Newly Platinum

[reeinaz]

Hi all. I just turned platinum after my last cruise in November and will be cruising again in March on the Jewel. Can y'all give me tips on how to make the best use of my tier benefits? For instance, I remember reading about a strategy for when to use the latitude meal vouchers vs the FAS meal but I can't remember what it was.

What would I use the concierge for?

 

Thanks

[ChiefMateJRK]

Ignore the Concierge benefit.  We've never been able to figure out what it is.

Meal vouchers are now good at all specialty restaurants, but not the same one twice.

Take advantage of the free laundry.  One per platinum.  Bring garbage bags and tape to maximize.

You now board before group one, regardless of when you arrive at port.

You save a few bucks on shore excursions.

You can book specialty dining 125 days out, which means you get what/when you want.

[ChiefMateJRK]

9 minutes ago, reeinaz said:

For instance, I remember reading about a strategy for when to use the latitude meal vouchers vs the FAS meal but I can't remember what it was.

If booking in advance, book fixed price (e.g. Teppanyaki) first to avoid having to prepay.

[Wedgie Wedgie]

If you login at NCL.com and go your account and look at latitudes rewards you'll see that these are the current dining bennys for platinum. My wife and I just had our first platinum cruise on the Prima and were surprised to see we EACH received a card with these coupons, meaning we could have dined out 4 of the 5 nights on this cruise in these specialties:

 

Dinner for Two at Cagney's or Le Bistro with a Bottle of Wine6 (per stateroom)
Dinner for Two at Moderno or La Cucina6 (per stateroom)

[All-ready2cruise]

Keep this handy, it's a great help when just transitioning over:

 

 

 

https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program

Edited December 22, 2022 by All-ready2cruise

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 minutes ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

If you login at NCL.com and go your account and look at latitudes rewards you'll see that these are the current dining bennys for platinum. My wife and I just had our first platinum cruise on the Prima and were surprised to see we EACH received a card with these coupons, meaning we could have dined out 4 of the 5 nights on this cruise in these specialties:

 

Dinner for Two at Cagney's or Le Bistro with a Bottle of Wine6 (per stateroom)
Dinner for Two at Moderno or La Cucina6 (per stateroom)

Were you actually able to dine out four nights for two with these?  That would be something new!

[bonvoyagie]

We were Platinum on our last cruise and only got one coupon for dinner. Our last cruise was in early 2020. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 minute ago, bonvoyagie said:

We were Platinum on our last cruise and only got one coupon for dinner. Our last cruise was in early 2020. 

Don't you mean two coupons?  (plus the laundry "coupon" in the welcome back thingy)

[bonvoyagie]

Yes, two coupons one for LaCuchina or Modereno and one for Cagney's or La Bistro and two laundry coupons. I should have been clearer. BTW we were on a three week cruise and they extended the laundry to three bags per person (one per week). 

[reeinaz]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Ignore the Concierge benefit.  We've never been able to figure out what it is.

Meal vouchers are now good at all specialty restaurants, but not the same one twice.

Take advantage of the free laundry.  One per platinum.  Bring garbage bags and tape to maximize.

You now board before group one, regardless of when you arrive at port.

You save a few bucks on shore excursions.

You can book specialty dining 125 days out, which means you get what/when you want.

If I arrive after boarding has begun, will I be able to go right on? 

[Mike C]

Once you get on board go to the CruiseNext desk and see if they are offering a wine tasting for Platinum level and above.They will also give you the day and location for the Latitudes party

[Wedgie Wedgie]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Were you actually able to dine out four nights for two with these?  That would be something new!

Yes, plus we had our free at sea 2 specialty restaurants of our choice. This was just a 5 nighter. We're both the same latitudes level of platinum so we EACH received the card with the cutout coupons for dinners and laundry.

[Wedgie Wedgie]

We're going on a 7 nighter next month on the Escape. With our 2 free at sea and now 4 platinum dinners we'll only have one night to eat in the haven! Oh, woe is us...buttons are popping!

[cementhands]

2 hours ago, reeinaz said:

Hi all. I just turned platinum after my last cruise in November and will be cruising again in March on the Jewel. Can y'all give me tips on how to make the best use of my tier benefits? For instance, I remember reading about a strategy for when to use the latitude meal vouchers vs the FAS meal but I can't remember what it was.

What would I use the concierge for?

 

Thanks

Cagney steak is great and bottle of wine free laundry stretch out bag and cram it in

[ChiefMateJRK]

7 minutes ago, cementhands said:

Cagney steak is great and bottle of wine free laundry stretch out bag and cram it in

Somebody who thinks they can stretch out that laundry "bag" definitely does NOT have cement for hands.  🤣 They're made from the next strength of paper above "tissue" (i.e. they will tear if you pick them up wrong).  That's where the pro tips come in.  Take a plastic garbage bag to "line" the paper bag and some packing tape to reinforce the upper rim.  My last cruise I had just the garbage bag and that NCL bag still split out top to bottom.

[KeithJenner]

1 hour ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

Yes, plus we had our free at sea 2 specialty restaurants of our choice. This was just a 5 nighter. We're both the same latitudes level of platinum so we EACH received the card with the cutout coupons for dinners and laundry.

But were you actually able to use them? In your original post you say that you could have dined 4 times, not that you did.

 

The vouchers should be per cabin, not per person. The system does track meals, so it certainly isn’t guaranteed that you would actually get those meals regardless of the number of vouchers you have.

 

Even if it did work (the staff don’t necessarily check all that closely) then don’t expect the same to happen in the future.

[ChiefMateJRK]

44 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

But were you actually able to use them? In your original post you say that you could have dined 4 times, not that you did.

+1

[ESCARGO]

2 hours ago, reeinaz said:

If I arrive after boarding has begun, will I be able to go right on? 

No, they will ask you to stand in the back of the line of those passengers who's numbers they just called. Sapphire passengers board right after Haven, Diamond, and Handicap, then they start calling the numbers to line up.

The 2 Specialty Dinners are left in your cabin on embarkation day. If you are traveling Solo, you might ask a other Solo to join you for a great dinner!

Ted

[ChiefMateJRK]

53 minutes ago, ESCARGO said:

No, they will ask you to stand in the back of the line of those passengers who's numbers they just called.

I think that's the same thing as the other poster was asking.  They don't need to wait until all groups are called, just join the herd of the currently called group.

[ms sjsky]

We just did the Wine Tasting Around The World benefit on our last cruise and really enjoyed it.  Like someone else mentioned, you need to go the Cruise Next desk after boarding to sign up.  Also sign up for the Free Behind the Scenes Tour if it's being offered as we have found these quite interesting.  But they do have a maximum number of people that are allowed.  

[reeinaz]

18 hours ago, ESCARGO said:

The 2 Specialty Dinners are left in your cabin on embarkation day. If you are traveling Solo, you might ask a other Solo to join you for a great dinner!

Ted

Yes, I definitely hope to return the favor. I have had some wonderful dinners courtesy of some very gracious Platinum and above cruisers.

 

18 hours ago, ESCARGO said:

No, they will ask you to stand in the back of the line of those passengers who's numbers they just called. Sapphire passengers board right after Haven, Diamond, and Handicap, then they start calling the numbers to line up.

 

 

17 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I think that's the same thing as the other poster was asking.  They don't need to wait until all groups are called, just join the herd of the currently called group.

 

Great.  I wasn't sure if I had to wait around for them to call platinum again. Good to know I can just get in the line of whatever numbered group is boarding.

[dexddd]

Unless recent change, no bts tour.  Winemaking capacity controlled.

[Middleager]

Welcome to Plat. 

 

The coupons for specialty dinners is supposed to be 1 per cabin, even though both my wife and I are plats.  When getting the bottle of wine, we ask to take the unfinished 1/2 bottle with us.  That way we have it and can bring to the next dinner and pour ourselves, without having to give a ticket and wait for it to be found and brought up.

 

For the free bag of laundry, there is only one coupon.  So we just write on the laundry bag "Platinum, free" -- you technically don't need to put in the coupon because they should have in the system to check that you do indeed have 2 plats in the room.

 

The wines around the world tasting is pretty good.  They say you have to sign up the first day onboard at the CruiseNext desk.  Some say it's capacity controlled, so do this soon after you get onboard.

 

In the 3 cruises since we became Plat, we've never been able to do priority embarkation.  We tell the person who's guarding the lines we are plat and should have priority, but each time the person just waved us to the regular line.  Fortunately the lines are short.  After that line up to get your card, that's when the card color would show plat.  Before that those staff are either untrained (not sure if they are even NCL staff, or just port staff) or don't care.

 

If you are at a tender port, you get priority tendering.  You can call, and explain you got a small group of people to go to some excursion together.  They'll tell you where to go and wait.  This worked out well for us when one time, a small group of us went to a diving/snorkeling excursion together.

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, Middleager said:

In the 3 cruises since we became Plat, we've never been able to do priority embarkation.

Are you saying that they wouldn't let you board the ship before group one?  That's odd.

[Middleager]

11 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Are you saying that they wouldn't let you board the ship before group one?  That's odd.

There wasn't "group one".  There were no groups, no groups called. 

 

When I said the the staff we're platinum and we should have priority embarkation.  They just pointed to the big line for everyone.

 

The ships are not sailing full.  The Jewel we sailed this past end of March, was 1/3 capacity.  The Epic we sailed was less than 1/2 full, and we arrived just after 5pm (11pm to leave port).   So it wasn't big long lines, so we just joined the line of maybe 50 people both times.

 

There was one line with sign Haven.  We are not Haven, so we didn't go to that line.  One time there was another line I think with Priority and maybe even Platinum.  Nobody in that line.  And one other line for everyone.  It didn't take that long in the line, so not a big deal.