mianmike

You are the OP.

Because that's been the narrative for a long time. Frankly, I was surprised myself.

Your figures appear to be in the ballpark. Unless cabin stewards have received a huge pay cut in the last 10 years you are probably close. From a 2012 lawsuit filed against RCCL the wage of a stateroom attendant was described: "Pursuant to their employment contracts, the vast majority of Doe’s wages were from tips received from passengers.[4] For a seven (7) day cruise, Doe was, on average, entitled to receive approximately $1,100. Furthermore, under the contract, Doe was entitled to receive $50.00 per month paid directly as wages by RCCL." https://www.lipcon.com/work-in-progress/plaintiffs-v-norwegian-seafarers-union/

Well at least NCL is number 1 at something . . .

25% increase in the DSC 10 months after the last increase, now we hear cabin cleaning is cut 50%. Hard to spin this as a positive for the customer so they brought out the tried and true: in the interest of saving the environment we are charging more and providing less. To make the 25% DSC increase more palatable maybe NCL should advertise that a percentage of the DSC will go to incentive programs designed to enhance the environment for the world's cutest animal (as determined by a poll of NCL cruisers)

Whew! I was stressed just reading your post. So glad it worked out for you!

That's totally what's happening. That has been spoken to during investor earnings calls. They want to keep the price (before fees) as low as possible. When people price compared cruise lines NCL was not coming up near the top so they introduced the Sail Away rate. The Sail Away rate enticed people to NCL, but most end up booking the higher rate cabins. By shifting more and more revenue from the base fare to ancillary fees enables NCL's initial prices to appear competitive. But that can only go so far and thus the plethora of marketing gimmicks.

chengkp75 (who worked for NCL) has already settled whether DSC goes to salary. It does.

The cruise line is "charging" me a optional fee and saying it's going to the crew. If the crew is getting taken advantage of and 100% is not going to the crew, I want to know. It's an optional fee. I don't have to pay it, but I want to pay it if 100% is going to the crew. Looking out for the crew's welfare seems appropriate to me.

Since you got an "A" in econ 101 it appears your econ 101 didn't cover SEC regulations. As you assert, it is possible the NCLH corporate officers could be lying to investors, but that would be a grave error. When FDR discloses to investors that the company will deviate from previous norms and not price to fill, that's material. A company that discloses information to investors must do so truthfully and accurately. A company cannot make partial or misleading disclosures. Disclosures containing material misstatements or omissions “reasonably calculated to influence investors” can expose NCLH to Rule 10b-5 liability.

On the Royal Caribbean page they are complaining about NCL raising the DSC by 25%. LOL

Someone missed econ 101 . . , either FDR or you. FDR has stated multiple times they will not "price to fill."

Oh, I find great deals all the time. But these assorted fees make comparing "apples to apples" all the more arduous. That's why corporations keep adding fees, they are counting on most people not putting forth the effort to find real value. I wish someone (travel agency) would create a cruise search engine that searches multiple cruise lines, sorts by cabin category, factors in the perks you want, sorts by destination, adds the all the fees and calculates the total cost of the cruise.

I'm conflicted. As a NCLH shareholder, I love your attitude. We don't need budget savvy cruisers. "A dollar here, a dollar there, who cares!" Keep the opaque fees coming such that the total cost of a cruise is ambiguous. But as a budget savvy cruiser who isn't married to one cruise line these fees really complicate the search for the most value.

Bingo. In Oct we were on the Encore 21 day Panama Canal cruise. There were many empty cabins. I heard capacity was around 60%. We were in an aft cabin on the 9th deck and the aft cabin next door to us was empty as well as the one across the way. These aft cabins were listed at $6600 pp and they never reduced the price to fill them, so they sat empty. Fewer passengers, but not fewer crew means less DSC to spread around. Frank's strategy of: "Market to fill" isn't filling all the ships. Something had to give, either: 1) Raise the price of cruises 2) Price to fill cabins 3 Or raise DSC to cover the shortfall. I see why NCL chose to raise the DSC. The DSC is a "popular" fee as many people incorrectly think of DSC as a tip directly to the crew that shows the passenger's appreciation to the hard working crew. It would be unpatriotic to think otherwise. With inflation at 8%, a 29% increase in 10 months is big pill to swallow though. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

We've been tipping ever since we've been cruising. Years ago, after hearing rumors that crew doesn't get to keep tips we asked numerous crew members if they kept the tips and we were assured they personally keep the tips. A long time ago we stopped asking. We want to reward exceptional crew members with an additional tip.

I didn't know that. When that change?

Weird. You'd think he's in charge of the company or something.

We find the two cruise lines to be more similar, than dissimilar. We prefer NCL's dining: "eat when you want, where you want" vibe. We have been cruising Royal more only because we've been finding more value vs NCL. Additionally, we probably won't be cruising on NCL Alaska cruises as we love stopping at Ketchikan and hate NCL's replacement, Ward Cove.

I want to believe you, I do, but knowing Frank Del Rio (after listening to numerous investor conference calls) I find it hard to believe he would not insist on an algorithm that maximizes profit. #1 and #2 of your list don't add to the profit. That is so not Frank Del Rio to not focus solely on profit. I do hope you have inside information and are right though.

As a stockholder, I appreciate your attitude!

What?! No famous TheDougOut live review? Blasphemy!

Laminate this and leave on the chair hog's chair.

$5 DDB is much too volatile for my blood (and bankroll). The risk of ruin is off the charts.

Good to know. NCL has pretty much priced us over to other cruise lines, but we do like the NCL product. Since the restart we've achieved diamond on RCCL which we can status match over to Celebrity. I guess we need to give Celebrity a try.