chillyw

Anyone know who the Haven bartenders are going to be on the Epic in October?

For sure! Most of the wines NCL has included aren't great but I got introduced to a couple pretty good ones... That they promptly ran out of. 😂 Would love to see what's on the Epic Italy sailings right now to see if I should bring a couple bottles on board.

Does anyone know if the wine list a few posts up apply to the entire fleet (including European sailings)? It's the most recent I can find. I'm looking for what's most likely to be on the Epic for premium plus in October. Thanks.

3rd person free is absolutely a thing, but you have to remember that NCL is making their money off of that person on the on-board amenities. Essentially, what they're doing is allowing them to come onboard for free, in a room where they're already making money on double occupancy, and then hoping to make money off of specialty dining, shore excursions, etc. Go take a look at a fare comparison of two guests vs three guests. The total price on the base cruise fare for two guests vs three guests won't change. Taxes, obviously, will. Then, you'll start to see additional charges for that third guest, like drink package gratuities, if you choose it. This third guest then provides them opportunities to gamble in the casino, buy art work, shore excursions, etc. to make their money. Remember, the rooms are already priced to make money at double occupancy (outside of studios). The only extra costs they really need to cover on that 3rd person is food and any extra staff time they use up (slightly more room steward time?). Overall, fairly cheap. A 3rd person can easily make up that and more with onboard spend, so it's beneficial to let them on for a comped base cruise fare.

Technically you didn't call the insurance company, you called the servicing company, Aon. NCL's plan is underwritten by Nationwide. Your purchased coverage level is listed on your cruise reservation. Documentation is a little different when you buy from the cruise line but it's all available here, just click your plan level then enter your state: https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/booksafe You can combine the cruise docs with the downloaded pdf to act as your normal insurance certificates.

Mine processed automatically.

Depending on the travel agent, American sometimes lets you pay them to take over the reservation and deal directly with them. I've done this for AMEX Travel bookings when I didn't want to deal with their outsourced call center. You need to ask the phone rep, then you get routed to a special department, where you pay them ~$50 fee per person booked, and they re-issue the tickets as directly booked tickets.

The airfare can definitely be a great deal, but I look at it as paying a little more to keep control over my flying experience (flights, arrival / departure times, layovers, etc)

I never take the airfare, so that might be why they were able to add it to mine.

I added it to my October sailing no problem, it's very new, I'd give the hang up, call again strategy a couple tries. Took me a few times before I got the right person.

I also got FASUP added to mine this morning, so I think that's the code. For anyone following my saga with my already booked 5 shore excursions: I did the hang up, call again strategy twice more this morning. Got through to someone at Casinos at Sea that knew what they were doing. The Casinos at Sea department had me talk to Shore Excursions after I upgraded for my refund. Shore Excursions looked at my account, and confirmed refunds started automatically processing! Sounds like everyone with shore excursions already booked can go ahead and upgrade without issues.

Yeah, we're in the Haven, I'm half tempted to do it and let the Haven concierge deal with it. Agreed on OBC, though I can always spend an extra $250 on fancy wine if I have to 😂

Has anyone gotten a refund on shore excursions for the 2nd person? I just called and talked to NCL, and they asked their supervisor, and they told me that I would NOT receive a refund on the 2nd person's shore excursions. Wondering if this is just new and I need to hang up, call again.

According to the person I just talked to on NCL.com chat: "You will need to contact the Reservations Department at 1-866-234-7350. Open Mon-Fri 8AM-12AM & Sat/Sun 9AM-9PM EST."

This is exactly the situation I'm in as well. Going to chat in tonight and find out after work. I'd do it sooner but in freaking zooms all day long. 😂

This is awesome if you have a port intensive cruise (like I do in Europe) and are doing excursions through the cruise line, and were going to upgrade some of the other things anyway. I'll have to chat into NCL tonight and ask about it. What will be annoying is how much of a pain in the ass it'll be to get my money back on all the excursions lol.

Free same day standby ended up becoming a thing for all legacy carriers during the pandemic, but there are rumors of it going away for AA unless you're elite very soon.

That's a great tip on the 100 offers, but I had so many targeted I ended up adding 285 and still didn't get the NCL one 😂🤦

<insert Peter Griffin Woah woah woah.gif> Stick with Woodford over Whistle Pig? 🤣 Whistle Pig is only included in Premium Plus, but it's literally why I buy the package. IMO, get piggy with it at least once on the rocks.