KeithJenner

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. 🙂

We were onboard the week after you. I’m sure the concierge and butler were very good. I just have no need for them, especially the concierge. I could at least imagine getting the butler to bring breakfast if we have an early start, but on the few occasions I have ever had involvement with a concierge (onboard or at hotels) they just seem to make things harder. If I want to book something then I’d rather do it myself rather than have to explain what I want to someone who then passes that message on to someone else. I’d rather cut out the middle man.

No, it is included in the Premium Plus package, which is an upgrade.

Yes, I must have misunderstood you, that's why I questioned it. I sense that you think I am criticising or judging. I thought the smiley I included in my original post indicated that it was a light hearted comment. As for the Haven, I have tried it already and am honestly not fussed. I like a suite (I've just upgraded my next cruise to an aft balcony, after the two bedroom suite we had on the Jade in April). I like the bigger room and breakfast is great but that is what we are paying for. I like the general public areas too much to pay extra money for access to another area. I don't think that a butler and concierge is pretentious. I just find them a bit annoying. Luckily, last time they didn't bother us too much.

Yes, I think he is. This discussion just goes round in circles. You can just read a random thread out of the hundreds that there are on here and you will see all the same old confusion, random musings from NCL staff, but the facts are the same, only entrees are restricted.

Thanks. We leave At 4.30pm so our last tender will be at 3.30. I’m trying to decide between our original plan of walking around Dublin or whether to go to Guinness. Looks like a late morning tour will give us a lunchtime pint and still have a few hours to get back. I had been planning on lunch and a pint in Temple Bar. Decisions…….

If that because you could be allocated a club suite anywhere rather than selecting your own? I’m genuinely interested. You have posted a number of times saying that it doesn’t work for you as you prefer a suite, and in that case there really is no value in the diamond upgrade, but above you stated that you would book a club suite. Balcony to Club suite is a decent diamond upgrade (a couple of us here have used ours for just that), so I’m interested in why you wouldn’t want to do that. Or maybe I misunderstood your earlier post and you meant that you would book a club suite in order to upgrade to a suite of that was possible?

Same here. If I had missed the email then I wouldn’t know I could bid.

I was in a non Haven suite on the Jade in April. Literally the only difference between that and a Haven suite was access to the Haven area. Totally the way to go on those ships for us. Paying an extra £100 for haven access wouldn’t have been worth it for us. We had everything we wanted.