Norwegian Getaway group booking strategy question ~

Greetings and thank you in advance for any advice shared. WE have booked (with Norwegian agent) 28 family members and 11 cabins at this point for 2018 cruise. We are a bit confused as to our best options regarding "group" booking perks and or benefits. We may indeed have more cabins to be booked.

Our agents communication has been spotty at best and this has been a rather unpleasant experience so far. Non-the-less, we are all very excited! As the originator of the group it is my intention to share equally any and all benefits with everyone in the group. The only thing the agent told me so far is that with this booking we have earned one free passenger paid and a somewhat confusing list of perks which doesn't match up with Norwegians web-site indications of group perks. Any and all advice in this regard would be appreciated! He also told me that we would have to wait to the end of the month for group approval?? I will be in contact with the agent over the next few days (He doesn't seem to spend to much time in the office), and I would like to be prepared. I have received most (but not all) conformations by email for the rooms that I personally put up deposit for the entire group.

This is definitely booked through a Norwegian agent, but seems a bit odd to us the lack of communication so far.

Again thank you for your help all!

Group booking do usually get a "free berth"...that's 1 passenger's fare, not the cabin price...just 1 person's price. You might be better off going thru a real travel agent, rather than the cruise line.

Besides the free at sea promotion which would be perks based upon cabin type, I had read in another thread about a large group getting their gratuities paid for by Norwegian. I would look into that as well as what any of the larger travel agencies can do for you. Google cruise specific agencies, not the normal run of the mill general ones.

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Booking directly through NCL gives you a few different options for group bookings.

• Under the "old" plan, you get whatever current promos are being offered for the cabin (splash sale OBC, choice of normal perks, etc) plus one free person per 8 cabins and (sometimes) some free OBC based on the sailing.
  
• Under new plan A, you get 2 free people per 7 cabins
  
• Under new plan B, you get 1 free person per 7 cabins, plus choice of two perks (per cabin) from the list on https://www.ncl.com/group-cruises. Note that the UBP and SDP plans in this group have their 18% included.
  

The only way to take advantage of KSF is to use the old plan, which is what we're doing now.

Thank you "ThatJoeGuy", At this point we now have 15 cabins and 32 people. Amazingly, and though I originally booked most the cabins on June 30, (paid all the deposits myself), Today we were issued a "group ID number" (left on a phone message by our agent) but have yet to hear from group sales! I must say that I have cruised with many lines ans as a retired Country Club Manager, I had initiated bookings for as many as 150 people on any one cruise. This was always handled through a professional travel agent in the past. However, my experience with NCL, has been the most unprofessional event of all of my travels since I have allowed one of NCL's "Cruise Consultants" to handle the whole deal! I now have a very bad taste in my mouth regarding NCL. Many calls go without a return call, I spoke to a supervisor a few weeks ago only to be told that I have only two cabins booked!!! I then supplied her with all of the reservation numbers and she told me that indeed we are a group and things would change immediately. They did not. The same lack of communication goes on! I am amazed by this! None-the-less, and after arranging our entire family trip (to celibate our marriage the day before the trip at 62), I will stick with it as I have so much invested in the event. Just try to get you kids, grandchildren, and all family members on board to experience the stress! (lol). I will hope for the best but Karen and I are substantially disappointed by the treatment we have received!

OH, and regarding the group sales link (NCL) official site, there are quite a few missing disclosure statements missing!

We have traveled on NCL many times in the past with great experience so we decided to book our family group with them based on our remembrance. Sorry for the verbose negativity, but we are worried as the statements and promises received from our (official cruise consultant) have yet to come to fruit!

Thank you "ThatJoeGuy", At this point we now have 15 cabins and 32 people. Amazingly, and though I originally booked most the cabins on June 30, (paid all the deposits myself), Today we were issued a "group ID number" (left on a phone message by our agent) but have yet to hear from group sales! I must say that I have cruised with many lines ans as a retired Country Club Manager, I had initiated bookings for as many as 150 people on any one cruise. This was always handled through a professional travel agent in the past. However, my experience with NCL, has been the most unprofessional event of all of my travels since I have allowed one of NCL's "Cruise Consultants" to handle the whole deal! I now have a very bad taste in my mouth regarding NCL. Many calls go without a return call, I spoke to a supervisor a few weeks ago only to be told that I have only two cabins booked!!! I then supplied her with all of the reservation numbers and she told me that indeed we are a group and things would change immediately. They did not. The same lack of communication goes on! I am amazed by this! None-the-less, and after arranging our entire family trip (to celibate our marriage the day before the trip at 62), I will stick with it as I have so much invested in the event. Just try to get you kids, grandchildren, and all family members on board to experience the stress! (lol). I will hope for the best but Karen and I are substantially disappointed by the treatment we have received!

OH, and regarding the group sales link (NCL) official site, there are quite a few missing disclosure statements missing!

We have traveled on NCL many times in the past with great experience so we decided to book our family group with them based on our remembrance. Sorry for the verbose negativity, but we are worried as the statements and promises received from our (official cruise consultant) have yet to come to fruit!

Sorry you're having such bad problems. You may want to try contacting the group coordinators yourself. If you go to https://www.ncl.com/group-cruises#f3m1nd input your information, someone should email you back from the groups booking agency pretty quickly. Sadly, I can't put email addresses here, but my person (Ashley) has been fantastic.