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NCL All-Inclusive Package – Survey Results
We asked for your opinion about Norwegian Cruise Line’s special package that costs $899 per person and provides you with a number of benefits (see below) but does not include the cost of the cruise (although it does include a 10% discount). The staff of Just Cruises Plus agreed with the 78% of the respondents who said that they would not purchase the package. If you buy a suite, drink like a fish and eat in the extra cost restaurants every night, you would make out on this deal.
We asked NCL to place a value on each of the items included in the package based on a 7 night cruise in a balcony stateroom on the Norwegian Breakaway and here’s what we found.
| Included in Package | Cost | Comments |
| Extra Cost Restaurants | $175 | Assumed 7 nights at at $25 a night |
| Shore Excursion Credit | $200 | They are what they are |
| Gratuities | $84 | $12 per person per day |
| Alcohol Beverage Package | $434 | Approx. $62 per day if pre paid |
| 10% off | $150 | Estimate, based on a $1500 cruise |
| 250 Minutes of Internet | $100 | Actual cost if bought separately |
| 6 bottles of water | $20 | Estimate |
| 20 photos | $199 | If you got 20 of the largest size photo |
| Chocolate Covered Strawberries | $12 | |
| 3 bingo cards | Value not known | |
| $1,374 |
NCL believes that they are giving $1374 worth of benefits for $899 or 1/3 off of the price if you paid for each item separately. Here’s the rub. We (and you) would not purchase many of the items. If we did not purchase the package we would have to pay for gratuities ($84) and we would not get the 10% discount off the price of the cruise ($150). We would probably purchase 2 shore excursions ($180) and we would dine at a specialty restaurant on two nights ($50). We would not buy 20 photos, internet minutes, chocolate covered strawberries or water. Therefore, if we are non drinkers, we would be paying $899 for only $464 worth of benefits, a total rip off. However, the wild card is the alcohol package. If you have more than 7 alcoholic beverages per day, the drink package pays. So if you meet this criteria, you would receive another $434 in benefits for a total of $$898, almost the exact cost of the package. Everything else on the list would be “free” so it would pay to buy the package.
In summary, if you are a non drinker or light drinker, you would not even give a second look at the package. If you enjoy a substantial number of alcoholic beverages each day, the package may be worth the money.
We think that NCL should offer two packages, the current one would be for the “drinkers”. A second one would be for non or light drinkers and would include everything on the list except alcohol. They could charge $459 for that package and they would get a lot of “takers”.
Earlier, we mentioned that 78% of you would not consider the package. The other 22% were quite tepid in their acceptance of the package. A typical response in this group was “It might be a good deal depending on the ship, itinerary and cost of the cruise”.
We appreciate all of your responses. Linda Rotter, of Langhorne, PA, is the winner of the$25 Visa gift card. She was picked at random from the 37 of you who responded.