lgdesign

Are there any perks similar to what the Jewel Class ships offer like breakfast/lunch in Cagney's/Moderno?  Been doing a lot of Haven suites in recent years across a variety of ships but the crazy prices are pushing me back into regular suites and I'd like to get a better idea of what to expect.  😉  Thinking of trying the highly touted "Haven-Lite" experience when on the Viva next year.

PS  I looked at NCL's web site but felt is wasn't very clear... All info from those who have been in those cabins on the Prima much appreciated.

2 hours ago, thespiritmovesme said:

I had no FCC's, no cancelled cruises, & happen to be Sapphire but others got it who were not. The 2 $100 coupons were titled "Welcome back to cruising"  (paraphrasing) but no explanation for the 10% off. A thread was done on this when they first starting showing up on some accounts back in July.

 

Nice!

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We’ve only sailing on one 7 day NCL cruise and have 21 points. How many points do you have to accumulate to have a “My Coupons and Credits” section because I can’t see it when I log onto my account, or does it only show up if you actually have something that’s applicable to go into this section?

Has nothing to do with the number of points you have.  I think you may be right about it only showing up if you have something applicable sitting in your account... like the old COVID era 10% FCC I have for a cancelled cruise along with an old Cruise Next credit also waiting to be used.

3 hours ago, fox02554 said:

I had a 20% coupon pop up on my NCL account page

Did you see it under the "My Coupons and Credits" section?

15 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Food republic is typically open a few days and if you're using specialty dining, you may be able to get two lunches if there are two of you.  They'll let you order four items per specialty dining credit, and two items are often great plenty.  DW, DD and I have actually stretched it further than that. 😎

How does that work?  Will they let you use one dining credit for two people if you only order 4 items?  Is that only for lunch or will that work for dinner too?  Four items is just way too much food for one person at Food Republic.  😄

17 minutes ago, Rob-Bob said:

I will cruise again (21 under our belts) but nothing is really exciting me these days (price, itinerary, etc). Cruises seem pricy and same old itineraries or long expensive flights.

 

I see threads pointing out "great deals" but these are "starting at" prices.  Try to book the room you want with all of the free benefits and airfare and it adds up quickly. 

That's my feeling as well re: the cruise prices these days...  I see a B2B I'm interested in for next fall but the prices are making me cringe.  I may book now and then hope the numbers go down and/or try an upgrade bid later.

12 hours ago, JennKach said:

If you don't ask, you don't get.  I just booked a cruise today and didn't see any discounts available in my account or my husband's, so I called and asked.  It took all of 10 minutes and I got 10% off!  I love the great info on Cruise Critic.  BTW the code that showed on my reservation is 10OFFS.

Thank you... that's exactly the information that I was looking for (and what was referred to by psac in an earlier post.)!

2 hours ago, hallux said:

Each person may have a different code.  If they have your Latitudes number they should be able to access the discounts/coupons on your account.

This isn't an account code: 

"It wasn’t a coupon in our account, but it was a code that had to be explicitly applied."

On 9/14/2022 at 8:09 PM, psac said:

My TA (who is also my wife 😁) was able to apply a 10% off code to our next three bookings this year and next. It wasn’t a coupon in our account, but it was a code that had to be explicitly applied.  She saw it when she was just checking our bookings for any price drops. 

Can you share that code so I can tell my TA about it when I book?

Meh... rumors have it that the shakes are to die for, but we did not partake and the rest was just OK.  Our experience was on the Encore.

2 hours ago, Go2SeaTheWorld said:

I echo this sentiment. We're also on the May 28th cruise and are very pleasantly surprised with the pics of the ship. This will be just our 2nd cruise ever, the 1st being a West. Med out of Venice in 2017. 

Great second choice for a cruise... we will be sailing on her (hopefully in Jan 2023) and appreciate all the info this thread is providing.  

Sidebar: While I applaud Venice's choice on one level to deny large cruise ships departing from her waters, I was very thrilled to have had the experience of sailing out of her back in 2010.  It was epic and wonderful yet also shocking to see how close we were to St Marks, etc as we departed.  Not surprised to see them stop it.  Venice is such a unique and special place (yet so fraught with seemingly unsolvable issues). While I loved sailing out off her, I can't blame them for taking the actions they did.

1 hour ago, kickbutt10 said:

I booked through an online agency and have been using them for years.  Just past out final pmt, the prices dropped and I request to upgrade my Haven cabin to a higher class.  The agent called NCL and was told no.  No upgrade even if I paid the difference, no refund, no FCC.  The reason given was the promos did not match.  I had rec'd paid gratuities as a perk and it was no longer offered.  I called NCL and they said I could have either an upgrade or the FCC IF I had booked directly with NCL.  I am not happy at all with any of this as you can imagine.  My category is now sold out so even if they offer the same promo again, I am out of luck.  I guess I won't be booking Haven early or perhaps ever again.  I just think it is cruddy customer service to not allow a paid upgrade.   

Sure sounds like certain promos negate the possibilities for an upgrade.  Your paid gratuities sounds like it was the whammy in this case.

The discounts I applied to my cruise (50% off plus another 10% off) was their "excuse" for claiming I was not eligible for any FCC for any price drops prior to my direct upgrade (I personally call bullsh** on that).  

After blowing off my requests for a little FCC, when they then allowed me to upgrade to the next level cabin for a minor amount of $$$, I was quite shocked but jumped at the chance.  It was a much better deal than the paltry FCC I was requesting. 

I guess the point of this whole exercise is to keep asking NCL and see what you can get.  Nothing ventured; nothing gained.  Who you (or your TA) talk to does matter to some extent.

Success in this area seems to be a moving target... expect nothing and hope for the best.

PS. I give extra kudos to my TA for hanging in there with me and following through. I don't always book with her but she came through in this case.  I have often had better luck with reductions when using my PCC.  I go back and forth between them depending on the benefits.

9 minutes ago, JCMass. said:

We are sailing in two weeks and there was a huge price drop, we tried to upgrade to a Haven suite and were willing to pay the small amount to do this and were told no.   How did you do this ?

My TA called them... it was about 2 months before our sailing.  Someone above mentioned "14 days"... perhaps you were too close to the sailing date?

Thanks for the info... would be nice to have some kind of replacement for the discontinued Chef's Dinners they used to have.

And, if so, how was it and what was the cost?  Also, can you describe the experience, the pours and the food?

No need to apologize... reporting on your negative experiences is just as valuable as any positive info. 

A lot of the complaints lately... especially those due to lack of staffing... make me wonder if the overflow of the damaged Escape... and that it's Spring Break time... contributed to that issue.  Sounds like NCL was perhaps not quite ready for surges in passengers after sailing shorter-staffed for so long.

I too was given nothing despite repeated requests and big price drops... I instead took advantage of those price drops to upgrade directly to a much nicer Haven cabin for almost nothing (and well below any upgrade bidding offers they gave me).

Took ALL the sting out of those denials.  👍

Is it only in the buffet at dinnertime or also at lunch?

CCA –

Can you let us know what type of cabin you will be staying in?  Also, any photos will be much appreciated of all areas around the ship.

Thanks!

10 hours ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

Can this only be done with non refundable OBC? (If you know)

I've been able to use both refundable and non-refundable OBC in the past for tips for the concierge and butler.  I put the receipts in a thank you card for each.

9 hours ago, Pitzel said:

That photo is not the Escape. It is an older photo of a different ship. 

Wondered about that... thanks.

Thanks very much... that was my plan.  I was hoping they could increase availability (on certain excursions where possible) depending on interest levels.

Just wondering if it's like specialty dining reservations where they only offer a percentage of what's available to book online.

An excursion I was interested in got sold out online before I thought to book it... and I'm wondering if I'm out of luck and should find something new... or if there's a chance when I board that it might be available.

Anyone with any experience of this?

What ship will you be on?

13 hours ago, Laszlo said:

Lol

       Glad to seem I'm not the only one who takes a photo of their bags with bags at checkin. Hopefully they will find it. And yes I put two tags on each bag, have been told that's overkill and laughed at it here.

 

Keep all important things in a carry on and a backpack. My wife and I each take a small carry on and a backpack with us.... and yes we walk on the ship with them.

 

Another thing I do is use the TILE Tracker....https://amzn.to/3NEZZyn

 

And more recently the Apple Air Tag.....  https://amzn.to/3IXaZE0

 

The Tile App works fantastic and has paid for itself  X100  by finding one of my bags that was "Lost" in an airport. It had fallen off one of the belts and I was able to show the luggage people on my phone where it was and they were able to find it.

 

I keep a Tile or Air Tag on/in every bag with travel with including a backpack

 

Thank you so much for mentioning the Tile trackers... I feel like a dummy for not thinking of it.  Especially since that time Delta left three out of four of our bags in Dallas while we were flying to Australia.   It took three days for them to finally catch up with us.  Fortunately, they arrived the night before our cruise left for New Zealand for 2-1/2 weeks.

To the OP, so sorry they lost your bag and hope by some chance they find it before you leave.