Norwegian Escape Haven Spa Suite Review with photos & videos

[Two Wheels Only]

Review was definitely worth the wait.

 

Thank you for sharing.

[Chesneygirl]

WOW just a wonderfully written review with photos.

Thank you for taking the time and effort that it took to do this.

 

As a side note, I recently purchased the Canon 70D and just LOVE everything about it. I can't wait to use it for our upcoming Key West trip in a couple of weeks.

[Spaniel Lover]

I hope you had your Lawry's seasoned salt with you for those breakfast dishes 😊

 

It's funny that you mentioned that, as I did have it with me... for about four or five days... until I accidentally left it at the table when we left the restaurant. Never saw it again after that, of course!

 

Luckily, that was about the only stupid thing I did during the cruise. Sometimes my cruises are full of stupid moments... like forgetting to bring socks... or leaving my wallet at home... or breaking my sunglasses... but this cruise was not full of stupid Jim mistakes like some have been.

[brookie848]

First of all, thanks so much for your review! We are in a 2-bedroom on the Escape in about a month. I think our cruise styles are very similar. We like the advantages of the Haven, but enjoy being on a large ship for all it has to offer.

 

We're also doing the Jost Van Dyke excursion. Can you tell me how long you were on the island? We're scheduled on the 7:30 excursion and I would like to know what time we will be heading back.

 

Also, can you give me a general idea of the prices for food/drinks on Jost Van Dyke? I'm trying to get an idea of how much cash we should bring with us that day.

 

Thanks!

[Spaniel Lover]

The "Escape to Jost Van Dyke" excursion was a total of five hours. I'd say of that five hours, you probably have more than 3 hours at the beach itself... and maybe three and a half hours.

 

The only food/drink I bought there was a burger with fries and a Coke. I don't recall exactly what that cost me, but it was not an unreasonable amount. Let's say it was well under $15. I didn't buy any alcoholic beverages there at all... but I'd say if you budgeted $10 per drink, you'd be in the ballpark.

[skysblue]

Wow.

 

Do you have to pay extra to use the pool and spa if you have access to the thermal suite?

 

What does the specialty dinning package include, is it all you can eat?!

[brookie848]

The "Escape to Jost Van Dyke" excursion was a total of five hours. I'd say of that five hours, you probably have more than 3 hours at the beach itself... and maybe three and a half hours.

 

The only food/drink I bought there was a burger with fries and a Coke. I don't recall exactly what that cost me, but it was not an unreasonable amount. Let's say it was well under $15. I didn't buy any alcoholic beverages there at all... but I'd say if you budgeted $10 per drink, you'd be in the ballpark.

 

Thanks for this information. It helps me make plans for the day, since that is my job :D. This is our only excursion for this trip (and the first cruise line excursion we've ever done), so I'm looking forward to it!

Edited January 25, 2016 by brookie848

[Jenjer]

Wowzer!!!!

I was so looking forward to your review and you did not disappoint. Thank You

 

Do you remember what night and time the captains reception is?

 

 

I have upgraded my family to a 2bed for our June Escape our first Haven experience and Your review is the one I will show my DH after I tell him. Don't think we will tell the kids, they will figure it out when we check in. They think we are in a mini on deck 8.

[scrappinannie]

Thank you so much for your review. Awesome pictures and that cabin!!!!!! Well, I'm drooling. My family and I are set to sail on The Escape in April...it will be our kids' first cruise and while our experience will certainly be a bit different than yours with our kids along, we are so looking forward to experiencing this amazing new ship and ports of call. We chose this ship for the waterslides, the dining options, and the ports, so we are glad to hear some positive reviews of those. We are sailing in a family balcony mini suite...my hubby asked how much more the Haven was and I just rolled my eyes at him. lol Maybe someday.......I'll have to try for some upsells the closer we get to cruise day but I'm thinking the Haven isn't quite in our budget unless we get the deal of a lifetime.

 

And now I will have to check out the Carnival Vista. I always want to try Carnival again but so love the Freestyle concept on NCL that we keep coming back to NCL.

 

Thanks again for your review. Hope to see more of them on your Anthem and Vista adventures. ;)

Edited January 25, 2016 by scrappinannie

[CruiseRansier]

Great review! Loved it. One of the best I have read. We will be in the Escape Haven Feb 6th!

[R6bbie]

I've read just about every review about the Escape.

 

Yours was the best by far, 6 more days till we cruise Escape.

 

(Lawrys seasoned salt, really? It's all MSG ...yuck!)

 

Thank you so much for your time reviewing!

[Two Wheels Only]

(Lawrys seasoned salt, really? It's all MSG ...yuck!)

 

Hey, the guy fought and beat cancer.

Let him enjoy his food. :p

 

Besides, according to the McCormick website, Lawry's Seasoned Salt "Contains No Msg".

[R6bbie]

Hey, the guy fought and beat cancer.

Let him enjoy his food. :p

 

Besides, according to the McCormick website, Lawry's Seasoned Salt "Contains No Msg".

 

This thread has has been the best news I've heard all day.

Congrats S Lover

[BigEasyCC]

Thank you for a marvelous review.

[Spaniel Lover]

Do you remember what night and time the captains reception is? .

 

I'm assuming you are talking about the reception that was held in The Haven courtyard.

 

That was on Sunday, the first sea day. I don't recall the exact time, but I think it was something like 6:30 PM.

 

That was a perfect example of where The Haven concierge comes in handy. Months before the cruise, at home, we made reservations for some specialty restaurant for 5:30 dinner. Then when we got onboard, we got the invitation to the Captain's reception in The Haven courtyard. Not wanting to miss that reception, we needed to change those dinner reservations. It was extremely easy for The Haven concierge to do it for us.

[justhappy]

It's funny that you mentioned that, as I did have it with me... for about four or five days... until I accidentally left it at the table when we left the restaurant. Never saw it again after that, of course!

 

Luckily, that was about the only stupid thing I did during the cruise. Sometimes my cruises are full of stupid moments... like forgetting to bring socks... or leaving my wallet at home... or breaking my sunglasses... but this cruise was not full of stupid Jim mistakes like some have been.

 

Brings to mind "lost shaker of salt" 😎 Very Parrot Head of you.👍 Glad that was the only "stupid" thing that happened on your cruise, I usually have 3 per cruise!

[Jennierin]

I love all your reviews Jim. You have a great camera presence and love the writing. We will be on the escape in May. We got the coveted spa room 16100. Just luck I guess. I'll post some photos of that room for all to see. Keep traveling Jim. I'll keep reading your posts.

[tawaik]

Excellent review with spectacular photos

 

Thank you for sharing I will experience the Haven in October.

[UKLloyd]

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

 

Tortola was a new one for us. In all of our previous cruises, we had never visited Tortola before. In fact, the port facilities at Tortola are brand new... and there's still a lot of construction going on to various shops and restaurants that are being built adjacent to the pier.

 

In picking a shore excursion, we knew we wanted to spend a day at the beach... but there were a lot of choices. We ended up choosing one that involved a boat ride over to a neighboring island, Jost Van Dyke. What attracted us to this particular shore excursion was that the boat that takes you over to Jost Van Dyke has an unusual stairway built on to it... which makes it very easy to get on and off the boat from the beach. You can see how easy it is to get on and off the boat in this video provided by Norwegian Cruise Line. At :42 seconds in to the video, you'll see how easy it is to get on to the beach from the boat.

 

[YOUTUBE]URHHpoZSAAg[/YOUTUBE]

 

The shore excursion to Jost Van Dyke was almost exactly like what NCL captured in their video. We even had the same Captain! I laughed when I met her as we boarded her boat, and told her that I had seen her in the video on YouTube. The name of her boat is the Rebel Yell.

 

The Rebel Yell met us in Tortola, just at the end of the cruise ship pier. It was super convenient to just walk off the ship, down the pier, and then right on to the Rebel Yell for a nice ride over to Jost Van Dyke. As we left the cruise ship pier in Tortola and sailed right past the Norwegian Escape, I shot some video that gives you a pretty good look at the exterior of the Norwegian Escape:

 

[YOUTUBE]6Z7mMkwMB_k[/YOUTUBE]

 

Be sure to wear a (waterproof) watch to Jost Van Dyke. The Rebel Yell drops you off right on the beach, and then they tell you to go have fun for the afternoon and meet them back at that same spot on the beach at a certain time. The Rebel Yell actually leaves at that point, goes to get more people, and comes back later. I think they actually made two trips back and forth ferrying people to the beach before taking us back later that day. There are lots of similar-looking small boats picking up beach people throughout the day, so it's important to remember the name of the boat you're looking for (Rebel Yell) and the time they told you to meet them.

 

Our time on Just Van Dyke was very much like what we had seen in the YouTube video provided by NCL. The trick is to find a good spot on the beach to spend the day. Some of the bars and restaurants on the beach offer free loungers to their customers, but all those were in the full sun with no shade. We opted to walk further down the beach until we found some loungers that were for rent under the shade of some big palm trees. I had no intention of getting a sun burn during my vacation, and if I had to spend $20 for two loungers in the shade, that was fine by me!

 

 

I brought my snorkel gear with me, but that was a bust. There really wasn't anything to see under the water at this beach. Also, on this day in January, the water was just a little cooler than I would have preferred. It was definitely warm enough for swimming... it just wasn't incredibly warm like it would have been if we had visited the area in September.

 

At lunch time, I walked over to the Soggy Dollar Bar and ordered a burger. It wasn't bad, the fries were EXCELLENT, and the service was quite friendly.

 

 

While it wasn't the amazingly-warm beach experience that I had dreamed about, we did have a nice day on the beach at Jost Van Dyke... and if we ever make it back this way during the hot weather of hurricane season in late summer and early fall, it would definitely be worth another visit.

 

 

You have written a wonderful review. Was waiting for someone to do a haven review like this, and yours was worth waiting for, so thank you.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much was the Jost van dyke excursion?

We will be there 7-3 I think and was worried this wouldn't be available to us on our sailing, however as it was on yours, I'm hopeful it will be on ours.

Also, you say you left the pier at 9:15, roughly what time did you leave the beach to get back?

 

Thank you so much if you can help.

[Jenjer]

I'm assuming you are talking about the reception that was held in The Haven courtyard.

 

That was on Sunday, the first sea day. I don't recall the exact time, but I think it was something like 6:30 PM.

 

That was a perfect example of where The Haven concierge comes in handy. Months before the cruise, at home, we made reservations for some specialty restaurant for 5:30 dinner. Then when we got onboard, we got the invitation to the Captain's reception in The Haven courtyard. Not wanting to miss that reception, we needed to change those dinner reservations. It was extremely easy for The Haven concierge to do it for us.

 

Thank You. I wanted to try and plan dinner and shows to not have a conflict.

[MemeCruise]

"There's an odd quirk regarding the various types of cabins available in The Haven! Only the Haven Spa Suites come with access to the thermal suite within the spa at no additional charge. Remember that those Haven Spa Suites are the LEAST expensive Haven suites! So, it's kind of odd that the more expensive Haven suites do NOT get the perk of having free spa access, when the least expensive Haven suites do. If I was staying in one of the super expensive Haven suites, such as the Owner's Suite... I think that might piss me off!"

 

Thank you so much for the excellent and fun to read review! I could not believe that the other Haven suites, apart from the Spa Haven suites, would not include free spa access, so we had to inquire with our cruise consultant if this was the case. We have booked 2 Haven Spa suites and 2 Haven-2br Family villas. To our surprise, he confirmed that only The Haven Spa suites have free spa passes included, and not the Haven Family villas, which are much more expensive. This didn't make sense to us, it still doesn't. We are staying in a Haven Spa suite, and now I have to explain to the other family members staying in the Haven family villas that they don't have free access to the Spa while they paid much more! All well hopefully the service and the whole experience will make up for this disappointment, looking at your review, it will!

[Loonbeam]

I look at it the other way around. When you purchase a Spa Suite, because its a suite, you get access to the Haven. I suppose part of it is if you are using the Spa, you are not using the Haven. With the number of suites on board, if every suite had spa access, the spa would be overloaded and basically be a suite-only perk.

 

Pricing is determined by demand. If people keep booking up the Spa suites, prices will rise accordingly.

 

"There's an odd quirk regarding the various types of cabins available in The Haven! Only the Haven Spa Suites come with access to the thermal suite within the spa at no additional charge. Remember that those Haven Spa Suites are the LEAST expensive Haven suites! So, it's kind of odd that the more expensive Haven suites do NOT get the perk of having free spa access, when the least expensive Haven suites do. If I was staying in one of the super expensive Haven suites, such as the Owner's Suite... I think that might piss me off!"

 

Thank you so much for the excellent and fun to read review! I could not believe that the other Haven suites, apart from the Spa Haven suites, would not include free spa access, so we had to inquire with our cruise consultant if this was the case. We have booked 2 Haven Spa suites and 2 Haven-2br Family villas. To our surprise, he confirmed that only The Haven Spa suites have free spa passes included, and not the Haven Family villas, which are much more expensive. This didn't make sense to us, it still doesn't. We are staying in a Haven Spa suite, and now I have to explain to the other family members staying in the Haven family villas that they don't have free access to the Spa while they paid much more! All well hopefully the service and the whole experience will make up for this disappointment, looking at your review, it will!

[siestakeys04]

I always enjoy your reviews, keep them coming!!! :D

[lolavix]

Terrific review and gorgeous photos. :) I had a question about Coral World.

 

How long were you actually at Coral World before going to Coki? I'm wondering if my family will have time to visit it, since we are planning an island tour by taxi for the morning and arriving at the beach around 11:30-12 PM and probably need to leave Coki no later than 3 PM. We like to snorkel, so I didn't know if we should try to visit Coral World or just do the beach. This is our first visit to St. Thomas. I have kids so our time to visit Coral World might take longer than that of two adults. (The map you posted is very helpful.)

 

Thanks.

[jill5172]

Thank you so much for the excellent review! I am looking forward to a January 2017 2-bedroom villa/Haven escape and your review was exactly what I needed. Nice work.