DCGuy64

I know, isn't it terrible that I expect to get what I paid for? The horror.... 😉

Very astute! Which is why I said at the end that I won't tell whether I do it or not. You'll just have to guess.... 😉

So basically what I'm hearing is this: people who choose to tip bartenders on NCL in addition to the gratuities they paid for the all-inclusive beverage package are to blame when people like me (who DON'T carry around a stack of bills for extra tips) end up having to wait around longer for their drinks. Thanks a lot. In the future, I will be reporting this to management, and on the last night, if serving times haven't improved, I'll be removing the DSC and I'll tell management so in my follow-up survey. It's ridiculous to create a two-tiered system where only the people who bribe bartenders get served. EDIT: this might be an idle threat, or it might not be. But I'm not saying whether or not I will ever do this.

As someone who doesn't, I'm not. Actually, I *do* pay gratuities, I've paid them as part of FAS. I resent being compelled to tip a 2nd time in order to actually get what I've already paid for. Imagine being asked to tip your waiter before you sit down, but to actually get him to bring your food, you have to tip AGAIN. Nope.

I wonder how many people actually ever make good on that. Even on this site, I have seen people say such things, only to announce, with great fanfare a few weeks later, "I'm booked on 3 more cruises with them!" I tend to take such comments very much with a grain of salt.

Good question. I'd ask Steve, the guy from that insurance store. I need to speak with him, anyway.

OMG I didn't say "all," either. 😉 I said "every." 🤣

Not true of our last cruise. OK, so it was MSC in the Yacht Club, but still: it isn't true that every cruise line has problems with serving drinks in a timely manner. 😉 I *do* think they could beef up the staff to speed up the wait times, though. More of the "I'm on vacation, I don't want to think" mentality. 🤣

Thanks for weighing in! To me, $1,000 isn't "a little more" as one poster implied. $1,000 is a LOT more!

The two areas where I can sympathize with @MajSteve are these: 1. Bartender issues 2. Embarkation It's well known to anyone who uses Cruise Critic that NCL doesn't monitor check-in times. In fact, nearly every time someone asks about 'what time should I show up,' most people on here will say 'whenever you feel like it.' Well guess what? That means EVERYBODY SHOWS UP AT THE SAME TIME. IMHO, NCL should start strictly enforcing the check-in times to stop these bottlenecks. The bartender issue is a legitimate gripe, and I really think it comes down to poor staffing. It took a VERY long time to get drinks on our last cruise. The Shakers Martini bar had 2 bartenders for about 50-60 guests, maybe even more than that. They just couldn't keep up.

Great! It's nice you took the time to acknowledge that NCL wasn't at fault.

Exactly. Although, one could argue that if the insurance company can always find a reason to deny, why purchase insurance in the first place?

How much more you pay often depends where you live. I have seen many times on this site people claiming they've saved $1,000s by using NCL's BOGO. I don't know about you, but $1,000 or more isn't "a little more." There's no one right answer to this. Some people like to have control over their reservations, while others are happy to relinquish control in exchange for saving money. Same with travel agents. Some like to do their own bookings, while people like me enjoy letting someone else make the phone calls, etc.

I would argue that substituting one flight for another represents a cancellation. If you were booked on flight ABC123 and were moved to DEF456, your 1st flight was cancelled. That's how I'd look at it, anyway. At a minimum, my reservation was cancelled.

Interesting. I have. Pretty much every travel insurance policy I've bought has a provision for cancelled flights, which the baggage fees were a part of. I believe it would fall under the trip cancellation provision.