The Shrike

We're not rich, but when we go on cruises (2-3/year) we like to spoil ourselves. I'm frugal by nature, comes from growing up not too far above the poverty line. I clip coupons, I brew the beer I drink, make the hot sauce I use, make the sausage I cook, etc. There are four things I splurge on: good whiskey, decent but unspectacular cigars (except for a box of Ashton VSGs I get myself at Christmas), flying business class, and cruising in the Haven.

Last week we booked Haven for Dec 2023 and it was the usual $1500 deposit. So unless it's changed in the last week...

Usually the next day.

"Everyone else on the thread" is not telling me I'm wrong. Yet another specious claim. I'm sensing a disturbing trend here. You seemed to have been a poster of some integrity. Perhaps I was wrong. Either way, until you actually support your claims, I'm done with you. I'm off to hunt down Cole Thornton and claim my free drink.

What's funny is that I don't make these types of requests. I'm fine with what's on the Haven menu. If I see something in the MDR I want to eat, I eat there. But now, if I find out that any of the doomsayers in this thread happen to be on the same sailing as me and are in the Haven, I'll probably make special requests just to twist that blade a bit. Sure, petty vindictiveness is the hallmark of an AH...but I never claimed to be otherwise. 😈 😜

I hope you can look the withered corpses of your fellow Haven guests in the eye, as your mundane request will cause them to starve to death due to everyone in the restaurant catering to your Joan Crawford-esque demands! 🤪

None of that has anything to do with the topic. And I see you're still avoiding answering that earlier question regarding your specious claim.

Yes, letting the Haven restaurant staff know at 10:00am that you'll be dining at six that night and if they could, would they have an appetizer from another restaurant for you is an absolutely outrageous request...scandalous even! 🙄

This is why it's a good idea to make such arrangements in advance. That way no one is being put out.

Oh no...now you've done it! 😄

I said exactly that in the very first response to the OP's question.

I did so, in the very first response to the OP's question and again in post #27. Perhaps if you'd actually read the thread you'd have seen that. After my original response, it should have been /thread. But unfortunately, some people were in too much of a hurry to chastise the OP for destroying the cruise experience of everyone else in the Haven with their utterly mundane request. I answered your question. Yet you haven't answered mine. Telling...

One prep chef, steward, or butler does not equal "Haven Staff". Where is everyone getting this idea that service in the Haven comes to a screeching halt if someone asks for the corn chowder from the MDR?

Sorry, not enough data. Please provide proof that your dining experience in the Haven Restaurant was degraded by some other guest's requests of the staff. Here is where we veer into the realm of the ridiculous. Do you exchange pleasantries with the Haven staff? Do you not realize that by doing so you are delaying them from completing their duties, which has an exponential domino effect upon them as every guest exchanges pleasantries with them, further delaying them, time and time again, until I'm trying to get dinner and they hand me the breakfast menu because I've been sitting there for 11 hours? Thanks a lot, your "Appreciate it, how are you doing today?" just screwed over your fellow guests. How selfish! 🙄

You're going to enjoy it!

I would like to know if this has ever, EVER occurred due to a special request by a guest. I'm going with no. It's a nonsense scenario. It's like saying I shouldn't ask the steward to fill my ice bucket once he's already serviced my room. "Think of all the OTHER guests that are having their turndown service delayed because of your special request. THE HORROR!!!" As for "There is a process for getting food from anywhere on the ship. Use the process." You know what that process is in the Haven? Ask. If they can accommodate you, they will. If it will cause other guests to suffer malnutrition because there's no staff left to help them, they won't.

Jameson with a splash of water.

They are all about above and beyond service, regardless of any written "perks". A few years back on the Escape we were in the Haven restaurant and sitting close to the buffet table. The hostess happened to be walking by and I said "Excuse me, is that dragon fruit there? I've never seen it in person before." She replied "Yes sir, it is." I thought nothing of it. About ten minutes later she came out of the kitchen with a plate of sliced dragon fruit. She'd grabbed it off of the buffet table while we were eating, taken it to the kitchen, and had it sliced up for us. Apparently she didn't worry - as some in this thread seem to - that in doing so service throughout the Haven restaurant would suffer.

Great advice! So OP, just have the MDR appetizer sent to your room and hand-carry it to the Haven restaurant. That should satisfy all those who are engaged in anguished garment-rending over the fact that you ordering that appetizer will cause the precarious house of cards that is Haven service to come to a screeching halt. 🙄 Ignore the naysayers. Order what you want. If the staff can do it, they will. If they can't, they won't. No, the other guests won't starve to death as foraging teams of Haven sous chefs are sent out to secure your appetizer. No, the turn-down service won't suffer causing other guests to -GASP!- have to fluff their own pillows because a butler has to take an elevator down eight floors, grab an item, and return. Nothing brings out the apocalyptic scenarios on CC quite like the incredibly minor request of a Haven guest.

Regarding pizza, can anyone speak to the quality of the ones from La Cucina? I've been tempted to try one on occasion, but never have.

Usually three locations: 1) Outside the MDRs themselves. 2) At the restaurant reservations desk in the Atrium. 3) On a table near the exits in one of the buffets (this varies from ship to ship).

We did the Haven on the Pearl for New Zealand in 2019. The main reason was for the sundeck while going through the fjords. It was spectacular for the sightseeing, and as my wife is a skilled amateur photographer it made it easy for her to get photos from all sides. If it had been a more "mundane" cruise (is there such a thing 😀) such as a Western Caribbean 7-day, I doubt we'd spend the extra money.

Yes. But if you do it at the table it will take some time to get them. So I recommend checking the MDR menu earlier in the day, and if there's something you want from it when you eat in the Haven DR, arrange it through the host/hostess or concierge earlier in the day so that they can have it for you more promptly. An example from a few years back: the MDR had stracciatella ice cream for dessert, but the Haven did not. DW loves stracciatella and when it came time to order dessert she asked if she could get some. The waiter said "Of course, but it will take about twenty minutes as we have to go down and get some." It took about 15, which was no big deal as we were in no hurry and just enjoyed some after dinner drinks and coffee while we waited.

Naps are awesome.