How to select specific cabin on CE/EU website?

[hawkeyetlse]

I have been away from the NCL website for a few months, and they have changed things. This is on the NCL Europe website, but I wonder if it's an issue in other regions, too. Apologies if this has already been discussed, and please point me to the previous threads I missed.

 

I'm trying to book an inside cabin, and the booking engine gives me the choice of Sail Away Inside, Inside, or Family Inside. if I select Sail Away, it says Guarantee, as expected. If I choose Inside, it pre-selects one of the lowest priced cabins for me (IF). There is an option to "Choose a different stateroom" but then this costs hundreds of euros more, even if I just choose another IF cabin. It is possible to select some other stateroom category temporarily and then switch back to "Inside", and the system will "recommend" a different IF cabin, and will eventually cycle through all available IFs. But again, if I ask directly for a specific cabin, it costs 200 or 300 euros more.

 

To be clear, I am not booking Sail Away, IX, Guarantee, or anything like that. The system just wants hundreds of euros more, on top of the non-Sail Away rate, for the privilege of choosing a specific cabin.

 

I checked on a third party European site that provides separate quotes for specific subcategories, and the current difference in price between IF and IA is 7 euros (not per day, it's 7 euros more for the entire cruise). So I'd rather book IA or IB, but it's not possible to do this on the NCL website without being charged 300 euros more.

 

Has anyone else run into this behavior? And is there any way to get around it? I did ask someone on the website chat, and they told me that they couldn't answer any questions about prices (???) and that the website was always correct (hrmph).

[TrumpyNor]

I just tried to do a mock booking on ncl.com (from Norway) and experience what you are stating. Have to pay minimum €70 p.p. extra to choose a different stateroom than the one that the website is suggesting. Not good......!

 

[geleisen]

8 hours ago, hawkeyetlse said:

I have been away from the NCL website for a few months, and they have changed things. This is on the NCL Europe website, but I wonder if it's an issue in other regions, too. Apologies if this has already been discussed, and please point me to the previous threads I missed.

 

I'm trying to book an inside cabin, and the booking engine gives me the choice of Sail Away Inside, Inside, or Family Inside. if I select Sail Away, it says Guarantee, as expected. If I choose Inside, it pre-selects one of the lowest priced cabins for me (IF). There is an option to "Choose a different stateroom" but then this costs hundreds of euros more, even if I just choose another IF cabin. It is possible to select some other stateroom category temporarily and then switch back to "Inside", and the system will "recommend" a different IF cabin, and will eventually cycle through all available IFs. But again, if I ask directly for a specific cabin, it costs 200 or 300 euros more.

 

To be clear, I am not booking Sail Away, IX, Guarantee, or anything like that. The system just wants hundreds of euros more, on top of the non-Sail Away rate, for the privilege of choosing a specific cabin.

 

I checked on a third party European site that provides separate quotes for specific subcategories, and the current difference in price between IF and IA is 7 euros (not per day, it's 7 euros more for the entire cruise). So I'd rather book IA or IB, but it's not possible to do this on the NCL website without being charged 300 euros more.

 

Has anyone else run into this behavior? And is there any way to get around it? I did ask someone on the website chat, and they told me that they couldn't answer any questions about prices (???) and that the website was always correct (hrmph).

I have direct access to the NCL Europe booking system. I could check for you if it would cost extra to select a room directly in the booking system. (I booked some specific cabins a month ago without paying extra, but not sure if they have changed that by now) My username on this site is same as social media sites if you want to reach out in private. 

[SpainAlien]

Do a courtesy hold then call NCL and get them to change your cabin before completing the booking. In my experience they were very helpful doing this

[hawkeyetlse]

I did do that, but of course the prices had gone up by the time I got through to them! Definitely not a satisfactory long-term solution, and the most frustrating thing is that no one I spoke with at NCL acknowledges that there even is a problem.

[geleisen]

1 hour ago, hawkeyetlse said:

I did do that, but of course the prices had gone up by the time I got through to them! Definitely not a satisfactory long-term solution, and the most frustrating thing is that no one I spoke with at NCL acknowledges that there even is a problem.

But price should be the same if you had it on hold, no? 

[hawkeyetlse]

I had an IF on hold and wanted to change it to an IB, so they calculated the upgrade cost based on current pricing. So in the end I just settled for what I was able to book/hold on the website. But I hope they fix this before the next time.