How did the Sail Away rate work out for you?

[dheat789]

The Sun is open bar ship, sail away does include beverage package. Thanks anyway.

[GirlWriter]

On 4/24/2019 at 11:37 PM, Nebr.cruiser said:

I wish some of the perks were free grats and OBC, like on some other lines.

I have gotten both of these perks on NCL as well.

[schildiams]

On 6/8/2019 at 10:40 PM, fmrlkr said:

Booked a sail away mini suite on the Joy to Alaska 1month ago.  We were assigned 10216.  Saved a huge amount of money.  We are platinum so got 2 free dinners.  We bought the four bottles wine package.  Just got back today.  Great cabin with cabins over and under us.  Near the front elevators but not right at them.  The amount we saved paid for the rest of the travel, flights and hotel.  We will book sail away again.

How much is the wine package? I don't see it anywhere.

Thanks 🙂

[zounds]

We are Platinum and sailing on the Getaway Dec. 1st.  Booked a GTY balcony last Feb. and was assigned cabin 13710 six months prior to sailing!.   However, Since it is about as far from the elevators as possible, I expect we will upgrade to a GTY mini for $231. total, while keeping our percs (prepaid grat.) and will get and additional $25.OBC.  steve

[mking8288]

We sailed the Dawn last month, directly booked an Inside GTY & OV midship picture window about 25 days out - not sailaway rates, took the "free" WiFi & as a second choice, 3 specialty dining, along with Latitude past guests offers.   Assigned to Deck 11 Fwd (IB category) about 3 days later - same day "invited" to the Upgrade Advantage bidding.   As prices dropped further, booked 2 additional Inside GTY, no perks  - about 10 days out - split 2 Platinum members into 2 cabins to take advantage of the extra comp'd dining & bottle of wine.  Staterooms assigned 2 days later, Deck 9 Fwd (ID category) and same afternoon, invited to do the Upgrade Advantage bidding.  

 

With port-intensive itinerary for 7 nights Canada/NE, bidded for OV & barely above minimum for a balcony - 2 adults per cabin works fine for us and we don't care for UBP or shorex "credits" against overpriced tours.  Notified at day 3 prior that bid (covered by other OBC) for OV accepted (Deck 4 Fwd) - and 2 remaining bids expired/notified on day 2's cutoff for the balconies.  

 

Specialty dining booked (2 nights out of 3 for all 8 of us) on day 1 and 2, only pre-booked LeBistro a week prior to sailing - Teppanyaki costed us $72 for 2 in each of 2 cabins, net of $22 (after applying OBC) in 3rd cabin and ** "free" for 4th cabin.  Moderno was "free" for everyone.  Servers appreciated the cash tips.  In short, works for us ... and, we paid directly for fresh lobster rolls ashore in Bar Harbor & Portland, Maine.  

[richstowe]

13 hours ago, schildiams said:

How much is the wine package? I don't see it anywhere.

Thanks 🙂

Trying to find the Viva Vino package

 

Edited June 14, 2019 by richstowe

[reeinaz]

I just booked a sail away mini on the Encore for Sept 2020. The cabin number was available at booking, 9842, so I was able to look it up on the deck plan before I finalized. The odd thing though is that according to the deck plan, it is an MX cabin. There are 2 of them on deck 9 and 2 on deck 8.

[Shih-tzu]

Worked just fine for us.   Others on our cruise were mentioning that they still had to pay the 20% gratuity on the beverage package even though they got it for "free".   On a 7 day cruise that is about $140/person.   So not only did they pay more for their room, but each person had to pay $140.00 more.   Neither my husband nor I drank $140.00 between the two of us.

 

I only wish Norwegian had something where you could choose your cabin but go without any of the "free?" perks.  The cabin we had was fine - no issue there.   Just was a long walk to some parts of the ship and as we get older we would prefer to be in a different "general" area.

 

I'd book Sail Away again.

[phissy]

1 hour ago, reeinaz said:

I just booked a sail away mini on the Encore for Sept 2020. The cabin number was available at booking, 9842, so I was able to look it up on the deck plan before I finalized. The odd thing though is that according to the deck plan, it is an MX cabin. There are 2 of them on deck 9 and 2 on deck 8.

MX is the code Mini Suite Sail Away rate(you will notice it says, NO promos included )

Balcony code is BX, you get the idea. All cabin fares with X are sail away and some guarantee cabins also carry this code. Either one of these, you do not always have ability to choose your cabin location.  We have Sail Away Mini on Bliss and were assigned Mid Ship Connecting Mini Suite. If we had booked that outright, it would have been $2,000 more for the 7 day Alaska Cruise this September. We are not big drinkers and I purchased SDP for our cruise. 

It can work out depends how picky you are about your location on ship.

[reeinaz]

3 minutes ago, phissy said:

MX is the code Mini Suite Sail Away rate(you will notice it says, NO promos included )

Balcony code is BX, you get the idea. All cabin fares with X are sail away and some guarantee cabins also carry this code. Either one of these, you do not always have ability to choose your cabin location.  We have Sail Away Mini on Bliss and were assigned Mid Ship Connecting Mini Suite. If we had booked that outright, it would have been $2,000 more for the 7 day Alaska Cruise this September. We are not big drinkers and I purchased SDP for our cruise. 

It can work out depends how picky you are about your location on ship.

I'm not referring to rate. I'm referring to how the cabin is actually labled and color coded on the deck plan. There are 2 cabins on both decks 8 and deck 9 that are labeled MX as opposed to being labeled M6, MC, or MB like the other mini suites.

[Strumpetskaya]

I just booked my first Sail Away (BX) for next April’s TA on Escape ( NYC to Rome). I’ve always preferred to pick my cabin, but saving $1000 is too good to pass up.  I’ve just retired, & have to watch my pennies. I’m not as concerned about getting a quiet a cabin location (I hope I do, fingers crossed), but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t. And being Platinum, I’ll get the usual perks, specialty dinners, laundry, some free internet minutes and 10% discount on the shore excursions. My cruise is so far in the future, so I guess it will be quite a while until I get my cabin assigned.

[FaithPlus1]

It's the only rate I will use on NCL 😉

 

Last time I did the obstructed oceanview sailaway. Got the room assignment a few days before the departure. It was a great room. I didn't get a balcony (that would have been a long shot!), but I had a huge porthole and was in a very quiet part of the ship where they store the art for the auctions. How was it obstructed? I was right on the walking path so if people were walking by, I could see them. Didn't affect my view other than that. 

 

 

I'm not someone who needs any of the "perks". I book my excursions independently, don't make use of the paid dining rooms, I'm okay just getting the occasional drink and take my chances sneaking on mini cans of Diet Coke (I don't like Diet Pepsi), and I like unlimited wifi packages. 

 

I don't really care about where a room is located. I have noise cancellation headphones and always travel with them. 

Edited July 5, 2019 by FaithPlus1

[CruisingNole]

4 minutes ago, FaithPlus1 said:

It's the only rate I will use on NCL

 

 

 

Same. Last year I booked a sailaway interior on Sun and ended up on a great deck in a handicapped room. There was a price drop and my TA was able to upgrade me to oceanview for free, if I wanted it, but I said no way. The handicapped room was huge! If it weren't for sailaway, there's no other way I would have gotten this room as I am not handicapped. And before anyone jumps to conclusions, I confirmed there was no one who "legitimately" required the room, so it was fair game. 

[FaithPlus1]

13 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

 

Same. Last year I booked a sailaway interior on Sun and ended up on a great deck in a handicapped room. There was a price drop and my TA was able to upgrade me to oceanview for free, if I wanted it, but I said no way. The handicapped room was huge! If it weren't for sailaway, there's no other way I would have gotten this room as I am not handicapped. And before anyone jumps to conclusions, I confirmed there was no one who "legitimately" required the room, so it was fair game. 

Yeah the ship I was on coincidentally was also the Sun. I met a girl who did the interior sailaway rate and she got the handicapped room as well and said the same thing about the room being huge. 

[cruisinmeme]

On 4/25/2019 at 4:40 AM, linbobky said:

we booked the breakaway for dec. 14th 2019 last week. already have our cabin number. 

 

 

We are booked for December 8,2019 and nothing.  Where does the cabin number show up at? We have booked our first sail away with a huge savings. Out of 24 cruises i have always chosen our room number, so this is the first time.  How bad can any Alcon be.lol

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

You will be assigned anytime between now and the date of departure it just depends on supply/ demand 

[cruisinmeme]

1 hour ago, cruisinmeme said:

 

 

We are booked for December 8,2019 and nothing.  Where does the cabin number show up at? We have booked our first sail away with a huge savings. Out of 24 cruises i have always chosen our room number, so this is the first time.  How bad can any Alcon be.lol

 

Ok i figured it out. I have my cabin assignment. Happy as can be. I like to be near the elevators and i am.  Cruise last month i picked a cabin by forward elevators. It helped my blood sugar all the walking because all restaurants were in the back of the ship.lol

they put us on deck 12 for our upcoming cruise. 

[Tatka]

Works fine for us. Once when sailaway rate was the same as with perks we booked with perks. Otherwise we do sailaway and save on rate. We buy internet, 250 minutes perk won’t work for us.

[EllieinNJ]

We booked inside sailaway for a cruise in April, 2020.  Took 4 weeks but was assigned a IA cabin, deck 12 midship.  Hoping to be able to bid on a balcony when the time comes.  We did this on our last cruise and was successful. 

[bermuda8553]

14 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

We booked inside sailaway for a cruise in April, 2020.  Took 4 weeks but was assigned a IA cabin, deck 12 midship.  Hoping to be able to bid on a balcony when the time comes.  We did this on our last cruise and was successful. 

I booked an inside sailaway for December, 2019. I've already paid in full , but no cabin assignment yet. You seem to have gotten an assignment pretty quick. Is that how it usually works? Never did a guarantee. 

 

[EllieinNJ]

3 hours ago, bermuda8553 said:

I booked an inside sailaway for December, 2019. I've already paid in full , but no cabin assignment yet. You seem to have gotten an assignment pretty quick. Is that how it usually works? Never did a guarantee. 

 

Maybe after final payment they wait to see what changes need to be after the bidding process.  My final payment is not until December.  We booked a "sailaway" cabin with NO PERKS.  A guarantee is different because they have perks.

[cruisinmeme]

4 hours ago, bermuda8553 said:

I booked an inside sailaway for December, 2019. I've already paid in full , but no cabin assignment yet. You seem to have gotten an assignment pretty quick. Is that how it usually works? Never did a guarantee. 

 

 

Are you sure you know where to look?  I kept waiting for it to appear, but wasn’t looking in the right place. When i clicked on view my reservations, there it was.  I am booked for December 8th.

[Jasonmom]

Booked Sail-away ocean view on NCL Breakaway in January.  Ended up in one of the very front ocean view rooms.  Was a bit of a walk for my mom and with the window the way it was (angled up) it was hard to keep room cool.  Also had to close blinds at night.  I forget why, but there was a sign there telling us to do it and the steward always came around in PM and closed blind if it wasn't already closed.

 

Booked guaranteed balcony on up-coming NCL Breakaway this September.  We were assigned a room very soon there after.  Room 9884.  The only problem I could see now with it is that it is near stairs.  Hoping there won't be too much noise.  

 

Haven't received upgrade offer, but doubt we would do it anyway.

[bermuda8553]

1 hour ago, EllieinNJ said:

Maybe after final payment they wait to see what changes need to be after the bidding process.  My final payment is not until December.  We booked a "sailaway" cabin with NO PERKS.  A guarantee is different because they have perks.

ok I guess I will just have to be patient. I did book the sailaway. I do not have any perks. I figure its winter time so I don't need a balcony or even a window. The ship has a stopover in Orlando overnight so I booked a room at Universal so trying to save money.LOL! Universal stop costing almost as much a the cruise, which is crazy.

 

[EllieinNJ]

2 hours ago, bermuda8553 said:

ok I guess I will just have to be patient. I did book the sailaway. I do not have any perks. I figure its winter time so I don't need a balcony or even a window. The ship has a stopover in Orlando overnight so I booked a room at Universal so trying to save money.LOL! Universal stop costing almost as much a the cruise, which is crazy.

 

No matter what cabin you get, I'm sure you will love your cruise and staying in Orlando overnight is awesome.  Love Universal.