Restaurant Bookings, SDP and Platinum meals - A guide

A regular topic which raises questions on this forum is the booking of speciality restaurants, and whether payment is required at the time of booking, especially if you have a dining package or vouchers for meals due to latitudes status.

Rather than keep answering the question, I thought I would try to summarise the position in one post that can be linked to. I hope it helps.

Obviously, this relates to the position as of December 2016, and things can change. This is particularly likely to be the case with the Platinum meal as changes to the latitudes reward scheme are due in early 2017. The current situation is that platinum latitudes members get a meal for two in Le Bistro (or La Cucina, but no longer in Moderno) with a bottle of wine. This is per person, not per cabin, as is sometimes mistakenly stated.

Bookings for restaurants open up 90 days out (100 if in a suite). Whilst you can prebook MDR’s, I have never seen the reason to do so and this guide is specifically for the speciality restaurantts.

If you have no dining package then you are required to pay for the meal when booking. However, for those restaurants which are a la carte, the prepayment required is zero (they don’t know how much you will spend). That’s really all there is to it.

This means that you can now book your platinum latitudes meal before boarding. When there was a cover charge for these restaurants, you had to pay the cover charge when booking and then try to get it back onboard. What most of us ended up doing was not prebooking and then doing so as soon as boarding. This is no longer necessary.

A question which is often asked is how you make bookings for meals if you intend to eat with friends who are staying in other cabins. Some people have gone to the effort of linking bookings in order to be able to do this, but it is not necessary. When you make a booking you just state the number of people, but don’t have to say who they are. You can book for more people than you have in your room. You can make a booking for yourselves and your friends in a different cabin easily, although if it is somewhere with a cover charge then you will be charged for everyone in the booking.

If you have the dining package then the system will be aware that you do. Therefore, someone with a three meal SDP will not get charged when booking for the first three meals they book, even if there is a cover charge. Again, this is fairly straightforward.

One thing to note here is that the system assumes that if the person who is making the booking has a SDP credit for the meal then so does everyone they are booking for. So, if we take the example where you are booking for yourself and friends in another room, no payment will be required when booking, regardless of whether your friends have the package or not. For this reason, make sure that the booking is done by someone with the SDP if possible. Anyone without the package will be charged after the meal.

Things get a little more complicated when you book more meals than you have the SDP for. This could be because you decide to have 4 meals but only got the 3 meal promo for example. Perhaps the most common cause of this would be when you have platinum meal vouchers as well as the SDP.

In these situations, it is important to remember a couple of things.

Firstly, the system knows you have the dining package. However, it doesn’t know about any platinum vouchers you may be entitled to.

Secondly, whilst the system assumes the first meals you book will be covered by the SDP, this isn’t the case onboard, so you can use your SDP, platinum voucher or charge to your account as you wish. You tell the staff at the restaurant at the time.

Why is this important? Well, you need to book restaurants in the correct order to make sure that you don’t end up paying in advance for a meal which you shouldn’t be charged for.

For example, you have a three meal SDP but want to book four meals. The meals (in the order that you want to have them) are Cagneys, Le Bistro, La Cucina and Teppenyaki.

This may be because you plan to use a platinum voucher for either Le Bistro or La Cucina or that you only have a three meal plan and intend to pay for one of them. Even if you will be paying for the extra meal it is often helpful to avoid prepaying (for example if you have OBC to use for it).

If you go online and book those meals in the order you intend to eat them then the system will assume that the first three are covered by the SDP and won’t charge you for them. The fourth one you book (Teppenyaki) will be charged for as you have no credits left. You will have to get your credit card out.

However, if you book Teppenyaki first then the system will assume that you will be using a SDP credit for it and the fourth one you book (for example La Cucina) will be the one that is chargeable. The payment required in advance for that restaurant is zero, so your credit card stays in your pocket.

When you get onboard, you can allocate the SDP credits how you wish, so the fact that the system assumed that you would use a SDP credit in Teppenyaki doesn’t mean that you have to do so.

There are two simple ways to remember the order you need to book things: For those who have Platinum vouchers, just remember to book your platinum meals last. Alternatively (and this works for everyone), just book any restaurants with a fixed cover charge first.

There is an added complication on some of the smaller ships (for example, this happened to us on the Star recently). On some cruises, bookings never open up in advance for Teppenyaki. You have to make the decision whether to go ahead and book the others (with the risk that Teppenyaki will open up later and you will have to prepay when booking), or whether to wait and see if Teppenyaki does appear nearer the cruise date (the risk here being that the time slots you would like in the other restaurants have gone by this time). I went for the first option and was able to book Teppenyaki easily after boarding as it never appeared for online booking. This does only seem to happen on a few ships (Star and Spirit are the two I am aware of), but is a complication if it does so. If Teppenyaki isn’t showing up on 90 days. it doesn’t mean that it is fully booked already.

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion regarding these bookings. For the majority of people it is quite simple, but if you are booking more meals than you have SDP cover for then just be careful you don’t end up having to pay. You can get that money back (as OBC I believe), but you really have got better things to be doing when onboard than making sure that your refund arrives.

Wow - thank you very much for all the effort you have put in to making this "booking guide". I must admit, after more than 20 NCL cruises, even I found it useful (I actually didn't know that I could combine SDP bookings with Platinum dinner bookings online).

So again - THANK YOU!

Thank you so much. This is very comprehensive.

As an added note, I'd like to add my experience from earlier this week booking the illusinarium while having the 3 dinner sdp.

First, you must book your 3 dinners from the SDP. I made the mistake of booking the illusinarium first and was charged a discount rate if $17.70pp.

The problem is, they system only recognizes the first person on your booking as having dining reservations. So the 2nd passenger is charged the discount rate, thereby eating up one of the specialty dinners from the sdp.

I called and spoke to 3 different reps (this is NCL after all). In the end, the only solution is to book 3 reservations in the 2nd passengers name (keeping 3 in the 1st passenger as well) that can be cancelled once on the ship. Not before because then you would be refunded the difference from the upcharge on the sdp. Note, that the reservations need to be booked toward the end of your week because reservations have to be cancelled 24 hours in advance.

In the end, the whole situation is pretty frustrating. It requires juggling what you're keeping and what you're cancelling. It also takes reservations out of the available pool for other passengers. But, I would rather be aggravated before we board vs. being surprised on the ship.

So, long story short... if you have the sdp and want to book the illusionarium, check your second passenger to be sure they are charged correctly.

Keith is my absolute favorite ever.

A regular topic which raises questions on this forum is the booking of speciality restaurants, and whether payment is required at the time of booking, especially if you have a dining package or vouchers for meals due to latitudes status.

 

Rather than keep answering the question, I thought I would try to summarise the position in one post that can be linked to. I hope it helps.

 

Obviously, this relates to the position as of December 2016, and things can change. This is particularly likely to be the case with the Platinum meal as changes to the latitudes reward scheme are due in early 2017. The current situation is that platinum latitudes members get a meal for two in Le Bistro (or La Cucina, but no longer in Moderno) with a bottle of wine. This is per person, not per cabin, as is sometimes mistakenly stated.

 

Bookings for restaurants open up 90 days out (100 if in a suite). Whilst you can prebook MDR’s, I have never seen the reason to do so and this guide is specifically for the speciality restaurantts.

 

If you have no dining package then you are required to pay for the meal when booking. However, for those restaurants which are a la carte, the prepayment required is zero (they don’t know how much you will spend). That’s really all there is to it.

 

This means that you can now book your platinum latitudes meal before boarding. When there was a cover charge for these restaurants, you had to pay the cover charge when booking and then try to get it back onboard. What most of us ended up doing was not prebooking and then doing so as soon as boarding. This is no longer necessary.

 

A question which is often asked is how you make bookings for meals if you intend to eat with friends who are staying in other cabins. Some people have gone to the effort of linking bookings in order to be able to do this, but it is not necessary. When you make a booking you just state the number of people, but don’t have to say who they are. You can book for more people than you have in your room. You can make a booking for yourselves and your friends in a different cabin easily, although if it is somewhere with a cover charge then you will be charged for everyone in the booking.

 

If you have the dining package then the system will be aware that you do. Therefore, someone with a three meal SDP will not get charged when booking for the first three meals they book, even if there is a cover charge. Again, this is fairly straightforward.

 

One thing to note here is that the system assumes that if the person who is making the booking has a SDP credit for the meal then so does everyone they are booking for. So, if we take the example where you are booking for yourself and friends in another room, no payment will be required when booking, regardless of whether your friends have the package or not. For this reason, make sure that the booking is done by someone with the SDP if possible. Anyone without the package will be charged after the meal.

 

Things get a little more complicated when you book more meals than you have the SDP for. This could be because you decide to have 4 meals but only got the 3 meal promo for example. Perhaps the most common cause of this would be when you have platinum meal vouchers as well as the SDP.

 

In these situations, it is important to remember a couple of things.

 

Firstly, the system knows you have the dining package. However, it doesn’t know about any platinum vouchers you may be entitled to.

 

Secondly, whilst the system assumes the first meals you book will be covered by the SDP, this isn’t the case onboard, so you can use your SDP, platinum voucher or charge to your account as you wish. You tell the staff at the restaurant at the time.

 

Why is this important? Well, you need to book restaurants in the correct order to make sure that you don’t end up paying in advance for a meal which you shouldn’t be charged for.

 

For example, you have a three meal SDP but want to book four meals. The meals (in the order that you want to have them) are Cagneys, Le Bistro, La Cucina and Teppenyaki.

 

This may be because you plan to use a platinum voucher for either Le Bistro or La Cucina or that you only have a three meal plan and intend to pay for one of them. Even if you will be paying for the extra meal it is often helpful to avoid prepaying (for example if you have OBC to use for it).

 

If you go online and book those meals in the order you intend to eat them then the system will assume that the first three are covered by the SDP and won’t charge you for them. The fourth one you book (Teppenyaki) will be charged for as you have no credits left. You will have to get your credit card out.

 

However, if you book Teppenyaki first then the system will assume that you will be using a SDP credit for it and the fourth one you book (for example La Cucina) will be the one that is chargeable. The payment required in advance for that restaurant is zero, so your credit card stays in your pocket.

 

When you get onboard, you can allocate the SDP credits how you wish, so the fact that the system assumed that you would use a SDP credit in Teppenyaki doesn’t mean that you have to do so.

 

There are two simple ways to remember the order you need to book things: For those who have Platinum vouchers, just remember to book your platinum meals last. Alternatively (and this works for everyone), just book any restaurants with a fixed cover charge first.

 

There is an added complication on some of the smaller ships (for example, this happened to us on the Star recently). On some cruises, bookings never open up in advance for Teppenyaki. You have to make the decision whether to go ahead and book the others (with the risk that Teppenyaki will open up later and you will have to prepay when booking), or whether to wait and see if Teppenyaki does appear nearer the cruise date (the risk here being that the time slots you would like in the other restaurants have gone by this time). I went for the first option and was able to book Teppenyaki easily after boarding as it never appeared for online booking. This does only seem to happen on a few ships (Star and Spirit are the two I am aware of), but is a complication if it does so. If Teppenyaki isn’t showing up on 90 days. it doesn’t mean that it is fully booked already.

 

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion regarding these bookings. For the majority of people it is quite simple, but if you are booking more meals than you have SDP cover for then just be careful you don’t end up having to pay. You can get that money back (as OBC I believe), but you really have got better things to be doing when onboard than making sure that your refund arrives.

Perfection-thanks!

You put it all in which is amazing.

Thanks for posting this and doing such a great job.

Hopefully it will deter some folks from asking this so much I have seen a lot of it lately. I thought most of what they were asking was easy to figure out I guess not.

Thank you so much. This is very comprehensive.

 

As an added note, I'd like to add my experience from earlier this week booking the illusinarium while having the 3 dinner sdp.

 

First, you must book your 3 dinners from the SDP. I made the mistake of booking the illusinarium first and was charged a discount rate if $17.70pp.

 

The problem is, they system only recognizes the first person on your booking as having dining reservations. So the 2nd passenger is charged the discount rate, thereby eating up one of the specialty dinners from the sdp.

 

I called and spoke to 3 different reps (this is NCL after all). In the end, the only solution is to book 3 reservations in the 2nd passengers name (keeping 3 in the 1st passenger as well) that can be cancelled once on the ship. Not before because then you would be refunded the difference from the upcharge on the sdp. Note, that the reservations need to be booked toward the end of your week because reservations have to be cancelled 24 hours in advance.

 

In the end, the whole situation is pretty frustrating. It requires juggling what you're keeping and what you're cancelling. It also takes reservations out of the available pool for other passengers. But, I would rather be aggravated before we board vs. being surprised on the ship.

 

So, long story short... if you have the sdp and want to book the illusionarium, check your second passenger to be sure they are charged correctly.

i am thinking of doing the Cirque thing on the Breakaway (which is similar to the illusionarium?) . I have the SDP promo that i got from booking. What is the best way to book it so that the discounted price is charged correctly and charged to the SDP for both me and the second passenger?

Thank you. This is exactly the kind of information I am hoping to find when reading this board.

i just wish they never went alacarte on the specialties. too expensive now.

Thanks for the comments. I have been meaning to do this for months and have finally got round to it just as things are likely to change with latitudes. Oh well, it should all be correct for a month or two. :)

As has been spotted, it isn't complete as I forgot all about the entertainment dining.

I've only ever booked this once whilst having the SDP, which was Cirque on the Epic. This is different in a number of ways, as you have to state the people who you are booking for. I believe that the system checks if each person has SDP credits and if so only charges the lower amount.

Not everyone wants to use the SDP for these shows, as it is debatable whether it is worth it.

If you do want to use the SDP then I would book it first. That worked for me when I did it. However, if you don't want to book it then it is probably more complicated. If you book the others first then I assume the system will recognise you don't have any credits left, but what about the others in your group? It doesn't know they have any meals booked. From funredheads post above, it seems that this is a problem. Perhaps phoning to book the show is a way around this.

It seems to me that it is easy to do if you want to use the SDP, but harder if you don't want to.

Without wanting to get too precious about this thread, I really would rather it was kept to giving practical advice about making reservations, and could we keep discussions about the pros and cons of a la carte to some of the numerous other threads on that subject.

i just wish they never went alacarte on the specialties. too expensive now.

But if you buy SDP, even with the 18% added on, the average price per meal is about what the standard price use to be.

A regular topic which raises questions on this forum is the booking of speciality restaurants, and whether payment is required at the time of booking, especially if you have a dining package or vouchers for meals due to latitudes status.

 

Rather than keep answering the question, I thought I would try to summarise the position in one post that can be linked to. I hope it helps.

 

Obviously, this relates to the position as of December 2016, and things can change. This is particularly likely to be the case with the Platinum meal as changes to the latitudes reward scheme are due in early 2017. The current situation is that platinum latitudes members get a meal for two in Le Bistro (or La Cucina, but no longer in Moderno) with a bottle of wine. This is per person, not per cabin, as is sometimes mistakenly stated.

 

Bookings for restaurants open up 90 days out (100 if in a suite). Whilst you can prebook MDR’s, I have never seen the reason to do so and this guide is specifically for the speciality restaurantts.

 

If you have no dining package then you are required to pay for the meal when booking. However, for those restaurants which are a la carte, the prepayment required is zero (they don’t know how much you will spend). That’s really all there is to it.

 

This means that you can now book your platinum latitudes meal before boarding. When there was a cover charge for these restaurants, you had to pay the cover charge when booking and then try to get it back onboard. What most of us ended up doing was not prebooking and then doing so as soon as boarding. This is no longer necessary.

 

A question which is often asked is how you make bookings for meals if you intend to eat with friends who are staying in other cabins. Some people have gone to the effort of linking bookings in order to be able to do this, but it is not necessary. When you make a booking you just state the number of people, but don’t have to say who they are. You can book for more people than you have in your room. You can make a booking for yourselves and your friends in a different cabin easily, although if it is somewhere with a cover charge then you will be charged for everyone in the booking.

 

If you have the dining package then the system will be aware that you do. Therefore, someone with a three meal SDP will not get charged when booking for the first three meals they book, even if there is a cover charge. Again, this is fairly straightforward.

 

One thing to note here is that the system assumes that if the person who is making the booking has a SDP credit for the meal then so does everyone they are booking for. So, if we take the example where you are booking for yourself and friends in another room, no payment will be required when booking, regardless of whether your friends have the package or not. For this reason, make sure that the booking is done by someone with the SDP if possible. Anyone without the package will be charged after the meal.

 

Things get a little more complicated when you book more meals than you have the SDP for. This could be because you decide to have 4 meals but only got the 3 meal promo for example. Perhaps the most common cause of this would be when you have platinum meal vouchers as well as the SDP.

 

In these situations, it is important to remember a couple of things.

 

Firstly, the system knows you have the dining package. However, it doesn’t know about any platinum vouchers you may be entitled to.

 

Secondly, whilst the system assumes the first meals you book will be covered by the SDP, this isn’t the case onboard, so you can use your SDP, platinum voucher or charge to your account as you wish. You tell the staff at the restaurant at the time.

 

Why is this important? Well, you need to book restaurants in the correct order to make sure that you don’t end up paying in advance for a meal which you shouldn’t be charged for.

 

For example, you have a three meal SDP but want to book four meals. The meals (in the order that you want to have them) are Cagneys, Le Bistro, La Cucina and Teppenyaki.

 

This may be because you plan to use a platinum voucher for either Le Bistro or La Cucina or that you only have a three meal plan and intend to pay for one of them. Even if you will be paying for the extra meal it is often helpful to avoid prepaying (for example if you have OBC to use for it).

 

If you go online and book those meals in the order you intend to eat them then the system will assume that the first three are covered by the SDP and won’t charge you for them. The fourth one you book (Teppenyaki) will be charged for as you have no credits left. You will have to get your credit card out.

 

However, if you book Teppenyaki first then the system will assume that you will be using a SDP credit for it and the fourth one you book (for example La Cucina) will be the one that is chargeable. The payment required in advance for that restaurant is zero, so your credit card stays in your pocket.

 

When you get onboard, you can allocate the SDP credits how you wish, so the fact that the system assumed that you would use a SDP credit in Teppenyaki doesn’t mean that you have to do so.

 

There are two simple ways to remember the order you need to book things: For those who have Platinum vouchers, just remember to book your platinum meals last. Alternatively (and this works for everyone), just book any restaurants with a fixed cover charge first.

 

There is an added complication on some of the smaller ships (for example, this happened to us on the Star recently). On some cruises, bookings never open up in advance for Teppenyaki. You have to make the decision whether to go ahead and book the others (with the risk that Teppenyaki will open up later and you will have to prepay when booking), or whether to wait and see if Teppenyaki does appear nearer the cruise date (the risk here being that the time slots you would like in the other restaurants have gone by this time). I went for the first option and was able to book Teppenyaki easily after boarding as it never appeared for online booking. This does only seem to happen on a few ships (Star and Spirit are the two I am aware of), but is a complication if it does so. If Teppenyaki isn’t showing up on 90 days. it doesn’t mean that it is fully booked already.

 

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion regarding these bookings. For the majority of people it is quite simple, but if you are booking more meals than you have SDP cover for then just be careful you don’t end up having to pay. You can get that money back (as OBC I believe), but you really have got better things to be doing when onboard than making sure that your refund arrives.

Thank you so much! This was the best explanation of how to book SDP --

Very helpful. Thank you!

Excellent write up and discussion. one more question. The five of us have the SDP and while making reservation, Teppenyaki only showed even numbers so I had to reserve for 6. Does that mean i will be charged to the 6th or can I just update the reservation when I am on board? Thanks

Excellent write up and discussion. one more question. The five of us have the SDP and while making reservation, Teppenyaki only showed even numbers so I had to reserve for 6. Does that mean i will be charged to the 6th or can I just update the reservation when I am on board? Thanks

Just change it onboard.

We do it every cruise as there are three of us and availability for 3 is usually limited.

I would be amazed if you got charged for the extra person even if you didn't change it, but you never know. I go to the reservation desk on the first day to do that and also ask them to print out slips with all the reservations on them, just to check they are all correct.

Just change it onboard.

 

We do it every cruise as there are three of us and availability for 3 is usually limited.

 

I would be amazed if you got charged for the extra person even if you didn't change it, but you never know. I go to the reservation desk on the first day to do that and also ask them to print out slips with all the reservations on them, just to check they are all correct.

Appreciate the quick reply. I will visit the reservation desk and get it changed. The extra space might be all is needed by someone else to make their reservation and I don't intend to hold it.

Just a quick update to this thread to reflect the changes to the Latitudes program effective from 3rd February.

As has been discussed elsewhere, the changes with regard to the meals you get as a platinum or higher member are that you now get one meal (with wine) in Cagneys or Le Bistro and another meal (without wine) in Moderno or La Cucina.

These meals are per stateroom, rather than per person. So, for a couple who are both platinum the only difference is in the restaurants you can go to (although Le Bistro and La Cucina is still a possible complication). Where there are more than two platinum members in one room it appears you will now lose out, and solos should do better. The FAQ's state that it isn't possible for solos to split their meals to give them more, but the change actually takes away the need to do so.

One question we don't know the answer to yet is what happens on the Spirit, where there is no Moderno. My assumption is that the second meal will be at La Trattoria (the Italian on the Spirit) with no alternative, but this needs confirming. I'm onboard in April so will be able to confirm if it hasn't been already.

Anyway, on to how this effects reservations.

The biggest impact is due to Moderno not being a la carte. This means that if you don't have a dining package and want to use Moderno as one of your platinum latitudes meals then you will have to decide between pre booking it (and having to pay when booking) or to wait until you get onboard.

I have never had any experience of trying to get a refund for a meal in these circumstances, and I have no wish to have to try it out. I would therefore strongly suggest you wait until onboard. In my experience recently, Moderno is not as busy as many other specialities and the screens showing availability generally indicate that it is relatively easy to get bookings.

If you do wait until onboard and have specific times in mind then I'd book it as early as possible.

If you have a dining package then make sure that you book Moderno as one of the first ones you do. That way, the system will assume you are using your package for it and not charge you. As explained above, when you arrive for the meal you let them know how you will be paying for it.

Finally, if you are planning on eating in a few different places then it's worth giving some consideration as to which restaurants to use which plan for, as each has different restrictions. For example, I enjoy the Escargot and the soup in Le Bistro. As the platinum meal is limited to one starter, whilst the dining package isn't, it makes sense to use the dining package there, and the platinum meal at Cagneys.

However, you are limited to $25 per entree with the platinum meal (I believe you pay the extra) and there are some entrees in Cagneys which cost more than that. If you will be ordering those then it's probably best to use the dining package.

Luckily, you don't have to decide which meal to use as your platinum ones until when you actually go, so you can wait until onboard and look at the menus. I believe that you do have to let them know when you arrive at the restaurant though, so you may not be able to change your mind if you decide you want an expensive entree once you have sat down.

Just a quick update to this thread to reflect the changes to the Latitudes program effective from 3rd February.

 

As has been discussed elsewhere, the changes with regard to the meals you get as a platinum or higher member are that you now get one meal (with wine) in Cagneys or Le Bistro and another meal (without wine) in Moderno or La Cucina.

 

These meals are per stateroom, rather than per person. So, for a couple who are both platinum the only difference is in the restaurants you can go to (although Le Bistro and La Cucina is still a possible complication). Where there are more than two platinum members in one room it appears you will now lose out, and solos should do better. The FAQ's state that it isn't possible for solos to split their meals to give them more, but the change actually takes away the need to do so.

 

One question we don't know the answer to yet is what happens on the Spirit, where there is no Moderno. My assumption is that the second meal will be at La Trattoria (the Italian on the Spirit) with no alternative, but this needs confirming. I'm onboard in April so will be able to confirm if it hasn't been already.

 

Anyway, on to how this effects reservations.

 

The biggest impact is due to Moderno not being a la carte. This means that if you don't have a dining package and want to use Moderno as one of your platinum latitudes meals then you will have to decide between pre booking it (and having to pay when booking) or to wait until you get onboard.

 

I have never had any experience of trying to get a refund for a meal in these circumstances, and I have no wish to have to try it out. I would therefore strongly suggest you wait until onboard. In my experience recently, Moderno is not as busy as many other specialities and the screens showing availability generally indicate that it is relatively easy to get bookings.

 

If you do wait until onboard and have specific times in mind then I'd book it as early as possible.

 

If you have a dining package then make sure that you book Moderno as one of the first ones you do. That way, the system will assume you are using your package for it and not charge you. As explained above, when you arrive for the meal you let them know how you will be paying for it.

 

Finally, if you are planning on eating in a few different places then it's worth giving some consideration as to which restaurants to use which plan for, as each has different restrictions. For example, I enjoy the Escargot and the soup in Le Bistro. As the platinum meal is limited to one starter, whilst the dining package isn't, it makes sense to use the dining package there, and the platinum meal at Cagneys.

 

However, you are limited to $25 per entree with the platinum meal (I believe you pay the extra) and there are some entrees in Cagneys which cost more than that. If you will be ordering those then it's probably best to use the dining package.

 

Luckily, you don't have to decide which meal to use as your platinum ones until when you actually go, so you can wait until onboard and look at the menus. I believe that you do have to let them know when you arrive at the restaurant though, so you may not be able to change your mind if you decide you want an expensive entree once you have sat down.

Great info-thank you!

Just a quick update to this thread to reflect the changes to the Latitudes program effective from 3rd February.

 

As has been discussed elsewhere, the changes with regard to the meals you get as a platinum or higher member are that you now get one meal (with wine) in Cagneys or Le Bistro and another meal (without wine) in Moderno or La Cucina.

 

These meals are per stateroom, rather than per person. So, for a couple who are both platinum the only difference is in the restaurants you can go to (although Le Bistro and La Cucina is still a possible complication). Where there are more than two platinum members in one room it appears you will now lose out, and solos should do better. The FAQ's state that it isn't possible for solos to split their meals to give them more, but the change actually takes away the need to do so.

 

One question we don't know the answer to yet is what happens on the Spirit, where there is no Moderno. My assumption is that the second meal will be at La Trattoria (the Italian on the Spirit) with no alternative, but this needs confirming. I'm onboard in April so will be able to confirm if it hasn't been already.

 

Anyway, on to how this effects reservations.

 

The biggest impact is due to Moderno not being a la carte. This means that if you don't have a dining package and want to use Moderno as one of your platinum latitudes meals then you will have to decide between pre booking it (and having to pay when booking) or to wait until you get onboard.

 

I have never had any experience of trying to get a refund for a meal in these circumstances, and I have no wish to have to try it out. I would therefore strongly suggest you wait until onboard. In my experience recently, Moderno is not as busy as many other specialities and the screens showing availability generally indicate that it is relatively easy to get bookings.

 

If you do wait until onboard and have specific times in mind then I'd book it as early as possible.

 

If you have a dining package then make sure that you book Moderno as one of the first ones you do. That way, the system will assume you are using your package for it and not charge you. As explained above, when you arrive for the meal you let them know how you will be paying for it.

 

Finally, if you are planning on eating in a few different places then it's worth giving some consideration as to which restaurants to use which plan for, as each has different restrictions. For example, I enjoy the Escargot and the soup in Le Bistro. As the platinum meal is limited to one starter, whilst the dining package isn't, it makes sense to use the dining package there, and the platinum meal at Cagneys.

 

However, you are limited to $25 per entree with the platinum meal (I believe you pay the extra) and there are some entrees in Cagneys which cost more than that. If you will be ordering those then it's probably best to use the dining package.

 

Luckily, you don't have to decide which meal to use as your platinum ones until when you actually go, so you can wait until onboard and look at the menus. I believe that you do have to let them know when you arrive at the restaurant though, so you may not be able to change your mind if you decide you want an expensive entree once you have sat down.

May I ask where you'e getting this info? The reservation people don't seem to know what's going on.

May I ask where you'e getting this info? The reservation people don't seem to know what's going on.

From experience. The changes to the latitudes scheme are really just logic after looking at the T&Cs and FAQs.

Of course things may change at any time, but I believe this is accurate based on previous experience and reports from this forum.

Unfortunately, from what I can tell, personal experience doesn't seem to be something that many of the US based staff have much of.

From experience. The changes to the latitudes scheme are really just logic after looking at the T&Cs and FAQs.

 

Of course things may change at any time, but I believe this is accurate based on previous experience and reports from this forum.

 

Unfortunately, from what I can tell, personal experience doesn't seem to be something that many of the US based staff have much of.

I'll let you know for sure in 2 weeks. Feb 12 on Dawn.

How does the gratuity charge work with the SDP? We paid a fee when we booked the cruise and received the complimentary SDP. Does that fee cover the gratuity?

I'll let you know for sure in 2 weeks. Feb 12 on Dawn.

Is there anything in particular that you think may be incorrect? I honestly can't think of anything I wrote today that there would be any particular debate about, other than the situation regarding the lack of Moderno on the Spirit.

How does the gratuity charge work with the SDP? We paid a fee when we booked the cruise and received the complimentary SDP. Does that fee cover the gratuity?

Yes, what you paid covers the 18% gratuity on the value of the package. You don't pay anything extra unless you want to.