Prinz

Does MSC have a "casino at sea" program like NCL does where you can get comped rooms and benefits depending on how much you play?

Not in the same way, no.

You may get some things comped on the cruise, drinks, dinner etc. But, They don't keep any record beyond that cruise.

Also doesn't seem very structured, just the more of a rapport you have with a pit boss the less of a hassle it is to get drinks.

At the end of the cruise you can use your points to buy some stuff in the casino shop ( baseball caps etc ).

On the last night the casino host gave us a letter with a 30% discount on a future cruise. Which I was able to apply to an already booked 2 week cruise.

He seemed to have quite a few envelopes ready so you should be able to get that if you play.

I'd also be interested, I play black jack and usually sail NCL and I know I need dollars whether I'm in Europe or not

 

 

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If you're playing table games you can just use your ship card to get whichever currency they use on the ship.

On the Divina they did not charge a fee/commission for that.

Are you from the United States?

If you're not, there is a very lengthy process to go through before you can disembark in Boston.

Has anybody tried to book a cruise through this offer?

When I called they said they could not find it in the system. And they did not appear to be aware of these slot cruise offers to begin with.

Another question if someone has done these.

Do they require you to play slots on that cruise?

I only play table games ( craps and blackjack ) and I don't think I've ever even put a dollar into a slot machine on a cruise ship.

good day - we were on the 5th of November sailing - and in the yacht Club as well - we were on the ship at 1230pm - cabin was ready - met the maitre'd of Le Muse as they wish to know what time of day you normally wish to dine, as it was a full sailing - weather was not the greatest, so we started our cruise with a great lunch in Le Muse -

 

have a wonderful cruise

Great, thank you.

I see that unlike most other ships the Divina departs at 1900.

At what time do they start the check-in, and when do they usually start the boarding process?

We're in the YC.

FYI, if there are any last minute changes to schedule/activities they will only be in the hardcopy daily, not in the iConcierge app.

The concierge was very surprised that I expected the app to be more up to date than a paper copy when I told her that I showed up at a venue expecting a different event.

I called CDC and so far thy have no record of cases last week. Per guest relations only 12 cases last week and no reports yet for this week. But on another post it says hundreds are sick. I really wish we could get the facts correct we leave in 2 weeks

The reason there aren't any reports on https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm is because OP made this up.

. It doesn't help that a lot of that reflection took place on the Royal Princess, where the passenger to staff ratio is absurdly superior to NCL, as is the buffet food..

3,600 pax / 1,346 crew vs 4,266 pax / 1,733 crew is absurdly better?

oozing blood LOL Tell me, how do you people come up with so many different email addresses to register new names all of the time?

Did you notice how they used the wrong account to reply to you?

There are NO towers in the ocean.

You are on a moving ship that has to try and capture a satellite that is also moving around the world.

The satellites are in a geostationary orbit.

I found that it was quite comparable to a satellite internet connection on land.

High latency and low bandwidth is to be expected. But, it seemed to me that not enough people used it to make the bandwidth very poor ( relative to a regular satellite connection ), and normally the connection quality was good ( not a lot of packet loss ).

Of course as a satellite connection it's vulnerable to weather.

So if there is a seat we can walk up and sit down and swipe a meal from our dining plan and then eat as much sushi as we can until we explode?

Yes, but it has an upcharge of $7 if you use the SDP.

Guess it depends on what work you're doing.

I was OK on both the Breakaway and the Gem doing work across an SSL VPN ( Didn't try IPSEC ). When the internet connection was up.

Although I did do more command line work than GUI.

They don't take reservations at all, not even on the ship.

You just walk up.

Any insights into cabin 18031 on the Seaside?

Are there any current ships with a cabin shaped like that?

I wonder if we just call NCL to make our booking if they will quote us in US dollars instead of Canadian?

That's what they have done so far unless you specifically asked for the price in CAD.

What I mean is that they are not actually applying an exchange rate. Or if you prefer, they are applying a different rate for every cruise/category, but that amounts to the same thing: You can't predict the CAD price based on the USD price. And it's not always going to be better in USD, as ilovetotravel1977's last example shows (although they need to stop using the RBC site to look up exchange rates… :))

Yes, I see what you mean, because it is definitely different depending on which cruise it is.

But there are two problems with that:

1: From the ones I've checked the exchange rate is always worse than if I were to just book in USD and pay the credit card conversion fee.

2: Prior to this I knew exactly what rate I would get, either I'd get the bank/CC exchange rate if I booked in USD. Or I would get locked in at whatever NCL's rate ( it was always better than market ) of the month was for the conversion if I called and asked the price in CAD. Both of those options would be the same for any trip and not vary.

Did you notice that they translated the whole site into French also? http://www.ncl.com/ca/fr

 

The translations are sometimes quite funny, but I have to recognize the amount of effort they put into it.

Where do they show the exchange rate? The whole point is that the fares for Canadians are no longer just direct conversions of the USD fares. Evidently they want to start treating Canadians as a separate market, with prices (and promotions) determined independently of whatever Americans are being offered.

I look at the cruises I've got saved, or I look at the cruises from an American IP and then I look at the exact same cruise/cabin on the CAD pricing site and it's just way off.

One of the cruises has an inside for 1049 USD and it's 1633 CAD.

That's a 1.55 exchange rate, I think I can do better than that....

I'M very happy with this change. :) I don't need to call and wait anymore to get actual canadian prices and i can book by myself. I hate to call to do that because i'm french speaking and having hard time to do it in english.

 

I can also compare prices between cruises or cabins more easily without doing conversion.

The exchange rate they're now showing on the site is way worse than if you were to call in to book in CAD or if you were to just pay in USD.

One of the cruises I'm tracking is 1049 USD and 1633 CAD.

That's quite a bit worse than the credit card exchange rate...

Actually,,,, YES

 

If you follow the terms and conditions, calling 1-866-625-1167, they will reserve the shore ex without charging you. That way, you pay on board, and get credit against those charges (vs ending up with a lot of non-redundable OBC.

 

Just because you did it wrong, doesn't mean that others should do the same.

 

We have done this for 6 cruises since the promotion started (including using this procedure last week for a cruise in September).

I didn't do anything wrong.

I called the shorex number same as you, expecting to pay a discounted price.

They charged me the whole amount right away and credited $50 to my on board account.

I'm sorry you can't grasp that when dealing with companies like this not everything always goes the same for everyone.

Who did you call? The shorex number in the T&C that everyone has been giving here, or the general NCL reservations line?

Just the regular shorex number that they have on the site:

1.866.625.1167

Actually... no. They do not charge you if you call and book.

 

I have several excursions booked for November 2016 and not one is pre paid.... I did several for my June 2015 and not one was pre paid.... several more for March 2016 and not one was pre paid

 

Maybe it's different for a big ticket item like the Cabana

That's not an "Actually... no."

They did charge me right away when I called to book the reservation.

So clearly they don't always do it the same way.

If you book on-line then you pre-pay and then get the credit on board..... it is also more of a pain if you want to cancel or change excursions because you have to get a refund, etc.

 

Booking via the phone allows you to reserve it and not get charged until after you complete the excursion which makes cancelling or changing so much easier. It is also the way the T&Cs direct you to use the promo so why risk NCL suddenly enforcing the T&C and losing the promo.

 

If you want to minimize your shipboard costs and "prepay" excursions... what I do is price out the total for the excursions booked and then purchase OBC for that amount. Just a thought

 

As someone already mentioned the $50 is per stateroom per port per day and cannot be combined for a bigger excursion. If NCL skips a port for any reason, that $50 credit is lost (NCL skips GSC and goes to Nassau early... you lose GSC $50 and still only get the $50 for Nassau). It's also important to remember if you are going to Bermuda.... it is $50 per day for 3 separate days (you cannot do a morning excursion and then an afternoon excursion on the same day and apply $50 to each)

I just went through that this July, and it's the same if you phone in.

They charge you the full amount right away and then credit you the 50 dollars to your onboard account once you've actually gone on the excursion.

You actually don't need to call. It works when you book online as well.

I thought we only had one 50 dollar credit for the whole trip instead of 50 dollars per port. So, I booked our cabana on GSC online instead of over the phone as I already booked a different excursion over the phone and asked them to apply the credit.

They told me on the phone that they would apply the credit to the onboard account once I had actually taken the excursion.

Once I was on board when I brought our food list for the cabana to the excursion deck they told me there that they would automatically apply the 50 dollars for each port to any excursion, they can't tell the difference how it was booked.

I confirmed on my bill that they applied the 50 dollar credit to the cabana that I booked online.

I was on the gem in 2014 and I eat a paleo/primal diet. I had no issues both at the specialty or the free restaurants without special accommodation.

I applied 2 months ago for mine.

I scanned and emailed the form.

They confirmed the OBC was added less than 20 minutes later. Including a copy of the amenity invoice showing the added OBC.

It was when I booked on August 5th.

Any recommendations on car services? We are flying into Newark in September to board the Gem (the following day) so will have to get from the Marriott at EWR to the terminal. What should we expect to pay? How much time should we allow? This will be a Saturday embarkation.

Uber Black car was 86$ from a hotel at the Newark airport last December.

Took about ( probably a little less ) half an hour from what I recall, on a Monday morning.