Sailing12Away

I'm in the minority I suppose. I don't sail on NCL for posh or luxurious or over the top 'wow' factor in décor. I sail with them because they're simple, like me. I don't sail Haven (when the price is right) to put on airs or go 'oooh la la'. I sail in the Haven because I like being on a slight nod basis with the bartender where my drink of choice is waiting for me by the time I climb up onto those high bar stools.

"Sold out" doesn't mean anything for bids. We won a bid for the garden villa on a cruise that had it listed as sold out for months. Notified the night before we flew to Spain for the trip.

It means when I want to change my cabin, upgrade to a better room, request a price adjustment, add a deviation to my flights.... I can't do that unless I call the TA the reservation is tied to. Even for friends who are booked through a TA - I can't add on surprise bonuses or gifts to them in their cabin, it needs to go through their TA. I have one upcoming cruise transferred to a TA because of the egregious OBC they offered (it's a Haven room on Prima... 'nuff said). It took multiple emails to even get a response from the TA, then it took them over a week to make the requested change. In this case it was adding a +1 deviation both pre and post cruise, so I have plenty of time. But if it were for a room change or price adjustment, I would have lost out. Chalk it up to them not being a good TA if you will, but still... if it wasn't through the TA I could have just called NCL myself and did it in <10 mins. A good TA is like a rainbow unicorn - the more I search for them the more I doubt they exist on nights I'm not 3 glasses deep. For everyone claiming they spend 'hours' on the phone with NCL, I call BS. Or, I throw it back to you and claim that's my exact experience with TA's. TA's only work certain hours/days - there's someone at NCL 24/7. The PCC I finally found for NCL calls me back within 24hrs of my email to her and we're on the phone for 5-10 mins and done.

Is that actually a thing? Or is that with the old rules when they charged a corkage fee? Last trip we had a total of 4 bottles of wine (1 was a magnum) that we brought onboard without any charge at all.

I would imagine it would be at least twice during the trip, but won't know for certain until February when we go ourselves.

Depends on the ship, depends on the cabin type you're booked in, depends on your current Latittudes status, depends on the embarkation/debarkation ports, depends on the ports of call your ship is traveling to, and depends on the ship itself. Also depends on specifically what it is you're interested in. Are you trying to be the first one to board so you can snag coveted reservations to things that sell out? Are you booking private excursions and want to be off the ship early at ports to catch your driver? Are you just looking to avoid crowds and lines?

Are you looking for a tub? Or are you looking for an easy walk-in shower without having to climb over into a tub to shower?

Go to the NCL website and look for the cruise that interests you. Their website is one of the easiest I've used to open multiple options at one time in separate tabs on my browser. Go through all the options online to pick the cabin you want, add on the "free" perks (drink package, specialty dining, etc). Add on the option for airfare if it's included as a choice for your particular sailing. At the end, the price you see is the price you pay - plus tips that are not shown on that last screen. I think for Haven it's up to $20/person/day. If you're happy with that price, then book it. Either online, or over the phone and just read them the ship name, sail date, and cabin info you just picked out and they'll book it over the phone. If you want to do a bit more research, write that info down or print the page out before booking. Take that with you to a TA (or call them on the phone) and have them price it out. If their price beats the one you see online, or theirs includes some free onboard money that seems worth it to you - then book through them. Even if you book online through NCL or on the phone with them, you have 30 days to transfer that reservation over to a TA where they can add on their own bonus perks for you if they choose. So again, if you're comfortable with the price you see on the NCL website, lock it in yourself. Then go shopping for a potentially better rate with the TA.

With $700 in OBC to use up, I would smell a bottle of Château Rothschild in my future if that were me....

I'll take that as a compliment, I think. You should see my future trip planning spreadsheets.... I've got one for when I'm trying to convince friends/family to tag along with multiple cabin options priced out for 1 or 2+ travelers per cabin, and another one for us looking at mostly Haven (or equivalent) rooms first.

I've never heard of FR being free or discounted for Haven guests. On the Joy you can go to the American Diner for free on the first day of sailing. But not Food Republic.

If you were originally aft, then regardless of the walk for this one it will still be 100x better than your aft location. Enjoy the room!

I would worry about those wings... for whatever reason the last 2 sailings we were on they came out cool even though we were sitting right there in the restaurant. Can't imagine what they would be if they had to get all the way to our room. From my past experience, if you get into Haven late to the game, they will not reach out to you. You need to contact them for any questions, concerns, or bookings. Let us know if you need the email and one of the hundred of us can share it. For reservations, just tell them the date and how many people. It doesn't matter if they're in the Haven or not, you are and the reservation is under your name. Once you get to the restaurant they'll sort out all the individual key cards and dining credits. Just tell the concierge the total number of guests and which restaurant on which day.

No problem, but I will warn you... it's a long (ish) walk from the elevator. My friend was staying in that room, we were in 15140 so just visiting him for the day to compare rooms. Very quiet though as it's the last room in the hallway with just a crew access door at the very end. Room is very large, he loved the views of the crew navigation area that sticks out on the side a bit. But the balcony was a nice size, large enough for the one lounger and the 2 chairs on the angled part for morning coffee.

To answer the original question - it's too soon for 2025. They barely even have the full itineraries listed for 2024 yet. Depending on what month you're looking to sail in and which ship, you're at least 12 months too early. I think the official unofficial ruling is 18 months in advance of the sail date are they publicly listed.

We pay the deposit only. Depending on the total price of the cruise, sometimes I'll make additional payments a month or 2 before final payment date to spread the hurt across multiple credit card statements. You can even set up an automatic payment if you want to spread it out even further. I will always book our cruises as soon as I find the itinerary I want at the price I'm comfortable with. Then I sit on it and reprice it out from time to time. If the price goes up (*ahem, Prima) I pat myself on the back knowing I locked in at a better price. If the price drops (*ahem, Joy), then as long as it's before that final payment date I can just call and get a price adjustment. But by booking early, I don't miss out on a cruise I want to take in the room of my preference. Our next cruise has final payment date tomorrow. I paid the remaining balance yesterday, but just called my PCC tonight and I'm getting another $1900 back on my credit card since the price dropped and final payment hasn't come yet. So yeah... no need to pay in full unless you like giving NCL a free loan for 2 years.

We have this travel backpack that we bring on excursions. The boxes of water fit into the side mesh pockets of this bag with no issue. Big vs small boxes are the same width, one is just taller. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1LMZI9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Compared to room 10898 it looks a smidge smaller, but compared to 10902 it's a smidge bigger. The photo below is 14136, which doesn't even show up as an angled balcony on the deck plans - but it is. Where it angles out a bit you have more room than if it was straight across. For your room, I colored in where the actual balcony is compared to your neighbor. So your neighbor in a regular room has a rectangle, whereas your balcony will be more trapezoid shaped. So you get a smidge extra room on that bump out.

I recently sent an email to the Haven concierge team to ask if it was possible to pre-register for any lattitudes perks happening on the ship for our sailing (wines around the world, behind the scenes tour, etc). They didn't email me back, which is odd as they're usually quite good, but I received 2 phone calls from them when I was at work. One voicemail was over 5 mins long, just rambling about various things Haven related as if it was my first trip with them ever. I just found the whole thing to be a bit odd because with both voicemails (2 different people), neither person answered my question about which things would be happening and if there was a way to sign up for them now ahead of time.

Also check out this thread where the topic was discussed a bit further:

The only thing I can think of is the itinerary change. They dropped Costa Rica, and swapped Puerto Vallarta for Acapulco which some are unhappy about. We're going for the canal transit, the other stops are bonus. Yes, I would have preferred Costa Rica over Panama City, but as long as I'm still going through the canal and have access to the Haven bar, I'm still going. To now be going for 30% less than I originally booked it at... even better.

Price dropped again another 1K from yesterday. Cheapest Haven room is now $309/pp/day. Just $10 away from hitting that elusive $300 or bust magic number that some people hold steady and firm on.

For anyone interested in a last minute Panama canal trip, the Joy in February prices keep plummeting. Current cost for a Haven room with all FAS perks and airfare included is $340/pp/day. 2 days to go before final payment, so I'll attempt one last call on a price adjustment or OBC for the difference, again, for the 3rd time.

For folks calling me barbaric.... stop sailing with NCL then. Go to those fancy lines who care about what people wear. NCL is not that line.

I have a running spreadsheet with conditional formatting to keep track of the best prices we've scored over the years. For a full Haven ship (Epic and up) I consider 'normal' around $500/pp/day. So to me, these were all bargains. I included the Star even though it doesn't have a Haven because that trip we snagged the 3 br garden villa. If we had more than 2 people in there, that would have been an even bigger steal of the century. The Pearl trip we had 4 people in that garden villa, so if we had a full 6 the price would have been even lower. Reminding myself of these good scores helps justify the egregious price we're paying for the Prima next year...