Free At Sea is no longer available on NCL; instead, there will be More At Sea (And Higher Gratuity Charges?)

NCL announced today that “Free At Sea” is now becoming “More At Sea.”

:bulb: I think that’s a smart move since “Free At Sea” was never truly free, considering the higher cost for the package and gratuities on things like the drink package. They’re also upgrading some of the offerings, including removing the $15 cap on the drink package, more Wi-Fi minutes, and additional specialty dining meals.

:mag: While researching for a write-up on my site, I noticed the gratuity charges are rising for the drink package.

:date: More At Sea takes effect in January 2025, and I priced a 7-day cruise for two in November 2024. The included drink package gratuity charges are $305.20 (20% of the $109 per day list price for two people).

:money_with_wings: The same route in early 2025 comes out to $420 in gratuities for the week. At a 20% gratuity rate, that means a $150 per day list price for the drink package—way higher than what’s currently shown on the website.

:crystal_ball: So, it seems either the drink package price is about to rise or the gratuity rate will increase.

:loudspeaker: I’d post a link to the article, but the Mods aren’t fans of that. Just a heads up for you NCL fans! :blush:

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Why are so many worried about how and what is broken down. One could easily sail an all inclusive brand, but you pay a much higher lump sum and have your expectations. In my opinion it appears like they are providing a more rounded out experience on how included you want your cruise to be.

You don’t have to take the drink package, you don’t have to have to have the specialty dining. So you don’t have to pay the associated cost. Providing a drink package that now is expanded vs a this or that seems like a better option of providing you choice. If you went with the premium plus option previously you’d have paid the higher gratuities for that as well.

I’m starting to think that “nickel and dime” in cruise speak means paying more in gratuities.

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The cost of the beverage package that includes more at sea is the package price; it is not a gratuity.

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It seems like a word was left out. “At Sea, Pay More.”

(Trivia: However, those exorbitant service fees weren’t initially part of Free at Sea. Quite some time ago.)

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@Jayden To obtain more, pay more. It functions well for me.

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All cruise lines currently get away with charging ever-higher fees. Their ships are already full and cannot take on more cargo quickly. So, budget-conscious folks have many miserable years ahead of them, unless cruises go out of style.

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NCL’s transition from being the industry leader in “nickle and diming” to “quarter and half-dollaring”

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More cash on the water!

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In my opinion, NCL is attempting to price out the group of people that hunt for deals.

Is NCL now a better deal than Royal after this modification? In my opinion, yes. However, this will not sit well with those who grumbled about having to pay gratuities on FAS.

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Additionally, dinging credits are being eliminated. They were really unclear. NCL’s stock is still low and its current ships have fallen short of expectations. The stock price is the main concern here.

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It’s true that there’s more at sea! I’m going to have to pay a lot more money now on my next voyage. I used to get the Premium Plus Beverage Package there, which came with bottled water, Starbucks drinks, and several nice wines that I liked. It has since been discontinued. In addition, I’m used to purchasing extra nights of the meal package at a discount—something that has also been stopped and will increase my onboard expenses. It’s a ruse to extract further money from clients who already shell out absurd sums of money to cruise with them.

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A standard passenger will always pay more and receive more.

Actually, this was a cut to FAS+. It’s likely that people who were enjoying $5 whiskey shots while seated at the bar became too expensive. I imagine the top shelf alcohol will also be removed from the more at sea endless bar. They already have a connaisseur class category where they may accomplish this.

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In 2019, I performed this on the Sky. The five-day schedule in the Bahamas was a full-blown alcohol-fueled extravaganza, with college and high school students getting downright wasted and blasting their Bluetooth speakers nonstop. Going the final weekend in February seemed like a good idea to bridge the gap between the high school and college vacations, but either we didn’t go or they didn’t mind that we missed time. Never once more.

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@Banice Wondering how college and high school students were being treated so poorly? They wouldn’t be of legal drinking age, excluding seniors in college.

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I remember several years ago, you would just book a Norwegian cruise, get on, and they would just serve drinks to everybody without showing a room card or anything. It was just included in the regular price for all bookings with out it costing more. I think the taxes and fees were always a little more than you see with other cruise lines, but that was probably the drink gratuity.

Sometimes I forget about the extra costs and get excited about how Norwegian used to be, but then start the booking process and can’t believe how much it costs. I guess there is probably still an option for nothing free at sea, but that was part of the fun with Norwegian. I’d only ever want the drinks anyway. I don’t care about wifi, excursions, specialty restaurants, airfare.

I am going on a 3-day MSC cruise in December and the total cost of the drink package over 3 days - including gratuities - is $117 for Easy or $135 for Easy Plus. Crazy that there can be such a difference in drink package prices across cruise lines.

@Candy The infinite nature of the MSC Plus Package is its selling point. Your glass will never be empty when you pick an open wine at dinner at the MDRS as long as they have your card registered. When I had had enough, I had to stop three servers in a row one night.

@Dacosta Norwegian did that on a few ships that I was aware of that were in the Caribbean all year long. Sky was one of those ships; I’m not sure if they did it on Spirit as well. However, those ships were removed from the Caribbean once travel to Cuba was prohibited, which put a stop to the “everyone gets free drinks” promotion. You had to pay for it, as those voyages were more expensive per night than comparable cruises on other ships, such as the Sun, where I was sailing at the time.

@Dorea In that period, I worked on the Sun and the Sky. Compared to other ships, the taxes and costs were perhaps $80-90 higher, but the base pricing for three- or four-night sailings was incredibly low ($139 plus taxes and fees).

I’m glad I had the chance to visit Cuba. It’s strange that I’m losing votes. Over a two-year period, I took two cruises, and both of them operated in the same way. It’s not a fabrication.

@Candy I didn’t downvote you, lol, I really believe you! Even though I didn’t take one of those cruises, I still recall them.

@Dacosta Haha, I know, I know. I appreciate you supporting me! :grin: