What is an Amenity Invoice?

[roysmith99]

Hope this post is ok on here, but this is our first NCL cruise and the company are really confusing me and being unhelpful so far. I tried an online chat and was told ‘nothing wrong here’ also a phone call (routed to the USA) saying the same. The agents say that the Amenity Invoice is just a list of something we could buy if we want, that doesn’t sound right - based on my searches in this forum.
 

When I booked directly in the U.K. I believed I was getting Free At Sea Plus and this included Service Charges for the Suite (and for the Beverage package plus other items. These are all shown on my Amenity Invoice see below. And, on the cruise invoice they all show as Add-Ons (plus a transfer I booked separately). But the invoice still also shows Services Charges as owing within the final payment due?

 

I’m going to continue to pursue this somehow but would lie, to know what I’m looking at on each of the sections / invoices. Any thoughts, advice or guidance would be appreciated, thank you in advance.

 

[shof515]

amenity invoice shows all of the perks that comes with your booking aka the included add ins

 

the prepaid service charge in the included addon/amenity invoice includes the service charge. you can ignore the amount in your confirmation. you are not paying that and the invoice total should be the guest fare, gover taxes and the ground transfer 

[roysmith99]

13 minutes ago, shof515 said:

amenity invoice shows all of the perks that comes with your booking aka the included add ins

 

the prepaid service charge in the included addon/amenity invoice includes the service charge. you can ignore the amount in your confirmation. you are not paying that and the invoice total should be the guest fare, gover taxes and the ground transfer 

thank you very much, this is what I was thinking but the total amount due does include the £600 and why NCL seem to be more confused that  me. I suppose I should have mentioned that in my original post. 

[bonvoyagie]

If you spoke to USA agents they probably have no clue as to how things are done elsewhere in the world. I know that due to the marketing laws in Europe and the UK they have to package things differently than here in the US.

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

@roysmith99

 

How many days is the cruise?

 

My guess is the £600 is most likely the Daily Service Charge for the two of you in the Suite.   (I don't know the Suite DSC in £.)

 

However if the Suite DSC for the two of you is less than £600 the rest may well be the Service Charges for the "Free" Specialty Dining Package and the Premium Beverage Package.  (Again I don't know the SCs for those in £)

 

In New Zealand, we book through Australia, our Confirmation Email has the following

 

 

The two Service Charges are both $0.00 as they are built into the fare we pay.

 

HTH

 

A P

[KeithJenner]

The £600 service charge listed is the DSC, and is different from the service charge on the beverage package.

 

I don’t know of any offers whereby this is included in the fare, but I don’t book suites.

 

Assuming it is not included in the fare it is either charged to your room daily or you can prepay it before the cruise. If you prepay it then it is payable along with final payment, so it should be included in the amount due.

 

My documents for upcoming cruises are the same. Prepaid service charge is showing as an amenity but it is also

showing on the amount owing.

 

If you do buy any extras (excursions, dining etc) then they will show on amenity invoices as well as the amount due. What you have paid to date (deposits, payments for excursions etc) will then be shown in payments made.

Edited December 12, 2023 by KeithJenner

[KeithJenner]

7 hours ago, bonvoyagie said:

If you spoke to USA agents they probably have no clue as to how things are done elsewhere in the world. I know that due to the marketing laws in Europe and the UK they have to package things differently than here in the US.

Calls from the UK are routinely routed through to the US, and many of if have PCCs who are US based, so it isn’t that the OP ended up in the wrong place.

 

The location of the call centre shouldn’t be a problem. However you are still relying on the agent having the correct info which we know is not always the case, regardless of location.

[roysmith99]

3 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

The £600 service charge listed is the DSC, and is different from the service charge on the beverage package.

 

I don’t know of any offers whereby this is included in the fare, but I don’t book suites.

 

Assuming it is not included in the fare it is either charged to your room daily or you can prepay it before the cruise. If you prepay it then it is payable along with final payment, so it should be included in the amount due.

 

My documents for upcoming cruises are the same. Prepaid service charge is showing as an amenity but it is also

showing on the amount owing.

 

If you do buy any extras (excursions, dining etc) then they will show on amenity invoices as well as the amount due. What you have paid to date (deposits, payments for excursions etc) will then be shown in payments made.

Thank you for your help, I've put a conclusion post below - your post helped it all make better sense.  

 

 

[roysmith99]

Thank you everyone for your help with this, I have now spoken with NCL in the UK and understand the situation.

I was erroneously thinking I had been given free service charges as part of a promotion / amenity, when this is not the case. By paying the £600 upfront the service charges are added to the Amenity Invoice and if I remove them from the main invoice they would also be removed from that one too.

I did suggest that maybe the main invoice could be easier to understand for new cruisers booking directly if all amenities appear on the main invoice with a zero value, or a reference to the promotion that has been applied. It doesn't help when they also have a list of 'add-ons'. Actually calling it an amenity invoice with a separate reference number doesn't help much either.

Whilst some of my personal confusion is based on what I've experienced with other cruises lines and I'm still getting used to NCL, I am very grateful for all of the help from everyone in this forum. 

[zgscl]

5 minutes ago, roysmith99 said:

Thank you everyone for your help with this, I have now spoken with NCL in the UK and understand the situation.

I was erroneously thinking I had been given free service charges as part of a promotion / amenity, when this is not the case. By paying the £600 upfront the service charges are added to the Amenity Invoice and if I remove them from the main invoice they would also be removed from that one too.

I did suggest that maybe the main invoice could be easier to understand for new cruisers booking directly if all amenities appear on the main invoice with a zero value, or a reference to the promotion that has been applied. It doesn't help when they also have a list of 'add-ons'. Actually calling it an amenity invoice with a separate reference number doesn't help much either.

Whilst some of my personal confusion is based on what I've experienced with other cruises lines and I'm still getting used to NCL, I am very grateful for all of the help from everyone in this forum. 

The way they do confirmations & amenities is a honestly bit confusing and takes some getting used to.We bought free at sea with streaming wifi and every time we log in it still promotes and offers the upsell to free at sea plus. On my first cruise I accidentally bought it twice because I thought it didn't go through the first time. When I got my credit card statement I had to call and have them sort it out. It looks like they may have fixed this because when I log into my future bookings it is no longer frantically trying to sell me the upgrade I have already bought.

On top of all of that it when you buy a shore excursion or other items pre-cruise, the amount got added to your cruise total on your confirmation, and then the payment gets added to your payments. I was so confused the first time that happened. Absolutely could not figure out why the cruise price had gone up when we had already made final payment. It looks like they have now at least separated out the onboard purchases, but the online payment for shore excursions still pulls in. 

All of this to say NCL definitely does their confirmations differently than anyone else and it does take some getting used to. Rest assured it all works out in the end. 

[cruiser2015]

13 hours ago, zgscl said:

The way they do confirmations & amenities is a honestly bit confusing and takes some getting used to.We bought free at sea with streaming wifi and every time we log in it still promotes and offers the upsell to free at sea plus. On my first cruise I accidentally bought it twice because I thought it didn't go through the first time. When I got my credit card statement I had to call and have them sort it out. It looks like they may have fixed this because when I log into my future bookings it is no longer frantically trying to sell me the upgrade I have already bought.

On top of all of that it when you buy a shore excursion or other items pre-cruise, the amount got added to your cruise total on your confirmation, and then the payment gets added to your payments. I was so confused the first time that happened. Absolutely could not figure out why the cruise price had gone up when we had already made final payment. It looks like they have now at least separated out the onboard purchases, but the online payment for shore excursions still pulls in. 

All of this to say NCL definitely does their confirmations differently than anyone else and it does take some getting used to. Rest assured it all works out in the end. 

If I understand your comment, then I must disagree.

It is perfectly logical (note I am an accountant) to add the charge onto the statement for a purchased extra item and show the payment for it separately.

Sure, they could combine them Then it would show no money amounts at all. This would obscure what the item cost you and might cause confusion by listing an item - and then showing no "activity" - which could make someone wonder whether they truly have that amenity or not.