KeithJenner

If you just want one more meal then you have to pay the price at the time (either the fixed cost - $49 I think - at Teppanyaki or Moderno, or a la carte at the other places). If it is available then the best option is to use the upgrade option. If you have a two meal package then you can get an additional two meal package at about 1/3 off. I'm not sure what the options are if you only have one meal via free at sea. Log in and check offer upgrades to check the pricing.

We upgraded in April on the Jade and got though many bottles of Veuve, the majority of that in various bars around the ship.

We are sailing from Amsterdam on a Thursday later in the year. If the testing rules are unchanged then we will very likely test locally on Monday. Before we get on the ship we will take a train to London (two trains and an underground), spend some time in London and stay in a hotel. The next day we will take another train to the airport, fly to Amsterdam, a further train to the city, do some sightseeing and spend another night in a hotel. Both evenings will involve visiting a pub or two. What use is our test in these circumstances?

And you can get two meals as an upgrade at a significant discount (about 1/3 off)

Correct there is no Haven. There is still the option for them to scale down some benefits based on the room type (Ie owners suite gets things that the penthouse doesn’t).

The perks are basically the same. You just don’t have the Haven area (so also no bar/restaurant). Breakfast and lunch are provided in Moderno/Cagneys but there is no suite dinner service. Other than that you get all the usual suite perks).

I assume they mean it is better that NCL do this and cancel a year out like this, rather than what they did with the Prima when they cancelled just after people had made final payment.

The Spirit and the Escape, with the Jade a very close third.

Ends today. Yesterday was a sea day which I assume is why there have been no updates. Dawn is off to the Baltics now. Back for itineraries similar to this later in the Summer.

The prices are shown online without the discount, but once you add them to your basket they then show up less the latitudes discount.

To get that menu you need to be on a ship that has a Haven Restaurant (Epic and newer) and be in a room that includes access to it (i.e. avoid non Haven suites on the Joy)

We were on the Jade back in April and easily covered the cost of the upgrade with coffeee, sparking water and champagne. I had a bottle of wine in a couple of restaurants as well, and that wine was certainly better than the by the glass options available on the standard package. I didn't see any big availability issues (there seemed to be a good selection of top shelf spirits and few wines not available. The biggest issue was getting the correct drinks at specific bars. A few bars didn't have sparkling water and getting the champagne was difficult with some waiters.

There is no suite dinner. You may possibly get better seats for being in a suite, but no special menu.

Good to see it is still available. Odd that they don’t seem to be advertising it at all these days (not even a line in the freestyle daily). The selections have always varied from ship to ship, even pre covid.

I saw no sign of it on the Jade in April either.

Interesting. I had totally missed that discussion. From a brief review it seems it is just talking about butler & concierge service and nothing has actually changed yet, is that correct? I just checked the Dawn descriptions and all of the suites state butler & concierge is included, so this doesn't seem to be an issue with the Dawn. If it just Jewel Class? I have to say, of all the suite perks those are the two I could easiest do without. I've just upgraded to an Aft Penthouse on the Dawn. If I now found that it didn't include Breakfast in Moderno I would be disappointed. No Butler and Concierge wouldn't bother me one little bit.

We did a Christmas and New Year cruise in 2019/20. I don’t particularly remember Christmas itself. There was a Christmas Dinner served in the MDRs, but we went to Cagneys instead. It was a fairly normal day for us ( we were in Venice and had a nice walk round during the day). The ship was obviously decorated. For New Year (we were in Barcelona that day) there was a great atmosphere in all the bars. We were still in port so saw the Barcelona fireworks at midnight. I’m not usually a big fan of New Years parties but that was a great night. I’d certainly do one again. When the Sun was diverted to Europe for the winter we looked at options for doing that this year, but the dates don’t really work for us.

I didn’t realise that any clarity was required. The only issues with non haven suites are on the Joy. Anyway, congratulations on getting a correct answer from NCL staff. 🙂

That is basically how it works. It is almost always the airlines responsibility to check visas etc, and it has been the same with covid tests and vaccinations. The onus is on the airlines as they would have the responsibility of flying you back again if things aren’t correct (or putting you into quarantine or whatever they would have to do in this instance)

The POA issue is specific to that ship, as they need US staff. Other ships have less staff than usual, but are also running at lower capacity. We were on the Jade in April and the staff/passenger ratio was better than pre-covid.

Yeah, we stopped there a few years ago on the Jade, and from memory I think the shuttle went to Tynemouth.

Yes, you would need to upgrade to the Premium Plus package for those things to be included.

It would me quite an achievement to get value out of the Plus upgrade just at Starbucks. That is a lot of coffee to drink every day for a cruise (and I say that as someone who can drink some coffee).

Hopefully this makes it more likely that will end soon. I think it could go either way. It wouldn’t surprise me if pre embarkation testing is still around in a year, neither would it surprise me if it ends soon.

Excellent news. I've got a short trip planned to the US next month (not a cruise), and getting a test was going to be a pain (working the day before and a fairly early flight). One less thing to worry about. 🙂