Liljo22

There is no additional charges for the wifi and shore excursions so that is why they are not able to be excluded. You are able to exclude the drinks and dining but I believe in Australia NCL is not able to add additional gratuities to the fare. The fare is the same whether you take the packages or not.

FYI...I don't believe your ship has one but the package does not include Starbucks branded locations. The Cafe Promenade and WJ have a sign that say they use Starbucks coffee but are included.

For comparison sakes, a 16 day euro cruise in the cheapest Haven suite is $18k for 2 people. So you are saying $18k is a good deal but that extra $800 in DSC all of sudden sends you to the poor house?

Unless you are going on the Liberty after its next dry dock, I would go with Freedom. Liberty missed its dry dock for the newest amplification and it showing its age. It doesn't have Playmakers currently also. It does have the Tidal Wave slide though which might be the best water slide at sea.

Because the OP is assuming because NCL has increased that Royal will follow behind with another increase soon.

100% correct. Cruise lines have to make up any shortage after the DSC is applied to the guaranteed minimum. If they are having to continually make up this shortage, of course they are going to increase the DSC. Also, the past employees on the NCL board have said that if you give cash to a crew member, they have to turn it in and its used as crew incentives.

If you can afford to sail in the Haven, an extra $350 is not going to break the bank.

But the problem is that cruise line workers, especially mass market cruise lines, do not get paid a suitable wage and need the gratuities to supplement their wages. I know its been discussed on the NCL board by former employees that the crew is paid a low wage with a guarantee. The DSC makes up the difference between the guarantee and the wage NCL paid. If NCL is raising the DSC, it probably means that the current rate is not covering the guarantee. I have not seen how RCI pays their crew but I am betting its something similar. It would be great if we did not have to pay DSC and the cruise lines just paid a higher wage but they are just going to raise the prices and we will be paying it anyways.

Per the NCL website, minors can be in their own room if its connecting or adjoining. They also count inside cabins across the hall from a balcony as adjoining. Norwegian Cruise Line's policy dictates that a minor or young adult under the age of 21 must be accompanied in the same stateroom (or a connecting/adjoining stateroom) by a guest 21 years of age or older at the time of boarding.

So I was on one of the first cruises when Carnival switched to once a day in 2019. You had to pick if you wanted morning or evening service. If you selected morning, the steward would still come back in the evening for turn down service but would not clean.

How it worked on Carnival was that there were less attendants and they had to cover more cabins.

Oasis has already been amped so I am sure this will be the standard 5 year dry dock to spruce it up a bit.

Do you like the food on Royal? They are very comparable but NCL does desserts better. Royal seems to want to turn everything into a pudding that they can put into a plastic cup. For specialty dining, NCL releases a portion of their reservations before hand that you can book online. For the a la carte restaurants, you can order one main entree and unlimited apps and sides. The waiter may say only one of each but you will not be charged for more other than if you order an additional entree. The fixed menu is just free for what they offer. At smaller item places like Food Republic or sushi, you can order 4 items per credit. You can share the 4 items and save a credit for another time. You are not going to starve if you eat in the MDR. Are there items that you are not going to like? Sure but all mass market cruise line MDRs are hit or miss when they are trying to serve 1000s of people over 4 hours.

Sure I understand that but I didn’t say every time it was more expensive. I said my RCL cruises lately have been more expensive than NCL.

Terrible argument. If thats the case, you should be upset with everything in the world. That free housekeeping you are getting at a land hotel isn't really free. The free bread you get at a restaurant isn't free. I am cruising RCL lately and besides my cruises being more expensive than NCL, I am paying an additional $1100 for my wife and I to get the drink package. I will gladly take NCL "not free" drink package any day of the week.

Not including the excursion credit, on a 7 day cruise the drink, dining and wifi comes to $2,362.11 for two people. I would be surprised if a sailaway rate savings is close to that. Just looking at a random off season cruise in February(Bliss) and the Family Balcony with the perks is $3,085.86 and the sailaway rate is $2,485.06. You are still saving $1700 by booking with the perks.

He is talking about the Free at Sea drink package. You are only paying $129PPPD if you either don't select the FAS upfront and have to buy it on the ship or if you are not the 1st and 2nd guest in the room. If you are picking the FAS drink package, its still only $21.80PPPD for the gratutities.

No you don’t but the problem is that if the Wi-Fi drops off and you don’t notice it, it will start using cellular data. You might have a huge surprise when you get home. My daughter didn’t turn it on airplane mode and I had over $300 in cruise data fees on my next bill.

Great. Thank you.

Different question: If you have the 1 device option, can you change devices during the cruise? I bought it in case I have to log in on my work computer but will probably only need it a couple of times.

Agreed. At 2 drinks you are already in the positive so it’s a no brainer unless you absolutely don’t drink at all. Even if you only end up having one drink on a day it’s still only about $6-7 that you “loss”. The only things that I have had to upgrade on is wine if we didn’t like the wine in that type and it usually is only $1-$2.

I am paying $69.99 per day plus 18% gratuity on my RCI cruise for the drink package. On a 7 day cruise that’s over $1100 for 2. RCI has dynamic pricing so other people are posting that the lowest price they have on their cruise is $84.99. But NCL are the bad guys.

They are wanting to upgrade to unlimited but they are asking if the second day upgrade work around still works. From other reports waiting to upgrade until the second day if you don’t use minutes on Day 1 still works.

You mentioned upgrade. Did you upgrade because of a price drop? If so, you only get one chance to ask for compensation from a price drop.

NCL gives FCC now instead of OBC for post final payment price drops.