Free At Sea, once on board?

[uneamie]

We just got an extra $400 on board credit due to NCL bounus promotion. We hae not choosen the Free at Sea beverage package yet so I was wondering if we can still choose it once on board so we can use this onboard credit for the service charges? Has anyone waited till on board to do this? 

[JandC_Cruising]

1 minute ago, uneamie said:

We just got an extra $400 on board credit due to NCL bounus promotion. We hae not choosen the Free at Sea beverage package yet so I was wondering if we can still choose it once on board so we can use this onboard credit for the service charges? Has anyone waited till on board to do this? 

No.  The "Free at Sea" is a promotional program attached to your booking.  If you "declined" the beverage package at the time of your booking, you can add it back to your booking up to 48hrs(?) before your departure.  You can call NCL and have them change your Free at Sea selections up to that point.

If you wait past that time, you will have to pay full retail for any drink package you are considering.

 

[uneamie]

1 minute ago, JandC_Cruising said:

No.  The "Free at Sea" is a promotional program attached to your booking.  If you "declined" the beverage package at the time of your booking, you can add it back to your booking up to 48hrs(?) before your departure.  You can call NCL and have them change your Free at Sea selections up to that point.

If you wait past that time, you will have to pay full retail for any drink package you are considering.

 

Thanks....I thought that might be the case. 

[geckobabe]

If you decline the beverage package, you can always just "pay" by the drink onboard which will come out of your OBC. That's what we are doing with an upcoming cruise. 

[FLAHAM]

The drinks package by itself, bought on board, costs a good deal more than paying the service charge on the free at sea package.

[Russiamomm]

I agree with the others.  You can only opt for the FAS before you sail.  But I’m curious.  What NCL promotion gives you $400 in OBC?  Curious minds want to know.  I’ve never seen this.

[dbrown84]

If you're interested in upgrading to premium plus, you can wait and do that onboard.  I do that to use OBC to pay for the upgrade

[Asawi]

Current European promo 

[dbrown84]

28 minutes ago, Asawi said:

Current European promo 

this is nice.  I checked on my upcoming cruise, and it's doesn't qualify for the OBC.  but now I'm curious.  What qualifies you for which sets of promos you can take advantage of (Europe vs US)?  Is it simply your home address?  Whenever I need to change my address, it's a simple phone call with no actual proof that you live at the new address.  Would it also be that easy if you actually relocated to another country????

[TrumpyNor]

7 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

this is nice.  I checked on my upcoming cruise, and it's doesn't qualify for the OBC.  but now I'm curious.  What qualifies you for which sets of promos you can take advantage of (Europe vs US)?  Is it simply your home address?  Whenever I need to change my address, it's a simple phone call with no actual proof that you live at the new address.  Would it also be that easy if you actually relocated to another country????

I live in Europe but my regular cruise consultant at the NCL is based in the US; hence I book and pay all my cruises according to the American booking conditions and promotions (for various reasons, but mainly because I often find the cruises when priced in USD to be a better deal than when priced in EUR). I have however had the same PCC at NCL since 2008 (so before they decided to split their "customer markets" based on where the customers live). I don't know it that is why they (NCL) has let me "keep her"....

[KeithJenner]

15 minutes ago, TrumpyNor said:

I live in Europe but my regular cruise consultant at the NCL is based in the US; hence I book and pay all my cruises according to the American booking conditions and promotions (for various reasons, but mainly because I often find the cruises when priced in USD to be a better deal than when priced in EUR). I have however had the same PCC at NCL since 2008 (so before they decided to split their "customer markets" based on where the customers live). I don't know it that is why they (NCL) has let me "keep her"....

It isn’t unusual for European customers to have US based PCCs. The last few that I have had have been based there. We still book using UK rates though.

 

From what I can tell the system defaults you to a market based on your location, but if you have ever booked using another country then that may change your default booking location, as in your case. If you were to ask to book a European rate then that would possibly change the default for the future.

[TrumpyNor]

1 hour ago, KeithJenner said:

From what I can tell the system defaults you to a market based on your location, but if you have ever booked using another country then that may change your default booking location, as in your case. If you were to ask to book a European rate then that would possibly change the default for the future.

That is definitely not the status in my case. The webpage ncl.com automatically redirects me to the Eurpean webpage with all prices listed in Euros (all though I live in Norway, we don't have Euros but we also don't have a specific branch of NCL for the Norwegian or Scandinavian market, as we are simply not enough customers). 

 

I have had the "automatic default to NCL Europe" ever since they divided NCL Europe in to a separate NCL "branch" - and the first year this happened both my PCC at NCL, and her supervisor, and even with assistance from the IT department at NCL (based in the US), they all tried to add special settings to my account so that I could have access to the American version of ncl.com - but unfortunately it didn't work. 

So my way of working around this and have access to up-to-date US prices for NCL cruises, is that I have found an American online cruise travel agency that shows the exact same rates, promotions and fees as NCL has in US dollars. There I do "mock" reservations whenever I am ready to book a cruise, and when I have found what I want, I just send my PCC an e-mail and ask her to book it for me. It works for me, it just takes me a few minutes extra to search for cruises at that online cruise TA site first.

 

I did actually book a couple of cruises myself online through the European webpage a few years ago (after booking through NCL in the US for about 10-15 years) - the cruises were great, the rates at that time were also good, but the "local" cruise consultants I then automatically received were NOT any good - at least not compared to my American based PCC who has been working with NCL for about 20 years, so after that experience I went back to booking all my cruises through NCL through her. 

 

So at least for me, it works well enough the way I have chosen to do it. All though a tiny bit more complicated than booking directly on the webpage. 😊

Edited July 5, 2023 by TrumpyNor
spelling errors....

[insidecabin]

The current UK promotion is $200 OBC per cabin not per person.

 

They have also done a 50% free at sea.

 

The cruises we have been booking are a lot cheaper booking UK rates over US rates.

 

Especially as they do the late discounts to sell off the opened up insides when the upgrades start happening.

[insidecabin]

Last time I wanted to look at US prices VPN worked to do ncl.com from UK

 

I now tend to compare voyages using a TA that has UK and US arms.

 

Its not just the cruise fare/taxes, the free at sea is structured differently so that needs pricing in as well.