Goodbye Escape Haven, Hello Divina Yacht Club!

I am in a Breakaway suite in six days. The people aboard her and the Getaway this week had no notice NCL would remove free room service from five am to midnight as an "included in the fare" benefit, and have instead imposed a $7.95 per order charge. Although apparently, the suite passengers are not required to pay this charge, this week, the way NCL has done this shows me they will take away anything at anytime. I will not purchase a future cruise credit as I can not count on NCL to deliver the product for which I have already paid.

 

I am also very interested in MSC's Yacht Club experience.

We don't usually do room service, but I'm still very unhappy with all of the fee changes that are being implemented, including this one. As some have mentioned, what about those who may not be able to leave their cabins due to illness and/or cannot afford yet another fee? While I hope suites passengers will not be affected, at this point who knows what will be next? Should things change, I have no problem canceling our cruises for 2016 and 2017 and booking with another cruise line (NOT Oceania or Regent as I will be done with Del Rio's trio). I am however, seriously looking forward to this year's vacation as it will probably be the last my mother will be able to join us on.

Maybe we'll bump into each other in the MSC forums!

and my ignore list grows longer .... :rolleyes:

Why would you ignore me? We've always gotten along pretty well.

I priced out a Yacht Club suite today and was pleasantly surprised. For the less than the price I'm paying for a DOS on the Dawn, ( a Non-Haven ship) I can be in Deluxe suite on the Davina. Include airfare to Miami, and we'd be about equal in price. I want to do a bit more research on MSC, and its overall vibe, but the Yacht Club seems fairly comparable to the Haven. (We've been in the BA Haven previously)

Nice! The only thing that's a bit of a downer is that the bathrooms appear to be smaller than H4 master bathrooms . But as I don't plan on spending my vacations in the bathroom, I can live with this :D.

Swarovski Crystal staircases???....... "What a girl wants, what a girl needs". ;)

 

 

To everyone looking at MSC~~~ I had a heck of a time on their website and finally just called in. T.G. I did- it got me $200 ($100pp) OBC. Make the call.

 

;) BTW, you can reserve it for a week for free or do a reservation for only $200 for two people. (I think non-refundable.)

I had a problem with the site as well this past weekend - I'll either be receiving 4 of the same brochures or none as I kept getting a weird looking error message :confused:.

Thanks for the reservation tip! I've been contacted by a cruise consultant and will be calling him back tomorrow to get some more information.

It's not just the 8 dollars. It's the trend that NCL has been setting all month with constantly raising "fees" or slashing services all while being elusive and non-transparent.

Exactly!

Why would you ignore me? We've always gotten along pretty well.

I didn't ignore you

I had a problem with the site as well this past weekend - I'll either be receiving 4 of the same brochures or none as I kept getting a weird looking error message :confused:.

 

Thanks for the reservation tip! I've been contacted by a cruise consultant and will be calling him back tomorrow to get some more information.

Sorry. Apparently they are known for having a difficult website. ;)

I'm just glad my experience with a phone rep was great compared to NCL.:D

Hope you find something nice. Check out their beverage packages- great prices.:)

We got 4 NCL cruises under our belt, 2 of those had the same crappy useless butler (we did either not see him at all for several days, or he would walk in without even bothering to knock or ring the doorbell or would not be 'able' to provide with very simple things we requested).

As those problems did not get addressed, at all, even though speaking directly to the Hotel Director and the Concierge and there are all kinds of other minor issues which all add up, we where like, lets try MSC and see if they do better (or not... you never know)

MSC leaves from Genoa/Venice on the Med/Greek trips, hence, we can just drive over there (500km but still quite doable and about the same time as using an airplane and no hassle with silly security practices or heavy suitcases etc). {yep, indeed Venice is also a starting port for the great NCL Jade, thus maybe not a complete plus point there}

Hence, after 4 NCL trips, we now got 2 MSC trips planned, with after that another 3 with NCL though, as well, we like to see the destinations on that itinerary.

Hope you all enjoy your other cruise lines! Leaves more room for us on the Escape to enjoy our vacation!

I hope the food is good in the yacht club, because in the buffet & MDR on MSC it's not great. They are especially weak on desserts.

*eta* Forgot to mention the Italian passengers don't believe in waiting in line for anything, they will almost push you over to get into an elevator! (apologies to any Italians on here, we just had some bad experiences on MSC)

Hope you all enjoy your other cruise lines! Leaves more room for us on the Escape to enjoy our vacation!

With a world population of several billion, a boat can never be big enough, hence why all the cruise lines are building bigger boats ;)

Also note, we are just going to test out MSC, already got more NCL cruises (on the smaller ships though) booked...

You will love MSC Divina. The entertainment was excellent. The ship was beautiful. Did not stay in Yacht club but heard great things about it. Don't listen to the negative reviews. I found the food to be good and the service was excellent.

I hope the food is good in the yacht club, because in the buffet & MDR on MSC it's not great. They are especially weak on desserts.

 

*eta* Forgot to mention the Italian passengers don't believe in waiting in line for anything, they will almost push you over to get into an elevator! (apologies to any Italians on here, we just had some bad experiences on MSC)

I thought the MSC Divina food was fairly good. At least as good as NCL. They have a far superior cheesecake.

We've only been on one cruise (Disney) before. We're booked for the Nov. 14th seven day cruise out of Miami on the Escape. Since we have no background, what are these fee increases that you are talking about and how much were they?

Hope you all enjoy your other cruise lines! Leaves more room for us on the Escape to enjoy our vacation!

:) supply & demand might give you & I lower cruise prices if those leaving actually follow through ;)

We've only been on one cruise (Disney) before. We're booked for the Nov. 14th seven day cruise out of Miami on the Escape. Since we have no background, what are these fee increases that you are talking about and how much were they?

The daily "DSC" (equal to gratuities on DCL) was raised from $12 per person per day to $12.95 for mini-suites and lower. The charge for suites was raised to $14.95 per person per day. This daily per-person fee replaces the array of tips for your stateroom steward, drink server, assistant waiter, waiter and matri'd on DCL. DCL recommends you pay $84 per person for these tips on a 7 day cruise, which works out to $12 per day. This is a change fleet-wide.

The auto-gratuity on alcoholic drinks was raised from 15% to 18%. DCL still has these at 15%. This is a change fleet-wide.

The specialty restaurants, similar to Palo on DCL, instituted a gratuity of 18% of the cover charge for eating there. They charge from $15 to $30 per person. I also tipped much more than 18% of the cover charge, basing my tip amount on what the meal would have cost on land, so this change benefits me. This change is fleet-wide.

NCL has a $5 fee for delivering pizza to the cabin (this has been in place quite a while.) NCL is testing a room service fee "up to" $7.95 per order for room service except for continental breakfast items (coffee, muffins, etc.) at breakfast time. Currently, this fee is being tested on two ships, the Getaway and the Breakaway, and has not been rolled out fleet-wide.

The fare you pay on NCL is likely to be hundreds of dollars less than DCL, so the increase in these fees are not likely to be significant for you. Except for the DSC increase, you can avoid all of them if you like. The 3 points extra on a drink means instead of paying an outrageous $10.15 for a drink that should cost $8 on land you will be paying $10.18.

From what a friend who was on the Divina said, "nightlife" pretty much ends between 10 and 11. I'd be more inclined to try RCCL than MSC. Between all the negatives lately and the casino saying losing $2,000 in a week isnt enough for 20% off a room, I'll be looking elsewhere. Seven cruises were nice while they lasted.

The daily "DSC" (equal to gratuities on DCL) was raised from $12 per person per day to $12.95 for mini-suites and lower. The charge for suites was raised to $14.95 per person per day. This daily per-person fee replaces the array of tips for your stateroom steward, drink server, assistant waiter, waiter and matri'd on DCL. DCL recommends you pay $84 per person for these tips on a 7 day cruise, which works out to $12 per day. This is a change fleet-wide.

 

The auto-gratuity on alcoholic drinks was raised from 15% to 18%. DCL still has these at 15%. This is a change fleet-wide.

 

The specialty restaurants, similar to Palo on DCL, instituted a gratuity of 18% of the cover charge for eating there. They charge from $15 to $30 per person. I also tipped much more than 18% of the cover charge, basing my tip amount on what the meal would have cost on land, so this change benefits me. This change is fleet-wide.

 

NCL has a $5 fee for delivering pizza to the cabin (this has been in place quite a while.) NCL is testing a room service fee "up to" $7.95 per order for room service except for continental breakfast items (coffee, muffins, etc.) at breakfast time. Currently, this fee is being tested on two ships, the Getaway and the Breakaway, and has not been rolled out fleet-wide.

 

The fare you pay on NCL is likely to be hundreds of dollars less than DCL, so the increase in these fees are not likely to be significant for you. Except for the DSC increase, you can avoid all of them if you like. The 3 points extra on a drink means instead of paying an outrageous $10.15 for a drink that should cost $8 on land you will be paying $10.18.

Good breakdown but bad math. A $10 drink tip used to be $1.50 making it $11.50 now it is $1.80 making it $11.80.

It's still not a dramatic jump and that doesn't bother me so much.

What bothers me is the way corporate implemented a few of these charges, with little to no notice or explanation. It was only after making these changes that some wording was changed in their terms and conditions, which only slightly eased some tensions. There are still many unanswered questions and a lot of confusion.

We just came back a couple of weeks ago from the Epic (in Haven). It was a disappointing experience, even after we gave our feedback on Day 2 to the Assistant Hotel Director, Carolina, and Director of Guest Services, Irma.

For the $ we paid, we were very underwhelmed by the experience, and in fact, our previous experiences in non-Haven NCL suites were far superior.

So, for our future cruises, we are looking at other lines - probably premium/luxury lines. Too bad for NCL b/c our daughter loved Splash Academy and like I said, we had wonderful past experiences (in fact, our daughter's first cruise was with NCL).

We were on MSC on the Yacht CLub and it was really great. Our butler met us outside and whisked us through security. (My daughter asked anxiously was he going to go everywhere with us!!) He was excellent and took great care of us all week. Our cabin was superb, very luxurious. The Yacht Club lounge was great for drinks, breakfast etc. We had priority disembarkation at ports etc. The Yacht Club restaurant was attractive and small, food though was mixed, some great food, some fairly awful. We connected with a superb waiter who started recommending dishes to us, and once we took his advice, we got much better food. The pool and deck area just for YAcht Club was also a real asset.

We would happily go Yacht CLub again, if we can afford it! Interestingly, this was in Europe and under 18s were free so this made a big difference to our costs.

Happy to answer any Yacht Club related questions!

We just came back a couple of weeks ago from the Epic (in Haven). It was a disappointing experience, even after we gave our feedback on Day 2 to the Assistant Hotel Director, Carolina, and Director of Guest Services, Irma.

 

For the $ we paid, we were very underwhelmed by the experience, and in fact, our previous experiences in non-Haven NCL suites were far superior.

 

So, for our future cruises, we are looking at other lines - probably premium/luxury lines. Too bad for NCL b/c our daughter loved Splash Academy and like I said, we had wonderful past experiences (in fact, our daughter's first cruise was with NCL).

The MSC Seaside, could be a serious contender, not only will it have the Yacht Club which hopefully will be cheaper and put pressure on NCL's haven to lower costs but will have all the family centered bells and whistles, required of the Miami/Caribbean market, of the current NCL ships.

Divina was lacking in such departments.

The daily "DSC" (equal to gratuities on DCL) was raised from $12 per person per day to $12.95 for mini-suites and lower. The charge for suites was raised to $14.95 per person per day. This daily per-person fee replaces the array of tips for your stateroom steward, drink server, assistant waiter, waiter and matri'd on DCL. DCL recommends you pay $84 per person for these tips on a 7 day cruise, which works out to $12 per day. This is a change fleet-wide.

 

The auto-gratuity on alcoholic drinks was raised from 15% to 18%. DCL still has these at 15%. This is a change fleet-wide.

 

The specialty restaurants, similar to Palo on DCL, instituted a gratuity of 18% of the cover charge for eating there. They charge from $15 to $30 per person. I also tipped much more than 18% of the cover charge, basing my tip amount on what the meal would have cost on land, so this change benefits me. This change is fleet-wide.

 

NCL has a $5 fee for delivering pizza to the cabin (this has been in place quite a while.) NCL is testing a room service fee "up to" $7.95 per order for room service except for continental breakfast items (coffee, muffins, etc.) at breakfast time. Currently, this fee is being tested on two ships, the Getaway and the Breakaway, and has not been rolled out fleet-wide.

 

The fare you pay on NCL is likely to be hundreds of dollars less than DCL, so the increase in these fees are not likely to be significant for you. Except for the DSC increase, you can avoid all of them if you like. The 3 points extra on a drink means instead of paying an outrageous $10.15 for a drink that should cost $8 on land you will be paying $10.18.

Thanks for laying this out. I also have only cruised on Disney, 4 times, and wasn't quite sure if the additional fees being discussed were something vastly different then what I have already been used to.

We are booked for the Getaway for April 2016. The same or similiar itinerary on DCL would cost us about $4500 more than what we are paying on NCL (Free friends and family promo, so no charge for our kids!). Additionally, DCL never has anything like a UBP or UDP promotion offer. Our bar bill typically runs us a few hundred dollars by the end of each DCL cruise. So, the free UBP we received with our booking is extremely significant for us.

The room service fee, while annoying, would not be noticed by us. All we ever order is coffee and pastries anyway, which, so far at least, they aren't charging for. Yet.

I always upped the tips to the bartender, from 15% to 18% or 20% if the service was good, so an extra 3% on drinks would not be a problem. And since we have the free UBP, its really not going to be a problem since the 18% is included with the promo!

So, unless something outrageous is significantly increased, I can't see canceling our NCL 2016 cruise. I at least want to see what its all about first.

NCL has a $5 fee for delivering pizza to the cabin (this has been in place quite a while.)

Just wanted to clarify that the $5 delivery fee is also to have pizza delivered anywhere on the ship - like poolside, or to the comedy club during a show, etc.

Recently booked the Getaway for May 30, 2015...2 basic balconies for a total of 5 passengers =$4979, including the beverage packages for all but the 3rd guest.

Had been pricing RCCL Oasis for exact same week & nearly identical itinerary & for us to do 2 ocean view balconies on that ship: $7853. No beverage package included.

It would take lots of nickel & diming for NCL to end up as expensive as RCCL in this case....just sayin'.

I'm not loyal to a particular line; I think NCL is trying to see what they can get away with just as the other lines do.

P.S. I had a wonderful cruise on MSC Divina last year & the ship is absolutely stunning & elegant! However, there were LOTS of folks onboard complaining....particularly about food. Our waiter even apologized for the quality as he sat our plates on the table! LOL