New Platinum Member Questions

[Grumpella]

I called NCL and was told that I could not book my free dinners with my Platinum level until I am on the ship. She said they will make sure I get a reservation as it is part of my Platinum benefits.  However, I told her I don't want to eat at 9:00.  lol  She also said La Cuchina was not included.  I looked at the Platinum benefits and it just said I could not book the same restaurant twice.

 

As for Platinum Check-In/Embarkation, will I be given an earlier time once I check in?  Or is it just that they call Platinum members before they start calling the other groups?

 

From reading the boards, I do know to book a la carte restaurants first, but since I only like Cagneys and La Cucina, that won't be an issue.

 

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Biffire]

We u8sually have our TA book our specialty dining reservations for us. 2 FAS and 2 Platinum, never been charged in advance like some people have been. In my experience different ports to the priority embarkation differently. One time we were shown to a priority line, but ended up at the same place as our friends who were not priority we had a shorter line, but fewer staff. 

[hallux]

The problem you run into when booking the dinners pre-cruise is if you try booking flat-fee restaurants.  If you have the free-at-sea meals you will need to book any flat-fee places FIRST so they accounted for as free-at-sea meals.  The system doesn't recognize status for the purposes of booking meals so if you book a-la-carte first then try to book flat-fee it's going to try charging you since the system doesn't think you have credits to use.

[fredflint]

It also depends on your cruise, I have been on a lot of cruises where there were so many people higher than me that my status made no difference at all.   Kind of like being in the third group to board a plane with 100 seats and the first 2 groups have 45 each!

[dbrown84]

3 hours ago, Grumpella said:

I called NCL and was told that I could not book my free dinners with my Platinum level until I am on the ship. She said they will make sure I get a reservation as it is part of my Platinum benefits.  However, I told her I don't want to eat at 9:00.  lol  She also said La Cuchina was not included.  I looked at the Platinum benefits and it just said I could not book the same restaurant twice.

 

As for Platinum Check-In/Embarkation, will I be given an earlier time once I check in?  Or is it just that they call Platinum members before they start calling the other groups?

 

From reading the boards, I do know to book a la carte restaurants first, but since I only like Cagneys and La Cucina, that won't be an issue.

 

Thank you in advance for your help.

you don't have to wait to be on the ship.  You should actually book the flat fee restaurants first, not a la carte.  Then you can book your a la carte restaurants.  and because you're platinum, you can book at 125 days before embarkation, instead of 120 days

[BirdTravels]

4 hours ago, Grumpella said:

I called NCL and was told that I could not book my free dinners with my Platinum level until I am on the ship. She said they will make sure I get a reservation as it is part of my Platinum benefits.  However, I told her I don't want to eat at 9:00.  lol  She also said La Cuchina was not included.  I looked at the Platinum benefits and it just said I could not book the same restaurant twice.

 

As for Platinum Check-In/Embarkation, will I be given an earlier time once I check in?  Or is it just that they call Platinum members before they start calling the other groups?

 

From reading the boards, I do know to book a la carte restaurants first, but since I only like Cagneys and La Cucina, that won't be an issue.

 

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

You were provided with incorrect information. You can make dining reservations 125 days prior to departure. General reservations open 120 days prior to departure, so take advantage of your 5 day head start. You determine how you wish to pay for the dinner at the restaurant. The reservation system does not know or care how you intend to pay for your dinners. You can use your Platinum vouchers, your free at sea dinners, other vouchers, purchased dining packages, or a room charge. 

 

You want to book fixed price restaurants (like Teppanyaki or Moderno) first before a la carte restaurants. 

 

Your platinum vouchers (shown below) will be left in your stateroom on embarkation day. They are good at all specialty restaurants (including La Cucina). 

 

Also, on embarkation day, you will want to stop at the Cruise Next desk to book your platinum behind the scenes tour. Go early since it sometimes sells out. You can also pick up your platinum pins and get details on the Latitudes party. 

 

When you check in exactly 21 days prior to departure at midnight eastern time, you can select a time to arrive at the port (not an embarkation time). If you arrive before boarding begins, they will call Haven guests first, followed by passengers that require assistance to board, followed by top-tier latitudes (ambassador, diamond, sapphire, platinum), then general boarding by boarding group. Board when they call Platinum, regardless of any boarding group number you may have been assigned. 

 

[hallux]

8 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

You determine how you wish to pay for the dinner at the restaurant. The reservation system does not know or care how you intend to pay for your dinners. You can use your Platinum vouchers, your free at sea dinners, other vouchers, purchased dining packages, or a room charge. 

 

8 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

You want to book fixed price restaurants (like Teppanyaki or Moderno) first before a la carte restaurants. 

You're contradicting yourself, Bird.  The online reservation system DOES care, a little bit.  The second quote indicates that.  If the passenger does not have enough FAS credits to cover a fixed-price reservation based on other specialty restaurants being booked before it, the pre-trip reservation system will try to charge the cover charge.  If the reservation system actually didn't care how you were going to pay (as you indicate in the first quote) this wouldn't be an issue.

[Grumpella]

Thank you for the information.

 

As i stated above, I only like Cagneys and La Cuchina, both a la carte, so I won’t be booking a fixed price meal.

 

I want to book 3 a la carte meals at those restaurants, 1 my FAS and the other 2 are my platinum rewards.

 

 

 

[hallux]

10 minutes ago, Grumpella said:

I want to book 3 a la carte meals at those restaurants, 1 my FAS and the other 2 are my platinum rewards.

Then book them as desired.

[dbrown84]

1 hour ago, Grumpella said:

Thank you for the information.

 

As i stated above, I only like Cagneys and La Cuchina, both a la carte, so I won’t be booking a fixed price meal.

 

I want to book 3 a la carte meals at those restaurants, 1 my FAS and the other 2 are my platinum rewards.

 

 

 

you will have no problem doing this.  The rep on the phone gave you some very wrong information.

[jcscv]

Just book all your specialty dinner reservations on line for what is available (they don't care which promo you're using until you actually go for your meal). If you want to change times, or days, there will be a place on embarkation day, where you can request time/day changes.  My suggestion is to go there as soon as you board to take care of that. You can also just go to the restaurant and see if you can make changes, but it may be a little more limited on what can be done past embarkation day. 

[Sand and Seas]

48 minutes ago, LloydJr said:

Will the system allow advance booking of the same restaurant twice?

I was able to book the same restaurant twice for our upcoming Prima cruise.

[Asawi]

1 hour ago, LloydJr said:

Will the system allow advance booking of the same restaurant twice?

Yes. After all, it's just the Latitude perk that has the limitation about not using both on the same restaurant. With FAS or extra dinners or (horror!) paying menu prices you're free to go to the same restaurant as many times as you like!

[KeithJenner]

6 hours ago, LloydJr said:

Will the system allow advance booking of the same restaurant twice?

It seems to allow you to do so now.

 

There was a problem with the system allowing you to book the same restaurant twice. However on our last two cruises, whilst it didn’t look as though it had allowed us to, when I checked my booked meals they were both there.

 

The system still seems to be flawed, but it seems that you can actually make the bookings now, even if it seemed like it didn’t work.