JandC_Cruising

Our last visit to Puerto Plata was in March and we docked at Taino Bay.

Also, if you can do the Thermal Spa...it is wonderful on the Epic. Our last time on there we were in the spa at least twice a day on Sea days since it was too windy outside to enjoy.

you guys are absolutely right...I can't believe I forgot, because we got our first cocktail there when we were just walking around the ship after boarding and dropping our stuff out! Sorry for the bad info on that one!

We have done that run on both. We were on the Escape in 2019 and just did the Joy this June. We were in the Haven for both. Here are our thoughts: 1. The Haven on the Joy is bigger in several ways. There are more Haven cabins on the Joy, so more Haven guests. The Haven sun deck on the Joy runs around the front and covers both sides of the front of the ship, providing more sun deck space than the Escape. The restaurant, bar, and courtyard areas are very similar. The Joy has a Haven Observation lounge that is beautiful and great for quick snacks and quiet, but aside for the bites of food, we didn't use it on the Bermuda run the way it would clearly be used on an Alaskan voyage. I could see if the weather wasn't perfect, it would have gotten more usage (but then more crowded I would expect) 2. Entertainment/Pool: Our 20-somthings who joined us on the Joy cruise had a great time. They did the go-carts and had fun, but once was enough. The Beatles in the Cavern Club is loads of fun, but we did miss Howl at the Moon! Comedians were typical. We played mini-golf and the slides were essentially similar as on the Escape. Much smaller main pool area and no Spice H2O on the Joy. Theatre shows were fun on both and certainly depend on specific shows. 3. Restaurants: We ate mostly in the Haven and for all intents and purposes, the experiences are identical - food was great and service was great on both. For specialty, we ate a Le Bistro and Ocean Blue (our two favorites, regardless of ship). Le Bistro is on Deck 8 across from Cagney's on the Joy and honestly it has a more "romantic" french bistro feel on the Escape (down on 6 - more isolated). But the food was still wonderful! The Local = O'Sheehans; We didn't try Q and will likely try it next Joy cruise (March '23) 4. Bars: The biggest bar disappointment (and that is probably being harsher than necessary) was Maltings. We love bourbons and enjoy it on the Escape. It is small, but lively. On the Joy, it is down on 6 and rather isolated. The night we went by for a post show cocktail it was dead. 5. No Thermal Spa on the Joy - As mentioned this is due to the origins of the ship (Asian market) and was not added when re-furbished. We've loved the thermal spa and add it on any non-haven cruise we have done if possible. 6. Vibe Beach Club - The Vibe on the Joy is 2x the size as the Escape. Like the Haven sun deck it covers both sides of the ship. On the Escape it is starboard side only. We love the Vibe if we do not do Haven (no need for both IMHO) and the service at the Escape Vibe was great. We already have our Vibe passes for our March Joy cruise. I guess we like the Escape a bit more (since it has the option of the Thermal Spa) All in all we enjoyed both ship and have cruises booked for both in 2023! Hope that helps!

If you want the spa, pre-buy. The prices will not go down on-board. Also, if you successfully get upgraded to a Spa Suite, you can then request a credit for your pre-purchased spa passes. We've done exactly that in the past, when we won a Haven Spa bid.

I noticed on our last Upgrade Advantage bidding (on the Epic in March), there was and option to use "FCC certificates" as a payment method. I've never known them to accept "Cruise Next" certificates for payment.

Haven check-in is very easy!. First off, be sure to go to the FAR LEFT to go through Security. There is a dedicated line there that Haven guests can use, rather than the big snaking line. You have to show your Bermuda docs and get a "green sticker" placed on your passport. We did that to the desks on the right just after security. From there, walk to the end of the terminal to the right just after the rest rooms to the Haven Check-in Lounge. You will receive a number and then sit in the lounge to wait with the others (coffee, juice, snacks in there). There are 2-3 staffers who check parties in sequentially and then hand you your key cards. We were at the pier around 9AM and were the 4th party through the Haven Security line, and maybe the 12th in the Haven lounge as we were not fleet of foot walking to the lounge 🙂 and on the ship by 10:45 (if I recall). First Pina Colada in hand by 11:15 after making some dinner arrangements with the concierge desk and dropping our backpacks in our 2BR on 18!

At the time you are seated the host will confirm if you wish to use your specialty dining perk. If so, you will end up with the "free meal"...In our experience, you can order multiple appetizers, one entrée, and multiple desserts. No Charge. We have successfully ordered cappuccino's with dessert at various restaurants without issue (maybe takes a bit longer to get to the table 🙂 ) Yes, the Haven sundeck is 16+....Yes, kids are allowed in the courtyard area.... Bring your child to dinner...the host will have a high-chair available.

I have No idea! Cucumber water?😜

The Joy doesn’t have a Thermal Spa.

This is a great point! Bermuda, for example requires the negative test per their rules. A doctor’s recovery note will not work for the current Bermuda cruises.

Well as promised, I’m reporting back, only pre cruise! Today I called the pre-cruise concierge for Haven and was able to upgrade only two of us to the Premium Plus package! No issues whatsoever. I was able to pay the $487.20 with my card. very excited that this is all taken care of pre-cruise. only 13 more days to wait!

Do you recall how many seats in the mini-bus?

This is exactly true. we upgraded with points on Delta in March.

You can typically find the Thermal Spa passes available to pre purchase when you go online into your reservation. It will be listed in the “Plan and Explore” section. You can pre buy just like you could pre book and buy excursions.

Non-Haven passengers can visit your cabin. You can host them for drinks and a meal in your cabin. However, they cannot use common areas such as the bar, courtyard, sundeck, etc. There are methods to allow non-haven passengers to join a dinner party at the restaurant (for a fee) if given approval from the concierge. Not sure what ship you are on and how many you already have in your cabin. Can you call and add one more person to your 2BR suite? Then everyone is in the Haven. We have a Haven 2BR on the Joy in June and there will be 5 of us. (two 55yo's, with three 21+yo's. It was going to be 6 but my son's GF had to cancel. The cabins can hold up to 6. Just a thought..

@CleverUserNameHere and @rjm11 Yes. You do not need multiple appointments if you are all together. They can proctor all of you at the same time in one session. We did it this way for two of us back in March. In June there are 5 of us, but we cannot be in the same place two days before due to travel arrangements, so we have three appointments to cover 5 ppl (2 - 2 - 1)

That will be welcome news to many, I'm sure. Certainly eases any tension surrounding additional testing protocols. Get on that ship and have fun!!!!!!!!

Have a great time! Looking forward to hearing all about it!

@mking8288 Thank you for all the valuable info! We are on the June 12th sailing with our adult children/SO's and cannot wait! We are very anxious to see how/if the Virginia process changes. We have no plan of getting off the ship there. However, there seems to be much conflicting information on process. The letter you attached seems to indicate that ALL Guests will be retested: Where Bermuda is not the first port of call, or if the ship takes longer than four days to arrive in Bermuda, all guests, regardless of vaccination status, will be required to take an additional antigen or PCR test onboard no more than two days prior to disembarking in Bermuda. This test will be paid for and administered by our onboard medical team.. I'm sure you will let us all know what actually occurs on your sailing! We are all hoping to not have to test again if we stay on the ship. Have a wonderful time (rain or shine)! Looking forward to your reports through the week! Best , Jon & Carolyn

No. I always stay at Marriott properties. I cashed in Marriott points and we stayed at the Sheraton Resort & Casino, right next to the Convention center, and a 5 min taxi to Pan American Pier. That said, if we had flown in 2 days early, staying in Old SJ would have been more interesting. We were very satisfied with the Air promo, this time, as the price was much better than what we could have done on our own. But we don't always take the air promo - depends upon route and time of year. When we do, we always deviate to 1 day before to ease our stress levels. We have three other NCL cruises planned between June and March of next year and have air promo on only one of those (next March - spring break flights are always expensive)

We were on the Epic out of SJ in March and did 2 for 1 air promo. Flew from Chicago to Charlotte to San Juan. We did the deviation and flew to SJ a day early and VERY glad we did. We left Chicago at 6am but got to SJ around 3pm due to a minor delay and then sat on tarmac in SJ waiting for a gate to open for another 30 minutes. Then we waited more than an hour for the bags to come out. By the time we got to our hotel by the convention center it was after 5pm. We would have been miserable and super stressed if we had flown in on departure day.

There is a lot of information to sift through on CC, but here are a couple of basic hints that we have given our friends & family: 1. If you enjoy specialty restaurants at all, then take the Specialty Dining Perk. The 7 day cruises gives you two Specialty restaurant meals. We have had great meals in every one on the NCL ships. The only cost is the 20% gratuity. The two meal plan retails for $89, so that is $17.80pp in gratuities you must pay upfront with your booking. 2. If you plan to have more than (2) Alcoholic drinks per day, you should take the drinks package. You will get charged the 20% gratuity for the retail cost of the package. That results in gratuities of $138.60pp for a 7-day cruise. Again, this is added to your cruise fare and paid at final payment date. But then, you can drink to your hearts content (anything less than $15 per drink) without any expense while cruising. Note that NCL's drink package doesn't include bottled/boxed water or specialty coffees. Any drink over $15 only gets billed at the overage +20%. So a $20 glass of wine for example will get billed as $5 + 20% or $6 Total. 3. If you do not care about specialty dining or alcohol, and also are fine with NCL picking your balcony cabin, they will often offer "Sail-Away" rates that are less expensive than the one's offering "perks". The catch is that you do not get to pick your cabin. You will know your cabin sometime before the cruise, but what they give you is what you get. Keep in mind that if you then drink you will either pay as you go or need to buy a drink package at retail ($99 per person per day Plus 20% gratuity, so that $831.60pp for a 7-day!) THERMAL SPA! While the Prima is new and much is unknown, they will have a Spa with a Thermal Suite. The Thermal Suites on NCL are GREAT! They have whirlpools, soaking spas, saunas, steam rooms, ice rooms, and room to quietly relax in spa environment (lots of youtube videos you can find for current ships). We highly recommend this if that is appealing to you. They sell weekly passes or, you can get one of the Spa Cabins that have access to that section as a perk. Hope these little bits help. Enjoy whatever cruise you pick!

We are in the exact same situation on our June cruise….2BR with 3 adult children. Here is what I can tell you….last month we were on the Epic and we asked the concierge on that cruise if it can be done when we take our June cruise. He said If we talked to our concierge on the Joy in June that they would be able to do this for us once on board. I’ll report back in June if we were successful.