Haven for family

[mra9955]

Hi.  I'm looking for some thoughts and ideas from folks who have sailed in the Haven before.  We travel as a family of five (two adults, three young children) and so far have sailed on Disney (1 time), Celebrity (5 times), and Royal Caribbean (10+ times).  We are Diamond Plus on Royal.  We only travel in two bedroom suites.  Royal is becoming a disappointing let down in terms of perks and dining.  So I heard about the Haven being nice, but have also heard that NCL in general lacks in some areas.  So I'm curious if anyone with a similar family as done NCL's Haven and Royal's suites and how you think they compare.  We typically do a Caribbean cruise or two when it's cold here in the mid Atlantic and then a two week cruise in the summer in Europe.  Thank you!

[jemz1949]

Believe that you will find that the 2 bdrm Haven suites are basically the same layout regardless of the ship.  My nephew, his wife and three young daughters found the 2 bdrm suite to be very comfortable and met their lodging needs.  Where you will find the differences will be in size of the courtyard and whether or not there is a Haven restaurant, Haven lounge, etc.  My family has sailed on the Pearl in the Haven using multiple 2 bdrm suites.  We have sailed on the Epic in the Haven in 2 bdrm suites as well.  While we enjoyed both ships,  there are huge differences in the Haven between the two.  Not that either is bad just differ like night and day.  Suggest that you research what the various ships offer in the Haven and make you decision based on what you find and which best appeals to you and your family.   

[Two Wheels Only]

The Haven was designed with families in mind. Other than the ships which have a "16 years-old and older" Haven sundeck, children a welcome in every part of the Haven. Deciding which ship is important since not all Havens are the same. Once you decide on the ship, deciding which stateroom type is important. After that, deciding which particular stateroom is important. The amenities are mostly the same for all Haven guests (top suites are given a bit more) so once a Haven guest, you're all set.

 

Learning about what is available as far as butler and concierge service is important. Some first-time Haven guests don't utilize the services then complain that the services are useless.

 

 

[marley]

The Haven 2 bedroom suites are wonderful. We have stayed with our 3 children a couple of times and now have 4 children and will be staying in one this summer. They are small but comfortable and worth the $$$  We also throughly enjoyed the Haven restaurant. 

 We did get the Big Suite ( Presidents suite? cannot remember the name) on a RCCL ship one time and the suite was fantastic but the service was terrible and we haven't sailed them since. 

 We have also sailed in a couple of the large suites on the older Disney ships and everything was fantastic! 

[CateW]

We've done a family cruise on Disney and we've done the Haven 5 times (only once with kids).  Nobody does it better than Disney, especially with kids, I'm my opinion.

[ceilidh1]

Wondering if anyone on here can answer this before I talk to someone at NCL and get three different answers! Looking at the Haven connecting rooms on Bliss - we are thinking of trying something new this year and booking two rooms rather than all squeezing into one. The adults would be in the Haven room, and the two kids in the non-Haven room next door. We understand that this means the kids don't get the Haven perks and that's not an issue at all. However, since NCL requires a passenger over 18 to be booked in each room, it would have to be booked as one adult and one child in each - even though in reality that wouldn't be the case. How would this then affect the two adults being able to access the Haven and enjoy the benefits? Anyone had any success (or failure) with this? Don't want to spend that kind of money if we end up with only one of being able to use the Haven!

 

[Two Wheels Only]

What you are planning might not work. The adult that is booked in the non-suite will probably not have Haven access.

 

What you could do is add another adult to stay in the non-suite while the parents are in the suite.

Edited February 9, 2019 by Two Wheels Only

[ceilidh1]

3 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

What you are planning might not work. The adult that is booked in the non-suite will probably not have Haven access.

 

What you could do is add another adult to stay in the non-suite while the parents are in the suite.

Hmmm, that's what I figured. We don't have another adult sailing - just 2 adults, 2 kids. It's a little frustrating as we would actually be spending just as much, if not more, to book 2 rooms rather than all staying in one Haven room. Kids don't need the Haven perks - they are in the club most of the time anyways. Back to planning....

[Hotspring]

On 2/9/2019 at 7:02 PM, ceilidh1 said:

Hmmm, that's what I figured. We don't have another adult sailing - just 2 adults, 2 kids. It's a little frustrating as we would actually be spending just as much, if not more, to book 2 rooms rather than all staying in one Haven room. Kids don't need the Haven perks - they are in the club most of the time anyways. Back to planning....

Obviously it depends on kid's ages and gender, but you will find that most Haven are spacious enough that can hold 4 occupants are spacious enough to do so.   There is plenty of storage.   Most sofa beds can be configured for 2 adults.   We once stayed in connecting room Haven without the connecting room, looked in that connecting room when they had the door open housekeeping and gasped at how tight it was, especially against our room size.

[fondtravel]

 

On 2/9/2019 at 7:02 PM, ceilidh1 said:

Hmmm, that's what I figured. We don't have another adult sailing - just 2 adults, 2 kids. It's a little frustrating as we would actually be spending just as much, if not more, to book 2 rooms rather than all staying in one Haven room. Kids don't need the Haven perks - they are in the club most of the time anyways. Back to planning....

Some Haven perks are just as relevant to children just as well as adults— such as priority embarkation and disembarkation or priority reservations for seating for shows. It can be challenging if only part of the family has these, but not the other half.  And it’s common to see children in the Haven restaurant on ships that have those. 

[phillyguy31]

We had 3 adults, 2 kids and 1 teen (yes 6) in a 2 bedroom. We never felt we were walking over each other and it was very comfortable. The only minor issue was the 16 year old DGS was on the couch in the living room and he had to get up when we did . He was fine with it.

[GetMeOutOfMN]

We just stayed in a 2Br (H4) suite in the Haven on Epic.  We also have a family of 5, but with teens and young adults.  Space was fine - oldest slept on the LR couch.  Storage for the second bedroom was a little tighter, but tons of space in the master.  I'm still not quite sure why they give you a swanky bedroom with mood lights and no lock on the door... 🙂  I agree with Two Wheels that it's important to know what the butler /concierge can do for you to best benefit from the experience.  They have a handy phone that you can use to call the butler (which I never did), but it was the last day before I realized I could also carry it around for the kids to find US (a feature that had some technical guffaw the day we finally tried it).  

Our cruise happened to be THE spring break booze cruise so avoiding the chaos of 4000 drunk college students from the relative peace and calm of the Haven was amazing.  The restaurant was great for breakfast (a nice buffet of grab and go items and/or full service options) and dinner, but for some reason all the food ordered at lunch was so-so with fries and other hot food not served hot.  The priority embarkation and disembarkation (for GSC too) was also awesome, but sometimes it was hard to follow the special instructions for Haven guests amongst the regular announcements and dailies.

We have cruised Royal 3 times (in two rooms, and once in a Oceanview family suite) and Disney when we only had the one kid.  I thought I wanted something different but I was not a fan of this experience and I don't know if the premium I paid was worth it.  Being used to a full production show each night in the main theater, I was disappointed with the entertainment onboard.  Priscilla was fun, but it and Burn the Floor were repeated over the week instead of a show each night.  Howl at the moon was in a venue set up like a seminar, with rows of seating hard to get around.  Some of the game shows were fun, but they were held in the atrium where it was hard to see or hard to avoid.  Cool bars but again in public traffic spaces or by elevator banks that made it hard to visit and connect with fellow shipmates.  Escape the Big top was fun and well done.  

My teens enjoyed the teen area and activities.  We avoided the pool deck due to the aforementioned college revelers.  Now some people say the Epic is a unique boat and isn't necessarily representative of NCL.  Maybe so, but it just felt different, maybe less "happy" than Royal.  I spoke to other first-time NCL cruisers who felt the same way.  This ship's staff was seriously lacking in enthusiasm and even in general knowledge about ship amenities and policies.  Drinks were well-made but lines took forever.  Food was okay, but unlike the grab and go Sorrento's on Royal, you must check in and be seated at O'Sheehan's and then you cannot bring your food out (even to the counter overlooking the atrium).  Found that odd.  I both liked and didn't the freestyle dress code.  All of us were glad to not have to change for dinner (especially the boys who would have had to wear, oh the horror, some pants).  That said, shirtless and bikini clad people parading through public spaces all day was awkward.  With the gratuity charges and exclusions, the freebies didn't really feel free.  Make sure to check out the amenities on your boat and be sure they work for you.  Our boat had a 18-plus sundeck but families with older kids were regularly up there and no one seemed to complain.  Not sure if that is helpful to you, but it was our experience.