littlelulu01

Ncl’s track record is to cancel prior to other lines. A couple years back Ncl pulled out of Turkey prior to any other lines. Ncl got great replacement ports and times. The other lines who waited too long got sea days or less desired ports and times. Ncl and Disney cruise line seem to be the two most cautious.

Regarding the offer for the Sun- if someone offered me a 25% discount to knowingly take this cruise I’d think they were out of their mind even attempting to market as a vacation.

The Sun Planned construction was hopefully a terrible mistake. The 25% offer makes you wonder though. Ncl valuing the Sun sailing at 75% of fare scares me.

The ability to sell out a bucket list cruise that unbeknownst to passengers was actually a pre planned construction zone and still get 75% of the revenue AND get the Panama Canal high port fees paid for by passengers is genius if in fact everyone just forgets about it and moves on.

IMO Ncl had a really bad reputation for taking care of passengers when things went wrong. This bad rep predates the current regime. Under current regime they really stepped up and had changed their reputation for the better with regard to taking care of passengers when something went wrong. I’m hopeful this Sun revenue sailing is simply an isolated internal mistake.

Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful pictures. If you had to choose between one or the other and not both which would you pick- Taormina or Savoca? We have the distinctive voyage credits so double excursions credit for an ncl cruise. They don’t offer a combination excursion like you took- just one or the other so it’s almost free and only pick one or do something like what you did private excursion and pay $$$.

This is what happens when you can’t protest in your own country ... you do it on a cruise ship.

I didn’t think it was allowed on a cruise ship either. regardless of what country you’re from I’m pretty sure you not supposed to stage protests and start pushing the crew around because the ship gets fogged in. Sounds like Ncl gave them a reward for it though so must be a cultural difference.

Read an article this morning about the Joy. Here’s a link. The Joy missed a port in Shanghai due to safety concerns over heavy fog. Passengers staged an angry protest including jostling crew. Doesn’t sound like a great way to spend vacation.

Angry Chinese tourists stage another noisy ‘patriotic’ protest after fog forces cruise ship to stay in port - South China Morning Post https://apple.news/Ar_hdP12DSu69oC4lmkY3Sg

Of course I do not know the answer, haha, but I really want to know where you are cruising to!!!!

Ha!! It’s actually for my bf who I’m helping with her very first Europe visit and first cruise. Thought it easiest to not post friend of mine...

She’s overwhelmed trying to figure out all the fine print & I said I’d help her figure it out and tell her what the real cost is going to roughly be for private vs ship excursions, cruise fare, drinks...and cancellation fees.

I read her fine print today on her my Ncl. It most definitely listed final payment of May 13 however in cancellation policy it says if canceled at 119 days the cancellation penalties start kicking in. So that’s in a couple days. It’s the deposit or 25% whichever is greater. Deposit was $2 so according to cancellation policy she’s going to owe Ncl 25% or more of cruise fare if cancellation prior to final payment in May. That’s very clear so I called Ncl to confirm. The rep said it does say that but that Ncl will only be able to keep the $2 if she cancels prior to final payment. He said Ncl doesn’t have a cc with authority to charge the 25% or more so they only keep the $2. Idk though if they’d go after her for the additional owed according to T&C’s should she cancel. My thinking was that she’s locked in at a rate she’s ok with now. She’ll take the cruise but should the price dump after final payment she’d potentially have opportunity to cancel the bogo 50% and get a balcony with some perks on the USA site. Her sailing date only has inside and balconies left so it could easily be close to selling out very soon.

The bogo 50% is a great deal and a way for her to get a balcony last minute booking at a fare in her budget. No other perks included in the bogo 50% so you also have to figure in the additional costs of a few drinks here and there, speciality dinners and shore excursions which she is most comfortable doing through the ship at quite a premium over independent.

Booked with Ncl India site to get 50% off second passenger. Final payment on my ncl is due by 5/13/17. Sail date is 7/22/18. According to cancellation schedule on my Ncl for this booking it’s 25% of cruise fare or deposit, whichever is greater starting at 119 days. I called Ncl and the rep told me I have till final payment due date of 5/13 to either cancel or loose deposit. This does contradict ncl’s final payment schedule and just wondering if anyone has experience with. The 120 day mark is in a couple days and final payment isn’t for a couple months. I assume that I’d likely lose deposit if I cancel cruise from 119 days till final payment but will they also try and charge me for the 25% of fare if I cancel prior to final payment?

None of these are FACTS. I sail 6-8 times every year exclusively in accessible cabins across NCL, Celebrity & Royal Caribbean. Accessible need documentation is requested by EVERY line. If you choose to ignore it, or miss the email, that doesn't mean it wasn't sent to you. I have also be unable to book MANY cruises that I wanted to book due to the unavailability of accessible cabins. In fact, I just received an awesome casino offer in the mail with DOZENS of complementary sailings from Royal Caribbean between now and December and couldn't take advantage of even ONE of them due to lack of available accessible cabins. So please, do tell of all these sailings with excess accessible cabins!

 

I have also posted in this thread about how issues with my cabin(s) necessitated that able-bodied folks were MOVED during their cruise from their assigned/booked accessible cabin. So, while it may not have happened to YOU, it DOES happen and people should be aware of that possibility.

The Europe sailings are the prices I watch. Seems like on those sailings a flood of accessible rooms come up at the last minute. The sf and aft ms accessible staterooms seems to show in the general booking pool , likely because there’s so few in the category to start with. Even though the sf and aft ms accessible show in general pool way out, they seem to sell long after the non handicap sf’s and aft mini suites. I don’t usually see any other category accessible rooms in the general pool till the end. I keep an eye on just because it’s a great way to figure out when a category is about to sell out. Once accessible rooms are in the general pool you know the category is down to the last few rooms available.

I’m guessing that if someone actually requested an accessible room that they would ask for forms filled out. If someone is just booking a last minute cruise and the accessible rooms were released to general booking then I don’t get why they’d want you to fill out forms if not handicapped. At that point it’s a matter of trying to fill the last few rooms. I think they still keep some accessible back in case someone calls and needs thus the reason for being assigned one on a gt rate. Again this is just from what I experienced with Europe sailings.

Epic med right now has some great rates for the upcoming sailings. Accessible staterooms are the ONLY staterooms available in bd category on the 7/22 sailing. The other day ALL of the bd accessible rooms available and nothing else left for BD category. Since it’s highly likely they are the only bd left at this point, they probably getting booked by non handicap people. Perhaps trying for the Europe sailings and you may have much better luck?

I'm sorry - I'm really confused by this situation (I'm confused about NCL's actions here, not yours). Did I understand correctly that this sailing is nearly a year away in next January? And that there are other aft balconies open? So why on earth did NCL release this cabin in the first place? Does anyone know what NCL's policies are on releasing the accessible cabins?

I think your confusion lies in the aft balcony limited available staterooms. On many Ncl ships there is only a few of the entire category of aft balcony. The cruise line holds off on releasing the category till a certain number of the category sells. If you want ANY aft balcony it’s pretty much the same for handicap or non handicap- booking way out is the only way you’re going to get either.

For the other categories they often have tons of each category so the handicap rooms are not available till the last minute because it’s not till then that they have sold out everything else.

non handicap people residing in a handicap room happens all the time at no fault to the passengers or Ncl.

The assessible rooms are not ideal for non handicap people. The bathroom in the one I was assigned on a gt booking was very institutional and I’d have much preferred a regular bathroom. I got a great deal on the gt rate though and it is just something I half expect to get stuck with on a last minute booking or gt rate booking. I was never sent a form to fill out. Just an email about that I’d been assigned an accessible room and if I wasn’t in a wheelchair that I might be moved.

Op made a good choice and is lucky an alternative is available- quite a rarity for aft balconies. Worst case scenario she could have been moved to an equal or higher category if someone needed the room. In her case that could have been any mini suite which is a higher category but by most standards a big step down from the highly coveted aft balcony. In my case It would have been ideal to have been moved. I had a great rate so any ocean view was fantastic.

Aft balconies are typically sold out months if not years in advance. My October, 2019 sailing is already sold out of all aft balconies.

Ncl does hold out the accessible staterooms from the general booking pool until the availability is gone from the non accessible pool of rooms. That’s why when you’re booking a gt stateroom you’ll often be assigned an accessible room.

I’ve been assigned a handicap accessible stateroom on a gt rate. In fact on the Jewel class, the obstructed ov sideways staterooms on deck 8 have an entire section of assessible staterooms and I didn’t see anyone but outwardly physically fit perfectly capable occupants when I was assigned to a room in this section. That’s really strange that another poster was asked by their neighbors and room steward to explain why they were in an assessible stateroom. We certainly were never asked any questions.

One way to see how sold out a category is is to actually look and see if the accessible staterooms are in the general booking pool. Once they are put out for the general pool that means they are almost sold out of the category.

If you’re wanting an aft balcony regardless of your accessibility needs, booking way out is about the only way to get one.

Kids and I went on a two week med cruise with over a week in Florence prior to cruise start. British Airways lost our luggage. It’s the first and last time I’ll check luggage. We had the clothes on our back. British Airways gave us a toothbrush, toothpaste and a t shirt that doubled as pajamas. We got our luggage back at the 11th hour prior to departing Venice on the cruise. We ended up purchasing clothes, shoes and underwear... in Florence and it was very expensive. Our trip insurance policy did reimburse us.

A woman on our sailing never did get her lost luggage. Ncl washed the one outfit she had every night and returned in the morning. For the times she was without the outfit she had an Ncl logo outfit and was constantly asked for drinks. Passengers thought she was crew. The biggest obstacle I see with needing to purchase clothes shoes etc in a foreign country is size style and cost.

We now have only travel with either just a backpack or if not doing trains then just one carryon wheeled luggage.

Cruises are ideal for Europe travel and minimal luggage. Laundry service on Ncl is pretty quick and it comes back looking great.

I bring the season end sandals and running shoes, underwear that is in need of replacement and leave that stuff behind to make room for anything I purchase.

Europe can easily be done with either a backpack or just one small carry on. And you don’t need to look like a slob. The alternative is potentially dragging a wheeled suitcase through cobblestone cities, up and down stairs at train stations (sometimes running up and down stairs to get to the right platform in time), having to keep an eye on your stuff so it’s not taken from the trains.... all that can be an absolute nightmare in a hot crowded ancient city.

Thanks so much for your review. Looking forward to reading about your vacation.

Thank you. This is very helpful and just the information I was looking for. I already figured the price of the DSC into my cruise, but I wondered what people did for the staff who went above what I would consider baseline service.

I would say it’s totally up to you. Unless in speciality venues you don’t get a bill folder or a bill with a line to write in extra or leave extra. Should you care to leave your waiter something extra and have some cash on hand $5 seems like a good number.

Room steward is also in the dsc pool. $50 seems nice on a week sailing. Again these amounts are totally subjective and you can give more or less and be inside the norms.

For bartenders a buck or two here and there or a larger bill just once to favorite servers is adequate. I don’t always care to have cash on hand. About halfway through my cruise I’ll try and make a point to take care of the servers I’m getting excellent service from. Staff know you don’t always have cash on hand. It’s not expected and they are aware that you have paid dsc in lieu of the need to have a wad of bills on you whenever you’re enjoying the ship.

"Where tipping is the norm" its not in Europe to the standards of America.

 

In the UK staff now earn a minimum of £8 per hour ($11) and therefore almost 5 times the $2.00 you quote so no further tips here

In the USA wages are federal, state, city and county dictated. My waiter at dinner last night earned a mandatory minimum wage of $15/hour plus 20% optional tips. His rent however is likely 2k/month for a crappy apartment. Rent in the Philippines is probably $200/month or less for similar crappy apartment. Th uk £8 per hour might include some health care. It’s all relative. The cruise lines set up pay standards and incentives for their employees just as the various countries around the world do. Fairly simple to just go with the local standards of pay whenever traveling instead of trying to figure out what the worker, business, government... take on everything consumed while traveling. NCL sets it up so that it’s easy to follow their recommendations.

Now Keeping the Blues Alive has been posted on Sixthman's website 2/25-3/1/2019. This, of course, overlaps my first ever cruise on NCL (I am usually DCL but wanted to try the Haven). I have repeatedly contacted my cruise consultant who states that they have not been notified of the booking, so my cruise is not canceled. I even sent her the info from the Sixthman website, and she still said it is not canceled. When I contact Sixthman about Haven availability, I am told there is no Haven available on their chartered cruises.

 

As a small business owner, I get agitated :mad:when the left-hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I have pointed out to NCL that people have been discussing several Sixthman cruises on CC since 1/31 that will interrupt Pearl sailings. As of this morning, the NCL website continues to offer three sailings that will be canceled. I find this to be inferior customer care. As a new customer to NCL, I had already convinced four friends that the Haven was the place and they were all looking at booking cruises. We were all interested in the private pool area. Being a new customer who is about to get canceled and was never given a heads up while booking of the charter possibility then seeing that NCL continues to sell unavailable cruises I started to search for another cruise line. It is unfortunate because I genuinely thought NCL Haven would be the last place I would cruise. My cruise consultant even told me that NCL was the only cruise line I would find the private pool on (using my wishes against me).

 

 

When I do something, I go all out. I save my money meticulously for cruises and spend freely while on board. On Friday after realizing that NCL has such poor care for its customers I did some searching and found another cruise line which has a private pool for suite passengers. I contacted my four friends, and we all booked cruises on Celebrity Edge. The unfortunate thing I see in this for NCL is not only are we all canceling our Haven suites (instead of waiting to see what was offered to move) but we all will never choose NCL as our cruise line and if anyone ever asks we will tell them about the poor service provided by NCL when it comes to customer care. So far our experience with Celebrity has been top notch, and the cruise is costing us less with more suite options than the Pearl had to offer. Also, the perks offered do not nickel and dime us - such as no upfront gratuities on the beverage package. The beverage package also includes premium coffee and bottled water (unlike NCL).

My call to preshore services to cancel once again showed me that the left-hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The answer was yes there are charters booked and then followed with an I am not sure why we are still selling those cruises.

 

I look forward to my cruise in February next year. Unfortunately, NCL lost a customer and Celebrity gained 5. :cool::cool::cool::cool:

I'm sure you'll have fun with your Celebrity sailing. It is true that all the lines charter ships. What the other lines do for the displaced passengers is often more than what NCL does though. Sometimes NCL will price and perk protect. Other times they either offer nothing but a, you are welcome to book something else and goodbye. Or the, your business means so much to us that we would like to extend a generous (Ha!) $50 obc should you choose to switch to another sailing that is by now twice the price of your original suite. Probably not the best way to go about making the customer that was willing to give you 10k or more for their dream vacation happy and valued. Charters make the cruise line tons of money so any company will gladly cancel on you for a charter. Most of the other lines, and sometimes NCL, will keep you happy with a valid similar offering though. From a business standpoint it only makes sense to keep displaced passengers happy and just build the displacement costs into the charter fares. For some reason though NCL doesn't do this and they will often wait till it's really too late for the displaced passengers to find a decent priced alternative. Probably a good idea to jump ship ahead of time in order to get the suite on another line at a price you are happy with. Sitting around waiting for NCL to cancel what you already know is going to happen will just leave you less choice and higher price later on. NCL Haven does offer a wonderful product and NCL has improved with their charter communications but still has some pretty big flaws. It's almost like there's a few people on the team. If team member A is in charge of the charter cancellation he tells everyone to go screw themselves. If team member B is in charge they make sure customers are well taken care of and are put on another sailing with some benefits to make up for their trouble. Every time I book a cruise way out, which is the only way to get decent suite pricing anymore, I cross my fingers that the sailing won't be canceled and that if it is my letter from, "Vivian" is the "Vivian" who wants to retain the displaced passengers. Not the, " Vivian" who says see ya later sucker. Thanks for the $1500 deposit that we held for a year.

I would search to see how many ships are in port the same day and the times. If you’re the only ship till 10 pm, or if only one other smaller ship till 10 pm, I’d wait for the rush and leave a little later. If you want to see oia, a little more quaint than Thira, then when you get off the ship tender they have another, basically a tender operation, where you can purchase boat over to the base of Oia and then take a bus up to Oia, then bus back to Thira and cable car ticket back to ship tender. Water is really important to bring along.

If there’s going to be a couple of large ships in port till 9 or 10 pm then the lines for the cable car are excruciating. Unless you’re able and willing to walk down or ride a donkey it’s the only option to get back to the ship tender.

We’ve booked Alex boat tours in the past and it’s a pretty fabulous day. He’s on trip advisor- I think the number one rated. The owner, Panos and his friend, Demetrius, will pick you up at the tender drop off. He’s the only one with access to the tender drop off area. It’s not cheap but it’s a perfect day. Might want to take a look at trip advisor and email him. We swam in the warm volcano water, he made us an incredible meal, he’s a wealth of information, you can snorkel, he will take you to base of Oia for pictures... and then at the end he drops you right back at the tender line so no need to ever mess with the logistics of going up or down to Thira.

You do miss out on the towns above but honestly with crushing crowds and summer heat it was not worth it the time we were in that mess. My day with Panos on Alex boat tours was far more memorable than the other times we went up to Oia or Thira.

I’ve also done the NCL Oia trip and they tender you to a further area where busses wait, fill, and take you to Oia for about an hour. Then you are bussed back to Thira and given a tender ticket. The local purchase option was better because we got more time in Oia and didn’t tender to an area so far away. Views are great. Otherwise it’s mostly a lot of t shirt shops and souvenirs and thousands of cruise passengers crammed in Thira. Oia is much prettier but still basically a ton a cruise passengers. The sunset from the ship is also beautiful with the sun hitting the town. They say every year that the local Oia transfer option is going to be canceled but every year it’s still available.

One more thing- if you end up with Panos and Alex boat tours he does take credit card or euros. You have to tell him in advance of credit card. We didn’t have to pay him till end of day. You do have t reserve him way out though. Since he’s the only gig in town he’s popular. His boat is about a 30 foot. Has a bathroom on board.

I strongly urge anyone confused about the DSC and additional cash tips or anyone contemplating removal of DSC to read the faq on NCL’s website. The misinformation on these tipping threads is rampant. I’m not sure why some posters have the need to make repeated unfounded claims that the DSC is a scam and none of it goes to the staff on board or that if you paid the DSC and don’t give cash tips that you are stiffing the employees. Neither is true.

Directly from NCL website and in their words: “The service charge is shared with restaurant staff, stateroom stewards and other behind the scenes staff…. “ "If you have concerns about the service you receive let guest services know right away so issues can be addressed in a timely manner.” Should your concerns not be corrected then feel free to adjust the DSC accordingly. Regarding extra cash tips per NCL: “You should not feel obligated to offer a gratuity … Staff are permitted to accept cash gratuities for exceptional or outstanding service if you care to offer them.”

There is no expectation to offer extra cash tips unless you are in a suite or utilizing the kids club. Youth staff, Concierge and Butler are not included in your DSC charges and should be tipped separately according to services received.

For those who honestly just want to know what is the right thing to do – it’s to leave the DSC intact and pay it. If you have service issues contact Guest services and if not corrected then adjust the DSC. The majority of NCL staff on board are hardworking and excellent so the chance you’ll need to adjust the dsc is pretty slim. Regarding extra tips which are not expected but appreciated; It's nice to do and much appreciated. Nothing but a sincere thank you and or a vacation hero card is also fine. If in a suite the tips for certain staff excluded from DSC should be figured. Those are really up to the individual and dependent on use/service received.

The staff I have spoken with on board NCL ships about DSC and tips have been long term staff. They are happy with their jobs. They do appreciate extra cash tips. They do get extra pay dependent on the amount of DSC collected vs. amount that passengers remove. They do get to keep every cent of extra cash tips given above the DSC. They appreciate the extra pay they get from the DSC.

It is really very easy just to follow the guidelines NCL gives us and go have a great vacation. Anonymous posters on the internet board trying to tell you otherwise should be ignored. Yes NCL is a corporation in it for the bottom line and they are currently quite profitable. Should the quality of service, food and vacation experiences suffer to a point where customers and employees are no longer happy they will need to adjust their practices or suffer through lost customers, bad reputation and lost revenue. I have not noted any decrease in the quality of services aboard their ships and feel it remains excellent. I have noticed a decline in food quality. It’s not enough for me to stop spending my vacation time and dollars on board their ships yet. Should it decline further I’ll re-evaluate.That’s what customers do. They either pay NCL the $ or not. Trying to make a statement to the corporation by taking away staff pay and encourage others to do the same is not the way to show the perceived big bad company. If you really feel they are the big bad company exploiting their workers then don’t sail with them but trying to remove DSC as a rationale is really just punishing the hard working staff. You have to wonder what the real motive for posters to encourage thousands of others not to pay the DSC or that If you do pay the DSC and don't give a plethora of cash to anyone serving you that you have stiffed them.

The staff I’ve talked to seem to confirm that they do in fact benefit from the dsc on a per cruise basis. If the sailing makes a certain amount of dollars then they get extra. If a bunch of folks reduced or eliminate the dsc then they don’t get as much extra. Also, per the crew members I’ve spoken with, the extra line tips, over and above the 20%, that are hand written in, go to extra pay only if the sailing has made their target. The dsc is very appreciated by the staff who benefits from it. No sense taking it away just to be a perceived cash big tipper. You have taken care of the employees with the dsc. They of course love extra cash tips. If you feel like giving someone a cash tip for service that made your vacation special, feel free but you certainly haven’t stiffed everyone just because you don’t give everyone on the ship extra cash tips. Butler, concierge aren’t in the dsc pool and should be tipped separately depending on level of service received. I certainly find it easiest just to follow ncl guidelines. Let them take care of their own business and employees with the system they have which seems to work quite well. They retain excellent staff so they must be doing something right.

Thank you for your reply. I just need to calculate now whether it will be worth the price increase I will pay to cancel and rebook or add it to my existing. We are planning on using private tours in most ports and the others are pretty much DIY ports. Only 2 ports are we considering using cruiseline excursions.

Hi. You can choose to use any or no portion of the distinctive voyage perks. If pricing hasn’t gone up much for your cabin then perhaps price out the difference. Figure the extra 250 mins of internet is worth $125 but only if you will want it - not worth anything if not useful. The 120 mins phone calls is a novelty. My husband has to do some work so it’ll come in handy.

Airfare and hotel we won’t even know about for almost a year for our Jade sailing. There’s a chance it could be a savings but likely not the $100/$400 over do it ourselves booking but it is $100 off ncl’s hotel and $400 off NCL airfare quote.

For our jade sailing I think the aft balcony has gone up enough that if you’re only going to use the ship shore excursions a couple times and will have to give up the sdp perk to get the shore excursion $100 total credit, it’s probably not worth it. I don’t think The sf suite hasn’t changed price yet. That comes with $300 obc, all the free at sea and distinctive voyage perk. So automatic $100/port/stateroom for all 12 ports. Shore excursions pricing might also increase by sailing date but many of the shore excursions I’ve been looking at on ncl’s site currently work out to not much $ at all with all the credits. Some, myself included, prefer independent excursions but this time around I’ll likely give NCL excursions a try.

I think we were on the last of several back to back music cruise charters. I wonder if that is a huge strain on the staff...

I think this was key to the majority of the problems you experienced. The room cleanliness was likely an anomaly. But when a group behaves differently than the norm for the ship staff I think it can become overwhelming and food and service can go downhill. We unknowingly sailed a two week Iceland, uk Norway last year that was over half chartered with passengers from mainland China tour groups. The food in the mdr’s and buffet was pretty bad. Yes there’s been some cutbacks in speciality and included venues, but overall one should expect a minimum level of quality, taste and presentation in all venues and a step up from this for speciality. We’ve sailed Ncl several times and would definitely chalk up the dining issues to the partial charter situation that simply overwhelmed the food supply and kitchen staff. In your case I’d bet it was a similar situation of the tail end of weeks of charters. That said, I’m comfortable sailing Ncl and don’t expect my last dining experiences to be anything like my next sailing. If it was really that bad on a regular basis across the fleet they wouldn’t be able to stay in business. Normally you can get a good enough meal in any venue on an ncl ship.

Not that any explanation is likely to get you back onboard an ncl ship. We’re one and done with carnival due to experience we had. But just in case you contemplate another Ncl sailing I’d venture a guess your vacation would be better. The only thing I know about charters is that I’d prefer not to be on one.

One of the best itineraries, but not till October, 2019 is on Ncl Jade. It’s round trip out of civitavecchia (Rome). 14 night with only one sea day and an overnight in Venice. Other ports include Livorno (for Florence), Naples, Messina, Corfu, Kotor, Venice, Dubrovnik, Argostoli, Mykonos, Athens, Santorini.

Advantage of booking so far off is some really decent suite pricing. The sf suite which is a full suite still has a couple rooms available and comes with a ton of perks, including $100/per port shore excursion credit, $300 obc, two Internet packages, speciality dinners, phone call package, beverage package, air and hotel credit too. The lower category rooms also have decent perks.

Pricing has already started to go up a little on some categories but some are still at initial pricing. Perks included, it’s probably the most decent deal and best itinerary I’ve seen in a while. Nice midsize ship that is fresh out of dry dock/makeover.

I'm curious. For European cruises, do you feel the CM's would prefer Euros or U.S. dollars when tipping in cash?

They are happy with either. I usually do dollar just because Everything on the ship is in usd and it’s easier for me to bring usd/not have to pay to get euro. They’re certainly happy with euro just because it’s cash they can spend right away in port but say it’s the end of season and they’re going back to USA - they would probably prefer usd.

Has anybody used the $100 USD Hotel credit? Just wondering how we go about this?

Booked by calling Ncl. Not available till a certain time prior to sailing. Probably about a year prior. Not all ports have it available. You can look on NCL site for current available hotels and ports. I think the pricing listed is per person. So for example with Rome it’s listed as $145 and inclusive of breakfast and transfer to ship. So I gather it is $290 for two and then $100 credit so $190 total. My pcc said he could price out hotel and airfare when the time comes but they typically are a much better deal to book on our own. T&C’s state good for either pre or post cruise but not both. Let us know what kind of offer you get.

if booking the airfare portion it sounds a little scary just because it’s a 3rd party booking and they are highly restricted tickets = lots of potential headaches should an issue arise.

They appreciate cash for extra tips. My last sailing, 2 weeks Europe, I got to know a couple bartenders pretty good. I asked one day and was told that there’s a certain amount of $ the ship must make. Once that amount is made they get a portion of the extra line tips. The bartenders who told me this said that on the Europe sailings (the Jade) they don’t get much extra. Once they get back to the states they start getting a lot more $ because people are leaving a lot more on the extra line tips and also giving a lot more cash tips. They get to keep every penny of cash tips and they don’t share- the two I spoke with agreed that if I tipped just one they wouldn’t share it with their partner. They don’t share with supervisor either. It’s cash in hand and it’s yours to keep regardless of if you work as a team. It’s not like on land where the server often tips out his crew.

The one thing you can do is to go to guest services and get individual slips for extra tips. Those come off obc and go to staff. Extra, above dsc, tips given this way you can use refundable and non refundable obc. So if you had extra non refundable obc at the end it’s an easy way to get rid of it.

I found it easier just to give the staff who was serving me most often a few bucks here and there or towards the end of cruise instead of each time. This is probably the most common way of giving extra. They don’t expect a tip every time and have been taken care of with the dsc.

Thank you everyone for your help. We choose the 25% credit for future cruise. From our experience yesterday , NCL handled it well. It took less then 15 minutes on a special dedicated line, they confirmed our hotel stay for the cancelled cruise night at Hilton Hawaiian Village with a bus transfer. Credit for future cruise will show in our Lattitude account within the next 24hr . Applicable on a future cruise until February 19th 2019. We still get to see all the ports but will cut short on Maui not doing the overnight there and leaving at 6h pm instead .

 

We didn't have excursions plans as we had rented cars on every island. Did spend time modifying them but , had to change some category but it got taken care of in less then 2 hours. Only thing i could not do is change our March 10th car rental, they were sold out of car that could accommodate our parents and ourself. So we will stay at the Hilton that day. I was told by NCL supervisor ( she took the call as she was helping call center with overflowing calls coming in ) that usually NCL take pretty good care of us in those situation and we will have our room ready when we get to hotel but didn't know yet what time they would make us leave the ship .

 

If there is nothing wrong with the ship that would impact our comfort and security ( i am prone to seasickness so only worry now is that it is something to do with engine or stabilizers and it stresses me a little ..much lol ) , for us, it ends up being a good give give situation.

The rental car situation is pretty fluid. Rates and availability change often so I wouldn’t give up. If you’re a member of the big box online that starts with a C, they are an easy place to check rates, taxes included on their site. We just returned from a 9 day stay on Oahu. Could easily have stayed another month! Some excellent beaches to explore.

Re the 25% off. It might not show in account online but very easy to use by calling pcc.

Hilton is a great property, right on the ocean. It’s Waikiki- not my favorite place but it’s a beautiful beach just a little crowded.

Sounds like a great way to end the vacation. Granted you’re missing out on a day of the cruise but still in Hawaii and instead of getting off the ship first thing on the last morning you now have a later check out and can enjoy the beach/pool. Have fun. Wish we were still there.

If anyone in your party is active or retired military I’d highly recommend bellows beach. I think a portion is open to the public on weekends.