Prima Haven Cabin Selection

[oh2cruise]

Good morning!

 

We are considering the Prima Haven.  Traveling with 3 adults in our party, we are going back and forth between H6 - 2 Bedroom or H5 Owners Suite.  Our observations:

1. 2 Bedroom has a true 2nd bedroom, but the living space seems condensed.  No desk, no makeup mirror, no bathtub

2. The Owners' Suite is more spacious, of course a sofa bed in lieu of a bed and no 2nd bathroom

     a.  some of the H5's 12320,12322 & same on starboard side, seem to have 2 entrances to bathroom and overall a better layout

     b.  the outside deck area may be smaller

If anyone has input that might be helpful in helping us make this decision, PLEASE comment.

Thank you

 

[bluefish17]

I think it depends on who the third person is; i.e. sharing the bathroom, dressing in front of you, sleeping in the living space.

I have only stayed in the H6 on Viva. Both bedrooms and bathrooms are very nice and private. Living space is small however so depends on how often you will be there.

Because both bedrooms have doors, you can have your butler quietly come in every morning while you are asleep and leave coffee, juice, fruit, croissants, etc on the table to be there when you wake up. We enjoyed that quite a bit!

[BirdTravels]

I would take the true second bed. You are on a cruise and you are doing something wrong if you’re sitting in your cabin. We were just on the Viva and never really used our balcony. If we wanted sun or to sit outside, we were on the Haven sundeck (feet away from the outside bar and sauna). 

[RocketMan275]

7 hours ago, oh2cruise said:

Good morning!

 

We are considering the Prima Haven.  Traveling with 3 adults in our party, we are going back and forth between H6 - 2 Bedroom or H5 Owners Suite.  Our observations:

1. 2 Bedroom has a true 2nd bedroom, but the living space seems condensed.  No desk, no makeup mirror, no bathtub

2. The Owners' Suite is more spacious, of course a sofa bed in lieu of a bed and no 2nd bathroom

     a.  some of the H5's 12320,12322 & same on starboard side, seem to have 2 entrances to bathroom and overall a better layout

     b.  the outside deck area may be smaller

If anyone has input that might be helpful in helping us make this decision, PLEASE comment.

Thank you

 

No bathtub is a feature, not an issue.  

How many females?  If only one, then one makeup mirror is fine.

[dexddd]

We were in 12922 with adult daughter on a TA.  We only had one bathroom entrance but I do see video of room you mention appears to have two doors but only one sink, not a biggie.  Privacy never an issue.  

 

Guess it kind of depends who has sofa.  I'd say probably one of the best ship sofa beds I've seen but it was also new.

 

It is a nice room, kind of basic, one of the smallest OS we've had.  We had lousy weather so spent quite a bit of time in room.  Note the room, and as others have mentioned in other threads of other rooms, has a creaking issue even in calm seas.  Can't recall if the OS you mentioned were ever mentioned.

 

Typically the prices are very close.  OS gets unlimited in room water, soda, and three bottles.  Maybe not a big deal if you have FAS but still nice.  For us, nice to have Coke Zeros stocked and DD big water drinker.  Not really helping much.

[dexddd]

To add, the bathroom had a great shower where I could get like five different water sources going at once to rinse off the grime.

[Sailing12Away]

On 12/23/2023 at 5:28 PM, BirdTravels said:

I would take the true second bed. You are on a cruise and you are doing something wrong if you’re sitting in your cabin. 

Just because you don't enjoy private time in your cabin doesn't mean everyone else should cruise the way you do. Having different opinions is one thing, but telling something they vacation 'wrong' because it's not what you do is truly 'wrong'.

 

Some families like to spend time together away from the crowds. That 2br has a miniscule sized living room to gather in. For some people that is more important than trying to fight for a quiet couch to gather around in the public areas.

[bluefish17]

26 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Just because you don't enjoy private time in your cabin doesn't mean everyone else should cruise the way you do. Having different opinions is one thing, but telling something they vacation 'wrong' because it's not what you do is truly 'wrong'.

 

Some families like to spend time together away from the crowds. That 2br has a miniscule sized living room to gather in. For some people that is more important than trying to fight for a quiet couch to gather around in the public areas.

I agree that everyone should cruise the way they want to. There is no right or wrong.

 

I did want to point out that there are lots of couches and seats in the Haven lounge that are rarely occupied.

[dexddd]

41 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Just because you don't enjoy private time in your cabin doesn't mean everyone else should cruise the way you do. Having different opinions is one thing, but telling something they vacation 'wrong' because it's not what you do is truly 'wrong'.

 

Some families like to spend time together away from the crowds. That 2br has a miniscule sized living room to gather in. For some people that is more important than trying to fight for a quiet couch to gather around in the public areas.

I'd agree, at least for us.  We did a 12 day TA on Prima with adult DD.  Probably last time in long time that will ever happen.  We spent a lot of time in the room.  Also spent lots of time all over ship like Local, Haven Lounge.

 

Didn't spend much time in buffet or atrium or main theater which takes up tons of space.  Did spent quite a bit of time, at first, looking for seats at Indulge then if we wanted to eat there just went late.

 

Weather not good so outside, open air Haven area useless.

[UKstages]

the prima can be challenging when choosing a stateroom... there is a known problem with cabin noise on the prima... some sort of build defect that causes unusual and unnatural noise within the walls of certain cabins when sailing at high seas. it will ruin your trip! most of the affected rooms are aft and haven rooms and club balcony rooms are located there and are not immune.

 

NCL knows about this, they have a detailed list of affected cabins, but they do not disclose this information prior to booking. in fact, they wait until you get onboard. if you file a complaint, you're likely to get $500 in OBC per person. but you won't be able to sleep at night. the noise is persistent and completely unlike any "normal" cabin noise.

 

the only thing you can do is search online forums (including cruise critic) for reports of these rooms and steer clear of the publicly disclosed cabins. but booking the prima -  in any cabin - is a crap shoot because of this problem, in my opinion. if you want to minimize the possibility of encountering this problem, you're best to book midship.. but that would rule out the haven.

 

there are several threads on cruise critic that discuss this problem (including mine), as well as extensive reviews of the prima (including mine). some include recordings of the noise. personally, I would never spend haven money ($$$$$) on the prima unless I knew for sure that the cabin did not have this severe noise problem. i'd book the haven on another ship, such as the joy.

 

the prima is a lovely ship in many regards, but it has this dirty little secret... a considerable number of rooms have noise problems beyond mere mortals' ability to imagine a disturbance of that magnitude. again, this is no "normal" cabin noise. unless you are hard of hearing, the noise problem will ruin your sleep... and your vacation. 

Edited December 25, 2023 by UKstages