Sailing12Away

Same menu, every sailing, every ship in the fleet. Biggest complaint about the Haven.

Depends on the type of credit, as they're not all the same and there's different rules about what you can or can't use them on. $200 isn't a whole lot to worry about though, that can quickly be used up on meal upcharges, drink experiences/tastings, last minute excursions, transfers to the airport, fancy milkshakes from Cocoa's...

They're already covered in the regular daily service charge, so anything extra you give them at all will be appreciated. ~$500 seems really high to me - we don't even give that much to the Haven butler.

Current pricing for a club balcony room for 2 people is only $2400 right now. So if you've paid close to 9K just by adding on extra dining meals and the Vibe, something isn't adding up.

If there are still a lot of cabins remaining, call NCL and see what the cost would be to just outright upgrade into the Haven. Since you didn't sail yet, you can still cancel the extra meals purchased, you can cancel the Vibe, and use those funds to pay for the upgrade outright and just be done with it. Newest ship doesn't mean best ship. Quite the opposite really during those first few sailings as the paint still dries actually. Basing your loyalty to a cruise line based on an almost random lottery isn't a good approach. There's a lot of complicated factors that go into the bidding process, nothing is set is stone and most are based on folks assumptions, previous experiences, and their own personal hopes of how it works. But highest bid does not necessarily win. There may be an expensive owner's suite unsold that someone already in the Haven moves into. That then frees up their entry level Haven room for a balcony to move into. Which frees up a balcony for an inside cabin to move into. Which frees up a cheap cabin in general for an entire set of new passengers to come on board and spend money in the casino and shops etc. If you want to be in the Haven and there are rooms available stil, and you're sailing in <7 days - call and ask for the price to just move there. On a week long cruise you do not need 5 specialty dining meals unless you saw the menus and reallllly wanted to try each one. Haven comes with its own separate restaurant that most folks rave about, so it really removes the need to pay extra for dining. Haven also gives you a private pool, sun deck, and hot tubs. So again, no need to pay for Vibe when you get it for free in the Haven. Quick check though and it looks like Haven and non-Haven suites are now sold out on that sailing. So OP may have just waited too long to sort it out.

Yup. Since you're near a fairly big airport you probably don't have an issue. But when I put down JFK, they can technically make me go out of Newark if they wanted to. It's again part of the risk of using the discount program.

If you consider someone giving you an answer you don't want to hear them being 'rude', well there's not much we can do here to help you but to point out you're wrong. For the rest of the trip, speak to the correct people to get resolution to your issues, before before you do please choose your words more carefully. Referring to a grown woman as a "girl" can come off as condescending. Asking a question with a hidden criticism to something that person isn't even personally responsible for immediately puts them on the defensive. Making broad blanket statements about cleanliness, rudeness, etc isn't productive, helpful or going to get anything resolved. It just comes off as whiney and ungrateful. I was on the Epic last month, and didn't notice anything dirty about it, didn't recall the food quality being inedible where buffet pizza was the best thing to eat (I don't usually step foot in the buffet ever), and don't recall staff being vindictive or rude. Did they tell me things I didn't want to hear - yes, but that doesn't make them rude. And it doesn't mean you remove the daily service charge to cheat out the people who are doing their jobs behind the scenes that you don't even know about. If you're at a restaurant on land and the waitress bringing your food is lovely and attentive, but you don't care for the taste of the dish - you don't skip out on leaving a tip for her, right? You don't fault the server if you don't like the taste of the food, the server has nothing to do with that. By you threatening to remove the service charges you yourself are being vindictive and taking revenge on the people who rely on those service charges even though for most of them they did nothing wrong to warrant your actions. Your interpretation of your trip experience is your own, but please do not act petty and take revenge yourself on the wrong crew members just because you got a bad steak. Next steak you get when you cut into it and see a tendon, flag someone over, show them, and get a different one then and there. You don't remove the DSC for the laundry, housekeeping, food & beverage, and everyone else that goes into making the trip happen.

Assign one person (the one who has access earliest based on latitude status or room cabin type) to book all the reservations for the group. You can only book them in even numbered parties, so if you need a table for 7, just book the one for 8 and let them know when you get there only 7 will be eating. Tables for large groups like that are hard to get - so book ASAP if you are planning on eating during the prime dining hours in the most popular restaurants.

If you're going to complain about every possible little discrepancy between what you experience and what you saw/read/heard that the experience is 'supposed to' be like, you're in for a long and non-fun filled trip. Let it go. You're getting yourself worked up and filling out Karen complaint forms over 3kg that everyone is saying from first hand real life experience is insignificant.

The fit as much as you can for one flat price deal is flexible. You don't have to wait until it is announced, but do speak with guest services first. My sister doesn't have any real status but was able to talk to guest services and ask about the laundry 'deal' very early into our Prima trip last year before any flyer came out. They told her what to write on the top of the laundry itemized list so it was billed correctly at the 'deal' price.

No. Think of the logic. If that was possible then why would anyone ever book 2 suites or Haven cabins at the full fare when they can buy a cheaper room and just pay a flat fee to get what they're missing? What specific perks are you wanting the folks in the club balcony to have? The real suite can order room service for everyone, there's no rule that says you can only order 1 item per person. Club balcony will also get some snacks throughout the trip - not as many as the suite, but they'll get some. And again, talk to your butler - let them know the preferences for the room and they may be nice enough to bring enough to share for all. On the flip side - the club balcony room will get free laundry which the suite will not. So unless someone is platinum or above in status, that's a bonus the club room gets special for them which the suite room doesn't.

Nah, already have too many other coffee/espresso/tea kettles/french press gadgets and gizmos a plenty. The NCL pods are boring, so no point in stealing them to bring home. I was looking to go the opposite direction and buy the fun and flavorful ones to bring there to use on board. All the barista collection ones are calling out to me, as is the orange blossom and Colombian one. I'm stumped by the Indonesia one though - who wants to drink tobacco in their coffee (besides smokers needing their fix I suppose)?

The most you can do is a 2 day deviation. If you request a deviation they give you a $50 credit because it makes it easier for them to find flights that won't cause you to miss the cruise. Just look at the types of flight options you have on your own first. If there's a nice direct flight for $1000/pp or a less ideal flight with 1-2 layovers and changes it from an 8hr flight to 12+ hours - you can almost bet money that NCL will be putting you on that cheaper and less desirable flight. It honestly depends on what you're comfortable with. We've done the B1G1 free airfare a half dozen times and up until the most recent have never had a problem. In all but one flight we were able to pay extra to the airline when we got our record locator number and upgrade to comfort plus seats. The last trip was our longest, flying home to NY from London so an ~8.5 hr flight - and that one we couldn't upgrade at all. So the rules about picking your seats, being able to upgrade or not - it all depends on the specific air carrier the flight is booked with. You have no say in that. You have no say in the time of the flight or how many layovers (they'll limit it to <2). You can't change your mind and say no if you don't like them once assigned. If you're equidistant to both PHL or EWR, you technically don't have a say in that either as they can put you out of either one if they're within I believe 50 miles of your preference. If you don't care about where you sit, when you fly, having extra legroom (or butt room for those of us fluffier travelers), or anything else - then yes, go ahead and cash in on those savings. In your case the savings isn't big enough for me to take that chance on an international flight based on our recent trip. Domestic, yes, I'll keep using them. But for long haul trips - nope, I want control of that going forward.

Ironically, stumbled upon a whole section from Nespresso of the pods that work with it and I'm tempted to stock up on the funky fancy ones next time I book an NCL Haven trip. https://www.nespresso.com/us/en/original-coffee-pods

Just the standard one with the black or blue pods. No fancy lounge on Epic like on the BA+ class of ships, but you might be able to get the bartender to make you something frothy. They have a fancy machine behind the main bar, but that isn't usually open until evenings. Day time is the smaller poolside bar - no coffee frother there.

And this is why I continue to lie to my mother and say they are not allowed on board. She would be that person, based on how many feet she ran over in Disney a few years back. Captain Oblivious morphed with Steve Urkel ('Did I do that?'). Funniest (in hindsight, at the time, no) memory we all have of mom was our trip to Bermuda a few years back. She got a scooter for our trip to Atlantis and was going into the elevator one night. She wasn't paying attention, despite being first in for the past 4 days, "oh, do I go in first?" - yes mom, go. Elevator doors start to close, and instead of just sitting there and letting them bounce off and open back up, she guns it and crashes into the back wall of the elevator. The look of horror on all the other guests faces in the elevator hallway waiting with us was unforgettable. My niece (~6 at the time) started crying in hysterics because she thought Nanny went through the wall of the elevator. Oh and the time in Disney a few years before that when her and my dad were trying to get the scooter up onto the transfer bus and drove off the ramp before the bus attendant caught them.... yeah. No. My folks are not allowed to get scooters on a cruise. They'll be the first ones to go scooting overboard with their horrible daughter looking on in shame and laughing rather than throwing them the life ring.

As someone who experienced probably one of THE worst embarkations ever, without more info it's usually not NCL's fault. My issue was in LA during one of the worst rainstorms ever for the west coast. Original embarkation pier was about 4" deep underwater, so everything had to move to a different building at the last minute. Lines wrapped around the building for hours with folks standing in the rain in February. We had an NCL transfer and they held us on the bus outside the terminal for about 90 mins because there was no where to go except stand in the rain and not move, so at least we were dry. Once on the line in the rain still took 20+ mins to get inside, no priority given for Haven until you made it in there and caught wind of the secret bypass escalator trick. More lines, then new lines for shuttle buses back to where the ship was, and more lines.... we were at the terminal on our bus around 10:30am (would have to check my semi live thread for the full info), didn't get onto the ship until after 5pm I believe for a 4pm sail away. So yes, I'm sure my embarkation experience was worse. Does it negate theirs and their 'right' to complain, of course not. Was I complaining about it and documenting each phase of chaos along the way, of course I was. The difference is that when I got on board I left that BS behind on the soggy pier and blamed mother nature. This person did not.

Just to throw another monkey wrench into the works, if you're taking advantage of the B1G1 free airfare promo - the most you can stay pre or post cruise is only 2 nights. So keep that in mind as that may decide for you how many days you're staying if you're using their free air package.

Nah, you just need to broaden your horizons. If you're a beer person - instead of a mimosa for breakfast, do a shandy. Get a pale ale and a lemonade and mix em together. Poolside get your normal beer or keep it light with another shandy. Dinner can be the normal beer. And after dinner find a liqueur you enjoy and sip it over some cubes during the entertainment. Easy peasy.

NCL picks and chooses which rules to enforce on which day, and depending on much loudly you bark they change their minds. Our last trip we had 3 passengers sharing the same cabin. All 3 were platinum or above, so we had 2 different letters in the room talking about our perks. We went to eat together at Moderno one night and it was a fiasco. They were saying we couldn't use 2 of our vouchers at the same time. And when we pushed back to say what if guest 3 ate on their own but happened to pick Moderno as well at a different time of night, would we be prevented from eating there too because he beat us there? Eventually after getting the manager they let us use 2 vouchers for the 3 of us. They kept pushing for me to just use my FAS credit, but I didn't want to do that because what you get with FAS is a little different from the latitude voucher in some restaurants. As for Food Republic being shared for 4 people, you get 4 items per credit/voucher person. So my guess is they don't care how many bellies it is filling, 4 items if you're using one part of the credit. We've used a single credit at Q between 2 people, and the 2nd credit at Food Republic for items and 2 people. So yes, you can 'share' a voucher, but it depends on the wait staff and how they interpret what it is you're trying to do.

Every Haven guest can ask their butler to bring those heavenly goodies to you every single day, regardless of where your cabin is located. For anyone with a hankering for them at home, check your local Trader Joes. Leave them out overnight to proof and pop em in the oven in the morning. Yummy yummy. https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/4-almond-croissants-098265

Go see whatever interests you on the first leg. There's no guarantee the performers will still be there, or be able to perform on the 2nd leg. If something was really good, you can go again on the 2nd leg. If it wasn't, you know you can skip it and go check something else during that time. We had one trip where we were going to see Choir of Man on the 2nd night of their performance, and it ended up getting cancelled - so we missed it completely.

You can ask your butler to bring you just about anything they serve on the ship. As for how long it will take to deliver to you - that's a different story. Depends on where the food is coming from (MDR vs Haven restaurant vs a specialty place), depends on when you request it (6:30pm prime dinner hours when everyone is busy vs 3pm when it's in-between typical meal times), and whether all meals are from the same place or the kids want nachos from O'Sheehans, dad wants surf & turf from Haven, and mom wants the baked ziti from MDR. Last minute requests have always had about a 45-60 min wait in my experience. So if you're able to plan ahead, it helps. We ordered lunch one day at 9am to be delivered to the cabin at 11:30 for 4 adults and 2 kids, 11:32 they were knocking on our door. Different trip we ordered from the included shanghai noodle bar for 3 adults for ASAP delivery - that took almost an hour to show up.

I think you need to double check your actual cruise documents because there's a lot of conflicting and incorrect information all over this thread. You do NOT get an automatic drink package just because you're in the Haven - not sure where you heard that from. Concierge can do things, but not if everything is sold out already. So don't rely on that completely if you have your heart set on a specific place at a specific prime time. They can't add a table if there's none left by the time you decide what you want. If you don't care what time you eat and just want to go to Cagneys one time, then yes, they'll find a spot. But it might be at 9pm the day the entertainment is happening.

Do a quick google search on "Arthur's Day" for more info. I think it officially has been discontinued, but it wasn't an NCL thing, more of a local Irish passenger thing.