rattla

Sorry if it’s a really stupid question, but my wife would like to try steamers, but I have a seafood intolerance.

I presume there would be no other options for me if she wanted to eat there?

21 hours ago, McGarrett5oh said:

@Sthrngary  Thank you for the kind words.  I feel that if you can't be constructive, why take the time.  I appreciate your point on the Premium-Plus differences and we should not expect the same from a mainstream cruise line, even in the Haven.  That said, since NCL owns Oceania and Regent, you'd think that perhaps SOME of the training elements they give to the Premium Plus Butlers could trickle down to the Haven Butlers.  I see the shortcomings in our Butler as a training issue.

 

Your reply got me thinking about something I didn't mention in my review of our suite.  Since I had done so much research, I really didn't press our Butler on the cursorary overview he gave us.  One thing that frustrates Prima Haven reviewers in how the lighting switches work in the suite.  Our Butler could have been well served to explain that to us.  

 

Anyway, thank you and I look forward to reading about your Oceania experience!

im just generally interested but was trying to read back and understand the main areas of your disappointment, I have seen about the fact you listed you holiday itinerary up front and was disappointed when items were seemingly forgotten.  Was that the basis of the dissatisfaction?

I wanted to put my personal opinion from our Butler tipping, (should comment that as someone from the U.K.our tipping culture is different)

We were on Getaway for 16 nights, and our butler was very friendly.  We used him maybe 6 mornings for breakfast delivery split throughout the trip. Apart from that only other request was for some milk from the fridge a couple of times.

about a week in after say 3 deliveries I gave him $30 and then at the end we gave him $70.

my opinion is that that was an appropriate sum of money for a good butler who did the simple sporadic things we asked for.

People are different and that’s fine, but honestly I find some of the amounts being mentioned quite shocking 😊

3 hours ago, cruiser2015 said:

There's been all this talk about a 10% VAT.

Did anyone notice that the pictured receipt has a tax at 8.46%?

I think this is because it’s in a sailing from Southampton in the U.K.

Because in U.K. laws, prices must be shown inclusive of mandatory service charge.

So the tax doesn’t include this part of the price which is  about 18% on RC.  I.e. take the service charge off and it would be about $22, hence $2.20 tax

I had it, was really tasty 😊

I had it, was really tasty 😊

On 9/22/2023 at 5:04 PM, cruiseny4life said:

Nice! I'm hoping for a few specials on our 11 night Pr1ma cruise. Question for you - do you know if this is the same special as being served as a meal in the main dining room or on the buffet? I've heard the specials are really just main dining room meals. It doesn't matter to me! A special is a special, regardless where it comes from (to me). Thanks for posting this!

Tonight’s special

8 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Nice! I'm hoping for a few specials on our 11 night Pr1ma cruise. Question for you - do you know if this is the same special as being served as a meal in the main dining room or on the buffet? I've heard the specials are really just main dining room meals. It doesn't matter to me! A special is a special, regardless where it comes from (to me). Thanks for posting this!

Good question, I’ve just popped down to check out the MDR dinner menu and yes appears it is a dish the main dining room have tonight 😊

So to update in this topic, we are now halfway through our 16 night cruise and noticed that they are advertising a special in the Haven for Dinner tonight.

On 9/18/2023 at 3:18 PM, cruiseny4life said:

How was it? I just may try this out in November! I love me an iced espresso.

Yeah we’ve been getting on fine with it!

2/3 glass with ice then milk then add short shots from a 2 capsules into a coffee cup with a bit or sugar/sweetener- we put a bit of ice in to stop it getting too hot, then poor over the ice and milk. 😊

We are on 16 night out of Southampton in Europe and there are no comedians onboard.

i think the issue is that comedy doesn’t tend to travel well, and what one country finds funny isn’t always the same for other nationalities.

Seems they look to avoid comedy when sailing outside of home markets for that reason.

On 8/23/2023 at 7:00 PM, rattla said:

Many thanks.

 

my better half is partial to an Iced coffee, so I guess I could ask for some milk and the ice to make with the Nespresso. 😊

So just an update that the plan worked a treat 😊

Got the butler to leave some milk (he bought some small cartons) and then added the espresso with ice and Voila! 

On 9/13/2023 at 6:56 PM, BirdTravels said:

OJ is fresh squeezed. The juice on the menu is offered by the restaurant and has nothing to do with the drinks package. Just as the Starbucks coffee is offered by the restaurant and has nothing to do with the drinks package. 

Got the fresh squeezed Orange yesterday thanks 😊

Although messed up this morning when called and ordered orange juice from our butler as didn’t specify fresh “squeezed” so will learn for the future lol

2 hours ago, McFins said:

$19;95 ($23.94 with service charge) for 6 bottles 

ok thanks, it was about £20 pre boarding, so looks like it may be cheaper to buy onboard then anyway 😊

I know NCL offer a water package pre boarding, but Mrs Rattla has decided the day before that she would like some water, and obviously now too late to buy.

Do they sell the package of like 12 cartons onboard, and does anyone know how much they charge?  I presume it’s still cheaper to do that than buy individually at the bars?

2 hours ago, durberville said:

I’ve booked a club balcony and don’t have access to book any entertainment. I thought it opens up at 21 days pre cruise for everyone (perhaps Haven has early access). 
 

Have only cruised Norwegian once - have no idea how everything works. 🤷‍♀️

Correct.  It used to be entertainment and dining 120 days earlier but now only dining and entertainment is 21 days.  Although that’s only for a couple of shows anyway.

8 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

 

What makes this issue particularly hard to figure out is illustrated by looking at these two posts. The first suggests that VAT might be levied on cruise passengers regardless of which line it is, while the 2nd implies it's only NCL. Not sure what to make of this but to say nobody really knows for sure.

I think there may be some bearing on where you sail from as the letter Someone copied suggested.

This is an example of one of our receipts for drinks in June on Anthem of the seas when we were in Bilbao, Spain.  We left from the U.K. and went to stops in France and Spain and it was only while in the 2 Spanish ports the tax was required

14 hours ago, amygutman said:

@Number34 I learned from living in Bermuda that tea is a very serious subject. I will let you know IF the "proper kettle" happens. We requested one and the pre-concierge and I laughed about the very common request from British travelers. From online viewings of Emma Cruises, Ben and David, and Tips for Travelers (all from Great Britain / England / Scotland), it appears that electric kettles are common for European cruise lines.

We have been promised English Breakfast tea and Earl Grey for our tea choices though!

Warmest Amy

yup all the U.K. cruise lines always have kettles as standard.  And interestingly some of the other cruise lines (namely MSC and Princess for sure, maybe others) actually bring out kettles when sailing out of a U.K. port and then take them away again when the ship goes elsewhere 😊

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

It doesn't make sense to me. Some folks on our cruise received the letter below about VAT for our cruise. We did not. I've just resigned myself to not knowing until we start drinking. The consensus seems to be that we'll probably pay VAT in Barcelona and Cartagena, but not any other time. 

 

Since some on our cruise received the message, I assume we're one of the "certain sailings," but who the heck knows, except NCL. Certainly no one here can figure it out. 

 

it should just be the Spanish ports, we have had this on several cruises with different cruise lines, added while in ports and until you leave the waters.

We have a 16 night, so interesting how we get on, but get 3 speciality from FAS and bought 2 extra, so with those spaced out will be interesting how it goes, as still potentially 11 meals from that menu.

Have heard from some that on longer cruise they sometimes put on daily specials. So will be interesting to see if that happens 😊

I found this at first that in one place it didn’t let me but I looked somewhere else and it would.  I can’t remember if it was the app or the website I got it to work on in the end, but I just remember it only worked in one of the places.  So Try both places 😊

Is the fresh squeezed orange juice, properly fresh squeezed?  Also, is it included with haven even if just on the Premium Package?  As I know the Premium package mentions Fresh squeezed juices are not included in Premium package?

9 hours ago, KKB said:

 

Would love to know when/where/what ship these are for!

Sorry I thought it showed the date, but was only the ship and the days - that was 1st October from Southampton (on Getaway).

there’s a similar sailing on 12th Oct for 10 nights.

getting close though now so quite a few have sold at those prices.

On 9/9/2023 at 5:40 PM, scottie920 said:

Sorry if it has been asked before but which Drinks package is included for Haven Suite guests?

as it seems you are in the U.K., when we book a Haven cabin we get all the Free at Sea benefits included automatically with no additional charge. within this package it’s the Premium package with drinks up to $15, but excludes bottled water and Starbucks. You can chose to upgrade to Premium Plus for a fee.

In the US they have to pay gratuities on the parts of the package, but in the U.K. it’s a set fee, however that fee is include in the booking for Haven bookings.

N.B. I think if you get a Haven cabin via the Bid Up process, this may not be the case and you’d only get FAS if you booked it on your original booking