Getaway June 14-21 Haven review - one word FABULOUS!!!

[Medtech2]

wow, I guess I am not that familiar with the Caribbean! lol So maybe for me, the waterfront would never be something for me. lol

 

Yes, I was ticked about the ressie screw ups, but it actually saved us money, and we really liked the Haven restaurant, so it was not a huge deal. But, like I said, it was the first cruise where we did not go to a specialty restaurant.

 

I am glad you are enjoying! :) It is fun reliving it, even if I can't seem to remember every detail.:D

I was under the impression that the concierge could ALWAYS get you in to a specialty, at least at some point...weird :(

[Medtech2]

We have done the suites on NCL pre- Haven and have always been treated like , well , crap by the concierges. We are not pushy or loud, and we come with three kids. Our first concierge on Jewel told me right out that he didn't take to children well ( a skinny, smarmy british jerkash who had received rave reviews here on CC). The last concierge was a drippy,squishy man who kissed me every time he had the chance- kissed EVERY woman every chance that he got, wore too much cologne, and was of ZERO use the one time we had a request. The other concierges were ubiquitous and left no impression.

 

The butlers, on the other hand, were awesome- and this was pre Haven butler-o-rama days!

 

Although their suite life is less thrilling, RCL has better concierges by far. That is where the comparison ends. But at least they are polite and helpful and not drippy.

Drippy, squishy, kissy? BLECH! Not no, but heck no. I am really averse to germs and that would make my skin crawl.

[maja651]

Bubba kegs - I just bought us some for our next trip! I got us the 56-ounce ones. They look great, and I like that they are stainless!

 

Cruising - I won't go anymore in the summer. Well, at least not in August to the western caribbean. WAY too hot and humid - and that's when I was living full time in Florida! I have never sailed in June or July, but I love sailing in the spring. November and December can be a little chilly at night, but I am like you - I'd rather have that then that darn humidity!

 

I can't believe you had those errors and mishaps with the concierge. That is just a shame to spend all that money and not have it done right. People consistently praise the Haven staff on the Epic. I wonder why it's such a noticeable difference?

 

When you were at the mojito bar, was Bong on duty? I'm surprised you had bad service there. We loved him, and were there often. Maybe you went when he was on his break? We did like listening to the music there, and he made us strong drinks LOL

T

 

We use the large 56 oz bubbas in Playa del Carmen at our timeshare. They keep the drinks cools all day long on the beach, even still have ice in them at the end of the day!

 

Yea, I have always found it more humid in the Carribean in the summer, but I guess agree too. Lol

 

Well, not sure who was bartending at the Mojito bar as we were sitting down and a female waitress took the order. Actually, hubby ordered for me and relayed to me the issues, as I was standing up in a different area chatting with the M&G peeps.

 

Regarding the concierges, we had Patrick on the Star (hated him, he completely ignored us as only seemed to care about the top suite guests), then Adrian on the Epic, awesome as I mentioned, and now Anoop on the Getaway. I am wondering now if Adrian is the exception, not the rule.

[maja651]

I was under the impression that the concierge could ALWAYS get you in to a specialty, at least at some point...weird :(

 

Yes I was too and had no issues with Adrian on the Epic. We ate in speciality restaurants all nights on the Epic, and changed up the reservations a lot, and never an issue with Adrian.

[maja651]

I agree 100% with you about Adrian. He is simply the best and I was disappointed to discover that he will be on vacation for my upcoming BA cruise. Anoop is filling in and I hope my experience will be a good one.

 

Tracy

 

I hope Anoop is better for than he was for us. Does this mean he is leaving the Getaway?

[maja651]

We have done the suites on NCL pre- Haven and have always been treated like , well , crap by the concierges. We are not pushy or loud, and we come with three kids. Our first concierge on Jewel told me right out that he didn't take to children well ( a skinny, smarmy british jerkash who had received rave reviews here on CC). The last concierge was a drippy,squishy man who kissed me every time he had the chance- kissed EVERY woman every chance that he got, wore too much cologne, and was of ZERO use the one time we had a request. The other concierges were ubiquitous and left no impression.

 

The butlers, on the other hand, were awesome- and this was pre Haven butler-o-rama days!

 

Although their suite life is less thrilling, RCL has better concierges by far. That is where the comparison ends. But at least they are polite and helpful and not drippy.

Yikes! I am glad we did not have me drippy kissing squishy guy!:eek:

[happy cruzin]

Yikes! I am glad we did not have me drippy kissing squishy guy!:eek:

 

 

Right there with ya on that one!! 😳

 

 

Sent from my phone - using the Cruise Critic forums app

[maja651]

Trying to add pictures. Hoping you can see some.

Edited June 24, 2014 by maja651

[maja651]

Annoying! I added many, and only one showed up. Grrrr

[SissasMomE]

Annoying! I added many, and only one showed up. Grrrr

 

I'm not good with this, but someone once had posted something about adding the photos to Photobucket, and then to here? Or something like that? LOL Maybe someone will chime in ....

[maja651]

Well, the only way I could figure it out was this way. If you click on the link you will see the pictures! Ask away if you have any questions. I will come back later to finish day 7 and debarkation.

 

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaM2TNozaNmPU&emid=shareprintsharer&linkid=link5&cid=EM_sharshar

[nclgetaway95]

sorry if this is a silly question but is the captains cocktail party free drinks?? :D

[maja651]

sorry if this is a silly question but is the captains cocktail party free drinks?? :D

 

Yes, and as I mentioned the drinks are flowing!

[Coastalbreezes]

Adrian told me that Anoop was filling in for him while he (Adrian) went on vacation end of August.

 

Tracy

[happy cruzin]

Well, the only way I could figure it out was this way. If you click on the link you will see the pictures! Ask away if you have any questions. I will come back later to finish day 7 and debarkation.

 

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaM2TNozaNmPU&emid=shareprintsharer&linkid=link5&cid=EM_sharshar

 

GREAT photos...thanks for sharing!

Must ask - where was the giant stacked burger?? LOL...now THAT's a meal! ;)

[maja651]

GREAT photos...thanks for sharing!

Must ask - where was the giant stacked burger?? LOL...now THAT's a meal! ;)

That was the 18 wheeler at the Filling Station in Miami. The teen in the pic was from one of the cruise critic members from our roll call. We met up there Friday night before the cruise and her son took on the challenge!

[Bunnynme]

Great review and pictures. Adrian was the best when we had him on Epic!

[met195]

Thank you for sharing your pictures :D

[nclgetaway95]

Yes, and as I mentioned the drinks are flowing!

 

 

Is the captains cocktail party only for haven guests??

[ImADaneFan]

I agree 100% with you about Adrian. He is simply the best and I was disappointed to discover that he will be on vacation for my upcoming BA cruise. Anoop is filling in and I hope my experience will be a good one.

 

Tracy

 

Tracy we are on BA the week before you. Do you know when Adrian is leaving on vacation? I'm guessing we won't be lucky enough to be the last cruise before he goes. :rolleyes:

[Terpsince74]

Hi Michelle- great review! I am going on this cruise on July 5th and we are struggling to figure out an activity for Nassau. I fast-forwarded to your pictures and am curious what excursion you booked that involved the tubing and boat ride to Atlantis. Was that through NCL or on your own? Thanks so much!

[Medtech2]

Well, the only way I could figure it out was this way. If you click on the link you will see the pictures! Ask away if you have any questions. I will come back later to finish day 7 and debarkation.

 

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaM2TNozaNmPU&emid=shareprintsharer&linkid=link5&cid=EM_sharshar

I got bigger pictures posted by looking at the picture in the size I wanted on photobucket, right clicking it, copying, then pasting in my post. It required going back and forth between the 2 pages on my computer and was a bit of a hassle but the pictures were much easier to see than those tiny attachments.

[maja651]

Hi Michelle- great review! I am going on this cruise on July 5th and we are struggling to figure out an activity for Nassau. I fast-forwarded to your pictures and am curious what excursion you booked that involved the tubing and boat ride to Atlantis. Was that through NCL or on your own? Thanks so much!

 

We booked a private tour through Bahama Private Boat Tours. It was $510 for all 7 of us (plus tip). Highly recommend! I will post more details later when I post day 7.

[david_sobe]

Thanks for this review

Really enjoyed it and thanks for sharing the photos.

[maja651]

Day 7 Nassau!

 

Today I woke up hung over. Lucky for me though, we didn't arrive in Nassau until 12:00. We all actually ended up sleeping in, so today we missed the Haven dining time for breakfast. :(. We wanted to be off the ship with the Haven guests so we opted for the Garden Cafe for brunch. First time eating there, except for the soft serve ice cream cones we enjoyed. As expected, it was crowded with people, but it was actually not too hard to find a place for all 7 of us to sit together. We found a nice table right at the aft part of her he cafe. The lines for food were not terrible either, and the food was actually pretty good. The carmeled bananas were delish! I was actually surprised that I liked the experience, as I am not usually a buffet person. There were a lot of staff cleaning up as people came and went, and it was a very organized, clean place.

 

Soon, it was time to head off the ship and go to our meeting spot to catch our private boat with Bahama Private Boat tours! We left the ship waaaaaay too early and ended up having to wait about an hour for Captian Danny to show up with the boat. Not his fault, as the planned time was 1:00, and we were ready and waiting by about 12:00. Soon enough, he pulled up to the dock (right near the port and easy to find), and we were off! He took us on a short tour around the Atlantis pier area and then we were off to Rose island. It was so much fun going fast on the boat hitting the waves, hair flying, just a fun time! We pulled up to Rose island and we jumped off the boat to go snorkeling around the reef there. We saw so many fish! Some were huge and we even saw a sting ray! It was absolutely a great place to snorkel! When we tired of that, we headed back to the island, and some went on the boat for tubing! With this excursion, you are allowed one thing per person, including tubing or water skiing. I chose to be the paparazzi for the group, so my nephew David got to do both. My mom chose to enjoy the island, so she did not go either. Anyway, it was fun taking pictures of everyone enjoying they activities. The tubing probably could have been better if he had allowed each person to do it themself, but for whatever reason, everyone had to go together. They had fun though. The water skiing was a bit harder, but 2 of the 3 were able to get up and ski! Danny only gave them 3 tries, so if they couldn't get up by the third time, they could not do it. Bummer for one in our group.

 

While were boating around, more boats pulled up to our "private" island and it was no longer quite as nice. Not an issue though, as we did not have much time there, and it was not like it was crowded. We got back to the port around 5 and the boys went back to the ship. Mom and I went shopping to get our dog sitter a small gift, and lucky for us, we found one quickly. We too then went back to the ship and the awesome party that was waiting for us. It is such a joy to see the crew of the the ship all excited singing and everything as you get back. Makes you super happy you are on THAT ship.

 

When we arrived back to our room, Lucky had left us some nice snacks.

 

We had dinner that night in Hevn restaurant. We got there at 7 and there was not a single guest there! It was our own private restaurant for about 20 minutes. So nice. :). We enjoyed our last meal there, and went to O'S heehans that night to play darts. It was actually a lot of fun and we were so bad we played a long time on the $1 each play. :)

 

We also did the bowling on the first night, and that was fun too. (Forgot about it until just now).

 

Also, I think on Thursday, I sat and watched the Groove international band in the atrium. They were very good and I enjoyed myself a lot there.

 

I am sure we went to Kareoke one night as well. I can't remember the night, but it was held in the Grammy Experience area. It was only 45 minutes, and no bar servers for the first 20 minutes. I think it would have been a much better experience if it was longer (lots of interest in it ) and if they had bar servers in there the whole time, even before it started.

 

We packed that night with frowns on our faces, but knowing we had a fabulous week made it a little better. We decided to bring our own luggage down ourselves, which was very easy since Anoop and staff took Haven walk off guests down the special elevator and we didn't have to walk far to get to Anoop. If I was staying in the actual Haven area again I would do the same.

 

Next morning, we had breakfast delivered to the room, said our goodbyes to Lucky, Sopi, Michelle and Suzana and headed off the ship.

 

General notes:

 

We loved the Haven experience on thE Getaway, but we like the Epic as a ship much better. We found the entertainment so much better on the Epic, and the whole vibe better. We are sad that the Epic is leaving the US for Europe.

 

I did mention we had great weather and the sea was calm, but just wanted to say we felt almost no motion on the Ship. It could be due to the weather, but it was a smooth ride.

 

I did not miss the specialty restaurants. I thought I would. This was an eye opener to me.

 

I walked by the main pool areas a couple of times and I did not think those pools were so small as people have mentioned on here. How big are these people wanting them ? This is a ship after all.

 

Tyler, the 10 year old of our friends, both liked the kids club and didn't. Depended on the day.

 

The Haven staff was wonderful with Tyler. He would only eat there thanks to them. :)

 

I love the Freedom NCL gives you with your wardrobe choices. I wore dresses most nights, but many wore jeans, shorts, etc. Really, who cares?! I like that a lot about NCL.

 

We purchased the cruise rewards for another 2 cruises. 4th cruise, and we are now HOOKED! Help us plan our next adventure! :). Anyone have any experience on the Jade? Thinking of the western Carib one out of Houston because we can fly direct to Houston from Tuscon, and there are ports we haven't visited on that itinerary.

 

That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed! Any questions, feel free to ask! For those sailing in the Haven on the Getaway, you will have a fabulous time! I know it ! For those sailing on the Getaway and not in the Haven, I am sure you will have a fabulous time too! :). The staff of the whiole ship was wonderful. You will enjoy!

Edited June 25, 2014 by maja651