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It's all about value to us. Usually in the NYC market Royal is usually more expensive than NCL even including the gratuity on the "free" drink package. We just booked the Anthem to change things up and I bought the drink package. She doesn't drink enough to buy a Royal package.

We will just switch back to NCL since Royal in this market will become much more expensive than NCL having to buy individual drinks with their high drink prices. Our scenario may not match everyone's, but they will certainly lose our business.

Thanks for the feedback! I did also notice the glass panels over the yc sun area in some of the photos and was wondering how they thought you were supposed to get a tan.

Yes, we have separate line-items for onboard for each passenger too, but i am tempted to call them up since the current deal is very similar price-wise, but you do get the addition of free wifi now.

Thanks very much for the review! Was in the Haven on the Breakaway over New Years and could certainly use another Haven experience if the price is right.

We noticed a few changes on the Breakaway since our previous time in the Haven. We rarely saw anyone taking drink orders on the upper sun deck and never saw anyone on port days.Breakaway. Always service on our previous Haven trip including bringing lunch to your chair. Figured it was just more cutbacks. Curious what your experience will be.

Have a great trip!

I believe the corresponding status match expires after a year since I received notification that I was downgraded in my Matched Mlife tier. Never called up to see if you can get it reset by calling or just a one shot and you need to earn the level back on your own.

We were just on the Equinox in April and we were surprised that they didn't have any concert on the lawn like we saw in the past.

For those trying to stretch a bit to afford a Haven cabin upfront, the additional charges do make a big difference. They have already increased the prices for the Haven and to add these on top, does get it to a breaking point for us.

I don't like relying on the upgrade bidding since there are many factors - bid isn't accepted/no cabins available/can't cancel late if bid not accepted.

I was on the fence about booking the Breakaway in November and waiting for the Haven to come down a little bit so there goes that theory (for now).

Depends upon the boat/crowd. One Carnival cruise they didn't make it an elegant night because it didn't fall on the scheduled elegant night. Cruise director indicated he was leaving it up to people to decide themselves rather than make it mandatory.

Carnival did have a great party with a DJ by the pool, but it was a little odd having the younger folks in suits/dresses and the older crowd in shorts and aloha shirts.

We have done NYE cruises the last 6 years on various cruise lines and have found in general the "younger" crowd seems to like dressing up more than the more mature crowd. Younger demo on cruise, dressier NYE. Just our experience, but you will have a great time regardless!

Don't just ask for water even if the bartender knows you have the premium package since you will get the generic water. You must specifically ask for Evian. Same goes for mixed drinks, they will use the house brand even if they know you have the premium. Bartenders must be instructed to give the cheap stuff unless specifically requested.

There was an article recently that indicated this area is the last to be completed and will be done by the end of the year.

Yes, this was a huge missed opportunity for Celebrity to truly make the sailing a signature cruise as they advertised. You had 100s of bands that performed at jazz fest during the day, plus acts who just come into the city to perform at clubs/theaters during the jazz fest who could have been easily brought onboard to perform.

Celebrity was ignorant about Jazz fest that they had the departure on Sunday scheduled for 7pm. Jazz fest always ends on 7pm so originally nobody could stay for the headliners. Onboard they made it out that they were doing us a huge favor pushing out the departure to 9 to allow people to stay through the headliners. If they ever made one phone call to the Jazz fest organizers when they scheduled the cruise they could have told them they needed a later departure from the start.

Our experience sounded the same as the Mardi Gras cruise where Celebrity just scheduled docking during these events and didn't lift a finger to interact with the events to make it a unique cruise. Very disappointing.

Food is so subjective, we also just got off the Equinox on Friday. We were in a A2. Room was nice, but we never stepped into Blu since we never liked the menus on nights we didn't have speciality reservations.

Thanks for all the feedback! We are on the Jazz cruise in a month. Was there any restriction on what time during the night you could get back on the ship? There are some early am shows we would like to see, but not sure if you can get back on the ship at 4am.

Does anyone have info on the beds. Website says 99% of cabins have king size beds. Are these real king size beds or two beds put together?

Seems very restrictive if they are solely have the one bed. Some do have sofa beds or an upper but not many.

Anyone notice that a large number of the infinity balcony rooms are labeled as partially obstructed view even on the opposite side of the magic carpet. Can't believe that this many cabins could obstructed midship on the other side.

MR_T,

thanks for the link to the deck plans! It solved the riddle whether the Retreat would be like NCL/MSC "gated" suite areas including facilities and rooms and it isn't.

There are plenty of suites that don't reside within the Retreat area so you don't have the same atmosphere as the NCL Haven and MSC Yacht Club. Realize that at least NCL has some rooms outside of the Haven, but the majority are within the complex. I do prefer the ship within a ship concept on NCL as opposed to the Edge setup if i am spending this type of money.

It is interesting to see what is in the More to come space on deck 14/15 around the Retreat areas. They are already showing Retreat lounge/restaurant/sundeck so can't be that space.

I know that NCL Bliss is going to have a 2 deck observation lounge in the front with one floor for the Haven guests. Wonder if something like this is coming.

We were in the haven on the Breakaway over New Year's. We were aware of the new lagoon area for the Haven not being completed yet, but we didn't read about or told about a current reserved area.

We booked a clamshell and got it at the closest beach to the pier (don't remember the beach names). We noticed when we walked further on the island towards the buffet area, there was a section by the beach that had chairs designated as Haven only. We were a little annoyed that this was not stated as a perk since we just bought the clamshell to have chairs. We had heard and it is true that chairs are in short supply pretty quickly due to the ongoing construction areas.

Be prepared to have to buy a champagne/table package in many of the venues to get a seat on NYE. We are not champagne drinkers so we didn't feel the need and were shocked how many of their "limited availability" tables were sold in lounges. We have never had to pay extra on any of the other cruise lines on NYE to get a seat in venues. They already substantially increase the cruise price at NYE so they are just gouging customers so be prepared. We love cruising for NYE, but we just do it on other cruise lines now.

The Haven entrance area many times had a lot of wind from the pool deck doorway right next to the entrance. We found that you had to pull the door shut behind you many times since it didn't latch due wind draft. People could certainly get in if the door didn't latch like this. We did mention this and put it in comments, but not sure they can do much besides adding a heavier door.

I am sure that people could also wait for someone to scan their card and walk in behind them. Not sure how many vacationers would question another guest saying hold the door or a haven guest letting in a bunch of non-haven friends.

bottom line, without someone at the door checking, there are plenty of ways people can get in. It is then up to the staff to figure out if they belong if they are not buying drinks or going into the restaurant where they are showing a card.

Not that they want to imitate Carnival, but they were smart and had their new ship Vista do a few cruises after the transatlantic out of NYC before moving the ship to Miami. This allowed them to satisfy the NY crowd with a few cruises and let agents in the area see the ship before it moved to Florida.

They did mention that they would be adding additional voyages from NYC in the next few weeks. I didn't see many gaps in the announced sailings so wonder what else it could be beyond the repo to Miami?

Was hoping we might see a trip to Bermuda so maybe that will be part of the repo. Certainly not a way to get people booking the Horizon out of NY now when you are claiming there will somehow be additional sailings released soon.

We have done a few upsells and have been happy with the results. I really liked the ability to choose from available categories and locations.

I don't like the blind bidding on just a class of room (I.e. Haven). Essentially you are now just booking a guaranteed cabin and you could bid a lot of money and you may get stuck with a category/location you don't want. I haven't seen anything written where you could refuse.

We will be reluctant to try for Haven upgrades again with this new process.

We were there just a few weeks ago and they ran out of chairs for the holiday week cruise (breakaway). People were complaining it was like years ago before the expanded the island where if you didn't get an early tender you didn't get a seat.

We had read that the lagoon would be for Haven guests, those who booked spa packages in the lagoon and for those who bought a limited number of passes. Haven't seen details on the passes as to prices, numbers and who could buy.

Yes, we were looking at the Haven prices too and they are really excessive and we agree that they have been scaling back the product. You can certainly go on a luxury lines for their Haven pricing on Bliss.

We were just on the Breakaway in the Haven. We did also see the infusion containers but never asked about them. You just need to be aware that Patron is no longer included free in the drink package since it is now dubbed a premium liquor. It is at $16.95 which is above the $15 limit for the included drinks.

You would need to pay the extra 1.95 plus an 18% tip (I believe just on the 1.95) for each Patron.

FYI - NCL was also enforcing the local tax on drinks if you were in port including GSC so you were paying the tax on the full amount of your cost for each 'free' round with your drink package.