MrMike45

I know there are alot of Upsell threads and questions these days, so I apologize in advance in adding to them.

Quick rundown. We (my wife and I) have never done an upsell before. We are casino guests who get comped rooms and upgrade to either a balcony or mini suite (depending on what we got comped). We have been on a number of cruises, and these rooms are fine for us as it's just the 2 of us cruising and as long as we have a balcony we're good.

My wife's 40th bday is coming up in October, and as a surprise I decided to try to call the upsell dept to see about possibly upgrading for our upcoming cruise on April 1st on the Gem. I've called the past 2 weeks, and both times the woman I spoke to, who was very nice, said that they have no offers available at this time and to try back next week. So my questions are...

#1 - Is this normal? Approx 1 month out, according the website there are a number of both Suite and Haven rooms still available. From reading other threads, it seems like at this time, there should be offers.

#2 - Is her response just to us/being that we booked thru the Casino and got comped already? Does booking thru the Casino hinder our chances of getting an upsell to a Suite or Haven room?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some answers. Mike

Have been lucky enough to never miss a port due to weather (totally jinxing myself for future cruises I'm sure), but have an odd question.

When booking the cruise you pay for port fees & taxes. If a port is aborted...do you get a refund?

Does anyone have any website (other than the normal national weather service) to get updates on this and future storms.

Planning in advance, we are on a cruise leaving on 10/10 and I would be interest to start looking next week to see if anything might develop out there

You can but it's not exactly worded that way.

You can go up to the cashier in the casino and get cash that is charged to your room/on board account. There is a 3% fee to this transaction, and has nothing to do with your OBC. Anyone can do it.

So if you have $100 OBC, and you essentially want to "cash that in at the casino". Just go the cashier and charge $100 to your room/onboard account. It will be charged, the OBC will be credited, net effect would be a wash (except for the 3% ($3) fee) and you cashed your OBC at the casino.

still waiting for someone to produce this form or accurately depict where to see it. I have scanned thru NCL's facebook page and it is not there, nor is it found on google. until this form actually exists, people are debating (quite passionately) fiction

I don't plan on removing the DSC charge. I am an over tipper actually both on cruise and in my normal life. I am however curious as to what the form looks like. I can't seem to find it on the FB page either. Does anyone have a date or something of the post?

Thanks all for the responses. Didn't really think it would happen but who knows. As you can see from my signature, since 2013, it's been the Gem and Bway only for us as those 2 were the only ships in NY. Our first few cruises, the Star and the Jewel were in NY, so didn't know if that could be a possibility

Why not try out the Anthem of the Seas from Cape Liberty, NJ?

We've only cruised with NCL to this point, but have wanted to check out either Carnival or RCCL just to see the differences. So that's another idea

To answer your question, the ship will be repositioned to San Juan during that time. It will return in December. There will be no replacement ship. Perhaps you should try the Breakaway.

We were going to do the Breakaway to Bermuda in May, but might wind up changing that to Oct and do the Gem earlier in the year

During that time, the Gem departs from San Juan for alternating itineraries. Returns from SJ to NY on Dec 19.

 

The itins. from SJ are really great.

My wife was on a flight from JFK to Boston on 9/10/01, day before Sept 11th nd one of the same routes. She hasn't and probably won't ever be on a plane again. So flying home from San Juan is just not doable

My wife and I have pretty much done 2 cruises a year from NY. One in April/May, one in October, the last few years

Oct/Nov the Gem seems to be going into drydock. The cruises all leave from NY but disembark in Puerto Rico. No full circuit loops like norm where the end point is NY.

The Breakaway is running 7 days to Bermuda nonstop from April-Oct 2016.

Is there any chance NCL brings another ship to NY for the months the Gem is out of service? Or during those times, will the only full loops be the Breakaway?

Thank you both. 14 day cruises are a bit too long that time of year for me. Gem is also doing a 10 day one I think. Was hoping for a 7 day one but doesn't seem possible

With the elimination of the cruises to nowhere, we were looking for something mid-January after the holidays to kind of get away.

The breakaway has no sailings in Jan 2016 listed on the website.

Is it going into dry-dock so soon?

You bring up an interesting point

 

I'm thinking that Bermuda port might have done something...increased fees...more stringent docking requirements perhaps....to piss ncl off enough so that they just decided to high tail it out early

 

Heck why deal with issues in Bermuda when you can corral your pax back 2 hours early and get an additional 1 hour and 45 minutes of casino times...i.e. pax losses...out of them?

 

Why give Bermuda the benefit?

 

Otoh if Bermuda reduced fees enough to match what ncl thinks they will make in casino income they time might remain until 5 pm

 

Of course the above is mho but its not a stretch to realize that this port time change is purely $$$$....and of course ...for our convenience. Lol

 

Ncl is just so obvious and blatant in all their moves a child could figure it out.

 

 

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I am not picking on you, but you were the last post so easiest to quote.

This thread started as "Breakaway left people behind in Bermuda". It then was discovered that no, people were late going back to the ship and missed the boat in Bermuda.

Somehow, 18 pages later, bashing mom came and went. Insulting other posters popped in and out. And now, as everything else seems to revert back to, bashing NCL is breaking out.

Here is the cruise itinerary. The ship LEAVES BERMUDA AT 3PM!. You are aware of it well before the first day you are docked in Bermuda.

Who cares why NCL decided that time. Truthfully, it is none of your concern. If you are unhappy and those 2 extra hours make or break the cruise for you...DON'T BOOK IT!

This is about 2 adults missing a pre-designed hard curfew/time to leave that 5000+ other people/crew members made. The end.

I read thru most of this thread and I'm sorry but to me it's pretty simple...

2 ADULTS went to a bar while in Bermuda. They presumably got drunk and were late getting back to the ship. A 3rd ADULT who was with them got off the ship to try to find them before it sailed from port. All 3 ADULTS missed the ship.

Daughters, Moms, etc, who cares. All 3 were of the adult age. Be it correct or incorrect, responsible or not, they missed the ship due to their own choices. None were held hostage or had a medical emergency. 2/3 of the adults missed the ship because they drank too much, 1/3 of the adults missed the ship because she went looking for the other 2.

NCL did nothing, at all, even remotely, wrong.

This is not a parenting debate, and the title of the thread is misleading. But that's it, nothing more to the story

Anyone know the current staff on the Gem? 10/10 sailing

Thanks all.

It would be either Royal or Carnival as we live in NYC so we like the extreme convenience of being 30 mins from port and getting on the ship. No added travel expenses or plans to worry about. Will check out their itineraries and maybe look into their casino clubs to give them a call.

eh worth a shot right lol

Where exactly in Manhattan does the Gem leave from? I saw two possible addresses, one on the West Side, the other at Battery Park? Where's the actual cruise terminal?

Don't know the exact address but I can see the pier terminal from my office building. It's 12th Ave and 50th-51st street

edit poster below has exact address...thought it was a few blocks further downtown but 55th sounds right

I know this is the NCL section of the forums, so maybe not the best place to post this but you good people of CC are "experts" so hoping you could atleast steer me in the right direction.

Me and the wife have been cruising for a few years, all with NCL. And while we are not unhappy with NCL by any means, with all the recent changes we are wondering what else is out there and if the grass is greener on the other side.

As you can see from my signature, we have racked up the points rather quickly. We're actually platinum members on NCL (big whoop right lol), and further more, Gold tier levels in the casino. I do not have an outside TA, and book all my cruises thru Laura at CAS who I have dealt with for out past 5-6 bookings and she is always great with the deals.

My question is...obviously Carnival or Royal Caribbean doesn't care how much money we've given to NCL over the years. But maybe they would be interested in some new customers? While I wouldn't expect the same level of deals and perks we get from NCL, maybe they can give us some type of rate to entice us to try them out? Without a TA, is there anyway to go about asking for this?

Big thanks to all of you for posting and summarizing!

anyone? anything major i need to know about?

I promise this post is not to start an argument or flame war or "ncl sucks cancel now" rally.

Our last cruise was a few months ago on the Breakaway. That was right around when the room service charges went into effect. Wasn't a big deal to us though. Our next cruise is in October in a few months. Truthfully, I haven't been paying attention much to this board and any new changes since the room service roll out.

Can someone briefly just summarize what else has changed since then? Prices change, I know, but we book thru the casino and only book when we are happy with the deal we get. I just mean the changes onboard/in the services.

Appreciate it as skimming thru the boards, the posts dealing with the changes seem to have 100+ posts with alot of opinions, and right now I was just hoping for facts in what has changed before forming an opinion.

Thanks, Mike

Is this show still on the Breakaway, I thought I heard rumers of it changing....

 

Thanks!

As of 3 weeks ago, yes

To provide our guests with more options as a part of their Freestyle Cruising experience, coffee and continental breakfast selections will not attract a convenience charge. Room service orders placed by guests sailing in The Haven will also not incur a charge.

 

This is what someone else said in one of the many threads. And when I mentioned that I nearly got stoned thru my computer for being wrong.

To me, if this is true...I see no reason for the ENDLESS complaining and whining and threats to cancel a cruise.

Coffee/pastries, all the old items = free

You want bacon and eggs in your PJs = 7.95

seems fine to me