notalandlover

There is definitely logic being applied, but it's on a per cruise basis. While a low bid might win an upgrade on one cruise, a max bid might not win an upgrade on the next cruise. It's really quite simple on the NCL end, it's just not evident to us on the consumer end, because we do not see all of the behind-the-scenes data.

 

On the NCL end, they want to make as much money as they possibly can. The will accept/reject bids in a manor that maximizes their earnings. Here's a little scenario to demonstrate how things might look arbitrary from our perspective, but makes perfect sense from NCL's money-making perspective.

• Couple A purchases an inside room for $699 per person, for a total of $1398.
  
• Couple B purchases an ocean view room for $749 per person, for a total of $1498.
  
• Couple C purchases a balcony for $1199 per person, for a total of $2398.
  

First of all, how much all of these couples paid for their initial booking is completely irrelevant. NCL already has that money. All they care about now is how much MORE money they can get out of these couples for their bids. The only scenario I can possibly imagine in which NCL *might* factor in the initial fare is if there were a "tie" in the bidding process and they needed some piece of data to break that tie. I also assume that NCL's third-party partner that handles bidding might track the initial fare to get some sense of whether people who pay more/less up front are more inclined to make higher/lower bids. So it is useful for data mining and predictive analytics.

 

Now, let's move on to the next step in our scenario, the bidding process:

• Couple A gets to bid on an upgrade to an ocean view and a balcony. They bid $100 pp for the ocean view and $200 pp for the balcony.
  
• Couple B gets to bid on an upgrade to a balcony and a mini-suite. They bid $150 pp for the balcony.
  
• Couple C gets to bid on a mini-suite and the Haven suites. They bid $1200 pp for a Haven.
  

Now we come down to a few days before the sailing and NCL processes the bids:

• Couple A gets upgraded to an ocean view.
  
• Couple B gets upgraded to a balcony.
  
• Couple C gets upgraded to the Haven.
  

They come to post on this site and all we are told is that Couple A went from an inside to an ocean view for $100 pp, Couple B wend from an ocean view to a balcony for $150 pp, and Couple C went to a Haven for $1200pp.

 

Couple A might be mad because they bid more for the balcony upgrade than Couple B did, but they got stuck in an ocean view room. What they don't see is that it was more profitable for NCL to upgrade Couple B to the balcony vacated by couple C and then upgrade Couple A to the ocean view vacated by Couple B. NCL has now made $100 pp from couple A plus $150 pp from Couple B for a total of $500. Whereas, had they just accepted Couple A's $200 pp offer on a balcony and left Couple B in their ocean view room, NCL would have only made $400.

 

Now, scale that out to the entire ship... potentially hundreds, if not thousands of bids. Since we only hear a couple of accounts from each sailing (if that) on these forums, we aren't getting anything near the whole picture. Plus, add in other complicating factors like more people per stateroom, or the actual distribution of weight on the ship dictating which staterooms should be filled or left empty and there is just FAR too much information that we are lacking here on the forums.

 

I don't think NCL is playing mind games and making some staterooms appear to be sold out when they aren't just to try to trick us into bidding more. I legitimately believe that if a stateroom appears to us to be sold out, it's because it currently *is* or it is on hold. But NCL is still more than happy to take your bids, because up until the very last second, they don't know if there will be a cancellation or if someone will get upgraded and therefor vacate that room. Plus, by taking your bids on sold out rooms, they are still getting valuable data for their predictive analytics that help them make future decisions on pricing.

 

I think that at the moment NCL or their third-party partner runs the algorithms to process the bids, they are simply trying to squeeze as much money out of the sailing as they possibly can. I also think that they might auto-accept some very high bids further out from the sale date in order to "lock in" those bids. For instance, if someone bids high on a balcony and NCL is about to drop the price on those balconies because of poor sales, they might go ahead and accept the high bid on the balcony while they have it so the passenger doesn't lower their bid once they see that prices are dropping.

Great post. Thank you

Perhaps more the exception than the rule:

Some cruise lines do have "preferred" TA partners who (like an onboard "ambassador") may be able to "prebook" new itineraries about to be published. One of our very recent onboard bookings for a summer 2020 extended itinerary was arranged before appearing to the general public on the cruise line website. Even with this advantage, we secured the only remaining cabin in our favorite category.

Basically, the itinerary was "sold out" before it "appeared." Yet another value of the "right TA."[what was the iternary ship and date?

Another country having different tax laws than the US or the UK is not tax avoidance. What is morally doubtful is expecting every country to operate like YOUR country.

https://iremit.com.au/rejoice-2018-need-know-philippines-tax-reform-train/

It’s $50 per cabin per port. It can be combined with the Free at Sea promotion to be $100 per port per cabin.

 

The T&Cs instructions are shown below. On the past, they limited the number of ports. I don’t see that in the current T&Cs. Worth a call and question to the number below.

 

The credit is applied to your on board account after you complete the excursion. Most people book without paying, and pay at the end of the cruise (less the credit).

 

Shore excursion credit can only be redeemed by calling 1-866-625-1167 or booking onboard.

For the guests that book their excursions online; they are charged full retail for the excursions and the discount will be applied onboard in the form of a credit to their onboard account.

I have free at sea as well. When I called they said 50 dollars per cabin pet port after the trip has been completed?? I booked online.

Not a big poster here on Cruise Critic, but I have been lurking in this thread for a while just trying to glean info, and decided I should pay it forward since I found the information here helpful.

 

Upcoming cruise on Getaway, originally booked into a B9 Spa Balcony.

 

Placed bids a while back on all the cabins offered except for the "mini-suite" (quite frankly, the room difference between a mini-suite and balcony is almost imperceptible to me, and would have lost access to Thermal Suite) and the Haven Owners Suites (minimum bid was $1,500 and just didn't feel like it was worth bidding since the top of my budget was the minimum bid, plus both of these suites have been listed as "Sold-Out" for quite some time)

 

In no particular order, all Haven Cabins and my bid:

 

Cabin:___________________Bid:

Aft-Facing Penthouse_______$1,350

Forward-Facing PH________$1,350

Courtyard PH_____________$1,150

2-BR Villa_______________ $1,400

Haven Spa_______________ $1,200

 

Got the email today, about 11 days from sailing that my upgrade for the Haven Spa Suite had been accepted. I priced my bids in order of desirability to me, and what I felt would be competitive. I think all of my bids except the 2BR Villa were in the "good" range.

 

Happy to answer any other questions for those interested.

 

Thanks.[/quote so the haven spa was 1500 per person aka 3k is that correct?

I suppose we could do the math. Anyone know the crew numbers and how many participate in the tip pool?

 

I read somewhere on cc that on Anthem of the Seas, an average of 400 people opt out of tipping through RC

The lines can only keep raising the grats to a certain level then they will be forced to include it in the fare like they do elsewhere.

We cruised a couple years ago to Cozumel and Grand Cayman and they sold Tortuga Rum. I cannot find it in the US. This summer we will be cruising to Aruba, Grand Turk and Curacao. Do you know if any of these ports sell Tortuga Rum?

 

 

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I remember seeing it at Total Wine

Stick to the classics: a whoopee cushion and a joy buzzer.

When on the elevator during a sea day tell others about the big marlin caught off the back of the ship.

Quick question. I have my grats prepaid by the TA and I was able to book during a promo when port fees/ taxes are paid by NCL. I have the distinctive voyage perks as well. If I'm offered to bid in the future and its accepted do I lose everything?

Bring back the chefs table

14 day cruises to Alaska that go into glacier bay

Can the shore X credit be used on Great Stirup Cay?

The island is privately held by

Princess . All excursions are only aviable thru Princess.

I went to lighthouse beach with my cruise group a few years ago. It was great. http://eleutheratours.com

What are your tips for not feeling yucky the next day? I want to enjoy some drinks but I’m afraid of getting a hangover if I’m having too much fun.. lol 🤷🏼

 

 

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Drink water before going to sleep

Have you tired this. http://www.riosecreto.com/tours.asp#our-tours

Orient Beach in St Martin.

I feel the gratuity on the specialty dining is a scam. Last year we had a real good waiter on the Breakaway he wasn't charging us tax on drinks in ports and made sure we always had a full glass of wine. Needless to say we asked for him every night. I gave him an extra tip the last night. A couple nights we couldn't have him as our waiter because he was working in a specialty restaurant. He basically told us he usually works the main dining room but if its busier at a specialty restaurant he could be moved there. He said most wait staff is moved around to accommodate crowds.

 

This made me realize, if the ship serves 4000 diners every night it should't matter where you eat. Their isn't extra staff waiting to work. If everyone ate in the MDR and no one was in the specialty restaurants the wait staff would all be in the MDR. If I only eat at the main dining room my tips are already paid for. If I eat at a specialty restaurant that means I am not eating in the MDR but have already paid a gratuity.

 

So who keeps the mystery MDR money when you eat at a specialty restaurant.

You made a good point

I really want to know if the staff gets this money. I have no problem with it if that’s the case but I doubt it honestly.

This guy claims to be employee of RCL. Royal Caribbean Dude I would ask him. I would venture that NCL has the same or very similar policy about grats.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2610892

I would book this cruise and quickly I might add. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/cruiselog/2015/08/06/luxury-world-cruise-regent/31208515/

When I did the behind the scenes tour with PCL this is where they sleep as well. I figured out this was the actually deck "13".

So I can buy a case of Caybrew in Grand Cayman and hand it over to security upon arrival back to the ship. Then the last night of the sailing NCL will deliver it to my stateroom just like they will with alcohol. Is that correct? How much beer can somepne bring back without duty tax? Thank you.

What's the rules regarding bring ing beer on board. I want to buy some beer in Grand Caymon and enjoy it on board and when I get home. I bought unlimited beverage package as:confused: well if that matters.

Whats the dress code when someone has dinner with the officers?

No 13th deck on Princess either.

I was on the Royal a few yrs back. I didn't do this because I thought security wouldn't find it funny and I didn't want to ruin my cruise because of a prank. We were sailing on Friday the 13th and I was going to put a 13 sticker on the elevator button that had 14 on it. I did get into the elevator a few times and asked for deck 13. The looks I got LOL.

Hi All,

 

Can someone please confirm how to avoid being charged for "Service Charge" onboard NCL cruises as I prefer tipping the staff directly.

 

The new T&C are confusing, while point #9 states that SC is included in the fare "

the service charge referred to below (subject to your election)"

point #12 states that if removed at the time of booking they whill be charged onboard. However, if you choose to remove these service charges at time of booking, they will be made payable on-board at a rate of USD$13.99 per person, per day (for mini suites and below on all ships except Norwegian Sky*).

 

In addition, I've read that NCL has a new lengthy procedure, where the Purser's desk cannot remove the SC any longer, instead a form needs to be completed (stating/claiming dissatisfaction with the service) and sent to head office. The entire process can take several weeks until the funds are refunded.

 

Any advice is highly appreciated :)[/quote

 

 

 

 

 

I would think calling the credit card company and desputing the amont of the service charges would be the best way to go.