free gratuties are in next promo!!! wow

[spanishguy1970]

You have to watch for price increase at same time.

 

Very true. I was waiting for that promo to come out while i was looking at an inside stateroom on the Epic for 16 days for 549 dollars which i thought was a great deal. In a matter of a day the price went to 889 dollars. I think we are paying those gratuities with the price increase which proves there is no such thing as "FREE" :).

[hawkeyetlse]

I was waiting for that promo to come out while i was looking at an inside stateroom on the Epic for 16 days for 549 dollars which i thought was a great deal. In a matter of a day the price went to 889 dollars. I think we are paying those gratuities with the price increase which proves there is no such thing as "FREE" :)

Pretty sure they are still losing money on you if you're only paying $889 for a 16 day cruise…

[swedish weave]

Could you accomplish the same result as the booking bonus by removing the DSC from your bill ?? NCL allows it as a booking bonus or by calling it a service problem. The result ends up being the same and by removing the DSC, you don't deal with the price increase.

Edited August 16, 2016 by swedish weave

[JohnHall1965]

No we had just made an initial down payment and they just adjusted our final payment amount

[Sand and Seas]

No we had just made an initial down payment and they just adjusted our final payment amount

 

We have already paid in full and have paid the UDP 18% so I'm hoping it won't be a long wait to get that refunded, or perhaps they would change it to OBC?

 

We are still outside of our cancellation period so it should be OK to change. I'll call tomorrow and get change to UBP and the free gratuities. Trying to give them another day to catch up from all the phonecalls on this.

[Trellaine]

I am going on a 5 night cruise. I am going to select "dining package" plus "prepaid gratuities".

 

Example: my cabin and taxes are xxx.xx dollars.

 

What would my extra costs be and will there more charges on board when I goto dine at a specialty restaurant?

 

And what does the "prepaid gratuities" cover?

 

Thanks

 

I asked an agent yesterday but find all these extra charges hard to keep track of as a new cruiser.

[Rhea98]

The dining packages gratuities will show up on your final amount (18% of the package you get which will be 3 nights so $24.84 based on my 3 nights package). No other fees at dinner unless you order multiple entrees and/or drinks and/or decide to tip extra. It's spelled out in the terms. The DSC (prepaid gratuities of about $135. for 2 ppl/5days) is the $13.50 per day per guest payment charged to your acct. It's a fee "for our convenience," I'm sure. (yes, a bit of sarcasm) I just consider it part of the cost and never had any reason to not pay it.

 

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

Edited August 16, 2016 by Rhea98

[luckyinpa]

from NCL

 

We have structured a guest satisfaction program designed to handle any concerns about service or on-board product quickly and efficiently.... However, in the event a service issue should arise during your cruise please let our on-board guest services desk staff know right away, so that we can address these in a timely manner.... Should your concerns not be met with satisfaction you can adjust the charges.

 

------------------

there are other threads on the forum how to get back your charges if you really want to

[Tandi481]

I had a room with free drinks and wifi, I called yesterday to make a room change and asked to be switched to free drinks and gratuity and they did it for me no problem. It was a heck of a deal

 

 

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[Kaitlyn2]

We are doing a B2B Singapore to Venice in Mar 2017. They raised first cruise by $400 for outside cabin BUT did not raise on 2nd cruise for balcony. So we switched from shore excursions to prepaid gratuities on both cruises Much better promo for us!

[pokerpro5]

You cannot remove DSC on board. They give you a form to fill out, and you have to mail it in to the Miami office when you get home.

 

Then you get your credit back within 30 days.

 

I don't ever do this because I have been told that it gets permanently noted on your account, and could affect future considerations if you have any issues you raise with the Miami corporate office.

[ISLABONITA]

I have a question for everyone saying they switched the perks, was that with no price increase?

My booking for a Jan 2017 cruise base price was almost $200 less than the present price and promo perks only off set the total cost of an additional $54 if I had canceled and lost the OBC I had .

[Sand and Seas]

You cannot remove DSC on board. They give you a form to fill out, and you have to mail it in to the Miami office when you get home.

 

 

Remember the 'old days'? We had envelopes we filled with cash and handed directly to our stewards, waiters and anyone else.....kind of miss that! You have to hope they each got to keep what was handed them.

 

But we do love 'freestyle' cruising and not being given an assigned dining table at an assigned time. Now we are just 'assigned' a gratuity amount that may not make it to those who we hope it will.

[jm485]

I have a question for everyone saying they switched the perks, was that with no price increase?

 

My booking for a Jan 2017 cruise base price was almost $200 less than the present price and promo perks only off set the total cost of an additional $54 if I had canceled and lost the OBC I had .

 

 

 

The trip I booked yesterday had no price change from Sunday. But it's a late season trip in Oct 2017, so prices are still fairly low. Others have seen no price change. Likely depends on dates, route, ship and even cabin.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[luvtheships]

100% truth directly from staff I have spoken with.

 

 

 

It's not just NCL. Other similar lines pull the same crap. It's an industry-wide sham.

 

 

 

Basically the crew is given a fixed salary, and then are given fixed "gratuities" on top of it. This does not correspond at all to the amount of money collected from passengers on the ship.

 

 

 

The money collected for the DSC is simply used to reimburse NCL for crew pay.

 

 

 

If you do remove DSC, it will not affect anyone's pay.

 

 

And this is exactly why a free dsc promo is genius for Ncl

 

Pax get dsc for free

Pax can't remove dsc

Ncl pays the same out regardless

 

If pax can remove dsc it's just less $$$ for Ncl but they are still paying the same to employees

 

 

So while Ncl isn't getting dsc but might surely get extra $$$ by upping cruise costs to pax...Ncl also has no fear of pax removing dsc...because the pax got dsc for free lol

 

It's marketing psychology lol

Edited August 16, 2016 by luvtheships

[jdbmga]

The trip/cabin I'm looking at had no price change. We probably would only have used one $50 excursion credit, so the DSC being included benefits us by almost $170. I'm glad the new deal runs through 9/18 -- no need to make a decision about this until we return from our trip that starts in 19 days!

 

How did you find out that it goes until 9/18? I never know how long promos are good for.

 

Thank you :)

[jdbmga]

Last Aug they offered free DSC. It's a rarely offered perk so I had my eye on it as well as the price of a cruise I was interested in. I was finally able to book a suite today at a price that I found reasonable. Price hadn't gone up with new perk. Took advantage of KSF as well. I know there's a lot of talk about the water/soda, increases in fees.. on NCL but the last couple cruises I've booked were actually really great deals and had more perks than previous years. I'm very happy with NCL right now. Granted most suites are now out of the range we are willing to pay and I would not chance trying for an upsell, but I was able to find one that suited our dates and desired destination at a price I found reasonable.

 

What is DSC and KSF?

 

Fairly new to NCL (just one on the Getaway)

 

Thank you :)

[triptolemus]

What is DSC and KSF?

 

Fairly new to NCL (just one on the Getaway)

 

Thank you :)

 

DSC = Discretionary Service Charge

 

KSF = Kids Sail Free

[jm485]

How did you find out that it goes until 9/18? I never know how long promos are good for.

 

 

 

Thank you :)

 

 

 

The terms & conditions page gives the dates. Hope that helps.

 

 

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[WeBeCruisers?]

And this is exactly why a free dsc promo is genius for Ncl

 

Pax get dsc for free

Pax can't remove dsc

Ncl pays the same out regardless

 

If pax can remove dsc it's just less $$$ for Ncl but they are still paying the same to employees

 

 

So while Ncl isn't getting dsc but might surely get extra $$$ by upping cruise costs to pax...Ncl also has no fear of pax removing dsc...because the pax got dsc for free lol

 

It's marketing psychology lol

Nothing is free. If you think you are getting something for free, then NCL has gained a victory.

[jdbmga]

DSC = Discretionary Service Charge

 

KSF = Kids Sail Free

 

Thank you, triptoleumus

[jdbmga]

The terms & conditions page gives the dates. Hope that helps.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Found it! Thank you, jm485

[jdbmga]

I called and changed promos but found out they have to release your room in order to do it. Is anyone else nervous that they could lose their room in the process? PCC actually asked me to confirm cabin I had before the change to make sure he rebooked the same one.

[js]

And this is exactly why a free dsc promo is genius for Ncl

 

Pax get dsc for free

Pax can't remove dsc

Ncl pays the same out regardless

 

If pax can remove dsc it's just less $$$ for Ncl but they are still paying the same to employees

 

 

So while Ncl isn't getting dsc but might surely get extra $$$ by upping cruise costs to pax...Ncl also has no fear of pax removing dsc...because the pax got dsc for free lol

 

It's marketing psychology lol

 

 

I understand, but either way I was going to pay $217 to NCL for DSC and now I dont have to so for me, too, its win-win especially since my July Escape H5 cabin remained the same price from when I bookednon Saturday onboard Breakaway and changed to new promo yesterday night.

Edited August 16, 2016 by js

[js]

I called and changed promos but found out they have to release your room in order to do it. Is anyone else nervous that they could lose their room in the process? PCC actually asked me to confirm cabin I had before the change to make sure he rebooked the same one.

 

 

I had to do this last night and took my chances. The agent told me there was a 99.99% chance I would get it back but needed to tell me there was a possibility someone would grab it at the exact time it was released and before she regrabbed it. I got it back and. All good.