Serengeti228

For transocean cruise from Europe to Brazil Santos, any onborad arrangement experience to disembark earlier at Rio instead of the final port Santos?

Glad to know you enjoyed your time in Singapore and experienced the festive deepavali celebrations. I believe you didn't miss all the foodies. I shall see you again till next time... 

I am eyeing on the jewel's late Dec itinerary from Bangkok to Singapore. I am ready to go anytime upon reduction of supplement. Otherwise, I just enjoy my home sweet home.

It has been enjoyable to read through your encounters and experiences in this part of the World since I left the ship. What's your plan after Singapore? I will start my leisure trip in Malaysia and then Thailand in 2 weeks' time. We can meet again if you will be around. Patrick.

On 9/17/2023 at 1:00 PM, sm9690 said:

That's very helpful, thanks a lot. How long is your cruise that those prices are for?

 

Yes, I'm yet to book, looking at some of the transatlantics! 

My cruise will be 20 days. It should work out about €35 per day for My drinks package. 

To answer your questions.

It is unfortunate that the Costa website does not provide much information of all the drinks packages on sale. One can access the full list upon booking. From your post, I believe you have yet to book any. 

I check on my existing booking page and have found 17 drinks packages that are on sale. I have screenshots these 17 packages.

I am not sure if al these packages are made avialable to all itineraries, but these can give you a good idea. To find out the detail of each package, I believe you have to get to that stage first. Happy drinking!

I once received allocation to check in at 01:30am at Dubai port when the cruise ship was at port for 2 consecutive days. Engage them and call them up! Request for an earlier time slot.

In my case, they instantly offered 15:30pm without wastage of long distance airtime.

In short not worth. I believe you refer to cabin #6001 to 6009 or #6201 to 6210. Not sure how long is your Alaska itinerary. If it is for this season, it should be 10 nights. 10 days for $150 is not worth for these cabins.

I was on the Sun last Fall for 42 days btb and I did brisk walking every morning and after lunch during sea days, either on Deck 6 or the upper deck. I passed by these cabin windows all the time and I said to myself that I was happy not staying there. You correctly point out there is not much sunlight in that area, adding that you lose the privacy if you plan to open the curtain.

Instead, I would consider booking inside cabin at this stage and then wait for cabin upgrade offer. Based on the offer, you can then consider whether you should go for OV or balcony cabin. Sometimes the lowest bid from insider to OV can be $50x2.

Direct response to the OP’s question.  

Two different NCL PCCs who have handled/processed my bookings said that they received commission from the bookings I made through them. For clarity, my bookings are made via NCL Asia market operating out of Sydney Australia.

On 7/4/2023 at 10:34 PM, dbrown84 said:

the part that sucks about the rule is if you wanted to book a cruise for 9/1, you couldn't use the CF.The cruise wouldn't be paid in full yet because you haven't booked it.  Of course, you can look to buy one on the resale market that has been seasoned

Isn't it correct that you can still apply CF for the 9/1 booking if and only if it is a new booking, i.e. sort of last minute booking AND the CF has an original issue/purchase date more than 120 days before 9/1?

The CF can be an old stock already sitting in your own Latitudes accounts or a new purchase from a secondary market if the above condition is met.

Interesting comparison of NCL cancellation policy in different markets.

For NCL Asia market, booking is cancelled free up to 90 days (i.e. the final payment date). Any repricing for price drop, change of booking, or addition of favourable promo codes is possible.

7 hours ago, Liljo22 said:

I previously asked about price drops and losing the full value of the CFC.  Wanted to update that I just called in for a price drop on my cruise and the full $500 was still applied to the reservation.  

 

I did lose my double latitude points since its no longer offered on this cruise but the $400 price drop was more important.  

I repriced 2 bookings (before final payment) last week and the CF face value remains to stay. However, the Latitudes promo code had been adjusted according to the prevailing promo. I believe as long as the same booking reference is maintained and there is no action to cancel and rebook (the same itinerary), the CF face value can continue to sit peacefully therein. 

On 6/15/2023 at 8:32 PM, Asawi said:

This is about the CruiseFIRST. It's my understanding it's available to US residents and can be purchased ahead of cruising. Not being a US resident I don't know more than that.

At present, NCL offers CF in the following currencies and perhaps, to the respective NCL business markets adopting these currencies.

For the French market, I do not see CF is mentioned in the following webpage.

https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions-ceuk

Al dente should be the proper way! Looking forward to having it on the Jewel, if any. 

6 minutes ago, Asawi said:

Yes, of course I see MY final pay date in my booking confirmation! What makes me curious is all the talk about 120 days from other sources. For example the enclosed screenshot from the European NCL page (or at least the one I always get directed to). Googling NCL Final Pay hasn't given me anything except the 120 days. Hence my curiosity! It's just curiosity, not in any way a worry about my own bookings where everything is perfectly clear! Good thing I'm not a cat...

 

I believe NCL adopts different rules, pricing, promos and marketing strategies in different markets within the confine of the local laws and regulations.

I have made bookings in NCL US, French, and Asia markets. Just to share some international perspectives in this topic. 

Take the French market, which I had booked with my french friend before as an example, the final payment date as you indicated is currently 30 days prior to departure and any cancellation prior to 29 days will incur penalty of 20% cancelllation fee or the deposit amount (correct me this point if I am wrong).  For the NCL Asia market which I currently hold 3 bookings, the final payment date is 90 days prior to departure date and any cancellation prior to 90 days will be free of charge, noting that 90 days was a change from 70 days since early 2022.

56 minutes ago, Asawi said:

 

All NCL documentation I can find about Final pay states 120 days for most cruises,

Which NCL documentation do you see? 

56 minutes ago, Asawi said:

HOWEVER, on "all" (there's just 3...) my booked cruises final pay has been 30 days before cruise. Cruises booked well in advance (more than 120 days).

 

I think this information is from your actual booking confirmation, right?

56 minutes ago, Asawi said:

I suspect it's because I'm European (Swedish). Odd though that the FAQ on "our" NCL site still says 120 days as far as what I could find. 

Other Europeans get the same 30 days?

(And yes, this IS an international forum. NOT a US forum. Just mention that since a poster claimed otherwise recently!)

I got a NO answer from the cabin steward if I could have my clothes washed only without tumble dry. I prefer to hang dry my laundry.

Did anyone make a similar request and successfully get their wet clothes returned?

15 hours ago, hallux said:

and if you want to book a mix of cover-charge and a-la-carte restaurants, book the cover-charge ones FIRST.  Otherwise the system will assume you're not using your SDP for it and will try to charge you.

Thanks for heads up. Can I cancel my booking online?

Can both Platinum dining coupons and FAS Speciality dining package be equally used in the same speciality restaurants, including Moderno and Teppanyaki?

1 hour ago, dbrown84 said:

I also book insides and feel CF makes more sense because I can buy a $500 CF when available and know that I can use it when I'm ready.  The CN double up promo is usually for balcony and above and has a requirement for the sailing to be 4 or 6 months out.  It's not unusual for me to book 2 or 3 months out from sailing

I agree with your cirucmstance.

I can see the merits of both CN and CF, as long as the buyer understands thoroughly the respective TnCs, plus the practicality of both instruments that might go above the TnCs (i.e. CN is able to be applied after the initial deposit, despite all the official channels say otherwise).

I have used CN several times and I sold my CN in social media before. I bought and used CF for the first time only this week. Without any CN sitting in my account and the timing of 3 new bookings (roughly 130 days out with good pricing for solo cruiser), I opted to immediately/speedily purchase CFs (which luckily happened to have $250/$500 promo) from NCL instead of getting CNs (3 or 6) from social media with some potential time lag, noting that when I made my courtesy hold bookings 2 weeks ago, the CN double up for lower cabin cat. was not available. I also assessed the possibility of fare reduction in the next 120 days. I would say yes, but then I am willing accept to that price reduction loss as I have got savings of $750 from 3x$250 CFs. On the bright side, I can still "try" to ask for FCC as the result of such price reduction.

I would say each instrument has its merits, depending on the individual circumstances, the timing of initial booking, how far out of the sailing, the likelihood of price drop that may trigger booking cancel and rebook etc... If I had both CF and CN sitting in account, I would apply one instrument or another after my assessment. No one size fits all for me.... 

Just came across your live report and will read through. I am sure the information are valuable to prepare my 3 b2bs on the Jewel, and perhaps the same itineraries for the roundtrip in Sep/Oct (+TP). The Freestyle Daily is handy. Cheers.

4 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

What if you cancelled the cruise and had the first cruise (call it CF number 123) reinstated to your account. 
 

Then … purchased another  first cruise (number 456), rebooked the same cruise at the lower price, and applied the second cruisefirst (#456) to the booking?? 

 

You’d still have almost three years to use cruisefirst number 123 for full value.

 

Good one!

6 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

And they have the rule that if you cancel and rebook the same cruise, you'd lose the extra value of the cruise first.  But again, no one knows for sure if this applied to canceling and rebooking before applying the CF, or it it's only after booking with a CF. 

Perhaps another scenario is to apply CF(#1) on a booking and later the booking is cancel and rebook, and apply CF(#2) on the same cruise.  

I purchased 3x$250 CF directly from NCL PCC over phone 3 days ago and the CFs immediately appeared in my Latitudes account.  For APAC market, the $250 promo ends on May 18. I had already applied one CF on one of the 3 btbs about 130 days out as the deposit and I will apply the remaining two CFs tomorrow.

Do read the CF's TnCs as there are restrictions, in particular if you have applied CF on a booking but later you need to cancel and rebook on the same itinerary, the bonus value will be lost.

According to the PCC and the TnCs, CF can only be use as initial booking deposit payment, not after the deposit has been made. This is my first time to purchase and use CF, so I have not tested the otherwise, or do I have time and chance to do so, mainly due to the 120 days rule.

Just now, ChiefMateJRK said:

It's more than just a claim.  It's a universal fact.  We've never had a report of this not being possible.  Prove me wrong.

I am afraid I can't prove from my personal experience. I stated what my NCL PCC told me last week and the CN desk onboard the Spirit.  Personally, I always applied my CNC/CND at the time of initial booking, not after. If practically we can apply the CNC/CND after the reservation, it is a good news to us. 

22 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

i'm pretty sure prepaying the onboard service charge (DSC) also qualifies.

 

 

that's a good question. i've never done that. but i believe it would have to be during the initial booking because it can only be used for "new reservations." once you book, or if you're at the final payment stage, it's no longer a "new reservation." 

I asked the same question to my NCL PPC last week and was told that the CFC can only be applied on new reservation at the time of deposit or as the form of deposit, but not after the deposit has been made. He said the system would not allowed for that, and it is the same for CNC/CND.

The same principle applies to CNC/CND as confirmed by the CN Desk onboard yesterday. Nonetheless, some cruises claimed that they applied the CNC/CND after the deposit had been made.