quagmire0

Thanks! I was wondering this as well.

Unfortunately, it only shows times for 4 of the days for Moderno. On two of those days, it's only up to 4 people, on the other two, the only dinner time is 9:30. 😕

Great info, thanks! I obviously missed most of the pre-board dining reservations - at least Cagney's anyway. Will need to find a resy when I'm on the ship. I'm looking now at booking the complimentary dining. Need to recheck the itinerary. Trying to make reservations that wouldn't conflict with potential showtimes. I'll be on the website at the stroke of midnight, no doubt. 😄 (11am CT, so it's not that bad).

We'll be a party of 6. Good news is that I wasn't planning on doing that much dining. We've got one free with the package(Which will probably end up as a Cagney's or Moderno stop and then I was thinking of maybe using OBC and/or going to Food Republic - which has a bunch of lower-priced options.

Our flight gets in around 9am, so I figure the earliest we'd be to the port is probably 10:30ish after getting off the plane, getting our stuff, and catching a cab. My main concern is getting some entertainment and dining reservations when we get on. Was curious what peoples' recent experience on the Escape was in terms of time you boarded and your ability to get the reservations you wanted. Should I just grab the earliest realistic check-in window, or would not rushing it still give me a shot at decent reservations?

I look at a few things with critical reviews: 1. Age. Not to be ageist, but older passengers are going to tend to be more sensitive to food quality, waits, crowds, etc. If you don't believe me, pick any ship and look at most of the lower-rated reviews and look at the reviewer's age. If you're younger, or you're a more active older adult, you'll likely not be as sensitive to the smaller things. This could also work in reverse, as younger passengers who are of a party mindset will be too busy 'having fun' to recognize mediocre food, crowds, lines, etc. 2. Were they prepared? Are the things they are complaining about common knowledge? If they watched a 10 min cruise tip video on YouTube, would they have avoided it? Was it a problem that is relatively common/possible when you take a cruise? To me, those kinds of things are disappointing, but they may not justify me giving the cruise a 1 star review. For example, I know that embarkation and disembarkation can be a pain. I know that when I get on the ship my room won't be ready. I know that the buffet will likely be crowded and there's a good chance that the restaurant that all the YouTube folks tell me to check out instead may also be crowded. I know that this cruise I'm going on will have 5k+ passengers and I should book everything that is 'must do' as soon as I get on the ship, or before. I know that bringing by bags on or off board myself can be a major pain and not worth the effort since my flight is later. I know that tender ports can be slow to load or end up not loading at all. Etc. etc.

I saw the same thing with reviews coming in about the Escape. I will say that a lot of times the reviewers seem to be griping about things that could have been avoided given just a little bit of research and preparedness. I mean, we're talking watch one of the hundreds of 10 minute Youtube videos and you'd avoid it/expect it. Or, it's things that can unfortunately happen from time to time, like embarkation/disembarkation delays. There's also reviews from the same trip that are polar opposite and those people had a great time.

Nevermind. It may be the full cost vs. the upgrade. (See below). I was assuming it was showing the upgrade since I was logged in. Still, that's pretty steep for one person.

I just checked what it would cost to upgrade to P+ for me and it's a staggering $1159 per person. 😂 I think I'd rather stock my home bar, save several hundred, and then 'slum it' with the standard package and a la carte. 🙂

All depends on the abilities of everyone in the group. Nice thing about your scenario is you could possibly mix and match in different situations. Send the kids off and do a parents/grandparents dinner. Leave the grandparents and do an excursion, etc. My best advice is to not force it and be flexible. The nice thing about cruise ships is you usually have a ton of options. If the grandparents want to eat earlier, let them. Maybe aim to have one or two formal meals together and leave the rest as flexible. If you try to force everyone into a rigid schedule/plan, then no one will have fun.

When you're trying to accommodate a large group, something has to give. Usually it's the ship and itinerary. Don't lose track of the intention of the cruise, which is to celebrate your in-laws anniversary. Just make sure they are taken care of (maybe a nice balcony cabin) and then do your own thing (inside to save money?). Figure out what works best for schedule and then just book it. 12k is kind of crazy for 4 people. We're spending about 8k for 6, and that's including transfers, airfare, insurance, etc.

Many adults are worse than kids, so more or less actual kids may not make a difference. 🙂

All depends on the child. If they are a good sleeper and easy to please, you should be good. If they are a picky sleeper and not great about sitting for meals and things like that, then prepare to compromise. 😄

52 days from our first cruise in 16 years! Last cruise was probably one of my biggest blunders. Hot off the heels of a great cruise on the Navigator Of The Seas, I got cocky and booked a Carnival cruise - despite the fact that my wife was pregnant with our first child and she'd be around 6mos old when cruise time came around. 'It'll be easy', I thought, 'she'll be small and easy to carry around'. Yeah, no. Trip started with her getting her first cold, so no sleep for us. She wouldn't sit for any formal meal. We attempted a few times and failed. Spent most of the time sleep deprived and sitting on the balcony (at least I got that right). Swore off cruises until all our kids were pretty self sufficient. So, here we go. 😄

Where's the lie? 😂 Every couple years I'll price out a Disney cruise for s**** and giggles and every time I end up shaking my head.

Thanks again for the info. It's good to know that 12 and under can eat the kids menu for free at the specialty dining. That helps in our case, as 4 of us got the one free dining meal and 2 (who are both 12 and under) didn't. So, that opens up our options for not having to pay too much out of pocket for the youngest two. Now I just have to decide whether paying ~$42 per person per meal is worth it for adding two more specialty dining meals. Seems like it's not, unless we're looking at Teppanyaki, Moderno, or Cagney's. I can probably do any of those as our one free meal and then do something like Food Republic a la carte.

I think it'll always come down to where you're coming from. For example, we're leaving from O'Hare airport and it's a direct flight there and back. The departure flight is pretty early (5am), but the return is reasonable. If you're coming from a foreign country or a smaller airport that doesn't have many direct flights, it's definitely going to be a hairy proposition when you place the booking in the hands of NCL. What's kind of interesting is that when I linked my flight to my AA account, it shows the tickets as being issued on the day I booked the cruise in November, even though I didn't get my flight info until May. So, makes me wonder how long NCL and/or the carrier know what flight you'll be on until they finally tell you.

That's funny. I watched the video on the Icon recently and thought the exact same thing. It seems very mall-like.

Granted, I haven't stayed in the Haven, but you said the magic words 'Spring Break'. Having a place where you don't have to deal with as big of a crowd may tip the scales there.

It's a little confusing. I booked on my own and we needed to end up having two accounts because the website wouldn't let me book two cabins for 6 people. I ended up just logging into both and doing all the payments and everything. I did contact customer service and asked them to combine the two reservations (thinking that it would bring everyone into one account when I logged in), but that wasn't the case. We're still split up 3 and 3. So, I'm not sure what the customer service rep did (if anything) 😄 . Anyway, it's not a huge hassle. The one benefit of everyone getting the app (and an account) is that you can pay $10 per passenger to have access to a chat feature - which works independently of any internet plan or cell service. Handy if you have a group that'll be splitting up fairly often.

Just my opinion, but the Haven is simply a luxury item. You are basically paying for a nicer room and a place to hide away from the rest of the passengers. It's 1st class while most are in coach. Personally, I wouldn't book it unless it was just my wife and I or I just had money to burn(or someone else's money, as in your case 😉 ). I'm just fine getting an interior cabin that I use to bathe, change, and sleep in. My version of splurging would be a balcony cabin. 😂

Good to see mostly positive replies here. The reviews for the Escape are a bit bipolar. Lots of one stars and lots of 4 and 5 stars. Some 4 star reviews sound worse than some 1 star reviews. Granted, it's been about 16 years since we last cruised (finally have all our kids at the right age to fully enjoy it), but I can still recognize where many of the 1 star reviewers didn't seem to have done any kind of research before going. Not that you have to plan everything to a T, but knowing some of what to expect would have gone a long way.

What's the main pool situation like? One of the biggest complaints I've seen scanning the reviews is how crowded the main pool area is. Second biggest complaint seems to be lines for drinks as well. We're sailing in July, but won't be in the Haven. First time on Norwegian. Reviews seem to be pretty mixed, but everything you've reported so far seems good. 😄

Taking our first cruise in a LONG time and I realized that Norwegian wants $25pp each way for the airport transfers. After seeing enough complains about those shuttles taking forever, and then pricing out the private shuttles, I've landed on taking an Uber. Looking for feedback on how easy/difficult it is to get an Uber XL at the airport. We're 2 adults and 4 kids (7-16). I'm not worried about fitting the people, but more the luggage. Any recent experiences?

We just got our flight for Miami. Our flight there leaves at 5am 😂. Ah well, I'd rather get their earlier than later. The real bummer is that our flight back is at 3:30pm. It's a bummer is that it's too late in that we'll probably be waiting in the airport for hours and too early to do the Miami excursion (which says your flight has to leave after 5pm). But as a previous poster mentioned, your flights are booked and you can probably contact the airline to see if you can change them.