KeithJenner

Almost certainly because it is a new ship. It usually happens. Prima reservations isn't open up when required either and it has been the same for other new ships in the past. I'd have been more surprised if they had been available to book online at 120 days.

I actually have no problem at all with NCL marketing it as they do. They are still giving a discount on the vouchers, but encouraging people to spend that money with them. It is surprising that, with all the cost cutting going on, that they haven't yet moved over to not allowing the OBC to be offset against the vouchers. I suspect it will probably happen soon. Offering a discount by way of additional services rather than a price reduction is a good way of giving the discount at a reduced cost. The real problem is that so much stuff is now included or has to be reserved and paid for upfront that spending $250 onboard is a challenge for lots of people. Our bill is usually the cost of the CN and a few dollars in the shop. I would probably still go with CN and buy some junk in the gift shop even if they did insist on it being spent. You aren't actually losing anything (other than the commitment to book with NCL which is not necessarily what we want at the moment).

Do they, or is it just another way of describing the same thing? I have never seen any CN offer that requires OBC to actually be spent on things, so I expect that this was just the same offer described differently.

Once again. Ignore the fact that anyone calls the discount off of the CN vouchers OBC. It is a discount of the cost of the CN voucher. It really is as simple as that. The actual issue that is in PaperSniper4’s example is that you can no longer use non refundable OBC to pay for the part of the CN that is due after taking that discount off. It used to be that people could walk off the ship with CN vouchers without paying anything out at all if they had non refundable OBC, but these days you do need either refundable OBC or cash to pay for that bit. But the discount is still a discount, whatever they call it.

Unless it is a tender port then you should be able to get off the ship at around the time stated and all aboard will be 30 minutes before departure (but check that when you leave the ship). There are, in my experience, rarely delays in these ports. I’m not sure if you have any tender ports (Cannes for example), but it will take longer to get off the ship and you will need to be back earlier (last tender if often 1hr before departure). If you have a tour booked then your guides will have a good idea on timescales and should be able to pick you up from the ship. If you are making your own way then be aware that in some ports (ie Livorno) you have to use port shuttles, which may take extra time.

Yeah, not sure why anyone would advise not taking a $250 discount on your cruise. Do your research in advance and just hand in the completed form. I have no idea whether the CN staff would try to mislead me because I never discuss CN with them.

Not my experience at all. There has always been very good availability when we board (although we usually do board quite early).

You certainly can. Reservations open up at 120 days (125 or 130 days for some cabin types and latitudes levels). You can do it on the app or website.

Yes, this is a common problem. Just book for 4 people. It will be no problem.

Hopefully it will. Have a great cruise whatever.

Dining reservations have nothing to do with payment dates. The app just says the date 120 days out for everyone, regardless of status and cabin. Then 125 or 130 days out they will be available to book.

That was put forward as a possible explanation in Greece last year as well. Always been pure speculation as far as I can tell, and looks particularly dubious when you consider that the port merchants appear to be quite happy with how much they are selling to customers of other lines. 🙂

I mean forget about it being OBC. You get $1,000 for $500. The fact that they originally charge you $1,000 and then deduct the $500 by applying it as OBC is irrelevant. They could just as easy have just charged $500. As I say, forget about it being OBC. It is just a $500 discount.

Does it include coffee in restaurants?

Excellent news. Enjoy the rest of the cruise.

Don't complicate it. The way they sell it does that, but it really is simple. When you but CruiseNext you just get them at a discount. If you buy two CN £250 vouchers then they will cost you $250 in total, so you save $250. That's it. Forget talk of OBC etc. As for using them, the standard is that you can apply one per cabin, but the double up deal (allowing you to apply two per balcony and above) runs so often that I can't remember the last time I couldn't use two. If you are booking an inside or Oceanview the deals come up less often. Last time we booked an Oceanview we could apply two.

Priority seating g really does vary by ship. We very rarely go to shows, but I have seen an area reserved for Sapphire and above on a couple of occasions (half of the front row was on the Spirit for example). As for the restaurants, we have on occasion felt that maybe we got a nicer table than others and that may have been due to latitudes status, but this varies. I've never been to a restaurant when they weren't seating everyone straight away, so can't say whether you get anything in this situation. It is one of those things where I wouldn't expect it to result in anything, and if it does then it is a bonus.

Did you know that Kevin Sheehan was on undercover boss when he was NCL CEO. A few years ago obviously, and I think it’s fair to say that the general opinion of NCL management (based on comments here) has changed quite a bit since then.

Yeah, my cruise last year was far from wrecked from not being able to drink on the first day. It was a fantastic cruise. However, that first day would have been nicer if we had been able to have a beer when some of us from CC met up before sail away (in fact some people didn't bother due to the weather and not being able to have a drink). We would have liked to have had a glass of wine before our meal, rather than just getting our first one as we started eating. The cruise as a whole would have been better if we hadn't had that issue. There is something between "it's no problem at all" and "my cruise was ruined" and you can still be a long way from the latter opinion and still be thinking that your leisure money could be better spent elsewhere. In the current climate NCL need all the customers they can get. As my cruise line of choice, I want them to succeed, and stuff like this doesn't help in any way. That is why I find it so frustrating. As I've said before, frustration is the main thing that I associate with this sort of thing, and was very evident on our embarkation day last year. NCL's response to the issue has just added to that frustration. I fear for the brand if this sort of thing carries on happening. And to be clear to the easily confused, absolutely none of this means that I hate NCL.

It seems very odd for someone to do that though. I can't see what is in it for them. Maybe I'm missing something, but I would also consider that it could just be an IT error. Do NCL store credit card details? I don't think they do in the UK, so it seems a very odd thing for a hacker to do (i.e. try to upgrade your cabin and pay for it for you). As I say, I may be missing something here.

Interesting, howls of outrage about people suggesting that NCL may be lying now turns into enthusiastic “the passengers are lying” posts. No evidence provided. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

That’s interesting. I had been thinking it was a shame that you hadn’t seen the paper as that would explain it. Maybe there was a deal then, although I’d have thought it would have been mentioned here, as that sounds like exceptional value (basically free if you get both the discount and OBC). Not wanting to doubt what you say, but that does sound too good to be true to me. Posts from people who have been confused after a conversation with cruise next reps are not uncommon.

Obviously we can’t comment on the specifics of your conversation onboard, but the deal is basically that you pay half price for your vouchers. So if you buy $1,000 of vouchers they will Cost you $500 (the discounts are different for Haven ones. Sounds like either the rep explained it incorrectly or you misunderstood them.

More likely than anyone lying in this situation is just that the message hasn’t got through to all the staff on the ship.

I’m no expert on this but I’d have thought that it being in Europe could make this harder. I don’t know where the main embarkation port is, but it’s likely to be within the EU, whereas Turkey is outside the EU. That in itself may complicate things (although, as I say I am just speculating).