mistertomatoe

Don't the dividers move while sailing if opened? I know it's an issue with the sliding balcony doors since they slide back and forth. I lay down a chair and wedge a shoe to cover the full width on the Gem in the opening so the door doesn't slide back and forth.

"New places. New experiences. New memories to be made. " Just not on the newest ships and only sailings from the US.

From what I can tell, they mention the 20% gratuities but in USD ($21.80 USD) in the terms and say it's included in the price already. Meaning no need to tip extra. How the heck do they call it a Free at Sea upcharge?!? Free must mean something different in the UK. There are no gratuities but there's an upcharge. Same difference I guess. For bookings from the Australian website they just bake everything into the cabin fare including the daily service charge.

Add it to all the other things NCL does to nickel and dime. It's also different from what other cruise lines do. It ruined it for me as far as gambling when I first found out about the 3%. I was done with NCL's casino. I can burn my money at other casinos. Gamblers can be peculiar people.

What does that come out to as far as solo supplement? Less than 150%?

I am not seeing as many great deals for solo as before. Is it just me? Seems like they are pricing most cruises only slightly below double.

I see the $250/500/750 off rewards. No more $1000 off reward. All of them disappeared for a few days just like before. I was able to get the $1000 off and use it even though earlier it said I had to wait till the 19th. 30 days from last booking, not from last reward purchase. I wonder how they are counting the eligibility days now or maybe it was a glitch and I got lucky with the NCL rep.

They did it all on their end. This was past the final payment date so the CruiseFirst has to be applied right away when I paid everything on the call to book. I guess they do something different on their end now where they set up the booking and take payment and apply the myVEGAS credit afterwards.

Nope. I emailed them and they didn’t see it either. I never got charged so I gave up on it. I ended up buying two $500 last night and those showed up minutes after ordering. The email confirmations came hours later. Other things to note: for now, the credit card account shows the charges (each certificate had a separate charge) are coming from NCL Reservations. This could change in the future. (Important for those Amex Offers people.) The app showed the certificates already expired exactly a year ago on Jan 13 2023 so it's clearly wrong. For those saying it's bookings 120 days out. It's sailings 120 days from when you bought the CruiseFirst not when you do the booking. NCL people have tried to tell me otherwise. Another example of NCL overcomplicating things to the point of confusing their own people.

The website is accessible: https://www.goodwillcruisecredit.com/ You'll be forgiven if you think it's a fake website. LOL. As for that $500 CruiseFirst I ordered on Saturday. It's still not in my account even though I got the confirmation webpage. I think it's lost. My credit card hasn't been charged so I might just let it go.

I just checked and I got the credit applied. This is about a day later from booking but no confirmation email yet. Maybe because it's during the night? Not a big deal since it shows fully paid off now. I was nervous because my cruise was already past the full payment date. I guess this is what they mean by it can take up to 72 hours for the credit to be applied. This is different from before when they applied it while I was on the call. This is the wording in the myVEGAS email: "Please note there could be up at a 72 hour delay for the application of your dollars off on your reservation, and once funds are applied an updated confirmation will be sent out. " For those wondering, I had a 10% off generic coupon that they said they couldn't apply but the $500 CruiseFirst was applied without a problem. I'm not sure if the 10% off coupon had an issue with the myVEGAS $1000 off or the CruiseFirst.

Technically it's free drinks when you're gambling. You get a card that indicates your casino status and you get drinks. I believe they expect tipping like at land casinos. I booked a cruise with the $1000 off and I have the reservation confirmation without the $1000 off applied. I was told I needed to wait for another group to do something to apply it. Did you have to wait for anything for your booking?

All in the app. I see the price change and that's when I purchase it.

Try this one and click the button: https://www.ncl.com/cruisefirst-program I'm still waiting for it to show up in my account. Hopefully the $500 is actually available.

In the price dropdown it shows $500 CERTIFICATE. The confirmation page says 10 minutes for the certificate to show up under my account but I haven't seen it yet. Maybe because it's late night on a weekend? https://www.ncl.com/shorex/262549111/cruise-first I'm not sure for CruiseNext so I'll defer to others. That one is confusing to me but depending on the promotion since you're going with the Haven it might be better. You can only get those while onboard a ship though. As for the 3rd party being involved. It looks like based on the Privacy Policy page of the NCL Holdings page it's a subsidiary so it's another NCL company. I guess that's better but I'll have to wait for the changeover to see what it really means.

I think you are locked out of the unlimited price if you start using your 150 minutes. I had to ask nicely once to get them to give me the unlimited price since I had already used some of my minutes in the Free at Sea. These days I just skip the first day, don't use it at all and just use my phone and buy the unlimited on the 2nd day after midnight when I see the price drop. It also uses my non-refundable onboard credit. There's only a short time after leaving port and after midnight when I won't have Internet.

Loyalty implies that I will sail with them no matter what and that's not the case. I try to get the lowest price possible and I don't pay the daily service charge until I get onboard. I will absolutely not risk paying too much for an NCL cruise unless I can stack a few discounts (CruiseFirst/Next, Amex offer, myVEGAS, Shareholder OBC, etc.) I've been disappointed too many times and I try to buffer myself. Something negative usually happens and if it's big enough I go NUCLEAR and take off the daily service charge. It's been happening more lately and that's what my relationship with NCL has devolved too. I still am willing to try different ships and itinerary as long as I can get the cheapest price possible. I definitely have much lower expectations than when I started.

Do you mean that specifically for Iceland or in general? Also, sometimes they won't let you back on the ship until the next morning if you miss a cutoff time. I've also booked the cruise in question. My past experience is sometimes they will do things differently depending on the situation so there are exceptions. I wonder if weather could be a factor.

They've removed references to the $500($250) one on the front page and CruiseFirst page but it's still in the drop down. I ordered one but haven't gotten any confirmation yet. I'm nervous about this Goodwill Credit company so I'm trying to get one more before the changeover.

They are now (or will be starting Jan 9?) called CruiseFirst Credit and CruiseNext Credit. The terms and conditions have been updated to reflect there is no expiration for purchased credits on or after Jan 9, 2024: https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions#cruisefirst "CFC(s) do not expire. Only one CFC may be used per stateroom. No black-out dates apply to the use of a CFC. Reservations are subject to availability. CFC(s) are not combinable with CruiseNext Credits (including Haven and Sixthman CruiseNext Credits), chartered cruises, incentive cruises, barter cruises, employee discount(s), friends and family discount(s), Sailaway (categories: IX, OX, BX, MX), interline, non-NCLU travel partner rates, Bingo Winners, or Diamonds Resort International bookings." In typical NCL fashion they have terms for before Jan 9 but they just drop the expiration mention so you'd be forgiven if you think they never expired in the past too. Thanks for the cornfusion, NCL! There's also this: "All CFC(s) are issued by Goodwill Credit, Ltd. and all claims or concerns with respect to the CFC(s) (other than requests for permissible application or transfer) are to be directed to Goodwill Credit, Ltd. at www.goodwillcruisecredit.com. NCL (Bahamas) Ltd., d/b/a Norwegian Cruise Line (including its affiliates other than Goodwill Credit, Ltd.) takes no responsibility for any claim related to CFC(s), including for the loss of identifying credit information. Please contact cruisenext@ncl.com for all requests related to onboard practices or permissible services including but not limited to application of CFC(s) and CFC transfers." Wait, a third party? Maybe handling it like a giftcard but calling it credit. Some giftcards act like credit or debit cards. I suspect there is a way to sunset these things. Maybe Goodwill Credit folds and NCL washes their hands or there are some admin fee that gets deducted periodically. The URL doesn't go to anything yet. The other shoe will drop soon.

New $$$ off Rewards just appeared $1000 off but for sailings before Apr 30, 2024. Only 300k pts. Of course I just used the $750 off so I'm subject to the 30 day lockout.

Typical NCL mess. Their people are saying CruiseFirst and CruiseNext certs don't expire anymore but don't update their website. I suspect other things are changing for the worse.. (since I doubt they will let the certs go on forever without some way for them to end).

Cruisenext people would never mislead us! It’s not like they’re trying to sell us something we don’t need. Joking aside you can see there were way more no supplement cruises before. Per Cruiseplum the few I see now with no solo supplement are on the expensive side. I’m pretty sure the true bargains for us solo cruises are gone. I’ll be paying more for my solo NCL cruises but it’s still better than other cruiselines.

I just used one $750 off to book a solo cruise and the rep did mention the sail date of May 31 2024 in the terms. This was a reward I got back in 11/30. My sailing was right before that so it worked out. I don’t know what the reward terms say now or how strict or consistent the reps are with it. For anyone wondering, still no admin fees and I used a $500 Cruisefirst certificate. I even added half off airfare. I also expect to get $200 back from an Amex offer and $250 OBC from the shareholder benefit for this 14+ day cruise. No “free” NCL cruise rewards yet but this makes it 3 $750 off and 1 $500 off cruise. On the Royal side, I’ll be up to 4 free cruises since I started cruising with them a few years ago. My goal is to make diamond entirely with myVEGAS “free” cruises.

Sounds like a gimmick to get more money out of solo cruises. I have a feeling the days of dropping the solo supplement are gone. I'm guessing the virtual solo cabins are just regular cabins with limited supply. This happens with studio cabins when they end up costing more than regular inside cabins if they drop the solo supplement. I've got a bad feeling about this as a solo cruiser...