance to Neptune lounge.

This is in place of the beef burger however the Dive In is generally very happy to customize so if you wanted both you can just ask.