Fogfog

Heard some folks using The Drop earlier today. Nice flat seas. Going to try that fish you had the other night at Palomar. @Sugar Magnolia did the posse make it to the club or did long dinners time change do you all in?

Check in in NYC was a nightmare. Plenty of blame to go around. While we were disappointed, many others had it far worse. Prima arrived late..and we knew she would. She berthed at 10am. Our check in was 12. We arrived at MCT about 11 as cross town traffic was lighter than expected. taxi was about $18.00 When we arrived we gave bags to porter, tipped and went in to cool our heels. When they opened lines around 11:30 ish we were about 24th in Haven line and I am guessing about 400 in other lines. I couldn’t tell when the high status latitudes folks were. Have some first hand accounts from friends re that if you’d like more. It isn’t pretty. At 12:40 they open the facial recognition and carry on bag screening…multi stations. And only 1 for Haven. Then the survival of the fittest race down the terminal to cue again to check in…lots of open agents for status..yet only 2 for Haven. Very slow. Got put into a room with metal chairs like the DMV…and told to complete an immigration form for Canada…which was pure theater as many on ship in gen pop told us they didn’t do it and we are US passport holders. We watched them bringing off pax from previous sailing ..still..at 1:20pm About 1:40pm they announced to the room of now about 100 Haven pax that we were going up to Haven..again a free for all. There were Haven pax dragging their own 30” roller bags, people pushing elderly parents in wheel chairs..it was crazy. Arrive into Haven lounge onboard after almost 3 hours. Friends in gen pop had it far worse. Our Haven tags were supposedly mailed in March…never came. we are told Haven doesn’t get any priority for bags for embarkation. They certainly don’t tag and handle them like YC does at the piers in Fl…we haven’t sailed from Genova. The Haven pier lounge had juice, small bites..MCT, not Brooklyn. Many of us were feeling full on “BettyWhite” after it all. Interestingly…with YC we are all in with prem bev pack and wifi Not so with Haven So every time you order a drink they need your card…all cruise long..both at the bar and dinner table And..while in port they tax you on every drink for embarkation. IDK if we paid taxes while in Iceland. We are at sea and arrive in Amsterdam in the am. With YC we don’t get nickeled and dimed like that since it’s all bundled. No one was happy with embarkation.

Yikes. So sorry. Big difference between green n mint for certain. We had started recruiting folks for Abba, then met a couple from Dublin…got distracted at the bar, in conversation, watching marine traffic and lighthouses. I wanted to move our 4..but by then it was 12:30am. I believe the others made it. Last night was the night to go out in spite of losing an hour. We have last SD tonight at Palomar Lock transit and Amsterdam tom. Sent out second laundry yesterday in prep to pack-as we stay over in London a bit. We get the boot before too long.

Was fascinating watching the lighthouses and marines traffic late last night port side.

We understood Captn out to mean we arrive at the locks at 6am for the lock transit

@mking8288 tracking the marine traffic. Russian fishing ship port side Naval ship passed us port side Been interesting

We lose another hour tonight. You may need an espresso martini or Red Bull cocktail to bring it come Abba time.

Compared to the shops in key West, I suspect so 😆

Maybe just paint is damaged on the quarter round? that is the end of the bar. Staff hovers there. Pax stand there. Service door not far. So kicked often Sink around the bar on that side too. @mking8288 how was the chicken parm today? Did Hudson’s step up their game? With Commodores busy for F2F immigration lunch crush etc.. yet dinner should spread out. We got about 20 min of sun behind a wind screen today in spite of the temps and..20knts.

Have things improved at Hudsons do you think? Or do you prefer Commodore? With the buffet, Local, Indulge, and 2 mdr options… I do wonder about crowd control and if folks have gotten into routines With sea days I think there is missed opportunity for “taco Tuesday” for lunch at LL, etc to spread out folks at some venues.

Glad that FB, IG and so on didn’t exist a few years ago…being older than google has its rewards. Less evidence 😘

Re Haven food Should clarify…being 15 days TA…the flex is things like changing up sides etc..things in Haven. Not bringing outside things into dining. Dining is also offering an additional choice lunch and dinner for sea days as we are a long sailing..such as chicken cordon Blu. So lack of flex could be due to ship, length of sail etc. With YC, we got flex doing 4 b to b, as we were seeing the same menus weekly for 4 sailings over and over. We were fine with menus in general as they rotate, we just had been on awhile.

Had seen pics of earlier versions of that party…we had forgotten to pack vinyl shorts and boas to attend…. Let’s just say this body is not 21 and not ready for prime time and it’s been awhile since I’ve been dancing on top of a speaker at the Limelight … 🤣

Well yesterday they called for 4 folks, 4 times, every 5 min who were late…. Hear they made the ship ONLY because 2 trucks ran late provisioning. Experienced cruisers observe the on board times

Fwiw Our Haven tags never came… currently on Prima TA. supposedly mail March 15. Believe color is ship not deck. we printed ours and put in plastic covers

We don’t make work We ask that things like coke, soda in fridge be replaced with juices. Ice daily. Smart Wrist bands show status both YC and our voyager status so we never have issues around the ships. They do such a great job and I believe there are notes in profile so they know what to anticipate from past sailings. Crew that have know us from previous sailings greet us like family. We enjoy hearing from them and seeing them again

We have a 2br, 2ba for this TA. DH is using full second br as dressing room, bath, closet while I use master closet and primary bath. Second BR goes unused except for pass through though butler does vacuum etc For 15 nights it’s been nice to have 2 baths and the extra closets on a cold weather sailing

Some thoughts on dining and Bev. The Haven dining here on a Prima is solid. Great food and service. Whether a double cut pork chop, panchetta wrapped lamb chops or surf and turf for dinner, or a Caesar salad with shrimp for lunch, chicken Milanese etc, the dining has been solid. After 10 days… we are still happy. So much so that while we have specialty dining in our package and will eat again elsewhere one last time…we have not needed to do so. We can mix and match..meaning if you want different sides, leave off sauce or have dietary requests, we find Haven staff very accomodating. Dining on Meraviglia in YC had been solid for B2B in early 2020 as was for 4b2b in 22. Dining on Seashore in YC in Feb was outstanding. Our March Divinia YC we found the dining weak and wanting in YC. Things weren’t executed well, came out without sauces, poorly seasoned etc. Whomever was running Divinia YC kitchen in March..it was not great…and we had 8 previous YC sailings to compare. We like MSC for the Italian flair and typically are happy with dining with the Divinia exception. That said, so far Prima Haven has knocked it out of the park. Only 1 lunch item was a little weak and that could have been a 1 off Wines and Bar MSC prior to Cvd had great prem bar and wines in YC. That dropped off a bit in ‘22 and as of Feb and March we saw a bigger drop particularly on the wine side. Its a puzzle because the Italian tradition of food and wine, one would think would matter in YC. We found limited choices in wine..if you wanted a dry white, dry rose, or unoaked chard. Was told none existed in several cases. NCL Haven prides itself on its Haven mixologists and craft cocktails as well as wine options. We have had no complaints in this area either. We came onboard expecting to have a struggle in this area and that’s not the case. Also there is plenty of Haven lounge seating in small areas to gather… the online pics of the bar with 4 seats are deceiving..yes there are maybe 6 stool seats on either side..yet plenty of other spaces folks gather. So you don’t have to be a bar fly to get a cocktail

Best dessert on the ship. We like Palomar. Moving our 3rd SD back there after ok LB. Heard the fish baked in salt is great. We had the Dover sole the other night. It was good. We were up early and did immigration at 730a. Had breakfast. Sent out second laundry so we will be ok to repack in a few days R. Headed to the gym. Busy days ahead

We had heard the night befor we reached Iceland that 3 were leaving. Sad to hear that was true. Prayers for them and their families. Saw some of what looked like maybe crew changes too. God speed for all traveling

I was thinking that but didn’t want to correct it and seem snarky. xo

@Sugar Magnolia Looks yummy. Similar to open faced sandwiches of Denmark? Thought of you the other night re LB. Talking about food… well L.B was not as we remembered, and was loud etc. Filet was HUGE. slightly underdone which says a lot because I like tartare… Nice sized piece of f.g. On top. Escargot was missing salt imho, and idk what..I salted. That helped. Endive salad was heavy on Blu cheese… Had the marron clementine pastry. Delicate. Would have liked more clementine inside. Moved our next SD back to Palomar

Iceland was great. we had a Golden a circle at our with access friends here yesterday..11 of us experienced lovely incredible sites, walks and short hikes, laughs, rain, sleet, hail, sunshine, local brews and food at an off the beaten path wine-gastro pub that also had hydroponic greenhouses. Since we were in Iceland early..we were up and out to use the free shuttle yesterday to explore town before lunch on the ship and then the tour. Back to the ship late..in bed by 1130p. We took s historic tour via ship tour today which was a good way to see the area, burbs etc ..and despite the rain, we had fun. We were onboard and sat for lunch with the snow flurries. sail away is sunny and gorgeous. Iceland showed off in lots of ways. Don’t like the weather, wait 5 min. On the Face to Face..nothing said Iceland in the daily..clearly caused confusion with poor editing. See ya in the Commodore tom. Need to look at entertainment…got so busy with Iceland we forgot. I thought tonight was 80s in Syds, no reserv, and something later in theater..dancing..no reserv? On room service..if we use it..it’s normally early am Anyone know if those late 4 pax made the ship? seems like they ran late provisioning..as we left late

We asked this am and were told the in person is for UK. Since we got here early we took the free bus into town and walked a couple hours to see sites. Need the exercise. Back onboard for lunch. About to meet our CC group for our GC tour. Hoping the weather cooperates with no rain. We will be gone 8 hours and miss dinner service and do dinner during our tour. No shortage of food, I just had soup and crudite for lunch…

@mking8288 well you called it right this am about Iceland. Just heard the PA