Question/Opinions about UDP

[tymike]

Hi all!

After being completely tempted by the current promotion for free UDP and possibly UBP on the BA and GA I got to thinking. With all the passengers who will be booking a room that includes the UDP, do you think the specialty restaurants will be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of reservations and diners? How do you think NCL will manage this?

 

Maybe the percentage of passengers who already use the specialties is nearly the same as it will be with this promotion, but I have a feeling that the percentage will go way up.

 

Any thoughts?

[triptolemus]

Remember the age-old phrase that covers situations like you describe...

 

"Subject to availability."

[Alliezona09]

I think it will be a madhouse and tons of people will be complaining onboard! If they are giving it to everybody in a balcony and above, I figure that at the very least 2000 people will be getting it!! :eek: thanks but no thanks~ I'll stick the the MDR!

[miataman19]

The only positive for us is that we are in a suite and can order from any specialty restaurant's menu from The Haven Restaurant (or so I was told) or dine in our room. I do see some issue's if they do give away or sell the UDP to everyone. They only have so many restaurants with limited availability. I guess I'll be making my reservations 55 days out, another perk for a suite.

[punkincc]

I think it will be a madhouse and tons of people will be complaining onboard! If they are giving it to everybody in a balcony and above, I figure that at the very least 2000 people will be getting it!! :eek: thanks but no thanks~ I'll stick the the MDR!

 

The offer is only good for balcony and suites booked 2-27 to 3-10. Will they really book 1,000 double occupancy cabins in that time period?

[thephillykid]

We booked our cruise during the time that travelzoo supposedly partnered with our on line TA. A few weeks after we booked, we got an email saying that instead of getting the UDP etc.

 

We got this email:

Good Afternoon,

 

Thank you for recently booking your upcoming sailing on the Norwegian Getaway with XXXXXXXXXXXXXX. We are very happy you were able to take advantage of this very rare opportunity. With this particular promotion, you were set to receive Pre-paid gratuities for the first two guests in your cabin, $150 shipboard credit for the cabin, an Ultimate Dining Package for the cabin, and an additional $100 shipboard credit for the cabin on top of everything else. Because of this particular promotion being as rare as it was, we wanted to let you know the entire package totals an amount of $650 – which means it will appear as complete shipboard credit for the cabin – you may use the funds as you wish within the guidelines of normal spending accounts with Norwegian.

 

Please note: of the $650 shipboard credit for the cabin you will receive from this promotion, $150 of it is NOT eligible to be used towards your gratuities for the cabin. Please keep this in mind when you board and see your account summary that you must allocate your gratuities appropriately.

 

I wonder how many others who booked this deal will be using the obc for other things than the UDP. The specialty restaurants may not be as crazy as you might expect.

[peg013]

We booked our cruise during the time that travelzoo supposedly partnered with our on line TA. A few weeks after we booked, we got an email saying that instead of getting the UDP etc.

 

We got this email:

Good Afternoon,

 

Thank you for recently booking your upcoming sailing on the Norwegian Getaway with XXXXXXXXXXXXXX. We are very happy you were able to take advantage of this very rare opportunity. With this particular promotion, you were set to receive Pre-paid gratuities for the first two guests in your cabin, $150 shipboard credit for the cabin, an Ultimate Dining Package for the cabin, and an additional $100 shipboard credit for the cabin on top of everything else. Because of this particular promotion being as rare as it was, we wanted to let you know the entire package totals an amount of $650 – which means it will appear as complete shipboard credit for the cabin – you may use the funds as you wish within the guidelines of normal spending accounts with Norwegian.

 

Please note: of the $650 shipboard credit for the cabin you will receive from this promotion, $150 of it is NOT eligible to be used towards your gratuities for the cabin. Please keep this in mind when you board and see your account summary that you must allocate your gratuities appropriately.

 

I wonder how many others who booked this deal will be using the obc for other things than the UDP. The specialty restaurants may not be as crazy as you might expect.

 

Since you booked way before the current promo started, I doubt everyone that is booking under the Ultimate Freesome Promo will get the same OBC like you will. Your travel agency was making up their own promo offering the UDP but really just giving enough OBC for you to purchase it yourself if you choose. JMHO

[Alliezona09]

The offer is only good for balcony and suites booked 2-27 to 3-10. Will they really book 1,000 double occupancy cabins in that time period?

 

Well according to one site I saw the Getaway has 2008 cabins and 67% of those have balconies~ which would be about 1200 cabins~

I'm going to say yes they will book 1000 double occupancy cabins in that time period~

[punkincc]

Well according to one site I saw the Getaway has 2008 cabins and 67% of those have balconies~ which would be about 1200 cabins~

I'm going to say yes they will book 1000 double occupancy cabins in that time period~

 

Is this offer open to all sailings or only a few? I guess I am thinking that the reservations made during the few days of the offer will be spread among many sailings, not all on one ship/one sailing.

 

Hopefully NCL thought this through before coming up with this promotion. Time will tell. The UDP was available on our recent sailing and I did not notice the specialties being any more busy than usual. Seems like they are never full. Lots of empty tables. We had no trouble as walk ins or making reservations the day of.

[tymike]

Does anyone know just how many sailings this promo is being offered on? I think I heard/read it was for select sailings only, but I don't know how many have been 'selected'!

 

For passengers with the UDP who may get shut out of specialties, would NCL substitute OBC like the above poster's TA did? I wonder if NCL would credit the cover charge of the restaurant the passenger couldn't get into.

[Alliezona09]

Does anyone know just how many sailings this promo is being offered on? I think I heard/read it was for select sailings only, but I don't know how many have been 'selected'!

 

For passengers with the UDP who may get shut out of specialties, would NCL substitute OBC like the above poster's TA did? I wonder if NCL would credit the cover charge of the restaurant the passenger couldn't get into.

 

 

On the Getaway alone I just counted 24 sailings that it was offered on~

[punkincc]

According to the email I got from a web TA, looks like it is available well into 2015. I might call about it tomorrow and get the scoop. The free UDP and UBP make a winter 2015 booking very tempting. Not too worried about overcrowding in the specialties. The promotion ends on the 10th, I think, and lots of sailings the bookings will be spread out over.

[rwslv]

I am not sure how crowded this will make the spaces? We were on the Breakaway in November and we were in 5 specialty restaurants during the week and we were some of the few people there. I have read this is a limited time offer and the number sold per cruise is limited as well. We are taking advantage of this deal in April so we will know soon how crowded or not it will be.

[Demonyte]

Does anyone know just how many sailings this promo is being offered on? I think I heard/read it was for select sailings only, but I don't know how many have been 'selected'!

 

All dates can be found on NCL's page with this promo's terms and conditions: http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/cruiser/cmsPagesPopup.html?pageId=ultimateterms&stop_mobi=yes

 

For passengers with the UDP who may get shut out of specialties, would NCL substitute OBC like the above poster's TA did? I wonder if NCL would credit the cover charge of the restaurant the passenger couldn't get into.

 

TAs often give their promo perks as OBC because it's much easier for them to process. NCL can quickly add new booking/promo codes and add the actual items to the reservation very easily that way - when this kind of promo is NCL offered, there is no OBC nor will there be substitutions.

 

And why would they credit cover charges? There is no guarantee that you could get a specific restaurant at specific date and time with UDP anyway - promotion or not. You have plenty of restaurants to go to if one can't accommodate you - and reservations are there for a reason, one can make reservations online and if their desired time is already sold out online, there are still plenty of tables to book after getting onboard.

 

Just like if you have the UBP, you can't demand credit for your favourite drink when your favourite bar is closed of full on your favourite time or they have run out of specific beverage (that actually can happen with some drinks like ciders if there are a lot of people drinking them when usually those don't sell that much).

Edited March 7, 2014 by Demonyte