matterdog919

Reasonably happy with my air  reservations for a cruise next week. After reading tons of forums; and seeing what everyone in my role call received (from all over the US and Europe headed into Barcelona). Seems like most folks have a 1 connection flights; and most are coming from locations where direct would have been impossible.

Obviously can't blame NCL if United loses my bags. You do get a $25 credit if you take a 1 or 2-day deviation on the front/back of your cruise. We took the $25 and got a hotel ourselves for the day before the cruise. If for some reason our luggage does go MIA United will have 24 hours to get it on the next flight... or I'll be calling my travel insurance and buying some new clothes in Spain 🙂

All in all - I agree with most folks here. Your airfare likely won't be super wildly inconvenient and for $200 return sounds like a stunning deal... I would take it. 

We have ~$800 of OBC on our upcoming cruise - and no idea how to spend it all on a 7 day cruise with no sea-days. We have however, pre-booked and paid for some excursions on a CC. Curious if anyone has gone to Guest services and cancelled the excursion while on board - and then immediately had them re-book it using OBC? I assume the pricing is the same? are you allowed to do this?

3 hours ago, kylenyc said:

The OBC appears on your ncl.com vacation summary. If it's not there, forward the email you got with the case number right away and ask for it again. Include your brokerage statement with account number and anything else you feel needs to be redacted except your name and the NCLH shares. Their requested lead time is 15 days. My experience has been they respond in a hours to a few days.

Ohh wow, noted if you are seeing it within a few days to few hours I'm certainly on the opposite end of the spectrum. I guess I'll send it 1 or 2 additional rounds before the cruise and if that fails do the guest services approach mentioned above. Seems like NCL just making more work for themselves lol.

How did you actually get the credit? I emailed them the forms 4 weeks ago and 1 week ago as a follow up for a cruise now 25 days out. I have yet to get any replies other than the auto-responder and no credit on my account in the system. Given 100 shares has lost $1,000 in value in the last 2 months really wanting that $100 back 🙂

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

If it is the same as when we did the Epic (2012), you could book Rome on Your Own. (We did Florence on Your Own, and for Rome just took the public transportation there.)

 

The one thing that still pisses me off about excursions on that cruise is we were really looking forward (and booked and paid in advance) to going to Arles from Marseilles and it was cancelled because there were not enough signed up.

This is what I would recommend if you are looking to save some cash and focus on what you want. There is a high-speed train from Civi to Rome that runs many times a day; as well as the standard train that seems to run hourly. Drops you off ~15 minute walk from Colosseum. You can subway to Vaticam - or uber - or walk - or use a HOHO all day for $25

6 minutes ago, MochaChip23 said:

We are 31 days out from July 10 cruise and still no word on flights.  We requested 2 day deviation on front end.  How do you even see placeholder flights that some of you mentioned?

On 6/6/2022 at 11:59 PM, MochaChip23 said:

We are 34 days out from July 10 Rome departure and have not received our flights.  

 Sorta Interesting - We are also on July 10th from Barcelona on Epic. We have had our flights for the better part of a week and a half now.

15 hours ago, hitch-04 said:

 Priscilla was not offered on the 22-29 May Barcelona sailing. Burn the Floor was the only real production in the main theater. There was also an aerialist show in the Spiegel theatre that wasn't super well advertised but was very well done - I'd keep an eye out for that one and make sure you reserve seats.

I heard it also wasn't available on the cruise after you. Which is odd considering it was back in production for a time being. I am on the boat in July and really hope it is back. Although, with the itinerary so packed - maybe I really should just be asleep

On 6/6/2022 at 4:36 PM, bruce85 said:

Entertainment. No Priscilla. Burn the floor was on. One night we wanted to go was full, reservations highly recommended.

 

          Excursions well organized. We had one every day. On the Monte Carlo stop, the bus pick-up area was a mess in the city. Local police were not letting the buses out of their parking areas because of traffic. We waited close to an hour for our bus, leaving us very late back to ship. Of course, ship waited but I now see the danger of booking outside excursions. None of this of course was NCLs fault. If you have questions on excursions, we did a bus/walking tour in Corsica, hop on hop off in Rome. Pompei on your own, Florence and Pisa, Monaco and Monte Carlo, Beach break in Majorca.

       

Curious if they commented on why Priscilla was a no go? I know it was out for a while but recent sailors seemed to say it was back on?

With the shows being totally booked, should I take that to mean the boat feels like it's getting fuller? For our cruise in July I see a ton of sold out room types.

We picked almost the exactly same excursions. Glad you enjoyed them. For the Pompeii on your own. Did you pre-buy tickets online? Or was it easy enough to do it yourself on arrival? Cannes we booked via NCL for the exact reason you mentioned. Tender ports I'm always more inclined to go with the cruise line.

Thanks for the tips! On a plane in 30 days. So excited. 

We experienced the exact opposite.  Got the email and booking details ~7 days before it actually showed up on NCL.Com

Got ours about 40 days prior to sail date 

I'd be curious to hear how full your boat is - for our sailing in July. NCL has a large number of room categories marked as sold out and continues to raise pricing on all the ones still available. I'm super curious if I should read into that to mean the boat is full --- or should I assume NCL is just restricting booking qty's due to all of the labor issues. 

Enjoy your trip! just over 40 days to go for us!

1 hour ago, iloveglee said:

Ah that's good to know.  You read such conflicting reports in various places (not here usually), you never know what to believe.  I have booked our speciality dining, and indeed that did come with nothing to pay, I have the confirmation to prove it. 

You are probably seeing US Based pricing FAQ. I think the UK has different rules on how items can be considered "Free". For some reason in the US they can still Charge $40 for the Free Specialty Dining, since it is technically a gratuity service upcharge.

You are also correct on the $50/40 Pound credit ... if you check your profile you should see it tied only to the first guest in the room. So picking any excursion <$50/40 does leave some of that credit unused. However, it generally still makes for an overall deal when you are essentially getting a Buy One Get One deal.

21 hours ago, Nola26 said:

Seat selection is between you and the airline, not NCL. If the airline allows you to upgrade to Business Class you can do that. We booked in Premium Economy on United due to my status with the airline at that time, no fee just selected the seats we wanted. 

Same here. Booked with United one way, and British Airways the other. Sorta frustrating because the return flight has some flights on AA and some on BA. So ultimately we had to go into United, BA, and AA websites but we were free to confirm seats on all legs. I believe we had the option to upgrade to business on some of the websites. For all intents and purposes it looks just like you booked the flight on Kayak.com or any other TA.

The only thing BA showed as restricted was "Changing the Flight" - which we hoped we could pull off since some folks in our party don't live in the same city. was hoping to do a "no change fee" jiggery. However it was blocked per the website at the request of our Travel agent. Which I guess makes sense.

46 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

I certainly wont participate if they move to a auction style bidding system.

Agreed! I find most of the "recommended" bids are more costly than it would have been to just buy in to begin with. Having to compete leads me to  believe almost everyone would be benefited to just call in and upgrade outright. 

First off, I may see you on Board! Will be on Epic 7/10 - 7/17.

A 1 day deviation should get you into Europe a full 24 hours prior to your boat boarding (give or take); and a 2 day one additional day beyond that.

As an example, we have a 1 day deviation. We fly out 7/8 (arriving 7/9 mid-morning). We will get to the boat not until 5:00 PM on 7/10. So our 1 day deviation is giving us ~36 hours in Barcelona.

Hope this helps.

On 5/5/2022 at 4:07 PM, jls pebbles said:

Enjoy the read

Thanks for posting! I'm curious - I feel like a lot of the special dance parties used to be at Spice H20. Now it looks like they are all in Bliss? Did they do anything up in Spice other than adults only time?

Hello @Zeikah,

The $299 AUD you paid for service charges seems spot on. Assuming you did that in the NCL portal after booking.

In the US, the Service charges for the unlimited bar are charged as a fee on your original booking. If you go back and look at your original invoice you should see a line for it there. There is also usually ~$50AUD service charge for the Specialty Dining.

The $299 you already paid covers Gratuity for servers in the main dining room, unless you feel like tipping additional cash.

The contracts say they can book it up-to 75 or 90 days in advance. After which you would not be able to cancel or remove airfare without penalty.

However, I've heard in practice they book much closer to 45 days and after some of the chaos recently without cancelled cruises it has actually been closer to 30 due to a backlog with the airfare team at NCL. Based on that timeline - I would expect that you would receive airfare bookings in the next 10-14 days.

Enjoy Alaska!

I've heard that 30 day thing a couple times. I sure hope they get some special pricing on flights. I check from time to time the cost of airfare to see if I want to drop the cruise air and book my own. The cost for flights to Europe only seems to be going up and we are still 70 days out. I can only imagine closer to 30 the going rate would be sky high.

9 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

The 2 bedroom Haven rooms tend to not sell out, so they'll be available at steeper discounts. We went from an MA to one of those on the Epic and it was mind blowing the difference. That was after final payment date, and we had flights through NCL, and ended up paying about $100/person/day for the upgrade. Still had our drink package and specialty

Super Thorough and Helpful,  Thank You! Haven right now is still like $2k/person more on the web vs Bidding at like $600. I'll definitely try calling though, never know what you might get 🙂

Thanks All, I did do the airfare (and NCL is currently quoting airfare for ~$400 more than when I originally booked). So sounds like it's all out of the question and I need to stick with normal upgrade bidding.

... that being said ...

I think you all convinced me I may actually be in a better situation currently anyway. With the large balcony, and my desired midship location. Although some stale cookies sound awesome, my waist is probably for the better if I have to hike up the stairs for some snacks. I'll keep my eye on the bid prices for Haven, but I'm probably staying put (for some reason the cheapest Haven to bid into is the 2 bedroom. Even though it's the most expensive to buy 🙃 can't keep up with that logic)

1 hour ago, SeaShark said:

One...this can only be done prior to your final payment date.

Two...the way they do this is to (at the same time) cancel your existing reservation and rebook a new reservation. You will lose any perks that came with the original booking and you will have to accept the perks available at the time of re-booking.

Interesting - I've always heard if you are "paying them more money" they are usually willing to upgrade you. Even if after final payment date. Normally I feel like folks due this when the price drops after their final payment date and they "upgrade" to a better cabin at current rates to prevent just a total loss on the price drop.

45 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

You will need to call NCL directly and ask about possibly upgrading your current booking.

They will be able to answer your questions and tell you what options are currently available for your cruise. 

Hopefully, you do realize that a CLUB BALCONY SUITE, is a just slightly large balcony room with a bigger bathroom, but very little else (meaning it does NOT receive any "Suite Perks)!

Agreed! I know it's not much different. On the epic it looks like the rooms are a chunk large and just looks a lot cleaner (has a lot more storage compartments, etc.) ... but, yes fully aware other than I think they said "Snacks Delivered to your room" at some point in the cruise. I am not expecting anything. However, for Mediterranean cruises this summer - Haven's seems to be holding their prices (and even selling out). I guess the days of extremely discounts Haven may be over. 

Hello All,

I am booked in a "Large Balcony Stateroom" - Attached a photo of  the option I chose when booking. Right now the minimum bid to upgrade to a Club Balcony is $75, which I would be fine with but I just know I'll end up in one of the rooms literally right by the elevators and would have to listen to them dinging all night. I keep  tracking every day the price to just "buy into" one of these rooms as it bounces up and down. I'm curious if anyone knows how NCL choses which rate you are buying into. I.E. right  now the sail-away is $1,299 ($50 more than I paid) and the Free-At-See version is $1,442. My guess is I would have to move into the $1,442 price. Is that the right way to think about it? Do I lose the ability to do that if the promotions have changed? I.E. Do I need to pull the trigger before the air-fare option drops off here in a couple weeks - or will they let me buy into the better cabin up until I check in irrelevant of which "Free At See" options are still being offered?

Thank you for the help!

(Accidentally posted twice)

Have Fun Barcelona Embarkers tomorrow!

Hope your boarding process is smooth. Doing the same sailing in 83 days, literally can't wait. Excited to see how it goes for you.

When you use their airfare, they don't actually book your tickets until 45 or so days out. We have a cruise in July, still no idea what flights they will pick.

I don't believe they have the right to say "gotcha" and not get you any tickets. Although you have until 75 days before (or once it's ticketed) to decide to remove the airfare option if you happen to find a great flight deal on your own I do believe. 

With delays/etc. They seem to try and give some buffer so they can move you to alternate flights as needed and have a flight emergency line to figure stuff out on the fly. My understanding is they will try to connect you to the sailing somehow even if a day late.

What we did (super easy to add) is requested a 1 day deviation. So they are flying us in 1 day early. We got our own hotel for that one night. NCL actually gives you $25 for flying in that day early. We get extra time in Barcelona, breathing room, and a $25 thank you. Was easily worth  the hotel cost.