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Regarding the luggage tags, we’ve done two Haven trips since the restart, and another one upcoming, and the two in the past we never received luggage tags and just printed our own. We did get luggage tags this time in the mail, and we were really surprised! But the color is green (with priority written on it), not gold. 🤷‍♂️

…in that case, there really isn’t much you can do, except do more research as to how you can get the most out of this trip, so you will actually look forward to enjoying it, as opposed to just spending the five days counting how much paid for everything, grinning and bearing it like you’re at the dentist or something unpleasant. If you’re excited about the trip, then you hopefully will actually enjoy it!

If you’re miserable about a vacation before going on the vacation, you will be miserable ON the vacation for sure. Nothing will convince you the vacation is worth it if you already hate it now. it really sounds like you should have been part of the planning. Whether they left you out to surprise you, or because they intentionally thought you would say no, or you just thought your wife would make a good decision, it obviously didn’t work out well. You should find out if it’s past final payment (did you pay for it yet, or just the deposit?), because if it’s not paid, you should ask for another family discussion to see what the options are. Can you agree to do family thing outside of the Haven if you just book a balcony? Will they actually be in the Haven if you book the Haven room? Are some of the cheaper Haven cabins available? (Even if you move to the same type cabin without the extended balcony — one flight up— you might save $1000.). Are the dates flexible to choose a cheaper week? (Maybe not if they’re working around the grandkids’ school schedules.) Personally we love the Haven, and we’re an ordinary Joe and Jane, but we live in a small house, don’t go crazy on every day expenditures, etc., so we can splurge on our vacations! That’s what we like to spend our money on. If you can’t picture yourself enjoying the trip, then you need to do something. ps — in terms of you not going at all, your wife would still pay close to the same amount as both of you if she went herself, since the cabins are made for dual occupancy, unless the cabin the rest of the family are in is big enough to fit her in it.

Your choice! If you take your own bags, you’ll get off quicker, but you’ll have to wrangle them yourself. And be mindful the hallways will be filled with cleaning carts, piles of dirty linens, etc. We never take our own bags because of this, but many many people do, AND if you take your own bags, you’ll be way ahead of the masses. Your decision. Enjoy!

I know people LOVE hot tubs, but I can’t ever add myself to a vat of people soup. 😜😁. It seems like a very odd bonding process, for sure!

Just echoing the point — I’m in a bunch of cruise groups, and every one from different lines has people saying they’re never going to sail that line again. The biggest one was Royal charging for each lobster tail after the first on lobster night. Of course NCL doesn’t have a lobster night. 🤷‍♂️. So good luck with that. They all have their pluses and minuses, and yes, they are all trying to claw their way back to profitability. It’s a business — they need to make money or they’ll go away. I, for one, hope they’re around for quite a while!

We were on the Breakaway just after the covid restart, I think the second sailing. The Haven restaurant was super slow, over 2 hour dinners because of that, BUT we attributed it to getting back on their feet after the restart, and I really haven’t seen other similar complaints since. On the flip side, the servers on the inside/outside sundecks were the best we ever had. Like they were super eager and happy to be back at work. I can’t stress enough how amazing they were. We’ve been on the Joy since, and they were great, 9.5 out of 10… but that Breakaway crew were a 10+. Enjoy!!

By any chance were you in an owner’s suite??? These things are supposed to be included there. Otherwise I’m very (happily for you) surprised you got all that!! We always just leave that crappy bottle there, unopened, because it’s just so bad. We used to ask if they could exchange it for something else, and early on they could, but then it switched to a no and we stopped asking.

Agree there’s still a lot of uncertainty. For sure the last three flipped from the naughty list to the nice list. Cheese is good for the calcium as well. Nuts have to be separated, there’s a big range between almonds (boooo) and pecans (yay!), with a bunch in between. And yeah, you still see a lot of poor info online and still being given out by doctors! Except for the spinach and almonds as the big no nos (I don’t really like beets or miso), I throw it all out the window once I get on a cruise ship. 😁

Thanks! Because we liked the Haven steaks so much, we cancelled Cagneys on our last two trips. And missed that chocolate late both times. So next trip we’re doing Cagneys on the first night, so we have no chance to cancel. 😁. Ps chocolate is on the “don’t eat too much” for kidney stones list as well, but nowhere near as bad as the other two, like 15th down on the list. So I will happily indulge while on the cruise!!

I can’t answer your question…. But just wanted to drop in that my mind read that second part as “Muggle Excursion.” New partnership with Harry Potter? Sweet!! 😁

Fun fact: if you’re a kidney stone producer, specifically Calcium Oxalate stones, the two foods you need to avoid the most are spinach and… almonds. So no more almond croissants. 🤬 my first sailing back in the Haven after learning that was a big bummer. Granted, they have lots and lots of other things to choose from….but they’re not that croissant!

Yikes! We did sail out of Miami once, but that was over 10 years ago. So thanks, mental note, if we go back out of there again, be sure to use the facilities in the hotel first!

We’ll be on her in a couple of months (in the Haven, too), so keep her in good shape for us! 😜 enjoy your trip!

Do they not have one?😁

I’m late to the party, but I would say definitely yes. Our go to appetizer the last few trips has been the Caesar Salad with the grilled shrimp, because the salad itself is good, and the shrimp it comes with is really good. For entrees, we tend to just add a lobster tail to anything. One meal my wife got the app risotto with two lobster tails as her main. So point being, as long as it’s something already on the dinner menu, mixing and matching is easy for them. So yes just asking for some grilled shrimp from the Caesar salad in with the ravioli should be totally doable! Enjoy!

On two different ships (Breakaway and Joy) since the re-start, that Haven burger at lunch has been absolutely incredible. Whatever the secret is, it really works. 👍👍👍👍

We haven’t been on the Allure, but we’ve done a Grand Suite on the Oasis (sister ship) and the Anthem. I say the below to set expectations, you’ll still enjoy the cruise! With the Grand Suite, you’ll have access to Coastal Kitchen (CK), which we found to not be as good quality wise as the Haven Restaurant, although the menu changes daily, which is nice. Service on the Anthem CK was great, like better than any Haven restaurant we’ve been in to be honest, but on the Oasis it was meh. So it’s a bit of luck of the draw. One issue is that Royal gives suite perks to their Pinnacle cruisers, equivalent of 100 cruises sailed. If you have a bunch of pinnacles on board, we find they take over the suite areas, and since they sail so much, usually the staff knows them and because of that, gives them preferential treatment, which is kinda cr@ppy to be honest. We usually buy a few specialty dinners out of pocket on Royal. 150 Central Park was exceptionally good. The suite sundeck on the Oasis class ships is nice, but not as nice as the Haven areas, and you have to travel through the public pool area to get to it, so it’s not isolated like the Haven. The bartender on the Oasis sundeck was great, but drinks aren’t included unless you buy the drink package, which is expensive. On the Allure, you will get free drinks in the Suite Lounge (connected to CK but not the sundeck), free soda, water, beer and wine from 11-11, and free full bar (no blended drinks) from 5-8. On the Oasis, they also gave us the free suite lounge drinks while sitting at CK, which is right next door. I’ve seen people say the Allure waiters sometimes do NOT do that, so ask first, and if they say it’s not free, just walk over to the lounge side and get your own drinks! For us on the Oasis that was enough to not buy the drink package and just get drinks on the sundeck out of pocket. We did buy a water package just to have water in the room. The concierges on Royal are fine, but nowhere near as good as the Haven. That all sounds negative, but I will say the thing we liked about the Oasis (sister ship) over the NCL ships was actually the rest of the ship. There’s a lot to do outside the suite areas, so we actually found ourselves out and about more on the Royal ships, while on NCL we tend to stay in the Haven. It’s just a different experience. Also the differences above are why the grand suites are usually a good deal cheaper than the Haven. 😁 Enjoy!!

Same with the Manhattan Cruise Terminal as well. There is a Haven security line on the left that is shorter and separate from the normal security line. Regarding the sundeck servers, this past November on the Joy we had plenty of servers on the indoor and outdoor sundeck coming around for drink orders on a pretty regular basis. But that was before the staffing changes, so it could have changed for the worse…

Yes I should’ve clarified I meant for Sky class!

thanks!!

We’ve done both, and will continue to, but we have 1 Sky class, and 3 Haven trips booked for comparison. Haven is a lot better for us. It’s really not close. Haven areas are much better than the Suite lounge/sundeck, and the Haven restaurant is miles better than Coastal Kitchen, although the CK menu does change every night. But… we don’t have kids. I can see the Royal ships having a LOT more to offer in the non-suite areas that would be a lot more fun for kids. So obviously that has to be a big consideration in your choice! one more item…. We had the Sky Loft on the Oasis, and that’s one heck of a room. We spent so much time on our balcony, we didn’t need the suite areas as much.

You might have just answered this with your last part, but if you make a regular reservation and pay in advance, if you want to cancel on board (assuming you can), do you get OBC or credit back to your credit card? Slightly different situation from yours.

I agree, after 2 Sky class trips and 4 Haven trips, Sky class doesn’t even come close to Haven (but don’t get me wrong, we’re doing it again soon on the Anthem). CK is nowhere close to the Haven restaurant. And the Suite sun decks in the Royal ships don’t come close to the Haven areas, although we haven’t done the Wonder with the different setup, and it looks like Icon is trying to full on compete with the Grove. And we haven’t done Star class to compare, although it seems that would get the edge. Especially since it comes with unlimited specialty restaurants, so you don’t need to use CK. So it’s probably in order: NCL “club” suites (very few perks) Sea Class ——— (big jump) Sky Class Haven Star Class

On Oasis class where the Suite Lounge is located with CK, in Sky Class you usually can get the complimentary drinks while seated at CK during happy hour (we did on the Oasis no problem in September). On Quantum class where the suite lounge is far away, you have to use your vouchers.