NCL looking at Pay for Perks

[fandangocruiser]

32 minutes ago, GA Dave said:

If I pay for first class on an aircraft, should my friends or family traveling with me in coach get the same free drinks, hot towel, hot meal, pre-board, etc.?  Of course not.  You get what you pay for.

The topic is NCL looking at Pay for Perks, and I simkply suggested that NCL look at offering a friendship package, for a fee of course, to people in groups who wanted the service, but not the suite.  Much like the airlines let me check luggage and buy a drink without paying for a big seat.

[SouthLyonCruiser]

When they start selling everyone on the ship the same perks I earned by paying thousands of dollars to get it makes those perks little more than useless. $25 for what I have made plenty of cruises to obtain.

So, just eliminate the latitudes and "sell" perks.

[GA Dave]

Just now, SouthLyonCruiser said:

When they start selling everyone on the ship the same perks I earned by paying thousands of dollars to get it makes those perks little more than useless. $25 for what I have made plenty of cruises to obtain.

So, just eliminate the latitudes and "sell" perks.

I could see this coming next:  "I am sorry sir, did you actually want air in your cabin?  That will be $25/day".  

[spanishguy1970]

On 9/23/2019 at 7:37 AM, newmexicoNita said:

I would agree; that is one thing we have never experienced on any NCL ship, watered down drinks. I guess if you use 2 plus shots when you drink at home, maybe so, we use 1 1/2 have no problem: Hubby drinks his scotch straight and has never complained. 

Just because you have not experienced it does not mean others have not, as said before we have particular drinks we get all the time and know how they should be made and NCL has done a poor job doing them on three different ships now, that’s why we just have wine now.

[newmexicoNita]

2 hours ago, spanishguy1970 said:

Just because you have not experienced it does not mean others have not, as said before we have particular drinks we get all the time and know how they should be made and NCL has done a poor job doing them on three different ships now, that’s why we just have wine now.

Holy cow: no need to be so rude for heavens sake. I simply remarked we have been happy with our drinks, I never indicated others may not be happy. last time I heard, CC was a board for all of us to express our views. I think some of us have had good experiences, you have not. 

[Blitzburggirl]

I have only been on one NCL cruise (looking forward to the next one this December!)

 

Drinks were good. I didn't find them light pours, at all! If anything, a bit heavy handed. 

 

As far as Pay for Perks... I have had quite a few sailings on Carnival, and found their "Faster to the Fun" to be well worth it on sailings with lots of tenders. Plus, our experience on the one NCL sailing was that NCL does alot of things very right, but disembarkation is a sad sad nightmare (and have read quite a few others here will agree.) 

 

They did absolutely nothing to ensure people didn't skip lines, come down at the proper time, etc. If I had been told it was the entire crews first time getting people of the ship, I'd have believed it. Soooooo to avoid that mess... I would pay for the "perks." But as annoyed (and yes, angry) as I was at disembarkation (Getaway in NYC fwiw) I would have been livid had I paid for the "perk" and they still allowed people who clearly had more important things to do than I did to jump lines and blatantly ignore what was put out the night before.

 

One thing (among many) I'll give Carnival, they empower their staff to actually enforce some rules. Kids in hot tubs, kids in adult only areas, chair hogs, drunks and line jumpers get called out on Carnival. On NCL it seems they are unable to do so.

[BaWBarmy]

22 hours ago, 4774Papa said:

I must admit that I know little about how the UK market stacks up against the US.   From talking with my British friends on cruises, it seems that you generally pay more for cruises that we do in the USA.  

 

As for how the promos are priced for UK cruises, I can't say.  My posts are based on my personal experience from booking in the USA.

 

Why don't you provide some details to explain your comments?

When booking in the USA, we are generally required to book with promos like the beverage package or the dining package.  We dislike the beverage package for two main reasons.  First, the wine offerings are not the best.  Second, NCL adds a 20% gratuity to an overvalued daily value ($99 per person per day).   For a 7 day cruise is amount to $133 just in gratuities for one person.  This doesn't count the fact that NCL has bundled the promos with the overall cruise prices, increasing them.

We always decline the beverage package and bring our own wine, pay the $15 corkage fee per bottle and always come out spending less on alcohol than JUST PAYING FOR THE 20% GRATUITY.

 

On Royal, we never have to buy any alcohol, since their free happy hour lasts from 5-8:30 and you can order wine in the MDR or restaurants up until 8:30.  On Celebrity, we usually have to purchase some wine for dinner, but the cost is modest.  We might spend $300 total on a 14 day cruise.

 

We don't pay the 20% gratuity. We pay a fee for the right to have any two of five perks, that fee being £99 for a seven night cruise, the gratuity is included. We can do this even if booking a Sailaway or Guarantee. So I would probably say that two nights in speciality restaurants would counter free drinks for a few hours every day. My point was that I have seen you say before that of all the offerings for loyalty that NCL is worse than the others and yet I can't really see why.

[4774Papa]

46 minutes ago, BaWBarmy said:

 

We don't pay the 20% gratuity. We pay a fee for the right to have any two of five perks, that fee being £99 for a seven night cruise, the gratuity is included. We can do this even if booking a Sailaway or Guarantee. So I would probably say that two nights in speciality restaurants would counter free drinks for a few hours every day. My point was that I have seen you say before that of all the offerings for loyalty that NCL is worse than the others and yet I can't really see why.

If you pay 99 GBP per person for two promos that is the equivalent of $250 US.  Since you have the beverage packages, you would not care about a happy hour with free drinks.  The Platinum rewards amount to two meals in specialty restaurants and a free bag of laundry each.  Of course,  you might not need laundry done for a short 7 day cruise.  

 

On Royal and Celebrity, not sure how the pricing works for UK residents, but Celebrity elites also get the free bags of laundry, but no the free specialty meals.  Based on what you told me for UK residents, NCL's benefits appear to be better than Celebrity or Royal.  However, for USA residents that is not the case as I explained earlier.