If only it were only Nickles and dimes.

[mjkacmom]

2 minutes ago, gullivertravels said:

There is corking fee now. LOL Drink package on NCL is about $109 per person per day. Not sure what ship you're were on. I just went out to the website because that didn't sound like what I had experience. You're speaking about the soda package, which is about $10 per person per day with Star Bucks being $12 per person per day. Happy cruising and safe travels!

99.9% of folks with the UBP get it included and only pay $20 a day for the gratuity. Back when it first came out, it wasn’t a perk, and cost about $50 a day plus gratuity. Recently the corkage fee has been eliminated for those with the UBP.

[david_sobe]

4 hours ago, corman-cruise said:

Let me put it this way, free as it is included. 

I smell what you are cooking.  I just wanted to point out you paid for those items.  All this marketing is geared to new cruisers that dont know better and think they are getting free stuff.  The prices are hundreds of dollars higher than they used to be before this marketing.  I am not picking on you.  I just found it funny you were happy about the "free" stuff yet annoyed at all the extras.   On vacation on a cruise ship, everything has a price. 

[insidecabin]

My take on free at sea is its no more free than freestyle, just part of that branding.

 

It's not hard add the bits you want and check the total.

 

[julig22]

6 hours ago, styles27 said:

Considering the base fare hasn’t changed much over the years they need to make up the cost somewhere. 
Personally I’m a big fan of usage fees. We don’t want or need a drink package, we pay as we go and prefer it that way. 
If you want an “all inclusive cruise line” without those add on fees be prepared to pay triple or more of what your NCL or even RCCL cruise costs.  

I cruise for the itinerary, not the perks.  Absolutely choose NCL because it isn't all-inclusive.  If I'm not using it, I don't want to pay for it.

[styles27]

25 minutes ago, julig22 said:

I cruise for the itinerary, not the perks.  Absolutely choose NCL because it isn't all-inclusive.  If I'm not using it, I don't want to pay for it.

Completely agree. 

[debenson0723]

4 hours ago, gullivertravels said:

Not sure about the cost you posted when I went and looked at NCL drink package it was way more than $20 pp per day. What cruise line were you on?

You are confusing the actual cost of the drink package (which is $109 a day plus 20% gratuities) with the Free at Sea offer, which most people take with NCL. With the FAS offer, the drink package itself is 'free' and you only pay the 20% gratuities, which are roughly $21 a day. So if you pick that offer for your cruise, 2 drinks a day will pretty much equal the cost of the gratuities. And recently NCL got rid of the corkage fee if you have the FAS package, so even better.

I went on an RCL cruise last year and the drink package was $89.99 + 18% gratuities...there was no other offer, it was all or nothing.  So I don't care how many bottles of water, smoothies and specialty coffees it includes, it was not worth it to me for that price.

[fshagan]

14 hours ago, styles27 said:

Considering the base fare hasn’t changed much over the years they need to make up the cost somewhere. 
Personally I’m a big fan of usage fees. We don’t want or need a drink package, we pay as we go and prefer it that way. 
If you want an “all inclusive cruise line” without those add on fees be prepared to pay triple or more of what your NCL or even RCCL cruise costs.  

 

The one advantage of gratuities, fees and the like not being a part of the cruise fare is that all of those things are refundable if you cancel after final payment, with or without insurance. The refund is automatic.

 

If you are buying travel insurance, then the amount you have to declare that is non-refundable is lower also. On many of my cruises that's half or more of the total cost. Having to only insure half the total cost makes that insurance less expensive.

 

That's not any consolation to people who feel like they have been cheated, or that the marketing is sleezy, etc. But it is one thing that would "bite" the rest of us who are used to the way things are now.

 

 

[Sailing12Away]

On 4/26/2023 at 4:50 PM, corman-cruise said:

This is our first time on Norwegian. The encore is a beautiful ship but after sailing on Royal Carribean, celebrity, princess, oceana this cruise line is all about Nickle and diming you on everything. 

You get perks, wifi, free gratuities, specialized dinning, even purchased 2 additional days, got charged gratitude fee on top of the free perks and extra dinners. 

Upgraded to a premium alcohol package because my wife wanted better bottled water, yip you pay a gratuity charge on that. 

It seems like the service on board has decreased, nobody walking around the buffet offering orange juice, coffee or pastries. 

No big show productions, but the musicians are amazing. 

To me, it seems like we are getting less and paying alot. 

Not sure that I will ever sail with them again. 

So far, 7 out 10

 

I gave up reading this thread by post ~20 when so many others put it better than I myself could on how many things are wrong with the post above. The cheerleaders for anti-NCL love to use the 'nickel & dime' bingo buzzword, and that's fine, since if you took that away from them they would really not have much to say at all. Every time I see N&D it translates in my head as "I don't know how to read the terms & conditions of my offer" as well as "I don't understand the concept of apples-to-apples comparisons".

 

The majority of our cruises have been with NCL because every single time I price out a similar itinerary on RCC or Celebrity, for a TRUE comparison in what is important to us and what we want included on our trips - NCL comes in ahead every single time. Our 1 trip with RCC we were charged $60/pp/day for our drink package - so even with being charged gratuities on NCL's "free" drink package, that ~$200 was still substantially cheaper than the $800+ we paid with RCC. Unless you want to cruise on their mega ships (we don't), the suite experience doesn't come close to compare NCL to a non-Oasis class RCC ship (NCL Haven wins hands down). 

 

Been running all different scenarios and options for 3 people to sail with Celebrity this coming November, and the biggest difference is that NCL discounts having a 3rd person in the room with you. Celebrity - not nearly as much. To the point where it's nearly the same price for our 3rd person to have their own room, rather than share with us. On NCL, it would maybe be just an extra $500 or so for taxes and port fees to add that 3rd person to our room, not an extra 3K. So for all 3 people, Celebrity is costing almost double what it would cost us to sail on NCL.

 

It's not nickel & diming - it's just different marketing strategies. Celebrity gives you prix fixe meal and has the price adjusted accordingly. NCL lets you pay a la carte and just pick and choose what you want. In the end, the prices are more similar than different - outside of the 3rd/4th person in the room issue.

 

[FlGoodShips]

On 4/29/2023 at 11:17 AM, corman-cruise said:

Let me put it this way, free as it is included. 

No its not included....

You chose that. We always decline drink package and specialty dining. 

You don't HAVE to take those.

[gullivertravels]

12 hours ago, FlGoodShips said:

No its not included....

You chose that. We always decline drink package and specialty dining. 

You don't HAVE to take those.

I have started to drop those two offers as well. First off for me there is plenty of choices and as a member of the latitudes group I get two specialty dining offers coupons with each cruise booked. Another reason is that you have to eat to early after having eaten lunch. The restaurants are nice, but having the two is enough. Also, as far aa the drink package unless you are a person that drinks more than one drink per day it's not worth the cost. Happy cruising and safe travels!  

[KeithJenner]

12 minutes ago, gullivertravels said:

Another reason is that you have to eat to early after having eaten lunch. 

Why do you have to eat early? Reservations are usually available up to about 9.30pm

[gullivertravels]

1 minute ago, KeithJenner said:

Why do you have to eat early? Reservations are usually available up to about 9.30pm

To avoid eating late. LOL You are going to gain weight on a cruise, however eating a big meal followed by going to sleep shortly there after doesn't help. IMO 

[Liljo22]

On 4/29/2023 at 12:06 PM, gullivertravels said:

Not sure about the cost you posted when I went and looked at NCL drink package it was way more than $20 pp per day. What cruise line were you on?

Now that all guests in a room 21+ get the drink package, there is no reason anyone has to pay the full price.  The only possible reason I could see if if they sail away rate is so low that its cheaper to go that route and buy the package.  On a 7 day, that would mean the sail away rate would need to be around $1k per person cheaper and I have never seen it that much lower.  Its usually only a few hundred dollars lower if that.  

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, gullivertravels said:

To avoid eating late. LOL You are going to gain weight on a cruise, however eating a big meal followed by going to sleep shortly there after doesn't help. IMO 

At home I eat 2 meals a day, around 11 and 6/7, on a cruise I eat breakfast and dinner. I used to try 3 meals but I was never hungry for dinner (or lunch).

[gullivertravels]

3 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

At home I eat 2 meals a day, around 11 and 6/7, on a cruise I eat breakfast and dinner. I used to try 3 meals but I was never hungry for dinner (or lunch).

Yes, same here I normally eat only two also, but when I first started to cruise I would eat whenever there meals being served. Now that the newness has worn off I am with you one good breakfast, very lite lunch then and only if I have the hungries do I eat dinner. Otherwise, just a snack. 

[RB9643]

On 4/29/2023 at 12:41 AM, corman-cruise said:

I posted how I felt about the way ncl charged and decided that and other things would cause me not to sail with them in the future. 

 

I'm obviously a Gen Xer. Somewhat technologically challenged -- almost. I meant to post:

 

This is just mind blowing to me. You've obviously spent no time on research of "charges" and fail to list "other things". I'm an NCL fan, but not a loyalist. I'm cruising Royal and Holland America over the next year. Neither of them is less expensive than NCL (when you read the fine print).

On 4/29/2023 at 12:41 AM, corman-cruise said:

 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by RB9643

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 4/26/2023 at 1:50 PM, corman-cruise said:

It seems like the service on board has decreased, nobody walking around the buffet offering orange juice, coffee or pastries. 

We enjoyed it almost daily on the Bliss the last two weeks.

On 4/26/2023 at 2:40 PM, KeithJenner said:

In all those cruises I have never once seen anyone walking around the buffet offering orange juice, coffee and pastries.

You've missed it brother!!  We had groups of two and sometimes four!  The pastry girls were singing their rendition of the ABBA classic dancing queen, modified to "we are the pastry queens, young and...).  The coffee girls weren't singing but it was "wakey wakey, coffee for you, ....." (I can't remember exactly other than 90% of the passengers really were having fun.  Then, there are always the other 10% who 💩 on fun.)

On 4/26/2023 at 2:52 PM, KSSS2013 said:

There were some singing ladies that came around with pastries. both times we were on the Bliss. Those cruises were not at full capacity though. 
  It’s also nothing I have seen before or since. 

I seem to remember it on most NCL cruises.  Certainly the Joy last September and the Encore a couple times before that.  It may be that the smaller ships don't do it because the buffets are more crowded/limited.

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 4/27/2023 at 8:23 AM, complawyer said:

so i quote the old song "so what do you want for nothing? A  RUBBER BISQUIT!

Thanks "Elwood." 🤣

Edited May 4, 2023 by ChiefMateJRK

[RB9643]

To be honest, I've never understood people who have high expectations for anything.

A high bar is rarely achieved.

A low bar always exceeds expectations.

[cruiseny4life]

8 hours ago, RB9643 said:

To be honest, I've never understood people who have high expectations for anything.

A high bar is rarely achieved.

A low bar always exceeds expectations.

Preach it brother!! 

[RB9643]

12 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Preach it brother!! 

 

Yeah, it's kind of a life philosophy. We pay the same price. I'm happy, you're not. 

You figure it out.

 

[DingoMom]

Dear OP and the rest of the posters in this thread:

Thank you! I am a brand newbie to NCL after lots of sailings on Celebrity and Royal. I read through this thread with great interest. I always prefer to have my expectations at a reasonable level before I sail. All of you have taught me something (some more than others! 🤣). My friends chose our next cruise on the Escape. Quite frankly, based on things like loyalty and casino status, we could probably have booked Celebrity for much less. But we are ready to try something new, and time with our Dear Friends is worth a lot to me. So…I will temper my expectations, and I am Certain we will have a wonderful time!! I ❤️ that the OP shared his thoughts, and I learned Lots from the rest of you along the thread! Happy Cruising to all!

[KeithJenner]

5 hours ago, RB9643 said:

 

Yeah, it's kind of a life philosophy. We pay the same price. I'm happy, you're not. 

You figure it out.

 

I am always entertained by people who try to prove how discerning and sophisticated they are by pointing out all the ways that NCL didn’t meet their high expectations. One of my favourites was on here where someone claimed they weren’t fussy but then went on to express how appalling is was when the waiter served them fromthe wrong side.

 

I assume they think I’m impressed, but all I hear them saying is “we paid all this money and are not enjoying ourselves but you, you poor idiot, are not as sophisticated as us and as a result appear to be having a great time”.

 

I’m never as impressed with them as they think I am. 🙂

[RocketMan275]

6 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

I am always entertained by people who try to prove how discerning and sophisticated they are by pointing out all the ways that NCL didn’t meet their high expectations. One of my favourites was on here where someone claimed they weren’t fussy but then went on to express how appalling is was when the waiter served them fromthe wrong side.

I was impressed when a woman posted that she wanted a 100% refund of her NCL cruise.  She had paid thousands of dollars for a DOS/large balcony for herself and her two daugters.  Her cruise was totally ruined when she boarded the ship only to learn that NCL served Pepsi, that Coke wasn't available.  NCL owed her because they didn't inform her of this when she booked the cruise.

[DCGuy64]

On 4/27/2023 at 6:51 AM, RD64 said:

Economics 101 - there is no such thing as a free lunch. You will always be paying for the “free” in one way or another.

Exactly. And the corollary is "you can't please everyone all of the time." If NCL or other lines were to introduce no-nonsense, fully inclusive pricing, people would complain "why should I have to pay for things I don't want?" I 100% guarantee there would be howls of protest. The cruise lines can't win: people complain about being nickled and dimed, and then complain that they can't opt out of things to save money. 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️ Personally, I like NCL's model, but I admit that I ALWAYS look at the TOTAL price of the cruise including all fees and gratuities. Yes, it takes a bit more work to compare lines, but it's worth it in the end for me.