NCL promotions?

[exm]

Hi fellow-cruisers!

 

I have cruised on NCL once in 2006 (Hawaii, wonderful!) but somehow I have been only cruising RCL (and a few MSC/Carnival) ever since. However, I cruised mostly RCCL and I acquired Platinum there. With RCCL I'm fully aware of their promotions; not so much with NCL. Right now I'm looking at a January 2023 cruise on the Breakaway out of New York. Is the current promotion a good one or kind of ongoing? I've also asked my TA but I rather hear multiple opinions. Thanks!

[DaCruiseBug]

The NCL promotions never change. They always get extended. Every once in a while they have minor changes to them but it's mostly the same stuff over and over.

[Glitterbutton]

Agreed. They always have that "These offers expire in..." countdown clock ticking on the home page that never actually hits zero. However, an exception is that not all itineraries include the kids sail free promo, I have noticed. 

[Middleager]

The airfare promo isn't all all sailings.  Sometimes there are airfare at 50% for 2nd guest, or free for 2nd guest.

 

The specialty dining offer can be by categories, and wasn't available on inside cabins for example, but recently seem to be available for inside other than GTY.   Same with the "free booze", but this isn't really free because they charge gratuity and we don't drink that much to justify getting that.

 

The offer of "insider rate" to count a night for double points (toward status) wasn't available on the sailings I had before, but seem to be available for several future sailings I checked.

[complawyer]

the limited time 30% off promo has been going on since last nov "nuff said"

 

by the way, when ncl 1st started the promo, the cabins were cheaper before the 30% off.

since we always try and dine at cagney's, moderno and teppanyaki, i like the free dinner offers, and since we are platinum plus we  get an extra dinner at cagneys and le bistro (although it's not one of my favorites)

 

the shore excursion credit is almost meaningless unless you get a cheapy excursion.

 

if its $200 per person you save $50 and still pay $350. wi-fi, i never use, i dont want to talk to anyone while im sailing in europe, but the drink package is a good deal if youre even a small drinker.  ive stated before, i get a champagne or mimosa with breakfast, inthe afternoon  a mojito, early evening a chivas on the rocks, another with dinner, a glass of port wine after dinner, and another chivas or 2 if im in the casino.

 

also coming back from a hot day exploring an excursion, its great to be able to get an ice cold brew.

[exm]

Thank you all for responding!

[CaptainHazelwood]

On 4/14/2021 at 8:11 PM, complawyer said:

the shore excursion credit is almost meaningless unless you get a cheapy excursion.

 

if its $200 per person you save $50 and still pay $350.

That's over 10% off.  Why is it "almost meaningless?" $50 is $50, I don't care how rich a person is.  If it's "meaningless," I'll gladly take it off their hands. 😎

[step78]

On 4/15/2021 at 3:03 AM, DaCruiseBug said:

The NCL promotions never change. They always get extended. Every once in a while they have minor changes to them but it's mostly the same stuff over and over.

That's wrong, depending on which ncl-website promos use to be different and change sometimes. Last months "5FAS+30%" changed to 30% and 200€ OBC or airfare-discount. 

[DaCruiseBug]

1 hour ago, step78 said:

That's wrong, depending on which ncl-website promos use to be different and change sometimes. Last months "5FAS+30%" changed to 30% and 200€ OBC or airfare-discount. 

 

No, it's not wrong. I said that they sometimes make minor changes. Everyone on this board knows the promos almost never change. 

[step78]

It's no "minor change" to have 30% and 5 FAS OR 30% and 2 FAS and 200$ OBC.  

[Middleager]

4 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

No, it's not wrong. I said that they sometimes make minor changes. Everyone on this board knows the promos almost never change. 

You're wrong, again.  The promos continue to change.  Some promos apply to some sailings but not others.  Some promos apply to some categories, but not others, and at times apply to some categories not included before (e.g. specialty dining for inside).  Some promos apply to past guests but not others, and some of those applying to past guests are only for select sailings.

 

What you believe is different than the facts.

[DaCruiseBug]

3 hours ago, Middleager said:

You're wrong, again.  The promos continue to change.  Some promos apply to some sailings but not others.  Some promos apply to some categories, but not others, and at times apply to some categories not included before (e.g. specialty dining for inside).  Some promos apply to past guests but not others, and some of those applying to past guests are only for select sailings.

 

What you believe is different than the facts.

 

You're making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

There's a reason my post saying that promos are almost always the same has more likes than all the other posts combined. Because it's true.

[complawyer]

if you look at the most recent promos, the30% off has been going on since last nov. the drink, dinner wifi and shore excursions longer than that.

 

the latitude insider offer of one extra point per night has also been offered since nov.

 

the last time there was a substantial offer was mid 2020. if you were a latitude member you got an extra 15% of the cabin rate. this allowed us to upgrade from a 2 bedroom suite to a 2 bedroom haven with no additional cost increase. before the 15% offer, the difference was about $4500 for 3 people.

 the only real variance i see, is sometimes the 2nd person flies free is offered, sometimes not. sometimes the 5 offers may include pre-paid gratuities. if you are anal like me, you watch the website daily and you will see there is very little variance

[Sailing12Away]

You and I are complete opposites - I'm very familiar with NCL and know nothing about RCC so I'm scouring their boards to catch up before I book my next cruise with them for this October. With NCL it all depends on your preferences, and everyone's opinion will differ slightly.

 

Free/discounted air: Depends on where you're flying from/into. Do a quick price check on any website to see a ballpark idea of what it would cost you, and if NCL has significantly better rates then jump on it. The only time I declined their discounted air was when I was going to New Zealand as I wanted to extend the trip more than 3 days. With the air promo you can pay a $50 deviation fee and fly in/out up to 2 days beyond the sail dates. So if you wanted more time than that, you can't use their air. They also automatically tack on transfer fees, but you can call and have those removed if you'll take care of getting to/from the airport on your own (better to do that in most cases, unless you like not having to think about things). 

 

Dining package: If you like to eat any food at all, then this is a no-brainer and a perk you should pick. You pay gratuities/fees at the time of selecting the perk, but I think it's ballpark $20 for the value of a $100 meal. Specialty restaurants vary by ship (slightly), but they're worth it for just $20. So I think you'll see an overwhelming number of people recommending this perk to take.

 

Drink package: If you think you can put back on average 3 drinks a day between breakfast mimoas, poolside slushies, lunch beers, pre-dinner scotch sipping, wine with dinner, and after dinner fun - then the package is worth it. Again you pay the gratuities/fees up front when you select the perk, but it works out to approximately 3 drinks per day to break even. If you're not a big drinker, skip it and pay as you go. If you want to drink when you want to and not worry about an onboard bill when you leave, then get the package. (personally we won't sail without it, but that's just us)

 

Wifi: This is a joke and they should be embarrassed to call it wifi. I think you can pay a fee to upgrade to unlimited which might be better, but other than being able to send a quick email home to let people know you're alive, it's useless. Forget about trying to upload photos or do anything heavily intensive. Briefly checking work emails to make sure the company hasn't burned down in your absence, or to tell friends and family where you are in the world - you're fine. Anything more than that and it won't happen.

 

Port Excursions: $50 per cabin per port. It's not much, but if there are NCL sponsored excursions you want to take (or have to take given Covid times), every little bit helps. They screw you a bit though on some of the ports - if you've got an overnight stay, you only get the credit once. We've taken advantage of this one as we're lazy and usually book our excursions through the cruise ship for most ports. On a long sailing this does add up and help. When we did an 11 day cruise, we saved over $500 on trips we were going to book anyway, so it helps a bit.

[Sailing12Away]

19 hours ago, complawyer said:

the last time there was a substantial offer was mid 2020. if you were a latitude member you got an extra 15% of the cabin rate. this allowed us to upgrade from a 2 bedroom suite to a 2 bedroom haven with no additional cost increase. before the 15% offer, the difference was about $4500 for 3 people.

That was when we booked our now cancelled Pearl Greek Isles trip. Saved a fortune, which makes rebooking on the Jade not practical at all since the price has now gone up 40%. Same with our currently booked Star sailing for May 2022 - when I price check now the price has skyrocketed from what I originally paid. Waiting for them to "reposition" that ship too so I am forced to rebook and pay more.

[exm]

On 4/18/2021 at 10:15 AM, Sailing12Away said:

You and I are complete opposites - I'm very familiar with NCL and know nothing about RCC so I'm scouring their boards to catch up before I book my next cruise with them for this October. With NCL it all depends on your preferences, and everyone's opinion will differ slightly.

 

Free/discounted air: Depends on where you're flying from/into. Do a quick price check on any website to see a ballpark idea of what it would cost you, and if NCL has significantly better rates then jump on it. The only time I declined their discounted air was when I was going to New Zealand as I wanted to extend the trip more than 3 days. With the air promo you can pay a $50 deviation fee and fly in/out up to 2 days beyond the sail dates. So if you wanted more time than that, you can't use their air. They also automatically tack on transfer fees, but you can call and have those removed if you'll take care of getting to/from the airport on your own (better to do that in most cases, unless you like not having to think about things). 

 

Dining package: If you like to eat any food at all, then this is a no-brainer and a perk you should pick. You pay gratuities/fees at the time of selecting the perk, but I think it's ballpark $20 for the value of a $100 meal. Specialty restaurants vary by ship (slightly), but they're worth it for just $20. So I think you'll see an overwhelming number of people recommending this perk to take.

 

Drink package: If you think you can put back on average 3 drinks a day between breakfast mimoas, poolside slushies, lunch beers, pre-dinner scotch sipping, wine with dinner, and after dinner fun - then the package is worth it. Again you pay the gratuities/fees up front when you select the perk, but it works out to approximately 3 drinks per day to break even. If you're not a big drinker, skip it and pay as you go. If you want to drink when you want to and not worry about an onboard bill when you leave, then get the package. (personally we won't sail without it, but that's just us)

 

Wifi: This is a joke and they should be embarrassed to call it wifi. I think you can pay a fee to upgrade to unlimited which might be better, but other than being able to send a quick email home to let people know you're alive, it's useless. Forget about trying to upload photos or do anything heavily intensive. Briefly checking work emails to make sure the company hasn't burned down in your absence, or to tell friends and family where you are in the world - you're fine. Anything more than that and it won't happen.

 

Port Excursions: $50 per cabin per port. It's not much, but if there are NCL sponsored excursions you want to take (or have to take given Covid times), every little bit helps. They screw you a bit though on some of the ports - if you've got an overnight stay, you only get the credit once. We've taken advantage of this one as we're lazy and usually book our excursions through the cruise ship for most ports. On a long sailing this does add up and help. When we did an 11 day cruise, we saved over $500 on trips we were going to book anyway, so it helps a bit.

 

Thanks for your reply. Here's my take on Royal.

 

Most of the time they run a promo of:

- Second passenger 60% off

- Second passenger 60% off, 3/4 passenger 30% off

- All passengers 30% off

- Second passenger 60% off, kids sail free (note: you always pay adult rates for pax 1 and 2, so this promotion only helps with a 3rd or 4th child pax)

- $150 - $450 "off"

 

So it depends on your personal situation. If it's 2 adults, then most promotions are the same except the extra cash offer. If you have cruised RC before you might get an additional loyalty bonus.

 

After you have booked, they are running frequent promotions for cruise extras (Drink packages, excursions, internet, etc).

 

Hope this helps.

[PhillyTravelBug]

I have been eyeing European cruises for a while now, and they raised prices considerably when they added the 30% off promo. Unfortunately, the best bang for the European cruise I want is with Royal Caribbean. I’m loyal, but I’m also am going to go with the better deal when it’s significant.

[pghflyer]

Yeah waiting until they drop the BOGO flights so the prices can go back to just above average. I have so many flight credits I don't need to pay a higher cruise fare for the BOGO flight with no say in the carrier or time.

[Sailing12Away]

2 hours ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

I have been eyeing European cruises for a while now, and they raised prices considerably when they added the 30% off promo. Unfortunately, the best bang for the European cruise I want is with Royal Caribbean. I’m loyal, but I’m also am going to go with the better deal when it’s significant.

Same with us. When they cancelled our Greek cruise on the Pearl, it would have cost another 3K to rebook in the same cabin on the Jade. We opted to go with RCC instead in an Owners Suite for 1K less than our original price on the Pearl. Plus NCL is refusing to issue me a 10% off certificate for the cancelled Pearl sailing, so bye-bye to them.

 

1 hour ago, pghflyer said:

Yeah waiting until they drop the BOGO flights so the prices can go back to just above average. I have so many flight credits I don't need to pay a higher cruise fare for the BOGO flight with no say in the carrier or time.

Same with us. I have a spreadsheet to keep track of all our credits. I don't need flights by any stretch of the imagination for domestic or international at this point. Wish they would offer an option to remove the flight promo and save $500 off the price of the cruise.

[complawyer]

Just now, Sailing12Away said:

Same with us. When they cancelled our Greek cruise on the Pearl, it would have cost another 3K to rebook in the same cabin on the Jade. We opted to go with RCC instead in an Owners Suite for 1K less than our original price on the Pearl. Plus NCL is refusing to issue me a 10% off certificate for the cancelled Pearl sailing, so bye-bye to them.

 

Same with us. I have a spreadsheet to keep track of all our credits. I don't need flights by any stretch of the imagination for domestic or international at this point. Wish they would offer an option to remove the flight promo and save $500 off the price of the cruise.

i dont know what price range youre comfortable with, or what category cabin, but i booked a haven suite on the escape oct 10-22-2021 from copenhagen to london, i think the ports are amaazing, and the prices seem consistent with other lines . try a balcony or a club balcony.

 

let me know what you think.

 

we're also booked on the star nov 2022 trans atlantic from lisbon to rio. again, i think the prices are reasonable. we got the deluxe owners suite with 2 balconies for about 10,000- 14v day cruise

[Sailing12Away]

22 minutes ago, complawyer said:

i dont know what price range youre comfortable with, or what category cabin, but i booked a haven suite on the escape oct 10-22-2021 from copenhagen to london, i think the ports are amazing, and the prices seem consistent with other lines . try a balcony or a club balcony.

 

let me know what you think.

It's not so much the price, it's the principle of what they did (forced a rebook on a different ship) and are doing (denying the 10% coupon, denying the use of a CN certificate, and raising the price 40% for a very similar ship and similar itinerary on the exact same date).

 

Since I'm a nerd, I have a spreadsheet of what we paid for each trip broken down with cost/day to gauge whether something is a 'good deal' or not. The best deal we snagged was an MB on the Epic for $180/pp/day, MA on the Star set to sail 5/2022 for $260/pp/day, and an H4 on the Epic for $325/pp/day.

 

The Pearl that was cancelled on us we paid $300/pp/day for an S4, and to rebook on the Jade in the same S4 cabin would now cost $450/pp/day. We opted for RCC instead at a ballpark price of $400/pp/day, but it's not a 1-for-1 comparison as that excludes drinks and specialty dining. When I remove the drinks and dining from NCL, it drops to $435, so still over $700 more with NCL. That's a decent chunk of change.  

 

For comparison the worst pricing we paid was consequently also on the Jade (maybe that's why I'm so Jaded about sailing on her again - pun intended) - that was an H2 at a price of ~$600/pp/day.

[complawyer]

2 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

It's not so much the price, it's the principle of what they did (forced a rebook on a different ship) and are doing (denying the 10% coupon, denying the use of a CN certificate, and raising the price 40% for a very similar ship and similar itinerary on the exact same date).

 

Since I'm a nerd, I have a spreadsheet of what we paid for each trip broken down with cost/day to gauge whether something is a 'good deal' or not. The best deal we snagged was an MB on the Epic for $180/pp/day, MA on the Star set to sail 5/2022 for $260/pp/day, and an H4 on the Epic for $325/pp/day.

 

The Pearl that was cancelled on us we paid $300/pp/day for an S4, and to rebook on the Jade in the same S4 cabin would now cost $450/pp/day. We opted for RCC instead at a ballpark price of $400/pp/day, but it's not a 1-for-1 comparison as that excludes drinks and specialty dining. When I remove the drinks and dining from NCL, it drops to $435, so still over $700 more with NCL. That's a decent chunk of change.  

 

For comparison the worst pricing we paid was consequently also on the Jade (maybe that's why I'm so Jaded about sailing on her again - pun intended) - that was an H2 at a price of ~$600/pp/day.

while i appreciate your point of view and you dollar per dollar evaluations,

 

id rather get the itinerary and cabin i want, rather then stand on principle 

 

but, to each his own. if it's only a difference of $700 total and i can get a haven, i  would pony up the difference.

 

i figure if i'm spending that much for a vacation, a few hundred either way wont matter if i get what i want.  i also figure inthe cost of the airfare, and hotels, especially if the ship departs from one city and ends in another.  i enjoy spending a few days in each foreign country before and after the cruise. 

[Sailing12Away]

5 hours ago, complawyer said:

while i appreciate your point of view and you dollar per dollar evaluations,

 

id rather get the itinerary and cabin i want, rather then stand on principle 

 

but, to each his own. if it's only a difference of $700 total and i can get a haven, i  would pony up the difference.

 

i figure if i'm spending that much for a vacation, a few hundred either way wont matter if i get what i want.  i also figure inthe cost of the airfare, and hotels, especially if the ship departs from one city and ends in another.  i enjoy spending a few days in each foreign country before and after the cruise. 

But that's the crazy part, the itinerary is nearly identical. So my already booked flights just needed to be adjusted to fly into Athens one day earlier and leave from Cyprus instead of RT from Athens. When I made that adjustment with AA it dropped the cost of my flights by $450/pp as well making the savings even more.

 

We were booked in a non Haven suite on the Pearl, and we're booked in a comparable sized non Haven suite now on RCC. If the sailing was to be on a full Haven ship like Epic or Bliss, I'm with you that Haven is worth it. But I can't justify spending over $9k on the Jade. Been there, done that, and it's not worth that kind of money for what you get.