My wife and I just returned from a seven day cruise through western Caribbean on the Getaway. We had a Haven Deluxe Spa room on deck 14. Although the room was great (far better than standard rooms), the service and amenities are even better. The staff catered to our every need day or night. The food in Haven was the best food I've had on a cruise of this caliber. It may be extremely difficult, if not impossible to ever go back to cruising the "old" way. That said, I do have one noteworthy comment/complaint.

NCL markets Haven, well as a "haven". Webster Dictionary defines "haven" as: "A place of refuge". In the marketing literature you will see pictures of beautify sunsets, couples sitting on deck drinking champagne, and other romantic imagery. NCL further neglects to make clear that Haven bookings are open to ANYONE, this includes families with young children. Unfortunately, as a result, this experience that we thought would give us a break from the noise and chaos usually associated with being around young children was far from that. Because NCL often offers 3rd and 4th passengers free travel, families are using this offering to bring their young children. For most adults spending 5 to 10 times (or more) the typical cruise costs to travel Haven, I'm fairly certain they didn't expect to be chased out of the private Haven pool by splashing and yelling children OR not be able to sit at the bar because junior wanted to order a virgin daiquiri. Making it even worse, my wife and I spent nearly $600 on spa treatments (massage, facial, etc), which is performed in the Haven area (deck 16). However, it's impossible to enjoy these costly treatments when children are running up and down the hallway and slamming doors immediately next to the room where you are trying to relax during these spa treatments. I can't even begin to express how angry I was as I thought about the $600 I was spending on top of the cruise cost. There is just no acceptable excuse for this. As the name suggests, Haven should be a serene environment and not a children's playground. There are countless other decks on the ship where families and children can play.

As mentioned, the ship houses multiple decks of family activities and staterooms. I see no practical reason why families should be using (or allowed in) the Haven area. Read more