Has anyone been in a Club Suite yet?

[disneylover89]

18 hours ago, Sand and Seas said:

Did you notice upgraded bedding?  I like the idea of a good memory foam mattress or mattress topper without having to ask the room steward.  (See below)

 

Exclusive Club Balcony Suite Amenities

• Option to pre-book onboard entertainment and dining as early as 125 days prior to sailing
• Complimentary treats delivered to your stateroom
• Complimentary bottle of sparkling wine
• Complimentary choice of one valet laundry or pressing service
• Bliss Collection by Norwegian™ featuring fine linens, pillows and a memory foam mattress or mattress topper
• Room Service menus offering delicious options for breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Coffee and tea set-up
• TV, refrigerator, safe and hair dryer
• Sitting area
• Lower beds arranged as a queen-size bed

Can the beds be arranged as 2 singles vs the queen size mentioned?

[luckyinpa]

yes it's 2 twins. which means no bothering your partner when you get up

[alanstarr]

I have no interest in the sparkling wine - think they'll swap in a bottle of regular wine instead? 

[justhappy]

1 hour ago, alanstarr said:

I have no interest in the sparkling wine - think they'll swap in a bottle of regular wine instead? 

If they did I think we would all swap. But I don’t think they will.

[complawyer]

why not? take the bottle of sparkling wine home with you. its great for removing rust and to get

 rid of ants

[BirdTravels]

4 hours ago, alanstarr said:

I have no interest in the sparkling wine - think they'll swap in a bottle of regular wine instead? 

 nope. you can leave it behind for the next passenger in the room. 

[complawyer]

which only means that same bottle has probably been in the cabin for the past 10 years

[Candy Apple 12]

On 11/12/2021 at 1:33 PM, Sand and Seas said:

Also should note for this thread that they have increased DSC for Club Balcony Suites.  Not sure why they think it should be much closer to Haven DSC than Balcony DSC.

 

I will also note this will probably not make me change out of our current M6 bookings...love those balconies!

 

How much are the service charges?

For bookings made on or after April 1, 2020, that prepay their service charges before their sail date:

• • $18.50 USD per person per day for The Haven and Suites;
  • $18.00 USD per person per day for Club Balcony Suite;
  • $15.50 USD per person per day for all other stateroom types

 

https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/what-is-onboard-service-charge

Thank goodness for Cruise Critic! My NCL account says this:

 

The convenience of pre-paying service charges allows you to plan your budget prior to your cruise giving you additional freedom while on board. A discretionary charge of $29.77 USD per person per day for all guests 3 years or older will automatically be added to your onboard account. Your service charges will total $416.75 USD for all guests, for your entire cruise. 

 

Hubby was thinking of going back to a regular balcony when he heard this. I’ve never decreased my service charge, but I told him I’d rather decrease the service charge by a reasonable amount rather than change our booking. I don’t think the charge should be only 50 cents less than Haven, but it’s better than almost $30 pp per day!

[Sand and Seas]

31 minutes ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

Thank goodness for Cruise Critic! My NCL account says this:

 

The convenience of pre-paying service charges allows you to plan your budget prior to your cruise giving you additional freedom while on board. A discretionary charge of $29.77 USD per person per day for all guests 3 years or older will automatically be added to your onboard account. Your service charges will total $416.75 USD for all guests, for your entire cruise. 

 

Hubby was thinking of going back to a regular balcony when he heard this. I’ve never decreased my service charge, but I told him I’d rather decrease the service charge by a reasonable amount rather than change our booking. I don’t think the charge should be only 50 cents less than Haven, but it’s better than almost $30 pp per day!

I think the $29.77 USD must be a mistake.  I would suggest you call NCL and have them check on that.

[HuliHuli]

7 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

I think the $29.77 USD must be a mistake.  I would suggest you call NCL and have them check on that.

I think you are right @Sand and Seas.  $29.77 is an odd number; daily service charges are typically in $0.50 increments.  For my upcoming cruise in a Club Balcony, NCL says, "The convenience of pre-paying service charges allows you to plan your budget prior to your cruise giving you additional freedom while on board. A discretionary charge of $15.50 USD per person per day for all guests 3 years or older will automatically be added to your onboard account. Your service charges will total $341.00 USD for all guests."

[Candy Apple 12]

17 hours ago, Sand and Seas said:

I think the $29.77 USD must be a mistake.  I would suggest you call NCL and have them check on that.

Definitely a mistake! We never prepay unless we get a heads up that they are raising the rates, so I’ll just leave it there for now. I’m just glad I’ve been reading this forum.

[Sand and Seas]

3 hours ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

Definitely a mistake! We never prepay unless we get a heads up that they are raising the rates, so I’ll just leave it there for now. I’m just glad I’ve been reading this forum.

I just went in and checked my own reservations at My NCL. 

My Club Balcony on Prima says $15.50 per person.   

[janice2348]

On 8/31/2021 at 4:34 PM, UKstages said:

*sigh*

 

call center agents get a bum rap.

 

i know a thing or two about call centers, and call center training, having devoted much of my life to the industry, both on the client and operations side. there are some broad generalizations being made here about contact centers (it ain't just "calls" anymore, folks... it's also chat, social media and backend operations that take place in these facilities)... and NCL agents specifically.

 

first of all, contact center positions are rarely minimum wage jobs and most carry with them a full range of benefits and incentives. there are often opportunities to make significant bonuses based on achieving certain metrics... and many of them are customer satisfaction metrics, rather than just "sales" incentives. call center agents can earn more than cashiers, store clerks and even some administrative assistants or those in managerial roles. so the stereotype of low wage transitory workers just doesn't apply any longer, even if it once did (and i don't believe it ever really did). NCL reps in particular seem to be tenured agents with many years of experience, almost all of whom seem to be based in the phoenix and miami metro areas in the "good ole USA."

 

in off-shore contact centers, these jobs are highly revered positions and some agents support their entire extended family from their contact center job. in the philippines, the contact center business comprises the largest sector of the economy and employs more than 1.3 million people. and while it's true that many outbound sales agents (those are the ones that call you, rather than you calling them) are temporary workers or college students, contact center agents are - for the most part - professionals ranging in age from 18 or 19 years to their 70s. most have a college degree and have chosen to make these sales or customer service jobs their life's work. it's a profession for many. so, again, the stereotype of young inexperienced transitory workers just doesn't apply any longer, even if it once did.

 

with regard to "googling," most companies have their own specialized knowledge bases which display "just in time" relevant contextual information to their agents based on the nature of the call/customer contact... no "searching" pr se is required. the articles displayed contain information that is usually not customer-facing, although agents do generally have access to a company's consumer-facing website, too. search engines such as google and bing have to be specifically licensed for commercial use and are generally not available in contact centers for that reason and for one additional reason... contact centers maintain a "clean desktop" environment for their agents because of the personally identifiable data that they collect on their customers (names, addresses, credit card numbers). this generally means agents have no access to the internet unless the URL is on an approved list. this also means no external email and no phones, cameras, smartwatches or other devices allowed in the contact center.

 

as for training, it's sometimes assumed when there is a performance gap that poor "training" is to blame. it often isn't. there are a host of factors that affect performance and influence expected agent behaviors. what typically happens in a contact center is that there is a constant battle between training and operations and marketing. ops tells the agent to do one thing or places a restriction upon the agent based on call duration or some other metric that ops never told the training team about. training teaches agents to do things the "right" way, which somehow conflicts with what the agent is told on the production floor. marketing introduces programs, policies and procedures that they somehow forget to communicate to both the training and ops teams. so when an agent is telling you they are hearing about that promo from you for the very first time, they probably ain't dumb and they probably ain't lying.

 

and then there is this: because of the length of time it takes to run the entire enterprise through the training program, these programs are often created long before marketing or the executive team has made final decisions... consequently, agents are trained on an early concept of the idea, business practice  or marketing program because the final content was not available when the training was developed. 

Thank you for posting this.  I was a customer service rep for many years ( and paid well).  What you have said here is exactly right.  Anyone who hasn’t done this job has no idea what it’s really like.  I would like to add that reps are often not kept in the loop about up to the minute changes in policies or promotions.  
 

Yes, I often get incorrect info from NCL reps, but some of the blame goes to management or in some cases, yes, bad training.  They are only as good as the info they are given.  So please, don’t blame the rep.  Customer service is a high stress and thankless job at times.  Kindness and empathy can go a long way.  

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, janice2348 said:

Thank you for posting this.  I was a customer service rep for many years ( and paid well).  What you have said here is exactly right.  Anyone who hasn’t done this job has no idea what it’s really like.  I would like to add that reps are often not kept in the loop about up to the minute changes in policies or promotions.  
 

Yes, I often get incorrect info from NCL reps, but some of the blame goes to management or in some cases, yes, bad training.  They are only as good as the info they are given.  So please, don’t blame the rep.  Customer service is a high stress and thankless job at times.  Kindness and empathy can go a long way.  

Call center personnel are not trained in every single fact about every single topic. They can recite what their call center system provides them in response to a "google-like" query. Many that I have talked to "ad lib" and make stuff up,,,, to make them sound well informed and important. That's where the mis-information comes in. If they just recited what their call center system provides or say "I can't find that information", we would all be better off. 

 

Entry level call center personnel at NCL basically make minimum wage. 

 

How much does a Call Center Agent at Norwegian Cruise Line make? $13 - $16/hr  

 

The average salary for NCL Call Center I agent is $32,700 (range $29,100 - $40,100)

Edited November 17, 2021 by BirdTravels

[ChiefMateJRK]

25 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Entry level call center personnel at NCL basically make minimum wage. 

How do you know this?  Have you held the position?  Some of us actually worked minimum wage jobs during our lives at some point and were not the idiots that you seem to be suggesting.

[Diane67B]

I just got offer to upgrade. Is the balcony on the club balcony suite big enough for two lounge chairs? 

[luckyinpa]

14 minutes ago, Diane67B said:

I just got offer to upgrade. Is the balcony on the club balcony suite big enough for two lounge chairs? 

 

it's not big enough for normal chairs to face outward . they face each other

[Diane67B]

Thank you for letting me no so quickly!  I’ll stick with my regular balcony.

[BirdTravels]

29 minutes ago, Diane67B said:

I just got offer to upgrade. Is the balcony on the club balcony suite big enough for two lounge chairs? 

You balcony size will vary by class of ship. This is a balcony on the Encore (it is actually big for Breakaway/+ ships). 

[cruiserbear55]

46 minutes ago, Diane67B said:

I just got offer to upgrade. Is the balcony on the club balcony suite big enough for two lounge chairs? 

What ship? You can fit 2 loungers on the jewel class ships ( Dawn, Jade, Pearl, and Jewel). Balconies are 54 square feet.

[Diane67B]

I’m on the Encore.

[luckyinpa]

ba

 

 

[Diane67B]

10 minutes ago, luckyinpa said:

ba

 

 

You are so sweet to post this. I really don’t care about a larger washroom. I would have loved a bigger balcony though. It looks pretty much the same size as a regular balcony. I guess I’ll just stick with what I have. Thanks so much.

[luckyinpa]

17 minutes ago, Diane67B said:

You are so sweet to post this. I really don’t care about a larger washroom. I would have loved a bigger balcony though. It looks pretty much the same size as a regular balcony. I guess I’ll just stick with what I have. Thanks so much.

 

YW, even some haven rooms have about the same size balcony.  which is crazy.

 

if you want fun rooms and balconies try oasis of the seas. we did a crown loft suite on there and it was a moderate price but 2 loungers had plenty of room there. but the bathroom there was actually a bit smaller than the club balcony on the BA..as measured by my arm length.

[Diane67B]

2 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

 

YW, even some haven rooms have about the same size balcony.  which is crazy.

 

if you want fun rooms and balconies try oasis of the seas. we did a crown loft suite on there and it was a moderate price but 2 loungers had plenty of room there. but the bathroom there was actually a bit smaller than the club balcony on the BA..as measured by my arm length.

I definitely want to try RC one day. The big ships seem amazing. Thanks again! I dream of the day I can have a drink on my balcony, with my feet up.