LancsCruiser

The way I look at it is... I've cruised a number of times now and even the 'worst' cruise we went on was a fantastic break away from work etc so I will remain positive! Hooefully between now and May we will get some good feedback from others!

Likewise! We are booked for a cruise in September and the last set of reviews seem universally terrible so we are quite worried!

I'm sorry, but if people believe it is acceptable to behave like children towards staff, that more than likely had no bearing whatsoever on whether the ship would sail, they should grow up and be told not to come back.

Like others have said, wherever you are going, it will be better than being at work! The company has a duty of care and i'm sure nobody on here wants to here of any sort of incident occuring due to a ship unsafely going out to sea, I appreciatr the timing isn't great on NCL's part but at the end of the day, it is storm season, you take the risk for the cheaper fares at this time of the year, it's made abundantly clear that they can and will do so if needs must.

When the Epic ended up in dry dock for an extra day, we were mightily dissappointed but to NCL's credit we pretty much ended up with a free cruise by the time we had been compensated for the day we missed, they will sort you out, have faith.

Enjoy wherever you get too and rebook for May/June and pray the weather is better!

Have you done it before? If it's worth it i'm hoping to try and book it for our Bermuda honeymoon cruise as a suprise for my wife :)

I never understood why someone would book their next cruise while on the ship. You can book one, as soon as you get home. if you want. I see absolutely no advantage to doing it. They've never offered me anything I can't get online. Maybe if you're on the last day of month, and you're worried the current offers will expire. That's the only reason I could think of.

 

I purchase at least one cruise next certificate every time we're on board. I don't book a cruise though. When I'm ready to book to cruise they're on my account. If you're planning to cruise NCL in the next four years, I can't imagine why you wouldn't purchase a cruise next certificate. It's a guaranteed discount. There's no restrictions on a certificate, other than you can only use one at time. At some times, they'll let you use 2 of them.

 

Not worth it? I beg to differ. Booking a cruise on board, now that's a different scenario.

I did mention that the cruise next consultant insisted we HAD to book for an actual cruise that existed, I now believe this was for his own gain rather than ours!

Cheers for the input guys and girls, we will enjoy it whatever happens just won't buy a voucher as we will be trying another line after this :D

You have lost me. My upcoming cruise on Breakaway was booked with a Cruise Next certificate. It was originally a cruise on Epic for a completely different time. We changed to a different ship and date, and then changed the date again, each time switching up cabins. Is this a UK thing, not an NCL thing? I have never had a problem changing reservations made with a Cruise Next certificate, including just 2 weeks ago.

From what i've read it's a UK thing. Only allowed to make 1 change, changing from a cruise a day before our wedding to a week after we are married is the single change we are allowed according to NCL :/ so even if wanting to upgrade cabin we can only do so by losing the deposit, seems very silly but that is the way they want to conduct business unfortunately. I do stress however it is MY fault for not reading the T&C's at the time!

Just an update on this. Seems like ages ago!

I rang and spoke to the same supervisor the day after for some advice and to check with Scott who was based on The Epic. They were ringing me back the day after but never did, I gave them a few days and then rang back to be told there isn't anyone of the name given (the supervisor) in question in their offices, told them I wrote it down exactly how they spelt it to me. Told me I was wrong and must be mistaken (common theme occuring here) so cut my losses and thought OK, I will give it a few months and try again.

Spoken to a friendly guy who must be covering some emails from London Guest Services as his email seems to have intercepted my original to them. I've seen that inside cabins have now dropped by £100 pp from when I booked and Oceanview are now about £50 pp dearer (with an added promo item, but i'm not bothered by that anymore). I asked whether I could either have the Inside for the cheaper price or upgrade to Oceanview for the dearer price without losing my deposit, the answer is still No to both. Pretty gutted and I genuinely mean it when I say this will be my last NCL cruise but i'm just going to take it on the chin and let them win. I wanted to upgrade due to it being our honeymoon but oh well!

Just a warning for any UK cruisers that are thinking of buying a Cruise Next for a cruise that you know you won't be going on. Don't fall for it! Just get the voucher and only use it when you are 100% happy with the cruise you will be going on, including stateroom category.

What is obvious is that the salesman was prepared to tell you anything to sell you a cruise on board. No one has to book anything with the CruiseNext voucher. As TrumpyNor said, you can just purchase deposits to hold in your account and you can book anytime within the next 4 years when you actually know which cruise you want. That remains one of the best deals on board for repeat cruisers.

I've spoken to my partner and she said I insisted when purchasing it we didn't want to book an actual cruise because there was nothing available and he told us we had to. I am going to complain because I feel like I was forced into it just so he could count a sale knowing I would end up stuck.

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Oh well, thanks for the help, I will stick with my current cabin and spend as little as possible with NCL on this cruise whilst onboard, i'm really not happy because the Cruise Next salesman insisted that because I was booking the absolute furthest cruise date out it would be obvious I had to do that and it wouldn't be an issue and wouldn't be counted as a change but I guess it pays to read and follow the t&c's in future as he wanted to just sell me a voucher.

Personally unless you know the exact cruise and cabin grade you want I still think they aren't worth the hassle as I now have a situation where whatever I do to upgrade I lose out!

Thanks again :)

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You don't lose your cruisenext deposit when cancelling & rebooking. It may take some time to get put back in your account but per the terms and conditions:

 

To cancel a reservation made with a CruiseNext Deposit, submit your request in accordance with Norwegian Cruise Line cancellation policies and procedures. The CruiseNext Deposit will be re-issued minus any cancellation fees, and will retain its original expiration date. If you cancel a reservation made with a CruiseNext Deposit after its expiration date, it will be forfeited. Once a Cruise Reward Deposit is applied to a reservation, it is subject to the same cancellation policy, rules and regulations as any other deposit.

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext

Hi, thanks for posting that, I honestly thought I was going crazy as I quoted the above and was shouted down by both the members of staff I spoke to and told I was wrong because when they wouldn't allow the change "as I'd already made the change when booking this cruise" I had to make a change as the cruise we booked was the latest on the system at the time we were on the ship! I actually said well i will cancel entirely and rebook with my voucher. I really don't know what to do as if a supervisor won't budge how can I get then to follow procedure?

Where it says it is in accordance with normal NCL cancellation policy does that not ordinarily mean a deposit is lost? I've never booked with a voucher before but never again after this, if I bother with them again!

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IMO not worth the hassle. When we bought one on the last cruise we booked the furthest possible cruise in advance as the guy who sold us it promised that the booking could be changed 'a few times' I argued that I thought it was only once but he assured me the UK terms and conditions were different and as I would be booking from UK I would be fine so I agreed and got one...

Changed my booking to a Bermuda from NYC in may 2017 for our honeymoon but when I rang I asked if I bought an inside cabin I could rebook a better grade of cabin at a later date, this was agreed and was fine as it was in theory the same cruise.

Called today to upgrade to an oceanview using the 2 free promo that has re-appeared to be told I can upgrade but they will only let me have the 2 promos if I cancel (losing my Cruise Next deposit so in theory losing £175) and then rebook as a new reservation. I have spoken to them for half an hour and explained that someone or multiple people at NCL have lied to me as I purposely checked that I could do this and they have backtracked.

What I don't get is the business sense, I'm willing to pay another £300+ for a better grade of cabin. If I stay in my inside cabin I will still get my original promo of UBP and purchase the SDP anyway which will earn NCL another £115. If they allow me to upgrade they are getting another £300+ out of me (minus the cost of the SDP to them) but surely any business would prefer you to spend more money with them? I would have also spent the other £115 on items on the ship as i would have felt like I had more expendable income to use up so they have lost out there also.

After the way the member of staff and her supervisor spoke to me I promised I would post this on Cruise Critic going against what the captain asked us to do at the last meet and greet as they have now lost all goodwill with myself.

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Well I upgraded to get the offer as the price suited us but was told I wasn't eligible for the extra promo because it wasn't a new booking. Asked why some got it from this forum and she told me thats just the way it works, so I will probably downgrade in the near future now.

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There is a site iv'e seen with plenty of 2017 cruises on it, Star in Baltic etc and Lerwick, Shetland, September 26th 2017.

Any hints please....

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We've just booked May 14th 2017 Bermuda from NYC. What a hassle I had booking from UK though as they were trying to tell me I shouldn't have been able to see the cruise as it only currently available in the US... yeah thanks for that NCL but I have to check as I know it takes an age for the UK site to be updated. Luckily the helpful PCC helped me sort it, they haven't managed to deduct my Cruise Next voucher though so don't know how I go about sorting that!

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Ultimate Alaska is not even listed yet.

 

Harriet

I'm looking at it right now Harriet through a proxy. Strange why it isn't showing for you?

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Sorry, just the Alaska trips so far. Even so I quite fancy the ultimate Alaska but waiting to see the UK prices!

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Showing now on NCL USA but not on UK which is a bit of a pain as I can't use my cruise next on the US bookings according to my TA. Come on NCL update the UK site!

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Wish they would hurry up. I imagine the schedules will be released just after the current promo runs out!

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Thank you very much Demonyte just what I needed to know :D

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Hi, i've tried searching but can't find anything from previous years but just wondered if anyone knows roughly when NCL tend to announce dates for the second part of the year as we are wanting to book our honeymoon as early as possible. Many thanks.

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A guarantee simply means you can be allocated any BB cabin and sometimes you get lucky and end up in a higher category cabin. This cruise is an absolute bargain. We took our first NCL cruise 25 years ago and paid a lot more for an inside cabin than we paid this time for a mid-ship balcony.

Brilliant, that's all I needed to know really so thanks, really looking forward to it as we've had a really tough year and I haven't told my fiance about the upgrade so it should be a nice suprise for her! We were both happy with the price for an inside cabin when they were £349 and we paid around £800 when we last did a cruise a few years back.

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Is it worth paying more for a large balcony or is a mid-ship BB likely to be ok? We have never had the treat of a balcony cabin so I don't want to end up overlooking anything but the sea haha. It is a guaranteed BB mid-ship but I'm not 100% with what that means.

Thanks for posting this great deal!

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