sarahandmike23

9 minutes ago, HoosierShipmate said:

Good morning from somewhere warmer than my hometown….at least a little warmer it’s still a bit chilly, but a great view!

 

Yes!!!! We are loving the hot sun on our faces and the warm air. Have a great day!

1 hour ago, ltmguy said:

Thanks  for sharing we are in Haven March 3

You’re welcome. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to find out for you.

We’re still coming down the Mississippi River at 9:45 pm C. I had no idea it took this long to get to the gulf. Very calm waters and slight movement of ship. Here’s a photo of the Haven pool area this evening. We had dinner outside. It was so peaceful. 

I have the drink package and was enjoying Peach Bellini’s from the Haven bar. My husband is having Tito’s and lime juice on the rocks. The pours have been great, as has the bar service. We are tipping a couple dollars cash with each drink. They are super grateful. 
At dinner I wanted a premium glass of wine which is $19 per glass. They just charged me $4 + gratuity for it, which is the difference from the $15 limit of drink package I have. Also since we were still in the US technically, they also charged $1.70 tax. We tipped $5 cash for the 3 drinks they brought us as dinner. 
For dinner I had the Prime Rib which came with vegetables and a small baked potato. The vegetables were cooked so perfectly, I have to remember to ask for more vegetables next time. They brought around toppings for the baked potato - fresh chives, cheddar cheese, sour cream and bacon were the choices. The creamed corn side was pretty good but spicy - must have jalapeños in it.

I started with the deviled eggs with no lobster on them (I don’t eat shellfish and they accommodated for all of our groups substitutions). The deviled eggs were slightly bland but after cracking peppercorn on them, they were really good - great consistency. Only disappointment in our group were the desserts. We didn’t find them as good as the desserts in years past like the carrot cake or espresso brownie. My son had the chocolate decadent cake - it’s very soft, mostly mousse.

My husband has the cheesecake which he did like, but he said he has much better before.

Others in the group had the New York Strip and the Lamb chops with no pancetta. 
 

It was a great, all around dinner experience though. 

Details from our checkin experience today:

We left our hotel at 10am by car service. What should have been 10 minute drive was about 45 minutes. There was terrible traffic to get to the terminal. When we got to the terminal we entered through door 4, baggage handlers were right there to help and super friendly (we tipped $10), and then walked down the hall to the queue for security. There were 3 lines for security. All guests go through these lines and they all move at the same speed. These security lines are right at door 1.

 

We got in security line at 10:40 and it took less than 20 minutes to have our edocs verified against identifications. Then you go immediately through metal detector lines - there were no people in line here with 2 open stations.

We then walked around the outside of the lines to check in to go to Haven check in. There were 9 open spots for Haven check in. We were checked in and had cards in less than 5 minutes for 3 of us. We were then escorted to the Haven lounge where they offered to board us immediately at 11:10. We were waiting for friends so we waited there first and a few minutes. While waiting I heard them announcing boarding for Group 1 at 11:15, Group 2 at 11:23, Group 3 at 11:24. Our friends arrived then and we were escorted on immediately. They take you straight to your muster station to have badge scanned. For 16122, our muster is at the theater. We then went for lunch at American Diner which is free for Haven guests on embarkation day. We were one of 3 tables. The weather was pretty cool outside. The food was good. We all had burgers, which were excellent. I had a Caesar salad on the side instead of fries. Our room was already ready when we checked at 12:30 and baggage was in our room by 1. One thing to note, our butler greeted us almost immediately after we arrived on the ship. His name is Marc. He gave us his card and said he’d come to our room later to meet us and find out how he can help us through the week. He did come to our room and was super nice, took notes of what we like. Asked all 3 of us what he could do specifically for each of us. I was impressed, especially after reading a recent Breakaway review where the guest said they never saw their butler until the last day. 

4 minutes ago, Erekosse said:

@HoosierShipmate @sarahandmike23 

We will be on this cruise as well! It's just me and my wife on this trip. We are heading to NOLA from ATL by car on Friday. We look forward to bumping into y'all onboard.

Awesome. Looking forward to it!

2 hours ago, HoosierShipmate said:

@dcn8tve Love the Go Hoosiers post - and we would have been at IU around the same time!  I’m a ‘92 grad.  @sarahandmike23 Hopefully we will meet on the ship!  As you might imagine from the prior post we’ll be the family in the ridiculous amount of Indiana University clothing and/or ‘ElderRaver’ gear 🙂

We’ll be looking for you definitely!  6 more days!

Well…. This will be fun!  We are on the same cruise. We’ll be flying in from ATL to New Orleans on Friday morning. This will be our first family weekend in NO. We have dinners planned there at Bayona and Bistro Daisy, and some spa appointments to be ready for the cruise. We’ll be delivered to the port Sunday at 10:30. It’ll be my husband, son (24) and me. We’ve been on the Breakaway once and many other NCL cruises. This is our first cruise post-Covid. We have dinners planned at Moderno, Teppanyaki and Le Bistro. We arranged for spa passes onboard. Hope to meet you all. Happy to post photos and comments on our experiences as well. 

Thank you for the review. We’re on the Sky next year over thanksgiving for 10

days. I haven’t heard of ResortPass before. Was this your first time using?  Did you enjoy that particular resort, food, service?

On 12/25/2022 at 9:26 AM, CILCIANRQTS said:

https://www.ncl.com/prepare-for-your-cruise/2021

This link had good information but it also had this which I thought wasn’t required anymore:

• Acknowledge that you and each guest age twelve and over in your stateroom will be fully vaccinated at least 2 weeks prior to departure .

3 minutes ago, complawyer said:

i did a little more research for you.. (again because im anal) although they are not my cup of tea, carnival has a number of cruises sailing in sept to various destinations in the carribbean.

 

so, i j hope you find a cruise intinerary that you will enjoy.

 

if so, bon voyage!

Thank you so much. It’s been driving me crazy so I appreciate your help. 🙂

5 minutes ago, complawyer said:

also, remember that sept is mid hurricane season in the carribbean. being anal, and trying to help answer your question, all ncl ship sailing out of american ports, are going to canada.

Helpful. Thank you. 

2 minutes ago, BBlake43 said:

I think most of the ships are in other areas until October 

Ok thank you. Was surprising to see nothing going out of Florida the whole month. I didn’t realize cruise ships didn’t go out of Florida then. 

I have been trying to look for Caribbean cruises for Sept 2023, but on NCL.com none show available. I messaged an NCL associate on live chat and they said they can’t see any available either and to try back in a few days - which I’ve done and still not available. Any ideas?  Can anyone else see cruises out of Miami or other Caribbean cruises available in September?

7 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

 

But I have a question. We checked in online for our November cruise. For our upcoming cruise next month will we have to do the picture thing again? Or is it "on file"?

What is the “picture thing”?  I haven’t cruised in 4 years and I’ve been seeing about taking a picture to check in?

1 hour ago, njsmom said:

NCL just changed the name of the Ocean Villa to Beach Villa. The size, price and description is exactly the same. The text on their excursion page has been updated to say Beach Villa but they haven't updated the video yet to say Beach Villa. It still says Ocean Villa: https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/NPI_45/Ocean-Villa-at-Silver-Cove

 

I've been paying attention to this because I booked one, too, and we leave on our cruise in five days. 

Thank you!  Hope you have a great cruise and would love to hear about your Villa experience upon your return!

What’s the difference between Silver Cove Ocean Villa and Silver Cove Beach Villa?  They are the same price. 

Thank you for posting. After being out of cruising since 2019, I didn’t know it was increasing.