bwelborn

Was on last week and the staff was excellent! No worries there.

This is on another thread. No shorts allowed for dinner.

I should have clarified that there seemed to be a mixed response from what others had reported. Anyone there lately that can confirm. Find it hard to believe that they aren't allowed on casual evenings.

So, it's probably been ten years since I've been on MSC. Leaving on the 25th in YC Divina; we are converts from NCL Haven.

I've been reading about the dress code for LeMuse. Are shorts acceptable on non formal evenings? We live in a resort area and my husband is in linen shorts and alligator loafers most of the time. That's why we enjoy NCL so much.

Just trying to determine how many pairs of long pants to pack for him.

Thanks all. Decision became much easier when I finally realized where the POM was actually located! Looks like we'll probably do the Intercontinental.

So cruising our of Port of Miami and now I do see where it is located! So I guess a downtown hotel?

Ok, maybe this is the problem. I google mapped "miami cruise port" and it shows halfway between FLL and MIA. I couldn't figure out why I was seeing everyone recommending staying near downtown MIA for easy access to the cruise port. I apparently am looking at the wrong "cruise port" on the map.

We are flying in late evening to Miami and figured that we would head north on 95 towards the port and get a hotel for the night. Can't figure out what would be the best area as I'm not familiar with Miami at all. I don't want to end up a rough part of town. We will have to do dinner somewhere so it would be nice to have good options close by.

Wow, it's weird that the opinions are so varied. On the Breakaway, I thought it was almost as fast as what I have on land. My husband even took a conference call via WebEx on a sea day. I worked a ton of email and went to a handful of websites.

I must have been on a bad day...try it out, I'm sure it will be fine.

I strictly went for the dolphin encounter and we had no plans to use the beach. I don't recall the beach being anything special at all. It was clean, but I do remember that is was severely crowded. Also be aware that the area the cruise line and corresponding beach front is fairly small. I would probably opt to do a day at The Atlantis instead. I've been to Nassau so many times, I don't even get off the ship any longer.

We went over to the island when we were on Carnival a few years ago. It was for the dolphin encounter rather than the beach day that is offered. The dolphin encounter was great, but I remember thinking that if I had payed to come over just for the "beach day" that I would have been highly disappointed. The time was extremely short that you actually got to stay at the beach due to the ferry ride and the scheduled time back to the ship.

Also, there was only one bar offering food and drinks. I normally expect pricing to be high, but I remember it was astronomical. Everyone was complaining about it as I recall. If memory serves me the frozen drinks (in a plastic cup) were 12-14 dollars.

If you read the Carnival boards there is plenty of info.

Luck in PA, it probably was. Sounds like the same individual. Just horrid....

Oh and I will add that I was a bit distracted by one of the most whiny, complaint laden individuals I have every encountered on a cruise ship. Whenever you saw this person coming, you knew they were heading to make a complaint to anyone in charge.

The children last week in the Haven were all very, very well behaved. They just blended in seamlessly.

That confirms my thoughts exactly.

We were in 702. I was expecting to hear noise from next door but only heard the TV one afternoon and the only time I heard my neighbors voices was upon arrival when they were talking with their butler. I actually wondered if anyone was staying in the suite because it was so quiet. We actually never heard anything from the surrounding suites...we had a very quiet corner of the ship. Of course that was until Saturday morning when it sounded like all of the glass windows were going to blow in on us.

Ok, I'm trying to get back to finish this review up.

This portion will be about the Haven in general and associated services. We met with our butler, Akhmad a little while after we were in the cabin. He was pleasant and pretty direct, no fluffy additional conversation. While I hadn't been in the Haven before, I knew what services to expect of the butler. I let him know that I had not made any formal requests prior to the trip and he cut me off a bit and said I will bring you set snacks everyday. If I didn't know any better, I would think that I couldn't ask anything else of him. This may be where some people are reporting that their butler didn't do anything for them.

By day two he had caught on to what we liked and disliked and he did a great job for us. We are pretty low maintenance, but we liked to have a heavy snack around 3 each day instead of eating lunch. We ordered room service for that. The cheese plate on the room service menu seems like the best kept secret, it was outstanding for a snack.

Our room steward Cecillio was so pleasant and nice. We are very neat and I'm sure we made his job much easier for the week. He gave my husband two cigars that a guest gave him last week because he didn't want them.

Let me first say that my service was great the entire trip and I am not complaining at all. I know that everyone on board is working ridiculously hard. I do think the level of service could be stepped up a bit in the Haven. The bartenders were efficient but not overly friendly. I think the courtyard wait staff was lacking-they always seemed to need one or two more servers. I also wish they had a small salad bar or light snacks that you would just pick up in the courtyard rather than just cookies and brownies. Sometimes I didn't want to get room service, just just wanted a tiny snack. And again, I miss a salad bar for lunch but one trip to the Garden Buffet and I decided against it.

The Haven restaurant had Edgar as the MD and Gretel as the hostess. Both are very eager to please passengers and did a great job. Servers were very efficient also. Again, I think the level of service could be stepped up. Many times we had finished a course and those dishes sat for 10 plus minutes in front of us. I mean, it's not a big deal to me, but if they are trying to push the Haven as top level service, they need to remove a course just as it's finished. This obviously means more wait staff.

I also loved the Spritzy Spritzy guy on the sun deck. He was probably the friendliest person in the Haven.

The concierge was Patrick and we used him to make dining reservations. No complaints there. He also got us off the ship immediately upon clearing the boat. We had a 10am flight from JFK and I didn't think we would make it (we did but got delayed 3 hours). Don't plan a 10 am flight if you are reading this.....

I walked by it twice last week on the Breakaway and thought to myself, is this it? I was expecting a venue with lots of Jimmy Buffet music playing and in inviting place to eat. Instead it was a ghost town and just looked like another place to sit and eat.

Internet: I had the free 1000 MB (I believe) and I was expecting the service to be horrible based upon what I read here. While it was not quite as fast as what I have on land, it was great. I had to check email probably 5-6 times a day and do a little bit of work. I never even used all of the data provided. The only time the Internet seemed to be down was on Saturday night when the wind and rain was horrendous.

Entertainment: We generally don't go to any of the shows on cruise ships. I'm sure we are likely missing out. We do usually go to whatever comedy show is offered and we went to Second City on night number two. If there was a low point of the cruise, this was below low. I can appreciate a good improvisational act, but this was pitiful. I thought I read here that the group was pretty good. Honestly, it was cringe worthy and the crowd laughter seemed very forced. We really missed having a comedy show or comedian in the evenings.

Beverage Package: We had the ultimate, unlimited whatever you call it. Sometimes they didn't take my card, sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't even want to see it when I tried to give it to waiter/bartender. I can't figure out how this is working for NCL? It seems to me they are losing revenue with the vast majority of people on board having this package as a promo. And normally, when I would purchase a drink on a cruise ship, I get the receipt and I usually leave a small additional tip. Not in this case since I don't get a slip to sign and I'm not going to carry around a wallet of cash. I feel like the bartenders and servers are missing out on some additional tip money. BUT, having the package as a promo was wonderful and I did enjoy it.

Specialty Dining: We had dinner in Teppanyaki, Moderno (twice) and Cagney's. I didn't want to do Teppanyaki because we have one of the best here at home and we eat there quite a bit. Honestly, I thought the food was mediocre at best, but the chef was so funny I had to check to see if my eye make up was running down my face. I was crying from laughing so hard. I likely would not go back if I were on Norwegian again though.

Moderno was probably our favorite. The meats were a bit hit and miss and depended upon what skewer they came from. My husband loved the salad bar with more unique options than your typical garden salad bar. The lamb chops were a bit hit and I am a sucker for anything wrapped in bacon. We did eat here twice-that's how much we enjoyed it.

Cagney's was great. I will certainly eat here again on future cruises. I did the larger filet and my husband had the ribeye. They were out of the tomahawk and my husband was a little disappointed about it. We eat at great steak places at home regularly, so no big deal. I thought they needed some serious work on their sides. The brussel sprouts tasted like they had simply been boiled and the creamed spinach was terrible. The steaks were fantastic though.

Overall, I loved the layout and open feeling of the specialty restaurants. The large open bar between Moderno and Cagneys was very inviting.

So unfortunately, I am not a big picture taker while I'm on vacation. I'll make up for it in good info!

Just back yesterday from the Breakaway (and we actually went to Bermuda) cruise. I'll start this and see when I can get time to fully complete it.

Background-early 40's, just my husband and myself on this cruise. We've done various other lines, probably 20 cruises total-Carnival, Royal, MSC, HAL mostly. We used to book the cheapest cabins possible and have slowly come up from there in category. Now we cruise to simply rest and avoid as much commotion as possible hence a suite with amenities. We've never done Norwegian or the Haven so some things from the cruise line perspective were new to us.

We had the DOS and I'm not even sure what to say about it...absolutely off the chain.

Pre-Cruise: We flew into JFK on Saturday, picked up an Uber right at baggage claim for $35 into Times Square. It was a "pool" ride so we picked up another passenger and ended up getting a pretty cool tour of Brooklyn. The Uber driver was great and talkative. I booked a room on the way to the airport at the Hilton Garden Inn on 42nd street about $240 for the night. Good hotel, larger room than expected and great location. VERY clean and modern also, so an excellent value. I was planning to pay much more. Breakfast was not included and was $22 for the buffet which did look wonderful. They had no problem with us sitting at the restaurant bar and having complimentary coffee while we worked on our iPads.

We ate that evening at a Thai place about 8 blocks away in the Theater District and it was very inexpensive, no wait, and pretty good. I'll have to look up the name. Cocktails, appetizers and entrees were less than $100.

Cruising out of Manhattan does tack on quite a bit to the total cost, but we wanted to do Bermuda and I love to visit NYC if given the opportunity.

Boarding: We took another Uber to the ship (we could have walked- it was a little over a mile). Arrived at 9:45 which must be the perfect arrival time. No chaos, very few passengers. Went right through security and then to the Haven greeters and they sent us to the "lounge" for check in. We waiting there for over an hour which I assumed we would. Tons of passengers were still getting off the ship and they were in line right outside of the room we were in. In my opinion, this ship gets into port very late and causes a backlog of guests trying to get off. I think we finally boarded about 11:30 or 12, I can't remember. We were taken into the Haven Lounge and given drinks and sliders as to be expected. I did go back out into the general boarding area to use the restroom but it did not seem chaotic as others have mentioned.

The Haven: Patrick was the concierge and seemed to have two assistants. We did not drive him crazy, but we hadn't made any dinner reservations, so we would make a quick call to him and voila, it was done. We are very last minute deciders on things, so this worked well. Let me clear something up now....if you value peace and quiet, additional space and lack of chaos, the Haven is certainly worth it. I can't begin to tell you how peaceful it was. And if you are staying on deck 16, everything is right there. The convenience was wonderful. There was always a cozy chair to sit in, a crew member to come by and spritz you if you were hot, or someone serving fruit or a small bite.

Ok....I'll pick this back up later.

Thanks so much for the info! I am so looking forward to it. Hope we have the same butler and room steward. I've heard great things on this board about Ramona. And yes, I will be in the lounge!!

Also, I would assume that I can just stay put on my balcony for sail away...seems like it would be the perfect spot and plan to have drinks and snacks?