Latitude Reward - Behind-the-Scenes Ship Tour

[OttawaJohn]

Hi all

 

We've just gotten to a Tier where one of the benefits is a Behind the Scenes ship tour. 

 

Can anyone offer some insight to how this works?  Is it just the standard tour that you get to join for free or is it separate? 

 

Thanks in advance

[Asawi]

It's a smaller tour than the one you pay for. I did one on Star last week and we got to see the theatre dressing room, laundry and galley. Not sure about time, but maybe about an hour?

[Triguy2009]

3 minutes ago, OttawaJohn said:

Hi all

 

We've just gotten to a Tier where one of the benefits is a Behind the Scenes ship tour. 

 

Can anyone offer some insight to how this works?  Is it just the standard tour that you get to join for free or is it separate? 

 

Thanks in advance

Congrats on your advancing tier status!   I learned the hard way that you have to go to the Latitudes desk on embarkation day and sign up for this tour.   I missed our first couple chances by waiting for them to let us know and then they were full.   They will tell you when the tour is - most typically a sea day.   It usually entails a trip to the main galley, the laundry, and along I-95(as they call it).  We found it very interesting, but once or perhaps on different ships, a couple times.   Ours did entail some stair climbing longer walks. To see the engine room or perhaps the bridge you need to pay for that tour which was a good use of my non-refundable OBC from world points.  So they are a little different.  

Hope this helps a little.  

 

Jay 

 

[BirdTravels]

26 minutes ago, OttawaJohn said:

Hi all

 

We've just gotten to a Tier where one of the benefits is a Behind the Scenes ship tour. 

 

Can anyone offer some insight to how this works?  Is it just the standard tour that you get to join for free or is it separate? 

 

Thanks in advance

Congrats on the status. 
 

You must sign up on embarkation day at the Cruise Next desk. Slots are limited and sometimes sell out. 
 

The tour is conducted by Cruise Next (versus the paid tour which is conducted by ShoreEx). You typically will visit the Galley, theater, and laundry (along with some crew areas -depending on the guide). 
 

The tour is normally early on the first sea day. And takes 90-120 minutes. 
 

The paid tour (which this is not) would also take you to a video history of NCL, the Engine Control Room and Bridge. You would also get a photo with the chef on the paid tour. 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

As soon as you board go directly to the CruiseNext desk to sign up for the tour, also available is dinner with the officers, wine tasting, mixology exerience.  Please don’t sign up for things and no show.  Happens a lot and others lose out and it’s insulting to the staff.  First time we did mixology it was only us!  Everyone else no showed.  You will also be able to pick up your new pins at the desk.  The tour on the Prima included everything cited above as well as the crew lounge.  That was a first for us and I felt it was a bit invasive.  There were LOTS of stairs and my hips were not happy with me as some of them were steep and as many as five flights at a time, so take that into consideration.  And you must wear closed toe shoes, it is nonnegotiable and I’ve seen people turned away for even peekaboo toes.  Usually there are two groups of 12 for the tours.

Edited Friday at 05:53 PM by MagnoliaBlossom

[OttawaJohn]

Thanks all!  I'll make a note to sign-up for the tour ASAP once aboard. 

 

I've done behind the scenes tours before, the paid ones, so wasn't sure how it worked in comparison.

 

[tomk3212]

Congrats on your tier elevation!

 

When they first started the BTS tours for Platinum & up the tour was about 2 hours & did take you to the Bridge & engine room in addition to the other aforesaid areas (galley, theater backstage, laundry, etc.).  At that time there was no 'paid' BTS tour; the Latitudes Reward BTS tour was it.  Then some genius at NCL corporate figured they could make some extra $$ offering a PAID BTS tour.  Since then the Latitudes tour has gone downhill (no more Bridge or engine room) and the paid tour takes you to more spaces plus other perqs @BirdTravels mentioned.  We stopped going on the BTS back before COVID.  We'll probably do it again sometime.

 

By all means, do the tour if you can.  Wear sneakers or a sturdy pair of footwear and be prepared to climb stairs.

[DwayneG]

We're Platinum, but traveloing with our first-time cruiser small children.  I'm guessing they couldn't go with us?

[KeithJenner]

4 minutes ago, DwayneG said:

We're Platinum, but traveloing with our first-time cruiser small children.  I'm guessing they couldn't go with us?

Very unlikely.

 

Our son was invited once, but that was on a cruise where there were very few people  onboard who qualified for the tour (there was only one and it wasn't full).

 

These days there are generally not enough slots for the people who qualify themselves, so its very unlikely they would let others join.

[lisa928]

We were specifically told no kids when we signed up last. 

 

Every time we have done the tour it has been on the first sea day.  Our next cruise there are no sea days, and each day is an early morning.  Does anyone have experience (I recognize the past may not predict the future) of when their tour was if there were early posts every day?

 

--	5:00pm
8:30am	6:00pm
6:30am	overnight
overnight	7:00pm
6:30am	7:00pm
6:30am	7:00pm
7:00am	6:00pm
6:00am	2:00pm
9:00am	4:00pm
12:00pm	8:00pm
5:00am	--

 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I’ve never seen a non platinum allowed on the tour.

[room with a view]

Remember to wear shoes or trainers or you will not be allowed to take the tour .

[bob brown]

On 9/27/2024 at 1:26 PM, Triguy2009 said:

 Ours did entail some stair climbing longer walks. To see the engine room

As others have mentioned, it is the engine control room, not the actual engine room that is on the paid tour.  It’s been probably decades since the actual engine room was open for visitors.

The control room consists of banks of engine room video monitors, and computer consoles.