kdzkatz

I was hoping for a few vouchers for specialty coffee instead of the officers dinner...;)

I like your thinking! I don't like to dress up when I'm not on vacation so I don't even pack dress clothes for my cruise. I would feel out of place dining with an officer in my jeans and t-shirt. I would much rather have free specialty coffee vouchers too! :D:D

Exactly what I was thinking, as there is always 3 of us.

 

 

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I could be completely wrong but, if this portion of the rollout is correct, it does not state "for 2" so I would think it would be that meal for all staying in that cabin. So it would work out better for you I would think. It would be 2 meals for 3 instead of 3 meals for 2. This is all early speculation but I wanted to throw this possibility out there.

I think for 10 days that was terribly low. It depends on how much you use him. but he is working behind the scenes and is always available. We've been on 5 NCL cruises, all in suites. From 3-9 days. From the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and most recently, 9 days in a 2 bedroom suite on the Star, for a Baltic cruise. We might tip $100 for a 3 day cruise, but for 10, no. You tipped him $10 a day, regardless of the number of people he was there to serve, and did serve. I can't tell you how much was appropriate because I don't know your level of use, but $100 was like leaving a penny on a table for a waitress.

Your comment is VERY insulting. $100 is like leaving a penny??!! I guarantee you their butler did not see it that way. Not all of us that cruise in suites are as well off as others and we do our best to show our appreciation to the butlers.

I hope the OP takes this thread down soon so more people like you can't leave insulting comments.

Just got off a 10 day cruise on the Jade. I tipped the butler one hundred dollars. Was it enough or should I have tipped more.

IMO you gave them a nice amount to show your appreciation. There are many opinions out there on this. Our personal guideline for a 7 day cruise is we start off with $100 for the butler and $50 for the concierge. That number only goes down if they are exceptionally bad and it will go up if we feel they have gone above and beyond for us. We don't adjust down based on usage. Even if we don't use them but we feel they were available for us then we will still tip our starting amount.

The words kdzkatz quoted are shown on the T&C's ... see the link I posted in post just before yours. Be sure to click on the Terms & Conditions at the very bottom of the page just below the phone number to go to the actual terms & conditions page.

 

The excluded ship wording was done before the Getaway and Escape were built ... Spirit makes sense because it is a very small ship. Also see the sentences I quoted from the T&C in post 12.

 

It wouldn't hurt to call back and try again. Sometimes you get a different answer with a different person. LOL (on me) maybe a BI will become available for upgrade for you. I hope so.

Calling back hoping for a different answer is a great idea! :D They are so poorly trained you can call them for just about any question you have multiple times and get a different answer every time.

Terms and conditions do specifically state that Aft Facing Balcony category is excluded on the Breakaway, but doesn't mention afts are excluded on other ships.

 

Double Cross-Meta upgrade refers to having the option to book a specific Balcony category for the price of a specific Interior category. Norwegian Cruise Line reserves the right to assign the stateroom at their discretion. Suites & Mini-Suites are excluded. Norwegian Spirit is not eligible for Balcony upgrade. Family Balcony, Spa Balcony, and Deluxe Balcony on the Norwegian Epic are excluded from the offer. Family Balcony, Spa Balcony, and Aft Facing Balcony on the Norwegian Breakaway are excluded from the offer.

 

kdzkatz, what ship did you book?

We are on the Pearl.

Where did you get the quote for the T&C's on the Double Cross Meta? I read them on NCL's site and they did not show any of those exclusions. It makes it seem even more wrong we can't get a B1 with this upgrade on the Pearl as they show ships with exclusions.

I am not sure what you are trying to get, but I was able to book an aft balcony on a two week Panama canal cruise (same one as kjquilts!) using points for an upgrade. I booked just over a year out. Companies change their rules all the time, so maybe the deal is not as good now as it used to be?

there is a 10k point upgrade and 20k upgrade where you can upgrade within the same category.

The Double Cross-Meta uses 60k points and allows you to book and pay for an inside room but upgrade to a balcony.

What upgrade did you use?

What is meta? :confused:

 

Thanks.

I believe it is in reference to going from an inside to an ocean view (1 meta upgrade) or from a balcony to a suite(double meta). Those are just examples. Pretty much going up to the next tier of rooms would be a meta.

I think are each of NCL's tiers are: inside,ocean view, balcony, mini suite, suite & Haven.

We r on the dawn in feb. booked inOV. Got an off ear to bid all the way up to owners suite.

I didn't think the Dawn was part of that program yet?

If it is the online bidding system you cannot upgrade to a Haven from an OV. Max of 2 meta upgrade and when it goes live to other ships on February 8th you would only be able to cross 1 meta to a balcony.

Why would they only be able to cross 1 meta starting February 8th? NCL's T&C's for the Upgrade Advantage Program state you can bid on up to 2 categories higher.

This brings up a question from me. On the newer ships there are no "S" category rooms. It goes from mini suites to Haven rooms. On many other ships including the Jewel Class ships there is an S category as well as H. With the new bidding system will they merge bidding opportunities for both of these categories for balcony and above bookings or will people in "B" category rooms only be able to bid on mini suites and suites but not Haven rooms?

I doubt NCL has an answer for this as a supervisor I spoke to yesterday was misinformed about an important aspect of the bidding process. She thought you only had 48 hours after your initial bid to modify it or cancel it but that is very incorrect. You have until 48 hours of your departure to revise or cancel it as long as it has not already been accepted.

NCL is awful when it comes to educating their employees. I don't blame the supervisor. I blame the suits that could care less if customers are given accurate information.

I offered to pay for whatever inside category would give me the B1 and there were none. It is not difficult for them to add an asterisk with a footnote *exclusions may apply.

The wording makes it sound like you have to pick a specific category for the balcony you want and specific interior category you want to pay for.

The T&C's are talking to us the customer and their wording makes it sound like it is our choice. Very deceptive.

I'm on the phone with the NCL Worldpoints redemption center and being given very disheartening news.

I called a couple years ago not long after we got our card to have the Cross Meta and Double Cross Meta upgrades explained to us. We were told if we use the Meta Cross we can go up one grade so from inside to oceanview or oceanview to balcony. When you did this there were limitations which rooms were available to upgrade to.

The Double Cross Meta allowed you to go from an inside to a balcony (you cannot upgrade above a balcony) and I was told there were no restrictions as long as the room was available on the cruise you wanted.

We recently booked a 21 day cruise for 2018 and I wanted to do my due diligence to find out how to redeem the points to pay for a specific interior room and get the specific balcony room we wanted.

I was told that our category balcony did not qualify for the upgrade. Here is the only Terms & Conditions they could find that they think explains this:

"Double Cross-Meta refers to having the option to book a specific Balcony category for the price of a specific Interior category."

This statement is very vague. I want a specific Balcony category and I want to pay for a specific Interior category. There is nothing in this statement that states that certain categories may be excluded.

Is it just me or does this seem wrong? The Double Cross-Meta upgrade was the only reason we used this card and I feel they didn't adequately disclose how this upgrade works. It is VERY LIMITED.

BEWARE anyone using the NCL Worldpoints Mastercard. The cash back and OBC rate is only 1% which is bottom of the barrel for credit card rewards.

I look forward to your feedback about what NCL is doing in regards to the Double Cross-Meta upgrade and secretly limiting it.

So best I can tell so far is that if you have an inside booked the best you can hope for in this new method is an OV and if you have an OV then highest you can bid for is a balcony?

If this is true I may not dislike it quite as much as I feared. We book balcony catagory or higher so if you can only upsell one category I guess that eliminates some of the competition for a suite upsell.

Does anyone have any info to verify or dispel this?

Gee what a surprise all the travel agents like the new system. They can make more money and don't have to do anything.

I like the current upsell system. The motivated person calls and if there is an upsell offer available NCL tells them and you can accept it or decline it.

Hopefully this new system works good but there have been so few positive changes since Frank "nickel and dime" Del Rio has come aboard it is just as likely to be another negative.

I will remain on the fence until I experience it first hand.

Yesterday, I cancelled my NCL cruise to Alaska (May 2018) on The Pearl.

 

Why?

 

I found a much better deal round trip on the Grand Princess cruising round trip from San Francisco for 10 days to the inner passage. This gives us a couple of sea days, and we still get to see everything we would have seen on the pearl. We are going two weeks later in May then what we were.

 

If you are not 100% set on NCL, check out Princess - I can't tell you much about the cruise line itself since it will be my first time.

 

I can tell you that the Bliss is much more expensive then the Pearl is.

This is the husband typing. My wife did a Princess cruise with some friends and was VERY disappointed. Buffet was a joke. She said it was about the size of the Great Outdoors on the Jewel Class ships (which is pretty darn small for a cruise ship buffet). They were 2 groups that equaled a party of 8 but were not allowed to eat together even though they had signed up for anytime dining (both parties signed up for a table of 8). She had to pay extra for turndown service that was never done.

All cruise lines have their good and bad but my wifes personal experience confirmed how much better NCL is than Princess for us.

Posted twice so I erased this one.

Well opinions are just that. To each, his own. But facts are something else entirely. On Holland, you are not forced to eat at the same time each night. Holland offers both fixed and anytime dining. We had a party of three and enjoyed a 4-top to ourselves all seven nights, at whatever time we wanted, with no wait. We did find ourselves requesting the same table, however, as our serving team was phenomenal.

 

I don't necessarily like having to dress up, but it didn't kill me to put on dress pants and a dinner jacket. Like I said before, the swank feel and vibe of Holland paired well with Alaska.

 

Overall, we had a nice, relaxing time. Our fondest memories were sitting on our balcony under a blanket, while enjoying hot tea and snacks brought by room service.

 

My original comment urged the OP to consider other lines for Alaska. I was just trying to be helpful. If you don't like a comment or feel it is off topic, the best strategy is to ignore it. IMO.

You were just offering your own experiences and I should not have stepped on your toes. I do apologize.

I definitely agree it is wonderful to have a balcony if possible on your Alaska cruise.

I would recommend leaving out of Vancouver for both roundtrip and one-way journeys (whichever your preference). I would also look at Princess or Holland America. We went on our first Alaskan cruise last year on Holland America's Noordam and had a wonderful time. The quiet, refined atmosphere of Holland America just seemed right for an Alaskan cruise, and the food in the dining room was probably the best we've experienced.

In my opinion Holland America is far inferior to NCL. Old school traditional dining, yuck! I don't like to dress up when I am at home so why would I want to dress up on vacation? If you want to eat in the main dining room you are FORCED to eat at the same time EVERY evening a the table they tell you that you HAVE to sit at with total strangers you may or may not care for. Your other option.....buffet.....pretty much it.

There are many different opinions about different cruise lines and Freestyle works perfect for us. But of course you question was only regarding NCL and other cruise lines need not be brought up IMO.

To answer the OP's question, we have really enjoyed the Pearl and her itinerary. If you are only going to do Alaska once I think that is the way to go as you can focus on all the beauty of Alaska, Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage (northern leg).

I will be trying the Bliss eventually but I see that being more of a focus inward towards the ship. I could be wrong and I will find out but I know that the Pearl up to Glacier Bay is amazing.

Yea, the Map is wrong. NCL really needs to correct it. You don't know how many people we ran into on our cruise who thought we were going up the inside. First sea day was a big surprise for them Lol

 

 

The main reason we took the Jewel over the Pearl was the last day. The Jewel docked in Victoria at 2:00pm, we had plenty of time to go Orca watching. The Pearl does not dock until 6:00pm. Its a cruise I would do again in a heartbeat! I think its a shame NCL is going to have the Bliss there in 2018. That terminal is going be really crowded!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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NCL is putting millions (I think 15) into updating the cruise terminal (pier 66) to accommodate the Bliss. It will be interesting to see what they do. That terminal has always been very easy to navigate through for the Jewel class ships. I hope it continues after the improvements.

The one thing I'm confused about are the itineraries. The Jewel looks like it sails the inside passage. From what I hear this is a must. Does the Pearl do Glacier Bay instead or does it go through the inside passage? It looks like it bypasses an area, but I'm not sure where the desirable paths are.

Neither ship will go on the east side of Vancouver Island (even if the NCL map shows that is does) which is the southern part of the inside passage but both do the northern portion of the inside passage.

NCL is terrible about correctly representing your correct route when it comes to Alaska cruises. In 2010 we left Seattle and took the east side of Vancouver Island. It was amazing! So much better than the normal sea day. You have land on both sides of you and there is much more to see. One big reason we booked our cruise last year was because their map showed us going that same route. We did not nor did any other cruise from Seattle last year. Very deceptive. It had nothing to do with tides either. We love cruising NCL but we certainly did not like that they can't even provide an accurate map of our cruise route.

As Laszlo stated they went up Endicott Arm which is the alternate route when Tracey Arm is too icy.

The glacier viewing day, to me, is quite different between Glacier Bay and Tracey/Endicott Arm. I think Glacier Bay is more about the destination of Marjorie Glacier as you get quite close and have a wonderful view. Tracey/Endicott Arm is more about the journey up as it feels more intimate with cruising up the fjords.

They are both amazing and beautiful in different ways. After having done them both several times I would do Glacier Bay over the other but in the same breath I don't think you would be disappointed with either.

In regards to the ship choice I don't think you can go wrong. They are sister ships and very similar. We have cruised Alaska 8 times in the last 9 years all on NCL.

In regards to itinerary the big difference is glacier viewing. If Alaska is something you plan on only doing once then I recommend the Pearl as it goes to Glacier Bay. You have the best chance to see a glacier calving here if that is something you want to experience in person. Tracey Arm is beautiful as well but many times you cannot get very close to Sawyer glacier.

If at all possible I would recommend doing each itinerary but if you are only going once I would spend a little more money and visit Glacier Bay.

I have to agree with you on this. I've not had dinner reservations and been told there were none available .... they did not magically appear because I was in a DOS nor do I expect them to.

I think your concierge has more to do with being able to find a table for you on short notice when the restaurant is full then what level suite you are in. Last year Bruno got my folks a table for whatever time they wanted even though many times were showing at capacity. We were in an OS and my parents in the connecting SE penthouse.

There is also a blank spot from Los Angeles to Seattle. I was hoping they would have a Miami to Seattle reposition cruise as we live 20 miles outside of Seattle. We booked the 21 day panama canal reposition on the Pearl from New Orleans to Seattle.

You would think they would book every leg of the journey day 1 forward.

Kinda bummed it's going thru Sawyer Glacier and not Glacier Bay...

 

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You mean it's going to go to the mouth of Tracey Arm and spin in a circle for a few hours since it will be iced out. I really scratch my head why they want to put a mega ship on the itinerary where much smaller ship are often turned away because of ice.

I guess if they indeed did make this ship for Alaska they will have a reinforced hull and be able to break through the ice. If that is the case then I would really look forward to crashing through Tracey Arm up to the glacier. :D

lol, I actually did not pay any attention, read this to my husband and he laughed, we really do not care the destination is the boat. Been to Alaska 11 times already:) but yes Sawyer Glacier

Sat 08-Sep 5:00pm SHIP DEPARTS SEATTLE

Sun 09-Sep AT SEA

Mon 10-Sep 7:00am KETCHIKAN, ALASKA, US

Mon 10-Sep 3:00pm KETCHIKAN, ALASKA, US

Tue 11-Sep CRUISE SAWYER GLACIER

Tue 11-Sep 2:00pm JUNEAU, ALASKA, US

Tue 11-Sep 10:00pm JUNEAU, ALASKA, US

Wed 12-Sep 7:00am SKAGWAY, ALASKA, US

Wed 12-Sep 5:30pm SKAGWAY, ALASKA, US

Thu 13-Sep AT SEA

Fri 14-Sep 4:00pm SHIP ARRIVES AND OVERNIGHTS IN VICTORIA, BC, CANADA, CANADA

Fri 14-Sep 10:00pm VICTORIA, BC, CANADA, CANADA

Sat 15-Sep 8:00am SHIP ARRIVES AT SEATTLE

lol...in other words there will be no glacier viewing. The Jewel got iced out of Tracey Arm pretty regularly and now they want to send a ship that is MUCH bigger up Tracey Arm? Don't go for the glacier viewing. It's ok though as the Fjords are amazing. We have gone to Alaska 8 times so when we try out the Bliss the ship will be our main destination. It's easy to go to Alaska when you are only a half hour from the port. :D