Haven Viva out of San Juan, February 4-11 2024

[alliecat44]

Fresh off the ship and awaiting our flight at the airport, so thought I would do a quick post here. 🙂 We stayed in an H5 cabin (DOS) and had a FANTASTIC time…only leaving the ship twice the whole week! 🙂 

 

The Haven area on the Viva is SO thoughtfully done. The dedicated elevator bank makes a HUGE difference, as does locating the complex in the aft of the ship—all of the restaurants were super close to the Haven elevators, which was nice. Also, when leaving the ship in port and re-embarking, the aft gangway made it super quick to return to the Haven. 
 

As always, service was impeccable and we were completely and utterly cared for the entire week. 🙂 I will say the food was even better this time, and the desserts—previously a weaker spot—were absolutely FANTASTIC. (Word to the wise: get the OMG Butterscotch Cheesecake—you will not regret it!). 
 

Happy to answer any questions about haven stuff. We only did two excursions, only one of which I would recommend: the America’s Cup Regatta in St. Maarten was THE highlight of our trip! 
 

Beetlejuice was fantastic—go see it!!!—but we didn’t even bother seeing anything in the Improv or Syd Norman’s. People would line up two hours ahead of time to try to get seats for comedy, Deal it No Deal, etc and standing in line for hours was not how we wanted to spend our hard-earned vacation time. NCL definitely needs to change this…! 
 

Overall, a fantastic trip and looking forward to the next one. 🙂 

Edited February 11 by alliecat44

[Erndlc]

What excursion would you not recommend?

[alliecat44]

On Saint Lucia, the “Best of Souffiere” speedboat excursion (to mudbaths, volcano, snorkeling). There were about 150 in the group, crammed onto four different boats. We left the dock second. All the boats hung out in the bay until all four were launched, then all four arrived at the same time to the destination—so had to wait while all four boats docked, unloaded, moved to allow the next one to dock. Then waiting for the vans to go to volcano/mudbaths. Then waiting to unload all the vans. Then waiting to load all the vans. Waiting to load all four boats again off of the one dock. Got to the snorkeling/beach spot and told we had thirty minutes there—meanwhile, one dock and all four boats had to take turns unloading. You get the picture. More time waiting than actually doing the activities. 

[Erndlc]

Wow.  Thanks for the heads up. 

[brookie848]

We're on the ship in two weeks in a 2-bedroom Haven suite. Was the concierge team able to make go-kart reservations for you or should we take care of it ourselves?

 

How crowded was the ship? I'm curious about how many people are actually getting off in each port. We only have plans for three of the six (Antigua, Tortola and St. Maarten).

[alliecat44]

See the  Concierge for go-kart reservations! Easy-peasy, even if it’s last-minute. AND they are AWESOME!! 
 

Lots of folks got off the ship every day, but that doesn’t matter with Haven priority embarkation/disembarkation. The Haven outdoor areas are never crowded. 

[brookie848]

11 minutes ago, alliecat44 said:

See the  Concierge for go-kart reservations! Easy-peasy, even if it’s last-minute. AND they are AWESOME!! 
 

Lots of folks got off the ship every day, but that doesn’t matter with Haven priority embarkation/disembarkation. The Haven outdoor areas are never crowded. 

Thanks. We're hoping to hit Indulge a few of the days for lunch when people are off the ship. We're not huge fans of the Haven lunch menu.

[dshefter]

On 2/12/2024 at 3:31 PM, brookie848 said:

Thanks. We're hoping to hit Indulge a few of the days for lunch when people are off the ship. We're not huge fans of the Haven lunch menu.

Did not stay in The Haven but on the same cruise. Definitely hit Food Indulge. We did not have a bad meal the entire week. 5 specialty restaurants and 2 in Main Dining Rooms.

[Melody7]

On 2/12/2024 at 10:46 AM, alliecat44 said:

On Saint Lucia, the “Best of Souffiere” speedboat excursion (to mudbaths, volcano, snorkeling). There were about 150 in the group, crammed onto four different boats. We left the dock second. All the boats hung out in the bay until all four were launched, then all four arrived at the same time to the destination—so had to wait while all four boats docked, unloaded, moved to allow the next one to dock. Then waiting for the vans to go to volcano/mudbaths. Then waiting to unload all the vans. Then waiting to load all the vans. Waiting to load all four boats again off of the one dock. Got to the snorkeling/beach spot and told we had thirty minutes there—meanwhile, one dock and all four boats had to take turns unloading. You get the picture. More time waiting than actually doing the activities. 

 

I'm so sad to hear this - I'm booked on this in April and was really looking forward to it. I'll look to see what's available, but maybe I'll try it out and see if I have a similar experience or not.

[markf]

We were on the Escape in haven as well . Our one major comment was that the menu ne ver changed . I assume you had the same menu as well each lunch and dinner.

I will say the beds were amazingly comfortable.and the butlers very helpful 

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