We booked with Friends who had never cruised b4 , then realized it was school vacation week so we opted for the haven, as we got upgrades, we got split up our friends moved to the 17th floor we were moved to the 9th. with no one to call at NCL about this (we had a forward facing cabin that had an obstructed view of the staffs bow area) with a window in the bedroom that overlooked the staff area of the bow (no view) but people constantly working outside of our window. We were also directly above some sort of loading area with constant banging. We were woken up at 4:30 in the morning to the crew pressure washing outside of our bedroom window. Although the room itself was beautiful, we were extremely disappointed with our view and all of the activity around us. We were also disappointed in the separation from our travel companions. We bid to be in the Haven but were placed in a room 8 floors and 1/2 the length of the ship away. My husband suffers with severe foot pain and walking this distance was very difficult. Our room had access to the Haven but we were not in the Haven even though we paid the same amount of money as our friends. When we booked the cruise, we had a $500 credit to apply to our account and we are latitude members, so we do not understand why our travel companions, with no credit and no latitudes rewards ended up paying the exact same amount as us. It seems that they jack up the price to eat up the $500.00 credit. During the time that we spent in the Haven, the children on board ran wild. We paid extra to have an area away from the large crowds of people. We understand that it was school vacation but we couldn't even sit by the Haven pool (which should be quiet) because the pool and hot tubs were filled with children screaming MARCO POLO (which should be banned, especially in that area) Eating in the pool, throwing towels in the hot tub etc. I understand that kids will be kids but if the parents were not going to control them, it should have been up to the staff to say something. Even when we went to adult only areas, it was saturated with kids, including the adult only hot tub and pool, adult only bars, kids taking up seating, sleeping on couches so the parents could stay up and party. The theater had signs saying "no kids" in the front 3 rows, however it was packed with kids. For the record, there were many many people complaining about the behavior of the kids and lack of parental responsibility. I have been on many cruise vacations and the Escape is a beautiful ship but we were highly disappointed that we paid so much extra for a peaceful vacation and didn't get it. For the record, we have 4 grown children and multiple foster children so we are not immune to how children behave but would never allow them to behave in this manner ..... and one other thing who designs a ship that has SMOKING in a casino to have the casino OPEN AIR to TWO FLOORS ABOVE???