Difference between Suites and Haven on ships without a designated Haven area.

[sargemrs]

Leaving in a few days for POA. Three couples are in suites.   We've cruised her in a balcony and also cruised several Haven cruises.  Any differences besides a designated evening dining area?  I'm assuming the butler and concierge duties are the same as Haven?  Anything to know from you pros?

[DorothyB]

I've been on POA and on the Pearl which had a small haven area but not haven dining room so no haven dinner spot.  Butler & Concierge services were basically the same.  On the POA, someone sailing with me had coffee brought in each morning, etc.

[sargemrs]

8 hours ago, DorothyB said:

I've been on POA and on the Pearl which had a small haven area but not haven dining room so no haven dinner spot.  Butler & Concierge services were basically the same.  On the POA, someone sailing with me had coffee brought in each morning, etc.

Okay, thank you for that!

[dexddd]

POA has no Haven.  Mostly like a Dawn Class.   B&L in Cagney's.   No dinner special place.  Unlike all others, no Cagney's to room for breakfast.

[sargemrs]

On 8/15/2024 at 5:27 AM, dexddd said:

POA has no Haven.  Mostly like a Dawn Class.   B&L in Cagney's.   No dinner special place.  Unlike all others, no Cagney's to room for breakfast.

Thanks for the reply!  We've never done in room dining, so that's fine for us!  We enjoy getting up and getting waited on!!!  

[dexddd]

14 hours ago, sargemrs said:

Thanks for the reply!  We've never done in room dining, so that's fine for us!  We enjoy getting up and getting waited on!!!  

You can still get food and room service, just not from Cagney's but given choice, we'd go to Cagney's. 

 

Not sure if he is still there, but one of the rotating concierges lived in Hawaii so very knowledgeable.

 

Have a good time.

Edited August 18 by dexddd

[sargemrs]

12 hours ago, dexddd said:

You can still get food and room service, just not from Cagney's but given choice, we'd go to Cagney's. 

 

Not sure if he is still there, but one of the rotating concierges lived in Hawaii so very knowledgeable.

 

Have a good time.

Thanks for that!  We're excited!  Last time we just had a balcony on POA, but had several Haven cabins on other ships, so this will be a new experience....hope it'll be worth the extra cost!

[jhenry1]

The POA ship use to have a Haven Restaurant .When we cruised on it we were in the Haven and are there every evening. When they remodeled the ship they did away with the restaurant. I wonder why.

[Laszlo]

On 8/14/2024 at 2:24 PM, sargemrs said:

Leaving in a few days for POA. Three couples are in suites.   We've cruised her in a balcony and also cruised several Haven cruises.  Any differences besides a designated evening dining area?  I'm assuming the butler and concierge duties are the same as Haven?  Anything to know from you pros?

On the Jewel class ships the difference isn't much. Haven cabins have the small courtyard and Haven sundeck. Kind of ends there, we were just in a forward suite on the Gem and had the same perks as the Haven. Our butler had the 8 forward suites along with a half dozen Haven cabins. Breakfast was in Modern and Lunch in Cagney's if you wanted to eat there

 

 

 

[FLAHAM]

The Jewel and Pearl Havens are small but very nice.  The Haven butler will set up an outdoor breakfast or lunch for you.  The pools are swim-against-the-current endless lap pools.  They are great.  They are about the only places in the NCL fleet to get in a real swim.

[Laszlo]

4 hours ago, FLAHAM said:

The Jewel and Pearl Havens are small but very nice.  The Haven butler will set up an outdoor breakfast or lunch for you.  The pools are swim-against-the-current endless lap pools.  They are great.  They are about the only places in the NCL fleet to get in a real swim.

The price difference lots of times between a suite and a Haven cabin on a Jewel class ship is crazy. Our forward suite was expensive enough, the cheapest Haven cabin up from that was $3000 more. Not even close to being worth it for the Haven courtyard and sun deck 

[FLAHAM]

Depends on how much a quiet place with great swimming, very comfortable  furniture and nice attention is worth to you.

[bonvoyagie]

Ships without Havens are Sky, Sun, POA, Spirit, Dawn, and Star - these ships have suites and those suites have designated places for breakfast and lunch. They also have butler service for the suites.

 

Ships with small Havens without the lounge and restaurant are Pearl, Gem, Jade, and Jewel their Havens have a small pool area and a private sun deck, they can eat breakfast and lunch at designated places along with the suites.

 

Ships with large Havens with lounges and restaurants are Epic, Prima, Viva, Getaway, Breakaway, Joy, Bliss, Encore, and Escape. These ships (except the Viva and Prima) have nothing but Haven Suites that all have access to the Haven.

 

We have cruised in suites on the Jewel class ships as well as the Dawn and find them to be decent value on longer cruises (14+ days) with several sea days. Being able to eat in a seperate area for breakfast and lunch are nice - in most cases the concierge is there during breakfast so you can make plans for the day. IMHO the extra for the Haven on these ships is not worth it.

[dexddd]

22 hours ago, jhenry1 said:

The POA ship use to have a Haven Restaurant .When we cruised on it we were in the Haven and are there every evening. When they remodeled the ship they did away with the restaurant. I wonder why.

There was never a Haven on POA.  Suites, yes, and breakfast and lunch at Cagney's.

[jhenry1]

Excuse me you are wrong. When we cruised many years ago there was a separate Haven restaurant that we ate at every morning for breakfast and every evening for dinner. We were escorted off the ship every day. 

[jhenry1]

The Haven existed on the POA in 2016 as that is when we cruised on it and ate in the Haven restaurant.

[GALSews]

16 hours ago, bonvoyagie said:

Ships without Havens are Sky, Sun, POA, Spirit, Dawn, and Star - these ships have suites and those suites have designated places for breakfast and lunch. They also have butler service for the suites.

 

Ships with small Havens without the lounge and restaurant are Pearl, Gem, Jade, and Jewel their Havens have a small pool area and a private sun deck, they can eat breakfast and lunch at designated places along with the suites.

 

Ships with large Havens with lounges and restaurants are Epic, Prima, Viva, Getaway, Breakaway, Joy, Bliss, Encore, and Escape. These ships (except the Viva and Prima) have nothing but Haven Suites that all have access to the Haven.

 

We have cruised in suites on the Jewel class ships as well as the Dawn and find them to be decent value on longer cruises (14+ days) with several sea days. Being able to eat in a seperate area for breakfast and lunch are nice - in most cases the concierge is there during breakfast so you can make plans for the day. IMHO the extra for the Haven on these ships is not worth it.

Almost, like the Prima class, Joy has suites and Haven.

[Seas2mountains]

35 minutes ago, GALSews said:

Almost, like the Prima class, Joy has suites and Haven.

Yes, almost is true… 

 

Joy non-Haven suites = No breakfast or lunch restaurant. No butler or concierge. No priority embarkation or disembarkation.  
 

Prima class non-Haven suites = Breakfast and lunch in Cagney’s.  Access to concierge and butler assigned. Priority embarkation and disembarkation.  

[sargemrs]

On 8/20/2024 at 2:09 PM, Seas2mountains said:

Yes, almost is true… 

 

Joy non-Haven suites = No breakfast or lunch restaurant. No butler or concierge. No priority embarkation or disembarkation.  
 

Prima class non-Haven suites = Breakfast and lunch in Cagney’s.  Access to concierge and butler assigned. Priority embarkation and disembarkation.  

Another quick related question;  does anyone know if "Haven style" slippers are in the "suites?"

If so, I won't bother to take my own.  

[dexddd]

On 8/20/2024 at 12:57 PM, jhenry1 said:

The Haven existed on the POA in 2016 as that is when we cruised on it and ate in the Haven restaurant.

Excuse me, you are wrong.  Never a Haven on POA.  We sailed it when new in 2006 and 2016.  You are thinking of something else or a different ship.

[Kauaijim]

We have taken only 2 NCL cruises one to Cuba and one Hawaii to Tahiti . Both on the Jewell class both with suites up front.  Terrific service everywhere. , basically only 18 of these suites , Cagneys for breakfast. The staff got to know you so getting in anytime for dinner was easy. Reserved area for shows etc . We thought food was comparable to SB 

[jhenry1]

There was on the Pride of America ship and a gentleman escorted us off the ship at the end of our cruise. 
We flew to Hawaii and did the pre cruise with NCL and then boarded the ship. 
That is the only time we have cruised in Hawaii and they did have a separate restaurant that we ate in . 

[GeezerCouple]

3 hours ago, jhenry1 said:

There was on the Pride of America ship and a gentleman escorted us off the ship at the end of our cruise. 
We flew to Hawaii and did the pre cruise with NCL and then boarded the ship. 
That is the only time we have cruised in Hawaii and they did have a separate restaurant that we ate in . 

 

I assume you had a suite on POA?

 

A group of new suites was added to Deck 13 circa 2015 (+/-).

And like other suites, they have Butler service, and I assume also Concierge service.  (We use the Butlers a *lot*, but almost never use the Concierge, so I don't pay so much attention to the latter service.)

And the Concierge or Butler may very well have escorted you.

[On a different NCL ship also with suites but no Haven, we were met in the Suite waiting area by our Butler who then personally escorted us to our OS.  He quickly grabbed my carry-on and walked much faster than I can, so we had a bit of a skirmish when I requested - and then *demanded* - my carry-on back, and he tried to insist he'd take it for me.  DH was getting ready to chase after him.  Not an auspicious start... (I have critical meds in that bag, and it does NOT leave me!)  Turned out he was, overall, the worst Butler we have ever had, and just "not good" regardless of any comparison. 😡  I'm very glad we didn't let that experience turn us off about cruise ship butlers in general!]

 

So having "a gentleman escorted us off the ship at the end of our cruise" absolutely does not mean there was a Haven (or a Haven restaurant).

 

On ships without Havens, or with Havens but no dedicated Haven restaurant, there may be other restaurants that are re-purposed for breakfast or lunch for "suites" or "Haven and non-Haven suites", but they have other purposes for dinner, often as specialty restaurants that are open to any passenger who wishes to reserve a meal at them (and pay the extra).

 

So yes, you may well have had use of a "separate restaurant", but it wasn't a "Haven" restaurant.  It was probably a restaurant that was used as a "suite restaurant"; I'm not sure precisely how that works on POA.  @dexddd may have more information about that.

 

Different ships can have somewhat different arrangements, albeit generally with similar perks.  One big difference from the overall similarities are the ships that have a Haven, but withOUT a dedicated Haven restaurant.

 

GC

[valleyvillage]

2 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

I'm not sure precisely how that works on POA.

We we sailed POA it was Cagney's for suite breakfast and lunch. During breakfast they had the wonderful buffet set up as well!

[GeezerCouple]

2 hours ago, valleyvillage said:

We we sailed POA it was Cagney's for suite breakfast and lunch. During breakfast they had the wonderful buffet set up as well!

 

Thanks!

 

GC