vacation44

We were able to book ours as soon as NCL made the changes to allow reserving the passes beforehand. We paid $599 for the cabana on our upcoming February Encore 7 night cruise. If they are unable for you to book now, they would be sold out then. But I would check everyday for a cancellation (especially at the 120 day mark) and then check immediately upon boarding.

We like and book the club balcony suites for the bigger bathroom.

Just wanted to jump in and wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and tell Kendra she is missed and needs to cruise with her mom again!

Seems like yesterday when Sakari loved the kid's club!

Hoping you would start your review soon! We will also be on the Encore in February with the same itinerary so really looking forward to reading your thoughts. However, disappointed no Kendra and clan as it has been awhile since they have joined you.

How much notice in advance did they give you?

Agree. Not an option for us in not getting passes if there is a Vibe. When we were on the Jewel this past August, we really missed having the Vibe as our go to place. We have the Viva booked for 2025 and they have not started selling passes yet for 2025. We intend not to go pass final payment unless we have secured passes in advance. No Vibe passes, no Viva for us! And we are completely 100% ok with our decision as we have a Plan B in place which we are excited about.

And then there are some who would never cruise without a Vibe pass. My family would be in that group.

A couple of months before our cruise this past March on the Epic, they changed the itinerary and took away Grenada (which was previously supposed to be Bonaire). On the last day of the cruise, $10 per person showed up in everyone's account. No one in our party of 14 requested it.

Thank you. We will stay away from The Manhattan Room when we are on the Encore in February. On the Joy, my husband was allowed to wear his nice Tommy Bahama shorts with a button-down shirt in the Manhattan Room last year. This past March on the Epic, the men in our group were turned away wearing similar outfits. They changed into jeans and in my nephew's case, sweatpants for entry.

What restaurant was it?

I always order the pizza and always take the green stuff off. I would order it without it, but my family always eats some of it and they like the green stuff.

I have seen this question asked a few times and have not ever seen a reply. I, too, have been interested to know the answer.

Thank you for the information. We do know a couple who went on a Viking River Boat cruise this summer so we will definitely have them refer us and the couple we are going with.

I do know that when we were in the Vibe on the Escape in 2019, we were allowed to order off of the Haven snack menu free of any additional charge. However, that was the only time we have encountered that scenario. But with your posted above blurb, we will definitely inquire when we are on the Encore. I will definitely report back in February.

The cabana would be selling now if they are available. I would look every day to see if one opens up. As far as I know, there is no deal now---it just costs more. I think the deal that I remember goes back to 2018 when we were actually on the Getaway. After running successfully to secure the passes, I was just not thinking straight as we were thrilled we were successful in our attempt for the passes and did not grab a cabana when we were asked if we wanted one. Later on, my daughter who was 20 at time, said we should have gotten a cabana.

Thank you for your input!!! When we debate it with our extended family, I will certainly throw out your points per verbatim. If you ever decide to go non-Haven, I do think you would enjoy it.

Does anyone know if Viking matches?

I love your reviews! Have a great cruise and thank you for taking the time to post a live review.

If memory serves me correct, the cabanas used to come with $100 OBC. We are getting a cabana for the first time for our February 2024 cruise and the cost was $141 more at the time we secured the cabana. We enjoyed using the cabanas in the Haven in the past, but they were very hard to come by so now we have one assigned to us.

We also automatically build the Vibe passes into our initial cruise cost. We are thinking about purchasing the passes for our June 2025 Alaska cruise on the Encore. While I know a lot of Vibe fans say it is not necessary for Alaska, we are traveling with 15 in total and see it as a nice alternate place to meet up and have access to hot tubs and great bar service. When we cruised the Jewel in September to Alaska, the hot tubs were always full. Right now the cost is in my budget, and I will definitely secure the passes once they become available just in case.

For us, we not only think it is worth it, but think it is mandatory. However, we have only experienced Vibe on warm weather cruises so far.

Same answer but we do enjoy the cookies!

We had a table for eight in the Haven on the Epic. We wanted 14, but said ok to six and eight putting the young adults at the table for six. Also remember seeing a table for eight in the Haven on the Joy that was being used every night we ate there.

Thank you for the update and happy it worked out! I am in the camp of no surprises. My horror would be our surprise passengers joining us would not have Vibe passes.