Vyhanek

I've been at MIA at 9am before after disembarking on NCL.    But that's first out from the Haven self disembarking, grabbing a taxi and being one of the first out.    The airport is empty that early.

But that' all things going well.    I'd probably worry the entire cruise about not making it.    If you said 11am, I'd say go for it but 10:38, probably not.

I'm just guessing here but I think the issue was the kid sitting at the bar.

I've been on the Breakaway in the Haven, which is the same as the Escape Haven bar if I remember correctly.    It's amazing to me that for the size of the Haven, I can't even tell you how many passengers the Haven accommodates but there are like 6 seats at the bar.   That's it.    For all these Haven passengers, all with drink packages.    There are other places to sit inside the Haven lobby but they are sofa's in the lobby, not sitting at the bar.   I'm not justifying violence by any means but my guess is this is because the bar seating is so ridiculously inadequate for the amount of Haven passengers on that ship.

You go to the Epic Haven and there are 3 bars for the Haven passengers, plenty of seats if you want to sit at the bar or have a kid sit at the bar.    The other ships, it's an issue.

Also, two twin beds pushed together makes a KING, not a queen.    

I think it will be no issue at all.   

I also am positive you will be using some Haven amenities.   You could have dinner in the nice Haven dining room and I think you could pay to have your parents join.   It used to be $25 to have a guest in the Haven dining room with you, but check.  

Also, the Haven pool for younger kids is a nice place for them to play in the pool and you to watch and supervise them.   Doing this at the main pool is really hard because the pool is deep and because the surround of the main pool is really crowded and uncomfortable to just sit on the side of the pool.    Kids will overtake the Haven pool and one of the Haven hot tubs, you can sit in the shade with the baby and watch them from a few feet away.  

Your parents will be allowed in your suite.

I plan to bring a big box of straws and hand them out now.   

The Sun is a nice smaller ship.    Even before the rehab (haven't been on after rehab) but even before, its a classy decorated and nicely maintained ship.   It doesn't feel old, or look out of date at all.

The Sun was built before the mega ships.   It was built back when being out on the ships decks were the highlight, before the rock walls, before the race tracks.   If you like a nicer outdoor deck experience, being less crowded you will like it.   

The biggest problem with the Sun is that it wasn't built for Specialty Dining and for Freestyle.   It was built back in the days of traditional dining.   So I don't think the Sun manages the current dining experience very well.   You will wait for a table with a beeper, you might experience a very, very painfully long meal in the dining room, I remember some dinners lasting 2 plus hours and we had to leave before dessert to make the show.    The courses came painfully slow and meanwhile people are waiting with their pagers waiting for a table to eat.    They just could not manage the dining experience at all.   Hopefully this is under control.

I like that rule.   It keeps people from sitting in the hot tubs a long time and monopolizing them.    If you want a drink you get out and someone else has room to get in.    

Thousands of people are on the ship yet some people will sit in the hot tubs leaving no room for other people.    This will keep a rotation going at least.    

I would try to find a powder substitute you can live with for a week.   

Embarkation Day is the one and only day I like to eat lunch in the dining room.   When someone asks what are my cruise suggestions, tips or tricks, this is always top of my list.    Around you the whole ship is in crazy frenzy for a few hours but lunch in the dining room is peaceful.   After lunch, go enjoy the sun on the decks but leave the crazy buffet to everyone else that doesn't know they can have a peaceful lunch.

The other cruise lines have done away with dining room lunch on embarkation day.   I wonder if the crew has pressure to divert people from the dining room so they can justify discontinuing this practice.   The fewer people they can get to eat in the dining room means easier to justify nixing it.   So they have the crew push everyone to the cattle feeding.

Don't mess with a shuttle, scheduling, rescheduling crap.  . Take a taxi or an Uber - no scheduling, no rescheduling, no waiting even a few minutes for a bunch of other random passengers to get their luggage.   Taxi/Uber gets your own ride, minutes after collecting your suitcases without waiting for anybody.

 I think you will be fine.   

I think Cagney's is the one restaurant that took the biggest hit after NCL included Specialty Dining packages included with the cruise fare.   As soon as Specialty Dining was built into the price, the whole Cagney's experience took a nose dive.      

I would never pay individually $25 pp or whatever the price is now for Cagney's.    Before Cagney's was a highlight, now I'd rather pay to eat at the sushi bar or the noodle restaurant.   

We really liked the Cirque dinner show.    Booking this show the first night of the cruise, they offered a discount and we took it.   It was fun and better food than most any other night of the cruise.

We liked the sushi bar, the green tea martini, the green tea cheesecake.    Also liked the noodle bar.    

The hypnotist was a great show, you'd book this once you got on the ship.    Sometimes they even do two different shows - like one general show and one that focuses on hypnotism and weight loss!    That and Howl and the Moon were my favorite shows.   I thought the other main theater shows all sucked actually.    I don't like in your face homosexuality and you better like it for this theater group.

My favorite first drink is the half pina colada half strawberry daiquiri or the mudslide.    All included with the drink packages and better than NCL's desserts so drink up!

I didn't like the private island, not at all.    We took it as a day to enjoy the ship.    The private island is very crowded, the sand is minimal and the hard, sharp coral is plentiful.   This time of year the ocean water will be frigid.   The other islands make better beach days.

Its almost like the powers to be at NCL are sitting around betting each other how much they can charge for a Haven suite that people will still pay. 

But plenty will pay 10k for a family vacation.    You can't get a family to Hawaii for a week under 10K.   You can't take the family to Atlantis for a week under 10k food, drinks, entertainment included.    People will pay 10k for a high end vacation.     

A regular Disney balcony cabin compared to an NCL Haven suite?    There is no comparison at all.     NCL's Haven suites are the benchmark in cruising.  

I think you will notice a more crowded feeling on the Escape compared to the other NCL ships you've been on.    I've been on all these ships.

You are correct, the Escape has a lot more stuff to do and it will attract the more active person, families.    But here's the thing.....yes, the Escape has water slides......2.    They aren't thrill seeker water slides, they are just....average water slides.    Anyone who's excited about the  water slides will be bored with these water slides after going down them 2 or 3 times.    Even the average teen will be bored after a few times.    But so, so much deck space.....prime sunning deck space is taken up by the slides and by the ropes course.   These adventure things take up so much pool deck space that it eats into the regular pool deck!     Then add in many, many more cruisers on the ship.  It makes the ship seem even more crowded than it is.

Also, I'd have to disagree with the poster that said you will be able to find a place in the sun to relax, maybe not on the pool deck but you can find a space.   This is most definitely not true unless you are cruising on a very slow week.   You said you're cruising in January, If its late January as in time that will not be school vacations the ship will not be at capacity.    But if you try to cruise the first or second week of January which are school vacation weeks or even MLK week which is another week people will pull kids out of school for......you will have a busy, full ship.   A full ship means there is no space you can just leisurely go find a lounger and enjoy the sun.    Not on the pool deck, not on any higher, less busy deck.   In my experience,  every lounger will have someone sitting in it or will be saved with someone's towel.    NCL does nothing to minimize the towel saving chair hogs.

There aren't enough loungers to go around, not nearly enough,  so chair hogging is the reality.

Then on the Escape, being more crowded, the sun loungers on any deck are pushed right up one to the next with only a few inches space in between.     It's not like that on the Pearl or the Spirit.    There is more individual space all around.    

I think if sun lounging is your priority and I get it, being from Buffalo that would be my major priority too!    If that's your priority, stick to the Pearl, Gem size ships.    Or if you can go on the Epic and upgrade to a Haven Suite, so you can enjoy the amazing POSH pool deck this would be my preference for extreme sun lounging!     

The Escape like NCL's other mega ships is designed to appeal to the masses.    Its designed to pack em in, it's designed to attract the thrill seekers (which will get on the ship, do the ropes course one time and then ho hum) it's designed to appeal to all people.     But the older, smaller ships which are still really nice are designed for a nice day of cruising, get your lounger, enjoying the sun.    

I don't think any of NCL's desserts are worth the calories and I love dessert!

I'm usually happier to gt a Bailey's after dinner or stroll into the buffet and get a soft serve ice cream.   

You will love the Epic Haven.   Its the best Haven in all of NCL.

I have older teens who can now enjoy POSH with us.   We like to have closer access to POSH, and less access to the courtyard.   For this we like the 17th floor.

The 16th floor is ideal for younger families who will be in and out of the room and in and out of the courtyard all day long.   That corridor is more lively with younger families.    I'm happily at a point with older teens so we tend to want to avoid that corridor if possible.     

Families with younger kids spend their days in the courtyard, groups with people over 18 who can be in POSH go to POSH!

As far as tipping goes...yah, yah we get it, it's all personal.    I think you are asking for....."What did you do" and I don't find the topic that personal.     I tipped the Haven Dining Room staff $100 (they all share tips so giving the tip to one of them means its for all of them),   I tipped the concierge $50, POSH bartender $50, Room Steward $50 (we are not messy people and make literally no requests at all).      I tipped the Butler zero since I literally never have used a Butler....we're the type of family that can unload our own refrigerator if need be, we have no desire to dine in the room,  we make no special requests of any kind.    I'm not tipping for a service I do not use.     

Here's what you do when you have Haven access at GSC.

You get off the ship at your leisure.    You walk around a little bit.    You find your loungers, sit there a few minutes and say to your spouse........."It's a lot nicer in the Haven on the ship!"

Then you pack up your things and go spend the rest of the day in the Haven.    Slowly the Haven will fill up with everyone else thinking the exact same thing.

GSC is not the beach day you envision or the island it used to be.    It's really crowded since they've now blocked off most of the island keeping the cruisers on one end of the island.    The hurricanes over the last decade have ruined the beach and all the sand on the island.   Its a rough, rocky, hard coral.    

Enjoy better beach days at other ports along your cruise.

I like the Gem and the Escape.    You will be happy with both ships!

Mini Suite cabins are not a part of the Haven.     

It may still be chilly in late April, definitely for the cruise to Bermuda it could be really cold.   Given that it could be really cold, I'd probably not spend the extra effort and time and hassle to get to NYC if Boston is in your back yard.    The waterfront on the Escape is really nice but if you will have several days cruising where it is cold, you won't want to be out there like that probably.   

I'd probably pick the Gem.   

I don't know what some of you are talking about......"You can find a chair but it will e away from the pool".     This is completely false.  You aren't cruising on any sort of peak season or you wouldn't say this.   It's just completely incorrect.   I've been on plenty of NCL cruises where there wasn't a lounger available.   Not not he pool deck, not on the upper deck, not around the sports courts.   If there is one, it will be 100 yards away from eh next available lounger.   

I think to experienced NCL cruisers, the Epic would never come up as anyone's favorite ship.

It's like the first Mega ship NCL has built and it is designed exclusively to pack people on.   It is designed exclusively to squeeze in more cabins all to pack the ship with more cruisers.    That comes at the expense of the entire rest of the ship......, it's space, it's deck space, it's lounge space, it's public area space is limited and inferior.   Pretty much in every way.     People will say that you can't ever see the blue ocean water when you're on the Epic because there is no public space with an ocean view.....again, they've made cabins out of almost every possible space with an ocean view leaving the interior of the ship as the public space.   

I've been on the Epic twice but only in the Haven. If it wasn't for  the Haven I would never cruise on the Epic in a standard cabin.

The pool deck is ridiculously small for a Mega ship.   I don't know what the ratio is for lounge chair to passenger but if the Dawn is say 3:1  (three passengers per lounger) then the Epic is more like 6:1.    Then the deck space,  its so ridiculously crowded with lounger pushed up to lounger with not even a centimeter in-between.   

They've cut out part of the dining area for the buffet and they've set tables up out on the pool deck to make up for the lack of places to sit in the buffet dining space.   All public areas are undersized.   I think NCL has learned from this ship design, you can't just pack people in and ignore the design of the ship.

There is a reason you can cruise on the Epic for a really reduced price.  Unfortunately this also attracts the lowest price point cruisers too.   As a long time NCL cruiser, I look around at the passengers on the Epic and wonder what happened to the customer base......it's because this is the lowest, cheapest cruise fare and you get what you pay for here!    We felt like we are on the cheapest thing at sea, packed in, cheaped out.    I didn't want to leave the Haven.    

NCL's other larger ships are better designed in every way.   

Clorox wipes very well may not have any bleach.    But I'd still take them and disinfect every surface in my room daily.   Hand washing with soap and water doesn't do anything to wipe down your door handles?!   

Its the crew that's the issue.    The sick people can get off the ship, they can disinfect the ship all day but when the virus is still going thru the crew, that's the big issue.    The crew are stacking clean plates, they are wrapping silverware, handling cups and drinks.    Its the crew thru the normal course of daily work that is the real worry being sick.

But by all means, I'd be taking clorox wipes and wiping down everything possible.   Hand washing goes only so far......your hands!!   duh.

I think it's all personal preference.    I never use the Butler.   As in never besides when they come around in the afternoon and leave goodies on the table.   I don't need the Butler hanging around.

Families like to be inside the Haven so kids can run from their room to the courtyard pool all day and unattended.    I like to sort of be away from that a little bit.

I love the idea of spa access.   Personally I'd do the Haven spa suite having full access to the Haven and to the spa.   

First choice would be inside the Haven complex.    But honestly as long as it has Haven access, that's the important thing.   

I don't think you're asking....."Would any room work?   Because obviously some cruisers are traveling with family and need the second bedroom, some cruisers are couples and don't need two bathrooms, etc.     I personally wouldn't cruise NCL without Haven access.   I don't think the standard non haven experience beats Celebrity or Princess or even Royal, I think they have better standard food.    

I've found a nice hotel in Nassau that offers day passes.   Its a great alternative to Atlantis, expensive but nice.    That is no longer on my list of undesirable ports.

I really despise Jamaica.   Over and over we've had situations where we were nearly robbed (on NCL sponsored excursion, a guy actually pushed his way onto the bus going down the bus aisle asking for money, no one was giving him money and he was getting more and more agitated, thankfully someone ran off the bus and a police officer came on the bus and got him off).   Another time, we were shopping in the main shopping area, walking on the sidewalk and a guy snatched my daughters sunglasses off her neck, she was wearing the glasses on a band around her neck.    I think Dunes River is absolutely disgusting, I feel like prey, I don't feel safe.    Ocho Rios sucks, so does the new port which I have forgotten the name.     

GSC is also on my dislike list.   Not that I don't feel safe, just that I think it's an awful beach experience now that they've gated off most of the island and confining cruisers to the one end of the island.   Ive been cruising NCL a long time, it used to be you could roam the whole island.   You could walk to the other end of the island, find a quiet beach cove and hang out as if you are on a deserted island.   Now they've fenced that end of the island all off.    I don't like beaching with thousands of cruisers.   I don't like that the sand where the cruisers are confined has all been washed away leaving hard, sharp coral.   You an't walk far without your beach shoes or your feet will be cut to shreds.   I'm not a fan of the food situation or the drink lines.   This is one of the last places that I would ever consider renting a cabana and would go to any other island for a better beach experience.

If I can find a nice excursion it makes all the difference.   There are a lot of really bad island destinations though.