Haven Room Service

[Carolinabanker]

My wife and I have traveled in the Haven previously, but never availed ourselves to room service. I know it’s complimentary, but that’s the extent of it. Is it limited to the ship’s general room service menu or can we use the Haven’s restaurant? I’ve heard we can request a white table cloth service. Any other tips or pointers?

[fastpitchdad]

1 hour ago, Carolinabanker said:

My wife and I have traveled in the Haven previously, but never availed ourselves to room service. I know it’s complimentary, but that’s the extent of it. Is it limited to the ship’s general room service menu or can we use the Haven’s restaurant? I’ve heard we can request a white table cloth service. Any other tips or pointers?

 

You can get the Haven menu, I generally have the Crab Benedict every morning of our Haven cruises. 

[cruiseny4life]

@Carolinabanker, so long as a restaurant is open, you can order from the menu. The included restaurants, Haven, main dining room, noodle bar, etc. will be no charge. If you order from a specialty restaurant, then you'll need to use one of your included Free at Sea dining packages or pay for the meal.

 

@fastpitchdad, Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict is amazing! Others should just realize you should request this the day before as it is not standard on the menu. 

[Sailing12Away]

We usually ask for a copy of the Haven breakfast menu to be left in our room. The night prior we'll fill out the little card with our choices and hang it up on the door. Then wake up to yummy breakfast waiting for us when we want it.

 

In the Haven, you can write anything you want on those cards and go completely off menu. I usually opt for 'lots of crispy bacon and lots of hash browns, please'. They've only disappointed me once as our last trip they kept saying they had no hash browns and brought me breakfast potatoes instead.

[GeezerCouple]

3 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

We usually ask for a copy of the Haven breakfast menu to be left in our room. The night prior we'll fill out the little card with our choices and hang it up on the door. Then wake up to yummy breakfast waiting for us when we want it.

 

In the Haven, you can write anything you want on those cards and go completely off menu. I usually opt for 'lots of crispy bacon and lots of hash browns, please'. They've only disappointed me once as our last trip they kept saying they had no hash browns and brought me breakfast potatoes instead.

 

Whenever we stay in a hotel or on a cruise ship with "amenities" (meaning a facility that offers upscale services), we ask for copies of all of the on-site restaurants (and usually also the wine lists) to be left in our room throughout our stay/cruise.

 

And we also feel free to "go off menu" as long as it's something that we expect they'll have.  (Nice to know there are others who ask for crispy bacon; my order is usually "lots of extra crispy bacon" 😉 )   On a ship, if we are ordering from a Specialty that has an extra charge, we obviously expect to pay that extra, but the Specialties are not extra charge on all lines.

 

Waking up to the smell of coffee and bacon, and perhaps some gentle clinking of some china... Now *that* is a vacation!

If we have a Butler, we tell them that the "Privacy" sign does *not* apply to them; if we want privacy, we'll bolt the door.  Thus, if they are delivering something, they only need to knock/ring the bell, wait briefly, and then come in.  They are professionals, and there has never been a problem, even if the "suite" is really just one extra large room, rather than a real "suite of rooms".

 

We also tell our Butler that if we ever request something like room service at a time when others have also made requests, we can almost always be very flexible about scheduling and please just let us know...

 

GC

[Sydneyberlin]

One other question I’d like to add to this topic as we’ve never been in the Haven but just put a massive amount onto those upgrade games for our next cruise:

 

What about booze if you’re staying in the Haven? Can the butlers also bring you drinks with your package or will you have to leave the room anyway for that (rendering the whole benefit of “room service” more or less useless for us as we might as well go to a restaurant- on a cruise, we’d never have a meal without booze)?
 

We will have the Premium Plus package, haven or not, so what about the included bottles with your meal- can they bring those when you, say, decide to have dinner in your room? Again, if not, this renders the whole room service benefit useless for us. Thanks!

[Sailing12Away]

6 hours ago, Sydneyberlin said:

One other question I’d like to add to this topic as we’ve never been in the Haven but just put a massive amount onto those upgrade games for our next cruise:

 

What about booze if you’re staying in the Haven? Can the butlers also bring you drinks with your package or will you have to leave the room anyway for that (rendering the whole benefit of “room service” more or less useless for us as we might as well go to a restaurant- on a cruise, we’d never have a meal without booze)?
 

We will have the Premium Plus package, haven or not, so what about the included bottles with your meal- can they bring those when you, say, decide to have dinner in your room? Again, if not, this renders the whole room service benefit useless for us. Thanks!

The only drinks at all that are included in the Haven is if you are staying in an owners suite or garden villa. Then you can get unlimited cans of soda, beer, mixers, etc and you'll have a few bottles (depends on length of trip) of liquor in your room with you.

 

They can bring you glasses/pitchers of juice or soda, but not cans - although there will be some folks who say they've gotten it. But the formal rule is 'no'. There are ways around it, but again it's at the discretion of the staff if they'll bring it and if they'll charge you. Usually at the end of the night hubby likes to have a glass of soda in the room, we resign ourselves to carrying 2 glasses back - but when you ask nice enough some staff at the Haven bar will give you the unopened can to bring back to the room.

 

With the plus package, you can without a doubt get unopened bottles of still/sparkling water to bring back, but we've never paid to upgrade to that package so haven't tested out if they'll deliver bottles of wine to you.

But as a general 'rule' - no, you cannot have your butler bring you a pina colada or gin & tonic without there being a charge, even if you have the drink package. Stupid, yes. My guess is because there would be folks who take advantage and use their butler as a personal waiter to run and bring them cocktails every 20 mins. No harm in simply asking though if they're brining dinner to also bring a drink with it - depending on where your room is located it really isn't that hard to just get the cocktail yourself though.

[RocketMan275]

7 hours ago, Sydneyberlin said:

One other question I’d like to add to this topic as we’ve never been in the Haven but just put a massive amount onto those upgrade games for our next cruise:

 

What about booze if you’re staying in the Haven? Can the butlers also bring you drinks with your package or will you have to leave the room anyway for that (rendering the whole benefit of “room service” more or less useless for us as we might as well go to a restaurant- on a cruise, we’d never have a meal without booze)?
 

We will have the Premium Plus package, haven or not, so what about the included bottles with your meal- can they bring those when you, say, decide to have dinner in your room? Again, if not, this renders the whole room service benefit useless for us. Thanks!

If you're in the Haven proper, then it's a very short walk, maybe 20 or 30 yards to the Haven Bar.

[Sydneyberlin]

41 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

If you're in the Haven proper, then it's a very short walk, maybe 20 or 30 yards to the Haven Bar.

Oh I know. I’m rather thinking of the aft suites though which would by far be our favourites.

And dinner, of course, where we’d like the bottles we pay for with the Premium Plus package.

[fastpitchdad]

2 hours ago, Sydneyberlin said:

Oh I know. I’m rather thinking of the aft suites though which would by far be our favourites.

And dinner, of course, where we’d like the bottles we pay for with the Premium Plus package.

I hope you aren't getting the Premium Plus package for the wine, if so you are MUCH better off bringing your own. 

[DCGuy64]

5 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

My guess is because there would be folks who take advantage and use their butler as a personal waiter to run and bring them cocktails every 20 mins.

You guessed it. Many times when people on Cruise Critic say "why can't they just do X" they're not realizing what a can of worms that would be. You think it's only going to be 1 or 2 passengers out of 4,000 who wants free drinks hand delivered? Uh-huh, sure.... I'd love that, too, but I know what a logistical nightmare that would be.

[sailorusvi]

3 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

You guessed it. Many times when people on Cruise Critic say "why can't they just do X" they're not realizing what a can of worms that would be. You think it's only going to be 1 or 2 passengers out of 4,000 who wants free drinks hand delivered? Uh-huh, sure.... I'd love that, too, but I know what a logistical nightmare that would be.

 

Yep.  It weeds out those who take advantage of the situation.   

 

Something tell me we will have a couple of bar charges on our bill for the convivence 🤪

[Sydneyberlin]

6 hours ago, fastpitchdad said:

I hope you aren't getting the Premium Plus package for the wine, if so you are MUCH better off bringing your own. 

Nope- for the French champagne mostly. And all the other stuff like better liquors in the cocktails etc. 

[HBCcruiser]

6 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

You guessed it. Many times when people on Cruise Critic say "why can't they just do X" they're not realizing what a can of worms that would be. You think it's only going to be 1 or 2 passengers out of 4,000 who wants free drinks hand delivered? Uh-huh, sure.... I'd love that, too, but I know what a logistical nightmare that would be.

Princess does it with their Medallion App ordering. They will bring you drinks/food right to you anywhere on the ship. You order it in the App and they bring it to you (the Medallion tracks your location). They must have special staff assigned to do that though. IMO It would not be feasible for Butlers to do that plus their regular duties.

[Sea saw 56]

19 hours ago, Sydneyberlin said:

 

We will have the Premium Plus package, haven or not, so what about the included bottles with your meal- can they bring those when you, say, decide to have dinner in your room? Again, if not, this renders the whole room service benefit useless for us. Thanks!

Just order a bottle of wine with lunch, or dinner another night, and don't open it.  Bring it back to your room to drink.  We do that often with our included Lattitudes bottle of wine.

[fastpitchdad]

1 hour ago, Sydneyberlin said:

Nope- for the French champagne mostly. And all the other stuff like better liquors in the cocktails etc. 

 

I agree with that, we have gotten the uber upgrade package that includes premium plus, specialty restaurants, internet, starbucks, $50 more excursions, etc., but we actually still bring our own wine because what is available even under PP+ isn't very good. We saved the bottles for Moet (although I think you can only get Veuve now). 

[Sydneyberlin]

3 hours ago, Sea saw 56 said:

Just order a bottle of wine with lunch, or dinner another night, and don't open it.  Bring it back to your room to drink.  We do that often with our included Lattitudes bottle of wine.

Don’t recall reading somewhere that they’re now starting to crack down on this? I have a really hard time imagining just ordering a bottle of Veuve and then carrying it out or the restaurant unopened with none of the staff having an issue with it.

 

Glad of it really works and we will definitely try but I’ll only believe it when I see it.

[cruiseat50]

17 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

They can bring you glasses/pitchers of juice or soda, but not cans - although there will be some folks who say they've gotten it. But the formal rule is 'no'. There are ways around it, but again it's at the discretion of the staff if they'll bring it and if they'll charge you. Usually at the end of the night hubby likes to have a glass of soda in the room, we resign ourselves to carrying 2 glasses back - but when you ask nice enough some staff at the Haven bar will give you the unopened can to bring back to the room.

 

Are you serious on this?  We had an OS on the Dawn and they stocked it with diet coke cans.  Of course that was a while back but when I talked to the pre-concierge I said I wanted diet coke in the can and she didn't say that wouldn't be possible.  This will be a bit of a bummer as I can't drink fountain drinks as they give me migraines.  I know some say that there is no difference but for me it is as I don't get them when drinking out of cans. 

[fastpitchdad]

2 hours ago, Sydneyberlin said:

Don’t recall reading somewhere that they’re now starting to crack down on this? I have a really hard time imagining just ordering a bottle of Veuve and then carrying it out or the restaurant unopened with none of the staff having an issue with it.

 

Glad of it really works and we will definitely try but I’ll only believe it when I see it.

 

We did it every day, went to the Champagne Bar, ordered a bottle of Moet, they asked us if we wanted it opened or not and we took it with us. This was in October. 

[Sydneyberlin]

24 minutes ago, fastpitchdad said:

 

We did it every day, went to the Champagne Bar, ordered a bottle of Moet, they asked us if we wanted it opened or not and we took it with us. This was in October. 

Wow! I’ll be happily mistaken if that’s the case. Very happily 😊

[fastpitchdad]

5 minutes ago, Sydneyberlin said:

Wow! I’ll be happily mistaken if that’s the case. Very happily 😊

 

The best part of the package is the champagne and liquor (and I have heard Moet has been discontinued but Veuve is now available), if you want decent wine you need to bring your own. 

[Sailing12Away]

4 hours ago, cruiseat50 said:

 

Are you serious on this?  We had an OS on the Dawn and they stocked it with diet coke cans.  Of course that was a while back but when I talked to the pre-concierge I said I wanted diet coke in the can and she didn't say that wouldn't be possible.  This will be a bit of a bummer as I can't drink fountain drinks as they give me migraines.  I know some say that there is no difference but for me it is as I don't get them when drinking out of cans. 

Owners suites and the garden villas are completely different. They have extra perks that the rest of the Haven suites do not. One is the free mini bar which includes cans and bottles of nearly anything you may want.

 

But that same treatment you got in an OS will not carry over to say a regular courtyard penthouse.

[amygutman]

4 hours ago, cruiseat50 said:

 

Are you serious on this?  We had an OS on the Dawn and they stocked it with diet coke cans.  Of course that was a while back but when I talked to the pre-concierge I said I wanted diet coke in the can and she didn't say that wouldn't be possible.  This will be a bit of a bummer as I can't drink fountain drinks as they give me migraines.  I know some say that there is no difference but for me it is as I don't get them when drinking out of cans. 

We were on the Pearl in November and had our refrigerator plus counter was overflowing with cans of Coke products as well as vodka seltzers in cans. Every Haven we’ve been on has had can availability but I am not sure about the rest of the ship. It may also be related to the types of drink package according to some other posters throughout cruise critic.
The butlers will fill the fridge with ice tea and other drinks like lemonade, but those are in pitchers.
 

That may just be our experience but honestly, I have never having difficulties with obtaining cans.

 

Warmest, Amy

[European_CruiseGirl]

4 hours ago, fastpitchdad said:

 

We did it every day, went to the Champagne Bar, ordered a bottle of Moet, they asked us if we wanted it opened or not and we took it with us. This was in October. 

They changed the rule starting 1/1 so just a while ago. All bottles must be consumed nowadays at the restaurant where you order your premium plus bottle.

[david_sobe]

You can order anything you want from any restaurant as long as they are open.  The only thing you cant get is alcoholic beverages delivered to your room which is sort of odd considering NCL promotes the Haven as a private luxury sanctuary.  However you can walk to the Haven bar to get it yourself.

Many years ago NCL did deliver drinks to your cabin but I guess the beverage package ruined that.