Sailing12Away

But again, you're missing the point. NCL does offer such things - on a completely different sister brand of ships for folks who value those such things. And there are many of us who don't give a hoot about race cars and all the other frills, we just want a large comfy room with a good bar. Even with the free internet and premium drinks - whoop-de-doo for those who care about such things. You can upgrade to the FAS plus plan on NCL for significantly less money than it costs to be in an entry level star class suite on RCC. So again - not even close in comparison, apples vs pinecones does not equal a happy pineapple dance. My next trip with NCL I can upgrade to P+ for $343/pp to get the missing unlimited internet, premium drinks, and extra specialty dining. Even if I did that, the price I would pay is still less than 1/2 of what RCC is offering for a similar itinerary, same length cruise, exact same dates, in their Star class. Granted - it's the newest, latest, greatest, blah blah so yeah, inflated for the newness.... But our 2br Haven suite is less than half that of their Star class. A less newer ship, same results. No Star class available as it's too close to sailing, but even with their Sky class... our Haven cabin is still less than half what their charging on RCC. So again.... I'm struggling to understand what RCC is offering for that Star class to justify 2x the price of a Haven room when on their previous ships to Icon they didn't even have a Haven-like suite area for guests. All you get is a fancy room and a magic genie to cut the line for you when you want to wipe out on their flow rider.

I'll be on Epic next month for the 3rd time, and I honestly don't recall seeing a ramp. Doesn't mean there isn't one, but I don't remember seeing it. But I'll try to wander around a bit more and peek. Lots of photos here on deck 15 to look through. There are typically lots of staff wandering around though, so even if he stays on the lower deck area he can still get drinks and such and enjoy the views and the pool. https://cruisedeckplans.com/ships/Norwegian-Epic Around the 10 min mark, this guy walks over near Spice, but it's closed and he can't go further inside. This video has someone going around inside, but it's much older and before the dry dock - so might not be the same as it is now.

Since we have no idea what your original itinerary was or what the new one is going to be, it's hard to say. Are you saying you now have an overnight stay in Triste instead of a day time port of call stop in Venice? With an overnight stay you can take the train to literally almost anywhere and see whatever you want.

Are you talking about when you view your account on their website, or on your actual PDF confirmation page? Our upcoming trip doesn't include air so I can't pull up something from my online account to show you, but in the past that has notoriously been grossly incorrect. It would suggest that we had flights already picked and ticketed with layovers to go from NY to Miami (not sure where the layover would stop between here and there), but have every time gotten direct flights. The PDF always lists the correct arrival and departure airports though, even when the website was completely wrong.

Not sure where you're getting that info from, but we've never had half sized bottles. This was on Prima in September, full size bottles and they let me get my amaretto even though it isn't on the list of choices. FWIW - we hated the H4 on Prima. Took us 3 days to realize that horizontal panel under the bar set up is the drawer where the coffee mugs are stored (that's not why we hated the room). Fridge is the left lower cabinet, big drawer with extra cans of soda and bottles of water are the lower right cabinet. And no - you don't get real champagne. You get upgraded to prosecco, which is fine and better than the freebie stuff in regular cabins, but still not a great fine bubbly.

I am so confused.... my head is literally spinning with all the back and forth and contradictory statements that I honestly don't know what they're trying to say. I think some people just find entertainment in these boards by arguing for the sake of arguing even though they seem to actually agree? Yes, there are people willing to pay >1K per day to be in the Haven (15K for an 11 day trip). But the majority of us are not, and have not, and will book at the price we're comfortable with which will fluctuate based on 100 other factors such as ship (jewel class vs breakaway plus), destination (basic white claw clientele in the Caribbean vs Alaska), time of year (hurricane season vs holiday cruise), and countless other things. No, there is no set "true" price for anything. But going by historical data and the fact that CC has thousands of folks here who each have 5+ trips under their belts and know what they have personally paid, and folks that openly share and discuss what they feel on average the price usually is.... we can make some pretty solid guesses to confirm an inflated price vs the new norm. My point before that I think keeps getting missed is that with those inflated (to me) prices, folks willing to pay those prices should be looking at other cruise lines. Using the example of an 11 day cruise around Europe.... you can book on Oceania in a concierge level veranda room for $6200. Similar dates on NCL for a Greek cruise are double for Haven. Not trying to tell anyone how to spend their money, but I want to know why someone would pay NCL double when they can move up a league at half the price.

Congratulations? I have no idea what to make of that statement, because once again you're spewing out random prices with no other info to put it into perspective of what each of us would perceive to be either a good or poor value. If you're paying 30K for a 5 day cruise, I laugh at you and stand by the statement that you're fishing in the wrong pond at that price point.

Again - barking up the wrong tree. I would jump overboard if I was at sea for 7 days straight. Not sure I see us ever doing a trans anything and intentionally pick trips that are port intensive. The ship is just transportation and a floating hotel for us. So long as we have a nice bar, and a sunny spot for me and shady spot for hubby, that's all we need until we get to our next port of call.

I think you're missing a big piece of info here. You keep throwing out examples of price drops to show that NCL is providing a 'discount' to fill the Haven rooms. What you're grossly ignoring is the egregiously overinflated starting prices. There is demand, people have credits to use up (less so now than a year ago), people feel safe traveling... If there's a schmuck out there willing to pay 14K for a basic Haven cabin (non Owner's Suite) on a week long cruise, sure.... we'll sell it to them at that price. These price drops are not desperate measures to fill unwanted rooms to me - they're putting the price back where it truly belonged in the first place after those with disposable income have snatched up their preferred rooms first. Our 2nd trip on the Epic in a 2br Haven cabin we paid <$300/pp/day. We're sailing on Epic again next month in a 2br again and once again are paying <$300/pp/day. We booked it at that price about a week after final payment when the # of remaining cabins went from 10+ down to just 3 in a matter of days. No price difference before final payment to after when we booked. Haven was completely sold out another 2 weeks later. This will be our 9th Haven trip, and about half of them have been with price points <$400/pp/day. On average for a full Haven ship we expect to pay around $500/pp/day. For the right trip or a fancier room we're willing to pay more (don't judge us on that horrible Prima price, definite buyers remorse on that one), but I wouldn't even give Haven a passing glance at some of the starting prices you were showing because they're not real. Our 4 most expensive NCL trips were Prima because it was new and we splurged on a fancy room with hot tub (that we never got to use....), Alaska because it was right after the market opened up after Covid and was a bucket list for us, and the two different stays in the 3br villa without even having 6 people in the suite. So sure, there's crazy starting prices - but only a fool would pay them to sail on NCL when at that price point you should be looking at a true luxury line.

See, that's the problem though. What is important to some is a non-value add to others. Cruise lines like Celebrity that give you the premium drinks & wifi for "free" are not a value add for me when I don't need either. I'd rather have the a la carte option that NCL gives where I can add it if I want it, or have a slightly cheaper cruise without it when I don't. For ships that do have a spa, they honestly can't give the Haven folks free access because then the regular folks would complain that the Haven guests now have 2 extra areas that they don't have access to. And again, some of us have zero desire to use the spa, so for me a non value add. With the pool - what do you mean by a 'proper' pool? A long lap pool to swim and exercise in? Or a 4+ ft deep pool to tread water in and float? Or something wide enough for a game of volleyball? Despite it's many other flaws, the Haven pool on Prima was really nice. Easy entry steps as opposed to the ladder entry only on other ships, deep enough for us, and wide enough to fit more than 2 people across if it was more crowded. What NCL's Haven gives you vs some of the other brands is that true ship within a ship. Where you can go to the big name entertainment shows, then go back to your quiet calm serenity when you don't want to be with 3000+ others. Our one trip so far with Celebrity was on an older retrofitted ship, and the discombobulated arrangement for your private meals, private bar/lounge, private sundeck (no pool at all) was all over the place and not worth it at all. So that's really what you're paying for with Haven. A sanctuary. There's a lot of simple and inexpensive tweaks NCL can do to bridge the gap between the other lines even further (rotating menu, or at a minimum allowing MDR meals to be ordered, or rolling those other perks into the cost for 'free'). Plus there are still plenty of deals to be found if you have flexibility in your travel dates. Our next Haven trip is in February and we're paying <$300/pp/day.

No need to be cranky, the link for the news article was literally posted about 3x for you. They're sailing out of additional embarkation ports. That's the news. Exciting for folks who live in the South, not so much for those of up in the NE.

I have zero interest in getting to know Mary that well enough to find out. My luck with cooties on September trips is 0% so I'm staying very clear of her and her pineapples. Funny - this is the exact reason why we would never ever sail a Cunard trip. Hubby has zero desire to try and pack a suite (let alone a tux) into a suitcase for one night of wear. Not our style at all, not our preference for vacations at all, not something we find joy in doing. So for us, that's one of the primary reasons we keep going back to NCL because folks that want to do that stuff can and we will compliment them each night we see them, but we'll be fine in our flippy floppies and shorts.

This documentary highlighted the fact that despite Covid hitting everyone like a mac truck to the face if you happened to be on a cruise when it broke out, this particular cruise line for whatever reason was by far one the worst hit and affected. There were other cruise ships sailing globally at that time, and they didn't warrant a documentary being made because of the magnitude # of their passengers getting ill. They had 3 different ships with >1600 passengers being positive. The only other cruise line with numbers that high were a single Celebrity ship (224 passengers) and a single Disney ship (200 passenger). So yeah, something was askew in their sanitation protocols I would say, unless there was a single typhoid Mary on board kissing passengers as they embarked for their trips. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_on_cruise_ships

To me that just means NCL does a piss poor job of explaining to their Haven guests what IS and is NOT part of their butler experience. Not sure why they can't make their own FAQ for guests of the Haven. Sure the butlers get sick of having a fight on nearly every cruise with someone who doesn't understand why they can't get drinks brought to them. "But I have the drink package.... why are you charging me?" To be fair though, we were on Celebrity for a Thanksgiving cruise and in their Retreat. Same thing - no drinks, mini bar wasn't free, and they had the gall to charge me $6 for a bottle of water because I removed it from the fridge to store my own can of soda, even though I left their bottle on the counter above the fridge and didn't even take it out of the room. Only their top tier suites get free mini bar, just like the owners suites in the Haven. So it's not just an NCL thing.

Our trip this time last year they made us go in person and it was horrible. Way too people-y and you couldn't hear anything anyway. They've since gone back to the watching the video 50x before your cruise and then check in and leave.

Tried that, but I don't fully trust what they're saying for some of the ports as it doesn't make sense to me (the SJ one being the most prominent). I get that the plan may have to change based on which ship gets there first and such, but wanted a general idea of what the plan was. Figure we'll ask the crew when we get on board where they've been stopping at the last few rounds as they'll know better than corporate.

If you are in an owners suite or garden villa, then your mini fridge items are free. If you're in a regular Haven room, then nothing in your fridge is free. Has nothing to do with which drink package you have, it all depends on the specific Haven room you booked. Celebrity is the same - only their top tier suites get free mini fridge items (learned the hard way in November...). But you can ask your butler to stock the fridge with pitchers of stuff for free. So a pitcher of iced water, lemonade, juice, iced tea, fountain soda.... things like that are free. But if you wanted a can of soda, or a bottle of water - nope, there would be a charge if they brought it to you.

Even better, go to any bar and get a mudslide, then pour your coffee into that....

There are some Haven cabin layouts that are better than others, and the same with the showers. We love sailing on the Joy on decks 14 & 15 as the cabins tend to be much larger than those in the courtyard and a cheaper price too, so better value. But the shower stinks, it's a high tub to climb over to get into the shower. Other cabins have no tub and a gorgeous walk in shower with ocean views. So it's all a learning curve, and thanks to both this site and others out there you can see the specifics of your cabin type before you book so that you can find the best one for you. For us, I'll deal with a high tub as a con since the rest of that cabin & balcony make up for it (our cabin on Celebrity Summit was even worse, that tub was nearly above my knees and a hike to climb up into), but if I was booking a room for my folks or my MIL, no, I wouldn't give them that room at all.

No need to worry about it until you're on the ship. But here's a sneak peak at what the card will look like. If you're in a Haven room it will be similar to these with the starfish, if you're in a regular room your card will either be orange, teal, or purple with a different image. Bottom right corner has the station location code - any crew member will help you find where to go, they all have a list with them on day one to help direct people. They're usually at restaurants, bars, things like that which are easy to find. Up top it will show what type of dining plan and drink plan you have (if any) - that's the 3D/PBP up top for 3 dinners and the premium beverage plan. Ironically, looking at those cards it looks like for one of our trips on 9/16/22 my husband and I had different muster stations even though we were in the same cabin. Beyond bizarre... unless I've stumbled upon a secret bonus keycard he had that I didn't know about. 🕵️‍♀️ Ooooooh.... that was our Canada trip where I got Covid. So yes, he did get moved to a new room by himself at the end of the trip when I was quarantined. So that must have been his new station for the last 3 days of the trip if there had been an emergency. Funny, never even thought about something like that to be aware of. Learn something new every day!

Realize this is several months late to the party - but any hints or tips on how to find that specific details about where the ship will physically be docking? Obviously if an itinerary says Bordeaux (Le Verdon) you know you're not actually in Bordeaux proper - but for our upcoming trip in the Caribbean there's a few spots where there are multiple cruise ports in the cities, and the one we'll be at will change our plans for the day. For example - San Juan. There's the port at the Pan Am location, and then there's the much more desirable (to us) location directly on the side over in Old San Juan. Itinerary just says "San Juan" and no port address to figure it out. From what we've been able to read it seems that ships embarking from San Juan will use the Pan Am port, but for a port of call short visit they tend to use the ones on the Old San Juan side. But it would be nice to know for certain.

You just need to research your ships a bit more for NCL if having an adult only area is important to you. If you can swing the price of Haven, their upper sun deck areas are adults only and have hot tubs. The Haven pools are not large, but decent for a soak and to cool off. Children are allowed in them, but I've personally never seen any in them except once on Epic. So they're allowed, but it tends to be a much quieter environment, no splashing or jumping or running around so they don't bother me at all like on the main pool decks. Ships that have a Vibe beach club are also adult only areas with hot tubs, but they have an extra cost. And then there are ships with Spice H2O - that is an adult only pool on several ships (Epic, Escape, Joy.... help me out guys, which other ships?). Free - and adult only pool. So they do exist, you just need to look around at the deck plans to find the right ship for your needs/wants/wishes. This thread may help you:

Found one of the photos someone had posted on FB with another view.

This is 100% it - realistic expectations. Sure, some people can get cans of soda for free, but that is not what everyone experiences. Some people can get the butler to bring them cocktails every hour on the hour, but that is not what most people experience. Some people are allowed to have friends and family outside of Haven join them for some meals (at a cost) in the restaurant, but that is not all the time. My biggest gripe here on CC (and FB is even worse) are the so called experts who proclaim that as a Haven guest you can get xyz as if it's stated in the T&C and an advertised legitimate perk of that cabin class, when it is in fact not. As you said, go in expecting what you are truly owed and promised for your experience, and if you're able to get anything beyond that it will be a bonus. Rather than expecting the same things passenger xyz got on a completely different sailing with a completely different crew - and then being disappointed over something that was never yours to begin with.

Saw photos posted in a FB group that did confirm the infinity pool is up and running at the Silver Cove section of GSC. They put it near where the gazeebo thing was all the way to the left. Almost directly across from the spa if you keep going west - but up in that area. Will have lots of photos to share in about 30 days when I'm there myself in one of the 2br villas. Big group of ~15 people sharing, so the price worked out to around $150 per couple.