StolidCruiser

Fascinating story.  

47 minutes ago, yankprintster said:

I just did this back on the 22nd, so I'll give you a rundown:

 

I did a mock booking on the NCL website for an inside cabin on a 16-day cruise I was interested in.  Lowest cabin category was IF and mock booking total came to $3502.32.

 

Then I went down to the cruise next desk and booked it.  They mentioned it would take several days for all the promos to get added properly and to not be surprised if I check and see the price is higher than I expect.

 

I received a confirmation email that showed a total of $3631.92, which was higher than the mock booking of IF category.  The statement mentioned it was an IA category stateroom (the two bump in-category upgrade).   It also had promo codes of DISXIN (assuming for in-category upgrade), DISC40, EASYFARE, LATITUDE, LATERW, SHX50).

 

About 10 hours later, I got another confirmation statement emailed, and now the price matched my mock booking of $3502.32.  The stateroom now mentioned IF-IA instead of just IA as it has before.

 

5 days later, I got the third confirmation statement.  A new promo code had been added, CNUD10 (cruise next 10% discount?), and the final price showed $3189.78.

 

The three statements were all sent automatically to me.

Thank you for taking the time to detail your experience with the onboard discount offer.

13 minutes ago, casofilia said:

MONEY

11 minutes ago, casofilia said:

And then more MONEY

5 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

Yeah and while we're at it, let's ask him why the CSRs don't know their a$$ from a hole in the ground. 

After getting a response, hopefully one would be asked the same question in return about passengers.

17 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Yes it is a fact you have taken many cruises; so have I. That is where your facts end, and your personal opinion creates bias. 

The crews contract guarantees the salary, that’s a fact.

Whether or not you participate in the auto tip a no bearing on this salary, that’s a fact. 

The cruise-line won’t tell you the amount that is shared (or if it is shared) with these positions , that’s a fact. 

Please substantiate your statement of fact regarding the salary construct of employee contracts do not consider the daily gratuity/ service charge arrangement subscribed to most every mainstream cruise line.

(I know your facts to be wrong and look forward to you re-educating me on what I know to be accurate.)

OP,  you provided a balanced and fair perspective of what you found disappointing on your cruise that was not  what you had experienced on prior cruises.

Food: disappointing

Internet: disappointing 

COVID protocols: perplexing

Service: Inconsistent / misunderstood 

All fair opinions to express here.

However, by doing so you will encounter those that agree with you and those that will not.

My 2 cents that others have mentioned:  if this cruise on this line disappointed you so greatly to consider taking your business elsewhere, that is exactly what you should do.  Only then will you find out if another line will live up to your expectations.  Read about those other lines to see what others are saying about those things you found disappointing here (food, internet, COVID protocols, service) to gain perspective.

If you so choose, Happy Sailing!

3 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

Any winnings of any amount by a US citizen is subject to federal (and in most cases) state income taxes.  The entity running the contest will send the winner a W-9 at year end if the value of the winnings are over a certain amount or (typically in the case of a casino) the odds of winning are above a certain threshold. .  The winner does not provide the W-9.  The winner may be request for SSN, etc so that the other party can properly fill out the W-9 at the end of the year.

NOTE getting or not getting a W-9 has zero impact on the requirement for the winner to list the winning on the current years tax forms.  However most people will not list non w-9 winning especially of minimal amounts.

NOTE: Total gambling losses can be claimed up to the amount of total gambling winnings each year (no rollover) which is why people normally do not claim minimal winnings even though by tax law they are required to do so.

That’s not correct.  The taxpayer completes the W—9 and provides it to the entity who would be disbursing the prize (not the other way around).  This is the mechanism for the disbursing entity to collect the taxpayer’s identifying information. 

The taxpayer will likely receive a 1099-MISC for the value of the prize from the disbursing entity.

Right theory, wrong forms. 😀

3 hours ago, amurray88 said:

 

 

Out of interest, have you sailed Seaview/Seaside etc? Did you feel there was alot of wasted space?

I have and I don’t.

Strange, I was able to mock book one but there were less than a dozen left (if i got the date/ship/cabin right).

24 minutes ago, sunkey1 said:

Handle to our balcony door was loose and had reported it but before it ever got fixed I ended up getting locked outside. That finally resulted in it getting (somewhat) repaired but never received an apology from guest services or the person overseeing the repair. Just seems like a rush to get money back in the coffers but it's going to come back to bite them as it limits the ships I'll sail on with them in the future and will encourage me to book other lines.

It must have been frustrating to get locked out on the balcony before someone could make repair to the malfunctioning handle you reported and not get an apology from someone.

Your choice to only sail on newer ships or other lines is probably a wise choice that will have the right biting impact.

Disappointing your family got sick with COVID on your ocean cruise and were poorly treated as those infected with a highly communicable disease.  Hope you all recover on land and the recounting of your experience is a warning to others of what to expect if you become infected/ill when sailing while a pandemic is still in full force.

Thanks for another honest review of your experience.

It can be frustrating to be frequently be presented with upsells by staff whose job is to do it, not get table service in the buffet and be accommodated to deviate from your chosen fixed dining choice because of inconveniences caused by your off-ship port activities.

MSC is a very different line with practices and clientele diverse from other mainstream companies.

You found out the hard way your expectations don’t align.  Find another line that suits you better and enjoy many happier days sailing.

2 hours ago, Tonopah said:

Hmm…100 people spread out through the room? A lot of us didn’t know each other, and people came from all over the country so only the wedding party knew everyone.  Just thought it was so funny that a family would crash a wedding on a cruise ship. Such a random thing.

 

”We could go up on deck and hit the pool?” “Nah, lets take the kids and crash a wedding.”

The wedding party never noticed? Even in a room of 100, 4 strangers (parents and kids) are pretty hard to miss.  Even stranger for them to stick around unnoticed to be fed, eat cake and get caught on camera.  

I give the Crasher Family credit … that takes skill. 

19 hours ago, jsoenning said:

just cost me $500 they need to end 

6 hours ago, cured said:

The at home/online tests are 6 for $150 through emed.  Even cheaper are the free gov't tests and using Onpoint testing. They can be as little as $10 per person with a code. Instead of $500, you could have spent $40. You had options. You chose the most expensive route.

The is also a zero -cost option.

On 7/7/2022 at 8:14 PM, Elaine5715 said:

Then let's see it...

Really hard for accounting software to replace numbers with letters

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I don't mean this to sound callous, but for those with serious comorbidities and/or those truly "afraid" of the virus, staying off a cruise ship should be blatantly obvious. 

 

 

It’s not callous at all.  It’s blatantly obvious.  👍🏻

12 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

TBH that’s a pretty dumb rule..as 18 is the legal age for most everything (including the casino on carnival ships)

 

The important word to focus on in your reply is “most”.   

Check out the age requirements for renting a car (without astronomical insurance adders if even offered). 

Check out the age requirement to consume alcohol.

I could go on but you get my point.  

Glad to hear others are still enjoying the Glory.  I did as well when I first strayed from my Spirit-class Sisters.

It is disappointing to hear good behavior and social graces continue on a downward spiral.  Perhaps when the economy strengthens moods will correspondingly improve by attrition. 

49 minutes ago, RTShaker said:

True, but it seems as though with every update of the website they seem to be regressing instead of advancing. It just requires a little more foresight on their part. The cumulative screwups make it hard to fix without starting from scratch.

I’m sure if you volunteered your expert services to restructure their poorly designed website, they’d take you up on it.  😀

11 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Almost no one asks for rare liver. 

unless it is served with farva beans and a nice chianti.

5 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

Got suckered into responding before getting to this.  Dagnabit!!!

1 hour ago, DCPIV said:

 

I know that first part isn't true (thus, the minimum contract value), and I suspect the second part also isn't true.  In every jurisdiction I know (and I admit I only know a few), an employer is required to make an employee whole on the minimum wage if tips are not enough to do so.

Are you familiar with all foreign jurisdictions or just a narrow US-based understanding?

9 hours ago, snaefell said:

In previous threads on this topic posters claimed that a list of those withdrawing the auto tips is available to the crew,like many aspects of this subject posters claim many opposites that they KNOW to be true,like I said in a previous post(which annoyingly seems to have been removed),people know everything & nothing about this subject!😆

I am intimately familiar with the subject but a certain minority refuse to believe it because it contradicts their perspective that the intended benefactors will never know what is going on when those few dollars are slipped into staff hands at the end of the cruise by giddy guests who think they are “sticking it to the man”.

20 minutes ago, johnjen said:

We noticed that the test collection times were off by an hour. Now I will go back to confirm they have the date right. JEEZ. Customers shouldn't need to double check for idiot companies that are incompetent.

You get what you pay for.

19 minutes ago, johnjen said:

 

We'll just wait for this testing crap to end before going on another cruise. The stress from these stupid tests sucked the wind out of our excitement and anticipation. 

This is one of the major roadblocks keeping this normally frequent cruiser on land.  Just personally not open to squeezing a round of testing into the myriad of other things that have to happen before heading out to sea.  Disappointing personal choice but once things wind down further I plan on churning the waters up. 😀