Speciality Dining package further reduced - ONE! meal on 9 day cruise

[ziggyuk]

In July 2021 when booking an inside you got 3 meals on a 9 day cruise, late 2021 this was reduced to 2 meals and at some point recently this has been reduces to just 1 meal for Studio/Inside/Oceanview

 

I booked an inside 9 day in July last year and have the old 3 meal package

I remember this being reduced to 2 days shortly after I booked but booking another cruise today I was shocked to discover it's reduced again so soon after the last reduction to Just one night on my latest booking.

 

Todays allowance:

 

July 2021

[thedarklord]

Good spot, that's pretty disappointing. So not only have the increased the cost, they've also decreased the benefit.
Sometimes I regret liking the freestyle approach NCL have, it very much makes me lean towards them for cruises. This sort of gradual erosion in the package though makes me more and more interested in other lines - do any others have something similar to Freestyle?

[shof515]

Here is a topic about this when the changes were made:

 

[ziggyuk]

7 minutes ago, shof515 said:

Here is a topic about this when the changes were made:

 

 

Thanks, I tried to find any other reports via the search but drew a blank.
My PCC also told me the internet had reduced from 250 to 150 but I did not see that as such a big deal, although when you couple it with the reduction in the Latitudes internet it is quite some drop.
It appears everything is being eroded.

[dexddd]

First I noticed they had tiers based on category booked.  While I'm not a big fan of many things NCL, it makes sense to me that they would tier things based on what you book.

[Travelicious]

1 hour ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Thanks, I tried to find any other reports via the search but drew a blank.
My PCC also told me the internet had reduced from 250 to 150 but I did not see that as such a big deal, although when you couple it with the reduction in the Latitudes internet it is quite some drop.
It appears everything is being eroded.

But the 250 minutes was per stateroom.  The 150 is per person (at least up to 2 - don't know about more than that) in stateroom.  So if sailing with 2 in room, it is actually a bit of an increase.

[JandC_Cruising]

59 minutes ago, dexddd said:

First I noticed they had tiers based on category booked.  While I'm not a big fan of many things NCL, it makes sense to me that they would tier things based on what you book.

 

Another point to note:  when winning a bid, you get a nicer cabin, but your promotions from the original booking remain.

I know it is popular to book Inside or Oceanview and then place a low bid to a Balcony.

Given today's reduced capacity, I'm sure almost everyone who does that is winning their bid right now (plenty of open balcony cabins to go around and NCL isn't going to pass on that extra revenue). 

With this new program, you are effectively getting $50 less of a benefit (one less specialty meal) when you use that strategy. 

NCL is trying to drive more to book the balcony cabins up front.

[ziggyuk]

43 minutes ago, Travelicious said:

But the 250 minutes was per stateroom.  The 150 is per person (at least up to 2 - don't know about more than that) in stateroom.  So if sailing with 2 in room, it is actually a bit of an increase.

 

Good to know, it was new to me today, thanks.

[weltek]

Bear with me while I sound like an old lady shaking a stick for a moment. I really do have a later point.

Most of my early life sailing with NCL (since 2000), I booked insides and oceanviews. And other than MAYBE $25 or $50 OBC, I got nothing for booking the cheapest rooms. 

Then Free at Sea came along (what, like six years ago?), and I still don't recall getting anything in the early years of it for an inside. It was part of the lure for us to book a higher level room. 

Then, in our bigger rooms (balconies), between the Latitudes and Free at Sea nights, we only dined in the MDR one night. And I was almost a little bummed by that. Especially when it became hard to get reservations at the specialties because it seemed like everyone had free dinners to burn.

My two cents:

NCL HAD to change something because they couldn't handle the volume of guests trying to dine in the specialties. 

I agree that for a 9 day, it stinks to only get one night, but coming from the pre-Free at Sea days, it's great you get one night for an inside. In the end, they are choosing to "reward" people that are guaranteed to spend more money with them (e.g., in a more expensive room). 

On the good side, you should be getting more Latitudes benefits soon if you keep sailing with NCL, and you'll be back to more free specialty dining nights (regardless of room booked) before you know it.

[DwayneG]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the long run.  Since NCL has to feed everybody every day anyway they really didn't have to spend much more to feed us at specialties...those were means they didn't need to provide at the MDR.  But when they were including all the specialty dining they were getting the mandatory service charges in addition to the daily charge from all these guests, so from NCL standpoint these meals weren't really "free".  So they're going to see a reduction in this revenue.  And I suspect that a lot of folks will find the included restaurants quite adequate, maybe specialty dining will be pretty empty.

[oteixeira]

So they have been doing this for years.  In a mini/club suite I booked in 2015 I got 4 free meals, the very next year, same room was three, then just before the shutdown 2, and now still 2 for that room but adjusted in other ways.  I actually have 5 for an upcoming Panama cruise that would have only been 3 had a waited a few more months to book.

At the end of the day people may complain some but if they continue to do it then I would guess it has not effected their passenger count over the years (since it has gone down almost every year).  I do agree that specialties feel more special when not every single passenger has 4 free meals and you can't even get into the restaurants you want.

 

Anyway, that is just my 2 cents, sorry that you (OP) are disappointed, but keep in mind many other lines never gave any free meals in specialties (and still don't to this day).

[Two Wheels Only]

1 hour ago, oteixeira said:

So they have been doing this for years.  In a mini/club suite I booked in 2015 I got 4 free meals, the very next year, same room was three, then just before the shutdown 2, and now still 2 for that room but adjusted in other ways

 

If you had booked a few months earlier in 2015, you would have gotten unlimited meals for the SDP (called UDP back then) promo and the promo service charge would have only been 15%....no promo service charge if you booked a suite/Haven.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Two Wheels Only

[mscdivina2016]

I was.able to book a 2023 b2b2b2b pre Covid. We have 14 meals (28 for two) included as one of our perks. But we are Sapphire so we each will get 2 more(4) per cruise so that's 22 meals for 2 in the restaurants. Lol.

[bigrednole]

I have a TA that I used mostly for Disney vacations. They expanded to cruises when business went south. She said that all of their customers complain about the NCL nickel and diming. I am not judging because I have not been on one of their cruises yet. I did ask her about Disney's pricing. She said everything is included for the most part except drinks. I said OK, but Disney was almost $5,000 more for the cruise WITHOUT a drink package, flights, insurance, and everything else. Knowing Disney drink prices are probably $15-$20 per drink, I would need to plan for about $200 more per day at a minimum. 

 

With that said, even if there is some nickel and diming, my 7-day cruise on the Breakaway cannot be touched price wise by CCL, RCL, nor Disney. I am happy with my sailing and price. I even called her back to see if she could match the other TA I was using and she said no. So, I booked with the other TA. 3 people with a total cost under $4,000 for cruise, daily service fees, flights, all excursions booked, travel insurance, etc is a great deal to me. The only additional charges I have coming are baggage fees for flights (maybe) and taxes while in US and port waters for drinks. 

[Middleager]

I don't cruise for the meals or dining offers.  I cruise for the ports.  Meals in MDRs are perfectly fine.  I used to book the sail away rates for inside cabins, because these are the cheapest way to cruise and I'd rather take more cruises than spend more money on more expensive cabins.

 

The NCL specialty dining offers and b1b1 airfare are a good offers.  But these are not the primary considerations for my cruise bookings.  They are a bonus to have, and if no or fewer specialty dining, find for me.  We'll still get pampered, and will still enjoy the cruise vacation.

[bigrednole]

7 hours ago, Middleager said:

I used to book the sail away rates for inside cabins, because these are the cheapest way to cruise and I'd rather take more cruises than spend more money on more expensive cabins.

I found this out recently as well. With all the available upgrades, saving ~$800 on an inside cabin would have been even cheaper with upgrading that I paid. I know this only works with such reduced capacity and not to expect it to last. But I am there with you. Once it is only 2 of us, I don't need that much more space. I don't plan to stay in the room but to sleep and change.

 

[rachiem]

We booked in May 2021 for a 2023 cruise (mini suite, 11 nights)

I'm struggling to find out how many meals we are entitled to...Is it the 4 as above?

Edited February 3, 2022 by rachiem

[shof515]

2 hours ago, rachiem said:

We booked in May 2021 for a 2023 cruise (mini suite, 11 nights)

I'm struggling to find out how many meals we are entitled to...Is it the 4 as above?

when you log into your account on the vacation summary under included items it should say something like 2-3 meal dining package

[SpainAlien]

Two years ago Free at sea for inside cabins just gave you one option, you had to choose drinks, dining or wifi. Oceanview and balcony gave you two options and Haven cabins got all of them.  Even with the current changes with an inside cabin you still get to choose 2 (or all if the offer applies) so you are actually getting one more meal than you would have in 2019 in your inside cabin

 

[rachiem]

4 hours ago, rachiem said:

We booked in May 2021 for a 2023 cruise (mini suite, 11 nights)

I'm struggling to find out how many meals we are entitled to...Is it the 4 as above?

It only says 

Speciality Dining Package

Dining Package - Promo

[hallux]

1 minute ago, rachiem said:

It only says 

Speciality Dining Package

Dining Package - Promo

What you need to do is find the promo terms and conditions page for your region.  The US version still shows the old promo, it does not have the updated numbers yet.  The thread from 2 weeks ago that was linked earlier in the thread has a matrix for the US and that indicates that your package is based on when you booked.

[ggTexasGal]

4 hours ago, rachiem said:

We booked in May 2021 for a 2023 cruise (mini suite, 11 nights)

I'm struggling to find out how many meals we are entitled to...Is it the 4 as above?

I "clipped" this in January 2021, so hopefully, you have the same benefits (rather than further reduced) with your May 2021 booking.  Based on the above chart posted, it would seem that you "should" receive 4 dinners.

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by ggTexasGal
added comment

[rachiem]

5 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

I "clipped" this in January 2021, so hopefully, you have the same benefits (rather than further reduced) with your May 2021 booking.  Based on the above chart posted, it would seem that you "should" receive 4 dinners.

 

Thank you. The UK site is so confusing as there are so many different dates and we could only choose 2 items, when we booked..so we went for drinks and dining.

[ggTexasGal]

Just now, rachiem said:

Thank you. The UK site is so confusing as there are so many different dates and we could only choose 2 items, when we booked..so we went for drinks and dining.

I hope you have the higher number of dinners!

[bisco333]

We have reserved last May 2021,...and we reserved, (Free at Sea, drinks and one dinner package, at that time there were 4 dinners, per person)... and now that they have made the changes... So I talk to NCL if it affected us. They assured me that it does not affect, that what was agreed upon will be respected... I hope it is true.