KeithJenner

Or it could be the grandfathering a few years back which was certainly not a mistake, it was NCL policy.

The information supplied by ggTaxesGal was basically correct. As they stated the implementation varies, but what you are supposed to get is set out on the NCL website: An SDP meal in a la carte restaurants includes 1 appetizer, 1 soup or salad, 1 main course and 1 dessert (does not apply to cover charge restaurants or Food Republic, Pincho Tapas Bar and Sushi, where a meal includes any 4 menu items). SDP does not include beverages and additional and/or premium menu items will incur charges. In practice, as stated before, and verified by you, these rules are not consistently applied.

The general rule is that the base doubts are doubled/trebled or whatever. So your 7 base points are doubled and then you get an additional 7 points for the Haven totalling 21.

That’s interesting, thanks. I was just going from what others have said on here, as I’ve never bought or sold them myself, but the impression I got was that they weren’t transferable. Thanks for the clarification.

For what it’s worth, I can certainly see how status could come up in discussions at the solo meet ups when people are arranging meals and platinum vouchers can potentially be used. I have no recent personal experience, but I’m certainly not going to embarrass myself on here by trying to claim that I know better than others what has happened to them when I’m not around. The rest of you, carry on, you’re very entertaining.

I was referring to the change in 2017 when the threshold was increased to 80. You are correct that it has now reduced again, which I had forgotten about when I posted yesterday. That will explain why the grandfathering no longer occurs as the threshold is now lower than it was originally.

It shouldn’t be a problem, but this problem has been coming and going in Europe at various ports over the past couple of years. We have never found out what the problems have been, so nobody can say for sure that they won’t happen again. All we can say is that a small proportion of cruises were affected, so you are unfortunate if it does happen. However any issues do tend to be towards the start of the season. We are on the first European sailing on the Viva in April and, whilst I don’t expect problems, I know that it’s possible.

Latitudes status is based on the individual, so who booked the cruise should be irrelevant. What benefits do you think you will miss? I can’t think of any.

Cruise First, which can be bought online are US only, but anyone can buy Cruise Next. However Cruise Next can only be bought from NCL onboard ship (they can be transferred so it is possible to buy them from other people although that market is probably smaller for GBP priced vouchers). If you are planning on booking more cruises I would strongly recommend buying some Cruise Next for the discount if nothing else. Just don’t get tricked into spending the discount onboard. The discount is applied against the cost of the vouchers. I book direct.

Yes, there are differences between booking in Europe and the US (and other countries have their differences too). Your summary is fairly accurate. I believe that there are also differences within Europe as well. For example I’m in the UK and our final payment date is 70 days out. We had some luck with upgrading over the past few years when prices fell, but generally the reductions are smaller now due to the ships being fuller. Other than that post Covid period price reductions have never really been an issue for us as we book early and the prices almost always increase (sometimes very significantly) as the cruise gets nearer. For that reason I’ve never really worried about price reductions. If you book later than that then you may see the reductions that you are talking about, in such situations all you can really do is call NCL and see if they will offer anything. One bit of advice is to book using cruise next vouchers as your exposure is lower if you ever do need to cancel. I know that some Europeans book via the US to allow themselves to cancel or reprice.

No, you won’t get upgraded on 74 points. When you refer to people getting the higher status early I assume you are referring to the grandfathering that happened when the tiers changed on 2017. Before that time you needed 76 points and it was increased to 80 points. Some people who were between 76 and 80 points found that they had been made platinum. I don’t think we ever worked out the exact rules for this. At first we thought it was because people had cruises booked that would take them over 76 points but then more people had it happen without being in that position so we thought that maybe it was anyone who was already a member, or above a certain number of points before the change. Anyway, 74 points wasn’t enough, and I’ve not heard of this happening lately so maybe they have stopped doing this anyway. It all happened automatically. I’m not aware of anyone ever successfully making a request.

The soda package is very limited. It basically just includes fountain soda. However, in my experience, if the adults have the beverage package then it is quite rare to be charged for soft drinks for children anyway. We have always been very upfront about who the drinks were for and on only a few occasions were the drinks for our son not charged against our beverage package.

Whilst Haven vouchers can be used against standard cabins there is no real benefit in doing so. The discount is the same per voucher (in money terms), so you have to put down double the deposit to get the same doscount. The Haven vouchers exist as they represent a full deposit on a Haven room. This can be a significant benefit to anyone booking a suite as those deposits can be high, but the discount is the same.

OK, but there are no fees on the basic package internet anyway, so still no double charging to worry about.

Exactly. The OP seems to be considering trying to do something impossible in order to avoid double paying a tax that isn’t charged.

Depends on the shop. In some shops there is no facility for dealing in cash, the systems wouldn’t be able to reconcile the takings and the person serving you has no authority or incentive to override anything. It certainly can, and does happen, that people are unable to use cash in shops. In smaller owner operated shops you are less likely to have issues, but even then the person has to weigh up the inconvenience of dealing with the cash.

They almost certainly won’t need to clear the ship in Barcelona. It is a requirement that happens in the US more than anywhere else, but also in Barcelona they are used to cruises where the whole ship doesn’t embark/disembark due to cruises with multiple embarkation ports. It would be a very rare ship that ever totally clears in Barcelona.

Thanks for the comments. Looks like we need to be prepared for some possible issues on that sea day, but we will hope that they get the special permission. Good news about the tax though.

If you are spending on shore then please get Euros. That is their currency.

Thanks, Yes I meant to ask about the 1 bar per deck issue as well. I’m hoping that only applied when in port, and not whilst sailing down the river? I’d just trying to set expectations, and if there was tax and restrictions on the bars for the final two days of the cruise then it would be good to know in advance. I would have expected to have seen grumbling on these boards if there were issues, but you never know.

We are on the Joy from New York to Quebec later this year, and I’m trying to work out which ports we will be charged tax on drinks, before I commit to the upgraded drinks package. I assume we will be charged in New York and Boston but what about the Canadian ports? Also when sailing down the St Lawrence? I’d appreciate any input from people who have done the cruise recently.

This is one of these weird things. We have had many aft cabins over the years, on various ships, and not once have I ever seen any soot, or anything else like that, on our balcony. I'm not the most observant, so just asked my wife, who very much is, and she also said that she has never seen any. Others mention it as an issue, so I'm not doubting anyone, but it is not certain that you will see it.

I'm not sure if I was clear, but what I'm saying is that when people talk about aft cabins they mean ones facing aft. There is no benefit that I can think of about being on a side cabin near the aft. You are either facing aft or you may as well be anywhere along the side,

Not for quite a while now.

Aft balconies give you a view out of back of the ship: balconies towards the aft don’t have that. They are totally different. Of you are on the side you are on the side. It doesn’t matter to me whether it is towards the front, mid ship or aft.