hawkeyetlse

On my last cruise, the solos meeting was at 6pm but the coordinator could only stay like 15-20 minutes because he always had to run off to do his hosting duties in the theater for the first show at 7pm. He suggested that we all arrive a bit earlier to have more time, but this didn't really happen. In hindsight we should have asked the cruise director to change the time officially in the Daily. In my experience 5 or 5:30 works best.

Usually they process the payments at the end of the cruise and the coupons show up in your account a couple of days after the cruise ends. On my last cruise they told me that if I needed them for a new booking during the cruise, they would speed up the process, so if you let them know what you need, they may be able to accommodate you.

If anything the price will probably go up between now and next April, so you might consider purchasing it now to lock in the price. On the other hand, the package gets worse and worse every time they update it, so it might not be worth purchasing by the time your cruise comes around. If you buy it now, they will not guarantee the terms of the package that you are paying for today. You will get whatever watered-down version of Premium Plus they are offering at the time of your sailing.

Also on the topic of Asian food and NCL, look out for “Oriental Night” in the buffet. I mean look out for it, and eat somewhere else that night. 

Congee on the Dawn every morning, but it is not vegetarian. It has chicken and is quite heavily salted with lots of ginger. I liked it, but if you need something plainer, they have oatmeal, cream of wheat, and grits.

The Indian dish was usually chickpeas in the morning, with fried rotis. Lunchtime there was always fried rice, white rice, and several Chinese and Indian dishes, often mislabeled. Typically one meat and one veggie, plus dal. Poppadums and sauces. For some reason the rotis are behind the counter and you have to request them.

Was just on the Dawn and they kept switching from Pommery to something called “Gonet” that I didn’t like much. Maybe this is the exclusive brand that NCL is transitioning to. 

9 hours ago, PalmBeach4 said:

@hawkeyetlse 

Normally we get 1 set of benefits per each person in the 1 room. so can you explain what you mean? How would we get an extra set of benefits (and what benefits would count) with the extra room?

In the list of benefits, some are advertised as “per person” but others are “one per cabin”, even if there are two Platinum members in the cabin. The most valuable one is the dinner vouchers: with two of you in one cabin, you get two vouchers for a dinner for two people (a total of 4 free meals). If you and you spouse split up into two cabins, *each cabin* gets two vouchers for the dinners for two, so you will get 8 free meals in all! (And two bottles of wine!)

You will also get the chocolate strawberries in each cabin, instead of just one plate to share. 

There used to be a Jazz Brunch (for $10 or $15) but I haven't seen it in years. I think the best you can hope for is some kind of themed food event up on the pool deck (like Oktoberfest). Or some specialty restaurants may be open for lunch on sea days (Teppanyaki, American Diner).

There has to be an adult in each room, so you have to split the adults up one per cabin. This is good for you, because it means you will get two sets of Platinum benefits instead of just one!

Everyone gets Latitudes points for completing the cruise, and it's the same number of points no matter how many or how few people you shared your cabin with. It's not normally possible to book yourself into more than one room, so you can't try to double your points that way.

Look in your NCL account on the website, it should say "Expires On" and "Sail by" and it's the same date. Lots of people say that NCL has allowed them to book something a few months beyond the expiration date, but strictly speaking the terms say "book and sail within 4 years from purchase date".

I don't know if the CN voucher(s) would cover anything beyond the cruise fare (+ port fees and gov't taxes). Maybe it would cover the FAS service charges. But first you have to find a cruise (4 days or longer) that costs less than $500 (fare+fees+taxes).

The call center should know better, but it's no problem. After you book, all of your upgrade options will be prominently displayed in your Vacation Summary. You can't miss it. The 300 minutes gives you something like a $150 discount off the regular price for a 1 device unlimited package, or unlimited premium if you need streaming.

It's typically no problem at all before final payment. A CruiseNext coupon can be added to a booking even if the deposit has already been paid. In that case it just adds $250 towards the final balance.

I'm pretty sure I have even added one after payment in full, and NCL has refunded me $250, but I don't remember the exact circumstances.

3 hours ago, thedarklord said:

Not many exclusions. I think flights (so just order a full drink of each, because those are included), 'experiences' like Remy Martin XIII, and some tasting are excluded. Can't think of anything else (but every chance I'm missing a couple of things, but not 'many').

Flights are not totally "excluded" since you do get 40% off the regular price. Same goes for bottles of wine that aren't fully included, and "connoisseur collection" liquor brands: you get 40% off. Not sure if  that applies to the Louis XIII "experience", however…

What is totally excluded, with no discount whatsoever, is room service and minibar. And I think the wine dispensers, which I don't even know why they bother having those.

49 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

I thought we were docking in Trieste both days. 

I'm just going by what the NCL website says for your Pearl itinerary. You may have more up-to-date information in your booking documents. But if it were an overnight stop, they wouldn't indicate an 11 pm departure from port (because there would be no departure).

On 7/12/2023 at 5:57 AM, The Traveling Man said:

Your circumstances are somewhat different than ours, since you simply want to exit the ship at the scheduled port of departure, only a day earlier than planned.

It's not the port of departure. The OP's cruise ends in Trieste. NCL and the other cruise lines like to call every location on the Adriatic coast of Italy "Venice", when in reality the ship is like 2 or 3 hours away from Venice. It looks like the previous day, the ship will be anchored somewhere off the coast and passengers will be able to visit Venice (the actual city of Venice) by tender boat.

So the OP is asking to do the same thing you did: finish the cruise early in an intermediate port. There are all kinds of administrative reasons why they don't want people doing that. Particularly on this itinerary, I think lots of guests are going to have the same idea and ask to leave the ship a day early. But I can easily imagine that they don't want too many people trying to take all their luggage on the tender boats to Venice.

OP, Iike I said, I really doubt you'll be the only one hoping to do this on your sailing. I would join the roll call and other internet groups to compare notes with other passengers (who they have contacted about this, what kinds of answers they're getting). But I would wait until a couple of months before the cruise. I don't think they'll be able to give you any reliable answers this far out.

1 hour ago, kismetique said:

Anyone know when and why this changed from being able to choose just 1 passenger?

Have you tried calling to ask them to add it for just one person? It should be possible. Very likely that the website is just buggy.

They have NA beer and wine but I have no idea about the brands. The UOBP flyer says Heineken 0.0.

The differences are discussed to death in the “No More Veuve, No More Grey Goose” thread.

2 minutes ago, MacGuffin3 said:

Beverage_Packages_01232023.pdf 1.34 MB · 1 download

That list is for sure outdated (from 1/23). Here’s the most recent one I’ve seen (5/23) but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they have already replaced it with something worse.

UOBP_PPBP Update_V7.pdf

Normally you do you have to use the voucher for yourself, but you can try to arrange whatever you want with the restaurant staff. I don't know if their systems are smart enough to throw up a flag if your card is used for a voucher and a dining package at the same restaurant for the same dinner service. If not, then they can easily do what you are describing. It's just a matter of them agreeing to accommodate you, and that is really impossible to predict. So have a back-up plan.

On 6/16/2023 at 9:32 PM, Turtles06 said:

I rather doubt the decision was driven by the cost of costumes, beautiful as they are in SIX, There are only six performers.

There are two additional switch performers who are each able to play 3 of the queens' parts, in case anyone in the core cast needs to drop out. The costumes have to be custom-fitted to each performer, so that means (in theory) that they don't just need 6 costumes, but 12. And they told us they cost something like $10,000 each, plus however much to maintain them throughout the show's run.

They were originally planning to expand Six to at least one other ship, so they will definitely save money by not doing that now. But I agree with you that the costume budget is not the biggest expense (I believe that negotiating the rights to do the show costs way more than actually producing it.)

On my last BTS tour the laundry manager talked at length about all kinds of special treatment that they can potentially provide, including difficult stain removal, hand-washing, and yes, air-drying. He went into quite a lot of detail but never really explained how any of these services can be requested. I guess if you just send one item in the bag with a note (asking them to call you to discuss what you need done and how much $$$ it's going to cost you).

I suppose you could fill a bag and write "NO tumble dry (please call me)" on it and see what happens. It's not that hard to imagine big mesh bag(s) that allow them to pull out your clothes and avoid putting them in the dryer. Whether they will be OK with delivering everything back to you wet, I don't know, or they might say they will air dry it all down in the laundry. Or they might say "sorry we cannot accommodate" and send it all back to you unwashed.

Everyone 18 and over has to get it. 

What sailing is this? If it's an itinerary where passengers are also embarking in Istanbul, that increases your chances. But like Keith said, you'll want to get confirmation in writing from NCL that your husband will be allowed to join the cruise late. The Captain will not be involved in this decision. 😝

If they do agree to let him do this, remember that your husband will need to get a visa to fly into Istanbul. Normally this can be done easily on-line and it currently costs $50 for US passport holders.

It doubles your money (assuming you don't spend all the OBC on a bunch of frivolous stuff the way they encourage you to) but you can only redeem it $250 at a time (sometimes $500).

So depending on your booking habits, purchasing 4 deposits at one time may be too much. You get the exact same deal (double your money) if you just get 2 or 3. You will also get a pitiful/annoyed look from the CruiseNext person, and one last hard sell, but power through it.