Roayl Caribbean and Celebrity follow suit and them some on DSC...

They are just trying to dissuade some of the NCL posters from jumping ship over to their line. :D

I don't think too many people have an issue with a gratuity increase. $12 a day is nothing.

You can still save .95 a day on Carnival. Everybody run!

If Carnival (CCL) management is smart, they will stay put and let NCL and RCL add fees and cut services while Carnival rakes in the dissatisfied customers.

Carnival increased from $11.50 to $12 last October,so they won't likely increase for the time being.

Carnival increased from $11.50 to $12 last October,so they won't likely increase for the time being.

Was this increase on all the CCL owned lines or just on Carnival ??

IMO, of the recent NCL changes, raising DSC is the least significant. If that's the only change RCCL makes, it won't affect my decision to book with them in the least. Some of NCL's changes are a different story.

The DSC change is minimal. Just don't go around changing your room service or where people can take their food, you other cruise lines, or people will start looking for other places to spend their vacation dollars.

If Carnival (CCL) management is smart, they will stay put and let NCL and RCL add fees and cut services while Carnival rakes in the dissatisfied customers.

You got that right! BUT if Carnival caves, EVERY cruise line will go for the fee increases. :(

Once again NCL is the industry leader :eek:

I don't think too many people have an issue with a gratuity increase. $12 a day is nothing.

The $12.95 and $15.95 would not disuade me. Looking at the RCCL forums there are a few folks over there ready to not pre pay TIPs (or have them removed). They say it is overboard. I don't get it. But then again I have always been a high tipper anyway. $1000's + of dollars vaca. and complain about +/- $100's?

amazing! when Ncl made the announcemnet so many went into orbit and said it was an ourrage, now I am hearing :on, the .95 never did bother me. It is the other changes. My guess, most lines are going to be adding similar fees in the near future, then, are NLCers going to say, Oh, that doesn't really bother me? I would love to know how many people have really changed lines because of the new fees? I bet not more than a handful. And as other lines add new fees the few that have changed will probably come back. These corpor ations are not stupid.

amazing! when Ncl made the announcemnet so many went into orbit and said it was an ourrage, now I am hearing :on, the .95 never did bother me. It is the other changes. My guess, most lines are going to be adding similar fees in the near future, then, are NLCers going to say, Oh, that doesn't really bother me? I would love to know how many people have really changed lines because of the new fees? I bet not more than a handful. And as other lines add new fees the few that have changed will probably come back. These corpor ations are not stupid.

I know irony - its just a matter of time before ALL the lines raise their DSC and who know's what else....

Just a few weeks ago NCL was getting blasted for raising its DSC. Now NCL is in line with RCCL and Celebrity on the standard cabins at $12.95 per person per day and $1.00 (RCCL) or $1.50 (Celebrity) more on their suites. Those people who complained have no where to go now.

Welcome back.

Just a few weeks ago NCL was getting blasted for raising its DSC. Now NCL is in line with RCCL and Celebrity on the standard cabins at $12.95 per person per day and $1.00 (RCCL) or $1.50 (Celebrity) more on their suites. Those people who complained have no where to go now.

 

Welcome back.

I think the amount charged is reasonable and much less than many resorts on land we go to, and the resorts on land do not provide the types of services found on a cruise.

I hope I am never so hard up to complain about 95 cents per day, but I do see people complain that services are getting worse while prices rise. I hope that service quality remains consistent or improves for the increased charges; I think that is a fair request. A steward on our last cruise told us all the money goes into the pool and they only get some of it. I think that causes complaints from people too.

I think in the case of NCL it was a whole slew of negative changes all at once, plus the rather underhanded way in which they were communicated that really pissed people off. Other cruise lines seem better with communication and are smarter than implementing too many unfriendly polices and changes at one time.

IMO, of the recent NCL changes, raising DSC is the least significant. If that's the only change RCCL makes, it won't affect my decision to book with them in the least. Some of NCL's changes are a different story.

Didn't RCCL seriously hike their booze prices recently?

amazing! when Ncl made the announcemnet so many went into orbit and said it was an ourrage, now I am hearing :on, the .95 never did bother me. It is the other changes. My guess, most lines are going to be adding similar fees in the near future, then, are NLCers going to say, Oh, that doesn't really bother me? I would love to know how many people have really changed lines because of the new fees? I bet not more than a handful. And as other lines add new fees the few that have changed will probably come back. These corpor ations are not stupid.

Speaking for myself only, I never complained about a .95 DSC increase. It's the rule not allowing food to be taken to your cabin that has us researching other cruise lines instead of booking Getaway as we'd considered. Until that point I was amazed that NCL would make so many changes at once, but it didn't change my thoughts on booking with them. As long as the other lines don't go that far, we'll be fine.

amazing! when Ncl made the announcemnet so many went into orbit and said it was an ourrage, now I am hearing :on, the .95 never did bother me. It is the other changes. My guess, most lines are going to be adding similar fees in the near future, then, are NLCers going to say, Oh, that doesn't really bother me? I would love to know how many people have really changed lines because of the new fees? I bet not more than a handful. And as other lines add new fees the few that have changed will probably come back. These corpor ations are not stupid.

I have a group on the NCL Dawn for this October. I had already planned on taking THIS SAME GROUP on the NCL Star in Jan of 2017 and had already held the space. When I informed the group about the recent policy changes at NCL (Room Service Fee and no food outside the restaurants), I was told by more than 75% of the group that if I kept the group on the Star for Jan 2017, they would not go. It is too late to make changes for the sailing for this October, but my clients have spoken and the group space on the Star has been given back. Yes, people are speaking with their vacation dollars.

Didn't RCCL seriously hike their booze prices recently?

I honestly don't know. We had decided our next cruise would be on Getaway. I didn't start researching other cruise lines, until the last NCL change. As I noted above, eliminating take-out, hot food is the change that removed NCL from our consideration. If they retracted that policy, we would once again consider Getaway. If RCCL raised their alcohol price, I can choose to pay it or not, just like when NCL raised theirs. Our problem with the last change is we can't even pay for a variety of hot breakfast food to enjoy on our balcony. It's simply not possible to enjoy cruising our way on NCL, if this new policy remains. We didn't have a problem with paying for RS delivery. It's the fact that there's only one hot choice for breakfast & we can't even go to the buffet to switch things up that now makes NCL a poor choice for us.

Didn't RCCL seriously hike their booze prices recently?

Yes they did, and they hiked the auto gratuties on drinks from 15% to 18%. However, some things NCL charges for are still free on RCI, like room service between 5am and midnight, clamshells at Labadee, etc.

It a 6 in one, half dozen in the other situation. One way or another, all these cruise lines are finding ways to take more of our money.

I think in the case of NCL it was a whole slew of negative changes all at once, plus the rather underhanded way in which they were communicated that really pissed people off. Other cruise lines seem better with communication and are smarter than implementing too many unfriendly polices and changes at one time.

Yep

Yep

Other cruise lines have a clearly written code of ethics that governed their business conduct, core values, corporate culture - important upfront values for customers - like trust, honesty & pledges, i.e. Carnival. Try looking one up at No'weigan as it's being called at another social media site - there isn't a written one readily seen (maybe, just maybe - it's an outdated one deeply buried & hidden in the fine prints)

Cheers & jeers - called it whichever way you wish. Oops - I almost forget, captive audience.

amazing! when Ncl made the announcemnet so many went into orbit and said it was an ourrage, now I am hearing :on, the .95 never did bother me. It is the other changes. My guess, most lines are going to be adding similar fees in the near future, then, are NLCers going to say, Oh, that doesn't really bother me? I would love to know how many people have really changed lines because of the new fees? I bet not more than a handful. And as other lines add new fees the few that have changed will probably come back. These corpor ations are not stupid.

What I find "amazing" is that some folks around here don't see that the REAL damage from all the chaos is that it made a certain percentage of otherwise content NCL cruisers start looking around at other options -- something they never would have done before.

No business wants that. It's too expensive to recruit new business!

:rolleyes: