coondogg97

Tell me you don't appreciate the crew members without telling me you don't appreciate the crew members.

Here’s another one, does anyone know if this young gentleman is still with NCL? This was 2015 on the Breakaway, his nickname is “Hipo”. He was the best butler we’ve had to date, great kid with a fantastic sense of humor. Wherever he is I hope he is successful.

Oh wow, do you know the date? We sail April 9th. Thanks for the info.

Except a good tequila. You can get Johnny Blue or Macallan Enigma but the best tequila in the Haven is Patron Anejo. They used to have Don Julio and Don Julio 1942.

Now that you mention it, I never actually saw my life jackets on the Encore. I saw the basket under the bed when I was looking for my luggage, but I thought it was just sheets for the bed. So the only thing the in person drill taught us was how to get to The Local.

The concierge is John D'Souza and Abby is backing him up. The Haven bartenders are Kai & Maria. The butler (17100) is Latilano.

We had Adrian on the Escape in 2018, by far the best concierge we've ever had. We were just on the Encore and John D'Souza was the concierge with Abby backing him up. They did a good job, but you had to push for it a bit. It just came natural to Adrian. I am looking forward to meeting David on the Prima in a few weeks.

We are just off the Encore and the in person drill wasn't that bad. At least we didn't have to walk around with the vest on like we used to. The elevators after the drill, that was a different story. They were packed and everyone was miserable. We are cruising on the Prima April 9th. I just checked in and had to watch the eMuster drill video. That was new to me, I did not have to do that for the Encore a couple of weeks ago. EDIT: I wanted to add that we did have to watch a mandatory safety video on the TV in our stateroom before we were able to use the TV. I think it was about 20 - 30 minutes?

That gives you something to think about. I usually use one of these, but I will keep that in mind in the future. Thanks USB Charging Station

Great idea, I will pick up a few of these for myself and the other members of my family traveling with us. Thanks!

We are going to be staying in The Haven in a category H6 2 bedroom room. Can anyone share with me what kind of power options there are in the room, specifically the master bedroom. Thanks

I couldn't find much information on Monkey Island in Taino Bay so I figured I would leave a post about the details. I've read conflicting reports about the tours and I think some people may be getting confused, I know I was. All we wanted to do was hang out with Monkeys. We weren't interested in zip lining or going on a two hour tour and trying Mamajuana. All we wanted was the time with the Monkeys and it couldn't have been easier. We walked off the ship and walked directly to the Monkey Island house. It is tucked in the corner of Taino Bay right by a bar and a bunch of retail shops. We walked up at 11:15am and after paying $25pp and filling out some paperwork we were hanging with the monkeys by 11:30am. We ended up going into the monkey house 3 times so we had a few different guides. They were all great guys and knew exactly how to get the monkeys to interact with their guests. Between the tours we walked around Taino Bay and did some shopping and grabbed some lunch. It may have been the easiest and possibly cheapest excursion that we've ever done and we all had a blast! They will also take pictures of you with the monkeys and you can buy them after the tour. Since we ended up doing three tours we just purchased one package and all the pictures were available to download, I think it was $30-$40 and we ended up with 77 pictures. Still cheaper than any excursion you would book through the ship and it was a memory that we will never forget.

Again, thanks for the information, I just got back and agree (to a point). I don't think Kai gave any special attention to anyone. I think he is a very technical bartender, but doesn't have the people skills to be a lead bartender in The Haven (yet). There is a lot more to a Haven bartender than knowing mixology and tossing an ice cube into the air and catching it in a glass. He was kind, but not so personal. He is also 25 years old and has only been in The Haven for a short time. Give him a few years and I think he will find his niche and be a solid Haven bartender all around. I also agree about Maria being talented enough to take the lead. She is more well rounded for the position right now. I don't think she was head bartender, but I did see her behind the bar more often than I saw Kai. There were also two Haven servers, Michael and Jude who I saw helping behind the bar a lot. They were great guys too. On our first sea day someone ordered a martini and asked how they could get it in the "fancy martini glass". Kai said something along the lines of "If I serve a martini in that glass this early in a cruise everyone would want that glass." There were only a few of the chiller glasses on the bar so maybe it was an inventory issue? Although I didn't see one martini served in those glasses all week.

Wow, thanks for an extremely informative post. I believe the concierge is John Dsouza. We've never had any experience with him, but I've read good things. I'm disappointed to hear about the vibe at the Haven bar, but I am looking forward to meeting Maria. Our Haven bartender on our last cruise was Branko Janezic who was fantastic. I was hoping to meet him again. And thank you everyone else for sharing your experience and research. I will also assume that we will be in Taino Bay. Which is good because I believe Monkeyland is closer to that location. If not we will probably just do the taxi tour.

Ok, thanks for clearing that up.I found a schedule for Taino Bay, but it doesn't look like it's been updated for a while. I am looking at doing one of the Monkey Lands, but if we are in Amber Cove it's over 2 hours away and I don't want to go that far.