KeithJenner

Just to try to avoid some confusion, the package that you get with free at sea is the premium package. The package that you can upgrade to and includes Starbucks is the Premium Plus.

Yes, that is exactly what happened. New cabins were added where the kids club used to be. 10186 is one of them.

We stayed in 10686 a few times before the refurb (and were booked in 10186 last year but it was cancelled). Keeping in mind that things may have changed during the refurb, it was by a long way our favourite room on the ship. For a balcony cabin, at no extra cost, you get a massive room. I'm not aware of any bigger non suite rooms on any NCL ships. The balcony was the full length of the cabin (again, pre refurb, things may have changed) and as noted above you are really close to the tiered seating at the aft which we really love. We always used to get breakfast out there. Onda it two floors up, so there is no impact from that being there. My one concern is whether you may get noise from Spice, but I think that you are far enough away for that to not be a major problem. I've attached some pictures. Hopefully they haven't made too many changes to the layout, and 10186 should be a mirror image.

You may be correct. Im only going from what I’ve read here (I’ve never used the upgrade bidding myself).

I thought that the charge stayed the same if you are upgraded, regardless of whether you have prepaid it.

Good to see confirmation that they are telling people what's going on now.

You could get a couple of years warning if you book far enough in advance.

I would be surprised if the difference between someone paying the old or new rate based on prepaying or not affects the amount that the staff actually receive.

That may be a short cruise, but it’s hard to find a better selection of port stops. 🙂

At the moment it is likely that you will only be able to book each restaurant once online, so if you want to go to the same restaurant twice then you may been to either phone in or wait to book one of them.

Well, it’s irrelevant now as it doesn’t look like I’ll be testing on the Monday anyway. 🙂

You do not need to prepay the service charge in case there is a price increase. Whenever NCL increase them you can still get the old price as long as you prepay before the cruise, so you can wait until it is announced before deciding. Of course they may change the way they do it, but that has been consistent for years now.

Yeah, I’m away and using my phone. I honestly didn’t see them first time I looked. 🙂

Ignore. I’ve found another thread.

The post you quoted is old and referred to the situation back then when nobody could get a drink in Greek ports on the Jade regardless of having the package. That was then resolved and the situation you describe is how it is now that they have got it sorted.

I’m Mykonos there is just one place where a ship can dock, but there is often more more than one shop there, so the others tender. I have been there 4 times now and have always docked, but others have tendered. On a couple of occasions they haven’t even been above to tell us the night before which it will be, as it depended on who arrived first. It doesn’t actually make all that much difference to the ease of getting into town. The tender takes you direct to the old harbour whereas if you dock you need to use the shuttle or water taxi to get to the same place. If you organise a tour etc then the guide will know where to go, although there may be a delay if you tender depending on what ticket you can get.

Not at the moment. The online system is only allowing each restaurant to be booked once. If you add a second reservation to your basket is says it has been added but when you try to check out it isn’t there.

This is from memory as I’m not near my computer. I think that on the website you only have the option of paying in full. On the app you can pay another amount. It has a dollar symbol, but it is pounds. I did it on the app.

Online.

Because you probably have a credit which will expire by the end of 2022. I get this message as I have a 10% off credit due to a cancelled cruise. I have heard people say that they have received this message/emails about it despite not having any credits, but it could be that they are just unaware of them. You can still book any cruise that is available, you just wouldn’t be able to use this credit against them (if the credit does exist) if they are for 2023/24.

You’ve probably worked this out by now, but ignore my answer above. I wasn’t aware of that difference in the Hawaiian package.

The beverage package that comes as the promo doesn’t include speciality coffees anywhere. If you order something like an espresso after a meal then you may find that you don’t get charged for it, but that is far from guaranteed. I’ve never tried ordering a latte in a restaurant, but suspect that would be even less likely to avoid the charge. My guess is that if you turned up at a restaurant and ordered a latte without a meal you would certainly be charged.

I never heard any suggestion that it would be an adults only ship, just that the kids clubs had been removed. We were booked on the Spirit with our son for 2021.

You are correct about the lack of information about the Spirit. Unfortunately it only did about one and a half cruises after the refurb before covid hit, so it didn’t get the attention it deserved. There were a couple of good threads on here from those post refurb cruises, but they are probably hard to find because of the time that has passed.

You want to be looking at booking on the Spirit anyway, because it’s a fantastic ship. 🙂