dttampa

I'm exhausted so I didn't research the rules first. My mother and I went on the breakaway on 5/22. I surprised her with a Haven Spa Suite. It was her first Caribbean cruise and the first "long" vacation since losing my dad a few years ago. She had cancer and had special needs. Our butler Gian took such amazing care of her and treated her like the queen she is. They quickly formed a bond and he gave her his email address upon her demanding request. When she came home she was repeatedly hospitalized, she was unable to email him. She frequently commented to us and friends on how wonderful Gian was to her. She left us to be with my dad tonight. Because this was a special time for her and she was so grateful for his care.....its heavily on my mind to thank him. My mom gave me an incomplete email addy for him and when I tried to email him tonight it came back undelivered. If anyone has a suggestion on how I can convey my thanks to him I would very much appreciate it. I know she would want me to do that.

Thanks

I contacted a butler on NCL and he passed this message on to Gian. Sorry for your loss, it must be very difficult for you. But I'm glad you have such a nice memory of your Mom enjoying a vacation with you despite her illness. Peace to you.

We and many other cc friends have extensively decorated our doors. We've also had door decorating contests that the CD provided a prize for. Our door usually had many parts including flashing lights. None of it was ever stolen. We use plasty tac to attach the decorations. Easy to remove and does not leave any residue.

Again a great big THANK YOU for the tips, suggestions, and valuable information! We did not realize the piano has a playlist. That is awesome! Oh, and the blender, fantastic idea!

 

We wondered if there were speakers for music on the patio and sundeck. We were hoping there were.

 

It's getting closer....and I WILL post pictures and a detailed review when we return. :)

We were in the Dawn GV Oct 2014. There was a sound system on the lower deck that had about 6 or 7 channels to chose from. It wasn't very loud tho and nothing on the huge upper deck. But the newer ships have Bose sound systems. Hopefully they've upgraded to that.

4 years ago we upgraded 9 days before cruising to the Star GV. It was an amazing few days of waiting . I know you'll love every minute.

Yes we were on the Pearl in 14500. Whole experience was amazing. Our sailing was a little cool to enjoy the top deck a whole lot but having the floor to ceiling windows to watch everything was a dream. There were 5 of us in the suite and we never bothered each other. Super priority boarding (took us 45 min from setting our bags down curbside to being on the ship). Priority disembark was great also at each port, Suzie came and got us and led us down so we never waited in any lines. We had breakfast pastries each morning with fresh fruit, snacks each afternoon (sandwich platters, chips, wings, tenders, fries, etc). Butler was fantastic.

I can answer any specifics for you as well. The only downside of being in that room is that it is mid-ship and that set of elevators is always crowded so most times we took the stairs. It was a fantastic time and we already booked GV on the Dawn for next year.

Thanks so much! I have some other questions that would be off topic here. Please, would you send me an email? denise dot travers at gmail dot com . Thanks!

We were on the May 15th sailing! First of all you are going to have AMAZING staff with Susie (con) and Robin (butler) if they are the same as we had (we were in 14500). There were 5 of us in the Garden Villa so we tipped $400 to each of them. Amazing room and great service from everyone.

Oh, please tell us about the GV experience. WEre you on the Pearl?

I will be setting sail on the NCL Pearl on 06/19 to Alaska for 7 days. I will be staying in the 3 bedroom Garden Villa "The Haven". My question....I have already pre-paid the service charge and I understand that the Concierge and Butler is not included. What would be an appropriate tip for both of these people? I don't want to under tip anyone. Thanks in advance for replies. I am so excited! :)

I think you're right on track with your estimates. We've done the GV twice. On the Star we had an amazing Butler and Concierge team Arnie and Monica. They seemed to really enjoy our very large group and continually suggested extra things they could do for us. On the Dawn we had lukewarm service from staff members who seemed overwhelmed and counted every soda we drank. We had to make multiple requests for basic things. We felt like we were bothering them.

We tipped the first extremely well, and the second fairly.

Since the Butler and Concierge do not benefit from the daily service charge, they depend heavily on tips. We the promotions that include the dsc they have lost out on a lot.

We'll be in the GV for the Panama Canal Cruise 10/5/16. Hope you'll post a review so we know what to look forward to.

5. Did you see any place in the villa where a rollaway bed could be used (other than the living room)? Some have mentioned there is a closet across from the rooms that may be big enough. Some have also mentioned maybe one of the master bedrooms or their closets may be bg enough. I am just trying to work out a place that is private for my brother to sleep. (Our group is myself and husband, my mom, my brother, and our friend. So, we need 4 beds, and privacy for 4 if possible).

Thanks in advance and glad you had a great time! :)

We were in the Star GV in 2012 and the Dawn GV last month. They are structurally the same.

The front room has a King bed (can be two twins) no room for a third person.

The middle room has a Queen sized bed and a pull out single sleeper sofa. The Queen size bed has drapes that go around it providing privacy. This is the best room for sharing. It is the quietest room, has the most floor space, most seating room, most usable storage, a closet that can be accessed by two sides, a small sofa, dining table and two chairs. It also has the smallest bathroom. But it's the same as a penthouse suite bath. So not a small bathroom.

The room in the rear has a King sized bed (that can be two twins) with room for a roll away near the sliding door, but no privacy curtain. There are two chairs and a table that would have to be removed to fit a roll away. The rollaway would block the sliding door, which is the best feature of this room. But I know of people who have done that. There is room in the walk in closet for a roll away but it would have to go in the middle of the closet making it hard to get to the bathroom. You have to walk into the closet a few steps, then turn right into the bathroom. On the left, longest wall of the closet, there is a short, wide, set of drawers in the middle of that wall, making it impossible to put a roll away against the wall. Maybe it's movable like the night stands, but I don't think so. I've heard of people putting kids in the closet, so I think they put them on a mattress on the floor at the farthest end of the closet. I'm pretty sure a roll away or adult would not fit there. But a kid would fit. The bathroom is really big, not as big as the front room, but I think it's the second biggest bath on the ship.

One nice thing that few people mention is that there is a guest "powder room" in the 14th floor elevator hallway. When you exit the elevators, it's to your left, before the doorway to 14,500. The door is not marked, so it's often overlooked. This is a great place to send guests who attend parties in the GV, and people who don't share well.

Hope you have as much fun as we did. Cheers!

The quickest place to get soy milk is from the coffee bar or calling room service, but expect a long wait. I don't know about almond milk.

One of my traveling companions lost a piece of luggage at the Port of Miami when we were disembarking. She almost missed her plane waiting for it. Almost a week later she got a call from a lady saying she found it in her trunk. She accidentally picked up my friends bag. She discovered she was missing a bag when the cruiseline called her, because they HAD her bag. They also asked her if she had my friend's bag, but she said no. Then a few days later she found it in her trunk. The cruiseline sent fedex to collect the bag and my friend got it two days later.

The moral of the story is, don't use a plain bag. Tie ribbons, flowers stick on tape, spray paint. SOMETHING so another person doesn't mistake your bag for theirs.

Arnie! :d

My favorite moment was on the Dawn in the Garden Villa having a private barbeque in the courtyard area of the balcony.

 

 

Relax@Sea if you see this, will you please send me an email. I have a GV barbeque question. Thanks so much.

travers at tampabay dot rr dot com

The baby grand is called a Disklavier. They came out about the time that the Dawn first sailed. I bet they got a great incentive to put them there so all the rich folks could see them and go home and buy one.

I worked at a major performing arts center during that time. We were purchasing a bout a dozen new pianos and they were bending over backwards to try to get us to buy some of those. In the end they ended up giving us one to keep in our largest lobby.

The one we had in the GV on the Star didn't really work very well. For the first 10 days, we couldn't get it to work. But then one day, it just started playing randomly. It was very useful to use as a place to serve food, display stuff, and hang around. We had Halloween party, some the second city kids played it a bit.

NCL Star, 14000, Garden Villa. Just awesome. Loved it so much, we're doing it again on the Dawn.

I have done this twice and loved it. I, and everyone in my group wore water shoes. The people working there went barefoot. So you could be okay, but who wants to ruin their trip by stepping on a sharp rock, broken glass or other hidden sharp object? I don't like to wear them, but you really should.

We bought beer at a local store, but don't forget to bring a fire extinguisher.

A bunch of us from our CC role call rented golf carts. We got split up into two groups and only saw each other once as we passed each other during the day. At one point we passed a burned out golf cart on the side of the road and stopped to take pictures. We had a lovely day spent touring the island, visiting the beaches, took a nap in a hammock, saw the light house, Conch World, the space capsule and enjoyed the views. We saw lots of wild horses, burrows and goats. It was a wonderful day.

At the end we went to Jack's Shack where we ran into our friends. Turns out it was THEIR Golf cart that had started on fire. It was running slowly and started to smoke. Luckily they stopped and got off just before it burst into flames. The whole thing burned up. Thank goodness nobody was injured. A bunch of locals from the water department came by with buckets of water in a truck and put it out. Another golf cart was delivered to them on a truck shortly afterward.

If you'd like to see pictures, there's a bunch on our role call.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=999710&page=788

Me again. You can bring the bull ship and the collapsing cooler.

you cannot have candles or the alchohol packed in your luggage.

You can use their irons.

The Barbeque was a joke, right?

Really, and I thought about this for a while, you shouldn't have that much to pack. It's a warm weather cruise. Those kind of clothes don't take up that much room. Have everyone bring smaller suitcases. they will easily fit under the bed. Also, if your big one gets lost...........it's better to have 2 smaller ones.

Sorry to confuse you.

Yes, I was joking about all of it except what size suitcases fit under the bed. I love to have a giggle. Thanks for your kind help.

We're booked in a Balcony 8E for next Sunday. We and our friends have the two rooms with the unusally large balconies that go behind the elevators. I started putting together all my stuff to pack. With all the wine, beer, liquor, folding cooler and of course the iron, candles, bbq grill (for the steaks!) and bull whip :rolleyes: , I had to get out the Big Momma of all suitcases. But will it fit under the bed? If it doesn't fit, can I keep it on the balcony? The suitcase in question is about 13" high.

On my last cruise, I was 16. Now I have kids who are 19 and 23, so it was a while ago. I remember being in an inside cabin with my sister and my mother and three LARGE american tourister hard shell suitcases. It was so crowded we had to take turns getting dressed. I don't want to share my space with a suitcase again. :p