Our Pre-halloween Oct 25th 5-day Mexican Riviera Cruise in Cabin 18100 (DOS) on the Bliss

[Grimix]

We wake up the next morning and we're still steaming for Cabo. We haven't pulled into the harbor yet we're still rounding the tip of Baja. We hang out on the balcony a bit before heading over to Haven restaurant for a little breakfast before boarding a tender for our planned 'Luxury Day Sail.' It was such a nice day we decided to eat in the outside portion of the restaurant. We had another wonderful breakfast while the ship pulled into the harbor. Unlike the princess ship that I had seen here last year we pulled into the bow pointed at the arches (the Princess ship was in a little further in with the bow pointed towards the marina.) 

 

After breakfast we headed back to the room. We had decided that Grandpa would stay on the ship this port because it is a tendered port. We figured it might be a little difficult to get grandpa onto the tender, and then onto the smaller boat we would be taking for the sailing. Grandpa was actually too happy just just relax in his cabin watching his shows. (I think he watched that new Elvis movie about 6 or 7 times on this trip...) We head down to the concierge, but of course the chorus of our names being called made us stop at the bar for a drink (we didn't want to... peer pressure!) We hadn't got on the first tenders because our excursion wasn't until 10:30. Our concierge still escorted us down the elevator and right onto a tender (this was one of the smaller ones on the way to the marina.) The operators made sure we all knew they accepted tips, and I handed them a $10 for my family.

 

We get out to the dock, and all the way down there are little white signs with the names of the excursions on them. As luck would have it, our sign was the very last one on the dock. We stood in line where a man was checking everyone's tickets. (Our tickets were waiting for us on our bar when we first boarded and entered our room.) He sees our tickets and says he's taking tickets for the 10:00am sailing. He says have a seat and he'll be back to collect ours. (It was actually 10 at this time.) He comes back a couple minutes later and asks how many are in our party. I told him 5, he says sorry, they had 4 no-shows so too few to get us on the earlier sailing so he'll be back in 5 minutes to take care of us. While we're waiting my kids are looking over the dock at the fish, and see a large crab that they were really excited about. I asked if they could see the frog. My daughter said there is no frog. She bet me. She lost because I turned her around and showed her Senior Frogs. She was not happy with dad...

 

Our ticket taker was back in 5 minutes and took our tickets, and after another 15 minutes he led our group over to the boats. We get on the boat and the first thing they ask is if we'd like alcohol in our welcome drink. My wife and I say duh... and received what I believe was a Paloma in a plastic champagne flute. My kids received some kind of fruit punch in the same type of receptacle. My daughter loved it, my sons not so much. After that we took off for our snorkel location. On the way there they served us two courses of food (which contained multiple types of food.) I think we got chips with salsa and guac, and some shrimp skewers. Followed by a ceviche, a salad, a taco, and some kind of pasta salad. It was all very good. In addition, unlike many of these trips I've been on, the bar was open on the way out. I had switched to Pacifico, because I can drink that all day and not really feel anything.

 

On the way down we got a rare treat! Off to the left of our boat probably around 100ft or so we got to see a whale swimming along with us. I say it was rare because we are a couple months before whale season begins. My wife the biggest animal lover (Dr not Vet because she likes animals better, and would have a hard time dealing with sick/injured animals.) was absolutely thrilled! (Even though we had seen whales in Hawai'i earlier in February off Oahu...)

 

We end up sailing all the way to Santa Maria bay to snorkel. For those unfamiliar with Cabo, most of the beaches are not-swimmable. The currents and waves make them unsafe. Santa Maria bay is one of a handful places you can swim since it is protected on the sides by the rocks. It is also the location of the Montage hotel. That is where we stayed for a night last year (We stayed at an all-exclusive for the other few nights. You should definitely do it the other way around! Do the montage last or you will regret having to move...) It is either #1 or #2 on her list of favorite hotels (The other one is also in Cabo. Zadun which is a Ritz-Reserve which now accepts Bonvoy points which allowed us to stay there a couple nights a two months before this cruise. My wife didn't want to leave... but I told her we'd be back soon!) 

 

They chummed the water with some bread and when I jumped in to snorkel I actually hit quite a few fish because they were all swarming the area. You couldn't really see the bottom, and there weren't too many types of fish, but it still was fun getting in the water. Definitely not a great snorkel spot though, you really need a reef for that. From our stay last year I knew there was a reef closer to the rocks on the right of the hotel, but that was long way from where we anchored, and it still wasn't as nice a snorkel spot a Molokini in Maui...

 

On the way back we had several more drinks, and they raised the sails to go under wind power. We passed Cabo and headed to the other side of the arches for a quick look at the beach and hotels over there. Then back to the dock to get on the tender. I had asked the guards at the entrance where there was a bathroom as I really had to go after all those pacificos. I'm usually like a camel and can go for hours, unlike my wife who went into a shop to use their bathroom. We get back to the dock, and it's later in the day so there really isn't a wait (I think we could have done some kind of haven priority haven on the way back but there was no need.) This was a larger tender than the one on the way out. We got to our seats and were waiting for it to fill up, but as I mentioned I was already filled... And I couldn't wait anymore. I told my wife I'm going to find a bathroom and catch the next tender. I get up and ask the guys helping people on where I can find a Banos. Luckily he pointed down at the bottom of the tender. I was really thankful to get in there, and I feel like we were riding lower in the water! (Yes physics doesn't work that way but still. :)) We made it back to the ship and offloaded from the tender.

 

 

Backside of the arches from our balcony as we were approaching Cabo.

 

The view of our ship from the Tender.

 

It's a beautiful ship! You can see our balcony up there one floor from the top. Maybe it does go a third of the ship!

 

A better view of our cabin. Just below the top deck. You can see the front and side deck. If you see those glass windows right under the overhang on the top deck you can see the master bedroom balcony just to the left. 

 

Ready to set sail for our snorkeling adventure!

 

No trip to Cabo is complete without an arch pic!

 

Bonus pic (since I'm reposting), Esteban called this Scooby-doo rock. You can take a guess why...

 

The Montage, and our snorkel location.

 

Daughter watching our beautiful ship!

 

Even better view of our cabin! You can even see the 2 chair on the master's balcony.

 

I've attached the whale video. Hope it comes out! It was exciting to see because while we were eat breakfast people yelled out they had seen a whale, and we had missed it. It's also a good video because our ship is in the background! (Editor's note: I left the link in the original post. Click it if you want to see a whale.)

[Grimix]

(Removed: Apparently double posting now...)

Edited November 7, 2022 by Grimix

[cruiseny4life]

14 minutes ago, Grimix said:

 

 

Found this in another thread if you guys want decipher everyone's ranks! (Not my photo!)

Now that is cool! Thanks so much!!

Edited November 7, 2022 by cruiseny4life

[Grimix]

We get back on the ship and head to the cramped confines of our stateroom (read that with a bit of dripping sarcasm...) There we find yet more snacks left by Lea our butler. There really are too many, and we had tried our best to make a dent in what was offered, but there were always future meal plans (tonight would be Cagney's) so there is a lot of waste. We probably should have asked her to tone it down a little, but I think Grandpa appreciated the snacks since he'd been hiding in his cabin the whole time we were out on the little boat.

 

The kids wanted to unwind after the adventure (read they wanted to play on their phones/iPads.) So with kids being watched by their electronic baby-sitters my wife and I decided we had to make sure NCL didn't come ahead on their drink package so we were headed to where everyone knew our name; the Haven bar.  The wife, as women seem to do, decided she needed to freshen up a bit. I decided an refreshing I needed to have done could happen at the bar. Grandpa was itching to get out of his cabin, so he and I headed down to the bar (with him once again cursing at all the service carts in the hallway...) 

 

As I probably mentioned I'd been drinking Pacifico all day so it was time to step my game up a bit. I told Al I was getting tired of Vodka Soda's and decided it was time to take advantage of the 'bespoke' cocktails I had read that they do at the Haven bar (and probably will do elsewhere, but they have the specialty mixers and add-ins here.) Al asked me just a couple questions since he already knew what I usually drank, and made me a Cucumber Cooler. It was delicious! Not overly sweet (which is what I asked for), refreshing, and dangerously did not taste of alcohol. Grandpa just had a Jack Daniels. I would have preferred him to get something more expensive like a whistle pig, since he also had to be upgraded to premium plus package (and I didn't bother to try and do the selective upgrade while on the boat with sthrngary has had success doing.) My wife and I would just have to pick up the slack, since grandpa was clearly going to be in the red on his drink package...

 

My wife finally joined us after I received my second cucumber cooler (I really liked that drink.) I made her try it since she loves cucumbers. She loved it and had to get one of her own. We had a couple more drinks, and the bar staff took our picture, and included one with themselves. It really wasn't crowed in the bar it being pre-dinner. But pre-dinner soon became we need to go get the kids ready for dinner (We tended to early this cruise because of #1 Grandpa, and #2 Shows, and #3 (and the most important) we could get the kids to bed so mom & dad could go out and continue the fun!

 

We headed down to Cagney's where I made sure to tell Grandpa he didn't need to order anything with an extra charge (I'm looking at you tomohawk steak and lobster) because a lot of the stuff on their menu has a similar offering in the Haven restaurant for free (you can have all the lobster you want up there; kind of reminds me of Elaine being kicked out of first class yelling they have cookies up there! (Seinfeld reference for any who missed it)) It may seem strange that my wife wanted to go to Cagney's (her being a vegetarian and all) but she tends to love the sides at a nice steak house. And since we did not purchase a dinner plan for my daughter (the carnivore) she ate my wife's steak (and she hates sides because many have the evil thing called vegetables in them...) and the other kids just did their normal kids meal. Grandpa got the porterhouse (the biggest steak that was 'free' on the menu, and of course as I suspected ate about half of it... He does that when we take him out at home. He insisted we take the other half back to the room even though we knew he wouldn't eat it because of all the food. I think he thought he could take it home to our dog who he loves to try and get fat, but a) they don't want you taking food off the boat, and b) that was thankfully a few days away and we didn't have space in the refrigerator. I think I got the ribeye. I ordered it medium-rare, but it came out rare, almost blue. I probably should have sent it back, but I'm not a complainer so I just ate it, and it was good. Once again I forgot to take the left over wine home with us when we left! And we had the deserts sent to our room because we were all stuffed. And yes Gary, the kids had the chocolate cake, and it was actually one of the few deserts sent back to our room that was pretty much licked clean...

 

It's now time for Grandpa and the kids to get ready for bed. The wife and I didn't really have plans, but figured we'd head out to the Haven bar as a good starting point. It turns out it wasn't just a good starting point, but a good ending point, because we closed it down that night (I think it was near midnight or so...) We just had a good time mingling with all the people we'd met over the last couple days, and new people kept coming. One group was heading down to Karaoke, and tried to get me to go. I really only do Karaoke at my neighbor's house, and only when I've had a few too many. One of those two things was covered, but the other wasn't so I managed to avoid it, and many people below don't realize how close they came to a real bad night! I'll usually pick a Bob Dylan song because he really can't sing, and he doesn't anymore. Worst concert I've ever been to was a Bob Dylan concert this summer (and I was really looking forward to it as I do love his songs.) All he does now is talk while the band makes music and he plays the piano (doesn't even play harmonica anymore it seems!) I didn't recognize one song he played, and we left halfway through his set. But this is the Bliss, and it was MUCH more fun than that concert!

 

With the Haven bar closed down my wife and I headed back to the cabin to close down the rest of the night.

 

Another pictured of the cabin sans grandpa. That thing stayed a bed the entire trip. We did not see the 'couch' again. (I think that is Elvis on the TV, also something that didn't seem to change!)

 

The cucumber cooler. If you don't hate cucumber I heartily recommend you try it!

 

The wife and I enjoying our second/third or so cooler. This picture looks kind of like heaven to me with all the white and light. I'd go into that light again in a second!

 

There's some of NCL's finest! Al in front, Carlo to the right, and Joana behind the wife and I.

 

Cagney's. Notice the piece of bread in my daughter's hand. She was in heaven with all the bread offered on the cruise. Other than meat, she's a carb-hound.

 

The pet sitter kept my wife happy by sending pictures of the animals through-out the cruise. I'm the dog guy, she's the one that makes me have cats...

 

The wife's endtable. I should explain some things, because these are required travelling gear for us now. You can see the Anker power cube next to the darker blue water bottle. It has I think 3 or 4 outlets, and a single USB-C, and 2 USB-A outlets. With all her stuff she needed the extra outlets. The white tear-drop shaped thing is a portable noise machine (we have the non-portable version at home which is a little bigger.) It has all kinds of noises, the wife always has it one waves. I believe it has several hours of waves before it imperceptibly restarts. You basically won't feel like you're hearing the same waves over and over again. The fan is the recent addition to our travel repertoire. It's a Venty fan. It's supposed to be able to go for 24 hours on it's battery. I have it plugged in. My wife sleeps hot, and needs moving air. Even though it wasn't really hot in our cabin, having a fan move the air (and it really does a good job for it being so small) was a life-saver to her. (Or really a sleep-saver.)

[Sthrngary]

4 minutes ago, Grimix said:

(and I didn't bother to try and do the selective upgrade while on the boat with sthrngary has had success doing.)

Thank for the shout out.  Tell Grand Pa to get with the program.  Next time, have the bartender give him Three shots.  Jack and you choose the other two.  Do the Pepsi challenge.  He will like them or not but he will feel so much better about the carts in the hall with some good drinks in his system.  My favorite drink is the Tequila 1942.  They lose money on the package on day one with me on the choice. 

 

10 minutes ago, Grimix said:

And yes Gary, the kids had the chocolate cake, and it was actually one of the few deserts sent back to our room that was pretty much licked clean...

I know my calories and where to spend them.  When in the Haven, I have Prime Rib.  When not in the Haven, I have Prime Rib at Cagney's which is actually a better Prime Rib.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[vacation44]

Really enjoying reading your review.   Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.   On a side note, we sometimes travel with my now 86 year old dad so I totally understand that element.   

[SanchoPa]

Great review, I am enjoying all the family anecdotes. Our family is on the Bliss later this month and I am learning some things I didn’t know but will be helpful (how to not get stuck on the water slide, dominate on laser tag and lower my expectations for the go karts). 
 

I had to make an account just to thank you. 

[Grimix]

2 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

My favorite drink is the Tequila 1942.  They lose money on the package on day one with me on the choice. 

I looked for it, but did not ask for it at Haven bar. I didn't see it. My wife did try it in Cabo on our pre-cruise visit at a tequila shop in San Jose Del Cabo. She liked it a lot. I told her it might be available on the cruise, but she was doing mostly skinny margaritas anyways, and that would be kind of a shame to waste a good sipping tequila on.

[Grimix]

2 hours ago, vacation44 said:

Really enjoying reading your review.   Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.   On a side note, we sometimes travel with my now 86 year old dad so I totally understand that element.   

Thanks! If he has mobility problems those narrow passages do take some maneuvering. (Mostly us moving the carts to one of the door locations that are inset a little bit. He doesn't remember much. We take him to a restaurant one day, and a couple days later he says he'd like to try it as we're passing it. He remembers the cruise though, and has been talking about it non-stop since we got back.

[Grimix]

37 minutes ago, SanchoPa said:

Great review, I am enjoying all the family anecdotes. Our family is on the Bliss later this month and I am learning some things I didn’t know but will be helpful (how to not get stuck on the water slide, dominate on laser tag and lower my expectations for the go karts). 

Thanks! One trick I didn't mention is make sure there are mostly young kids on the other team. Makes dominating that much easier!

 

Remember what Conan said is best in life:

To crush your enemies,

See them driven before you, 

and hear the lamentations of their women.

 

(And I get in trouble for doing that in the next sea day installment!)

[tanyaewa]

Loving this review because 

a) we love cruising with family

b) we have been on the Bliss to Alaska (and my husband was removed from racetrack…( it may have been a DUI ;)) we finally found him in the “waiting lounge”

C) the day you were in Cabo I was in a lounge chair on the beach watching your ship anchored in front of us….. I would have watched all your adventures - arriving, tendering, heading out on your luxury snorkel, etc…

[Grimix]

Next day is the second sea day. We really have no plans except to enjoy the ship, and see Six. When I originally told my wife (and forgive me if I'm repeating myself, as I'm not sure what I've written in the other 12 million posts) about the shows she was excited to Jersey Boys, and didn't know about Six, she actually was thinking about skipping it because she had never heard about it. Our kids have really liked musical theater. Went to a local (sacramento) production of Hamilton because my son loved the music, and they fell in love with it. A year later we took them to see Wicked at the same theater and they loved that one. So now I told them that there were two shows on the ship we would soon be cruising on. I told them their mom really wanted to see Jersey Boys, and there was also a musical called Six, but that their mom wasn't too excited about it, and we might skip it. My daughter about had a melt-down. She'd heard of it and knew the songs, and said that she would rather see that one than jersey boys. My wife realized then and there that we would have to cram both shows into our sailing.

 

This day we decided to do breakfast in the room. My wife had filled out the card with what she wanted to order for everyone, specifying 1 for most items. In true Haven fashion when the food arrived at the correct time in the morning they had delivered 3 of everything. I hated wasting the food, but I was determined to try the Haven lunch today as we haven't done a single lunch all cruise!

 

The kids wanted to try the arcade, and since we had about $100 left of on board credit we decided to head down there with them. (I did buy the 100 shares of NCL when it went just below 11 this year, and that garnered me an extra $50 for a 5 day cruise, and since it's over 16 now and I have another cruise planned, and maybe a couple more I feel it was a good investment! I sold my company stock to purchase the NCL, and that also was a good investment because our stock is down from when I sold it, but I do think it will bounce back.) We head down to the arcade on deck 5, past what seems like mostly empty kids clubs (it wasn't a schools-out cruise, but we had put our kids on a self-study for the week. We chose this week mostly because this was a celebratory cruise (Dad's 80th, my wife's and my 16th anniversary, and wife's birthday), and not the least important reason is that cruises are much cheaper when school is in session, and they are much more laid back!)

 

The arcade as I have previously mentioned are mostly kid-gambling-trainers. They have a couple of machines that you could use if you get the arcade pass (A couple driving games, a Jurassic park shooter (which my dinosaur loving eldest occupied the whole time), and an air hockey machine. Maybe more, but we told the kids they could have about $15 each. Most games are a minimum of a $1. My youngest son is a gambler. He plays all the ticket machines. My daughter did some of the driving games. My wife decided to play air-hockey with my youngest when he was done. My wife won rather easily, but my youngest managed a few goals. My wife played my daughter, and then she wanted to play me. We had a really good game, and were trading goals until we were at 6 all. 7th point wins it. DANGER! DANGER! Will Robinson! We had a really good rally, and eventually the puck went into my wife's goal (I don't know if I hit it in or she did) but I "won."  In fact, I lost because my wife told me I should have let her win in front of the kids because they were rooting for her (of course they were! They always root against daddy unless I'm on their team!) We headed back to the room, and after a few apologies, and maybe a drink from the bar or two all was forgiven, and we decided to get ready for lunch.

 

So on day 3 we finally have our first lunch. I had the french dip. It was good, but I have to say I wasn't wowed. But the service as normal in the Haven did wow me. I don't remember what anyone else got, and as I mentioned I don't really take food pr0n pictures (there are plenty in other reviews for you to feast on.) I was just happy I got to try lunch!

 

Now that we had stuffed ourselves again we went back to the cabin to relax until dinner. We didn't really have anything planned. I think we ended up taking a much needed map! Dinner tonight would be in the Haven, and we had the early show of Six to catch. We stop at my happy place (the Haven bar) on the way down to dinner. I decide to have an espresso martini which I had a couple nights before. They are delicious! We bring our drinks back up to the restaurant and sit in what seems to be our normal table (most tables seat 4, there are about 2 inside that seat 6, don't quote me, but I think that's right.) Sitting down at the table I spill what seems like half my martini on the crisp clean white table cloth. The service being what it is the waiters were all over me with towels helping to clean up my mess, but they could do nothing for my embarrassment. Tonight was the Delmonico steak. It was really good and cooked perfect. I think grandpa had the Prime Rib with a couple lobster tails (I told him he could order all the lobster he wanted here.) 

 

We head back to get ready for the musical. Once again we need to get a drink since the bar is right next to the concierge, it's like they're begging you to get one... I order another espresso martini but I forbid them from giving it to me in a Martini glass. I explained my issues earlier at dinner, and that I'm not fond of the martini glasses in general. Whoever designed that shape must really like to spill drinks, because that conical shape just wants to slosh everything out of it. They end up giving it to me in a low-ball glass (The kind they do the old-fashioneds in.) and I told them this is now my sippy-cup version of the espresso martini. For the rest of the cruise when I ordered the espresso martini they remembered to give it to me in the low-ball and I didn't have any more accidents with them!

 

The concierge escorted us to the theater via the service elevators, and this time grandpa and eldest sat where they had the prior engagement, and the rest of us went down to the Haven section which is about halfway down the theater on the left hand side. There's a crewmember who mans a roped off section. They aren't the best seats in the house, but not having to wait in line makes it worth it to me. The show was fabulous, and my daughter was in heaven! Even my youngest who usually gets bored in the 1.5 hour cartoon movies at the theater sat enraptured through the whole thing. (He asked my wife if he could leave early if he got bored. Needless to say he didn't bring that up again.)

 

My wife and got the kids to bed, and then hit up the Haven bar for a couple hours before calling it quits. We didn't shut the place down tonight we were just too tired. 

 

This day actually has some of the fewest pictures of the whole cruise.

 

The kids suffering in our cramped quarters that we had to stuff 6 people into... Not sure how we managed, but we somehow made it through!

 

The view out the master shower... I'm sure the fish enjoyed ogling us...

 

All girls. Even the musicians and director. If you look behind you, and you're in the lower half of the theater you can see two monitors up above with what I assume is the director. You can see her signaling the cast on entrances, and musical cues, or whatever she was doing. I did spend some time looking back because I thought it was really interesting.

[Grimix]

16 minutes ago, tanyaewa said:

b) we have been on the Bliss to Alaska (and my husband was removed from racetrack…( it may have been a DUI ;)) we finally found him in the “waiting lounge”

C) the day you were in Cabo I was in a lounge chair on the beach watching your ship anchored in front of us….. I would have watched all your adventures - arriving, tendering, heading out on your luxury snorkel, etc…

We did the race-cars as early in the day as we could so we could drive them as sober as possible (we did a better job than our tea-totaling  kids at least!) We're looking forward to Alaska next year!

I would have waved had we known you were watching!

[Maleficent's Dad]

The reposting helps - got the pics on the reposts!  Thanks!

[Grimix]

20 minutes ago, Maleficent's Dad said:

The reposting helps - got the pics on the reposts!  Thanks!

I'm glad people let me know! For anyone else doing a review I think Google Photos isn't the best site for hosting your pictures. I moved them to shutterfly.

[Grimix]

Senior moment alert! I just remembered something from our Cabo night. After Cagney's, and before shutting down the bar, my daughter really wanted to see the Comedian in the social. (She really wanted to see the adult show that my wife and I had arranged for the last night, but it's the adult show... 12 going on 21...) We didn't have reservations and it was about 45 minutes to show time. We went down and asked the concierge if there was any chance of getting in. He made a couple of calls, and said he's got room for all 5 of us. Definitely a Haven perk! We sit in the social after the wife and I grab a drink (theme here, can't not when you're by the concierge!) The comedian was Larry Omaha. He does some schtick about him being an indian (american type not asian) and finally asks if there are any kids in the audience. There might have been others, but my kids are the only ones who raised their hands. For the next 20 minutes he proceeds to ask them questions and make fun of their answers. My kids loved it, and everyone was laughing. I had to give a $20 to him after in appreciation for humiliating my kids (who didn't look all that humiliated...)

 

Sigh, our last full day on the ship... A little bittersweet, and made even more 'special' by getting to share it with Ensenada. Our plan was to just go to town with grandpa and look around a little. We didn't have any excursions booked. We've both been Ensenada before on prior cruises.

 

My daughter had wanted to do breakfast in the room (she's not lazy, honest. (She's not looking? Ok, maybe she is a little...)) Unfortunately for my daughter the wife forgot to put the order in the night before. (Maybe we should have turned in even earlier from the bar that night!) So the kids decided to stay in the room, but the wife, grandpa, and I decide to head out to the Haven restaurant for our last leisurely breakfast. We had a great breakfast, and my wife had ordered bacon (vegetarian, remember?) to take back to the room for my daughter (carnivore, remember?) My wife asks for a to-go container to take the bacon back to the room. The waitress says, don't worry I'll get you fresh bacon, crispy? My wife, who has been struggling with all the food waste on the ship, said no, the bacon she has is good enough, she doesn't want to waste it. She got her container and my daughter gladly devoured the bacon, and several pieces of carbs that the wife had brought back for her. 

 

Because we had no excursions planned we decided to not hurry to disembark the ship. From our balcony there was a disney ship already in port (and it looked tiny compared to ours) and we could see people getting off our boat and into these shuttle busses which presumably took them to town. We walked off the boat without using any special Haven access since most people that were getting off already had by this time. Grandpa was using a walker. We had taken the wheelchair on a trip to San Francisco a few weeks early (to see a baseball game) and the front wheel collapsed going down one of the handicap curbs and grandpa went sailing into the street. I had bought new wheels (metal this time) and replaced the broken ones, but we figured grandpa could use the exercise anyways, and while the streets of San Francisco aren't great, I doubted Ensenada would be better...

 

We get down to the shuttles and they are $4 round-trip to get to downtown. While on the bus they have a local who does a little talk on the area. Of course he mentions that his company that NCL charters the shuttles from will do most of same tours that NCL offers for much cheaper. For instance they offered to take you to the Bufadora blow-hole and back for $20/adult, $17/kid. This is/was MUCH cheaper than anything NCL offers. The guide also mentions that there are about 4 blocks of downtown and most of them are bars that aren't quite open yet. This convinces my wife that we should go see the blow-hole.

 

The shuttle drops us off downtown right next to their storefront. There are a couple street vendors that will try and sell you stuff right there. I hadn't expected to do any excursions so I hadn't filled my wallet with money. I had left it in the safe on board. Of course they only take cash. So I ask for an ATM. They point me down the street about 2 blocks where there is a 7-11, and they say it has an ATM. I walk down there, leaving the kids with mom and grandpa, and the darn thing was out of order. I walk back, knowing the wife's ire will be growing since I forgot to bring money, and failed on my first attempt to acquire some. I tell the guide that ATM is out of order and he directs me to a Pharmacia on the corner which he says also has an ATM. I get there and this ATM looks like it's working. I decide to get $400 because the Bufadora has vendors and my wife really wanted to do some shopping (prodded on by my daughter) I hit yes a bunch of times, and see something about $46 which I assumed was in pesos (About $2 or so...) Turns out it wasn't. When I got home my wife said I paid $46 to withdraw that money... Lesson learned! Don't forget your money on a shore excursion!

[Grimix]

So now I purchase the tickets and meet our bus driver who will be taking us to the blow-hole and back. He was extremely nice and he had some common Mexican name that starts with J (I want to say Javier, or something, but you know me and names...) He was great. The bus was fairly small, and I think there were about 15-20 in total. Grandpa sat in front because he had a walker and it was the closest seat to the door. 

 

It was about a 45 minute drive to the blowhole. Javier(?) told us about the city, and what to expect at the blow-hole on the way down. There was air-conditioning (not enough for my wife, but there rarely is. Our car has multi-zone climate control, and if she's in it I don't get any say in what my side is. It's always on low so I'm freezing. Luckily are car also comes with seat heaters which I turn on, and when the wife isn't watching I may try and put the cooling a little warmer a notch at the time...) We get to the area and park in a dirt lot. Javier tells us all to be back in an hour and a half for our return trip. To get to the blow-hole there is a large gauntlet of shops you have to walk through. At the entrance there is a little restaurant that serves tacos, and street fare. There was a long line to get in, and the wife decided she needs both a drink, and to try the tacos. Grandpa had struggled with his walker through the dirt lot and Javier sees this and talks to some of his friends who get us a seat right away so grandpa doesn't have to stand in line. He was well taken care of for his hospitality after the excursion! We order several tacos, and my youngest who is the only soda drink really wanted to try the Mexican Coke, which he loved. The food was really good. Not fancy, but delicious. We asked the waiter if Grandpa could sit here while we went to see the blow-hole. He told us no-problem, and grandpa was happy he could sit and not have to walk the half mile or so to the blow-hole.

 

The whole way is lined with shops and people who come trying to get you into their stores, or to try their samples be it churros or tequila. They really all seem to see the same stuff, and I don't really like being hounded, but my wife and kids had no problem with it. I had to talk to my eldest son (the autistic one) that he needs to keep walking, and not check out everything he is being offered. We would never have made it down otherwise. Half way down someone offers churro samples. My youngest loves churros so the wife decides she'll take some. According to them they are delicious. Now that he has her hooked he tries to reel in the catch. My wife is a somewhat difficult catch. He tells him we going to see the blow-hole and don't want to carry the churro's down. We'll find him on the way out. He wasn't happy but we made our escape.

 

We get to the end on the shops and see the majestic blow-hole! Well no one told us it was low-tide, so it really wasn't that impressive... After the walk down the wife decided she needed a margarita, and my youngest wanted to get a virgin pina colada they were serving in a pineapple. There's a restaurant at the bottom that sells that and clams. Which smelled good, but I'm not a seafood person, and my wife doesn't do fish either.

 

Right next to that shop is a fairly large leather shop. My wife wanted to get a Louis Vuitton bag. She saw a duffel bag type satchel that has the same white pattern as her real bag. (I say real, because 99.999999999% the ones they sold there aren't real...) I stood outside the shop waiting because I don't like bargaining (I'm a buyer, not a shopper...) but my wife loves the whole thing. My daughter saw a necklace she loved and the shop owner had her put it on.  After haggling for what seemed like forever apparently my wife pulled the power move of getting ready to leave. She started to take the necklace off my daughter (who was getting ready to cry, but that just made the power move that much more realistic...) and the guy came down to my wife's price. She bought several things from that store. Her other moves was saying I only had so much money, and that I didn't want to use my credit card in mexico (I did only have so much money, but more than they were asking, and didn't mind all that much about using a credit card, but I guess it's part of the dance.) My wife came out pleased with herself. My daughter was beaming and so proud of her necklace. (Her mom wasn't that keen on it, but she liked it)

 

The next shop owner over said now you went in there you have to come see mine. So now I got to wait for another bargaining session. My youngest got some kind of stuffed animal, and the daughter got some mexican dress she absolutely loved, and my wife got the satisfaction of 'winning' at the bargaining game. I finally get us moving back up the street, because our time here is running out. My eldest son (other than me) is the only one who hasn't got a purchase yet. So he's looking. We're also on the lookout for the Churro vendor because they all want Churro's now. Turns out we didn't have to go looking he found us. He tried offering us samples, and then said Hey, you guys said you would by my Churros on the way back! My wife said we were looking for him, and we bought the churros. I'm not a churro expert (i'm really not all that into sweets that aren't candy) but the kids and wife agreed they were the best churros's they've ever had!

 

We walk up several more shops and there is the thing that catches my son's eye. It's a little blue furry man shaped stuffy with a mouth loaded with sharp teeth. He must have it. The wife begins her dance. They start at $10, then soon the hawker says he'll take $8,  and they finally settle on $6. I say I only have a $10, and he takes it and goes to find change. This might be part of the hustle, but after 2 minutes I'm looking at the watch and say we need to go. I don't want to miss our bus back to the port over $4. I tell her the $4 will mean much more to this guy than it will us. She begrudgingly agreed to just leave feeling like she got robbed for the $4. 

 

We get back and get Grandpa and head back to the bus, and it's mostly loaded. We get on for the ride to the ride back to their staging area where we catch the shuttle that takes us back to the boat. There is no wait to get back on, and we get in an elevator to take us back up to our floor. Grandpa is extremely tired, and in an exceedingly crotchety mood.  The elevator is mostly full and he gets in last facing towards the back with his butt right near the buttons. The elevator starts going up, and I hear that grandpa had butt-dialed at least one extra floor. When we get to the floor that he butt dialed and no one gets on or off, he kind of yells 'come on people. Get with it!' He obviously doesn't know he's the one that caused the delay of him getting back to his beloved bed. My wife spent the rest of the elevator ride apologizing for her rude father to the other guests (right in front of him.) 

 

We get back to the room, and grandpa basically flops on his bed, and turns on the TV. My wife goes in to ask him if he needs some water. He says 'Put it there!' pointing to his end table. My wife did the ER, so she doesn't take crap from anyone, let alone her dad. She says if you want water you can go to the refrigerator and get your own, and she left.

 

Looking off our balcony. Ensenada Mexico in rocks, and the large Mexican flag in the background. We also saw bunch of seals down where they tied our ship to. They didn't like the dock workers going over there and slid back into the harbor.

 

Quiet breakfast in the Haven were we finally sat at a 4-top table. My wife enjoying her Veuve mimosas which made me happy because they're $37 a piece on the NCL price list. So I can mentally deduct the cost from the PBP+, and know we'll be in the black that much quicker!

 

This is how empty it was when we got off. We decided this was a grandpa excursion because it was a dock, and easier for him to handle.

 

This is where the shuttle drops you off. My kids probably waiting for me to come back from my money hunt.

 

Rare full family selfie. We had to be careful not to get sprayed by the blow-hole (sarcasm!)

 

This is where the magic is supposed to happen.

 

This is about as good as it got...

 

You know you're required by law to take a photo by any sign like this...

 

Enjoying his virgin Pina Colada...

 

 

 

 

[Grimix]

Where the seals were hanging out.

[Grimix]

At this point my wife was more than happy to let grumpy grandpa ride the pine in his bedroom. The kids wanted another crack at the waterslide. My daughter had weighed 118 (needing 120) the first day, and as you know how cruises go, and the amount of bread she's had while on board there was a chance she might make weight. I also wanted my son to try and get over the hump by keeping his legs crossed. I don't think he wanted to because he thought he might fail, but that is exactly why he needed to get back on that horse!

 

We changed into our swim suits and left the haven of the Haven for the chaos of the pool deck. The two youngest decided to get warmed up on the 'small' slide. Had their fun, and then it was time for the weigh in. After removing all jewelry (her ear rings which were handed to me) she got on the scale. This scale has no numbers, just a color range marking that shows good to go. She was barely into the go range, and was so excited! My son and her climed the spiral staircase to the top and waited their turn in a rather short line. The line doesn't move too fast because there are a lot of people that don't make it, and the three operators (One at the top, one at the bottom, and one at the escape hatch) keep in contact with radios, and it takes time to make sure the tube is clear for the next adventurer. My son went, and I crossed my fingers that he would get over the first hump (if you get passed that you're home free.) The trap door dropped him and I saw him go up and over through the clear part of the slide. He came out the bottom and was so proud of himself for making it! Now it was my daughters turn. Unfortunately I think it was also time to rotate positions. The guy at the bottom had to climb the staircase to the top, and change places with the person up there. My daughter got to wait at the top contemplating her fate for about 5 minutes while waiting for the shift change. She was finally allowed into the tube. After a few moments the trap door opened, and I was hoping she'd keep her legs crossed. A few seconds later she shot up into the clear part! and then started drifting down to the escape hatch... As you will see in the pictures she did cross her legs, she probably just didn't weigh quite enough to keep her momentum. To her credit she tried it again, and unfortunately had the same result. Maybe next cruise she'll have better luck!

 

Now we decide to go back the Haven pool area and relax a bit. We all spent some time in the hot-tub enjoying the free-flowing drinks Joana kept coming over with. My youngest son had his first virgin mud-slide, and it probably won't be his last!

 

We return to the room to watch the last sunset from our balcony. So sad, but all good things... While the wife was getting ready for our dinner date (just us this night!) I told her I needed to head down to the casino to withdraw some cash. I had pulled out a lot of money for tips, and the service was so fantastic I decided I need more to leave for our bar staff. On these forums I read about the ability to withdraw from your room key at a 3% commission, and since my card was backed by the NCL credit card I got 3% back. Therefore it was essentially free to get the money out, unlike the Mexican ATM, or even the ATM on the ship. Since I had some cash I sat down to play a little Pai Gow. My wife was getting ready and that can take an hour or more. It was $25 a hand, and there were about 3-4 of us playing. I had a good time. Lost some, won some, pushed even more. Ended up even after giving the dealer several tips. (For those that know Pai Gow the casino's advantage is they win pushes on hands, and also they have a 5% commission on any winnings. In land-based casino's I've never seen a casino charge a commission on tipped winning. The dealers usually just get to keep all of that. NCL apparently wants their money from even the dealers. I thought that was a little cinchy...)

 

The wife had the kids dress up too because she wanted some pictures on the final day. We headed down to the Haven lobby all dolled up and had the hostess take a couple pictures of us. The kids then went back to the room to have room-service with grandpa, while the wife left for our planned date at La Cucina, followed by the adult version of Larry Omaha's comedy show.

 

I've heard mixed reviews of La Cucina, but my wife and I really loved it! The best thing I actually ate all cruise was the pesto gnocchi for my pasta dish. I'm 1/4 Italian, and if I do say so myself, my gnocchi is better (and my wife agreed), but I really loved pesto sauce (I am a sucker for garlic and pesto...) I was actually disappointed when my Chicken Cacciatore came out. It was good, but I wish I had finished with the pesto! The waiter came and asked what we would like for our deserts. My wife made a selection (I usually don't do deserts, and I was already stuffed...) I was determined to bring wine back to my stateroom this night as it was my last chance! I asked the waiter if we could get another bottle of wine. I suspect he knew what we were doing since he brought my wife's desert, and the bottle of wine he handed to me unopened. When he took my card he saw we were in the haven and took back my wife's desert as of course it would have to be delivered by the butler!

 

You know the deal about the best laid plans... Well we decided to get an after-dinner drink at our Haven bar before heading down to the show. All week I had wanted to get a smoky drink, as you see all types of videos of them when researching the Haven. I was down to my last night, and so it was now or never. I got the smoky old fashioned, and it was delicious! My wife loved it too, but she just sipped off mine. Joana has already left for the day (I believe she gets off at 7, so I gave Mikos the tip I had planned to give her (asking him to get it to her), and also gave Al, Carlo, and Miko the same. They were all so appreciative we never did make it down to the comedy show. We just had fun hanging out with the bar tenders and the people we had got to know throught out our very short 5 days.

 

Thus ended our last night on the ship. A little bittersweet!

 

I kind of liked the flooring in the suite. It was a wood with gold flecked grains. I tried to capture a picture of it, but it doesn't really show the effect that much!

 

The stairway to heav... sorry Ocean Loops. You get in the top of that tube, and when they're ready the floor drops away and you go shooting down the tube, and out over the ocean.

 

My daughters failed attempt, but you can see she kept her legs crossed at least.

 

One her way down to the hatch...

 

The walk of shame. If you fail to go around you get dropped off a deck below out of the hatch down here.

 

Forgot to post this picture I think. They had the haven pool roof open the first day we went to the Haven pool.

 

Today it was closed.

 

Son's first mud-slide.

 

Last sunset... So sad! (Already in pajamas again... but not for long!)

 

Our last family picture on the ship. The daughter wanted to wear her new necklace and dress she had bought earlier in the day. (Sorry, what we bought her...)

 

Glen our steward had made up the bed for the kids. Baguette had a great cruise which almost wasn't...

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Grimix

[Sthrngary]

16 hours ago, Grimix said:

Quiet breakfast in the Haven were we finally sat at a 4-top table. My wife enjoying her Veuve mimosas which made me happy because they're $37 a piece on the NCL price list. So I can mentally deduct the cost from the PBP+, and know we'll be in the black that much quicker!

That is funny however I did the same thing.  I love that Veuve.  The picture shows your wife with a crescent on her plate.  It that one of the famous Almond ones only provided to Haven Guests? 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[Grimix]

6 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

That is funny however I did the same thing.  I love that Veuve.  The picture shows your wife with a crescent on her plate.  It that one of the famous Almond ones only provided to Haven Guests? 

 

No, she did the normal croissants, she doesn't like the almond extract flavor... I however did have one every morning we ate in the haven!

[Grimix]

Looks like cruise-critic errored out and ate my last post (another hour of my time I will never get back!) I don't have the heart to recreate it at the moment, so I will attempt to do that later and then summarize my thoughts. 

[Grimix]

Lets try and recreate this post!

 

I forgot to mention that as many do (at least those who aren't smart enough to pack the entire house and just walk off the ship) we had packed our bags before the wife and I went out the last night and left them out in the hallway. I think we took up all the space to the turn off to the Horizon lounge!

 

We woke up earlier than normal this day, and the ship was already in port. We had to catch a 12:10pm flight out of Long Beach airport (LGB) We wanted to have one last breakfast with the wonderful Haven restaurant staff (was more our pleasure than theirs I'm sure) On the way there I saw Lea and Glen who said good morning to us one last time, and I handed them repurposed envelopes with their tips (I didn't bring envelopes, and they didn't leave any for this process. I just reused some of the envelopes we'd received during the week that had other things in them...) We were seated at one of the larger tables, and my wife got her last Veuve mimosas of the week, and I enjoyed their french pressed coffee, and one last almond croissant with breakfast. We returned to the room to take one more look around and say our goodbyes, and make sure we didn't leave anything behind.

 

We sullenly made our way down to the concierge to be escorted off our home for the past 5 days. As we passed the bar one last time the bar staff said goodbye, and Joana came to thank us for the tip that Mikos had given her (I'm glad she got it as she took great care of us!) The assistant concierge took us down the service elevator to the gangplank. I gave him his tip. Is was $20 short of what I had planned because I had miscalculated tips and need to save $20 for the porter to get us quickly past customs and out to the curb with our whole house packed in the 10 suitcases...

 

We go down the gangplank. We are wheeling grandpa in the wheelchair. We don't need him getting surly again because he had to exercise! We make our way back to the elevator where our adventure false started, and there is a giant line. There are many mobile impaired people that need help off the ship, and 3000 are getting off. The staff at the elevator asked those who were able to to take the escalator because they would help get people down faster. My wife sent me with the kids to go down the escalator, and she stayed with her dad to take him down the elevator. (She relayed a story of an ambulatory, but older couple who wanted to take the elevator, and said that they were in the haven. The elevator operator laughed, and said there is no Haven out here. Ouch! Back to the real world!)

 

We took the escalator and winded our way through the terminal. We passed the elevator, and my wife and her dad still hadn't made it down, but we had told her we'd meet her at the luggage area. We continued walking and walked through what I assume was the haven waiting lounge (a bunch of folding chairs with some tables containing snacks and drinks) We never got to see it on the way in! Now it was there set up for the passengers who were to take our place in a few minutes.

 

We get to the rather large area where the luggage waits for it's owners. It's all separated by the color of the luggage tag they give you the night before. I see the signs for all kinds of colors, but not for gold which is the color on our bags. I looks around for a while and find a porter first. I ask her if she knows where the gold section is. She doesn't know. We walk around for a little until we found someone from the port who looked at it and said oh, that's priority and that's over there. (So if you're priority look for priority not your luggage tag color!) The porter follows me over to the priority area where we start loading the bags onto her cart. Grandpa and wife find us while we're halfway done.

 

The $20 (or whatever) you give the porter is well worth it! She guided us to the left side of the lines and we barely had to wait while the agents looked at our passports and decided to let us in. We then proceeded to the middle aisle where we hoped to get our ubers. I give the porter her tip and thank her after we've unloaded all the bags. Now I'm starting to get worried about 3000 people getting off the ship and probably a large percentage of them are going to want ubers. My worries seem confirmed when a guy sees us playing with our phones, and says I hope you already have your Ubers because I've been waiting over an hour for mine! We need 2 because of all the luggage!

 

We wait around 5 minutes while uber looks for a driver who wants to take your fare. Ding! Wife gets an XL that is 15 minutes away, and a minute later I get an X that is also 15 minutes away! Score! I message my driver telling him we're on the center divider by the stop sign with the overstreet sign for piers 92/93. He says great I'll meet you there. My wife's unfortunately is dropping off people at the pier! Doh! He's on the inside curb. So I then have to take half the luggage to quickly go to the other side of the street because I have to also be on the lookout for my driver who has entered the terminal are! (This was not a task we could trust to our kids... they aren't that trustworthy...) I run half the bags over the crosswalk, and then see my driver pulling right up to our remaining bags. I flag him and run back to the middle island to make sure he doesn't leave me! My car was much smaller and we needed to juggle luggage to fit all the people and luggage into these two cars. After finally managing this feat I got into the car with my son and we were off to the airport!

 

While driving to the airport I talked with my driver. It turns out he said the only reason he picked up my fare is because we were going to LGB and not LAX. Apparently that is a big nuisance for them (and I heard from my wife that her driver said the same thing.) So if you're planning on taking an Uber from the port to LAX you might want to pre-arrange that or plan on waiting for a while!

 

We get to the airport about an hour before boarding. Plenty of time, although the line is fairly large, and we have a lot of luggage to push through it. We manage to get to our gate, and the wife and I even had time for a couple last beer and margaritas on our vacation before boarding the 1 and a half hour flight home.

 

We get home, get everyone off the plane, and head to baggage claim where all of our stuff eventually made it off the carousel. I then walked over to the long-term parking lot where I got the car and picked up the family. I didn't do as good a job loading on the way back as I had on the way in, so a couple extra people had suitcases on their lap, it was only a 30 minute drive back home. Dropped grandpa at his home down the street from us, and then arrived home much to the delight of our 4 cats (:() and little 'puppy.' 

 

Thus ends my monologue on our vacation. It seems to have taken as much time to type as it took to experience! I'll put my final thoughts into a last post!

 

After the excitement of seeing us she decided she needed to rest a little on the couch...

 

The 'free' bottle of booze we got for staying in the owner's suite for 5-days, barely touched, and the unopened bottle of wine from La Cucina both made it home safely!

[Grimix]

So here are my final thoughts from my first Norwegian cruise...

 

Their embarkation employees could be better trained. It put a little damper on the start of our experience, but luckily the staff on board where so welcoming and accommodating that they quickly won us over. I think almost everyone agreed it was one of the best vacations we had ever been on!

 

The Haven... wow. What can you say? It was just about everything we could have hoped. Being able to skip a lot of lines, and having a quite place to retreat to experience a little relaxation was awesome. I know some of the smaller, or more expensive lines might take service to an even other level, but they don't offer the big ship experience! We love being able to go out and experience the night life on the ship and all it had to offer! 

 

The restaurant has the service of a high-end restaurant. I won't say everything thing I ate there was michelin starred, but it was tasty, and to be honest, I wouldn't really appreciate a michelin starred restaurant that much anyways! I've read several people on here who think that the people in the Haven are snooty. Maybe I'm biased but we really didn't see any of that except from one young kid who my family called pop-corn kid. This kid was yelling at him mom he wanted this, he wanted that. If his mom didn't get it for him he called her stupid, and that he hated her. The mom did nothing. One of my kids got some pop-corn from I believe the horizon lounge spread. The kid saw it and said I want pop-corn mom, get me the pop-corn. Unfortunately my kids cleaned it out (not sure if it was intentional or not as I heard this story second hand from them. :)) Most of the people we interacted with were really pleasant to talk to, and seemed rather down to earth. (Oh yeah, maybe the people at the elevator qualified for this as well!)

 

The service everywhere (a theme here) on the ship was great, but was up a notch in the Haven areas. Everyone at least pretended they were happy we were there, and really made it a great vacation. One of the best things of the Haven (other than all the other great things) is something they don't advertise in the brochures. The Haven is so small, not only does the staff get to know you, but you get to know the other guests. You can probably get that elsewhere on the ship if you frequent a single bar a lot, but in the Haven you see them at the bar, at the restaurant, and at the pool. You talk to them, and you recognize them when you're out and about outside the Haven. I didn't wave my Haven status to everyone I met, but that doesn't mean I didn't take advantage of what the status offered me! (I will admit I would like the option of being able to take my deserts home myself but...) Getting on and off the ship was so easy with the concierge's help, and not having to wait in line to see a show, or get into a reservation show on late notice were all priceless perks!

 

The food was really good at all the specialty restaurants. I will reiterate if you're used to Michelin starred restaurants I don't think you will find that here, but the food I ate (we didn't eat at the buffet, or main dining rooms, although my wife was eyeing the Indian station, and some asian make-your-own soup station there...) but the specialty restaurants were all really good. We did feel guilt a lot at all the food waste. Because we weren't going home, and there was going to be more food the next day we really didn't take our left-overs. Some of the portions were too big for a single sitting especially when you're encouraged to try all the sides and appetizers, and don't forget desert!

 

The drink package is awesome if you like to drink. And the + package is even better for not having to care what you order. If I'm at a restaurant I might choose the $2 cheaper entree because I can be cheap, but I wouldn't hesitate to pay more to not have to worry about what I'm ordering, and that why I doubt we'll ever do non-plus version of the drink package (and the wife loves her Veuve!) The other thing I hear people complain about NCL is nickle-and-diming. Depending on what you consider nickle-and-diming I didn't see that much. Sure the karts, laser tag, arcade cost extra. You can say having to get the premium plus could be N&D, but at least by front loading it like that I didn't feel that was the case. It was rolled into the cost of the cruise I could compare with other lines. We actually struggled a little to spend our $150 OBC we received from TA and owners benefits! Other than my purchase of cruise-next certificates I would have had $10 left over that I hadn't spent!

 

5-days are too short to pack everything there is to do on this ship and enjoy the ports! We were on the move constantly and there was still so much more we wanted to do/see! We never ate on the waterfront, saw that second comedy show, went to any of the atrium demonstrations, or played trivia. My kids also wanted a second shot at laser tag! And there were still other specialty restaurants I would have liked to try!

 

Long story short this trip was so good that I did purchase some cruise-next certificates. I gave it a day rest after returning home, but the next day I booked our next cruise on the Encore in October sailing to Alaska. I don't even really care if the weather sucks, the ship is so much fun just by itself, and the price point in October is too tempting to pass up.

 

Would I do the owner's suite again? If the price is right, or if I can get a paying passenger for the second room. That is our current plan for Alaska. Get my brother to chip in so that my wife & I would pay roughly what the 2-bedroom suite, but all of us (including my brother who I hope will be the 6th passenger) get to take advantage of the large room, and amenities! The suite is so spacious. It might have been a mistake going in it as our first Norwegian cruise, because everything else is a step back! Will definitely do Haven again as well!

 

For those who are interested here is my tip breakdown... I don't know if I did it right (people will say whatever you do is right) but I did want to show my appreciation to these people who work really to make it such a great vacation!

Butler: $200

Steward: $100

4x Bar-staff: $60 (They where all so good, and we interacted with them the most...)

Concierge: $80

Maitre-D: $0 (Boo for me I really screwed this one up...)

I left $10/$20 at the sit-down restaurants depending on the amount of people

We probably also paid $30-$40/day in tips to the bar-staff/pool attendants. Maybe that's why they called my name.

 

Thanks for sticking with me, and hopefully I'll be back with a follow-up come next October!

[natefish95]

This was a GREAT review! You family anecdotes are hilarious. You'd be a great drinking buddy! I'll be on the lookout for your Alaska cruise review hopefully!

 

One quick question, for the Luxury Day Sail in Cabo, how much shade was on the boat and how did you like the schedule overall? I'm considering it for my cruise in April, but I'm also pale as hell and burn easily.