Sailing12Away

It's 2 vouchers per cabin, regardless of how many are platinum and above in the room with you. For the kids - it all depends on how old they are and how much food they'll eat. I sailed with 12yo's in September. Ordering the full size filet and just cutting off some to share was fine for the picky eater. For the other one, she shared everyone else's sides and we paid a la carte for whatever else she wanted. Was about $25-50 total per meal depending on where we went and what she wanted to eat.

Which ship? If it's a breakaway, breakaway plus, or newer ship - easy for me to spend your money but $800 is definitely 'worth it' to me. Most likely your cabin size alone will be significantly larger. On those larger ships you also get a private restaurant, free room service 24 hrs/day, private lounge, private bar, private pool & sundeck. Priority embarkation, debarkation, tenders, etc. Easy access to reservations for everything from go carts, specialty dining, entertainment, etc. If you've never done Haven before, you also get filets and lobster tails for free in the Haven restaurant (just noticed Le Bistro is charging an upcharge for the standard filet now). As well as Starbucks coffee served in the restaurant for free. Not the fancy frappamocha whatevers, but standard coffee, cappucinos and such are free. So it all depends on what is important to you and what is viewed as a perk to you. As others have said, do a mock booking for the cheapest Haven room. Whatever the price difference is, use that as your barometer for the max bid you could potentially do and still get it at a 'bargain'.

Very poor design. I've got a lot more info and photos in the review I did a few months ago. For the price we paid it just was a very very poor value for what we got. Or, we simply egregiously overpaid. Or both.

We had the H4 owners suite in September and hated it. Your room is much better than ours was. They really missed the mark with the owners suites on this ship which is a shame because the not so good cabin definitely ruined a bit of our overall trip experience. Let's hope they take all the feedback and fix these things for #3.

If the samples they submitted back to the CDC as part of the investigation cleared the public hot tubs and only the private ones were affected for whatever reason, then it makes sense that the public ones have never been closed beyond the normal nightly shutdown.

Ahh, so the shredded potato latke things. Potatoes are awesome, so many forms and each one tastier than the next. I'm hungry now....

In Norway they made a big point to talk about how Prima was one of only a few ships allowed to continue to visit Geringer.

What you're looking for are the 'country potatoes'. Those are the small potato squares usually cooked with some onions and peppers. They're ok as an alternative, but I love me my hash browns, the crispier the better.

A few of those live reviews reporting the lack of hash browns were probably mine. On Prima in September I had them one day, and then that was it - gone. Every morning I asked, and every morning the butler left me a note saying "nope, not today". My #1 beloved breakfast item, so if it is gone I will be a sad sad sailor.

People expect to have a great trip without issues, complications, surprises, etc. So why write a review to say 'yup, just as I expected'. That's why there's more negative keyboard warriors, because it was unexpected and not 'normal'. I've done my fair share of complaining, but I usually reserve it for things that could have either been prevented, or corrected - and the company failed to do either or dismiss it as unimportant to them. Might just be my nature given my job role, but I always look at the 'why'. If you don't dig deep enough into the why you won't ever fix the real problem. So when a company either doesn't acknowledge something as being wrong or unfair or tries to put a band-aid and send you on your way - for me it leaves a bad taste and lowers your confidence in them overall. As for different experiences on the same sailing - we're all in different types of cabins, with different personalities, with different expectations of what 'should' happen, with different preferences for food/drink/entertainment, with different tolerance levels for incompetence/ignorance/stupidity/other passengers.

Can you share more info about the Azamazing evenings you had? Looking into Azamara now and one of the key things that drew us to them were these type of things, where the focus is on the ports you visit and not the bells & whistles of the ship itself. Where did they take you and what did you see/do/eat/drink?

Now as for the actual original topic.... I had reached out to NCL on 9/2 before getting on board 9/7 regarding the offered compensation. Told them I declined their offer of non-refundable OBC and to not give it to me - they did anyway. When we got on board 9/7 told the Haven concierge to remove it as we didn't want it - they didn't and we got stuck with it. Filed a complaint with the concierge who eventually gave me a case number to follow up with when we got home - turns out that case number was invalid. So filled out the general case submission reports on 9/18 referencing all the other emails and 'case numbers' we were given when we got home. Finally this week got a formal response on 10/11 saying 'no'. They are not budging on any revision to the compensation at all, and are still denying the presence of any CDC investigation, despite there being a letter from NCL to guests on the sailings after mine specifically stating the hot tubs are closed not because of maintenance (like they told me), but in an abundance of caution related to a CDC investigation. Am I surprised - not at all. Disappointed - yes. Will we still sail with NCL - probably. Within the next 4 months as originally planned - probably not.

If this is your first experience with NCL then I guess shame on you for assuming it was run like the other big brand cruise lines. If you don't have the pre-cruise Haven concierge contact info let us know - someone in here probably has that handy on speed dial and can share. Just shoot them an email or phone call now before you board and explain what you booked for dinner times and what you want instead - and they will switch it for you. If you wait until you are on board there will be less flexibility in what they can do. It's hit or miss whether they reach out pre-cruise or not. If you're in an owner's suite, you also need to let them know your preferences for your liquor choices and mixers. Still vs sparkling water (or both), what kinds of soda, and what you want your room stocked with. But expecting the NCL Haven to be similar to the RCC Star Genie treatment is silly. They're not remotely the same in what they offer or what they cost. I have yet to find a cruise in a RCC Star class suite that is less than double what I can pay for a Haven room. And outside of the genie and your great room, RCC doesn't really offer anything else. NCL (and MSC YC and now with Celebrity newer ship Retreat areas) has the ship-within-a-ship concept that RCC is missing. So outside of your magic genie, once you step outside your cabin you're with 5000 other guests. With NCL, it is a very different experience. Maybe not the white glove and VIP cut the line everywhere that you're expecting, but if you go in with proper expectations and consider the price, it will be a nice trip.

We tried to go one night, line to get in was through the entire hallway. Hubby waited in line then stood for the whole show, my sister, BIL and I went to improve instead to watch bad kareoke. Later in the trip hubby & I went to the prom. It had already started so we walked right into the door on the right and stood by the bar in the back. After 20-30 mins I was done and left. It is what it is, but it just isn't for me. The performers interacting with the passengers just seemed forced and hokey to me. But maybe it was just my sailing and the majority of guests being boring. It felt like bad dad joke after bad dad joke over and over. So not sure what the big appeal is to others, but you do you.

On the plus side, that's a good price for your room. It's cheaper than what we paid. They're staying firm on the compensation across all room categories with the private hot tub. Folks who didn't fork out the money think it's fair - those of us who know what we paid know better. I would have preferred at least 10% in what we paid coming back to us, not a set standard amount regardless if you're in an HA, H4, H3, or H2. Only way for NCL to make this 'right' is to give people a choice at least. $500/pp non refundable OBC or $1K/pp in future cruise credits. Either way it's going right back in their pockets, but at least someone can decide what is better for them - another cruise with another attempt at that hot tub room, or cash it in now with spa treatments or expensive champagne. I'm past the 30 days from when I first reached out to them with my own requests for different compensation and all I've received is the standard "thank you for your case submission, we will respond shortly". The kicker is I already have a cruise in mind I would spend that money on if they gave me any type of additional compensation, so it would be in my hands a hot minute then right back to them. And it's really silly - the folks affected by this are the coveted Haven guests who spend a lot of money. If we book another cruise there's a good chance it will be another Haven room. So throwing me 1K is still netting them another 9K+ back.

I was on Prima a month ago. If you find my semi live review you'll see more info about that whole situation in there. Not sure if Viva is similar, but Prima was closed down for some severe health issues with the CDC involved.

I've taken a bunch of trips since the restart, and for whatever reason the ones I take in September always seem to end with me catching Covid. First time I was tested on the ship and then quarantined to my room for the last 3 days. Now I take my own kits with me and test myself. This trip I tested negative on board, but the flight home I knew it would be positive on retest. When we landed and I got home it was positive. Lots of cooties flying around. If you're susceptible or in a high risk group - wear a mask on the plane, wear a mask in the elevators, wear a mask when not eating/drinking.

I just came off of Prima about 2 weeks ago, also sailed in the Haven. While it's not the ship for us, a lot of what you're saying is just plain wrong and not true. Our first few days were rainy and dreary, but other than struggling to find a seat in Indulge, the ship didn't feel crowded to us just because more folks were indoors than normal. I don't touch the buffets, but my niece/nephew had no problem going there to grab meals on their own. How can you say the Haven has no intimate seating areas? The entire Haven is all intimate seating now. Pockets of couches and chairs and quiet zones - so much so that folks like me who enjoy a good belly laugh late into the night are SOOL. Have you ever been on another ship in the Haven? For those who haven't - the bars there hold much less people and are typically hogged by people like myself who camp out there. This bar is huge in comparison, and most nights on my sailing I was sitting there practically alone with pics to prove it. Outside of the last night of the cruise when the elevators were busy, we never waited more than a minute for those private elevators and 99% of the time had it all to ourselves. I'll gladly take a private elevator over stairs any day. Food/snacks - are you talking about the Haven observation lounge on other ships? The whole reason we book Haven when we can is for those snacks to be brought to us in private to enjoy from our massive balcony without all the excess people around. If you want coffee first thing in the morning, just tell the butler to bring it directly to you so it's there when you wake up. There's a lot of easy fixes for the things you're unhappy about, and many of the things you're unhappy about are not specific to Prima. By no means am I defending NCL, I'm actually quite salty about them for other reasons, but when people express their opinions and they're just factually wrong - it stinks to see because there's a lot of impressionable folks here who don't do their own research.

We stopped in Bruges on my 9/7 sailing. Later than expected, but we stopped there without issue.

So this is interesting... NCL has finally changed the verbiage in their letter to Prima guests with private hot tubs and is finally admitting the truth. I've been chatting with the CDC, but they're not sharing much info. They just keep telling me to ask NCL for more info, but NCL has not yet responded to me since I got back from my trip. Cough is still lingering, so need to chat with my doctor to see if I should get tested for Legionella now.

The jewel class ships have a Haven. Those villas are right outside the courtyard by about 10 steps. Dawn, Star, Prima & Viva also offer 3 BR configurations and after January so will Joy.

We've won an upgrade bid to the 3br villa, but only found out the night we flew to Spain so not enough time to find additional people to join us. The prior time when we had the 3br villa we booked it out right, but late in the game before sailing (past final payment date). Booked it with just the 2 of us to lock it in, and were able to add in 2 additional guests a few days later. So adding people in at the last minute - much more doable than swapping cabins. You can't swap - so as others have said they would have to cancel and rebook, but at that point it's not really worth it as they won't get any money back and there will be a fee to add them in. Just keep it simple.... ask the concierge for extra key cards to your villa and give them to your other family members so they can come and go to your cabin as they please (your cabin only - they're not welcome in any of the Haven areas beyond your room). They will still need to go to their original muster station for emergencies and such, but you can get extra key cards to your room for family members in other cabins.

Nah, I've got some external positive/negative kit controls I can always run if I truly wanted to fake a test result. Unfortunately no need to doctor up a fake result, on the plane ride home to NY I knew it would be positive on retest. Just like my trip this time of year last year around Canada, started getting a super leaky nose for the entire 8hr flight home (yeah, that was fun....). When we got home Monday I retested myself and it was positive. James is still showing up negative, so that's a plus for him at least. Worked from home on Tuesday, had to run in yesterday (with a mask) to do some proficiency testing samples as I'm unfortunately the only schmuck in the lab who knows how to run that particular instrument at the moment. Grabbed some more collection swabs as the bulk test kits I've got at home are missing the swabs, tested James and I both last night again and now we're both showing as negative. So I'm on the back half of it, will keep an eye on him to see if he's just delayed or dodged the bullet somehow. Always amuses me when I talk to non-sciency people (my mom) about it. "I thought you were vaccinated, how did you get it?". Because mom, that's not how vaccines work. It doesn't create a magical invisibility cloak around you to the virus so that you never catch it. It just gives your immune system a running head start to fight it off when it gets close to you. So instead of developing pneumonia and dying, I just had a bad cough and leaky nose for a few days. When I told my boss Monday that I was positive and would have to work from home the next few days she lectured me on my immune system and ways to beef it up. I was 30 seconds away from explaining to her that it was my current job causing my immune system to be weaker which was why I was actively seeking employment elsewhere, but figured that was a more fun conversation to have in person on Friday so I could see the look on her face. Another friend told me I needed to stop taking cruises since I keep coming back from them with Covid, but honestly my track record isn't bad. First post-Covid trip was Alaska, no Covid but also had to wear masks everywhere. Then we went to Greece - also masked up so no Covid. Short 5 day in the garden villa, also with masks though so no Covid (seeing a pattern yet....?). Spain we were without masks, but spent most of our time in the garden villa alone - no Covid. September last year was Canada, still think I caught Covid from one of the big bus tours. Panama earlier this year was without masks, lots of people interactions, but no Covid. And now this trip. So yeah... it's not about the cruise, it's the peopley factor and time of year for me. Someone should consider making some type of peopley app or something to track where the crowds are so that I can avoid them 😉 . Next trip is with Celebrity in 2 months, but we're not doing any big bus tours. Let's see if my big bus and colder weather theory holds out. I'm fine with adding extra funds to the vacation budget for all private tours going forward in the sake of my health if there's correlation to be found.

Soulac was actually quite lovely. Small beach town with some shops and lovely beach with water, although if you're goin in October may be too chilly for a beach day. They did have some Bordeaux trips, but it will be a long day. It's about a 2hr ride there each way, so 4 hours of your 7 hour tour will be spent sitting on a bus. If you think that's worth it, keep an eye out for them. For us, we said we would skip Bordeaux proper until we're there on a river cruise or land trip.

Rain stopped before our trip on the Ferris wheel which was great. Meet up with a local friend for a beer, then headed for some pub food and more drinks. We splurged on the penthouse suite for us which includes an outdoor terrace overlooking the eye and big ben. Enjoying the gorgeous weather while trying to sober up so we can drink the beers and cidars we bought at the local shop earlier. The photo with the cream color building is our hotel, we're on the top floor. Not looking forward to returning to work... may take another COVID test when I get home and see if I can finagle a positive to get some extra days at home.