MAS details and thoughts

[CruisnHallelujahs]

Anyone know if the specialty dining cover charge includes gratuities or is that added automatically after your meal?

[UKstages]

my understanding is that your meal credits under the MAS program (at $20 each) are inclusive of gratuity.  the cover charge only comes into play if you purchase additional specialty dining while on board. gratuity will be added at the time of purchase.

[Wvshimmy]

4 hours ago, CruisnHallelujahs said:

Anyone know if the specialty dining cover charge includes gratuities or is that added automatically after your meal?

From what I've seen from TAs, the $20 is inclusive. 

Same with the additional purchased separately for $40-$60.

[ziggyuk]

I will be booking my meals tomorrow at 125 days.

I called my PCC to ask if it was the same procedure as before, now all restaurants have a cover charge.

In the past so it was necessary to book the FAS as fixed price first, followed by the Latitudes as A la carte to avoid being charged.

My PCC said there is no change to online booking and that you still book the old A la Carte restaurants last to void being charged.

He said it is not until you board your FAS meals are converted to MAS at which point you get the new terms of 3-1-3. I assume they are still treated as A la carte online when booking, if he is correct.
 

I will find out for sure tomorrow, when I go the make my reservations.

[quillwercruisers]

11 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

I will be booking my meals tomorrow at 125 days.

I called my PCC to ask if it was the same procedure as before, now all restaurants have a cover charge.

In the past so it was necessary to book the FAS as fixed price first, followed by the Latitudes as A la carte to avoid being charged.

My PCC said there is no change to online booking and that you still book the old A la Carte restaurants last to void being charged.

He said it is not until you board your FAS meals are converted to MAS at which point you get the new terms of 3-1-3. I assume they are still treated as A la carte online when booking, if he is correct.
 

I will find out for sure tomorrow, when I go the make my reservations.

look forward to hearing how it goes for you.

[ziggyuk]

4 minutes ago, quillwercruisers said:

look forward to hearing how it goes for you.

Yes, I will report back how it goes this time.

[Wvshimmy]

20 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

I will be booking my meals tomorrow at 125 days.

I called my PCC to ask if it was the same procedure as before, now all restaurants have a cover charge.

In the past so it was necessary to book the FAS as fixed price first, followed by the Latitudes as A la carte to avoid being charged.

My PCC said there is no change to online booking and that you still book the old A la Carte restaurants last to void being charged.

He said it is not until you board your FAS meals are converted to MAS at which point you get the new terms of 3-1-3. I assume they are still treated as A la carte online when booking, if he is correct.
 

I will find out for sure tomorrow, when I go the make my reservations.

Will look for your update as we have our February in a couple weeks. 

 I'd guess they'd need to redo system for Lats dinners. 

[Asawi]

I appreciate that those of you booking your meals report back here!

I have a cruise in March where I won't have any MAS benefits but DO have my Platinum dinners and I would hate to have to first pay and then go through potential hassle to get them refunded.

 

(Not being able to deselect drinks package, MAS is not worth €349 [or even the €249 that FAS was] for me, a non-drinker, full cell coverage in ports, probably max 2, if that, ship excursions of interst and not overly keen on speciality dinners. It's a 10-day cruise with just one seaday and an overnight in Livorno where I will stay in Florence instead. I can get a lot of things to eat and drink ashore for €249-349.)

[Wvshimmy]

11 hours ago, Asawi said:

I appreciate that those of you booking your meals report back here!

I have a cruise in March where I won't have any MAS benefits but DO have my Platinum dinners and I would hate to have to first pay and then go through potential hassle to get them refunded.

 

(Not being able to deselect drinks package, MAS is not worth €349 [or even the €249 that FAS was] for me, a non-drinker, full cell coverage in ports, probably max 2, if that, ship excursions of interst and not overly keen on speciality dinners. It's a 10-day cruise with just one seaday and an overnight in Livorno where I will stay in Florence instead. I can get a lot of things to eat and drink ashore for €249-349.)

Interesting,  saw several non usa/north American bookings information re MAS.

As usual,  very different from ours.

So,  yours is all or nothing?

We can still choose or opt of beverages n dinners.

[Asawi]

Just now, Wvshimmy said:

So,  yours is all or nothing?

We can still choose or opt of beverages n dinners.

Unfortunately yes.

Same as it was with FAS. 

 

[Wvshimmy]

17 minutes ago, Asawi said:

Unfortunately yes.

Same as it was with FAS. 

 

OK 

Do they include the DSCs in yours?

 Such a different booking model. 

[Asawi]

5 minutes ago, Wvshimmy said:

OK 

Do they include the DSCs in yours?

 Such a different booking model. 

No

[Wvshimmy]

12 minutes ago, Asawi said:

No

Thanks 

I know a Scottish cruise friend sometimes books via USA .

She said it was better pricing. 

[ziggyuk]

20 hours ago, quillwercruisers said:

look forward to hearing how it goes for you.

 

20 hours ago, Wvshimmy said:

Will look for your update as we have our February in a couple weeks. 

 I'd guess they'd need to redo system for Lats dinners. 

 

19 hours ago, Asawi said:

I appreciate that those of you booking your meals report back here!

I have a cruise in March where I won't have any MAS benefits but DO have my Platinum dinners and I would hate to have to first pay and then go through potential hassle to get them refunded.

 

(Not being able to deselect drinks package, MAS is not worth €349 [or even the €249 that FAS was] for me, a non-drinker, full cell coverage in ports, probably max 2, if that, ship excursions of interst and not overly keen on speciality dinners. It's a 10-day cruise with just one seaday and an overnight in Livorno where I will stay in Florence instead. I can get a lot of things to eat and drink ashore for €249-349.)

 

 

OK so it is 125 days and my dining is open.
I have 2 FAS dines and 2 Latitudes dines to book.

 

To confirm, my PCC was correct, I was able to book all 4 without charges. All 4 of my reservations were what was previously A la carte restaurants, so the order of booking did not matter, but clearly they are not considered fixed price (cover charge) dining online or they system would have started charging after the first two reservations.

 

I booked:

Oceans Blue x2

Cagney's x1

La Bistro x1

 

These are our favourites but our reasoning was also that these have a $60 cover charge and if we want to do some extra onboard we will pay the $40/$50 cover charges once on the ship. 

 

 

.

Edited 8 hours ago by ziggyuk

[ziggyuk]

 

Further to my last reply, I just got my confirmation through and you can see they are all listed as à la carte despite there now being a fixed price cover charge.
As long as they don't change the à la carte classification in the future, there should be no difficulty booking as long as they are booked in the correct order (ie fixed price like Moderno first).

 

Confirmation:
OCEAN BLUE PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
LE BISTRO PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
CAGNEY'S PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
OCEAN BLUE PARTY OF 2 - à la carte

[clojacks]

Did I read that you CAN NOT deselect the Beverage Package and get the Gratuity for that taken off your bill? I still feel that it is one of the worst drink packages at sea…

[schmoopie17]

48 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

OCEAN BLUE PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
LE BISTRO PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
CAGNEY'S PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
OCEAN BLUE PARTY OF 2 - à la carte

We also just booked our restaurants at 125 days yesterday. Our email confirmation says:

 

Ocean Blue and Cagney's say ala carte.

Le Bistro and La Cucina say "no charge".

 

Maybe it's different in the UK?? And if the last two say "no charge", does that mean that the first two will have charges? (Or in your case, all four of them?)

 

Isn't this fun?

 

[Asawi]

52 minutes ago, clojacks said:

Did I read that you CAN NOT deselect the Beverage Package and get the Gratuity for that taken off your bill? I still feel that it is one of the worst drink packages at sea…

As you're in USA you can take it off. Us that are in EU/UK can't.

[Wvshimmy]

1 hour ago, clojacks said:

Did I read that you CAN NOT deselect the Beverage Package and get the Gratuity for that taken off your bill? I still feel that it is one of the worst drink packages at sea…

North American bookings can still choose. 

[CaptainBazz]

1 hour ago, clojacks said:

I still feel that it is one of the worst drink packages at sea…

Could you elaborate on what would make it the worst...limit, drink selection, other? 

[Wvshimmy]

56 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

We also just booked our restaurants at 125 days yesterday. Our email confirmation says:

 

Ocean Blue and Cagney's say ala carte.

Le Bistro and La Cucina say "no charge".

 

Maybe it's different in the UK?? And if the last two say "no charge", does that mean that the first two will have charges? (Or in your case, all four of them?)

 

Isn't this fun?

 

It's definitely giving me some giggles,  just watching the app change throughout the day(s).

Early yesterday morning for a Nov cruise booked prior to changes and early this AM 

[clojacks]

9 minutes ago, CaptainBazz said:

Could you elaborate on what would make it the worst...limit, drink selection, other? 

The exclusions and the gratuity add-on, at least in terms of the old FAS beverage package as I am not familiar yet with the MAS bev package. NCL is the only line that I know of that adds on a gratuity charge based on what they value the bev package at. Maybe other lines bury the charge, but charging me the equivalent of 4 drinks cost a day when my wife doesn’t drink seems ridiculous to me. 

[Punky Guy]

2 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Further to my last reply, I just got my confirmation through and you can see they are all listed as à la carte despite there now being a fixed price cover charge.
As long as they don't change the à la carte classification in the future, there should be no difficulty booking as long as they are booked in the correct order (ie fixed price like Moderno first).

 

Confirmation:
OCEAN BLUE PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
LE BISTRO PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
CAGNEY'S PARTY OF 2 - à la carte
OCEAN BLUE PARTY OF 2 - à la carte

Apologies i'm still trying to understand NCL as i've not been with them for many years.

 

Why would it matter what order they are booked in? 

 

Also what would happen if they did change the à la carte classification in the future?

[Plato123]

On 10/1/2024 at 1:59 PM, kmetz said:

Exactly how I feel. The rep kept telling me that this is an upgrade but in reality they're removing things. 

There will no longer be an upgrade or "plus" option. I really hope they change this. The bottled water with dinner and champagne were my reasons + WiFi. No more Clicquot with Le Bistro and no more fresh juices... 

 

 

 

We went on our first NCL cruise recently and had FAS+ and were in a Haven Suite.  We enjoyed our cruise and thought it came close to our preferred line, Celebrity, but with no more FAS+ we are not likely to book NCL again.

[jds2001]

1 hour ago, clojacks said:

The exclusions and the gratuity add-on, at least in terms of the old FAS beverage package as I am not familiar yet with the MAS bev package. NCL is the only line that I know of that adds on a gratuity charge based on what they value the bev package at. Maybe other lines bury the charge, but charging me the equivalent of 4 drinks cost a day when my wife doesn’t drink seems ridiculous to me. 

They do not call it a "gratuity" with MAS; there is a single package price, which is dependent on the length of the cruise.