Russiamomm

The email usually comes right around final payment date. A word of warning, though. Not all travel agents participate in the program. It’s my understanding that yours is one of them. (We’re not supposed to mention travel agents on this site.)

Mine appeared today too!

Just one quick clarification. If you have a drink package there is no corkage fee on wine brought onboard. also, on the veterans issue, NCL gives 10% off the base fare for veterans.

OK. I may have spoken a bit out of turn since I don’t have direct experience, but the whole topic of this chain seems to highlight at least one of the possible hassles of not booking directly.

NCL will normally not talk to you if it’s booked through a TA. You have to go through the TA. I’d just rather avoid that game of telephone. It’s the same reason I prefer not to use NCL air. NCL owns the reservation and the airline won’t talk to you.

Completely agree. There is no comparison in the spas in the Escape and other larger ships to the spas on the Gem class ships. Apples and oranges,

I know there’s a lot of debate on the advantages and disadvantages of using a TA, bit for this reason alone I prefer to deal directly with NCL. I hate to lose control of anything. I book through CAS. It’s the best of both worlds. NCL will talk to me directly, but if there’s an issue I have my CAS guy as an advocate.

I agree completely with this. I was on a B2B on the Breakaway in the spring. The TA from NY to Rome and then a 10 night round trip Rome through Italy, Greece and France. On the TA we had the drink package. We had to pay VAT in Spanish ports and waters, but nowhere else. And after we got past a certain point, the casinos opened and there was no more VAT charged on drinks, In Livorno we could only get beer or wine - no VAT. No VAT in France. On the second leg I did it solo and went cheap. I didn’t have a drink package. Huge mistake. In Greece I couldn’t even buy a soda, much less an alcohol drink. Those with the drink package paid no VAT - it was business as usual. I made friends with people with a drink package. 😂. another thing I don’t get is that the casino and duty free shops opened every night. Presumably because we were in international waters. On these recent cruises where VAT is charged for the whole cruise, does the casino stay closed? I’m on the Epic for a TA on December 1. I hope they get this all straightened out by then.

Yeah. That’s what I was getting at in an earlier post. For next week’s cruise, that’s how it showed for me as well. Now I have a possible additional problem. Earlier this week I purchased $1000 of OBC to take advantage of the Amex offer. The system allowed me to book it, but now I have $1100 of “purchased” OBC. Both are showing on my summary, but I’m hoping I don’t run into issues because you’re supposed to be limited to $1000 of purchased (refundable) credit. Both are shown as the same category of purchase. I don’t know how the system differentiates between refundable (the purchased credit) and non-refundable (the SH credit).

I’m sure you’ve already done it, but for my cruise next week it shows as a $100 purchased item, as opposed to showing up as onboard credit in the summary in the upper left hand side of the reservation as all previous cruises and the one I have booked for December. I thought it odd when it came through that way, but assumed it was because I had asked that it only be applied to my account and not split between me and my cabin mate.

I did the same. I’m pretty confident it went through, I just wish we could cash it in before the last day of the cruise. I plan to use the OBC in the casino, but don’t like the idea of paying $30 for the privilege of using my own money! (I know, first world problems. And it’s the same as a couple of hands of Blackjack. But still. 😂)

First, I have to wonder how you will have been on a ship for 345 days in 4 cruises. Those were some really long cruises! I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that was a typo. 😃 Anyway, I have nothing else to add that hasn’t been said. The terms and conditions are clear. I just wanted to note, though, that you are nowhere near final payment if your cruise isn’t until May, watch for double up offers. You can apply a second cert as payment on an existing reservation when the promotion is in place. Sometimes they even have triple up offers. There was one this summer before final payment on my December cruise and I was able to add a third to the booking.

I thought they added a 3% fee if you do that. I know they do on the tables. Is it not the same on the slots?

Thanks. I’m fine with getting it cash. Do you know how soon in the trip you can do this? I’d just as soon take it take out in cash in the beginning of the trip and use it for the casino. Is that doable? (I understand if you pull cash from your account in the casino, they still charge 3%. I’d rather just cash out the OBC.

I’ll bounce it around with the CN Manager. I have no intention of using the NROBC on anything other than the CNs. Maybe the answer is to cash in the refundable credit the last day of the cruise and then buy the CNs. I thought about the Cruise First option, but really prefer the CNs as they have double and triple up offers regularly. I was able to use three for our TA in December.

It’s my understanding that they refund it in cash on the last day. If they do just credit the folio, it’s my NCL card that will be on file with the ship, not the Amex.

Good point. I’ve gotten into a tif with them in the past about the CNs. I wish they would charge $500 for four of them and be done with the OBC nonsense. If I do this, I will confirm with the CN Manager that the non refundable “OBC” is applied to the cost of the certs. I’m obviously fine using the refundable portion to pay the actual $500 cost of the certs. If they can’t confirm it, I’ll just wait until my December trip to buy the CNs.

Looking at previous threads for this offer it seems that people have been successful in adding $1000 of OBC, getting the credit and getting whatever’s left in cash on the last day of the cruise. That’s where I’m leaning. If it takes, great. If not, the credit is refundable. Thoughts?

I’m in the same boat as others, Have two cruises cooked for this year, both paid in full and prepaid gratuities already. My question is, how do they know what are onboard purchases? Don’t the charges all show us as being charged to Norwegian? I was planning to buy 4 CNs next week, which would be a good chunk of the $1000.

Friendly suggestion. Please change your font. While it’s pretty, these old eyes have a hard time reading it. I’m sure I’m not alone. 😃

Welcome! We’ve been pretty much NCL loyalists for several years. Had done a few Carnival cruises years ago when the kids were young and did another Carnival in August. Honestly, I can’t see myself ever going back on a Carnival ship. We’re going home to NCL. I’m going to try to be objective here. Granted, it’s difficult. 😂. The entire vibe is different on NCL. A bit more upscale, but not stuffy. We really missed NCL’s freestyle dining. On Carnival, we found the food to be ok, but not up to NCL standards. We missed the included specialty dining with FAS. For breakfast and lunch, we found the buffet to be really lacking compared to the buffet on NCL. I’m not saying that NCL is 5 star, but it’s definitely a notch up from what we saw on Carnival. While we had the Cheers package on our trip, it really annoyed me that they only let you get one drink at a time. On NCL you can get two. I did like that Carnival’s package included specialty coffee and bottled water, I wish NCL’s package did the same. It never affected us because we don’t drink that much, but Carnival has a limit of 15 alcoholic drinks a day. NCL has no limit. Finally, we just found that we liked the passengers better on NCL. It’s hard to explain, but on NCL we never have a problem finding people to chat with that we have common experiences. Although we met a lot of people on our CCL trip, there weren’t that many we could we really relate to. It was like we were coming from two completely different worlds. Hop on over and test the waters!

It’s real smoke on the drink. Best thing ever. 😂. But there is no smoking (by people) at the bar. Attaching a video from the Joy last year. Video.mov

Oh, man! My favorite thing about the Haven! Loving your pics. We’ll be in a 2BR in the Haven for the TA on December 1. Simply cannot wait! Can you post pics of Posh when you get a minute? And speaking of smoking, can you please let us know of there’s still a smoking area on the upper deck of the Posh? I’ve heard conflicting info on that. Some say yes, others say they eliminated it. Thanks!

Not the OP, but on our December 1 TA booked through CAS, we were able to reprice it twice before final payment. My rep told me they would give is a one time credit after final payment for any additional drops, in the form of a future cruise credit, not OBC. I watched it, and it did drop again by about $400. But the gambler in me said to “let it ride” a little longer, thinking it would continue to drop. It didn’t. I missed the sweet spot and the cabin is now sold out, so no more credits. I’ve never heard of OBC being given for price drops. At most it’s a FCC that will appear in your account after you complete the cruise. Edited to add that this particular cruise was neither a comp or a discount. CAS would have given us a discount on any cabin we wanted except for a Haven cabin. For this trip we really wanted the Haven and booked it outright through CAS.

Right. Just have to keep an eye out. Either way, there shouldn’t be an issue booking it when it opens.