xriva

You should be able to choose something other than the beverage package as a perk. We never take the beverage package, because we don’t drink enough to make it worthwhile.

If the suites get all the perks, check if there is a rate with no perks to get rid of it.

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Did you change anything on your cruise? Add entertainment, add excursions, something like that? I ask because we are on the Bliss in August and when we booked dinners, our included perks changed to the UDP (which we don’t want) and suddenly we owed money (the gratuity). Called our PCC, got it straightened out.

This week, we booked entertainment, and the UDP came back - and now we owed money after final payment. Called our PCC, got it fixed. Again.

This happened on our reservation and my sister-in-law’s. Our PCC said he had never seen it before.

So, maybe one of your perks changed?

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You will probably find that while most ports have any number of independent operators, there are only a few with the resources to handle the number of people a cruise ship can deliver. We’ve been on excursions with multiple buses of people, so I’m not sure every company is ready for the potential volume.

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The company name is usually on the excursion tickets. You might ask if anyone taking that excursion can look for you.

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I've done them a couple times. Best advice...bring lots of change so you can hand out winnings quickly when it's over and not have to deal with trying to get the right bills for change at the cage.

This is one reason to talk to the casino manager. Then, the cashiers can be told to give you change (small bills) after you cash out at the end of the slot pull.

I’m not sure I would want to bring enough of my own money to hand out winnings, since winnings are completely unpredictable.

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Here are my notes, after running a few:

https://eighteenknots.com/slot-pulls/

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We were told that Norwegian’s domestic flight prices are generally non-competitive. The only time we book flights with Norwegian is on one-way international flights (like coming back from a Transatlantic.) Otherwise, we do it ourselves.

The issue we had with Norwegian flights is that they tend to be “day of” and we usually fly in a day early, and if we’re going somewhere new, we may stay a day or so after the cruise ends. That causes exception processing, which is tedious.

Same with hotels - the first Transatlantic, we took the package hotel in Barcelona, but since then, we’ve booked our own, mainly to have more choices and to stay in the area of town we want to see.

It’s not really false advertising to say “$200 off” when it truly is a discount. They just don’t say it’s a discount off a possibly bad fare.

We have a Panama Canal partial transit next year that is a Distinctive Voyage, but I doubt we will use any of the discounts. It’s too early to do flights, but I’m pretty sure we can book DFW-Miami RT cheaper ourselves, and we’ve never had an issue finding a hotel there. We’ll ask for pricing anyway, and then decide.

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I just read the 12 page thread on it in the West Coast Departures forum. Seems to be a very selective and elusive program.

That was my thought. At one point, it looked like Norwegian was in the program, but the program wasn’t available at their pier. So, go figure.

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Make sure she doesn’t have a CC account or the surprise may be lost.

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Aren't all these "waste" products sorted, compacted and stored for safe disposal and recycling for compliance ... straws aren't dump into the ocean when it's 12 miles (or whatever the distance) offshore anyway ?

All the collected trash is. I believe the issue with straws is that they are prone to being dropped or left on a table and then fall (or blow) overboard.

I’m expecting that we will be using aluminum napkins soon, to avoid napkins blowing overboard.

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The only issue with rental clubs is that when you throw one in the water hazard, you have to go get it back.

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I prefer the Jewel class, especially the Jade.

I don’t use any of the megaship bells and whistles (rock walls, water slides, I rarely go to the pool) so all they give me is more people to navigate around. Also, the megaships tend to attract newbie cruisers who often have rather exaggerated ideas of what a cruise will be (read the reviews and comments.) Who needs a week surrounded by people who are lost and annoyed?

Megaships are also limited on the ports they visit (especially in the Caribbean), since nobody wants to tender 4000 passengers. I really don’t ever need to go to Nassau again.

I prefer knowing I’m on a ship, not just going to a floating resort.

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If you book the MDR or the specialities that are ala carte, you should be able to just make a reservation for six, and tell the others not to bother. If you book the flat rate restaurants (Moderno and Teppenyaki), I believe you have to pay at time of booking.

Your cruise consultant should be able to link the reservations. It was more important when you wanted to make reservations for multiple rooms and assign people instead of now just setting a party size.

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This is a non-drug solution, but the only time I felt queasy (16 cruises), I was in a towel folding presentation in an inner, enclosed room. My brother-in-law is a tugboat captain and what he says (which worked for me) is go outside, get some fresh air, and look at the horizon.

We travel in a balcony, so that’s easy to follow. Some ships have more open decks that others.

My wife has had bands, ginger, and other pills, but just getting fresh air outside and seeing the motion of the ship helped me.

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If you order it ahead of time, it will show up in your eDocs and amenities, so it can be difficult to keep it as a surprise. My wife had friends call, order it and pay for it - and it still showed up on our eDocs because it was our cabin.

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New to NCL and not sure what the Breakaway class is. Assume that it’s not the Epic which has an Eastern.

Classes are families of ships of the same basic design. The Breakaway class is the Breakaway and the Getaway. That class was followed by the Breakaway Plus class: the Escape, the Joy (China market) and the Bliss (so far.)

The Epic is the only ship in the Epic class. The Breakaway class followed the Epic.

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Are there special luggage tag porters? I thought all the pier workers were union.

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Also, remember on the Internet packages, you can use multiple devices, just one at a time. My wife and I usually split an unlimited package.

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Sodas are $2.50 to $3.00 from my (faded) memories, with the per drink gratuity. I got the soda package on one cruise and decided it wasn’t worth it for me. I usually just pay per soda and drink a lot of (free) tea and water. Come to think of it, most of my sodas ended up with rum in them.

I found that tea and water are readily available in the restaurants (as in, there are pitchers around) and soda isn’t. So, even with the package, it takes longer to get a soda delivered (and refilled) than to just drink iced tea.

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As another option, you can always purchase before you leave a prepaid card (Visa or Mastercard) most banks carry them. Just purchase the amount you want to put on your account and then give it to them at check in.

You may run into the hold issue here. If you have $800 of credit on the card and the first day, a $400 hold is placed, it won’t cover an $800 final charge.

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Wow that’s horrible! All the travel insurance policies I’ve ever bought include deployment as a covered reason as they should! Your friend bought a reputable policy, too. I would encourage your friend to reach out to Norwegian on their Facebook page. Norwegian’s not gonna want to be in the doghouse with military. Also, I hope/recommend the rest of the family will all still go on the cruise. That’ll make it easier for the 1 person to get refunded, and the rest of the family can still have fun together. Good luck to your friend!

 

 

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Once again, it is not Norwegian’s insurance policy. Norwegian doesn’t have anything to do with this.

Why hasn’t anyone blasted the military? They caused the problem.

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I don’t understand why so many are giving completely unhelpful non-advice how they would never be in this situation in the first place.

 

Yay, you?

 

 

 

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There is no advice other than fight it out with the insurance company.

There is no reason to bash NCL - it’s not their issue.

There is no reason to bash the insurance company if someone is making a claim that is specifically excluded in the policy they purchased.

Why should everyone start waving banners that these poor people were treated unfairly? They weren’t.

The best advice given was from the people complaining who were quoted in the very first post - read everything before you sign it. Apparently, they failed to do so.

That should have been the end of the discussion.

There is no discussion. There is now “I want something I didn’t pay to receive because I deserve special treatment”, and others are wasting everyone else‘s time trying to enable that.

Many people are noting that there is no discussion because this issue comes up constantly - “I can’t go on my cruise because (illness, job problems, wife left me, fill in the blank) and mean, evil NCL won’t give me my money back.”

The only difference is this time, the complainers actually had insurance - just not the right policy.

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You have your idea of right and others have another idea. Cruise Lines do things in the name of good will everyday. I just want to push to make sure that happens.

Your idea of “right” is simply wrong. Blackmailing companies because you failed to do any basic level of research is bad for everyone.

This is the same issue as a lawyer getting a guilty person off on a technicality. You win, but society loses in the long run.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but it is an opinion. Your crusade to “help” people profit from their mistakes is just wrong.

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zdad59

 

 

You are a nice guy just wanting to help a friend. But NCL doesn't care about you or your friend. Or the young man who is putting his life on the line for his country. NCL should be thanking him for his service as I am doing along with all the humans here. Instead they show again they only care about profit.

 

 

Time to take the fight to them. You or the family need to contact local news outlets and get the sorry told..... Big mean Corporation putting the screws to young American Military man. Do the Facebook thing, contact local Vet groups they may have some connect that can help you. Reach out to Fox News, CNN, etc. Tell the story to anyone that will listen.

 

 

Consider starting online petition about this. Maybe try a go fund me page, not really for the money but to be seen.

Another thing google cruise law news and then send the information to Jim, this is the stuff he puts on his Facebook page and blog. Jim Walker is a Miami based Maritime Lawyer, he is the go to guy for anything about cruise companies for the media, US Congress, etc. I know he has a special with the military, so he may get involved, without any fees. One email or SMS from him and it would be corrected.

 

 

Become the flat tire on the NCL bus. If the corporate office feels any heat past the normal customer service people they will fix this. Because it is good for business. Best of luck hopefully they will be am to take the cruise in the future,

This is a major problem in the US today. They didn’t read the contracts they signed, and then it becomes the company’s fault, and then all the cheerleaders start calling for boycotts and protests.

NCL is not a party to this at all. This is between the purchaser and the third-party insurance company. NCL does not have to make good because their insurance doesn’t cover their claim because the policy specifically excluded the condition.

The only thing that makes this “special” is the deployment and the knee-jerk reaction to it. If their son got the flu and couldn’t travel, but the insurance wouldn’t cover it because they didn’t get medical insurance, would you be threatening to burn down corporate headquarters? It would be the same result.

Read the contracts, people.

Any person that starts with “you need to read the contracts” implicitly knows it is their fault for failing to do so. The rest is just distraction from the fact they bought the wrong insurance.

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I think most insurance policies exclude military action (including training exercises and service). I’m not judging the practice, I just think it’s standard (it’s an exclusion in the NCL-sold policy.)

The issue I have (and it was being discussed on another forum yesterday) is you have to read the contract - which the quoted poster is telling people to do, as a “lesson learned.”

If they didn’t read the contract, why is it now the company’s fault?

I’m actually surprised that a military family wouldn’t have run into this issue before. Military service is very risky, which is why we should be thankful for those who serve.

“Cancel for any reason” policies may cover deployments, but it would depend on the specific policy, and those policies need to be purchased very early.

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