jaxon41

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cambodias-coronavirus-complacency-may-exact-a-global-toll/ar-BB106rXO?ocid=spartandhp

so sorry for everyone caught up in this    

wow -- I guess so, and she's sailed HAL lots.  Thanks so much.   

Nope, not scrolling through 167 pages, but in the beginning of this thread, it said that pop and water could be taken aboard along with a bottle of wine per person, with no corkage fee.  A friend is a HAL cruiser (this will be our first HAL but are diamond on Celebrity/RRCC), and she told me you could not take pop or water on when you embarked, but confirmed the 2 bottles of wine with no corkage fee, even if taken to dinner.   Appreciate an accurate update.  Thanks in advance.     

Am I right in assuming that unlike Celebrity, wine packages are kapoot?  That is the only package I have ever been interested in, and I don't see them on the planner page.  Are they allowing wine to brought on the ship with a corkage charge? 

Fine print is fine, but put something that significant right up front, right near FREE, so people know what the real deal is. That's all. They can still read the fine print for the rest of the info like inclusions/exclusions--but something that is going to add an unexpected $250+/- to your bill deserves to be disclosed very, very clearly rather than buried in the fine print.....

 

and just think of all the time it will save TAs and PCC's, as well as aggravation, if you know BEFORE you book that it's going to cost....

 

plus if you try to do an online booking, notice it shows up NOWHERE on the page of "pick one, two, three" etc items...it is NOT disclosed there at all. When I went to do this booking and checked off I wanted all four free items, then saw the "special services" $250 added to my bill, I had absolutely zero idea what it was for, and had to google for NCL special services - and even then didn't find it. I finally figured it out by process of elimination.

 

It doesn't have to be that hard. Really!

 

Although I have to say, the DSC is also not visible anywhere when booking, that's another "hidden cost" for newbies. My TA also "forgot" to mention it, even after we booked. I finally asked him how much it was.

 

So between the "free" UBP and the undisclosed DSC, my bill has gone up over $500 from the advertised price including port charges.

 

Yes, someone "should" expect to tip or do DSC, but a newbie isn't going to know about DSC. As strongly as we all feel about properly tipping staff, surely gratuities should be front & center, not snuck on to a bill quietly or months after booking, customer being hit with the prepay DSC bill.

 

Sorry, off soapbox. Can you tell I'm a fan of clarity & honesty in pricing & advertising?

As an attorney, I do agree with you. Although I am not a frequent NCL cruiser, I have cruised more than a bit, and a newbie, will, potentially, be in for a surprise. At least I know to come to these boards and ask questions when something pops up that I am not used to -- heck, DSC, was always called prepaid gratuities in my book, so had to figure that out!

I understand that there is currently a controversy in airline pricing on line -- taxes and fees are included now, but there's a fight to hide them, just like cruise lines hide a chunk of pricing. This is not good for the consumer, as price comparisons become laborious.

There needs to be an easy way to find answers on the cruise line sites; I don't see any.

Thanks to those who tried explain what the parameters of the value of the UBP is, to me -- still don't know if wine packages are available, instead, or what a glass costs for a medium priced wine, or if the UBP has a specific list of wines that can be chosen, or if the hard liquor includes name brands like Grey Goose, or if the soda is fountain, or canned, and if they carry diet pop that does not contain aspartame. Maybe iced tea (I'll bring my own stevia), and a corkage fee is the way I should go. ;)

Ok, got it. I have to admit, not having sailed NCL for a long time, when I did the trial booking, I was shocked to see the service charge for something that was supposed to be free. Now, I have to figure the value as my husband and I are not big drinkers. Can anyone tell me if they still sell wine packages -- so many bottles per sailing? Or is everything by the glass? Any restrictions on the label of the booze or wine if you pick the UBP? Is the soda canned, or machine? Thanks

I paid $98 for 2. 10 night repo cruise from NYC. Fully refundable.

My last sailing was 9 nights, 2 yrs ago, and checking back, the deposit was high, as far as I am concerned -- $500 (6 months out, and a bit less than 1/3rd of the total). Didn't realize it went up from there for a longer cruise (looking at 11 days, thus, $900).

Thanks to everyone for links and input. NCL has a 50pp deposit for February as a promo, refundable (will they be raising their deposits, too, after Feb? ). I don't like it when I book a hotel in Europe and I am given the cancel vs no cancellation prices, so, obviously, I don't like it that cruise ships are doing it with deposits.

Hey everyone,

 

I'm curious if you are all seeing the same kind of thing that I'm seeing. We are looking at booking an 8 night Adventure cruise next year, and Royal is asking for a $500 deposit. That's HALF of the entire cruise price for an inside room. Are the days of $100-200 deposits long gone?

The attached PDF will explain it. It is a dining concept being launched on Quantum class ships. Early and late seating would be eliminated in favor of an expanded MTD concept. The single large dining room is being redesigned to be four smaller no charge themed restaurants with enhanced menus. There will be a total of 18 dining venues split 50/50 between no charge and fee based.

Like NCL, then. ICK It's why I only did NCL once.

days? try hours! Happened to our traveling companions. Actually they were led astray by RCL and told to wait until the next day because prices could go down, but of course they went way up. Some heavy moaning by them and us, resulted in RCL making good on the price that existed when they first called -- yeah RCL! I have been wanting to upgrade so have been watching balcony prices -- cheapest category now sold out, so I guess I will be staying put.

pricey!

Compass did not reply to an email I sent about a week ago. Woodwind did reply promptly.

Since I have only done AMA, how can I compare? We did the Prague to Budapest and were very pleased. 3 days in Prague at the Prague Hilton and then a bus ride to Vilshoven to get on the ship. Everything was well done. I specifically wanted this line because you can take a bicycle out and explore on your own if you wish, and there were a couple of times for group bike tours. We would see other ships in port -- Viking looked very nice, too.

Unless something has changed very recently, these are the available packages:

 

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/royal/en_US/pdf/beverage_packages.pdf

 

I would more suspect website issues with the Pre-cruise Planner section.

thanks for the pdf -- in the old days (2yrs ago or so) you purchased a wine pkg based on the quality level of the wine -- there were at least two pkgs available -- the pdf doesn't indicate this. Comments?

Where can I find these so that I can print them?

There are no people with eye-shades sitting at desks raising the rates..... It is a pricing program on the computers that analyze the current demand for every cabin class on each and every cruise. When the computer spots demand above some threshold, the prices are automatically raised and are continued to be raised until that demand slacks off. Same thing happens when the cabins are not selling; the prices are reduced. It is really a very simple concept; get the maximum dollars and bookings on every class of cabin on every cruise.

I know exactly how you feel. I could not call from work on the 2nd until the lunch hour either. Then while I was on hold with RCCL, the price went up. After getting the agent, they looked at their screen for the price and saw what I saw on my screen. By the time the agent went through their whole process of confirming my address, Crown and Anchor number, e-mail address, dining preferences, etc., etc., etc....the rate had increased another $60 per person. If they had grabbed the three rooms I had asked for and they had seen the rates for already, I would not have had to pay the extra $360 for our family of six. Why can they not ask all those annoying questions AFTER they have the price locked in?

Yikes -- this would have so annoyed me that I wouldn't have gone.

She's going to be refurbished just after we get off her from what I understand, so my question is: How worn out are the cabins? I have read that some of the balconies have been redecorated but not the insides -- I have booked a pr.

"On the statement with this bogo promotion they have prices much higher and then they are doing a discount that still comes out higher than if I just went to a royal website and then just planned a cruise myself." YEP I think this BOGO sale is a bit of a scam --not on all categories, but on some. We had priced right before the sale came out, so I KNOW what the prices were, and yes, on some categories, they were the same (even with the so-called discount), some higher within a couple days of the sale, and some lower for the first few days of the sale, anyway. That being said, I did read where folks were getting some really great deals, but mostly way, way out in time. I think the whole thing was heavily dependent on the ship and the time of your cruise.

At one time that would work. Now RCI will only allow you to transfer a booked cruise to a TA with in 60 days of the initial deposit.

 

To the OP: If you book your cruises onboard, make sure that the bookings are not put in your TA's name.

wow, news to me -- thanks

Wow, just wow. I would think dry docks would be scheduled well ahead of the time the ship is to be taken out of service. With the cost to reschedule a flight, you basically get nothing in recompense. I'd be ticked off.

Booked! Picked one up over the water, so excited! How am I going to wait 16 months!

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments.

question: When we booked our cruise, I was told by the RCCL agent, that we could not book excursions, yet. We are going in Jan. The cabanas are listed as an excursion for Labadee, so can I go ahead and start booking?

I just read where you cannot bring non-alcoholic beverages on board. I haven't sailed for two years, but then, you could not bring ANY alcohol on board (the 2 wine bottles it new to me) but I always brought pop and bottled water with no problem. What gives with you can bring booze but not pop/water?

Yep, that's supply & demand for you. As demand increases and inventory dwindles, prices will go up.

Yep, exactly what my travel companions were told. My RCCL booking person told me he had never seen the prices jump within a day -- from mid afternoon, until evening, they jumped $360 for a promenade cabin in Jan! I am not so sure, myself, that it is a supply and demand question as much as it is a "people seem to like this sale, so let's raise rates" problem.