aswmammoth

Don't wait to book the pass if you want it.  On our 5 day Getaway cruise last year, prices were $179 right after we booked.  About a week later, the price changed to $229.

Our NCL Sky itinerary was changed which moved our GSC day.  That was three weeks ago, and the Silver Cove villa we booked is still listed for the original date.  How long does it usually take NCL to make the change?  Should I call Shore Excursions?

Only concerned because we are now scheduled there on the same day as the Escape.

Not sure how well known this offer is, just found it from a pop up ad, but if you use this link:

https://www.carnival.com/Registration/Promotions/casino-funmatch-alt5pbtj7.aspx?dclid=CPrUsdXY9fcCFdfshwodReUPQw

and fill in your VIFP # and email, it immediately added rate code PXF to my offers.  Gives you a better rate, $50 in FunPlay, and Drinks On Us! while playing in the casino.

Well, our PCC went to book our cruise with the FCC earned from our cancelled Escape cruise, and @jd51bby is correct:  it can only be used towards the base cruise fare.  You must pay out of pocket for taxes, fees and gratuities.  Our PCC wasn't aware of this and had to have the Resolutions dept explain how it works to him.

Hope this is helpful info for everyone who was affected by these cancelled Escape cruises, but very disappointing.  The "100% FCC" listed in the terms emailed to us was only for what we paid for the voyage fare , and now we are only allowed to apply it to the base fare of another cruise.  We would understand if we knew this beforehand, but this was not at all explained by NCL at the time of cancellation or anytime after.  Am I the only one who thinks this is shady on NCL's part?       

I spoke with our PCC again today, and had him price out a cruise to double check this.  He assured us when pricing it that the cruise fare, taxes and fees, and FAS gratuities can be covered with our credit, but could not cover things like specialty dining, shore excursions, etc.  He did mention that our FCC works a little bit differently than the Peace of Mind policy, but that this is what could be covered.

I recapped this in a follow up email to him right after our call, so if they try to tell us something different when we book we have something to hold them to.  Will let you know how that goes!

1 hour ago, jd51bby said:

We were on the cancelled 9th April Escape sailing and switched to Encore. As part of the switch we received FCC of 100% of the voyage fare. Just been talking to NCL to price-up another cruise to use the FCC and were a bit surprised to hear we can only use the FCC on base voyage fare. We had originally thought it could also be used on flights, taxes etc, but apparently not. The Peace of Mind FCC list seems to include all these things, so is this different?

We are having the same issue with our FCC from cancelled Escape cruise.  I called our PCC yesterday asking what we could use it for, and he made it sound like we could use it on the base fare, taxes and fees, and Free At Sea gratuities, but not on prepaid service charges or prebooked shore excursions like it lists on the website.  He wasn't very straightforward with his answers, so we honestly have no idea.

It is also frustrating that we cannot see the FCC in our account online, have to call to get the amount and to apply it to a booking.

22 hours ago, AQW said:

Our first NCL cruise will be July 2023, Encore to Alaska. We know nothing about the cabin categories on NCL, and are trying to determine what our options are for a cabin that has at least one balcony lounger. Info and tips would be appreciated, thank you!

Can't speak on the B6, but we stayed in an M6 on Encore recently.  Had only one lounger when we arrived, but you can request a second one from housekeeping.

We had this issue with our Encore sailing a few weeks ago.  We were moved from the Escape to the Encore 5 days before sailing, so many excursions were fully booked or only had one spot available.  We called Shore Excursions, they suggested to go to the shore excursions desk after boarding to join a waitlist for the specific excursion we were looking at.

We went there after boarding, and they just asked us to sign up for what we wanted, and that we would be notified either way.  The next day, the excursion was listed in our activities on the app, and we received our tickets the following day.

My guess is that they do hold some spots to be booked on board, but you'll want to go sign up ASAP after boarding to have the best chance.

Ship - Encore

Deck - 8

Stateroom # - 8718

Stateroom Category – M6 Club Balcony Suite w/ Larger Balcony

Starboard or Port Side - Starboard

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Yes, for the most part.  Occasional noise from the neighboring room's kids, ship's thrusters when docking and sailing away, and when the anchor was dropped and raised at GSC (only a few cabins down from the front of the ship). 

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - Yes

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – No obstructions.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? -  We loved how large this balcony was.  Having a quiet deck space with both loungers and chairs to relax was much appreciated given the lack of chairs and crowding on the pool deck.

Was wind a problem? - At times it was.  No issues in port or during sailaways.  I think our issues had to do with the direction of the ship relative to the wind.  First half of the cruise heading away from Miami, we couldn't be out on the balcony at times because the wind was so strong, chairs and tables would rock and even slide around a bit.  Heading back the second half of the week, wind was not an issue whatsoever.

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? -  This wasn't a problem for us, but the cabin is a bit of a walk from the elevators.

Any other comments? - This was our first NCL cruise, and we loved the larger balcony and club amenities (larger bathroom, free laundry, plate of cookies delivered w/ turn down service one night).  Being on deck 8 we were very close to the theater, restaurants, atrium, Local, bars, etc. while being far enough from all the venues to avoid noise. When we arrived, our balcony only had one lounger but we were able to request a second one no problem.  For such a busy ship with very limited public pool deck space and chairs, the large balcony and loungers are well worth it. 

Encore March 20-27 - 3400.  Heard it was their most full sailing since before the shutdown.

On 3/23/2022 at 5:49 PM, Montanagirlalways said:

with option 1 we only get the cruise fare back. taxes,etc of what we paid are then transferred to the new cruise. Its an ok deal.  

Can confirm this.  Spoke with our PCC this morning, it's the cruise fare and nothing more.  To make it a free cruise, we'll have to downgrade a few cabin categories next time I'd imagine.  Or do a shorter cruise

9 hours ago, Adventure_on said:

 

We are actually disappointed in NCL right now. We were booked for the 19th and were  given options of

*pick another cruise this week..one out of 3 choices or

* get full credit. We chose to cruise on the  Dawn out of Tampa Sunday as we live in the area.

 

It became a mess. They booked us in an interior cabin and added $700.  We originally had a regular balcony and  paid almost $3000. More than the current price of a club balcony on this cruise.

We finally got that fixed and we now have exactly the same type of room and deals we expected on the Escape. YAY!

They did not, however, give us the promise future cruise credit. so, we get to go back through this again.

I honestly had to go back and reread the email after seeing the FFC done were getting. I didn't see it as I was not the primary email  and they never once offered it while I was on the phone. 

I get that they are busy..but still...

I am super glad I read these posts!!

We were booked for the 19th as well.  As soon as we got the cancellation email with our options, we researched the 3 other cruises and got on the phone ASAP, as it looked like certain room categories were almost full.  When we finally were connected to the right person, they had two rooms left on Encore in our same category from the Escape, so we were lucky.  Glad to hear you got that fixed!

7 hours ago, missyhr3x said:

Just wondering why you think you’ll be canceled? I’m the 26th and they have told us we should sail.  I’m sitting in 6ft of snow and now pins and needles, so I’d really like the cruise to happen! 

If they decided to cancel the 26th sailing, I would guess you would find out sooner than we did.  For us, we were given basically 24 hours to call and have our reservation switched to another cruise from our list of options (our PCC hadn't even been made aware of the situation yet when we reached him), or you would automatically be refunded and receive the 50% FCC.  I'm sure they would ideally like more time than that to handle switching reservations over, changing flights and hotels for those booking that thru NCL, etc. if they unfortunately had to cancel another week.  I heard customer support was overloaded with all that yesterday.

1 hour ago, oteixeira said:

They could move you to another cruise.  The Joy, Encore, and Dawn are all sailing out of Florida right now, and they could take on the Escape passengers easily since they were not sailing full capacity (especially if the Escape passengers were divided up between them).

These were the three ships offered to passengers on the 3/19 Escape sailing that was cancelled.  If they cancel more sailings and go the same route, they will offer to switch you to similar 7 night cruises that same week on one of these ships, or give you a full refund.  Both options could include some FCC as well, if they give everyone similar options to what we were given.

We were on the Escape on the 19th. We are disappointed to have our plans change so suddenly, but they were able to put us on the Encore out of Miami on the 20th in the same room category and give us 100% FCC for another cruise.

I’m feel bad for those with rooms in the Haven for our sailing, since all of the 3 replacement cruises we were offered for next week had already filled up their Haven rooms with upgrades.

Escape sailing on the 19th was cancelled as well. They are offering us two choices:

- transfer reservation to another 7 night sailing this weekend, PLUS 100% FCC.

- a full refund, PLUS 50% FCC.

We are on the Escape this Saturday.  I happened to look on NCLs site at our sailing, and they are currently not booking for next week.  This is what you see at first:

But when you click on a room category, you get this:

Really hoping our cruise is not cancelled!

We are sailing out of Port Canaveral this weekend.  During our online check in process, we selected the earliest available check in time at 9am. However, the offsite parking locations don't start shuttle service until 10am.  Does anyone know what happens if you are late for your assigned check in time?

7 minutes ago, ISLABONITA said:

My TA's agency charges for any cancelation and rebooking, I asked about the $400 per person drop in Oceanview cabin and she said no OBC could be offered after calling NCL .   

Wouldn't her agency have the liberty of offering me more OBC ??

I just sent her another email asking for an upgrade to balcony since it's only around $50 more pp.  

Is this possible or do I have to go the route of bidding? which by the way I did receive a mail months ago.

perplexed!

You can call and upgrade your room directly, as long as you are paying something additional to them to upgrade.

  We originally booked an Oceanview, when prices dropped we called and upgraded to a balcony for about $25pp.  At one point, prices dropped so much that a standard club balcony suite was listed $150 cheaper per person than what we already paid for a balcony.  Since that category was priced less than what we had already paid, they would not upgrade us.

We ended up paying another $45 pp to upgrade to a club balcony suite w/ larger balcony.

Called last night and paid to upgrade our room directly, but curious that we haven't received an updated Upgrade Advantage offer.  Anyone know how long it usually takes to get a new upgrade offer with updated bidding info in this scenario?

On 3/6/2022 at 1:38 AM, KeithJenner said:

We can’t see the upgrade option on either of our current bookings (both booked last year).

 

It is likely that I will call tomorrow to upgrade the cabin one of the bookings. It will be interesting to see whether doing that will trigger this option for us.

This is what happened to us, we’ve been booked since November and had no specialty dining upgrade offer. 
 

Called today to upgrade our room, and our updated reservation has the option to upgrade dining package.

1 hour ago, molly361 said:

Some decent prices on the Voyage 8 night out of PC

Really good deals right now on the Voyager 8 night Christmas sailing in '23. 

Our cruise edocs say that boarding begins at 12pm, but we can select a pier arrival time as early as 9am.  Not including Haven or guests with priority boarding, will they board guests based on how early your pier arrival time is?  This is our first NCL cruise, we don't want to show up 2-3 hours early if there is no reason to.

Thanks!

19 minutes ago, tbjl24 said:

 

So you can't simply call and get upgraded? Sorry for the question as this is only my 2nd sailing with NCL and we are in the same scenario as you....have a standard balcony booked and Club Balcony Suite is now available for less than we paid for the standard balcony. 

 

I cancelled my upgrade bid on the Club Balcony Suite because it seems ridiculous to have to give NCL more money for something I could buy cheaper today than when I booked 6 months ago. 

 

I was able to squeeze a 50% credit on the difference for a future sailing a few weeks back. 

I just got off the phone with someone at NCL.  These are the options he gave us:

- Pay to upgrade to The Haven, a spa cabin or the club balcony suite with larger balcony for $91 (not unreasonable but unsure about the lack of privacy and shade).  They were not allowed to upgrade our cabin unless the higher category is currently priced higher by NCL than what you've already paid.

- Wait to see if prices potentially increase before sailing and pay to upgrade then.

- Take the 50% FCC on another sailing

1 hour ago, n4w said:

Exact scenario as you, price drop amount jumped right over us.  I ended up with 50% of the difference in FCC that I'll apply to another cruise later in the year.

Good to hear.  This will be our first time with NCL so we are unsure if we would even use a FCC with them unless it was a significant amount.  We would've rather paid to upgrade to a club balcony suite for this sailing, but they are now priced about $100 less than what we've already paid.  If only they would let us just pay an extra dollar or two to upgrade!

Update:  Prices have dropped even further for our sailing, and now the club balcony suites are less than what we paid originally for our regular balcony.  We were hoping for a smaller price drop to just pay to upgrade to a mini suite, but it was a sharp price decrease and now I guess we don't have that option. Seems silly to bid to upgrade to a cabin that is now cheaper than our current one.

Anyone have experience with this situation recently? And were you able to get an upgrade, OBC, etc. somehow?