MrMike45

Wondering if there is any delay embarking after the last cruise-outbreak of sick passengers. Also wondering if any signs of mass cleaning/sterilization is present.

Will be on the GEM next week, so hoping all the germs are long dead.

If you check the CDC page on such matters (and I did) it has been several years since NCL has had an outbreak of gastroenteritis on one of their ships. I am sure they are super pissed that they will lose their top rating for health and safety... but what can you do. Seems all those affected (Patients Zero) left the ship in San Juan, so the predicted culprit is water on the island. Once people start vomiting publicly onboard (which I saw four times yesterday), it can be hard to contain.

Drinking water? OR like contaminated ocean/beaches? (if you know).

Will be on the same cruise in 2 weeks so very curious

Not 100% sure, but my guess is thats because the date.

On the left hand side, when booking shows, dining reservations and shore excursions, there are dates/days of your cruise.

I believe only day 1 is pre-selected, which is why you only saw 1 date for the Cirque show and nothing for the other show (probably doesn't happen on day 1).

Try clicking some of the other dates of the cruise and see what appears.

When the only posts on a thread about casinos are about winning, the entire thread is misleading.

You don't gamble. You don't like gambling. You don't think it is smart to spend time in a casino. You think it is sad that people only post about their winnings.

And yet, you spend time, on these forums, reading and responding, more than a few times, about a thread devoted to gambling.

Why do you care? Why are you posting? Why are you wasting a minute of your life discussing something you see no point in doing?

What type of room are you booked in? Any renovations to the room itself since you were on it in 2015 (assuming before dry dock)?

Mrmike45, If you put $300 dollars through a slot machine and losing every spin, you will only earn 30 points(1 point per $10 played). Anyway that was not my point. My point was that I should have taken the big win for the day and got the points the next day. Sometimes though you just get on a roll and think that you cannot lose.

Oh yeah...WTH was i thinking lol. $1 a pt...I'd be platinum every cruise lol.

And I get what you're saying. Last time on the gem in October, my wife hit a royal flush on Ultimate Texas Holdem. Think she got something like $4800 after tipping the dealer a few hundred. Few minutes later, I hit a full house on Let it Ride, with 3 of a kind in my hand. No where near what my wife hit, but maybe like $1500?

Anyway,we thought it was going to be "our trip". Low an behold, we wind up giving alot of it back but still coming out ahead. When you feel hot, you press it. Roulette is a prime example of this. You hit a number, you're upping your bets.

My bad on the points idea though. Should have realized that didn't make sense.

Ok, here is a losing story. I just got off the Gem on Saturday. I started off winning from day 1. I increased my bets and was winning and losing big amounts, but at the end of each day I was up at least a little. On day 5, I started off the night losing at $1500 at craps, then I lost $2100 at let it ride. I then went to 3 card poker and on the third hand I hit a straight flush with $100 on play, $100 on pair plus and $25 on the bonus and won $4400 on the hand, I played another 3 hands and hit a straight and walked away winning $5100. I then went to black jack and in a 1/2 of a shoe I won $6500 more. I was now up $7900 for the night. I decided to go to bed. I was walking by the host desk and decided to check on my points(1400) from my breakaway cruise to see if they were transfered over. They were and I now had those 1400 and another 13300 from this cruise that I had already earned. I told myself that I could get the last 300 points that I need to get to the Golden level. Well I got the 300 points in about 5 minutes playing craps and losing about $3000. In another 5 minutes I lost another $9000, I almost threw up. I was now going to bed down $4100 for the night. That loss pretty much ended my gambling for the trip. I ended up winning about $3500 overall and earning just under 15000 points in 5 days.

Not to needle any worse after that terrible end to a great day, but....

you could have thrown $300 in a $5/$10 slot machine, spinned til you spent the original $300 you put in, got the same pts. At worst, down $300..more than likely cash out with some of that money let or even up.

Am debating of upgrading to a front facing penthouse suite on 9th floor. Never had a front facing room, and obviously one of the bigger reasons for upgrading would be the huge balcony.

I've read that you really can't use a front facing balcony while at sea. There are even warning signs posted to not open the door. We're on a 10 day with 6 sea days. If we can't use the balcony for 60% of the cruise, can't lay out there and enjoy the weather, doesn't sound like the upgrade would be a wise idea.

Anyone stay in a room like this (9502 or 9002) with some insight?

From these threads where people have posted long wait times where the phone just rings and rings.

I've called quite a few times, and different times of the day, and never waited more than a minute to speak with an agent.

The wait time is after you give them your reservation number and they go check for deals

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. By all means then, keep starting these types of threads and we'll see what happens.

If these threads are so powerful that NCL would pull the upsell offers because of them...why wouldn't the opposite be true? The posts complaining about NCL's product, fees, etc...why wouldn't those be powerful enough for NCL to say "hmmm, maybe we should change it?"

Can't be true for some posts and not all right?

But I thank you for permission to post questions on a website forum/community board designed for people to ask questions and others to offer advice.

Continuing to post these threads is going to result in the end of our ability to call NCL to get upsells. It's as simple as that. If you would like to be able to get an upsell in the future, don't post about it.

Honestly, you think posting threads on a community forum website is going to make NCL decide to stop offering upsells, which in effect is a way for them to make more money on cruises by offering better rooms for some extra money to people already booked, since they are going unsold anyway and are getting no money for the room.

Really? These "upsell" threads have that much power and pull?

But the 10x as many threads complaining about stuff and fees, those NCL overlook. They just open the upsell threads and "ok, that's it. no more offers!"

Come on now

Thanks all for the advice and comments.

Txagfan - no disrespect intended..but myob. I posted the title of the thread clearly, and even insinuated in the first line of my OP that I know there are a ton of upsell questions. From that point, if you didn't want to read any further...click the back button. Reading thru the half dozen posts, clicking reply, and typing a response was a waste of your time, and mine.

Did they reach out to you or did you call them?

I called them. Have been calling every week for the past month or so. Finally got an offer as opposed to "nothing is available at this time"

Last year we had booked a mini suite on Epic. The upsell dept emailed us 3 times with offers for Haven. Each time they got a little cheaper. We got the last offer the day before sailing.

Ok...so keep fingers crossed the rooms don't sell out and keep trying. Thank you

Yeah yeah, I know..enough already, I $uck! sorry :)

So for our upcoming Gem cruise in about 3 weeks, I finally was able to get an offer from the Upsell dept.

We (me and the wife) currently are in a mid-ship mini suite, booked thru the CAS at approx 1/2 the cost as if you booked it thru the website

Their offers were:

$750 pp to move up to Suite SE or SF category

$1250 pp to move up to Haven H4 category

Both are a bit steep to me and honestly more than I was hoping for, so I told them I will consider and call them back.

In looking at the website it seems like there are 6 suite rooms left and 2 or 3 Haven rooms left. If I wait a few days/week even, and the rooms still aren't sold, is their a chance their offer will drop? Or I can offer a lesser amount that they might take (was hoping for $500 pp). Or is this pretty much a "take it or leave it" offer from them ?

Never did an upsell, so despite a long cruise history, I'm a noob to this.

Thanks in advance.

Yes you can charge as much as your credit card can bear. In the casino if you ask for $1000 or more at one time they will need to call for approval from accounting -- this is a slow process in the middle of the night :o (been there done that). If you ask for $900 they do not need to call.

 

 

Rochelle

Oh that much I know. We usually become very friendly with the pit bosses and cashiers (yes we spend too much time in the casino smh). They have schooled me to never ask for more than $900 in a day lol

Mike, NCL wants you to spend WAY more than 1,000 on board! They want you to have a 20 page bill on disembarkation morning.

I've been close...prior to the Beverage package and on a trip when the Casino decided no matter what we played we were losing lol

It was in reference to pre-purchased OBC, as to not have to bring big sum of cash across the border. Of course you can charge more than $1,000 on board.

oh ok, whew lol

delete - got my answer

But keep in mind they now limit the OBC purchase to $1000 per cabin. If your luck is like mine, you'd be burning through it pretty quick.

They limit how much OBC you can purchase? Or how much you can charge to your room? I'm allowed to charge more than $1000 right, it just gets charged to my CC that I have my onboard account set up with

I hate to disagree with a supervisor at NCL...but I am.

I have been on many cruises, and spend wayyyy too much time in the casino. Unless something has changed since our last cruise, you definitely can take money against your on board account, with a 3% fee.

OBC deducts from your on board account/total balance.

So you should be able to withdraw $485 from the Casino, charged to your account, with the 3% fee, that will make it $500 and it will be a wash

All dependent on when you sail and how many people have booked. I initially booked a Guarantee Balcony on the Breakaway hoping to upsell to a Mini-Suite.

 

Roughly 3 weeks out I had an email waiting (I was checking my email several times a day for the upsell message starting 4 weeks out).

They offered:

 

Haven Family Suite (two bedrooms): $750pp

Haven Spa Balcony: $500pp

Haven Penthouse: $400pp

 

So in total, we ended up booking the Haven Spa for $1300 per person, couldn't pass it up.

How to you get emails, or sign up to receive them, from the upsell dept? I've been on like a dozen NCL cruises and never got one previously. Then again, up until last week, I never even called the upsell dept so obviously I have been missing out.

Well I'm glad to see that booking thru CAS won't restrict me from trying to get an upsell offer. I would love if I could get an offer like Cathy mentioned...that would be crazy.

We're in a mid-ship minisuite...hoping to move to a Suite (or Haven but doubt they would offer that) for $500pp. We'll see.

Thanks again to all who replied, much appreciated

I always upgrade/upsell by calling CAS directly if I booked with them.

I tried calling the Casino and they said they don't do upsells to Suites or Haven, only to Mini Suite level. But maybe I will try them again.

And thanks all for the replies and advice. Will definitely keep trying and hope for the best.

Upsells start to work about two weeks out, and even then not always.

 

I called every day for the two weeks leading up to our Gem cruise and it wasn't until 4pm on the Friday, about an hour before the upsell folks close for the weekend, before we left on Monday that I was able to get a bump from an inside to a balcony for a few hundred bucks.

 

A month out might be a little early, wait two more weeks and dont give up if you dont get anything the first 9 tries, you never know what might happen.

I like the persistence attitude...will definitely keep trying until I hear a no. Still wondering though if (since we're booked thru the Casino) there is even a possibility, but thank you for the advice and responding