Charliebox

I had the same problem (being in Canada) when trying to book a cruise over a year in advance. Either they assume the Canadian dollar is going to tank or they are simply screwing Canadians. 

I went on crusie compete and got a few quotes from US agents in USD and the difference was almost 25% even after using the current exchange rate. 

I would suggest aby Canadian to go an agent or simply call NCL and book your cruise that way. Never book on the Canadian site. 

37 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

Grey Goose has a superior marketing team. 😉  There's nothing special about Grey Goose.

A bit off topic, but I did a blind vodka taste test a few years ago with my family members.  There were 5 of us. 

We had Grey Goose, Stolichnaya, Absolute, Prince Igor, and Crystal Head (out of Newfoundland.. by Dan Aykroyd). 

Crystal Skull earned 4 first place votes.  Soli got the other.  

Grey Goose finished anywhere from 3rd to 4th. 

Absolute was at the bottom of everyone's list except for one person. 

The overall order was: 

Crystal Head

Soli

Prince Igor (not joking)

Grey Goose

Absolute. (which isn't surprising.. it's gasoline).  

Grey Goose is truly all about the marketing.  Both Tito's and Kettle One are miles ahead of Grey Goose... and I drink extra dry Martinis.. like so dry that I only rinse the glass with vermouth.   I am much more frustrated that Belvedere is over the limit.  That is the best one of the four.. and I will probably reluctantly just pay the difference for martinis with it.  

As a side note, for the vodka snobs out there, get your hands on Crystal Head.  Hand's down best vodka on the market right now.  

Just now, SeaShark said:

 

Regardless...it is the profit that matters to the shareholders. It is, after all, THEIR company. We can easily watch to see if the stories here are true or are just conjecture.

 

The numbers don't lie.

Margins is profit...... 

Drink sales may go up, but if the profits off the drinks goes down, (ie they make less off each one of them) then they are losing even while selling more volume.  

It will take at least a year for this decision to be felt, financially.  People who have their cruises booked are not going cancel over this, but many will choose not to book again in the future.  Also, those who are cruising this year will likely still splurge and spend the extra on the drinks they want.  It is a vacation after all.  But they will certainly re-evaluate before choosing NCL again.  

4 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

 

It will, of course, be very easy to see if your assessment is accurate or completely off the mark...

 

As NCL is a publicly traded company, they release their financials every quarter. All we have to do is watch those drink sales numbers to see whether sales go up or down. If your assessment is correct, we should see sales plummet.

It would be more their drink margins than sales.  

If you overprice premium, more people are going to turn to lower end booze, which carries a lower margin.  You may sell mroe drinks overall, but your margins will be worse.  Absolut at $7 carries a much lower margin than Grey Goose at $12-13. 

Just to add, they overthought this.  

They probably said, "people will be pissed if we lower the UBP" and then tried to figure out a way around lowering it.  So instead, they raise the prices, and make it blatantly obvious why they are doing it.  

Now people are more pissed because you've lowered their purchasing power with the UBP all the same AND you've treated everyone as if they are idiots, thinking they wouldn't see right through it.  

And as I've said above, you've make your high-end drinks so expensive that no one without the package will buy them.  

Sometimes the simple solutions are the right ones.  

NCL really dropped the ball on this one.  Whoever made this decision should be fired.  If you want to make more money off the drink package, it's simple: 

Instead of raising the drink prices, lower the threshold for drinks.  Make everything $10 and under 'free' and price your drinks in a somewhat normal range.  Make the Tito's/Kettle One $9 (just under) and all bar rail mixes and beers under. 

THEN you can charge $12-13 for a Grey Goose and other premium booze. 

You can still sell your 'premium' booze package.  

As it stands now, who in their right mind (that doesn't have a drink package) is going to pay upwards of $20 for a Grey Goose?  No one.  The only people who are going to do it are those who will pay the up charge. 

It's just terrible marketing strategy.  You're pissing off the people who have the UBP and your making your prices so ridiculous that no one without it will purchase any of the high-end booze.  

People would still be pissed off if they lowered the threshold for UBP, but if the drink prices were lowered accordingly, they would be far less pissed off than they are now.  It makes NCL look like idiots to be charging so much when you could just lower everything and get the same results (and likely sell more to those who don't have the package).  

On 1/12/2019 at 7:46 PM, elemon said:

Hi there, I just booked a cruise for this March.  Haven't sailed NCL in 10 years.  We got the specialty dining with our package.  I went to look at reservation for Ocean Blue and it came up with no options for more then 1 person on any of the days.  So then we just can't eat there at all the whole week unless we go solo?  The Italian had some reservations. I am going to keep looking but this seems crazy to me!

I just wanted to give you a head's up that on Saturday, my cruise was 120 days out.  I was able to start booking my reservations online as well.  We are a party of 6, so I really wanted to go online to book and make sure we could get the days/times we wanted. 

At first, it was saying the max I could book for was 1 person at every restaurant at every time.  I refreshed the page, and kept hitting the click down button and then things changed.  Some of the days opened up to 8 ppl.  Others were still showing 1 person so l just kept refreshing and playing with the click down button and it eventually changed to 8 for all restaurants, dates and times. 

I really think there is a glitch or some issue with the online reservation service.  I would just call.  It takes 5 mins.  I ended up calling anyways because after reserving, I wasn't given any sort of confirmation.  So I called and they emailed me my confirmations.  

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I went ahead and booked three balcony rooms side-by-side (two connecting) yesterday.

Now I just have to wait a year a two months :/

I took a quick look at the May 2019 cruises on Jade. The only 11 day sailing is the May 12 sailing from Rome. I assume this is what you are looking at. I see that NCL is offering third/fourth passenger sails free in cabin. This can save you quite a bit of money if you decide to go with just two cabins.

 

I think you should consider two mini-suites instead of three balcony cabins or trying to squeeze into two balcony cabins. On the Jewel class ships the mini-suites offer two advantages over regular balcony cabins, a larger bathroom with a combination tub/shower and separate commode, and a much larger balcony, double the depth. The cabin itself is just a bit larger than the regular balcony cabin. We have sailed with three adults in a mini-suite a few times and have had no problems but every family is different and this is something you need to judge for yourself.

 

One last suggestion is to book cabins on opposite sides of the ship. If you pick cabins near the same elevator bank it will be easy to go from cabin to cabin. the advantage is that you will always have a view in all directions available to you, plus one balcony will be sunny and one shaded which ever direction the ship is sailing as well as one facing the pier and one opposite.

Yep, that's the cruise we are looking at.

I was thinking we would get rooms side-by-side but I like your suggestion about getting them on either side of the boat. The only thing is, can we fit 6 on a balcony (even in a mini suite)? The advantage of doing it the other way is that you have that extra balcony space for everyone to enjoy.

Thank you all for the quick response!

I was also looking at those mini-suites as they seem to be the happy medium. The only thing that worries me is all the talk about wanting to be on a 'sandwich' floor (rooms above and below you). It looks like the mini-suites are located right under dec 12 where all the action is. Just a little worried about the noise for the light-sleepers among us.

Hello,

This is my first post! I've been reading the forums for awhile now, but I've never had a question worthy of asking.

Anyways, my family (brothers/sisters and father) are planning on an 11 day Mediterranean cruise in May of 2019. No spouses involved. Just family. There are three guys and three gals. The ages are mid thirties and up.

We are looking at standard balcony rooms on deck 10 mid ship. Only two of us have cruised before so I'm not sure how some will handle the motion. Mid ship seems to be the best.

The question I have is simple: Should we get three rooms (2 in each) or two (3 in each)? I've looked at the family balcony rooms and the square footage seems to be exactly the same as the regular balcony rooms - the only difference is they connect. It's a nice touch, but not necessary for us at all.

We are trying to keep costs down, but not at the expense of enjoyment. Has anyone tried to fit three adults in a balcony room before and if so, how did it go?