Premium all inclusive coming to the UK

[bmwman]

 

Screen shot of the email

 

 

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This is not an NCL brochure but that of a large UK Agency all be it mostly correct. The NCL website is now updated

 

I think the prices we have seen on future cruises are now more expensive we are better of staying with the "old package". Should be interesting but taking the tips off will still exist I regret and the refund will be available. All it will take is savvy UK customers to realise that UK consumer laws are so strong that a simple refusal to pay will get the refund. Its the same as a restaurant you can but we never do remove the charges, Going to re price 17 and 18 bookings now to see if I am right

[KeithJenner]

I've just checked prices a different way.

 

Last year, we went on the Epic Western Med trip, booked in January the previous year.

 

The total cost for three of us, including the DSC and with the UBP included for two was £2,804.

 

Pricing the equivalent week for next year, in the same room, it is now £3,117, so an increase of about £300.

 

If passenger 3 was an adult drinking alcohol that would be an excellent price. For us, it's OK considering the two year gap and that we would save a bit onboard. Probably a net £200 extra cost.

[bmwman]

I've just checked prices a different way.

 

Last year, we went on the Epic Western Med trip, booked in January the previous year.

 

The total cost for three of us, including the DSC and with the UBP included for two was £2,804.

 

Pricing the equivalent week for next year, in the same room, it is now £3,117, so an increase of about £300.

 

If passenger 3 was an adult drinking alcohol that would be an excellent price. For us, it's OK considering the two year gap and that we would save a bit onboard. Probably a net £200 extra cost.

 

Agreed all of our have gone up and now I will have to think very carefully about future cruising. We love cruises and the NCL product but it is simply now so much more more than great hotels in USA and Med that it is not worth it - sad really

[KeithJenner]

I have found a winner.

 

Our POA booking next year is £4,593 with the dining plan included, but obviously no UBP.

 

New pricing for the same category is £4,885 all inclusive.

 

I'll be making a phone call later I think. Just got to check for sure about Hawaii. It clearly says it's now included, but I didn't think they were allowed to offer the beverage packages with alcohol.

[bmwman]

I have found a winner.

 

Our POA booking next year is £4,593 with the dining plan included, but obviously no UBP.

 

New pricing for the same category is £4,885 all inclusive.

 

I'll be making a phone call later I think. Just got to check for sure about Hawaii. It clearly says it's now included, but I didn't think they were allowed to offer the beverage packages with alcohol.[/quote

 

There is no discount for third person now either.

 

Interesting - I wonder how my bank discount is now going to work!!

[KeithJenner]

There is no discount for third person now either.

 

 

 

If we take my example on the Epic next year, a re pricing for two people gives a price of £2,398 (so about £1,200 each) the third person is therefore an extra £719.

[bmwman]

If we take my example on the Epic next year, a re pricing for two people gives a price of £2,398 (so about £1,200 each) the third person is therefore an extra £719.

 

Thanks I just realised what basic mistake I made . The website prices per person once you tell it the number of passengers so of course it seems like no discount. You are perfectly correct.

 

That said each and every one of our booked cruises is more expensive.

 

OK - one more question What do NCL mean by Unrivalled dining experiences included - surely not speciality restaurants

[KeithJenner]

No, not the speciality dining. That bit is the same as everyone gets.

 

Certainly the prices have increased. I think we all saw that coming. I was concerned that they would increase by more than the ones I'm seeing.

 

They increased the prices a few years ago when they started offering the free at sea options, so to do it again now would be a real problem. Considering they are trying to push the UK market with a ship in Southampton, I think they have to be careful.

 

Certainly, for us, a couple of hundred pounds extra isn't going to change much, especially if we will save a bit of that on our sons drinks and the occasional coffee, but much more than that would probably have us moving on.

[bmwman]

No, not the speciality dining. That bit is the same as everyone gets.

 

Certainly the prices have increased. I think we all saw that coming. I was concerned that they would increase by more than the ones I'm seeing.

 

They increased the prices a few years ago when they started offering the free at sea options, so to do it again now would be a real problem. Considering they are trying to push the UK market with a ship in Southampton, I think they have to be careful.

 

Certainly, for us, a couple of hundred pounds extra isn't going to change much, especially if we will save a bit of that on our sons drinks and the occasional coffee, but much more than that would probably have us moving on.

 

Thank you for the reply. I have to say I echo your feelings. I agree a couple of hundred may not make a difference and we are the same with the saving on kids drinks BUT the pricing is now very finely balanced for us with land base seeming much better value and offering more. We holds is the love of the sea and the NCL product but prices now feel very expensive.

 

We seem to share identical views :)

[Blondie008]

Anyone else notice that the base price they show in the initial search is nothing remotely like the price once you click into the dummy booking process? It hikes up!

Glad now we booked our cruises through to winter 18 - we shall see what happens.

The "dining" marketing is just plain stupid -

Free at sea was offering choices of drinks and dining. Now there is no mention at all of specialty dining other than for Haven Guests..

Ah well - it was good whilst it lasted...

We have two more future cruise credits left - don't think we will buy any more until we see how this all pans out.

We don't drink coffee with meals - are happy to pay for water and our DSC - don't have any kids, teens, or 3rd,4th person - looks like a lose from this household!

Time will tell :)

[SquishTheWhale]

I thought a comparison would be interesting, so yesterday I looked at my Escape cruise I'm taking in October- it was £979 in a midship balcony (we paid less but booked ages ago). Today the price is actually showing the same- but like said above when you actually do a mock booking this goes up to £1079. So a £100 price increase which actually pretty much covers the cost of grats, water and coffee. So not a bad deal until you consider that yesterday you would have recieved a 2nd free at sea offer- so based on the SDP you are down about £60pp over booking yesterday.

[lachelli]

I have just done some comparisons on the Irish site for two of the cruises I have currently booked, all prices are for 2 adults and 2 children, in the same category rooms as original bookings

 

First cruise - 11 night med cruise on the Spirit October 2017

€4105 - Includes DSC & soda packages for the kids, UBP x 2

€5596 - Inclusive rate

€1491 more expensive :mad:

 

Epic Transatlantic November 2018

€4078 - Includes DSC & soda packages for the kids, UBP x 2 + 4 SDP meals x 2

€5216 - Inclusive rate - No SPD meals

€1138 More expensive

 

These changes in prices are scary, There is no way that a couple of bottles of water a day and a few coffees could constitute me paying the new pricing. NCL is going to kiss a lot of families good bye

[KeithJenner]

I have just done some comparisons on the Irish site for two of the cruises I have currently booked, all prices are for 2 adults and 2 children, in the same category rooms as original bookings

 

First cruise - 11 night med cruise on the Spirit October 2017

€4105 - Includes DSC & soda packages for the kids, UBP x 2

€5596 - Inclusive rate

€1491 more expensive :mad:

 

Epic Transatlantic November 2018

€4078 - Includes DSC & soda packages for the kids, UBP x 2 + 4 SDP meals x 2

€5216 - Inclusive rate - No SPD meals

€1138 More expensive

 

These changes in prices are scary, There is no way that a couple of bottles of water a day and a few coffees could constitute me paying the new pricing. NCL is going to kiss a lot of families good bye

 

When did you originally book those cruises?

 

Both of my cruises for this year are currently about £2,000 more than I booked them for, but most of that increase happened months ago.

[lachelli]

When did you originally book those cruises?

 

Both of my cruises for this year are currently about £2,000 more than I booked them for, but most of that increase happened months ago.

 

Mediterranean cruise for October 2017 was booked the end of December last year and I just booked the EpicTransatlantic for November 2018 about 3 weeks ago

[R4zb3rry]

Just checked my Bliss TA for April and it works out as an extra £300 for the two of us.

 

 

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[lujaha]

We are off to have afternoon tea with NCL later today. I will report back tonight. Should be interesting and hopefully tasty?!!

[Daffodil92]

I looked at our seven day Alaska cruise on the Sun for July 2018 which I booked in January.

We got the free drinks package (1 adult and one teen) and $200 obc in a mid ship balcony room. We also prepaid our service charge.

 

Todays All Inclusive price works out at about £300 more than we paid BUT the price difference is all on the 3rd person in the room. For us, as the third person is a child, it would have been more expensive.

If however, we had only wanted two people in the cabin it would have been the same price with some water, a coffee at dinner and juices for my teenager who doesn't drink soda thrown in.

 

Edited to say, I forgot about that $200 obc which we would not have got with the All inclusive. That makes the price difference greater!

[Meg67]

I thought a comparison would be interesting, so yesterday I looked at my Escape cruise I'm taking in October- it was £979 in a midship balcony (we paid less but booked ages ago). Today the price is actually showing the same- but like said above when you actually do a mock booking this goes up to £1079. So a £100 price increase which actually pretty much covers the cost of grats, water and coffee. So not a bad deal until you consider that yesterday you would have recieved a 2nd free at sea offer- so based on the SDP you are down about £60pp over booking yesterday.

 

Using exactly the same website as I booked with, I have done a similar comparison for the cruise I recently booked for August 18 on The Spirit.

 

Deck 5/6 outside picture window

Price I paid was £1,599pp with UBP & $200 OBC

Today's price £1,599 for premium All Inclusive.

 

I'm not a coffee drinker and happy to drink the ships water so I've gained $200 but is cancelled out as I still have my DSC to pay.

Meg:cool:

[Cully1953]

A week ago we booked an 11 night Xmas/New Year cruise on the Spirit going in December 2018. The price is £3698 + £187 DSC making a total of £3885. There are 2 of us travelling and the perks for a mid ship balcony (BA) are, low deposit (£100) UBP and OBC of $200.

 

If I'd have booked the cabin next door yesterday the total price would have been £240 less but I would have had to pay £200 deposit. the perks would have been UBP and only $100 OBC.

 

Today's price on the new all inclusive package for the same cabin would be a total of £3878, this is actually £7 less than the total price I would be paying on my original booking.

 

I do not intend to switch because firstly I would lose my £100 deposit and $200 OBC if I were to cancel and rebook and secondly regarding the UBP, I only drink beer with maybe an occasional cocktail and my wife will only have a couple of glasses of wine all cruise, also I believe soda is already part of the UBP, so the premium drinks on the all inclusive package would have no appeal for us. We will maybe have an odd coffee mid morning when we are on the ship but not at mealtimes and we can buy as much water as we need with our OBC.

[lachelli]

Ok its starting to look like there is not a major difference in the Stg prices, but I would love to see if anyone else is getting the silly price differences with Euro bookings made through the Irish website

[KeithJenner]

So the conclusion so far seems to be that almost all bookings have increased (as expected), with some that have increased significantly.

 

However, most of the increases seem to be in the region of a couple of hundred pounds, once you take into account the DSC etc.

 

The main potential improvement seems to be for people looking to go on the POA who want the beverage package, where there are some potential savings now it includes the UBP.

[KeithJenner]

Just looking at some solo pricing on 2018 transatlantics.

 

On the Epic, the studio is still a fairly reasonable £1,229 (for 13 nights), but a guarantee balcony is upon to £1,950.

 

The Breakaway is a bit more expensive at £1,579 for a studio (14 nights), but the cheapest balcony is now £2,889

 

Meanwhile, for the Jade where there are no Studios, a solo needs to stump up almost £3,000 for the cheapest inside.

 

I hadn't looked at these prices for a little while, so I can't compare them to how they were yesterday, but it certainly seems based on this, that the days of solos being outside the studios.

[ozscotart]

I don't think I really understand this : we have booked for the Jade for the Panama Canal and at the time it was the same cost booking through a UK TA and a US one, for the package we wanted, so we booked with our local TA. Now it appears that the cost of this has gone up substantially, we don't drink bottled water, soft drinks etc, so what we booked seems to represent better value, even including the DSC. We prepaid that. What is to stop people booking through a US TA where the prices are substantially less, $1735 today for balcony and the same package we have ?

[KeithJenner]

What is to stop people booking through a US TA where the prices are substantially less, $1735 today for balcony and the same package we have ?

 

Nothing, although NCL are certainly trying to make it harder for people to book outside their own country by redirecting the website etc.

 

Most people won't do it though. People just tend to go with what's easiest.

 

From the other examples that we have seen today, yours seems to be one of the significantly higher rises. Most seem to be a few hundred points different, and given the exchange rate, that is not necessarily going to be enough for most people to make it worth it.

[R4zb3rry]

Most people won't do it though. People just tend to go with what's easiest.

 

 

Exactly this, NCL will benefit by sweeping up the ill-informed and those that are looking for the simplest way to book a cruise.

 

Out of interest I just compared the UK and US sites for a 12 day Caribbean out of NY next December and it comes in a whopping £700 difference with UDP and SDP for a mini suite balcony.

 

Even with the week GBP that is unpalatable for me so, I will book through the US site for as long as I choose NCL.

 

 

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