603NHCruiser

Does anyone know who the current GM of the Prima is? Or Better yet, their secretary?

Did you adjust the guest number when doing a mock booking to make sure it is actually only $750 per cabin? Or were you still looking at the cabin based on double occupancy? If it is truly $750 for the cabin then get two adjoining rooms. You can either each enjoy a big bed to yourselves or still share one cabin but have the other one available for an extra bathroom. Plus if you both own shares you can get the Shareholder OBC on both rooms and apply CN to each booking to decrease the port fees and taxes more.

@BirdTravels @UKstages either of you recall when the discount on the full cost Bev package was added to latitude rewards? I seem to remember it being at least a year or too, and possibly when they added Sapphire and Diamond. It doesn’t really matter as it is a useless benefit unless they ever do away with FAS, but now curiosity’s gotten the best of me.

Was on the phone with CAS for about 45 min this afternoon and confirmed that NO, existing reservations will not be Grandfathered and new benefits immediately take effect fleet wide as of April 1. UK was already kind enough to add a lot of info to the other thread, but I figured I might as well add a second point of data, since we are all aware that you can call three times and get 4 answers.... It is still unclear about the status of Jade or entry players before they hit the now lowered 4k threshold. And specifically will that mean that CAS priority embarkation will now only be offered for Pearl and above. Drink cards are discontinued. The agent was unsure if land based cert offers would also no longer have them as that was not outlined and is currently a perk. the assumption is that once more talking points come out and the website pages are updated, it will likely be removed. the Water package will be boxed water delivered to the room in the same fashion as the Latitude perk. I personally hate the box water so I didn't write it down, but I believe it was 6 boxes for sailings up to ten days, and 10 boxes for sailings over ten days. as we know, no more OBC for Pearl.. YMMV, but when I politely expressed my displeasure with this especially given the fact that it takes effect in ten days and Agents are still learning about it at the same time we are, she placed me on a brief hold and came back to tell me that a supervisor was adding a one time $100 OBC credit on sailing departing April 5th. it would not apply to my later reservations, and the supervisor was emailing the ship so that it would be noted upon arrival. I asked for any sort of written confirmation and she said that unfortunately she was unable to provide that, however, at the end of the call I asked for an updated amenity confirmation as I needed it after having my Shareholder OBC added, and to my surprise there was a second $100 OBC credit that stated it was from the Casino. again, YMMV, but sometimes being polite and patient while expressing dissatisfaction can certainly help.

I wanna say it was added when they introduced the Sapphire and Diamond Latitude levels, however it could have been there before that and I am just not seeing it on older reward breakdowns that I looked at via a google search. I recall when they announced the new levels, the bar package discount was joked about a lot as they had already switched to the full FAS offer instead of the choose one/two/all offer they had prior to the shutdown which was based on your room category. The discount only applies when the full priced package is booked so I would love to hear from someone who has ever exercised the benefit over just pay the grat on FAS

But it likely is going to be limited to Box water and they will stop allowing Aqua Panna and SP!

Like usual, they promote positive changes while actually taking considerable things away from the lower tiers. Us measly pearl players may now only have to earn 4K points per year to retain our status but from the looks of the mailer they have removed two great perks. The casino drinks, which means no more water, Red Bull or espresso from the casino. And they have also done away with the OBC for Pearl. Yay just in time for my April 5th sailing lol. Edit: another read shows that there is mention of some sort of “water package” but it will likely just be another bottle of Box water to the room.

@Sand and Seas have you been successful stacking a CASNext with a traditional CN? It seems as though you should, but the Casino Host I asked was less familiar with the program than I was (they can't know everything) and the CN desk said NO, but also seemed a little unsure... I haven't bothered reaching out to Miami yet to try and get a definitive answer.

So far, the account identifier has been really random for many people and for myself personally, changes at any given time. it has said everything from "Casino-Value" to "Jade", "Pearl", "Foxwoods", "CAS Guest", "MyVegas" etc. it has been talked about on a few of the sites across the internet that talk about CAS and no one can seem to get a straight answer as to if it is accurate or what it even means. People who have never set foot in the Casino also have an Identifier on their account and have reported that it also sometimes has a casino reference, or may say something else

Now that all of the ships have updated their slot machines to “tap-in” they have stopped issuing a casino card unless you are pearl or above. New players up to 5000pts which is Jade, no longer get the card as it was a lot of wasted money to print them each time.

Haha too funny! So am I. Portsmouth. I was just on a cruise last month and a couple was from N. Hampton, we ended up on the same flight home. It’s a small world.

"They have told me" - Have your flights already been assigned? or are you booked in the US and more than 120 day out without making your final payment yet? You are likely going to want to call your TA or NCL to get the best answers, but IF... you are in the US, more than 120 out prior to making final payment your are still outside of penalty and can have the air taken off either end of the trip. so it would be completly possible to request just the return be ticketed for NCL air. I have done this before without an issue. They will charge you 1/2 the rate for the RT. If you are within 120 day you will need to refer to the current cancelation terms and conditions to see how much you would loose. again may be best to talk to your TA or NCL directly to see if a change could be made from RT to one way. If the tickets have been assigned already, there is not much NCl will do and they will refer you to the airline. If the tickets are joined through the same airline or travel partner group you risk losing the return flight if you do not board the outgoing, as others have said

This may be old news to those of you who are more versed in the upgrade process, however after reading many of your posts I recall that you used to be able to redeem ONE meta/dblmeta on a B2B and as of recent this has no longer been allowed. This post, Just booked a B2B... explains how the OP booked a B2B that was merged under one Conf #. with others chiming in that they are seeing it as well. Any insight on if a person would be able to redeem through WP for an upgrade on the entire B2B if there is only one Conf# for both sailings? probably not, but wanted to see what some of you thought.

I have no experience with this but have read that previously when sailing a B2B, NCL Mastercard holders could use their points to upgrade the entire trip as ONE occurrence. This stopped being honored a few years ago and each leg was separate due to different reservation numbers. If booked under one conf number, maybe the old way of doing things will work again and CC holders could really see a substantial savings??

So I'm not really sure there are ways to "hack" the CNs, other than using the promos such as the current triple stack on new reservations of a balcony or higher more than 120 days out... You can sort of "hack" the Cruise First for additional savings if you pay using a credit card that offers cash back or a rebate. Amex will run a CB promo a couple times a year which is often $350 when you spend $1000. You can purchase a CN valued at $500 for only $250 and then put a $750 deposit down on a new booking. this will result in a value of $1,250 while only spending $650. Other than that you will want to look into things like MyVEGAS where you can play games for free which earn points that can be redeemed for things like dollar off or % discounts on cruises as well as "free" cruises on select sail and ship itineraries. The offers frequently change, but I was recently able to Apply two $750 off coupons ($1500 off) with a cruise next ($500 off) and my Amex offer for a total value of $2700 towards a cruise for only $650 out of pocket. I booked the trip while NCl also extended an additional 50% off existing promos for certain Alaska Cruises. All in all I am in an aft balc, for under $750pp including NCL airplane tickets and leave next week. I also have a "comp" cruise that I redeemed points for through MyVEGAS where I was only responsible for Port Taxes & Fees, grats, and the Daily Service. I upgraded to a Balc on that reservation allowing be to apply three cruise next certs under the current promo so for $375 out of pocket I was able to apply $750 total towards outstanding charges and be left with a virtually zero balance.

Well @dbrown84 I think the days of buying OBC with the remainder of a CN/CF are over. I called in on Wednesday to try and do it and the casino rep I was working with immediately said nope... no way. I told her that I would have to look at things then and would call back later. did the Hang up call again and the 2nd rep also immediately said no, She seemed a lot more knowledgeable and explained that OBC could not be "added to a reservation" in the traditional sense like an upgraded room. it needed to be purchased through a separate amenities screen which required a credit card at the time of purchase so the CN would not be applicable. She went further to say that the terms of the CN specifically state that it is to be used to cover the deposit of a new booking, so while they will often and generally allow a CN to be applied to an existing res. if it is still 120 or more out, that is not technically a requirement of the terms. She put me on hold for a few moments so that she could check in with a supervisor (don't know if she actually did LOL or just put me on hold) and when she came back she said the supervisor confirmed everything she was saying Well. Whomp Whomp... maybe someone else will have more luck. If I recall on a previous cruise I added a VIBE on at the time of booking and it was held on the reservation with just a deposit before final booking, I wonder if the remainder of a CN could be used to cover that? may be worth a try..

You will generally see them run during most holidays, the fact that they already have a memorial day sale up now and also did the 250/500 could mean that they are going to run it again on the 29th. You never know!

Awesome. good to know that your experience was with CN. and completly makes sense about the excursions. hopefully it will work im going to be using them on an already booked room that I simply put $50 down on, so fingers crossed I can apply them. I have always been able to in the passed, but as your said so many changes LOL

I know this post was specifically referring to CF and @dbrown84 mentioned purchasing OBC to eat up the remainder of the $500 left after paying Port Taxes, Fees & the DSC.... Does anyone have experience also doing this with CN certs? I currently have two certs which would cover the above with about $150 left. When I asked my CAS PCC if I could purchase excursions with her to use the rest she said no. I didn't even think about OBC which would at that point be the "refundable" type I'm assuming. If anyone has used CN to purchase OBC your info would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the delay just got back from a 7 day on the escape. when the NCL promos came out a few months ago there was nothing in the T&C that mentioned 180 day between redeeming. but about a month in after a refresh it started to creep into most of the games, however it never seemed to make it onto the rewards posted through FB. Now it seems the language about 180 days has been removed, but no one can confirm if that was a change to the T&C or if during another refresh Play studios just uploaded the original language by mistake. the difficult thing with PS if you have ever had to deal with trying to get a refund is they will not budge from the pre-written email responses when you open a support ticket, so there is no way to get clarification or a clear answer. there is also always a sentence in the T&C of all of the rewards stating that rules and terms can be updated at any time without notification. this pretty much gets them off Scott free to be able to do whatever they want. If you are on FB there is a MyVegas Cruise group which we use to talk about the NCL rewards alot. you can check that out in addition to here, if you want more info.

Glad you had success... I'm hoping that it is thanks to the terms reverting back to the way they were originally and not a glitch. just watch it, because that sounds fairly similar to by booking when I tried to book my second time. it didn't go through, so they did some manual adjustments to make it work (this was all while on the phone though, it was a 2.5hour call) but then a week later, one day before final payment I got a call saying that Playstudios kicked it back because of the 180 rule. NCL was actually super understanding an was willing to extend a comp seven day offer that I already had with them to 9 days so that I wasn't out the extra money. But, I already had plans for it so I ended up just paying out of pocket.

That is the million dollar (or should I say Million LP) question right now. I think everyone is hesitant to give it a try... I know I purchased my second reward BEFORE they made the initial change from 30 to 180, but when I went to redeem Play Studios told NCL no. I ended up having to eat the $$ difference of the cruise, but after going back and forth with Play Studios for about two weeks they finally refunded the LP (of course I would have rather they honor the terms when I purchased the reward and allowed me to get the $$ off.) Now that the 180 has been removed and the terms say 30 days again it would be interesting to find out if that is actually correct, or if someone just made a mistake and uploaded old T&C during a batch refresh of the reward

You are both lucky that you were able to score the pass. I kept an eye for it at refreshes but never saw it available again before they pulled it. I hope you get some use out of them!

I don't know if it is so much that they are no "permitted to" because others have said they had success in the past. and there is language buried in the terms of the site regarding it. I think the bigger thing is that for comp or heavily discounted cruises there is no longer any (or very little) commissionable fare left to make it worth while for your TA to accept the transfer. If they aren't making any money on it, why would they want to take on the responsibility of ensuring the success of your reservation. let alone go further and comp you anything. It's a bummer, because I would love to try and get some of those extra AMEX perks, but I guess its the trade off on a "free" cruise LOL

As Gsalbato said. it certainly can. just check the terms and current promotions on CN dbl ups to see if you can apply two. depending on your circumstances, you may be better off using a cruise first which is similar however holds different terms and can be purchased online instead of having to be on a ship (or aftermarket)