Free at Sea Plus Question

[TO_HockeyMum]

Just now, hallux said:

I don't want to say never, but.

 

Unlike Royal - the prices for the packages are the same for every cruise (AND are listed on the site in easy-to-find places) and NCL VERY RARELY (like, I've been watching NCL pricing for 5 years now and haven't seen it) puts them on sale.

Thanks!  There were deals to be had on Royal if you watched like a hawk.  On our last cruise on the Anthem, the Brits found what they thought was an oops on the drink package for a day (only 44 pounds) and everyone jumped on it (except us...we could never get near a bar LOL).

[cruiseny4life]

48 minutes ago, TO_HockeyMum said:

Thanks!  There were deals to be had on Royal if you watched like a hawk.  On our last cruise on the Anthem, the Brits found what they thought was an oops on the drink package for a day (only 44 pounds) and everyone jumped on it (except us...we could never get near a bar LOL).

Since NCL released Free at Sea Plus in (I forget if it was late 2022 or early 2023), there has never been a reduced price available publicly. So far as I know, no travel agents have offered a reduced price either. NCL prices things and then increases prices, as necessary. If anything, I would expect Free at Sea Plus to be increased in the future as inflation hadn't really started to fly high (like an eagle) until after it was unveiled. 

[golf4me2010]

We will be on the Breakaway soon. We have the regular Free at Sea with the booking. I was planning on upgrading the drink and wifi and noticed the cost of that matched the Free at Sea Plus. So clearly this is a no brainer for us to upgrade to that instead. With the 50 off per tour for the 2nd guest and the wifi, drinks and 2 additional specialty this was a superb deal. Unless I am missing something.

[JamesIowa]

On 7/8/2024 at 1:19 PM, golf4me2010 said:

We will be on the Breakaway soon. We have the regular Free at Sea with the booking. I was planning on upgrading the drink and wifi and noticed the cost of that matched the Free at Sea Plus. So clearly this is a no brainer for us to upgrade to that instead. With the 50 off per tour for the 2nd guest and the wifi, drinks and 2 additional specialty this was a superb deal. Unless I am missing something.

Nope, not missing anything. Imo fas+ is a very good deal, especially if you were already planning on spending $ to upgrade to unlimited internet or to premium plus anyway (without even considering the 2 sp dining and extra shore excursion).

[mcmomny]

We upgraded last fall on The Jade in Greece with Free at Sea Plus and it worked out great for us. This was a dream trip and we wanted it to be super special!

 

It gave us $100 per port excursion money which we typically don't use NCL excursions but because of the $100 we used them for all ports, basically the cheapest ones which provided us with airconditioned transportation to where we wanted to go! It was 100 degrees each day we were there!

 

The wifi was huge for my husband who owns his own business so needed to be in contact.

 

Starbucks was also a big plus for him, not me but he really enjoyed his coffee several times a day!

 

The two extra specialty meals where so nice as we ventured out and tried two dining options we had never tried before!

 

And the upgraded alcohol was great, my husband got to try all kinds of Scotches he wouldn't have been able to on the basic plan. Scotches that would be $30 plus a glass where included, plus I could have my Grand Marnier night cap each night!

 

But for our upcoming NE cruise we will not be upgrading, no plans to use any NCL excursions and as a Platinum Latitude's we will have 4 specialty meals already. His phone carrier covers him in Canada and our NCL stock OBC can be used for his Starbucks!

 

But we did think about it!

 

 

[European_CruiseGirl]

NCL doesn’t do dynamic pricing like RCI for any of their shore excursions or add on packages (dinners, FAS+, wifi, drink packages etc). Their prices are static for these.

 

So no discounts available on NCL for FAS+.

[puppyluv1]

For you wine drinkers out there, what do you think about the FAS included wines?  Is there much if a choice or would you recommend upgrading to FAS Plus?  Thanks!

[pkay1]

@puppyluv1 My DH and I cruise 3 or 4 times a year and decided a while back that we won't cruise without upgrading the drink package. We are a little picky about the wine we drink and we find that we're much happier with the upgraded wines than we were with the wines included with the regular package. We also like getting bottled water and Starbucks when we feel like it. Do we need those things? No, but since they're included in the Plus package, we're happy to make the most of our package.

[MiniJeffrey]

14 hours ago, puppyluv1 said:

For you wine drinkers out there, what do you think about the FAS included wines?  Is there much if a choice or would you recommend upgrading to FAS Plus?  Thanks!

 

I believe the included wines are pretty decent. Don't expect 3 star michelin wines of course, but not Chateau Migraine either. Unless you're a real picky wine lover, I believe the FAS has some for all tastes.

[golf4me2010]

My wife likes the fas+ wines better. She enjoys trying others on the list each trip. Found a nice French wine last cruise that she really enjoyed and would never had known. 

[BirdTravels]

On 7/8/2024 at 12:42 PM, TO_HockeyMum said:

Thanks!  There were deals to be had on Royal if you watched like a hawk.  On our last cruise on the Anthem, the Brits found what they thought was an oops on the drink package for a day (only 44 pounds) and everyone jumped on it (except us...we could never get near a bar LOL).

Royal bombards you with almost daily Sale Sale Sale emails about upgrades to your cruise from the minute you book to the minute you sail. Totally annoying. And I would block them, except that there may be an email about a changes to the cruise.  Today’s email is 25% of cabanas on their private island only $2285.99 (sale price). 

Edited July 13 by BirdTravels

[JandC_Cruising]

16 hours ago, puppyluv1 said:

For you wine drinkers out there, what do you think about the FAS included wines?  Is there much if a choice or would you recommend upgrading to FAS Plus?  Thanks!

We are very big wine drinkers and upgrade to FAS Plus (for the value) since we take full advantage of all the upgrade elements.  We always upgraded the drink package prior to FAS Plus because of wine and high end bourbons, scotch, etc.  

We are not fans of the wines by the glass less than $15 (YMMV), and will drink at least 1 bottle every night at dinner (if not two) when cruising. The FAS+ has better wines (not great, but better) and makes a big difference to us.  We have also taken advantage of the 40% bottle discount on a couple of occasions when we've wanted a special bottle.  There are many very good wines by the bottle on most ships if you wish to spend some additional money.

[puppyluv1]

Thank you for all the helpful responses! We’ve decided to upgrade. 

[Plato123]

21 hours ago, JandC_Cruising said:

We are very big wine drinkers and upgrade to FAS Plus (for the value) since we take full advantage of all the upgrade elements.  We always upgraded the drink package prior to FAS Plus because of wine and high end bourbons, scotch, etc.  

We are not fans of the wines by the glass less than $15 (YMMV), and will drink at least 1 bottle every night at dinner (if not two) when cruising. The FAS+ has better wines (not great, but better) and makes a big difference to us.  We have also taken advantage of the 40% bottle discount on a couple of occasions when we've wanted a special bottle.  There are many very good wines by the bottle on most ships if you wish to spend some additional money.

We also like better wines and are looking forward to our Haven suite and FAS+ for our first NCL cruise.  We understand that bottles of wine are available with dinner.  Are these bottles the same wines as are available by the glass?  Also can you take unfinished bottles back to your cabin?

[JandC_Cruising]

1 hour ago, Plato123 said:

We also like better wines and are looking forward to our Haven suite and FAS+ for our first NCL cruise.  We understand that bottles of wine are available with dinner.  Are these bottles the same wines as are available by the glass?  Also can you take unfinished bottles back to your cabin?

Early in 2023 they removed the "special P+ bottles" (they used to have a dozen that were available) and simply changed the program to be the wines already available by the glass.  If the wine is available by the glass, you can ask for the bottle.

Additionally, that is when they started to stop allowing unfinished bottles to be brought back to your cabin. (official policy).  However, I know others have still had success.  The Haven restaurant may be more lenient with the policy.  (last Haven for us was Summer 2022)

 

[JamesIowa]

3 hours ago, Plato123 said:

Also can you take unfinished bottles back to your cabin?

My last cruise in Dec 23 on bliss, waiters would be pretty coy about this. It was pretty much “here’s another bottle of wine. You cannot officially leave with this, but I plan on being waaay over here so won’t be able to see you leave” kind of thing. 

[astera]

On 7/12/2024 at 11:02 PM, puppyluv1 said:

For you wine drinkers out there, what do you think about the FAS included wines?  Is there much if a choice or would you recommend upgrading to FAS Plus?  Thanks!

 

FAS was fine, though I wish I had a photo of one of the bar menus so that you could see for yourself.

 

Decent white wines, bit less of a choice on good reds, and the trick on the rose is to ask for the dry one (not even sure it was on the menu, but I think it was Chilean with a number as its name).

 

Keep in mind that with FAS you are also allowed to bring wine back from ports should that interest you.

 

Another thing to consider is whether you need a better internet package, more speciality restaurant credits, as I believe FAS+ comes with a few of these additional benefits.

[hallux]

2 minutes ago, astera said:

more speciality restaurant credits, as I believe FAS+ comes with a few of these additional benefits.

2, in fact.

 

If only NCL had a website where things like this were described so people didn't need to say 'I believe'... https://www.ncl.com/cruise-deals/free-at-sea

[carohs]

We tried different wines from FAS every evening but weren't able to find one we enjoyed enough to order another glass. Maybe 1 or 2 that were good enough to enjoy with dinner. We had fun going through the list but mostly stuck to cocktails since we have plenty of good wine at home. That being said, a lot of the wines by the glass were only a few dollars extra. We would rather pay the cost difference per glass than FAS+. 

[trivia addict]

On 7/13/2024 at 1:39 PM, puppyluv1 said:

Thank you for all the helpful responses! We’ve decided to upgrade. 

You will be happy that you did! I speak from experience.