graphicguy

Just looked, Prima sailing 9 days in Europe for Oct, even for an inside cabin with FAS is $2,400. Use my 20% off, that’s still $2,000, approx. BAlcony, which I would book at a minimum, is $3,600 with FAS…..less my 20%, is still ~$3,000. Galveston to the Caribbean is a little better, but not by much. Again, I’m in a Haven Spa Suite on the Epic for October, 11 days Europe. I’m at ~$4,000 all in after applying my coupon. Plus, I’ve got some OBC from my booking agent. To me, that’s a good deal!!!!! Get 2 Speciality dinners for my Latitudes status. Get some free laundry. Get all the FAS (drinks and another 2 Specialty Dinners), some excursion credits and some internet (which I’ll upgrade given I usually post at CC live, when I can). Personally, I don’t consider those fares on Prima to be any sort of deal. Cursory glance at VIVA, and the fares are even higher. Again, until the demand for either the Prima and/or Viva starts to tail off (2024?), I’ll sit on the sidelines for those ships to wait and see where the fares are next year.

Didn’t make a thread about it. I’ve mentioned it a few times. Not much to it. In a nutshell, I booked one of the new MSC ships in an Aurea cabin. Booked it. Paid for it. I even had a cabin assigned. A day later, I get an email stating my fare was wrong and they wanted ~$700 more. I’ve cruised enough that I just don’t argue with any of the cruise lines. I state my case, if they dig in their heels, I don’t bother wasting any time. My time is worth more than to go 10 rounds with ANY cruise line over issues that were clearly their fault. USed my AMEX to book it. Sent them all the info. They took care of the rest and I got my money brick.

Just starting to look at Viva. Thanks for the heads up. Booked the EPIC for October. Not thinking I’ll cruise again this year aside from that one. Looking at some sailings for next year, though. I have a couple more certs left.

Prima’s fares, even for close sailings this month and next seem high. I have scored deals on close sailings. Prima doesn’t seem to be dropping, though. I’ve been keeping an eye on them as I want to sail the Prima. Can’t find a decent fare. I can find some nice fares on their old ships, but that’s typical of all cruise lines. And, the Epic fares in Europe are very attractive, as are the Alaska cruises!

Not seeing those fares for Prima for this or next month on our site in the U.S. Using Looking at the U.S. site, those fares are about right. For 2 passengers (or a solo), a balcony on the Prima for this month or next is running $5K with FAS. That’s high. They must be filling them for those fares to be that high. I just booked the Epic in the Haven on an 11 day France, Italy, Spain cruise for about $4K (with coupon) all in. Any fare for 7 days (or more) above $5K is my cut off. No matter what the cruise line. I’ve talked to quite a few who didn’t get the Europe and Alaska Coupons. So, they are NOT universally being doled out. Prima’s cruises out of Galveston, TX are looking a bit better. But, after my Epic cruise, I’m probably done cruising for 2023.

From what I understand, the coupons were targeted. Not sure who they were targeted to, or why. I used my one Alaska coupon this year. They gave me another one, for some reason. And, the one for Europe Cruises had been there for a few months, until l just used to it book Europe for an 11 day cruise in Oct for a Haven Spa Suite on the Epic. That made that cabin cheaper than a standard cabin on similar itineraries on other cruise lines. I have no issue with some going to MSC. Mentioned in another thread…they tried to raise my fare for a cruise AFTER I had already booked with them. Not looking to book them any time again. Although, their YC INSIDE cabin fares were attractive. Not as good as my Haven fare in the Spa Suite, but not bad. I just can’t do inside cabins any more.

Saw the same thing. They must be filing the Prima given the fares are not dropping. I did look at a sailing on her using a 20% coupon NCL attached to my Latitudes account for a Prima Europe cruise. Made it better. But, still not the “screaming deals” I was able to get on the other NCL ships. I still have one 20%-50% off Latitudes coupon for Alaska, which make them a screaming deal. But, just got back from there a few months ago. And, they were on the older ships, and the Breakaway plus ships.

Agree with much of what has been said. Personally, I like Epic. It’s been 10+ years since I sailed her. And, it was my re-introduction to NCL given I had first sailed with them on the Norway, which was an old ship at the time. Have also sailed Royal (but not Princess). Lots of NCL’s current identity was first instituted on the EPIC. Externally, some don’t like the way it looks. Personally, none of that has any affect on me. Some mention the bathroom…..what they’re talking about is the fact that it’s very compartmentalized. There’s the toilet area as one compartment (with frosted doors that allows you too see shapes but nothing else from the outside). Same with the shower. There’s a sink separate from all of that, too. Personally, we liked it. I could be showering, while the GF (at the time) could be using the toilet, and we didn’t disturb each other as a result. I mean, if you don’t mind shaving/brushing your teeth, etc while the wife/GF/BF/husband/SO are showering in the same room, then it’s a non-issue. If you’re not related in any way, you will just have to plan your bathroom usage a little. Again, not a thing for me. As my then GF stated, “we do things in this cabin that I would never want my mother to know about, in various states of undress…the bathroom is fine.” Entertainment is where NCL shines above the other cruise lines. I know they have the CAvern Club, which features a really good Beatles act, among others. The main theater has literally Broadway shows, and they used to have the “Spiegle” venue which had Cirque de Soleil type shows combined with a dinner. We thoroughly enjoyed each show we saw immensely. The other big point is the “freestyle” aspect of an NCL cruise. You don’t have to don tuxes, suits, gowns, ties, heels, etc….for any meal….anywhere. There may be one or two restaurants that require long pants and close toed shoes, but the rest is casual. So, no need to do extra packing for any of that. Plus, you can view which restaurants are busy on screens throughout the ship. If you want to eat at one of them, you just wait until it opens up, or decide to go to another one that isn’t as busy. In brief, there are no specific “seatings”in the Main Dining Rooms. You can make reservations, but it’s not rigid like having an early and/or late seating. I had read they refurbished parts of the ship (Haven, as previously mentioned) recently. Plenty of bars. Atrium, where a lot of the activities happen, has a bar and a 2nd tier area, home to O’Sheehans 24 hour bar/restaurant. You can actually look down at the entertainment/activities from a perch in O’Sheehans. Those activities are typical cruise fare, game shows, trivia, etc. I’ve taken over 15 NCL cruises. Service has never been anything but exemplary on all of them. Free at Sea (FAS) is a good deal. If you want the drink package, all you pay for is the tips, which is substantially cheaper than other cruise lines’ drink packages. There’s also the Specialty Dinners included in FAS (I think it’s 2 included). Overall, those specialty restaurants are quite good and equal to any of the other specialty dining venues on other ships or cruise lines. All the ships I’ve sailed were in good shape and clean as a pin. Bottom line…food is good, cabins are comfortable, ship is nice (at least on the inside), service is great, entertainment is excellent. Not sure you can ask for much more. NCL is probably more similar to Royal than Princess. NCL Haven is WAY, WAY cheaper than Royal’s Star class, which is the most similar to the Haven. Neither is cheap, though. Like all other cruise lines, where you sail, when you sail, how long you sail, the ship you sail….all have an impact on fares. A little shopping will net you a deal on any of these cruise lines. NCL is no different.

Just did a cursory look at Prima fares. Bookings must be strong as fares are strong, at least through the first part of next year. As some of these cruises get closer, I’ll see if there is any movement on those fares. But, as of right now, they’re holding steady.

LOVED that show!!!!

I think most crew are trained to keep the areas clear until trained medical help arrives. That probably IS the training. Not saying they aren't capable of doing more. It's probably ingrained in their training to allow medical personnel deal with medical issues. I can't say I disagree with that. No disagreement about idiots more worried about taking vids and pictures of people who had accidents or are ill. I actually saw some "stage" their cabin after my cruise ship listed. Some actually would not accept medical help until someone would take a picture of them on the floor. Guessing that was done for legal capital if/when they went to court.

Forgot about that. You're right!

I do keep my key cards, though. And, this isn't even all of them.

You know, next time I cruise with you, I'm going to wear ALL OF MY pins. And, I'm going to make sure I point to all of them and regale you with how I acquired each and every one of them, and the experiences I had on every cruise I've taken. LOL! In all seriousness, I have mine in a drawer somewhere. I don't even remember where they are.

Well said! A lot of the OP's experience is because they didn't know what to expect. That's not their fault. They were just surprised, and not in a good way. Sometimes people are surprised and are not ready for it. DO NOT let that affect anyone else's cruise. The vast, vast majority of cruise guests have a great time, sometimes on the same exact cruise someone else did not like.

A side note about medical services on a cruise ship (ANY cruise ship). The ship medical center is set up for minor problems. You fall and scrape a knee, they can handle that. Something more serious? That's why you see helicopters land on the ships to remove passengers with more serious issues. The on board medical just isn't set up to treat very serious issues. I was on a "listing" cruise a few years ago on NCL. Lots of people fell down. When it happened, I was in bed, in my cabin and was literally thrown out of bed. I dressed and went to the Atrium to see what was happening. There were some people who had fallen and as myself, and some others, tried to get these people off the floor, crew were summoning other crew members who were trained for minor medical requirements. Most crew are trained in getting guests to their muster station, how to organize and load guests onto life boats. As far as giving on site medical treatment, unless they're trained, they wait for someone who is trained to offer medical assistance. Couple of reasons...an untrained person giving medical treatment can make matters worse, not better. I'm sure there's liability factored into having an untrained medical crew member trying to provide medical treatments. INSURANCE....INSURANCE.....INSURANCE!!!!!!! Ask anyone who has cruised, we will tell you it's not cheap being treated for even minor medical issues on board. Let alone, the possibility someone has to be airlifted. You're at sea, with access to a small medical facility and staff...sometimes hours (maybe even days) from any port with hospitals and a large enough staff to handle more serious injuries. Like any land hospital, drugs, care, medical evaluation, hospital beds, etc are crazy expensive. Whatever medical coverage you have at home, usually does not transfer to a ship and/or international waters.

Nice find!!!!! I'm going to have to keep scouring fares on Prima.

OP…sorry to hear it didn’t work out. Some enjoy planning and securing their cruise plans. I’m a “seat of the pants” cruiser. If one restaurant, entertainment venue, etc is not open, I’m adaptable in finding something, somewhere else, I’ll probably find to entertainment me. Not blaming you, but knowing some of the “ins and outs” for any cruise line, any ship, proves helpful. Embarkation/disembarkation…..mostly a function of the port personnel. Where I think NCL could do a better job, they state you can check in at xx:00 o’clock. That does not mean you can board. Just able to check in. I think NCL could do a better job of making this point. This isn’t exclusive to them, however. All cruise lines do the same….unless you’re in a cabin (Haven) or pay for early access (Faster to the Fun with Carnival). Personally, I always recommend people show up to the pier early afternoon for cruises that sail late afternoon. All the masses have pushed and shoved their way on board by then, and it’s easy from that point. NCL isn’t alone in this situation. Have experienced it on other cruise lines. Which is the entire reason I board after noon, regardless of cruise or cruise line. I think if you take a look at the Freestyle Daily that you have access to either on your room TV, or in paper form, you’ll find at least something happening every hour of every day, where it’s happening, and what there is to do.…sometimes by the minute. Syd Norman’s is an entertainment venue you should not miss. They group(s) who play there are outstanding and usually perform different theme shows. Unless you’re in the Haven, get there early as it fills up quick. Trying to recall Prima’s main show…correct me if I’m wrong but I think it’s Donna Summer’s show. Haven’t seen it. Heard it’s excellent. That’s true of most of NCL’s entertainment. Although when I was on the behind the scenes tour of the Bliss a few months ago, the Stage Manager told us some of the shows’ contracts were up, across the fleet. And, that they would be introducing others. So, don’t know what is happening with Donna Summer. Enough of all that. Some cruise lines don’t fit with certain cruisers. Now you know what doesn’t work and can identify another ship/cruise line that fits you better. NCL fits me well. They PO me from time to time, however. But, overall I find they fit best with what I enjoy doing. If it didn’t fit well with you, I understand. Sorry it didn’t work out. I’m still trying to find a deal on PRIMA, as I really want to sail her. Might be a while. They seem to be sailing full and being NCL’s newest, will probably have fares higher than I want to spend. I’ll give it a while before looking again.

Wait….WHAT???????

Sailing on the Epic in October. Excursions are visible. You’re about 6 months out. Maybe take a look in a few weeks or next month?

Thinking of the Free at Sea, it's actually a good deal. If you look at the taxes they add for alcohol, it's way cheaper than the other cruise lines' alcohol "packages". The "free" excursions ($50 credit/cabin) nets some (few) excursions that end up being free. Those usually are little more than transport related. But, if you combine the $50 credit to the Latitudes 15% off, there are some decent deals on excursions. The charge for the Specialty Dinner package is small for those kind of dining venues. Let's see, what else....oh yeah...free internet minutes. Yep, they're free. But, it's a long on, get your info, and log off. You leave you phone or iPad on for WiFi, it does not log off automatically and the internet is slow....like so slow you'll burn up those minutes quickly. Fares? They seem to be targeting of Latitudes members, handing out unpublished discounts. I just used a 20% off on an Alaska cruise on the Bliss several weeks ago. Great ship, great itinerary. Fare was really good. There's even some 50% off coupons floating around out there for Latitudes members on their smaller ships to Alaska. I think that came in right around $1,500 with Free at Sea for a Club Balcony. I just used another 20% coupon for an 11 day Mediterranean Cruise in October. I got a Haven Spa Suite on the Epic (which is supposed to have the best Haven of ANY NCL ship). I got fare of ~$4K.....11 day cruise......in the Haven.....I think that's a GREAT deal. Last Fall, I scored the best deal I ever had on a mini-suite on the Breakaway 7 days from New York to Canada. Lovely cruise. IIRC, it was ~$700 with Free at Sea. So yeah....there are deals to be had. Just got to find them.

I saw something I didn’t know existed in the galley on a behind the scenes tour. There were these big logs of ground beef that someone had the job of cutting, weighing and putting through some sort of “flattening” machine to form them into burgers. I didn’t know such things existed.

That’s good news (I think)! They stonewalled me over and over, again. First, they tried to add the new charges to my credit card, which AMEX lets me know about. When I told Amex the charges weren’t authorized, I got an email from MSC acknowledging they wanted more money (I think it was a week after I made the original booking). Emails, phone calls, etc didn’t resolve it. They screwed up. Didn’t care that they screwed up. Refused to admit they screwed up. And finally, kept trying to charge my AMEX over and over again (which I denied over and over again), until I finally just asked for my deposit back. Had to get AMEX involved to even get that done. I can tolerate a lot of things with cruise companies and cruising in general. Trying to renege on a fare that I had already booked, ain’t one of the things I’ll tolerate.

Yeah...this was done when I found out my former TA quit her agency. So, I booked it directly with MSC. Had the credit card receipt (AMEX). Had a print out of my reservation number with booking confirmation. Had a screen shot of the transaction and the total fare. Even had a printout of the cabin location and number. They wanted to add $700 to my fare. Granted, it was a last minute cruise (was supposed to sail last month and I booked it in February). But, that should not have mattered. First they said the fare was wrong (wrong how? They posted it. They confirmed it). Then they said the cabin type was wrong. Again, wrong how? Had the fare for the exact cabin number printed out with their confirmation. Still salty about it since they would not even acknowledge their mistakes. Was lucky AMEX got involved and permanently reversed their charges. From what I understand, if you reverse charges on a cruise fare, they will not let you book again. Never been involved in a situation like this, so I don't know. I've never tried. Probably never will, even if they let me.

Forgot to mention, O'Sheehans or The Local have really good burgers, too. Again, you can see them being prepared at the open kitchen.