What’s it really like cruising the Mediterranean in Norwegian’s Haven with teenagers — and is it worth the splurge? On this episode of Luxury Cruising, Dr. Krystal welcomes Jennifer, a radiologist and mom of two teenage boys, to share her firsthand experience aboard Norwegian Viva’s Haven in a two-bedroom suite. From priority embarkation and tendering to butler service, dining perks, and navigating Greece and Turkey ports like Santorini and Istanbul, this is an honest chat for families considering ship-within-a-ship luxury.
Dr. Krystal chats with Jennifer about her family’s leap into luxury cruising aboard Norwegian Viva’s Haven during a Mediterranean itinerary through Greece and Turkey.
As a working mom with teenage sons (14 and 16), Jennifer explains how her travel agent guided them to The Haven for its seamless service, private spaces, and stress-free perks. They dive into the two-bedroom suite details, butler and concierge support, priority access for tenders and elevators, dining comparisons (Haven restaurant vs. specialties like Italian and hibachi), teen activities, and how Haven elevated ports like Santorini (with van tours) and Mykonos (Jeep excursions). Jennifer also shares candid insights on what worked for teens (go-karts, independence) and minor drawbacks (noise in hibachi, limited arcade hours).
Listeners will gain a realistic view of Haven’s value for families, why it’s hard to go back to standard cruising, and how it stacks up against other premium experiences, perfect for parents eyeing Mediterranean luxury with kids.
Episode Highlights
Episode 12: MSC Yacht Club on MSC Seashore: Sylvia Hanna takes listeners inside the MSC Yacht Club on MSC Seashore, sharing her deck-by-deck experience of this hidden gem of European-style cruising — from private lounges and priority perks to exclusive beach access and elevated service aboard the stylish ship.
About the Guest:
Jennifer is a radiologist and work-from-home mom from the US with two teenage sons (14 and 16). A relatively new cruiser, she’s explored destinations like Iceland and Costa Rica, but this was her first luxury cruise experience. With guidance from her travel agent, she brings a fresh, family-focused perspective on what makes The Haven shine for busy parents and teens.
About the Host:
Dr. Krystal Sodaitis is a pediatrician, executive, and life coach for neurodiverse physicians—and the passionate host behind Luxury Cruising. She brings expert insight and honest excitement to every interview, helping curious travelers elevate their adventures at sea.
📍 Website: luxurycruising.net
📧 Email: luxurycruisingpodcast@gmail.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/krystalsodaitis
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to Luxury Cruising. I'm your host, Krystal Sodaitis, and I'm really excited. Jennifer is here with us today and she is a relatively new cruiser, not brand new, but jumped into luxury with two feet taking her two teenage boys on the Norwegian Viva. In the Haven in a two bedroom suite. Can't wait to hear all the details.
Jennifer, please tell the audience anything you would like them to know about you.
Hi there. well, Jennifer, I'm a radiologist. I'm able to work from home. It's fantastic. I've got my two teenage boys, uh, they were 14 and 16 and we went on this trip over the summer. just a busy working mom and we are enjoying our travel experiences.
And, uh, very thankful for our travel agent who gets us set up for these because I otherwise would not have had this great experience with luxury.
That's [00:01:00] amazing. Well, that's a great segue to my usual first question, which is how did you decide to take this trip?
A travel agent, Sylvia Hannah was the one who suggested it.
Um, I explained kind of the nuances with my kids and, you know, what would make it easier for us to travel? She said, you gotta try haven. And so we did. It was a leap of faith and it turned out great. Um, the trip was fantastic, but the service for Haven is really what made it incredible. awesome.
Awesome.
Well,
Check
in to check out. It was great.
That's amazing. We'll hear all the details. Check in to check out. And Sylvia actually has been on the podcast before. Um, I will link her, podcast episode about, SCZ Yacht Club in the show notes. But. Yeah, having a great travel agent, I've ta said it before, um, can really make a difference in [00:02:00] terms of, you know, planning the cruise.
just to segue a little bit into, um, travel agents, what was it do you think that helped Sylvia to understand what it was you were looking for that led her to basically pick almost a perfect cruise for you?
Sylvia's been working with my family for about three years now. So she has started to learn, uh, some of the quirks, with my kids, my family, what the kids like, and it helps that she's a mom as well, so she understands what it's like traveling, with kids.
And so as we've done different trips and I've told her what was a real hit with the kids. Um, she has been able to help kind of put together what our next trip should be. And so we have been to Iceland. We've been to Costa Rica. Um, so this was our first luxury cruise and she nailed [00:03:00] it. She helped to pick out exactly, uh, what would help to make both kids happy,
it was great. she just knew it was fantastic.
That's awesome. Was there anything in particular that she said that you can remember?
I remember she said that we will absolutely love this experience.
That they take care of everything. And she was, Ryan, they did, they took care of everything. They made things so much easier. She also warned me, she says, once you go to Haven level, it's hard to go back and
Yeah.
And she's right.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Does the Haven do anything like before the cruise, does anybody contact you?
is there any pre cruise are prep?
Yes. There was some emails that they contacted ahead of time. Introducing themselves, the concierge service, offering their services. If we wanted assistance with booking any excursions, um, or if we had any allergies, any dining [00:04:00] reservations. they made it known that they were available, before the cruise.
And then as well, 24 7 once we, uh, checked in the day of, embarkation. Yeah.
So
tell us what was,
um, the embarkation like?
It was fantastic. We arrived at the port and there were signs for Haven, and so the kids and I just followed those signs and we were swiftly taken from the sidewalk to this little tent area where there was chairs and water and snacks, and we were able to sit down and the staff would come to us.
and they checked us in. They checked our passport. They gave us our,little cards.
C pass cards. They had fun card C. Yes.
They handed them to us right then and there.
So you didn't have to go to your room because like usually it's sort of like sitting in the room number before you get into
your room. Yeah.
So they just handed
you your CPAs. [00:05:00] They handed me the cards for the children and myself right then and there.
while my kids were able to sit down and have, you know, a drink of water and get some snacks. We weren't a crowded people. Uh, they were very atone. Like I said, we were swiftly taken from the sidewalk right back to this area. they were with us immediately.
Um,
they were handing us paperwork as far
that we could hand to our butler to check off if we didn't already book entertainment that we could pick, time slots and that we could, turn in when we got to our group.
We were given our room number while we were still, uh, in that little waiting area, and we were not in that waiting area very long at all. Uh, they were taking us on board very quickly. it was amazing. That's I was shocked.
That's amazing. And I mean, the two things that stood out first for people who either aren't cruisers, may not realize.
To get [00:06:00] your CPAs card before you go to the room first. For most rooms, the rooms aren't available as soon as you get on. for contemporary premium lines, you have to wait. And then if you wanna get something, if you wanna go to the bar or something, they either have to write your room number down or you have to try and like load the virtual version of your CPAs card.
It's kind of book, I mean, it's not a big deal, but just to be able to like, hand them your CPAs card. 'cause like, Hey, I want my first, you know, margarita soda, whatever it is. Just be able to hand it over. That's a small but also huge thing. it was love that.
This was only my second cruise. And so I remembered from my first cruise that, our C passes were waiting for us at the rooms.
And we had several hours from when we'd boarded the ship until we were able to get to our rooms. So right away I thought, wow, yeah, this is incredible. Um, and when we got on board, we were able to go straight to our room. [00:07:00] Now our room steward was finishing up our room, which was fine. it was great to meet him.
He was lovely. We just wanted to drop our stuff. One of the bedrooms in the suite was already done, so we just put all of our things in there and we were able to start right away. it was incredible that we didn't have to wait and our luggage was brought to our room. Um. Honestly, it was the princess treatment.
It was so nice.
That is really, really nice. That is really nice.
Yeah.
The other thing you said that I really appreciated was that they gave you a piece of paper with the entertainment and that you could check off. Like sometimes it's hard to know, like. What do I wanna see if you do? You have to like, go through the app day by day, but just sort of have a nice grid and then just to be able to check off, um, what you wanted and have somebody else take care of it.
I think that's a really nice touch.
I was shocked. I didn't know if this was normal or not to be given a paper like that, that they just made it [00:08:00] so easy. Um,
yeah.
Well, I was very happy with that as well.
That's beautiful. Before we get to your room, like just walking through the ship, what did you think about the ship overall?
Um, and then specifically the Haven area?
So when we were coming onto the ship, they had, an elevator that was set aside just for haven.
Very nice. Yeah,
so again, as soon as we got onto the ship, they were getting us right onto the elevator and taking us to our floor. We weren't having to wait with the craziness saying of everyone else trying to get to an elevator to get to their floor. It made just for such a smooth transition onto the boat.
It honestly, just such a stress-free experience. It was so nice. Um, and having that haven elevator, I mean, that really came in handy. We didn't always use it, but when the elevators were looking pretty full, we would [00:09:00] go over to the Haven elevator 'cause we didn't really have to wave. Uh oh.
Nice. Yes.
I wouldn't even think about that. Like, and did it only go to your floor or could you go anywhere in the ship? But it was just for people in the Haven,
it went to almost every floor. And it was only for Haven. Our CPA cards were used for it, so not everyone could use the elevator.
Very nice.
Very, very
nice. Yeah, it was a really nice perk. Yeah.
how did the decor, if at all of the haven differ from the decor of the rest of the ship?
In the actual haven areas. it did look a little more fancy, but it fit in with the decor, the rest of the show. But you could tell it was more nicer.
like, just a few degrees upscale, like nothing.
Yeah.
Completely different, but just that little bit that you were, you could tell,
you could tell overall the decor, the ship was [00:10:00] lovely.
The ship was well maintained. it's a newer ship. Um, and it felt like it, was fantastic. not quite the parted boat, like some of the Royal Caribbean, uh, like Utopia. That was the one I resigned for my first one. Yeah. So yeah, that was a bit of a change for me is realizing, okay, we're not on utopia, we're on Viva here.
but it was just gorgeous. I really enjoyed the vibe on the boat. The staff was so much fun. They all were in good spirits. a little bit of navigating the boat I thought was not quite as easy as on utopia. that took a little bit of getting used to. Um, but overall it was super easy to navigate on the boat and, having the little pokes of the haven really, really came in handy.
Helping to avoid any of the congestion at certain times. so it really was nice, uh, to help just decrease a little bit of that stress there when you're trapped.
That's really beautiful. [00:11:00] Amazing. Amazing. So tell us about the room. What was your room like? The two bedrooms,
in the room, uh, you know, on the wall hall, you have to put a key card in to see good light to work.
They keep one in their for you. Hey, it really helps when
You're trying to find a car to put in there. Uh, so when you came in, looking straight ahead was the balcony and we had a really large balcony because of the size of our room.
So there were two seating areas out there. So just from walking in the room, you can see out to the balcony to the ocean and to the seating areas, which is just so welcoming. and then when you come in, one bedroom was to the left, one was to the right and the seating kinda living room area, it was straight ahead.
Um, there was a bathroom off of each bedroom, which was great. and because the living room area was so big, the sofa pulled out to a bed, so my [00:12:00] kids were able to alternate who got the bedroom and who was on to pull that sofa. So everybody had their own space. Nice. it felt like a three bedroom area.
Yeah.
Which is great. And so the master bedroom. Or the larger bedroom. It was larger than the other bedroom. The bathroom was a little nicer, so of course that was my, but it was a king size bed. The TV faced right into the bed, and then there was a walk-in closet there. Uh, the bathroom was well stocked and it was very clean.
The fix, you know, it's a newer boat, so everything just felt new. Okay. And, the slider door to go out to the balcony was right there, but I could lay in bed and see the ocean, which was incredible. That's beautiful, right? Yeah. That's so nice. It was. It really was. Um, and it was nice that the kids had their own bathroom, so I didn't know, have to share with them for vacation, which.
[00:13:00] I mean, anybody with teenage boys knows that is really nice.
Yes, yes. Having a separate bathroom from your teenagers is definitely, luxury.
Yes. The room steward would come in and every evening would open up the sofa bed and make the bed up for whichever one of my children is gonna be there, and then in the morning would take it down and,
Put the living room back together and helped to kind of organize things. he was incredible. Well, cannot complain at all about the service. Every steward was absolutely on top of everything. They brought us smacks into the room most every day, which was
wow.
A surprising treat.
I would,
these
boys that are eating all the time, I'm sure they were welcome.
Well, that was funny 'cause they weren't necessarily teenage friendly.
I mean, okay. I appreciated the effort. Um, and every day the room steward would leave on the one table and [00:14:00] the next day's notices or itineraries or anything like that. Um, and so we knew exactly like when the tender was coming. And that, you know, if you wanted to get off as a Haven guest, what time and where you needed to report.
Yeah.
And so we had priority to get off the boat for the tender. And so they made it very easy to know where we were supposed to be and how to access those haven parks, which was just fantastic. All beautiful. And also inside the room there were, uh, a couple buttons right by the front door so you could turn on your light.
Stewart did show us that when we first got there. Mm-hmm. So that we could indicate to him when we would like for our room to be cleaned.
Oh, like outside? I was thinking you could turn the lights
on, like a
connected No, so like,
so we would hit a button, turn light on.
Oh.
and so there would be a light on outside of the room, so as he was walking by his rooms, he could see who had the light on.
And so he would [00:15:00] try to get those rooms turned over as quickly as he could each day. Wow. And without disturbing you. Yeah.
That's really nice. So were there like a group of suites all there? Oh, because you're in the haven. So most people are like in suites and in higher end room. So
yeah.
So our entire hallway, you had to use your C card to access to even get into our hallway.
Unless you were haven, you could not get into our hallway.
Yeah.
Oh. And so Haven was on several floors and you could access any of those floors with your haven cart. Um, and then the haven elevator was contained within that hallway as well. So you could go out of the Haven area to, the main entrance to, the regular elevators, or you could stay within the Haven hallway there and you could find the elevator to take up to and down to different floors.
I love that. I love that.
And so for that haven elevator, you could access the rest of the Haven area and. That was a few [00:16:00] floors away from us, which again was fine because our elevator took us right there. And that is where the 24 hour concierge service staff was during the day. They had three concierges working.
That's also where the restaurant was. They had an indoor bar and then they also had the outdoor area. So there was an outdoor bar. There was, uh, a small pool. I believe there was a he area. And then there was also, um, just sun shares where you could just sit out and enjoy the sun. Um, and it was such a nice area.
It wasn't crowded. Um, anything you needed, they were right there to help you. You could eat all your meals there at the restaurant. It was a sit down place. all these fancy everything, linen napkins. The waiter waitress would come see you. They brought you the menu. It really was a whole different level.
it wasn't like going to the Windjammer where you were, uh, in the [00:17:00] cafeteria,
but you did not wanna eat your meals in there. And that was fine. 'cause you had your choice. You could go eat at any of the places that were complimentary. You could go to the specialty dining or you could go inside Haven.
Um, so it was great to have those choices. and you know, my one son, he's a pretty picky guy. If there was something on the menu and. just wasn't finding anything. They would make him what he wanted.
Right. Isn't that amazing? It just
was not a problem.
Yep.
Yeah. I love that. I love that. Let me ask you one quick question back to the suite for a second.
The second bedroom, was that more like an inside room? Did that have a window or access to the balcony? What was that
bedroom
like inside?
There was no window. Yeah, no access to the balcony. Um, which reminds. Teenage kids. I thought that was great. Yeah, you were fine with that. There was a big TV in there.
They had their own space, so they were in loving life. and then whoever was on the pullout sofa, and of course there was the slider [00:18:00] door that looked out or they could go out on the balcony. Um, but for the kids it worked out great. 'cause they didn't mind. Yeah. Having an inside room for me, yeah.
It worked out even better because I enjoyed having the feel.
Exactly.
Exactly.
yeah. Lots of space. Everybody could spread out. Nobody was on top of each other. it made things so much nicer for traveling.
Yeah. Did any other amenities come with the room?
So we had a Butler service
You butler? Yeah. Did the Butler do
anything
special for you?
so this was my mistake. We did not utilize the butler enough. The butler came and introduced himself and he said, call him for everything. And I didn't know what that meant. so the one night, the kids weren't ordering room service, which is included, and we were strangling to get that pizza, and I called the butler phone number.
He said, you should've called me from the beginning. You call me when you want room service and I take care of everything. And he did. He took care of it. he took care of [00:19:00] getting it and got it straight away to us.
nice.
Yeah. And so from then on, we would just call the Butler phone number if there was anything we needed or any questions we had.
it would either be concierge and the butler, and they seriously would take care of everything. there was no much, their laundry survey. the laundry service
people like, don't get How
amazing. The laundry service. Oh, yeah. Midway through the trip, there's a special on laundry service and they put it out on the master bed there.
but there's a form and when they're gonna collect and it fill the form quite right. The butler came back to show me, to let me know. I didn't fill it out quite right and it helped me get that done. And they still collected the laundry and it came back the next day. Absolutely. Cleaned, folding, beautiful pressed.
Yes, yes.
Well, I mean, 'cause we were gone. It was a week long cruise. Plus we arrived in Athens a couple days early, so. You know, you kind of need to run a [00:20:00] little bit of laundry there to get through,
to
get back.
Yes, before we get to the stops in the itinerary, I wanted to ask you, 'cause you had mentioned eating in the Haven, um, but also being able to eat, in any of the restaurants.
Yes. Did you eat any specialty restaurants? And I'm just interested in the comparison if you ate at any specialty restaurants to the Haven, obviously it's gonna be elevated above like the main dining room and whatever the buffet is, but compared to like specialty restaurants?
Yeah.
So what came with our package was, two of us got specially dining for two restaurants while we're two for Two meals. but that meant we still had to pay for the third,
whatever.
so we did go to, two specialty restaurants. Uh, there was the Italian restaurant, which was incredible.
The amount of food was overwhelming, even for my, oldest two. He could eat. [00:21:00] Uh, even he couldn't eat everything there, which was very, I impressing, And I just couldn't believe it. Like you picked it, like you got like this pizza and they brought you pasta and I mean it was just so much food But the atmosphere was fantastic. The service was great. The food was incredible. Just so much food. so that one we love. We also had gone to the Hibachi restaurant, which we did not love. We didn't even get a chance to try the food. Uh, one thing they don't warn about is how loud it is in that restaurant.
Mm-hmm. And if any of the children have sensitivity to, if they're sensitive to
noise.
Yeah.
Yes. There is no warning about that. And it is incredibly, like you cannot hear the person next to you because it is so loud in there. Yeah. Um, so you did not end up staying for that line. Um, most of the folks that were in there, there shoving themselves a great time.
So yeah, a lot of people really enjoyed that, but it [00:22:00] was not for everybody.
Right. I'm one of those people. I do not enjoy hibachi for a lot of reasons, and there are some sushi restaurants that I don't enjoy, because the hibachi area is not separate from the sushi restaurant. Okay. And so you're basically just in the middle.
You're not in the show. Yet you are sort of like hearing like banging and the cheering and the singing and I'm one of those people that I really don't enjoy.
don't enjoy hibachi the way it's done on a cruise ship.
We've been to many hibachi restaurants before. This was next level noise.
Yeah.
So this was very unexpected for us. And it was definitely a no go for my family. Um, we had to leave right. and they did send this over to the Italian restaurant, so it like, which worked out and it was absolutely fine. And I'm sure
being a Haven guest helped to expedite a transfer to a different restaurant.
I'm sure it did.
but yeah, it was really [00:23:00] loud. That was the one issue we did have on the boat was our experience at the Hibachi restaurant. Um, but those were the only two, especially restaurants we went to. Um, we did kind of swing through some of the other ones, just, you know, like during lunch or snack time just to check things out.
Uh, my older teenage son, he sampled, I think every place on the boat and gave his feedback and he would be finding food all day and all night long. Uh, which worked out great because, you know, he had his C card and I had explained to him Yep. Where he could go. Rob and win. And he was happy as a clam with that.
And, um,
yeah,
again, we were just trying to find things that each kid would enjoy, uh, to try and make their trips enjoyable as well. Take the stress off,
I mean, that's one of the things I love most about cruising, especially when you have kids that are old enough to be somewhat independent.
Yeah. Um, you give [00:24:00] them some rules for safety and some general guidelines and. You can let them go. I mean, even on our last cruise, our youngest was able to sign herself out of the kids club. But the rules, this was on Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas in Adventure Ocean. When we were in port, she could neither sign herself in nor out.
And neither could my teenager. could my teenager, she's 17. Maybe my teenager could, but my teenager could sign her in, but she couldn't sign her out. I can't remember. Somebody might have to fact check me on that one. But just the fact that we were in Port, she couldn't be independent for, adventure Ocean.
So I mean, they're pretty strict on some of those things just to keep the kids as safe as possible.
Sure. The teen club was. Full a lot of nights. Uh, the week we were on the bebo, um, when I was registering the kids there on the first thing when we got [00:25:00] there, they said that there were over 400 children on the boat that week.
Yeah.
Which is a tall, so some nights my kids would go over to the teen club and they were turned away 'cause it was full and they'd have
to think back later. Wow. Yeah. Did they not? That is really interesting that they would hang out in the teen club. Mm-hmm. Because usually like for my teen.
She might use it as a meetup place, but then they're gone. Yeah. Like they're doing stuff together. They're going to karaoke together, they're going to the shows without us. sometimes there are teen activities. did the Viva have teen Act? Like this is the teen karaoke time, or this is their, I don't know whether activities they had
every night they would have things starting at about like seven or eight o'clock at night and they would run until.
Remember if it was like 11 or midnight, I think one night it even went later. Um, I believe curfew on the boat. I think it was 1:00 AM if I remember correctly, for the teenager. Sounds abouts. That sounds about right.
Yeah. [00:26:00]
Yeah. Um, and so I would just remind my kids what curfew is and I expect him back on time.
And don't be disturbing anyone else in the boat.
Exactly. Uh,
so fortunately, you know, there was no issues for me or my children as far as any of that went. I don't see any problems on the boat with the teenagers. I'd see the kids kind of roaming around together as groups, but I didn't witness any behavioral issues.
It just looked like all the kids were having a good time.
That's good. Yeah, it's very rare. I have seen issues, but it's rare. Um, and security, I know because I'm not up at 1:00 AM but my teenager has said like, security, if you're causing a ruckus, they'll come and talk to them.
And talk to the kids. So, um, it's good to know.
And in the Haven area, it was so quiet, there was no kids roaming up and down the hallways. There was none of that going on.
Yes, yes. Which is nice, right? Because compared to like an inside, like if you're gonna be on a low level, on an inside state room, [00:27:00] the least, like that is where the Sweet 16 cruise is gonna happen, right?
That's where the high school graduation cruise. With the class of 25 kids, like they're not gonna be in the haven. They're gonna be in six side by side, you know, inside state rooms. And they're gonna get rowdy. They're gonna get loud.
Yeah.
we had a great experience in the Haven
great service. The ease of navigating things. Yeah. and having priorities for the tender That was
absolutely key. Yes. Tell us where, where you went, um, and other than priority tendering was there anything, um, you know, specific about whether the excursions or anything that happened on land, either through Norwegian or through yourself that you did to just sort of uplevel the experience?
Sylvia, but she is the one who helped us pick. Excursion, which who are awesome, incredible. So she was helping us to guide as far as which ones would be [00:28:00] a really good experience. And so I trusted her again, leap in faith and just said, okay, let's do it. And um, so for each of the ports, we worked through what we wanted to do Where'd you
go?
Various tours. Let's see here. we were at Santorini and that of course was a tender port.
mm-hmm.
And usually, you know, you're always warn that, oh, there's gonna be a line, It was no line for me. Um, they got the Haven folks all up together and, they were
getting us all bunched up into, you know, who would be on our boat. Mm-hmm. And they're getting us moved along as quickly as they could. So was not a big deal. Uh, we were on land very quickly, uh, for that, which made a huge difference. 'cause we went in July and it gets hot. So you wanna be Yeah. First off the boat to get there in the morning to enjoy your time and Yeah.
Before the mass of crowds
of
people Yeah. Start coming
off.
Because you know, 'cause you wanna get on that cable car and get going. [00:29:00] Yeah. And before that line really get there. And so since we had priority to get off the belt, we were not waiting in line for the cable car. We were able to pay and just make our way over.
And we were starting our day before most people even got off the cruise ship and That's awesome. Made things so nice. Yeah. Uh, so we were able to do, uh, a van tour while we were there. We got some great pictures, did some shopping, and we were all set and my kids were, of course, my kids were done before most people would be cut.
But, uh, we were getting back on the cable cla while there was still no lying. And I Whereas other people, they were waiting in line for, one to three hours. and as soon as we got back down to the tender area, um. Again, they had a haven area that, a sign, they just walked over and they saw your card and you were ushered right up to the front and they got you back on the ship as quickly as they could.
Very nice. [00:30:00] Very nice.
Yeah.
That's amazing. Any place else that you stopped that you feel like being in the Haven really made a difference?
We had an unexpected tender at, a second port. We were only supposed to tender at one port, but it was shade. I believe that was at Anos. Um mm-hmm. There were too many cruise ships there at the same time.
I believe there were mm-hmm. Four big boats there at the same time. Yeah. And so we unexpectedly became a tender at that port. So it worked out great. 'cause again, we had priority to get off the boat. We were able to catch our Jeep tour with no problem because we were off, we were on the island very quickly.
And we enjoyed our Jeep tour and it's gorgeous there. It's so gorgeous. Every island was so different. Yeah. And that island has the rain, so that made things so much nicer that day as far as keeping all. Yeah. And so when our Jeep tour was over, it was so easy when we got back to the tender area there was the [00:31:00] haven side and they got us right back on the boat as too, as they could.
Amazing. Amazing. What about, like in terms of, and I'm not sure what Viva has, you know, a lot of these new ships have, whether it's a roller coaster or a racing track, um, does Viva have any of those sort of bells and whistles? And did being a Haven guest give you like shorter line a priority time or a time to be able to enjoy those activities for you or your boys?
So Beva has a multi-story go-kart racetrack. Yes. Uh, my kids were on now, now the hours for the racetrack were, uh, that was something my kids did complain about, um, because they weren't open all the time. That staff was used when we were in port, which was a good chunk of our trip. Uh, so it limited the hours that it was available.
But especially my younger one, he spent a good amount [00:32:00] of time on there. Uh, I'm not aware of any priority for Haven guests for using that. I think he just had to sign up like any of the other, uh, guests who were there. Yeah. Okay. There were good to know, an arcade, which, which honestly, um, a big chunk of it mostly open while we were there, so I don't know if they were working on it or what was going on with that.
But there was some fun things there to do for the kids. Uh, but the go-kart, I think is their kind of signature thing there. Yeah.
Yeah. That thing looks amazing. Looks absolutely amazing.
Yeah, it did look neat. I didn't get on it though.
Fantastic. Um, yeah, that would be nerve wracking, right?
Like being afraid to like Launch off the side of the boat. But because go-carts go fast. I mean, I've been on go-kart, like on flatland and they can go fast.
Yeah.
So, yeah, it's not like the little bumper cars go fast.
That is not bumper car.
Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Anything [00:33:00] else about Norwegian, Viva or the Haven or the trip overall that we haven't covered that you would like people to know about?
We had activities going on all the time. just like any cruise, you've got a check going on I did not go to some of the evening, shows. It's
hard I got a grease cruise like here. there's so many iters, so many ports. It's hard.
And it's hot in July. It can be hard to,
it was, and we would be tired. And so generally after dinner. I just wanted to go back to the room to rest and I was already thinking, oh, we gotta be up early the next day because we were in port every day. Yeah. one port. We did stay overnight in Istanbul.
Oh, that's very
nice. Nice.
Yeah, that's very
nice. But that was nice, but I mean, there wasn't a whole lot necessarily of, you know, downtime where you're just cruising a sailing day. to spend more time just enjoying it really was focused more on your ports and going on your excursion.
Yeah. I did not book any through , uh, Norwegian. [00:34:00] I booked all through Sylvia, the travel agent, so
yeah.
And it worked
out great
for me.
Yes. Well, and that's another, you know, advantage of using a travel agent is if you want to do a private tour, these are people that she has probably vetted, she's worked with before, so, yes.
Trustworthy to get you back to the ship on time. Um, exactly. And so, yeah, that's really important.
Getting off the Beach Haven made it just as easy as getting on the boat. It was very organized. Uh, they assisted with everything. You knew exactly what was going on, was no problem.
So I was very, very glad for that.
Oh, you're talking the dreaded demarcation was smooth and easy and it helped you.
yes.
Yeah,
yeah. Awesome. Not the chaos that, it ends at some other ship.
Yeah. I mean, sometimes it can really be just ugly, it's just another Disneyland line to get off the ship and it's not fun.
It's not like you're in the line to do something fun. Yeah,
yeah. you brought your Lage up into the Haven area. You could have your [00:35:00] breakfast and they were assisting with you with getting off the ship.
Beautiful.
yeah,
that is a really nice, quiet way of ending your trip, so I think that's great.
I think that's absolutely beautiful. That's great. Did they bring your luggage up and you had to like carry it off? Or was there a spot once you got off where all the haven luggage was easy to find
your choice? Just like with any other shit that you could either do it yourself or they would take it off for you.
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah.
Awesome. So stepping away from this particular cruise, uh, I wanna ask you a couple questions that I ask everybody.
Okay.
Um, the first is, how do you define luxury?
I guess all I think of luxury is I see some tension. I think, wow, this is really nice. something that really kind of makes you feel better, or something that, kind of takes the stress away.
Yeah.
I guess that's what I think of when I think luxury.
[00:36:00] Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Do you have a dream cruise now that you've been on?
Two. are there any cruises that you have your eye on that you think, wow, that would be really nice to do?
I've been looking at the Antarctica trees to go see the penguin.
Yes. I
don't know when that'll help fill in, but that one looks pretty neat.
Yes. Yes. I've had a couple of those on the podcast, couple of people who have been to Antarctica.
Um, and it just sounds like other worldly, so that is definitely on my list as well. Small ship. You don't wanna go on Norwegian on that one. You need a small ship.
Yes, definitely
for Antarctica. Yeah. But I'm sure Sylvia will help you out and be able to,
I'm sure she will
pick the right trip.
Maybe she'll go with me.
I might.
Great. We can make a group
trip. Yes. Any, um, luxury cruises or luxury trips in store for you on the horizon?
Um, well, we are booked for an Alaskan [00:37:00] crew this summer. Yeah, we're going in July. We're looking forward to that. And, we just got back from Costa Rica where we did it up there.
We stayed at some very nice resort. That'll be, tell me we'd enjoy and sure enough, we sure did.
Yes. Yes.
I enjoyed the planning of the trip just as much as the trip. I think Okay. Looking forward to it.
Yeah. Amazing, amazing. Well, Jennifer, thank you again so much for being here and for telling us about The Haven, to Greece and Turkey.
Um, and to all the listeners, thank you also for joining me this week, and until next time, I wish you safe and luxurious cruising.
Thank you for having me.