Viva sailing 12/6-13/23 Thoughts and observations

[ColdCruise]

7 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Rest of Cruise – Food and Dining

Palomar and Cagney’s Steakhouse

 

[cut out sections for brevity - CC]
 

 

Ribeye is our favorite cut of meat and Cagney’s didn’t disappoint. The steaks were perfectly seasoned, had a delicious char, and cooked to the requested medium rare. The side dishes were just OK with the creamed spinach being too watery. I started the meal with a shrimp cocktail and although the shrimps were very large they could have been a little bit firmer in texture. My husband’s Crab cake was very good though with very little filler and almost all crab meat! We ended with some gigantic and yummy desserts. The seven layer chocolate cake is perfect for chocolate lovers and the OMG Caramel Butterscotch Cheesecake was sinfully delicious.  Although this wasn’t our best or perfect meal the main attraction, the ribeye steaks, were everything we were hoping for.

Photos to follow are our meals at Palomar; photos of Cagney’s Restaurant; and our meals at Cagney’s.

 

@kwokpot so glad to hear Cagney figured out how to cook a ribeye to a proper MR. Mine was curiously DRY, even though the center was pink and I tried to tell the waiter & chef it was more medium.

 

 

my review of our meal at Cagney can be read for comparison here - the OMG cheesecake was exactly that!

 

 

 

[ColdCruise]

Also @kwokpot for some reason I did not make the connection between Cagney’s design elements and  Wright’s work - very nice description and analysis, thank you!

 

7 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Rest of Cruise – Food and Dining

Palomar and Cagney’s Steakhouse.

 [un related sections cut for brevity - CC]

 

As someone with an interest in modern architecture and design Cagney’s Steakhouse stood out for me as one of my favorite spaces on the ship. Most people will not know that the design inspiration for Cagney’s is the innovative and controversial designs of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Cagney’s on the Viva is an homage to his use of prefabricated concrete blocks to build inexpensive homes for the common person (It turned out to be the exact opposite). The column casings and coffered ceilings are NCL’s interpretation of Wright’s concrete building blocks. Wright also was a fan of using wood accents which you can see was also done here in Cagney’s. Even the lighting for the restaurant pays homage to Wright’s use of metal and circular shapes for furniture he designed for the Johnson Wax Building in Wisconsin. The chairs for the restaurant are in a shade of green that will be familiar to those who know mid-century modern design. It was such a delight to be in this space! Onto the food.

[cut]

Photos to follow are our meals at Palomar; photos of Cagney’s Restaurant; and our meals at Cagney’s.

 

 

 

 

 

[kwokpot]

7 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

Also @kwokpot for some reason I did not make the connection between Cagney’s design elements and  Wright’s work - very nice description and analysis, thank you!

 

For others reading this thread:

https://franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright-designed-usonian-automatic-house-on-the-market-for-the-first-time/

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 12/13/2023 at 7:41 AM, laudergayle said:

Gosh I wish I had the guts to gamble.

Is that what we're calling it now? 🤣

[ChiefMateJRK]

22 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

so glad to hear Cagney figured out how to cook a ribeye to a proper MR. Mine was curiously DRY, even though the center was pink and I tried to tell the waiter & chef it was more medium.

We've given up asking for Medium Rare and just order Rare instead.  That usually brings it into a proper range.

[ColdCruise]

14 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

We've given up asking for Medium Rare and just order Rare instead.  That usually brings it into a proper range.

So odd,,we had ability to eat breakfast in Cagney and the small breakfast steak (a thin strip) was perfectly MR … every time 

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, ColdCruise said:

So odd,,we had ability to eat breakfast in Cagney and the small breakfast steak (a thin strip) was perfectly MR … every time 

That's likely because you were Haven passengers.

[cruiseny4life]

12 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

That's likely because you were Haven passengers.

I doubt it. When we cruise, rarely is our steak served at the proper temperature. On Nov. 30th, husband ordered a filet medium. It came out rare.. Sent it back. Came out med. rare. Asked for a new steak. Came out well done. I ordered prime rib the same night, medium. It came out a notch on the low end of med. rare. I ate it as I can handle this kind of steak, but certainly isn't my favorite.

 

Both scenarios happen almost every time we cruise Haven and order a steak/prime rib. So, definitely not a Haven thing. It's more the thinness of the NY strip that is served for breakfast. Get a nice sear on it and it'll be close to medium - only about 1/2 inch thick. Though, certainly if you're not in Haven, you cannot order a NY strip for breakfast, so I suppose that does make it a Haven thing. 

[kwokpot]

Rest of cruise – Venues

Pool Deck; Observation Lounge; Fitness Center

 

As has been discussed many times over the main pool deck on 17 is small and tight. It was difficult to find a lounger there on a sea day so I went up to deck 18 where it was easier to find a place to lay down.  It’s not on the deck plans but there’s an outdoor staircase on deck 17 Starboard side to deck 18. Also depending on where the sun location is on deck 17 where the staircase is situated it can be a shady spot for those that want to be on the pool deck but want some shade. There are also numerous umbrellas scattered both on decks 17 and 18. On a port day it wasn’t an issue getting a lounger right on the pool deck.

 

The Observation Lounge is a beautiful space with lots of different types of seating. It was always very busy but at least it was a quiet space without all the commotion of the Penrose Atrium. Having said that we only spent time there once. I did find the temperature in the Observation Lounge a bit on the cold side. Having a mini buffet there with a self-service beverage area is an added bonus as long as you’re there when there’s food.

 

The Fitness Center is located on Deck 16. It’s located all the way forward and you must go through the upper level of the Spa to access it. You’ll walk past windows which look into the two story atrium down into the thermal suite hot tubs on the lower deck. The spa is nicely decorated but the hallway to the gym is quite narrow and I saw someone bang into one of the light sconces that protrude into the already narrow walkway.

I used the fitness center six out of the seven days on the ship.  In my opinion it’s too small and too tight a space for the number of passengers. NCL’s BEST Fitness Center of the entire fleet is on the Epic. It ranks as one of the best fitness centers at sea, along with Royal Caribbean’s Oasis and Quantum Class ships.

There are no locker rooms associated with the fitness center but there are two individual toilets within the gym. A nice feature is a water bottle filler that has three types of water: room temperature, cold, and sparkling! The dispensers are like a beer tap and there are cups available if you don’t have your own bottle. With the gym being all the way forward the views are beautiful while you’re working out.

The weight training area is to the right of the entrance hallway and as you go left you’ll pass the cardio equipment. The weight training area has the following equipment:dumbbells up to 70lbs, fixed weight barbells, two cable machines, a smith machine, leg machines (no leg press) ,a chest press machine, lat machine.  The cardio area includes treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, assault bikes, ski pulls, rowers,TRX straps. 

The issue I have with the gym is there are too many treadmills, 27 to be exact! These machines are large and they take up too much space. The weight training area is all cramped together with no room to workout because of the number of treadmills. The weight training equipment is literally on top of each other. The weight training area was always busy, even on a port day. The gym is very poorly designed and not the correct mix of weight training vs cardio.  I can see ongoing issues with the fitness center and crowding.

Edited December 18, 2023 by kwokpot

[ColdCruise]

21 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

That's likely because you were Haven passengers.

Nah - we got a $350 pp upgrade from club balcony to a suite. Living large that cruise, back to steerage next cruise 🤣

[ColdCruise]

9 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

I doubt it. When we cruise, rarely is our steak served at the proper temperature. On Nov. 30th, husband ordered a filet medium. It came out rare.. Sent it back. Came out med. rare. Asked for a new steak. Came out well done. I ordered prime rib the same night, medium. It came out a notch on the low end of med. rare. I ate it as I can handle this kind of steak, but certainly isn't my favorite.

 

Both scenarios happen almost every time we cruise Haven and order a steak/prime rib. So, definitely not a Haven thing. It's more the thinness of the NY strip that is served for breakfast. Get a nice sear on it and it'll be close to medium - only about 1/2 inch thick. Though, certainly if you're not in Haven, you cannot order a NY strip for breakfast, so I suppose that does make it a Haven thing. 

Yes I think the breakfast steaks came out so well because of their thinness. As you said, get a decent sear on a 1/2 inch (or thinner?) steak and it’s cooked to a good MR …and avoids the dryer (ie finishing oven)

[jemz1949]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:26 PM, ColdCruise said:

So odd,,we had ability to eat breakfast in Cagney and the small breakfast steak (a thin strip) was perfectly MR … every time 

Who were the Haven Concierge and Haven bartenders?

[UKstages]

that particular poster was not in the haven.

 

non-haven suite guests are invited to breakfast at cagney’s.

[bluefish17]

main Haven bartenders are Guy from S. Africa and Davietta? from Phillipines. Also server and barback Klevi from Albania.

Not sure about concierge.

[kwokpot]

Rest of cruise – Entertainment

Shows: Icons, Press Your Luck Live, Beetlejuice

 

Before I review the shows I just wanted to mention that we didn’t get to see any shows in the Improv or Syd Norman’s Pour House. We also didn’t specifically attend any other music performances but nonetheless enjoyed listening to music as background while doing other things so I won’t have any specific thoughts on the entertainment beyond my reviews for the three shows mentioned.

 

Icons

Icons in the Viva Theater is your run of the mill cruiseship musical review. Having said that we enjoyed the show and the performers were talented. It’s always nice to listen to performances of music you’re familiar with and enjoy, even more so when they are sung well by the entertainers. The stage looked good and the sound was crystal clear if not a bit too loud at times. Not much more to say about this show and I would recommend seeing it.

 

Press Your Luck Live

This is the first cruiseship game show we have ever attended and we thoroughly enjoyed it. My husband loves watching this show on TV so one of the first things we did when embarking was to have him audition to be a contestant on the show. Unfortunately he didn’t get picked so we did the next best thing and attended the show. The set design mimics the TV show and is very professional-looking. They play a long introduction video discussing the TV show and how the game is played. The three contestants that were chosen for the show we attended were entertaining and the winner won over $800 in cash and prizes. One thing slightly different from the TV show is the questions and potential answers asked of the contestants weren’t shown on the video screen but were only verbally communicated by the host. There are multiple chances for audience members to win small cash and prizes.  It was a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend attending this show.

 

Beetlejuice

I’m going to have to voice a contrarian view and say both my husband and I didn’t enjoy this show. We have seen other cruiseship productions of Broadway hits; Burn the Floor, We Will Rock You, Hairspray, Saturday Night fever, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert are a few that come to mind and that we have enjoyed seeing on a cruise. Beetlejuice just wasn’t as enjoyable as all these other shows I mentioned.

First let me say what I did like. The production values for the show are Broadway quality and are indistinguishable from a touring company production. The theater has comfortable seats, great sightlines and top-notch sound (again at times it can be too loud).

The issue I had with the show is twofold. The first third of the show seems as if it’s been put on fast forward. The dialog and events unfold at such a breakneck pace that quite frankly it’s hard to follow along the storyline.  I’m a native NY’er and used to speaking fast but this became difficult to process and, in my opinion, greatly hindered the enjoyment of the show. It did get better as the show went on but by then I had already lost interest in the plot and was just watching the actors perform.

The other issue I had was with the show itself.  I didn’t find any of the music memorable, I didn't connect with any of the characters (the girl scout may be the only exception), and I especially didn’t find the title character, Beetlejuice to be likeable or have any positive feelings about the character. I found Beetlejuice’s profanity and crude sexual jokes forced and off-putting. I understand that’s supposed to be the character’s personality but for me it didn’t work. As an aside I have seen the Broadway show Book of Mormon and that’s about as over the top, vulgar, and inappropriate show you will ever see, but for me those elements worked for that show. Beetlejuice seemed it wanted to take the same route as Book of Mormon, and I don’t think it works.

 

A few Photos of the various entertainment venues.

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by kwokpot

[kwokpot]

Rest of cruise – Latitudes Sapphire Tier Benefits

Behind-the- Scenes Ship Tour, Wines Around the World Tasting, Free Laundry

 

It’s always nice to take advantage of some of the perks that comes with a cruiseline’s loyalty program. We had signed up for the Dinner with Officers but when we were subsequently notified of the date it conflicted with our specialty restaurant reservation so we politely declined.

 

Behind-the- Scenes Ship Tour

It’s been years since we’ve taken a cruiseship BTS tour so I was excited we were able to get reservations. Unfortunately my husband had to skip the tour since it coincided with additional Press Your Luck Live auditions.  The tour was 90 minutes and it started early at 8:20am on Day 3.

We saw four areas of the ship: The kitchen for Onda, a props room for the theater, one of the laundry areas, and one of the Provisions/freezers. The best part of the tour was the Props Room for the Viva Theater mainly due to the enthusiasm of the Stage manager that conducted this part of the tour. We spent the most time of the four areas with him and he was a wealth of information and was honest and open to answering all our questions. It was also interesting to see all the back of the House areas of the ship. Our main guide, one of the Cruise Next hosts, gave us a lot of insight as to life at sea. Considering most other cruiselines a BTS Tour is a for fee activity this is a valuable and worthwhile benefit for Platinum and above Latitude members!

 

Wines Around the World Tasting

This was the first time I remember doing a wine tasting on NCL and it’s done differently than other cruiselines.  I was expecting tables with glasses set up on a cardboard mat labeling what wine is in each glass. Then the host would go ahead and discuss each wine and participants would sample the same wine at the same time, listening as the hosts talks all about it. Then onto the next wine. At least that’s how other cruiselines run their wine tasting. So I was a bit surprised to see the setup here on the Viva as more of a wine sampling where there were six stations set up with a red and white each, with each station representing wines from different parts of the world. The benefit of this setup is you can drink and sample as many times as you like. I think the drawback is there was less discussion and background information about each wine, the varietal it represents, etc. The sommeliers at each station basically just poured the wines and had little to say about each of them. It was an OK event where I stayed about 20 minutes (the event started at 2:15) and sampled all the different wines.

 

Laundry

Many cruiselines offer free laundry as a benefit to higher tier members (Carnival offers unlimited laundry benefit to their highest tier) and we always take advantage of it. I remember that NCL always returned the clothes nicely folded and wrapped in tissue paper in a wicker basket and it was nice to see that this hasn’t changed. It was great to have the clothes returned the next day and there were no issues with the two separate laundries that we had done.

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by kwokpot

[UKstages]

7 hours ago, kwokpot said:

The dialog and events unfold at such a breakneck pace that quite frankly it’s hard to follow along the storyline.

 

beetlejuice was a fast paced show on broadway, but i suspect that it is confusing in the NCL version because they have cut so much out of it. on broadway, it ran close to two and a half hours (with a fifteen minute intermission). i imagine it runs only a little more than 90 minutes on the viva, much like the other truncated broadway properties (except "six.")

 

i abhor this cruise ship and vegas practice of making "tab" versions of successful musicals. it always ruins the show and often makes them incomprehensible. "summer" was the same on the prima.

[ColdCruise]

On 12/19/2023 at 7:23 AM, jemz1949 said:

Who were the Haven Concierge and Haven bartenders?

@jemz1949 We were in a suite, which included the option the breakfast or lunch at Cagney’s.

 

 As I understand it, Haven passengers have a dedicated restaurant so don’t breakfast at Cagney’s.

 

I think @BirdTravelswas in Viva Haven earlier this month, maybe check with her? She has a detailed live report here.

Edited December 25, 2023 by ColdCruise

[ColdCruise]

8 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

@kwokpot

thank you for your review & comments. I enjoyed how you grouped the topics together.

 

We did go to Syd Norman’s a couple times, which we weren’t able to do in Prima. The musicians were very capable and the Rumours cover was good. 
 

Our BTS tour covered the same areas you mentioned, and agree the theater backstage was the most interesting due to the enthusiasm and willingness to answer a LOT of questions. I think the lady who led that was getting off the ship shortly after our cruise, maybe in January? 

Edited December 25, 2023 by ColdCruise

[kwokpot]

44 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

thank you for your review & comments. I enjoyed how you grouped the topics together.

 

We did go to Syd Norman’s a couple times, which we weren’t able to do in Prima. The musicians were very capable and the Rumours cover was good. 
 

Our BTS tour covered the same areas you mentioned, and agree the theater backstage was the most interesting due to the enthusiasm and willingness to answer a LOT of questions. I think the lady who led that was getting off the ship shortly after our cruise, maybe in January? 

I think you're right. She's from Germany from what I remember. 

[Cruising to Retirement]

Can you explain the process of signing up for Audition for Press your Luck and the subsequent Audition (s)... Was that later in the week-  Is there only one Press your Luck Gameshow the entire Cruise.. Thanks-  Great Review-  We sail in 10 days... 

Also- where did you go to reserve your Platinum Specialty Dinner with Wine... And did you need to reserve the Comedy Show also... 

[spethstation]

On 12/18/2023 at 4:30 PM, kwokpot said:

There are no locker rooms associated with the fitness center but there are two individual toilets within the gym. A nice feature is a water bottle filler that has three types of water: room temperature, cold, and sparkling! The dispensers are like a beer tap and there are cups available if you don’t have your own bottle. With the gym being all the way forward the views are beautiful while you’re working out.

The weight training area is to the right of the entrance hallway and as you go left you’ll pass the cardio equipment. The weight training area has the following equipment: dumbbells up to 70lbs, fixed weight barbells, two cable machines, a smith machine, leg machines (no leg press) ,a chest press machine, lat machine.  The cardio area includes treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, assault bikes, ski pulls, rowers,TRX straps. 

The issue I have with the gym is there are too many treadmills, 27 to be exact! These machines are large and they take up too much space. The weight training area is all cramped together with no room to workout because of the number of treadmills. The weight training equipment is literally on top of each other. The weight training area was always busy, even on a port day. The gym is very poorly designed and not the correct mix of weight training vs cardio.  I can see ongoing issues with the fitness center and crowding.

Thank you for the detailed description of the gym. As someone who strength trains this is my #1 beef with a lot of cruise gyms - too small of an area for weights! That water bottle station sounds awesome, however!

[Liljo22]

On 12/27/2023 at 6:54 AM, Cruising to Retirement said:

Can you explain the process of signing up for Audition for Press your Luck and the subsequent Audition (s)... Was that later in the week-  Is there only one Press your Luck Gameshow the entire Cruise.. Thanks-  Great Review-  We sail in 10 days... 

Also- where did you go to reserve your Platinum Specialty Dinner with Wine... And did you need to reserve the Comedy Show also... 

If its like Price is Right, you go to the box office in the atrium during the listed time slot in order to sign up for participating.  On our cruise, it was 3-5 the afternoon of the show.  

[Liljo22]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:36 PM, UKstages said:

 

there have been reports that this "feature" was changed on the prima, so that you can now order from any of the food stations, not just the one you are sitting at. i'm surprised to see they didn't do that on the viva. 

 

I can report that last week on the Prima you still could only order from the venue you sit at.  We sat at the Garden counter and only the salads and soups were available.