J0Y0US

3 hours ago, ICutTheCheese said:

You are making a lot of assumptions.  Many businesses offer 0% APR from time to time.  Car dealers do so a kot abd they are making record profits,   Just anoterh sale by NCL is all.

You mean car dealers trying to drawing in people when money is cheap not continuing to become less cheap? 

15 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

I don't understand all your financial verbiage, BUT, here is my reasoning in laymen's terms.  With 0 % APR, people can pay for a more expensive cruise ( using a big deposit) than they normally would.  Make monthly payments ( without Interest fees of upto 28%).  As long as the cruise has not been paid off at final payment, one can cancel and get a refund ( either a credit back to the charge card, or FCC).

This is for Q4 2023 cruises so you would already be inside the window where you can't cancel from my understanding. 

So anyone booking would be going on the cruise. 

Uplift isn't giving 0% APR away for nothing so that means NCL is picking up the tab.

Do we see a lessening of demand in the rest of 2023?

Saw other late 2023 deals even from DCL if I am not mistaken as well.

Possibly on the backside of the large surge in demand with more ships launching across the big brands tipping the balance of supply vs demand? 

Does a 0% APR also show that NCL is buying in to less people having disposable income as inflation outpaces wage growth and individuals have used up the surplus they accumulated during the pandemic? 

Just now, firefly333 said:

Yes its per day. People were doing exactly as you suggest. Closing 1 tab and immediately opening a new tab, so they stopped it. Lol I need a husband. People keep posting well me and hubby shared with $20 each and had plenty of food. 

In other words then its like a appetizer or snack than a meal now there.

I wonder what the math was behind the change because I can see people now going there at like 5pm then hitting up a higher cost steakhouse for dinner still.

18 hours ago, mjmiller said:

In the past, people could get "rung out" and then continue to use another $20 at Playmakers - that's been stopped.

Why can't you walk out the door and immediately turn around and ask for a seat again? Is it $20 limit per meal period each day?

On 8/12/2023 at 5:56 AM, UnregisteredUser said:

Not everyone considers eating healthy food, not drinking on weekdays, having a calm workspace where you won't be disturbed and can be productive a bad thing.. 😎

I get what you mean but you look at his cruising from a vacation perspective (as do I) but if he doesn't have any partner or children a work from home life can be pretty lonely and boring. I work 80-90% from home and even if I have both wife and 2 children I sometimes feel like I get restless not seing anything else than my house for two weeks.

If I was single without anyone I could definately see his point. Beats being alone at home.

Except when he is working he is still by himself? 

When he leaves his room it's no different than an apartment in the city going to the Cafe or whatever. 

On 8/10/2023 at 11:35 AM, DamonG said:

I just finished this latest survey myself. They are also asking questions about $399 and $499 per guest per 7 days for unlimited dining packages. 

My next cruise on Symphony is 8 nights and I have booked the package for myself and wife at $250 each. 

Cruise prices are increasing dramatically and now they are floating the idea of $800 more per week per couple for dining package? 

That is dead simple. I go to Sandals or elsewhere at that point. 

Heck $50/person is a good meal on land most places outside major cities. 

Why doesn't Royal just pay them better and allow gratuities actually be for better service as our discretion? Ah its to avoid taxes and avoid making their cruises look more expensive.

I tip but I am squarely required anti-tip at the same time.

Also agree about service level possibly dipping. I wonder if total crew on board has possibly decreased or been repositioned to revenue generating locations instead?

Only way I step onboard NCL is Haven and right now in general I am staying away from cruising just checking in now and then to see if the general issues all lines are having are getting better.

Lots of cost cutting and crowded ships lend to me spending money elsewhere.

Know someone else who recently went on a NCL cruise and hated it. We let them know give NCL another chance but make sure you are Haven when you do.

Sorry the trip didn't go as planned as that is not a cheap cruise.

I wouldn't book NCL Air because of the horror stories I hear. Other forums love to say how there is no issues and everyone without issues should speak up.

Well guess what you don't get to choose to avoid issues like the OP. If I was the OP booking my own flight I would book it later in the day or the next day.

No choice with NCL Air and while you can call they likely won't care and do nothing for you based on what I had read in the past when seeing if we should do NCL Air ourselves.

4 minutes ago, wcook said:

While we are at it, can someone decide the 2UDP/PBP on the pictured card. 

2 Ultimate??? Dining Package for specialty restaurant

Premium Beverage Package

Here is the NBC article on it:

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/investigations/nbc-ct-responds/nbc-ct-responds-helps-travelers-recoup-thousands-of-dollars-change-cruise-policy/2977066/

Found it, it was Don that talked about it:

Heard about this from a youtube channel recently. NBC I guess had gotten engaged in the investigation before they got any resolution after like 6 months.

Good luck and I would make sure to try and reach out as well through ways that can be tracked and recorded like email or something in addition to calling.

4 hours ago, chloe173 said:

Haven experience was good.

Nullifies sold out as it's always sold out but has a much better experience. 

The only way to cruise with NCL personally.

2 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Have  you been to a grocery store or a gas station lately?

It's called inflation.

Perhaps you might wish to check on the latest prices for lakeside cottages.  I suspect  they've gone up too.

Eh NCL you just have to wait out the higher price. The prices were higher for 2023 as well but came down.

It's concerning it could go for that long without being detected. They must only test every 3+ months.

On 2/11/2023 at 2:12 PM, AKJonesy said:

I'm wondering how active this part of cruise critic is.  But, thanks for that information.  Today, I was just looking at Philipsburg, Sint Maarten and looking at car reviews.  Most got bad reviews but one stood out as near excellent.  If you have something to share in ST. KITTS, I would love to know...meaning, who did you rent from, did you walk up or rent in advance, and if so through which outlet.  Again, thanks. 

St. Kitts

We rented from Avis and decided on them over Hertz because they were closer. We walked through the cruise port area, across a grassy small little area, and as soon as you get to the exit of the port area its right across the street.

We did have to wait a bit while others who didn't line up rentals before hand were helped (a little annoying) and then got a vehicle which we reserved ahead of time (you wouldn't likely get an SUV if you showed up day of). The vehicle was newer but had a few dings in it but nothing to make you think it was unsafe.

One issue we did have was that we rented what was supposed to have a 3rd row but there was no 3rd row in the vehicle. We were lucky though that we could squeeze 4 across as we had a belt style restraint system for them anyways when we travel. This could be an issue for others but since I rented through a business portal I chalked it up to their incorrect information.

Driving on the other side of the road was interesting and helped to have others in the vehicle just to make sure you were staying in the lines. The only "hard" part of the driving was going up to Brimstone where there was a bunch of hairpin turns. I am glad we did this first so only on the way down there was traffic but I could see some people having a good amount of difficulty.

Also I felt the areas around the island were very safe.

I would make sure you hit Timothy Hill Overlook if you spend the day with your own vehicle as you can hit on your way to or from the southern part of the island where pretty much all of best beaches are located.

With all US/CA ports I wouldn't even bother booking through the ship likely and would simply do research and if I found something I really liked would book it.

8 hours ago, geo.mac said:

Thanks for this.  But to help me understand, are you saying the Haven restaurant on the escape is larger than on the Encore, and because of this, the escape doesn't have to offer the complementary service in the American Diner?    That makes total sense if that's the case.   Interesting that sister ships are that different to impact operations in that way. 

Epic is larger yes as there is a larger restaurant indoors but also has an outdoor area plus less rooms in the Haven if I am not mistaken.

Didn't measure them but just being in the space I would say Epic could be almost 3 times larger.

13 hours ago, geo.mac said:

Given all of NCL's service cuts recently I can see them moving to a discount instead of complementary.  This concerns me for my June cruse on the Encore.   Can someone who's been in the Haven recently share their experience?  Was it 50% off specialty for lunch, complementary American Diner or both?   

They do the complimentary service because there isn't enough room in the dining room for everyone at once. This is why on the Epic they don't do a free lunch because they have space to put everyone.

I doubt they remove that as the specialty is not losing revenue.

Additionally Haven was not impacted by the stateroom cleaning updates that rolled out to all other categories. So another reason I don't see anything changing for Haven on embarkation day.

2 hours ago, malba2366 said:

Note that the Suites perks do not apply to mini-suites, that is a frequent confusion .  There is usually a different dining room for suites, and there is usually a couple offerings daily that are exclusively for suites

We would be in Vista Suite I believe its called. So not the mini-suite by any definition that I could find. Thank you for calling it out though because all these lines have a slight different way of separating things.

Also thank you to everyone for responding as its really helpful.

16 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

What will the new slogan be now ??😁 LOL

Everyone is moving to Starlink it seems.

From those who have been on other lines that already have Starlink it seemingly is a good upgrade but who knows as it rolls in to older ships and different brands.

Starlink really is the primary future of remote internet though based on the tech and how its deployed.

Maybe you are talking about different rooms but no ship within a ship comes close to the Yacht Club pricing. 

1 minute ago, talkorpi said:

 

Off-toipic, but speaking of vines, is it true that there is free sushi included with a glass of wine?

Wait free sushi?

I want to know about that if that is somewhat good I am all in on that offering.