NewCruiser51912

My husband and I are coming into Barcelone June 10 from the NCL Epic and staying at Hotel Suizo in the Gothic Quarter (right by Hotel Colon) for 2 nights before flying out. This thread is very helpful! Does anyone here have any experience with Hotel Suizo and things to do around there? We'll have been travelling for almost 3 weeks at this point so we'll be looking for relaxing things to do.

I'm also looking for fantastic restaurants (hopefully not crazy expensive) as hubby and I love to experience good local food. I do see there's a fresh food market close by. Is that worth stopping at?

There will be no gratuities as your pre paid the service charge. NCL calls it the DSC. You may tip people extra as you go but your are not required to. The only charges would be tax on drinks in port depending on the country you are in, if you order a drink over the $15.00 limit you would pay the difference plus the 20% gratuity on the difference, anything you would like to purchase from the shops on board or spa. As someone else mentioned, since you have $100.00 OBC you could walk away owing nothing. Have a great cruise.

 

Candi

I've seen responses like this and other responses that say the gratuity is different than the service charge I already paid. Can someone please clarify?

The following page should be extremely helpful for you!

 

https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/prepare-for-your-cruise

 

You might want to go to the bottom of the page and open several different links under

USEFUL INFORMATION.

I suggest studying the Cruise Lingo, so you are familiar with what other cruisers are talking about.

BTW; "Embark" on your cruise (getting on the ship) and Disembark (getting off the ship)

... in your case, both will take place in Barcelona.

Ugh I keep doing that! I mean to type "depart" and end up typing "disembark" by accident. I must just be so excited I can't keep myself straight! ;)

There are no hidden costs. Everything that is additional cost has a price tag on it. With your pre-paid service charge, UBP, SDP, and on board credit, it’s entirely possible you’ll walk off with a zero dollar bill. Only things to know are what’s not included in the UBP - bottles of wine, drink tastings, mini bar, room service, bottled water, specialty coffee; know that some restaurants require an upcharge to use your SDP credit and in any specialty restaurant you go to you can only order 1 entree per person. Outside of that, enjoy your trip. It’s usually gambling and alcohol that get people in trouble on their bills.

 

 

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Ooooh drink tasting? What are those? Sounds like something I might enjoy! :D

By specialty coffee, do you mean that stuff at the coffee shop in the atrium? I don't know if I can survive without my daily chai latte! ;p

A Med cruise is extremely port intensive, so most of your costs is going to be whatever you decide to do for shore excursions. Most people have breakfast and get off the ship by 8:30am and don't get back on until 5-6pm where they go have dinner and either see a show or just pass out in bed only to get up and do it all again the next day. Typically shore excursions in the Med cost somewhere between $85 per person per day and $400 per person per day depending on how much of the transportation you DIY via foot, trains and buses and how many tours with transportation you take. For me, the biggest surprise was how expensive shore excursions can be in the Med compared to Alaska or the Caribbean. But they are well worth it. It is imperative to have a plan for your shore excursions and book them in advance. You can meet fellow cruisers to share these expenses with here on Cruise Critic under your ships Roll Call. Since you won't be on the ship much and are likely to be very tired in the evening, it may not be worth it to get a spa pass or schedule to see any show you must pay for. You will have little time to visit the casino and there's not much worth buying in the gift shops, so...onboard, I don't think you will have much in the way of extra expenses. For drinks, you will be charged a gratuity and service charge per drink. Same deal with specialty dining. But your $100 onboard credit can go towards this. You can easily keep up with your onboard expenses by turning on your TV and accessing your account each day so there will not be any surprises. If you look on the NCL website it says that the drink and dining package excludes tips and service fees:

 

• FREE OPEN BAR
   
  Sip on a Mojito poolside and a glass of Pinot at dinner. With Free Open Bar, Guests 1 & 2 get an Ultimate Beverage Package, including all you can drink spirits and cocktails, wines by the glass and draft beer, and juice or soda.
   
  YOU SAVE UP TO $178.00 PER DAY
  Excludes gratuities and service charges.
  
• FREESPECIALTY DINING
  

Thank you for this! We've already booked our shore excursions as well. We're doing excursions in the first 3 ports (Pompeii, Rome, Florence) but just plan to wing it in Cannes by just hitting a beach near the port or hanging out on the ship, and walking where we want to go in Palma.

We rolled our service charge into our fare cost so it looks like our only on-ship cost could very well be the gratuity. I'm not sure if we want to see any shows or not. Like you said, we might be exhausted so we'll play that by ear.

Hubby and I are going on our first cruise ever on the NCL Epic June 3-10 disembarking from Barcelona. We have the SDP and UBP(I know this is a $15/drink max) and an aft-facing balcony room. We also have $100 on board credit. We pre-paid our service charges and all our taxes, etc.

I've heard cruises are notorious for tacking on hidden costs. :rolleyes: Hubby and I are going to be on a bit of a budget as this trip is a celebration of him finishing grad school that we're adding on to the end of an Ireland trip with his family. We want to avoid a large bill at the end as much as possible. Being cruising newbies, we don't know what to expect. I know we'll need money for tipping, shopping, shore costs, etc. but is there anything we should be expecting? Is there anything that you were surprised to see on your bill at the end of your cruise? Is gratuity covered in the service charges we already paid? Sorry if this is confusing or silly, but I'd like to have as much info as possible before we leave! :)

Offhand I can’t think of anything the dining package doesn’t include. However, you are limited to just one entrée. Now that I think of it I don't think the Sushi Bar is included but I could be wrong.

 

The drinks are free up to the limit of $15 not $30 but the majority of the drinks you order will be under that $15 limit. Even so, if you order a drink that cost more than the $15 you only pay the difference.

Ah yes, I forgot about that. Our "personal Cruise Consultant" mentioned $30, but now I remember he was talking about both my husband and I. Thanks!

Hubby and I are first time cruisers. We love experiencing new food and don't want to have to worry about a huge bill when we're done, so we got the drink package and the specialty dining package. I know the specialty dining package includes most of the "a la carte" restaurants, but is there anything that it doesn't include? I've seen a lot of people posting about all the things you get charged extra for but no one has mentioned the packages. I thought I saw somewhere that a couple restaurants weren't included but now I can't find that anywhere.

I was told that as far as the drink package, it's not so much of a "free drinks" but that you get up to $30 per drink. So we've got the loopholes figured out on that.

Does anyone have experience with the drink and specialty dining packages?

Thank you everyone! I've booked our shore excursions through Shore Excursions Group and Shore Excursioneer. They seemed very reputable and Shore Excursions Group has a guarantee that you'll get back to your ship or they'll pay to transport you to your next port. That makes me feel a bit better. I just didn't want to be one of those people that annoys the ship staff by showing up late for security checks at embarkation.

Hi all!

My husband and I are first time cruisers doing a 7 day western Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian Epic. We're both pretty clueless on how all the little details work, but we've got everything all booked and ready to go. I'm the kind of person that likes to do a ton of research before I go and I followed some advice I saw in some comments and booked our shore excursions through a reputable company rather than through the cruise line to save a bunch of money. My questions is this: I saw in our vacation summary that for security reasons, you have to be back on the ship 2 hours prior to disembarkation. Is that just for the first port or every port? Because with the company we used in Rome, it looks like we won't be back to the ship until about an 45 minutes to an hour before disembarkation. Will that be a problem?

I'm hesitant to ask anyone at NCL because I'm sure they'd rather I book shore excursions with them than with somebody else.

Thanks in advance!