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As a seasoned cruiser, of course the e-muster was a lot easier. We stopped by on the way up to the Haven lounge when the ship was still totally empty and no semblance of any real simulation of what might actually occur. But I knew where I would have to go. And they did spend 2 or 3 minutes showing us how to put on the life jacket. (And I do pay attention since they are always a little different.) But I can understand the need to return to the old style, especially when you hear them repeatedly say anyone who hasn’t reported yet REALLY needed to,.. obvious there were a lot of no-shows. And more so now seeing some of the explanations here. I can also appreciate sitting in the NCL stations in the theater and other similar locations is a lot better than outside in the tight rows on DCL. REALLY hated that. In either case we’ll wear our masks for the muster, which the last few cruises we didn’t wear the rest of the cruise, except for debarkation. Bummer to risk the crowded space right at beginning of the cruise. But it is what it is.

We looked at Yacht Club, but after seeing some video reviews, decided against it primarily because of the “No shade” thing. It’s the same thing that made us cancel the Prima and book another Joy Haven trip instead. Looks like very very little shade on the Prima haven deck. Disappointing.

They vary greatly, but I think I’ve seen anywhere from $1000-$4000.

With the reports of the lack of shade on the Haven deck, and the seemingly nice choice of dinner options outside the Haven, getting one of those suites and some vibe passes might be a better option than the Haven on that ship!

It’s every cruise line now. We had a similar issue on the NCL Joy in the Haven out on the balcony, but our neighbor didn’t know we were out on the balcony since we were just chilling. Then she started singing along which was kinda funny…. But then we started talking to each other and she kinda lowered the music some…. Which is what you’re supposed to do! (Okay, actually supposed to shut it off, but that’s better than nothing!)

For Sky class, they are supposed to email 5-7 days before the cruise, depending on their schedule. Basically the first day or two they’re still dealing with issues for the current cruise, then they email the next cruise people. My wife (our primary contact) got our emails a few weeks AFTER our cruise, they got caught in spam limbo or something. Thankfully someone here posted their email address, and when she emailed them, the replies did come back correctly. Passing it forward. OA_concierge01@rccl.com with OA being the code for Oasis. Do NOT email earlier than 1 week before your cruise, you’ll be wasting your and their time. Enjoy! Star class with genies may be totally different.

It’s off topic, but this is my favorite use of “that is all.” (Only 16 seconds long)

I think both the Getaway and Breakaway have permanently put the tables out in the pool area for overflow and also for the “outdoor” (real for Getaway, but indoor for Breakaway, unless the roof is open) experience for dining. Last October on the Breakaway we ate breakfast at the “outdoor” tables every morning just for a pleasant different experience than eating inside the Haven restaurant which we were doing for dinner most of the trip.

It’s been said multiple times, but I’ll just say it again anyway — always make sure you check your account, every day or close to it. The NCL app has the charges, but the TV breaks out charges and non-refundable OBC separately so you can see where they don’t apply the OBC. But checking is good not just NCL, but anywhere you stay. We had a pet charge on a hotel stay in Universal Orlando. We didn’t have pets, and the date of the charge was the day before we checked in! Mistakes happen. Always check the bill.

Veal chop on the Joy was inedible. One of the worst things served to me in ~20 cruises. Appetizers and soups were all amazing though. 🤷‍♂️ Escargot was super tender.

My mother in law doesn’t eat red meat, and there wasn’t a lot of variety for her. If you like lobster tails, you can get them (as many as you want) every night if you wish…

The rain or the beer? 😁

And of course they have to account for unexpected situations. Last month on the NCL Joy, we didn’t leave NY until after 10PM. (No idea what time low or high tides were then.)

On our recent Joy sailing a few weeks ago, the pre-cruise concierge wouldn’t book any shows. And all of the requests we gave them for room items were completely ignored, and we had to start from scratch with the butler, which was fine. (Last year on the Breakaway we did get the room items we requested.)

Choir of Man and Six were both fantastic. We saw Kinky Boots, not on NCL, but on Broadway (with Wayne Brady and David Cook), and it was a GREAT show.

You’ve also left out the NCL Haven, the original gold standard in “ship within a ship” suite setups. We haven’t tried the Celebrity Retreat or the MSC Yacht club yet, but the Haven puts the Royal suites to shame (same with Disney’s concierge class). We still do Royal’s suites for something different, though. It’s still certainly enjoyable!

I’m from NY, what’s your 🤬🤬🤬 problem??? 😜😁😂🤣😁😁 (j/k if that wasn’t obvious….)

We were in the Haven on the Joy a few weeks ago. Absolutely loved it. We had both the Prima and Joy Haven booked for next spring because we didn’t know which one we wanted to do, and after our Joy trip, we kept the Joy and cancelled the Prima (Prima looks great for a regular cabin, but not sure for Haven, and we like the indoor sundecks on the Joy if the weather is bad.) The Haven restaurant on the Joy was fantastic, food and service were superb. After doing two specialty restaurants, we cancelled our extra two platinum dinners because the Haven restaurant was better than the specialties. The bar staff and indoor/outdoor deck servers were fantastic. They knew us after the first day, said hello all the time, were always there for getting drinks or pool food in the afternoon if we didn’t want to go into the restaurant for lunch. We don’t use the concierge too much, but Patrick and his staff were all fine. Our butler was good, not the best we’ve ever had, but still good. Overall a very positive trip, definitely recommend the Joy, especially for the Haven!

if it makes you feel any better, the one problem we had last year was the Haven restaurant on the Breakaway was super slow, and a little sub-par, as confirmed by our recent amazing experience in the Joy Haven restaurant last month. It was a year ago, but you can tell yourself it’s still not very good, so you don’t miss being in the Haven. 😜. Teppanyaki on the Breakaway was amazing, by the way. Enjoy!

I just stumbled onto this thread, and read through the whole thing. 😁. I’m awaiting to see how everything goes!! Enjoy the cruise! We were on the Breakaway last year right after re-launch and it was great. Six is one of the most unique, and super-fun, shows we’ve seen on a cruise ship. Basically just a six woman concert with no set and just a boatload (pun intended) of talent. Bon voyage!!

Patrick was the concierge on the Joy, and he was fine. We do a lot of planning ahead, so we didn’t use them a whole lot except for the entertainment sheet when boarding and the priority elevator (port and shows) as needed, but they were always there if we had needed anything else, which is all you ask for! For the specialty restaurants, we did La Cucina on day 1 because the Haven restaurant seems to be busiest that night on past trips, because everyone wants it that first night. We’re from NY, which has a reputation for good Italian food, and in general we’ve had some pretty good meals there in the past. The appetizers and pastas (mid course) we got were all VERY good. My entree (osso bucco) was also very good, but my wife got the frutti di mare, and she said the red snapper tasted “off.” You want fish to be on, not off. 😁. The shellfish that also came with the dish she said was fine, and with the other courses, overall she was satisfied, and we would go again and just avoid that entree. (We said after the trip probably for our next Joy cruise to maybe book La Cucina twice and be selective in our choices.). I’ll also add they sat a couple right next to us (which was weird since it was pretty empty, but fine), and the wife got the filet and it looked PERFECT (and she kept raving about it to her husband), and in our group online a few people said they got that there and it was really good, so go get the steak at the Italian place, go figure. For our second specialty we did Le Bistro, and again the apps and soups were really good. The escargot was stellar, really tender. Then the mains told a different story. My wife’s coq au vin (chicken) was okay, but not very tender (it should be slow cooking for a long time and melt in your mouth.,,it didn’t), and my veal chop was literally in-edible. The parts that weren’t fat were gristle. I cut through and I think I had less than half a bite of veal. I can’t fault the waiter, he came by and asked how it was, but we had just finished taking our mandatory pictures of the food and hadn’t actually tasted it yet. It all looked good! But then when we got into it, it was too late and it was a long while before anyone came by, and by that time they did offer to get something else, but we were just done and didn’t even try dessert. We did post about it online and someone else said they had the same exact experience — great starters, disappointing mains. Other people said they had a great dinner there, so hope your experiences are better than ours!! Especially with the package, try for yourself. Again, though, the Haven restaurant was stellar, so we just cancelled the two platinum dinners and stuck with what we knew would be good! Also online for our cruise week a lot of rave reviews for teppanyaki, which we loved on the Breakaway, but when we went to the hibachi on the Oasis of the Seas a couple of months ago, we literally had to get up and leave before it even started because the woman sitting right next to me (shared hibachi seating of course) started hacking up a lung, like a really bad congested cough, as soon as she sat down. Ummm,, no thank you. So we were scared off hibachis for a while!!!

Also adding we’ve been alternating lately between Royal and NCL just because of the convenience of the Bayonne port for us, and just for something different, but Coastal Kitchen (their suite restaurant) is a joke compared to the Haven. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Hi all, Just a quick note on the Haven in the Joy from last week. Really loved it! We were in the Escape Haven pre-covid and loved everything. The Haven restaurant was so good that we cancelled our last specialty restaurant that trip. Then a year ago, right after the restart we sailed in the Breakaway Haven. The bar staff was insanely good, but the restaurant was very slow and disorganized. Over two hour dinners, and the food didn’t wow us. But we attributed that to just restarting. Thankfully, we were right. The Joy was fantastic, the Haven that we knew and loved. After our second specialty dinner was a not good experience at Le Bistro, we ended up just cancelling our two Platinum dinners and just ate the rest in the Haven restaurant. Everything was sooo good, even getting repeat meals for the week,, it didn’t matter when it was all yummy. Embarkation in NY was good, separate Haven lines for everything, and of course the Haven restaurant was open for lunch. Also they had a spa person in the Haven lounge for anyone who wanted to make reservations in addition to the concierge staff making restaurant and show ressies. Debarkation was a bit of a cluster due to a late arrival, but that wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was what it was. Butler was good, but probably should have used the Gary letter, because we had to keep asking for the cookies we wanted. Pre-cruise concierge TOOK our requests, but did nothing with them. (See Seinfeld car rental sketch.). It was all good in the end. We were facing a dilemma for next spring between the Prima and the Joy again, and we’re going to stick with the Joy. We used the indoor sundeck too much (bad weather first and last day) to not have that on the Prima. Good dilemma to have though. 🙂

Interesting catch!

I agree the outdoor area looks amazing in all of pictures. Big improvement. But to go from four indoor areas (indoor pool area, upstairs indoor sundeck, Horizon observation lounge, and the Haven Lounge) to just the one bigger Haven lounge with the bigger bar definitely falls under a miss, especially with over 100 Haven cabins. What happens when it rains?? It’s probably too late to fix anything on the Viva, but I think after this one, it may be like the Epic where they take their big evolution forward and adjust greatly before settling on a real template going forward (with the Breakaway and then plus ships).