All rise NCL

Greetings cruisers

I hope you are all having fun and getting organised for Christmas, I would love it more if I was actually away on a cruise, instead of being stuck here having to endure the drop in temperatures and the impending rise of gas prices.

However that is not the only thing that is rising !

The rising costs of cruising on Norwegian Cruise Line, in their infinite wisdom have decided to once again raise the costs of their drinks and service charges. Yep I hear you all “not again”

Well it is quite confusing so let me explain.

Quite recently Norwegian Cruise Line changed their whole sales pitch to “now your cruise is completely all inclusive” so the price you paid for one of their cruises included all drinks and gratuities. As agents we thought this was great news and would make booking a cruise very easy and simple, the price you paid included everything (well not tours, etc) your drinks were covered and your gratuities. Brilliant how easy would that be to sell, uncomplicated and easy to understand.

Well apparently not !!! NCL have now added an additional cruise price that does not include drinks and the gratuities, so back we go the completely confusing the hell out of everyone.

So if you do book your cruise with NCL on their guaranteed fare, that will not include drinks or gratuities, everything has increased, see below the changes

Norwegian Cruise Lines has raised the gratuity on its drinks and speciality dining packages, effective this month.

Until now, passengers have paid an automatic gratuity of 18% on the Ultimate Beverage and Specialty Dining packages.

The new gratuity is 20% and became effective on the 1st December; these gratuities are added automatically to your bill even if the package is a value-added perk.

The raise in gratuity comes after Norwegian raised its Ultimate Beverage Package price in October by nearly 13%.

The cost of drinks is now well over $100 per person per day, at $106.800- the package includes unlimited fountain soda, spirits, draft and bottled beer, wines by the glass and cocktails up to $15, plus a 20% discount on bottles of wine (bottled water and speciality coffee drinks are not included).

However if you have booked a fully inclusive fare with NCL, the service charges on each drink you order is included in the drinks package, and the gratuities are fully included.

Clear as mud.