Free at Sea- What Happened Here??? 😠

[Casino Comp Chick]

8 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

No it wasn’t free.   Your cruise price was more that a sail away rate.   I have personally seen $1000 differences.   I always book sail away at significant savings and in the past sailed at least monthly.   🤩.   Saw the different rates all the time.   

I am a casino player, you assume my price was more than the sailaway rate. You assumed wrong. I don’t pay retail.

 

My price used to be about $80-$120 a week plus port fees before they standardized the admin fee to $20 per day with no fees on drinking and dining.

It was free. 
 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Casino Comp Chick

[Lupush]

Marketing folks, marketing.

[adam_s_allen]

15 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

yes they did,   that deal was probably  5/6 years ago?   Sail away,  comes and goes,  and in the past showed up for later bookings.   

 

I did a Bermuda cruise-  that offered the drink package without the tips mandatory.     And I grabbed a lower rate without it.   Booked less than a week prior.   At the time,  included drink package rate was about $200++  more,  on a $399 rate that I paid.  🙂 

I do miss those times. I'm pretty sure the cruise line made 0 profit from me for a couple of the cruises. They've gotten it back though.

[Liljo22]

NCL updated the ad to say free and added worth that much for each perk.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by Liljo22

[BoundForSea]

Ok sorry to digress on the screename debate but I’m the OP and wanted to follow up:

 

It is confirmed that the marketing of the Free@Sea from the other day was misleading and poorly designed by them and Free is still Free and perks are fully funded for the length of your voyage. 

 

I believe I was not the only one who interpreted that ad as credit caps, and they have since changed the splash page. 
 

Carry on... Free@Sea is well. 

 

Back to the Avatar and screename debate....

 

[farmersfight]

43 minutes ago, BoundForSea said:

and Free is still Free and perks are fully funded for the length of your voyage. 

 

O.k., I'm confused now (happens all the time). As a couple of others have posted on this thread, aren't the "Free at Sea" perks built in to the cruise price (so, you're actually still paying for them)? Not talking about the sail away rate or casino player rate.

[Liljo22]

39 minutes ago, farmersfight said:

 

O.k., I'm confused now (happens all the time). As a couple of others have posted on this thread, aren't the "Free at Sea" perks built in to the cruise price (so, you're actually still paying for them)? Not talking about the sail away rate or casino player rate.

The sail away rate is cheaper because you do not get any perks.  If the drink package and specialty dining is not important to you then select the sail away.  For me they are important.  I will price shop rates for NCL with the perks and gratuities against RCL and CCL after adding their drink plans.  I have found NCL to usually be cheaper, sometimes significantly.  I don’t see it as being built into the price since I am already paying less.  

[EllieinNJ]

I and I think others would definitely love to see a price somewhere between sailaway and free at sea where you can pick your own cabin without the perks.  We don't drink, are platinum so get two free dinners anyway, can use the wifi in the ports to catch up with email, etc. 

[Budget Queen]

5 hours ago, Liljo22 said:

The sail away rate is cheaper because you do not get any perks.  If the drink package and specialty dining is not important to you then select the sail away.  For me they are important.  I will price shop rates for NCL with the perks and gratuities against RCL and CCL after adding their drink plans.  I have found NCL to usually be cheaper, sometimes significantly.  I don’t see it as being built into the price since I am already paying less.  

Of course it's built in.    You are paying more for the perks that you would without it.     That difference between the sail away rate and perks rate is -   -   =  more.      🙂     

[Two Wheels Only]

5 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

I and I think others would definitely love to see a price somewhere between sailaway and free at sea where you can pick your own cabin without the perks.

 

The old "Norwegian Rate" was what you are looking for. 

[JustAPilot]

It wouldn't be a bad promo if they offered a drink credit or food credit like $1400 if they reduced the price of the cabin. Like everyone said the "free" promo's are just baked into your cabin price, sail away vs full pop depending on where you are cruising could be a huge difference. I personally would go for something like that, I think a $1400 bar tab would allow me to enjoy premium whiskeys and wines after a long day at port. For us we cruise for the ports so are mostly exploring the town's and city's we want to see vs getting sloshed on the pool deck with mixed drinks.

[farmersfight]

3 hours ago, JustAPilot said:

getting sloshed on the pool deck with mixed drinks.

 

[PTC DAWG]

9 hours ago, farmersfight said:

 

I thought the same thing..SAIL ON

[ray98]

Marketing gives people fits.....

[forgotmyCCname]

On 9/14/2020 at 9:13 AM, All-ready2cruise said:

Just playing with your mind, is all.  It appears the same as previous promos for me. 

 

 

We just booked two days ago for September 2021 and its all the same as prior promos.

Same cruise and suite as we were originally booked for this  week but a small price reduction.

[cruisequeen4ever]

The “freebies” were already overpriced when there wasn’t a cap. Now with the cap, there’s even less incentive to book with them. For instance with the open bar, they’ll probably just raise drink prices, so people can’t order as many. I say that, but then I remember I can’t even fathom coming close to $1,400 of drinks, but then again, maybe others could. 

[MNcruisingcouple]

1 hour ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

The “freebies” were already overpriced when there wasn’t a cap. Now with the cap, there’s even less incentive to book with them. For instance with the open bar, they’ll probably just raise drink prices, so people can’t order as many. I say that, but then I remember I can’t even fathom coming close to $1,400 of drinks, but then again, maybe others could. 

 

If you read the entire thread you'll understand that there is no cap.  The language from NCL was just a misunderstood marketing tactic.

[fstuff1]

On 9/14/2020 at 6:05 AM, BoundForSea said:

What is This????? They pulled the free and now there’s credit caps?????? 

 

This is huge IMHO. How did this get snuck in under the radar????

 

Is this here to stay?? Some of those amounts don’t cover squat!! Free 3/4th kids sail free is now down to 1000!! 

 

This just gets worse and worse this year. l’m sorry for the negativity but I wanted to post this for those who were totally unaware as me. No pre-announcement on this either from NCL. 

 

😤😤

 

great on the dining credit!

i usually get an inside room (free from casino) thus 1 perk and i pick sdp. (free drinks at the casino. on port days,

i just get a few beers the night before and pout it in my cabin fridge.)

 

now i dont have free 2 night sdp and buy a 6 sdp for a 10night cruise.

now i can buy a 8sdp for cheaper! (I get $200 obc every cruise)

Edited September 22, 2020 by fstuff1

[hallux]

9 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

great on the dining credit!

i usually get an inside room (free from casino) thus 1 perk and i pick sdp. (free drinks at the casino. on port days,

i just get a few beers the night before and pout it in my cabin fridge.)

 

now i dont have free 2 night sdp and buy a 6 sdp for a 10night cruise.

now i can buy a 8sdp for cheaper! (I get $200 obc every cruise)

Did you happen to read the rest of the thread or just stop at the first post that made things seem beneficial to you?  It seems there was a mix-up with a site update, it seems there was an intent to add the "value" to the advertisement but instead just replaced the information about the packages with the value noted.  See post 29, for a week ago, for a different version of the page.

 

For what it's worth - even when trying to pull a fresh copy of the page (forcing a cache refresh) I'm still seeing the original perks display, no value noted or replacement of the perk with a value.

Edited September 22, 2020 by hallux

[fstuff1]

55 minutes ago, hallux said:

Did you happen to read the rest of the thread or just stop at the first post that made things seem beneficial to you?  It seems there was a mix-up with a site update, it seems there was an intent to add the "value" to the advertisement but instead just replaced the information about the packages with the value noted.  See post 29, for a week ago, for a different version of the page.

 

For what it's worth - even when trying to pull a fresh copy of the page (forcing a cache refresh) I'm still seeing the original perks display, no value noted or replacement of the perk with a value.

oh man.. back to free 2sdp and buying a 6sdp for my 10day cruises 😞