Disney Concierge vs NCL Haven vs Royal suite

1Winston

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Hi everyone and thank you in advance for your help.
We may have been out priced with Disney concierge for next winter so are looking elsewhere. We have only ever done Disney and we've done all their ships concierge so we are very nervous to leave. Our children are 5 and 7 and this past cruise they were much less interested in the characters. For those of you with experiences with Disney concierge and other lines I would LOVE your thoughts and input.
We have to cruise in Jan or Feb due to work restrictions so are looking for next year.
We are from Canada so the exchange isn't helping Disney's price tag. There has been such a huge jump. The Disney cruise we did for 7k this year is 11k next and that's USD. We can do most other lines in a suite for 10k Canadian.
Those who've done the Haven did you spend most of your time eating there or were the other restaurants good? How did you find the cleanliness compared to Disney? Service?
Those who've done Royal we are looking at the southern itinerary so it would be the freedom of the seas not the oasis class. Would love peoples experiences.
I did read some of the posts via search but I am looking for more recent cruisers
Thank you all so much!!
 
Well I've done the Haven but my first DCL cruise is about six weeks away so I can't compare yet.

The Haven's breakfast and lunch are head and shoulders above the other restaurants, except for having the same menu every day. We ended up trying all the restaurants for dinner though.

Service is generally good but not guaranteed, just like anywhere. Most people get a fantastic concierge and a fantastic butler.
 
I haven't done Royal, but I can compare DCL and NCL. I personally find the service better on DCL in a standard room than on NCL in a suite. On DCL, there was more concern about our individual preferences. On NCL, I felt like the butler was checking off a list of things that he thought equaled good service whether or not they were helpful to us. For example, he brought us meat canapes every afternoon even after I told him on day 1 that we were vegetarian and didn't want them. As another example, every morning at the Haven dining room, I had to explain that I was dining alone and go through a whole explanation about how my husband wasn't a morning person because every morning they told me they would seat me once my husband arrived. On DCL, you explain those types of things once and never have to mention it again.

As far as food goes, I think you will be happy with NCL's Haven restaurant as long as you don't have special dietary needs. As a vegetarian, I didn't do lunch there after day 1 because -- as mentioned -- the menu doesn't change. If you can eat everything on the menu, then you'll have a new choice each day. But if you can only eat 1 item, then that will be your choice every day. I did really enjoy the atmosphere of the Haven restaurant for breakfast. I brought my book and had a quiet leisurely meal every morning.

I think DCL's food is better than NCL's in general. But someone posted the other day saying the opposite. So it really depends on what you like.

As I've hinted at, our solution to cruising DCL affordably is to book a regular cabin. I prefer it to an NCL suite.
 


We sailed in a suite on the NCL Sun last summer. There is no actual Haven on the Sun, so we didn't have access to a private courtyard. We did, however, have our own balcony that was probably about 4 times the size of a DCL balcony just for the three of us, and it was pretty much Heaven. Only the newer ships (Epic, the -Away's, Escape, Bliss) have a Haven restaurant and bar area. On the other ships, they use one of the specialty restaurants for the suite guests for breakfast and lunch only. Honestly, that was probably one of our favorite perks. The food and service were top notch (though like the PP noted about the Haven, the menu doesn't change), and it was so nice to have a beautiful, peaceful place to retreat from the crowds.

Our butler and concierge were both terrific. Anything we asked for (and a lot things we didn't ask for) was ours in no time. We left that ship feeling we had truly been pampered for a week. Reading trip reviews, occasionally you hear things about butlers that disappointed, though I think that's more the exception rather than the rule. Most reviewers of the Haven / suites loved their butlers, just like we did. I think, like anything, some people are just better at their jobs than others. The last time we sailed Disney (not concierge), we had the worst cabin steward we'd ever experienced. The guy either didn't care or was just clueless (or a combination of both). Never having experienced anything remotely like that on DCL before, we just wrote it off as an anomaly.

We never felt the price for concierge on Disney would be worth it for us, so I can't speak to that. Sorry, I know you are looking for comparisons, and I can't offer that. All I can offer is that we were completely pleased with our NCL experience. We found service equal to Disney and the food much better than Disney (love the freestyle dining!!). Disney wins on cleanliness and overall upkeep of the ship, though NCL was perfectly acceptable. Disney definitely has more family friendly entertainment, though we sailed on one of their smaller ships. I know that people sailing on the newer ships often have great things to say about the kids clubs and activities.
 
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damn I wish I had the problem of being priced out of concierge level. IMO you are better off downgrading to a regular cabin on DCL because your kids will enjoy DCL way more compared to the other options.

Not universally. My son will take the DreamWorks characters (which are on Royal) over Disney characters any day. He also strongly prefers Legoland to Disney’s parks. So do we, really.

Norwegian’s Haven has its own pool, which can be a huge plus for children.

And of course many younger kids don’t care for the wide age range and less structure in Disney’s kids clubs. Norwegian has separate clubs for 3-5, 6-9, etc and I think Royal does too.
 
Hi everyone and thank you in advance for your help.
We may have been out priced with Disney concierge for next winter so are looking elsewhere. We have only ever done Disney and we've done all their ships concierge so we are very nervous to leave. Our children are 5 and 7 and this past cruise they were much less interested in the characters. For those of you with experiences with Disney concierge and other lines I would LOVE your thoughts and input.
We have to cruise in Jan or Feb due to work restrictions so are looking for next year.
We are from Canada so the exchange isn't helping Disney's price tag. There has been such a huge jump. The Disney cruise we did for 7k this year is 11k next and that's USD. We can do most other lines in a suite for 10k Canadian.
Those who've done the Haven did you spend most of your time eating there or were the other restaurants good? How did you find the cleanliness compared to Disney? Service?
Those who've done Royal we are looking at the southern itinerary so it would be the freedom of the seas not the oasis class. Would love peoples experiences.
I did read some of the posts via search but I am looking for more recent cruisers
Thank you all so much!!

We've done both DCL concierge (3 times) and NCL Haven (2 times) and I have to agree with the PP who said they would rather stay in a regular stateroom on DCL then go back to NCL Haven. I found the service in the Haven to be lacking and quite impersonal. No one learned our names, preferences, asked how our day went, etc. In fact, I would put the Haven service on par with the service a regular guest on DCL would receive. In fact, on one NCL cruise I was having issues with an excursion and they sent me down to the regular excursions desk. The pool in the Haven isn't even like a real pool. It's very shallow and nothing kids can really play in. The restaurant in the Haven was fine. At least it was small and quiet. The menu became redundant, though, and we ended doing all of the NCL specialty dining which is on par with the DCL MDR's for an upcharge. We aren't big Nickelodeon fans so Dora and Spongebob were a bit lost on us and the kids clubs don't compare at all with DCL. The nighttime shows were a bit tacky, IMHO.

I would encourage you to consider a regular stateroom on DCL if you feel you are being outpriced. That's exactly what we are doing in March. We are doing the Fantasy Western Caribbean for the second time and while concierge would be nice, I didn't feel it was necessary as we didn't want a CC cabana this time around and we don't have any special requests we need fulfilled. I actually booked late and still got Remy dinner reservations and the excursion I wanted. We booked a deluxe family stateroom on deck 9 so Cabanas is literally two decks above us for all the food we could possibly eat and I saved $6K over booking concierge.

We will definitely book concierge again if we do another DCL European sailing as I found them to be amazingly helpful with things like passport control in some of the countries we visited and when we were on the Magic in 2015, we also had an excursion issue and Julia, who was a concierge on the Magic at the time, went above and beyond to get us on the excursion. So I definitely get the love of concierge! But for the Caribbean, I don't see the need for our family anymore.
 


  1. I haven't done Royal, but I can compare DCL and NCL. I personally find the service better on DCL in a standard room than on NCL in a suite. On DCL, there was more concern about our individual preferences. On NCL, I felt like the butler was checking off a list of things that he thought equaled good service whether or not they were helpful to us. For example, he brought us meat canapes every afternoon even after I told him on day 1 that we were vegetarian and didn't want them. As another example, every morning at the Haven dining room, I had to explain that I was dining alone and go through a whole explanation about how my husband wasn't a morning person because every morning they told me they would seat me once my husband arrived. On DCL, you explain those types of things once and never have to mention it again.
As far as food goes, I think you will be happy with NCL's Haven restaurant as long as you don't have special dietary needs. As a vegetarian, I didn't do lunch there after day 1 because -- as mentioned -- the menu doesn't change. If you can eat everything on the menu, then you'll have a new choice each day. But if you can only eat 1 item, then that will be your choice every day. I did really enjoy the atmosphere of the Haven restaurant for breakfast. I brought my book and had a quiet leisurely meal every morning.

I think DCL's food is better than NCL's in general. But someone posted the other day saying the opposite. So it really depends on what you like.

As I've hinted at, our solution to cruising DCL affordably is to book a regular cabin. I prefer it to an NCL suite.

Thank you for your input. I too am vegetarian so that is tough. I am so disappointed to hear this the new ncl bliss looks amazing but the personalized service is why we love Disney.
 
We've done both DCL concierge (3 times) and NCL Haven (2 times) and I have to agree with the PP who said they would rather stay in a regular stateroom on DCL then go back to NCL Haven. I found the service in the Haven to be lacking and quite impersonal. No one learned our names, preferences, asked how our day went, etc. In fact, I would put the Haven service on par with the service a regular guest on DCL would receive. In fact, on one NCL cruise I was having issues with an excursion and they sent me down to the regular excursions desk. The pool in the Haven isn't even like a real pool. It's very shallow and nothing kids can really play in. The restaurant in the Haven was fine. At least it was small and quiet. The menu became redundant, though, and we ended doing all of the NCL specialty dining which is on par with the DCL MDR's for an upcharge. We aren't big Nickelodeon fans so Dora and Spongebob were a bit lost on us and the kids clubs don't compare at all with DCL. The nighttime shows were a bit tacky, IMHO.

I would encourage you to consider a regular stateroom on DCL if you feel you are being outpriced. That's exactly what we are doing in March. We are doing the Fantasy Western Caribbean for the second time and while concierge would be nice, I didn't feel it was necessary as we didn't want a CC cabana this time around and we don't have any special requests we need fulfilled. I actually booked late and still got Remy dinner reservations and the excursion I wanted. We booked a deluxe family stateroom on deck 9 so Cabanas is literally two decks above us for all the food we could possibly eat and I saved $6K over booking concierge.

We will definitely book concierge again if we do another DCL European sailing as I found them to be amazingly helpful with things like passport control in some of the countries we visited and when we were on the Magic in 2015, we also had an excursion issue and Julia, who was a concierge on the Magic at the time, went above and beyond to get us on the excursion. So I definitely get the love of concierge! But for the Caribbean, I don't see the need for our family anymore.

Julia is no longer with dcl which is so sad, she’s amazing.
I appreciate your input and am really bummed to hear it. I think we’d really miss the lounge and the service if we didn’t do concierge and we were a little excited to try a ship with more to do. The bliss has a ton of things to do for the kids. Thank you so much for your experience.
 
Julia is no longer with dcl which is so sad, she’s amazing.
I appreciate your input and am really bummed to hear it. I think we’d really miss the lounge and the service if we didn’t do concierge and we were a little excited to try a ship with more to do. The bliss has a ton of things to do for the kids. Thank you so much for your experience.
We miss Julia as well. She always did an amazing job and was great with out DD. We were sorry to hear she was no longer there.
 
Thank you for your input. I too am vegetarian so that is tough. I am so disappointed to hear this the new ncl bliss looks amazing but the personalized service is why we love Disney.

If you are vegetarian, then I think NCL will come up short for you in the food department. They weren't particularly veg friendly when last we sailed. The veg options are pretty much pasta, pasta and more pasta. And I noticed that they actually eliminated veg options at some of the specialty restaurants since our last time on NCL.

Depending on what appealed to you about NCL, the food might not be a deal breaker. IMO, the spa experience on NCL exceeds DCL by a pretty large margin. NCL also has some great entertainment options (and having the suite concierge to get you front of the line service for shows was a great benefit). But it really has been the food and personalized service that have kept us from returning to NCL after trying DCL.
 
I've sailed both DCL Concierge and NCL Haven with children around the same age as yours. For us? DCL all the way. That said, if we had not sailed DCL before NCL, I imagine my NCL experience would have been more amazing. I did a lot of 'comparing' on the trip. Here's a list of pros for both cruise lines imho.

DCL
  • Super attentive to the kids
  • Snacks throughout the day without having to order them
  • Much more personal concierge attention - always knew our names, etc.
NCL
  • The Haven - Not going to lie, it was damn nice to have a pool and hot tubs just for Haven guests. No frantic searching for chairs, etc.
  • The Haven restaurant: Super tasty and convenient. Note: there is also a bar in the Haven too just for Haven guests.
  • Butler: Our butler was great but the others traveling with us had a sub-par one.
  • Bigger rooms than DCL for less money. These rooms were SUPER nice too.
  • The spa... omgz. So nice. It's the one thing I would absolutely hands down give to NCL over DCL
Somethings about NCL you should be aware of with smaller kids. There is relatively zero seating on the Escape near the "family" pool. I use family loosely as the pool is over 4 feet deep with no shallow end. It's also extremely difficult to get a chair near any of the pools/splash areas as people chair hog throughout the day.
 
I'll offer another option - MSC and their concierge Yacht Club (YC). We have not sailed MSC with children but I'll say:

Pros:
Butler + Concierge
Free drinks, gelato, specialty coffees across the ship
Mini bar in cabin included and restocked how and as often as you need it
Beautiful lounge with panoramic bow windows, small plate appetizers most of the day/evening
Gourmet restaurant with rotating menus
Private pool and 2 whirlpools, poolside bar and small buffet + grill
Public pool decks better for children IMO
Multiple specialty (fee) restaurants
Great pizza
Great prices

Cons:
International, multi-lingual crew means you don't get extremely personalized service
New ship is getting mixed reviews but YC gets high rankings as per previous ships
Children's clubs do not measure up to DCL
There are more cons if you do not sail YC - for example sometimes it's almost impossible to get a drink in a bar
Crew do their jobs but we have not met those fantastic personalities we encounter on DCL/NCL

But oh, that Yacht Club!
 
I was scrolling down, getting ready to post about the YC on MSC also. :)

We did a Med cruise, so can't comment on the ship(s?) here, but the YC is awesome, if only for the less crowded, well staffed areas you have access to. The YC lounge was an island of quiet - very nice after a long day in port. I was not super impressed with our butler, but then I didn't need much from him. They asked which paper we wanted delivered to our room. I picked a US paper, but then was given a random selection of British tabloids over the week. I gave up trying to get real news. LOL

The non-YC spaces can be a bit crazy and crowded, and on our ship there weren't any hallways like on Wonder/Magic, just walkways thru bars, lounges, shopping, etc. It felt claustrophobic to me.

Yes to the price! We did a week Med cruise with 2 cabins in YC for a little less than half of what a standard verandah room on DCL would have cost for a comparable itinerary. For that price difference, I can live with the differences.
 
I haven’t sailed concierge on DCL but to me it seems like the biggest “perks” of it (except for a bigger stateroom if you pay for that, but I’m comparing the family verandas vs. non-concierge) is that you have an earlier opportunity to spend more money on dcl - earlier booking for a CC Cabana, excursions, on-board special meals and events.

The NCL Haven is completely different - you have your own large area to relax in that is rarely crowded and it ks fabulous. On a cruise out of nyc in November my family was swimming as we sailed under the Verrazano bridge while it was freezing and raining outside. We got to enjoy 2 extra days of pool time because of the Haven which was fantastic with young kids. The concierge was able to book us in any restaurant or excursion once we were onboard and the butler brought us whatever treats we wanted, whenever. This was several years ago but it was fabulous. The room we had - a 2-bed family suite - was also incredible and this was for about the cost of a family verandah on DCL. Our family enjoyed DCL but I’ll definitely consider The Haven over DCL concierge any day. I think my daughter (4 at the time) lived the ncl kids club more than any of the kids did on our DCL Cruise last week. The lack of scheduled activities and free-for-all atmosphere made it difficult for them to make friends or get to know other kids very well. On ncl my oldest was immediately obsessed with one of the little kid counselors and she participated in a ton of things including an end-of-cruise kids circus show in the theater. On our DCL Cruise I had to convince my kids to go to the club, they enjoyed the themeing and the slide and of course all the shows but felt it lacks cohesion.

We’ve also cruised on Celebrity and Princess in regular rooms (Celebrity May have been concierge but I don’t recall, and if it was it wasn’t particularly special but the price was also not much more than “regular”). Kids loved those clubs as well although they were both long European cruises without many kids on board.

Just my $.02 - we definitely enjoyed our DCL Cruise and the service was overall great, but I can’t imagine justifying the extreme cost upgrade for concierge when it doesn’t seem like you get all that much for it (except the opportunity to spend more $$$$.
 
Trying to understand if these are comparing suite to suite, or Cat V to suite? 4A to a Cat V? Hard to draw conclusions when the staterooms are different categories.

Enjoying the different views comparing the cruise experiences.
 
Trying to understand if these are comparing suite to suite, or Cat V to suite? 4A to a Cat V? Hard to draw conclusions when the staterooms are different categories.

Enjoying the different views comparing the cruise experiences.

For my comparisons, I was comparing a family concierge room (not a suite) to a 2 bedroom suite in the Haven on NCL.
 
I've sailed both DCL Concierge and NCL Haven with children around the same age as yours. For us? DCL all the way. That said, if we had not sailed DCL before NCL, I imagine my NCL experience would have been more amazing. I did a lot of 'comparing' on the trip. Here's a list of pros for both cruise lines imho.

DCL
  • Super attentive to the kids
  • Snacks throughout the day without having to order them
  • Much more personal concierge attention - always knew our names, etc.
NCL
  • The Haven - Not going to lie, it was damn nice to have a pool and hot tubs just for Haven guests. No frantic searching for chairs, etc.
  • The Haven restaurant: Super tasty and convenient. Note: there is also a bar in the Haven too just for Haven guests.
  • Butler: Our butler was great but the others traveling with us had a sub-par one.
  • Bigger rooms than DCL for less money. These rooms were SUPER nice too.
  • The spa... omgz. So nice. It's the one thing I would absolutely hands down give to NCL over DCL
Somethings about NCL you should be aware of with smaller kids. There is relatively zero seating on the Escape near the "family" pool. I use family loosely as the pool is over 4 feet deep with no shallow end. It's also extremely difficult to get a chair near any of the pools/splash areas as people chair hog throughout the day.
Amazing, thank you for your review!! So it’s the service on Disney that separated it? Would you say ncl Haven was nicer concierge area? ThE bliss haven lounge looks incredible!!
I thought there was reserved seating by pools? Maybe that was Royal. I’m getting confused.
The Bliss sounds like there’s way way more to do than any of the Disney ships.
What did your kids think of the kids clubs?
Which ncl ship did you do?
We are torn. Could do a 5 night concierge on Disney for the same price as a 7 night on the brand new bliss. I like the idea of a brand new ship.
Yikes.
Ok did you no have access to snacks on the haven lounge?
Your friends that didn’t have a great Butler was their room lower category than yours? What room did you get? We are thinking of the forward facing penthouse suite although the two bd villas look nice they are just pricy!
How was the embarkation on ncl? Mimosas?
Thanks so much!
 
I haven’t sailed concierge on DCL but to me it seems like the biggest “perks” of it (except for a bigger stateroom if you pay for that, but I’m comparing the family verandas vs. non-concierge) is that you have an earlier opportunity to spend more money on dcl - earlier booking for a CC Cabana, excursions, on-board special meals and events.

The NCL Haven is completely different - you have your own large area to relax in that is rarely crowded and it ks fabulous. On a cruise out of nyc in November my family was swimming as we sailed under the Verrazano bridge while it was freezing and raining outside. We got to enjoy 2 extra days of pool time because of the Haven which was fantastic with young kids. The concierge was able to book us in any restaurant or excursion once we were onboard and the butler brought us whatever treats we wanted, whenever. This was several years ago but it was fabulous. The room we had - a 2-bed family suite - was also incredible and this was for about the cost of a family verandah on DCL. Our family enjoyed DCL but I’ll definitely consider The Haven over DCL concierge any day. I think my daughter (4 at the time) lived the ncl kids club more than any of the kids did on our DCL Cruise last week. The lack of scheduled activities and free-for-all atmosphere made it difficult for them to make friends or get to know other kids very well. On ncl my oldest was immediately obsessed with one of the little kid counselors and she participated in a ton of things including an end-of-cruise kids circus show in the theater. On our DCL Cruise I had to convince my kids to go to the club, they enjoyed the themeing and the slide and of course all the shows but felt it lacks cohesion.

We’ve also cruised on Celebrity and Princess in regular rooms (Celebrity May have been concierge but I don’t recall, and if it was it wasn’t particularly special but the price was also not much more than “regular”). Kids loved those clubs as well although they were both long European cruises without many kids on board.

Just my $.02 - we definitely enjoyed our DCL Cruise and the service was overall great, but I can’t imagine justifying the extreme cost upgrade for concierge when it doesn’t seem like you get all that much for it (except the opportunity to spend more $$$$.

Thank you so much for this! I feel like the Disney cruise with concierge vs without would be a totally different experience. There is such amazing service that it really makes you feel taken care of. We only travel once a year and so it is super amazing to be spoiled for a week.
I am happy to hear the kids club was fun.
Did you spend much time at the busy family pools or mostly in the haven? Kids are excited about the water slides and race track. The bliss looks like fun but we don’t want to loose the service we love from dcl concierge.
 
I'll offer another option - MSC and their concierge Yacht Club (YC). We have not sailed MSC with children but I'll say:

Pros:
Butler + Concierge
Free drinks, gelato, specialty coffees across the ship
Mini bar in cabin included and restocked how and as often as you need it
Beautiful lounge with panoramic bow windows, small plate appetizers most of the day/evening
Gourmet restaurant with rotating menus
Private pool and 2 whirlpools, poolside bar and small buffet + grill
Public pool decks better for children IMO
Multiple specialty (fee) restaurants
Great pizza
Great prices

Cons:
International, multi-lingual crew means you don't get extremely personalized service
New ship is getting mixed reviews but YC gets high rankings as per previous ships
Children's clubs do not measure up to DCL
There are more cons if you do not sail YC - for example sometimes it's almost impossible to get a drink in a bar
Crew do their jobs but we have not met those fantastic personalities we encounter on DCL/NCL

But oh, that Yacht Club!

Thanks so much for this info! I think it sounds awesome minus the lack of personalized service which for us makes the trip. The kids clubs although our kids only go an hour or two a day are important too. Sounds like that’d be a good one to do without kids. I really appreciate the info. I love this forum, so much information out there.
 

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