Raising gratuities again!

[Snowrose]

It doesn't have to be before final payment, just before the cruise. Even if you've made final payment already, the option is still there to pre-pay gratuities.

 

At only $12 pppd? That's what we were talking about.

[Letsgo 2]

Suites sometimes are larger than mini's and below. Sometimes are two bedroom and three bedroom. Some even have two or three bathrooms. There is no way it can take the same amount of time to clean some of these suites as it does other cabins. That's why, I believe, suites/Haven cost more.

 

Harriet

 

Yes not sometimes, Suite are always larger,and yes it does cost more $15.99 pp pd

[dcipjr]

Jeezaloo...since I booked in January, we have had not one but two DSC increases, the auto-grats go to 18%, a la carte dining charges, a fee for room service, and the Great Takeaway Food Scandal, not to mention higher fares in general...

 

It would have been better to just raise the DSC once to the higher amount, and introduced these other changes at once. As it stands, it's been one bit of bad news after another, and leaves us wondering what's next.

 

Didn't FDR say he wanted an extra $50 per couple? He certainly has that now. I'm just hoping for the shoes to stop dropping.

[RNRcruisers]

Wow, this company is crazy. They didn't even wait for the furor to die down over the last increase before instigating a new one! Just a quick search shows me that they are charging more than all the other mainstream lines for the tips and gratuities and are we really getting more for this? I for one don't think they do a better job than other cruise lines I have been on. Some of these new increases don't affect me directly but they sure leave me feeling that I will avoid this company in the future. I can't say I will never sail them again because we generally choose based on price and itinerary, but they are my last choice and if I am comparing cruises and NCL isn't LOTS less for the base cruise then no way am I choosing them. They might not care but if there are many more like me then they should.

[Letsgo 2]

No.

It's $ 7.70 extra for two pax for the week.

The costs ARE starting to add up.

 

$7.70 pp per week ? Where did you get that from? That's a steal :)

[LrgPizza]

At only $12 pppd? That's what we were talking about.

 

Yes. My pre-pay rate for my May 2016 cruise, which was booked in January of this year, still shows prepay rate of $12, despite the 2 increases. I was correcting the part where someone made up that prepay has to be done before final payment. It doesn't. Prepay just needs to happen before the cruise. Nowhere does it say that the amount will increase following final payment.

Edited July 16, 2015 by LrgPizza

[Snowrose]

Yes. My pre-pay rate for my May 2016 cruise, which was booked in January of this year, still shows prepay rate of $12, despite the 2 increases. I was correcting the part where someone made up that prepay has to be done before final payment. It doesn't. Prepay just needs to happen before the cruise. Nowhere does it say that the amount will increase following final payment.

 

I'd love to go and look to see if I have the same option, but I can't login to MyNCL and neither can my husband. They seem to have crashed their servers.

[LrgPizza]

I'd love to go and look to see if I have the same option, but I can't login to MyNCL and neither can my husband. They seem to have crashed their servers.

 

I just went to look at it again, and now I get the message like others that "we are unable to display this option at this time." Ha! We crashed them all. Well like others have said, it stays whatever the rate was when you booked as long as you prepay. That's what they said in writing, and they stuck to that.

 

On our other booked cruise, we canceled and rebooked for a promo, and the DSC changed to $12.95, as we'd expected.

[Jane Don]

This was 100% my thinking as well. These seem like the moves a company that has a cash problem. These changes are nothing more then a way to get a free "loan" from future cruise guests by allowing them to hold your DSC cash for months/years. I will not be prepaying and I will not be paying more then the $12 on board the ship. From recent reviews service levels are falling and if that is the case then even the $12 will be to much. I refuse to be used as a piggy bank for a company that seems to think very little of its customer base (based on the quoted from Del Feeo)

 

6&8

 

NCL also offered many passengers sailing in January and February upgrades from Inside and OV to balcony on October to December sailings on older ships, including holiday sailings. The Spirit, or example, is now sold out of balconies at Christmas because of this. To me, indicates a need to boost 3rd quarter profits and/or generate cash before year end.

[Ilovesailing]

I'd love to go and look to see if I have the same option, but I can't login to MyNCL and neither can my husband. They seem to have crashed their servers.

 

I just logged in with no problems, went right through to my reservations.

 

I Too rec'd the email today.

[Cruise4Real]

I might be totally wrong, but I thought you had to pre-pay the $12 charge prior to March 1st, otherwise it went to $12.95.

 

Here is what the Cruise Critic article said: The new charges are effective beginning with sailings departing on or after March 1, 2015. Passengers who have previously booked a cruise and are sailing after March 1, or who are planning to book a cruise now through the end of February can prepay their service charges at the current rate. Anyone with existing cruise reservations who has already prepaid the service charges at the current rate will not be affected. Gratuities are shared by crewmembers including room stewards, servers and support staff.

 

Who you gonna believe, NCL or NCL? :rolleyes:

 

Booked in January, pre-paid in February, they jacked DSC in early March. Then we upsold to the Haven in mid-April. Finally "pre-paid" a couple of days before our April cruise -- $12 pppd or $168 for the two of us in Breakaway H3 OS. Apparently they would have wanted to charge us $14.95 pppd if we had waited to pay while on board.

 

If I recall NCL sent out emails to TAs announcing DSC increase in Feb. Those emails made it sound like you had to pre-pay by March 31st or something (to avoid the increase in DSC). Around the same time they sent out emails to pax but language was slightly different, can't remember exactly but I think it was just "pre-pay" (without an actual date). MyNCL showed $12 during the entire time until I pre-paid, even after we had upsold to the H3 OS, even though that upsell occurred after the March 31st date.

[Snowrose]

Yes. My pre-pay rate for my May 2016 cruise, which was booked in January of this year, still shows prepay rate of $12, despite the 2 increases. I was correcting the part where someone made up that prepay has to be done before final payment. It doesn't. Prepay just needs to happen before the cruise. Nowhere does it say that the amount will increase following final payment.

 

I was finally able to get in. Yes, our DSC is still at $12 pppd.

 

There's something to be said for booking early, even if there are other negatives like surprise 18% gratuities.

[Coastalbreezes]

With so many changes in the last few months, weeks and days, I can't help but wonder...what's next? :(

 

Tracy

[boopsahoy]

Does anyone know why suites pay more?

[mitsugirly]

Me and my daughter bith got these emails today as well. Although it don't increase the charges that much it's still an issue with all these changes since del rio took over is not making the company look good.

[travelady65]

Did NCL send this to you regarding your December cruise? I sail a couple of weeks before that and don't have anything?

 

I am sailing December 13, 2015 on ncl Breakaway, and i just received the email today about the increase in gratituties....if you prepay your gratitities before final payment it will stay at the old rate...but if you chose not to, then the new gratituty is $13.50 per day up to a mini suite....and $15.50 for all Haven Guests....I should say that any cruise that was book before July 30, 2015 can prepay their gratitities at the old rate but it has to be done before final payment.....

 

You should be receiving an email from NCL shortly.....i had received mine earlier today....

[Bonobochick]

All of these recent changes I think can only mean one thing. NCL is really cash-poor right now and possibly going under. Maybe they over-extended themselves on all these new builds and now have insurmountable hidden debt, who knows. But every single one of the recent changes has the effect of quickly raising cash at the expense of losing customers down the line. Raising gratuities a very small amount (twice) but giving passengers the option to lock in the old rate by prepaying right now raises a lot of cash very quickly, because it will cause a lot of passengers to prepay. Expanding the future cruise credit program raises a lot of cash because it causes customers to put more deposits down. All the new charges on the ship (room service, gratuities, a la carte pricing) raises a lot of cash. Even all the great recent promotions go towards this. NCL has been giving away the farm as far as UBP, UDP, onboard credit, etc. just to get people to book now, to increase deposits and increase cash flow right now, at the expense of losing money (in the form of lost revenue from lost onboard spending) down the line.

 

Maybe this is why O'Sheehan left. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and the company is going under, who knows. But these quick changes like this make no other real sense. There's no reason to raise gratuities twice like this at all by such incrementally small amounts, but for the desire to get people to prepay and raise cash quickly. Anyone who thinks all these gratuities are going to the staff as opposed to NCL's bottom line at this point are deluding themselves. At best, and this is at best, NCL is cutting staff compensation on the back end but making up for it with the increased gratuities on the front end.

 

If I was a stockholder in NCL right now I'd sell sell sell.

 

Great food for thought. This could very well be the situation.

 

Is NCL cutting staff too, I wonder? I've seen other inquire about that as well.

[vinnytman]

Does anyone know why suites pay more?

 

When I called NCL about the suites being charged more today they said butler, concierge, and haven staff are now included in DSC.

[hpecorari]

Yes not sometimes, Suite are always larger,and yes it does cost more $15.99 pp pd

 

$15.50 not $15.99

 

Harriet

[dexddd]

Ha ha... especially FDR. I don't think Andy has a say in any of this unfortunately. It screams that money hungry FDR all over it. Since he's come to power, NCLH has been in worse chaos then the ex-Darden CEO guy ever did to it. :mad:

 

I was going to say the Darden guy wasn't really there too long to do much damage but FDR has managed to do tons of damage in a short period of time. The Darden guy didn't even get to roll out Red Lobster biscuits in La Cucina or sell a cruise long card for unlimited Olive Garden bread sticks and salad.

[Fishymom]

Sailing in Nov.

No email received yet

 

but just prepaid at the $12 rate

[hpecorari]

$7.70 pp per week ? Where did you get that from? That's a steal :)

 

That's the new increase. Now with this new increase it comes out to $7.70 more pp per week.

 

Harriet

[coldflame]

I just got the email.

Can I just change my DSC when onboard to 12.00 a day? This is a voluntary charge, right?

 

Yes. And in as much as I'm advocate for people tipping service properly, that's exactly what I'm planning to do. They can't force me to pay more than $12pp/day in tips. Any staff that goes above and beyond will get extra tip directly.

[luddite]

$7.70 pp per week ? Where did you get that from? That's a steal :)

 

55 cent increase.

[CarolRoy]

Will be on the BA in Sept. 2015. I did not opt to pre-pay our grats when I booked and now it is past the balance due date. I am planning on only doing the $12 grats/day/pp. This is what the grats were when I booked this cruise. When can I go to the service desk on the ship and adjust the grats?