What's the best deal with the perks to pick?

[karinad]

We're looking at the Jade for a N.E,/Canada cruise in Oct. We are not drinkers, so, probably wouldn't pick the drink package. I read somewhere that the dining package is only a limited amount of days and you must pay gratuities. How do they handle the $50. allowance towards excursions. I think they offer the internet minutes as a choice, too. I wish that paid gratuities were offered, but, I haven't seen that offered for months.

 

Also, if I book online with NCL how long do I have to transfer to a travel agent that might offer a better rate? Thanks in advance. We did cruise on the NCL Gem a few yrs. ago.

[SeaShark]

Needs, wants, means, etc vary greatly from person to person. The only one who can say which deal is the "best" for you, is you.

 

The Shore Excursion credit is simply a $50 credit per port applied toward shore excursions booked directly through NCL. Nothing overly complex there.

 

If you wish, you can transfer an unpaid reservation to a travel agent within 60 days of the initial booking. Of course, you could just book with the travel agent from the outset and save yourself the hassle.

[Dame@sea]

I selected the excursion credit package. I'm not a big drinker, my cruise is very port intensive and as a solo cruiser I want to do the ship's excursions because they guarantee that I won't get left behind in port if the tour is late. That perk made the most sense to me. But for someone who just wants to hang out by the pool with a drink or wants to try all of the specialty dinning venues they might pick a different package.

[SeaShark]

I selected the excursion credit package. I'm not a big drinker, my cruise is very port intensive and as a solo cruiser I want to do the ship's excursions because they guarantee that I won't get left behind in port if the tour is late. That perk made the most sense to me. But for someone who just wants to hang out by the pool with a drink or wants to try all of the specialty dinning venues they might pick a different package.

 

Sorry for hijacking the topic, but I wanted to quickly address the portion that I highlighted above.

 

While it is a popular misconception, this is not an accurate statement.

 

When the ship needs to leave, the ship will leave...even if there are people still out on ship run/booked excursions. There is no guarantee that you won't get left behind.

 

The guarantee in place is that they will ensure that you return to the ship. So...if the excursion group hasn't returned, and the ship needs to leave, the ship will leave without the group. That said, the cruise line and the shore ex provider now have the responsibility of getting everyone to the ship...most likely at the next port.

 

The guarantee simply means that you (the cruiser) don't have to pay for meals, hotels, flights, etc that might be required in getting caught up to the ship. The guarantee does NOT mean that the ship will simply sit at the pier until your return (they will try, of course, but this is not guaranteed by any means).

[newmexicoNita]

depends on what your habits are: I think the UBP is probably the most used, even if you are a moderate drinker. Otherwise it is anyone's guess. We go with the the UDP but were tempted on the cruise coming up in Nov to do the excursion.

[trinitytrees]

Do they do free child or 3rd 4th passenger free?

[Moby0215]

UBP for me

 

 

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[terri910]

My husband and I have put a group cruise together (well, actually FOUR group cruises B2B2B2B, starting October 2018), and with our group, we get to choose two out of something like 5 perks. One -- and IMO the best one -- is free gratuities!

 

I don't think that is offered if you book privately/individually, so I just think it is a huge perk!

 

 

The second best perk (of those we get to choose from) is the UBP, with absolutely NO service charge, so absolutely 100% free.

 

We've never taken the UBP before because we are not big drinkers (although we enjoy a drink or two) and even having to pay the daily service charge didn't make financial sense for us. But with it being 100% free, it was the 2nd best perk for us to choose.

 

There were also perks like internet minutes (250 minutes, I think), but I believe we are getting 30 minutes free as Platinum cruisers, and we have never found internet to be very good on board ships.

 

The Shore Excursion credits aren't a good thing for us, because we usually arrange private tours for our group and have always had very good luck (and often at half the price of the cruise line's excursions). If you could just use the entire Shore Excursion credit to pay for a specific excursion completely, it might be different, but the restrictions make it not a good choice for us.

 

Anyone interested in more info about our group cruise and the perks, just let me know....but that's my opinion on what the best perks are and why!

[craftygrandma]

The problem with the drink package on NCL besides the tip cost, is it does not include bottle water. If an option, tips, then dining, then shore excursions.

[karinad]

Free gratuities would be a no brainer! To bad they're not offering it!

[4774Papa]

We dislike the NCL drinks package since NCL charges gratuities ($99 pp for a week cruise). Also, we don't care for the wine choices that were seriously reduced about a year ago.

Further, we don't drink 8 drinks a day.

 

On our cruise in 2018 we chose the internet package and the excursion credit.

[sanger727]

Further, we don't drink 8 drinks a day.

 

 

?? What does that have to do with the UBP perk? Out of pocket cost is $14 pp pd, so that's 1-2 drinks a day, not 8.

[terri910]

Free gratuities would be a no brainer! To bad they're not offering it!

We have it as an option on our group cruise! :) Made me SO HAPPY when I found out. Considering a couple of our cruises are 14-days each, it adds up to a great savings!

[terri910]

We dislike the NCL drinks package since NCL charges gratuities ($99 pp for a week cruise).

That's why we normally don't choose the UBP....but with them waiving the service charge, too (on our group cruise), it made it a decent choice for us!

[PorkChopKid]

Free gratuities would be a no brainer! To bad they're not offering it!

My NCL PCC told me that she would be surprised if "Free Gratuities" ever comes back because they lost a lot of money on it.

[poona1]

i'm also following closely because i might take a similar cruise..since i am not a big drinker, i would take the specialty rest. first and the shore excursions second

[terri910]

My NCL PCC told me that she would be surprised if "Free Gratuities" ever comes back because they lost a lot of money on it.

That's too bad. I knew they weren't offered on their website.

 

Best perk ever. So, of course, that won't last. :(

 

That's why I was so jazzed that it was offered to our group!! If anyone wants to join our group for one of the 4 cruises, let me know. So far we still have some cabins available. All on the Star. 8-day Adriatic from Venice departing Oct. 28, 2018. 14-day Trans-Atlantic from Rome departing Nov. 5, 2018. 11-day southern Caribbean departing Miami Nov. 19, 2018, and 14-day Panama Canal transit departing Miami Nov. 30, 2018. We are getting free gratuities as one of the two perks we can choose. They also have the other perks -- UBP, the Dining Package, Internet, Shore Excursion credit. With the UBP, even that $99/week service charge is waived so it is absolutely free.

 

Probably should add: we aren't travel agents...just a group of fun-loving, cruise-loving folks!

[mamasylvia]

Makes me glad I grabbed the free gratuities when I booked our upcoming Alaska cruise. Chose 3rd/4th free for our other perk to bring our kids along. That $50 excursion credit seemed like just a drop in the bucket, plus we're only doing excursions on 2 of the 4 ports, so that didn't mesh with our plans. Not drinkers and the included cruise food has suited us fine, we prefer to spend our money on other things. With 4 of us sailing, I bought the unlimited Internet package (only one can be logged in at a time but we can take turns).

 

But as others have said, what is worth it to you won't necessarily be that is worth it to me and vice versa. Choose what suits your cruising style.

[udivegirl]

We always take the UBP even if not big drinkers. It includes the specialty coffee at the cafes. Bottled water was always included as well on all of our cruises but you had to get it at the bars, not the bottles in the room. Once in awhile we are up for a glass of wine or a foo-foo drink also.

 

The $50 shore excursion is only per cabin, not per person. It also depends if you plan on booking a lot of ship's tours. The money saved might be worth it.

 

The internet service is spotty at best and very, very slow. We've had many issues with internet on ships, so the internet package is not of value to us. Wi-fi is everywhere off the ship, so if we need to get in touch with anyone, we do it on land.

 

I do wish the gratuities was an option again. That was definitely worth it.

[travelorteach]

Don't see any Canadian posts here, but just in case...A relatively unknown fact for Canadians is that you can skip the perks and book Canadian At Par instead. This saved us substantially on our upcoming Med cruise, about 35%. For the savings we will buy our own drinks, pay for our own gratuities, and still have saved lots of colourful money!

[Lookingforfacts]

Let's do the math. Assume a 7 night cruise, 2 passengers in the cabin with stops at 4 ports. Consider nightly value of the "freebie"

Shore Excursion $25 per passenger per port is $100/7 $14.30 /night

 

Internet $125 for the week for the cabin. $8.90 /night/pax

 

cheap booze plan Assume consumption of only 3 adult drinks with a cost of $10 each (inclusive of service charge) That's $30 -$14 service fee= 16/night

 

Specialty Dining Not sure how to judge. Assume value of $33 /meal (in excess of service fee you pay) or 14/night

 

Conclusion: 3 drinks at $10 each might be one specialty cocktail and 2 glasses of wine or beer. Maybe not even that. Even a light drinker will do well with the cheap booze plan.

 

Shore Excursions You can almost always book a private excursion for at least $25 less the the NCL price, excluding Great Stirrup Cay. NCL is merely reducing their profit on the excursion from obscene to a more reasonable markup.

 

Specialty Dining--A waste if you're happy with the included dining experiences, otherwise offers value.

 

Internet offers the lowest value. Only makes sense if you don't drink and don't care about specialty dining.

 

EXCEPTIONS: 4 people in a cabin....3 and 4 free, if offered, might be better.

One person in the cabin. Shore excursions and internet are per cabin. Value doubles. Is a single passenger likely to drink more or less?

[Linda the Book Lover]

We lucked out with our Epic cruise and got free gratuities along with four other choices (Suite/Haven) My daughter booked us on POA - Hawaii 2018 and again we lucked out and got free gratuities as our one free choice with a Balcony. The free gratuities shows up every now and then which my DH and I wait for.

 

I think the free gratuities will be offered here and there as always just not as often.

SeaHark - Thanks for reminder about the book the ship excursion and the ship will wait. We always book private and never had an issue in the many years we sailed. I have seen some private companies sometimes offer to get you to the next port should an issue arise. We never had a concern about this one either.

 

udivegirl - How did you get bottled water at the bars? They usually just bring me a glass of water but I should would love the hint on what to say.

 

Edited April 16, 2017 by Linda the Book Lover
too many spaces between paragraphs

[Giorgi-one]

Free gratuities would be a no brainer! To bad they're not offering it!

 

I haven't booked a cruise in years without getting free prepaid gratuities from my travel agent!

[hoopslover]

My NCL PCC told me that she would be surprised if "Free Gratuities" ever comes back because they lost a lot of money on it.

It is being offered by one of the large online companies. I may transfer my booking tomorrow if I can get this perk in addition to the UBP and excursion credit.

[udivegirl]

udivegirl - How did you get bottled water at the bars? They usually just bring me a glass of water but I should would love the hint on what to say.

 

 

We just ask for a bottle of water. We're usually in a suite. Maybe it is free for the suites but not other cabins?