meltingmoments

Day 3 and it's Harvest Caye.

There was an early announcement from the Captain that we would be docking 2 and a half hours late at Harvest Caye due to the fact that the ship had had to make a detour back towards the Keys in order for that poorly lady to be evacuated off the ship. Well sadly, these things happen and there but for the Grace of God. And whilst I could kind of understand people's frustrations that we had less time on Harvest Caye and that excursions were changed/cancelled, I most certainly couldn't understand some people's lack of empathy for the poor family who had to go through that trauma! Some of the moaning we heard was unbelievable!  😞 We had a lazy breakfast and chilled on our balcony until it was announced that we could disembark.

Well, what a nightmare! 

So many people all trying to get off at the same time! It was utter chaos! 

We finally managed to get off around 2pm! 

We took the walk over to Harvest Caye and I have to say NCL have done a great job here. It's a lovely place! We enjoyed a few hours on the beach, had a drink in The Laughing Bird bar and just wandered around before heading back to the ship. A lovely day!  🙂 

We were woken up around 4am by the sound of a helicopter! 

We remembered the previous evening, as were listening to Charlie singing in Gatsby's, that there had been a Code Alpha announcement over the address system.

It looked like some poor person was being airlifted off the ship! 

We heard later that day it was a lady with heart problems. Our thoughts and prayers ewnt out to her and we hoped all was well. God bless.

So today was spent having breakfast in the Garden cafe, watching a Cha cha dance class in Bliss, and taking in the sun on deck 14 at the front of the ship, where there were plenty of available sunbeds and it was quieter than the main pool deck.

We also spent some time in the Atrium area when it got too hot for me! 

We watched the world go by and also watched Silent Scream....a version of Charades...very funny!

This evening we were lucky enough to be invited to the Captain's cocktail party. This was held in Bliss and was different to any other that we have attended, in that there was live music! The female singer from the group that performed daily at the poolside was singing and she was super......wasted, I felt at the pool deck! 

Afterwards we had a reservation for dinner at Cagneys, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Afterwards we headed ...a little apprehensively, I have to say...to O'Sheehans to retrieve our wine!

We needn't have worried! One of the lovely bar staff immediately got it for us as soon as he saw us. Phew! Can do without the drama! 

Finished the night off in the casino nad already day 2 is over!

After unpacking and relaxing in the cabin, we headed to O'Sheehans for a drink.

As previously said, we did as we always do on our cruises and ordered a wine package.

This is the best way for us to go with regards any drinks package as we are both wine drinkers, with only the occasional beer thrown in! 

We have never, ever had a problem with this package on 6 other cruises. However, there's always a first time! 

We gave the barman 2 of our slips for 2 bottles of wine, one white...mine....and one red..DH's

The barman looked at them, said *I have that one*...my white....* but I don't have that one*..DH's red, and gave him back the slip.

He took the bottle of white from a fridge, put 2 glasses in front of us and that was that! 

DH looked at me in confusion! He doesn't like white wine! 🙂

He spoke quietly to the barman, explaining that he wasn't a white wine drinker and could he please have his bottle of red.

The barman sighed.....loudly!! He went on to say that not all bars carried all wine.

DH said he appreciated that, but what was the solution?

The barman sighed again....loudly! 

He said if DH *gave him a while*, he would go and fetch the wine.

Not a problem said DH.

My wine was never poured, I did it myself and it was a good 20 minutes later when the barman said to his colleague * I've got to go and get this f*****g wine*....and no, I didn't mis-hear him! 

We were shocked, to say the least!

Just as a side note here, we are not demanding people, we don't like fuss and we are always polite. Also, the barman was not alone behind the bar, there were 3 other bar staff there as well.

2 of the other staff could see that we were uncomfortable and made a huge effort to speak with us and were extremely polite and friendly.

To be fair, when the other chap came back with the red wine, he did TRY to be a bit more friendly, but sadly the damage was done! I have to say this experience left a bit of a sour taste.

We noticed for the rest of the trip that he was the same with many other passengers! 

Then when we decided to move on, we wanted to leave our wine in the fridge at O'Sheehans. We have always done this in the past.

We were a bit reluctant to ask the barman, but my DH was brave! 

He received an adamant NO! No explanation, just No!

Well quite frankly, by now, DH had had enough of the attitude, so he deliberately asked another member of staff, who smilingly took our bottles, labelled them with our cabin number and placed them in the fridge! How easy was that? Hey ho. 

Anyway, off we went to Gatsbys, where we watched a very good entertainer by the name of Michael, who we herad was from our home town in England! We followed this with a visit to the casino, a drink and a snack on the balcony and day 1 was complete.

We bought a wine package...more about that later!

We attended Muster drill in the Venetian restaurant and enjoyed sailaway drinks and treats on our balcony! 

So after not cruising and taking land-based holidays for a 3 years, we had the opportunity to sail the Norwegian Dawn out of Miami on the 5 day cruise, taking in Harvest Caye and Costa Maya.

A little background....it's just the 2 of us now. I just took early retirement from Education. DH still works in Higher Education. We love to travel, however that may be. We have only ever cruised NCL and have 7 cruises under our belts. We've done smaller ships and larger ones and enjoyed them all.

So we travelled from England to Miami and enjoyed a few days there before embarking on our Dawn cruise.

We arrived at the Port on Sunday, April 21st, at around 10:30am and were quickly and painlessly on board by 11:30am.

We had a wander around and took some photos.

On 5/3/2019 at 11:07 PM, jaja said:

Thanks so much!

You are very welcome! 

Just found a card with the Concierge's name on too......Roel Gonzales.

7 hours ago, jaja said:

One more try....anyone have info on the DAWN !  Thanks!

We got off the Dawn on 26th April.

Info that I have......

Cruise Director....Richard Matic

Assistant CD.... Luz

Captain....Martin Holmqvist

General Managaer......Alain Magnier

F and B Director.......Andreas

Guest Services Manager......Gary

Casino Manager.....Grace David

Hope that helps, sorry I didn't get all the surnames! 

On 4/23/2019 at 1:58 AM, jackie101 said:

we just off the Dawn, no towel animal and no nighttime turn down service. Never met our cabin Steward, just awful

We got off the Dawn on 26th April. No towel animals, but got night time turn down service every night and our Steward was fab!  🙂 

We're on the Dawn in a couple of weeks. Out of Miami to Harvest Caye and Costa Maya, Mexico.

It's been a couple of years since we cruised. We've been doing land based holidays. 

We've sailed Epic, Jade, Sky, Getaway and Escape....our last cruise, so looking forward to a smaller ship once again.

Look forward to hearing all about the Dawn. 

We did the Western Med on the Epic twice in August! We have no choice, we are both in Education and it is school holidays here in the UK.

If I had the choice, I would definitely cruise that area in September. Both the crowds and the heat should be more bearable.

We visited the Vatican and the Sistine chapel and I was SO hot and bothered, I really didn't take it all in!

We didn't notice that places were closed, except the first time we visited, The Vatican was closed because it was a Feast day.....the Feast of the Assumption.....August 15th. My DH was NOT impressed that a good Catholic girl didn't know that! :confused:

We were on deck 13 and didn't experience the noise of the wake in the way the previous poster did. We absolutely loved being aft and would do it again in a heartbeat!

The ONLY problem....if you can call it that......that we had was that the vibrations we felt each morning were enough to wake me up......DH it never bothered! But I used it as an alarm clock so I could watch all the ports coming in to view! :D

Hi

In the Med, if you want to tip the cabin or bar tenders, do you offer € or $ ?

As we are from UK we will be taking euros to spend at ports but need to consider if we need $ as well!

Thanks

Hi there, both times we did the Epic Western Med we tipped our cabin steward in Euros.

As for the bar tenders, we added a tip when we signed for our drinks and we also tipped in Euros.

Hope that helps and enjoy the Epic. :)

Thank you for your comment.

My dh and I are leaving the kids at home and sailing Escape in Haven for my 50th birthday in August, can't wait. We had quite a few kids and families in Haven on Breakaway this July but we always relaxed upstairs and never had a problem.

 

Can't wait!

Ooo what a way to celebrate your 50th!

We were treated to our Haven on the Escape by family as it was our Silver Wedding anniversary! We had no idea until we arrived in Miami......truly spoilt and VERY special. :)

Enjoy your Escape!

My experience on Escape in the Haven was the opposite of "Vyhanek". The pictures that I took show more empty loungers than used ones. Sometimes, 10 loungers in a row were empty. There were plenty of attendants (they got to know us by name), never a wait for the Haven restaurant (we even had a favorite table for breakfast which was usually available), and the bar never had more than 2 or 3 people sitting there and hanging out (never a wait of more than a few seconds even if the passenger at the bar was being chatty with the bartender).

 

One of the biggest factors is WHEN a person sails. If it's during summer vacation, spring break, or a holiday (for ex.), there will be more kids.

This was exactly our experience in August on the Escape, even down to having the same table for breakfast each morning! Yes, there were quite a few families in the Courtyard area, children were using the pool, having fun and enjoying themselves. I understand about the mention of the noise bouncing around the courtyard area, but up on the sundeck it was always calm and peaceful. We LOVED it.

I've had an aft on the Breakaway (#12906), and a Courtyard Penthouse on the Escape (#18124). From the looks of things, the Courtyard Penthouse on the Breakaway looks very similar to what we had on the Escape.

 

The Courtyard Penthouse cabin itself feels a lot bigger than the balcony cabin we had on the Breakaway. It's very spacious, and having two closets and a changing area by the bathroom is great. The bed is also bigger. Though it's actually one of the smaller Haven staterooms, there's plenty of room in there—and only being the two of us, we didn't feel like we needed any more space.

 

NCL's site quotes 58 sq. ft. for both the Breakaway and the Escape balconies. Though obviously it was a smaller balcony than the cavernous B1 balcony we had before, there was plenty of room out there. It had a good amount of depth and was very wide. The chairs are more comfortable too. I spent a lot of time out there, and was very happy with it.

 

Would I upsell? Absolutely yes! As long as it isn't for an outrageous price, of course.

 

People said it here before—it's a different type of experience than a normal cruise. You have priority everything—you never wait in line. You barely have to leave the Haven if you don't want to, since everything you need is there. We ate most meals in the Haven Restaurant, and the Haven staff on the Escape was phenomenal. We were so spoiled, we've joked that we have to do an inside cabin next time to bring ourselves back down to earth.

 

I would definitely consider upselling if I were you...it was great for us!

I TOTALLY agree with all of this! :)

We had an aft balcony on the Epic, which we absolutely loved. It was also an accessible cabin, which made it BIG!! Even so, after being lucky enough to be treated to an upgrade into the Courtyard Penthouse on the Escape, I would have to say that yes, I WOULD upsell.....for the right price! :)

Gracie is my dachshund that I hate to leave when I sail. mr Bubbles I think is a new name assigned to me because of a post I made on the roll call concerning champagne on the Jade.

Bilge rat....ill let him explain his post.

Lol....thank you for the (partial) explanation! :)

Enjoy the Jade, we loved her.

Keep a watchful eye out for bilge rats, & mr. bubbles bouncing around the ship, in his kilt. And the 101 things that may go wrong. Harvest Caye or other itinerary & menu changes. Remember: dare to be different from your 4 legged friends. Jade in port 12MN to 7:30PM Sunday. 19-1/2 hours problems? Not mentioned on roll call by anyone!

Would LOVE to know what all this means? SHOULD I know? Am I just not in the loop? ;)

This is correct. I recently stayed in 17728 and the balcony was indeed wider, not deeper.

 

One thing to keep in mind, the ping pong tables and pool area are just on the other side of your wall. You will hear early morning noise and doors opening and closing constantly.

 

Other than that, it was a great place to be for two weeks.

Completely agree here. We stayed in 17128 in August.

We did hear a little early morning noise but nothing to spoil our stay.

I've included a picture which may help to see how close the ping pong and pool area is to that cabin.If people were looking out to sea through the glass, the balcony was a little overlooked, but nothing too major. :)

DSCN5480 by smilinglady, on Flickr

NCL now permits shorts, t shirts and flip flops in ALL of the diniing rooms.

Not doubting that this was your experience, but it certainly wasn't ours on our August trip. In fact, I remember a gentleman in front of us at the Manhattan dining room being asked, ever so politely to please step to one side, where it was pointed out that his shorts and flip flops were not accepted in the dining room, but he was free to choose to eat elsewhere ( the Garden Cafe was an option) or change into closed-toe shoes and longer shorts ( he had more *beach-type * shorts on)

For the configurations that have bed that comes first, any idea how much space between foot of the bed and the wall? Trying to figure out if a scooter could clear that to make it to the desk/sofa area.

 

Thanks

Attached are 2 photos from our cabin on the Getaway which hopefully show you the distance between the bed and the wall........it's not a lot!!

DSCN4704 by smilinglady, on Flickr

DSCN4703 by smilinglady, on Flickr

Hope that helps!

The previous poster answered you with personal experience but I just wanted to add that we were next door in 17128 and I noticed that the balcony of 17126 was smaller than ours.( I'm nosey........I peeked over! :o ) We had the table, 2 chairs AND a lounger on ours and still had space, but I'm guessing that won't help if you need an accessible cabin?

DSCN5480 by smilinglady, on Flickr

20160814_145753 by smilinglady, on Flickr

Thanks

You're very welcome! Enjoy the Haven on the Escape.......it's wonderful. :)

Pretty sure the previous comment was sarcasm.

Let's hope so! My sarcasm detector must be playing up today! ;)

Didn't see any really laughs until I did a Google Image search of "Microcephaly."

I'm sorry, I don't usually reply or comment on things like this, but am I the only one who finds this comment totally offensive??? : :mad:

We were on the August 14th Escape sailing and I was concerned about being bitten.

Not that I have to worry about being or getting pregnant.......just that if there is anything around that will bite...you can GUARANTEE it will bite me! :eek:

We used a Deet-based spray but didn't wear long sleeves or full length pants.

None of our family was bitten at all on the cruise. However, back at my BIL's house in Miami.......bitten to death one evening.......the one evening I DIDN'T spray with repellent!