NCL Drink Package room change?

[CruisingSwedes]

Thanks in advance for answers, and I tried a quick search for this question but didn't find it....I'm sure someone has asked this before!

 

We're two couples traveling on NCL Prima and the husbands drink a lot and the wives don't drink at all (hardly).  Since both in the room have to pay for the drink package and tips even if it's "free", it makes more sense for us to book with the husbands in one room with the drink package, and the wives in another without.  Right now there is about a $1000 difference in the rooms that allow you to have the "free" drink package and then plus tips.

 

My question is: once we're onboard can we go to customer service and they switch the names on the rooms so the spouses can be together and the drink package stays with the husbands even if they switch rooms?  Is the drink package connected to the room, or to the name of the person? 

 

Thanks again! 

[European_CruiseGirl]

The drink package is connected to the 1-2 person in that cabin and the particular persons names. Hence they would not be too happy if you'd try to switch persons from a cabin to another while at ship and it might very well not work when they realize the other cabin had no drink packages. What they will however gladly do at front desk is to give you an additional key card for both of the cabins. Just go there together and say you'd like to give each other a door key card to each others cabin. No problem there. Then just use those additional key cards and do the switch unofficially yourself.

 

Just making sure that you understand that if you get one cabin for the wifes without the "free" perks it means that the husbands' have (in addition to the drinks package) also speciality dining packages, free wifi and $50/per port to use. The wifes get none of that. 

 

When calculating the cost of the free drinks package (for which you pay the daily tax still) it is good to understand that the package includes also non-alcohol drinks such as juices, soft drinks and soda water for example. So if the ladies drink around 5-6 glasses of soft drinks or soda water per day (priced at $3,5 + tax per glass) it may easily become beneficial to take the free drinks package and just pay the daily tax for it. Particularly if the ladies still drink some amount of alcohol. And if you'd anyway get wifi, go to specialty dining and do some NCL shore excursions.

Edited November 29, 2022 by European_CruiseGirl

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, CruisingSwedes said:

Thanks in advance for answers, and I tried a quick search for this question but didn't find it....I'm sure someone has asked this before!

 

We're two couples traveling on NCL Prima and the husbands drink a lot and the wives don't drink at all (hardly).  Since both in the room have to pay for the drink package and tips even if it's "free", it makes more sense for us to book with the husbands in one room with the drink package, and the wives in another without.  Right now there is about a $1000 difference in the rooms that allow you to have the "free" drink package and then plus tips.

 

My question is: once we're onboard can we go to customer service and they switch the names on the rooms so the spouses can be together and the drink package stays with the husbands even if they switch rooms?  Is the drink package connected to the room, or to the name of the person? 

 

Thanks again! 

 

If I understand your question, it's good thinking.

 

What you need to do is book the two cabins with the husbands in one (taking the bev package) and the wives in the other cabin, with no bev package.

Keep it that way.

 

Once on the ship, the crew doesn't do "bed checks". 😉

 

You won't want to swap cards or the billing will get messed up if anything at all is charged.

So go to Guest Services, and one from each cabin needs to authorize someone in the other cabin (or even both) to have a key card for access only, no charging privileges.

That card probably won't be marked.

When we did this, we just wrote something like "A" and "B" on the extra cards, or perhaps the last number of the cabin, such as "8" or "3", so the cards could be kept straight.

 

It was very simple.

We ended up with all 4 adults having 2 cards:  one for the room they "paid for", for charging (the "official" card), and one for access to the other cabin (including the one they actually slept in).  You can have all 4 of you each have 2 cards, or do it some other way.

 

No problem.

 

Enjoy!

 

GC

[MarkusToe]

Had done similar on different cruise line.

Here you are invited fir spec restaurant if you have highest tier in loyalty program.

If both in the cabin have this status, one dinner is removed.

 

So we made the same, 2 men,  2 girls stateroom... 🙂

 

 

[complawyer]

UNBELIEVABLE !!!! other posts ask about getting an extra drink for friends that dont buy the package, you're trying to scam the whole thing. really i'm LOL

[lostone65]

@complawyer I don't believe they mentioned anything about sharing drinks, the OP stated the wives aren't drinkers I see nothing wrong with the question or the logic. The other post you are referencing specifically mentions giving extra drinks to friends who do not have the drink package, which is not the question or even implied in the OP's original question.  I believe your response is out of line in this case, assume positive intent unless otherwise stated.

Edited November 30, 2022 by lostone65
added @compulawyer tag

[Sailing12Away]

21 hours ago, European_CruiseGirl said:

Just making sure that you understand that if you get one cabin for the wifes without the "free" perks it means that the husbands' have (in addition to the drinks package) also speciality dining packages, free wifi and $50/per port to use. The wifes get none of that. 

 

You can still take the free at sea package and remove the drink portion. Meaning you still get the specialty dining, port excursion credits, etc.

 

The bigger issue I see them all having is booking excursions. If one H/W pair wants to do an excursion different from the other, good luck booking those 4 separate tickets.

Sorting out the final bill will be tricky as well since if one of the wives go shopping it gets charged to their 'wife' room. And if a gent buys a fancy watch, it gets billed to his 'gents' room. Seems like a lot of sorting through a fine tooth comb to reconcile things at the end.

[SunshineGal2022]

The wives may not drink alcohol much (I don't either), but they may like mocktails, Starbucks, and bottled water.  They should calculate if they would drink enough of those items to make up the difference or not.  (Assuming the husbands are upgrading to plus)

Edited November 30, 2022 by SunshineGal2022

[cruiseny4life]

15 hours ago, complawyer said:

UNBELIEVABLE !!!! other posts ask about getting an extra drink for friends that dont buy the package, you're trying to scam the whole thing. really i'm LOL

And ordering additional drinks doesn't impact the health and safety of those onboard. If there were some sort of reason for a muster, evacuation, etc. (I know, extremely unlikely, but possible), crew might go searching for someone that's not actually missing. If each room has a different muster station, where do you think the husbands will go? With each other? Or with their wives? Then crew gets to risk their life searching. 

 

Just a thought to consider. It's one I would. 

[GeezerCouple]

37 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

You can still take the free at sea package and remove the drink portion. Meaning you still get the specialty dining, port excursion credits, etc.

 

The bigger issue I see them all having is booking excursions. If one H/W pair wants to do an excursion different from the other, good luck booking those 4 separate tickets.

Sorting out the final bill will be tricky as well since if one of the wives go shopping it gets charged to their 'wife' room. And if a gent buys a fancy watch, it gets billed to his 'gents' room. Seems like a lot of sorting through a fine tooth comb to reconcile things at the end.

 

This doesn't need to be even a trivial "problem".

They each use their OWN CARD for any purchases.  Very simple!

 

And each gets a separate keycard for the "other room", with the permission of the named room occupant, obviously - and that wouldn't be any problem in this case.

 

We've done this when we had a large suite, so our family members could just "come right in" at any time, whether we were there or not.... just like at home.

The extra card didn't have details printed on it, so we put some identifier on it without including the suite number, in case it got lost.  (We didn't do this, but it's like if the extra card was labeled in indelible marker, "Grandma" or "A & B's cabin".)

 

And then there cannot be any confused charging because the "extra cards" don't have charge privileges, just the keycard access.

 

Similarly, no problem with different excursions for each person.  There's no rule that states that both guests in a cabin must go together on the same excursion.  Just call prior to the cruise or speak with Guest Services or Excursions once on board.  (It might be doable online for just one person, but I don't remember.)

 

GC

[CruisingSwedes]

Thanks everyone for your replies and info.  I had a hard time finding my way back here to reply!  I had no idea you could get extra cards - I will definitely bring a sharpie.  We booked balcony rooms are right next to each other so everything seems like it will be fine!  I'll let you know after the cruise how it went! 

 

 

[CruisingSwedes]

On 11/30/2022 at 5:51 AM, lostone65 said:

@complawyer I don't believe they mentioned anything about sharing drinks, the OP stated the wives aren't drinkers I see nothing wrong with the question or the logic. The other post you are referencing specifically mentions giving extra drinks to friends who do not have the drink package, which is not the question or even implied in the OP's original question.  I believe your response is out of line in this case, assume positive intent unless otherwise stated.

Thanks for your reply on this.  Very appreciated. 

[CruisingSwedes]

On 11/30/2022 at 2:48 PM, Sailing12Away said:

You can still take the free at sea package and remove the drink portion. Meaning you still get the specialty dining, port excursion credits, etc.

 

The bigger issue I see them all having is booking excursions. If one H/W pair wants to do an excursion different from the other, good luck booking those 4 separate tickets.

Sorting out the final bill will be tricky as well since if one of the wives go shopping it gets charged to their 'wife' room. And if a gent buys a fancy watch, it gets billed to his 'gents' room. Seems like a lot of sorting through a fine tooth comb to reconcile things at the end.

The rooms got the $50 credit for each shore excursion (I thought it was a $50 for the entire cruise for one excursion, but NCL tells me it is for every excursion) for only the first person listed on the room in each room, but we didn't realize that and one couple got listed as the first name on the two separate rooms so we will have to sort that out!  Other than that I think we will be OK! Thanks for your comments!

[Vacationlover2]

On 11/30/2022 at 9:17 AM, SunshineGal2022 said:

The wives may not drink alcohol much (I don't either), but they may like mocktails, Starbucks, and bottled water.  They should calculate if they would drink enough of those items to make up the difference or not.  (Assuming the husbands are upgrading to plus)

 

mocktails, Starbucks and bottled water are not included in the free at sea drink package.

[Sailing12Away]

23 hours ago, Vacationlover2 said:

 

mocktails, Starbucks and bottled water are not included in the free at sea drink package.

You can absolutely get a virgin cocktail with the normal free at sea drink package.