Any downside to bidding on upgrade?

[havanadaydreaming]

We are 21 days out and the Haven family villa ( 2 bdrm 2 ba suite) min bid is $400 pp. 

 

We have no use for 2nd bdrm but 2 ba might be very nice.  And id use the sitting area.  

 

Wouldnt need concierge, priority embark or debark.  

 

Is the Haven restaurant + pool "all that"?(Epic) 

[a1betpr]

You would be crazy not to try to upgrade.  Short answer, yes, the Haven is absolutely worth it.

[havanadaydreaming]

Thanks a1, i think so too.  

 

We have a huuuuuge balc on deck 10 but i adore the aft video screen and smoking bar at Spice H20, especially after dark.  

 

If memory serves Haven would put us on that deck or one above.  Very convenient. 

[ggTexasGal]

14 minutes ago, havanadaydreaming said:

We are 21 days out and the Haven family villa ( 2 bdrm 2 ba suite) min bid is $400 pp. 

 

We have no use for 2nd bdrm but 2 ba might be very nice.  And id use the sitting area.  

 

Wouldnt need concierge, priority embark or debark.  

 

Is the Haven restaurant + pool "all that"?(Epic) 

If you are curious to try the Haven, but are not certain, you might choose to bid in a "Poor" range that feels comfortable to you. 

We (2 adults) have had a 2 Bedroom suite (Haven) on the Pearl, and I used the 2nd bedroom area much more than either of us thought we would.

Priority Embarking and Disembarking are our favorite suite perks.

Concierge and Butler services have been our least utilized perks.

[Sthrngary]

My only piece of advises is this.  Learn as much as you can to take advantage of all the Haven Amenities.  It does not mean you will use them, just that you know that they are there and how other used them.

 

Over the years, it has become very clear that the words, "I wish I knew about this before I booked the Haven." has been said many times.  Many folks think they don't need a butler.  Nobody needs a butler. Knowing how to use this amenity to enhance your cruising experience if you have the option is the key.

 

Lots has been written, not every loves the Haven.  Overall the Haven has high marks but again it is all about knowing how to leverage it for your tastes.  I see no downside for bidding up unless other members of your party in different staterooms don't receive the upgrade.  That has its own challenges.

 

Cruise well.

[complawyer]

for an extra $800 if you  can afford it go for it. yes, the epic pool/jacuzzi, sundeck, restaurant and bar are absolutely "all that" if youre going t o use the pool, not having to worry about chair hogs, little kids running and screaming, the breakfast menu is to die for, no crowds etc.

 

as for the concierge, i dont use him?her often, but if there is a specialty restaurant you wish to visit and hit a roadblock with reservations, he can really help.

 

finally, what i personally like about the concierge is the ability to be escorted off the ship when you reach the final port. rather then stand inline with 2000-3000 of your closest friends (and the epic is one of the larger ships in the fleet) although this may not be  a problem with diminished capacity, no matter how long my cruise was, and after the 1st introduction to the concierge and not utilizing the services until the end, having him get me off the ship, to my luggage and out the door for a cab to me  is worth the price of admission.

 

by the way, we love the 2 bedroom suites. my wife and i booked one on the ncl star next nov, and even if there is only 2 of us, having a a large spacious cabin hits the spot and this is a 14 dat trans-atlantic

[Yinster]

Like complawyer said, if you can afford the extra dollars then go for it. $400pp is min bid. Personally I would up it by about another $50 as others would just do the min bid

 

Also read up what is available if and when you get it. You might not think you need certain amenities but you might surprise yourself. 

 

We are regular Haven guests. Pretty low maintenance who don't really need much but our last cruise we used room service via our butler a lot. When in previous cruises we never used it at all. 

 

Remember also to add in extra $$$ in tips for your butler and concierge who aren't part of the gratitudes scheme

 

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Yinster

[Sailing12Away]

Epic is a great ship for Haven. You have the private courtyard pool area, but you also have a separate lounge, restaurant and bar that is open very long hours. It's a private retreat when you want it, and if you want the more hustle and bustle of the rest of the ship - just go there. Having it and not needing it is fine, but needing it and not having it really sucks.

 

It also depends on your cruise - how many sea days, how many total days, where are you headed... $400 spread across 10 days is a no-brainer to me. A shorter 5 day cruise with only 1 sea day... much less. Just do the math - price out the cabin for your sailing now if you booked it outright, and set your bid to be less than that. If you get it, it's a bargain. Ballpark "normal" pricing for Haven is around $500/person/day - so if you can get it for less than that you're ahead of the game.

[coin ops]

The only downside in upgrading to Haven is you will get spoiled and only want to cruise in the Haven in the future! 😉

[GALSews]

Our last cruise, mid-December 2021, we won our bid and were upgraded to a penthouse balcony on the Escape. We really enjoyed the Haven restaurant. We were also there the night they set up the Christmas decorations and got to watch over 8 pastry chefs arrange the winter scene. See the picture below. (BTW, they use Rustoleum to make the 'dirt' show through the snow.)

We like the thermal spa and preferred it to the Haven pool because 1) we had a better view of the sea and more important b) the Haven pool was cold and we're Boomers, cold is not fun in a swim suit. We did, however, chill by the pool and do a little noshing there.

We just chose to upgrade to the Haven spa for our next cruise on the Epic, taking advantage of the fact the NCL extended cruise credits to the end of this year. (We'd canceled a trip to Alaska with our son and his family as our grandchild is not yet old enough to get the vaccine. So we were sitting on our original credits plus the bonus ones from the cancelled cruise back in 2020. Upgrade, as coin ops noted we got spoiled.

We'll probably give the butler better instructions as we were overwhelmed with snacks - again we're Boomers and we need less food or we tend to expand.

Of course, the thermal spa is at one end of the Epic and the Haven is at the other so we will get exercise that way plus the 2 flights of stairs.

I am looking forward to seeing what the Epic looks like as lots of pictures of the rooms are outdated as the ship was refurbished.

[bigrednole]

Personally, if it was cheap enough (a lot less than $400pp), I would try it. I don't need or desire such accommodations or service. For others, it is much needed and/or appreciated. 

[Lionkingrichard]

If you have picked out the perfect room then you may be disappointed with the room you get with upgrade.

 

I would take the same room again, but upgraded to a 2 bedroom on Epic and the Veranda was much smaller(average size for most rooms) then the really big one I had picked out. Also directly above our cabin was a steel storage unit. Maybe 2 times on the cruise it became very very loud in our room. They were stuffing all the chairs in it because of high winds.

 

The plus side was we had NO open deck above us and there are no veranda's beside the 2 bedrooms(most?) so sitting out there was our own private ocean front unit!

[The Traveling Man]

There are lots and lots of positive reasons for upgrading.  The question, though, was if there were any downsides.  The only one that comes to my mind is that you don't get to select your specific cabin location.  There really aren't any terrible locations for any of the Haven rooms, but some are better than others, and you don't have any say in which one you are assigned.  Overall, though, it definitely is worth it.

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

4 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

There are lots and lots of positive reasons for upgrading.  The question, though, was if there were any downsides.  The only one that comes to my mind is that you don't get to select your specific cabin location.  There really aren't any terrible locations for any of the Haven rooms, but some are better than others, and you don't have any say in which one you are assigned.  Overall, though, it definitely is worth it.

The Traveling Man beat me to it!  Your location is chosen for you, and sometimes the “upgrade” is not where you wanted to be.

I guess another “down side” could be that if you bid and are upgraded, you can’t say no…the upgrade is yours and charged to you.

[GeezerCouple]

5 minutes ago, NEW 2 CRUISIN said:

The Traveling Man beat me to it!  Your location is chosen for you, and sometimes the “upgrade” is not where you wanted to be.

I guess another “down side” could be that if you bid and are upgraded, you can’t say no…the upgrade is yours and charged to you.

 

Right.

We select the category and the actual suite that we want, right from the start.

That means we'll probably never benefit from any upgrade, unless maybe we notice prices are changing and call to ask, but I'm not sure that actually works anyway, after final payment.  And final payment is pretty far in advance for suites, etc.

 

We'd rather know that we'll enjoy where were are and not spend any time wishing we were in a different location, or wishing we hadn't actually paid extra for the "privilege" of a location we don't like.

GC

[The Traveling Man]

7 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

we'll probably never benefit from any upgrade, unless maybe we notice prices are changing and call to ask, but I'm not sure that actually works anyway, after final payment.

It's not quite the same thing as bidding on an upgrade, but if prices go down on your current room, you can choose a room of a higher category and apply the full amount that you already have paid to the cost of your new room.  As an example, if you booked an Inside for $1000 when Balcony rooms were going for $2000, but then the prices dropped by 40%, you could pay an additional $200 to move up to your choice of any available Balcony rooms.  This may not be possible if you booked your cruise through an NCL office outside of the US, but I have done it several times, even as late as a week before embarkation.  Also, unlike bidding on an upgrade, when you re-book to a higher category room you receive all the perks that normally come with the higher category.  If you win a bid, though, you only get to keep the perks of your original room.