JustAllie

I asked about the Behind the Scenes Tour on the Jewel back in May, but I was told they weren't running it at the time due to COVID. They offered me a $25 nonrefundable onboard credit as a consolation prize. It took awhile for that credit to show up on my account -- I had to follow up a couple of times, if I recall correctly. Anyway, that's just one person's experience on one ship. This past cruise was my first as Platinum, so I'm still looking forward to my first BTS tour! (The only time I've ever seen a paid option was on another cruise line, but honestly I haven't really looked for a paid option on any of my NCL cruises.)

It's just a cool opportunity to learn about how the ship operates. Not the engineering part, but the hotel services (restaurants, bars, laundry, guest services, etc.). You can ask questions. I've been to a few Meet & Greets where people ask all the wrong questions. The officers who show up are not the right people to ask about how they will handle an emergency like hitting an iceberg. For that, watch the movie "Titanic"!! Generally the captain and the engineering crew will not show up. It's the hotel & guest services staff who show up. Ask about how many people it takes to put on dinner for all those guests, or how many pounds of bananas are needed each day of a cruise, or or how many years on board it takes to go from cabin steward to head of hotel services, or who you should contact if there's a loud party in the cabin next door to yours.

That was him!! He was top-notch. My friend talked to him about an issue with disabled services at one of the ports, and he made sure the issue was addressed before we got to the next port stop. Plus he arranged a complimentary dinner at Cagney's as well. He really turned around that cruise for my friend, who was about ready to give up on NCL.

I was on the Jewel back in May, and because the person who started the Roll Call thread canceled her cruise, nobody on CC ended up organizing a Meet & Greet. In response, the ship organized one without our asking, and put it in the daily newsletter! About 8 officers attended, as well as about 15 CC members. It was really mind-blowing to me how interested the General Manager on that cruise was in input from the CruiseCritic members. Obviously experiences will vary from ship to ship, but it's definitely worth trying to organize a Meet & Greet and to invite all the roll call members and the ship's officers as well. Can't hurt to try!