Black Friday deal?

[JamieLogical]

5 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

As usual NCL fails. Their Black Friday (non)sale is worst then what they've had for the past month or so. You used to get all 5 offers with Oceanview or higher plus free air on certain sailings...now you only get 3. Also, I just checked a couple of sailings we were looking at for January and they're a bit pricier then they were 2-3 days ago.

 

It's a shame NCL is not offering anything for Black Friday. Most other cruise lines have REAL sales for Black Friday, not give less then before. I swear NCL is making it harder and harder to justify cruising them. They have a good product but all their BS is really bothersome.

 

 

I agree that the new deal is much worse than the previous deal. A couple of weeks ago I booked an April sailing on the Escape. At the time it was Take All Five plus free airfare. Since we're sailing out of NYC, we didn't need the airfare, so received a $100 per person discount on the cruise fare. We also didn't need the 3rd & 4th guest, but we are getting UBP, SDP, $50 excursion credit, and 250 minutes of wifi. Now, the exact same sailing stateroom category is $40 more per person, doesn't include the $100 discount for not using airfare (so really costs $140 pp more), and only includes three perks.

 

 

[JamieLogical]

6 minutes ago, Hammergirl said:

How does the free airfare work? Where in the booking does it let you book your flight? I got all the way to the end where it wanted my credit card and there were no air choices that I could see. I am not going to book a cruise with airfare without knowing the flights will work for me.

 

 

You don't get to make any choices. NCL books for you and you receive your flight information about 60 days ahead of your sailing.

[rtkenmore]

50 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

As usual NCL fails. Their Black Friday (non)sale is worst then what they've had for the past month or so. You used to get all 5 offers with Oceanview or higher plus free air on certain sailings...now you only get 3. Also, I just checked a couple of sailings we were looking at for January and they're a bit pricier then they were 2-3 days ago.

 

It's a shame NCL is not offering anything for Black Friday. Most other cruise lines have REAL sales for Black Friday, not give less then before. I swear NCL is making it harder and harder to justify cruising them. They have a good product but all their BS is really bothersome.

 

I checked the three particular sailings I'm watching and they actually dropped in price slightly...  One I just booked the other day and it didn't qualify for "take all 5" at the time but now I can add a third perk at least (that one still doesn't qualify for free guest or airfare though).

 

It's interesting the way they've presented this last round of promos...  The "take all 5" wasn't truly all 5 on every sailing as there were still only select sailings where free guest were offered...  So it should have been "take all 4 or 5 on select sailings"..  Even with the choose 3 out of 6..  It's still depends on the sailing as to whether free guest or airfare is even an option.  Airfare doesn't seem to be an option for most holiday bookings (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc.) nor does free guests.  So those sailings are really just "take 3 out of 4" then.

 

It seems like NCL is almost making it more complicated than it truly has to be at this point.

[Hammergirl]

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

You don't get to make any choices. NCL books for you and you receive your flight information about 60 days ahead of your sailing.

That's a BIG nope for me, then. No way am I letting them pick my flights and airline.

[Froggy1369]

7 hours ago, Aflynn2587 said:

Looking at feb nyc to Bahamas cruise for 3 ppl. Last night that cruise had the take all 5 offer.  Now for the next three days I can pick 3.  I would do the 3rd person free, drinks and dining.    So 3 of us in a balcony about 3,000.  Would you book or wait until Friday and see if new deal is up.   The biggest thing for me is 3rd person free since the 3rd person is my 1 year old so not trying to pay for him 

 

Im looking at the same. Don’t they do a 24 courtesy hold? I’m thinking hold it on Thursday to see what Friday offers.

[Aflynn2587]

It’s not a 24 hold.  They hold until the end of the day.  You can hold at 11pm and it will cancel within an hour 

[gmbhardy]

10 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I don't get it. The current deal is worse than the previous one. At least with the Take All Five, you got all four or five Free at Sea promos PLUS free airfare or a $100 discount per person if you didn't use the airfare. Now you get three promos and no discount for unused airfare....

 

Just curious how you know there’s no credit for unused airfare.

[Froggy1369]

8 minutes ago, Aflynn2587 said:

It’s not a 24 hold.  They hold until the end of the day.  You can hold at 11pm and it will cancel within an hour 

 

Eh this was Saturday into Sunday. Didn’t book because we still weren’t sure. Kicking myself now. 

[rtkenmore]

24 minutes ago, Aflynn2587 said:

It’s not a 24 hold.  They hold until the end of the day.  You can hold at 11pm and it will cancel within an hour 

No, it is indeed a 24 hour hold until 11pm the following day.

 

I just did one earlier this week and had a day to decide for sure we wanted to go through with the booking.

 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, gmbhardy said:

 

Just curious how you know there’s no credit for unused airfare.

 

 

Because now airfare just shows up as one of the six options to choose for your free at sea perks. You can choose three if you are in a balcony or above. So if you don't choose airfare, you just choose a different one. Before, in order to get the $100 pp discount for not taking the free airfare, you had to call NCL and book over the phone. There was no way to receive the credit through the web site.

[gmbhardy]

46 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

Because now airfare just shows up as one of the six options to choose for your free at sea perks. You can choose three if you are in a balcony or above. So if you don't choose airfare, you just choose a different one. Before, in order to get the $100 pp discount for not taking the free airfare, you had to call NCL and book over the phone. There was no way to receive the credit through the web site.

 

So couldn’t you book it by phone and ask for it in lieu of the airfare.

[JamieLogical]

9 hours ago, gmbhardy said:

 

So couldn’t you book it by phone and ask for it in lieu of the airfare.

 

Doesn't hurt to ask, I suppose, but I know that in the past, you could not get a discount on cruise fare by declining Free at Sea perks. Now that airfare is being treated as a normal Free at Sea perk, I would expect it to be handled the same way.

[gmbhardy]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Doesn't hurt to ask, I suppose, but I know that in the past, you could not get a discount on cruise fare by declining Free at Sea perks. Now that airfare is being treated as a normal Free at Sea perk, I would expect it to be handled the same way.

 

Yes, you are probably right. I’m going to get my TA to call and ask just to make sure.

[geneticfreak]

Someone please tell me why the free airfare is bad. IMO, I am picking the departure airport, and everything else is on them including booking a flight that gets me to the port before the ship leaves, which is the most important thing. 

[Hammergirl]

5 minutes ago, geneticfreak said:

Someone please tell me why the free airfare is bad. IMO, I am picking the departure airport, and everything else is on them including booking a flight that gets me to the port before the ship leaves, which is the most important thing. 

For me, I want to pick the airline I fly and make sure I am not making 2 stops along the way. If you don't care then I can see it being a good deal.

[havanadaydreaming]

30 minutes ago, geneticfreak said:

Someone please tell me why the free airfare is bad. IMO, I am picking the departure airport, and everything else is on them including booking a flight that gets me to the port before the ship leaves, which is the most important thing. 

I concur with Hammer in previous post. 

 

I love to book a direct flight day before cruise and have almost an entire day in Miami/Lauderdale and I wouldn't want to have 1-2 layovers if it meant travelling for 8+ hours when I can get there in 2 on my own, albeit not free. 

 

however, many years ago I would have definitely been much more interested in saving airfare than time...I had much more of the latter than the former.

[Caaake]

Just checked on my booking for our Baltic cruise next summer. Cruise fare has gone up ~$300pp and they want $1579 for the "reduced" airfare. Noooo thank you. 

[Rsparis]

I just checked my European cruise for next year out of Rome and they want $200,000 per person for my airfare out of Nashville. Making it $403,000 for the 2 of us. DH wants to know if we get our own plane for that price🤣

[tbo]

7 minutes ago, Rsparis said:

I just checked my European cruise for next year out of Rome and they want $200,000 per person for my airfare out of Nashville. Making it $403,000 for the 2 of us. DH wants to know if we get our own plane for that price🤣

We have a cruise for 2020 booked out of Rome, we can pick 3, airfare is not an option. But at $200,000 p/p, I think we could do better on our own

[rtkenmore]

I've seen that airfare glitch before years ago when you could add airfare during the booking process.  If it was too far out, it would quote outrageous amounts like that for some reason.

[JamieLogical]

4 hours ago, geneticfreak said:

Someone please tell me why the free airfare is bad. IMO, I am picking the departure airport, and everything else is on them including booking a flight that gets me to the port before the ship leaves, which is the most important thing. 

 

Some people are particular about which airlines they fly. Some people aren't content with economy class. Some people are traveling with others and want to be able to sit together. Some people don't want more than one layover. Some people want to get into the port city a day early so they aren't so rushed the day of the cruise.  

[david_sobe]

I know this wont happen but would it not be the best Black Friday deal.

ROCK BOTTOM PRICE - no selection of any "free" offers

 

If that happened, I would book my Feb 2019 Jade cruise immediately

[mianmike]

29 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

I know this wont happen but would it not be the best Black Friday deal.

ROCK BOTTOM PRICE - no selection of any "free" offers

 

If that happened, I would book my Feb 2019 Jade cruise immediately

 

Same here.  I wish NCL would stop with the smoke and mirror "Free" stuff and just offer a discounted fare.  

[david_sobe]

OMG the Jade cruise I have been watching has went up several hundreds of dollars during the "Black Friday, pick any 6 sale."
I was looking at ocean views in the 350 to 400 range.  Now they are 650 to 700 from just a week ago.

No thanks NCL, I am not that stupid.  Stop selling me things I don't want to buy and increasing the price so much!

 

[JamieLogical]

4 hours ago, david_sobe said:

I know this wont happen but would it not be the best Black Friday deal.

ROCK BOTTOM PRICE - no selection of any "free" offers

 

If that happened, I would book my Feb 2019 Jade cruise immediately

 

Isn't that what the Sail Away rate is?