A Compilation of Non-Haven Suite Information for Prima and Viva

[ColdCruise]

On 11/30/2023 at 1:23 AM, sbobsbob said:

Cold cruise

When are you going to post info from your stay in a SJ suite ? What cabin ?

thanks

 Sorry, @sbobsbob & @Sammae

We arrived back home last week, kind of crazy.

However I have quite a few photos of the SJ on deck 15 - 15196 in my trip report.

 

I kind of want to keep it a secret as there was so much complaining about Pt1ma’s cabins by the slides … but the room was great and the slide no problem at all. I’d definitely book it again. There were a couple issues with the room, but the butler, steward and concierge quickly addressed them.

Almost Live …. Sailing Aboard the NCL Viva on Her Maiden Trans-Atlantic

[BTW, not my photo … someone unfortunately posted their photo in my thread instead of the Roll Call. I’d planned to post my first sighting of the V!va as the first photo so it’d be the headliner photo. Irksome that I couldn’t delete it or insert the V!va earlier in the thread. Most of the other photos are mine, so please disregard any quality issues like upside down rooms or floating people…]

I’m making an index for the trip report, but here are parts that may be of interest on this thread:

 posts 35-37 for suite 15196 photos and comments 

 post 23 for photos of a temporary inside We used one night 

 posts 45, 147 for the lunch & breakfast menus at Cagney’s

 posts 88, 134, 170 for the food from those menus

 

i am still planning to update more info on that thread, but ask any questions … just make sure you tag me so I get a notice.

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by ColdCruise

[sjacobs11]

1 minute ago, ColdCruise said:

 Sorry, @sbobsbob & @Sammae

We arrived back home last week, kind of crazy.

However I have quite a few photos of the SJ on deck 15 - 15196 in my trip report.

 

I kind of want to keep it a secret as there was so much complaining about Pt1ma’s cabins by the slides … but the room was great and the slide no problem at all. I’d definitely book it again. There were a couple issues with the room, but the butler, steward and concierge quickly addressed them.

 

see posts 35-37 for suite 15196 photos and comments 

see post 23 for photos of a temporary inside We used one night 

posts 45, 147 for the lunch & breakfast menus at Cagney’s

posts 88, 134, 170 for the food from those menus

 

i am still planning to update more info on that thread, but ask any questions … just make sure you tag me so I get a notice.

 

This will be our cabin in March! 

[ColdCruise]

11 minutes ago, sjacobs11 said:

This will be our cabin in March! 

@sjacobs11 - I think you’ll love it … and I don’t even know you 😁

you get a bird’s eye view of everyone shooting down the drop .. the only clear section is in front and off to the side of the deck 14 SJ. IDK the cabin number as there are slight differences in numbers between deck, ie if our suite was 15196 , the suite above and below us were not necessarily 1x196.

Edited December 13, 2023 by ColdCruise

[sjacobs11]

2 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

@sjacobs11 - I think you’ll love it … and I don’t even know you 😁

you get a bird’s eye view of everyone shooting down the drop .. the only clear section is in front and off to the side of the deck 14 SJ. IDK the cabin number as there are slight differences in numbers between deck, ie if our suite was 15196 , the suite above and below us were not necessarily 1x196.

I just saw the pix. We are on the starboard side, but same category and slide 🙂

[Sammae]

11 hours ago, ColdCruise said:

 Sorry, @sbobsbob & @Sammae

We arrived back home last week, kind of crazy.

However I have quite a few photos of the SJ on deck 15 - 15196 in my trip report.

 

I kind of want to keep it a secret as there was so much complaining about Pt1ma’s cabins by the slides … but the room was great and the slide no problem at all. I’d definitely book it again. There were a couple issues with the room, but the butler, steward and concierge quickly addressed them.

Almost Live …. Sailing Aboard the NCL Viva on Her Maiden Trans-Atlantic

[BTW, not my photo … someone unfortunately posted their photo in my thread instead of the Roll Call. I’d planned to post my first sighting of the V!va as the first photo so it’d be the headliner photo. Irksome that I couldn’t delete it or insert the V!va earlier in the thread. Most of the other photos are mine, so please disregard any quality issues like upside down rooms or floating people…]

I’m making an index for the trip report, but here are parts that may be of interest on this thread:

 posts 35-37 for suite 15196 photos and comments 

 post 23 for photos of a temporary inside We used one night 

 posts 45, 147 for the lunch & breakfast menus at Cagney’s

 posts 88, 134, 170 for the food from those menus

 

i am still planning to update more info on that thread, but ask any questions … just make sure you tag me so I get a notice.

 

Thank you so much! I look forward to reading your review!!

[Sammae]

@ColdCruise

Just finished reading through your trip report. Thank you for that! I have a few questions, if you have time:

1) I checked post 147, but it just had pics of breakfast food, no menu. Mostly wondering if there's an option for Eggs Benedict?

2) When you ordered room service, was it from the regular room service menu, or is there an upgraded menu for the suites?

3) This is a question I could ask anyone who's been on the Viva, but I have you now. Is there anywhere to get a good beer? We've cruised ships with the District Brewhouse too often now and I'm a little sad about the lack of craft beer availability. 

4) Did you use the concierge for anything during the trip?

 

Thank you so much for all the insight!

[ColdCruise]

@Sammae

sure, glad to answer, I intend to finalize my trip report to fill in the holes, which would answer at least 2 of your questions 😉

 

#1 there were 2 breakfast and 2 lunch menus inn Cagney’s:

    🥐   A shorter breakfast menu on the 1st & last breakfasts that had fewer main dishes, leaving out the eggs Benedict and a couple other items. Eggs Benny were available all the other days and someone obviously “in the know” was eating them as I passed her table on my way out from our first brekky there. This was of particular interest because… well … eggs benedict!

  🥐    A shorter lunch menu was provided for embarkation day and I think one other day.
   🥐  I’ll post the screenshots of the long and short form menus in this thread later (photos not at hand)

 

#2 I think we ordered from the regular room service menu - main options were 3-4 types of omelets and a bento box.

 🥐.  the 1st time we ordered too much food, I felt guilty. After that we just did a glorified continental breakfast - bento box, juice, coffee, fruit plate …more than enough for 2.   Normally (ie when in “steerage” as others refer to it, we breakfast in MDR or O’Sheehans/Local. When I’m on vacation I like to be served breakfast… small luxury to normal work weeks 😁

 

#4 Yes we used the butler & concierge a few times.
🤝 The concierge was very effective getting the noise from our bedroom slider fixed. The butler had someone look at it but it wasn’t fixed. The concierge asked us about it at breakfast or lunch the next day. She got it FIXED. (I think the details are bottom page 1 of Almost Live report.)

🤝 She (Lani) also secured all our entertainment reservations (Beetlejuice, Press your Luck, Icons) as well as escorted us to those events and off the ship at our 3 ports as well as disembarking.
🤝 Lani also registered us for the Latitudes events ( behind the scenes tour and wines around the world) so we didn’t have to wait in line at the CruiseNext desk on embarking.
🤝 Most helpful in the escorting biz - she whisked us through the kitchen to near the front of the immigration line in St Thomas.

🤝 there were a few minor things either the butler or concierge helped us with, a billing question on our 1ship’s excursion and some latitudes snafu. (actually Lani was the assistant concierge, the main concierge was dedicated to Haven, we never saw him)

 

#3. Lots of good beers. I’m not a fan of the bud/miller/coors water, so …. Guinness was available most bars canned & I think draft a couple places. However the bar in the Indulge has a really good assortment of “world beers” on draft. The bar is one name on the inside Indulge and a different name on the outside deck, back to back. Names are something like moon/sun or Luna/Soleil. I had a couple good Belgium beers on board, my husband likes Guinness….

 

we saw the concierge every day, usually every breakfast and lunch at Cagney’s. She even asked us about the unsatisfactory steak at Cagney’s at dinner

[Sammae]

1 hour ago, ColdCruise said:

@Sammae

sure, glad to answer, I intend to finalize my trip report to fill in the holes, which would answer at least 2 of your questions 😉

 

#1 there were 2 breakfast and 2 lunch menus inn Cagney’s:

    🥐   A shorter breakfast menu on the 1st & last breakfasts that had fewer main dishes, leaving out the eggs Benedict and a couple other items. Eggs Benny were available all the other days and someone obviously “in the know” was eating them as I passed her table on my way out from our first brekky there. This was of particular interest because… well … eggs benedict!

  🥐    A shorter lunch menu was provided for embarkation day and I think one other day.
   🥐  I’ll post the screenshots of the long and short form menus in this thread later (photos not at hand)

 

#2 I think we ordered from the regular room service menu - main options were 3-4 types of omelets and a bento box.

 🥐.  the 1st time we ordered too much food, I felt guilty. After that we just did a glorified continental breakfast - bento box, juice, coffee, fruit plate …more than enough for 2.   Normally (ie when in “steerage” as others refer to it, we breakfast in MDR or O’Sheehans/Local. When I’m on vacation I like to be served breakfast… small luxury to normal work weeks 😁

 

#4 Yes we used the butler & concierge a few times.
🤝 The concierge was very effective getting the noise from our bedroom slider fixed. The butler had someone look at it but it wasn’t fixed. The concierge asked us about it at breakfast or lunch the next day. She got it FIXED. (I think the details are bottom page 1 of Almost Live report.)

🤝 She (Lani) also secured all our entertainment reservations (Beetlejuice, Press your Luck, Icons) as well as escorted us to those events and off the ship at our 3 ports as well as disembarking.
🤝 Lani also registered us for the Latitudes events ( behind the scenes tour and wines around the world) so we didn’t have to wait in line at the CruiseNext desk on embarking.
🤝 Most helpful in the escorting biz - she whisked us through the kitchen to near the front of the immigration line in St Thomas.

🤝 there were a few minor things either the butler or concierge helped us with, a billing question on our 1ship’s excursion and some latitudes snafu. (actually Lani was the assistant concierge, the main concierge was dedicated to Haven, we never saw him)

 

#3. Lots of good beers. I’m not a fan of the bud/miller/coors water, so …. Guinness was available most bars canned & I think draft a couple places. However the bar in the Indulge has a really good assortment of “world beers” on draft. The bar is one name on the inside Indulge and a different name on the outside deck, back to back. Names are something like moon/sun or Luna/Soleil. I had a couple good Belgium beers on board, my husband likes Guinness….

 

we saw the concierge every day, usually every breakfast and lunch at Cagney’s. She even asked us about the unsatisfactory steak at Cagney’s at dinner

THIS IS AMAZING!

 

Thank you so much! I really appreciate this information. I'm really looking forward to having the concierge to handle our bookings so we can just relax when we embark. I love that she detoured you through the kitchen on disembarkation. What a queen. 

 

I have a feeling we'll spend some time at Luna/Soleil. We had vibe on our last cruise, but this one coming up is so port intensive, we opted for the extra room amenities of the suite instead. I'll miss having the Vibe bar at our disposal. 

[ysolde]

On 12/12/2023 at 5:16 AM, Let Me Travel! said:

We’ve booked a non-haven suite with an aft view…we are going to Iceland and Norway in late September…SH…9954…we were offered a great deal to upgrade to a Haven, but we would have lost our “aft” view of the Northern Lights…we are going with other people and we would have had to eat separately from them…we really enjoy the non-haven suite amenities and attention by the staff

We are booked in an aft view non Haven suite on Viva on a Lisbon to San Juan cruise November to December 2024.  We were originally booked in a club balcony suite, but it is a long cruise, and we spoke to our TA, and once we saw actual videos of the different cabins, DH just said, call her back and take the non-Haven suite.  When you are on an even partial Transatlantic, you spend time in your cabin, and you need the space.  Plus the perks offered seemed to appeal to us.

[ColdCruise]

7 hours ago, ysolde said:

We are booked in an aft view non Haven suite on Viva on a Lisbon to San Juan cruise November to December 2024.  We were originally booked in a club balcony suite, but it is a long cruise, and we spoke to our TA, and once we saw actual videos of the different cabins, DH just said, call her back and take the non-Haven suite.  When you are on an even partial Transatlantic, you spend time in your cabin, and you need the space.  Plus the perks offered seemed to appeal to us.

That kind of mirrors our thinking - we had 5 consecutive sea days on Viva. I really enjoyed lounging inside over breakfast a couple times and sitting out on the large balcony at all times of day. One thing great about cruise ship balconies - you can sit outside anytime without being bothered by flies, mosquitos or wasps 🤗

 

plus the upgrade was only around 350 each from the club balcony.

 

FWIW, we had a cabin crawl and I visited the front corner suite and one of the front middle - both nice and spacious.

[david_sobe]

Nice to hear Lani is still around and still providing excellent service.  She was my butler on the Epic in 2010 and she was sensational.  She was the best ever.  She rolls out the red carpet and we planned on not even using the butler.  

[lemon bar]

Hi everyone!

 

Thanks for this thread. We booked an aft facing suite (non-Haven) with large balcony on Aqua. I'm hoping what's listed here as far as perks holds true.

 

Can someone explain with priority disembarkation is exactly?

 

thanks! 🙂

[BunnyHutt]

On 12/12/2023 at 9:07 PM, ColdCruise said:

 Sorry, @sbobsbob & @Sammae

We arrived back home last week, kind of crazy.

However I have quite a few photos of the SJ on deck 15 - 15196 in my trip report.

 

I kind of want to keep it a secret as there was so much complaining about Pt1ma’s cabins by the slides … but the room was great and the slide no problem at all. I’d definitely book it again. There were a couple issues with the room, but the butler, steward and concierge quickly addressed them.

Almost Live …. Sailing Aboard the NCL Viva on Her Maiden Trans-Atlantic

[BTW, not my photo … someone unfortunately posted their photo in my thread instead of the Roll Call. I’d planned to post my first sighting of the V!va as the first photo so it’d be the headliner photo. Irksome that I couldn’t delete it or insert the V!va earlier in the thread. Most of the other photos are mine, so please disregard any quality issues like upside down rooms or floating people…]

I’m making an index for the trip report, but here are parts that may be of interest on this thread:

 posts 35-37 for suite 15196 photos and comments 

 post 23 for photos of a temporary inside We used one night 

 posts 45, 147 for the lunch & breakfast menus at Cagney’s

 posts 88, 134, 170 for the food from those menus

 

i am still planning to update more info on that thread, but ask any questions … just make sure you tag me so I get a notice.

 

 Oldish thread, I know, but your post gave me the push to book 15196 on Prima this fall. Thank you! 🙂

[ColdCruise]

28 minutes ago, BunnyHutt said:

 Oldish thread, I know, but your post gave me the push to book 15196 on Prima this fall. Thank you! 🙂

Its not THAT old 😏 but I really enjoy the Prima class ships . I hope you love the new ship design! And i think the cabins are Fantastic.

Im very disappointed with the Aqua’s itineraries because i was looking forward to sailing a “stretched” version of Prima, alas those ports @ those orices are too much.

 

our next NCL is going old school - we board the Sky in 2 days - it was our 1st NCL ship

Edited February 24 by ColdCruise

[Martink45]

SJ 15196, port side Prima, is a great room.  The slide is no problem at all but for decks 12-14 it looked to be more of an obstruction.  The starboard side with the two slides looked to be a bit more problematic.  Loved the big balcony.

Our concierge and butler were both very attentive and available.  They may not answer your call but expect a call back within 10 minutes or so.  Karen, the greeter at Cagney's is a ray of sunshine.

[dexddd]

33 minutes ago, Martink45 said:

SJ 15196, port side Prima, is a great room.  The slide is no problem at all but for decks 12-14 it looked to be more of an obstruction.  The starboard side with the two slides looked to be a bit more problematic.  Loved the big balcony.

Our concierge and butler were both very attentive and available.  They may not answer your call but expect a call back within 10 minutes or so.  Karen, the greeter at Cagney's is a ray of sunshine.

Welcome to CC.

[sjacobs11]

3 hours ago, Martink45 said:

SJ 15196, port side Prima, is a great room.  The slide is no problem at all but for decks 12-14 it looked to be more of an obstruction.  The starboard side with the two slides looked to be a bit more problematic.  Loved the big balcony.

Our concierge and butler were both very attentive and available.  They may not answer your call but expect a call back within 10 minutes or so.  Karen, the greeter at Cagney's is a ray of sunshine.

We were just on the Starboard side - 15796. Also an SJ Suite. It was amazing. Our butler, Richard, was the best. Everything magically appeared in our cabin when we needed it. Room service took 10 minutes for a great turkey sandwich 🙂. The slide was definitely not an obstruction for us when looking thru the living room. We'd sail in this cabin again in a heartbeat!

[Martink45]

Good to know for the future.  Yep, Richard and Winston treated us right.

[armwinder]

On 11/2/2023 at 8:21 AM, Pitzel said:

We were in an SL suite (Family Suite with Large Balcony) on the Prima this past April. The room itself is essentially the same as the Club Balcony suites next to it, but came with more perks.

The bottle of sparkling wine was WAY better than what used to be given out for Latitudes members. They no longer give out that stuff because so few people actually enjoyed it!

The VIP cocktail party was in the Observation Lounge, though it was attended by the Captain and most of the senior crew members. We never got to even see the Haven, unfortunately 😞

The haven bars can be very testy so to speak, some folks act very entitled and refer to no haven guests as "the normies" .I usually just frequent the other ships bars and meet some real nice folks. After a few years the Haven becomes less appealing and as time goes on a person can

out grow the experience.  

[ColdCruise]

6 hours ago, Martink45 said:

SJ 15196, port side Prima, is a great room.  The slide is no problem at all but for decks 12-14 it looked to be more of an obstruction.  The starboard side with the two slides looked to be a bit more problematic.  Loved the big balcony.

Our concierge and butler were both very attentive and available.  They may not answer your call but expect a call back within 10 minutes or so.  Karen, the greeter at Cagney's is a ray of sunshine.

@Martink45 welcome to CC and NCL… you sound like our kinda person - we love wine… and cruising 😀

 

We loved our transatlantic in 15196 on Nov - we had great weather so maximized use of that lovely balcony, avoiding the deck 8 fight for good spots, and actually enjoyed the occasional person shooting by under our gaze.

Edited March 10 by ColdCruise

[CruiserFam3]

On 12/13/2023 at 7:26 AM, Sammae said:

Hello, Looking for pictures of the NCL Prima, deck 15, stateroom 15196 of the balcony. Concerned about the slide, and view obstruction and noise? Thank you for advice!

 

[CruiserFam3]

On 3/10/2024 at 10:46 AM, dexddd said:

Seeking any more details on 15196 stateroom, on the NCL Prima. We may book for July. Possible for any photos...does the slide impact your view or go through the balcony? Thank you so much for more info!

 

[CruiserFam3]

On 2/24/2024 at 4:59 PM, BunnyHutt said:

I am new to this forum....but looking for the pics you mentioned for NCL Prima, SJ 15196...wanting to see the balcony and how the slide may or may not impact. Thanks so much!

 

[Lisacfletcher2009]

On 11/2/2023 at 6:05 PM, Sammae said:

Just this morning, I pulled the trigger on upgrading to an SJ for our February cruise. We are booked in 11812. I will update with as much information as I can when we get back!

 

In the meantime, I'm still thinking there's a need to make a list of most-to-least obstructed SJ balconies, if we can get experience from people. I remember when the Epic came out, someone on this board put together an extremely comprehensive post of the different stateroom layouts and balcony sizes. It was so helpful for booking!

Hi Sammae,

 

I hope you had a great sailing. Did you have any luck photographing 11812? We are in that cabin in June and are excited to see the exact balcony.

 

Any other pics/tips from your trip would be greatly appreciated.

Lisa

[Sammae]

2 hours ago, Lisacfletcher2009 said:

Hi Sammae,

 

I hope you had a great sailing. Did you have any luck photographing 11812? We are in that cabin in June and are excited to see the exact balcony.

 

Any other pics/tips from your trip would be greatly appreciated.

Lisa

Good morning! 

I'm so delayed in writing my post about our Suite experience. I don't have time right now to go into all the detail, but I promise to circle back around one evening this week (or if I decide to procrastinate on my thesis writing... which seems likely to happen). 

I will say that 11812 was perfect. We had a huge balcony -not much space taken up by slides. In addition to the 2 chairs and table, we had 2 loungers by the bedroom balcony door. It's going to be hard to go back to a balcony room after this experience. 

 

I promise more detail, pics and video are coming!! Stay tuned!