Até

With the Haven getting larger and larger I have to give some, at least a little, credit to the OP's report as I have seen a few reports of butlers and concierge having too many needy passengers to deal with them all. I also feel the Haven crew, as well as the rest of the ship's crew that interact with passengers, can quickly read us passengers and tell where extra gratuities are going to come from. Perhaps OP was read as cheap, right or wrong. It can unfortunately be a self fulfilling thing.

Ate'

We are on the Dawn. I like the first night "special" offer, but I am not sure if it is for all ships.

It only applied to Breakaway & Getaway that had those venues.

Here on the NCL forum, there are a few people who constantly complain about "nickel and diming." But, my experience is that you don't have to pay for anything you don't want to pay for.

 

...

First, it's more than a few people that are complaining. What is important is not that you don't have to pay for most of these new charges if you don't want to, it's that they used to be included and were taken away, most often costing money to replace. Things like raising the DSC twice you do have to pay. OP, I will not post "The list" here as it just generates a firestorm, If you do a search on takeaway and the list you eventually will find a large, 30+ item list of customer negative changes NCL has made in the last two years. Oh, and add no more ship pins to the last version I saw posted.

Also, earlier versions of the UDP gave you free first night Cirque/Illusionarium. Later it became a percentage off then a discount amount. The dates of the terms and condition's changes are documented in a few threads if you search, not sure if this applies to your ship.

I assume OP has booked 4 persons in a room, two of those have free DSC as their promo...

 

6.75 times 2 equals the 13.50 dsc per person.

 

I have 3 booked in a room and mine reads 4.50 per person.

Thanks, that makes sense when you think about NCL trying to make the pre-paid gratuity promo fit into their wonky website/billing system.

Hopefully they aren't basing your bid on what your originally 'paid' for the room, but what going from category to category would be. This should be interesting.

Obviously they are to an extent: Rule #4 limits you to bidding two cabin classes above current cabin. That still is a bit vague. Do they mean B4 can only go to B2 or any Balcony can go to any Mini Suite or any Haven. I assume then the absolute best an Ocean View can ever do is Mini Suite. I hope this never becomes fleet wide as I will never give them permission to lock me into basically a guaranty cabin, no mater what the level. Current upsell was/is same cost no mater how many classes you increased. Perhaps that wasn't fair, but this is extremely limiting and overly complicated by forcing a trickle down cascade of upselling. I cannot see a circumstance I would want to use it.

I mean the UBP drinks

Sorry, I had a dyslexic moment and thought you wrote udp. When it's typed in lower case it messes me up. UBP reported to wok fine in M'ville.

On the breakaway

 

 

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Yes, starting Oct 9, 2016 NCL would love you to waste one of your SDP (or UDP) meals at M'ville.

Just playing devil's advocate, but what would you do if you took the internet promo and the ship's internet was down most of the cruise. I understand there is no recourse to be reimbursed for the promo value, but at least you could change your DSC to recover some of the perceived "loss" if you wanted. If you choose the pre-paid gratuity promo you are sort of stuck.

So this was the real purpose of your post

 

 

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Not particularly. Just thinking, as I've not used this promo before....

Thanks, I either didn't see or comprehend the significance of that line in the middle of the general T&C's. I was looking more at the Pre-paid service charge section. I don't really consider any of the promos as truly free, I feel everyone knows the cost of these promos is incorporated in the cruise fares. One of my trains of thought was how this affects the nature of the DSC as a gratuity. This way it cannot be modified as a "tip" and could that legally change the way it is treated tax wise or however NCL deals with it in their bookkeeping?

I feel there are good arguments for both sides. I have called NCL to get their take, only at the PCC/supervisor level, and it was consistent with above comments - no changes or refund. However no one could find it as written policy or in any terms & conditions. I was actually looking for someone who had actual experience trying it rather than opinions. I just felt that if it were policy that by taking this promo you forgo this feedback mechanism it should be stated somewhere.

I asked this question on another thread and surprisingly got little response, I thought it would liven up a fairly boring NCL board. I was wondering what NCL would say to someone who had a bad service experience, but booked with pre-paid gratuity promo. Could they modify/reduce their DSC post cruise? I'll just put it out here that I usually pre-pay the DSC and have never changed it on the last day or post cruise and don't want to get in an argument of whether it's right or wrong. NCL offers it as a method, one of few, for guests to express their feelings about the quality of service they received. I'm not judging whether it's right or wrong.

I would just like to know if anyone was allowed to modify their DSC while using this promo or if NCL denies that possibility with the promo. I hope some of the few admitted DSC modifiers can be able to post experience here without condemnation.

Being able to sleep without the noise from a slot machine all night or the kitchen crew at 5am is better than the view from a OB picture window. I would never do a GTY in any ocean view category. Deck 5 forward under the meeting rooms is the only area I find okay. Otherwise deck 8 aft works well.

There are a lot of OV locations that can have noise trouble. Some reviews find the following areas fine, but I've read about deck 8 forward noise from the theater, deck 8 aft (on Gem) noise from Bliss and deck 8 mid-ship noise from having the hallway on deck 9 being directly above the room. Deck 5 mid can be under the casino, dining rooms or kitchen galleys. In the past I have picked a deck 4 porthole (not forward) or deck 5 not full forward under the conference rooms just to be safe as I'm a light sleeper and hate getting noise from above or below. Noisy cabin neighbors is a different unavoidable possibility, but I try to avoid the avoidable.

It totally depends on your cruise length, interest in other promos and how often you plan on using the specialty restaurants, but I found on my 14 day that it was better $ wise to purchase a nine meal or more SDP package and chose another promo I would use, as the overall cost per meal was less due to the decreasing cost of the SDP as you purchase more meals.

MSC, you should redo the poll, just broader. Just a simple question: Does NCL do an adequate job enforcing the existing rules about parent supervision of minors on their ships? Yes or No. Maybe that would better send the message you are looking for.

I also had to make this decision, giving up 14 latitude bonus points by trading internet for paid gratuities and a $200 price drop. Grats saved $378 plus the $200 drop saved $578, adding back internet will cost me either $75 or $125 depending on which package I purchase. For cost analysis I figure I gave up $125, so for giving up the latitude points I get $453. I would have turned platinum, but it only makes it 8 points before I get the extra benefits. I took the money.

Oh, also minus two dollars as for some reason port & gov taxes went up.

Per my PCC conversation this week and past experiences: If you are changing between two promos that were both offered when you booked e.g. internet to shore excursions from the past promo then it is not treated as a cancel and re-book so you would not be re-priced to current levels. If you booked earlier and now want the new gratuities promo that was not offered when you initially booked then they will re-price the cabin to current levels as it is treated as a cancel and re-book. I just went through this and my PCC had to go check current pricing then said it could be done for no extra cost. I did lose the extra latitude bonus points that I originally booked with as they are currently not offered on my cruise. Things get even more complicated if your cabin category has gone to GTY or sold out status.

Changing promos between those that were offered when the cruise was booked seems to be no problem at all. If you are changing to a different promo from what was offered when you booked it is treated as a cancel and re-book. The re-book falls under the current offerings in all ways, including current price. There seems to be no problems and little chance of losing the cabin as long as there are same category cabins still available. GTY or sold out categories evidently create a problem. Getting permission to not have the cabin temporarily put back into the available pool took a supervisor approval.

I am before final payment and called today to change from internet to paid gratuities. My newish-to-me "senior" PCC told me it would be handled as a cancel and re-book and since my category is now only available as a GTY I would lose the room and be assigned another. I told her that would be unacceptable as I specifically booked that room and do not do guarantee. Since it made a $250+ difference in the price and I have been unhappy with recent policy changes anyway I told her to go ahead and cancel, but if I couldn't get the same room not to re-book me. After some time she came back and said her supervisor gave special permission to make the change without kicking the room back into the available pool, but it was not the normal procedure. I think they do give more grief if it is a change in your favor. However, I did lose the latitudes bonus points which are now not offered on my cruise.

In addition to what hawkeyetlse said I have to assume the all the ultra premium are now out of UBP range. Previously several were covered despite the ambiguity in the terms & conditions.

I think the idea is interesting and I appreciate KeithJenner's efforts. But I would keep in mind that it's not enough to look at what you actually buy on board and compare the prices to what you paid in the past. That's pretty easy and I think most of us do that already to some extent. But you also have to consider if there's anything you would have enjoyed in the past, but you decide against it now because you know the price is higher. And sometimes it can be hard to honest about that, even to yourself. If you spend your cruise saying no (or saying yes less often) to extras for yourself and your family because of the cost, at the end of your cruise you may have the exact same folio charges, or even lower charges, compared to previous cruises, but you can still say truthfully that the higher prices affected your cruise negatively. You can't prove it by pointing at lines in your stateroom account summary, but it's still true.

I wanted to post the same idea but had trouble putting it into words. Drinking the cheaper wines now included in the UBP won't cost me any more - I will not pay extra for non included ones. I will do without the sparkling water I can no longer bring on board - no added cost. I will drink Bulliet or Jameson rather than The Glenlivet or Macallen - no added costs, just diminished enjoyment value from what I booked.

Illogical.

 

If you could sell your cabin back to NCL at a profit that's one thing.

You can't.

I don't know if it would ever happen, I've been talking to Oceania and it's strange. NCL could adopt their practice of continuing to sell "sold out" categories, they call it "wait listed", at higher prices then contacting those that booked at lower rates to offer incentives to give up their booking. Speculation over cabin prices could bring in a whole new aspect to NCL.

If you believe the individual prices NCL asks for drinks are real world then the UBP is usually of value for even light drinkers. NCL probably has most people covered between cruise fare increases and the 18% gratuity. The UBP now seems a marketing ploy luring in those that want to drink large quantities of relatively cheap alcohol. I have found it was less expensive pre-UBP when I ordered a bar setup for the room and payed corkage on a few bottles of wine, that way at least I drank what I liked. With the UBP I tend to drink more than usual to make the package "worth it" and they no longer cover the drinks I prefer. I'm ready for the promo to end, hopefully cruise fares and drink prices would then be reduced. Unfortunately, I feel that is unlikely to happen.