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I Put The Newest First Class "Ship-Within-A-Ship" To The Test
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Jul 19, 2024
Just before my much anticipated and costly $1,800 a night cruise in Norwegian Viva’s all-suite Haven, “Cruise with Ben and David”, one of the leading YouTube cruise channels, released a critical review raising many issues and complaints about it. So many that friends of mine suggested I cancel, as they knew that it was THE most expensive Mediterranean cruise I had ever booked. As it was so costly, I was really torn but in the end I decided to risk it hoping that as they'd been on the maiden voyage, things might have improved. This is what I discovered. Links mentioned in the video: Cruise With Ben & David Norwegian Haven Video: https://youtu.be/ym6qL_7x8-M?si=AzWjqnjWaReDcVdi For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: ---------------------------------------------------
View Video Transcript
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Just before my much-anticipated and costly $1,800-night cruise in Norwegian Viva's All Sweet Haven
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Cruise with Ben and David, one of the leading YouTube cruise channels, released a critical review
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raising many, many issues and complaints about it. So many that friends of mine suggested I cancel as they knew that this was the most expensive Mediterranean cruise that I had ever booked
0:24
As it was so costly, I was really torn, but in the end, I decided to risk it
0:30
that they'd been on the maiden voyage and things might have improved since then. This is what I
0:34
discovered. What is the haven? Well, it's known as a ship within a ship, a dedicated area for all
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the suites filled with exclusive facilities behind card-controlled doors. But as I discovered
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some of the perks and experiences started even before getting into the haven area itself
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Although when I arrived at Chivicayatir Terminal near Rome for my cruise, I found there was no haven
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priority lane until after bag drop and security. But once through that, there was a dedicated
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haven check-in desk and a lounge area with drinks and snacks, and then a butler escorted us up
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into the haven. On entering the haven, my initial reaction, which remained throughout the cruise
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was the haven looked and felt stylish and premium, although, as you'll hear, it was lacking
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in several areas. One that didn't, though, was the haven card-controlled elevators towards the
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rear of the ship as all the haven suites and the haven facilities are at the back of the ship
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It was an absolute boon on a big ship like Norwegian Viva with thousands of guests
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I never had to wait for the elevator when heading anywhere and as way fewer people were using them
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it hardly ever stopped on the floors on the way down. They offered a really quick and
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convenient way of getting around. It was a big plus. In the haven area itself there was a large
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lounge with lots of seating areas, a circular bar, restaurant and a large concierge desk, and a two-level
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outside deck. Here's what I thought about each of these, along with some strange calls
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as you'll hear by Norwegian. The Haven restaurant was open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with
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indoor and outdoor seating. It looked great and the food is good, but in fact I did not end up
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using it very much, and here is why. Unlike other sweet restaurants I've been in, the Haven menus
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did not change. It was the same breakfast, lunch and dinner menu every single day. The menus also had
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way less choice than the main dining room ones, which did actually change every day. So being
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on a 10 night trip meant repeating meals if I ate in there all of the time. So despite paying
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that huge premium to access it, I ate in other venues way more than on any other sweet
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cruise that I've been on. Over the 10 nights, half of them
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I ate elsewhere I went to two special restaurants because within the fair I had booked I had the free at sea package which included two of them I went to the tepaniaki and food republic both which were really good actually I ate in one of the main dining rooms Hudson once to try the menu and food there It was really good actually I then went to the Indulge Food Hall on two other nights I only ate lunch in the Haven once they did have breakfast there every day because it was really convenient Service in
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the restaurant was fine, but it wasn't particularly memorable, it wasn't very
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personalized, it simply was just fine. The lounge was a great-looking space, but had
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several downsides which meant I didn't use it very much at all. The lounge basically had no reason to
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exist, something that Ben and David also felt. And that's because there is nothing in the lounge
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So unlike other cruise line sweet lounges, there was no coffee and tea station, there were no
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snacks throughout the day, so no one ever sat in the lounge because there was nothing going on or
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reason to. In other line sweet lounges with kind of those facilities, you know, tea, coffee and
4:00
snacks, they become a really social place to hang out, meet other guests and chat. If I did want a tea or
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coffee, the barman could get me one, but there was a charge for it. So instead I either
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use the coffee machine in my room, or more often I actually went all the way to the front
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of the ship to the observation lounge, which was overlooking the bow of the ship. There they had
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comfy seating, they had tea and coffee on tap, snacks most of the day, including a pretty good
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afternoon tea spread. The Haven Bar again looked good and was busy before and after dinner
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but also because it serves the Haven restaurant, drink service both in the restaurant and at the bar
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during meal times could be a little bit on the slow side. Unlike other cruise line suite lounges
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or bar, there was no happy hour and absolutely no included drinks. So again, it meant that it
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didn't really become as much of a social hub. Having the Haven conciergeous meant avoiding the longer
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cues at the main guest services desk, as they could answer questions, book the shows, excursions
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and dining, though actually I could do all of that on the app anyway, and I basically did
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So I didn't really use the concierges as I also didn't find them especially friendly or particularly
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helpful, and I only literally use them to change dining reservations, because although I could
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book dining on the app, you couldn't change them on the app. You had to speak to someone
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so I used the concierge. Though they did handle some of the really good priority perks
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We could meet a concierge 45 minutes before the shows and be escorted to the theatre
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past any lines and shown to dedicated haven seating. Also in all ports, they would, for an hour or two after the ship was cleared
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escort haven guests to jump the lines and get off the ship to go explore really quickly
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They also escorted us off at disembarkation at any time we wanted
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On my cruise, this was a really big plus because we were delayed getting into Lisbon due to a strike
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it was, to be honest, absolute carnage around the ship with people trying to push and shove
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because they were worried about getting off in time to catch flights. So the concierge
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actually created a blocked-off pathway through the ship that we could weave through to get
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us haven guests off faster. So that was a plus. Compared to other sweet experiences I've been on
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I didn find the concierge particularly proactive nor did they make a point of chatting to guests and getting to know us For example none of the concierge has ever called me by my name because they just didn get to know me There was the great two deck area with comfy lounges and daybeds
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On one level was an infinity pool and steam and cold rooms and on the upper level were hot tubs
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Now this level was supposed to be for adults aged 16 and over
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However, that wasn't in force. So often there would be kids up there running about and basically taking over the hot tubs
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This brings me to a key issue about the haven that I do need to talk about
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As if you're a traveler like me, this would have a really big impact on whether the haven is right for you or not
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The haven is not an adult experience, but as I will explain, Norwegian could have done some things that would have catered better both for adults wanting that experience and families at the same time
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Of course, it is likely to be mostly adults if you're cruising out of school holidays and on longer cruises
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So that was the case on my cruise, it was 10 night cruise out of school holidays. But there were still quite a few families ranging from young babies, toddlers through to teens
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Of course, this is absolutely to be expected because Norwegian is a family-friendly and family-focused line
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In the school holidays, expect a lot of kids. If you're looking for a more adult experience like me, remember even out of holiday time, as I experienced
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kids were a bit intrusive. They were kind of crying, running around and kind of doing what kids do
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Now, as that upper Haven deck rule wasn't enforced for 16 and over, if I'd actually wanted an adult-only experience on deck, I would have needed to pay to go into the Vibe Adults Only Club
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Another missed opportunity, I thought, was the restaurant. There were two areas as you entered
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One, a room to the left on entering, and then through to the main restaurant area
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I felt they could have had that room on the side as a more family-friendly dining area and then use the rest as a more kind of adult-only area and probably
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probably satisfied both audiences, but they didn't do anything like that. But what about my cabin
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How is that? I really like my cabin. All that money had got me an H5 category, a Haven Owner Suite
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12302. I did have the most amazing sleep in there, some of the best that I've actually had on any ship
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The cabin felt very plush, it felt very premium. It had a dining area with coffee machine
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a seating area, a big balcony, a separate bedroom with an actual double
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bed, not two beds pushed together, a walk-in dressing room slash cupboard, and a bathroom which had both a shower
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and a bath. It was overall really quiet, although I could hear next door's television in the lounge
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area, but it wasn't massively loudly, but I could hear it. The Haven Suite came with butler
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service, and because of the grade, it included a bottle of champagne on embarkation, a choice of
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three bottles of liquor, because my cruise was over seven days. It's one bottle if on a seven-night cruise
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included water and sodas, an amazing fruit basket that was updated all the time, and daily
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canopays. The cabin was absolutely the highlight of the haven for me, but there were just
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a couple of niggly things in it. It had the most incredibly complicated lights and blind
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controls which I never quite figured out even after 10 days Another style of a substance point is that it had these really trendy railings for hanging your clothes on but the clothes hangers didn really fit them particularly well
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The scanner device that I used my door key card was kind of a bit broken
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It kind of never got addressed and fixed. So just kind of niggly little bits of detail
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But I do want to talk about some other aspects of the Haven experience that were also
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niggly a little bit strange because I think that as you will see they do impact
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my final thoughts. Bearing a mind that this cabin in the haven cost $1,800 a night, an insane amount of
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money, it did not include as much as I would have hoped. First of all, gratuities were extra
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and it was $25 per person per day in the haven. But that did not cover gratuities for the butlers
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the concierge, and although it didn't affect me, the youth team. So that was then an additional charge
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as well. And it became a little bit uncomfortable because the butler kept lobbying me and stressing
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that he wasn't covered by the tip. So that was kind of a bit uncomfortable. Secondly, as I touched on
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I had to pay for drinks or I had to buy a drinks package on top of that already high fare. And even then
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minibar drinks and room service drinks were not covered by the drinks package that I actually had
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And it wasn't included in the Haven Fair, as I've already mentioned. Now, I did get a drinks package
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as part of the free seat package as an offer when booking. So I didn't have to pay extra for that
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Thirdly, everything else around the ship, go-carts, crazy golf, the immersive games, and everything, basically, that had a fee, still had a fee if you're a haven guest, the same for every other guest
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While Ben and David overall did not think the haven was good value for what it was, I came around, think it wasn't good value for a different reason to them
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Now, they concluded that pushing your budget to upgrade from a balcony cabin into the haven was not good value because the point
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perks with all those limitations were not really worth that added cost which I think is a
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really fair assessment those added perks are not worth you know that actual difference in price
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but I looked at it slightly differently if like me and you're assessing and trying to find the
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best sweet experience for your budget I came away convinced that I would have had a more special
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or more personalized a more pampered experience and of course with better dining had I
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use that budget to go on a smaller luxury all-ship sweet you know a
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Seabor and a Silver Sea a regent instead. And in return, though, of course, if I did that with my money
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I would have had to miss that on the big shows, the go-cart track, the huge program of things to do
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the massive casino, the loads of bars, the dining venues, Starbucks even, and of course that
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really big cabin. But for me, those things didn't that weigh the pluses of the small ship
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luxury treatment and experience for that amount of money. So while I had a great time and was
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pleased I tried it, if I have that much budget, again, for a sweet cruise experience, I feel that I would get better value for that money by using
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you to go on a small ship luxury rather than Norwegian's haven. But if the overall Norwegian
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big ship experience really appeals or interest you, join me in this video where I look at the
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things that you need to know, starting with a trap that I saw so many people fall for. See you over there
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