THE SECRETS OF THE NCL HAVEN LUXURY EXPERIENCE

[Cruise Gopher]

@Sailing12Away Can you post a pic of the full letter?

[Sailing12Away]

5 hours ago, SkierRobUMN said:

@Sailing12Away Can you post a pic of the full letter?

 

[Yesimapirate]

I'm now 128 days out and can't book my dining.  I know Gary posted the email address for the concierge in this or another Haven thread but I can't find it (though I did see EVERY thread he posted on for the last 2 weeks haha)

Would someone mind either posting it for me or sending by private message? 

 

Thanks so much 

[Two Wheels Only]

18 minutes ago, Yesimapirate said:

I know Gary posted the email address for the concierge in this or another Haven thread but I can't find it (though I did see EVERY thread he posted on for the last 2 weeks haha)

Would someone mind either posting it for me or sending by private message? 

 

It's in the picture above your post (NorwegianConciergeDesk@ncl.com).

 

It's not the actual concierge on your cruise, though. It is the concierge desk which is on land. Your requests are then forwarded to your ship. Include as much information as possible (reservation number, name, stateroom, date, ship, etc.) to increase your chances of success. 

[Sthrngary]

3 hours ago, Yesimapirate said:

I'm now 128 days out and can't book my dining.  I know Gary posted the email address for the concierge in this or another Haven thread but I can't find it (though I did see EVERY thread he posted on for the last 2 weeks haha)

Would someone mind either posting it for me or sending by private message? 

 

Thanks so much 

I know you have this information now.  Please understand what happens when you send an email in.  It actually goes to a person that has the responsibility for Haven Guests.  She is TOP notch.  Example.  My cruise is 121 days away.  It is on the Joy.  The joy does not show but two restaurants and neither is available. Yet I knew from experience, that at 130 days out, Haven guests can make Specialty Restaurant reservations.  I asked her what to do and she told me to send the days, times, number in my party and restaurant into her via email.  On day 130 I got the normal email confirmation for all the reservations.  I could verify it on my "Summery" page online when I log in with my user name and password.  Yet the Joy still only shows two restaurants and no way to make a reservation.  Hope the explanation helps.

[SwimmingDragon]

So we are 66 days out. We are staying in a 2 Bedroom Family. I sold my family on the Haven. We all had a horrible time the first cruise we did together. It was overcrowded and over booked. I went on a Solo cruise years later and luckily was able to up bid on a Haven room. It was costly, but it was my only 7 days off for the year and it was worth it. I can’t begin to say how amazing the trip was. Everything I asked for, I got. I asked if I could have native dishes made by chefs that worked on the ship from around the world. I got it. I had an amazing Bartender actually make 2 different drinks that he actually spent a couple of hours cooking parts of the ingredients. I can say I tipped him well. I actually gave up a massage to save my money to tip him. My concierge, also amazing, would just pop up out of nowhere while I was wondering the ship to see how I was doing and make sure I had everything I needed. Like seriously? OMG, I love the Haven. I sold my Husband and Daughter that this cruise would be fully vaxed, only teens and adults would be on the ship and it would be around 60% capacity. That there was a ship within a ship and that the people who work there would do their best to make sure you had an amazing vacation. There were a few times for people trying to sell me on stuff to buy. Luckily I’m not one to buy what I don’t love and I’m not the typical person, in which I don’t like what most people like. I’m quirky like that. But I am sold on the Haven. I can’t wait. With at least 3 weeks prior to our leaving we plan on masking up and being super diligent on our staying safe routine. I plan on testing negative for our excursions and that’s the only way to guarantee we do. And if they have to cancel excursions because of Covid, so be it. I will be happy as a Haven passenger. And this time I get to share it with my family. I’ve been dealing with a lot on top of Covid this past many years. Part of this has come to an end and I can now take a real break with my family. I honestly can’t wait. 

[Sthrngary]

1 hour ago, SwimmingDragon said:

So we are 66 days out. We are staying in a 2 Bedroom Family. I sold my family on the Haven. We all had a horrible time the first cruise we did together. It was overcrowded and over booked. I went on a Solo cruise years later and luckily was able to up bid on a Haven room. It was costly, but it was my only 7 days off for the year and it was worth it. I can’t begin to say how amazing the trip was. Everything I asked for, I got. I asked if I could have native dishes made by chefs that worked on the ship from around the world. I got it. I had an amazing Bartender actually make 2 different drinks that he actually spent a couple of hours cooking parts of the ingredients. I can say I tipped him well. I actually gave up a massage to save my money to tip him. My concierge, also amazing, would just pop up out of nowhere while I was wondering the ship to see how I was doing and make sure I had everything I needed. Like seriously? OMG, I love the Haven. I sold my Husband and Daughter that this cruise would be fully vaxed, only teens and adults would be on the ship and it would be around 60% capacity. That there was a ship within a ship and that the people who work there would do their best to make sure you had an amazing vacation. There were a few times for people trying to sell me on stuff to buy. Luckily I’m not one to buy what I don’t love and I’m not the typical person, in which I don’t like what most people like. I’m quirky like that. But I am sold on the Haven. I can’t wait. With at least 3 weeks prior to our leaving we plan on masking up and being super diligent on our staying safe routine. I plan on testing negative for our excursions and that’s the only way to guarantee we do. And if they have to cancel excursions because of Covid, so be it. I will be happy as a Haven passenger. And this time I get to share it with my family. I’ve been dealing with a lot on top of Covid this past many years. Part of this has come to an end and I can now take a real break with my family. I honestly can’t wait. 

Lovely story.  I am the op-ed.  Anything you or your family want to know, just ask.  I also am taking my entire family on a November Cruise on the Joy in the Haven.  My adult children don't understand but they soon will. I want to comment on one thing you said about staying safe prior to the cruise.

The story I am about to tell is true.  Tomorrow, July 30, 2021 my wife and I were to fly to Nassau, Bahamas for our Pre-Cruise Hotel.  On Saturday, July 31, 2021 we were booked on the Crystal Cruise Serenity for our first Luxury Cruise Experience.  Last week, just 8-day prior to the cruise my wife whom is fully vaccinated was diagnosed with Covid-19.  We had to cancel the cruise, airfare, hotel, and ground transportation.  We lost 50% of our fare.  Luckily we had Travel Insurance with trip cancelation plus booked with a credit card that picked up the balance.  

 

We were careful, just not careful enough I guess.  We did rebook for the August 23, sailing and I will tell you one thing.  I am not leaving my house until I go to the airport.  I get tested tomorrow to make sure I am negative.  So what is my lesson here. 

1. Even if you are fully vaccinated, you can still get covid.  The difference is the symptoms are less severe. 
2. Always get Travel Insurance and make sure your credit card used also have trip cancellation benefits.
3. Get a Covid test before you go to the port. You don't want to be in a different state, test positive and be disappointed.  It you are leaving from another country, it is horrible.  Be smart about this.
4. Choose to be on a fully vaccinated cruise initially.  Crystal just made the cruise I am on have a embarkment in Miami, FL. That took a fully vaccinated cruise an allowed non-vaccinated guise to embark in Miami.  They also did what all the other cruise brand have done to work around this.  This made every unvaccinated guest so restricted that quite frankly, they would be foolish to pay to cruise.  Yes folks, that is the cruise industries work-a-round for Florida.  It seems to be working very well. 

My NCL Fully Vaccinated Cruise on the Joy in the Haven is the end of November 2021.  So far it looks like a go.  We will take the same steps prior to that trip that we are taking for our now mid-August trip.  I have had enough disappointment from four Cancelled Cruise due to Cruise Brand canceling and on additional one due to my wife covid diagnosis. Learn from my experience and know, we were very diligent just not quite enough.  Cruise well. 

[SwimmingDragon]

I have adored this thread that you started, Sthrngary. I have learned a few things while reading. Which is great because I get to apply it to our cruise. As for being super diligent, we will do our best, which is really all we can do and everyone is different. But I can say perhaps my family is a bit neurotic in a good way for trying to stay safe from Covid, and I’ll leave it at that! LOL! Don’t want to air our my dirt drawers! 😛 Thank you again for this thread, even with some of the crazy side tracking by some posters, it seems to have gotten back on track to being enlightening and fun to read. 🙂❤️ 

9 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

Lovely story.  I am the op-ed.  Anything you or your family want to know, just ask.  I also am taking my entire family on a November Cruise on the Joy in the Haven.  My adult children don't understand but they soon will. I want to comment on one thing you said about staying safe prior to the cruise.

The story I am about to tell is true.  Tomorrow, July 30, 2021 my wife and I were to fly to Nassau, Bahamas for our Pre-Cruise Hotel.  On Saturday, July 31, 2021 we were booked on the Crystal Cruise Serenity for our first Luxury Cruise Experience.  Last week, just 8-day prior to the cruise my wife whom is fully vaccinated was diagnosed with Covid-19.  We had to cancel the cruise, airfare, hotel, and ground transportation.  We lost 50% of our fare.  Luckily we had Travel Insurance with trip cancelation plus booked with a credit card that picked up the balance.  

 

We were careful, just not careful enough I guess.  We did rebook for the August 23, sailing and I will tell you one thing.  I am not leaving my house until I go to the airport.  I get tested tomorrow to make sure I am negative.  So what is my lesson here. 

1. Even if you are fully vaccinated, you can still get covid.  The difference is the symptoms are less severe. 
2. Always get Travel Insurance and make sure your credit card used also have trip cancellation benefits.
3. Get a Covid test before you go to the port. You don't want to be in a different state, test positive and be disappointed.  It you are leaving from another country, it is horrible.  Be smart about this.
4. Choose to be on a fully vaccinated cruise initially.  Crystal just made the cruise I am on have a embarkment in Miami, FL. That took a fully vaccinated cruise an allowed non-vaccinated guise to embark in Miami.  They also did what all the other cruise brand have done to work around this.  This made every unvaccinated guest so restricted that quite frankly, they would be foolish to pay to cruise.  Yes folks, that is the cruise industries work-a-round for Florida.  It seems to be working very well. 

My NCL Fully Vaccinated Cruise on the Joy in the Haven is the end of November 2021.  So far it looks like a go.  We will take the same steps prior to that trip that we are taking for our now mid-August trip.  I have had enough disappointment from four Cancelled Cruise due to Cruise Brand canceling and on additional one due to my wife covid diagnosis. Learn from my experience and know, we were very diligent just not quite enough.  Cruise well. 

 

[NCLherewecome]

As Haven guests do we get a lanyard for our key card?  NCL newbie here.  Thank you. 

[jemz1949]

Never been given one in the past.....doubt that has changed.  

[MsTabbyKats]

Here's a question probably never asked (and yes, important to me, as I am a lite sleeper and DH is a nightime tumbler"):

 

Is the kingsized bed two mattress together (we don't need to separate them) or just one large king mattress?

[realtorgranny]

55 minutes ago, NCLherewecome said:

As Haven guests do we get a lanyard for our key card?  NCL newbie here.  Thank you. 

The last time we were Haven guest we received a leather card holder to carry our key cards in. Unfortunately it only fit our card and no room for cash.

[Sthrngary]

1 hour ago, NCLherewecome said:

As Haven guests do we get a lanyard for our key card?  NCL newbie here.  Thank you. 

The answer is sometimes.  When you check into the Haven Port Lounge, they give you a Simulated Leather card holder that can hold your room card or your license.  You get the idea.  When  you get to the Haven Desk on-board. Sometimes they have Lanyards and sometimes they don't.  My first Haven sailing, I brought one of those Lanyards where the card goes in to plastic.  I did not work because you have to show your card, out of the plastic for every drink. I learned to have the Haven desk put a hole in the card and bought my own Lanyard with a clip on the bottom.

A little Haven Bar Tip for a Bonus.  Watch the YouTube Haven Bartender making a Smoking Manhattan.  It is AWESOME!!!!  Have great time.

[Two Wheels Only]

19 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Is the kingsized bed two mattress together (we don't need to separate them) or just one large king mattress?

 

One mattress. 

[Sthrngary]

19 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Here's a question probably never asked (and yes, important to me, as I am a lite sleeper and DH is a nightime tumbler"):

 

Is the kingsized bed two mattress together (we don't need to separate them) or just one large king mattress?

I will let someone else answer this, I don't remember.  However, request two beds then have them put them together.  I think that is what you meant.  Hope I helped.  Enjoy

[MsTabbyKats]

15 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

I will let someone else answer this, I don't remember.  However, request two beds then have them put them together.  I think that is what you meant.  Hope I helped.  Enjoy

Do you mean they will take out the king mattress and put in 2 separate smaller ones?  The other cabins all have "two beds that convert to a queen" so the size could be an issue.

 

Oh well, there's always the couch!

[Sthrngary]

2 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Do you mean they will take out the king mattress and put in 2 separate smaller ones?  The other cabins all have "two beds that convert to a queen" so the size could be an issue.

 

Oh well, there's always the couch!

Here is what I would do.  Write the Haven Desk an email.  Explain your situation.  Tell them what you want and or need.  Let them come up with a solution that meets your needs.  I think you will be surprised with what they come up with.  Never settle for the Couch unless you are really BAD!!!!.

[Shidah]

I think this thread is great, but please remember  everything you ask for not always possible.  A few years ago in the Haven on the getaway, in a 2 bedroom, I asked for an egg-crate topper for the second bedroom upon embarking.  I had read on CC over and over that it was available.  Well, my butler and room attendant stated they did not offer or have anything  like that.  They offered to put additional blankets on it to make it softer.  It did not help.  That “bed” is super hard, and now if we have 3 or more people, we just go for the DOS on the newer ships.  But it did damper my mood that day since I had read about it, and felt let down at the least lied to at the most.  That whole cruise was off for us, and we will not sail the Getaway again, but that first interaction set the tone for the cruise.  On another cruise I ordered a soda with lunch just to be told butlers were not allowed to bring soft drinks.  We had the beverage package, heck we had premium plus, but I guess I didn’t realize they could not bring soft drinks to the room.  Sorry for my long rant but when I saw possibly suggesting the Haven pulling out a king bed and box spring etc to put in 2 beds that could be separated (and who knows, maybe they can) I just wanted to remind everyone not everything is always a yes.  Sometimes threads like this create unrealistic expectations.  I know it did for me.  

[Sthrngary]

19 minutes ago, Shidah said:

I think this thread is great, but please remember  everything you ask for not always possible.  A few years ago in the Haven on the getaway, in a 2 bedroom, I asked for an egg-crate topper for the second bedroom upon embarking.  I had read on CC over and over that it was available.  Well, my butler and room attendant stated they did not offer or have anything  like that.  They offered to put additional blankets on it to make it softer.  It did not help.  That “bed” is super hard, and now if we have 3 or more people, we just go for the DOS on the newer ships.  But it did damper my mood that day since I had read about it, and felt let down at the least lied to at the most.  That whole cruise was off for us, and we will not sail the Getaway again, but that first interaction set the tone for the cruise.  On another cruise I ordered a soda with lunch just to be told butlers were not allowed to bring soft drinks.  We had the beverage package, heck we had premium plus, but I guess I didn’t realize they could not bring soft drinks to the room.  Sorry for my long rant but when I saw possibly suggesting the Haven pulling out a king bed and box spring etc to put in 2 beds that could be separated (and who knows, maybe they can) I just wanted to remind everyone not everything is always a yes.  Sometimes threads like this create unrealistic expectations.  I know it did for me.  

I am the one whom suggest making the ask Pre-cruise using the email I provided. Better to ask early and get a no then to expect to get on the ship and be disappointed. That was my point and I hope that is what was understood. Thank you for your comment. It showed both caring and concern. Much appreciated.

[complawyer]

the option to put 2 beds together results in a queen size bed. the king in the haven i believe is one bed. 

 

if there is a problem, i suggest  booking the 2 bedroom family suite, and you can have the bed all to yourself.  by the way, the pull out couch in the living room is very comfortable, or maybe it's just me, as i cansleep almost anywhere except on a plane.

[pbenjamin]

None of the beds in NCL suites separate. 

[Cruise Gopher]

8 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

I am the one whom suggest making the ask Pre-cruise using the email I provided. Better to ask early and get a no then to expect to get on the ship and be disappointed. That was my point and I hope that is what was understood. Thank you for your comment. It showed both caring and concern. Much appreciated.

We are doing our first Haven cruise in January and while the email pre-Cruise requests sound great in theory, I will take them with a grain of salt even if I get an email reply saying they can do something. 
 

There are plenty of opportunities for a missed communication between shoreside and the ship, or request gets lost, or they get too busy to fulfill the request on the ship. 
 

So we’ll just go in with low expectations and hope to be surprised and delighted. 

[Sthrngary]

9 minutes ago, SkierRobUMN said:

We are doing our first Haven cruise in January and while the email pre-Cruise requests sound great in theory, I will take them with a grain of salt even if I get an email reply saying they can do something. 
 

There are plenty of opportunities for a missed communication between shoreside and the ship, or request gets lost, or they get too busy to fulfill the request on the ship. 
 

So we’ll just go in with low expectations and hope to be surprised and delighted. 

That is actually a GREAT strategy.  Look, I have no skin in the game.  My job as I see it on this thread and board is to make logical suggestions.  I never knew if I let NCL know I had a CPAP, they would have a container of water and extension cord waiting in my room.  Once I did, I realized, you can ask.  It might be something they can or can not do.  AND, Yes, Yes, Yes.  Keep your expectations realistic.  

 

Because I am going through some similar items on other brand.  I want to add some items.  Whether you are in the HAVEN on NCL, or a Luxury Cruise line paying a small fortune; learn all you can to make sure you can take advantage of all the amenities that you paid for.  Not knowing they exist and finding out to late is disappointing.  Also, expecting way to much and not receiving it can be the same.

 

It is a fine balance.  Cruise well.

[MsTabbyKats]

Bedding wasn't a real deal breaker, but, I found something that might be.

 

According to my research, the courtyard area on the Getaway does not have a retractable roof.  My "tentative cruise" is late March out of NYC-Bahamas.  It's not "sitting in the sun" weather yet so that enclosure would have been a big selling point.

 

Maybe I am wrong?

[latebloomer56]

2 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Bedding wasn't a real deal breaker, but, I found something that might be.

 

According to my research, the courtyard area on the Getaway does not have a retractable roof.  My "tentative cruise" is late March out of NYC-Bahamas.  It's not "sitting in the sun" weather yet so that enclosure would have been a big selling point.

 

Maybe I am wrong?

Nope you are correct. I thought it had a roof when we booked because the Gem does just didn't think it through. By the time I found out it was way to late to change :). My boys would be very unhappy with me if I changed back to the Pearl for Bermuda (one of my favorite places on NCL). They already have everything worked out between them.

 

Thanks

Complawyer you said the sofa bed is comfy, hope so our 35 yr. old gets the sofa this trip.

 

Keep posting folks family looking forward to the Haven and the separate dining venue. Though with suites we have had Cagney/Moderno for breakfast and or lunch which I was always happy with.

 

Take Care