Sapphire benefit Dinner with the officers

[Patsfans]

Has anyone taken advantage of this perk "Dinner with the officers". is this just regular dinner in the regular dining room and how do you book this?

 

Also another perk is wines around the world tasting any idea how to take advantage of that?

[graphicguy]

Asked about this on the current cruise.  It wasn’t offered!

[dexddd]

We sailed end of September.  No sapphire pins, no dinner with officers, no BTS tour, wine tasting - asked about it mid way and told there was a wait list and never contacted.  Never received notice about how or when to sign up for wine tasting.  Lats was a joke as was Lats staff in any resolution.

 

We did get a message on phone from guess who, Lats wanting us to book a cruise.  

[MoCruiseFan]

32 minutes ago, Patsfans said:

Has anyone taken advantage of this perk "Dinner with the officers". is this just regular dinner in the regular dining room and how do you book this?

 

Also another perk is wines around the world tasting any idea how to take advantage of that?

 

 

1) Yes I am 100% sure that SOMEONE has taken advantage of the offer.
2) Last time we went it was at Teppanyaki.
3) Go to the Cruise Next office and inquire with them.
4) We don't drink so sorry no help on the wine tasting.

[KateQ22003]

We sailed in August and the only one that was still in place was the wine tasting. No dinner with the officers and no behind-the-scenes ship tour.

[JGmf]

3 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

2) Last time we went it was at Teppanyaki.

 

Dinner with officers in Teppanyaki?  How'd that go?  Flipping shrimp and onion volcanoes?  Was that really the place?

[snorklinbarb]

Currently on Escape.  Dinner w/Officers just started up.  We had Chief Financial Officer and HR Director plus 4 guests.  
 

Savor or Taste DR with wine.

 

Have been on BA, Gem, Joy and Prima since restart and this was first one.

 

Wine tasting as well as Sail and Sustain drink tasting (latter is Diamond and Ambassador) offered.  
 

At Q and A, guest asked abouf Behind the Scenes tour but has not come back.

 

Latitudes parties later in the cruise.

 

Expanded use of vouchers at specialties is new and very welcomed!  Ocean Blue, Teppanyaki, Bistro, etc.  Not limited like before.  Wine redeemed at any restaurant that has a complimentary wine list (Prima’s Palomar is fine for dinner but not wine as they serve organic).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gmbhardy]

Are they still offering a $50 OBC in lieu of the latitude perks?

[BirdTravels]

14 minutes ago, gmbhardy said:

Are they still offering a $50 OBC in lieu of the latitude perks?

No. Since they are doing the latitudes party and other activities like wine tasting, no other compensation. 

Edited November 4, 2022 by BirdTravels

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Patsfans said:

Has anyone taken advantage of this perk "Dinner with the officers". is this just regular dinner in the regular dining room and how do you book this?

 

Also another perk is wines around the world tasting any idea how to take advantage of that?

For both, you go to the Cruise Next desk as soon as you embark and sign up. First come first serve. 
 

The dinner is currently being offered on a very limited number of ships. Most ships, they as still minimizing interactions with germy passengers. It is normally held on the smaller main dining room with the menu of the night. The only addition is glasses of wine. Sometimes you get a real officer. Sometimes it’s someone like a shop manager. 
 

Wines around the world has 4-5 stations with wines from different countries. “Taste” as much as you want. 
 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 hours ago, dexddd said:

Lats was a joke

Didn't you get the free laundry and two extra specialty dinners?  That's not a "joke" to many of us.

Edited November 4, 2022 by ChiefMateJRK

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

Sometimes you get a real officer. Sometimes it’s someone like a shop manager. 

Are you talking about a gift shop manager or a maintenance shop manager?

Edited November 4, 2022 by ChiefMateJRK

[IrieBajan54]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

For both, you go to the Cruise Next desk as soon as you embark and sign up. First come first serve. 

In my case, I get specialty restaurant and show reservations settled first. Then I head for the CruiseNext Desk. On my Joy and Prima cruises over the the past two months, I enjoyed Wines Around the World tastings.

Edited November 4, 2022 by IrieBajan54
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[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Are you talking about a gift shop manager or a maintenance shop manager?

We had the photo shop manager once and the only host. And we had a gift shop manager (who’s is vendor and not an NCL employee) along with the ship’s training officer and a young bridge officer another time. We did a dinner earlier this year and don’t remember who the two officers were. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

25 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

We had the photo shop manager once and the only host. And we had a gift shop manager (who’s is vendor and not an NCL employee) 

Well that just sounds plain silly.

[vince_g]

6 hours ago, gmbhardy said:

Are they still offering a $50 OBC in lieu of the latitude perks?

No they stopped that.

[Nataly1982]

14 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

We had the photo shop manager once and the only host. And we had a gift shop manager (who’s is vendor and not an NCL employee) along with the ship’s training officer and a young bridge officer another time. We did a dinner earlier this year and don’t remember who the two officers were. 

Then it’s more like “dinner with crew members”. 

[Nataly1982]

Does anyone have a list of tier benefits before the revamp? 

[julig22]

19 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

No. Since they are doing the latitudes party and other activities like wine tasting, no other compensation. 

Depends on the ship. Just off the Star, got $50 obc for sapphire. I've been told it depends on the wine tasting benefits only, not any of the tours, parties or dinners with officers.

[The Traveling Man]

On 11/4/2022 at 8:45 AM, Patsfans said:

Has anyone taken advantage of this perk "Dinner with the officers". is this just regular dinner in the regular dining room and how do you book this?

 

Also another perk is wines around the world tasting any idea how to take advantage of that?

We have sailed on 31 NCL cruises.  Our first dinner with an officer was on our 13th cruise.  Of our five cruises since the return to sailing after the COVID shutdown, they only offered this perk on one of those trips.  Overall we have dined with 26 different NCL personnel on 14 different cruises.  Sometimes we dined with just one officer, but frequently there were two of them with as many as ten of us.  On several occasions we had dinner two times on the same cruise but with different officers.  Of the 26, 16 were senior officers, three stripes or more, including three Captains, four GMs, and two Chief Engineers.  There also were a casino pit boss, a gift shop manager, and a variety of one stripe junior officers.  Most of these dinners were in the MDR, but once we ate in Cagney's and three times we were in Le Bistro.  A few times the officer seemed uncomfortable with hosting a dinner party, but most of the dinners were the highlight of our cruise.

 

We first took advantage of the "wines around the world" perk on our most recent cruise.  We were expecting a wine tasting class with a sommelier offering advice on food pairings.  We were disappointed to find that it amounted to nothing more than an open bar.  At least they offered some wines which otherwise would cost extra if you only have the basic beverage package.  We probably won't bother with signing up for that perk again.

[dcipjr]

Just off the Breakaway.

 

The Behind-the-Scenes tour and Dinner with Officers perks were not offered for Sapphire.

 

Wines around the World was. The meeting time was 11:45 AM at the Manhattan room on the last sea day. Little early for drinking for me, so I opted out, but hey, I don't judge...

[jjjct]

On 11/4/2022 at 10:22 AM, KateQ22003 said:

We sailed in August and the only one that was still in place was the wine tasting. No dinner with the officers and no behind-the-scenes ship tour.

Same with my last cruise in August, only the wine tasting offered. Need to sign up early with guest services. Wine tasting was mid morning (I think 10AM) on a sea day. Little too early for me to want to start drinking wine, so skipped it.

[egurbi]

Dined with the Captain and Spa Manager on the Escape recently. Lovely.

 

I have a question for those knowledgeble as I only recently became Sapphire as was solo on this past cruise.

 

Will you be permitted to bring a guest to the dinner with officers if the guest is not Sapphire but is your traveling companion?

 

Thanks for any insight.

[BirdTravels]

41 minutes ago, egurbi said:

Dined with the Captain and Spa Manager on the Escape recently. Lovely. I have a question for those knowledgeable as I only recently became Sapphire as was solo on this past cruise. Will you be permitted to bring a guest to the dinner with officers if the guest is not Sapphire but is your traveling companion? Thanks for any insight.

The official answer is "no". 

 

In the past, Cruise Next has made exceptions for both the dinner and BTS tour. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

 I witnessed my first dinner-with-officers last week.  It happened at the next table in an MDR.  Two officers and four couples.  It was almost painful to watch.  I asked DW and DD at one point if they saw any faces at that table that looked like they were having fun.  Three witnesses and not a single affirmative report.