cyrus360

Can you bring soda back on board from all ports or only for the initial embarkation port?

I booked the cruise myself so I am curious as to how you check for price drops if your room type is all booked up. We booked an aft balcony room. By going to the website, it shows those are all booked up. Can I still call them and ask them to check on their end?

We love going to the Nacional Beach Club in Costa Maya. We always book the VIP pass. It's more expensive nowadays, but we feel it's worth it. It's $135pp booked directly through the hotel. It was about $85pp 2 years ago, so I am sure covid is the culprit.  It's about a 5 minute drive from the dock.

They have a bar with the swing seats, small pool, you get a 20 minute massage on the beach included,  it's all you can eat, including lobster, all you can drink, including top shelf liquor. They have nice loungers, umbrellas, tables, etc. They even have these giant beds with a canopy you can get.

The beach area has hammocks in the water and a break in the reef, should you want to go snorkeling/swimming out a bit further.

The staff is extremely friendly and quick to respond to any request. They don't bat an eye when you ask for 3 orders of lobster either. You ask for it, you get it. 

You will have a few vendors go by, but all of them move quickly as the hotels along there seem to have made it clear to them not to linger. I think in the 5 hours we were there, maybe 4 or 5 vendors walked by us. A simple "No thanks!" was all it took for them to take it on the arches. 

We're going to be there in February 2022 and this will be our last stop and our favorite out of all of them.

I had filed a dispute with my card when Norwegian refused to issue me a refund for my original payout. My card company was useless and charged me back the amount simply because Norwegian responded with a pile of paperwork that had nothing to do with the dispute.

I would think you would not be eligible for a refund if you already received it via a contested charge or if you are in an active dispute of the charge. My request was denied, so hopefully I have no issues getting refunded.

After my contested charge was denied, I reached out to the attorney general in my state and they reached out to Norwegian. Norwegian responded that they are more than happy to refund my money to me and all I have to do is submit another request on their website. I didn't realize their policy had changed. 

I have sent the refund request today. Wish me luck! I hope everyone else can get their refunds as well. Normally I would have no problem booking another cruise but with them price gouging, it's just not going to happen and with their poor customer service I received, I will not use this cruise line ever again.

I've already done it. I put together multiple printouts with details on each explaining everything. It was all clear and concise. However, it seems like all it takes is for the merchant to fire back with, "No, I don't think so pal!" and dump 10 pages that doesn't cover any part of this particular situation.

So Capital One puts the charges back, and I have to submit another dispute, this time responding specifically to the documents they sent. It's just tedious. Capital One said it's not their fault, they're blaming Visa for the convoluted process.

37 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

When NCL started offering future cruise credits a year ago do you think THEY knew anymore than we did at the time? Just because people chose poorly and are kicking themselves in the pants doesn’t make it anyone else’s fault except their own .... sorry, I know it’s not helpful but it’s the sad truth. 

I have no clue what they knew or didn't know. I don't think it's choosing poorly when you've been a customer of the company for a long time and they offer to rectify the situation and you're more than happy to keep your business with them because they've always been good and fair with you. I think it's a fair expectation they would try to work out something and not tell you to take it or leave it.

The money they make by gouging us in the situation will hopefully fall woefully short of the money they would've made in the future by keeping the same customers loyal to them and spending money with them for years to come.

I wasn't posting to debate who's at fault but more if anyone has had luck getting their money back in any way.

I tried to explain it to the credit card company but they're basically idiots so far. I have to respond to Norwegians rebuttal of my dispute even though the documents they submitted don't support their case at all.

I am guessing it will take months to resolve it with the card company. You can't seem to talk to the ones who actually review the material and make the decisions only the base level reps who read you their scripts and tell you to keep sending in the same paperwork over and over.

I did file a complaint with the attorney general's office in Washington State. 

I wasn't aware you could sell your credits. For some reason, even though I am the primary person booking/paying for the cruise, they divvied up the credits between me and my wife. Even though she's listed as a passenger when I book.

 

We had purchased a November 2020 Alaskan cruise in April of 2020. Of course, the November cruise was cancelled due to covid and we got the bonus credits for rebooking another Alaskan cruise for April 2021. That cruise was also cancelled due to covid. We were told we would get 30% off our next booking and an additional 10% off coupon/credit to use.

This was fine and I went to rebook the same cruise and even with their "30% discount sale" the price was more than double. I reached out to NCL by phone and was told too bad so sad, no refunds for you. Because we took the bonus credit, that exempted us from receiving a refund. I said, you can take back your credits and just refund my money. They said no and refused to make any accomodation to resolve the issue.

Since I was looking at rebooking, it sends a notice to my cruise consultant to call me and close the deal. I told him there's no way I would rebook at more than double the price. He said he would be able to find a spot for me where there was no price difference and I waited for him to look and he was pretty much speechless. He couldn't justify booking at the inflated pricing either. He said he would talk to his supervisor and call me back, but of course, I never heard from him. I don't get calls from him either when I do a temp hold on a booking anymore. He knows no one is going to bother paying more than double for the same cruise.

I tried to contact NCL via social media and via email and got the same response, basically, pay our inflated prices or pack sand, sucker! So I contested the charges with my credit card. They refunded the money while they waited for the response from NCL. Then of course, NCL disputed my contesting of the charge and the credit card company charged it back again and now I have to contest their contesting of my initial contesting of the charge lol. The NCL response consisted of their cancellation policy, which is only applicable if I cancel the cruise, not them. So I am not sure how it will turn out at this point.

I looked up other cruise lines to see if their prices were in line with NCL's and they were nowhere near NCL's price point. Royal Caribbean was almost a 1/3rd lower in price, Carnival was half the price and Celebrity was $2000 less. The price gouging doesn't seem to be an industry trend so much as a mad cash grab by NCL to keep their coffers stuffed before they declare bankruptcy and stiff everyone.

I am not sure what I am going to do if I get stuck with this charge. I can't in good conscience pay over double for the same cruise. Sure different dates will have different pricing and I am sure prices would fluctuate a bit but going from $3200 for a 9 day Alaskan cruise to $7200 for the same cruise is absolutely insane. Keep in mind, that price is with their "30% off sale and 10% discount". 

So I don't feel like packing a laptop and don't need any internet access. But I was wanting to be able to back up my photos and videos from my digital cameras to a USB drive. Can you use the computers on the ship for this at all or do you have to buy internet time? Any suggestions or information is appreciated.