rodndonna

As a fellow Canuck - this is our very limited experience with NCL (one booking and looking at one for fall 2025). We haven't really found TA"s in Canada offering worthwhile OBC deals, but also haven't spent a lot of effort trying (maybe we would if we booked more NCL's cruises we would look harder) Flight costs are always a major component for us, and when booking really early (which I typically do) can get some great deals with NCL "free" air promo. The downside of that is if you are not a fan of NCL air (not having any control on the flight options etc.. We are looking at booking through our preferred airline which can also bundle the flight in as a flight/cruise vacation package. In that case we are more confident with better control (choice) over the flight arrangements and still get some form of "guarantee" in terms of flight cost and help in getting to the ship with delays and such.

Wow ! We were happy with our bump from Inside GTY to getting a HUGE inside accessible room.

We were on the Zaandam in June with an inside GTY and received our room 2 (maybe 3?) days before sailing.

Personally, don't see the appeal of a $1 Deposit - and as especially as others have noted, if you can book using FCD's and get some OBC out of it - why would we? It does seem pretty gimmicky to me as well, but I hope like with all "promotions", HAL has a good idea of what actual conversion rate they will get from these $1 deposits (into actual paid bookings) - 50% 80% 20%%?? I "guess" maybe it helps HAL in that it does appear to generate a lot of buzz and gets more people looking through more cruises than they would normally ?

There are never "guarantees" but, they will make attempt to get you on another flight to get to your cruise, or, the next port if feasible and you can't make the embarkation. In theory, you are better off than being on your own if a storm impacts your flight. The only thing I wonder (as a Canuck who flies during winter) is if weather is "anticipated" to impact your flights, will they open rebooking options similar to the way Air Canada does. If you are not familiar on AC, there is always a "daily outlook" section where if it thinks a storm (or something) will impact your flight, they open a window for you to rebook it earlier or later with no penalty. Very useful in winter flying. We're flying with NCL air in January Toronto to San Juan - so might be testing it! At least with Miami, they probably open options to get you to either Miami or Fort Lauderdale if things go bad so that would be more options.

If you book your cruise fare and included NCL air, your airfare (like your cruisefare) is locked at that rate unless you choose to refare it but you can reprice up to final payment. So if the cruise fare drops, you want check what the newer airfare would be, as it might erase any savings and leave you with a higher overall cost.

We did Alaska in an OV (another line) and would personally not pay for it (it was a free upgrade then). What time of year are you going? Sometimes it can be "too much" daylight! We went in June and the daylight hours were very loooonnng. Woke up around 3:30 to go to the bathroom as we were coming into Glacier Bay, and although I KNEW it would be pretty light out, I just had to make the mistake of pulling open the curtains to see, and then blinding myself with daylight. Was very difficult to get back to sleep after that. We are also early to bed people, and it was still quite light out when we went to bed at 9:30 or 10:00.

The initial method (charging full) seem to make no sense logically. I really can't imagine there was anyone being willing to pay $12 + grats = $14.14 for a glass of wine that was basically a "$1 better" glass of wine than the $11 glass they could have had for free - 😉. I can only speculate that it was initially a very simple binary implementation for bar bill charging - either it's in your package (free) or not (charged) with no in between. It might have taken a bit of effort for them to modify the bar billing to allow for calculating and charging differences.

I think initially that was the way it was with HIA drink limits, i.e., charging of the full amount when over the limit, but then it changed to just charge the difference. If I recall. I think it was rolled out initially on certain ships before it became standard across the board.

I would say take a look at cruises in the Mediterranean. Views are amazing, good weather and lots of every walkable (easy ports). If the airfare is that much of an issue - maybe a Transatlantic from somewhere in the Med with a few ports and then back to the US or vice versa. They are quite cost effective and also limits your longer flights to just one way.

Am following as am curious. I'm pretty sure with HAL it is not automatic based on a conversation we had with our PCC after booking on-line once.

Interesting - I just checked two 7 day Zuiderdam Can/NE cruises - one for Sept 2023, and one for Sept 2024. Pricing is in Canadian and with our Casino discount - but the HIA add on should be the same I would think as I don't think Casino discounts apply to HIA. The HIA add on for the Sept 2024 which is with the extra Early perks and crew gratuities is much cheaper at $51 CDN$/pp/pd (about $36 US). The HIA add on for Sept 2023 - which is limited HIA is more - at about CDN$78/pp/pd (about $56 US) Part of this is Sept is the peak season for those cruises and no last minute deals there - but all the more reason to book early!

This is my limited experience with NCL airfare - We booked Sept 2022 for a Jan 2024 cruise from San Juan. The flight portion is now looking super-cheap - $900 Canadian for both of us from Toronto. Our cruise fare is now up from our booking rate of about $4K to $5K Canadian. I'm "thinking" we really scored on the flight segment (and cruise) booking that early with flights included.... but I guess we won't know until we actually get our flights assigned. We have been looking at 2025 and not seeing what I "think" to be as greatly discounted airfare, but who knows what flights will cost in 2025. Not looking good though... My "guess" is the airfare is a way NCL can provide financial incentives without discounting cabin prices, so there can be really god deals. Back coming out of Covid (when ships were begging for bookings) the flight segments with NCL from Toronto were stupid cheap .. it was crazy.

Whenever I would read these threads - I wondered why would someone try to pre-count what they might get for Mariner credits. And then on our last cruise when our credits showed up we are now just "ONE" credit short of becoming a 3 start - uugghh!!!!! You think they could have just rounded us up 🙂

I tried this morning after I posted - but no luck. It wants an American phone number to verify. Both our home and cell numbers are recognized as being non-US numbers 😐

Envious of you Americans and you "A"ARP - we Canadians with access to "C"ARP don't have those gift cards. I keep trying every few months though! (-;

I wonder if that was a change over the last 2 years. We bought a ton of gift cards come out of Covid and had lots of bookings/cancels when things were still in flux and they always went back to gift cards, Sometimes the same gift card, sometimes a different gift card .. The last 2 HAL issued gift cards we used (June 2022 and Oct 2022) had a fairly large balance and we were told at guest services we could apply them to our account, and whatever was not used would just get reimbursed to our Credit Card on file. I was dubious, but that is what happened both times at the end of the cruise. Perhaps, the refunding and tracking of cards was too much effort (I think they changed companies along the way as well). No experience since then as HAL has not repeated the 10% bonus gift cards in quite some time 🙄

We are also starting to look at our 2025 cruise (fall) options. There are 2 things making comparisons hard - not all the cruise lines have their cruises out yet and secondly, it is hard to judge what inevitable price increases are realistic for 2 years from now. What we have been doing is looking at the equivalent 2024 cruises for our price/option comparisons. For now, it seems 2024 and 2025 are priced the same. Therefore, if I were you I would look at options in Jun 2024 as a guideline of what eventually be available for June 2025 and at what price point. Edit: we are booked on the Viva but doing it more to check out the "new" ship thing in the Southern Caribbean. It wouldn't be my choice (personally) for a cruise of Greek islands. I would (again - personal preference) look for a smaller ship for that one.

Ah OK -I think the confusion is the "use" of the word "use" - haha When I say "use" I think apply to a sailing, not the actual sailing - so I was confused by ... Reminder that CF can only be used 120 days after purchase,

I think it means the sail date must be at least 120 days away to use the certificate doesn't it? So I think I can purchase and use a CF today, as long as my sailing is 120 days away from today.

This is what I was trying to say - there was a while yesterday (don't see them today) where I could see 2 HAL TransAtlantic (repsositioning) cruises for 2025 on an online booking Travel Agency. I don't see them anymore (maybe I was losing my mind)... but... I can still clearly see Alaska 2025 (through to October 2025) on an on-line Travel Agent booking site. I can see the cruises and cabin pricing, but will not go farther than that (gives an error if trying to book saying no cabins available). It seems odd that I can view cruises on other Travel Agent sites, before HAL's site.

We're Canadian so the NCL credit card not an option for us 🙃

Too funny - we're looking at the Sun as well! We're looking at the cruise before - Oct 23 for 11 nights or the that 9 night cruise in November. Really like those itineraries out of Lisbon. I know it will be late in the season for Portugal, so leaning more to the October date. We will likely just do inside for this one and save the money for elsewhere on the cruise 😎

Thank you Portia and Laudergale! I think I'm finally getting it! Now my only question (rhetorical) is what were they thinking when they came up with this? We're looking at a Canary Islands cruise for fall 2025 (I'm an early booker!) and now weighing the advantages of booking now or when we are on board the Viva in January 2024. FWIW, when we booked the Viva over a year ago, we were sold and used a CruiseFirst certificate, but never really understood it. Now that we are thinking about another NCL cruise, I figure I should do my homework for this one 😉

To be more clear ..I was confused on what the difference is between CN and CF... other than where you buy them. Regardless, it appears they are mutually exclusive .