Wondering why NCL can advertise the drink package as "Free" when it's not

[newmexicoNita]

13 hours ago, rtkenmore said:

 

I've also now scene someone complaining about the Platinum dinners...  Two Platinums in one room and they think it isn't fair that BOTH of them get two dinners each.  😕

 

That'll be a never ending thread soon with a ton of people who don't even qualify chiming in... I'm sure someone will threaten to report them to the FTC as well about that...

don't forget the "why can't I bring my own booze on?" or "I want to pay my gratuities in cash" 

[deliver42]

Nobody has to be reminded constantly about "Free at Sea". I do know I can't match the price on any other cruise line. The pkg is free, but you have to pay for grats. There is nothing illegal about that. If you don't like it, then simply opt out. Then you can pay per drink plus grats.

[PTC DAWG]

15 hours ago, NurseJEB said:

 

 

So when you go out to eat with a group of 8 and they have a policy of adding an automatic 15% to groups of 6 or more it is not a tip any more? How about this?  If you do not want to pay the 20% gratuity then simply do not select the UBP as your free items.  Entire issue resolved.

That confuses simpletons....

[PTC DAWG]

10 hours ago, mianmike said:

 

If I go to a restaurant and order a $7.75 appetizer, my auto-gratuity is based on 15% of $7.75.  Not 15% of some inflated theoretical dinner package price that is so ridiculously priced that no one buys it.     

 

For our upcoming cruise the "free" drinks and choice of cabin would cost us $75 a day.  If we each average 1 beer a day our  portion would be $37.50 per beer.  With my $37.50 "tip", I would have tipped 20% of the beer price, I would have paid for the beer, paid for the bar tender's salary for an hour and helped pay for a portion of Frank Del Rio's yacht.  That's NCL Free drinks gratuity math. 

 

On our upcoming MSC cruise, we have the "Drinks on us" package.  It's free.  You rightly only pay a gratuity for the drinks you order.   

Why would you choose the UBP on NCL?  

[agrimm01]

15 hours ago, NurseJEB said:

 

 

So when you go out to eat with a group of 8 and they have a policy of adding an automatic 15% to groups of 6 or more it is not a tip any more? How about this?  If you do not want to pay the 20% gratuity then simply do not select the UBP as your free items.  Entire issue resolved.

I don't go out with 8 people so I don't have that issue at a restaurant.  But, if I did and they placed a mandatory fee to the bill it would not be a gratuity since a gratuity is an optional fee for a service.  It would be a fee

[SNJCruisers]

On 11/2/2018 at 9:36 PM, tallyho8 said:

I booked a sail-away guarantee cabin with no beverage package and saved about $800 from what he paid.

 

He had a very obstructed view and I was upgraded to a balcony and we drank all we wanted, which was more than he drank, and our drink bill was only $600 so we got a better cabin and all the drinks for $200 less than he paid.

It seems like you made the right choice since it's obvious that you are very light drinkers.  If you only paid 600 for the two of you, that's 500 plus 20% tip, divided by two people equals 250 divided by 7 days equals about 3.5 drinks/day @ 10.00 per drink.

Once again, it all boils down to this, if you're willing to pay the 20 bucks per day for the grats and the 200 or so upcharge for the perks benefit, it'll cost you about 340 for unlimited drinks up to 15.00 each.  If this does not sound like you'll drink enough to get your 340 worth, then bypass the perks and pay as you go.

[jimd909]

I'll say it again....my last cruise was on Holland America in Alaska and they provided their Signature Beverage Package as part of their Explore 4 promotion.  It was completely free.  They did not charge a service charge.  I opted to pay to upgrade to their Ultimate Signature Beverage Package once I was onboard for approx. $75 for the 7-day cruise.  Again, they did not charge a service charge. I tipped like I do in any bar at home...$1.00 per drink. 

 

So, NCL saying something is free and then charging a service charge is NOT free. Also, I don't care they have a little asterisk stating gratuities MAY apply. Don't advertise something is FREE when it isn't.

 

 

[tallyho8]

5 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

It seems like you made the right choice since it's obvious that you are very light drinkers.  If you only paid 600 for the two of you, that's 500 plus 20% tip, divided by two people equals 250 divided by 7 days equals about 3.5 drinks/day @ 10.00 per drink.

Once again, it all boils down to this, if you're willing to pay the 20 bucks per day for the grats and the 200 or so upcharge for the perks benefit, it'll cost you about 340 for unlimited drinks up to 15.00 each.  If this does not sound like you'll drink enough to get your 340 worth, then bypass the perks and pay as you go.

 

Yes but it was not just $200 that we saved. On guarantee we also got upgraded to a balcony cabin where he only got an outside that he got to pick in advance. When we get a guarantee cabin we always get a better cabin than one that we could have picked in advance yet Norwegian charges more when you don't do sailaway and claims it is because you get to pick your cabin also. We were about to pay the $800 more and get the oceanview cabin next to his but instead we decided to do sailaway and got a much better balcony cabin on guarantee.

 

Besides, it was a $260 more per person upcharge plus grats not $200 so we would have had to drink $400 more each on the ship to equal the price of the package.

 

We also drank a lot more than 3.5 drinks a day because it was a port intensive cruise with only 1 sea day and we took excursions with our friends each day and each had to pay for about 4 drinks a day while we were on excursions. Even though he had the drink package he still had to pay for these 4 drinks a day. Now if we were on a long trip with many sea days like a trans-Atlantic we might have possibly made a different choice.

[Newleno]

12 hours ago, jimd909 said:

I'll say it again....my last cruise was on Holland America in Alaska and they provided their Signature Beverage Package as part of their Explore 4 promotion.  It was completely free.  They did not charge a service charge.  I opted to pay to upgrade to their Ultimate Signature Beverage Package once I was onboard for approx. $75 for the 7-day cruise.  Again, they did not charge a service charge. I tipped like I do in any bar at home...$1.00 per drink. 

 

So, NCL saying something is free and then charging a service charge is NOT free. Also, I don't care they have a little asterisk stating gratuities MAY apply. Don't advertise something is FREE when it isn't.

 

 

Excellent post and information, "Free at Sea", no thank you ncl I just want completely free!  This post may finally help some see the humanity and meaning of the word FREE not FEE

[PTC DAWG]

On 11/2/2018 at 11:35 PM, mianmike said:

 

If I go to a restaurant and order a $7.75 appetizer, my auto-gratuity is based on 15% of $7.75.  Not 15% of some inflated theoretical dinner package price that is so ridiculously priced that no one buys it.     

 

For our upcoming cruise the "free" drinks and choice of cabin would cost us $75 a day.  If we each average 1 beer a day our  portion would be $37.50 per beer.  With my $37.50 "tip", I would have tipped 20% of the beer price, I would have paid for the beer, paid for the bar tender's salary for an hour and helped pay for a portion of Frank Del Rio's yacht.  That's NCL Free drinks gratuity math. 

 

On our upcoming MSC cruise, we have the "Drinks on us" package.  It's free.  You rightly only pay a gratuity for the drinks you order.   

IF you drink 1 beer a day, why in the world would you take the UBP as a perk?  Why even consider it, or bring it up here?  Makes zero sense to me.  

[PTC DAWG]

13 hours ago, jimd909 said:

I'll say it again....my last cruise was on Holland America in Alaska and they provided their Signature Beverage Package as part of their Explore 4 promotion.  It was completely free.  They did not charge a service charge.  I opted to pay to upgrade to their Ultimate Signature Beverage Package once I was onboard for approx. $75 for the 7-day cruise.  Again, they did not charge a service charge. I tipped like I do in any bar at home...$1.00 per drink. 

 

So, NCL saying something is free and then charging a service charge is NOT free. Also, I don't care they have a little asterisk stating gratuities MAY apply. Don't advertise something is FREE when it isn't.

 

 

Different cruise lines have different pricing points.  I would guess that Holland is figuring the price of the drinks into the cost of the cabin...really all that matters is the bottom line...and choices are good.  

[Two Wheels Only]

2 minutes ago, Newleno said:

Excellent post and information, "Free at Sea", no thank you ncl I just want completely free!  This post may finally help some see the humanity and meaning of the word FREE not FEE

Nothing on a cruise is completely free. It's paid for in one way or another. The toilet paper in the stateroom isn't free.

 

What matters is the total cost and what you get for it. For example, which is better....?

 

A) A $20 shirt with a mandatory $2 button fee and a mandatory $1 collar fee.

 

B) A $25 shirt with free buttons and a free collar.

 

Some will choose A because even with the annoying fees, the overall price for the shirt is better than the overall price for B.

 

Some will choose B because there are no annoying fees and the price that you see is the price that you pay.

 

There's no need for people to get so worked up over NCL's wording. Just do the math and decide which options are best for you. Getting all "...Grrr, they said it was free when it really isn't..." is pointless.

 

If skipping the promos, taking Sailaway, and paying for drinks a la carte is best for some, that's fine. If taking the promos, paying the service charges, and not worrying about how much is spent on drinks and food is better for some, that's fine.

 

If NCL eliminated the promo service charges but raised the fare by the same amount, would that be better?

[NLH Arizona]

2 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

If NCL eliminated the promo service charges but raised the fare by the same amount, would that be better?

Then we would hear the same folks saying:  I don't pick the drink package, so why is my fare going up to subsidize others who have the drink package.

 

Folks have three choices: Pick the package and pay the 20%, don't pick the package and take another perk or cruise with another line who has policies that fall in line with what they think is right.

[Two Wheels Only]

1 minute ago, NLH Arizona said:

Then we would hear the same folks saying:  I don't pick the drink package, so why is my fare going up to subsidize others who have the drink package.

 

When given choices, people complain about "nickel and dime" tactics.

 

When not given choices, people complain about "subsidizing others".

 

Cruise Critic will always have forum content, I suppose....

[mianmike]

6 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

IF you drink 1 beer a day, why in the world would you take the UBP as a perk?  Why even consider it, or bring it up here?  Makes zero sense to me.  

 

My post was in response to your flawed example where you equate the UBP service charge to the mandatory gratuity a restaurant charges for a group of eight.  You can’t compare the two.  The restaurant gratuity is correctly based on the actual price of the meals ordered, unlike NCL where it is based on a ridiculous overinflated whimsical price that no one ever buys.       

[rtkenmore]

1 hour ago, mianmike said:

 

My post was in response to your flawed example where you equate the UBP service charge to the mandatory gratuity a restaurant charges for a group of eight.  You can’t compare the two.  The restaurant gratuity is correctly based on the actual price of the meals ordered, unlike NCL where it is based on a ridiculous overinflated whimsical price that no one ever buys.       

 

Then by all means, don't choose the UBP as your perk.  Pay by the drink and do it that way if you don't like it.

[beerman2]

8 hours ago, Newleno said:

Excellent post and information, "Free at Sea", no thank you ncl I just want completely free!  This post may finally help some see the humanity and meaning of the word FREE not FEE

Here's some numbers

Last Carnival Cruise with Purchasing the Cheers Package (900.00) cost me about 500.00 more than my NCL with the "free" perk of Drink Package ( 210.00) in gratuity.

Comparible cabins ,not really, Spa Balcony on NCL, Lido balcony on Carnival No Spa privilege.

 

 

 

Paid for 1 Specialty Dining on Carnival, NCL "free" perk of Specialty Dining (3) for 82.00 in Gratuiy

 

People need to focus on the bottom line and not the semantics of "free".

 

Nothing is ever FREE always comes with a price.

 

 

 

 

[mianmike]

2 hours ago, rtkenmore said:

 

Then by all means, don't choose the UBP as your perk.  Pay by the drink and do it that way if you don't like it.

 

We don't get perks, they're too expensive.  Between us, we average 6 drinks a day, (sea days we drink more, port days we drink less) so it's cheaper to buy drinks individually.  

[mianmike]

19 hours ago, rtkenmore said:

 

Then by all means, don't choose the UBP as your perk.  Pay by the drink and do it that way if you don't like it.

 

Thanks, I appreciate your support.  It means a lot. 

[rtkenmore]

11 minutes ago, mianmike said:

 

Thanks, I appreciate your support.  It means a lot. 

 

You are very, very welcome!!!