CDR Benson

I take your words very kindly, ma'am. I'm gratified that you found anything I posted here helpful. Your husband is a lucky man no doubt in many ways, but in this case, for your thorough preparation. I can see the impressed expression on his face as he sees you have every aspect of the cruise well in hand---because it will be the same look my wife rewarded me with as I guided us though the wickets of our voyage. A head's-up (which, in likelihood, you're already anticipating): some snag, some obstacle, outside your ability to control, will arise. At least one always does. But the knowledge you've gained in making your preparations will enable you to handle it. By happenstance, the Good Mrs. Benson and I are also departing on 25 November, this year, on a cruise to the Caribbean. This time, however, we will be sailing with Regent Seven Seas, rather Norwegian. (Norwegian Joy, in the Haven, is sked for 2024.) Your voyage will be eastern Caribbean; ours will be in the western Caribbean; and the twain shall not meet. But the coïncidence of timing will remind me of your cruise and my hope that you and your husband have the most idyllic of experiences. Thank you, again.

I came late to this party---all of your questions have been thoroughly answered. I will contribute only to a recommendation of specialty restaurants. As mentioned above, there is always the variable of personal taste. But even so. I would recommend the Japanese steakhouse, Teppenyaki---because of the performances of the tableside chefs. It's an experience unlike the other specialty houses. On our Haven cruise, the Good Mrs. Benson and I also visited the seafood restaurant Ocean Blue. This was on Norwegian Joy. It was a perfectly fine meal, but lacked the "wow!" factor we'd enjoyed in other fine-dining establishments, both at sea and ashore. On our Haven cruise next year, we'll return to Teppenyaki but choose a different place for our second option.

Is that to protect the kids, or the iguanas?

As much as we enjoyed having a butler on our Haven cruise, the Good Mrs. Benson and I realised that the occasion when we really wished we'd had him was to unpack for us after we got back home.

Branbay, I am on the other end of the spectrum from my fellow correspondent, cruiseny4life. I would wear a suit to any restaurant or occasion, except for the Good Mrs. Benson complaining that, if I dress at that level, then she has to. So, I scale back. On our last cruise, of the eight times we dined in the Haven Restaurant, once I wore my service dress uniform (special event) and the rest I wore a sport coat with dress shirt and trousers. (No necktie---I was on vacation, after all.) And, like cruiseny4life, not once have I felt uncomfortable in the Haven Restaurant because of my attire. The not-tongue-in-cheek part of this post, sir, is to iterate what cruiseny4life stated above. Business casual attire, as he describes it, is the usual level of dress for the Haven Restaurant. The point I am adding is that, no matter at what level you and your wife wish to dress (obviously, reductio ad absurdum exempted), you won't feel out of place. With what you state as you and your wife prefering to wear, you'll fit in just fine.

As Doctor Gutman alluded, the spouse's reaction is one of the best rewards of staying in a suite, and especially, in the Haven. On our cruise last September, the look of amazed delight on the Good Mrs. Benson's face was worth every cent it took to get us there. Here's hoping you enjoy the same reward for your efforts. (And it's rather a sure bet you will.)

Drinking vodka doesn't cure the ailment---you just won't care that you have it, anymore.

You, sir, are a hardy soul. The Good Mrs. Benson and I also live in the Piedmont, and there's no way I would endure a drive from here to Miami. (Plus, the drive back awaiting our return.) When we sail out of Miami on Joy next year, the GMB has stated we'll be flying there first class. (I better plant that money tree this spring.) My hat's off to you, and I wish you and your family a safe drive and an idyllic voyage. I'll be following your comments here, most definitely.

I couldn't agree more. Of the handful of cruise reviewers I follow on YouTube, I find Mr. Bembridge's reports to be the most balanced and the most focused on the concerns that potential voyagers would have.

True enough, we might be reading too much into the barkeep's refusal to make cruiseny4life's peach bellini as a new NCL policy. The bartender might've been too swamped with orders to be able to take the time to look up the recipe. Or she may just have been having a bad day or woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. Or, as CruisnHallelujahs suggests, the bar might have been out of a neccessary ingredient to make it. I'd like to think this is a one-off event because, in my experience, Haven staffers, to a man, not only bent over backwards to fulfil our requests, they were eager to do so. If I had walked into the Haven Restaurant one morning and requested a glass of Ovaltine because Captain Midnight says it's the heart of a hearty breakfast, I wouldn't be surprised to see the waiter return with it.

Hopefully, it's like laudergayle suggested above: that that particular bartender was being truculent, rather than following a new policy.

Let your butler know this, pretty much just the way you said it above, and he'll work as hard as he can to fulfil your requests, or make up for it in some other way, if he can't. Here's hoping that you and your daughter have the most idyllic of voyages.

I should think it depends on the availability of what you request. Chocolate-covered strawberries daily isn't a problem, I think. (We got them every other day or so, without asking for them.) Caviar or salmon are probably less ready for a daily delivery. Caviar might even involve an additional charge. Your butler shouldn't mind you asking, as long as you understand, with good graces, where he is limited by logistics or ship's protocol.

This element of your report surprised me a tad. It must be part of the general decline in services NCL instituted this year, for last September, we had no problems at all ordering cocktails that were not featured in the Haven bar menu. We didn't go "off menu" that often, but when we did, the only consequence was that it took a little longer to arrive. (Assumedly, the barkeep had to look up the recipe in his Mr. Boston guide.) "We can't/won't/don't do that," was never a response. Your experience is a bit distressing. NCL raises its prices? O.K., that's the nature of the beast. But to reduce the range of services at the same time is faintly spurious.

On a thread on this board, perhaps this thread, is a lively discourse over whether well-behaved minors under the age of sixteen should be permitted on the Haven sundeck. The "Yes!" and "No!" camps both make valid arguments. That said, I tend to agree with wolft927. The no-minors-under-sixteen rule is intended to preclude disruptive, uncontrolled children. It's the relief measure to dispense with such annoyances. But, generally, shipboard staff enforcement of the rule is triggered by a complaining Haven guest. It's not like there's a checkpost at which a crewman examines the ID of everyone stepping off the elevator. The point being that your son's presence on the Haven sundeck relies on the implicit assent of the other guests present. As long as your son acts maturely and is as well behaved as you and your husband attest, then in all likelihood, none of the other guests will notice or even care. I know that I would not, and you can imagine how important rules and regulations have been in my life. Best wishes to you for a most enjoyable cruise.

This was our experience, as well. The Good Mrs. Benson and I spent most of our mid-mornings relaxing in chaise longues by the pool in the Haven Courtyard. And within two or three minutes, a waiter would appear to take our drink orders and keep us replenished. That pretty much held true for whenever we were in the Haven Lounge or the Horizon Observation Lounge, also. In our case, it was almost always the same two waiters who took care of us, no matter where we were in the Haven. That made tipping easy; I just gave both a decent tip on the last night of the cruise.

While I passed our general room requests---e.g., empty the mini-fridge of all chargeable items, selection of pillow types, request for no towel animals (our feeling was the room steward was busy enough without begging more of his time to make us a terrycloth platypus)---to the pre-cruise concierge, I reserved specific requests that we wanted our butler to perform for the butler letter we would give him personally. If I had passed our butler requests through the pre-cruise concierge, there's always the chance that something would get lost or miscommunicated in the transfer from pre-concierge to the butler. Particularly since the pre-concierge desk doesn't interface with the ship's butlers directly. The pre-concierge desk communicates with the Haven concierge on board the ship, who would then relay our information to the butler assigned to us. That's too much chance for some or all of our butler requests to get lost in the ether, as far as I'm concerned. Better to just go direct with the butler and establish our preferences.

Thank you! I weigh only five pounds more than I did when I had that set of dress blues tailored twenty-five years ago. Admittedly though, my cargo, shall we say, has shifted a bit since then.

Gents, it would be our privilege to encounter you and your significant others on a cruise. (And, for you, cruiseny4life, for dinner, I'd leave my dress blues in the closet.) As to the matter of dress, last week I came across an on-line article which perfectly described my feelings and attitude toward dressing for restaurants, and written much more eloquently than I could have. I'm not going to re-post any of it here. Cruiseny4life requested that this thread not open that debate and I respect his wishes. But an overarching reason is because it wouldn't change anyone else's thinking on the subject.

All I know is, in the Haven Restaurant and Ocean Blue, I wore my service dress blue uniform and they let me right in.

Because of the angled balcony, aye, it does. When we had # 14778, the balcony was equipped with a lounger. In fact, one night, I got the idea of sleeping in it, but gave it up when I discovered there were no spare blankets in the suite.

If we were in your situation, the Good Mrs. Benson would kill me if I didn't switch it. I have to smile at the thought. A couple of years ago, when I was planning our 2022 cruise on Norwegian Joy, I told the GMB of my intention of getting a suite in the Haven. Her response was, "Oh, I don't care if we have anything special like that. What do we need a butler for? And the main dining room is good enough for me. All I care about is having a stateroom with a balcony. Why spend all that extra money?" The answer was: because I wanted all those things. "Trust me," I told her. Sure enough, after a week of being pampered and indulged like the Queen of Sheba, she changed her refrain. Now, the only way she will ride on an NCL ship is in the Haven, and preferably on Joy, in the same suite. (I spent an hour, abetted by YouTube videos, talking her out of her idea to cancel our Regent Seven Seas cruise this year and replacing it with another Haven cruise on Joy.)

Glad to be of service! I checked the deck plans of Norwegian Joy, to determine precisely where suite # 17182 was located. There is another advantage of your suite over most of the suites in the Haven proper. Suite # 17182 is located amidships and a reasonable number of decks from the topmost. That means, in the event of heavy seas from inclement weather, your suite will ride more steadily than those Haven digs located forward, on decks 17 and 18. The suites all the way forward will feel the motion of the seas even in calm weather. Now, the sea state may remain calm for your cruise and this will be a non-issue. But on the last night of our cruise last year, when we were in # 14778, the ship got caught in the influence of an approaching hurricane. The seas got pretty choppy; yet, the Good Mrs. Benson and I remained on an even keel in our suite, while the Haven spaces forward and three decks up were bouncing around.

I can only iterate what vacation44 has stated about the Haven suites in the vicinity of # 14178. That they are not in the "millionaires' row" of the Haven proper is not an imposition. Those fourteenth-deck Haven suites are near enough to the elevators (which present no noise issues) that you can be in the Haven within one-to-three minutes. Nor are those "off-campus" Haven suites short-changed in terms of butler, steward, or concierge services. Believe me, this was an important consideration for me. Unlike cruiseny4life, I enjoy the indulgence of the Haven and would be gladly spend my entire voyage being catered to. We would not have booked HI # 14778 if there had been any chance of that not happening. And it made sense to "endure" a two-minute elevator ride in exchange for a suite larger than a Haven courtyard suite. For WAHMto5, the suite we had, # 14778, is the "mirror image" (same dimensions and arrangement, but directly across on the starboard side) of the one you've booked, # 14178. And it has the same attributes as # 14778. Vacation44 is a veteran cruiser of # 14178 and, if I remember correctly, is her favourite stateroom on Norwegian Joy. And I've asserted before that, if I were to be awarded a free cruise in any suite on Joy, I would take only # 14778 or # 14178. Js, you should very much enjoy staying # 14182. I hope it will be a marvelous cruise for you in all respects. (Note to cruiseny4life: I will be following your thread on your upcoming cruise on Joy. I am always especially interested in reports from the fourteenth-deck Haven spaces. We're different types of people, but nevertheless, your observations are noteworthy and pertinent. Especially since the Good Mrs. Benson and I will be sailing again on Joy in 2024. Aye, in #14778, again. The GMB insisted on the same suite on the same ship.)

That's a risk I'm willing to take.