Unlike many of the participants on Cruise Critic, we don’t go on multiple cruises a year, in fact we have multiple years between cruises. This was our fifth cruise, our first was in 1996. This was our second NCL cruise, our second in a suite with a butler, but our first in the Haven.

We chose an October Canada/New England cruise out of Manhattan, in hopes of seeing fall colors, and so that we could visit our son and daughter-in-law, who live about an hour north of the cruise terminal. Having enjoyed the suite and butler on the Jewel on an Alaska cruise, the Haven in the Breakaway sounded right. Like many people, we had 3 cruises cancelled on us in the last few years, and the discounts and future cruise credit associated with that made the Haven quite affordable and even made the Free at Sea Upgrade package doable.

We booked the cruise about 2 months before sailing, after the 130-day period for booking dinner reservations had started. I emailed the Pre-Concierge desk and asked for the times that we needed. There is a know-it-all poster on Cruise Critic who states frequently and vehemently that the Pre-Concierge is “totally useless”, that they can’t do anything that you can’t do yourself and can’t get you dinner reservations when requested. That’s a bunch of flamingo poop. On this cruise (as well as the previous one) there was a notice waiting for us in our suite confirming the changes that we had requested. Read more