No More Mixed Shots!

[victory2020]

2 hours ago, JGmf said:

 

The mudslide is still an under $15 drink....but per the "no mixed shot" edict, the capable bartender is not allowed to divide said mudslide into smaller, equal parts shots.  Total BS.

 

Take away Cagney's, get rid of the crepe station, get rid of the chocolate-covered strawberries, but don't mess with the @(*&#(& bar please.

The crepe station is my favorite part of NCL!!

[ziggyuk]

duplicate

Edited November 22, 2022 by ziggyuk

[ziggyuk]

2 hours ago, JGmf said:

 

The mudslide is still an under $15 drink....but per the "no mixed shot" edict, the capable bartender is not allowed to divide said mudslide into smaller, equal parts shots.  Total BS.

 

 

The Mudslide is not a mixed shot it's a mixed drink or cocktail it is also a menu item and will not be affected.

[MSUjohn]

52 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

So this reminds me of tequila which IMO is best used to power your lawn mower.  Or strip paint.  Or, at least I used to think that was the case until I got to talking to a Mexican shop owner who proceeded to let me sample the "good" tequila.  Much, much different than the mass market tequila and actually enjoyable, but any of those good bottles were $100 or more (one was like $300+ IIRC).  I don't like it enough to spend that kind of money.

The good news about the bottle you posted above is it looks like it's only about $50.  Maybe, just maybe I'll try to have a bit more open mind about it.  

that is correct it runs around $50.00. it is a very pleasant rum.

[pc_load_letter]

I guess I don't understand this move. 

 

If it's a time constraint thing, I feel there is really nothing different in making a mixed shot vs a mixed drink. I'd argue it's LESS time to make a mixed shot.

 

If it's because of a previous drunk cruiser,  if they want to punish all cruisers for the bad acts of one guy getting inebriated, I guess that's there right, but still crappy.

 

We've had great experiences on our NCL cruises before covid but this is our first since the restart. We have sailed CCL numerous times since restart and all have been fairly flawless. I hope our luck continues. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by pc_load_letter

[missnd]

7 hours ago, Bxc53 said:

Just to cherry pick one topic from this thread-  Have you Captain fans tried Sailor Jerry? If not, I recommend you try a Sailor J and Coke ( no Pepsi) and report back.  I’ll wait… 🙂

 

 

I once ordered a Captain and Coke in an onshore bar and was served Sailor Jerry.  Yuck.  I couldn't drink it.

[New2cruise2022]

7 minutes ago, pc_load_letter said:

I guess I don't understand this move. 

 

If it's a time constraint thing, I feel there is really nothing different in making a mixed shot vs a mixed drink. I'd argue it's LESS time to make a mixed shot.

 

If it's because of a previous drunk cruiser,  if they want to punish all cruisers for the bad acts of one guy getting inebriated, I guess that's there right, but still crappy.

 

We've had great experiences on our NCL cruises before covid but this is our first since the restart. We have sailed CCL numerous times since restart and all have been fairly flawless. I hope our luck continues. 

Agreed. It shouldn’t be necessary. I don’t even mind a bartender saying, “we are peak times right now, come back later and we will hook you up.”

 

As for over serving, good bartenders know what to look for and good managers know how to support bartenders in cutting off the unruly few. (I’ve been in both sides — bartender and customer — and I know that it works well without a blanket policy.)

 

The only plausible reason is $$$. If it is an attempt to create savings, that is NCL right, but this policy shift should be communicated to consumers booking new cruisers and to those that already have cruises booked. I get enough messages from NCL that this shouldn’t be hard to do. 

[Juncti]

8 hours ago, PATRLR said:

This just feels like one more step to ratchet down just how much you can get with the "free" drink packages.   

Add me to the list of people who are pissed off by this.

Thing is this sounds like it's a complete ban. So even if you pay for the plus upgrade, no shots. 

 

 

1 hour ago, pc_load_letter said:

I guess I don't understand this move. 

 

If it's a time constraint thing, I feel there is really nothing different in making a mixed shot vs a mixed drink. I'd argue it's LESS time to make a mixed shot.

 

If it's because of a previous drunk cruiser,  if they want to punish all cruisers for the bad acts of one guy getting inebriated, I guess that's there right, but still crappy.

 

We've had great experiences on our NCL cruises before covid but this is our first since the restart. We have sailed CCL numerous times since restart and all have been fairly flawless. I hope our luck continues. 

 

Yeah this doesn't make sense on an outside look. I mean if a bar is slammed, sure go ahead and say no shots, but I know in the Vibe the bar is rarely busy. In fact most of the time they're chasing you down trying to see if you want more drinks. Some great times we had there with shot o clock. 

 

If it's about a drunk person or a few drunk people over time, that's a management issue. They should be stopping serving if someone is clearly over indulged to the point of danger. Eliminating mixed shots won't solve over drinking. You can get blackout drunk on any alcohol. 

 

Wonder if they'll also eliminate straight shots as well? I mean some enterprising people could game the system by all ordering a shot Licor 43, and one person could order a cup of some heavy cream and walk by topping up each shot to complete the mini beer.

 

People could order chilled shots of amaretto and someone else could order some beer, and could make your own flameless Dr. Peppers. 

 

Having just done a Carnival cruise a few months back for the first time in a while, even though they have the hard cap of 15 drinks per day, it felt like a better overall deal considering it also included all the extras and nothing was really off limits for any practical purpose. I'm sure there's a few super premiums that aren't included but I never found any. 

 

We're still burning through some remaining FCC's from pre-pandemic, but when we're done we're definitely going to be re-evaluating our cruising preferences. It's not even so much the shots, but the continual removal of what's included creating a smaller and smaller list of options.

[surfone]

So no more b52s   Not that we ordered many but usually started out each night with one....

[Sailing12Away]

On 11/21/2022 at 6:51 PM, luv2kroooz said:

Hello. The base price of NCL's package is listed at $99, $109 effective 1-1-2023. Apparently RCL is $59 by your reporting. RCL includes, souvenir cup, premium coffees and teas, fresh squeezed juices plus still and sparkling waters, none of which is included with NCL. This forms my opinion that NCL' s package is subpar. I hope that helps.

No one pays the base price on NCL. With the free at sea deal the cost is roughly $21/day.

 

And I've said this about 100 times, where (on any ship, any cruise line) does over even get fresh squeezed juice? Everyone loves to mention it, yet on all my trips I've never once seen it. 

 

On RCC we could not get bottles water, still out sparkling, so no difference there either.

[luv2kroooz]

4 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

No one pays the base price on NCL. With the free at sea deal the cost is roughly $21/day.

 

Of course they don't pay base price. As I said yesterday, the base price is the highest in the industry at $99 - soon to be $109. The "service charges" at 20% are industry leading, and they offer the most limited selection in the industry. This is why I stated yesterday that it was the worst in the industry on a value basis, in my opinion. The base pricing is so bad, they offer it for $21 per person per day plus the additional base fare cost to allow you to make a free at sea choice.

 

I regularly see MSC offers for their all in package at about $100 for a seven day cruise, inclusive of gratuities. Ditto with Carnival - we regularly get the VIFP RU2 offer code with a fare difference of about $150 per person for a seven day cruise, also inclusive of gratuities. Both packages offer a far greater variety of beer, wine, spirits, mixed shots, cocktails, bottled water, premium coffees, milkshakes, etc. Full disclosure - Carnival limits you to 15 alcohol drinks per day and it is 1 drink per card, not 2 like NCL.

 

All that said, we have enjoyed the NCL package in the past, but that doesn't change our opinion that dollar for dollar, it is the worst value in the industry. You just have to know what you are and are not getting.....and with NCL ( aka - No Communication Lines), they keep moving the target over and again while regularly failing to communicate with impacted guests. They are entitled to change the rules, but at least have the professional courtesy to let impacted guests know. There really is no excuse for not doing so. Thank goodness for the good people here on cruisecritic or we'd never know what we were walking into when we step aboard an NCL cruise.

[New2cruise2022]

4 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

They are entitled to change the rules, but at least have the professional courtesy to let impacted guests know. There really is no excuse for not doing so. Thank goodness for the good people here on cruisecritic or we'd never know what we were walking into when we step aboard an NCL cruise.

This. I am extremely grateful for the information here on CC

[Sailing12Away]

23 hours ago, Mr&MrsBennifer2022 said:

I am feeling so taken advantage of. We have the free at sea package and countless NCL employees touted it as “all drinks included” and we have since found out that very few are actually included. Unfortunately the extra $500 + gratuity to upgrade just isn’t worth it. Definitely feel nickel and dimed to death. Not a good feeling for my honeymoon. 😞

Outside of your iced coffee (have the cabin steward bring you a bucket of ice, sit the hot coffee in the bucket and blam-o... iced coffee), what do you feel you'll be missing?

 

23 hours ago, Niffernay said:

Is that Christian???? He's fantastic!!

Yup! Looking forward to seeing him again in about 3 months. He was amazing.

 

As for this new 'rule', challenge accepted. I plan to find ways to work around the limits or use it as an opportunity to try different things which are allowed.

[New2cruise2022]

2 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

 

As for this new 'rule', challenge accepted. I plan to find ways to work around the limits or use it as an opportunity to try different things which are allowed

Challenge accepted. That’s a great attitude. 

[New2cruise2022]

On 11/21/2022 at 9:35 AM, id10t said:

Yes the bartenders know the shots for sure. All bars said no, no matter time of day or if you know them and tip well.

Very sad. 

[PATRLR]

13 hours ago, New2cruise2022 said:

The only plausible reason is $$$.

Of course it's about $$.  EVERY move NCL makes is about either extracting more money from the passengers or spending less money on the passengers.  EVERY move.   It's nickel diming, except from the cost side of the balance sheet, that's all.  (queue the NCL apologists)

[New2cruise2022]

9 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Of course it's about $$.  EVERY move NCL makes is about either extracting more money from the passengers or spending less money on the passengers.  EVERY move.   It's nickel diming, except from the cost side of the balance sheet, that's all.  (queue the NCL apologists)

I don’t mind cost saving and cost cutting so much as I crave transparency. I’m not expecting a marketing campaign declaring the cuts — “Now you pay more while we continue to shrink our menu and offering!” — but having to rely on CC for every new pricing change and offer reduction isn’t a great look for NCL. Perhaps all cruises are this way, but I just seem to need to research NCL to know what to expect. 

[PATRLR]

15 minutes ago, New2cruise2022 said:

I don’t mind cost saving and cost cutting so much as I crave transparency. I’m not expecting a marketing campaign declaring the cuts — “Now you pay more while we continue to shrink our menu and offering!” — but having to rely on CC for every new pricing change and offer reduction isn’t a great look for NCL. Perhaps all cruises are this way, but I just seem to need to research NCL to know what to expect. 

For me, the issue is that its supposed to be an all-inclusive type of vacation.  Yes, I get that it isn't ALL inclusive and there are plenty of T&Cs, but the idea is that generally speaking most average things are included.  And then they find a way to charge you for something that used to be included, or they start taking things away.  Each move is small and damn near incidental.  But its constant. Over and over.  Death by a thousand paper cuts.  Or simply annoying - No, you can't have a mini-beer shot, but you are welcome to slam shots of tequila.

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by PATRLR

[PATRLR]

By the way, if they can eliminate mixed shots, why can't they eliminate all shots?  Anyone wanna bet that eliminating all shots is somewhere on or just over the horizon? 

Edited November 23, 2022 by PATRLR

[graphicguy]

What?  Drink package is $20/day or thereabouts?  I think individually there may be a liquor here or there that has an up charge.  I don’t dip into those extra charge drinks as they don’t mean much to me. But overall, it’s a pretty good deal.  

 

On any given day, I’ll have 2-3 beers, a shot or two of bourbon, an after dinner drink, maybe a “drink o’the day”.  My estimation?  No way can I find that mix of drinks for $20….even at a dive bar on land.

 

Just returned from the Breakaway 4 weeks ago.  Never had any of my requests denied for mixed drinks.  Now, I don’t order fancy brandies or tequilas.  But, I drank Stella Artois, I believe they had Bulliet bourbon, which is a good bourbon that I liked (I’m sure they had others, but I stuck to Bulliet).

 

Had mixed drinks like my fave “dark and stormy”, “painkiller”, “Long Island” (which is probably among the strongest made that I’ve ever had), Margarita, Sidecar, Mojito (Bacardi?) and probably 3-4 others I don’t remember.

 

Are they cutting back?  Not sure.  I do know that Bailey’s was an up charge, but again, that’s not my drink.

 

Only “included” drink package that was better for me was on the Celebrity Cruises I took last year.  But, their fares are generally higher.

 

[graphicguy]

Just did a quick search and turned up this menu on their $20/day service charge drink menus.  I guess from the newly launched Prima…..

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by graphicguy

[tsahall01]

4 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Just did a quick search and turned up this menu on their $20/day service charge drink menus.  I guess from the newly launched Prima…..

 

 

 

 

Sorry--that is outdated!  It's from 2019.  A lot has changed--Baileys and Capt Morgan for example.

[cruiseny4life]

Requested deletion

Edited November 23, 2022 by cruiseny4life

[tsahall01]

Here is an updated one from 2022--surprised that it still has Capt Morgans on it!

Unlimited-Open-Bar-0922.pdf

[seemoreroyals]

7 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Just did a quick search and turned up this menu on their $20/day service charge drink menus.  I guess from the newly launched Prima…..

 

 

 

 

 

Can confirm that Fireball cinnamon was nowhere to be found on our 11-13 to 11-20 Bliss cruise.  Was repeatedly advised throughout cruise to check back next day they may have some by then.