vinnytman

I don't think the UDP is available for purchase any longer. It is now the SDP and limits you to one specialty restaurant per night purchased.

What's SDP?

I wS just on NCLs site Reading about the ultimate dining package. Nothing about limits per night.

Last December we were in the Garden Villa and we ordered steak from Cagney's and lobster tail from Le bistro on the nights we dined in our room. No extra charges. No limits.

She can vape and smoke on her private garden villa garden balcony

When we inquired about the GV on the Jade, the NCL rep said it was only permitted in the garden area (with the hot tub) and the upper sun deck. No smoking off the 2 individual bedroom balconies.

Hi all!

 

I'm another one who loves the tomato soup. On embarkation day on Dawn in Nov. I had 2 bowls of it & strawberry pound cake for lunch. Yummy! I tried the wings but found them too spicy for me even tho' they said mild.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

We went on our first NCL cruise last December (on our 2nd this Dec).... I told everyone I sailed with that we had to try the wings, because everyone raves about them in CC.

Unfortunately when we tried them they were nothing more than chicken covered in ketchup. We all took one bite and winced. They were really gross. Not even spicy. Just pure ketchup.

I'm hoping we got a bad batch and the wings aren't supposed to be served like that.

C'mon. We all know the GV isn't "one cabin". And it certainly is not your typical suite. And we pretty much know the service is a notch above for the GVs. As it should be.

There were 5 of us in the GV. There's 3 bedrooms, huge living room, dining room, and 2 floors of outdoor space.

But we were planning on tipping the butler $350. We tipped $800 because we had a few dinners in our room consisting of steak from cagneys and lobster from le bistro -- on the same nights. We all had the UDP so no extra charges[emoji1]

Never one complaint from our butler. It was some running around. But we always made sure to tell him early afternoon what our dinner plans were so he'd be prepared.

One day our espresso machine broke and I called him. I told him to check on it when he had time. Literally a few minutes later he was in our room with a new espresso machine.

It was exceptional service. But we having nothing to judge the experience against since it was our first NCL cruise, and we've never had a butler in our lives.

There were 5 of us in a GV last year (and again this year too). Since it was our first time in a suite on a cruise we were going to follow the $10 pp/pd for butler, $5 pp/pd for concierge, and nothing extra for room steward (since they're part of DSC) -- that was our plan.

At the end, our views change. We didn't expect the level of service that was given. It was amazing. But we didn't use the concierge except for when he showed up one morning unannounced when we got into port, had and elevator locked off for us, and had a tender waiting for us before anyone else was able to get off the ship! It was crazy!

We had an early flight when we returned, he made sure we were first off the ship and escorted us past a sea of hundreds of people and through customs.

Our butler was amazing. Didn't think we'd use him much, but he just showed up at least 5 times a day to make sure things were to out liking.

We all had the UDP and never made a single dinner reservation. We always just walked up to a restaurant and they seated us. So no need to use the concierge for that. We never had the concierge escort us to shows-- seems ridiculous you can't just walk to the theater by yourself.

My point is, you may use their services more or less than you think once your on your cruise.

But we ended up tipping the butler $800; concierge $200; room steward $200 since he was in our GV a few times a day making sure that very thing was nice and neat.

But by all means tip what YOU are comfortable with, the services rendered, and what's within you budget. Everyone tips differently.

3 for Owners Suite and 6 for GV. And two bottles of Champagne, I believe.

They will also keep bottled water and soda stocked

 

Harriet

We were just in the GV on the star. 6 bottles but ZERO champagne. I heard about champagne too in the GV but didn't bother to ask why it wasn't there -- I forgot about it once I was there.

I never have high expectations on buffet food whether it be on a ship or a catering place on land.

 

 

 

IMHO, Restaurants are different and the expectations are and should be much higher in their respective venues.

 

 

 

I use the buffet on cruises to supplement the restaurants, to grab a quick snack or meal if needed. For instance, I love the soft ice cream in the buffet and in the morning, the omlet and oatmeal station provides a better breakfast many times than the restaurant.

 

On the NCL ships that have "the Great Outdoors" there is not a nicer place in the morning to enjoy breakfast in the morning. :)

 

 

 

That being said, opinions are what these boards are about and the more opinions we have, the better we will be able to make decisions on what we do and where we eat once onboard. :)

 

 

 

Don

+1

Buffets on land or sea are average at best. They have to feed the masses.

I got off on 12/14 as well, and we'd go to the buffet for crepes of something small.

Maybe my expectations were very low before the cruise so I was pleasantly surprised with food quality in Cagney's, Le Bistro and La Cuicina.

We never ate in main dining rooms so I can't comment on those.

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Thank you very much! Is paradis kind of like a cirque show? Sounds like it because of the no story line thing.

No really like a cirque show. It's like a bunch of Broadway numbers -- there's a couple cirque things but not nearly as cool.

Where we all lost it laughing in more shock than anything else, was when a guy pops out of a large box with two women and they're all wearing lederhosen singing something about how being with 2 women was better than 1 (ie threesome). That's when we knew there was story coming. It was so ridiculous but well done.

That's why I say the show is good but bizarre. Lol!

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I thought the most bizarre show was Paradis. It was good, but I was expecting a storyline going in, and realized there really wasn't one by the third act in.

Again, it was good and bizarre at the same time. But if they would've cut a few numbers it would've moved along quicker.

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I agree but making us suffer the rude comments from non-vips is uncomfortable. I have no problem jumping the line with my suite perk but most of the time the concierge has a discreet system in place so others don't even know we jumped the line.

I don't feel bad about it, but you're 100% right -- there should be a more discreet way in place so you don't have to fight through a sea of angry passengers.

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Does the GV have a sauna or steam room? Does it have an outdoor shower?

In the picture of the GV I posted where the hot tub is... the RED DOOR is the steam room -- there's a shower inside of it as well.

So I guess I should state how it all started, since I wrote the ending first :)

This is my wife's (35) and I (42) first vacation in 4 years. Third cruise for me; Second for my wife; First time on NCL. We decided to take her brother (33), sister (26), and her sister's boyfriend (28).

We flew into Long Beach from Seattle the night before and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. Really nice and modern hotel.

The next day, we showed up at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro at around 10:45am. The cab dropped us off in front of where people were leaving the cruise. So it was chaos. We asked a worker where to check in and they pointed us in the right direction -- and we just followed the crowd of other confused passengers. Once we got to the area to check in, they told us we had to drop our bags off with porters, so we wheeled them over to the porters and finally made it inside.

Once inside, two NCL reps greeted us and asked to see our paperwork. We showed them, and the gentleman said he'd been expecting us and he escorted us to a counter to check in. We were done in about 10 mins.

We waited in a section for another 15 mins until someone escorted us over to the suite section. There we met our Butler Clint. We chatted for about 15 mins until he escorted us first on to the ship -- all by ourselves. Very strange compared to previous cruise experiences...

I asked Clint how many cabins he had, and he said the 2 GVs and 4 AFT suites. He escorted us to our room and showed us around, and then whisked us to Cagney's. We had lunch then explored our GV more. Videos and pictures cannot capture the amount of space you have. It's crazy!

We only had about half of our alcohol waiting for us, but when our bags arrived at 8pm so did the rest our our alcohol.

The experience was like no other. We didn't use Hanno, the concierge, really at all. We all had the UDP and we either had Clint bring us dinners (3 times), or just walked up to restaurants and we were seated by the windows.

As an example: We went to La Cucina one night at around 5:45. The maitre D' asked if we had reservations. I said no. He said they were booked for the night and asked what room we were in. I replied, 14500. He grabs menus and said, right this way. There were 4 people in the restaurant. By the time we were done eating, it was only 75% full. So they had tables available. But we did that with Cagney's too.

Also, the UDP was great. One of the times we ate in Cagney's we were considering getting steak & lobster. The server said that they only had 4oz lobster tails and Le Bistro had 10oz. So the next night we had Clint bring us 5 lobster tails from Le Bistro and steaks from Cagney's. All was covered under the UDP.

We never ate in the main dining rooms so I can't comment on those. We would grab some breakfast in Cagney's or something small at the Market Cafe. The Buffet was probably the worst food on the ship next to the chicken wings we got at a bar that tasted like it was coated with ketchup. But Buffet food is always terrible -- land or sea, IMHO.

The other thing Hanno did for us was escort us to the tender first in Cabo. There was a line coming down the stairs that was roped off for people waiting. He took us from our room, down the elevator and out to the tender.

It was a great cruise. We were surprised by how good of shape the ship was in. I was expecting it to be falling apart from all the reviews i read on here. I expected the food to be terrible. I went in thinking the worst and hoping for the best. The crew was great.

My wife and I only went to one show -- Paradis. It was good in parts but very strange. I would've cut out 2-3 numbers in it and it could've moved along quicker.

We had a few smokers in our cabin -- who smoked outside on the decks. There's enough wind out there that it won't bother anyone in the GV next door or the basketball courts.

There were only 2 smoking incidents in the casino. One of them involved 2 women; one, who was maybe 30yo. She had her sweater over her mouth and nose, because a 70yo woman two seats down from her was smoking. So the Younger Woman was preaching to the 70 yo about how bad smoking is for you, how it will kill you, yada, yada, yada... (like the 70 yo woman hasn't been smoking for probably almost 50 years and doesn't know this). The 70 yo woman politely said she was at her slot first and that the younger woman should move to another machine.

The next thing I know, the two women starting arguing, and yelling "Don't touch me!" "No, You don't touch me!" The casino manager had to come over and break it up. It was ridiculous! As I got up and left the slot I was on, all I could see was the casino filled with smoke! This Younger Woman shouldn't step foot in the casino if she doesn't want to be around smoke.

The other thing that surprised me was on days 1,2 and 6 how many $10k, $15k slot jackpots people were winning. Yeah, on days 3, 4, and 5 -- nothing. But I did manage to walk away with around $2k just from slot play. Plus by day 2, I had free drinks in the casino, so that helped keeping my drink bill down.

So that’s it without going into too much detail.

Scroll to the top to read the ending...:)

Hanno Meyer is the concierge. Very tall German fella. Only been a concierge a few months, so learning. The GV will get priority on leaving the ship but immigration at LA is so unpredictable. You cannot get off until they clear it. Last week the whole process was delayed due to a passenger being taken off first from the deck 4 gangway into a waiting ambulance.

 

I do not like the way the concierge escorts the VIPs past the long line of other passengers waiting to get to immigration. They do get very upset and many make rude comments. Wish there was a more clandestine way to do it.

Yep Hanno. It took him a few days to realize we liked to joke around and he could loosen up around us -- which he did eventually. Nice guy. We did notice a family at the end of the cruise, who we knew from conversation was in a suite, tip Hanno a generous $10 and thank him for everything he did for his family for the week.:confused:

It was bizarre that we were being escorted past obviously angry passengers seeing us pass them by. When we got off the elevator, crew members had one hallway blocked off. They let us through, and I was thinking "Great! A private way to immigration!" Nope. That hallway was full of people, that's why they blocked it off, so no one else could stand in line there.

The thing was, people had their bags all over, and about halfway down, we had no choice but to just start pushing our way through -- even with Hanno leading and our butler bringing up the rear. People wouldn't move their bags or move aside.

And with the last guy at the front of the line complaining to the crew, he wheeled his bag in front of my wife and she knocked it aside with her suit case, then he put it in front mine and I knocked it to the other side. I apologized and kept moving. But he was just being a jerk.

But I would assume that ANY suite passenger -- not just GV -- would get the same kind of escort if they needed to get off the ship early. Like you said, wish they could find a way to do it more discreetly. It was crazy cool, but embarrassing too.

NP! BTW, I realize now that the first half of my review didn't get posted. LOL! Don't know what happened to it.

1) I didn't take any pictures inside, only outside. It looks exactly the same as in this YouTube Video:

But seriously, pictures and videos don't do it justice. They actually make it look smaller than it is.

I attached some photos I did take of the outside though.

2. I can't find the sheet, but email NorwegianConciergeDesk@ncl.com and they'll email you one. There's not much to choose from. They let us have Triple Sec at no charge, margarita mix - no charge. But charged us $40 for an upgrade to Maker's Mark. If you don't see something on the list, just ask. They'll let you know if it's free or if there will be a charge. Only half of our alcohol was there when we boarded. The rest came at about 8pm -- when our luggage finally arrived as well.

3. Our flight was at 11:10am from Long Beach Airport. We left our room at 7:45am and we were at the airport by about 8:30am -- plenty of time. Just let the Concierge know and he'll make sure the limo is there waiting for you and escort you through the crowd of waiting passengers, then someone else will escort you off the ship to the limo. Just let your concierge know a couple days before. Long Beach airport will be a breeze if that's where you're flying in and out from. LAX is 45mins to an hour away.

4. Hannoh (sp?) We rarely saw him, but we didn't really need him either.

5. No room in the front suite. The middle one, maybe -- if tables and chairs were moved out. The back suite -- if tables and chairs were moved out. There is a lot of wasted space between the desk and bar in the living room that would probably work out great.

On Embarkation morning, we had to leave early since we had an early flight. The Concierge and our butler met us in our cabin at 7:45 am, took us down to deck 7, parted the sea of passengers waiting in the hallway for immigration to start processing people, and brought us under the ropes to get processed first (since they hadn't begun processing anyone yet).

And yes, we got dirty looks from 100s of people as we passed them by. One guy at the front of the line said, "I've been here since 6:15, why do they get to go first (meaning my group)? An NCL staff member on the other side of the rope replied, "No one said you should be here at 6:15." We were processed by immigration within minutes, escorted off the ship to an awaiting limo, and the driver whisked us off to Long Beach Airport. From leaving our room to getting to the airport was about 35 minutes. Most of that time was getting through the crowed hallway and the ride to the airport. It was crazy how fast it went.

Since I booked the Garden Villa, I've been involved in many tipping threads here on CC. None of us traveling ever had a butler before. I was going in planning on tipping the butler $10 pp/pd ($350); Concierge $100; Room Steward $100. I understand now what so many people have been saying about what having a good butler can mean for your vacation. Things were magically restocked when we'd leave the room for maybe 10 minutes throughout the day.

We didn't use the Concierge for any dining reservations. We'd walk up to a restaurant, say we wanted a table for 5. They'd ask if we had reservations. We'd say no. They say they were booked. They'd ask what room we were in. We'd say 14500, and then we'd be escorted to a table for 5 next to a window right away. So staying in a GV, you don't really need the concierge to make reservations for you. To be fair though, the times we ate were around 6pm and the restaurants weren't full.

With that being said, we ended up tipping our Room Steward $200; Concierge $200 -- just getting off the ship first through the sea of passengers waiting was worth the $200! And we ended up tipping our Butler Clint $600.

If you ever get Clint as a butler, he's indispensable. I asked him how many rooms he had, and he said the 2 GV's and 4 AFT suites. He said the other GV and suites would have breakfast delivered, so we used him for dinners (3 times). Having Cagney's below the GV is simple & great for breakfasts.

Clint also said that our neighbors in the other GV made a list of things they wanted. He said he loves that so he knows exactly what their needs are. We didn't have a list because we didn't know what we wanted. Since we're from Seattle, we drink lots of coffee. Clint leaned by day 2 to make sure espresso pods and milk were heavily stocked. On day 2 our espresso machine died. I called him and asked if he could look at it -- no rush, we were about ready to leave for dinner. I came out of my room from changing a few minutes later, and he was there with a new machine, plugging it in. Now that's service!

But let me clarify something: I didn't tip Clint $600 for bringing up chocolates and finger sandwiches everyday -- or cleaning the coffee machine. That would be ridiculous. I refilled the water and pulled out the tray of used pods and dumped them in the garbage a few times. It's not brain surgery. It takes seconds. If you own or ever used a Keurig, then it really is that simple.

I did tip him what I did because whenever we had a question or a request, he was all over it and happy to do so. We'd always give him fair warning if we were going to have dinner inside the room (maybe around 3pm) so he could prepare and be called at the last second while he's attending other guests needs. But for the most part we were pretty self-sufficient -- except for a few meals in the room.

I hate to sound like everyone else on here but tipping is very subjective and personal. Guess we had to go through this to realize it. But we tipped what we thought they were worth to US.

A few of our guests were smokers. They smoked outside in the villa or sundeck. It really didn't bother anyone. I asked our neighbors if they could smell the smoke, they said, "Nope." There was wind everyday (not heavy), so no one -- even on the basketball courts would probably smell it.

The funniest thing about smoking happened in the casino on night 4. I sat next to a young woman playing a slot with her sweater covering her mouth and nose. Two seats down from her was a 70yo woman smoking. The Young woman was lecturing her on how bad smoking was, yada, yada, yada (like the 70yo woman didn't know how bad smoking was. She probably has been smoking for 50 years). The 70yo woman kindly stated she was at her machine first and if she didn't like to go and play another machine.

Anyway, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the two of them start fighting! They're yelling at each other "Don't Touch Me!" "No, You Don't Touch Me!" The casino manager came over to break up their argument. It was really funny. Not trying to sound mean, but it was funny because the whole casino was filled with smoke, so it wouldn't have mattered where the young woman went to plays slots.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 10. We never had a bad time; service was excellent; the food we ate was great. I'd say that if anyone is considering the Garden Villa on the Star -- you won't be disappointed by the room or service you receive. If you're considering the UDP, making sure you eat in Cagney's and Le Bistro a lot to make good use of it.

lol! Nice😄

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Sorry typo: the butler is CLINT

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Anyone had Flint as a butler? We have him today for our cruise -- just wondering people's thoughts of him?

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Thanks in advance! Boy am I jealous of you! Booking the GV for our trip next year is a bucket list, probably once of a lifetime thing. But you have 2 booked! :p

Well, this is our first vacation in 4 years, 3rd cruise in our lives, and first time on NCL and not in an inside cabin or balcony. So hopefully we'll wanna cruise more after this😄

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Please please please post a review and pictures when you get back!!!! :). That's our villa next November! Have fun!

I definitely will. You'll be lucky to have it refurbished (hopefully when it's in dry dock) by then.

We'll be on the Jewel GV next November so hopefully that will be "easy on the eyes"

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the villa on the Star is awesome, we had a sail away party of about 50 people and lord did we have enough room,]

 

the hot tub is nice place along with the sauna..

 

 

 

and we enjoyed this cabin jut for the two of us, funny thing was the other villa cabin had only two people as well,

 

 

 

jerry donna

What villa on the star were you in and when?

I ask because I'm in 14500 on Dec 7th. A little worried it'll be in bad shape since I'm sure they're not keeping it up too much before dry dock.

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About a month ago I got a call from an NCL exec. The topic of tipping came up about butlers and concierges. I stated that it was very confusing on what to tip them without feeling like you stiffed them.

He said next year they're trying out a program on a ship or two where their tips are included in cruise fare or part of an all inclusive haven package or something-- just to test it out.

I told him that I read on here about people who don't use the concierge but to be escorted on and off the ship and they tip them $100. This guy was floored. He laughed and said that was ridiculous. He even stated stuff like escorting on and off the ship comes with the higher price of booking a haven suite.

At the end of the conversation he recommended tipping on services rendered, not on a $10 pppd model or whatever everyone's number is because you may not use them that much.

I think people forget that the amenities you get when booking a haven suite you've paid for with the much higher cruise fare.

This isn't to say to not tip butlers or concierges for their services. But keep what they do for you in perspective.

Being escorted on and off the ship I'm sure is worth different its weight in gold to some, but not to others.

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So a pizza delivery, a DVD delivery, Cagney's dinner in room, plus daily duties = $350 tip????

Does anyone else think this is excessive? It's not like the butler is your own private dedicated butler. S/he is servicing many other suites.

When I dine out, I generally tip 20% of the meal-- could go up or down based in service. So why not tip based on services received instead of tipping based on a fixed amount?

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I'm curious why people use the $$ppd rule? From what I'm reading on here, the tipping seems quite excessive for what people are having their butlers do. Delivering a few breakfasts and refilling ice for a $200 tip??? Really?

Why not just tip 15%-20% of services rendered when they do something-- much like what you'd do with a waiter at a restaurant?

At the end of the cruise it may very well end up being $10ppd or more.

It just seems like a lot of $$$ for tips when the butler really isn't doing too much from what everyone is describing their use of butlers on here.

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