cruiservictor

We were on the Joy for B2B2B beginning 9/25 and the dinner with the officers was not held on any of them. Neither was the VIP party in the Haven. The Q&A with the Captain and Chief Engineer was held on the first 2 cruises, but neither of them hung around afterwards to schmooze, as they often do. The CN team and the GMs secretary said the changes were due to “precautionary” reasons. Both used that same word. My wife and I had sailed with Captain Hakan so many times that we got together with him for about an hour in the Haven’s Horizon Lounge. When I asked him point blank if all these changes were due to Covid, he said no, it was actually the flu that was running through the crew. We first sailed with him on the new Breakaway in September 2013, so I don’t think he would lie to us. ie say it was the flu when it was really Covid.

We thought so too, but we were told by a senior officer that the problem is really the flu.

What I meant by back to normal was that the main theater shows and the comedy shows in the Social would go back to requiring reservations either from home or once on the ship.

On this cruise with you, finishing up 3 in a row. For the 9/25 and 10/4 departures, the main shows in the theater and the Levity comedy shows in the Social all required reservations. We were told they are not requiring reservations for those shows on this cruise because it is only 5 days long. Things will go back to normal for the 10/16 repo cruise to Miami. At least that’s what we were told.

We are onboard, finishing up 16 days onboard and staying on for 5 more. The concierge is Efren Acesor and his assistant is Xinmu He (aka Mr. X). We have found them both to be wonderful.

A slight correction to what I posted above. Vincent did leave today, but Jake will come onboard next Wednesday 10/4 in Quebec City. Assistant CD Mady will act as CD until then.

Norwegian Joy - voyage of 9/25/23. Captain - Hakan Svedung. Staff Captain - Stijepo Jokic. Chief Engineer - Patrik Olofsson. GM - Ricardo Pinheiro. Assistant GM - Alvina Athanase. F&B Director - Gilbert Derecho. Guest Service Manager - Giannina Pedraza. Executive Housekeeper - Cherry Paje. Executive Chef - Savio DaSilva. Cruise Director - Vincent Teschel (leaving for POA Sat 9/30. Jake Laflin returns then.) Beverage Manager - Jing Chen. Restaurant Manager - Gautam Pardeshi. Cruise Next Manager - Michael Smith (leaving in NY Wed 10/11.) Haven Concierge - Efren Acesor.

Hope you are able to call in Halifax tomorrow. Who is the Captain for this cruise?

Up ahead of you are the Oceania Vista and the Emerald Princess, also heading for NYC.

Thanks for all the information you have both provided about your trip. If one of you could post a picture of the officer board on deck 6 forward, that would be great. Wish you smooth sailing back to NY.

Henry - based on what I read elsewhere, disembarkation will occur on Sunday morning, as usual. You will all stay onboard until then.

I do hope you get to sail with Kivanc. We had several great cruises with him on the Escape out of NY several years ago. This past February, we were on the Getaway in St Thomas on the same day Kivanc and the Escape were there. I had reached out to him ahead of time and arranged to chat with him briefly on the pier. He did tell us that the Escape was coming to NY in September and that he would be going home on vacation after the first or second cruise. Schedules always can change, so I do hope he will be onboard for you next week.

Thank you so much for all the time and effort you are putting into this. And, I am so glad to be able to see your great pictures.

Is anybody able to see the pictures? Except for one, all I am getting is a blank box with a question mark in the middle. Viewing on my iPhone.

We’ll see. I am sure they are keeping an eye on Idalia as well.

Yes. I corrected myself up above. However what I am seeing now is that the Sept 1 and 2 call of the Joy is still scheduled.

I see the updated version now. Thank you both. Interestingly, the Joy’s call for this coming Friday and Saturday is not showing cancelled. That cruise will leave NY this Wednesday.

I don’t see any cancellations in that document since April. Used your link and went to marops.bm on my own. Not saying there won’t be cancellations, just that I don’t see them there yet.

Norwegian Joy - cruise of 8/13/23, sent to me by a friend who was onboard. Captain - Dan Svensson. Staff Captain - Stijepo Jokic. Chief Engineer - Ioannis Karloutsos. GM - Rohinton (Ron) Mottahed. Assistant GM - Trevor Swart. F&B Director - Ricardo Pinheiro. Guest Service Manager - Giannina Pedraza. Executive Housekeeper - Cherry Paje. Executive Chef - Savio DaSilva. Cruise Director - Jake Laflin. Beverage Manager - Suresh Palyekar. Restaurant Manager - Gautam Pardeshi. Cruise Next Manager - Michael Smith. I will be onboard 9/25 and will post an updated list then.

I should have asked you this earlier in your trip, but is Dilip’s last name Lopes? We had Dilip Lopes as our butler on the Escape in 2018. (I keep track.). Could it be the same Dilip?

There may be some other changes in the works. We are booked B2B on the Getaway 1/27 and 2/6. The itineraries are slightly different and each includes a stop in Bermuda and at several Caribbean islands. Our travel agent says that he can see in his system that the names of the cruises have been changed to refer to Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos. We have never been to the T&Cs, while we have been to all the islands on the original itineraries. So this may not be a bad change, for us.

Worked perfectly. Thank you. I see Dan Dan is your cruise director. We had him many times on the Breakaway out of NY. He has been on the Bliss now for quite a while. Looking forward to your posts this week.

We had been informed a few days before that the arrival would be delayed. We live just north of NY City, so we were lucky that we could just stay home and reschedule our car service pickup. My recollection is that we arrived at the pier around 6PM. We expected the Breakaway to be there already because we had not heard yet about those last minute emergencies you described. Once we got going it was a great trip. Here we are with Chief Engineer Zoran, Staff Captain Viktor, Captain Matko and Hotel Director (now GM) Vuk.

My wife and I were on pier 88 waiting for you to arrive. It was the repo cruise to NOLA. We started boarding at midnight, had the muster drill at 2:30AM and eventually departed at about 6:30AM. Just looked it up. It was October 27, 2018.

Loving another report from @BirdTravels Thanks for the pictures of the senior officers. Recognized Captain Matko and Chief Zoran from past cruises on the Breakaway, and Staff Captain Marco and Restaurant Manager Melroy from the Escape. Does anyone know if CD Will Oliva is related in any way to CD Alvin Oliva?