boxedmoon

With premium beverage package I believe they will give you cans at no charge.

On the NCL site, many of the "family" cabins are I4, B4, M4, etc. NCL actually has many categories within Inside, Balcony, etc. like cruiser2015 linked, but the site hides what the actual category is (IA, IB, I4,...). Not every ship has the same categories. 3rd party travel agent sites are better about splitting them up and showing the true category better. My understanding is that the "family" category should sleep 4 people and be located near things that might interest families. But other categories can sleep 4 as well.

NCL looks to offer a shuttle based on this daily from August. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2951802-live-from-the-ncl-star-july-23-august-15-2023-will-i-survive-23-days-without-the-beverage-package/page/17/#comment-65838611

Probably because NCL credited the account for the FAS gratuities when upgrading. So they paid the total upgrade cost minus the gratuities. It also sounds like they called the regular phone reps and not an experienced PCC who could have better handled the cabin upgrade.

Yes through upgrade advantage from inside to balcony. When I called about the extra charge they told me it was for the meals. They didn't have a great explanation except that CAS has different terms for some of the original promos.

You don't always get the extra meals. A recent cruise my group was on, I got extra meals when booked with CAS. Someone else booked through a TA did not extra meals.

Did you originally book through the Casino at Sea?

Is every cabin the your group the same price and category? For example, if everyone else was BF and you were MA, they aren't going to give you a credit at the MA category price point.

Not a guarantee of that happening. I thought the same as you, but a recent TA booking had some paid to the TA and some to NCL. I suspect it had to do with the TA selling a discounted fare but charging normal price, and then keeping the difference.

First two.

The NCL site bundles cabin categories together, Balcony can be BF to BA. It can mean that NCL showing guaranteed only means for the BF category. But 3rd party sites and internal NCL can still separate out the categories.

A PCC can arrange it. I helped pre arrange names and cabins, he put it all together. Mine even is OK with real dummy bookings and can have individuals call him to finalize deposits or payments. Being the group coordinator is a bit of work though. I answered lots of questions from new cruisers and setup a private Facebook event to communicate mass updates to everyone. A PCC that answers the phone and calls back same day makes managing a group easy IMO.

Yes, we got all the group offers and credits using a PCC. Any reservations for dinner and shows he didn't do though, he only handled the cabin reservations.

A PCC that has experience with groups is what I have used. He handled all the communications with the groups dept and I got a responsive agent for questions and changes without having to deal with groups directly. The PCC won't arrange events for you though. I have done a 11 cabin group for reference.

Not sure if this has been posted, but onboard the Encore they had the 25k point offer + $25 OBC for being approved. I signed up at the CruiseNext desk. The other nice part is they can get an instant issue card number and use it for our onboard spending.