Norwegian Breakaway Review
First time cruiser; the Haven is totally worth the extra money, seriously!
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Additional details
This was my first cruise. I booked the family villa in the Haven on the Breakaway b/c it was cheaper than booking two regular rooms. Boy am I glad I did. Travel to NYC is always bad. We got dropped off by a family member, unloaded, and grabbed a dolly for all our stuff. We were escorted and fast tracked through security on a long walk to a small special area with snacks and drinks to wait to board. The check in process was confusing and they really did not explain things to us. After a short wait we were escorted on board and up a private elevator to the Haven. Our rooms were not ready but they had waiters with food (sliders, fries, canapés, cookies, and drinks) walking around both outside on the top deck, in the bar area, and by the pools. I think the food served in the Haven area is different from the food in the other areas because the fries and sliders were much better than we got on the rest of the ship. It was amazing to be able to get away from the hubub of the main ship to the HAven. Never crowded or noisy. Always had a deck chair, uncrowded pool and hot tubs.
The concierge and her assistant introduced themselves (Virginia and Alejandro) and introduced us the the bar (Jelly, Vanj) and restaurant (Pretzel, Bean, Susie) staff as well as our room steward Judy then sent us off to lunch. We went to Sheehans and were seated after a small wait. We had the Potpie because we had read so much about it - it was great, big, and flakey; the fish and chips-fish was great chips were bad french fries; and the corned beef-terrible only two small thin slices of meat.
Our butler, Ravi, brought us a cake (meh), chocolate covered Strawberries (just ok), and snacks right after we got in our room. We got snacks every night and after the second night only stuff we liked (PBJ and Grilled cheese for the kids etc) were delivered.
Cabin Review
The Haven 2-Bedroom Family Villa with Balcony
Our room was amazing and there was plenty of storage everywhere. The small bedroom had it's own shower and toilet with a twin upper and double lower/sofa. The main area had a kitchen area with an espresso machine that they never explained how to use, frig, there was a double sofa bed and nice size balcony too. The master bed room had two closets and a desk the main bath had a soaking tub with a huge picture window with a dish of bath salts and a large shower with jets that pointed in very weird places and vanity with double sinks. The main toilet stall was small and it was hard to avoid hitting your head on the wall every time you stood up. Each room had a wide screen TV. Could never get the room cool enough. It always seemed muggy. The butler brought tons of food to the room each evening.