Ostrichman

I got an offer to upgrade for a cruise out of Miami next month even though all rooms above inside are sold out.  I asked my personal cruise consultant about this and she said they hold back about 3 rooms in each category for bidding.  That doesn't make sense to me - why would they sell a few at a discount for upgrades when they could sell them at full price?  I do understand that sometimes people have to cancel at the last moment so that part makes sense.

Has anybody ever gotten an upgrade when all the rooms are already sold out?  Seems like a long shot to me.

5 hours ago, ronheg said:

If you upgrade using Ncl credit card points from on ov to a balcony, you will receive the email to upgrade to club balcony and suites and the haven.

Awesome - thanks so much!

If you use the NCL Credit Card points to upgrade from an OV to a Balcony at the time of booking, will you get to bid on upgrades like you had a Balcony or OV?  

Assuming you only get the upgrades for an OV ... is that class of cabin allowed to bid on the Haven?  I know inside cabins can only bid up to balcony, but not sure about OV.

Just got off the Joy and stayed in the Haven for the LA to Mia Panama Canal Cruise.  In addition to the Haven Restaurant buffet mentioned above, there is a breakfast buffet (continental style ... no hot foods) in the Haven Observation lounge.  The big benefit here is that have an exceptional coffee\espresso machine in the same area ... so you can always pop in and get top notch coffee and hot water for tea.  This was our favorite part of staying on the Haven on the Joy.  I'm not a coffee expert, but my wife's opinion was that the coffee there was better than the Starbuck's (which you have to pay for) on the ship.  

2 hours ago, All-ready2cruise said:

 

Can we just step back here for a moment? Talking about Haven/Suite perks, we're referring to things like Butler service, Concierge, private dining room, Priority Embarkation, etc.  If we're talking about the things like Drink package, those are Free at Sea promotions and you keep those based on your primary stateroom category.  If you only choose 2 FAS promotions, ie PBP & $50 Shorex credit, those will remain the same regardless of which cabin you end up with.  Sorry, just wanted to clarify since there is a big difference between H/S perks and FAS promotions.

 

Enjoy your cruises and Happy New Year. 

Happy to clarify ... yes FAS perks are different from Haven Perks.  If you bid on a Haven room and get the upgrade - you get the original FAS perks from your original room but not for the upgraded room.  If you win a bid to upgrade from the balcony to the Haven then you get ALL the Haven benefits EXCEPT the additional latitude rewards point per night.  For this 16 day/15 night cruise ... 15 additional points is a nice perk IMO.

The FAS benefit is a minor deal for most people since most people just take all 4 anyway (in my special case I wanted 3 of the 4 FAS perks but for whatever reason NCL won't let you take 3 out of 4 unless you are in the Haven.  $40 a day is a lot of money to pay when only 1 of the 2 people in the room drink ... so I never choose that one.  They always make me choose 2 if I don't want all 4 ... probably to motivate people to pay for the "free aka $40 a day" drink package.   So I ended up getting the FAS internet benefit in the Haven when I would have had to forgo that in my original room.)

17 minutes ago, smrtypnts said:

Does this mean, that if you had "won" your bid you would not have gotten the Haven perks?

Correct ... you don't get the perks for the higher cabin unless you book them.  The biggest Haven perk is an extra Lat Rewards point per night.  The other one is that I was able to pick and choose any of the 4 Free at Sea items (we never get the drink package since my wife doesn't drink) ... so we were able to get the other 3.  For the MS balcony, I could only have 2 or 4.

If you win a bid you get the cabin you don't get the extra points but basically you get everything else a Haven Cabin gets (early boarding, use of the Haven facilities, etc.).  

Sorry if there was any confusion!

Another data point for watching Haven prices for those bidding for upgrades.  After they lowered the price on 30 Dec by $500 PP for the 17 Jan Panama Canal Cruise on the Joy, they raised the price back up by $500 on 1 Jan.  So if you are watching prices and they fall don't assume that they will continue to fall.  This is a case when the price went back up.  The room inventory went from 13 H4 and 14 from H5 to 11 on the H4 and 8 on the H5 so perhaps they felt they had moved enough open room inventory to raise prices again.

Awesome ... Thanks so much for the advice and the pics!

jvsnana - I just did an upgrade to the Joy for a Haven H5 room and took your advice and since 17702 was available I took it!  This is for the 17 Jan Joy Panama Canal Cruise.

I am sailing on the 17 Jan Panama Canal Cruise on the Joy.  I have been tracking the Haven H4 (2BD) and Haven H5 (courtyard) rooms since I put in upgrade offers from my MS balcony.  The price for both had been holding steady at $5699 PP for the H4 and $4299 PP for the H5, with the inventory 13 for the H4 and 14 for the H5.  I put in just above the min bid ($1500) for the H5 and a low fair bid for the H4 (the room I actually wanted).  On 28 Dec (3 weeks out from the cruise), there was a price drop of $300 PP for each.  Then, yesterday on 30 Dec, they lowered both AGAIN by $500 PP.  So that was an $800 PP price drop in 3 days which put this only about $400 PP above the min fair bid.  So at this point I made a decision to jump on this since it was only about $300 PP above my offer and I got to pick my room and get the extra Haven Perks.

Also of interest, when I had a MS Bal the min bid for the H5 was $1500.  Now that I have an H4, the min bid for the H5 dropped to $500.  I am happy with my room and won't be bidding on the H5.  

Best of luck to all of you still bidding on the 17 Jan Joy Cruise!

15 minutes ago, 3kidsncats said:

We won our upgrade bid into the Haven last year, maybe a week beforehand.  There were no reservations that I was aware of, for the Haven dining room.  We never had a problem getting seated the entire 12 days.  Pretty much just checked in with the hostess, and within moments were escorted to a table.  Each cruise is going to have some variants of number of guests, whether they prefer more or less specialty dining, etc., that will affect availability in the Haven dining room, but I doubt you would have any issues

 

to keep this thread on topic, you should look in the forum for Haven amenity threads — there are loads of them.  🙂.  My vote is, anytime I can swing it, I would sail Haven

Thanks much!  I will also check out the threads on Haven amenities to help me decide!

Hi all - new to Cruise Critic and just read this entire thread since I am on an NCL Cruise (Joy in Jan) and have an offer to upgrade.  I am thinking about putting in an offer to upgrade from a Mid-Ship Balcony to a Haven Courtyard Room (H5).  I have 2 questions on Haven for those that have done the upgrade:

1. If you get a late upgrade (like 2 days before the cruise which seems normal), is the Haven Dining Room already booked each night until like 9PM each night (like Cagney's Steak House) ... or can you still get decent early dining times (like 6PM).

2. What additional amenities are there in the Haven which make it worth the upgrade price?

Thanks in Advance!