NCL HAVEN ON THE BREAKAWAY

NCL Breakaway Sailing in the Haven

My family and I have sailed on the Breakaway in the Haven twice.  The first trip was seven days from NYC to Port Carnaveral and Nassau, Bahamas round trip to NYC in December.  Our second sailing was 12 days roundtrip from New York to the Carribean was in January.  We also sailed on NCL Gem in the Haven which was roundtrip from New York to the Carribean for 10 days in February.  We love sailing on NCL in the Haven as it is truly Tripping In Style at it’s best.  This makes for a perfect winter vacation.  If you live in the NYC metro area the Breakaway eliminates any plane rides to reach the ship.  This truly how to get warm in the dead of winter.

For each sailing around a 100 days before, we called the  NCL Haven Concierge and were able to book our specialty restaurants,  stage shows, spa choices, and tours.  We were even able to request our choice of pillows for the suite, coffee, tea, and we let them know how to stock our refigerator.  We received special luggage tags from NCL via snail mail, something that is becoming unheard of in the cruise industry.

NCL Breakaway Boarding Process

Leaving Port Side Lounge

 

 

The tags that NCL uses for Haven luggage, are GOLD and should help you get a porter right away.   Once inside the main building You will be greated by an NCL representative, who will send you to the special Haven TSA line.  This allows you to  bypass all those other passengers waiting in line.  After your TSA screening, you will be shown to the Haven Port Side Lounge to wait for your priority boarding.

The Haven Port Side Lounge is very comfortable and NCL provides coffee, tea, juice, water, pastries, fruits and tea sandwiches.  Here is where you will check in and receive your all important Haven Key Card.  This card will open doors for you in the Haven area and provide other benifits all over the ship.  It will open the door to your suite and be your charge card for the entire cruise. The port side staff will let you know what time our special boarding would occur and answer any questions you may have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From tthe Haven Portside Lounge, you will board using a Haven only passenger ramp and will get to go on board before the other 3,500 passengers queing up.  At this point, remember to say thank you to yourself for booking the Haven.

 

The Red Carpet Almost There

 

 

As you exit off the ramp ( we walked onto a red carpet on all of our trips ) you’ll head to the elevator that will take you to the Haven.  At the entrance, you’ll meet the Concierge. This person and the staff will become your life blood for your cruise by arranging dinner and show reservations, setting up tours, and visiting daily during your evening meals.  The Concierge staff can also set up tenders for tours, if we needed them and help out in many other ways.

Arriving Into the Haven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another nice benifit, is that they will dedicate one of the elevators to board the Haven’s guests, so you won’t be waiting long to head up to deck 16.  From a special door, you will enter into the Haven lounge area.  This is where the noise and commotion of the rest of the ship go away.  It is quiet and peaceful with plenty of space and elbow room. Once you’ve had a chance to see the rest of the ship, you’ll see the magic in having that key card and being able to enter back into the Haven.  The rest of the ship is great to visit, but having this area of peace and quiet means you have a wonderful place to escape the commotion of the rest of the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Haven Restaurant For Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upon entering the Haven Restaurant to the right is a hand washing station with real soap, so no need to use those pesky wipe-ums.  This was great for me, because I prefer to use a washing station with soap and water.

The resturant is a great place for a Sail-A-Way Lunch, it is fine dining with a great view.   The outside windows are from the floor, to ceiling, giving you a great view of NYC.   It’s a great a pleasure to sit and order lunch from a menu instead of standing in the buffet line as the rest of the passengers were currently doing ( and enjoy a perfect cocktail ).  It makes for a very relaxing afternoon before the mandatory lifeboat drill and the sail out from NYC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Haven Restaurant, is a great place for breakfast, the menu is full service, with a small buffet table.  This allows you to add fruit, cereal, breads, cheese and meats to your breakfast.   They also offer a French Press coffee service.   The Haven Restaurant is about the only place that has tomato juice and fresh orange juice on the menu and for some, it can be the best meal of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch, from the Haven Resturant, can also be served in the Haven’s Pool area.  They have great cheeseburgers, or other sandwiches, with fries are in either location.

For dinner, the lights are lowered and romance is in the air, often with sunset and/or ocean views. You can also enjoy a fine bottle of wine, or one of their signature cocktails.

Besides their standard menu, arrangements can be made for any special food on the menu from the other Breakaway Restaurants.   My husband loves Indian Food and a special dinner was ordered 24 hours in advance and served in the Haven Restaurant.  He tells me it was one of the best Indian meals he’d ever eaten.  He was on his own for that one.

Haven Pool Area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The center swimming pool area of the Haven is under a retractable roof.  This allowes you to swim, use the hot tub,  and relax even if it was snowing outside.   It’s the only indoor pool on the ship and is exclusive to Haven’s guests.  During the week as you sail into warmer waters the roof will open up.  There is an outside shower with multiple jets side of the Jacuzzi which was a wonderful spot all week long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tables and chairs are provided for poolside dining, card playing, or a writing.   A snack station is set up with goodies, that change all day long.  I’m not sure if the children sailing with us enjoyed the M & M’s or the gummy bears more…  I liked the M & M’s.  In the morning, there will be breakfast breads, coffee, and teas for those who want a quick easy breakfast.  Later, in the afternoon, ice water will provided along with tea sandwiches for little bites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flooring around the pool areas is teak wood which I so enjoy to walk on in bear feet.  The lounge chairs have thick pads and pillows, and are spaced out all over the area.  Every seat was comfortable and there was no fighting for any lounge chairs or tables in the Haven.  These chairs became one of my favorite spots to read during the cruise.  The area has a towel station, which allows you to take as many towels as you want.  The towels we make a wonderful bed for those afternoon naps by the pool.   Even with the roof closed, the warm sun poured into the area, making it an inviting place to relax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pool area is nicely deccorated and has a planted work of art on the pool wall.  There is a sauna and a shallow pool which is 3 feet deep.  Enough to get wet in and cool off.  The interior lighting to the Haven area changes all day and all night long.  It is a wonderful place to be at any time of the day or night.

Second Tier of the Haven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a second tier of the indoor deck that has more comfortable lounge chairs and tables along with the pools restrooms.  This level also contains the entrance to the outside sun deck.  The outside deck was my favorite location. The deck has clam shell chairs with awnings.   There are also more lounge chairs with lots of umbrellas.  Service for drink and food is available on the sun deck as well as the pool area just in case you didn’t want to get dressed to leave the area. Order a drink and you automatically get offered nuts or a snack.  The staff will pass out fruit on a skewer, tea sandwiches, cheese and crackers while guests are out there relaxing.  There is nothing between you and the ocean.

 

Haven Lounge Bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Haven Lounge Bar is very comfortable and a great place to enjoy a cocktail there as you sail along.  They have a full range of liquors and wines available. The seating area is plesant and right outside the Haven Resturant, so it’s a good place to meet up with others, before heading out.   The lounge will sometimes host a Champagne Sail-Away Party,  A Captian’s Cocktail Party, and often a host a VIP Art Reception.  This proved to be a great place for us to meet our fellow Haven passengers and the Officers of the Breakaway.

Tipping in the Haven

Tipping in the Haven can be tricky and should be based on your experience.   On my cruises, I  normally  have pre-paid our Haven tips, but …. we also decided to give the concierge $100, our butler $100, our room steward a $100, dining room Hostess a $100,  and the young lady who waited on us the most in the Haven Restaurant a $100.  The Butler and the Concierge do not receive any tips from the prepaid tipping package so they need to be taken care of.  The amounts mentioned are what we chose to leave  for a 7 night cruise.  We doubled the amounts for the 12 night cruise.  Of course if you drive either the Concierge or Butler crazy please leave an additional amount.  I feel it all depends upon how much you use the additional services offered in the Haven.  We have also had a drink package, on most of the cruises.  That takes care of the tips for most drinks, unless we ordered a bottle of wine which was not covered by the beverage package.  So any time we ordered a bottle, we also left a tip.  If you have sailed in the Haven before please let me know how much you left for an extra tip and who you tipped?

Disembarkation

Although the sadist day of any cruise is the day you disembark the ship and go back to real world,  You will find it is far easier from the Haven.  Breakfast is serviced from 6:30 AM to 9:00 AM, and will be the full menu, and great service,  you have had during the cruise.  The concierge will escort you off of the ship, depending on what time you choose to leave.  Using the private elevator, you can be the first passengers to disembark and avoid the crowds.  You will be escorted to the section to pick up our luggage.  Your luggage will be in a private Haven area and there should also be private a customs line.

The only problem with the Haven is;  once you sail in the Haven,  you will never book regular passage again.

Set the GPS to NCL BREAKAWY HAVEN TWO BEDROOM SUITE 15108