Sand and Seas

You are lucky you will be on the Bliss! Not every ship has the Observation Lounge with the upper private Haven Horizon Lounge. We loved it on the Bliss last September. Unfortunately, we never got up too early. We enjoyed a late light breakfast there or an afternoon snack.

I'm not really sure if the Citi card failed, but after re-entering them twice it does look like bids are still there now. It didn't say they had cancelled bids but that I had chosen to cancel them. Very confusing! The bids (with Citi card) were there for weeks before I got the messages a couple of days ago that said I had cancelled them. I had gone in and modified a bid before all of the 'you cancelled your bid' messages started coming. Went in to check bids again about 10 hrs later and again the message that I had cancelled them. Re-entered again & hoping they are OK now. The inventory of haven cabins hasn't changed so I don't think they have begun awarding.

Has anyone had problems using a Citi (Costco) card for you Upgrade? I'm kind of worried as that's the card I've used for my bids and I had a strange thing happen a couple of days ago. I went in to modify a bid and a few minutes later I got a 'Your request to cancel bid' notice on each of my categories. I immediately re-entered bids using Citi card again and they were accepted. Then, when I went in a few hours later to check, all of them cancelled again☹️ Re-entered again and still hoping they are OK🤞 There is another thread where some have had trouble getting their Citi card accepted by NCL. Both NCL & Citi says the problem isn't on their end. If the Citi card won't work if they go to accept/ process my bid, will they give me a chance to give them a different card?

Well 21 days in a Haven Spa cabin does sound wonderful! Sounds like it was well worth it in the end. Thanks to you and @Russiamommfor sharing your experiences. Give me something to think about if my cruise bidding goes Live😬

Yikes! Live bidding sounds scary.... Do you know how far out they start the live bidding process?

On some ships they have allowed us to carry-out our own dessert. (Not in Haven) Others seem to have other rules. For us, we wanted it as a late night snack after seeing a show and then spending some time in the casino. Dessert was waiting for us in our Haven room. I'm guessing they want you to use the Butler/Night Butler as needed for these requests.

Yes, we have dined in a specialty restaurant and asked for our dessert 'to go' and they said they would contact the 'night' butler to deliver it to us.

I keep watching to see if the current pricing on our cruise for Haven cabins will drop making it worthwhile to call and pay for the upgrade. We are within two months out now of our cruise on Joy. While Balcony prices have dropped, Haven prices have not. (There are not many Haven cabins left.) The max bids for the lowest category is 1000 X 2. Next two higher categories, max bid is 1500 X 2. Difference between our Club Balcony and that category is about 3300 X 2. I find it strange that the max bids are so low compared to other cruise upgrade offers we have received.

Hmmm..... Just imagining if everybody (including those with wheelchairs, small babies in strollers, etc) had all of their luggage and were trying to get into elevators🤔

Anybody else today see this? All of my bids just 'cancelled'. None are pending/processing and we are about two months out. It did allow me to resubmit bids.

Yes, this is what we have done whether we have kept all of our luggage with us, or only our overnight luggage. Enjoy your last breakfast and then hang out in the Haven lounge until you choose to leave the ship. Much easier to get the concierge escort to the 'head of line' disembarkation. The majority of our cruises we do not have Haven and have to join that long line that snakes around through several areas of the disembarkation deck. Then you think, "Here we go... we are almost outside!".... before the line starts snaking through another venue😒

If you are already in a Balcony, it shouldn't offer you the basic Balcony to bid. It would only offer you the Spa Balcony & above (Club Balcony & Club Balcony Spa). Your offer to upgrade should have something like "Your Current Stateroom" and then list your current category. If it doesn't have your current category correct, I would call NCL and check. My last one looks like this: Here are your cruise details: Your Cruise Information Your Current Stateroom REQUEST UPGRADE Ship Norwegian (ship) Sail Date xx/xx 2023 Reservation # 5XXXxx Stateroom Club Balcony Suite Total Approx. Size 249 - 439 sq. ft.

Yes, we have a CitiCard (from big box store) that gives you 3% back on travel. They make it easy to download cash at a slot machine and say 'yes' to that 3% fee. Then it shows up on your onboard bill with anything else you charged onboard. (No 'cash advance' fee from credit card). If you cruise a couple of times a year with NCL you might reach a higher tier in their casino players club and then they will give you credit for those 3% fees. So credit from casino for fees, then another 3% from my credit card for 'travel' expense😉

Yes, we definitely over-ordered that first visit to Indulge. We learned to start out with a smaller order and then decide on something else later. We were amazed that the various dishes were delivered so promptly. I think we ate more lunches than dinners there, but both were great. Also loved the grab-n-go options during breakfast hours.

We started out cruising decades ago in cabins so tiny you could call them a cabinet😊

So happy you got your bid accepted! We have loved our rare 7 day Havens, but most often we are in a Balcony or Club Balcony. Spending 21 days in Haven sounds heavenly. Hope you have an awesome cruise😊

Thanks for the detailed answers! That's what I love about this forum😊

Wow! That's great especially for a 21 day cruise! Can you recall what range your bid was in?

@Hmmcminn, can you check on your dailies to see if they were serving complimentary breakfast at the American Diner? Some have reported it but I don't recall seeing it being available on our last Joy cruise out of Miami a few months ago. Also, what time did you show up at the pier? How were the lines? Any advice on embarkation would be appreciated. We haven't sailed from NYC for years. We will be back on the Joy in two months! Thanks for sharing your review with us😎

Oh yes, a lot easier to sail the 'foo-foo' ships nowadays😊 We were on a Dolphin cruise ship and docked in Antigua next to the Amazing Grace and another of their ships. As we were admiring them, Captain Burke invited us onboard and gave us a nice tour of both. Of course, we started to plan and save for a WJ cruise after that. Our first cruise was a B2B out of Tortola. Loved our 'stow-away' night between cruises eating with the crew. Our cruise was cut short by one night the second week due to a hurricane heading our way. Instead of the traditional pre-dinner 'rum swizzles & snacks', we commandeered the rum punch barrel and enjoyed that last night on board. So sad they are no longer sailing.

We loved our WindJammer cruises! We had an extremely tiny inside cabin on our first WJ cruise. It did have an attached teeny tiny bathroom. Shower was interesting. No choice of temperatures, you just had to hold down the button and take what ever amount of water flowed out. No closet, just 3 or 4 hooks on the wall, but you were living in swimsuits & t-shirts. No locks on door, just a hook & latch for when you wanted some type of privacy. Breakfast was announced by a sweet girl named Neesa who went past your door with a small tinkly bell. Dinner was likely to be whatever the cook caught while fishing off the side. ..... And yes, after rum swizzles & snacks, we did see a couple of fellow cruisers moon the 'foo-foo' ships as they went by🤭

We received an email with pre-concierge contact info at 125 days recently.

Yes, the Joy had many hand scooped options in the buffet a couple of months ago. They had several choices each day. Loved the Butter Pecan and Rum Raisin 😋

My DH loves chocolate and ice cream. Make it Hot Fudge with whipped cream and I am all in too! I'm hoping they keep them on the menu for our April cruise🤞

We always have a couple of photos uploaded and ready before starting the check-in process. However, we have had a photo that worked for a cruise check-in just 5 weeks prior not be accepted😒. I'm glad to hear their system is now letting you move on after a few failed attempts. Yes...they generally want to take a new photo at the pier anyway🙄