Priority Embarkation Question?

[oldminion]

How does "priority embarkation" work? I am trying to maintain a surprise for my wife and am wondering if "priority embarkation" will let the "cat out of the bag", unless I have some b/s answer ready, if possible, or if I will have to let her know before she sees the room. We are sailing on the March 31 departure of the Norwegian Star from San Pedro to celebrate our 40th anniversary. I told her I had reserved a nice cabin with a balcony. However, I did not tell her it was a mini-suite, I figured I would just surprise her when we got to the room. However, I have subsequently upgraded our room to a penthouse suite so it will still be a nice room with a balcony and we are also now eligible for "priority embarkation". We will be taking the NCL transfer from LAX to the ship, and I do not know the procedure that will be involved for "priority embarkation" when we arrive at the dock and whether or not I can maintain the surprise of the suite until we are on-board. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[cruizinwithkids]

Make up some bs story. We were upsold a few years ago. We were with friends who were upsold as well. I didn't tell my husband we had been upsold. He was so impressed that we were with these people and the great treatment they were getting. He really made an ass of himself carrying on about them being special.

 

Then we walked into our room:D

[Cosmopolitan]

How does "priority embarkation" work? I am trying to maintain a surprise for my wife and am wondering if "priority embarkation" will let the "cat out of the bag", unless I have some b/s answer ready, if possible, or if I will have to let her know before she sees the room. We are sailing on the March 31 departure of the Norwegian Star from San Pedro to celebrate our 40th anniversary. I told her I had reserved a nice cabin with a balcony. However, I did not tell her it was a mini-suite, I figured I would just surprise her when we got to the room. However, I have subsequently upgraded our room to a penthouse suite so it will still be a nice room with a balcony and we are also now eligible for "priority embarkation". We will be taking the NCL transfer from LAX to the ship, and I do not know the procedure that will be involved for "priority embarkation" when we arrive at the dock and whether or not I can maintain the surprise of the suite until we are on-board. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Make sure that you are "in front" of your wife when you come upon the Rep., for checking in...so that you give them the information.

though I do not know how the San Pedro check-in is.

 

She may be so excited about checking in that she may not even hear what you say (regarding cabin).

 

You may also want to order the "bon-voyage" package for your penthouse so that if your surprise is spoiled at the pier, you will ensure that she has a surprise in your penthouse;)

 

Enjoy your cruise, so nice that you are surprising your wife:)

[isles1]

Tell her it is part of Freestyle 2.0. Balcony cabins are supposed to get some sort of special boarding treatment under 2.0. Not sure if it is called priority embarkation, but whatever :)

 

Just talk to your wife sometime before the cruise about how you hope 2.0 is rolled out on your ship so you can board early since you have a balcony cabin. That should plant the seed you need to trick her for a few hours once you arrive to board.

 

Sounds like a great surprise. Have fun!

[garycarla]

tell her about the mini-suite. After all, it is really not that big of a upgrade from balcony. Then when she sees the penthouse, she will be surprised. Besides, checkin until room arrival will probably be under 30 busy minutes.

[gym2]

We were in a penthouse on the Sun in January out of Miami. My husband walked up to a NCL rep and asked where we go for penthouse check in. The rep pulled out a list of penthouse names, found ours and escorted us to a separate room for a quick check in. However, I don't know how it will be in San Pedro.

I agree with Cosmopolitan, get to a rep first and tell them this without your wife hearing. Better yet, just ask her to wait in one place with your carryons and find the rep. When you get wisked away to check in, you could just explain that suite guests are all treated like this. The true surprise will be when she sees the cabin.

What a wonderful surprise! Have a great cruise, and here's to 40 more!

gym2

[ianmerc]

If it was me I would ensure that I was the one doing the checking in and ask the rep to use very little reference, if any, to the fact I had a penthouse suite. When embarkation comes either go on board like everyone else then she would never suspect or tell her that the new 2.0 upgrade has now taken effect. (In the new 2.0 all balconies get some form of priority embarkation). I have heard embarkation is so speedy on NCL that there would not be much difference for you if you boarded with everyone else. Probably worth the sacrifice to enhance the surprise.

[snorklinbarb]

What a lovely surprise for your wife. Don't know what your latitudes status is but you could tell her it's because of that. Chances are you'll just move her along and she will just follow you without having a chance to ask a lot of questions.:)

 

BTW, under freestyle 2.0, here are the upgrades that will be offered to balcony/minisuite:

 

Balcony and mini suites

• 
  
• A distinctive colored key card for ship wide recognition;
  
• An "at your service" hotline;
  
• A separate check-in for balcony and mini suite guests;
  
• A personal escort to stateroom;
  
• Priority disembarkation.

[oldminion]

Thanks for the suggestions. Since I have a penchant for planning, here is the plan I have developed based on your comments.

 

1. As we are getting off the bus at the pier, I will ask my wife to wait with the bags while I locate a porter and find an NCL rep as I have seen in on-line discussions that NCL is in the process of rolling out Free style cruising 2.0 which includes a priority embarkation for customers with balcony staterooms and I want to find out if they have it for our cruise and if so, whether or not we qualify.

2. I will talk to an NCL rep about where we go and tell him/her not to mention the suite to my wife. After locating a porter and turning over our bags, I will then take her to the location as directed by the NCL rep for completion of the embarkation process.

3. Then, when we get to the suite, the surprise will be complete, including opening the champagne from the Anniversary/honeymoon package I had previously ordered.

[travelgurl]

Excellent! I just finished a cruise with my DH and surprised him as well. We were upgraded (actually an upsell) to a Deluxe OS and I managed to keep it secret and maintain my cool the whole time. I even had to change the room number on our luggage tags as the upsell was after we received them/ etickets. I had to tell several people during the process that we were in a different cabin and he did not catch on. There is so much going on there that its easy to be distracted, I guess!!:rolleyes: It was a lot of fun to see his expression when we got up to our cabin. Enjoy your cruise and Happy Anniversary!!

[soazlaney]

If you truly want to keep it a surprise until she sees the cabin, make sure you let them know that when you check in. We took the same cruise on the Star last Jan. in an owner's suite (upsell) and when we checked in they turned us over to the concierge (Monica) who in turn had one of the butlers take us to our cabin. I am sure if you manage to tell them without her hearing that you just want to board like everyone else they will let you. BUT - let me say that it was a thrill for us to be escorted onto the ship. Maybe you should think about letting her be surprised when you are suddenly taken aside and wisked by everyone in line:D . Just a thought.

 

P.S. Monica was wonderful. If she is still there tell her Elaine says "Hey" She won't remember me - but I will never forget how kind she was to a "suite newby"

[Cosmopolitan]

Thanks for the suggestions. Since I have a penchant for planning, here is the plan I have developed based on your comments.

 

1. As we are getting off the bus at the pier, I will ask my wife to wait with the bags while I locate a porter and find an NCL rep as I have seen in on-line discussions that NCL is in the process of rolling out Free style cruising 2.0 which includes a priority embarkation for customers with balcony staterooms and I want to find out if they have it for our cruise and if so, whether or not we qualify.

2. I will talk to an NCL rep about where we go and tell him/her not to mention the suite to my wife. After locating a porter and turning over our bags, I will then take her to the location as directed by the NCL rep for completion of the embarkation process.

3. Then, when we get to the suite, the surprise will be complete, including opening the champagne from the Anniversary/honeymoon package I had previously ordered.

 

Good for You!

 

Sounds GREAT :-)

 

Have a wonderful cruise and wishing you many more "Happy, Healthy Anniversaries":)

[oldminion]

Elaine, Thanks for the information. From your description, it sounds like I need to tweak my "cover story" to my wife to mention that Freestyle 2.0 also includes being escorted to your cabin. During the embarkation process, does the concierge, butler, or check-in personnel use the term "suite", or do they just refer to your "cabin"?

[soazlaney]

Several of the staff starting with the people at the check-in desk used the term "suite". As we were checking in it was said several times and it was explained to us that as "suite" guests we would be handed over to the concierge for boarding. I hope you can keep the secret - but it is going to be a challange since so many different crew will be involved. Maybe you can grab a crew person when you get there and explain what you want. I don't see why they wouldn't let you board in the regular line.

Good Luck. You are going to love the Star. We had the absolute best time on that cruise.

 

Elaine

[bluesea777]

One word of caution ... did your wife know the original cabin number? (the mini-suite one)

 

If she did, you'll have to think of a way to keep her from seeing the luggage tags that has the new penthouse number.

 

Anyway, hope your plan goes well. Please come back with a report!

 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

[oldminion]

She did see the mini-suite number on the luggage tags when they came and she put them away. However she would not remember the number, I hope. If I get new tags from NCL, then that will not be a problem. However, the travel agant said I would have to crossout the old number and mark the new number on the tags. I have been experimenting with printing the suite number on my computer and then cutting it out to fit on the tag over the original number using invisible tape. My plan was to not put the tags on until I turned the bags over to the porter at the pier and hope she does not notice the change at that time. However, in view of Elaine's last post, it sounds like I will have to decide either to tell her at the pier and go through the priority embarkation, or not tell her and if she does not notice the change on the tags, go through regular boarding. This sounds like it is going to have to be a last minute decision based on what happens at the pier.

[oldminion]

Elaine, your answers in explaining the process on the Star have been most helpful for me to decide what I want to do. As I said earlier, I have a penchant for planning and since I want her to enjoy the priority embarkation experience and because the staff uses the term suite in explaining the services etc, I have decided that we will have a pre-cruise celebration dinner/party:D at our hotel the night before we sail and I will give her an envelope that will have the revised luggage tags in it and tell her that we have a suite for the cruise.

[soazlaney]

Elaine, your answers in explaining the process on the Star have been most helpful for me to decide what I want to do. As I said earlier, I have a penchant for planning and since I want her to enjoy the priority embarkation experience and because the staff uses the term suite in explaining the services etc, I have decided that we will have a pre-cruise celebration dinner/party:D at our hotel the night before we sail and I will give her an envelope that will have the revised luggage tags in it and tell her that we have a suite for the cruise.

 

That sounds like a wonderful plan. You can print new tags yourself from the e-docs with the new suite # on them. I just printed them out, put an address label on them, covered them on both sides with clear packing tape, folded them in half, used a hole puncher and then attached them to the bags at the hotel the night before with those plastic ties that once you put them on you have to cut off. They were very sturdy and looked pretty good too. Have a great cruise. She is a very lucky wife:D