Free offers

[chloebell1]

We have never sailed norweigan but have cruised once in carnival without the drink package and once on royal Caribbean with the drink package. We didn’t drink enough to come close to breaking even. Now we are looking at sailing on the Breakway in january. Someone I know that has sailed norweigan told me the free offers are worth it, when I priced it with and without the ‘free offers’ I noticed a big price difference. I’m not a big drinker although I may drink 3 daiquiris or beers a day and hubby May drink a few beers a day. I assume if you don’t book the free offers you just put cash or a credit card on your account to pay for the extras like drinks, specialty restaurants and WiFi? Are the drink prices on norweigan close to the prices on carnival and royal Caribbean?

[Greek Boss]

While it is technically not "Free", the Drink Package is a lot more worth it on NCL than other cruise lines. On NCL you are still paying the daily gratuities, however over the course of a week it comes out to being significantly less than an ordinary Drink Package on other lines. It is probably significantly higher because you are comparing the "Free at Sea" deal with the Sailaway rates. Depending on which room category you are looking at, you might have the Dining Package Gratuity in the total cost as well.

[Greek Boss]

What I mean by the gratuities is that NCL charges automatic drink gratuities for the Beverage package. For a 7 night cruise, the gratuities are typically just under $125 per person. That's around $18 per person per day. If you think you will drink at least $18 worth of drinks each day, then I say get it. Most of the drinks on NCL are under $15, but I think for 3 or 4 daiquiris or beers a day it might just be worth it.

[luv2kroooz]

Gratuities on beverage package are $20 per person per day. You also have to add the price differential between the rate that allows you to get the package and the sail away rate, which has no perks marketed as free and does not allow you to pick your cabin location. That difference could be $150 or more per person. So by my math the minimum cost of the drink package is the $150 difference in fare plus the $140 gratuities, or $290 per person per week or about $42 per day. Compare your per drink cost to the daily rate of $42 and do the math.

[hallux]

And if you don't want the beverage package (and are booking a balcony) you could select two of the remaining offers.  I don't drink, since I was only doing one excursion through the ship I took the internet and dining.  Of course - that also means you are TECHNICALLY "paying" for all of them (no price reduction for picking 2 instead of 5) but you at least aren't paying the gratuities.

 

If you want to do specialty dining I think the dining package is well worth it, even if you're paying for it.  Dinners in most of the specialty restaurants can run upwards of $60 or $70 each, just look at the menus posted online and price out what you'd want as if you were paying and you'll see that.

 

Take Cagney's for example:

Jumbo lump crab cake - $14 (now has an up-charge even on the dining plan, think it's $2)

8 oz. Filet - $36 (the one I'm looking at is blurry, might be $38)

2 sides - $10 ($5 each)

"OMG" Caramel Butterscotch cheesecake (lives up to the name!) - $10

 

$70 total, and there was an allowed item that was omitted (soup/salad), plus you can get more than one each of appetizer and dessert so that value only increases.  Consider that a 3-meal SDP is $99 per person plus gratuities, it's a good value.

[esm54687]

7 hours ago, blcruising said:

Gratuities on beverage package are $20 per person per day. You also have to add the price differential between the rate that allows you to get the package and the sail away rate, which has no perks marketed as free and does not allow you to pick your cabin location. That difference could be $150 or more per person. So by my math the minimum cost of the drink package is the $150 difference in fare plus the $140 gratuities, or $290 per person per week or about $42 per day. Compare your per drink cost to the daily rate of $42 and do the math.

The gratuity on the drink and specialty dining package is NOT per day........   it is 20% of the total cost of the package.

[emcelh]

3 hours ago, esm54687 said:

The gratuity on the drink and specialty dining package is NOT per day........   it is 20% of the total cost of the package.

Based on the current price of the package the gratuity would be $19.80 per day. 

[luv2kroooz]

4 hours ago, esm54687 said:

The gratuity on the drink and specialty dining package is NOT per day........   it is 20% of the total cost of the package.

Agreed. The total cost of the premium beverage package is $99 per person per day. 20% of that amount is $19.80 per person per day. Let's call it $20 per person per day. I think that is what I originally stated.

[BirdTravels]

OP. Bottom line is that if you Would have more than 2 drinks a day (soda, wine, beer, cocktails), the beverage package is well worth it. 

[esm54687]

2 hours ago, emcelh said:

Based on the current price of the package the gratuity would be $19.80 per day. 

You can break it down 19.80 per day or 0.825 cents an hour but the fact is the 20% gratuity is NOT factored per day...... it is on the total package of the purchase price. 

 

You stated it was charged per person per day which is wrong..... if you said "another way to figure the cost would be to break it down per day to help with your drink intake count to see if the package is worth it" that would make sense. 

 

Your math is correct and so is my 0.825 but it's not charged per day or per hour or per ship's knot speed. 

 

 

[esm54687]

2 hours ago, emcelh said:

Based on the current price of the package the gratuity would be $19.80 per day. 

You can break it down 19.80 per day or 0.825 cents an hour but the fact is the 20% gratuity is NOT factored per day...... it is on the total package of the purchase price. 

 

Stating it is charged per person per day is wrong..... If it was said "another way to figure the cost would be to break it down per day to help with your drink intake count to see if the package is worth it" that would make sense. 

 

The math is correct and so is my 0.825 but it's not charged per day or per hour or per ship's knot speed.

 

Wrong information on how the package is charged was given but very good practical information on how to determine if it is cost effective was also provided. 

 

That's all I was saying is that it is not charged per day like the DSC. 

[luv2kroooz]

40 minutes ago, esm54687 said:

You can break it down 19.80 per day or 0.825 cents an hour but the fact is the 20% gratuity is NOT factored per day...... it is on the total package of the purchase price. 

 

You stated it was charged per person per day which is wrong..... if you said "another way to figure the cost would be to break it down per day to help with your drink intake count to see if the package is worth it" that would make sense. 

 

Your math is correct and so is my 0.825 but it's not charged per day or per hour or per ship's knot speed. 

 

 

 

But when someone wants to know the associated costs for purpose of doing a breakeven analysis (which is stated in the original post), an answer of 20% on the total purchase price of the package is abstract. It requires one to know the market cost of the package, which is marketed as 99.00 per person per day.

 

Seems to me that an answer of $19.80 per person, per day is a lot more meaningful of an answer from a budgeting perspective than saying it will cost 20% of the market value of the package....especially in this instance when the OP has stated they have never sailed NCL before.

[esm54687]

42 minutes ago, blcruising said:

 

But when someone wants to know the associated costs for purpose of doing a breakeven analysis (which is stated in the original post), an answer of 20% on the total purchase price of the package is abstract. It requires one to know the market cost of the package, which is marketed as 99.00 per person per day.

 

Seems to me that an answer of $19.80 per person, per day is a lot more meaningful of an answer from a budgeting perspective than saying it will cost 20% of the market value of the package....especially in this instance when the OP has stated they have never sailed NCL before.

Ugh..... I've said a couple times already that the information you provided of 19.80 per day per person is very very useful information to budget...... here's your gold star and pat on your back again.. 

 

The answer you gave was incorrect that the charge is per day.  It is NOT a per day charge and if they increase the cost of the package to $800 then your answer becomes obsolete because no one would know how you got to 19.80.....which is 20% of the total price of the package divided by 7. As you said, it's their first time cruising NCL so knowing the actual cost of the promo is critical. 

 

I'm not disagreeing with your "additional information" and it's usefulness but your initial statement I responded to was just correcting your statement that you said "NCL's PBP was a per day per person charge" and it is not.  The line item on their confirmation is 20% of the total cost. 

 

I'm done..... 

[podgeandrodge]

1 hour ago, esm54687 said:

..

just correcting your statement that you said "NCL's PBP was a per day per person charge" and it is not.  The line item on their confirmation is 20% of the 

European bookings include the grats on the beverage package under Free ar Sea, sometimes confusing on here!