ConcettaBonetta

A friend with colitis uses this app in any unfamiliar area. I don’t know what ports you’ll be visiting and how well those ports will be mapped in the app, but you may want to download and take a look before going to see if it’s worthwhile.

Sounds like lots of errors because the itinerary says we leave at 9:00 🤦🏼‍♀️

No, it's offered through NCL. It's the Norwegian Dawn, this September

Looking at an excursion that takes us to the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen "by night". The excursion details say they drop you off, give you your entrance ticket, and you enjoy the park on your own, getting on the bus when you are ready to leave, with the last bus back to the ship leaving Tivoli at 11:30pm. But the schedule for the ship says it leaves Copenhagen at 9:00pm. Is this a mistake or do the ships ever set sail later than they say, allowing just certain ship excursion passengers to arrive later? Thank you so much for any insight

Yes we have. It’s not like getting off a bus or train but it’s not “that” time consuming to make it not worthwhile to get off the ship. The cruise is of northern Europe. Several cities are right there, walkable or a short cab ride. We also have friends in a handful of the areas who are excited to pick us up in their cars and show us around. And we’ll do NCL excursions for the ports without friends that are a long distance from the sights we want to see.

Yes. Snarky because you think you know what’s best for MY family’s vacation choices, and for making up a bizarre claim about being saved which makes no sense at all. “Sounds like you probably need to find another vacation outlet. You’re asking the cruise lines to save you from booking with them.” and again, I never said I should not pay the DSC at all, just that the amount is excessive when you have four in a cabin, with which several responses agreed. Resort fees are a completely different animal and aren’t billed as if they are a replacement for tips. They are completely irrelevant.

And I think you’d be happier if you never had to hear a different opinion. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work that way and you should learn to be a little more respectful and adult about different opinions.

I only mentioned games and shows because others have said it includes other employees in addition to servers and cabin stewards, but not attending shows or going to the pool also means no one is cleaning up after us those areas. Yes, I know about everything else you mentioned. I still think $80/day is excessive

In my experience, Resort fees are always disclosed in the rate breakdown when you book your hotel room. I’m just as surprised that people don’t pay enough attention to notice them when booking a hotel room as you are surprised that someone who sees a daily service charge listed as optional on the cruise rate breakdown, would ask a question about adjusting the amount after reading people post that it’s not optional

Thank you for the information. For us it’s a 12 day cruise with four people in a cabin so it’s $960. In port 11 of the 12 days, half until well after dinner time, we will be eating every lunch except one and half our dinners in port. Two of us will skip breakfast and two will grab a quick bite at the buffet. We will be doing a lot of sightseeing and go to bed early in the evenings without going to a bunch of shows. The weather is not going to be nice enough to hang out by the pool on the one sea day and we will probably stay in the cabin and read. $960 is excessive for what we are doing. I have no problem with the concept of a service charge. I am not suggesting skipping it and entirely, but cutting it down to about half.

My goodness I really brought out the nastiness in some of you. Here’s some news for you. People can have different opinions and be respectful and adult about it.

No need for childish insults. I said nothing about being tricked. I just asked about adjusting the amount. Calm down

Naw, i’m good. We don’t cruise a lot, because we prefer to be on our own schedule rather than someone else’s, and spend more time in each city we visit. This one just happened to work well to see a lot of places we likely won’t go to separately. No need for you to make snarky comments to people just because they have different opinions. And again. The resort fee is an amount per room, not per person.

That’s the point, please read my posts before you make incorrect assumptions. If you cannot read what a person says before responding, then there is no reason for you to make snarky comments. We will rarely be on the ship and won’t be playing games or going to shows. We will likely eat half our meals on board, tops, probably less since our young adult kiddos don’t eat breakfast. There is one cabin and we are not dirty people. It takes no longer to vacuum the floor, wipe down a sink, or scrub a toilet for four people than for two. An extra 20 seconds to change out two extra towels does not justify double the fee. $80 a day is ridiculous for a quick cabin clean, two buffet breakfasts, dinner about half the nights and exactly one lunch on our one sea day.

This isn’t the only forum on earth that talks about cruises. 🤦🏻‍♀️ And I explained the 20%. A 4-person family for a 12 day cruise is $960, when the fare for the cabin we chose is only $5,000. I realize this is unusual. Some people will spend a lot more on a fancier cabin but pay half the service charge because they have fewer people in it. Heck, I wouldn’t even mind it so much if it was a warm weather cruise with a lot of sea days and we’d be eating a lot of meals on board, going to shows, and watching or even participating in the poolside games. But when the ship is primarily a place to sleep and we will be off of it for the majority of 11/12 of the days, $960 is excessive

I don’t recall cruise lines having trouble filling the positions back in the cash in envelopes days, either

You just described what difference it makes. It’s false advertising. You hook people in by showing them lower fare, they look into the ports, the ship, what kind of airfare they can get, get excited to go on the cruise then bam, it’s actually 20% more! By that time they’re invested and want to go on the cruise. If they had seen the $6000 upfront, they may have looked at other options. Again, we know about tipping, and we expected to tip, but not 20% of the fare. Haven’t you ever heard the saying the customers always right? 😉😂 It’s not just me. The suggestion I made is all over this website, as well as other others. I have seen comments from crew saying they don’t get the service charge and prefer cash tips to a pizza party. You cannot assume what they prefer. But one thing is guaranteed, it’s good for NCL corporate or they wouldn’t do it this way.

Thank you. Others have said there are only certain days the desk is open and that the lines are very long. That is what I meant by jump through hoops. Although getting to the desk by 5:45 AM would be a bit of a hoop for me in and of itself 😂

Not sure how the Disney cut line thing is relevant. It’s an additional service you’re paying for and is only paid by people who use that service. Resort fees are typically $20-$40 per room not per person. Again, it’s not the existence of a service charge, it’s the amount they expect that I take issue with. We do travel and eat in restaurants often. We know when to tip and we do it well. But that does not add up to giving the maid plus bellmen 20% of the cost of the hotel room. (We don’t usually use concierge services and if we do, we will tip separately for that.) 20% is considered a standard tip for American food servers who are paid substantially less than minimum wage and their counterparts in other countries. About $2/hour in some states. Considering that a portion of the cost of a cruise is used to pay for things like fuel, furniture, reservations and call center staff, corporate office workers, advertising, cleaning supplies, electronics, the ship itself, etc, 20% of the full cost of the cruise is excessive. thanks for helping me think through this a little more. I’ve realized the amount is even more excessive than I originally thought when comparing it to a typical hotel stay. Does anyone know if we can adjust the amount ahead of the cruise by calling guest services or do they basically extort passengers by making you wait in a long line on the ship to do it in person?

Should be included in the quoted fare making it $6000 if the amount is mandatory or if they make people jump through hoops to remove it as some have said. but if employees are paid a fair wage and the charge doesn’t go directly to the employees as UKStages said, then there should be no service charge at all and passengers should tip whatever they feel is appropriate

Thank you! So they underpay all staff, not just those in traditionally tipped occupations. OK, that makes it more reasonable, but I’m still of the opinion that if should be included in the original quoted cost. An extra $1,000 is a lot to add when the originally advertised price is in the $5,000 range

Hello, I haven't cruised since the time of cash in envelopes, and even after reading through this thread, I'm confused about the DSC. Is it mandatory or not? Is $20 per person per day mandatory or can it be adjusted? We typically tip well but with four in a cabin, on a port-intensive 12 day cruise where we will probably eat just one lunch and only about half our dinners on the ship, $960 seems excessive. We would not delete it entirely but somewhere closer to $500-600 seems more reasonable. Is it possible to adjust it? Feel free to drag me for asking but someone please also answer the question. Thanks