Haven Question

[Denverbri69]

Are the beverages in the cabin fridge included or extra charges?  We will have the premium beverage package. 

[BirdTravels]

9 minutes ago, Denverbri69 said:

Are the beverages in the cabin fridge included or extra charges?  We will have the premium beverage package. 

 All mini-bar items are for sale. Since the pandemic, the only thing in most fridges are bottles of water for sale. IF you are in an owner's suite, you get 3 bottle of liquor and mixers (sodas and water) with the room. 

 

This was our mini-fridge in our Haven suite last month. 

 

This was the only thing in our mini-fridge in our Haven suite in September 2023

Edited January 27 by BirdTravels

[RocketMan275]

Ask your butler and you'll get soft drinks as well.  Of course, those will incur a charge unless  you're in an owners suite.

[david_sobe]

39 minutes ago, Denverbri69 said:

Are the beverages in the cabin fridge included or extra charges?  We will have the premium beverage package. 

Also, you wont be able to use your drink package to have your butler deliver drinks to your room.  However you can walk to the Haven bar and use your drink package and take the drink to your room. 

[Denverbri69]

56 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

Also, you wont be able to use your drink package to have your butler deliver drinks to your room.  However you can walk to the Haven bar and use your drink package and take the drink to your room. 

To make it clear, you butler can bring drinks to your cabin that are included on your drink package? 

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, Denverbri69 said:

To make it clear, you butler can bring drinks to your cabin that are included on your drink package? 

No. Any drinks delivered to your room will be charged at the retail price. Your drinks package does not work for delivered drinks. 

Edited January 28 by BirdTravels

[sldmh]

We had the sales items removed and the butler brings us pitchers of water and our choice of juices, teas, or lemonade.   We were asked before our cruise what our likes were so we had orange juice and lemonade waiting for us on the first day in the fridge.   This is regular part of Haven service.   Packaged water we could get for free at the bar since we had the upgraded drink package and we would use those on the excursions.  All other drinks you had to go to the bar for yourself.

 

[Sailing12Away]

If you are in an owners suite or garden villa, then your mini fridge items are free. If you're in a regular Haven room, then nothing in your fridge is free. Has nothing to do with which drink package you have, it all depends on the specific Haven room you booked. Celebrity is the same - only their top tier suites get free mini fridge items (learned the hard way in November...).

But you can ask your butler to stock the fridge with pitchers of stuff for free. So a pitcher of iced water, lemonade, juice, iced tea, fountain soda.... things like that are free. But if you wanted a can of soda, or a bottle of water - nope, there would be a charge if they brought it to you.

[skeeter195]

We just took a 9 day MSC cruise in the YC from NY and the mini fridge was included.  It was kept packed to the rim all of the time.  Also the butler will bring you whatever you want(drinkwise) to your room.  My last 24 cruises have been with NCL with 7 of the last 8 in the Haven.  It is these little things like the minifridge on MSC where NCL had better keep their eyes open.  Not to mention the price.  

[BirdTravels]

The only thing in the mini fridge is 3 bottles of water. And regardless of whether we are in a Haven room or steerage room, we just move the paid items to the counter so there is space for our waters and snacks. 

[dexddd]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:27 PM, Denverbri69 said:

To make it clear, you butler can bring drinks to your cabin that are included on your drink package? 

As noted, no, only for charge.  One trip first words out from butler.

[DMH15]

10 hours ago, dexddd said:

As noted, no, only for charge.  One trip first words out from butler.

Wow.  Second words might be okay.  But GEEZ. 

[dexddd]

7 hours ago, DMH15 said:

Wow.  Second words might be okay.  But GEEZ. 

TBH, he did say ...'my name is X'... followed by he can't bring drinks to room.

[Sailing12Away]

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

TBH, he did say ...'my name is X'... followed by he can't bring drinks to room.

To me that just means NCL does a piss poor job of explaining to their Haven guests what IS and is NOT part of their butler experience. Not sure why they can't make their own FAQ for guests of the Haven. Sure the butlers get sick of having a fight on nearly every cruise with someone who doesn't understand why they can't get drinks brought to them.

 

"But I have the drink package.... why are you charging me?"

 

To be fair though, we were on Celebrity for a Thanksgiving cruise and in their Retreat. Same thing - no drinks, mini bar wasn't free, and they had the gall to charge me $6 for a bottle of water because I removed it from the fridge to store my own can of soda, even though I left their bottle on the counter above the fridge and didn't even take it out of the room. Only their top tier suites get free mini bar, just like the owners suites in the Haven. So it's not just an NCL thing.

[dexddd]

For what they are charging, especially these days, they need to be looking at ways to enhance the experience.

[david_sobe]

36 minutes ago, dexddd said:

For what they are charging, especially these days, they need to be looking at ways to enhance the experience.

I don't think anyone would disagree with that.  IMHO the Haven experience is about making people feel special rather than treating them special.  There is a difference. 

[wolft927]

We have sailed the Haven 4 times in the past few years, we love the service and especially the exclusivity. With that being said the prices over the past 2 years have gotten out of control that in September we are giving the MSC Seascape YC a try. Certain things we have seen that look better are as followed:

 

1. An actual proper pool and pool deck. Love the Retractable roof in the Haven but the pool is much to small to enjoy

2. Free Mini Bar. 

3. Thermal Spa included

4. Unlimited basic internet. I check work emails every day and is also nice to simply browse the internet sometimes not worrying about the free minutes. 

 

The last is the Price! We booked the YC interior for our first Seascape cruise and it was all in $3200. Cheapest Haven same time of year was over $7,000. So IMHO if we remotely like the YC, we will most likely skip the Haven unless we can get a really good deal.  

Edited January 31 by wolft927

[Sailing12Away]

26 minutes ago, wolft927 said:

1. An actual proper pool and pool deck. Love the Retractable roof in the Haven but the pool is much to small to enjoy

2. Free Mini Bar. 

3. Thermal Spa included

4. Unlimited basic internet. I check work emails every day and is also nice to simply browse the internet sometimes not worrying about the free minutes. 

 

See, that's the problem though. What is important to some is a non-value add to others. Cruise lines like Celebrity that give you the premium drinks & wifi for "free" are not a value add for me when I don't need either. I'd rather have the a la carte option that NCL gives where I can add it if I want it, or have a slightly cheaper cruise without it when I don't.

 

For ships that do have a spa, they honestly can't give the Haven folks free access because then the regular folks would complain that the Haven guests now have 2 extra areas that they don't have access to. And again, some of us have zero desire to use the spa, so for me a non value add.

 

With the pool - what do you mean by a 'proper' pool? A long lap pool to swim and exercise in? Or a 4+ ft deep pool to tread water in and float? Or something wide enough for a game of volleyball? Despite it's many other flaws, the Haven pool on Prima was really nice. Easy entry steps as opposed to the ladder entry only on other ships, deep enough for us, and wide enough to fit more than 2 people across if it was more crowded.

 

What NCL's Haven gives you vs some of the other brands is that true ship within a ship. Where you can go to the big name entertainment shows, then go back to your quiet calm serenity when you don't want to be with 3000+ others. Our one trip so far with Celebrity was on an older retrofitted ship, and the discombobulated arrangement for your private meals, private bar/lounge, private sundeck (no pool at all) was all over the place and not worth it at all. So that's really what you're paying for with Haven. A sanctuary. There's a lot of simple and inexpensive tweaks NCL can do to bridge the gap between the other lines even further (rotating menu, or at a minimum allowing MDR meals to be ordered, or rolling those other perks into the cost for 'free'). Plus there are still plenty of deals to be found if you have flexibility in your travel dates. Our next Haven trip is in February and we're paying <$300/pp/day.

[graphicguy]

On 1/30/2024 at 7:58 AM, Sailing12Away said:

To me that just means NCL does a piss poor job of explaining to their Haven guests what IS and is NOT part of their butler experience. Not sure why they can't make their own FAQ for guests of the Haven. Sure the butlers get sick of having a fight on nearly every cruise with someone who doesn't understand why they can't get drinks brought to them.

 

"But I have the drink package.... why are you charging me?"

 

To be fair though, we were on Celebrity for a Thanksgiving cruise and in their Retreat. Same thing - no drinks, mini bar wasn't free, and they had the gall to charge me $6 for a bottle of water because I removed it from the fridge to store my own can of soda, even though I left their bottle on the counter above the fridge and didn't even take it out of the room. Only their top tier suites get free mini bar, just like the owners suites in the Haven. So it's not just an NCL thing.

I had just read that about the Celebrity Retreat cabins.  Granted, it's been a couple of years since I sailed them, but the Butler/Concierge kept my fridge well stocked with beer and sodas....gratis.  Too bad they discontinued that (and raised Retreat fares to boot).

[wolft927]

I just Priced the Celebrity beyond for september for the cheapest Retreat Suite, over $10k for 7 day cruise

[havoc315]

Some thoughts on comments in this thread:

 

1. charging for drinks to the room — I wonder if this is directly NCL being cheap, or they simply fear butlers would be running around constantly as drink servers, unable to have time for anything else. (Which is still indirect NCL being cheap as they could hire more butlers).

 

2. Yes,Haven is about making guests FEEL special. So they probably don’t want to loudly blast “here is the long list of things you don’t get.”

 

3. Yes, it would be nice if NCL waived the up charges on extra activities for Haven guests, but there would be the danger of crowding out many non-Haven guests. Still, there could be a happy medium — such as given Haven guests a 1-day pass to the Thermal spa. Upgrade FAS for Haven guests automatically to the Premium plus beverage package.  Give Haven guests an extra specialty dining credit (especially on older ships that don’t have a Haven restaurant for dinner). 
 

For the price of a suite, these things are relatively small and would go a long way to making Haven guests feel more “special.”

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, wolft927 said:

The last is the Price! We booked the YC interior for our first Seascape cruise and it was all in $3200. Cheapest Haven same time of year was over $7,000. So IMHO if we remotely like the YC, we will most likely skip the Haven unless we can get a really good deal.  

 You're comparing apples to pineapples since Haven does not have interior cabins.

[wolft927]

2 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

 You're comparing apples to pineapples since Haven does not have interior cabins.

Very true, So the Cheapest balcony was about $5200 for MSC for my sailing. 

[RocketMan275]

8 minutes ago, havoc315 said:

For the price of a suite, these things are relatively small and would go a long way to making Haven guests feel more “special.”

How do  you know these things are 'relatively small?  All of these things cost money and while that cost might seem small to a passenger, it does not follow that those are 'small' costs.

[havoc315]

10 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

How do  you know these things are 'relatively small?  All of these things cost money and while that cost might seem small to a passenger, it does not follow that those are 'small' costs.

We know they are small, because we know what NCL charges for them.

Upgrading drink package: $29 per person, per day. Obviously, it costs NCL less than that. 
Estimate the cost to NCL is $15 per day (probably even less). 
7-day cruise — that’s $210. 
Pre-paid specialty meal — $45-$50. Let’s conservatively say it costs NCL $35. So a dinner for 2– $70. 
 

Thermal spa doesn’t really have any “added” cost for NCL — if anything, giving 1 day passes to Haven guests may make more money from NCL as guests love it and upgrade to a 1 week pass. But being conservative, let’s say a 1-day pass for 2 guests “costs” NCL $100. 
 

So at most, my suggested extras would “cost” NCL another $380. That’s conservative, it’s likely far less.  
 

On any given week long cruise, a suite may run $5000+ more than a balcony cabin. 
 

So yes, with NCL taking it an additional $5000 of revenue, $380 in perks is relatively small.  
(If I was more liberal in my estimates, I’d dare say my suggest perks are only costing NCL about another $150-$200).