DaCruiseBug

From the Belize Tourism Board... "Harvest Caye is a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Line" https://belizetourismboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Placencia-TDDP-Final.pdf While it was a joint development between NCL and Belize, NCL has exclusive access for 25 years. They agreed to have local staff on the island...but it doesn't mean they can't make the food/drinks free. Could have easily set it up like they do drinks while in port where you just pay taxes. So yes...it's just NCL being cheap.

Nah, it's just NCL being cheap...

It's the new NCL pour 😂 it's $16 for 1/2 a shot.

I've been on 2 post-covid NCL cruises. Why would you assume I don't use the product? Unlike some people on this forum, I understand that a forum is specifically for discussion. Good or Bad. It's not a cheerleaders club unless they take something away from you personally. Charging a-la-carte for items would be ok if fares weren't inflated to cover the costs of those things to begin with. So you're paying a higher cruise fare from the start and then they're throwing in all their additional bs fees. It's like being charged twice. Anyone is free to cruise on whoever they want, and I honestly don't care who you cruise on. Just don't make it out to be that little poor NCL that was shut down during Covid should get a pass on their shenanigans just because they haven't taken away or started charging for something you care about. I'm willing to bet $100 that if NCL started charging $5 for waterslides and $5 to wear shorts in the MDR at night that you'd be on this board kicking and screaming.

So basically based on your post history you only criticize NCL when they take something away from you (the GEM example from 2021 that another poster pointed to) and when it’s something you don’t care for then you defend NCL. So when NCL increases the price of bourbon we’ll probably see you on here complaining about NCL…but since it’s Baileys which you don’t care for then nobody else is allowed to complain. Got it.

Please don’t sail on Celebrity. I get the impression that Carnival would suit you better.

No, it’s because the barebones rates on NCL are mostly inflated compared to the competition. So while there may be a small difference between a sailaway rate and a rate with perks…it’s not because you’re getting some amazing deal on the perks it’s because the sailaway rate is inflated to begin with. Also, I can find just as many Edge/Apex sailings cheaper than the Prima. Much of it is based on itinerary and supply/demand. You can’t just pick 1-2 weeks and make a case of it based on that.

No, that’s not the case at all. With Celebrity if you picked anytime dining you just show up whenever you want. No reservation required. Celebrity also isn’t “quiet pool decks”. The Celebrity of today isn’t the Celebrity of 10 years ago. So all your assumptions aren’t based on actual experiences…just based on what someone somewhere may have said.

Clearly you haven’t sailed Celebrity because almost all cruise lines have anytime dining…including RCL and Celebrity. Also, Celebrity doesn’t even have formal night anymore…so there’s that. They’re called evening chick and people just wear jeans and a button down shirt.

No, it doesn’t. There’s plenty of people that spend $0 on the cruise. So what good does that OBC do? You end up spending it but you’re still paying out of pocket that $836. When I say how much my Celebrity or MSC or NCL cruise costs I say how much comes out of my pocket. GMC includes 3 years of on-star with their vehicles valued at $1,500 so if you buy a $30,000 vehicle do you say you only paid $28,500 for it because you got $1,500 worth of “perks”? Of course not. That’s just silly.

It doesn’t matter what your OBC is or what offers you got. You’re at $836. Your $600 figure is inaccurate.

How’s that $600 cruise that wasn’t actually $600 since you applied a bunch of FCC to it? That’s what I kind of thought.

So because I have valid points then Celebrity must be paying me? What specifically about Celebrity doesn’t interest you? Have you even sailed Celebrity in the past 5 years?

If you can’t see (or choose not to see) how NCL nickels & dimes customers and consistently make changes to take more money out of your pocket and put it into theirs then there’s no reason to even answer your question.

It’s like the car buyer that tells everyone they got floor mats for free and leaves out the fact that they paid $5k over msrp on their vehicle. But hey…free floor mats right?

You’re the perfect NCL customer. Ok with anything they do because you have blinders on and an emotional attachment to a corporation. Until one day they’ll take away something you really like and you’ll be the first one in here crying about it.

Cruise fares have increased, gratuities have increased, and the cost of the beverage package has increased to make up for “increased costs”. So now we’re also going to pay more and get less? This is Baileys we’re talking about. NCLs pricing on this item is ridiculous. Stop it with being an NCL apologist. No other cruise line is even close to $16 with Baileys. If you want to donate to the “pity NCL” fund feel free but don’t try to make the rest of us feel bad about a multi-billion dollar corporation that registers their ships in other countries to avoid following all US regulations. This goes for all the other cruise lines that do it as well. Instead of doing billions of dollars in stock buybacks NCL could have saved up a rainy day fund…but they chose not to.

I mean if you're looking to go somewhere...it's under $670 for 1 person on a 7 day sailing (balcony cabin) to the Caribbean on the MSC Meraviglia including beverage package and internet package next week.

LOL! We posted the same thing at the same time.

There's certainly some good deals out there on last minute itineraries especially those which are not very desirable. Yes, Alaska is nice but...not in mid-October.

Yes, because on most cruises the fare difference between the sailaway rate and a rate with perks is $100 per person or less. NCL inflates their cruise fares to already include the cost of the drink package. That's why you'll generally find that other cruise lines without any perks have much lower cruise fares. So while it's true that you're paying only the $20 per day in service fees it is also true that you paid a higher cruise fare to go on NCL compared to some of the other lines.

He included future cruise credit in his calculation. That's like be going out and buying 2 cruise next certificates of $250 each and saying my cruise cost me $500 less than what it actually cost. No it didn't...you got a credit because you already paid that money. Same goes with any OBC you get from your TA. They may use the OBC to cover your daily gratuities but with Celebrity they're already paid for so you can just spend the money on excursions. You're clouding the cost/value of the cruise with all these other addons.

Only because you're a SkyMiles Medallion...much different than using miles in advance to upgrade.

Pffft...a drink package for only $65 per day? NCL can't have that...not overpriced enough. Soon enough their standard drink package will include only knock-off booze from Mexico and you'll be forced to upgrade to their premium package which will by then probably cost $150-160 per day or about $70-80 per day to upgrade. That's what they're really pushing everyone towards.

So basically your "all-in" fare wasn't "under $600" as you stated but close to $1,000. The perks from your TA, future cruise credits, and perks for status don't decrease the actual cost of the cruise as you suggested. Our Celebrity cruise in March was $2,400 in a balcony cabin with all their perks plus we got $450 OBC from our TA and it includes paid daily gratuities. We don't say that our cruise fare is ($2,400 - 450 - 200) $1,750 because we have those perks. That would be very misleading.