What to Expect with an NCL Haven Embarkation

• Introduction – Big Family Cruise in a HUGE Suite

• Why We Chose Alaska For Our Three Generation Cruise

• Crossing North America in American Airlines First Class

• Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver – Pre-Cruise Hotel Review

• What to Expect with an NCL Haven Embarkation

• Our First Time Sailing Norwegian Cruise Line

• Comparing the NCL Haven to Sister Line Oceania Cruises

• Cabin Review – Three Bedroom Haven Garden Villa

• The Haven Experience on a Jewel-Class Ship

• Flight Review – Delta Airlines Anchorage (ANC) to Atlanta (ATL) in First Class

• Would we Sail NCL in Alaska Again?

Introduction

We’re at our fifth post in this trip report and we’re just now getting on board.  It’s about time!

As mentioned before, this was our first time sailing Norwegian Cruise Line.  So we didn’t know what to expect with an NCL Haven Embarkation.  On our Oceania Cruises sailings in the past we generally had a special line for Penthouse, Oceania Suites, and Vista Suites, but that generally meant a line with 2 or 3 people in it instead of 10 or 15, so it wasn’t overly meaningful or different.  On our Celebrity Galapagos Cruise we were fast-tracked onto the port shuttle, onto the first tender, and handed off to an officer of the ship to whisk us up to our suite ASAP.  We didn’t really know what to expect on a larger ship with many more passengers.  But we were excited.

Getting to the Port

When we awoke and opened the curtains we could see our ship the Norwegian Jewel across the street at the Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal.

Before heading out of the Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver we added the bag tags that had been mailed to us prior to the cruise. 

This was the easy part.  As mentioned in our previous post, we were staying directly across the street form the port.  This meant that we just needed to wheel our bags across the street and then navigate our way to the Norwegian Cruise Line’s embarkation area.  Because the Canada Place Cruise Terminal is quite large and can handle a number of ships at the same time it’s best to figure out before arriving where your ship is located.

Navigating the Cruise Terminal

The Canada Place Cruise Terminal is substantial with three dedicated berths capable of handling mega ships.  This means that on a busy disembarkation/embarkation day (remember there are almost always a similar number of passengers getting off your ship before you and your soon to be fellow cruisers are getting on).  On the busiest of turnaround days, the port can process up to 30,000 passengers in a single day.  That’s a lot of people so pack your patience.

We entered the terminal, dodging a few cars (as most passengers arrive in a vehicle rather than on foot).  Signage was good and in English and French.  As we entered the terminal there was a baggage drop area with porters to take your checked baggage and get it on the ship.

Please remember to add your bag tags BEFORE arriving as it speeds everything up for you and everyone behind you in line.

After dropping off our checked bags we took an escalator up to the queueing area for the ships in port.  We were boarding next to the Disney Wonder.  After splitting into the NCL Jewel line there was a further split for guests in The Haven/Suites.  We were held here for a few minutes and asked to fill in a pre-embarkation health form.

From here we were funneled into an area partitioned off from the majority of passengers where we were asked to wait.

There were cookies, pastries, orange juice, water, coffee, and tea.  We did find it a bit odd that there seemed to be plenty of seating next door for non-Haven passengers; however, in our confined area there was very little seating.  We think this was because we weren’t meant to be there long before a butler was to come get us; however, it seemed that all of The Haven passengers seemed to have arrived around the same time resulting in a bit of a crowd of anxious passengers excited to get on board.

After what seemed line a half hour, but was probably only 10 or 15 minutes (again we were very excited to get on board) a butler came to collect us and take us on board to our suite.  I’d note that it wasn’t our butler for the cruise, but one of his colleagues as they were just handling passengers as they arrived.

Getting On Board

This was our first inkling of one of the most unexpected and enjoyable perks of this cruise.  Having a butler escorting you means that you get behind the ropes, cut in line, get priority access to the elevators, etc.  To be honest, it felt a bit wrong, but also made us feel very special.  Oh, and you can also get some very dirty looks.  More on that in a later post.

We took a commandeered elevator up to deck 14 into a very quite and private corridor with very few doors.  From there we were led into our The Haven Three Bedroom Garden Villa.  And wow, just wow!  Entering into a large entrance hall with gleaming marble floors we could see a guest bath, a window out to the “garden” portion of the villa, a hall leading to our living room and bar as well as a corridor leading to the three bedroom suites.  The finishes were a bit old school, but in excellent condition and feeling very luxurious.

We were then given an extensive tour of the suite, it’s amenities, how to communicate with our butler, and much more.  Which we’ll cover in a future post.

Final Approach

In many ways boarding with NCL felt like a step up from what we are used to with Oceania Cruises their upscale sister line.  While the overall boarding process on Oceania Cruises is a bit easier and elevated with them given the much smaller number of passengers, they do not really treat the suite passengers meaningfully different at embarkation or really throughout the cruise.  With NCL you definitely felt “special” being a Haven guest from the moment you arrived.  In some ways this made us feel a bit self conscious at embarkation and throughout the cruise.  We’ll explore this a bit more in future posts.  – Michael