Previously, I had gotten as far as the Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) website where I was met by some really confusing and vague language about how much cruise my money would buy. I had picked out a 7-day cruise on the 2nd newest ship in their fleet, the Norwegian Getaway, and it looked like I could get it for “as little as” $279. I had learned that they had a special called Free at Sea and it offered 5 separate Free options ranging from Extra Stateroom Guests to Unlimited Open Bar (that’s a dangerous one right there).
Go Ahead. Click That Big Orange “Book” Button.
So I did. I pushed it. What I saw next was encouraging, but actually proved out to be discouraging. NCL presented a matrix of cruise dates and types of cabin. They ranged from $279 for an inside cabin to $4,099 for a cabin in the ultra-exclusive area known as The Haven. I crossed the high and low off my list and considered everything else in-between. The Spa cabin was slightly larger and had a better bathroom than the other cabins, but it wasn’t a $700-800 difference. The Mini-Suite was identical to the Balcony cabin with maybe 16-20 more square feet overall. Use of the word “Suite” by travel vendors is a real pet peeve. If it doesn’t have more than one room (not including the bathroom or closet) and you can’t close the door between the rooms, it’s not a Suite. Period!
OK. So the only question left to answer is, “Do I go for the Oceanview or the Balcony?” This was an easy choice. For the $50 difference, there was no way I wasn’t going to opt for a balcony I could go out and sit on while I sipped an adult beverage. And be sure to look at that purple color coding. It aligns with that Free at Sea package with all of those cool options to choose from. So I clicked on Balcony and motored on — sure that I was closing in on an incredible deal. Meanwhile, I had upsold myself from $279 to $399. Not so bad. Only $17 / day, right?
Trying To Close The Deal
The next step was to finalize the booking and pay for it. I selected the Balcony cabin and advanced to the next step in the process. My $399 cruise was now going to cost me $518.51! Wait, what? There used to be two models of pricing for most travel arrangements. I call them Top Down or Bottom Up. The Top Down price shows you the total price you’ll pay for your ticket or room or whatever. The Bottom Up price starts from a very low price and then all of the options, add-ons, taxes and fees are added on later. Nowadays, it’s fairly difficult to find any travel vendor that strictly adheres to one model or the other. Airlines are mostly top down with taxes and fees in the advertised price. Hotels are more bottom up with taxes, resort fees and other surcharges added to the basic charge for the room. Cruises are very close to the Bottom Up model. For the advertised price you’ll get your cabin, food in some of the restaurants, some non-alcoholic beverages (but not soda or bottled water), admission to some shows, use of the pools and a few other things.
So what was the additional $119.51 in charges for? After a little research, I learned it was for taxes and port fees. Very similar to the way a hotel charges you. At this point I had moved from a teaser price of $279 to $518.51; a difference of $239.51 or 86%. Also of note is that I had a Balcony Stateroom – GTY. This meant that I was guaranteed a Balcony cabin with the possibility of an upgrade based on availability.
Choices – Lots Of Choices
My next step was to do the research and figure out which Free at Sea options I should select. Here’s what I came up with:
- Free Unlimited Bar – There aren’t a whole lot of beverages that are included in your base fare. You can get water, milk and a few juices and that’s about it. Bottles of water aren’t even included. Unless you are a special kind of teetotaling spartan, some kind of a drink package is a “must-have”. You can buy a package that includes Wine, Beer and Spirits, plus soft drinks and juices for $79 / day. That’s a lofty $560 over the course of a 7-day cruise. There’s also a $59 / day package that covers just Wine and Beer, but still $420. And, that’s before they tack on a mandatory 18% service charge. I checked when I was on the boat and alcoholic drinks were $8 – $11 each. There’s not discount if you order a double, so a good stiff spirits drink is going to cost you $22. Things could spiral out of control pretty easily – cost-wise and other-wise. No matter how you do the calculations, this is the way to go. I SELECTED THIS.
- Free Specialty Dining – My ship, the Norwegian Getaway, had nearly 20 different dining options with 15 being open for dinner. Only 4 or 5 of these are included in the basic cruise fare. This package is a good example of how frustrating cruise pricing can be. If I selected this option for one of my Free at Sea packages, I’d receive the 3 Meal Specialty Dining Package. Not as good of a deal as the Unlimited Bar, but still appears to be a decent deal, right? Well, not so fast there. This package is called “Free Specialty Dining”, so I’m expecting exactly that. Check out these terms and conditions:
- Specialty dining packages are honored in Cagney’s Steakhouse, Moderno Churrascaria, Teppanyaki and our French, Mexican and Italian restaurants across the fleet, as well as Margaritaville on board Norwegian Escape. Guests who have purchased the package may also choose to dine in other select à la carte priced restaurants, entertainment-based restaurants, Bayamo, Pincho Tapas Bar, and Ocean Blue restaurants, for the following per person upcharges:
- The Supper Club – $15 USD
- Ocean Blue – $15 USD
- Bayamo – $15 USD
- Cirque Dreams/Illusionarium – $10 USD regular seats/$15 USD premium seats/$35 USD VIP seating on Breakaway
- Sushi -$7 USD
- Raw Bar – $7 USD (does not include Seafood Plateau. If ordered, the upcharge is to be waived)
- Pincho Tapas Bar – $7 USD
- Specialty dining packages are honored in Cagney’s Steakhouse, Moderno Churrascaria, Teppanyaki and our French, Mexican and Italian restaurants across the fleet, as well as Margaritaville on board Norwegian Escape. Guests who have purchased the package may also choose to dine in other select à la carte priced restaurants, entertainment-based restaurants, Bayamo, Pincho Tapas Bar, and Ocean Blue restaurants, for the following per person upcharges:
- If you pay for one of these packages, it’s free – but only for half of the restaurants, otherwise an upcharge. Free? Since I was traveling alone and didn’t feel like I’d get that much true value, I DID NOT SELECT THIS.
- Free Pre-Paid Service Charges – Each guest is charged $13.50 – $15.50 per day as a service charge / tip for the staff. For my 7 day cruise that came out to $94.50. I DID NOT SELECT THIS.
- Free Wifi – Internet on a cruise ship is very consistent. It costs a fortune and it’s very slow. At least you know what you’re getting up front. This package is for 250 minutes of Internet via Wifi, normally costing $125 ($.50/minute). I knew I had to use the Internet on a regular basis so this was a must for me. I DID SELECT THIS. In hindsight, I later learned that I could also buy unlimited Internet for $30 / day. This would have been a better value for me because of my work requirements, but I only learned about it after the cruise was well underway. It also has to be purchased for the entire duration of the cruise and no later than the 2nd day. I still would have opted for it.
OK, No More Choices. Let’s Book It
After a couple of hours of research and calculator work, I was ready to plunk down my credit card, pay for the cruise and start making plans for all the other little details that would be involved. So I pushed the button to pay for the cruise and the NCL website came back to tell me, “YOU HAVE NO PENDING RESERVATIONS”.
Wait, what? I really don’t know what happened. My suspicion is that it timed out while I was figuring everything out. So I dove back in, selected the same ship, same dates, same cabin and went to book it. Right before I typed in my credit card information I remembered that it hadn’t asked me to select my 2 Free at Sea options. But, it wasn’t that simple. Not only did it not ask me, there was no way to select them at all.
Stopping right here is the travel blog equivalent of a cliffhanger, but it must be done. In Part 3, I’ll cover my lively and informative phone conversations with NCL’s customer service agents, the details and lessons learned, and how I finally booked and paid for my first cruise, ever.
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