UBP Price Increase to 89$ pp pd?

The way I see it is that it's a way to make the "free" UBP look like an even better deal. Simple as that. People who haven't previously sailed NCL won't notice the difference in the service charge.

 

I have mostly found that other cruise lines that don't offer this "perk" have overall lower cruise fares-- if you drink little or moderately or mostly beer.

 

I've actually not been on NCL yet, but wanted to see if the package was worth the increased cost of the cruise + the service fees and I have my first NCL cruise at the end of the month. Depending on how much BF and I drink, we may not return to NCL... especially with this increase.

 

As per comments re: "Find another CL or vacay option"... people have spent a lot of money and years building up their status to get additional perks so it's sh***y if they now feel like they have to leave and subsequently start over with a different loyalty program.

 

I've mostly crusied Carnival due to them generally having the lowest prices, based on the amount we drink, but the NCL loyalty perks looked appealing so we wanted to get the ball rolling in addition to trying out the UBP. Just not sure the loyalty perks will be worth it if prices continue to increase.

 

I also find it pretty shady that they advertise these brilliant cruise prices AND the Free at Sea and then *bait and switch* you have to pay $10s to $100s extra for a room to qualify for the UBP in the first place PLUS the service charge.

 

I'm staying open minded because I already paid for my upcoming NCL cruise but SMH about all the price increases that have been cited on her.

To stay with a CL just b/c u racked up some perks is less than smart. Go out there and explore a lil if you are unhappy with a company's product. Don't just keep buying a the same product out of habit or b/c of some perk.

I only booked the cruise I am on next month with NCL, because it is reunion/birthday cruise. I am not impressed with the NCL product and I have been on CCL, HAL, Princess, RCCL, and Celebrity.

I can drink my share of alcohol, my wife can not, most plans would loose money on me. However, I would never buy a beverage program. Only get it as perk because you have to purchase it by cabin.

Another reason not to sail on Norwegian.

And ... wait for it ... next will be the Corkage Fee for bringing your own bottle goes up to $20. ;p

Oh God, don' t start giving them more ideas !!!! NCL has already devalued cruise product. Additional gratuities and increased DCS every 6 months or so, ENOUGH.

I only booked the cruise I am on next month with NCL, because it is reunion/birthday cruise. I am not impressed with the NCL product and I have been on CCL, HAL, Princess, RCCL, and Celebrity.

I can drink my share of alcohol, my wife can not, most plans would loose money on me. However, I would never buy a beverage program. Only get it as perk because you have to purchase it by cabin.

You do not have to choose the beverage plan as your perk. You can choose from the other perks instead.

Explain it to me if I'm wrong. Is the main theme here that people are complaining about paying $112 for 7 days of drinks? At $15 a drink I can probably clear that in a day and most certainly 2 days. I for one hope that is a perk that never goes away. I'm sure if most of us think back to the sticker shock at end of some cruises you will agree. The only reason I can see for someone to complain would be if that was the only perk available. Everyone still eats and 99% use the internet.

Hopefully that puts Woodford Reserve back on the plan. But it will probably go up to $20.

That would be great Woodford is one of my fav's

Explain it to me if I'm wrong. Is the main theme here that people are complaining about paying $112 for 7 days of drinks?

It seems that most are complaining that this is yet another increase without any improvement. Most understand that prices go up over time but NCL is hitting people with increases every few months without something positive to go with the increase. For ex., if the increase in UBP included 1 free bottle of water per day, it would at least be something positive (it doesn't cost NCL $1.80 per bottle so NCL would still be making more than before).

At $15 a drink I can probably clear that in a day and most certainly 2 days.

I agree. If NCL said "...for $16.02 per day, you can have as many $15 drinks that you can handle..." people would be ecstatic....it's the same thing if people are getting the UBP promo instead of actually paying retail price for it.

The only reason I can see for someone to complain would be if that was the only perk available. Everyone still eats and 99% use the internet.

Promos come and go and different people will have preferences. For us, the best would be...

UBP

3rd/4th free

free DSC

3SDP (since UDP is no more)

OBC

I don't care about internet or excursion credit.

😂😂😂 someone being realistic. What a pleasant surprise.

Very true and a lot of people only travel NCL because it is a perk. Most were on carnival and Royal and got sick of the bill at the end of the trip.

When and if and that's a big if they take the perk UBP away they will loose that customer base and they know it.

I am one of these people the 2 things that got me cruising again with NCL are dinning in the special restaurants (and I can get my own table no strangers) and the UBP resulting in no huge bill at the end.

I was ready to give up on cruising it was starting to cost way more than some of my favorite land vacations.

Explain it to me if I'm wrong. Is the main theme here that people are complaining about paying $112 for 7 days of drinks? At $15 a drink I can probably clear that in a day and most certainly 2 days. I for one hope that is a perk that never goes away. I'm sure if most of us think back to the sticker shock at end of some cruises you will agree. The only reason I can see for someone to complain would be if that was the only perk available. Everyone still eats and 99% use the internet.

It is not bad at all if you you are just talking about the increase in the surcharge fee and the surcharge is all you are paying. I can't imagine anyone actually buying the package. That would calculate out to quite a few drinks per day to come out ahead.

When they first started these beverage packages on Celebrity and before it was a perk (at least it wasn't a perk for this cruise) I bought the package and it was $1300 for 2. That kind of stung. But there was a spreadsheet going around so you could estimate the price w/o the package. I still came out ahead. Keep in mind that also included water and specialty coffee. If anyone in interested I can try to find that spreadsheet but no guarantees.

Here's a link to O's packages:

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/value/beverage-wine-packages/

They are less and include more. However, one must always pay for the them one way or another...either by selecting it as an option for O life to get the base package and then paying a per day up to premium. Or, buying it outright.

You do not have to choose the beverage plan as your perk. You can choose from the other perks instead.

No you misunderstand, I would only have UBP, on any cruise line, if it is a perk. Would NEVER buy it, for the same reasons. Still with a service fee charge we come out ahead.

No you misunderstand, I would only have UBP, on any cruise line, if it is a perk. Would NEVER buy it, for the same reasons. Still with a service fee charge we come out ahead.

Same here! We would never buy it--don't drink enough to justify the high cost, but just paying the gratuity charges on it, we still come out ahead, so I continue to choose this as my Perk---and love it! But pay for it? NEVER!!

Same here! We would never buy it--don't drink enough to justify the high cost, but just paying the gratuity charges on it, we still come out ahead, so I continue to choose this as my Perk---and love it! But pay for it? NEVER!!

Except of course that you ARE paying for it as the price in rolled into the cruise price. Just compare the sail away rate to the price that includes the package...it is easy to see the HUGE difference.

You don't really think they are giving it away for "free", right?

My 2 cents:

 

Nothing is for free.

 

In regards to the Free at Sea, I agree that paying the 18% gratuity on $89 per day vs $79 per day is not the end of the world. It's $1.80 more per day.

 

However, in order to "qualify" for Free at Sea, you have to book any category other than the guarantee cabins (IX, OX, BX, MX). It hasn't been that long ago that these were excluded from the promo. I'm not sure if all CCers were aware of that.

 

That being said, you need to pay more for your cabin in order to have the "privilege" of accessing Free at Sea. All other categories within a metacategory are quite more expensive. I've seen an inside cabin cost $400 more per person vs booking an IX. A $400 difference results in $57.14 per day. Sure, it's cheaper than paying $89 per day (full price of UBP).

 

Personally, I'd put some thought into this and ask myself: "Will I really rack up a $400 bar bill during the week?" Quite possibly, however my DW hardly has more than one drink or two per day.

 

Why would I pay more for the cabin, in that case? I'm sure we wouldn't rack up an $800 bill between the two of us. An IX would be fine, in that case.

 

Come to think about it... the IX would save me $800 + 2x Gratuities of $112.84 = $1024.28

^^^^^^^And this is why we booked Celebrity in 2019. With no gratuities on the included drink package and special running right now for free gratuities, it is cheaper to sail with Celebrity than NCL.

Explain it to me if I'm wrong. Is the main theme here that people are complaining about paying $112 for 7 days of drinks? At $15 a drink I can probably clear that in a day and most certainly 2 days. I for one hope that is a perk that never goes away. I'm sure if most of us think back to the sticker shock at end of some cruises you will agree. The only reason I can see for someone to complain would be if that was the only perk available. Everyone still eats and 99% use the internet.

It's not free by any means. You pay a higher cruise rate to get those perks. If you think they're free then you fit into the type of person NCL targets.

If a balcony with no perks is $1398 and a balcony with perks is $1998 then I just paid $600 for those perks. Again, not even close to being free.

It's not free by any means. You pay a higher cruise rate to get those perks. If you think they're free then you fit into the type of person NCL targets.

 

If a balcony with no perks is $1398 and a balcony with perks is $1998 then I just paid $600 for those perks. Again, not even close to being free.

I don't know where you are getting your numbers. I just went to ncl.com and my aft cabin without perks is $3043 and with the 2 perks UBP and dining package is $3292. the difference is $249. Pretty good deal all day.

I don't know where you are getting your numbers. I just went to ncl.com and my aft cabin without perks is $3043 and with the 2 perks UBP and dining package is $3292. the difference is $249. Pretty good deal all day.

I believe it is being based on the sail away guarantee pricing vs a category pricing with no perks.

For example, the 11/11 Gem sailing, a sail away balcony is $1099pp. the cheapest non-guarantee balcony is the Family Balcony at $1429pp. The sail away guarantee cabin pricing is generally several hundred dollars less than choosing a category cabin, which you have to do to even get any perks. So paying several hundred extra to even choose perks vs foregoing any perks and paying for things as used.

I don't know where you are getting your numbers. I just went to ncl.com and my aft cabin without perks is $3043 and with the 2 perks UBP and dining package is $3292. the difference is $249. Pretty good deal all day.

Without perks it's a SailAway rate. You also don't get to choose cabin location.

NCL pricing is one that basically charges you for the perks thru a higher fare regardless of if you want them or not. The only thing you can save on is the service charges .

Compare that to the pricing models of other cruise lines such as MSC and you'll see quite a difference...

For us the huge value perk is 3/4 passengers sail free. Wouldn't sail without it. Unlimited beverages for a couple hundred bucks is a bonus.

For our family there is no better value than NCL and the freestyle, activities, and cabin setup put it over the top.

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Without perks it's a SailAway rate. You also don't get to choose cabin location.

 

NCL pricing is one that basically charges you for the perks thru a higher fare regardless of if you want them or not. The only thing you can save on is the service charges .

 

Compare that to the pricing models of other cruise lines such as MSC and you'll see quite a difference...

I believe when we go this far we are talking apples and oranges.

For us the huge value perk is 3/4 passengers sail free. Wouldn't sail without it. Unlimited beverages for a couple hundred bucks is a bonus.

 

For our family there is no better value than NCL and the freestyle, activities, and cabin setup put it over the top.

 

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Exactly the same for us.

And here ladies and Gents is the contention on more $$ for perks. I want to able to choose my own cabin. So regardless I will pay the extra money to do so and take the perks the give me. If you are ok with being stuck where they put you, fine. But I am picky about my cabin location. So NO, it is not costing me more money in terms of the value I get from picking my own cabin.

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