hallux

NCL's Premium Air service would do the same, and is NCL's equivalent to those services. The situation in question is the BOGO airfare offer that is part of the Free At Sea promo.

Yes, it's been discussed here a lot...

The T&C's do mention an option to book one-way flights. T&C's - https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions Relevant wording - Guests may request a one-way air itinerary; in which case they will be charged 50% of the applicable promotional air pricing for the selected gateway. You (or your TA) probably need to call to get it set up.

You'll find discussion of such in this thread from a few months ago (found by entering 'airwrap' in the search box)..

Except for the Prima I believe they are corporate standard menus. I believe they have 14 or 21 menus from which they choose for a particular sailing.

I mentioned that in previous posts in this thread...

and keep in mind that only a portion of the reservations are available online in advance, so just because your preferred time is 'sold out' online does not mean it's fully booked.

One of the things the other lines do, which is rolled into the FAS rate, is if you want to select your room you can't pick the guarantee or sail-away rate. On Royal Caribbean, it's the "we pick your room" rate or the "you pick your room". Looking at an Eastern Caribbean 8 night cruise on the Wonder, they want $980pp for an inside if you let them pick your room, $1173pp if you want to pick your own - and those are just the lowest rates, for the worst rooms. By comparison - NCL's cruise out of the same port on the same weekend, 7 nights, Eastern Caribbean (though some ports differ) on the Escape is $899pp for inside sail-away (limited perks, no room selection) or $979pp with the FAS perks and you pick your room. I'll let YOU decide which is 'inflated', but in this case the NCL price is at least competitive and you get more for that price. Yes, this price on Royal is on their newest ship so the price may be inflated. This, of course, was just one cruise and one stateroom type, I picked the itinerary because I'm on the Escape the week before so it was the first that came to mind. Picking a balcony on Wonder becomes complex so I chose to make the easiest 'apples-to-apples' comparison.

You seem overly fixated on an assumption that "Free specialty dining' means you get to eat at a specialty venue every night. An assumption that is easily disputed when you read the terms of the promo. The advertisement has an indicator on it that when you look into it indicates that there may be restrictions and further information needs to be researched. Reading these terms is part of being an informed consumer. You ARE getting free specialty dining, the number of nights is dependent on how many nights the cruise is and what room you booked, just not free specialty dining every night (which is not implied in the material, or even implied with the 'FREE specialty dining' in the headline of the promo)... Let me guess - you're also one of those that assumes you'll get a brand new cell phone if your phone fails within the warranty period, and then complains when the manufacturer says you're getting a refurbished device. Hint - the warranty, if you read it, says they have the right to repair your phone with refurbished parts or replace it with a refurbished device.

They do, what's the point?

As noted - Delta charges for baggage. The terms of the promo clearly indicate that charges such as that are the responsibility of the passenger. https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions Airline-imposed personal charges such as baggage fees are not included and are paid directly to the airline.

and all one needs to do to figure out what it costs is compare the sail-away rate (which does not include the specialty dining, drinks, WiFi or the ability to select your cabin during booking) with the FAS rate. It's often a better deal to book the FAS rate IF the beverage package and dining are something you want. Also, there are RARE cruises where the sail-away rate is HIGHER than the FAS rate.

When you take a 'free financing for a year' deal to buy an appliance or furniture, do you assume you don't need to make a payment for that year and then can pay it off in full at the end of the term or do you read the terms of the promotion to find out you need to make equal payments over the term of the deal? Buying a cruise is the same as any other major purchase - read the terms of the promotions and understand what you're getting. As with anything, there is fine print that needs to be understood. Imagine what the flyers would look like if everything was spelled out on the front... FREE Airfare, for the second guest, 50% off airfare for solo travelers FREE Unlimited open bar, drinks up to $15, pay the difference over $15 or upgrade to a higher drink package FREE 2 nights of specialty dining, for some, based on cabin type and cruise length booked FREE Excursions. (ok, I'll give you this one, but they do this to keep the "free" theme for Free At Sea and there ARE some excursions that are $50 or under) Some of the promos vary by cabin and cruise length booked, they can't spell it all out on the front page of the material. As for the assumption that it's all-inclusive as on some other lines, it's a matter of making an assumption vs. reading the terms of the promotion. They grab your attention and draw you in, those that don't read deeper get caught off guard.

You do get free WiFi, up to 150 minutes per passenger. Again, it does not indicate it's free for the entire cruise. While we're at it - you don't get FULL free open bar- it's only for drinks up to $15, but you haven't complained about THAT caveat. It's all part of the "restrictions apply" fine print on the back of the mailing, which requires extra research as I indicated before.

As noted by someone else - nowhere does it say that you get free specialty dining EVERY night, so even one night (as I get for my Studio cabin on the Escape in March) still qualifies. Are you referring to the up-charge items, such as the crab cake at Cagney's? The fine print on the back DOES indicate restrictions apply. Reading the terms of the deals, rather than just the bold headline advertising is very important. Sometimes that requires going online and doing some searching - the phrase 'NCL promotional terms and conditions' in Google will give you the full, CURRENT terms of the promos with the very first result.

Includes the gratuity for the FAS package items. I don't believe the DSC is included for you folks unless your booking agent included it in their package.

Yes, because the airfare was one of the perks at the time you booked, and you chose to accept the airfare perk (I didn't for my upcoming cruise). When you re-price or ask for a price drop, the new fares are based on the perks at that time, which no longer include the airfare so they can't do it. To be fair - most people making a post like yours are doing so to complain about the 'lack of customer service'. Happy holidays to you too...

Such is the risk you take when you book early. Would you expect NCL to ask you for more money if the fare went up after final payment? You were happy with the price when you booked, weren't you? NCL is not obligated to re-price your cruise or refund when your cabin category goes down in price. My upcoming cruise went down $100 just before FP, I called to get the drop and then make my payment. The price for my cabin is now higher than I paid...

The actual process is covered in this previous thread -

How many days until your cruise? MY best advice - plan ahead, ask for a deviation (can be requested any time before you are 75 days from the cruise) and fly in at least a day early, NCL will allow up to a two-day deviation on the BOGO promotion so as to avoid that situation entirely. Will it cost more vacation time? Maybe, unless you fly on Saturday instead of Sunday for a Sunday embarkation. Will it cost more money to book a hotel room for a night or two? Sure. But if you have the additional day of vacation time available - USE IT. Missing the cruise isn't worth the cost savings to not fly a day early. If you are not familiar with the terms of the promotion, you can find them here as a refresher - https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions The deviation possibility I mention is covered there. Do you NEED to? I'll answer that with a question - do you want to get up at 3 or 4 AM in Chicago or Upstate, NY, so you can catch a 6 or 7 AM flight to get to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale in time for a cruise, only to need to go to bed by 9 PM because you're so tired? You don't say where you're flying from/to so we can't say with absolute certainty that you NEED to fly in a day or more early, but unless you're flying Atlanta to somewhere in Florida it's certainly advisable.

The registers I worked (only one previous job, but multiple locations for a chain) also had five slots for bills and five for coins, but once we got anything bigger than a 20 we'd drop the large bill and maybe a bunch of other 20's and 10's in the time-lock for security so we never really used the last slot for actual bills.

It's almost as if FDR has forgotten that NCL is the mainstream line in NCLH, in competition with Carnival and Royal, rather than the premium line in competition with Seabourn or Silversea. The prices are getting to insane levels.

Pretty well hashed out in this thread from Friday -

I have a stack of 3 or 4 on my desk, along with (I believe) a $5 silver certificate.

I thought Q was a-la-carte...