hawkeyetlse

How much time will you spend on e-mail each day? Keeping in mind that something that takes you 10 minutes at home might eat up more like 20-25 minutes on the ship. Expect everything to take more time. As for messaging your husband, if you both use iPhones you might be able to send each other iMessages (text only) without using any internet minutes. But in general, you need internet access to send and receive messages (WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or whatever), and that uses up your minutes. Again, probably 5 minutes each time you log on to do that, and the rest of the time you will be out of touch. One option is for you and your husband to both activate the messaging function on the NCL app. It's like $10 per phone, and then you can send each other messages through the app while on board without using internet minutes. Another option is for just one of you to upgrade to unlimited internet for the duration of the cruise. That way you can handle your work e-mail without worrying about running out of time, and when you're not working, you and your husband can share the package (one person at a time). So if you send him a WhatsApp message while you're logged on, he can then log on to the same account, kick you off the internet, and read the message. And then you can kick him back off, and so on. It's obviously not ideal, but it's cheaper than purchasing unlimited internet for both phones. Finally, of course, you can get unlimited internet for both phones (get a 2-device package under one person's name, much cheaper than purchasing one device for each person individually).

If they sent you the e-ticket, you're done! Disregard the message. The health form is not even supposed to be filled out until the day of departure, so I don't know why they mention it here. They probably don't know, either.

Each person gets an individual Voyagers Club membership, so each Status Match is for one person, not for a whole family. If there are people in your group with no status on another cruise line (or eligible hotel/airline), then of course they can't Status Match. Or if they have low status and don't plan to cruise MSC regularly from now on, it's also probably not worth it to match, because it can only be done once and the matched status expires after 3 years if they don't cruise with MSC again. If you give us more details about your family we can give you more specific advice.

I don't think you can say this was an unintended consequence. From the information sent to TAs: The auto-cancel process is enabled for all North America NCL Direct and Trade agencies. It applies to booked (BK) reservations with a balance (net due) owed of $1 or more, based on the final payment due date (120 days from the sail date). If an invoice item is added to a reservation inside the final payment and the payment is not immediately collected or is declined when the item is added, the reservation will automatically cancel. This is something that NCL has deliberately implemented, and the intended consequence is to cause immediate cancellation of people's entire paid-in-full bookings after final payment. That is the specific purpose of the "auto-cancel process". Why in the world they ever came up with this process, I am still struggling to understand. And you say it can take a while to properly escalate and resolve customer service issues, but this woman spent the 21 days before her cruise begging NCL to reinstate her booking. I get that at any given time there are thousands of people about to sail who are bugging NCL about their insignifcant personal emergencies, but if a customer reaches out to contest a last-minute auto-cancellation by NCL of a fully paid booking, honestly that should be recognized as a legitimate "get the boss involved" situation.

I don't know what all was deleted, but CC has a specific rule about participation by media professionals. If the author of the article just created an account and started posting, that's not allowed. Anyway I'm glad she got a positive result for this customer, although I agree that they deserve more than 100% FCC for what NCL did here.

Just to point out that the $80 (assuming you are referring to the daily service charge) is not just for 15 minutes of housekeeping, it's also for (complimentary) dining all day long.

If you participate in activities led by the cruise director's staff (trivia and other games), instead of giving out prizes right away, they give everybody who took part a signature on their "activity card". You collect as many signatures as you can during the cruise, and then on the last night you can exchange them for some Norwegian logo items (keychains, t-shirts, mugs). No need to sign up, just show up for an activity and go collect your signature afterwards.

THANK YOU for this information! We only got dribs and drabs of this text from others with TA access up to now, but after 100+ messages we finally have NCL's full statement of policy! And what a terrible policy it is! Both in its content and in the way customers are not made aware of it, unless they use a TA and that TA thinks of warning them.

They used a financing program called "Uplift". So the full amount was paid to NCL before sailing, but they were (and are still) responsible for continuing to make payments to Uplift until the debt is cleared.

You must mean with Free At Sea, but the OP is asking about Latitudes perks (I assume Platinum and above). Officially you get the same 2 dinner vouchers per cabin no matter how long the cruise is. Officially one bag of laundry per person per cruise (but the unpublished benefit seems to be one additional bag for 14+ days, maybe another one for 21+ days). Definitely ask about that on board. Also, the longer the cruise is, the more Latitudes points you get 😎

If it was so easy to get your reservation cancelled for trying to add excursions, dining/beverages, internet/spa/diapers, pre-paid gratuities, etc. after final payment, then it would be happening right and left, to thousands of passengers, and that is simply not the case. I believe the basic story of what happened to this customer, and that it had something to do with unpaid ground transfers, but people add ground transfers after final payment all the time, and some percentage of them must screw up the payment the first time or just fail to finalize the purchase, and I don't think their bookings get cancelled immediately. Because again I think we would be hearing about it.

You can wait a couple of days to upgrade/purchase, but then as far as I know you have to pay for all of the remaining days of the cruise. But who knows, if you use your wiles on the Internet Manager…

It's a little premature to suggest that this is NCL's new evil plan, based on just one example. If it starts happening all over the place, then we have a problem.

If you're sitting right at the bar watching people order and get served, it's not uncommon to see a flash of cash (more typically at indoor bars than up at the pool). Or sometimes it's much less discreet, like when people are giving more substantial tips to their favorite staff members at the end of the cruise and you can't help overhearing a whole thank you/goodbye conversation. But if you usually sit at your own table, and you're not the kind to spend your cruise monitoring what other guests are doing, then I'm sure it's perfectly possible never to notice any cash tipping. And (at least for now) the bar staff will never pressure you for an additional tip, or give you worse service if you don't tip extra.

Specialty coffee, i.e. espresso drinks, have been excluded from NCL's unlimited beverage package since the very beginning (late 2013). Long before they started putting Starbuckses on board. Same with energy drinks, fresh squeezed juices, bottled water. These are all things that cost a lot less than the alcoholic drinks that they will give you unlimited quantities of, so people have been asking/wondering/complaining about these exclusions on a regular basis for the past 10 years. As for "why" these categories are excluded, it's because NCL gets to make up the rules. I guess they figured that people who really want these drinks will suck it up and pay a couple dollars more, on top of their package. And people who don't really care can settle for regular coffee, regular juice, tap water/club soda. And maybe because they were already thinking ahead to when they would offer an upgraded package that would include them (although this didn't happen until many years later).

Both will be graciously accepted. Crew members spend most of their time on board, so they mostly operate in USD, but if you're based in the UK/Europe, there is no need to go out of your way to get USD in cash. Euros are absolutely fine. You can even give them GBP. Even if they can't use it right away, or have to go through extra steps to use it, you're still giving them money (as opposed to giving them nothing). It will be appreciated.

I suspect that if you click all the way through and make a "mock booking" (courtesy hold), the correct offer will appear on the confirmation they send you. In general this is the only way you can be sure exactly what deals you are getting if you book by yourself on the website. You can always call later and get a human to modify things, or cancel the hold (or just let it expire).

A lot travel agents assume (probably correctly) that people won't know what these codes mean and will just get worried/confused if they see them, so they don't mention them in the documents they send you. If you contact your TA they should be able to tell you the codes on your booking, or just send you the confirmation from NCL. You can also try calling NCL (they will probably tell you to go through your TA but this seems like information they should be able to give you directly). There is nowhere to look this up yourself online, you'll have to call someone.

You can write a letter to the General Manager about it and leave it at the front desk. I don't know what they'll do with it, but they're the ones who need to know, and who have any sort of input to corporate. Adjusting the DSC, and mentioning anything about housekeeping as the reason, probably just gets your steward in trouble.

I don't know who the cruise director will be on the Epic in May, but I would find them a few days before the finals and suggest that they schedule a viewing party on the big screen in the Atrium or at Spice H2O. If it's all Americans on board they might not see the point, but otherwise it should definitely attract a fun crowd, and be good for evening atmosphere, bar sales, etc.

There is Hola Tapas (Grandiosa) and Hola Tacos (Virtuosa). I don't think there are any restrictions at Hola Tapas (except Easy package doesn't work). Hola Tacos is supposedly totally excluded but they will actually let you use Easy Plus or Premium Extra package for some drinks there.

You can add unlimited Starbucks for $12.95 pppd + 20%.

There is a unique energy in the buffet on embarkation day that you can only experience once per cruise. You can have lunch in the MDR or O'Sheehan's some other time.

It sounds like lots of people are asking to get early cabin service, so if you don't say anything, your cabin will probably get pushed to 3-6pm. And if too many people ask for morning service, the attendant has to guess which ones will cause him/her the most grief and actually do their cabins early, and hope for the best with everyone else. I wouldn't like to be in their position, but I guess increased communication and flexibility (on both the steward's and the guests' part) can go a long way towards making this all work. I'd rather have my cabin done before 3pm every day, but if I'm told it needs to be later, I can plan around it without too much inconvenience.

Nobody knows exactly how NCL distributes the DSC (although you mentioned beverage service, and that department does not get a share, because there is a separate service charge on drinks). It's primarily for housekeeping and complimentary dining (and unspecified behind-the-scenes crew). So if you remove your DSC, I guess we can assume it somehow, eventually takes money away from those departments. If you are unsatisfied with your cabin attendant, reduce the DSC by whatever amount you feel is appropriate but be sure to tell guest services why you're doing it. It doesn't necessarily mean that they will definitely withhold exactly that amount from your steward's pay for that cruise, but I'm pretty sure they will suffer some negative consequences from your complaint (hopefully after making sure it is justified).