ngrund

5 hours ago, Manchester is blue said:

This is an interesting topic for me. 
Whilst I am relatively new to cruising holidays, having had the pleasure of a few now, I have not yet experienced being charged tax on drinks whilst in, or near a port.

I am taking my first NCL cruise to Alaska from Seattle in August this year. I wonder if others that have sailed on an Alaskan itinerary ,could share their experiences with regards this matter please.

Regards to all.

 

You will be charged sales tax on drinks while docked in Seattle and until you are out to sea.

4 hours ago, irun5k said:

Yes, we were on Celebration last year and overall this worked smoothly.  There was one little nuance that was slightly annoying...  we had early dining but there was some rule where we had to wait until after a certain time before we could go in the app to request a table at a spot like Chi Bang.  But, the virtual queue made that less of an issue.

 

Overall though we loved being able to try different restaurants for dinner w/o an upcharge.  We did the MDR a few nights and the other nights did the BBQ place, Chibang, and Emril's (rather small up charge) a couple of times.  Carnival got a lot of things right (albeit with one or two weird issues) on their Excel class ships.

Chi bang, et al are used as additional my time dining venues, so those with either early or late "traditional" dining are blocked on the app until a certain time.

I believe you could have inquired in person and if a table is available, you would be seated.

1 hour ago, joydivision84 said:

No huge deal, but drink prices seem to have changed fairly recently, well, increase is more appropriate. Not like they are ever going to go down these days.

 

Sailing on the Beyond in Nov and currently have the classic package, would really appreciate if anyone has any snaps of the latest menus with current prices. Thanks a bunch.

I'm booked for next March and have already decided to upgrade the drink package just based on the list of included brands of beers and liquor.

The Joy does not have a "suite" restaurant so, the only perks I believe are priority embarkation/debarkation.

We are taking wife's adult nephew and the family suite worked out much better price wise than him getting his own room and paying double. We got 3rd person free and will have separate bedroom and bathroom.

deleted (never mind)

On 3/2/2024 at 12:06 PM, jwitt2 said:

We own stock in Carnival Corp. which used to give some on board credit on Cunard, Seabourn, Princess, Carnival, etc.  But the latest stockholder report that we received did not mention this. It did say that they are not paying dividends. Does anyone know? We just redeemed some credit on a cruise in December. He sent an email to Carnival Corp. and got a reply which did not answer the question. I am going to look elsewhere on CC. 

shareholder credit has been renewed

6 minutes ago, Mr. Click said:

Every policy is different. I had to submit documentation for EVERY THING.  I got the gift cards for credit card points and the carrier would not cover that.  

ok, good to know.

It hurts to not save the 10% through AARP, but I will no longer take the chance of my entire trip cost not being covered by insurance, if I have to cancel after final paymant.

1 hour ago, Mr. Click said:

One word of warning about gift cards in general.  I used some Bank of America Celebrity gift cards to pay the deposit on a cruise we had to cancel last minute.  When I filed my insurance claim they would not cover the gif cards.  "only cash, check or credit card payments are covered so check your policy carefully.  

How would the insurance company know?

The one time I had to cancel a few years ago I do not recall being asked how I paid, just had to show the final cost after what I was refunded by the cruise line and proof of the reason (medical condition of a close relative) I was cancelling.

2 minutes ago, Frank12 said:

Physical hard cards.

you might have been able to just enter the #'s as well

3 hours ago, Frank12 said:

I have tried to apply gift cards at the kiosks on several different ships, all without success. I finally gave up and just go to guest services.  Maybe it's just me?? 

Were you using a physical gift card (swipe) that didn't work or a e-card where you enter the # and pin?

29 minutes ago, calicakes said:

I didn't know that my yearly insurance policy only covered 5k in cruise cancellation( for the entire year).  The cruise alone was 10k, not to mention the other expenses I incurred.  My chase credit card insurance is much better than the Allianz. 

Yes, that"s one reason I buy a policy for each trip. In addition, at least in my state, the medical coverge on the annual policy is lower.

OP, keep in mind that any remaining balance under $10 will not be refunded and will be donated to St Jude.

There are kiosks on board that you can use to add gift cards to your cabin account-if you use those, the entire balance of the card will be applied. For partial, you would need to visit guest services,

What I do is apply cards along the way as balance goes up (I get $100s for that).

4 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Although we have disagreed greatly about the Prima, I have to agree with you that that was a disappointment.

They do have e-books available for loan (libby app)

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/prima/whats-on-board/activities

The whole policy is absurd-every cruise I've priced, the fare with refundable deposit would make me pay more additional than the amount of the deposit-

I'll just take the say 75% chance that I'll have to cancel and lose the deposit ($900) rather than be 100% paying $1100 more (its been a while, I think that's the additional that the RD would have cost)

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

Looks like a standard canned response.

Yes and Stockperks won't know anything, they just verify your ownership and notify CCL. We will just need to wait and see.

If/when I book another CCL cruise the $100 credit won't be the deciding factor.

1 hour ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

Patience Grasshopper...  It's renewed every year at the April Shareholders meeting.

The problem is that as it stands now, its only for cruises booked by tomorrow.

7 minutes ago, shof515 said:

could be a clerical error that they forget to include the page in the report. carnival corporation website still shows the shareholder benefits 

Yes, but must be book by Wed (2/28), sail by end of July 2024-has not been renewed yet

 I just looked and it was announced right in last year's report, hope that it is not ending

15 minutes ago, rjrpar said:

Thanks

actually, I think they issue the announcement around the same time as the annual report, which makes more since since the current notice says cruise must be booked by next week

3 minutes ago, ngrund said:

Annual report was issued yesterday,

 

The meeting of shareholders is scheduled for 4/5/2024, so that is when it would be extended.

I think that is when the board votes as well.

48 minutes ago, rjrpar said:

Does anyone know when the current July cut-off will be extended?

Annual report was issued yesterday,

The meeting of shareholders is scheduled for 4/5/2024, so that is when it would be extended.

9 hours ago, complawyer said:

on the past 5 cruises we have taken, when i unpacked my cpap , seeing tis the cabin steward immediately offered to bring me the distilled water, and every one of them brought an extension cord, when i asked for one.

 

however, i bring my own, and the only thing ncl requires me to do is keep it unplugged when not in the cabin. most of the time they dont even enforce this

never knew they want it unplugged, I just always unplugged mine anyway

On 2/1/2024 at 3:00 PM, Kelownabccan said:

Have not done it yet.....just thinking about the plus or negative things.....ie....buying in USA $ and then the extra conversion charge...usually 2%.....to save 10%.....I guess it works.....as far as the phone # thing...do not know but I have a USA phone so If I do may not run into the problem....

AARP rewards is limited to US citizens

Just now, mz-s said:

 

Any time you are in US Waters, Uncle Sam will get his due.

Not Uncle Sam, these would be local sales taxes

6 hours ago, mz-s said:

While I'm sure the ship's water is fine for the machine, is it good to be breathing in halogenated water?

This has been discussed previously elsewhere on this site, just let the water settle for a few hours.