Mikkar

here is the benefits from the ncl website:

 

https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program/benefits-details

Thank you

I don't see that listed on the Latitudes benefit page. Where can I find the information about extra internet minutes? Thanks

I love the Breakaway and have sailed 8 times on this ship. The last time was the New Years cruise and the ship was full but we didn't have any problems. Yes, the Atrium is small for the size of the ship and I do wish that they would change the shows, but we never waited for a table in the dining rooms, even on New Years Eve. We never had a problem with hot water in the cabin and our room steward, Allan, was the best. Over the course of 8 cruises, some issues have come up but they were relatively minor and were corrected in a reasonable timeframe. We have another cruise booked to Bermuda in April and our son and his family are joining us this time.

We are an hour away from Boston and 3 hrs. from NY and have cruised both ships to Bermuda and we prefer Breakaway to Dawn. The Dawn seemed a lot older and some things such as the tub in our cabin were not in good shape. We love the Breakaway and find that there are a lot more things to do. We just returned from the New Year's cruise on the Breakaway and the ship was full but we never had a problem with long waits or getting a table at a restaurant. We are booked on the Breakaway to Bermuda in April and we're taking our son and his family and I'm so excited to show them the ship and beautiful Bermuda.

When we were on the Epic in Europe, we saw a lot of people boarding with cases of water but I think they were crew members.

I was on the Escape this past week. I brought my own insulated water bottle from home. I didn't plan to pay for a 6pk of Aquafina. Very pricey.

On day 2, my husband bought the bottles. I carried my insulated bottle to the pool and on excursions. Always filled up in the Garden Cafe. Free water. In my opinion, tastes better than Aquafina. Though I did enjoy it late nights after drinking piña coladas all day. It was nice to have it in my room. Our room attendant always had our ice bin filled.

 

 

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Do you remember how much the bottled water was? I purchased in advance on the Epic and then I saw it was for sale at the bar in the buffet but didn't pay much attention because I already had it. On my next cruise we have onboard credit, so I might wait to purchase it.

That's good news! They didn't cross it out on mine.

Mine included Bermuda, but you have to depart from Puerto Rico.

Blue Chip membership will get you free drinks in the casino. We have always had a beverage package though so that perk is pretty useless to us. You also get a priority boarding line on embarkation day and they'll send some treats to your cabin a few times during the cruise.

 

Also something to be careful with. Once you are Blue Chip if your play during a cruise is something the casino likes then the host may come up to you and offer free stuff like dinners in specialty restaurants, free bottles of wine at dinner, free spa treatments, etc. If you take any of those things it will reduce the post-cruise comp you are eligible for. We saw this happen with our 2015 and 2016 cruises. While we played almost the same amount on each cruise our post-cruise comp was over $2000 less from the 2015 cruise versus the 2016 cruise. The reason? On the 2015 cruise we took multiple comp offers from the host during the cruise including several specialty meals and a massage for two in the spa. In 2016 we took no offers from the host.

Good to know, thank you! I never would have known that the goodies that they offer would have an effect on the next cruise.

Thanks for the information. Do you get free drinks in the casino or do you buy a drink package?

Got this offer too. Mine was listed as "High" and was for an ocean view cabin. We are regular Celebrity cruisers already and members of their Blue Chip Club. Reserved this offer anyway since it gives us another shot at a cruise for next year. I'm curious as to the restrictions with it though. If we don't want oceanview are we able to upgrade to a higher category and pay the difference? If not then we'll pass on using this. Also wondering if it's restricted to 7 night cruises only? That would be odd for them to include Europe cruises then as I went online and only saw two 7 night cruises available for Europe for 2017. Hope this doesn't turn out to be a wasted trip to Foxwoods.

Now that you are established members of the Blue Chip Club, do you call them with the date you are interested in and they let you know what you qualify for like the do at CAS or do you have to wait until they send you an offer?

My offer says that it has to be booked by 12/2/16 for sailings from 1/1/17 - 5/31/17.

I also received this e-mail. It should make a big difference in the overall cost of the cruise.

I was intrigued by "Mid" Celebrity Cruise, so I went and checked my online account. Mine is listed as "High" Celebrity Cruise. I got the postcard by mail yesterday, and it doesn't use that term but specifies an Inside cabin to Bahamas, Caribbean, Alaska, Bermuda or Europe. That doesn't sound very high does it? haha. I will be upgrading (hope that's an option!) as I am way too claustrophobic to go Inside.

 

I am sure you will get the mailer soon, and it should have more info. I am very curious what "Mid" refers to.

Thanks to everyone for their response. I received my postcard today and it is also for an inside cabin. I'm a little disappointed in that but hopefully we'll be able to upgrade. When we first started getting offers from Foxwoods for NCL, it was also an inside cabin but now we book directly with CAS and usually get mini suites. We're going to be at Foxwoods on 11/19th anyway for the Brian Setzer show, so our plan is to pick up the certificate and give them a call to get some pricing and compare it to NCL.

I have received cruise offers from Foxwoods in the past and they have always been with Norwegian but I have an offer this month for Celebrity Cruise Lines. This would be our first time sailing with Celebrity and I would be interested to hear from others who have received casino offers for this cruise line. Are the casinos on their ship large? Do they offer a drink card like NCL does? How are the cabins on their ships (size and updated)? During the booking process, are you able to also receive the current specials and promos like they do on NCL?

My experience on the Epic this summer was the same as yours.... I earned just short of 15000 points on that cruise, and was never once approached by anyone, even though I was in a comped suite. No one checked on me, sent me anything, asked if I needed anything. It was a stark contrast to how I have been treated on every other NCL ship, and like night and day from the Breakaway, which I've cruised on 4 times, where the hosts and manager are on the floor, constantly checking on you, asking if you need anything.

 

I am usually VIP or Golden, but based on the timing of my last cruise, when I boarded the Epic late this spring I had dropped down to Hot because of the timing issues. The timing was that I took a 14 day cruise in January 2015, and then April 2016 was my next NCL cruise. So, I lost my status. But I knew I was gambling enough that it would likely get back to golden. But there was a problem on the last two nights with the reader screens, where point totals would not come up -- they said there was a software problem and they were working on it.

 

When I went to speak to the casino manager on the Epic, on 2 different occasions about the status of the reader screens and my point total (they could see it, we just couldn't), he continued working on his computer until he was ready to speak to me, leaving me standing there without even an acknowledgement, although he clearly saw me. And, when I approached him on the final night and requested that they comp off $240 or so dollars in 3% convenience fees, he first said no and told me I was just short of golden status, (14428 points) and they only did that for golden and above. I basically threw a hissy fit, and there were people behind me and all around. They couldn't have told me I was that close?????? NOOOOOO. In any event, I was bitchy enough I guess that he eventually comped off both the 3% fees and a few hundred more in spa services. But he clearly was not going to do it until I pressed the issue in a not so pleasant manner.

 

Again, the contrast to how I was treated on the Breakaway, Jewel, Gen and Pearl was like night and day compared to this experience....

 

 

Terry

This was my experience also on the Epic last week. Never even saw the casino manager although there was a man in a suit that avoided eye contact and was always rushing here and there but never slowed down long enough to look at his name tag and the 2 hosts were terrible. I don't want to mention their names, but the man could never check anything on his computer and had to have the woman check everything and she had such a bad attitude every time you asked a question. It was so obvious that she just wanted you to go away.

Cagney's has a special vegetarian menu but you have to ask for it and sometimes the people that work there don't even know about it. In that case, ask for a manager and they will know where to find it.

We do love our CAS cruises, and I don't mind the Admin fee, but I have been watching it rise over the years. I've seen it go from 120 pp to 140 to 160 etc all for 7 day cruises.

 

The last one we booked in March of this year was $200 pp Admin. My son just booked a 7 day out of NOLA and it was $250 per person. Are you seeing it at $250 per person for other cruises too?

The administration fee for our upcoming 8 day West Mediterranean cruise was also $250 for an inside cabin but it also includes airfare, hotel, and all transfers, so it may have been higher because it includes those things.

We are currently booked in an inside cabin through CAS and when I asked about upgrading to a balcony, the extra charge was $500 pp. I would jump at the chance to upgrade for $300.

We're booked in a guaranteed inside cabin for a European cruise in October and a couple of weeks ago the inside cabin category was sold out and I was really hopeful that we might get upgraded because of this, but then the category opened up again and now there is availability. Hopefully, this will happen for your cruise also.

I also received an offer today from Twin River for a free cruise to be picked up on 8/27, but I probably won't pick up the certificate because I already get good offers from CAS. I started sailing with NCL a few years ago on a certificate that I received from Foxwoods and now I call CAS directly with the date and ship that I would like to sail and I usually get a balcony or mini suite but the certificate is usually for an inside cabin.

We have the opposite situation. We are 77 days out and have been assigned a guaranteed inside cabin but are hoping that it will be changed to a balcony cabin. We'll be happy either way but we're hoping that because the inside category is sold out on our cruise, we may get bumped up.

You can call and ask what offers you have available to you. I received the Europe offer and when I called to book it, the agent went over my offers and told me when they were expiring. Also, they list the upcoming tournaments on the website and you can call to see if you're eligible for any of them.

I have thought about switching to another cruise line but I would have to pay for the first cruise and the cost can really add up when you factor in airfare and hotel. I've been Golden for the past couple of years on NCL and I usually get decent offers from CAS for balcony or mini suites and some with slot tournaments or other incentives. My last offer is for a European cruise that includes airfare, hotel and transfers. It's only an inside cabin but I was pleasantly surprised that I got the offer at all. We're thinking about upgrading to a balcony but that would cost more than the cruise itself. We also got the UBP and free internet. All in it cost us $483.00 pp. including the gratuities for the beverage plan. This offer was too good to pass up, so I'll be sticking with NCL as long as they keep sending offers like this one.

Still waiting for my callback from the access desk supervisor..but to clarify:

The other drink is Gatorade due to it's electrolyte content. Can not be powerade. They told me they have Gatorade--hope so.

 

So yes, they have both drinks on board. They however, did not ask what the other drink was initially denying me to get a medical waiver.

 

My point is that my cruise just INCREASED $200-300 because of a dietary issue. I read CC all the time for great cruise tips. We cruise every year. Most people look for ways to save or get upgrades or price drops. Mine just went up for a MEDICAL ISSUE that I thought we could take care of ourselves & bring what we need with us.

I'm not trying to add fuel to the fire, but on our last cruise, my husband purchased Gatorade from the vending machine in the gym on the second day of our cruise. For the rest of the week the machine was empty. He reported it to the attendant in the gym and at Guest Services multiple times but it was never refilled. He finally gave up.

I hope that Norwegian is prepared for the additional sales of water and other drinks that they have forbidden their guests to bring on the ship. These are a necessity for a lot of people who can't drink tap water due to the high sodium level. I would think that they will be responsible for any medical issues that occur as a result of not providing a product that they said would be readily available.