deepbluediver

Even if I can afford a Silversea cruise, I won't want to take it - all inclusive or not. A better (almost) all-inclusive would be Virgin Voyages. The point is that it's only a locker room that was previously free to use. Would you pay $30 just to use a locker room? Well... maybe you would. Of course, it's not just NCL that's now charging a fee to use something that used to be free, or cutting back on services, or inflating the prices of everything (way beyond the rate of inflation). Again, maybe not an issue for some of you, but for the rest of us, it is.

Same on the NCL Sun ship. On this small ship, NCL has no Thermal Spa facility (at least not yet) but there is a large Men's locker room with a sauna and a steam room, and it used to be free. But in the past few years, NCL has started charging USD $30 a day to use the locker room. It's not even a Thermal Spa suite - just a locker room with a sauna and steam room. At that price, it's even more expensive than the Thermal Spa suites on board their other larger ships. Maybe they just don't want anyone to use the locker room except for folks who have a spa treatment appointment. Very disappointed with NCL with their constant search to nickel and dime you every opportunity they can.

Those were the good old days of cruising! We're entering a new era of cruising of reduced service, overcrowding, nickel-and-diming on everything, and inflated prices. Sure, you can still find the occasional great deal but they are harder to find.

Thanks for the advice. I decided to do the least effort by emailing the Latitudes Support team again and see what happens. I would call if I don't hear back again. The good news is that they did finally reply to my 2nd email and I've been upgraded from an obstructed oceanview cabin to a balcony (BF category - the lowest) cabin - the ones with the enclosed steel hull windows. Location looks fine and I don't think it'll be noisy. BTW, when I emailed them again, I also CCed 2 NCL executives in the hopes of a response. That seem to work. 😀

It sounds like some folks were able to use their Diamond Upgrade perk outside of the 1-year requirement to use it or lose it. @Warbird confirmed that the 1-year requirement to use it or lose it has been dropped by NCL. Has anyone used the Diamond Upgrade successfully recently in the case where they turned Diamond over a year ago? I immediately turned Diamond when they 1st introduced the new tiers in early 2022. Like many of you, I called the Diamond Upgrade number provided and got a clueless agent. After a bit of checking by her, I was asked to call that same number. I told her that was the number I dialed to reach her. Then after a bit of more checking, I was told to write to the Latitudes Support email address. So, 3 weeks ago, I wrote to the email address and was given a case number in their auto-reply. I kept it simple and asked for an upgrade from my current OK cabin (Obstructed Oceanview) on NCL Jewel to a Balcony with no request for any specific cabin or location. Still no answer from them. Thoughts on what I should do next? Thanks.

Oops... forgot to add that the fitness center also has smaller separate men and women locker rooms that have a small steam room, a shower, a toilet and some lockers in each of them. Free to use and got busier as the cruise progressed as more folks found out about the free steam room. FYI... the temperature in this free steam room was much more tolerable than the one in the Thermal Spa but I did enjoy the quiet of the Thermal Spa which was never very busy.

I was on the NCL Jade recently and was surprised twice by a female spa crew member checking in every hour. After the 2nd time, I spoke to the Spa Manager and told her it was not acceptable - for both the guests and the female crew members who had to do this i.e. they were not comfortable doing it. She said it was an NCL required safety check and they didn't have enough male spa crew members to do the hourly checks. I told her she needed to do a better job of scheduling her staff and to bring on other male crew members to help out. After that, no more female crew members checked in on the male side of the Thermal Spa. She got the Fitness Instructor and other male cleaning crew to help out. Problem solved but it's surprising they didn't have the common sense not to do this in the first place. FYI, like any of the NCL Jewel class ships, the (payment required) Thermal Spa has a central co-ed section, and separate male and female sections with a hot tub, a cold dunking tub, large sauna with windows, steam room, lockers and showers.

LOL! Hit the nerve of someone. Are you 1 of those NCL plants on CC that we've heard so much about? You don't have to be so literal - I wasn't. But I'm sure you'll have more to say about this.

From what I've read the Senior Executives at NCL have said, the fixed menu will be rolled out to all NCL ships eventually - unless it becomes highly unpopular. I think they are gauging how folks like it now on the Prima but more importantly if it has forced more folks to dine at the Specialty Restaurants. If more folks spend money to eat at the Specialty Restaurants because of the fixed menu, you can be sure it'll be sticking around and expanded to all ships. After all, the (overpaid) CEO Frank has said his goal was to raise the on-board spending once you're on the ship. He has already raised the tips to be the highest amongst the big 4 cruise lines, raised prices on shore excursions, specialty dining, and just recently beverage packages. NCL has also cut back on the number of Specialty Dinners you get with Free At Sea. The constant nickel-and-diming at NCL never stops and has only gotten worse. Very sad to see how NCL has changed under CEO Frank.

To NCL's credit, they are quite conscious of safety on their waterslides on their many ships. There's usually someone at the top of the slide and maybe someone at the bottom to give the OK (via walky-talkies) that the person who went into the slide came out the other end, before they send the next person down.

As an NCL critic (tough but fair), I'm not too pleased with a fixed menu - whatever the reasons they give, it's just their spin on it. But I'll hold my verdict until I've tried the food on the new fixed menu and see if it's truly better in quality to the previous rotating menus (which IMHO were hit and miss). However, for folks without a specialty dining package, this may be a harder sell for them on longer cruises over 7 days. A fixed menu in the MDR on the Prima may be an easier sell with the many (mostly free) options at the Indulge Food Hall (IFH). On most ships without the IFH, the other comp dining options are the buffet, the Local (or whatever name it goes by on other ships) and maybe an Asian restaurant. That's not a lot of choices for folks not interested in Specialty Dining. Previously, they could depend on the rotating menus in the MDR to provide some variety but with a fixed menu, that's no longer an option. Just my 2 cents. But for all of you, it's comp! ☺️

It's just a name with very loose ties to a founder who was Norwegian. From the Wiki page for NCL: "The cruise line was founded in 1966 by Norwegian Knut Kloster and Israeli Ted Arison, with the 8,666-ton, 140-m long cruise ship/car ferry, Sunward,[4] which in 1966 operated as a car ferry between Southampton UK and Gibraltar, for that one short season only. The Sunward was first managed under the Arison Shipping Company, and marketed as Ensign Cruises.[5] Arison soon left to form Carnival Cruise Lines, while Kloster acquired additional ships for Caribbean service, with the line renamed and marketed as Norwegian Caribbean Line." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Cruise_Line BTW, there's also nothing "Royal" about Royal Caribbean cruise line either. Don't read too much into any name. It's all marketing.

That's good to hear that the dinner with the officers is now back on. It was cancelled for my 2022 April NCL Encore cruise from Miami to Seattle. On the 1st day, they said they would have it and so, I signed up but a few days later, we received a letter that the dinner with the officers was cancelled and Sapphire members were not compensated for it - other than the USD $50 OBC that Platinum and above got for the cancellation of the Ship's tour and the Wine Around the World experience. BTW, I spoke to the CruiseNext staff and they said that NCL had cancelled the Dinner with Officers on all ships because of rising COVID cases which made sense in order to keep the officers safe. Surprised to hear you had yours. As a Diamond member, did you get the Diamond perk of "Sail and Sustain mixology experience" on board your recent cruise? Thanks, Rob, for answering all our questions. Cheers Jerry

Hi Rob, I've been interested in the Spirit since the refurbishments and it's 1 of the few NCL ships I've not been on yet. Did you check out the new Thermal Spa? What was in there? What about the Pulse fitness center? Does it have a separate men's and women's locker room for the fitness center that the Jewel-class ships have? Or did NCL take them away as in all Breakaway class ships? Thanks.