fshagan

This isn't that surprising. My May Alaska 7 day cruise has a fare of $690 each (exclusive of taxes, which don't count as revenue). 40% of that would be an additional $276 in spending. If I had taken the FAS drink package, it would have added $140, plus another $36 for my FAS specialty meals for an automatic $176 additional spend. That only leaves $100 for me to spend on other things on board. That's not a stretch at all.

All of those still have the DSC or equivalent added on at the end of the cruise, at various prices. If that's what's really bothering you there are cruise lines that do not have any kind of DSC, like Virgin Voyages, Oceania, etc. As to reduced services, RCL has already reduced housekeeping to once per day; I expect most of the others to follow suit. One good thing about the separate charges for the DSC is that it is fully refundable if you have to cancel or miss your cruise. If they were rolled into the fare you would lose it based on the cancellation schedule (or, have to insure that amount if you take out trip insurance). But that's about the only good thing about it.

You're right. You can't bring your own water on board. You can bring an empty drink bottle to be filled at the buffet, bars or in your stateroom. Or buy their packaged water (in cartons instead of plastic bottles).

If you want filtered water without chlorine taste, at the buffet. They require you to dispense the water into a glass, then into your bottle, to avoid you putting the bottle under the dispenser. You can ask a bartender to fill it for you also. The water in these venues is charcoal filtered, whereas the water from your tap in the cabin will have chlorine in it.

If you are in the US, the wait person will "tip-out" a portion of the tip you give them to at least the hostess and the busser. Sometimes the restaurant will have a different system set up, but that's the system in most restaurants.

The recent refurbishment of the Norwegian Spirit was fantastic, and plussed the adult areas with a large H20 area, eliminating the kid's splash zone area. While it's not strictly "adults only" I'm thinking that families will gravitate to the ships with play areas, water slides, etc. Do you see that as a trend, especially for the smaller ships that can't compete race tracks and water slides?

Here's the coverage map for Starlink Maritime. Not sure what corporate customers pay for a ship the size of a cruise ship, but the price for boats is $5,000 equipment and $5,000 a month. I suspect both hardware and monthly fees would be higher for cruise ships. Their website is at https://www.starlink.com/maritime

I agree with you on the total cost of the cruise being all the costs; it doesn't bother me to pay gratuities separately as long as I know what they are up front, and the cruise lines have made that easy with the daily charges. But, they do hide it from you during booking, so it is bad that new cruisers unfamiliar with the custom are surprised by the fees. As far as I know, the tip added for drinks and specialty dining would be called "service charges" here in the US, as you cannot remove them. They are not a discretionary amount given to the bartender or server like when you tip extra in cash (or on land, when you tip a bartender or server in a restaurant). NCL uses the gratuities in part to encourage the team to "work together" for your satisfaction. It reminds of the "group project" you had to do in high school where two or three members do all the work, and the other two or three in the group either pull you down or ride on your coattails. I think it's a lousy management style, but it's what NCL has chosen to maintain service levels. While I don't like it, I will say the service from those in the DSC pool that I interact with has always been fantastic on NCL.

Cruise lines (generally) do not pay any corporate income tax on shipboard revenue, so, while the accounting practices still have to conform to SEC rules (for US-based cruise lines), there is little incentive for the cruise lines to categorize items differently for "tax purposes". Easy Google search for not paying corporate income tax brings this up as the first result: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/most-cruise-lines-don-t-pay-taxes-u-s-just-n1172496

The POA has to pay minimum wage; if they have to abide by Hawaiian law, that's at least $12 an hour, with overtime. That's because it's a US flagged cruise ship. All the other NCL ships fly a foreign flag. For insight into the wages paid to crew on other ships, search YouTube for videos from many former crew members, or you can use the website glassdoor.com to look up the wages for NCL, RCL and Carnival jobs.

Your T/A can check for you. People have said that they sometimes get the difference in price in on board credit, or at least some on board credit. In your case I'm not sure that would apply because it is a different category of cabin you are looking at that is cheaper. Are you sure the inside stateroom isn't going to charge you a single surcharge. All prices, except for the studios, are based on per-person, double occupancy required. So comparing the advertised rate for a studio verses an inside cabin (with the 2 person requirement) isn't an apples to apples price comparison. NCL does, on occasion, have cruises where they waive the single supplement, so have your T/A check.

They have. But I don't think anyone really knows for sure. I just put what NCL says on their website that answers the questions for me.

Here's what NCL says at https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/what-about-gratuities "While you should not feel obligated to offer a gratuity, all of our staff are encouraged to "go the extra mile," so they are permitted to accept cash gratuities for exceptional or outstanding service if you care to offer them." To me, that sounds like they are permitted to accept cash gratuities and keep them - which I view as an essential part of "accepting" the cash. Others will argue that they can accept them, but not keep them. Take your pick.

They don't share in the DSC - see https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/what-about-gratuities: "Unlike most other ships in the cruise industry, there is no required or recommended tipping on our ships for service that is generally rendered to all Guests. While you should not feel obligated to offer a gratuity, all of our staff are encouraged to "go the extra mile," so they are permitted to accept cash gratuities for exceptional or outstanding service if you care to offer them. Also, certain staff positions (e.g., concierge, butler, youth program staff and beverage service) provide service on an individual basis to only some guests and do not benefit from the overall service charge. We encourage those Guests to acknowledge good service from these staff members with appropriate gratuities. Additionally, there is an 20% gratuity and spa service charge added for all spa and salon services, as well as an 20% gratuity and beverage service charge added for all beverage purchases and an 20% gratuity and specialty service charge added to all specialty restaurant dining and entertainment based dining."

English is hard enough that the US 1st District appeals court had to get involved between management and truckers over the lack of an "Oxford comma" - https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/15/health/oxford-comma-maine-court-case-trnd/index.html Management lost, for want of a comma, and had to pay millions in overtime. Luckily, the stakes here is just arguing on an Internet forum, and not the actual pay the employees receive.

I sometimes use a travel agent that gives me Marriott points, and they have a $100 change / cancel fee. So any change for a drop in price has to take that into account. For the OP, your country will have different laws and regulations than what I see in the US. That makes it confusing if you try and book in another country. There may be things normally included in the Irish booking that are not included in the US booking, so take any advice from someone out of your country with a grain of salt.

I've noticed this too. It reminds me of the Revolutionary War, where British soldiers were shocked at how well the Americans lived, and couldn't understand why they were committing treason - their families back in England as loyal subjects were decidedly worse than the Americans. The YT videos I've seen of crew from the Philippines and other places have a completely different tone that doesn't have any of the outrage Jay expressed (I follow Jay on YT because he's a pretty good vlogger, and like him, but I do agree with your assessment.)

The dining and drink packages can be refused, and you avoid the grats on them. We typically take the dining option and pay the grats, which are not very much. But we don't drink very often so we always refuse the drink package. Our next cruise we selected to get the free wifi, shore excursion credit, and meals.

I said: "One per stateroom. But I believe it's "per port", so you take the $50 off NCL excursions in each port. " You said: "It is not per port. Please be sure to actually review the terms and conditions before answering: " Kinda snippy. I then quoted your source: ""The first guest may redeem the promotion of $50 Shore Excursion Credit on more than one shore excursion per port." It is indeed "per port". It's the actual language in your source. Get it? Please be sure to actually review the terms and conditions before criticizing others.

Funny! For bottled water drinkers, the tap in the cabins have chlorinated water. I find the taste objectionable since my tap water at home is not chlorinated. That being said, the filtered water in the buffet, restaurants and bars tastes fine to me. I suspect someone could use a Brita or other activated carbon filter to take the pool water taste out of the cabin water. We always buy the packaged water for our cruises.

I'm not sure how the credit card transactions work in the UK, but here in the US it can take several days to a couple of weeks for a credit to be processed. You can sometimes see that the charge is pending online when you log into the credit card account. If that's not the way it works in the UK, I would contact my credit card company and have them investigate.

I'm Gold and have the coupon, so maybe that's where it starts. I also have a cruise currently booked in May; I'm wondering if they are extending to people who already have a cruise booked too.

Emphasis is mine, but this is the portion you circled (it's very hard to read with the messy highlighter): "The first guest may redeem the promotion of $50 Shore Excursion Credit on more than one shore excursion per port." So you could conceivably take two shore excursions in a port. as long as the times don't overlap, and have the $50 applied to both. But it is also "per port" rather than a single excursion during the entire cruise.

Thanks! I edited my post when I saw yours - we were posting at almost exactly the same time. As a former NCL employee with personal knowledge on this I defer to you!

One per stateroom. But I believe it's "per port", so you take the $50 off NCL excursions in each port.