alwalaska

Thank you for all of your help. I hope you had fun cruising. I just transferred the points this morning and did our double meta upgrade to a balcony. It was super easy after all of the great things I learned here on this thread.

Well, according to https://www.vicports.vic.gov.au/cruise-shipping/Pages/cruise-ship-schedule-1.aspx , Karaboudjan is correct. It looks like the March sailing will be there as well.

I had the same experience as you once in the past as well. My husband and I still laugh at it. I too had heard that the perk is gone, which is sad, but won't change things for me.

Hello all. I am looking to use World Points to upgrade our interior on the Spirit to a balcony. We have only sailed in interiors on the Spirit and the last time was way back in 2016. I have a bunch of questions. Is the depth of the balcony (door to railing) the same on decks 9,10, and 11? Do the 2 person balcony cabins still have a chair/small couch in them? Do you hear more noise through the door of the connecting cabins than you would normally hear through the wall? What types of activities are at Spice H2O and how late do they go? Is it typically loud enough to be heard in the cabins on deck 10 in the aft area? The deck plans make it look like the Splash club is gone, but when I was trying to do a fake booking to see what balcony cabins were available, the deck plan showed the Splash club and no cabins on that side. Are there balcony cabins going all the way aft on both the port and starboard sides? Where is the outside smoking area(s)? Which dining room requires long pants vs shorts? I know things change from one sailing to the next, but which main dining room typically opens at 5 instead of 5:30? Thanks all.

When we cruised earlier this month, the Dawn was still at twice daily, but the Hotel Manager said they were talking to other ships to try and get the process as smooth as possibly and they said the 3rd and 4th beds would be set up on embarkation day and stay set up until the cruise ended. Someone on a different ship reported that they were told they could call guest services each day and someone could come to put the bed up and take it back down, but the standard procedure was for it to stay down all the time.

@grozzy1 Thank you for all of your posts. I'm guessing you are back home and back into "Real life", but I hope you have time to post more about your cruise. The photos and the things that you did and saw are very helpful.

In Cagney's on the Dawn earlier this month, we were told we could pick 2 sides with the dining plan and people next to us were told 1 side with the platinum and above vouchers.

On the Dawn, we were told with the dining package we could have an app and either a soup or salad and 2 sides. The people next to us had a platinum voucher and were told 1 total for app, soup, or salad. Not one app and one soup/salad like your post, giving us on dining plan more than if we had used our voucher. Also, we were told we could have the 2 sides while the people next to us were limited to a single side. Maybe they are rolling out the changes one ship at a time??

Usually, your posts make a lot of sense and helpful, but now you are just sounding like an NCL cheerleader. The problem isn't with NCL moving cruises, like ours to Amber Cove, or changing ports all together, or changing it to a sea day because there was a problem with the Escape a year ago. The problem is, they are still selling these cruises as Taino Bay and waiting to tell people about the change until after final payment. We were notified of our change about 10 days out. We had booked a private tour because of the lack of transparency from NCL since we originally wanted to walk into and around town, which is not possible from Amber Cove. Others were left scrambling. For people who travel for the ships or the bars close to the port, it isn't a problem. For those with enough money to take multiple cruises a year, rather than saving for years to take one cruise, it isn't a problem. But for people who cruise for the itineraries and who make a significant sacrifice to pay for the cruise, these types of changes cause distress. Also, on the "what is an emergency", it isn't defined by what people like, but I'm sorry - the sustainability goals BS is not an emergency. I can't see how anyone can say it is. If the cruise was going to burn too much fuel, they knew that before final payments, no reason to wait until after.

Did you lose all of the sounds or just the one?

Do you know if there is a way to transfer points online or do we both need to be available to talk to someone to do the points transfer?

We had them on the Dawn earlier this month.

More likely, the higher they post the value at, the greater the service charge they can add to the "free" packages that they are giving away.

When was the change implemented? They weren't treated the same for us just last week on the Dawn. We used our SDP at Cagney's and were told told 1 app, 1 soup or salad and 2 sides like I posted above. The people sitting next to us used their platinum voucher and were told they could only have 1 side and one from the appetizer or soup or salad.

I've had both success and failure with this in the past. This time, they didn't even ask about the bottle of wine and we didn't bring it up. I purchased a soda package and my husband was happy with water.

Just got home on Sunday and concur with the others. The other thing we learned (luckily before our first meal), at Cagneys, if you use your dinner plan from free at sea you get the following: One appetizer One salad OR Soup One Entree Two Sides Dessert But, to reward you for your loyalty to NCL you get the following (Said with plenty of sarcasm): A single item from the appetizer, salad, and soup categories One Entree One Side Dessert We used our free at sea dinner at Cagneys and our platinum meals at Moderno and Teppanyaki.

Hi! I'm curious, is there anywhere with the fine print that explains what is and is not included in the options given when joining a group on a cruise versus what is given with free-at-sea promos that seem to be permanently in place now? I'm looking at a 14-day cruise and most likely an interior cabin that I will do a double-meta upgrade using the credit card points I have accumulated. Thanks.

In Tampa, there was nothing special for anyone other than suites. At the first door, they asked if we were concierge customers and when I asked if there was anything for platinum, they laughed and said Latitudes didn't count for this. Then, through the rest of the process, I asked if there was a platinum check-in line and told no. We were then told to fill the chairs in the order that we finished checking in. Other than suites (which went a different direction when getting in the first door) and assisted boarding, everyone was lumped together in one group. Thanks to the OP for asking about the paid option because I was wondering if there was any added benefit there.

Rather than increasing service charges and cruise prices, has NCL considered going back to NOT giving away free alcohol? I feel like those of us who don't drink are subsidizing drinkers. Also, have you considered offering a soda package as a free at sea option instead of the alcohol package?

Is that pay in full now? Are the triple points you are talking about the credit card points? Sorry if I seem dense, I play a lot of credit card games, but I am new to the NCL card.

Thanks. Unfortunately, the cruise I'm looking at was only recently released (I'm looking at 2025) and 2 categories of ocean views are already gone. I saved points to do BtoB 7 day cruises, but 2025 is selling as one 14 day cruise, so maybe I'll go the interior to balcony to get lower price and better options for balconies.

Thanks. The reason I wanted to "test" was because there are no longer the top category of ocean view cabins available, so I'm wondering what level of balcony it will end up assigning me to on the upgrade. Thanks for the info on the cabin change.

I read somewhere in this thread that it took several days and then they received an email confirmation from NCL with the upgrade info, but I haven't experienced that. I'm a total newbie to this. I do have a question for you though ... Were you able to pick a cabin, or does it assign it automatically? Also, if I want to run some tests with different categories, is there a way to back out or cancel the upgrade and not finalize the upgrade? Thanks!

I'm sorry if these questions have been asked and answered. I looked and couldn't find the answers. 1. Do I need one upgrade cert per cabin or per person? 2. Am I assuming correctly that it works on any length cruise? 3. What happens if I cancel? Do I fet the cert back, points back, or nothing? I'm talking about before and penalties kick in, not after. Thanks.

Glad that was your first bad weather. Hopefully it doesn't delay your return. I'm ready to move from experiencing the cruise virtually through you to experiencing on my own in person. 🙂