Premium all inclusive scrapped?

[ziggyuk]

This is such a shame I really hoped the cruise industry was moving to model that had DSC included in the fare.

[Joebucks]

On 3/28/2019 at 10:46 AM, cloud_nine said:

I really liked the all inclusive fare - it made us switch from RCI to NCL this year as you got a lot more for your money than you did with RCI. If this change doesn't lessen the cost of the cruise by much (and as others have said I can't see it) we'll end up going back to RCI.

 

As someone who hasn't done this fare, can you explain the cost difference? Not that I don't believe you, it's just that all-inclusive tends to cost more.

[ziggyuk]

3 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

As someone who hasn't done this fare, can you explain the cost difference? Not that I don't believe you, it's just that all-inclusive tends to cost more.

 

I went to the Cruise Next office on my cruise last week as they said during a presentation they could offer better on the ship (better cabin) at no extra cost.

On ship they can only offer the US deals in $, when she went online to do a comparison with the UK site and taking everything into account, she ended up telling me she could not come close to matching the UK all inclusive price and I was better booking at home.

[Lolou127]

I’ve booked a 2020 cruise this afternoon, here in the U.K. on my confirmation it says my price includes gratuities, I’m relatively new to cruising so don’t know what DSC means, I think I’ve got a really good price for what’s included, but I’m day will see if I’m right or wrong 

[ziggyuk]

8 minutes ago, Lolou127 said:

I’ve booked a 2020 cruise this afternoon, here in the U.K. on my confirmation it says my price includes gratuities, I’m relatively new to cruising so don’t know what DSC means, I think I’ve got a really good price for what’s included, but I’m day will see if I’m right or wrong 

Gratuities & DSC (daily service charge) are the same this, from 2nd (Tuesday) that is no longer included and would be an additional onboard fee added to your account as it is for US cruisers.

[cloud_nine]

6 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

As someone who hasn't done this fare, can you explain the cost difference? Not that I don't believe you, it's just that all-inclusive tends to cost more.

 

Okay, so I booked the NCL Premium All Inc for £4198 - this includes UBP, SDP (both of which includes the gratuity), WiFi, bottled water every day in cabin, $600 OBC and the DSC included. 

 

At the time of booking, RCI were offering their version of all inclusive, which is basically just an added beverage package, for a similar sized ship (Rhapsody), same date, out of the same port (Venice) for a similar sized suite. Before even including gratuities the cost was around £6400. I checked RCI yesterday and they have now dropped the included beverage package from their offer and it is now at £5473 (including "free" gratuities and "free" WiFi).

[ziggyuk]

Some sailing appear to have had the All Inclusive removed already, the prices look the same with drinks, water and coffee removed.

I took some screen prints today and do a proper comparison tomorrow when it is up and running properly.

So far I'm convinced they have removed a lot of the package with no change in price.

[babs135]

Simple question.  Are we being shafted price-wise here in the UK?  If they are dropping the Premium All-Inclusive shouldn't the price drop?

[ziggyuk]

1 minute ago, babs135 said:

Simple question.  Are we being shafted price-wise here in the UK?  If they are dropping the Premium All-Inclusive shouldn't the price drop?

We will have to wait until tomorrow to be sure but we lose drinks, water and coffee, we can get the drinks back for £99 PP.

 

My first comparison looks like it will cost us a little more but we can't be 100% sure until tomorrow, my best guess right now is it will cost £200 more a cabin with no water or coffee included.

[ziggyuk]

The NCL site appear a bit messed up right now.

 

This is how the All inclusive looked yesterday:

 

This is how it looks today:

 

 

First impression looks like they just pulled the All Inclusive and replaced it with Free at Sea without adjusting the price to reflect what has been removed and what now needs to be paid for.

 

However....... after clicking through the prices do not match what is being shown on the front page and they do appear to have been reduced:

 

And again, for comparison this is how it looked yesterday under all inclusive (the prices did reflect the front page):

 

 

So..... it does look like the prices have been reduced by £250 PP to reflect the missing elements of the All Inclusive, the drinks package you now need to pay £99 PP extra for and that the DSC is now a extra charge which would be 80 PP on a 7 day.

 

I just called them and confirmed that the DSC is definitely not included on the online price now. It was a bit odd as she quoted the above prices at £80 ore than the prices above which did include the DSC, it would appear if you book online the DSC is excluded but if you book on the phone they include the DSC.

 

On a 7 day cruise you would now need to pay about £80 PP DSC plus £99 PP for the perk to get drinks back plus pay for coffee and water if/when needed.

 

You do get a second perk for that £99 which has a value.

 

My personal view is we are actually slightly better off with more choice.

[lillylulu]

We already booked with AI for aug2019, i have just don't a comparison dummy booking and would be better off with the new offer free at sea with drinks and sdp. 

[ighten]

Confirmed - I have been able to cancel Junes  Cruise -  booked under a just cruise(no extras) - and get the same thing for £300 more but inclusive of drinks (14nights) SDP x5 and pre pay the DSC

[ziggyuk]

24 minutes ago, lillylulu said:

We already booked with AI for aug2019, i have just don't a comparison dummy booking and would be better off with the new offer free at sea with drinks and sdp. 

 

Yes, I think the prices are slightly better now and I could live without the water and coffee, especially the 20 x1L bottles of water we had stacked in our cabin on the first day!

 

They don't have any OBC right now (they did yesterday), if you have that its worth factoring in.

[babs135]

Can anyone confirm what a 3rd person sharing a cabin will get?  The email I received is not very clear or maybe it is just me!

[ziggyuk]

44 minutes ago, babs135 said:

Can anyone confirm what a 3rd person sharing a cabin will get?  The email I received is not very clear or maybe it is just me!

 

Only first two in cabin gett the drinks and dining offers, extra guests in same cabin would need to purchase.

The other offers are per cabin, eg one store ex credit per cabin regardless of number sharing.

 

Quote:

Guests sharing a cabin will receive the same offer(s). Note: Free speciality Dining Package and Free Beverage Package are applicable to Guests 1 and 2 on the reservation. Free Extra Guests, Shore Excursion Credits and WIFI package are applied per stateroom.

[Malemew]

Quite happy this has been ditched, it hiked up prices and wasnt all it was made out to be. We started booking on the US site via a VPN as it worked out cheaper for what we wanted. Hopefully now we can start using UK site again,

[Stardust4000]

For me personally, I'd be slightly worse off booking now.

 

Last week I booked a 7 day cruise for 2 for Feb 2020.  I paid £2345 for a balcony cabin, premium all inclusive, via an online TA.

I just priced up the same category cabin again, via the same online TA,, and it came to £2186, including drinks and speciality dining., but not service charges, so including service charges at approx. £160 this would be £2346 - so identical to what I paid last week.  But last week also included wifi, bottled water and $150 obc.  

 

We had also looked at a sail away price last week for a balcony which came in at £1620 per couple.  However, pricing this up now, the cheapest I can find it is £2058 plus service charges, so £2120.  So definitely worse in this instance if you don't require any extra perks.

 

 

[ziggyuk]

31 minutes ago, Stardust4000 said:

For me personally, I'd be slightly worse off booking now.

 

Last week I booked a 7 day cruise for 2 for Feb 2020.  I paid £2345 for a balcony cabin, premium all inclusive, via an online TA.

I just priced up the same category cabin again, via the same online TA,, and it came to £2186, including drinks and speciality dining., but not service charges, so including service charges at approx. £160 this would be £2346 - so identical to what I paid last week.  But last week also included wifi, bottled water and $150 obc.  

 

We had also looked at a sail away price last week for a balcony which came in at £1620 per couple.  However, pricing this up now, the cheapest I can find it is £2058 plus service charges, so £2120.  So definitely worse in this instance if you don't require any extra perks.

 

 

 

I think we will see offers like OBC being added over the next few weeks/months.

Edited April 2, 2019 by ziggyuk

[fshagan]

Looks like the often requested "include all the gratuities in one price" option didn't work out for NCL. Booking passengers seem to prefer to pay the DSC separately just as they prefer to pay the airlines baggage fees instead of choosing an airline that doesn't have them.

[ziggyuk]

12 minutes ago, fshagan said:

Looks like the often requested "include all the gratuities in one price" option didn't work out for NCL. Booking passengers seem to prefer to pay the DSC separately just as they prefer to pay the airlines baggage fees instead of choosing an airline that doesn't have them.

 

I agree but isn't it odd they include Gratuities on the UBP & UDP, as they were scrapping included gratuities I would have expected them to take the opportunity to have one worldwide product.

[ighten]

They cant it would be illegal (contravenes trading standards) in the UK and EU to offer a perk as free then add a charge to it

Edited April 2, 2019 by ighten

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, ighten said:

They cant it would be illegal (contravenes trading standards) in the UK and EU to offer a perk as free then add a charge to it

 

Ah, that makes sense, I did not know that.

 

Mind you, I don't know how they can claim it's free when you have to pay £99 for it, not my idea of free 😂

[ighten]

Ah but they call "free at sea" an upgrade -

 

Just done the personal maths on our June trip - If we went (as we were) with the old just cruise offer on a 14 nights we would end up with a around a 1K bar bill (at the very  least) - BUT DSC would be included. 

 

With a sail away price that is actually slightly less (than the just cruise) plus the addition of now pre paying the DSC we are only paying 150 pp more and getting  meal upgrades  and drinks included..

 

Fortunately NCL have been very helpful and cancelled and rebooked us on the new package

[hawkeyetlse]

3 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Only first two in cabin gett the drinks and dining offers, extra guests in same cabin would need to purchase.

The other offers are per cabin, eg one store ex credit per cabin regardless of number sharing.

 

Quote:

Guests sharing a cabin will receive the same offer(s). Note: Free speciality Dining Package and Free Beverage Package are applicable to Guests 1 and 2 on the reservation. Free Extra Guests, Shore Excursion Credits and WIFI package are applied per stateroom.

 

So guests 3 and 4 are required to pay extra to pick the beverage or dining packages (if passengers 1 and 2 want them), but they (guests 3 and 4) don't actually get anything for it. Free extra guests can be a good deal, but then passengers 1 and 2 have to "waste" one of their choices on that.

 

It's interesting that X categories are eligible for this offer. I wonder how long that will last…

[ziggyuk]

5 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

 

So guests 3 and 4 are required to pay extra to pick the beverage or dining packages (if passengers 1 and 2 want them), but they (guests 3 and 4) don't actually get anything for it. Free extra guests can be a good deal, but then passengers 1 and 2 have to "waste" one of their choices on that.

 

It's interesting that X categories are eligible for this offer. I wonder how long that will last…

 

Guest 3&4 are not required to buy the package.

If guest 1&2 were buying the UBP then everyone in the cabin is required to purchase it, as it's a perk this does not apply.