NCL Introduces new "Free At Sea Plus" Packages

[fox02554]

7 hours ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

FASUDP is for the 2 additional dinings upgrade. I have those on my bookings after I purchased the dining upgrade. I did not get the FAS PLUS so I think the other poster is correct that FASUP would be specifically for the plus.  [now---it could be that they just listed the upgrades individually on your booking, but FASUDP is not the whole upgrade]

the more discussion I read the more I think she just Up graded EVERY thing and didn't " PLUS " anything , 🤔 my TA wont be back till august so will try to fix it then 

[cruiseny4life]

2 hours ago, Dave994 said:

Well, spoke with 2 chat agents and a PCC and all say the same thing. Because I have the air promotion it won’t let them upgrade me to FASUP.  I don’t know what else to do other than cancel my air promotion and book it. Checking flights it might work out cheaper anyway. 🤷‍♂️   Congrats to those who got it added, I am clueless as to how. 

My husband and PCC tried to get the free at sea plus on our March cruise where were utilizing the airfare program and we also cannot get it to work. 

 

I'm hoping to find out on our August cruise if we can upgrade on board. We already got it for August, but this will be helpful info ahead of the March cruise. 

[Dave994]

5 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

My husband and PCC tried to get the free at sea plus on our March cruise where were utilizing the airfare program and we also cannot get it to work. 

 

I'm hoping to find out on our August cruise if we can upgrade on board. We already got it for August, but this will be helpful info ahead of the March cruise. 

ok, more confirmation that I am not losing my mind. Lol. I assume your august cruise has no airfare on it? 
 

I am hoping they change this policy and allow me to upgrade once it gets launched officially. If not, I may just upgrade the drinks and 1 wifi and leave it at that as that is what we cared about most. 
 

[cruiseny4life]

2 hours ago, Dave994 said:

ok, more confirmation that I am not losing my mind. Lol. I assume your august cruise has no airfare on it? 
 

I am hoping they change this policy and allow me to upgrade once it gets launched officially. If not, I may just upgrade the drinks and 1 wifi and leave it at that as that is what we cared about most. 
 

Correct, no airfare in August and no issue upgrading. 

 

March - airfare and 30 minutes with the PCC unable to book the upgrade package for us.

 

I am hoping they change this too! Hopefully it's a system error that can be taken care of.

Edited July 18, 2022 by cruiseny4life
I sometimes don't know English

[Dave994]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

Correct, no airfare in August and no issue upgrading. 

 

March - airfare and 30 minutes with the PCC unable to book the upgrade package for us.

 

I am hoping they change this too! Hopefully it's a system error that can be taken care of.

ok, thanks. I will just leave it for now and follow up I think when it officially launches. Thanks for the feedback and have a great cruise in August! 

[LadyLion_AP]

Booked in 2020 after the original cruise was canceled. Elected not to take the airline promo, as I wanted to spend 6 days pre-cruise in Barcelona. WAS able to get the promo.

[cruiseinfoseeker]

6 hours ago, Dave994 said:

Well, spoke with 2 chat agents and a PCC and all say the same thing. Because I have the air promotion it won’t let them upgrade me to FASUP.  I don’t know what else to do other than cancel my air promotion and book it. Checking flights it might work out cheaper anyway. 🤷‍♂️   Congrats to those who got it added, I am clueless as to how. 

I spoke with a telephone rep today. I wanted to add FASUP to two bookings. Both were booked on the ship through CruiseNext as there was a 10% off base fare incentive to do so.  

When the gentleman added FASUP it removes the 10% discount. (Coded as CNUD10)  So we didn't go through with processing it. I was able to do the individual upgrades for beverage, wifi, and 2 add-on meals without incident on my own through the app/website weeks ago so it doesn't make sense why this would happen for the plus upgrade which is in essence a bundle of the same.

 

He said that this new plus option comes up on the "promotions" area of whatever his screen is and not the "amenities" area like the others. We both figure that is why this conflict is happening.

I'm going to play a wait and see on this as it's not officially out yet and the full published exclusions are not available to see what is what with it.

 

Maybe (my hope is) once it's formally released the option to purchase this will land in the same area of our reservations as the other upgrade options do. It makes little sense to me why it is being treated differently.

 

Why should you getting the air promo or my getting a cruise next booking discount exclude us from this but not from any of the other (individual) FAS upgrades. 

 

 

 

 

[Dave994]

1 hour ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

I spoke with a telephone rep today. I wanted to add FASUP to two bookings. Both were booked on the ship through CruiseNext as there was a 10% off base fare incentive to do so.  

When the gentleman added FASUP it removes the 10% discount. (Coded as CNUD10)  So we didn't go through with processing it. I was able to do the individual upgrades for beverage, wifi, and 2 add-on meals without incident on my own through the app/website weeks ago so it doesn't make sense why this would happen for the plus upgrade which is in essence a bundle of the same.

 

He said that this new plus option comes up on the "promotions" area of whatever his screen is and not the "amenities" area like the others. We both figure that is why this conflict is happening.

I'm going to play a wait and see on this as it's not officially out yet and the full published exclusions are not available to see what is what with it.

 

Maybe (my hope is) once it's formally released the option to purchase this will land in the same area of our reservations as the other upgrade options do. It makes little sense to me why it is being treated differently.

 

Why should you getting the air promo or my getting a cruise next booking discount exclude us from this but not from any of the other (individual) FAS upgrades. 

 

 

 

 

I agree and that’s why it makes no sense to me. They will lose money if I can’t add it. I will just get the upgraded beverage plan and 1 wifi, which will be cheaper than this package. I am also going to play a wait and see game with it as I think it will change once it’s released in full. 

[Coastalbreezes]

My friend and I are on a cruise in September. I called my travel agent about us adding this new promo to our reservation and he told us that yes, we can get it BUT because this is her first cruise on NCL and on the original booking she did not have any internet minutes, she'd have to pay an additional $306 to  upgrade internet. This makes no sense to me and seems stupid.

[Dave994]

4 hours ago, Coastalbreezes said:

My friend and I are on a cruise in September. I called my travel agent about us adding this new promo to our reservation and he told us that yes, we can get it BUT because this is her first cruise on NCL and on the original booking she did not have any internet minutes, she'd have to pay an additional $306 to  upgrade internet. This makes no sense to me and seems stupid.

Does she not have Free at Sea on her booking? That comes with 150 minutes 

[RRSeeker]

13 hours ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

I spoke with a telephone rep today. I wanted to add FASUP to two bookings. Both were booked on the ship through CruiseNext as there was a 10% off base fare incentive to do so.  

When the gentleman added FASUP it removes the 10% discount. (Coded as CNUD10)  So we didn't go through with processing it. I was able to do the individual upgrades for beverage, wifi, and 2 add-on meals without incident on my own through the app/website weeks ago so it doesn't make sense why this would happen for the plus upgrade which is in essence a bundle of the same.

 

He said that this new plus option comes up on the "promotions" area of whatever his screen is and not the "amenities" area like the others. We both figure that is why this conflict is happening.

I'm going to play a wait and see on this as it's not officially out yet and the full published exclusions are not available to see what is what with it.

 

Maybe (my hope is) once it's formally released the option to purchase this will land in the same area of our reservations as the other upgrade options do. It makes little sense to me why it is being treated differently.

 

Why should you getting the air promo or my getting a cruise next booking discount exclude us from this but not from any of the other (individual) FAS upgrades. 

 

 

 

 

I called today and upgraded to perks plus with streaming at $59.99 a day/pp and we do have the air promo so that was not an issue.  I am on a port intensive cruise on the Escape in September 2023 and had a spa club booked.  I have been meaning call to change the room to a MA since we would not get use out of the spa with only one sea day.  When I called to make the change I added the perks plus promo.  Yes, $59.99 a day sounds expensive but I was going to add 2 specialty dining's and streaming wifi which would have been $498 but the extra $50 per excursions ($300) for guest 2 basically on cost me approx. $42 for the premium plus beverage package.  

 

It may not make sense for everyone to pay extra but it did make sense for us.  The bottom line of changing my cabin and adding the package only cost me $230 so for me it is a win.  

[Dave994]

53 minutes ago, RRSeeker said:

I called today and upgraded to perks plus with streaming at $59.99 a day/pp and we do have the air promo so that was not an issue.  I am on a port intensive cruise on the Escape in September 2023 and had a spa club booked.  I have been meaning call to change the room to a MA since we would not get use out of the spa with only one sea day.  When I called to make the change I added the perks plus promo.  Yes, $59.99 a day sounds expensive but I was going to add 2 specialty dining's and streaming wifi which would have been $498 but the extra $50 per excursions ($300) for guest 2 basically on cost me approx. $42 for the premium plus beverage package.  

 

It may not make sense for everyone to pay extra but it did make sense for us.  The bottom line of changing my cabin and adding the package only cost me $230 so for me it is a win.  

Perks plus? Is that what they called it? Is it different than the Free at Sea Plus? I have tried 5 different agents in total via chat and phone and none have been able to add free at sea plus on my reservation with air , as they all say it’s a conflicting promo. 
 

if it’s the same thing, I wish NCL would figure their stuff out and apply this equally across the board 

[RRSeeker]

30 minutes ago, Dave994 said:

Perks plus? Is that what they called it? Is it different than the Free at Sea Plus? I have tried 5 different agents in total via chat and phone and none have been able to add free at sea plus on my reservation with air , as they all say it’s a conflicting promo. 
 

if it’s the same thing, I wish NCL would figure their stuff out and apply this equally across the board 

Sorry my brain is kind of fried today after being on hold with NCL then a long work meeting while I was typing my update. 

 

You are correct, free at see plus.  The interesting thing is that she said I would get a confirmation email.  It has been over 3 hours and no email.  I can see some updates on my account and the price and my cabin changed, I now have 2 $50 shore excursion credits (actually it shows 3 but I am sure one will disappear), my 2 extra dining shows up but my beverage and internet have not been updated yet.  I also noticed my bogo flight went down from $298 to $249.  I really don't have time to call again today so I am hoping I get an email and don't end up on hold again!

[Dave994]

19 minutes ago, RRSeeker said:

Sorry my brain is kind of fried today after being on hold with NCL then a long work meeting while I was typing my update. 

 

You are correct, free at see plus.  The interesting thing is that she said I would get a confirmation email.  It has been over 3 hours and no email.  I can see some updates on my account and the price and my cabin changed, I now have 2 $50 shore excursion credits (actually it shows 3 but I am sure one will disappear), my 2 extra dining shows up but my beverage and internet have not been updated yet.  I also noticed my bogo flight went down from $298 to $249.  I really don't have time to call again today so I am hoping I get an email and don't end up on hold again!

I would check again and make sure your total amount is correct. I was told by multiple agents it wasn’t possible with the air promo, so I am worried that maybe they are individually upgrading your stuff at full price? 

[RRSeeker]

Just now, Dave994 said:

I would check again and make sure your total amount is correct. I was told by multiple agents it wasn’t possible with the air promo, so I am worried that maybe they are individually upgrading your stuff at full price? 

There is no way to upgrade the extra $50 shore excursion credit so I know that is not the case.  My account shows I have 1 as the regular free at sea promo and 2 more that has to be the plus promo. My guess is she forgot to send me the confirmation email and it may take a day for all changes to show up in the my account.

 

I do want my confirmation email so if it is not received soon I will have to call and request it.  I book through CAS so I do not know if I can do that through the chat function.

[Dave994]

1 hour ago, RRSeeker said:

There is no way to upgrade the extra $50 shore excursion credit so I know that is not the case.  My account shows I have 1 as the regular free at sea promo and 2 more that has to be the plus promo. My guess is she forgot to send me the confirmation email and it may take a day for all changes to show up in the my account.

 

I do want my confirmation email so if it is not received soon I will have to call and request it.  I book through CAS so I do not know if I can do that through the chat function.

Come back and let me know then if it all works out. I will be extra frustrated if some people can add it with the air promo and others can’t. Doesn’t seem right or fair. 

[RRSeeker]

3 minutes ago, Dave994 said:

Come back and let me know then if it all works out. I will be extra frustrated if some people can add it with the air promo and others can’t. Doesn’t seem right or fair. 

I agree with you 100%. I will let you know.  I will probably wait until tomorrow to check my account and call if I don't have my confirmation. 

[cruiseinfoseeker]

3 hours ago, RRSeeker said:

I called today and upgraded to perks plus with streaming at $59.99 a day/pp and we do have the air promo so that was not an issue.  I am on a port intensive cruise on the Escape in September 2023 and had a spa club booked.  I have been meaning call to change the room to a MA since we would not get use out of the spa with only one sea day.  When I called to make the change I added the perks plus promo.  Yes, $59.99 a day sounds expensive but I was going to add 2 specialty dining's and streaming wifi which would have been $498 but the extra $50 per excursions ($300) for guest 2 basically on cost me approx. $42 for the premium plus beverage package.  

 

It may not make sense for everyone to pay extra but it did make sense for us.  The bottom line of changing my cabin and adding the package only cost me $230 so for me it is a win.  

But why $59.99. We've seen $49.00 pp/pd as the amount. Nobody else has reported 59.99

[fox02554]

2 hours ago, Dave994 said:

I would check again and make sure your total amount is correct. I was told by multiple agents it wasn’t possible with the air promo, so I am worried that maybe they are individually upgrading your stuff at full price? 

thats what happened to me $299 each for unlimmitedd Wifi 🤪

 

[scooter6139]

Sorry, I think I am just dense on this.  Looking at upgraded from Standard Free at Sea for our 5 day cruise.  Basic math says this is $49 pp per day (or $98 for a couple in one room per day) that would be an extra $245 for the cruise, or $490 for a couple.

 

My NCL separate upgrades stand at:

$70.80 for 2 extra meals meals ($141.60 for couple)

$174 for Premium Plus Bev ($348 for couple)

$89.95 for Unlimited wifi ($179.90 per couple)

$50 for the excursion, as there is no upgrade listed that I can find

-----------

$384.75 ($719.5 per couple)

 

That is a great deal, as long as I want to upgrade all 4 items.  OR should I save that and potentially put it to getting an upgraded cabin?  (Feel free to correct any of my shoddy math)

[rbxlady]

37 minutes ago, scooter6139 said:

Sorry, I think I am just dense on this.  Looking at upgraded from Standard Free at Sea for our 5 day cruise.  Basic math says this is $49 pp per day (or $98 for a couple in one room per day) that would be an extra $245 for the cruise, or $490 for a couple.

 

My NCL separate upgrades stand at:

$70.80 for 2 extra meals meals ($141.60 for couple)

$174 for Premium Plus Bev ($348 for couple)

$89.95 for Unlimited wifi ($179.90 per couple)

$50 for the excursion, as there is no upgrade listed that I can find

-----------

$384.75 ($719.5 per couple)

 

That is a great deal, as long as I want to upgrade all 4 items.  OR should I save that and potentially put it to getting an upgraded cabin?  (Feel free to correct any of my shoddy math)

 

I think what most people look at upgrading is the beverage package and the wifi, especially those making their cruise a "Haven Lite" cruise. So if you were already going to upgrade those two, it's worth it to pay for Free at Sea plus, and everything else is gravy. (Consider that you now both get $50 off per excursion, so the more excursions you book, the more you save. Great for port-intensive itineraries!)

 

For us, on a 7-day cruise, upgrading the wifi was a foregone conclusion ($109.93 each) because we do need to be handling some work stuff, unfortunately, and we were already strongly considering upgrading our beverage package ($243.60 each). Those two upgrades purchased separately would cost $353.53 each, or $707.06 per couple. Free at Sea Plus costs $343 each, or $686 per couple, on a 7-day cruise, so that's already a savings of $21.06.

 

Additionally, I booked two excursions, so now that we are saving an extra $50 off each one, that's $100 extra that we would have spent otherwise, since I would have booked them with or without the perk. That brings our savings up to $121.06.

 

We probably wouldn't have paid for more specialty dining meals than we already got with regular Free at Sea, so those are just nice to have. I won't add any savings for that.

 

All that said, if you were not really considering upgrading anything or were only considering upgrading one thing (like upgrading to unlimited wifi), it's not worth it, and your money would probably be better spent on booking an upgraded cabin.

Edited July 19, 2022 by rbxlady
typo

[RRSeeker]

2 hours ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

But why $59.99. We've seen $49.00 pp/pd as the amount. Nobody else has reported 59.99

I wanted wifi with streaming, extra $10 a day per person.  My reasoning for getting this is to use wifi calling while on the ship. I had unlimited with streaming on my cruise in May and it worked perfectly. My son just had regular unlimited and it really didn't work for calling and was pretty slow compared to mine. While I wish I didn't need it but it makes me feel better that I can check on my family and dog at home.  The other reason is the $9.95 calling and texting feature on the NCL app is useless and now I can stay in touch with my husband on the cruise when I wonder off alone while he is taking a nap. 

[RRSeeker]

1 hour ago, fox02554 said:

thats what happened to me $299 each for unlimmitedd Wifi 🤪

 

But what would the cost be for the extra $50 shore excursion credit for guest 2?  That is showing on my account and it is not an upgrade you can purchase.  Also, my option to upgrade to wifi with streaming has disappeared on my upgrade offers even though I am only seeing the 150 minutes pp right now.

 

I know it could end up being an issue but I am willing to wait one day and see if my drink package and wifi upgrade show up. I do have 418 days until my cruise and 298 days until final payment so I have a lot of time.  I read on one of the boards here ( no clue which topic) that someone else upgraded and it took a day to see everything in their account so I am waiting that one day.  I will call and get my confirmation email also if it doesn't magically appear also by tomorrow but I am not in the mood to sit on hold again today. 

[RRSeeker]

47 minutes ago, RRSeeker said:

I wanted wifi with streaming, extra $10 a day per person.  My reasoning for getting this is to use wifi calling while on the ship. I had unlimited with streaming on my cruise in May and it worked perfectly. My son just had regular unlimited and it really didn't work for calling and was pretty slow compared to mine. While I wish I didn't need it but it makes me feel better that I can check on my family and dog at home.  The other reason is the $9.95 calling and texting feature on the NCL app is useless and now I can stay in touch with my husband on the cruise when I wonder off alone while he is taking a nap. 

It should be $59 a day. I just looked at my notes I wrote during the call and it wasn’t 59.99 just my handwriting skills. I will verify once I actually get my invoice.

[Dave994]

1 hour ago, RRSeeker said:

But what would the cost be for the extra $50 shore excursion credit for guest 2?  That is showing on my account and it is not an upgrade you can purchase.  Also, my option to upgrade to wifi with streaming has disappeared on my upgrade offers even though I am only seeing the 150 minutes pp right now.

 

I know it could end up being an issue but I am willing to wait one day and see if my drink package and wifi upgrade show up. I do have 418 days until my cruise and 298 days until final payment so I have a lot of time.  I read on one of the boards here ( no clue which topic) that someone else upgraded and it took a day to see everything in their account so I am waiting that one day.  I will call and get my confirmation email also if it doesn't magically appear also by tomorrow but I am not in the mood to sit on hold again today. 

If you were able to get it added with the air promo then you beat the system it seems so I hope you’re correct.