With the UBP offered, Why would anyone choose a different cruise line????

[SheehanDJ]

Thanks for the response...not sure what a static shoe is for blackjack but i can imagine it gives the "house" a bit more of the ever present "advantage" thus making it a lil harder for the average player to win.

 

Standard multi-deck shoe all the decks are shuffled together and put in a shoe until the red "stop" plastic card is hit. So if you start play on at the beginning of a shoe and just pay basic attention to the cards being dealt you can notice a shoe becoming "hot" (ie a lot of face cards left).

 

NCL uses a constantly shuffling multi-deck shoe.

[4774Papa]

Hi Fellow Critics,

Aside from the obvious reason of "we don't drink... or we don't find value in the Ultimate Drink Package" why on earth would anyone who is familiar with the NCL product choose a competing cruise line??

 

We were long time Princess Loyalists (Platinum)...until our son came along and now we are always looking for kid friendly or more "activity " based cruises.

 

We tried pricing Princess against NCL for our next cruise. The Fares are similar and there will definitely be more "room" at and in the pools on Princess but it seems like Princess does not like to throw in the drinking package. So even if the DW and I have 2 wines each or maybe 2 wines and 1 frozen concoction per day that will increase our bill about $70 dollars a day with tip (Times 7) days is about $500 dollars additional!!!

 

Also Princess does not sail from NYC like NCL does...which saves us a ton of Mullah and the headache and uncertainty of Plane Travel.

 

I guess im asking...when do you think all cruiselines will just include some form of a drinking package to all of their guests???

 

i think once someone is accustomed to getting some perk for free its real hard for the cruise line to " reverse" the passengers thought pattern.

 

Best,

Mark

 

We have done 9 Celebrity and 5 NCL cruises in the past 6 years.

 

 

We like both, but prefer Celebrity.

 

We never buy the beverage packages on either line. Especially with NCL, which makes you pay the gratuities on the full benefit.

 

On Celebrity we are elite and Celebrity has a happy hour from 5-7 with free drinks and small snacks.

 

If forced to choose the beverage package, we can enjoy it, but NCL's wine selection under the beverage package is very poor. We can get by with beer an and occasional martini or Scotch and water, but wine is a biggie.

 

We still like NCL for freestyle and entertainment, and when the itinerary/price is good.

 

Frankly, I wish the cruise lines would do away with the beverage package bundling and just give us a low base price.

[chisoxfan]

Beverage package is critical for us on the Caribbean Cruises. Have been on 3X cruises with it , a HAL, and will have UBP on Getaway in Jan and booked a Panama on Princess with it.

 

They all have their good and bad. HAL was most restrictive in price and number of drinks per day 15. X is great but we usually spend 200 for 7 day

to upgrade to ultimate. X includes waters and coffees.

 

Was excited to see 15 limit on NCL but you have to pay gratuity and does not include water and coffees. This seems a bit nickel and dime.

 

Princess may be the simplest as it seems to have a high limit and includes everything.

 

It is amazing how fast you can go through drinks sitting around the pool, a drink before dinner, wine with dinner, and maybe a drink at the show.

[1smudslide]

I drink and my husband doesn't. I do have 1 or 2 drinks a day, but I don't think I would drink the cost of the gratuity for the two of us, which is why I don't get it. I know if I had it, I would definitely drink more. I haven't been able to get rid of those 5 lbs I gained on the last two cruises, I can imagine what I would gain if I drank to my heart's content. That is definitely the main factor why I don't get it. I love frozen drinks!

[mafig]

I like Celebrity's package better. I know I probably have the price built in, but I like that when I see the price with the beverage package I know that that's the price. With NCL I have to think, "I have to add $$$ for drinks" and then if I have restaurants I think "I have to add $$$ for restaurants."

I just like that the gratuities are "included" on Celebrity.

[LMaxwell]

I look at the bottom line price with what is "included", the ship and its features, and where I want to go. Whichever line closest hits the target is the line I book with.

 

Yes, the no extra charge (at the time) UBP along with 3rd-8th in a cabin sailing free did make NCL very attractive price wise for me to book on what I'd consider an otherwise repetitive and dull itinerary. So my next cruise is on NCL. My last was on MSC. The one after NCL is Carnival. Then back to RCI. Lather, rinse, repeat. Princess, Holland, Celebrity are all in play too. Being brand agnostic has worked better for me.

[zqvol]

Hi Fellow Critics,

Aside from the obvious reason of "we don't drink... or we don't find value in the Ultimate Drink Package" why on earth would anyone who is familiar with the NCL product choose a competing cruise line??

 

We were long time Princess Loyalists (Platinum)...until our son came along and now we are always looking for kid friendly or more "activity " based cruises.

 

We tried pricing Princess against NCL for our next cruise. The Fares are similar and there will definitely be more "room" at and in the pools on Princess but it seems like Princess does not like to throw in the drinking package. So even if the DW and I have 2 wines each or maybe 2 wines and 1 frozen concoction per day that will increase our bill about $70 dollars a day with tip (Times 7) days is about $500 dollars additional!!!

 

Also Princess does not sail from NYC like NCL does...which saves us a ton of Mullah and the headache and uncertainty of Plane Travel.

 

I guess im asking...when do you think all cruiselines will just include some form of a drinking package to all of their guests???

 

i think once someone is accustomed to getting some perk for free its real hard for the cruise line to " reverse" the passengers thought pattern.

 

Best,

Mark

 

I think that you will find that if you don't drink much then many other lines are equal to or better than NCL. I like NCL because their solo pricing is good, but if the family is going we prefer to go on Regent or Silversea or Seaborne. The cost is not much different than being in the Heaven and the atmosphere is much different, and the food is so much better that it is not even worth talking about.