Latitudes Rewards: free sparkling wine

[keep on cruisin]

21 minutes ago, Budget Queen said:

When's the last time,  you did this?   

November 2017 on Breakaway.

[myjillian]

Bring it home...add peach juice to it...serve it with a good home cooked meal add a couple of friends...and pretend your in Venice drinking Belinis...workes every time 😃or....give it to your mailman for holding your mail🤗

Edited January 5, 2019 by myjillian

[newmexicoNita]

9 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Use to be 9-piece and 4-piece boxes of Godiva chocolates. We liked those better. 

Now that they do give so many bottles of bubbly away that we can't go to a bar and exchange it and so many have the UBP as a perk, I totally agree with you. I would love to see the chocolates brought back: to heck with the wine. I still think it is a nice idea to give us something special, but choc would be nicer for some of us. As for taking home, I would love to, but as our daughter pointed out: put it in your luggage, put luggage in the hottest part of the ship and enjoy an exploded bottle when your luggage arrives. I will skip it, thank you. 

[david_sobe]

Exchanging bottles is a mixed tale. Some have success while others have no success. Once on Epic, I was at the Haven bar and a guy who was sitting next to me was asking the bartender to exchange his bottle of champagne (he is in an owners suite so I am sure it was the real thing) for a bottle of wine.  The bartender made a few calls and he was told no.  They did not argue but there was a lot of back and forth.  Finally a decision was made he could exchange his champagne for wine.  
Personally, I would not go through that headache but I see how some don't want to waste their perk and want to get something even less value in replacement.

[PATRLR]

9 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Use to be 9-piece and 4-piece boxes of Godiva chocolates. We liked those better. 

Going further back, it used to be nice hard goods.  I still regularly use a canvas toiletries kit with Majesty of the Seas and the RCCL logo embroidered on it.  And I'm pretty sure I was the lowest loyalty level when I got that!

Those days are long gone...

 

[vpearlkc]

13 hours ago, pizza123 said:

On our last behind the scenes tour (free perk). We were told (on the Star) employees are only allowed 1 drink a day and are subject to random alcohol testing.

 

The crew works hard and a lot of them party hard. I'm sure that if they are caught drunk while on shift there are consequences but no one cares what they do on their own time.

 

Google "cruise ship crew bars" if you want to see how a lot of the crew blows off steam. 

[casofilia]

Get a big glass of apple juice at breakfast.  Chill all day in the fridge.  Ask housekeeping (by phone) for two wine glasses.  Place the apple juice in wine glass and fill the glass with the sparkling wine.  Re-cork the wine bottle.  Carry the wine glass with you to dinner.

Repeat nightly till the wine bottle is empty!!  Repeat with the other half's bottle!!!!

[richstowe]

On 1/4/2019 at 12:55 PM, brainbucket said:

I was just looking at the rewards for bronze latitudes members. Does anyone know what kind of sparkling wine will be provided and is there a non-alcoholic version available?

 

Thanks OP . I was not aware of this and since we won't have the drink package, we'll certainly try this bottle . Whether we finish it is another question . 😉

[maja651]

On 1/4/2019 at 4:35 PM, david_sobe said:

Lets split the difference.  Its fine as a latitudes perk.  But maybe they can afford something better for the suites?  As others mentioned, I would prefer spring water and it would be cheaper for NCL.  NCL seems to hoard spring water LOL.  You can order a $15 alcoholic drink but your drink package wont give you a $1.50 bottle of water.  Go figure!

 

While the sparking wine is not great, its not as bad as the house Merlot they sometimes give away. I can drink cheap wine (including the poor sparking wine) but not that stuff.  It burns my throat like gasoline 

They give real champagne, Moët and Chandon for OS and above. ❤️  Drink that first then move to the cheap Latitude bottle when you’re buzzed and can’t tell the difference. Lol

[sailandcruise]

It retails at various on-line wine merchants for $7-9/bottle.

[meandmaboy]

On 1/5/2019 at 1:55 AM, peg013 said:

On our Gem cruise in Nov/Dec of 2018 a bunch of us playing LCR  on sea days got a couple pitchers of orange juice and I got a large glass of apple juice since orange isn't my favorite and we all brought our bottle of sparkling wine to the last LCR gathering.  It really actually was half decent mixed with the apple juice and we all enjoyed our sparkling wine together. We should have thought of it earlier so we didn't all have to worry about bringing drinks to LCR with us. 

 

We did that also on our seadays on our TA. 

As it was a big rollcall the bottles appeared everyday @ our LCR. 

A few other Scots we met gave us their bottles as well, some of the days we got pastries & cookies.

[Visigoth]

What a waste of perfectly good orange juice.  I believe the best usage for this vintage should be ship christening.

[don't-use-real-name]

24 minutes ago, Visigoth said:

What a waste of perfectly good orange juice.  I believe the best usage for this vintage should be ship christening.

 

Careful here might take the paint off the hull ! LOL !

Mr. Wyland would not appreciate that.

[Jasonmom]

Just read this thread. Someone mentioned getting a free glass of sparkling wine as we get on board.  I think they were not sure if this was still practiced.  I seam to remember getting that free glass but it has been over 10 years since sailing with NCL.  

 

Do they still give you a free glass of sparkling wine as you board?

 

[don't-use-real-name]

51 minutes ago, Jasonmom said:

Just read this thread. Someone mentioned getting a free glass of sparkling wine as we get on board.  I think they were not sure if this was still practiced.  I seam to remember getting that free glass but it has been over 10 years since sailing with NCL.  

 

Do they still give you a free glass of sparkling wine as you board?

 

 

No unless you have Latitudes status and you go to your cabin and open the bottle that is waiting for you.

 

Best that you have that UBP and do some serious drinking upon boarding !

[Mikiejag]

I don't think I drank/received it on the last cruise.

 

Doesn't bronze take effect on second cruise onward?

[phillyguy31]

Somehow wound up with 3 bottles, we run into a couple on their honeymoon and gave it to them.

[AmyJA]

I like me a cheap Brut.

 

[don't-use-real-name]

12 hours ago, Mikiejag said:

I don't think I drank/received it on the last cruise.

 

Doesn't bronze take effect on second cruise onward?

Anything after your first cruise gets you at least bronze latitudes status - - -

Your second cruise will have the bottle of sparkling bubbly awaiting you in your cabin on boarding - - -

Any more subsequent cruises will not increase the number of bottles it is one per cabin per cruise !

 

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

[pspercy]

It's drinkable, we drank ours as we were packing at the end of the cruise !

 

[shrew]

I like good champagne - like I *really* like it. While I found the complimentary bottles of wine undrinkable, the champagne made a just fine mimosa. I'm on vacation, it was a bonus, and mimosas are celebratory. What's not to like?

[Mikiejag]

I will have to pay closer attention....in about 25 more days....LOL

[Gershep]

It's horrible, I wish they would give us something else.

[rebbylicious]

I’m going on escape on February 29th. Mimosas are my favorite and that’s what I did with my free bottle the last time. If anybody doesn’t want there’s, send them my way. They are good when mixed with ok. (Not straight) 

[Trz5566]

This is a French Sparkling Wine 🍷.