DMH15

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

😉

 

Sometimes it feels that way.  Just like our kids, we cater to their food wants, take them out when they want, make sure they're warm and dry.  LOL!

 

But, they bring endless joy and love unconditionally.

 

I'm on my 3rd doggo...all rescues.  Each time the others passed, I swore I'd never get another.  Then, I'll see some sad scared eyes looking back at me at some SPCA or rescue event and, don't you know, I have a new family member.  Not complaining, however.

 

This girl is sitting next to me while I type this......

What sweet eyes.  Full of love.  What is her name?

I had a previous rescue.  A male black lab.  Jamie Joe.   My SIL was an apt mgr and he was loose with no tags.  No one answered the Lost notices.  He came at the right time of my life.  I had divorced and we had joint custody.  After that dog passed I needed one and Jamie appeared.  Timing is everything. 

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

They’re integral parts of our families.  And, just like any other being in our lives, we help them along when they are ill, infirm or in need.  Bless your soul for being there for your pup as s/he ages.  I know way too many who find their pets disposable.

Thank you.  I really appreciate your kind words.  
 

I tell people Lexie is the boss.  I just pay her bills. 

1 hour ago, Sthrngary said:

@DMH15 My dog is one of my favorite beings.  His name is Otis Redding.  He is a 7 year old (tommorrow is his birthday) French Bulldog.  He has been a good friend to my wife and me.  It would be my honor to stay with him in his old age and show him the loyalty and respect he has shown us as you are doing for your kind dog.  

 

You can live vicariously through my postings, ask any questions you want, any time you want.  When you are ready, reach out to me and I will share what ever information you want on cruising at the time.  I am just a frequent guest that studies cruising every day.  

 

Tell your puppy, Otis says hello.

 

 

What a nice post.  My old sweet girl is Lexie.  She is a Shibu-Corgi mix.   I am joking that we are buying our vet a beach house.  As he says “she is a sweet and happy girl with ISSUES”.   A month or so ago she tore her ACL just walking.   So I pull her around in her buggy and all our neighbors say hi and love her.  She has an inoperable mass in her ear that keeps giving her ear infections.  And she has lypomas, after 2 surgeries, when she was young, we decided no more.  But, every day I assess her her life quality, which is good as we speak, so every day has been a blessing.  
 

Funny, I have always wished I could take her on a cruise.  She would behave admirably.  But in reality I really do not think dogs belong on a cruise, especially a larger ship.  But I can imagine it. 
 

Retirement is sooner rather than later so I know there will be more cruises.  I can wait.  
 

Otis!  Omg… “Dock of the Bay” is in my personal top 10 list.  Hopefully you and your wife have many more years with him. 

2 minutes ago, McFins said:

Hi all.  Wondering if you can turn your trip into a B2B while onboard assuming there is any availability.     I am thinking you would likely have to call or book it online?   How many days in advance would be required?   If successful what are the logistics (luggage, check in) 

I have wondered the same thing.  
 

when I did my Jewel TA which ended in Athens people were talking about the next leg which went on to Istanbul.  
 

we would have loved to go on the next leg but I had already been gone 15 nights and i knew my boss would not have been amused if I asked to extend. 

4 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

@DMH15 I know right.  Out of the mouth of babes......

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Cruising and all travel is on hold as I have a 15.5 year old dog.  So, it is fun to live vicariously here.  

On 8/27/2023 at 2:49 PM, Sthrngary said:

Those of you that know me, I am the author of the Secrets to the Haven VIP experience.  When you start bringing up children in a Haven Thread you are playing with fire.  I know.  I wrote the Stream mentioned above.  The first post was several pages long.  Two sentences, maybe 25 words were on the children in the Haven Pool and Hot Tub.  It was like nothing else in the op-ed was important. Parents came out of the woodwork commenting their children were well behaved, supervised, and on poster sent a picture of her daughters doing her studies at a table by the Haven Pool. Other parents argued their child paid to be in the Haven just like everyone else. 

 

This issue always creates debate and comes up at least every 60 days.  The issue is not the children.  The issue is not the well mannered children, most are.  The issue is the parents thinking the Haven Pool and Crew are baby sitters for their children when the parents are on vacation.  Kids are kids and without parental supervision, they can run a muck.  If I, a 66 year old man say something to a child that is not mine, the parent will not be happy.  So as my original op-ed stated, I simply go to the Haven Sundeck and from that point forward, only booked Haven Suites on ships that had hot tubs on the Haven Sundeck.  For my, problem solved. 

 

Funny story, I was in one of the two Haven Courtyard Hot tubs on the NCL Getaway.  These two hot tubs had a gang of 8 or so children with ages from 5 to maybe 10.  I went in when their was room for me and one of the kids in the hot tub said and I quote, "Why are your teeth so yellow!"  Out of the mouth of babes of time come jewels. 

 

When I got home I booked a teeth whitening with my dentist.  My teeth are lovely now.  True story.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

I was not expecting the teeth story.  It was great. 

19 minutes ago, kismetique said:

Yes, they were stingy, but we just kept going back and asking for more because the food was so much better than the buffet!  We were still pretty new at cruising at that point, and with no specialty restaurants, if you didn't like your table mates in the MDR, the buffet was the only alternative.

 

Speaking of table mates... Sounds like you had interesting ones!  Sometimes you have to wonder if it wasn't all a rouse. Like an inside joke between the two of them to spin such a story. Likely she was on the level, but I could see my son pulling such a stunt. He absolutely loves to mess with people he's forced to spend time with. Telling them the most outlandish stories, and the problem is, he's so good at it, they believe every word!  

 

I would have been uncomfortable with her story and like... What do you say to someone like that?  I'm sure you tried to change the subject or stear the conversation in a different direction, but given that the story was told in the first place, I would imagine she couldn't be deterred!!🤣

 

I read your post to my husband and he got a belly laugh from it! He said, I would have ran too!

And I was with my mother, cousin (older than me) and her friend.  We have laughed about it for years.  

16 hours ago, kismetique said:

I didn't realized the Sun was still in service.  We did a 12 day on her to South America and loved loved loved that ship!  Of course, that was back before specialty dining.  I think they were just starting to experiment with dining options and they had this little Bistro set up on the back of the ship, tucked away by the buffet dining area.  They didn't advertise it, but once we stumbled upon it, we kept going there for dinner each night.  It was like ordering Tapa's.  They wouldn't give you very much at at time, so you had to keep going back and ask for another serving....but no one knew it was there and we were usually the only ones!  It was magical and free of course!

 

Our concierge on the Jewel was fabulous.  The butler seemed somewhat new and not comfortable with his duties yet.  I had to keep asking for lemonade and tea each day for the room.  I told him on day one, that's all my husband drinks and to please provide a pitcher of each, each day.  We were also celebrating 4 birthdays and I told him I would like to have a cake one evening after we had our meal in Cagney's - but I didn't tell him what night - I told him I would let him know.  We got back to the room after the Azura dining disaster to find our room decorated with balloons and streamers and a birthday cake!

 

We didn't eat it because of the dining snafu and the next day he kept saying, but Madame - you said, you said.  I told him it was fine, we would eat it eventually, not to worry.  He fretted over the cake until we finally just threw it away so he would stop worrying.

 

I'm looking forward to this same cabin on the Dawn.  That bathroom is to die for and I'm seeing the newer ships don't have that configuration for that type of suite.  I may just have to stick to the older ships ...or switch lines.

My 2 Sun cruises were a while back.  I remember being on another ship and seeing the Sun while in port.  It kinda made me sad.  I loved that ship so much.  
 

We also did the Tapas restaurant and laughed at how stingy they were.  We had planned to dine there but after our drinks and two appetizers each (we had to practically beg for the second) we considered it like a happy hour and had a late dinner a few hours later.  
 

I remember that was such a funny evening, because that was the night we were seated with another couple at dinner, an older woman and man and she started telling us about how they met and it was due to their immediate sexual chemistry.  She went on, and on telling us what a terrific lover he was he just sat there and beamed. I don’t think he said a word. Needless to say we ate and ran.

22 minutes ago, kismetique said:

I'm not sure what the $20 for each meal was! I was simply appalled! This was a Mexican Riviera cruise on NCL Jewel in April of 2023.  It was in the Azura MDR.  The hostess was tacky and standoffish and the wait staff were completely indifferent to us. It was the first night of the cruise and I was dreading the rest of the meals under these conditions. It shouldn't matter, but my son gave his room key to check us in, he was in a club balcony next door to my 2 bedroom suite. 

 

We hadn't cruised in over 10 years so I didn't really even understand what the Haven was all about. It's my understanding now, that the Jewel doesn't really have a Haven proper, but yes, I had purchased 3 cabins for this cruise, a 2 bedroom suite with balcony and 2 club balconies next door. I tipped the concierge very well up front so that all 3 rooms could have SOME of my suite perks (priority tender, reserved show seating, etc)... Of course, they couldn't go with us to Cagney's and I never even asked for that. So we didn't any of us partake of that perk. I did have room service breakfast each morning, but the butler would only bring enough for the 3 staying in our room, which was irritating that he got to decide what was enough for each of us, as I was not ordering for the rest, they all loved the breakfast buffet! My husband is a huge breakfast eater and will usually skip lunch and just have dinner. I usually had to share my breakfast with him because our butler was stingy! 🤣 His second 'end of cruise' tip envelope reflected my displeasure too!

 

Here's the funny thing. At first, I thought the bar tenders were being nice to an old lady not charging me for my Cokes!!!!  I kept telling my husband, I'm going to the bar alone to get the Coke so they don't charge me!  Hahaha. I finally realized, it was the color of my key card and I could have asked the butler to bring me some Cokes for the room! I prefer to think they were just being nice to me! 😁 The last time we cruised years ago, your Latitudes tier level was the big deal. We could book an inside and still get perks because we were Platinum level, which apparently means almost nothing now. We used to have ALL KINDS of little goodies in our room upon arrival. NCL Pins, tons of snacks, nice selection of drinks, coupons, invitations, etc. I think we had a warm bottle of Champaign in the room upon arrival in April, and that's it. 

 

Cruising has changed drastically since we last cruised!  Some for the better and some for the worse. Being retired, I have more money for cruising these days and I'm sorta wishing my cruise line of choice had not been NCL all those years. 

 

We are on a 19 day Middle East Cruise in November on the Dawn, in the same type cabin just for the 2 of us this time (that bathroom is to die for!!!) and I better get everything I order for breakfast this time!! 😁 So, no Haven proper, but I do plan to maximize my suite perks to the absolute MAX! Now that I know what it's all about! 

I have sailed the Dawn right after the Jewel and I nicnamed the Dawn “Jewel Lite”… because it was like a mini-version of Jewel.  
 

My mom and I liked the little restaurant (like a diner) on the Jewel so we looked forward to it on the Dawn but it was more like a teen hangout.  No thanks!

Then after that cruise I cruised the Jewel again.  

FWIW, my niece and I had an aft Ph on the Jewel and we had a fantastic butler and a superlative concierge, the wonderful and tall Hanno from Germany.  They were both so sweet to her.  This was her high school grad present from me.   
 

We never felt slighted being out of the Haven proper. 
 

i’ve run the gamut.   Loved the DOS on Epic but also adore the aft corner suites on the Sun.   Have stayed in the same suite twice for 25 total days on the Sun.  That balcony is pure magic.  And what used to be called Il Adagio was so wonderful for breakfast and lunch for suites.  

50 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

One of the reasons I love NCL is the fact that there are no real "dress up" requirements.  I remember all too well packing a tux, a suit, dress shirts, ties, dress shoes.

 

That took up a ton of space in luggage.  Once I eliminated all of that when NCL went to Free Style, I was able to go to roll aboard luggage.  That saves me in luggage fees, too.

 

I'm booked on an 11-day cruise in the Mediterranean on the Epic in October.  After the cruise, I'm meeting family in Italy to stay another couple of weeks. 

 

I think I'll be able to do a roll aboard and a back pack.  Using the ship's laundry a couple of times and the airbnb we're staying at in Italy has washing facilities.  So, I should be able to pull that off.

 

Tuxes, suits, dress clothes?  If I had to bring those, that prospect would be next to impossible and I would forego cruising.  Thankfully, those days have passed.

 

 

My fist cruise in the ‘80’s had 2 formal nights.  I took a huge teal ball gown and a (very heavy) mini-beaded dress. How times have changed.  Now I may take a few sun-dresses.  Whereas I used to pack lots of different shoes I now pack tennis shows for workout 1 or 2 sandals or flip flops for day and dress sandals for evening.  
 

My entire cruise wardrobe is mix & match black/white/turqoise.  I have mastered “rolling” to save space snd wrinkling (love Downey wrinkle-away).

I fly in the day before and wear something cute that I was ready to donate.  I fold and leave in hotel room with a note: “do not want”.  
 

I cut back to travel size products (or samples) and a travel wand for hair.  Perfume samples from magazines work great.  
 

I have changed with the times. 

On 8/24/2023 at 1:49 PM, graphicguy said:

Nothing against your request, but seriously, if you were going to bring a coffee maker on. board, I think I'd pick something a tad better than a Keurig.  As bad as the coffee is in the buffet, I certainly would prefer it over a Keurig.

 

These would be way better, too....

 

https://maxpressocoffee.com

 

https://athome.starbucks.com/product-category/starbucksr-instant?gclsrc=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&gclid=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_campaign=CY22_AlwaysOnSearch&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=starbuck instant coffee&utm_matchtype=e

 

 

My sistwr always brings her Nespresso frother.   

11 hours ago, graphicguy said:

NO difference in Haven service whether you’re n the Haven proper, or have a Haven cabin outside of Haven proper.

I have had excellent service in all suite and haven levels.  One butler was not good.  He was new.  But he must have known it. Since he got off in one of the ports and kept going.  LOL.  It’s sadly not a joke.  It happened. 

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

Three points.

First, I have to ask, what did you do to your friends so that they would invite you over for a liver dinner?  I wouldn't call them friends.

Second, surely your friends had a liver recipe that didn't smell like liver. 

Third, once I smelled the liver, I would have invented some excuse to leave.

Or shrieked out “did I forget to mention I have gone vegan???!!!”

Very nice read.  I am a seasoned cruiser but enjoy reading people’s intro to cruising.   You will learn as you go.  

3 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I just don't see the need to apologize.   Those standing in those lines made the concious decision to book rooms that didn't have those perks.

 

Anybody can choose to book a Haven or Suite.  Cruise lines only care if your money is green. 
 

People choose to spend money on different things in life.  I have never smoked so wonder how much money I have saved over the years.  I don’t buy expensive cars or jewelry.   But I love playing the PICK 3.  My vice. LOL. 

IT IS FUNNY.  People talk about Haven people looking down on those not in there.  But why do so many look down on us who choose The Haven?   I think there are as many if not more of those comments.  Sigh.  

25 minutes ago, justhappy said:

 I imagine we will make it work, it helps that our friends are in a cabin outside of the Haven proper so we can go visit them in their stateroom.

 It is totally my fault for getting them hooked on the Haven as years ago when you could call a few weeks out before sailing and get upgraded to an available Haven for about $500 per person, I paId to upgrade their balcony cabin to a Haven cabin along with our own. It was a birthday surprise for them.
 

I love that. 

30 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Well, that's the story my wife told me when she came back from the store. I have no reason to believe she was lying, and I think I know my wife a little bit better than you do. 😉 It's possible he was joking, but she didn't say it sounded like he was joking. Mind you, my wife is a die-hard couponer. Have you ever been in line at a store and there's an announcement over the loudspeaker like "manager on duty, please come to register 4 for an override"? That would be my wife. When we were at a Safeway the other day, she turned around as we were walking out to say one of the discounts hadn't been applied, so we got our $3.07 refunded to the card. Yes, she's that kind of customer. Sometimes the store has to pay her back due to multiple coupons and discounts. What you say might be true about the store getting reimbursed, but that doesn't mean the store manager didn't say what I was told he said.

I TOTALLY agree.  Especially back in the day.  Something on sale?  Have a coupon. Back then they doubled and tripled them AND you could use a STORE coupons and a MANUFACTURER coupon on the same product.  Sometimes we got most products for FREE.  
 

In fact, at one time, they would take off MORE than the price of an item and that was basically applied against other items in the cart.  Then stores got smart and only took off coupon(s) up to the price of an item.  
 

My mom had a huge orange tool box for her well-organized coupons.  She was the “Coupon Queen”.  I was only a “Princess”. 
 

Dallas has always been a competitive grocery city.  
 

We also used a lot of BOGOs dining out. 
 

I still shop deals for travel and cruises.  If one is flexible and has the time there are deals.  

4 hours ago, justhappy said:

I like the quote stating it’s not about the cost but the value.

That holds true for many people, while others are all about the splurge, they work hard  or are celebrating a special event and don’t care about the cost.

So of my 15 cruises on NCL so far, 5 have been in the Haven. Most times I felt the value for what I was looking for was there.

On my upcoming cruise, friends who asked us to go on this cruise with them originally booked Club Balcony suites as we did. However they feel this cruise is a bucket list one and one and done for them and decided to switch to a Haven suite. 
 They wanted us to upgrade together so we could be together in the Haven but I felt the cost was not there for the price, especially considering how often we would be off the ship on excursions.

At first I was perturbed that they chose to upgrade, and I know when they see the Encore’s Haven complex they will not want to leave it. And for what they paid they shouldn’t. They said they would hang with us but I told them they would be foolish to pay that much money and not use the Haven restaurant and amenities. We will be dining with them for 4 specialty dinners, as well as doing a few excursions together.

 My husband and I are retired and travel a lot, not only on cruises (this is our third cruise this year) and every month we are traveling on a trip somewhere from 3 days to 3 weeks so we try to make our vacation dollars stretch. I’d rather travel often than in style. We tell everyone who says going on a trip again?!, that we didn’t work all our life to sit home and rot in our old age. Plus you never know when life will happen and you become home bound.

  I’m sure again in the future we will choose a Haven suite but it will be a cruise that I can fully utilize the amenities to justify the cost.
And I won’t be hiding my keycard from view or staring at my feet as I walk to the front of the line, I paid for the privilege. Not sorry.

 A story about our first Haven stay, we were celebrating our 40th anniversary and decided to celebrate by booking our first Haven suite. One day getting back on the ship from a port that had no special Haven escort, two women in back of us noticed our room keys were a different design. We had them out in our hands as we were about to board. 
They asked why our keycards were different and I told them we were staying in the Haven. The attitude was  Oh aren’t you special. One of them said sarcastically, Oh that must be nice, and I replied yes it is very nice since we splurged to celebrate 40 years of marriage. They shut up and studied their feet. 

 

My mom and I had a suite on The NCL Sun for a 14 night south American cruise.  There were other family / friends who were not in a suite. It was quite doable.  Of course there was no Haven area.  We would dine in Moderno for breakfast and lunch with suite access and meet up after.  We would eat dinner together in Main or specialty.  We had all our tours, spa, trivia, etc. together.  

We had a huge aft balcony so we hosted guests a few times on sea days.  It was my honor and priviledge to set up for guests.  I had purchased a bar set up and was allowed to bring a mini blender on board.  A few times I ordered snacks which I was happy to pay for and I remembered to thank the butler with a generous tip.  So, I was able to share.   The same way I was introduced to The Haven was through friends.  
 

1 minute ago, Ozzieru1e said:

Loved this scene😆

The BEST!

1 hour ago, Russiamomm said:

Right there with you!  My mother could squeeze a dime until it screamed,  she thought me well.  Although I can now afford not to, I still shop the specials at the grocery stores and buy most of my clothes at WalMart, Costco or thrift stores.  Our kids tease me about it.  But I like to think that years of being careful with our money has paid off.  We can now afford to spend what we’ve saved on the things that really matter.  Helping out the kids, spoiling our grandson and cruising well and often.  😂.

And I hear you on the airfares!  I remember the days you could upgrade to first class on an international flight for 15,000 miles.  Those days are long gone.  (I’m still too cheap to pay outright for first class air.)

My mother had stories from growing up during the depression.  Whenever my sister and I complained about sharing a bedroom my mom asked us, “ how would you like to share a bedroom with your grandmother like I did”. LOL.  

She was a banker’s daughter and was always careful with money.  My dad used to say that my mother put Safeway out of business in our neighborhood because of her couponing skills.  
 

I live by this which she taught me… “ it’s not about the cost, but the value”.   Even in cruising in suites we shopped around for what we considered to be a price we could justify. 

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

I guess one of the things in life is you can't (or shouldn't) assume things without prior knowledge. My wife and I save a lot of money by finding discounts on things and also I squirrel away whatever I make as a singer into my travel savings account. We can afford to fly business class some of the time thanks to that, but we always look around on the plane and say to each other "when are they gonna find out we're not supposed to be here?" LOL I know there are people who don't think twice about flying first class all of the time, but we never, ever lord things over on people. It's just classless. We still feel weird on MSC in the Yacht Club when they escort us everywhere.

That’s awesome.  Keeps us humble.  And grateful.  
 

I am frugal and use coupons.  I own clothing, purses and jewelry I watched until they were marked half-off.  And I splurge on things I choose too.  Like travel.  I miss the good old days of America West / US Air where I used my miles for upgrades on inexpensive fares.  Those were the days.  
 

I have done YC once.  Loved it. 

2 hours ago, Russiamomm said:

I agree on the walking past the lines, but sometimes it can’t be avoided.  We were in a 2BR Haven last September on the Joy.  The line to clear immigration in Portland literally spanned the length of the ship.  We were walked past the entire line to cut in front of everyone to speak with the DHS agent.  We got some smirks and heard some nasty comments, but the ship was not in a position to have a separate Haven exit to clear immigration.  
 

On the comment you got, there are no words.  It reminds me of being avoided at a BMW dealer a few years back.  Apparently based solely on my cut off jeans and a t-shirt they didn’t think I was able to afford the car and totally ignored me.  After 20 minutes I took myself to the Audi dealer.  They treated me like a queen.  I wrote them a check for the car that same day.  😂

I love it.  
 

It is 2023.  Wake up people.  Judge not or lest be judged.  It is no longer easy to judge a book by its cover.   
 

My favorite scene in Pretty Woman is the shopping scene and Julia Robers asks “do you remember me”?

2 hours ago, kismetique said:

While I agree completely... (We are a couple booked in a 2 bedroom suite JUST for the bathroom and separate bedroom from the living area)...I think it's tacky for NCL to parade us past a mile of passengers waiting in the freezing cold to get on the ship. I LOVE the perk of priority embarkation, but maybe they could use an alternative entrance.

 

I don't hide my card, but then I didn't even realize I had a different card until the end of the cruise! 🤣 It had been years since we last sailed.  I don't mind singing the praises of the perks, but I'm not one to lord them over on ppl, and I'm not saying you do... Just that I've encountered some that even went so far as to tell me, "you don't look like you can afford anything but an inside, don't lie to me that you're in a suite, so step aside and let me go first!"  I kid you not!

 

If someone said that to me I would smile and say in my sweet, Sothern drawl, my brother’s favorite response to stupid questions, “Really”?  It is neither affirmative or negative and that gets their goat. 

Hello.  I cruised for years in “regular” cabins.   My first was an inside the size of a broom closet.  The next several cruises I had a window, no balcony.   Then mini suite.  
 

Through a chance meeting we had lunch in the Jewel Haven with friends in their suite.   I looked at my mom and said “we’re doing this from now on”.  
 

You see, I realized that I was my mother’s personal concierge and butler.  LOL.  I was always the one making reservations, getting tickets, etc.   when I found out I could enjoy the same luxury I was all for it.  
 

I am divorced, no kids, work hard (33 years at same company) and although not wealthy I manage my money so I can splurge when it matters.  In my job I heavily cater to others. 
 

So, my point is… I am not embarrased walking down a corridor to avoid lines, I do not hide my card to avoid being “discovered”.   In fact, I tell people how wonderful it is.  Thank goodness someone else shared it with me.  
 

And I will say this.   My mother passed 6 years ago and I admired her in so many ways but perheps the quality that I try to emulate every day is how she could realte to everyone.  From a billionaire CEO (or TV Producer real story there) or a homeless lady on the Dallas downtown street she lived on and would often share her blue ribbon baked goods with. 
 

I have seen people get an upsell to the Haven and think they are KING and QUEEN.  And there are folks like me who pay full price because it is what we want and would prefer to cruise less often, than take the chance of not “winning”.

Maybe some people live ordinary lives and when they get an upsell they elevate themselves to what they think the elite are.  I have seen this!

In closing, all ships, crews, sailings can differ from a to z.   It really is a crapshoot.  
 

I have made dear friends in the Haven and out.  I hope those who meet me give me the benefit of the doubt to get to know me and not just make assumptions. 

On 7/23/2023 at 7:37 AM, Bandit2301 said:

I posted this to inform other cruisers of things that can happen and what they should be aware of. I have cruised many times and I understand policies. However other people might not know this. I usually cruise with Viking and with them you do book early as they sell out fast. 

I do apologize if you feel offended that I criticized NCL and you felt the need to reply back with this long post. 

Everybody has their opinion. That's why there is this forum.

 

But if you did this to help others you only gave one side of the picture.  Price.  
 

I would tell people many factors go into booking a cruise and sometimes it is best to book early, to choose a specfic cabin, lock in promos, get a good price.  Sometimes fares go up, sometimes fares go down.  You can either watch your early booking like a hawk and at 122 days out call for an adjestment if the fare ges down or do the happy dance if they have gone up.  Or you can book at a price you are happy with and not check fares if that is your thing.  Or you can wait and watch for rock-bottom price, see what cabins are left or watch them have risen. 
 

When I have cruised on the Sun I want a specfic aft suite with a huge balcony.  Waiting is not an option.  
 

iI once talked to a couple who booked last minute and got a deal and a half.   His wife laughed and said it was the very front cabin and that his long legs had to hang off the bed because it was so tiny with the layout.