kfnesq

ok, so I just recently took an upsell to the Haven (H6) for the Getaway September 11 cruise and I have a couple of questions after doing some research on these boards (which are awesome BTW). This is my first Norwegian cruise, although we have been on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean before.

1 - I read that they mail luggage tags and a letter (from the concierge?) pre-cruise....since it's so close to when we depart, will I still get this? Just curious, I can certainly print luggage tags and so far haven't thought of anything pressing to request from the concierge.

2 - I am on deck 11 so NOT in the Haven area (or near it as far as I can tell). I would like to enjoy a good mimosa (or 3) on my balcony in the morning....best way to do this? I gather that the butler will NOT deliver drinks even with the UBP so I guess my question is, where is the closest place to get one lol.

3 - In the Haven restaurant (I guess also for Ocean Blue and Le Bistro), what is appropriate attire (for men and women)? I typically wear sundresses everywhere but I know my husband will want to know if he should bring collared shirts, slacks, etc.

4 - We have friends traveling on the same cruise NOT in the Haven. I know they can't go into the Haven area but I would assume we can still have them over into our suite?

I think that's it...for now. Thanks in advance!

I am *so* very grateful for your post! Thanks for taking the time to respond. I just turned platinum at MLife and it's good until Nov 2017. I am pretty much an NCL cruiser. If you have the time, how would you compare the two?

 

Point-wise, I am only about 45,000 points over the platinum threshold so I imagine they would offer me the smallest cruise. Maybe I'll wait until my next Vegas trip before calling them. How far is advance do they let you plan?

 

Thanks again!!!

 

Mallory

No problem! Here's how it works. Basically, you have to take the cruise between Sept 30 and Dec 31 of any given year that you are platinum. So, this year, once you are platinum, you can call and see what you qualify for. But--like I said, you have to cruise before the end of December. I assume they do this since tier levels reset every October 1 for MLife. So, re: planning in advance, as soon as you know you are platinum for the next year, you qualify and can call, if that makes sense. Here's the link with the info, if that helps--you also get free internet, drinks in the casino, dinner at the specialty restaurant, etc. on the cruise as well:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contentWithGallery.do?pagename=mgm_partnership

I would encourage you to call and see what they want to give you especially if you are Platinum purely because of gambling. I am Platinum half because of gambling but half because I spend a lot of money at Mlife hotels, haha! Obviously they are much more impressed with people who gamble more so they may offer you more.

Unfortunately, I am getting ready to take my first NCL cruise next month (Getaway) so I can't compare with RCL (yet). I will say that I do like RCL a lot, the service especially so I really hope NCL is just as good!

I hope this helps--if you have any other questions feel free to ask. And if you call them--let me know what they offered you!

Karin

I realize this is an older post but figured I would offer my two cents. I am platinum with Mlife (have been for 3 or 4 years now). I get a free cruise every year--it's automatic for platinum members. They don't send me anything, I just call the RCL Casino Club once I reach Platinum each year and book it. IT will vary how long a cruise you qualify for based on your play, but you always get either a specific cruise (Bahamas, typically), or a credit to use for any cruise you want. I always take the Bahamas cruise because I'm already on the east coast and it's a bigger benefit to me than just taking the credit.

At any rate, you pay taxes and gratuities, but other than that, it's free for you and a companion, outside cabin. You can always upgrade cabins too (I typically will upgrade to a balcony). Hope this is helpful!

Yeah, we are currently in a large balcony mini-suite (the large balcony aft ones were already sold out unfortunately). I too say the $6600 price tag for the Haven suite, which is....nuts. I may just wait and see if there is an upsell available closer to sail time. If so, then ok. I have a read a few reviews where people got that cabin for an extra $750pp, which would be much more reasonable than what (for me) amounts to over $3k more than what I paid for what we already have (which includes $100 onboard credit, UBP, and 3 nights of specialty dining).

One other thing I did not mention is that my husband scuba dives and I do not, so in ports he will be doing that. I also will probably book an excursion or two for myself, but may be spending more time on the ship (by myself, so to speak) which is another reason I want to be sure I have places to go that I will enjoy/be able to relax.

Wow. Thanks for the information, there is more available than I thought. After doing some searches and research I have almost sold myself on the Haven. And the Aft Suites look amazing....as is the cost, haha! A couple follow-up questions. If I do book the Haven, do I then NOT have to concern myself with booking specialty restaurants way in advance (as I've been told we need to) since I can possibly utilize the concierge or butler to assist with that? Also, the thermal suite sounds heavenly as well--I read that I can pre-book this, although I don't seem to have that option in my reservation. Is it only available 90 days out maybe? And is it overkill if I have Haven access AND thermal suite...?

Last, I would assume Haven suites typically sell out so if I really want one, I should NOT wait until closer to departure and see if I can upgrade for potentially cheaper...? Thanks again; I appreciate you indulging my questions!

We (my husband and I) are on Gateway Sept 11 - 18 from Miami. We have only been on Royal Caribbean before, so that's all I have to compare to. A lot of the reviews I have read seem to indicate that this ship is very crowded in the common areas, especially at the pool, etc. While I like cruising a lot, I am admittedly NOT a crowds person . On RCCL they have separate areas for adults only (solarium for example) which is a lot of times where I will go to read, etc.

I'm wondering if a) Gateway really is that noticeably crowded more than other ships and b) if I should upgrade to the Haven for the additional access to those locations. We are currently in a large balcony mini-suite (balcony is VERY important to me, which is why I wanted a larger one). It looks like in order to get a similar balcony in the Haven I have to go with a Penthouse (exponentially more expensive).

So, any thoughts from you experienced cruisers is most appreciated. I'm not adverse to paying to upgrade, but since it's A LOT (at least right now it is), I don't want to do it unless I'm pretty sure about it. Thanks so much for your thoughts.

I wasn’t sure if this was the appropriate place to put this (I put it in the Vegas forum on Trip Advisor as well). I haven’t seen too much info about it so I thought people might be interested to know how it really works.

Anyway, Mlife Platinum and Noir members (MGM Players Club) are offered a yearly free cruise through Royal Caribbean. I booked ours this summer by calling the Casino Club at RC. They were really nice and explained all the options. We are Platinum because of our spending at MGM properties, not so much from our gambling habits, so we only qualified for the 3-night cruise, but you can qualify for up to 7 nights, apparently. The cruise we took was a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas from Port Canaveral, FL, on Enchantment. The value came to be about $500, not too shabby. We also could have opted for a credit of $375 for ANY cruise, but it seemed more worth it to take the one being offered and since we live on the East Coast anyway, it was easy. I did have to pre-pay taxes and gratuity; I think it came to about $200 total. This was only our second cruise—our first was on Celebrity to Alaska.

We flew down to Orlando the day before the cruise boarded, just to account for any delays, etc. I booked a fly, snooze, and cruise package at the Comfort Inn at Cocoa Beach (thanks JosieCat for recommending in your TR, it made it much easier than renting a car). The package was about $200 and came with transport from the airport, overnight accommodations, breakfast, transport to the ship, and then transport from the ship back to the airport. Personally I thought it was worth it to have everything taken care of at once. The shuttle service is for multiple people, so you may have to wait a bit while they pick everyone up, but all in all it worked out well for us.

The driver on the way to the hotel mentioned that the Orion rocket was going to be launched the next morning (it had been canceled the previous day) and that we could just walk out to the beach and be able to see it. So, we got up at 6:30am and walked across the street to the beach and were actually lucky enough to see the launch! A great beginning to the trip, in my opinion.

The shuttle came to get us about 11:30am, and it was about a ten minute ride to the port. Embarkation was quick and easy, and since when I booked they automatically gave us Gold status for Crown and Anchor, we got to use the quicker line, too. We were able to get into our room at 1:30pm. I had a note from the casino host to meet her that evening, and also a confirmation that a reservation had been made for us for Sunday night at Chops, which is included comped in the Mlife package. There was also a “welcome amenity” in the room—a nice basket of fruit—from the host as well.

The room is an outside cabin, so it had a window but no balcony. I had the option when I booked to upgrade to a balcony, (about $300 extra) but I didn’t take it since I was trying to keep the cruise as free as possible. I think next year, assuming we still qualify, I will upgrade—I just really like having the option to open the door and hear the waves and breathe the air. Plus the balcony rooms are a bit bigger, too. Still, the room was fine, very clean, and fine for two people (at least, two people who are very close, ha ha)!

That evening we met up with the host, and she provided to us a card for ten free drinks in the casino bar, and a code for 30 minutes of free internet. She did mention that the 30 minutes had to be used all at once, not piece meal throughout the trip. However, I certainly made use of it! She also let me know that you get Mlife tier points for all your slot play, just insert your seapass card in the machine every time you play. According to the website, though, it takes about 6 weeks for those points to hit your Mlife account. You also get points for their casino player program, too.

My only complaint for the entire cruise, if I had one, was the muster drill. While they told us exactly where to go for the drill, they did NOT tell the majority of the people that they had to check in with another crew member before assembling. This lead to about 20 minutes of them calling stateroom numbers out to make sure everyone was there. A little bit of a cluster, but in the grand scheme of things, not too terrible.

The first day we docked in Nassau. My husband took advantage of a scuba excursion, while I visited the spa and sat around at the pool. I was particularly fond of the solarium (adults only). It was nice and quiet there so I spent some time there as well.

Dinner in the main dining room was good; we went to dinner about 7. It was formal night in the dining room, which I’m pretty sure is optional since people seemed to wear what they wanted. I like to dress up though, so we did. They automatically give you the MyTime dining option when you book (I think if you pre-pay gratuities that’s how it works, anyway), which suited us fine. You can also ask for the same time/waiter each night, apparently, but we weren’t pressed about it. We were seated with 6 other people, which I like—although you can ask for a table for just your party. I enjoy meeting new people though, so eating in a large group was great. The meal and service were both quite good. After dinner we went to the casino to play a little 3-card poker and some slots (we broke even), and then went to the piano bar, had a few cocktails and just relaxed. I forgot to mention we ended up getting a drink package when we first got on board—we did the math and figured out it was cheaper that way. It of course negated the free drinks at the casino bar, but we ended up giving those away to people we met, anyway, so they didn’t go to waste!

The second day was in CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. The tender boats started about 8:30am and went til 4:30pm, so you could go over whenever you wanted. They serve a BBQ lunch on the island from 12-2. We ended up going over about noon, and snorkeling for a couple of hours. I had to rent equipment ($30) but my husband already had his with him. We did see a LOT of fish and sealife, so in my opinion, it was worth the $30 to me. Lunch was ok, BBQ chicken, ribs, potato salad, etc. They did also have some fresh salad things, and fruit. It was ok. Not great, but I didn’t go hungry. I was also happy to find out that the seapass card worked on the island as well, for drinks.

We went back to the ship about 3:30 and napped, then got dressed for dinner –that night we were eating at Chops. It was AMAZING. I wish I had known and we would have eaten there every night and happily paid the extra price. The service and the meal were fantastic, I can’t recommend it enough. We were quite full afterwards and walked around on deck for a while, then had a few after-dinner drinks and hit the casino again (we are nothing if not predictable). The best part of that night was that in the casino, they do a drawing the last night of the cruise. Anyone who has played slots is automatically entered, and the winner gets their portfolio paid off, up to $1000. So basically anything you have charged to your seapass card for the trip. The first name they called, the lady wasn’t there, so they drew again. And yup! They called my name! I couldn’t believe it. So they paid me for everything on our seapass, including our drink package, my spa treatments, and my snorkel gear rental, about $500! So—it really WAS a free cruise!

The next morning they get you off the ship pretty quick, I presume to get the next batch of cruisers on board! We got off about 9am, easy process, went through immigration/customs, and then found our shuttle right away. They had also called me in the morning to confirm a time and to tell me where to meet them, so that whole process was fairly simple as well. Got to the airport, flew home (to 30 degree rainy weather) and came back to reality.

Final thoughts—it’s definitely a GREAT perk to have as a Platinum member, especially if you’re already on the East Coast. I had a great time and hopefully will be able to do it again next year. Thanks for reading!

My husband I will be there this weekend as well (first time on Enchantment, second cruise overall)...I've been reading your past reviews and enjoying your photos and now am super-excited!!

Well, I will also be on that cruise and I promise not to give you the death stare!!!