Jana60

So we received this as one of our perks. I pre booked 4 excursions online and pre paid them. My travel agent is saying we needed to book them on the ship to qualify? I think this is wrong. When I would log in I’d get the message to pre book for my credit which would be applied on my account.

 

 

 

Can someone clarify? Here I’m thinking I’m getting $200 for 4 excursions booked and not I won’t because I did what Norwegian told me to do?

 

 

 

Thanks for clarifying, we leave Sunday.

Most important thing you need to know is that the tours are able to be canceled without penalty anytime up to 48 hours in advance of the tour so you should just go ahead and call NCL and cancel those tours and at the same time book those same tours with the NCL representative. You can book the tours in advance but you must do so by phone with Norwegian Cruise line so that the representative can enter the purchase with a balance due that will be due after you board. They will even deduct your latitudes discount. As an example, I purchased the Playa mia deluxe beach break for Cozumel. The full price of the tour is $85. Because I’m a gold latitudes member (70 days sailed on NCL) I get a 10% discount on shore excursions. So when you subtract 10% it leaves a $76.50 balance. When you subtract the $50 discount for the Cozumel port that is due me that leaves a balance of $26.50. It is exactly this balance that the Norwegian Cruise line representative told me I will owe for this tour. If instead of booking a tour that cost $85, I had booked a tour that cost $55 you would have a $49.50 balance After my latitudes discount. When you then subtract the $50 discount I am due you would think that would leave a 50 cent credit but it does not because the policy states that the $50 discount per port has no cash value so if there is a negative balance when it is deducted you don’t get change or credit towards tour at another port. It also states in the terms and conditions that there is only one $50 credit per state room not per person. It also states that no tours at the embarkation port are covered but you can use the discount at the debarkation port. So if you have a very late flight home you could purchase a tour that included transfer to your desired airport which would save you transfer expense.

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I tried booking the teppanyaki for our upcoming Bliss cruise using our dining package and it wanted to charge me. I couldn't get it booked online. All the other places worked just fine but not the teppanyaki. I suppose I could have called NCL but since I don't like teppanyaki all that much it gave me a great excuse to tell the wife;p

I booked teppanyaki using my dining package for my trip in September with no difficulty. I was also booking a couple of dinner shows that would have given me a discount if I used my dining package for them but I wanted to go to three restaurants using those and pay cash For the two dinner shows so I booked my three restaurants first before booking the two dinners shows and it correctly listed a balance due for the two dinners shows.

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I ended up calling the accessibility desk and the man there was able to find me an accessible balcony and there was no price increase so I will be able to use my scooter much more easily on my cruise!

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.........It all comes down to the definition of FREE.

I personally don't believe anything in life is "Free" but I don't get upset at some who take the literal approach. If you ate at a restaurant and the sign said "Free appetizer" only to find out they charged 20% of the appetizer cost on the bill, the majority of customers would take issue with that.

Its a very successful marketing campaign by NCL. Another one is the OBC offer. Most cruises went up the amount of the OBC. But not all of them. I was lucky to score real OBC.

My lesson with cruising. Take the deal you can get and be prepared for unexpected costs all the time. Just like when you buy a new car. You wont get the same deal as everyone all the time. Some have a lower bottom price while others paid more for financing. Look at all options and decide what is best for you. You don't have to take any of the offers which will lower your over all cruise price. Or you can pick the ones you think are the most fair. The free internet minutes is a freebie even though a small one. The 3rd and 4th guest sail free is another good offer. Personally unless you drink at least 4-5 drinks every day, I don't think the drink package is worth it. But that is just my opinion.

Here is a tip for saving money. Some of the "free" offers will increase your overall cruise price. You don't have to do it and save money. You don't always have to be distracted by the shiny object. Think bottom pricing unless you are one of those people who can personally profit off one of the offers. We are all different so we cannot say what is good or bad on this offer.

I loved your statement that nothing in life is really free. I always think that everytime I hear somebody say they want free healthcare for everyone or free college education for everyone. It would be really great if you could actually have free healthcare or free college education but unfortunately somebody actually has to pay for it. To make matters worse when you don’t have people refusing to pay a higher rate because they are the ones paying it you wind up having prices go up up up! In the same way I tend wonder if the price of the drink package is so high on Norwegian Cruise line because the guests receiving the free drink package are drinking much more than they would have otherwise.

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They also sell the package for $89.00 pp/pd.

 

 

 

No wait, it is NOT just $89.00 pp/pd. That is also encumbered by a 20% service charge. There is no way to obtain the "$89.00 pp/pd" package without paying the service charge.

They could just say they are giving an $89 pp/day discount on the drink package but someone would still find something to complain about.

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As former NCL cruisers DH and I were open to trying NCL again. When attempting to book a 5-day cruise out of Tampa I selected the Free Drinks promo. Imagine my surprise when the total cruise cost amount included a $178 service charge for the "Free Drinks." What is free about that? I chatted with a NCL rep and was told the service charge is the 20% gratuities for the free drinks! Free drinks should include the gratuities or it isn't really free. No thanks, we'll stick to Carnival and Holland America where there aren't service charges for "free" promos. By the way, their drink gratuities are 15%, not 20%.

I might be more sympathetic if you hadn’t lied so outrageously during the above post. There is no way the service charge for your free beverage package for a five day cruise could’ve been $178. I just booked a seven day cruise with free beverage package, dining package, Wi-Fi package, and tour discount package and the gratuities were only $124.60. It is a little aggravating to have to pay gratuities in advance for the package but realistically you would’ve needed to pay some gratuities to the poor bartenders and waiters anyway and this way you can feel less guilty for stiffing them during the cruise as I’m sure you intended to!

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NCL only needs to maintain an amount of HC cabins to cover the normal booking breakdown. If 20% of the available cabins left are HC but only 10% of future customers will likely need them then so should be opened up. At some point as the sailing nears they are fair game.

Unfortunately having the cabins and being able to afford the cabin are two different things. I am mobility impaired and I will be bringing my scooter at my next cruise but they told me there are no accessible cabins in my balcony category so the only way I would be able to get an accessible cabin would be to pay hundreds of dollars more!

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I need to do the cruise, tax, tips and air for no more than $1700 for me to consider a solo cruise a bargain. And only once have I not booked a balcony.

Friday I booked a solo balcony on NCL Getaway for 9/16/2018 Western Caribbean 7 day cruise with Bev. pkg, dining pkg, wifi, $50 tour discount at each port, an extra point each day towards my platium status and $200 OBC ALL IN FOR ONLY $1497.71! Airfare and pre-cruise stay at Embassy Suites was an extra $486 But I still think I got a darn good deal!

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Speaking from experience. I am disabled. If I called and wanted to book an accessible mini-suite and was told they were sold out, I would call the NCL Access Department. When you are disabled, you fill out paperwork and send it to the Access folks outlining your disability and other special needs. If you are assigned the cabin, but are not disabled, of course you don't fill out that paperwork. So, if I called the Access Department, they can check the existing accessible mini-suite bookings to see if they are booked by disabled or able-bodied guests. (If there is no paperwork on file, they first email the guest and ask for the paperwork.) If there is none, from there they can look to re-accommodate the original guest.

 

While I'm disabled, I was on the "recipient" end of the query email. I had forgotten to fill out my paperwork since I cruise alot and didn't keep track of which cruises I'd completed the forms for. About a month before sail date, I received an email from someone in the NCL Access Department asking me to please confirm my need for an accessible cabin by submitting the appropriate paperwork (which I did.)

 

PS I also posted an another thread recently about my experiences onboard. I have "bumped" able-bodied folks twice on cruises (not at my request.) Both happened on Day 2 of the cruise. Once was for a plumbing problem in my assigned cabin, the other was for a faulty balcony door. Both times NCL moved me to a previously-occupied accessible cabin. Not sure where the original occupants landed.

If they had to bump them after sailing I bet they gave them a pretty sweet upgrade for the inconvenience. I also am mobility impaired but so far I have only required intermittent cane or walker use but my RA is getting worse and I fear there may come a time soon when I need a wheelchair so I have a question. If and when I am confined to a wheelchair does that mean I can never take a last minute cruise again?

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Not cheap, but I got a good price for a single cabin, with free airfare, for a 27 day Eastern European river cruise with Vantage for July 2019. Very limited number of single cabins.

Can you tell us what it cost you all in?

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It’s not about who thinks they are more important or have greater needs, there are neither restrictions nor greater privileges on who can use the elevators.

 

They are there for all to use.

The elevators ARE there for ALL to use but common courtesy would be nice. I live in constant pain and standing longer outside the door of an elevator increases that pain. I have found myself praying that someone will be kind enough to allow me to get in an elevator. Sure I could sit at home for the rest of my life and never travel or do anything enjoyable but that wouldnt be living.

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I guess that's the reason I take the stairs whenever possible. No problems getting past others... I move pretty quick.

 

 

 

Sorry you were put in bad situation.

I would take the stairs if I could but I have RA and can’t walk up the steps so it’s really frustrating when large groups of healthy people fill up the elevators to go up or down one floor. Since they can walk much better than I, the healthy people always beat me to the elevator. I now just get on any elevator that has space whether it’s going up or down and ride until I can get it to go where I need to go.

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They should hold them for disabled guests, because some handicapped people can not book far in advance due to health related issues and by the time they can, no accessible staterooms are available for them!

 

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They WILL move a non-handicapped person if they need to for handicapped person especially if they are cruising out of the United States because of the laws requiring accommodation for the disabled that we have here. I am not wheelchair confined but I do use a cane and at times have even required a walker. I was placed in a handicapped room on a recent cruise because I had explained my difficulties to the sales person and had requested a room close to the elevator to shorten my walking distance. When I discovered that I was assigned to a wheelchair accessible room I called because I do not require a wheelchair and I did not wish to take up a space that was needed by somebody in a wheelchair. I was told that those rooms are reserved for handicapped persons if they require mobility assistance even if not wheelchair confined. So I was not in danger of being booted from my room.

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Wife and I are in our mid 50s and have been cruising for over 30 years. Most of our cruises have been on NCL (fondly remember the Norway!) and we've cruised most of the other lines. IMHO NCL has unfortunately gone downhill over the past 5 years or so. We just returned from our 2nd cruise on the Epic (we've been on the other NCL ships, Jewel class are our favorites). The staffing levels are down and most of the staff clearly are not the cheerful enthusiastic folks we saw in past years. They are now tasked with more work than ever. They also don't have the same incentives they had to promote up that they had in the past. I spoke with 2 different crew members who related that NCL now hires people into positions from outside more often. That takes away the incentive to move up from busing tables to waiting tables in the MDR to waiting tables in the specialty restaurants to becoming a maitre d'. We've also noticed that while the cost of specialty dining has gone up, the quality and quantity has gone down. On this last cruise, Our steaks were not cooked as ordered in two different specialty restaurants. On one occasion, after I sent both of them back and one came back even more well done that the previous (I ordered medium). I asked to speak with the maitre d'. I was told he was in a meeting and was not available. Rather than send it back a 2nd time, I ate the steak. Aside from the specialty restaurants, there were often lines at the bars due to the fact that most only had one or two bartenders working. They were working very hard, but just had trouble keeping up. I know this sounds like a lot of whining, but with over 30 cruises, we miss the exceptional service that we had come to expect from NCL. I spoke with several other couples and the general consensus was that NCL service is declining while they continue to find ways to charge for everything they can think of. I'm gonna miss NCL but I've had enough.

I have cruised on Royal Caribbean, NCL, Carnival, and Princess cruise lines and in every instance I have encountered people reporting the same thing.. Unless you’re ready to give up on cruising or cruise only with the very expensive lines you are probably going to continue to encounter this.

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Thanks for the reply and this is basically what I read several months ago. I was just hoping that there was a definitive answer by now. Most likely I will only order one of each, but wanted to know just in case two things looked good and I can't decide. ;p

I’m not big on desserts so one is more than enough but I love the appetizers in fact I love them more than the dinner usually. So I sit there and tell the waiter I can’t decide between the two favorite appetizers and since the waiters don’t like to spend a lot of time at the table they always suggest that I get both. They never mention money because they probably don’t want me to take even longer deciding which appetizer I want. HeHeHe!

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It is my understanding that seating is removed to accommodate wheelchair/scooter. The shower will have zero lip and you can roll in.

Only couch is removed. My last room was HA ocean view and had only one chair so you would have to sit on the bed if there were more than one person in the room. The one chair was the one at the vanity/make up area.

One more reason to use an independent TA for all this.

(As if the OBC isn't enough reason...)

Yeah because then the minimum wage guy at your TAs office can call and be put on hold by the minimum wage guy at NCL!

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I don't think the bottom rates have hit yet. :) The lowest rates have been happening later, many times, less than a week prior.

 

 

 

This was the case with the 2 cruises I took last month on the Breakaway and Jade, booked 3 days ahead on each, ended up being the bottom rate- did snag that $419 on the Breakaway. :)

 

 

 

It's a fun game trying to find the bargains. :)

But airfare to various ports must be very high for last minute flights!

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The one elevator that goes all the way down to 6 is the furthest starboard side. To be sure, just make sure the button panel has deck 6 on it...You are in the wrong one if it only goes to seven.

 

 

 

coka

It was the same on the Dawn. But it was almost impossible to get the elevator to come that went to the sixth floor since there was only one that did so so I typically had to go to the seventh floor and then push the down button to go to the sixth floor.

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We are cruising with my BIL & SIL in January. We are seasoned cruisers, and they have never cruised before. When we asked them if they wanted to join us, we knew they weren't detail people. Little did we know just how deep that ran. They are NOT planners (she couldn't even tell someone at Christmas what cruise line we were sailing), so everything that is a MUST do has fallen on me. They seem to think it makes my life easier just to say, "we'll do whatever you want to do." Sigh. The good news is that they will generally be quite happy just to relax in the sun. I've sent them the link on the NCL page about preparing for their cruise. Not sure if they'll actually read it.

 

I've taken care of the following:

-Booked FLL to hotel transportation

-Specialty restaurant reservations for all four of us

-Booked one excursion

-Given them some general advice on what to expect re: boarding, their specialty dining and beverage packages.

 

I didn't think to tell them details about internet, and that came up this weekend. They were surprised (and a tiny bit put out) they'd have to pay for access. What else is important to tell them in order to manage their expectations?

 

I don't want to make this all my responsibility, but they will do zero research and I want them to have a decent time (that will make my vacation more enjoyable once there!). Are there things that were a rude-awakening for you on a cruise, or did your inexperienced companions freak out about something?

 

Edited to add we are cruising on the Escape (we've been on it) to Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Nassau, and GSC, if that matters (it's our first time to CG & Falmouth).

Remembering back to my first cruise 35 cruises ago I think the things I found most unexpected were the following:

1) You get unlimited food coffee or tea in the general restaurants but it doesn’t include soda pop or alcoholic beverages. When they offer you a drink on the deck, its not free!

2) There are often long lines at the information desk so if you have questions its alot easier to call from your cabin and sit and do your nails or makeup while on hold.

3) Have your family look over the various shows and activities and plan reservations for shows that are especially limited in availability.

4) Have your family look over the possible tours the cruise line offers and if there is an activity or tour they like check and see what that tour costs on line through other tour companies or even through the company that actually performs the tour. If you and your family don’t see anything you especially like just get off the boat at the ports and look around. You will find lots of tour agents eager to sell tours at a much lower price than the cruise ship price. If you book non cruise line tour make sure its planned return is at least 1-2 hours before ship sails. That way if, God forbid, the tour vehicle breaks down, you still have time to get back to the port by cab. I always do tours, beach, ect... early and plan shopping at the end of the day very near or in the port so that I have that time cushion just in case.

5) make sure everybody has their passport airline tickets and money with them before heading for the airport on your day of departure.

6) If your family do not feel comfortable filling out paperwork online then be prepared to fill out their Pre-registration information For them at the cruise line site and print out the cruise documents for them also. After 35 cruises I can almost do this in my sleep so I always carry out this function for my family members.

7) If your family are telling you that they will just do what you do it may mean they don’t feel comfortable arranging any of it in an unfamiliar situation. If it took six months for your family members to get their passports it is likely that they have a tendency to procrastinate because I can think of very few circumstances under which it would literally take six months to get a passport. Only you know your family members best. For instance my oldest sister will say you just arrange everything but she actually means she wants to hear about all the different possibilities and choose but wants me to take care of the paperwork and details. On the other hand my middle sister will say she wants me to arrange everything and she literally means to just arrange it and she’ll do whatever I do.

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NCL doesn’t seem to have any cruises right now without single supplement! Not even last minute.

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Normally I would agree but to be honest, this trip was a gift to them. So if you want to compare it to what THEY paid for the trip then the DSC and gratuities are a lot more than what THEY paid.

 

 

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When I buy a cruise for a family member I also pay the gratuity for them. But in all reasonableness if I receive a gift certificate for the price of a dinner at red lobster I still pay a gratuity to the waiter out of my own pocket and I make sure that I pay 20% of what the price of the dinner would have been had I been required to pay for it myself.

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I do not understand why anyone would pay $99pp just for a quiet spot. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s a huge waste of money. Just my opinion.

 

 

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It’s not just the quiet. It’s being able to soak in the hot tub without little kids jumping in on top of you. It’s being offered pitchers of fruit infused ice water. It’s being brought your favorite drinks without having to stand in a line at a bar even when you’re on the free drinks package. It has always seemed to me like service is slower when the service being provided has been paid for in advance but that is not the case in the vibe. My vibe bartender even stocked the karaoke bar with the drink I like because he knew I spent a lot of time there and that they did not carry the ingredients for my drink.

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They talk about throwing in dining, beverages, internet, excursion, etc as a freebie or a choice of several.

 

But the beverage fee at $89/day,

If is a FREEBIE how do you say there is a FEE? Yes you pay the Gratuity but that is all; at 20% you would pay $17.80 a day. That is 3 drinks a day!!!!!

If it were only the gratuity it would be a great deal but the truth is that you have to pay anywhere from $200-$500 per person more for a room that has the option of the drink package then you do for the sale-away price without the drink package. So that means that the drink package is actually costing you between $300 and $600. I don’t blame Norwegian Cruise line for trying to get as much profit as they can but the consumer should be aware and do the price comparisons to see if it’s really the best deal for them. I usually spend between $200 and $300 on my sale and sign account so if I can get the free drink package for no more than $150/person more than what the sale away balcony costs then with gratuity it would cost $250/person which I would consider a good deal.

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If you could only take one last NCL cruise because of health issues, which one would it be and why?

Where you want to travel varies with different individuals. That being said, once you have picked out the place you most want to visit then the main concern is make the trip as easy and care free as possible.

1) Make sure the patients Doctor approves the travel. Health care available on board is limited.

2) Fly to and from the embarkation and debarkation city unless you’re lucky enough to live in the city you’re sailing from.

3) Speak with the cruise line and arrange a Wheelchair accessible cabin and rent an electric wheelchair for the trip so that your husband does not have to endure undue pain or fatigue during the trip.

4) Choose a cruise with NO ports that require tendering.

5) Bring enough of your husband’s medications, especially his pain medications to last twice as long as the cruise you are going on is expected to last. You never know when delays might occur.

6) Don’t necessarily assume that this is his last cruise. Sometimes miracles really do happen! If your husband’s doctor has told you that his time is limited, he may be correct but then again I have seen many patients who failed to follow the expected prognosis and course for their condition.

7) Have a wonderful, pain free, and worry free cruise.

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