NCL Haven Concierge perk

[Cruiseguy14]

I will be taking my 3rd cruise this March and my first in the haven. I only started cruising in Nov 2022 so I am relatively new to it so I would like someone to set me straight.

 

I fail to see the value of the concierge amenity. My last sailing I was on the Gem while not in a haven suite I did have a butler/concierge and a very nice room. I didn’t understand the value of the butler then but have subsequently learned their value by this forum. Even now that I understand it for my particular situation it is probably not that much of a perk bc I like to get out of the room as often as possible. 
 

but the concierge shows almost a negative value. The only thing that has been articulated to me that they can do is make reservations for you which I can easily do with the app in 2 seconds without having a middle man. What am I missing ? 

[InfrequentPNWCruiser]

They are the contact location for helping to expedite getting off at ports and for disembarking on the last day. They can substitute for and coordinate with Guest Services as needed. We used them to get replacement keycards on the first day when the system crashed on embarkation. We used them to add weight into a rather pesky noise situation and eventually resolve it. They can help untangle things so you can go on with your vacation. We didn't have much intention on using them on our recent cruise, but they were a godsend when you needed some help.

[Cruiseguy14]

Thank you but aren’t those basic customer service things. None of those things seem to be a service that I would deem tip worthy escpeially if you’re paying a premium already. What I heard is you should tip like 10 dollars a day and I don’t see the value. I will tip bc that’s part of the deal of staying there but would like to extract more value. 

[InfrequentPNWCruiser]

Yes, a lot of them are customer service items, but I didn't have to fight it out in crowds on Deck 6 versus quickly addressing things. You can tell them what you want to do (change reservations,  shore excursions, etc) and they'll do it so you don't have to. Maybe you want a new excursion and it messes with an dining reservation. They can rework everything so you dont have to go to multiple places. It's all convenience. They are there to expedite things. Everyone in the Haven spent a good amount to get there and frankly you really dont want to be bothered by this small stuff as it can get irritating at times. If you truly don't use them at all don't tip them, but I think most can find some value like bypassing all of the crowds at a port getting off the ship. 

[complawyer]

to me, the MOST significant aspects of having the services of a concierge are  twofold(of course there are others, but these 2 are the most significant for my wife and myself)

 

(1) when sailing from foreign ports, we usually like to fly in 2-3 days early, and if disembarking at a different port, stay over for a few days before flying home. i always make arrangements with the concierge, to have a taxi or a shuttle pick us up at the port and drive us to the hotel. ie, rome is about an hour away from the port. this aug we sailed from copenhagen to stockholm and he had a cab waiting for us, as our hotel was about 30 minutes from the port.

the same last summer (2022) when we disembarked in copenhagen and he got us a cabto our hotel.

 

(2) and IMHO, and ive posted this more than once, you arrange with your concierge to meet at a certain time and location to walk you off the ship. i think this beats trying to disembark with 2-3000 of your closest friends, who are blocking all the stairways.  he gets  us off the ship in less than 15 minutes, and directly to our luggage. (note if youre in a suite with concierge service, your luggage is in a separate priority location) to me, this alone is worth the price of admission.

 

i concede that most of the services provided by a concierge can easily be managed by oneself, but try and get a dinner reservation in a specialty restaurant at the time you want, when it's listed as full, and then turn to your  friendly,  neighborhood concierge as see what rabbit he can pull out of is hat.

 

that being said (sorry for the length of this post), if you dont use the concierge, there is no need to tip

[Laszlo]

7 hours ago, Cruiseguy14 said:

I will be taking my 3rd cruise this March and my first in the haven. I only started cruising in Nov 2022 so I am relatively new to it so I would like someone to set me straight.

 

I fail to see the value of the concierge amenity. My last sailing I was on the Gem while not in a haven suite I did have a butler/concierge and a very nice room. I didn’t understand the value of the butler then but have subsequently learned their value by this forum. Even now that I understand it for my particular situation it is probably not that much of a perk bc I like to get out of the room as often as possible. 
 

but the concierge shows almost a negative value. The only thing that has been articulated to me that they can do is make reservations for you which I can easily do with the app in 2 seconds without having a middle man. What am I missing ? 

You are not missing anything, I think of the concierge as customer service. On our last cruise we did not use the concierge for anything, with the exception of getting on and off the ship using the Haven elevators. Its definitely the fastest way off the ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Monica887]

I didn't think I would use the service at all, but the concierge was good and checked in with us multiple times. He showed up at specialty restaurants to make sure we had everything we wanted, called in specific food requests, made a spa appointment that the spa was making difficult. He called us by name, knew my dietary restrictions. Got my mom a last minute spa appointment, replaced her broken luggage. Rescheduled reservations when port times changed. 

 

It was all quick and seamless, and they get reservations and time changes that are impossible last minute on the app. Yes, we would have still had a great trip without the service, but this truly elevated the experience. 

[Monica887]

Also, when we first started cruising, customer service was better overall. Little touches, special requests, problem solving  Now everyone seems rushed and overwhelmed and can't be flexible or helpful in the way they used to. The concierge though is able to still provide that level of customer service 

[Cruiseguy14]

5 hours ago, complawyer said:

to me, the MOST significant aspects of having the services of a concierge are  twofold(of course there are others, but these 2 are the most significant for my wife and myself)

 

(1) when sailing from foreign ports, we usually like to fly in 2-3 days early, and if disembarking at a different port, stay over for a few days before flying home. i always make arrangements with the concierge, to have a taxi or a shuttle pick us up at the port and drive us to the hotel. ie, rome is about an hour away from the port. this aug we sailed from copenhagen to stockholm and he had a cab waiting for us, as our hotel was about 30 minutes from the port.

the same last summer (2022) when we disembarked in copenhagen and he got us a cabto our hotel.

 

(2) and IMHO, and ive posted this more than once, you arrange with your concierge to meet at a certain time and location to walk you off the ship. i think this beats trying to disembark with 2-3000 of your closest friends, who are blocking all the stairways.  he gets  us off the ship in less than 15 minutes, and directly to our luggage. (note if youre in a suite with concierge service, your luggage is in a separate priority location) to me, this alone is worth the price of admission.

 

i concede that most of the services provided by a concierge can easily be managed by oneself, but try and get a dinner reservation in a specialty restaurant at the time you want, when it's listed as full, and then turn to your  friendly,  neighborhood concierge as see what rabbit he can pull out of is hat.

 

that being said (sorry for the length of this post), if you dont use the concierge, there is no need to tip

Thank you number 1 isn’t a benefit I would have thought of and that seems valuable. I assume this can’t be done during a cruise when you stop at a port ?

[cruiseny4life]

We never thought we'd use the concierge when we started cruising in April, 2022. We're just barely ahead of you in our Norwegian Haven cruising! On our four cruises thus far, we've used the concierge more than the butler. Some are mundane customer service items, others have been troubleshooting. Here's what we use the concierge for:

 

1. Changing specialty dining reservations, when needed

2. Canceling and booking shore excursions

3. Using the escort to theater shows or booking tickets for ticket-only shows

4. Bothering the concierge when we notice a discrepancy on our bill - this happens two to three times per cruise and saves us a huge amount of time versus standing in customer service line

5. Priority disembarkation at ports, especially tender ports

6. Requesting service in our room due to malfunctioning shower. It's so much better than figuring out where to go. The concierge is informed and gets the right staff there quickly.

7. Requesting A/C to be worked on. This happened on Joy. The concierge claims to have put a ticket in, but was not very helpful. The A/C never did work well (and yes, I know the little snowflake is a trick on the thermostat)

8. Priority disembarkation on the last very sad day

9. Upgrading internet package so we don't have to bother with the internet guy/gal line

 

One perk I'm interested in, but haven't used is an escort to specialty dining reservation. Some cruise friends did this and loved it! I haven't heard about it a lot, so not sure this was a one-off or is offered all the time.

 

For the services above, we have tipped the concierge $100 per cruise (7 - 9 days) and the assistance concierge $50. These amounts flip depending on if we worked with the concierge or assistance concierge more. 

[Treacher1]

Also, some times on the app - shows or specialty restaurants are filled - however - go to concierge and they find a space (ex - we wanted specialty restaurant for 6 - app showed only 9 or 9:30 available - went to concierge - got our requested time at 6 -

 

Yes, the app is easy to use - but if things are filled - there are always extra slots left for Haven guests

[Laszlo]

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

One perk I'm interested in, but haven't used is an escort to specialty dining reservation. Some cruise friends did this and loved it! I haven't heard about it a lot, so not sure this was a one-off or is offered all the time.

 

You are going to have to explain it to me, what's to love about it? You walk to the specialty restaurant, sit down and eat. We have never waited more than 30 seconds to check in and go to a table

[complawyer]

cruiseguy14.

 

maybe i didnt explain it properly. i was talking about the last day of the cruise, and if we're planning to stay in that particular city. the concierge calls ahead for a cab, and the cabbie drives us directly to our designated hotel. we usually discuss this with him/her the day prior to disembarkation.

 

so yes you can probably do it yourself,( but that involves trying to find a cab when most of the other passengers are trying to do the same).  but it's not necessary at every port, merely the last one if you're staying for a few days. 

now dont you think that's something worthwhile, and removes some pressure on the last day of the cruise?

[complawyer]

cruiseny4life. hey good buddy, if you're in a suite,  the butler can also escort you to dinner, and in most ships, the concierge  has a specially designated area in the theater, so no need to jockey for position 

to get a seat

[Cruiseguy14]

By and large are haven customers so wealthy that they are use to not doing regular things for themselves and are ok paying a couple of hundred dollars for minor conviences ? That’s not really my families status 

[cruiseny4life]

40 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

You are going to have to explain it to me, what's to love about it? You walk to the specialty restaurant, sit down and eat. We have never waited more than 30 seconds to check in and go to a table

I agree with you. I should have expanded. Here's the whole story:

 

Concierge, I actually think it was the assistance concierge, walks these two to the specialty restaurant using staff walkways (cool to me, because I want to see what the underbelly of the beast looks like). Staff member cuts the line (not sure I like this part) to get them to the host stand without waiting in a line of roughly ten couples ahead of them. They did have reservations, so not like they would have waited.

 

Inside the restaurant, order meal, but server brings out a little taste of every appetizer and multiple entrees for the couple to enjoy, at no additional cost. The couple didn't ask for this. It just happened. I don't think this is a regular occurrence, but I would enjoy this part, so I could have a tasting menu, instead of just my meal. 

 

These folks were in a HJ category cabin (so not the fanciest of cabins - in fact the lowliest of Haven cabins). I've never heard of this happening to any other Haven passengers, so I also wonder if they greased the palm more than others. I'd love to hear others that this was offered to.

 

22 minutes ago, Cruiseguy14 said:

By and large are haven customers so wealthy that they are use to not doing regular things for themselves and are ok paying a couple of hundred dollars for minor conviences ? That’s not really my families status 

I don't consider myself wealthy. It's true we only cruise in the Haven. I don't live off a percentage of my investments (only investments we have are our 401k). My husband and I go to work every day. We have pets, not kids, so save a ton of money there. The folks I've met in the Haven seem to be mostly the same type of folks - the wealthy charter yachts. They don't cruise mainstream cruise lines. 

 

As an example, on our last cruise, one couple (the one who had the specialty restaurant experience above) were from NJ. The husband is an electrician that works in NYC and is nearing retirement age. The wife never said what she did. Another couple were retired Canadians. He worked the oil fields in Alberta for years. She was a stay at home mom. None of us are wealthy, but we are fortunate enough to have enough money to cruise Haven. 

 

Don't be worried that you're going to find people wearing Gucci, Prada, or displaying fancy jewelry. For the most part, people seem pretty normal to me. They aren't folks like my mom or dad who are decidedly in a different income bracket (much lower) than my husband and I, but they're also not the Kardashians or Warren Buffett's of the world. 

 

[AndyCapn]

12 hours ago, InfrequentPNWCruiser said:

If you truly don't use them at all don't tip them. 

At risk of turning this into yet another tipping thread, I think this is the answer to the OP's concerns.

[BirdTravels]

18 hours ago, Cruiseguy14 said:

The only thing that has been articulated to me that they can do is make reservations for you which I can easily do with the app in 2 seconds without having a middle man. What am I missing ? 

 

The thing you can't do is to overbook a restaurant or show when the app says "no". The Concierge will slip you right in.

[Candy Apple 12]

12 hours ago, Monica887 said:

I didn't think I would use the service at all, but the concierge was good and checked in with us multiple times. He showed up at specialty restaurants to make sure we had everything we wanted, called in specific food requests, made a spa appointment that the spa was making difficult. He called us by name, knew my dietary restrictions. Got my mom a last minute spa appointment, replaced her broken luggage. Rescheduled reservations when port times changed. 

 

It was all quick and seamless, and they get reservations and time changes that are impossible last minute on the app. Yes, we would have still had a great trip without the service, but this truly elevated the experience. 

How did they replace the luggage?

8 hours ago, Cruiseguy14 said:

By and large are haven customers so wealthy that they are use to not doing regular things for themselves and are ok paying a couple of hundred dollars for minor conviences ? That’s not really my families status 

I think most of us are travelers who enjoy the pampering of the Haven because we are not wealthy enough to be pampered like that on a daily basis, myself included. 

[Monica887]

14 minutes ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

How did they replace the luggage?

I think most of us are travelers who enjoy the pampering of the Haven because we are not wealthy enough to be pampered like that on a daily basis, myself included. 

So the luggage broke while with NCL. Got to the dock from the airport just fine but the wheel was broken was it got to the room. We reported it to see if it could be fixed, so she could get home easily, but they just showed up with a brand new one. 

[Girr]

First cruise the conceirge was nowhere to be found until day five when she delivered an invitation to the midnight chocolate buffet (alas no more), but as I'd foolishly booked all my excursion thru NCL and prebooked specialty dinning it was no big deal not having a conceirge around.

 

A few cruises later a family member broke his foot.  Concierge was so active in getting us a wheelchair, getting us on/off ship at port, making sure the crew was taking care of us, etc. I came to appreciate the concierge function.  

 

Now that we've done several cruises and learnes some of the ropes we seldom book excursions thru NCL.  Without the concierge service you'll have a terrible time getting off the ship early.  They set aside an elevator from the Haven, meet you there, and expedite you off the ship.  Plus, they'll normally expedite you back on board in ports - if you have any tender ports you'll really come to appreciate (in Cannes it was hot and the line without concierge well exceeded thirty minutes).  While we're very low maintenance we do find ourselves using the concierge to change dinner reservations while on board if needed and take advantage of seating in the theater.  Personally, I wouldn't think of asking for an escort to dinner, but that just me.

 

Also, if you have a problem with your butler the concierge is the person to see.

 

 

[chill6x6]

Two things I really enjoyed... one is a member of the Concierges staff outside holding the "Haven" sign for priority when getting back on the ship at ports.  Two...almost without fail the concierge finds us at whatever specialty restaurant we happen to be eating to check on us and make sure everything is going good.  Several times the concierge has noticed what we were eating and had a different entree or appetizer sent to us because it was their "best item."

 

I think I'm talking myself into booking another cruise in the Haven!

[DMH15]

9 hours ago, Cruiseguy14 said:

By and large are haven customers so wealthy that they are use to not doing regular things for themselves and are ok paying a couple of hundred dollars for minor conviences ? That’s not really my families status 

Nope.   Many are like me.  Just established in career and made good choices.  I do not have kids.  I drive my cars 10-12 years and have had same job 33 years.  
 

I do things for others A LOT.  In my personal and professional life.  So, my idea of a perfect vavation is R & R.  So, I find great value in both the butler and Concierge and I tip accordingly. 

[KXZ1498]

I love the Haven experience.

 

Every morning, my iced coffee is ready to go in my fridge. Custom snacks at the same time each day. I also love the specialty dining in-suite. Big perk is that you can order even if the specialty restaurant is full. 

 

 

[Annies88]

I agree with the others. I’m not wealthy. I work hard, no kids, do not cruise every year, vehicle has 111,000 miles on it. But when I do cruise. it is only in the haven. Yes. You can book a restaurant 120 days out. But I recently booked my group of ten for teppanyaki less than 30 days out. Outside of the concierge that almost would have never happened. The butler I use mainly for eating in the room or on the balcony. This upcoming cruise is a big birthday celebration so I’ll have him/her decorate and set up everything.