Haven question 3rd 4th person free

[ddlb]

4 of us want to book a 2 bed haven family villa. Very nervous!  
1.  Does it matter what order the names are booked in?  For example first 2 pay full price but what if one cant make it?  We would originally  be splitting cost 4 ways so would we just split cost 3 ways.

2.  Do we have to book transfers if we book ncl flights?  Very overpriced. 

3.  We will all be paying gratuties for free at sea on the drink and dining but do we only get one $50 cruise excursion credit per cabin?  How about wifi do we each get wifi?  Confused on that. 

Any helpful hints or advice appreciated. Trying to figure out how to get obc as booking with NCL you don't get any. 

 

[workingmom200112]

33 minutes ago, ddlb said:

4 of us want to book a 2 bed haven family villa. Very nervous!  
1.  Does it matter what order the names are booked in?  For example first 2 pay full price but what if one cant make it?  We would originally  be splitting cost 4 ways so would we just split cost 3 ways.  See question 3

2.  Do we have to book transfers if we book ncl flights?  Very overpriced. No your don't have to, just let who ever does the booking for you that you do not want the transfer. 

3.  We will all be paying gratuties for free at sea on the drink and dining but do we only get one $50 cruise excursion credit per cabin?  How about wifi do we each get wifi?  Confused on that. 

Any helpful hints or advice appreciated. Trying to figure out how to get obc as booking with NCL you don't get any.   Everyone will pay gratuties on the drink package, but the dining only goes to the first two people on the reservation and the cruise excursion credit goes to the first person.  Some travel agencies will offer OBC.  Good luck with that one 🙂

 

 

[Treasure Hunter]

Ok, so we are going on the 8 day February winter break cruise from NY. Booked through the Casino a two bedroom Haven stateroom. Re-priced it three times. I am the primary.  My Husband and myself have the big cruise price. We don't drink alcohol so no drink package and saved on the drink gratuities. There are five  of us.  We dropped the husband sometime before payment in full. Two grandkids are free except for port charges and taxes and I added standard NCL insurance for all of us. Daughter is $480?  Something like that, she will sleep on sofa in living room. She likes a couple of glasses of wine with dinner. It is cheaper to just charge as she goes with that. I bought premium WIFI for my husband ( he has my email on his phone so that I can check it on a cruise and for myself but will attach mine  to my daughters phone so she can check in at work. I get a discounted rate on the WIFI as part of the casino package.)  I get the $50 discount on the excursions and its only one. But this is what the casino gave me. Never use NCL air. It is bait and switch. You will get awful times and if a plane is cancelled you are screwed. I have a long horror story about last Thanksgiving. Finally after 6 months and going back and forth from American Airlines and NCL the insurance paid half. Get a taxi to the pier. Be in control of your life, don't wait for the bus to fill up and stop at every ship etc.

[TSUmom]

Not sure which ship you are on but the 2nd bedroom is very small with a small bathroom.  Given that I would have a hard time having a 3rd and 4th guest pay an equal portion of the cruise fare.  Yes they will have all the perks of the Haven but the guests in the main bedroom and bathroom will definately have the better arrangement

[dandelpino]

1 hour ago, ddlb said:

1.  Does it matter what order the names are booked in?  For example first 2 pay full price but what if one cant make it?  We would originally  be splitting cost 4 ways so would we just split cost 3 ways.

 

Person 1 & 2 get more Free at Sea stuff so if someone may not make it I would put them as 3 or 4.

1 hour ago, ddlb said:

 Do we have to book transfers if we book ncl flights?

 Not required. Book your own transfer or take a taxi/uber.

 

1 hour ago, ddlb said:

We will all be paying gratuties for free at sea on the drink and dining but do we only get one $50 cruise excursion credit per cabin?  How about wifi do we each get wifi?

 

• All 4 of you will get the drink package
• Only guests 1 and 2 get the dining package
• Only guests 1 and 2 get the internet/wifi package
• Only guest 1 receives the shore excursion credit

[Sthrngary]

1 hour ago, ddlb said:

1.  Does it matter what order the names are booked in?  For example first 2 pay full price but what if one cant make it?  We would originally  be splitting cost 4 ways so would we just split cost 3 ways.

The key name is the first name.  That person really controls the reservation.  You can change other names.  What I suggest is you call NCL and when it the last time to change a name.  The other question is can you get a refund if one of the folks cancels at the last minute.  The real rules happen once the final payment is paid.  You could consider which I do every time, to have travel insurance for all with a cancel clause.  These are all things you have to think about.  

 

1 hour ago, ddlb said:

4 of us want to book a 2 bed haven family villa. Very nervous!

All I am going to say is if you split the tab four ways, whom ever is in the second bedroom will get the short end of the stick.  The reason economically that folks do what you are doing is because on most cruises, 3-4 person is discounted or free.  If you do Encore, Bliss and or Joy ships, the second bedroom is really small and the master bedroom is delightful.  When you do the Prima the second bedroom is better.  Just something to keep in mind. 

 

1 hour ago, ddlb said:

2.  Do we have to book transfers if we book ncl flights?  Very overpriced. 

If at all possible, try to price out air travel on your own.  I am not clear where your cruise is going or the ship so I say this from experience.  NCL air often looks like a deal.  It maybe.  However you lose all your control of the flight, day, time and brand.  It takes away your ability to fly in the day before.  I know from experience, the strategy of getting to the port the day before is critical to my enjoyment and stress level of my vacations. You do you.

 

2 hours ago, ddlb said:

do we only get one $50 cruise excursion credit per cabin?

Yes.

 

2 hours ago, ddlb said:

How about wifi do we each get wifi?

No and if each one of you want to use the minutes give, you have to boot the other person off.  If you forget to log out, you lose the minutes.  You can purchase WiFi plans for each of you but they are pricy.  

 

2 hours ago, ddlb said:

Trying to figure out how to get obc as booking with NCL you don't get any. 

if NCL does not give you any, your travel agent might.  Also with cards like American Express Platinum, it gives up to $300 per cabin of OBC.  Check with your credit card company.

 

I recently did four in a Haven Suite.  I had two free Specialty restaurant meals with Free at Sea and a third was a perk from American Express.  I then purchased a three-meal package for my two guests. I upgraded the WiFi package from the Free at Sea to unlimited streaming.  I then purchased another one because it would have made for fights with the way we all use WiFi.  I also had my travel agent us FCC to upgrade the first two people's Drink package to the "Plus" upgrade which was very hard to do but worked.  During the process, I actually had a 5th person in the room.  They could not make it.  I cancelled them prior to the final payment. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

[CruzinMel]

My family of 5 is going in the 2 BR Family Villa on Escape in December (and somehow we booked the room next door to the one we had our last time on the Escape, so it's a duplicate.)  I echo what others have said about the 2nd bedroom - on Escape, it's a basic cabin room.  It's cramped, and not nearly as luxe as the rest of the cabin.  Neither is the bathroom, which is a standard cabin bathroom with prettier soap and a shower pouf.  There were 3 of us on the last cruise, and my mother has yet to forgive DH or myself for giving her "that hole" while we took the king bed.

 

With the promo, the price of the room is essentially the same no matter how many folks you've put into it.  We booked originally with 4 people, and then added a 5th when someone pitched a tantrum about getting left at home.  It was another $1K to add a 56 year old adult into the room, and that was mostly port fees and taxes and travel insurance and gratuities and the packages.

 

That said, an adult who shares equally  in the cost of the trip is going to be MIGHTY ticked off after a week in the "hole."  A detail-oriented numbers freak could probably work it out equitably ...need some spreadsheets.  We love spreadsheets.   😀

 

It is not difficult to move the order of the pax around.  After we added #5, I called my PCC to get the new pax moved into the #2 spot because he is more likely to use both specialty dining meals (original Pax#2 tends to skip evening entertainments.)

 

What is tricky, as Gary mentions above, is REMOVING a pax.  Last week, my PCC explained that you can add to a reservation up to really close to embarkation (she told us 3 days was the cutoff.)  Removing or canceling after final payment, though, puts you into Cancelation Penalty Bingo unless (like Gary and unlike moi), you purchase Cancelation insurance.  (Shoulda, woulda, coulda...)  The timing of that around final payment is also important.  (Gary or someone else probably knows that better than me.  Obviously )

 

But oh, how fun to be going with friends!!