Bliss the 22nd or 29th partially chartered

[AK Dreaming]

I'm  trying to decide between April 22nd or April 29th for the Bliss in Alaska.  On the 22nd all the Haven and Spa cabins are booked and I read on one topic that someone had chartered the whole Haven for one group.  My question is, has anyone been on a ship that was partially chartered?  How did that effect your experience.  I've read that large groups can rent out certain areas and it seem like that would block regular paying passengers from acceess.  However, since they chartered the Haven maybe they would concentrate their activites to that area.  I asked NCL and they denied it was chartered. 

[brookie848]

We've been on partially chartered cruises and I was not a fan.

 

First of all, you will often have a bunch of people who have never cruised before, so there is a huge learning curve of "normal" or "acceptable" cruise behavior.

 

And venues do get closed down. Our meet & greet was moved to a really weird place/time on that cruise.

 

While some of the people on the cruise were cool, a lot of the people in charge were really rude. I actually "yelled" at two of them. We were on the Dawn, doing a martini tasting at Gatsby's. If you've ever done one of these you know that you pay for it and part of the experience is listening to the person running the tasting teach you about the drinks/history. That's one of the reasons we're there.

 

Two guys were standing right behind us near the entrance to Le Bistro, where their group was holding some sort of event. They were talking LOUDLY right while the bartender is doing his class. After 5-10 minutes, I turned around and told them they were too loud and to go somewhere else and not to disturb us. I got visual high-fives from the other people in the class who were annoyed by them as well.

 

If you can, find out what kind of charter it is and make a decision from there.

[mking8288]

Sorry to break the news, NCL is doing more charters this year, especially off-seasons ... not necessary the entire ship but partial ones - it was recently announced by corporate with a new department & VP in charge.  There was a calendar & lists of ships already with premium deals being cooked up, LOL - some of them offering CEC's with onboard "classes" & lectures, presentations, etc. - revenues generated per guests are higher, as a general rule, for these sailings ... NCL welcoming them with an open arm.  

 

If you have a quiet roll call, very quiet ones and yet many cabins are sold ... do your homework and due diligence to see, i.e. nursing, doctors, real estate agents, etc. not just your music charters.  

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, AK Dreaming said:

I'm  trying to decide between April 22nd or April 29th for the Bliss in Alaska.  On the 22nd all the Haven and Spa cabins are booked and I read on one topic that someone had chartered the whole Haven for one group.  My question is, has anyone been on a ship that was partially chartered?  How did that effect your experience.  I've read that large groups can rent out certain areas and it seem like that would block regular paying passengers from acceess.  However, since they chartered the Haven maybe they would concentrate their activites to that area.  I asked NCL and they denied it was chartered. 

Yes. Certain areas will be reserved for the group throughout the day. 

 

On our October Prima cruise, there was a travel agent convention onboard. It was a business decision to show off the ship by booking the convention on the first US sailing of the Prima. 

 

Impacts: They held meetings in some of the public spaces (comedy club, Syd's) during the day (nothing at night). They closed some of the entertainment (game area, go karts) for their group. The go karts you would not know, just they didn't have reservations during those hours. They held group dinners (both as a convention and as smaller private groups) which were loud and obnoxious - and obviously tied up tables in the MDR and specialty restaurants for protected periods of time (not just a 2 hour dinner). They did not close the pool area (which is more common for charters) for any events. 

 

It's hard to say the impact. Larger groups will have more impact on "paying customers". 

Edited February 16, 2023 by BirdTravels

[AK Dreaming]

5 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Sorry to break the news, NCL is doing more charters this year, especially off-seasons ... not necessary the entire ship but partial ones - it was recently announced by corporate with a new department & VP in charge.  There was a calendar & lists of ships already with premium deals being cooked up, LOL - some of them offering CEC's with onboard "classes" & lectures, presentations, etc. - revenues generated per guests are higher, as a general rule, for these sailings ... NCL welcoming them with an open arm.  

 

If you have a quiet roll call, very quiet ones and yet many cabins are sold ... do your homework and due diligence to see, i.e. nursing, doctors, real estate agents, etc. not just your music charters.  

Yes, the roll call is very quiet and very few rooms left.  All the Spa and Haven sold and someone wrote on CC that they had originally booked Haven and been told they had to move, so booked a different cruise.  I wish there was someway to know what kind of group is was.  

 

[mking8288]

14 minutes ago, AK Dreaming said:

Yes, the roll call is very quiet and very few rooms left.  All the Spa and Haven sold and someone wrote on CC that they had originally booked Haven and been told they had to move, so booked a different cruise.  I wish there was someway to know what kind of group is was.  

 

One of my virtual assisant helped Google a little extra details, I only read one earlier - doesn't mention all of them but sounding like yours could well be one of them - Alaska prices for NCL this season seemed pretty low for less preferred cabins too ... 

https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-cruise-line-to-host-13-back-to-back-charters/91947

https://www.nclhltd.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/523/norwegian-cruise-line-holdings-new-experiences-at

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/NCLH-new-charter-division