I surprised my wife upgrading from an inside cabin to a Club Balcony to a Haven Penthouse without telling her.
She had been nervous about crowd with the Pandemic so the relative solitude of the Haven was worth it for me. The Haven restaurant is as good as any specialty restaurant on the ship.
The Panama Canal Transit was the highlight of the trip.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Total chaos! It took 15 minutes to find the end of the 3 1/2 hour long line. It didn't matter that we were booked in the Haven until we got inside the building.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We liked Le Bistro and La Cucina but not Food Republic. We ate most of our meals in the Haven which was always excellent.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
It was hard to get a clean lap in on the Go cart track, when one person crashes the whole circuit is shut down. I did yoga by myself a few times in the Pulse fitness area. Not much floor space, lots of treadmills.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
We enjoyed the shows; especially the acrobats.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our first Haven experience could not have been better! Everyone knew our name from the first introduction. We did not use our butler much but it was nice to have him around, especially when he met us getting off the tender at Cabo and took us up the private elevator back to the Haven.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
All good
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We successfully bid to upgrade from Club Balcony MA to Haven Penthouse HF 18708.
It was a little larger the the Club Balcony but the 18 th floor forward balcony going through the Panama Canal was beautiful.
The location in the Haven was next to the Haven Library, down the corridor to the Haven Restaurant, just below the Haven observation and hot tub deck.
Our time in port was too short to do much. Many of the excursions were cut short. We walked through the shopping area where all the tourists get funneled through.
The weather was beautiful, the scenery gorgeous and the running commentary on the history of Panama and the Canal was fascinating. After clearing the locks to the Pacific Ocean we had to wait 5 hours for the tide to go out so we could clear the Bridge of the Americas. We went up top to see we cleared the bridge by only a few feet.
The busses were all lined up, we thought they were taking us to Panama City but no. We went 1/4 mile to a shopping plaza where we could find a taxi. We stayed on the bus and went back to the Haven for lunch.
Confusion was the order of the day. It took about two hours from the time we walked off the ship to clearing customs. Stepping outside I asked someone wearing a uniform were to wait for an Uber to the airport. He said come with me and walked us over to a woman and said here are your customers. I had not called Uber yet and asked her. She said He takes care of me."
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