Sailing12Away

Made it inside 93 for more lines. Still trying to get to security before we can take advantage of Haven perks.

Still on the bus. They stopped letting people inside pier 93, so tons of people standing in the rain not moving. Too crowded in there to let more in until they bus them over to the circus tent. So no point letting us off the bus when we can't go anywhere. I thought the complaints about this terminal were exaggerated.... They're not. Trying not to complain too much since we're still dry. But this is madness. Doubt we'll be able to leave on time tonight. My fellow bus mates are comparing snacks in our carry on bags to ration food 🤪

Not much progress, bus is going backwards now as we can't go forward. Crowds outside are insane.

Progress!

It's almost comical at this point. Only two cars have made it into the port area in the past 10 mins. Different view of the RCC ship at least. Yeah for progress?

Ok, it's official. Traffic in LA is worse than NYC. I can see the Star Trek cruise with RCC, but still no sight of the Joy.

Had to wait about 90mins for the NCL transfers, even though they told us we would only be waiting about 40 mins when we got down there. There's convenience and laziness with the transfers, but when I land I want to go. Not sure we'll do then again, last time we had an excessive long wait too. Finally on our way to the port. It's raining cats and dogs out here. Good thing we've got a ship waiting for us...

Nice sunrise as we left, but icky here in LA.

Just arrived in LA about 30 past our scheduled arrival. Kudos to AA for having fresh hot chocolate chip cookies to hand out as we left the plane to make up for icky weather. We paid $50 for comfort plus seats and ended up with no one in the middle, so it was a very nice (long) flight. As soon as you get down to baggage claim NCL reps were there waiting to check us off their list. Just waiting on the shuttle bus now. One step closer to cocktails! And yes, the price of $300/pp/day is all in price.

From our front door at home to sitting on the plane in under an hour. They're saying it will be a long flight due to the head winds. Time to catch up on sleep. See you in LA everyone!

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to just roll with the flow tomorrow and hope for the best. If we find ourselves waiting long with nothing to do, that beer will definitely not make it on board.

We can still be future cruise friends. I'm an equal opportunity drinker. And if you don't drink at all, it just means more for me.

We were originally set to sail out of port 40 something in LA... but about an hour ago they changed it. With the predicted crappy weather, this seems to be a positive change. Again, as long as my flight gets me to LA then I don't really care too much if I need a shuttle bus or a donkey... just get me on the ship and get a drink in my hand. We're bringing a large bottle of bourbon barrel beer (looks like a wine bottle) as well as a few tall cans in our checked bags. First time trying to bring some beer on at embarkation, so we'll see what happens. Have had no issue with wine in the past and no issues with a handful of beer cans at ports, so I don't anticipate an issue. But again, with NCL you never know. It's not like we're bringing a 24 pack of Natty Ice with the intent of getting bumbling drunk - it's onesies twosies to share with future friends that haven't gotten to try some of these brands/styles. We have the drink package, so again, logically can't see why they would be opposed to us paying for their booze and us not even drinking it (oh we will), and it's not liquor we're brining that adds a safety/liability issue. But... you never know unless you try. Not trying to break rules per se, just trying to see if they follow logic. It's for the sake of science!

Was on the fence about whether to actually start a thread or not for this trip, but with lots of questions that folks have been asking about things lately I figured it would just be easier to start one up now the night before our flights, than to try and randomly check in to various other threads and share info as we find it. We were just on the Joy back in September for a Canada/NE cruise, so we're expecting most things should be the same - but well, with NCL they're consistently inconsistent. We're traveling from JFK tomorrow morning, 6am flight scheduled to get us into LAX around 9:30ish. Rolling the dice with a flight the same day, but we've got time on our side with the direction of travel and with the first morning flight out I'm feeling the odds are in our favor. If not - we'll fly out to Cabo ahead of the ship and catch up if we can. It's a vacation... so long as I don't have to show up to work I really don't care where I am for the next 15 days. Have some friends joining us on this trip, so that will make things extra fun. We're all in the Haven, so those late nights closing down the bar will be even more funner as well. For folks that like to complain about Haven pricing, or NCL pricing in general - you need to search better for the deals or try and be more flexible with your travel dates. Pricing on this sailing was decent when we originally booked, then as we got within a few weeks of final payment it plummeted. We were originally booked in an HI cabin with the angled balcony. As pricing dropped, we upgraded to the HH that we had in September (different cabin #) and ended up with a total of about 5K off our original price. When I gave up our HI room, made sure to let my friend know it was available and 5 mins later he snatched that up when he upgraded from him HJ to the HI. Pricing ended up being around $300/pp/day. We've got a bid in on the owners suite, so if anyone doesn't catch their flight tomorrow that room is ours 😉 Dropping off the dog now at the sitter... last minute packing... then off to bed for a 4am wake up call and vacation mode overdrive.

The older ships have no cabins dedicated as "Haven", nor do they have separate access areas devoted to only Haven guests. Dawn, Star, Sun.... They have suites, which gets you priority stuff and a butler, but no special place - no ship within a ship. Those are just suites, but some folks refer to them as the Haven equivalent which I suppose is a misnomer as there is no Haven class on those ships at all. Then there are the jewel class ships. There are cabins called Haven, where you get bonus perks. Those ships have a separate Haven only access area with a pool and sundeck. But no separate restaurant, no separate lounge, no separate bar, etc etc. So you get a private pool area and regular suite perks. But the only difference between a Haven suite and a non-Haven suite on those is access to that pool area. Those ships are the Haven suites with no Haven complex. You get a Haven pool - but that is it. The non-Haven suites on those ships are otherwise identical minus access to that pool. Then with the breakaway and beyond classes.... you start getting more actual perks and amenities included in the exclusivity of being called a Haven guest. As to whether the other person was referring to miscategorizing suites on an older ship as Haven, or referring to the jewel class ships that have Haven rooms but no other Haven areas (beyond the pool), I'm not sure. From what I've gathered all the rooms on the Joy changed drastically. They used to have a ton of 'concierge' level suites - those were changed into lower level Haven rooms (HH, HI, HJ). So instead of being non-Haven suites, they're now full Haven access rooms, but outside of the courtyard area. The 2 remaining non-Haven suites for the Joy are silly to me. One is the inside 2br with the virtual balcony, the other makes no sense to me at all. Just call those the same as the HJ Haven rooms. They're on the same deck and even larger in size....so.... I dunno what they are. But then they would have way too many rooms with Haven access. So to me, there's really no point or incentive to booking that SC room other than a large sized room.

I guess you've got a few choices. Either switch to a different ship or cancel completely. Or.... document all of your attempts to find information about the group and what NCL is planning on doing to address your concerns regarding noise, crowds, non-family friendly behavior, etc. Get it in writing your concerns, and any communication back from them. Then bring that letter with you on the ship. If a problem comes up, go to guest services while on board and have an idea of what you want in terms of resolution in mind. Either relocating to a different cabin if your area is too noisy because of the crowds, compensation for not being able to use the kids activities, pools, partial refund as a FCC since this was not the cruise you envisioned taking and had expressed your concerns ahead of time. I'm ok with groups there to have fun, but my idea of fun seems to be different from that particular group. I'd be fine with some furries. I'd even be fine with the Star Trek folks who are hopping on the cruise ship next to us when we embark in LA 3 days from now...

We were in the garden villa on the Star last May. Won it as an upgrade bid the night before our flight to Spain. There's no Haven, so no separate lounge, bar, restaurant, or private pool. But you get a butler, you get breakfast & lunch in one of the specialty restaurants just for you, priority stuff.... it's the closest you can come to Haven on those ships and was a great experience.

I feel old.... what is Soca? All I can think of is southern comfort, but that would be Soco...

I'll be on the Joy in 4 days. 3? We sail Friday.... whatever that math is... Will do my best to let folks know the current situation for as long as the free internet lasts.

Jewel class ships have the non-Haven suites. Large rooms, lots of extra perks, much cheaper than Haven, and the only difference is no access to the private pool area. Dawn and Star also have similar rooms as they have no Haven on the ship at all. Or look at the Joy. Consider the Haven in a HH category room. It's a large family villa with a murphy bed (so no couch bed, much comfier), fits up to 5 in there with a privacy curtain. Everyone would get Haven access, and since it's outside of the courtyard the rooms are much bigger and much cheaper. So even though it's a splurge, it's a justifiable one.

My NCL My Account I have been trying to get those dopey 2 cent and $1 'credits' removed for months with no success. They just keep extending the expiration dates on certificates that don't work. I think they came after price reductions gone awry on cruises that were already paid in full.

The free at sea (or plus variety) has nothing to do with Haven perks. Free at sea gives you free soda, juice and liquor up to $15 per drink. Anything above that price you just pay the difference. The plus package removes the limit and gives you top shelf liquor, specialty coffee, and boxes of water for free. In the Haven, if you don't have a drink package - you pay as you go for soda, beer, wine, liquor, etc. The only rooms in the Haven that get free drinks are the owners suites or garden villas, and that's only in your room are the drinks free. Free at sea gives you 2 specialty dining credits to use at any restaurant. Haven guests get access to a Haven only restaurant on ships that have one. But you don't get to eat at the specialty restaurants for free if you don't have a dining credit with your package. You would pay as you. Haven guests get priority access for getting on/off the ship, but that has nothing to do with free at sea. Free at sea perks give you either the $50/$100 credit towards excursions - again, has nothing to do with being in Haven or not. Internet - again, with the free at sea the amount of free minutes is based on the length of the cruise. The plus one gives you unlimited minutes I think. Neither of those perks has anything to do with being in Haven. So not sure if you're a bit confused by suite perks from another line, but Haven perks and the free at sea perks are 2 completely separate things. The choice to upgrade to plus depends on how much you like specific brands of liquor or bottles/boxes of water, if internet is important to you, and if you plan on using a lot of NCL excurions.

Those folks may have received a different letter. One that says if you have had any of the following symptoms or were recently diagnosed with Legionella.... Folks on the later sailing are marketed with what to look for if it comes up, whereas less recent sailings may be marketed similar to those horrible lawyer commercials that start with "if you were a victim of xyz.... you may be entitled to compensation...".

The concierge is not used by all guests, so it's not fair to ask them all to pay for such service. Same with the kids clubs - if you don't have children, why should your daily service charge go up an extra $1/day to cover them if you never use them? Same with the spa folks, butler, etc. The DSC covers staff that everyone uses whether they know it or not - the behind the scenes crew for laundry, food service, housekeeping, etc etc.

I've had my eye on that 21 day for some time, pricing has gone up and more than half the suites are already sold out. That 2br is already up to 27K without airfare pricing added in now, so if you nabbed it at 25K consider yourself ahead of the game. A lot of money, yes, but that's for 3 people over 21 days.... so price/person/day isn't bad for a suite. There are deals to be found, but it seems many folks are stuck in the mindset of 'back in my day we paid 25 cents for a pack of cigarettes'. If the other comparable cruise lines were charging $200/pp/day and NCL was consistently at $300-400 for a similar itinerary, length, and cabin - then yes, folks have a point. But I just haven't seen that to be true.