Dinner for Two with Platinum loyalty status?

[PaperSniper4]

We have been NCL Platinum for the last few cruises (last few years). On our last cruise earlier this year, we received a card once on board informing us we cold book another "dinner for two" specialty dining venue due to our loyalty status. Great, we did, but there were not very many openings left once on board.

 

We're sailing on another NCL 7 day cruise next March, and I wonder if we can book that "loyalty perk" dinner for two when we book the other two specialty meals, 125 days before sailing. Anyone tried that?

 

 Doug

[ryarger]

For a la carte restaurants, you can absolutely book online in advance since no money is collected at time of booking.

 

When you’re seated, just let them know you’re using your platinum voucher to pay.

 

For fixed price restaurants I don’t think it’s possible because you’re paying in advance.

 

So I’d use your FAS meals for the fixed price of restaurants and your platinum for the a la carte.

[goldmom]

Just booked any fixed price restaurants first when booking online pre-cruise.

[vacation44]

34 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

We have been NCL Platinum for the last few cruises (last few years). On our last cruise earlier this year, we received a card once on board informing us we cold book another "dinner for two" specialty dining venue due to our loyalty status. Great, we did, but there were not very many openings left once on board.

 

We're sailing on another NCL 7 day cruise next March, and I wonder if we can book that "loyalty perk" dinner for two when we book the other two specialty meals, 125 days before sailing. Anyone tried that?

 

 Doug

Just making sure you know it is an additional two meals for two so make two additional reservations when making the two that come with free at sea.

[PaperSniper4]

37 minutes ago, ryarger said:

For a la carte restaurants, you can absolutely book online in advance since no money is collected at time of booking.

 

When you’re seated, just let them know you’re using your platinum voucher to pay.

 

For fixed price restaurants I don’t think it’s possible because you’re paying in advance.

 

So I’d use your FAS meals for the fixed price of restaurants and your platinum for the a la carte.

I'm a bit confused on the terminology. Can I assume the "la carte restaurant" is what I'm calling a specialty dining venue, like Cagney's Steakhouse? Otherwise I'm not sure what a la carte is....I ought to know that, but I've probably forgotten.😜

 

What's the "Fixed Price" restaurant?

What's FAS meals?

 

Thanks

[PaperSniper4]

8 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

Just making sure you know it is an additional two meals for two so make two additional reservations when making the two that come with free at sea.

Right, one for me, one for my wife; same dinner sitting.

 

 Doug

[sailingships]

We always book all of our dinners online, early, both the FAS ones and our Latitude ones We book Moderna and Teppanyaki first to avoid the $70 charge, then as many of the others as we have vouchers and free dinners for. First Cagney's and then Le Bistro and La Cucina, etc. .

 

 

[PaperSniper4]

15 minutes ago, goldmom said:

Just booked any fixed price restaurants first when booking online pre-cruise.

Are the Fixed Price meals what I'm calling the included 2-meals when booking Always Included (or whatever NCL calls the perks)? Were you also able to book the additional "dinner for two" resulting from your Platinum or higher loyalty level at the same time? IOW, did you book three "specialty dining" meals 125 days in advance?

 

Doug

[KeithJenner]

13 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Right, one for me, one for my wife; same dinner sitting.

 

 Doug

No, it is two meals for two.

[goldmom]

3 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Are the Fixed Price meals what I'm calling the included 2-meals when booking Always Included (or whatever NCL calls the perks)? Were you also able to book the additional "dinner for two" resulting from your Platinum or higher loyalty level at the same time? IOW, did you book three "specialty dining" meals 125 days in advance?

 

Doug

We had the FAS (Free at Sea) 2 meals and we get two Platinum meals, so four specialty dining meals in total.

We could make reservations for all 4 meals at the 125 day mark.

If you want a reservation in a restaurant with a fixed price (such as Teppanaki) then make that reservation first.  You will not be charged as you have the dining package (FAS)..  You can reserve any A La Carte restaurant with out incurring a charge as they don't know what your bill will be.  As long as you are not reserving more than 2 meals with a fixed price you wouldn't be charged anything.

Once onboard when you go to the restaurant just tell them if you are using the dining package or your Platinum voucher.

Enjoy!

[PaperSniper4]

10 minutes ago, sailingships said:

We always book all of our dinners online, early, both the FAS ones and our Latitude ones We book Moderna and Teppanyaki first to avoid the $70 charge, then as many of the others as we have vouchers and free dinners for. First Cagney's and then Le Bistro and La Cucina, etc. .

 

 

I'm still fuzzy on terminology. What's I'd like to do is book three specialty dining venues for my wife and me. We usually book Cagneys and Le Bistro when we had just two specialty meals. For our third due to Platinum, we'd like to book one of those, or perhaps try one of the others, like Moderna perhaps. We book as early before boarding as possible, which has been 125 days prior.

Can I book three of those early, like 125 days out? I don't want to be charged for that third meal. Not sure what you mean by booking "first"; do you means earliest cruise days, or just the order in which you booked online?

 

Doug

[KeithJenner]

9 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Are the Fixed Price meals what I'm calling the included 2-meals when booking Always Included (or whatever NCL calls the perks)? Were you also able to book the additional "dinner for two" resulting from your Platinum or higher loyalty level at the same time? IOW, did you book three "specialty dining" meals 125 days in advance?

 

Doug

You can book as many meals as you want prior to the cruise, however they will be paid for.

 

Fixed Price meals are the ones at places that have a set cover charge for the meals. Basically those are Moderno and Teppanyaki (or whatever it’s called on the Prima/Viva).

 

When you reserve a meal in advance you get charged the cover charge for those meals, unless you have free at sea credits available to cover them. A la carts restaurants don’t have a charge when booking (as they don’t know what you will spend) so you should always book fixed price places first, regardless of how you will eventually pay for them.

 

There is a link in my signature which is quite out of date now, but the bit that covers this is still relevant.

 

[PaperSniper4]

5 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

No, it is two meals for two.

Really? Wow, that's a great perk. I thought it was one meal for two people when I read this at the Loyalty page:

Edited June 18 by PaperSniper4

[KeithJenner]

2 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

I'm still fuzzy on terminology. What's I'd like to do is book three specialty dining venues for my wife and me. We usually book Cagneys and Le Bistro when we had just two specialty meals. For our third due to Platinum, we'd like to book one of those, or perhaps try one of the others, like Moderna perhaps. We book as early before boarding as possible, which has been 125 days prior.

Can I book three of those early, like 125 days out? I don't want to be charged for that third meal. Not sure what you mean by booking "first"; do you means earliest cruise days, or just the order in which you booked online?

 

Doug

You can book all four meals that you will be covered for (2 free at sea and 2 latitudes) at 125 days out.

 

When booking them, make your booking for Moderno first (and Teppanyaki as well if you decide to go there), and check out. That will ensure that you don’t get charged for them. Then go back and book the others.

[KeithJenner]

1 minute ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Really? Wow, that's a great perk. I thought it was one meal for two people:

Look further down the list.

 

You get a meal for Two with wine and then another meal for two (no wine).

[BirdTravels]

52 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

We have been NCL Platinum for the last few cruises (last few years). On our last cruise earlier this year, we received a card once on board informing us we cold book another "dinner for two" specialty dining venue due to our loyalty status. Great, we did, but there were not very many openings left once on board.

 

We're sailing on another NCL 7 day cruise next March, and I wonder if we can book that "loyalty perk" dinner for two when we book the other two specialty meals, 125 days before sailing. Anyone tried that?

 

 Doug

You most certainly make advanced reservations. 
 

The reservation system really does not care how you are paying for any particular meal. You make that decision at the time you arrive at the restaurant (e.g., Free at Sea dinners, purchased dining package, other vouchers, cash/room charge). 
 

However, book Teppanyaki or Moderno first before any other restaurants (a la carte). Quirk of the system. 
 

As a top tier member, you can book exactly 125 days prior to departure. Everyone else can book 120 days prior to departure. Take advantage of the 5 day head start. 

[PaperSniper4]

6 minutes ago, goldmom said:

We had the FAS (Free at Sea) 2 meals and we get two Platinum meals, so four specialty dining meals in total.

We could make reservations for all 4 meals at the 125 day mark.

If you want a reservation in a restaurant with a fixed price (such as Teppanaki) then make that reservation first.  You will not be charged as you have the dining package (FAS)..  You can reserve any A La Carte restaurant with out incurring a charge as they don't know what your bill will be.  As long as you are not reserving more than 2 meals with a fixed price you wouldn't be charged anything.

Once onboard when you go to the restaurant just tell them if you are using the dining package or your Platinum voucher.

Enjoy!

GoldMom, that's very clear now! Thanks. I forget NCL calls their perks deal "Free at Sea". I've been calling it Always Included which might he HAL, Celeb, Princess? I never thought about some of those FAS meals being fixed price and some being not fixed price. I think on our last cruise when we used the "Platinum meal", we went to Le Bistro, and I now remember the server did indicate we were limited on what we could order. It has still more than we could eat. 😉

 

Now I just have to figure out which restaurants are a la carte.

 

 Doug

[goldmom]

The only other thing is that some people have reported problems trying to book the same restaurant twice.  If you wanted to go to Le Bistro twice during the cruise, you can try to make the reservation before or worse case you can make it onboard.

[KeithJenner]

2 minutes ago, goldmom said:

The only other thing is that some people have reported problems trying to book the same restaurant twice.  If you wanted to go to Le Bistro twice during the cruise, you can try to make the reservation before or worse case you can make it onboard.

That issue seems to have gone away now. I’ve managed to book multiple times on my past couple of cruises.

[KeithJenner]

4 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

 

Now I just have to figure out which restaurants are a la carte.

 

 Doug

Everything except Moderno and Teppanyaki.

[dbrown84]

3 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

GoldMom, that's very clear now! Thanks. I forget NCL calls their perks deal "Free at Sea". I've been calling it Always Included which might he HAL, Celeb, Princess? I never thought about some of those FAS meals being fixed price and some being not fixed price. I think on our last cruise when we used the "Platinum meal", we went to Le Bistro, and I now remember the server did indicate we were limited on what we could order. It has still more than we could eat. 😉

 

Now I just have to figure out which restaurants are a la carte.

 

 Doug

moderno and teppenyaki are fixed price, meaning there is a set price to go there.  All the others are a la carte, meaning you pay based on the menu price.  Of course, you won't actually pay anything since you're using your vouchers.  So just make sure you book moderno and/or teppenyaki first if you plan on going there.  Then book everything else

[PaperSniper4]

12 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

Look further down the list.

 

You get a meal for Two with wine and then another meal for two (no wine).

Oh for crying out LOUD, how could I miss that!😳

Thanks for pointing that out, Keith. That's great news for us: We will have the Free At Sea two meals and now the <modified> Platinum level two meals for a total of four in other than the MDR/Lido deck. That is a great perk indeed.

[PaperSniper4]

9 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

Everything except Moderno and Teppanyaki.

Thanks again, Keith and to all the other folks who kindly answered my ignorant questions. This forum is such a great source of infornation!

 

 Doug

[Asawi]

1 hour ago, ryarger said:

So I’d use your FAS meals for the fixed price of restaurants and your platinum for the a la carte.

I would do it the other way round! Fixed price (Moderno, Food Republic, Teppanyaki) is fixed price, wether FAS or platunum perk. A la carte MAY be dealt with differently between the two with platiunum stating a three course meal and FAS a four course. Usually not enforced, but from reports it sometimes is.

When bookin it makes no difference. You don't tell what method of payment you are using until going to the resataurant.

Just book fixed priced ones first.

[PaperSniper4]

10 minutes ago, dbrown84 said:

moderno and teppenyaki are fixed price, meaning there is a set price to go there.  All the others are a la carte, meaning you pay based on the menu price.  Of course, you won't actually pay anything since you're using your vouchers.  So just make sure you book moderno and/or teppenyaki first if you plan on going there.  Then book everything else

By first you mean the first meals of your cruise nights which the other choices on later days? Or just the order in which you book them 125 (or earlier) out.

 

My wive reminded me Moderna is not to out liking, simply too much tempting meat! But we have not tried Teppenjaki, we might try that this cruise. For now, here's how we'd like to book them:

 

Cagney's 2nd night of the cruise about 1800-1900

Le Bistro 3rd night of the cruise about 1800-1900

Teppenjaki 4th night of the cruise about 1800-1900

Cagney's 5th night of the cruise about 1800-1900

 

I'd plan on booking them online, in that order, exactly 125 days prior departure. Or are you saying I ought to book Teppenjaki first of the four meals? First in the case, as in 2nd night? Or first I add to my schedule which would be the 4th night?

 

Doug

 

PS - I promiss to soon ask no more questions......thanks for everyone's help!