marktwothousand

I paid regular price for a balcony on my upcoming Sept 2 sailing in Europe (no upgrades). All that was left by the time I bought the fare was BF-GTY guarantees. I still haven’t got my cabin allocation. does anyone know if the NCL systems decide differently about paid guarantees vs. Upgrades? Upgrades are still guarantees right? In that, you could get any balcony in the category? But does anyone know if paid fares get priority in their cabin picks or is it truly random? Or are the upgrades and fares treated totally separately… thanks

That’s the ultimate.

I have two free speciality dining to use and I will attend one more paid dining night with my group. One dining night will be the flat rate moderno. What is the best way to pay for the other the other two? Is it always better to pay for the flat rate restaurants straight up, or use the freebies on those? The goal here is to pay the least out of pocket. Thanks.

That’s also what I was thinking but I thought the quarantine ended. It was 7 days earlier this year. this would be the most ideal scenario for passengers.

It is odd. There’s the usual discussion yes, but the suspected crew members aren’t taking part in it. my sense is that the crew members joined, not originally knowing that passengers use those groups to discuss trip information. Still, I think the “non-mixing” of crew and passengers rule should apply off the ship and on the internet too, as much as is possible. For various reasons. Crew should have their own Facebook group

Damn… not looking good bet they’ll start closing things like spice H2O and the pool deck during my cruise because it’s port intensive and they probably figure most people are getting off anyway… and I was hoping to use this cruise as a good way to stay on board on a quiet ship. What a bummer.

Mr. Worlwide

Rebellllious pfffffish

Thank you! I’d actually be ok with that. just hoping at this point the cruise isn’t disrupted or cancelled due to maintenance.

Thanks a LOT for this and That’s about what I counted. I think we’re actually in agreement here! But what Might not be clear is that There isn’t solo pricing on those cabins you point out. The only way I was able to get solo cruiser pricing on a balcony was to go with guarantee. Otherwise the prices were in the $thousands range as it shows in your pic. (Double what I paid) my rate was far, FAR less than that… oh well. I guess the upshot is that maybe I’ll get placed on one of the remaining 50-60 cabins, which are all decent to me. I’ve been right above the waterfront before and didn’t mind it/notice atall, except for the broken glass dropped on the landing in front of me. (I was just unlucky on that one) i have a feeling the ship is starting to shut down/take on new crew for the drydock after our sailing and that’s what’s happening.

I’m on the last escape sailing before drydock in September. As some of you may know from my other thread, I have been struggling to book a different cabin as all categories are pretty much guarantee-only at this point. There are about 60 cabins left for this Sept 2 sailing. I started to get a sense something was up when, a group on another website for this sailing, started to balloon in member size. I think It is about 500 members, about 200 more than I last checked. When I started browsing the profiles, I saw many of them were from Philippines, India, Singapore, and other common crew member countries, and many were ship workers, engineers and crew. What it seems is that my sailing is going to be taking on a whole heap of new crew. If this is indeed the case, I’m happy for them, it’s a great opportunity. what I’m wondering though, is how this might affect guest experience. First off, this might explain why so few cabins are available - many are probably being used to house or quarantine incoming crew. Secondly, has anyone ever been on a final cruise before a dry dock? If so, did you notice anything special about it? did they start shutting down areas and decks early to prepare? Was service reduced? I am thinking that only the above explanations can explain why the reservations for this sailing seem so off and why there are so many ship crew on the group. I’d love to hear if anyone’s ever experienced this before. i am pretty confident NCL will have pretty strict rules for the incoming crew to ensure they stay in their assigned areas and clear of guests enjoying their time, but the sad part is that socially and mingling-wise, it would be unfortunate if there are less tourists than usual. thanks for hearing me out

You know what, I think I just figured out what the problem is. I am on the last sailing before the dry dock. i noticed today, on the “other social media” site which has a group for the sailing, MANY people from the Philippines, Singapore, India are in the group. Upon investigating their profiles, many have backgrounds as ship engineers, crew, etc. i am getting a sense that many cabins may be held back for the joining crew (possible quarantine even?) and that also may explain why there are so few cabins left. i may be starting another thread about the crew turnaround and dry dock soon. Hold tight.

Hmmm… thanks @kylenyc but on my end all I see is below… once you click into “balcony” there are no other categories. You’re forced into GTY. I checked one of the other “popular” big box travel agencies and I was able to see some other balconies but nothing even remotely priced close to what I paid. In fact I counted about 60 cabins total available on the cruise PERIOD. Inside and out. This is going to be one JAMMED cruise… Perhaps it’s a bug?

Please tell me how you found that. I will call my agency right away and pay the difference if they let me.

Well, see, that’s the problem. For some reason this sailing went guarantee-only for balconies a couple weeks ago. You can’t check inventory on any popular travel booking sites even if you wanted to because the whole balcony category is blanked out as GTY now. The only non-guarantee balconies available for the sailing at this point are special ones like aft, family, spa, etc. also, I should clarify that this isn’t technically an “upgrade”, it was a re-fare. NCL transferred my full value of what I paid for the studio to the new fare. The only upshot is that they did allow me to apply a 10% off coupon to the re-fare.

I’ll keep my comments to myself on that one 🤪

Interesting bc: - they don’t usually let you downgrade if the price difference is LESS - I would have kept the balcony especially for that long cruise. Even if it is TA a balcony is still a balcony and beats a studio by 1000x. I was a hardcore studio cruiser but I have done balconies the last two sailings and I’m starting to become one of those people who “can’t go back”! I love my balconies and I DO like that it’s a place to get sun without being in public and having to make sure you keep up appearances for it. Whenever I had a studio I always dreaded wanting to go outside after a late night because it always meant MAJOR getting ready so I look presentable in public.

PERFECT. this was the response I was looking for and I was able to corroborate it with another thread where someone said the same thing… the guarantee booking shows BF when you make it but this is just the MINIMUM it seems… Hoping they will take into account that I’m not upgrade bidding on this and it was a full cost ($700) upgrade and assign the bidders first and at least give me something not crappy… also, anyone know when they usually get assigned? This is for a 10 day European on september 2. Do they usually assign bidders first and then leave the full cost payers till the end? Thanks

Right now in my reservation it “says” category “BF” with no room number. Does that mean necessarily that I would end up with BF or does everyone get BF as a placeholder until assignment? Or do you usually get placed where the code shows? also some deck plans show BF only on deck 10 and 11 while others show them only on deck 8 so it really depends on what deck plans I look at… if it’s BF on 10 or 11 I’d be pretty happy

Ya but the ship was so full they could only do a GTY

Ya. Thats what I was thinking, I really don’t like the look down, it’s exactly what I didn’t want 😞 I also had a frightening experience on the bliss being near the overhang and someone dropped a glass and the shards were all over my balcony. I didn’t see them and could have been seriously cut. hoping to plea my case on board but I won’t hold much hope. It was an upgrade from a studio, so…

I just paid a full price upgrade and it looks like they temporary code they’re placing in my file for guarantee GTY balcony placement is BF. this looks exactly like where I didn’t want to be 😞 I was hoping to have a balcony For privacy. It looks like BF is deck 8 forward. I don’t mind the obstructed view by lifeboats so much, but this is really where I didn’t want to be. Could anyone shed light on how “bad” a balcony Escape BF could be?

The messaging was fixed. No testing required currently outside of US except For cruises originating in Greece. Thanks all

NCL phone agent says best to get Tested for European cruises right now.

Yup no update on Canadian website here either. NCL agents on phone continue to be clueless and say testing is required. Still on hold with NCL figuring it out