DMH15

I have had Le Bistro and others served in my suite. I ask the butler to bring it all at once at a time that is convenient for him. This was wonderful on a port intensive cruise. I ate in my pjs after a nice bath. Heaven.

I like your style! Viola! You are on a cruise ship instead of sitting in a hotel room.

Ok seems to be easy math. look at any NCL ship and count the Haven rooms. Multiply by 2 adults as most, no all, 3rd and 4th guests might be teens and kids who do not sit at the bar. this would be your max. of course there will be pax who might occasionally or never sit at the bar.

As a Haven guest of several cruises I only remember sitting on barstools once. Epic Sailaway. We were in DOS and had 3 bottles in our room and a great balcony. Out of Haven pax you will have many demographics. Every cruise differs. What exactly are you wondering about?

I have taken several NCL Suite and Haven cruises and one Yacht Club on MSC. On the NCL Sun there is no Haven but there are 20 suites and we opted for the large aft corner suite for a 14 night South American cruise. We had heard about a great butler on the Sun, Armando. As each butler had 10 suites we knew we had a 50/50 chance. But… no. We drew the “new butler”. We had no one to compare him to as this was our first suite cruise. But I had done research and knew something was not right. Some other suite pax also asked us about it. We talked to a nice couple who said they did not know about afternoon snacks. When I told them they could get a plate of cookies. Their eyes became as big as saucers. But hey, we were on vacay, had a great 2 room suite, a bigggg balcony, which opened off the living room and bedroom, we loved Il Adagio for suite breakfast and lunch, we had a great steward and a fantastic concierge, Karen G. But what’s worse than a snarky butler you ask? LOL. How about one that gets off in one of the ports and keeps on going???? So… poor Armando. They gave him a top steward to help him. Like a junior butler. Guess what? I redistributed our. Original guy’s tips amongst the others and this was still my favorite cruise, got to step foot on Antarctica! Every cruise is different. We look back at this and figure ANY butler beats NO butler. And everything else was incredible. We got to have dinner with the Hotel Director, Brian Walters who was charming and so very interesting. We loved that ship, and that aft suite so much, we rebooked it for an 11 night Southern Caribbean, which we loved equally as well, and had a wonderful butler that time.

I once cruised on the Jewel in an aft suite as it was my niece’s graduation present. I was prepared for Spring Break crowds but was ASTOUNDED at how this cruise affected us positively. There were lots of kids and so it seems like parents spent time with them. I did not expect a near empty and (almost) smoke-free casino. it was a pleasurable week.

Thanks for the update! Enjoy!!!

Hello. We all have reasons why we like to dine in our suites, or not. We have certainly done this. After a long port day I love having a nice soak, putting on my pjs and dining at my liesure. I have never asked for course by course. I love Le Bistro and have my favorites. I always consider this a special treat and appreciate my butler doing it for me with an exra nice tip bump.

Wow. I totally get you. Both of my parents were diabetic. So is my sister. And my brother is too with many checks daily and insulin shots. I am keto. So, I heavily reduce my carbs and and no “real sugar”. I have done lots of research and I have a pastry education as well as culinary and restaurant management. But I do not use it professionally. My brother is an attorney in SC and goes out to high end restaurants. His server asks if he wants dessert. He asks if they have anything sugar free. The answer is always no. It is the same here in Dallas. OPPORTUNITIES MISSED! The cruise lines do too. What percentage of people for health or dietary needs or wants would choose a delicious alternative? It is a shame. Restaurants - Cruise Lines… Get with it! They could hire me.

My niece is VEGAN and both Jewel and Epic Haven and Specialty Restaurants treated her like a princess. Even daily snacks were catered to her. Crudite and a tomato vinaigrette was one of them. I remember Le Bistro did a beautiful entree and desert for her. A gorgeous veggie stack with marinara and bruleed bananas with garnish. Lovely.

Loved my visit to Stanley but the regularly scheduled time was enough to walk all around, talk to locals, see gnomes, eat some fish & chips, etc. However…to give up cruising Antarctica for a few more hours in Stanley is a joke!

I knew going into my 14 night SA cruise my excursion to Antarctica, by plane from Punta Arenas, was 50/50 at best. Found out the two cruises before and one after did not get to go due to fog. They land on a dirt runway. we made it to ALL of our ports including Ushuaia and Port Stanley. BUT, although it was calm when we got into Punta Arenas… leaving was a different story!!! The tenders looked like the S.S. Minnow from Gilligan’s Island. We we sitting on our aft balcony and watching people on the tender’s faces. They were in terror. We prayed. We left port late but yes, we saw Mother Nature at her best and worst. This was my favorite cruise in my favorite suite on my favorite ship. (Epic DOS a very close second. Wink.)

Great post. so blessed to have been able to experience being able to visit Antarctica myself on an excursion while cruising SA. ONCE IN A LIFETIME, for sure.

OP, when you put out a question like this you need to know you will receive a myriad of feedback. As many have stated, bartenders may bend the rules, waiters may bend the rules, and certainly so have concierges and butlers. This is where NCL’s discretion comes into play. I have read many instances of these choices and I have had some bestowed to me even though I did not ask for them. I AM SURE THE MOTIVATOR IS “TIPS”. Everyone has their own moral compass and some of my family members roll their eyes when I show mine. My BFF is my sis and we are a bit opposite. LOL. Happy cruising to all. p.s. I am that person who drives the speed limit and gets a lot of “birds” thrown at me.

And their home!

Most astute post. Well written and spot on. Post of the day.

Weather? Elevators? Geez. Not the OP specifically, but I have seen these kind of “groups”. Maybe they need to charter a ship NCL carries more than just their group.

I tip $10 per person per day for B and C and up that for any extraordinary requests. We tend to use the Concierge a lot and have had great ones. Karen and Hanno especially. We enjoyed our interactions so much. Funny, when we were in the DOS on Epic the Concierges interaction was minimal. But oh Maxi our Butler was incredible and we added to his tip. We have also found our room stewards when in a suite is probably an escalated situation. They seem to be senior stewards. We always feel they deserve extra over the auto-gratuity.

I do realize every ship / every sailing is different but… here are some comments: I was a long-time NCL Haven and suite cruiser when I tried MSC. On MSC YC I was provided Thermal suite perk. I loved it. It was quiet and relaxing. Got a ceramic heated lounger any time I went. On NCL Epic in DOS the 3 of us bought the Thermal pass. We hated it. It was loud and packed. Over a week waited and finally got a heated thermal lounger one time. Never got a day bed. Hot tubs were “party central” with drunks. On MSC I thought I bought wi-fi. It was fine. On NCL I did buy wifi several times just to stay connected and once for niece who was studying.

Wow. Second words might be okay. But GEEZ.

There really is something special about an aft suite. Especially at night. It is magical.

On our first Sun in aft PH the concierge was Kare Goedke. She came to our suite at least once a day. Sometimes she would stay and chat for over an hour, especially with my mom, who was very charismatic. Karen also seemed to show up whenever we dined in a specialty restaurant for dinner, which was often, just to check on us. Ironically, that was the same cruise our novice butler got off in one of the ports and kept going. He really was not very good at it but we go with the flow. And Karen made up for it.

To clarify, had several meals in aft PH on the Sun with no Haven on the ship at all. The Sun only has 20 suites in total. Out South American cruise was 14 nights with long port days so we loved dining in the suite. I was with my mom so we cared little about being served in courses. She was tired after a long day. we did more specialty than not since there is no Haven restaurant for dinner, only breakfast in lunch in what used to be called Il Adagio. Also, had one served aft PH on Jewel.

We had not intended to book Epic DOS originally but after our Jade cuise was cancelled (NCL moved out of Houston) we rebooked Jade out of Tampa, but that was also cancelled for a music charter. They price protected us for Dawn or Epic. We chose Epic but then ponied up extra $$$ for the DOS and we loved it. There were 3 of us. Me, my sis and my niece. it was a happy twist of fate!

Deluxe Owners Suite. So sorry.