slidemaster5

True. Poor woman two cabins away from us was spending part of the cruise this week doing the monthly close. I have no idea how she was getting anything done with the slow Wi-Fi.

Bingo. "We have people who know nothing about stocks being advised by stockbrokers who know even less" - C. Munger

The average age at 6 in the morning was probably 60 anyway. Most of the treadmill users were 50-60. The weight room was also older. Us older folks aren't noisy and are pass the age of dropping things to impress.

I'm a CPA who has worked in corporate taxes for 40 years so here I am, lol. I may be biased, but I am not fond of the financial planner arena. I understand why people use them but thankfully I don't need one and have to find out the hard way if they are competent. I take the leap of faith when I need an electrician or a plumber.....

I was in the weight room on the Gem from 6-7AM along with other regulars and at least that group was placing weights down and didn't drop them. Also, the dumbbells go up to 75lbs, so it is easy to make noises even being gentle. The aerobics room has those thin wooden floors so under that will definitely be noisy.

Thanks. I was going to the fitness center when they opened but I don't think the rest of the group wants to hear me from above, lol.

We were recently on the Gem in the Haven 2 Bedroom Family Villa. If we "downgrade" to the Deck 11, 2 Bedroom Family Suites is there a risk of overhead noise? Since they are below the pool deck I was thinking that a starboard side cabin below the library / card room would be quieter than say below fitness center. Anyone stay in these rooms and have any noise issues or recommend which cabins are quieter?

Just realized NCL labels items as vegetarian, gluten, spicy, on MDR but not on specialty menus. NCL should footnote all menus to assist patrons.

I had to google it. When my wife got it this week the rice looked tiny. I was focusing on the upcoming chocolate cake, so I never asked her what was in it.

I don't follow this risotto discussion. Cagney's has risotto with all meals so: (1) It could have been offered to the vegetarian (assuming a non-meat broth) (2) The vegetarian could have requested it as a meal (3) It doesn't need to be made on the fly or from minute rice lol

Back when we used to frequent Vegas and get lounge access I used to joke about the free $100 drinks we got. Now I can joke about the free M&Ms that are effectively $1 each.

Wait until NCL introduces service avatars and adds in the gratuity.....

Can vouch for this. First time at Cagney's they overcooked the steak. A steakhouse that can't cook medium is not impressive. It was better the second time. I guess they needed practice.

Yes, breakfast and lunch. My first point is that if you google it you will see all three Haven meals. For Jewel class ships you see the dinner you don't get, lol.

I think last night's bill (they make you sign it with 0 due) was $132 and we had just an entree and dessert each - no appetizers.

The menu that is posted on CC (I forgot where) is accurate. If you google NCL Haven 2024 menu you can see all three meals. (I just did it). You can go off menu, but I didn't really try. I am not a breakfast person, but we went to Moderno's every morning and I never got sick of it. (I will be lost tomorrow morning, lol). Besides the a la carte menu the breakfast bar has pastries and fruit. For lunch I alternated between Grilled Salmon and French Dip. Being a chocolate lover, I also erred by not getting the Dark Chocolate Walnut Brownie from Day 1. Every time I went to specialty dining or MDR they gave us a window seat. If you are waiting in a line, they can't do much since they don't know who you are until they read your card. When we went to O'Sheehans they messed up my wife's order, so the manager came over to apologize and they gave us a new waiter and gave my wife a new plate instantly. They definitely knew who we were.

If you are in a full suite then you will have the Moderno's for breakfast and Cagney's for lunch options along with priority embark/disembark. We enjoyed that and got to know other cruisers and the staff since it is a smaller group. From a price standpoint I agree that on the jewel class ships the suite may be a better value. I disagree, however, with those that say it's no good because it's too small: (1) The jewel class does not have a Haven dedicated restaurant, but we have the same menu in the private restaurants. Granted we lose the dinner option. I enjoyed the change of venue. (2) Sure, the Haven pool and area is small but there are only 18 Haven suites. Also, the Haven sun deck has enough cabanas and loungers for a small army. That was one perk I didn't expect. We basically had the pool and whirlpool and cabanas to ourselves. To each their own. Once we go on a larger ship we can compare firsthand.

Returned from our first NCL and first Haven trip today: Ship Gem - Boston to Bermuda / Bar Harbor. May 31 - June 7. Pre-Trip Responded to land concierge with juice / snack request and selected our pillow menu options. When we went into our cabin the requested food was there. The pillow arrived with first night turndown service. Embarkation Boston starts the check in process at 10AM. There is a separate line for Haven before security check. After security and regular check-in, we were escorted to Haven area where they had drinks and snacks. Didn't stay there more than 5 minutes or so before the first group of us met with the concierge and were escorted on the ship. We were seated at Moderno's at 10:45 and given drinks / food. We went to lunch just before noon at Cagney's. Our rooms were ready around 1PM. We met our butler, Rogin, and our cabin steward, Hared, that afternoon. Service Both Rogin and Hared were friendly and talkative (pending their duties). We asked them about their NCL experience and homelife. By Day 2 if I returned to my cabin alone, they would ask about my wife by name and what she was doing. My wife brings small "travel animals" that we received from our son who has had many deployments and Hared made towel animals to match. Small touch but very effective. Rogin would tell us when he planned on stopping by and do any necessary follow-ups. We ended up switching specialty dining around and were given anytime time and any day we wanted. The customs process is done on the Bar Harbor entry day, and we just bypassed the queue. Disembarkation Priority starts at 8:30. We had our breakfast at 7:30 and then went to the waiting area. Walked off the ship at 8:30, took 30 seconds to find luggage in port. We got in awaiting car service and we were home by 9:30 (we live 45 miles away). Rookie Mistakes I made two that I will not repeat: (1) Butler letter. I know Sthrngary's "pre-tip" maybe controversial (I didn't do it) but I believe his butler letter idea should be required! I had all my reservations done and figured I didn't want to "burden him or her" but was wrong because of this: (a) The butler provides better service the more they know you. You are creating a disservice by not giving them something to start with. For example, when we got our initial canapes and didn't touch them since we are picky, he asked "what type of canapes do we want"? (b) Our butler had 10 cabins - 7 on deck 14 and three on deck 11. He needs to learn the nuances of many people in his first few days. Something in writing gives him a cheat sheet. This didn't dwell on me until I was on the ship. (2) Don't try to help them: One night I wanted O'Sheehan's pretzel bites to bring back. I happened to be walking past so I attempted to do that. The maitre d' seated me, but the managers freaked out that I was doing this (if you are Haven you are tracked) and asked me to go back to my room where they would be delivered. Instead of having the night butler bring them they had my butler come back to do it. Rogin had a sense of humor - the next day he brought up a special order of them in the canape container as a surprise. In summary the wife has already requested Haven for any future NCL trips. Special thanks to Sthrngary for this column.

Got off the Gem today and last night they played Game 1 of the finals on Channel 24.

Shows Day 2 was Blazing Boots. My wife is into country and liked it. I am not into country so for me it was meh. Day 3 and Day 5 was Music and Comedy of Tom Franek. We missed Day 3. He does a few standup bits but mostly plays piano and sings with the band. Some songs are comical some are straight. He is classically trained so he can play. If you have ever seen Victor Borge (before my time but I have seen him on YouTube) he is similar. Enjoyed this show - especially when he took requests similar to "Whose Line is it Anyways" show. Day 6 was Whitney Houston Everlasting. Brand new show on any ship (we were told). This is basically an avatar show with Whitney avatar singing actual vocals mixed with live singers and band. I was hesitant going in but actually enjoyed it. Weird seeing people giving a standing ovation to an avatar but the live singers and band made it feel "real" at times. Day 7 was Get Down Tonight. I was looking forward to this show being familiar with 70s music and I thought it was bad. The issue I had was you don't have to imitate the original artist, but you need to emote the song. Most of the songs were like "Glee meets the 70s" - bland. A few singers can actually sing and emote; the other singers were ugh. The post show parade of crew members was better than the show, lol. For all shows I thought the Gem Orchestra was solid. We thought the house band "Upgrade" was ok. We mainly saw them at Sail Away. Food We were in the Haven so I will discuss Dinner. We did two meals in Cagney's and several in MDR, O'Sheehans, and tried the buffet. Cagney's was a bit disappointing since they overcooked my steak on the first attempt. (I also wanted to eat fish, but the fish option is gone - see new thread on new menu). The sides we had were ok. The deserts were very good. MDR - I found to be a hit or miss. I recommend trying the daily specials as they seem to be better than the fixed menu. Buffet seemed average at best. We did go there once when they had rotisserie chicken special and that was very good. We occasionally did "run-ins" to grab something over the course of the day - especially sea days. O'Sheehans pub food was what I expected it to be, and we enjoyed it. We found the actual service to be good and consistent between Haven meals in Moderno/Cagney's and MDR. We used Grand Pacific for all MDR.

This week was our first Haven cruise. We requested snacks and juices, and they were there when we arrived. We also picked our pillows from the menu, and they arrived as part of turndown. So, the pre-cruise concierge followed through. We had made our own reservations, so I didn't give the sthrngary letter since I didn't feel like there was much to list. However, I will on our next trip. The reason? Our butler had 10 cabins on two decks. We met him the first day, but it is going to take him a few days to get the feel of his clients. Once he knew what we preferred he could tailor things better. For example, he gave us customized canapes once he knew we really only wanted desert or cheese type items. In regard to allergies: every specialty restaurant we went to and MDR asked about food allergies as their first line when seating us.

We cruised out of Boston this week and they started allowing checking in at 10AM. To my knowledge they were not looking at assigned times.

I just did the simple math approach: I am taking several NCL cruises and have status with BOA. That means I automatically get a 5.25% credit on all NCL trip related expenses without addressing other perks. Getting the card does not entice me to spend more since my trips are long planned out.

Got off the Gem this morning. Pleasantly surprised how good she looked. The motif is the older wood finishes which gives a darker look, but I did not see any worn-out common areas.

We were told this both nights and heard it being said to the other tables. This was our first NCL cruise and I was going to try the fish. I guess i missed it by a few days.