KeithJenner

As I said in my post that you quoted, we are talking about getting charged AT THE TIME OF BOOKING. There is no impact on the final amount that you will be charged for the meal. Anyone who does get charged when booking will have the charge refunded onboard and if they aren’t charged when booking then there will be nothing to pay onboard. It seems, from what you say, that CAS don’t charge you when booking, regardless of the order you book them in (maybe because the rep actually booked them in the correct order) in which case this whole discussion would be irrelevant to you anyway, but once again this is a discussion about whether you pay a deposit, but that deposit is refunded anyway.

Did they charge you when you booked your meals? It isn't clear whether you are wondering whether you will get any payment back or whether you are worried you may get charged. You certainly won't end up being charged. You have four included meals and you have four meals booked, so unless you decide to add another then they will be covered. There is no need to let them know when booking how you will be paying. That is decided at the time of dining. The discussion that we are having is regarding whether they take a payment on reservation, not whether there will be a charge in the end. If you have paid on reservation then you will get it back. If you haven't made a reservation payment then you are sorted.

The booking system knows nothing of your latitudes meals. You are charged the full amount due for any bookings that you make after the number of free at sea meals you have. However, the full amount due for booking such meals is zero at every restaurant other than Teppanyaki and Moderno. For those restaurants you would be charged the cover charge. So, in your position where you have two FAS and two latitudes, if you book Cagney, Le Bistro, La Cucina and Teppanyaki then you would get charged the cost of Teppanyaki if you booked them in that order, but if you booked Teppanyaki first then it would be covered by FAS so there would be no charge for booking. It’s been that way for years. The link in my signature is the second version of the post I made to explain it (and other things).

That is correct. Splash Academy was removed and these cabins added during the refurbishment in early 2020. The OP must have found an old deck plan.

You can now use them anywhere.

The dress code is actually different on most ships (on a few newer ships it is the same, but I think that the Gem will have the slightly stricter dress code in the aft dining room (Grand Pacific). The details are on the NCL website as well as regularly quoted on here. You can’t wear shorts there, for example.

Yes, mfulk is correct, there is no charge for booking in most restaurants so no refund would be due. A slight correction is that you can get charged for fixed price places. Just make sure that you book any fixed price places (Moderno and Teppanyaki) first as you will be charged for those after you have booked the number of restaurants in your original dining package.

There has always been some confusion between Norwegian Night Out and Dress Up Or Not, as NCL tended to use both names. For example, on the Breakaway in 2019 the daily calls it Dress Up or Not night on page 1 of the daily, but Norwegian Night Out in three other places. Here is a Norwegian Night Out Flyer from the Epic.

I totally agree with you regarding the fact that "dress up or not" should just be (and for most people is) what happens every night, but that doesn't mean that "dress up or not" and "Norwegian Night Out" aren't things that NCL has promoted as theme nights in the past. I have been on many cruises when those nights happen. I generally wouldn't have noticed based on what people are wearing, but from the notices and flyers that were in the freestyle dailies. It certainly isn't something that has just been made up on Cruise Critic. However, in my experience on two cruises this year, they don't seem to be happening consistently nowadays. I've not noticed either dress up or not, or Norwegian Night Out on either of those cruises, which I think is a good thing, as most passengers should really be grown up enough to decide these things for themselves.

I’ve had the package twice (April and September this year) and both times it was Moet that was available by the bottle at dinner. Veuve was just by the glass (although if you are drinking it at dinner then you are likely to effectively get the bottle to yourself and we were allowed to take it with us a couple of times). The Chateauneuf de Pape was available by the bottle on the Dawn last month. I had it a couple of times. I have heard others mention it not being available though, so I assume that is changing.

I don’t see any mention of cans being included there. In fact it specifically says fountain soda.

You haven’t been able to book any restaurants more than once online for months now. You have to call or wait until you board to make multiple reservations at any restaurant.

No it doesn’t

That argument doesn’t really stand up when it comes to the dining offer. I would guess that the number of people who take a fare which includes free at sea specifically for the one or two meals that includes is tiny. People book those rooms for the beverage package, or to be able to choose their room. If you want the beverage package then it will most likely be best to get a free at sea cabin and the extra that you pay is just the gratuity on those meals (or for many of us in different countries it is zero). Technically some of that fare is paying for those meals, but the really relevant thing is how much your fare changes as a result of taking them and for the vast majority of people that is just the gratuity.

Yes. I don’t know the exact rules for longer cruises, but we’ve never had a problem. Regardless, you said that “we” are platinum, so you get a bag each anyway.

Yes, so why did they go for the option that gave them less flexibility and more cost? It really is a very genuine question.

Why didn’t you do that then? Genuine question. I often hear people in situations like yours and wonder how this situation arose.

In other words, if you select things that you aren’t going to use when booking your cruise then don’t be surprised to find that you have paid for things that you don’t use.

Just be aware that you can’t reserve Le Bistro (or any restaurant) more than once online in advance of the cruise. Apparently you can call to do it, or just wait until you are onboard.

Yes, it is fixed when you book. When I say that it is finished I mean that I don’t think that you can book them with that many bonus points, on so many cruises, now.

Whilst there are no longer extra points for booking early (if used to be one extra point if you booked 9 months out), there are still latitudes offers where you get an extra point. Since covid there have been some very generous offers on extra latitudes points. We got triple points on both our cruises this year. I think those offers have all ended now.

Free at sea works a similar way for us in the UK (and Europe, I think). The price goes up £50 per person for every 3 night increase in cruise length, so free at sea costs the same for 6 nights as it does for 8 nights. It then increases £59 for a 9 night cruise and stays at that cost for 10 and 11 nights.

it has been previously reported that you can only add one additional meal package to your free at sea. This becomes an issue if you want free at sea plus, but would like more than two extra meals. Im not sure whether there is a solution to this.

Looking at your previous posts, I think you may be from the UK, so the above answers are not quite correct. You don’t pay any gratuity at all on drinks, either beforehand or onboard. Instead, we pay the free at sea upcharge, which is part of the cruise fare. I’m not sure what the current cost is for a 9 day cruise, maybe £199 each.

The latitudes discount is given after the free at sea discount. Therefore, the amount that the latitudes discount is calculated on reduces by $50, meaning that is reduced by $5. The net effect is that the price from adding free at sea plus reduces by $45, not $50, despite the full $50 credit being applied.