DaCruiseBug

Vitriol? LMAO! Just pointing out the obvious...

And you believed him? What did you expect him to say? The truth? That corporate is cutting down costs by limiting what is offered and by pushing people to upgrade their beverage package? Captain Morgan is a very popular alcohol in the United States. How about they get rid of one of the 30 different flavors of vodka that gets used once per month instead? As the saying goes...excuses are like a******s, everybody has one.

MSC Divina cruise out of Miami - Miami - 7pm departure Nassau - 9am to 6pm (9 hours) Ocean Cay Private Island - 1:30pm until 6pm the next day (28:30 hours) Miami - 7am Total port taxes and fees = $96 per person NCL Joy cruise out of Miami - Miami - 5:30pm departure Great Stirrup Cay - 8am to 6pm (10 hours) Nassau - 8am to 5pm (9 hours) Miami - 7am Total port taxes and fees = $215.84 NCL on the same exact itinerary, but with each cruise lines stopping at their respective private island, charges 125% more in port taxes and fees than MSC. NCL inflates port taxes and adds in additional "fees" to increase their revenue. Nobody questions this because everyone thinks it's standard fees that NCL can't do anything about. Call it sneaky, call it being dishonest...you choose... When you buy your airplane ticket look at the taxes and fees you're charged and you'll see they are the exact same regardless of the airline you fly. Plus, there's transparency and you know exactly what each fee is. Why not at the very least hold cruise lines (especially NCL) to the same standard?

...and this right here is exactly why I personally think it's just another scummy tactic NCL is deploying. Because so many think the DSC is a "tip" that goes directly to employees...they don't really question it or it doesn't phase them. The reality is that the DSC only partially goes to the employees by paying their actual salaries and undisclosed "incentive programs" and the rest NCL just keeps as part of revenue. NCL does the same exact thing with "taxes and port fees" by inflating the actual port fees charged by the various ports and pocketing the difference. Why do you think NCL "taxes and port fees" are consistently higher than any other cruise line?

My issue is that what is covered when you book the cruise with the beverage package should also be covered when I actually go on the cruise. If I book a cruise 1 year out and XYZ drink is covered but 30 days before I sail XYZ drink is now no longer covered...that shouldn't fall on me as a customer. But at the end of the day NCL doesn't care. Just look at all the nickel and diming with all the changes they keep implementing.

Every so often NCL raises the price of alcohol since the drink package isn’t tied to specific included drinks but rather to a price. What’s funny is that they actually increased the price of the beverage package recently and they keep reducing what’s included. Just more dishonest shenanigans by NCL to suck every last penny out of customers by pushing the beverage package upgrade since less and less items are included with the standard beverage package.

I've done 4 cruises this year. Extremely satisfied with my choices. Just because i'm not a NCL cheerleader I should not cruise?

Because if they wanted to make more money they should increase cruise fares. Not increase service charges which a majority of people think are going directly to workers as tips.

Not an opinion. Compare the taxes and port fees between NCL and other cruise lines.

Most people have absolutely no problem paying “gratuities”. Some people just don’t like the idea of something being sold as one thing but actually going to something else. The same goes with “port fees and taxes” which NCL inflates so they can pocket more of your money without you actually thinking NCL is getting it.

The DSC and beverage package service charges go to the same exact place…a NCL bank account. They don’t end up in the workers pockets as gratuities or tips.

NCL literally admits that the service charges are used to pay worker salaries. They’re not tips. It’s not something workers get above and beyond their regular pay. NCL uses service charges as a slush fund to pay their expenses.

I think you’re either dreaming or in denial. I never said none of the DSC or beverage package service charges go to workers. I said they don’t go directly to them and most certainly only a certain percentage goes to them. Not as straight “tips” but as “incentive” programs NCL runs. I honestly don’t care how they market them. Any intelligent human being can figure out they’re not getting $1,500 per month in tips. Don’t believe me? Ask the crew on your next sailing. See what they all say. NCL markets “taxes and port fees” as some kind of required expense to operate that makes people think it’s governments taking the money but NCL CHOOSES to charge each passenger well over $100 just to stop at GSC and possibly inflated the port fees at other ports to line their coffers. Just compare identical itineraries between NCL and other cruise lines. Stop being an NCL apologist.

Please stop calling them “tips”. The service charges you pay don’t go directly to staff. They’re used in part to fund “incentive programs” that NCL has for employees. So to answer your question…the same people that get your money if you were to have 50 drinks per day get it if you have 1 drink per day.

Next up... NCL will be charging $0.25 per individual ply of toilet paper and $0.75 per flush.

The increase to the daily service charges (let's not call them gratuities because they don't go directly to the workers) in a ship like the Escape means an additional HALF A MILLION dollars going into their pockets each and every month. Absolutely ridiculous!

I didn't give exact figures did I? It's no secret that on NCL the service fees don't go directly to employees. There was a thread a couple of years ago that went into detail about these incentive programs that part of the service fees go to. You can also do the math per sailing and see that the daily service charges amount to an incredible amount. For Example: Per the NCL website the Escape holds 4,266 guests at double occupancy and has 1,733 crew members. Using the new numbers of $20 per cabin (I won't add in the $25 for Haven suites) that comes out to $85,320 per day or $2,559,600 per month. Divided by 1,733 crew members that's roughly $1,500 per month per crew member from the daily service charges alone. Obviously, they're not getting anywhere near that amount per month in bonuses or incentives. That amount is probably the total many of them make each month in salary. I'd be surprised if 50% of that actually goes to crew members. The rest is going straight into NCLs bank accounts. As far as NCL inflating the port fees to pocket more money it's pretty easy to figure out actually. They won't actually tell you even if you ask them but just compare itineraries with other cruise lines. Royal Caribbean March 2023 4 night cruise from Miami with stops in Grand Bahama, Nassau, and Coco Cay = $117.95 per person in port fees. NCL March 2023 4 night cruise from Miami with stops in Grand Bahama, Nassau, and GSC = $212.55 NCL is charging each passenger about $100 MORE to dock at GSC than RCL charges theirs in Coco Cay.

Nothing surprising here...Nickel and Dime cruise line just keeps raising charges and fees every few months. A few bucks here and a few bucks there. It's also important to remember that the daily service fees don't go directly to workers on NCL. Only a percentage of the service fees go towards worker "incentive programs" and the rest NCL pockets as additional revenue. They do the same thing with the "taxes and port fees" by inflating them above what they're actually charged by all the different ports. For example, when you dock at GSC you think that it's all free but NCL charges over $60 per person in "port fees" when you visit. Most of that money goes right in their pockets.

If anything, your reply shows just how wrong you are. You’re using a cruisecritic “article” to make your case. I used a link to a government agency of Belize to make my case. The case for NCL ownership of the island was further proven by the link posted by mtrancher which quotes the Prime Minister of Belize who states that NCL owns Harvest Caye free and clear. We then have a quote from Colin Murphy Senior VP at NCL - “I think we first started looking for islands in Belize in 2012. I believe we bought the island in 2013 and we started construction in April of 2014” http://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=38736 On top of all this we can also look at NCLs own website which says “Owned in partnership by NCL and the Belizean government” But hey…this is more about you trying to be right (when you’re wrong) rather than having an honest conversation with actual facts.

I mean...that's only because the dollar has gotten stronger. Could have easily gone the other way. So your reasoning to give NCL an interest free loan for MONTHS is because you like the forex market? The last time the USD/CAD exchange was $1.26 was in June and you don't sail until next May. So you're giving NCL an interest free loan for 1 year (or more if you actually did it earlier then that) all in the hopes that the exchange rate gets worse? Again, makes no sense to me.

How does uploading a link from a Belize government agency equal wikipedia? Your article just says it's a partnership with Belize. They're both joint owners...which means...that NCL also OWNS the island as the Belize government agency link says. Regardless of who owns the island, NCL absolutely CAN make food and drinks FREE on the island. There's absolutely NOTHING stopping them from having that kind of contract with the vendors. NCL has made a CHOICE not to do that because they're CHEAP. Nice try...well...not really but...

I'm going to start off by saying...it's your money...spend it on whoever and whatever you want. Having said that, tipping has turned into a "who's got the biggest d***" competition it seems. I tipped $50, well I tipped $80, no I tipped $120, hey I tipped $200. It's not a competition. The most overtipped person on the entire ship is the concierge in the Haven. For example, the Escape has 95 suites that are almost always occupied. There's 2-3 people that work as concierge staff on the Escape based on what I saw earlier this year. If everyone tips the concierge $50-100 (as many have stated) that's $4,750-$9,500 per week in tips that they're splitting between the 3 of them. That's $20,357-$40,714 per month just in tips which divided by 3 comes out to $6,785-$13,571 per each of the concierge staff (if there's 3 of them). This is on top of their regular salary. Yes, some people don't tip them but some also tip them $200-300 (i've see it). At the end of the day what does a concierge do? Make restaurant reservations? Show reservations? Excursions? Nothing that really takes much effort or is overly difficult. A room steward deserves tips much more than any concierge. On our Escape cruise our room steward and butler each got $60. The concierge got $0 because they didn't do anything for us. Bartenders got $1 per drink. Our server in the Haven restaurant also got $60. If you want to show off and tip $500 knock yourself out...I couldn't care any less.

I don't think I understand. Why would you gift yourself OBC before the cruise? You're giving NCL an interest-free loan for potentially up to many months. Why not just charge it all and it goes to your credit card anyways?

I only have 1 existing NCL booking that's coming up pretty soon and the pricing on it is almost double what it was when we booked. We've been moving our business over to Celebrity as much as possible because the value just isn't there with NCL anymore...IMO.

Let me make this very easy to understand. NCLs 40% off sale is equivalent to this... If I charge $5 for a gallon of milk but then have a 40% off sale and increase the price of a gallon of milk to $10 is that a good deal? That's the NCL 40% off sale for ya.