truckswain

They have not taken away the butlers.

I think it is important to note that are two types of Air that can be booked with NCL - Promo Air or Flights Promo Air (usually 2nd guess flies free) allows for no changes, upgrades etc. The cheapest group airfare is purchased. You can request up to 2 days deviation meaning arriving up to two days before cruise and post cruise stay. This must be done at time of booking. I have used this for short flights (Toronto to New York) and no issues. Mainly because they pretty much have to be direct flights. I tried this on a cruise to Miami and ended up cancelling the air with penalty and booked my own as the flights they assigned were ridiculous. Booking flights with NCL and working with them you can choose flights etc and you may find they are cheaper than booking direct with airline. I always compare air booked with the cruise line vs the airline and choose the cheapest comparing apples to apples.

You are correct. I should have clarified that NCL reduced services and increased their daily service charge to the highest of the three major cruise lines by a significant amount.

I don't believe that a live muster is a requirement. Several cruise lines adopted the E-muster and have not returned to the live muster. My point being NCL has not been transparent in their reason for going back to the live muster and then back to the E-muster

I believe those that are loyal or have status with NCL will be able to overlook some of what I commented on. And so they should as NCL still provides an enjoyable vacation. It was my understanding that Jersey Boys, Footloose, Burn the floor have all been removed, I am glad they have not. We were on the Symphony in September and they had not started the one time a day cabin cleaning. They also did not jack up the daily service charge/gratuity like NCL and then reduce service. Symphony had some of the best entertainment we have seen on RCL ships. I would not call the food horrible on Symphony but it is not as good as NCL, in my opinion.

We sail Royal and Celebrity most often and were on Symphony of the Seas in September. This was our 3rd NCL cruise having been on the Escape twice before, which were fantastic cruises. The Encore is a beautiful ship, well designed with closed in smoking areas. The staff were excellent! Everyone we interacted were pleasant and seemed quite happy. The food was also excellent, much better than Royal in our opinion. NCL has freestyle dining down to a science. Never waited for a table for breakfast or dinner at the main dining rooms. Routinely watched large groups of 10 or more get seated quickly and with no drama. That would never happen on Royal. Specialty dining was excellent. We did Cagney, Onda, Le Bistro and Q. We used the dining package for all 4 and the options were explained clearly and the food was plentiful and excellent. However, for our cruising preferences, the cost cutting measures NCL has implemented has negatively impacted the cruise experience. Live muster -I know they are moving back to E-Muster, but the rationale that it was safer for guests was a lie, it was a cost cutting measure, and it reflects poorly. Cabin cleaning- Once a day is not acceptable and to say it is to help the environment is a lie. It is for cost cutting. We saw our cabin steward once and he looked haggard. We did not request the usual simple items we normally do as we felt bad for him. We understood a couple of items delivered to our cabin by mistake as he seemed over worked. Entertainment- It is clear that this where NCL is saving the most money. Choir of Man is excellent but it is now the headline show on several ships which is ridiculous and only sailing NCL three times we have seen this show many times. The Beatles Invasion was very good but one show is enough. The comedian was good but that can be hit or miss. The other live music was just bad. Everyone is saying they need to make these changes to recover from the pandemic shutdown. To me, NCL should be dramatically improving the customer experience, not reducing it, to ensure full ships and future bookings. I would never say never to another NCL cruise, but right now there are better options for our cruising dollar.

A great post from the OP! We have been cruising for many years starting with a Honeymoon cruise and we will be on the Celebrity Beyond this September to celebrate our 30th Anniversary. We are Diamond with Royal but really enjoyed our two cruises on the Escape and we are on the Encore at the end of March. I enjoy NCL for their unique lounges, bars and specialty dining. They have freestyle dining down to an art (take note RCCL) and I believe their food is better than Royal. However the recent changes to Cabin cleaning, service charge increases and most importantly the severe cuts to entertainment, for us, makes NCL a difficult option to consider going forward. And returning to in person Muster instead of E-Muster and claim it is because of the Coast Guard? Really? I understand all about the pandemic and shut down and the need to reduce debt, but clearly all these changes are making people look elsewhere. I am very much looking forward to our Encore cruise and hoping that maybe we would consider another NCL cruise.

Interesting point in the video' "Would you become a one issue cruiser?" I know I would not but this is yet another cost cutting decision by NCL the impacts the cruise experience which means March will be our last NCL cruise.

From what I know, NCL promo air is you get what you are given, you cannot make or request changes. Except you can arrive up to 2 days prior to the cruise and 2 days post cruise. You get a deviation credit as there is more flexibility on flights when not arriving day of the cruise or leaving the day the cruise returns.

Our promo flights with NCL from Toronto to New Your were also excellent. Direct flights and great times. Our upcoming NCL cruise from Miami, our promo air was bad. Air Transit is the airline and the return flight on Sunday gets in at 1 am Monday. Nope and Nope, cancelled the promo air and booked by own flights. Lesson learned.

We are Canadian and fly out of Toronto (Pearson International). The Airdev on our cruise confirmation was for the fact we asked to arrive a day early and not the day of the cruise. I thought this may have been why we were flying in and out of Fort Lauderdale, but there were just as many flights into Miami.

With NCL promo air, it is my experience, you need to be very flexible in flights. We used promo air for a cruise from New York. We had direct flights (we fly out of Pearson), early morning out on cruise day and the return flight was early afternoon, perfect. We have an upcoming cruise in March on the NCL Encore sailing out of Miami (Sunday to Sunday). We kept the promo air at the time of booking, 2nd guest flys free and the cost was $630. We did the deviation as we always arrive the day before which gave us a $25 credit on the flight cost and we removed the NCL transfers. So a good deal until we received the flights. The flights were on Air Transit, Saturday flight was early morning, not bad. However the return flight was 10pm getting us back to Toronto after midnight. So the flights would not work. Air transit is a charter and that is never a good option for single flights. Both DW and I work the Monday so arriving early Monday morning was not an option. And both the flight down and return were from Fort Lauderdale, not Miami. While the cities are close it does increase transportation costs. So, we cancelled the promo air ( received 50% refund on the flight amount less the deviation credit) and we booked our own flights. A bit of an expensive lesson. However for those who do not care about flight times, connections or airline, NCL promo air is a bargain. I think is important to note that while NCL promo air does not allow for any changes to flights, airlines or times, booking your airfare through the cruise line allows one to pick their flights and times. I have done this through both Royal and Celebrity and have saved a couple hundred dollars over booking direct with Air Canada.

Glad you pressed the point, it did not make any sense why they took an additional penalty. When I cancelled I did not get a breakdown. The agent told me that the refund was 50% of what was charged for the air promo less the deviation credit and gave me the final amount. I was emailed the cruise confirmation with the credit showing while I was on the phone. The credit to my original form of payment happened two days later.

I was 70 Days out from sail date. The only reason I knew the flights would not work for me is that they had issued the air tickets. I booked my new flights direct with Air Canada and then called NCL and got a 50% refund of what I had paid for the promotional air. Only speculation on my part but I am sure NCL has a way to recoup their cost from the airline.

Thank you Ifdemt!! I had no idea you could cancel just the air portion of a cruise booking. I called today and got 50% refund on my the air portion. Good lessons learned here. You need to be very flexible to use the NCL promo air and for some that is not a problem.

Our fist experience with NCL Promo Air was excellent so I thought I would try it again on our upcoming Encore Cruise in March. I just received the Air confirmation and the Airline is a charter only airline ( Air Transat) we fly into and out of Fort Lauderdale, the cruise is sails out of Miami and our return flight leaves at 10pm arriving after 1am the next day. I realize with Promo Air all of the above was possible and flights cannot be changed. I took my chances. But for a variety of reasons the NCL flights just don'w work for us. I have now booked my own flights. My question is do I need to let NCL Air know that I will not be on the flights they have booked for us? My fear of course is letting them know and some over zealous rep cancels our cruise or worse because we are not on the booked flights they take our names of the passenger list and we are denied boarding. Anyone else experience this?

We have had two very enjoyable cruises with NCL on the Escape. We very much enjoyed the different venues - Mojito Bar and District Brewhouse among our favourites. I am sure we will enjoy the Encore but entertainment and a private island stop is very important to our overall cruise experience. We are Diamond on RC and have started sailing Celebrity (which is excellent!) and I don't see either of these lines doing what NCL is doing.

We are to sail on the Encore at the end of March. We booked this cruise because of the ship, the entertainment and the ports. We always try and book a cruise with a private island as it is an all included beach day. I completely understand that missing the private island due to weather can happen, cancelling it prior to even sailing is simply not right regardless of NCL's ability to do so. How long has NCL known that Kinky Boots would be cancelled? I am sure it has been for quite some time and they still choose to advertise it as a feature of the Encore. Yes, they have the right to do this but again not a decent way to treat customers. NCL has decreased service (no longer cleaning cabins twice a day) increased the daily service charge to amounts higher than any other cruise line, removed entertainment and would seem to be changing ports of call due to poor planning. So while I am looking forward to the Encore, as we have enjoyed our past two cruises on the Escape, this will be our last NCL cruise.

Having sailed Royal, Celebrity and NCL, this is definitely an NCL thing. I was never charged taxes on drinks while in port on Royal or Celebrity. While this amounts to very little money it was something that was not communicated, so yes it was a "surprise" charge on our final bill. As far as NCL lying in their marketing, that is a bit much. When we took our first NCL cruise I knew exactly what was included and what was extra, it was not that difficult to figure out.

I have sailed NCL and used their included Air. When booking the cruise I do it direct with NCL over the phone. I ask them to remove the transportation (I will never use a cruise shuttle, did it once, and never again) and ask for the deviation as we always fly in a least one day before. Interestingly, when you get a deviation, there is a deviation credit given ( It is a small credit, but I thought it would be more to deviate.) Both times we sailed NCL and used the included air the flights were at reasonable times and direct (we fly from Pearson). Our last NCL cruise was to Bermuda and we followed behind a hurricane travelling up the east coast to NY. Our arrival into port was delayed by several hours and NCL looked after rebooking flights back to Toronto.

My wife and I are both have Nexus, however for the cruise we took in September our daughter who joined us does not have Nexus. We flew out of Pearson and we used the MPC app. I think at that time (early September) few people knew about it. The MPC line was clearly marked after getting through security/screening(at the time we used it the MPC line was to the very right after security). No machines to use. We were third in line. The regular line was quite long. Other than the shorter line, the amount of time with the US Border official seemed to the same. At Pearson it would be difficult to determine what line was shorter NEXUS or MPC before deciding which way to go. If you have NEXUS that is still the way to go in my opinion. The week before our cruise I flew to the States and used NEXUS, the machines were not giving a receipt, you just scanned your card and proceeded to the Border Official who confirmed your name and waved you through, less than 5 minutes. We cruised from Miami and I don't believe using the MPC has of any additional benefit when leaving the ship. Facial Recognition for Immigration in the terminal which was exactly the same as for cruise in April out of Fort Lauderdale when we did not use MPC.

I know many use the porters at the pier to write up luggage tags but I just see how crazy it is with passengers and bags disembarking and new passengers and bags arriving. I like having my bags already tagged. My edocs did not have my luggage tags. I called RC and they reissued the edocs with the luggage tags. Simple.

This is the case for us as well for our up coming cruise at the end of the month. DW and I are Diamond, DD is Gold, so luggage tags say Gold Member. We will be putting our Diamond Pins on our luggage to ensure proper treatment given our status. NOT! Enjoy your cruise!

Unfortunately the Canadian Government continues to use the pandemic as an excuse for many things. Call ArriveCAN what it is, a tool to track travelers both foreign and domestic as they enter the country. The government wants this information for some reason but to continue to say it is to fight Covid is ridiculous. I also don't believe ArriveCAN is some conspiracy either. I have a smart phone and use social media, Apple and Microsoft know more about me than our governement ever will because I complete ArriveCAN when I travel.

I see a link to Italy. When you put in Rome why would you think you would see protocols for depatures form Greece? If you want want protocols for Greece, plug in Athens