Get the latest cruise deals and exclusive savings from our trusted travel partner, MEI-Travel: https://mei-travel.com/?apid=escy
Norwegian Cruise Line is making big changes to cruising in 2025, and we cover them all in our latest video. That way, you will be one step ahead of everyone else on board your next @norwegiancruiseline ship, and your next cruise will be smooth sailing.
💬 Comment below: What do you think of the cruise changes coming to Norwegian Cruise Line in 2025?
🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe for more travel hacks, cruise reviews, and insider tips. https://www.youtube.com/c/EatSleepCruise1
CHANGES TO CRUISING IN 2025 WITH NCL
0:00 Changes to Cruising With NCL in 2025
0:46 Changes to Drink Packages
3:00 No More Specialty Dining Packages
4:15 Pricing Changes at Specialty Restaurants
5:45 What is Included at Specialty Dining Restaurants
7:14 No More Free at Sea
10:15 Launching of Norwegian Aqua with New-to-Fleet Features
CRUISE CHANGES IN 2025
Get ready, cruise enthusiasts! Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) is making waves with some major updates in 2025. 🌊 From new onboard perks to exciting additions to the fleet, these changes to NCL in 2025 will redefine your cruising experience. Here’s a full breakdown of what to expect:
🌟 More at Sea – A New Era for Perks
Say goodbye to the familiar Free at Sea program and hello to More at Sea, launching for sailings starting January 1, 2025. This new package retains perks like unlimited open bar, specialty dining, WiFi, and shore excursion credits, while introducing improved options such as premium spirits with no price cap and WiFi for all stateroom guests. However, the perks now come with fixed fees, so budgeting for your cruise might look a little different!
🍹 Changes to Drink Packages
Big updates are coming to NCL’s drink offerings. While the Premium Beverage Package now includes 45% more premium brands and eliminates the $15 drink limit, some favorites like bottled water and specialty coffee remain excluded. Plus, NCL is eliminating its Premium Plus upgrade option, meaning guests will need to purchase separate plans for additional amenities. These changes to NCL in 2025 could impact how you plan your onboard indulgences!
🍽️ Specialty Dining Overhaul
Specialty dining on NCL is undergoing a significant shift. Dining packages are being discontinued, replaced with a fixed cover charge for specialty restaurants. While this simplifies pricing, casual diners may find it less flexible. The new structure includes three meals for balcony staterooms on 7-night sailings—an improvement—but additional specialty dining will now require an à la carte payment. This is one of the most impactful changes to NCL in 2025, particularly for foodies.
🚢 Introducing Norwegian Aqua
The highly anticipated Norwegian Aqua is set to debut in April 2025 as the first in the Prima Plus class. Packed with innovations, this ship will feature the world’s first Aqua Slidecoaster, expanded recreational areas like a two-level mini-golf course and pickleball court, and a new Thai specialty restaurant, Sukhothai. These exciting additions promise to make Norwegian Aqua a standout in the NCL fleet and highlight how NCL continues to evolve with the times.
💡 Whether you’re a seasoned cruiser or planning your first voyage, these changes to NCL in 2025 are essential to know. From pricing adjustments to brand-new ship features, understanding these updates will help you get the most out of your Norwegian Cruise Line experience.
LEARN MORE ABOUT NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE CHANGES IN 2025
https://eatsleepcruise.com/norwegian-cruise-line-changes-2025/
—TRENDING VIDEOS FROM EAT SLEEP CRUISE——
We Tackle the 13 Most Controversial Cruise Questions: https://youtu.be/Q3DkUAzVExQ
The Best New Cruise Ships Coming in 2025: https://youtu.be/E4HDzQJZbaw
The Cruise Rip-offs Cruisers Never Pay For On a Cruise: https://youtu.be/cjbKOLTVStQ
31 Cruise Embarkation Day Mistakes: https://youtu.be/6MHk9_3YbmM
Join us on Social Media as we “Sea the World, One Port at a Time.”
Instagram: https://instagram.com/EatSleepCruise Facebook: https://facebook.com/EatSleepCruise
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EatSleepCruise
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eatsleepcruise
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/EatSleepCruise Royalty-Free Music Courtesy: https://www.epidemicsound.com
source
Carnival dosen't include water anymore either. And they now stopped all personal bluetooth speakers also. 😤😡😠
So we will be spending more money with this new "more at sea",? I really don't need top shelf liquor, for now thing, and an extra specialty restaurant is not important to me either. And the gratuities will come out to more. I booked a May 2025 Alaskan cruise in July, and I understand that I will automatically get the more at sea, but not have to pay the extra fee and gratuities. Is that correct? Thank you for explaining this better than a previous video I watched.
Cruise lines are slowly killing their businesses. All of the downsides being implemented are the ones that brought them cruisers because they made cruisers feel special and pampered at a fair price.
It's nice to see a cruise video with original content – not mentioning the latest onboard fights. I'll mention that Norwegian Cruise Line stock is up 63% the past 12 months and it's good to see another strong competitor to Carnival, RCL, MSC etc., in the U.S., which is good for all cruisers.
It should be called "Pay More at Sea" 😂
So we booked I'm April for July 2025. So no specialty dining with our " old free at sea"?
I'm so confused as to why 3 starters and 3 desserts are OK. Unless the starters are going to be smaller or less expensive to make?
Wonderful cruise ships
More reasons to prefer other cruise lines – just about any other cruise line. Check out JJ Cruises post today about dealing with NCL as a travel agent.
I'm Sapphire and getting tired of NCL. Less fun, less entertainment, more expensive.
I'm getting tired of the whole cruise hassle.
Time to get rid of some of the old ships. Tired and lacking.
Did you hear about the debacle on Encore on the cruise before drydock. Since people arrived by 9:30 (or earlier) for set embarkation times and it was closer to 3pm or 3:30pm when embarkation actually started, there had to be at least 2-3 thousand people in and around the terminal (around the terminal since as the hours passed, the terminal was packed to the gills, and I imagine that some people were not allowed inside), people with disabilities standing since all benches were occupied; the big hallway had people sitting on benches, as well as on the floor behind benches and around posts and many, many, many more people standing as there was nowhere to go and nothing else possible. When finally someone said that embarkation would finally start, and asked those disabled, using aids, crutches or wheelchairs come to the entrance ways, the question was HOW??? The crowd was almost cheek to jowl; there was some cautious movement, followed by jostling, and also pushing and shoving. One high level passenger I spoke to actually called the NCL offices from inside the terminal to ask if Management knew what was happening in their terminal, and that she DID NOT FEEL SAFE in the NCL terminal, and NO ONE should experience such a start to a cruise, where a fight developed right in front of her. There were also issues with drinking water made available if you could get to it, plus the minimal number of washrooms, since the terminal is meant to deal with passengers moving constantly through it, rather than the thousands stuck inside, resulting in flooding, cleaning, and possibly more. BUT I felt the most for the lower level Encore staff dealing with the water, washrooms, etc, who had to face the growing anger of frustrated passengers, without any support from higher levels of management in terms of them if not explaining the situation to passengers, at least acknowledging that there was a problem, or guiding staff on what to say if asked. Unfortunately this continued once we were on board, since many felt the need to express their frustration at someone… in the bars, the restaurants, the customer service desks and long lines everywhere. IMHO What would have lessened the frustration would have been an acknowledgement by management that we were "inconvenienced", NCL was not responsible for the delay but was doing all it could to help to resolve the issues at hand. There would not have been the same resentment build up, the booing that rose to a seriously ominous level in the terminal, followed by the pushing and shoving that in at least one place resulted in fists flying and police being called. Instead we got a regularly repeated cheery message welcoming us to the wonderful port of Miami, and that they were still involved in the disembarking of the last cruise, which delayed embarkation. It was SO cheerful, it became more than annoying and I would say was one of the last straws for many passengers – maybe costing them in future business as well.
It’s one thing to change a promotion. To do so and enforce the new terms on people paid full within the cancellation penalty is scummy. Between that and bait and switching itineraries like crazy, again without ability to cancel within 120 days we will be canceling our 2026 bookings and looking elsewhere for our family vacations.
It’s seems like we need to take an NCL course to understand “more at sea”
Do you have to pay for O' Sheehan's foods now or is that still free? I was on The Escape, my first cruise.
Every time I watch a video about NCL, I get pissed at the idea they seem to nickel and dime vacationers. I’ll stick to Celebrity and Virgin!
With the cancellations and itinerary changes, I won't take a chance on NCL.
Muchas gracias, seguro que me serán muy útiles!! 👍🏻
So called guests purchasing this drinks package are actually paying slightly over $150 per person per day to drink to oblivion. A bottle of good or even premium scotch, tequila, vodka, craft bourbon is only around $65. $150 a day for just for beer divided by the normal $8-10 per item range is 15-18 beers per day. Who can and does drink this much? But it's all inclusive. You're getting a great deal. You're getting ripped off and too much an alkie to know it because you also have to pay the gratuities too. AND the Havenites don't get free booze and have to pay for the package or their individual drinks on top of their fare.
I would agree-bad PR relations!
these NCL non-child friendly ships are doing too much!
Sailed on Viva last x-mas , Stayed in the Haven…after experincing Star class on RC & YC on MSC, I will not be going back to NCL unless they make some major changes. Those mentioned in your video are definitely not enticing,I mean taking away the Starbucks from the Premium +,C'mon! NCL "Nickel & Dime at Sea"…Booked a RL on RC OC this New Year's, good call NCL, your fee structure cost you at least an Owner's Deluxe Haven suite.BTW…I do appreciate your content!
We're switching to Explora Journeys. I'm tired of getting nickel and dimed.
I sailed on the Sun this past August on a 10 night cruise to Alaska and it was a disaster from the leaky to non working plumbing and them not being clear on luggage transfer post cruise. The crew was amazing but the ship was showing its age. I had high hopes for the company but it turns out I was right about their outrageous over pricing and upselling on silly things. One huge lesson I learned is DON’T BUY ANY ARTWORK FROM PARKWEST. They are nothing but a pyramid scheme and have no respect to the preservation of art and the respect to the artists themselves who worked night and day on their pieces to only get them forged and sold to art galleries like ParkWest. I really wanted to sail on Pearl ever since seeing her over ten years ago when NCL had her doing Alaska cruises. It’s such a shame that they lack the respect for the passengers and spam them with letters selling things that they possibly don’t have any money for said item being offered to them.
I've always sailed exclusively with ncl. With these changes and the lowered cruise experience, I'll be seeking another cruise line for the best deals from here forward.
The nickel and diming is rediculous. I like the smaller shops and they are really aging, and they look bad with the maintenance lacking.
Not everyone's problem, but a a smoker they treat me and others bad. On the last Alaskan cruse this past September the only option was it on the pool deck with very minimal weather protection. They couldn't even offer self serve coffee service like they had on other ships.
The salsa Mexican restaurant served raw fish to one of my guests on their entree.
The paid games are pathetic, overly priced, take to long and get very little entertainment for the money they extort to pay them.
And what really irks me is the NCL CEO is paid more than every other cruise line company CEO, and they are charging more in gratuities and fees.
I'm not going to cruise on a mega ship. The lines, reservations and crowded embarcation/disembarcation is not for me. I'm not disabled, but my sciatic nerve can't handle standing or waling for extended periods of time.
When is this taking place?
I have just about given up on cruising it used to be fun and cheaper when all of the food was included, and drinks were cheaper, and it did not cost an arm and leg to go on a cruise. done with cruising.
We get extra specialty dining because we are platinum. We have never paid for specialty dining ever and usually get 4-5 a cruise.
Can we still eat at all the specialty restaurants or is it limited?