Switching Rooms/ Room Access

[DZ77]

Just got off the Joy this morning after the Aug 13-20th NYC /Bermuda Cruise. 

All in all we had a great time. 

I just want to point out that as an extended family of 2 grandparents- 5 parents and 9 teenage grandchildren- we booked 7 rooms with 1 adult in each room and a combination of kids in the rooms. 

The plan was to shift everyone's rooms around on the ship so that the 7 adults would be with spouses in 4 rooms (with 1 single parent) and the 9 teenagers would split up in 3 rooms on the cruise based on 2 male rooms of 3 and 1 female room of 3.

Starting 5 months ago, dealing with our NCL group contact as well as other NCL representatives.  we were told multiple times this would not be an issue and we could get additional room key cards on board and we may sleep how we please.  

Turns out when we boarded last Sunday and tried to get these room cards from Guest Services, we were told NCL changed the process. They do not provide additional room access cards anymore. 

What they now do is assign reciprocal access to 2 rooms on your ID/Room key.  So this works well if you are a family of 4 and request 2 rooms.  All 4 key cards will have access to both rooms.  

However if you are a bigger group and are mixing and matching boys and girls, this can potentially be a problem as you may be limited in which rooms your ID card opens.  

For us- we had to spend 90+ minutes with multiple Guest Services representatives and managers (after a 60 minute wait on the guest services line) - and re-assign the original bookings of the rooms- and then grant reciprocal access for 3 sets of 2 rooms.  

 

A stressful start to trip- but for us we were able to make it work out so everyone could access the room they slept in.  And most everything after that was enjoyable.  

 

The only related point- is that communication/information between the booking agents and the ship (and even different areas of the ship) is inconsistent and not great. 

[BirdTravels]

O.K. Seems like you got what you wanted. Kinda hard to argue with Guest Services that you need 4-way keys to break the rules and have unescorted kids in the room. Similarly, the booking agent isn't going to write in your reservation that you really want to circumvent the rules,,, so I am not sure what they could have  communicated. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by BirdTravels

[DZ77]

They should have communicated what the actual policy is- instead of telling us continuously for 5 months incorrect information that 1 adult per room is just for booking purposes and that it will be no problem for some people to get 1 extra room key for a different room.

 

 

 

[HoosierShipmate]

I read the first part of the original post and thought I was going to have a heart attack, right up until I learned about the new ability to assign two rooms to each key.  My family of four always gets two cabins, and extra cards and it’s kind of a hassle. Looking forward to having room access to both rooms on each key, and not juggling (and remembering) who is what LOL.  

[hawkeyetlse]

Yeah, this sounds like a case where it works great for the vast majority of people (access to 2 cabins without having to carry around 2 cards) but the previous solution was more generalizable to 3 or more cabins.

 

While I am sympathetic to the inconvenience that the OP experienced, I really don’t find it outrageous to put a strict (and low) limit on the number of cabins that a single guest can access. 

[UKstages]

On 8/26/2023 at 4:14 PM, hawkeyetlse said:

Yeah, this sounds like a case where it works great for the vast majority of people…

except for those stuck in a room next to unchaperoned teenagers.

 

i’m sure the teenagers in the OP’s family are all fine upstanding individuals who would never dream of slamming doors all hours of the day and night, playing the TV at super high volume, inviting all their friends over for raucous room service parties and yelling and screaming whenever it suits them… but many other unsupervised teenagers are not.

[mjkacmom]

6 hours ago, UKstages said:

except for those stuck in a room next to unchaperoned teenagers.

 

i’m sure the teenagers in the OP’s family are all fine upstanding individuals who would never dream of slamming doors all hours of the day and night, playing the TV at super high volume, inviting all their friends over for raucous room service parties and yelling and screaming whenever it suits them… but many other unsupervised teenagers are not.

That’s pretty dramatic. 

[Homosassa]

7 hours ago, UKstages said:

except for those stuck in a room next to unchaperoned teenagers.

 

 

That is when you immediately notified Guest Services at the first instance of noise or misbehavior and that the children do not have an adult in the cabin.