joydivision84

What an awesome insight, thank you for taking the time, much appreciated!

I was fortunate to grab this package for our Beyond sailing in November 24. It shows as sold out now. Unlike the other meal packages, under the info/terms I don't see anything. Other packages talk about surcharges for tasting menus, or particular restaurants etc. But here, no mention of any caveats. Does anyone know of they are any special terms for this trio package (2 dinners and 1 lunch). Since there's nothing saying otherwise, for example could I choose the chefs table and dinner on the edge? Or a tasting menu at Le Voyage? I've attached a screenshot of the deal.

Man, you sure love catamarans.

No huge deal, but drink prices seem to have changed fairly recently, well, increase is more appropriate. Not like they are ever going to go down these days. Sailing on the Beyond in Nov and currently have the classic package, would really appreciate if anyone has any snaps of the latest menus with current prices. Thanks a bunch.

Can someone confirm exactly what waters are included with the classic package then? That would be really appreciated.

Well, Norwegian don't do them either, so that's us all double screwed.

appreciate the answer! Thanks!

This post is old I know, but do you recall approx how much you paid for the taxi to and back from the visitor service, including his 'wait' fee.

Oh ok, sorry one last question, if we get on board and don't really enjoy ourselves, at least enough to warrant going with NCL again and buying cruisenext vouchers etc, we could just go to customer service on the last day of the cruise and ask for out $1000 worth of OBC to be returned to us in cash? That's right yeah? I presume it will be $1000 minus some small amount (tax on drinks in ports etc), as I presume when you have OBC purchased, that is used up before your credit card on file is used. So even though we plan to spend nil on board, a small amount is unavoidable (tax) and that will come off the OBC before our credit card?

Very clever. Good idea. I guess I could duplicate what you did then? Minus the NCL credit card which I don't own/have. So I could, purchase $1000 OBC from NCL.COM prior to my cruise, then whilst on board spend that $1000 OBC in its entirety on 8x $125 cruisenext vouchers, refuse OBC, and when I am home I should have $2000 worth of cruisenext vouchers and $200 back from Amex? I could just do that right?

Ok, this has been a really informative thread. I have one last question, I think I have formulated my purchase plan on board so I will run it past you all, since many of you have experience here. Thanks a bunch in advance. First stipulation, I currently have the American Express NCL deal on my credit card, which is spend $1000, get $200 back. The reason I mention this is that I hope this can be used alongside this deal. Plan, on the Breakaway at the end of the month, buy 8x $125 cruisenext coupons. Total cost $1000. IMPORTANT: Refuse OBC offer at the time (I presume I just state that outright to the consultant there at the time? I have no interest in OBC value, just future x2 cruise reservation use) Result = When I arrive home from my cruise, I should have an email containing 8 $250 cruisenext credits, totaling $2000 towards upcoming cruises(s). (understand I can only use up to x3 per cruise, if they have a triple up offer etc). Bonus? = Because I spent $1000 on the cruisenext vouchers purchase don board, this is trigger my American Express deal, giving me $200 statement credit back. So at the end of the day when all is said and done, I will have spent $800 real world money, for $2000 worth of cruise credit for future trips. Could you all confirm, or rather whoever wants to comment, ha, does that all sound viable and correct?

So, regarding the Haven $500 certificates, they are at cost? As in, you pay $500 on board for one, you get a $500 certificate? I presumed it doubled up, ie. they cost you $250 for a $500 certificate and you can buy maximum x amount, and put x3 of them towards a future cruise, so $1500. Christ, I am confused and embarrassed to admit that. Am I reading the comments right, where people were excited then disappointed after looking at the table you posted. For such a at first simple sounding concept, it sure is needlessly complex.

Sorry pal, last question, can you even buy the $500 cruisenext vouchers (for $250 each real money) and use x3 of them towards a balcony room? So $1500 total value for $750 real money. Or are the $500 cruisenext vouchers only applicable to suites and above?

I'm a new cruiser so please excuse me if this is a dumb question, but I presume if I purchase 3x cruisenext certificates, say the $250 value ones (at $125 a pop real money), I can hypothetically book a cruise at the end of 2024, apply x3 cruisenext and that's $750 paid towards the total amount? Say total for cruise is $3000, I use 3 of these and my balance is now $2250? Am I right in thinking that's how it works? Also, are they applicable towards costs such as pre-paid gratuities?

What a terrific site, had not heard of it prior to your post. Thanks for the heads up!

It's a weird form of upmarket push though, where their ships are becoming more segregated. I know that sounds strange, but if you compare the product on their new Prima, Viva etc ships there is a noticeable difference in regards to the offerings on display and specially in the restaurants when compared to for example, the breakaway class ships. The decor and style differential between their brand new ships and recent but older vessels is quite stark. The new ships looks lovely, but obviously they have came with lots of complaints regarding best usage and charging even more so for extras.The ship within a ship thing is in my opinion getting a little extreme. Where the big difference seems to be to me is in the dining options now, where the new ships seem to be leaps and bounds above the breakaway class ships with more options and genuinely better looking and more appetizing food offerings. So to me anyway, and it's just my opinion, it's almost like they are beginning to offer two separately different options, their new vessels going more upmarket and you can see that on the menus and on the walls, and their older vessels being left behind for the more economical traveler. The problem is the new ships are not really more expensive when it comes to cost to customers, so it's kinda a weird situation.

If they are selling at capacity or above with food as it is, don't expect any upgrades, it's as simple as that really I'm afraid. I read some of their shareholders meeting and they mentioned several times how good feedback was for their current product (hmm...) and how that supported recent cut backs, so it was pretty clear there was not a push to increase food cost, and thus most likely quality.

When companies implement cost cutting in the way NCL has, they very rarely bring things back that were cut. The stuff cut, becomes the new normal and they expect, or hope customers to adjust then forget. The cuts are more about increasing profit stream percentages, rather than actually needing to cut. So sadly I wouldn't anticipate things cut ever bring reinstated.

That's true, good you learned and good you warned people. If it is as black and white as them using their credit card (and I presume benefiting from things such as points doing so), then naming and shaming them seems fine and beneficial, in my opinion. There is no argument for what they did there and it definitely falls under fraud. So feel free to name them, I'd say, but also, that's just me!

That's straight fraud. Even if you got it back within days of finding out and asking for it back, you should have reported that to the police.

From January 2024. Still Spa until then.

What terms? Aren't the terms one device. Once again then it goes back to interpretation. Either way if something like this went to court I can guarantee the terms are almost certainly being followed in the most black and white meaning of the contract. The irony is that people who make WiFi hotspots off their phone/tablet/laptop, which going by this forum is way more rife that what this guy is doing with a router, is most likely closer to breaking the terms. Then you've got end user device leeching off another end user device and so on, where at least with a router it's a middle ground before the end user device(s). If that makes any sense. Regarding OP If he was getting increased bandwidth then it would get murkier and go further into the weeds of what is the service inherently, bandwidth or service as a whole, if the WiFi signal is the service, or is the internet itself a service? Almost gets existencial. Maybe this will be something that NCL will look into off the back off the thread, it's definitely always a bad idea sharing 'hacks' like stuff like this, as it usually just leads to bad ends for customers, and especially OP! Although no doubt the amount of people who actually go to this level to get internet access is probably very, very small indeed. I know it's be too much of a pain in the arse for me for sure. At the end of the day people can play white knights for large companies all they want, you do you, I'm more apathetic to this. It's just a guy playing with like 5mb internet, I know I don't care. Plus anyone comparing it to sharing drinks packages etc, yeah, well I'd lean heavily into that being a way more overt and stingy operation, definitely shitty, especially for everyone else who pays for drinks packages.

No I wouldn't really go that far, but I'd definitely say it's a fair (and smart) solution to help out his family in a situation where one is inherently being ripped off. Obviously people have different wealth levels, 200 bucks for Internet is probably peanuts to some people, but whichever way you angle it I'd wager the costs involved for NCL are way, way lower than that, on a per person basis anyway. I'll be honest, if I had a wife and how many kids there's no way I could afford $1000 for everyone to be able to check their email, so sometimes in life it's ok to sit back, respect a smart solution and pat the little guy on the back. God knows the working man and woman get bent over enough in modern society by corporations and the super wealthy.

Regarding semantics and the definition of stealing, on some level, at least philosophically anyway, charging $200+ per person for internet that's only fast enough to check email and browse websites could be considered stealing. This guy has absolutely stuck to the terms as only one of his devices is connected to NCL's WiFi, his own device is broadcasting it's own signal and is not drawing anymore bandwidth from the source than any one else on board with the basic package. If it was the case using this set up was drawing way more bandwidth then you'd have a point, but the speed will only ever be determined by whatever signal NCL sends to his router, and that won't increase using a travel router.

I currently have excursions booked and paid for for our Nov 28th Breakaway cruise. Does anyone know if I can cancel the excursions, then re-buy after my (I hope full refund), exclusions tallied up with my prepaid gratuities would take us near the 1k.