So we booked a cruise to Bermuda on the Breakway last year for this October. Since then, we have discovered that NCL now charges a $7.95 fee for room service, added gratuities to our "free" drink package (never had another cruise line do that -- their drink packages included the tips), and now won't let you bring water onboard but want you to pay $58 for a 12-pack case.
Is this going to become the cruise industry norm -- or is this typical for NCL to nickle and dime people so much. We've sailed 16 cruises on five different lines and I've never seen so much expense before we even board (must pay for any specialty restaurants up front -- so we couldn't use our onboard credits for that either). And then a rep tells me on the phone that under no circumstances are we allowed to remove or change our prepaid gratuities as they are considered service charges! Since when don't we have a say as to how we pay our gratuities or how much or to remove them if we have a problem with our stateroom host or server, etc.? Sometimes we prefer to pay the individual servers and room steward in cash and the NCL rep says we can't do that anymore?!?
After this one, I think I'll stick to my promise that after our horrid experience on Pride of America in 2008, we really don't need to consider NCL ever again!