PATRLR

No doubt about it. In our younger days my wife and I would easily blow through that $600 and that would be at 1980s prices 🙂 !

Thank you to everyone for all the feedback. To circle back on this... I said above that this came down to whether $600 was worth saving for letting NCL pick my cabin. Well, as it turns out the category we were quoted was BB with no "free at sea" perks, not BX. So, we did get to pick our cabin (and saved the $600+). Category BB on the November 13 Encore sailing - thrilled to be returning to cruising.

They are, but, airfare is something I want 100% control over so will always book my own.

I don't think this is the case. I thought I'd bought it for just one passenger in the past. Further, when looking at the NCL site, the alcohol packages have this text "Beverage packages must be purchased for all guests staying within the same stateroom, additional stateroom, adjoining stateroom or travel with." - the soda package does not. Thanks for the feedback.

do you know what the cost of the cabanas are?

Where/when is this option presented for purchase?

First - thank you again to those who helped me find the cost of the SDP packages. That information was immensely helpful to this post. I’m trying to decide if the “free at sea” package is worth it to us. I’ve priced a cruise on the Encore at $3051 for a Balcony with no perks, and $4837 for the lowest category balcony with perks. The “perks” includes the standard 4 free at sea, plus pre-paid gratuities from the TA. That’s a $1786 difference! My wife drinks primarily seltzer water (non-alcoholic). I don’t drink a lot, but, will have a few each day. We both might have a wine with dinner. So, I’m figuring 6 drinks per day between us (and that’s figuring on the high side). We don’t typically do NCL excursions, but, if I recall correctly renting loungers/canopy on GSC is considered an “excursion” and I can use the Free at Sea $50 towards that (please correct me if I am wrong). We will definitely use the SDP, I’m disappointed NCL reduced it to just 2 (but maybe that means we’ll be able to get a reservation!) Internet we’d use sporadically so the 250 minute plan probably is all we need. So, here is my true cost if I buy the “no perks” cabin: Cruise fare, port charges, taxes $3,051 SDP 2 meal package $214 Tips - $16 pp, per day $224 Soda package for my wife $67 Drinks - $12/drink, 6 per day $504 Shore Excursion - we might use 1 of the $50/day credits $50 Internet - 250 Anytime minutes $105 Total $4,215 Savings vs cruise with perks $622 Seems like I save $600+ doing the no perks cabin. Where has my logic gone off the rails?