Expected Norwegian costs - what am I forgetting?

[Kmkub]

1 hour ago, zqvol said:

  One thing you do not need is a stack of ones for use on the ship. The crew has all received their gratuities, there is no need to give them any more.

I only give out a dollar or two when I get room service. Not elsewhere on the ship. 

[Fishkillbill]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Here's a photo of one of the room service breakfast door hangers from the Escape in October:

 

 

Do you have to pay for room service?

[taraavo]

Yes, I didn't mention excursions or port spending because we know what those will be (we have GSC and Coz as our ports, and have our Coz day planned out / budgeted for). I guess in my initial post, I was primarily looking for tips on any charges we might incur while on the actual ship that wouldn't necessarily be obvious to a first time cruiser.  We have a rental car on both ends of the cruise because we're spending additional time in the area, so that is sorted out as well. 

 

I've definitely read a mixed bag of opinions on the tipping, but I plan on having cash at hand for that as I see fit, particularly because I do in fact see us ending up at a regular bar spot. My husband likes good cocktails and I know that when he clicks with the right bartender who will make him Old Fashions he enjoys, we'll be going back to that spot again and again.

 

Thanks to all for the great tips!

[PATRLR]

27 minutes ago, taraavo said:

My husband likes good cocktails and I know that when he clicks with the right bartender who will make him Old Fashions he enjoys, we'll be going back to that spot again and again.

Assuming he finds the right bartender, that would be precisely the person that, IMO, it would be appropriate to give an extra tip to.

[Kmkub]

34 minutes ago, taraavo said:

 My husband likes good cocktails and I know that when he clicks with the right bartender who will make him Old Fashions he enjoys, we'll be going back to that spot again and again.

 

It almost always works out that way for us. We find a favorite bar, click with a bartender who serves us throughout the cruise, and give him/her a $10 or $20 at the end of the cruise.

 

On a cruise with the kids, once, our youngest made friends with a bartender who was making him mocktails all week. Our son is in love with foreign languages. At the end of the cruise, the bartender gave him a printout of how to say hello in about 100 languages (it was two pages.) He definitely earned a $20.

 

Sometimes, they do go above and beyond, and we are not afraid to say thanks, with cash.

 

[JamieLogical]

43 minutes ago, Fishkillbill said:

 

Do you have to pay for room service?

 

Everything on that card is free at breakfast time except the "Specialty Selections" on the bottom. For those, like ALL other room service throughout the day, there is a $7.95 charge.

[TrpngBilly]

3 hours ago, zqvol said:

 

 

As someone mentioned if you are a coffee snob you might want to pay for that. One thing you do not need is a stack of ones for use on the ship. The crew has all received their gratuities, there is no need to give them any more.

One group of the crew that does not receive gratuities out of the service charges that we all pay is the youth staff.  Even though the OP didn't mention traveling with kids, others reading these posts may be traveling with kids and should know that the staff that runs Splash Academy isn't included in the distribution of the on board service charges like the other crew.  I understand NCL's rationale for excluding them from this pool of funds since technically not every passenger utilizes their services directly.  But, I also understand that the youth staff does an excellent job of keeping kids occupied during the cruise which has an impact on other passengers, even those without kids.

 

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that passengers traveling without kids should feel obligated to tip the youth staff, not at all.  I just think that passengers traveling with kids who use the youth programs should know that the youth staff may be worth considering when determining whether or not to acknowledge members of the crew who go above and beyond.

[kerryincork]

Just to let you know that you can still check in using your credit card and clear your account with cash. I do this every cruise.

The benefits of doing this is you can clear your account on the 5th day of the cruise, when. There are little queues at guests services, and just have a very small credit card bill.

 

The main benefit of this is if you prefer cash you won't have to queue in a very long line on the last night to close your on board account.

 

My travelling companion forgot their credit card and had to use cash for their account and spent over an hour in the queue on the last night to pay her account.

 

Also you can both use a different card for your account. Just because you are in the same cabin you don't have to use the same credit card. This might give you more flexibility in your payment method.

[erdoran]

For cash deposit people, what happens when you use up the deposit - or if you queue up that last night and get disgusted after an hour in line and walk and don’t pay?

[newmexicoNita]

On 1/8/2019 at 2:19 PM, fabnfortysomething said:

yes whilst in port you will gat taxed but its a negligible amount

Right, I think prior to actual sailing we have never had more than a total of maybe, $8.00 in taxes for drinks, maybe $10. 

[taraavo]

14 hours ago, erdoran said:

For cash deposit people, what happens when you use up the deposit - or if you queue up that last night and get disgusted after an hour in line and walk and don’t pay?

It's my understanding that once you make charges up to the amount  you have deposited, you're "cut off" until you deposit more money. So, you can't actually "dine and dash" so to speak. If you deposit $200 and chip away at that until it's gone, you have to go deposit more money to keep spending.At least, that's what I've gathered from reading here.

[bwilliams66]

22 hours ago, taraavo said:

Thanks, all. I drink a LOT of water so we're bringing a couple of Brita filtered bottles we have to use throughout the trip. I cannot in good conscience spend what they're asking for Aquafina....which I would never choose when buying bottled water, anyway.

Re: the room service / continental breakfast, are you still charged the 7.95 delivery fee for the continental stuff or is straight up included without additional fees? I think having something to get started in the morning on the balcony sounds nice. I've also heard the coffee in the restaurants / room service is better than the in room coffee? Is there anything to that or just BS?

I love NCL, but they will nickel and dime you to death, but you don't have to buy into that (LOL)- what we have done in the past is go up to the buffet, grab whatever we wanted for breakfast, grab our coffee, and go back down to the room. No charge and you get what you want. you can get water on the buffet as well- 

 

I do take a large to go cup for water so I have some in the room, because I drink a ton of water as well, and I'm not paying the ridiculous price that they charge for bottled water. I drink coffee every morning, and I love good coffee, but on NCL, the coffee at the buffet worked fine for us. Unless you are a coffee fanatic, you should be good- I will say from my perspective, the food/drinks on NCL were actually pretty good- everything was fresh, lots of options, and pretty tasty- I've been on the Escape and the Getaway, and just booked the Encore, and we have done specialty dining and buffet or free restaurants(usually buffet/restaurants for breakfast/lunch-specialty dining for dinner)- I've sailed RC as well, and I think NCL has better food. 

 

Lastly, my husband and I always get the UBP, and I've never been charged for a drink, and in fact, because my hubby is a craft beer drinker, when I would go to get him a craft beer, I would ask for 2 or 3 bottles, and they would give it to me, so we wouldn't have to keep coming back (there were certain bars on the ship that had the craft beer)....:) .....and I wouldn't worry about tipping...I figure I've already paid gratituties, so not double paying that- the exception is our cabin steward, I did leave him $25 bucks at the end of the cruise, simply because he was so amazing! 

 

[RedwingHockeyFan]

I can go through a whole cruise with the OBP and not buy a damn thing.  If I don't like what is in the MDR on a particular evening I will go to the Noodle bar, I love that place.

[JamieLogical]

47 minutes ago, bwilliams66 said:

I love NCL, but they will nickel and dime you to death, but you don't have to buy into that (LOL)- what we have done in the past is go up to the buffet, grab whatever we wanted for breakfast, grab our coffee, and go back down to the room.

 

 

You know they will deliver food and coffee to your room for free in the mornings, right?

[kayteecat]

Yes the continental breakfast is free, no convenience charge. We had a lovely breakfast on our balcony while in port in Miami waiting to be cleared to get our day started. Yogurt, raisin bran, croissants (butter and chocolate), coffee and orange juice delivered to our room a bit before 8:30, all we had to do was open the door to come get it.

 

We also brought our Yeti cups and every night before bed would go fill those at the buffet (please use the cups provided at the buffet to fill your refillable bottle/cup as instructed by the signs and avoid the transference of germs). Though in my experience, using the ice from our bucket and the tap water from the bathroom sink was the same experience, my boyfriend preferred to get his water from something meant for drinking. He is a bit of a snob though and hated the coffee too. I drink mine from a Keurig and don't much care what it tastes like so long as I get the caffeine fix.

[bwilliams66]

4 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

You know they will deliver food and coffee to your room for free in the mornings, right?

I know....I just like going and getting my own combination of stuff from the buffet. LOL 🙂