Tallulah20

I haven’t been in about 10 years, but I am going to assume it’s still there. Find a hole in the wall called Mother’s and have a giant stack of delicious pancakes for breakfast. Or, go later in the day and have one of the best po Boys of your life.

I've stayed in the Haven, but have never had the butler bring food from a specialty restaurant to our room, only from the Haven restaurant. On an upcoming cruise we have 4 SDP for each of us because of upgrading to FAS+ As an example to explain my question and situation, on our last cruise we had dinner in Le Bistro and it ended up nice, but only because we had to request to be moved to a different table. They seated us at a small 2 person table that was crowded between 2 other 2 person tables. A lady at the next table was talking very loudly and coughing every where without covering her mouth. I get this is beyond NCL's control and they were very nice about accommodating us once we went to the Maitre D with our concerns. However, my husband and I are very uncomfortable when we are in such crowded places, hence we go in the Haven where it is less crowded and usually quieter. We have eaten in other specialties and feel they were the same, crowded and loud. I know many people will say they don't want the specialty dining in their room because it takes away from the experience, etc.... but we are more comfortable where it is not so loud and crowded. The privacy gives us a better experience. I don't want or intend for this question to turn into a negative commentary on the current state of cruising or manners. I only wrote the above statements to explain why we, personally, don't like eating in the specialty restaurants. I am looking for information from people that have had room service from specialties in the Haven. Was it easy to get your butler to do it and how did it work with getting the dining plan credits applied to it. Thanks in advance

The food is okay. There is a lot of food! It’s not bad for a free meal, but not worth full price if you have to pay. I’ve eaten there on 2 different ships, mostly because my daughter wanted to. They put on a good show but don’t expect an onion volcano because of open flame restrictions. It is extremely loud. We found it to be very slow to get drinks and impossible to talk to each other because of the noise. Whether it’s recommended depends on if you like the noise and a show and if you don’t mind a lot of “okay” food

My family was in the Haven on the Escape in December. It was fantastic. As others have said, the menu for the Haven restaurant does not change and there is no extra charge for Haven passengers. Some people have gotten special permission to have other passengers join them for a meal in the Haven and the other passengers are charged for the meal. Even though the menus don’t change, you can make special requests and it helps if they are done in advance. We had one particularly outstanding waiter on the Escape, named Christian, that was outstanding in trying to make every meal fabulous. He noticed when there was something we really enjoyed and made suggestions that he thought would make it even better. He set aside items from the lunch menu for us to have at dinner when we asked and always brought my husband a plate of sliced pineapple after seeing DH take just pineapple from the breakfast buffet the second morning. The best dessert, IMO, in the Haven is the chocolate brownie with macadamia ice cream. You can request these be set aside for you for dinner as long as you ask at lunch time. You can do this with any meal if you make the request ahead of time. I’ve seen on these boards people that ask for all kinds of things and the staff will accommodate when they are able. Be prepared, that some requests might be denied, but not because they don’t want to make you happy, just because it may be out of their control. Also, whenever possible have Kay at the Haven bar make your drinks. She’s awesome!

My family was on the Escape in the Haven over Christmas week. We also requested Christian whenever we went to the Haven restaurant. He was hilarious and awesome. He always noticed when there was a dish one of us really enjoyed and noted my husband’s dietary restrictions making suggestions and special requests. He set aside lunch items for dinner for us multiple times and always had my daughter’s “drink” (a Shirley temple) for her before we even asked. We made sure to fill out a hero card for him, because he really deserves extra praise.

In the DOS we got 3 bottles. I believe GV gets 6 bottles. You can take them with you at the end of the cruise. But keep in mind that you cannot take open bottles on an airplane. We drove home and took all 3 with us.

Some of the other available bottles were Kahlua, Patron silver, I think Ketel one, an irish cream (not Bailey's), and several wines. Also in the Owner's and Deluxe Owners Suites, your butler will stock your room with canned sodas of your choosing, bottled waters and juices and these do not incur extra charges like the "mini bar" in other rooms. They will refill as often as you like with waters and mixers. I have seen some people comment that you do not get full size bottles, but the ones we got were the 1 liter bottles.

If you get the owner's suite, they will send you a list to choose from. None of the bottles to choose from are on the premium plus list. I was in a DOS in December, IIRC, the whiskeys available were Jameson, Dewars and Crown Royal.

I was on the Escape in the Haven recently. Kay at the Haven bar made an outstanding “sidecar” I also had it from other bars on the ship and it was only ok at the others. Kay was awesome

I am currently onboard and the Escape missed GSC again on the 24th. It was extremely windy. We had a sea day instead and arrived to St Thomas 3 hours early today. It is sunny, beautiful and calm waters. A perfect day!

I understand if the time changes for both jet skis, however in this case, the one I booked for myself was changed to a different time and the one I booked for my husband and young daughter was left at the original time. So now I go out 30 minutes before them with a different group of people instead of with my family. The shore excursion department said when they were fixing the problem that their website created with payments, they cancelled the bookings and rebooked them to apply the payment I already made. When they did this, they booked the two jet skis in and didn't make sure it was at the times I booked almost 3 months ago. Now both times are completely full so they can't put us at the same time. I also spoke with the concierge line, since we are sailing in the Haven, and they are also unable to do anything about it. They also let me know that since the excursion is on the second day of the sailing if they can't fix it after we get on the ship we cannot receive any refund if we decide to cancel rather than separating the family during the excursion.

Several weeks ago there was a glitch where payments for shore excursions weren't showing up on the website. When I called to check on it, they took "care" of it while I was on the phone and said give it a day or two to resolve on the website. The payment showed up and once again my balance was zero. Everything was fine or so I thought. I had made sure I booked all dinners and excursions as soon as they were available so my family of 3 would get the excursions and dinner times that we wanted. I checked in and just got my edocs. They did re book all of our excursions, however the jet skis on Great Stirrup Cay that we booked are now at different times, so we can't all go out together as a family. I just spoke with 4 different people and they all said the same thing: Sorry, there's nothing I can do but put you on a list if someone cancels. My options are cancel now to get refund or wait until we get on board and maybe we'll get to go out together or maybe we have to go at different times. Got to escalation department and just got told, yes we know it was our mistake but nothing we are going to do about, you can cancel. So everyone affected by the glitch should check their times, but just know that there is absolutely nothing NCL will do about it even if they screwed up.

Also, keep in mind that the passport processing is currently taking a lot longer than usual. I had to renew daughter's this year. Sent off in early July, didn't receive new one until early October (11-12 weeks) So if they are going to do it, sooner is better than later

As long as they order from the kids menu, there is no extra charge in any of the restaurants.

We will be sailing in a couple of months. This is our second ever cruise. Our first was pre-covid. My husband and I will each have the premium plus drinks package and I was going to get the soda package for our 13 year old daughter. She really likes Shirley Temples. Does anyone know if a Shirley Temple is billed as a soda and will be covered under the soda package or will it have an upcharge as a mocktail? I am fine either way, just want to be prepared. Thanks in advance