Platinum benefits - wine tasting, behind-the-scenes tour?

[kochleffel]

My next NCL cruise will be my first at Latitudes Platinum. According to the website, the benefits include a wine tasting and a behind-the-scenes tour.

 

Are these currently being offered? Is the capacity so limited that it's necessary to get the earliest possible check-in time and then run straight to the cruise next desk to book them?

[ziggyuk]

Three weeks ago on the Breakaway there was wine tasting but no behind the scenes and no compensation for that.

 

[jingle5616]

The platinum wine tastings I have attended

were sad.  I tried on 2 different ships and frankly it wasn't worth my time.  Poor wine, no fun.  The Beverage managers couldn't wait to get us out of there.    Our experiences were on Encore and Escape.  Hope it was better for others.

[seemoreroyals]

2 hours ago, jingle5616 said:

The platinum wine tastings I have attended

were sad.  I tried on 2 different ships and frankly it wasn't worth my time.  Poor wine, no fun.  The Beverage managers couldn't wait to get us out of there.    Our experiences were on Encore and Escape.  Hope it was better for others.

 

Same for us on Bliss.  Very underwhelming.  Far as I know still no BTS tours on any of the ships yet.

[romalley99]

The Behind the Scenes Tour is still not available... it's the only perk they are not operating at the moment. For the Wine Tasting, since this will be your first time with access to it, give it a try. For me, it was a one and done type thing. No need to go back. It's not quite what I was expecting, in terms of having to walk around and get the wine myself, and using the "dump and pour" method. I much prefer a new glass for each wine. But this might just be me... Anyway, it's worth it to go once! 

[romalley99]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:33 PM, kochleffel said:

My next NCL cruise will be my first at Latitudes Platinum. According to the website, the benefits include a wine tasting and a behind-the-scenes tour.

 

Are these currently being offered? Is the capacity so limited that it's necessary to get the earliest possible check-in time and then run straight to the cruise next desk to book them?

 

It is actually capacity controlled. If there are a very large number of Latitudes Members on the cruise, they might hold one event capped off at the "highest" of the tier... meaning, the top cruisers on the list, or they might hold multiple events on different days. 

 

For example, on the Prima Transatlantic back in September, there were over 1300 Latitudes Members, with 800+ being Platinum and Higher. I was informed by the Cruise Next Manager that the Miami office sends a list of the top cruisers and they have priority to all events. Being there were so many, they held 3 Wines Around the World Tastings and 3 Sail and Sustain Mixology Experiences. This, of course, was most likely because we had so many free days (sea days) in a row and there was time for it. However, I was informed that since I was one of 13 Ambassadors onboard, that I had been automatically signed up. I did asked to be removed from the list so that those wanting to go who haven't gotten a spot yet can.

 

I wish everyone who doesn't want to go would asked to be removed from the list to make room for those that to. It's inconsiderate of them to not check in with Cruise Next and make sure! Just saying this as an FYI, but it's also super rare that a typical cruise would have this many latitudes members for it to become an issue. This sailing was out of the ordinary. 

[dexddd]

Benefits are not there nor being replaced.  We too were on Prima TA.  Wine tasting sold out.  Waitlist with no call.  No bts.  No dinner with officers.  No Sapphire pins.

 

No apology from cruisenext desk.  But sure, they had plenty of time to call room to sell cruisenext certs.  No thanks.

[BirdTravels]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:33 PM, kochleffel said:

My next NCL cruise will be my first at Latitudes Platinum. According to the website, the benefits include a wine tasting and a behind-the-scenes tour.

 

Are these currently being offered? Is the capacity so limited that it's necessary to get the earliest possible check-in time and then run straight to the cruise next desk to book them?

You will get your free dinner for 2, dinner for 2 with wine, laundry, Wines Around the World, various discounts. 
 

We, in particular, enjoy the wine tasting. Multiple stations with bottles of wines from the country represented at the station. It is an excuse to “taste”’a bunch of wines. 
 

You need to sign up at the Cruise Next desk when you embark. There is a limit to the number of people that can attend. 

Edited January 6, 2023 by BirdTravels

[JGmf]

9 hours ago, romalley99 said:

I wish everyone who doesn't want to go would asked to be removed from the list to make room for those that to. It's inconsiderate of them to not check in with Cruise Next and make sure!

 

Thanks for the information.

 

You are saying that selected Latitudes members are automatically signed-up for the tasting and mixology.  Is there something in your stateroom welcome packet that indicates as such and asks for a RSVP? 

 

While I agree that it's a nice thing to do to create spots for people who actually want to participate, absent some confirmation you were signed-up, it's a stretch for people to guess and/or do a preemptive visit to the Cruise Next desk.

 

[BirdTravels]

12 minutes ago, JGmf said:

 

Thanks for the information.

 

You are saying that selected Latitudes members are automatically signed-up for the tasting and mixology.  Is there something in your stateroom welcome packet that indicates as such and asks for a RSVP? 

 

While I agree that it's a nice thing to do to create spots for people who actually want to participate, absent some confirmation you were signed-up, it's a stretch for people to guess and/or do a preemptive visit to the Cruise Next desk.

 

No. That was for one cruise that was oversubscribed with top tier members. 

[romalley99]

3 hours ago, JGmf said:

 

Thanks for the information.

 

You are saying that selected Latitudes members are automatically signed-up for the tasting and mixology.  Is there something in your stateroom welcome packet that indicates as such and asks for a RSVP? 

 

While I agree that it's a nice thing to do to create spots for people who actually want to participate, absent some confirmation you were signed-up, it's a stretch for people to guess and/or do a preemptive visit to the Cruise Next desk.

 

 

Some, yes, are automatically signed up via a list sent to the ship from Miami Office. They send out invitations to those cabins. However, it is always advised for Latitudes Members to visit the Cruise Next Desk on the first day by 9:00pm, just to check in and pick up anything (such as pins, paperwork etc). They make that announcement repeatedly from the time we board until sailaway. I think it certainly is an issue that can be worked on/better communicated. But as I said earlier, this is out of the ordinary but nonetheless still a possibility.

 

I was just on the Escape first two weeks of December, we were the only 2 Ambassadors onboard and only 3 other Diamonds. I was still automatically signed up for everything (including Dinner with the Officers). When I received the invitations in my cabin, I kindly declined. 

[romalley99]

8 hours ago, dexddd said:

Benefits are not there nor being replaced.  We too were on Prima TA.  Wine tasting sold out.  Waitlist with no call.  No bts.  No dinner with officers.  No Sapphire pins.

 

No apology from cruisenext desk.  But sure, they had plenty of time to call room to sell cruisenext certs.  No thanks.

 

I know Prima TA was a rough one. Lots and lots of members all wanting the same thing. Sorry you experienced this, but this is exactly my issue. They need a better way to handle this volume, even if out of the ordinary. 

[The Traveling Man]

19 hours ago, jingle5616 said:

The platinum wine tastings I have attended

were sad.  I tried on 2 different ships and frankly it wasn't worth my time.  Poor wine, no fun.  The Beverage managers couldn't wait to get us out of there.    Our experiences were on Encore and Escape.  Hope it was better for others.

We had a similar experience on the Prima in September.  We had hoped for a knowledgeable sommelier to be available at each of the several wine stations to offer some advice and counsel on the wines being offered.  Instead, there was only one "wine steward" for the entire room, meaning that at most stations we poured our own wine.  About 30 minutes into the scheduled hour-long event they started to give us the bum's rush, saying that they needed to clear and reset the venue for the next event.

Edited January 6, 2023 by The Traveling Man

[The Traveling Man]

14 hours ago, romalley99 said:

 

It is actually capacity controlled. If there are a very large number of Latitudes Members on the cruise, they might hold one event capped off at the "highest" of the tier... meaning, the top cruisers on the list, or they might hold multiple events on different days. 

 

For example, on the Prima Transatlantic back in September, there were over 1300 Latitudes Members, with 800+ being Platinum and Higher. I was informed by the Cruise Next Manager that the Miami office sends a list of the top cruisers and they have priority to all events. Being there were so many, they held 3 Wines Around the World Tastings and 3 Sail and Sustain Mixology Experiences. This, of course, was most likely because we had so many free days (sea days) in a row and there was time for it. However, I was informed that since I was one of 13 Ambassadors onboard, that I had been automatically signed up. I did asked to be removed from the list so that those wanting to go who haven't gotten a spot yet can.

 

I wish everyone who doesn't want to go would asked to be removed from the list to make room for those that to. It's inconsiderate of them to not check in with Cruise Next and make sure! Just saying this as an FYI, but it's also super rare that a typical cruise would have this many latitudes members for it to become an issue. This sailing was out of the ordinary. 

We were on the Prima cruise just before yours.  There were about 8 or 10 Ambassadors, and we were among the Diamond members with the greatest number of Latitude points, so we were able to attend both the wine and spirits tastings.  Cruise Next Manager Carolina did not say anything about us being automatically enrolled for these events, however, so we stopped by the desk to sign up.  I assumed that if we had not signed up that our spots would have been available to some other Diamond, Sapphire, or Platinum members.

[Middleager]

On our Epic Med b2b cruises, we had to sign up for the Wine tasting as we embarked (and re-embarked).  We enjoyed it.  We heard it was capacity controlled, but don't know if anyone was turned away for being full.

 

No BST. 

 

We booked one NCL tour from our cabin, using the TV/remote.  Found out the Plat discount was not applied.  I went to the Shore Excursion desk to ask, the guy said that's right, the discounts are not auto applied, and he'll have to manually apply them.  If we hadn't noticed and gone to ask, the discount won't be applied -- they need to fix that.

[The Traveling Man]

On 1/4/2023 at 6:33 PM, kochleffel said:

My next NCL cruise will be my first at Latitudes Platinum. According to the website, the benefits include a wine tasting and a behind-the-scenes tour.

 

Are these currently being offered? Is the capacity so limited that it's necessary to get the earliest possible check-in time and then run straight to the cruise next desk to book them?

As noted by some other responses to your question, some of these benefits are on hold fleet-wide, while others may be available on some cruises but not on others.  You definitely should receive coupons for your free meals in specialty dining venues, your discounts on tours and on certain merchandise in the shops on board, and your free laundry service.  Some of the other perks are either capacity controlled or simply not being offered on some cruises.  Since the restart after the COVID shutdown we have had dinner with officers on one of five cruises, wine tasting on two cruises, and no BTS tours on any of them.  They skipped the Latitudes party on one cruise, but had it on four others.  On the first couple of cruises after the restart they offered an OBC of $10 to $25 per person as compensation for the missed events.  No compensation for cancelled events or for missed ports-of-call was offered to us on any of the cruises we have taken since January of 2022.

[The Traveling Man]

1 minute ago, Middleager said:

On our Epic Med b2b cruises, we had to sign up for the Wine tasting as we embarked (and re-embarked).  We enjoyed it.  We heard it was capacity controlled, but don't know if anyone was turned away for being full.

 

No BST. 

 

We booked one NCL tour from our cabin, using the TV/remote.  Found out the Plat discount was not applied.  I went to the Shore Excursion desk to ask, the guy said that's right, the discounts are not auto applied, and he'll have to manually apply them.  If we hadn't noticed and gone to ask, the discount won't be applied -- they need to fix that.

We have grown accustomed to that minor inconvenience, unfortunately.  It seems that no matter how we book a shore excursion we have to stop by the desk to have someone reissue our tickets to get the discount applied correctly.  This has been a problem for years.

[kochleffel]

14 hours ago, romalley99 said:

It is actually capacity controlled. If there are a very large number of Latitudes Members on the cruise, they might hold one event capped off at the "highest" of the tier... meaning, the top cruisers on the list, or they might hold multiple events on different days. 

 

14 hours ago, romalley99 said:

I wish everyone who doesn't want to go would asked to be removed from the list to make room for those that to. It's inconsiderate of them to not check in with Cruise Next and make sure! Just saying this as an FYI, but it's also super rare that a typical cruise would have this many latitudes members for it to become an issue. This sailing was out of the ordinary. 

 

This is just a 5-day sailing to Bermuda on the Getaway, which doesn't sound like it would attract many passengers at the highest tiers, but yes, it would be considerate for high-tier members who had been automatically signed up to take themselves off the list if they're not going to attend.

 

But I envision heading first to Cruise Next, then to booking for specialty dining if I don't have it arranged in advance. (Is it correct that dinners using Platinum certificates can't be booked online?) Right now I'm not finding any show booking available, and I'm not sure that there is anything that I would want to see.

 

 

[ggTexasGal]

2 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

(Is it correct that dinners using Platinum certificates can't be booked online?)

You may book your Latitudes meal(s) online.  However, if you are being asked to pay, then you would need to call to get help, or, complete your bookings onboard!

[The Traveling Man]

1 minute ago, kochleffel said:

 

Is it correct that dinners using Platinum certificates can't be booked online?

We have never had a problem booking Platinum dinners on line, either before the COVID shutdown or since.  There is a trick to booking the restaurants in the correct sequence.  Always book the fixed-price specialty restaurants first, then book the a la carte ones.  You should be able to book both your FAS and Platinum meals that way.

[kochleffel]

29 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

There is a trick to booking the restaurants in the correct sequence.  Always book the fixed-price specialty restaurants first, then book the a la carte ones.  You should be able to book both your FAS and Platinum meals that way.

 

Thanks. I'm not trying to book any fixed-price restaurants, and the SPD offer is just one dinner in a five-day cruise. However, at this point Cagney's can't be booked online on any evening earlier than 9:00 p.m., so I'm leaving one open and will try to book it on board.

[FLAHAM]

10 hours ago, dexddd said:

Benefits are not there nor being replaced.  We too were on Prima TA.  Wine tasting sold out.  Waitlist with no call.  No bts.  No dinner with officers.  No Sapphire pins.

 

No apology from cruisenext desk.  But sure, they had plenty of time to call room to sell cruisenext certs.  No thanks.

 

10 hours ago, dexddd said:

Benefits are not there nor being replaced.  We too were on Prima TA.  Wine tasting sold out.  Waitlist with no call.  No bts.  No dinner with officers.  No Sapphire pins.

I asked my PCC for my sapphire pin and she promptly mailed me a set of pins, silver through sapphire.

[dexddd]

On 1/6/2023 at 4:09 PM, FLAHAM said:

 

I asked my PCC for my sapphire pin and she promptly mailed me a set of pins, silver through sapphire.

Good to know, thanks.

 

As far as having to go wait in line first night at CN desk for things is antiqued.

[curlstravel]

What all can you do at cruise next desk when you get on the ship?

[Travelling2Some]

We just made Platinum and my husband, an engineer by trade, is very hopeful about the BTS tour.  He did one on one of Royal's Oasis class ships and still talks about it enthusiastically to anyone who will put up with it (!)  Just wanted to note that Carnival has just resumed similar tours and I am hoping this is a good sign that NCL will follow suit. 

 

P.S.  If they do I will have no alternative but to sign up for the Wines Around the World thing as it will help me survive the enthusiastic yet largely incomprehensible (to me) reviews of the fine points of marine engineering.