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LIVE: We "Escape" from the cold, into H(e)aven

Heckah

By Heckah,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Heckah

Heckah

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Hello everyone,

 

So I am up for my cruise on the Escape that leaves today.  I'm sitting in the lobby at the Best Western By the Bay in North Bay Village, FL after flying in yesterday from Albany, NY on Southwest.  My wife and kids are still sleeping and I get up stupid early for some odd reason.

 

I will briefly mention that the Best Western is very nice and has a nice restaurant right by the ocean.  Very happy with this choice for the pre-cruise stay.

 

Sensing that this will be the theme of the week, I thought perhaps doing a report each morning in real time would be fun and perhaps, help you the way previous reviews have helped me get through the long work days and the crappy winter weather.  You know how it is, you are sitting at work and the trip feels like it is never going to get here.  So lets get started...

 

THE BACKSTORY - We booked this cruise in a family mini suite back in May.  We had a lot of milestones this year.  My wife and I both turned 40 in 2019, and after flaming out in college on my first attempt 20 years ago, I spent the past four years earning a degree in Economics.  I had intended to go back to graduate school but the perfect job happened to land on my lap.  Our goals changed and we decided that after this cruise we are done doing anything for a while and save for a new house.  It was in September that we decided we are going to go out with a bang and upgraded to the Haven.  We have never done the Haven or even contemplated it.  We are very excited to see what the Haven has to offer...

 

THE CAST - Myself and my wife, who are both 40 as I wrote above.  I'm very happy go lucky and I try to make the best of a bad situation.  My wife is awesome, but she isn't as happy go lucky.  She's a bit of a pitbull.  If I ask for a steak medium rare and it comes out medium, I'll roll with it, but she will track that waiter down like Jack Bauer tracks down his target.  My oldest DD who is 11.  She is pretty chill, but very adventurous and isn't afraid of anything.  My youngest DD8 is the opposite of chill.  She has energy for days, she trains in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is quite possibly the funniest person I know.

 

EXCURSIONS PLANNED - I let DD11 pick an excursion in Cozumel for her birthday for us to do, while DD8 and my wife stay on the ship.  She chose the introductory scuba diving.  Let's just say I'm less than thrilled.  I prefer to do my swimming in pools.  There are no sharks in pools.  There are never any articles that say "scientist discover new species" in a pool.

 

At Harvest Caye we rented a poolside cabana and will do parasailing.  Myself and DD11 are booked for the parasailing, DD8 decided she wanted to do it too, but it seems that it is sold out, so that's TBD

 

In Roatan we will be doing Gumbalimba Park with the Monkeys and Parrots.  There is a better than 50% chance that DD11 will try and smuggle out a monkey to bring home to go with the two cats, two guinea pigs and a bunny.  You think the above line is a joke, but she once tried to smuggle a mouse she found at recess home.

 

In Costa Maya we will be doing the Dolphin swim.

 

PRE-CONCIERGE - We emailed about changing some dining reservations.  They cancelled the reservations we didn't want and said they would email the on ship concierge about getting us the reservations we wanted.  I have no confirmation at this point, so we shall see.  I also called the pre-concierge about adding DD8 and my wife to the parasailing and they weren't able to help me and transferred me to the shore excursion desk.  After a few minutes of waiting on hold I gave up.  Needless to say I found the pre-concierge not as helpful as I had hoped.

 

Now to the vacation itself.......

 

Again, we decided to go all out for this vacation.  I happened to win a fantasy baseball championship so had some extra "found money."  At the time the New England Patriots were 8-0 and rolling through whomever they played.  Since we are staying in Miami an extra day after the cruise, I realized that I would be at the hotel pool while the "Patriot Invitiational" was being played (the "Patriot Invitational" has since returned to it's former name, the AFC Championship Game).  I realized I wasn't going to want to make the hour drive back home from the airport, so I rented a limo for airport dropoff and pick-up.  I didn't tell my wife or kids so everyone was surprised.  I even went the extra mile of loading up the car with our luggage.

 

....I'm going to stop here for now.  I almost lost everything I had typed previous because I can't figure out how to embed photos.  If you have any questions about the Escape, or the Haven, let me know and I will try and get you answers over the next 7 days!       

 

 

 

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nhtravels

nhtravels

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Our first cruise with NCL was in 2017 on the Escape (still my favorite ship ever!).  We were originally in a Spa Haven, but upgraded to the OS.  The Haven was everything I dreamed it could be.  We are doing the Bliss in May for DH's 50th.  Enjoy your special "milestone" cruise!

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Georgia_Peaches "Live from...." Rare

Georgia_Peaches

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5 hours ago, jaxw17 said:

Will be following love it so far. 

Are you able to take the kids out of school ? in the UK parents get fined for taking the kids out in term time.

As a retired educator, I applaud the fining idea implemented in the UK... having said that, I mean no disrespect to the OP as every family/schooling situation is unique. 

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Heckah

Heckah

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19 hours ago, jaxw17 said:

Will be following love it so far. 

Are you able to take the kids out of school ? in the UK parents get fined for taking the kids out in term time.

 

My daughters are in 3rd and 5th grade, there are no fines.  The principal is actually a good friend of mine so I run it through her before we book to make sure we're not missing MCAS testing or anything important.

 

I also feel these trips are educational.  The last one we went on they learned about the ecology of the Everglades and had the chance to see birds and animals they've only seen in books.  Being able to perform with the kids club sparked my oldests interest in performing and theater.  That's not to say we aren't having fun, but they are experiencing things they would never get to experience in the classroom.

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Heckah

Heckah

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Day 1 -  Remember that "chill" non chill crap we talked about earlier...

 

That was in full force on day one.  First, the Haven check in experience is as advertised.  There was a Haven station just outside the terminal and they handled everything.  The gentleman there whisked us to the Haven waiting area.  After we checked in there we waited for about 5 minutes and were escorted right onto the ship for sliders.  We met our concierge David and confirmed the restaurant reservations we had made with the pre-concierge.  Everything was perfect.  We took advantage of the free Haven lunch at Margaritaville and everything was wonderful.

 

We did make a major mistake.  We packed our kids bathing suits rather than have them in the carry on.  They were anxious to swim but we had no swimsuit.  Luggage arrived around 2:30 so they had about 15 minutes before the Mustet Drill.  Exiting the muster drill is an adventure.  This is where being in the Haven kind of sucked.  If we were on 10 we could just walk up the three flights of stairs to our room.  This time we had to wait for an elevator with 5000 of our closest friends...:)

 

Then we ran into issue #1.  I saw we had a voice message and checked it.  It was the sure excursion desk telling me that our poolside villa at Harvest Caye had been cancelled.  They refunded the cost of the villa and gave us $100 in OBC.  It wasnt a huge deal for me.  I booked it before reading all the reviews of Harvest Caye saying there are plenty of shady places.  I didn't relay that info to everyone else so the family was disappointed.  So we will see what is available when we get there.  I did find out this morning that everyone on the Escape had their Villas cancelled because there will be another ship in port, and I guess both ships booked villas without the knowledge of the other one....

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purpleally

purpleally

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16 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

As a retired educator, I applaud the fining idea implemented in the UK... having said that, I mean no disrespect to the OP as every family/schooling situation is unique. 

I’m not an educator but they are your kids and you should be able to pull them if you want. Now, back to the cruise 

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jaxw17

jaxw17

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1 hour ago, purpleally said:

I’m not an educator but they are your kids and you should be able to pull them if you want. Now, back to the cruise 

i was merely making an observation as to weather it is the same in the US as in the UK

 

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Heckah

Heckah

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I know I'm falling behind and I only have a few minutes now.  We have docked in Cozumel and my daughter and I are about to scuba dive for the first time.  As my daughter says "if we don't make it back, tell our stories"

 

I can definitively answer the question "is the Haven worth it?"  The answer is yes!  I've grown accustomed to a certain level of BS that is going to happen with any cruise.  Dealing with guest services, dealing with lines at restaurants.  There is none of that here.  It eliminates most of that.  Our butler is Orlando and he has been great.  My wife and youngest daughter are not doing this excursion, so it was perfect to be able to enjoy breakfast in the living room while they sleep behind closed doors.

 

Also, the ship internet has been fine for the most part.

 

Good morning from Cozumel!

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