CruiseMH

Grandma, 10 year old, 13 year old. As per NCL terms and conditions this means two adults and one kid. One certificate for the two adults and the 10 year old eats free. Where is the problem ? It clearly mentions "UNDER 12". It does not say "around 12 " or "approx. 12". Why is it so difficult for the people to accept the terms and conditions ? Instead they are trying to find the best way to cheat. And 3 years later they are wondering why NCL raises the prices for the free at sea or reduces the perks.

And still, if NCL finds out that the plates are going back with food on them they know that they can reduce the portion size. Cause either the portion size is too big or the food didn`t taste good. If it didn`t taste good then NCL will find out because this specific dish will be ordered less and less over time.

I see that NCL handles it totally different on the german market(most likely because they have to) First i didn`t know that the port taxes and fees are on top. in Europe this is not allowed or has to be mentioned very clearly directly under the advertised price. And secondly at least in germany the free drink package is indeed free.We don`t have to pay any additional gratuity. So the difference between advertised price and actual final price is indeed extremely high. My original posting was based on my experiences but the US market is totally different. I will take this into consideration before posting in the future.

The only reason therefore is that most people don`t understand what the advertised price does include. It is the price for a cruise. It never says anywhere that internet,beverages or whatever additional stuff is included in that price. Tips might be the only thing on top what you actually have to pay. All other stuff which costs extra you don`t have to take.

My experience last November on the Breakaway was a total different one. I couldn`t notice any decline in food quality at all. Ok,Moderno was a bit...well,it took very long until someone came to your table with new meat. But apart from that all was fine.

Seems they only reduced it a little bit. They still have the Escape, the sky, the pearl and the viva doing 9-15 day cruises in Europe till End of November.

Every cruiser has its personal preferences and so would design the ship to fit his personal preferences the most regardless of what be useful or helpful for the other cruisers or even the majority.

these changes don`t make sense to me. In some cases the times in port are reduced but overall the time at sea is reduced significantly. I`m a bit surprised.

It depends on the ship. On the larger ships they are trying the new concept with the same choice every day. On the smaller ships they have still the daily changing choices in all buffet restaurants.

it is called market economy. the price is always a result of offer and demand. Yes, the prices have gone up significantly,but obviously enough people are willing to pay for it.

Crew members are coming from dozens of different countries,so english as crew language is a must anyway. 😉 Thanks for your detailed review. For me as a german guy it is always very interesting what non-german guests think of this cruise line.

I would clearly vote for Norway. Iceland is fantastic but there is a realistic possibility of not docking due to high winds.

And why did they tell you that then ? First of all i find it refreshingly honest if a cruise line tells you that a itinerary change is for fuel consumption optimizing. Cause usually they don`t tell you that.They oficially have other reasons. And especially if the real reason would be better than the official reason. "reduction of fuel consumption" is the worst thing you can tell the passengers. Cause everyone is then shouting "tits all about money,i knew it from the beginning." If i lie then only to give a better/more pleasant explanation and not a worse one. this is simply logical thinking.And thats why i assume(assume, not know ) that there was indeed a optimization in fuel consumption which we both simply don`t know. what does that have to do with the planning department ? They request a berthing spot on a specific day and then the port authority tells them where to go. And thats what they do. And it also happens that the dock/terminal are changed at the morning of arrival by the port authorities.

I really love people like you who really and honestly think that a garmin app help helps them to proove dozens of planning experts in the offices of NCL being wrong. Sorry, but this is BS. Cruising speed can be 9 knots an hour and it can be 18 knots an hour. So even if they are at sea 6 hours longer it can be that they save a lot of fuel because they are simply going slower. I had a backstage tour on an AIDA cruise ship in the past and the captain explained it. the max. speed(depending on weather conditions) is 21 knts. Usually they are going at 12-15 knots as cruising speed. He said if he compares the fuel consumption of going at 12 knots vs going at 15 knots it is a difference of approx. 20 % if he compares the fuel consumption of going at 15 knots vs going at 18 knots it is a difference of approx. 50 % and if he compares the fuel consumption of going at 18 knots vs going at 20 knots it is a difference of approx. 80 %. fuel consumption increases exponentially.

It is nothing personal to you directly but when will the people learn that it is completely irrelevant what your eyes currently see. 😉 It is only important which weather reports and weather forecasts regarding wind, waves and approx. 5000 other data the captain has available on the bridge. that is what they base their decisions on.

It is not important what you expect to be reasonable,it is only important what the ports/governments actually demand. So you can either accept them or choose another kind of holiday. My private special tip: Just look at the total price of your cruise.Are you satisfied with it then book it and have fun.

The reason is that AIDA is not meant to be for international guests. They are aiming for german-speaking clients only. their whole concept( entertainment, daily program, food) is designed for the german market only. They don`t prohibit non-german speaking guests but they do nothing to support them as well. I know that sometimes they are offering a few cruises on their newest and biggest ships (Nova and Cosma) also on the spanish market,especially for cruises leaving from spanish ports. But these are only a few and only for max. 200-400 spanish guests. But apart from that they practically only want to have german-speaking guests.

In Mykonos they offer a complimentary shuttle bus to the city. At least they did on my trip on the breakaway in November. But Mykonos can also be a tender port.

they are using ship lifeboats as tenders. If there are no tenderboats available then of course tendering is not possible. But in this case the ship would not go to this port as you already mentioned.

the epic is passenger wise slightly larger and is tendering since almost 10 years dozens of times at the port of cannes,France. So the size itself is not an exclusion criterion.

And if you upgrade to another car and accept the conditions that you only get what the other car has to offer then you can demand what you want,you won`t get it. The only mistake from NCL i can see is that the agent obviously did tell them something wrong regarding the free at sea of the upgraded room.

As ridiculous as these offers are i am sure that if they were really against the law then there would have been already several lawsuits of consumer protection organizations against NCL.

Beginning of November on the Breakaway in europe they still did it.

the only difference i saw is that currently they are offering the free at sea package for half price than usual.(at least in germany)

Two weeks ago on the breakaway there were two lines.One for the people with reservations and one for the people without.