laudergayle

Happy to see you made it to Civitavecchia. Time to breathe easy and let the excitement of cruising begin. Cheers 🥂

Tough life😊🐀

Sure.

I agree. I’ve done a few mock bookings and the difference was less than $100 and we get an extra meal. To me the biggest negative is the Internet Upgrade. In the past (when we didnt do FAS+) I would just upgrade one person to Unlimited. Now it looks like it’s priced “per cabin” and is priced as though two people upgraded. I’ve never tried to make 150 mins work…so my next cruise I will definitely be trying this. Hopefully they will have onboard deals during the cruise.

@HBCcruiser another post about FAS+. Seems you will get some of the benefits…probably not the one you really wanted though.

Even if NCL decides to “include MAS” with Haven and Suites bookings, it’s not like it will be FREE. It will just be buried in the cabin price. And, actually that’s a bad benefit if one would want to opt out of MAS.

FAS upgrade for Unlimited WiFi on a 7 day cruise was $109 pp.

I didn’t pay attention to all of them, but Ocean Blue was definitely Cover Charge.

Lol. Yes 2025. This is the Getaway from NOLA to Western Caribbean that @cruiseny4life is on. This is what you take when you only have a week vacay🤣

I just made dining reservations for a Feb. 2, 2024 cruise. We have 2 FAS meals and 2 Platinum meals. Total of 4. I reserved LaCucina, OceanBlue, Cagney’s and LeBistro. I was not asked to pay anything. Although the NCL website and app is throwing errors everywhere…the bookings did go through.

I hadn’t booked FAS+ for February yet…so nothing changed. Which really stinks as I liked FAS+… not only for the champagne, but for the internet upgrade and excursion credits.

It’s good you have so many port days where you can check in with him. I know with my MIL when we traveled internationally we would call her and it made her feel like we were just a few miles away.

Happy Cruising!! What an amazing way to celebrate 34 years together…not to mention more cruising with your DD. Your excursions look amazing. Hope this time away lets your heart heal. Safe travels…❤️

What is the “promotional credit” to which you’re referring?

If you know you want them, by all means book now. Actually, after giving you this advice I just bought the 2 extra SD meals for our November ‘25 cruise.

NCL was never giving anything away for Free. It was always built into the rate. It just looked like it was free. It looks like NCL is going to mimic Princess booking process. They advertise base rates and then you select if you want the Princess Plus. If NCL is going to follow that lead, I think it is smart for them. Reel people in with an attractive base offering then allow the buyer to say they want more, I.e., MAS. I don’t think the new MAS package is going to feel much different than the current FAS. The marketing blurb about premium drinks as part of the MAS is likely nothing much..in other words, don’t expect a big difference from what is offered today. Longer cruises do get more specialty dining…but the cost to upgrade also increases. FAS+ cruisers are the losers with MAS. It will be interesting to see what higher end alcohol is actually stocked onboard beginning in 2025.

@JIMESOPUS nice sleuth work 🕵️

Yeah, we have several Delta Amex and the offer has never shown up there. We have an EveryDay card, too (no fee and earns Membership Miles), and we didn’t get the offer…yet.

While none of our Amex cards have the offer, our son has a Spend $500 on NCL by 11/29 and Get $100 back. He has the Every Day card.

Unfortunately it looks to be true. For our February ‘25 sailing on the Getaway this is what now shows for Shanghai’s. I’ll reserve judgement until I see what the BIG announcement that NCL has planned.

That could be true actually. What better way to get a quick reaction/feedback than by exposing the change to a small but very vocal group of NCL loyalists.

For all the reasons you stated in your post above, I do think the FAS can go away. According to the posts this past year quite a few NCL loyalists are trying other cruise lines. Both MSC and Princess have unique ways of offering basic cruise rates at lower prices, and then they allow the consumer to create their own experience based on where they find value. And all of this customization is done while booking (or mock booking) online. I, for one, would like for FAS to go away. And I agree that cover charge/pre-fixe at a reasonable (but not too reasonable) would be my preference.

For me, FAS meals is an assumption. IMO there will be no FAS. You buy basic fare and add on Drinks, SD packages, Internet and PrePaid Gratuities. A hybrid of how Princess and MSC serve up these options. If what I present is true, then demand for SD diners will be less, therefore a Platinum/+ wanting to take advantage once onboard will not have access issues. MSC does not take any SD reservations until onboard…and if you want SD, you have to buy a 2-4 venue package. Which BTW, my few experiences with MSC SD, the restaurants were really empty. Likely true. Does NCL really value guest experience any longer? Flooding the MDRs with more guests gives NCL an excuse to deliver moderate food and service at s lower cost than what one would expect from SD venues. Let’s not lose (not loose😁) sight that the current NCL leadership team has revenue backgrounds vs. branding. That makes a huge difference in the decisions that are made when navigating a company forward.

Yes. Probably. How’s that for being definitive (usage check please Ukstages). 🤣 Actually, I think ChiefMateJRK is likely correct. But my 2 cents would be: if you buy a SD package (2/3/4) you are paying the 20% grat at time of purchasing the package…which gives you the opportunity of booking dining in advance. For those with Platinum+ vouchers would have to make reservations once onboard…not before.

@UKstages Well it looks like they updated the app now, too, Now there is both Cover Charge and Pre Fixe.🤷‍♀️