Sailing12Away

I have zero desire to sail on Carnival, and hubby has zero desire to try out Princess. He claims that any cruise line that had a documentary made about them for not good reasons is a cruise line he wants to avoid. We've tried Celebrity - it was fine. They're typically outside of a price range we're comfy with so unless the itinerary is amazing we don't book with them. Having said that - we have 2 trips coming up with them because of the itineraries. RCC was just meh on the ship we tried. Again, for a fancy suite with them it's out of the price point we're comfortable with. I also have zero desire to be on a ship with that many passengers, was literally getting anxiety looking at just the deck plans for Icon. So for us, that leaves Virgin which we're interested in, and MSC which we would try. But we're honestly moving away from the big guys and looking at smaller lines that go to more unique itineraries and off the beaten path.

Owner's suites and garden villas are a bit different. You get free liquor in your cabin, and the mini bar in your room is free as well. So the butler will restock your fridge and bring you sodas and things like that for free. As for calling them asking them to bring you a pina colada and a Mr. Worldwide.... if they did and didn't charge you, I hope you tipped well as that is outside the scope of what they're *supposed* to do.

It was ok, no great deals that we could find for the places we were interested in. Surprised to see such a heavy presence there from Pakistan and Croatia - each country had a half dozen booths promoting travel to those areas. Spoke to a few of the smaller cruise lines and at a quick glance their pricing is more reasonable than we had thought it would be compared to what we typically pay for Haven on NCL. Was able to get our tickets to the show for free this year (next year if you google around you can find some insurance agencies that give them away for free), so not bad for free to get some new tote bags and updated info on things that interested us. Plus was able to flag down the TA we booked our Galapagos trip with at last years show and give her a few choice words since she's been ignoring emails. Can't run from me when I'm standing in front of you... but yeah, that's another long story of why I don't like TAs.

We were intrigued by their wine trips... so will definitely look at them again.

Not a huge deal breaker, but if you see a familiar name or face that you've had good experiences with in the past, it's a sigh of relief to know your trip will have a better chance of being extra good. I don't put too much clout into the officers so much as some of the bartenders. We each have our own priorities. But if I see a name I remember it gets me more excited knowing we'll have a blast rather than having a 'break in' period for a newer name that doesn't know how we like to party yet.

If you're able to find out any info on the Haven staff (concierge & bartenders) that would be amazing. We'll be onboard in <30 days. Hoping to see some familiar names.

Yup, it feels odd to not have an NCL trip booked for 2025 yet, but there are lots of options out there to pick from. We're headed to a travel show here in NY tomorrow, so I plan on skipping all the big guys and looking for those smaller cruise lines that have funky itineraries that catch my eye more and giving them a few minutes of my time to tell me why I should consider them. Hubby found an itinerary on Swan that went all around Sicily and even stopped at his grandfather's hometown - so hoping they'll do a similar trip in 2025 or beyond that we could hop on and take a photo outside grandpa's old home.

Yes, they do. Even if it's simply the daily 'good morning, here's your MDR choices for today' that would help tons. If they can print out thousands of daily newsletters, they can have someone on the IT team upload the day's menu to a clickable link in their app. Or heck - put it on the tv if internet is sucky. Even for their shows - how hard would it be to have that streamed into the cabin rooms on a dedicated 'ship entertainment' channel? I know they sometimes show clips from the game shows, so why not some of the other things like the comedians, magicians, etc?

This trip is more about the people than the destination. Leaving from Orlando and headed to St. Thomas, San Juan, Amber Cove & GSC. On our Panama Canal trip we had made friends at the Haven bar (shocker, right?) with a group of folks. They all decided to cruise again this February, and their schedules and desires lined up and both couples booked the same trip. They told us about it, and we said we would tag along as well. Between all of their friends and our friends I think the final head count is going to be ~18 people in the Haven. So again... apologies now for anyone sailing on the Epic in the Haven about 30 days from now.... we will be a big group, but we're friendly and fun and will gladly invite you to do some shots with us. If you're more interested in quiet stuff - please come and tell us to STFU when we are being too loud. We will not be offended. Or if you want a more subtle approach, feel free to post in here about the loud large group of guests hogging the chairs at the bar and I'll take the hint.

~35 days away from sailing and the luggage tags have arrived. Things are starting to get real. (for anyone wondering about the 'how soon before sailing can we expect our luggage tags when staying in the Haven').

I think this game isn't fun anymore. I'm going to just go back to sitting in my boring non lazy river pool.

Yeah, I had mentioned that there are 2 different ports. Your hotel is not near the embarkation pier. Which is why I had also suggested the option of staying at a hotel near Old San Juan (which you are) and leaving your bags there to walk and wander. Then taking a single trip (as suggested by others) to get over to the embarkation port.

Again, you'll get 15 different opinions. We had an aft Haven cabin on Encore and didn't like it. Balcony was huge and views were great, room itself was nice. But it was far too far away from the rest of the Haven amenities for our liking. Also lots of vibrations that woke us up at 2am the first few nights.

The point though is for the dreamers to come up with the ideas, and the realists to find a way to take that idea and find a practical way to make it happen. Obviously you can't have an entire deck of water... so the engineers take the idea and find a way that can work while maintaining the spirit of the original idea. When pure engineers do design it's boring and cookie cutter. When crazy people on the internet do design the ship will sink. Hence the need for both to collaborate for the happy medium.

Yeah, but that's it, just the one option and it's an upcharge. I can buy the whole bottle here at home for $50.

Just look at a map though before you decide which option to go. Embarkation is usually at the Pan Am port, which is not in Old San Juan. If you wanted to do shopping and explore the old SJ area, a hotel in that location may be better and just leave your bags with the hotel at checkout. Explore, shop, wander, then return to the hotel and have them help call you a taxi to get to the Pan Am port. Or, get a hotel near the Pan Am port and explore that area the night you arrive. In the morning, drop your bags off at the ship, check in, then get a taxi over to wherever it is you wanted to explore and shop. But you'll need a taxi to get back. We stayed in Old San Juan, had a full day exploring the stuff over there. Walked around town in the morning and then shared a taxi to the port with about 6 other people who stayed in the hotel with us in the early afternoon. There was the one couple who dropped their bags and went back out again, but the rest of us walked onto the ship and started our vacation.

I thought we were dropping the practical engineering approach and going strictly off of 'fun to have' regardless of 'practical' or realistic?

We're brining a bottle of port and ice wine along with a bottle (or 3) of bubbly on our next trip in February. Lots of wines on board to pick from, but NCL is desperately lack in those 3 categories.

No on the dividers, like everyone else has said. For the restaurants, you'll get 15 different opinions. Go peek at the menus now once you get your reservation. They're all on the NCL website as samples, or if you search through these forums you'll find maybe the most recent versions that are hot off the press. Look at what is offered and see what calls out to you the most. Encore is a great ship and the views you'll have from the aft will be amazing.

Reach out to guest services ahead of time. They can have the DI water ready for you and can advise on the extension cords. My BIL used one in an oceanview cabin without issue, but I didn't ask about his specific set up and if he brought his own extension cord.

Yes, it is allowed. We've done it at other ports where we picked an early check-in time, dropped off our bags, went through check-in, got our keycards then left. Came back later on and just had to go through security again before going right on the ship. Last time we were on the Epic was a few years back, but there was a couple that shared a taxi to the port with us. They dropped their bags with the porter then hopped right back in the cab without even checking in. Fun guys, they knew how to party!

Looking at images of the Epic main pool area since I'll be hopping onboard next month. Not many loungers to be found in that water fountain areas between the pools. My funky design would be to invert those 2 pools so they're "up" and not "in", and the teal areas around them would be the lazy river to sit and float around. Folks that want loungers for the sun can have a deck above the pool area that wraps front to back and doubles as a walking/running track. They missed the mark with Aqua - should have been completely focused on pools and water activities. Hidden grottos, wild water slides, indoor pools, outdoor pools, mega jacuzzis, swim up pool bars. Then they could have gone a different direction for whatever the next one is and focus on crazy adventurous stuff like the race cars, ropes courses, true lap pools, big gym & spa stuff for folks that like that sort of stuff. Make little niche ships specific for the target audience they're going after rather than a mediocre half assed attempt to please all.

Other thing with NCL - if you don't like the answer, call back in 5 mins and talk to someone else. We have a trip coming up next month and wanted to add 2 more guests to our cabin (listed as fitting 6 guests, we only have 2). First person I talked to said no, we couldn't add anyone else due to fire code blah blah blah. Called back and talked to someone else - no problem, got the extra 2 guests added to our cabin. Call 2 when they said we could add them they gave me one price, but it was higher than expected so needed to confirm with the new guests that was ok. When I called back for the 3rd time to move forward with it, price had already changed and gone up. They told me "it changes by the minute". I literally LOL'ed to them and just did it anyway. But yeah... 3 different calls, 3 different answers and prices.

For those in favor of the lazy river/pool concept - take a look through google of the DGI Byen circular pool in Copenhagen. Surely NCL can modify this idea a bit to fit on the pool deck with a central pool for those looking to do laps or just soak, and the outer fun zone for lazying and meandering.