The NCL Haven Luxury VIP Experience "Secrets" REVISED for 2022

[benel204]

59 minutes ago, DorothyB said:

When you are in the haven, you can ask the butler to serve your dinner from the main dining room or specialty restaurants.  We haven't done it personally, but know it can be done but we haven't taken advantage of it before.  I do think there needs to be advance notice.  Maybe others can chime in? 

Can we have Haven restaurant dinner brought to our suite? And without advance notice (with 30-60 minute notice I meant)? 

Edited April 24 by benel204

[SaltyPawz]

11 hours ago, lastingtouch said:

Does anyone know who the concierge is on the Breakaway?  We'll be on for Halloween.

If you don’t already have an answer… We’ll be on Breakaway in early September. I plan to write a review. 
 

It’ll be our second Haven cruise. Our first was last November/December on Escape. Looking forward to another Haven experience! 

[DorothyB]

1 hour ago, benel204 said:

Can we have Haven restaurant dinner brought to our suite? And without advance notice (with 30-60 minute notice I meant)? 

Yes (but not sure how much advance notice is required) - I watched a video by a travel company that specializes in NCL and that was informative.

[COcruise]

1 hour ago, benel204 said:

Can we have Haven restaurant dinner brought to our suite? And without advance notice (with 30-60 minute notice I meant)? 

Yes! You can order from anywhere from our experience, charges apply to specialty restaurants if you don’t have a dining credit to use.

[DorothyB]

3 minutes ago, COcruise said:

Yes! You can order from anywhere from our experience, charges apply to specialty restaurants if you don’t have a dining credit to use.

Have you ordered from the Teppanyaki type restauarant - not just the "chinese" but what they cook on the grill in front of you if you go there?  (cooked before delievered, not cooked in the suite)

[Laszlo]

8 hours ago, DorothyB said:

Have you ordered from the Teppanyaki type restauarant - not just the "chinese" but what they cook on the grill in front of you if you go there?  (cooked before delievered, not cooked in the suite)

I can't imagine how that would work. The food is cooked in front of people. I don't think they have a separate kitchen for cooking take out

[cruiseny4life]

Just to help folks that may be confused by the Margaritaville, American Diner, Haven Restaurant embarkation lunch:

 

1. Margaritaville is no more. Hasn't been for years. 

2. American Diner is NO LONGER exclusively for Haven guests on embarkation day. Honestly, I'm not sure it was ever exclusively for Haven guests, but it was included in your fare on embarkation day. The menu has completely changed and is open to all (look at the Dailies for the schedule for your particular cruise). Based on all the trip reports, I haven't seen another venue opened up to relieve the strain on the Haven Restaurant on embarkation day. 

3. Haven Restaurant is open and will take all Haven guests, providing them the same menu that passengers will have for the entire cruise. Some love the menu. Others (like me) aren't enamored with it, but hey, it's food that is cooked good. And the service is always quite good.

 

This means we have changed up our embarkation day lunch. Instead of going to American Diner, we now go to the Haven Restaurant. We have no desire to go to the buffet, American Diner, or main dining rooms when the Haven Restaurant offers a nice atmosphere and good, but uninspired lunch food. At least we get to know the Haven servers before dinner now!

 

As for the quality of American Diner, I can no longer speak to that as I haven't tried the new menu. The old menu had decent quality food and items you could find nowhere else on the ship. I'm thinking of my dearly beloved (and now lost) mozzarella sticks, shrimp and grits, and lobster roll. Unlike many on the Haven-specific boards, my husband and I enjoyed the different menu and venue for one meal. And, those milk shakes...yum!! Even for an extra charge. Mozzarella sticks and milk shakes - the only upcharge food items we purchase outside of the included Free at Sea meals.

[graphicguy]

American Diner used to have pretty good nachos and burgers.  But, only ate there twice.  

 

It seems that space is kind of a "dead zone".  I know NCL has tried 3-4 different things there, and none of them really weren't anywhere near what I'd call "busy".

 

I think at one point, you could get a hot breakfast at whatever restaurant it started as on the "Away" ships.

[Treasure Hunter]

The hamburger and fries in the Haven restaurant are much better ( quality of meat etc.) than in the American Diner and I believe the diner is open air on the Getaway so with NY winter departures it’s a no go. You can make changes to the Haven burger and other  menu items if that helps

[Laszlo]

33 minutes ago, Treasure Hunter said:

The hamburger and fries in the Haven restaurant are much better ( quality of meat etc.) than in the American Diner and I believe the diner is open air on the Getaway so with NY winter departures it’s a no go. You can make changes to the Haven burger and other  menu items if that helps

IDK about that. I've done a number of behind the scenes tour and on the last one someone asked about the different burgers. The head of the kitchen looked bewildered, the woman ask aren't their different hamburgers patties for the buffet, pool deck and Haven. He said no, we have one type of burger and we have thousands of them... who knows, maybe some ships get different patties?

[COcruise]

11 hours ago, DorothyB said:

Have you ordered from the Teppanyaki type restauarant - not just the "chinese" but what they cook on the grill in front of you if you go there?  (cooked before delievered, not cooked in the suite)

I have not but it doesn’t hurt to ask 😊 if you are polite and tip well I’ve found the butlers will go above and beyond where they can (if possible)

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, COcruise said:

I have not but it doesn’t hurt to ask 😊 if you are polite and tip well I’ve found the butlers will go above and beyond where they can (if possible)

The butlers should go above and beyond regardless of any upfront tips.  That's their job.  They usually get their tips at the end of the cruise anyway.

[RocketMan275]

37 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

They usually get their tips at the end of the cruise anyway.

Not necessarily so.  Many choose not to wait until the end of the cruise.

[Daniel A]

3 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Not necessarily so.  Many choose not to wait until the end of the cruise.

I understood that.  That was why I qualified the statement and used the word 'usually.'  My point was that a crew member should not expect a tip at the beginning of the cruise.  I tend to disagree with @Sthrngary about giving a portion of the tip on the first day.  Would you tip a waiter or a waitress in a restaurant before they took your order?  That said, I will admit that I will give a generous tip to a bartender upfront as that has produced very good results for me in the past.

[graphicguy]

On 4/24/2024 at 9:44 AM, Laszlo said:

IDK about that. I've done a number of behind the scenes tour and on the last one someone asked about the different burgers. The head of the kitchen looked bewildered, the woman ask aren't their different hamburgers patties for the buffet, pool deck and Haven. He said no, we have one type of burger and we have thousands of them... who knows, maybe some ships get different patties?

I think they source the burgers for ALL the ship's restaurants from the same source, at least I believe that to be the case given the behind the scenes tours I've taken including the galleys on the different ships.

 

That said, I also think the differences in burger quality is mainly due to the differences between cook to order (as is the case for Haven Restaurants and American Diner) vs the burgers in the Buffet which are cooked and then stacked under a heat lamp.

[Sailing12Away]

On 4/23/2024 at 8:50 PM, benel204 said:

Can we have Haven restaurant dinner brought to our suite? And without advance notice (with 30-60 minute notice I meant)? 

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.

[Humbreety]

On 4/24/2024 at 7:17 AM, Laszlo said:

I can't imagine how that would work. The food is cooked in front of people. I don't think they have a separate kitchen for cooking take out

Most local hibachi places allow you to dine at a regular table or get takeout of their hibachi meals.  I can't speak to how they compare to the version made right in front of you, but they do have the ability to make them in the kitchen.

 

Obviously that doesn't necessarily mean Teppanyaki can also do that but it's not unheard of at regular hibachi restaurants.