The NCL Haven Luxury VIP Experience "Secrets" REVISED for 2022

[McGarrett5oh]

14 hours ago, Trivan said:

Specialty food into the Haven dining room was being frowned upon. Our butler said it was getting too much and once others found out it was being done started to do the same and taxed the system, so they cut it out.

Was this trying to get a menu item from one of the Specialty restaurants prepared and served in the Haven restaurant?  TIA

[Sthrngary]

28 minutes ago, McGarrett5oh said:

Was this trying to get a menu item from one of the Specialty restaurants prepared and served in the Haven restaurant?  TIA

@McGarrett5oh Here is my experience.  The only Restaurant that served Creme' Bruilee was Cagney's.  My wife does not like Cagney's so we would never book it.  On a Monday night, I asked if my wife could have a Creme' Bruilee in the Haven Restaurant for Tuesday night.  They agreed and I was charged for the desert which was just fine. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

[Trivan]

1 hour ago, McGarrett5oh said:

Was this trying to get a menu item from one of the Specialty restaurants prepared and served in the Haven restaurant?  TIA

 

We asked about having a dessert from the Specialty restaurants for our dinner one evening and that was the response.  We didn't try to talk to the Maitre d as it's wasn't that important to us.  We just ordered it to our room.

[RocketMan275]

I wonder if getting something from a specialty restaurant served in the Haven might be an issue for two reasons.

- That might be considered a part of the butler's job.

- It might be considered that is just a way to get around paying for the specialty restuarant.  

[Sthrngary]

2 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

I wonder if getting something from a specialty restaurant served in the Haven might be an issue for two reasons.

- That might be considered a part of the butler's job.

- It might be considered that is just a way to get around paying for the specialty restuarant.  

You might have a point here however, it costs either way.  My Desert for my wife was about $10.00 plus tip in the Haven Restaurant. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[RocketMan275]

1 minute ago, Sthrngary said:

You might have a point here however, it costs either way.  My Desert for my wife was about $10.00 plus tip in the Haven Restaurant. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Don't know  Just a thought.

On our last cruise, we were able to take a part wine bottle back to the room once.  The second time we were told it would be delivered.  I suspect that has something to do with the butlers wanting to be seen providing services to enhance their tips.

[Girr]

Supposedly it’s NCL policy for all food to be “delivered “.  Part of the butlers job is to pick up anything you’re taking back to your suite. 

[RocketMan275]

21 minutes ago, Girr said:

Supposedly it’s NCL policy for all food to be “delivered “.  Part of the butlers job is to pick up anything you’re taking back to your suite. 

That's fine but we wanted to finish  the rest of the bottle on our balcony that evening.  

The 'delivered' bottle wasn't delivered until after we went to bed.

Next time we'll just ask for a second glass to take with us.

[Sand and Seas]

22 minutes ago, Girr said:

Supposedly it’s NCL policy for all food to be “delivered “.  Part of the butlers job is to pick up anything you’re taking back to your suite. 

Yes, we have dined in a specialty restaurant and asked for our dessert 'to go' and they said they would contact the 'night' butler to deliver it to us.

[RocketMan275]

37 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

Yes, we have dined in a specialty restaurant and asked for our dessert 'to go' and they said they would contact the 'night' butler to deliver it to us.

The question is this: when will the dessert be delivered?  I suspect the night butler can be very busy.

I wonder if one should take the room phone to dinner and ask the butler directly to pick up and deliver.

Or, if you plan on delivery, tell the butler what  you want and when you want it before leaving the room for dinner.

[mshaines]

Just off the Joy in the Haven as well.  Overall, we had a very nice trip.  Met a couple of other families and made friends, which was very fun.  Found the service to be quite good.  

 

Our only complaint was that the hot tubs were not at all hot.  On the Getaway in March, I'm guessing they were about 98-99 degrees (i.e. body temp-ish).  We were told about mid-way through this cruise that NCL now has a fleetwide standard of 95 degrees.  While I know many think hot tubs are gross or whatever (and I'm lawyer so no one needs to explain the liability issues), my husband considers this a deal-breaker.  FYI if this is also your thing.  Those enjoying the sundeck hot tubs seemed to love that it was basically a warmish pool, but having at least one of the three haven hot tubs be actually hot(ish) would have been nice.  

 

One thing we used a lot this trip that we didn't use previously was ordering food to the courtyard pool area.  Seemed to possibly be a limited Haven lunch menu?  I'm not certain, but one of the Haven waiters brought us certain things but deferred the pizza request to our butler.  Was a very nice feature after an excursion/getting back from the beach since we seemed to miss the end of lunch service by just a bit.  We also enjoyed the snacks in the haven observation lounge.  

 

On the subject of the butler letter, I had prepared one, but I was out exploring the ship when Made came by and never gave it to him.  FWIW, I wish I had.  I never got around to asking for things like lemon and OJ to keep in the fridge and it would have been nice. 

 

Also, for anyone traveling the Haven out of Manhattan, we think 11 is the perfect arrival time.  Quick check in and then only a few minutes until you're on the ship!  We also hung out in the observation lounge for a little bit to let the crowd disperse a bit before going to lunch.  We were able to drop our things in our room around 11:45 though the room wasn't quite ready yet.  

[Sand and Seas]

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

The question is this: when will the dessert be delivered?  I suspect the night butler can be very busy.

I wonder if one should take the room phone to dinner and ask the butler directly to pick up and deliver.

Or, if you plan on delivery, tell the butler what  you want and when you want it before leaving the room for dinner.

On some ships they have allowed us to carry-out our own dessert.  (Not in Haven)

Others seem to have other rules. 

 

For us, we wanted it as a late night snack after seeing a show and then spending some time in the casino.  Dessert was waiting for us in our Haven room.  I'm guessing they want you to use the Butler/Night Butler as needed for these requests. 

[RocketMan275]

12 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

On some ships they have allowed us to carry-out our own dessert.  (Not in Haven)

Others seem to have other rules. 

 

For us, we wanted it as a late night snack after seeing a show and then spending some time in the casino.  Dessert was waiting for us in our Haven room.  I'm guessing they want you to use the Butler/Night Butler as needed for these requests. 

And, I'm sure the butlers see that bringing food to your room is part of their job description.  The more of that they do, the larger their tips.

The point is, we were going straight back to our room and we wanted our wine waiting for us when we got back to the room not a couple of hours later.

[cruiseny4life]

4 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

The question is this: when will the dessert be delivered?  I suspect the night butler can be very busy.

I wonder if one should take the room phone to dinner and ask the butler directly to pick up and deliver.

Or, if you plan on delivery, tell the butler what  you want and when you want it before leaving the room for dinner.

You raise a good question and a valid point. We have had dessert delivered to our room on three or four occasions. Typically we wandered slowly back to the room stopping at a shop, the casino, or enjoying hot tub time. The dessert rarely made it back to the room before we arrived back to the room. After these experiences, we rebuffed efforts by staff to have the butler get the food for us. One time, my husband even went to the Haven Restaurant for a shrimp cocktail. He insisted it be packed up for him to carry to our room. It takes a little bit, but we have had staff acquiesce to our request.

 

If you plan ahead (we don't like planning ahead), I am sure you could let your butler know you'd like Cagney's 7 layer chocolate cake delivered to your room at about 8:30 PM. I'm sure it'll arrive right around the delivery time. Might be the best way to get the dessert when you want it, if you don't want to work through the polite (and professional) gauntlet of making a request to take your own food.

 

As for wine, well I don't drink it, so can't really help there.

[LindaKB]

We're in the Haven for Panama canal this December. We called & asked to arrive in Miami 2 days before (before the deadline) and asked for the Marriott. 

Got our flight info & we arrive the day of. 

Would our pre-cruise concierge be the one to call? 

[Sthrngary]

1 minute ago, LindaKB said:

We're in the Haven for Panama canal this December. We called & asked to arrive in Miami 2 days before (before the deadline) and asked for the Marriott. 

Got our flight info & we arrive the day of. 

Would our pre-cruise concierge be the one to call? 

Call your travel agent or the agent you used for your booking.  Sure, you can call the concierge however this issue, which is common and I hope you have your requests and conformations in writing, is more common then one might think.  I am sorry this happened to you.  This is the third post, on three separate blogs I have addressed on the same topic.

 

Anyone reading this, please book your own flights and don't even give the cruise brand an opportunity to book flights for you.  They are awful at it.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[Treasure Hunter]

Yes. You get what you pay for. The buy one get one free! Ha! Do not be suckered into booking through the cruise line. They almost ruined our Thanksgiving a year ago with terrible flights from Atlanta to Miami that were supposed to come in a day early and were booked by them to come in after the ship left. My son and family drove overnight to get there. And they toss the ball back and forth from the cruise line and the airline. If they won’t change the flight just book your own and try to get the money back through insurance ( which I’m sure you have). 

[LindaKB]

1 hour ago, Sthrngary said:

Call your travel agent or the agent you used for your booking.  Sure, you can call the concierge however this issue, which is common and I hope you have your requests and conformations in writing, is more common then one might think.  I am sorry this happened to you.  This is the third post, on three separate blogs I have addressed on the same topic.

 

Anyone reading this, please book your own flights and don't even give the cruise brand an opportunity to book flights for you.  They are awful at it.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Thank you for your quick reply. 

My travel advisor is away from the office LOL so I went ahead & called the concierge. She said my agent had it in there, but for some reason it wasn't "added" 

Whatever that means?

Anyway, it's all worked out & lesson learned. 

We won't have them do the flights again. 

[cruiseny4life]

58 minutes ago, LindaKB said:

Thank you for your quick reply. 

My travel advisor is away from the office LOL so I went ahead & called the concierge. She said my agent had it in there, but for some reason it wasn't "added" 

Whatever that means?

Anyway, it's all worked out & lesson learned. 

We won't have them do the flights again. 

I'm so glad it was put in your record! If you don't receive a written confirmation after adding the deviation, then you're sunk with no hope of having it added (if 75 days or fewer to sailing). Anyway! I certainly had an excellent NCL Air experience in March (I've written about it on other threads, so won't bore you with details here). Suffice to say it was 100% acceptable.

 

We have an upcoming cruise and booked NCL Air. Thus far, minus what will be a quick scamper in Paris from one flight to another, we are very happy with our flights. Again I've written about it elsewhere, but we're saving $1,200 by purchasing through NCL BOGO Air.

 

To each their own, I suppose - I don't need to control everything.

[Treasure Hunter]

Quick Scampers are no longer on my radar especially with flight delays lately, but I wish you good luck👍❤️😁

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, Treasure Hunter said:

Quick Scampers are no longer on my radar especially with flight delays lately, but I wish you good luck👍❤️😁

How does a leisurely stroll in Iceland sound?   🚶‍♂️😄

[Treasure Hunter]

We took a family trip around five years ago round trip from England to Scotland, Shetland, Bergman with three Iceland ports on the much missed Pacific Princess. There were strolls involved. 

[McGarrett5oh]

7 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

Anyone reading this, please book your own flights and don't even give the cruise brand an opportunity to book flights for you.  They are awful at it.

If you need more proof, read this:

https://martinsvillebulletin.com/news/state-regional/norwegian-cruise-line-jewel-denies-refund-to-family-that-missed-ships-departure/article_6c0623e9-4cef-5d43-8612-a70f57ed7959.html

[kasimir]

36 minutes ago, McGarrett5oh said:

If you need more proof, read this:

https://martinsvillebulletin.com/news/state-regional/norwegian-cruise-line-jewel-denies-refund-to-family-that-missed-ships-departure/article_6c0623e9-4cef-5d43-8612-a70f57ed7959.html

This is a really scary story, but again reaffirms our own cruise strategy: 

1. Book our own flights, even if it comes at a premium. But this way we decide, when, how and which airline we fly. 

2. Never ever ever ever, fly on the same day of the cruise departure day. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by kasimir

[Ballwin Babe]

Why would the NCL agent talk them out of coming in a day or two early?  That's the part that doesn't add up.  Even if the NCL agent did try push to fly day of departure, why would they agree?

 

Would you book a $60K vacation without travel insurance?  (purchased independently, not through the cruise line)