GTY Cabin on Jade

[niborHS]

I am looking for an inexpensive get-away with my sister-in-law, and they have very cheap deals on a 4 night on the Jade, late January. It works perfectly because of her set vacation time she has. I am trying to decide whether we should go with Oceanview, or Balcony. If we take the guarantee, we don't pick our cabin, obviously, but has anyone done this so they can tell me if it is likely that we would get Deck 4 if we took Oceanview? Balcony is all 8, 9 & 10. I don't care if it's obstructed view. Just as background, I have been on about 20 cruises, quite a number of NCL, and when I go with my husband I book a suite, but have been in a regular cabin for a few nights with a friend, so know that it will work. It is particularly appealing because it is only $229 plus charge and fees, so $368, and includes unlimited drinks and specialty dining. Too good a deal to stay home. 

[GUT2407]

You’ll get what you get, anyone trying to predict what it’ll be we are as likely to be wrong as to be right.

[niborHS]

Thanks, I just thought I might find out someone's experience. I see there is another thread, where either the person was misled, or was counting on something that might not happen. I know it's a crapshoot, but we might decide to try it anyway. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

 

12 hours ago, Robinsilver said:

includes unlimited drinks and specialty dining.

FYI, you may need to pay 20% gratuities on those.

Edited October 24, 2018 by Itchy&Scratchy

[njkate]

12 hours ago, Robinsilver said:

I am looking for an inexpensive get-away with my sister-in-law, and they have very cheap deals on a 4 night on the Jade, late January. It works perfectly because of her set vacation time she has. I am trying to decide whether we should go with Oceanview, or Balcony. If we take the guarantee, we don't pick our cabin, obviously, but has anyone done this so they can tell me if it is likely that we would get Deck 4 if we took Oceanview? Balcony is all 8, 9 & 10. I don't care if it's obstructed view. Just as background, I have been on about 20 cruises, quite a number of NCL, and when I go with my husband I book a suite, but have been in a regular cabin for a few nights with a friend, so know that it will work. It is particularly appealing because it is only $229 plus charge and fees, so $368, and includes unlimited drinks and specialty dining. Too good a deal to stay home. 

At that price for only four days, they can put me anywhere lol

[Tatiana84]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

 

FYI, you may need to pay 20% gratuities on those.

Would this be before the cruise or during/after? I also got my GTY which included drinks... but was not charged a gratuity fee or service charge.

 

[niborHS]

1 hour ago, njkate said:

At that price for only four days, they can put me anywhere lol

That's what I was thinking. Now my husband is mad that I am planning this, I told him if he would go for this kind of cabin I would plan with him, but I know that would never happen! Not to mention he doesn't like NCL. He remembers cruising from the old days when he was a little kid (more than 50 years ago), when everything was top notch, the food and service was like a Michelin starred restaurant. That's not happening in our budget for sure.

     I was thinking about the gratuities, so will discuss that with my sister-in-law, and maybe that will be a reason to take the oceanview. The difference would be the gratuities.

[heelfan94]

14 hours ago, Robinsilver said:

It is particularly appealing because it is only $229 plus charge and fees, so $368, and includes unlimited drinks and specialty dining. Too good a deal to stay home. 

This is the part that jumped out at me.  I'd book this so fast NCL's head would spin.  The cabin to me is not that important so I would roll the dice on the GTY.

[niborHS]

OOPS! I got something wrong, that cheap price on the Guarantee does not include the perks, so now we have to decide. Still a very good deal, if we go with Obstructed view cabin it would cost us each just over $500 to get the perks, without the gratuities and the per person/per day tips.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

3 hours ago, Tatiana84 said:

Would this be before the cruise or during/after? I also got my GTY which included drinks... but was not charged a gratuity fee or service charge.

 

did you get a package or is it "booze is included for everyone cruise"? I am not expect on Norwegian, but from what I read: if you get a freebie drink package, you still have to pay 20% daily gratuity on it. I don't know how that works on "all alcohol is included" cruises.

[Tatiana84]

33 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

did you get a package or is it "booze is included for everyone cruise"? I am not expect on Norwegian, but from what I read: if you get a freebie drink package, you still have to pay 20% daily gratuity on it. I don't know how that works on "all alcohol is included" cruises.

it was part of the cruise cost... so a "freebie" per say. I am also no expert and I believe I haven't cruised since the new CFO... so I'm not sure about now, but before... the service fee was already part of the cost. I hope it still is. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

2 minutes ago, Tatiana84 said:

it was part of the cruise cost... so a "freebie" per say. I am also no expert and I believe I haven't cruised since the new CFO... so I'm not sure about now, but before... the service fee was already part of the cost. I hope it still is. 

was it one of the perks you chose out of 5, or one of those short booze cruises with Unlimited Open bar?

[Tatiana84]

 

ahhh, ok... it's a 10 day cruise, so not really a booze cruise. It was a perk, 2 adult beverage package. My travel agent was the one that booked it... so I'm sure it was a chose out of 5. 

Edited October 24, 2018 by Tatiana84

[ColdCruise]

On 10/24/2018 at 12:02 PM, Robinsilver said:

OOPS! I got something wrong, that cheap price on the Guarantee does not include the perks, so now we have to decide. Still a very good deal, if we go with Obstructed view cabin it would cost us each just over $500 to get the perks, without the gratuities and the per person/per day tips.

Don’t forget NCL has the bid for an upgrade program, so you could perhaps score an inexpensive upgrade. There’s a huge thread on that topic - actually CC closed the 1st thread at 500+ posts and are in a 2nd thread.

[TommyTuesday]

Hopefully you booked already, seems that some cabins are increased in price!

 

[jdvmd]

On 10/24/2018 at 8:07 AM, Robinsilver said:

Thanks, I just thought I might find out someone's experience. I see there is another thread, where either the person was misled, or was counting on something that might not happen. I know it's a crapshoot, but we might decide to try it anyway. 

I've done numerous guarantees on NCL ships, however, not the Jade, and never had any issue with where we were placed. It's a good deal for a short period of time so I would go for it.

[debbyfelse1963]

beware if you do a balcony guarantee you will probably end up with an enclosed balcony on deck 8. That was what they tried to do to me on our upcoming Jade cruise and mine wasn't even a guarantee it was supposed to be a mid ship  balcony. Look online at the pictures of the enclosed they really are just like a window cabin with the glass removed.

[ColdCruise]

On 10/24/2018 at 12:02 PM, Robinsilver said:

OOPS! I got something wrong, that cheap price on the Guarantee does not include the perks, so now we have to decide. Still a very good deal, if we go with Obstructed view cabin it would cost us each just over $500 to get the perks, without the gratuities and the per person/per day tips.

 

1 hour ago, debbyfelse1963 said:

beware if you do a balcony guarantee you will probably end up with an enclosed balcony on deck 8. That was what they tried to do to me on our upcoming Jade cruise and mine wasn't even a guarantee it was supposed to be a mid ship  balcony. Look online at the pictures of the enclosed they really are just like a window cabin with the glass removed.

We did a QTY on a 10 day on Gem and got assigned to a “cove balcony” (enclosed) that was perfectly fine as it provided extra weather protection while in Canada.

 

Financially that was a great deal for us & the cabin/balcony were super - not much time to hang out on the balcony with so many ports to visit. 

 

We didn’t pay the extra to get a BA/BB/etc to select our own balcony because we only had 2 sea days in October in Canada. Plus the amount we spent on “a la carte” drinks and our 3 pack specialty dining ended up adding to less  than the 20% auto grats for the Unlimited beversge & dining packages plus the difference in cabin price between QTY & lowest pick of balcony cabins. We just do a spreadsheet with various cost options and go with the cheapest way to enjoy what we want. I will say that NCL’s a la carte drink prices are  higher that Princess’ and the other ships we favor, so figure at least $15 average for anything other than a beer if you want to make your own way.🍷🍸🥃🍹

 

 If location isn’t a big concern I wouldn’t worry about the specific balcony ... although I might decide differently if I was on my 50th, “been there done that” cruise and planned to just chill and sit on the balcony every port day in the Caribbean 😎

[niborHS]

Thanks for the comments. The reason for doing the balcony is that we will be 3 in the room, and want the small sofabed. I was offered to bid on an upgrade, so put in for the mini-suite, which I am not even sure is a better choice seeing as they are all below the pool deck. For this one, price is the issue, so I think we made a good choice. We will bring on some wine and pay the corkage up-front, which others have said we can get a refund on if we have unopened bottles, so that's fine. My guess is we won't. I hope they give us glasses, however I have some plastic reusable ones I can always back in case we want some wine in the cabin. Or even on deck actually, so will have to remember them. It's a 4 night cruise, how bad can it be? Famous last words of course. At least we are all easy-going people who will just have fun and laugh a lot. 

[texastennis]

2 hours ago, debbyfelse1963 said:

beware if you do a balcony guarantee you will probably end up with an enclosed balcony on deck 8. That was what they tried to do to me on our upcoming Jade cruise and mine wasn't even a guarantee it was supposed to be a mid ship  balcony. Look online at the pictures of the enclosed they really are just like a window cabin with the glass removed.

Yes, the enclosed balconies are not like the more open ones, which also means they are more private and less susceptible to the elements. They also are much bigger than an Oceanview window. It is for these reasons I seek out these particular balconies when cruising.  To the OP: you may be pleasantly surprised if you are assigned an enclosed/hull balcony. You'll have the wind in your hair and no one peeking at you in the glass because they can't as in the more open, commonly sought -after balconies. Good luck!

 

[Wendy&Grumpy]

We booked a BD GTY on Jade today and ended up with cabin 10642. 

 

It's fine with us, however its an accessible cabin that we don't need, so I'm not sure why we were put there? Should we have the TA contact them to move out of it?

[ColdCruise]

17 hours ago, Wendy&Grumpy said:

We booked a BD GTY on Jade today and ended up with cabin 10642. 

 

It's fine with us, however its an accessible cabin that we don't need, so I'm not sure why we were put there? Should we have the TA contact them to move out of it?

Don’t worry about it, they assigned the cabin to you because no one else needed or bought it. If you are in an accessible cabin and someone comes along with either a new reservation or request for an accessible cabin, NCL can reassign you to a different cabin and privide 10642 to the other customer. 

 

In in other words, if they need it, they’ll move you.  And if not, you get to enjoy the additional space.

[niborHS]

Just as a follow-up, we ended up with Cabin 9138, which is fine. Hopefully it will be OK, because it is right above the life boats, but I honestly will not be hanging out on the balcony anyway. It is close to an elevator towards the back of the ship. Still hoping to get an upgrade to a mini-suite though.

 

[stormynow]

Robin, 9138 is a very good location.   Stormy

[Oakman58]

On 1/8/2019 at 4:40 PM, Robinsilver said:

Just as a follow-up, we ended up with Cabin 9138, which is fine. Hopefully it will be OK, because it is right above the life boats, but I honestly will not be hanging out on the balcony anyway. It is close to an elevator towards the back of the ship. Still hoping to get an upgrade to a mini-suite though.

 

 

That's a great location.  BTW the life boats are tucked in so you will be able to look straight down to the ocean.