suite perks

[triptolemus]

Another suite perks question - priority boarding.

We are sailing out of Los Angeles,

 

in Seattle we were never standing.

 

Suite check-in at Los Angeles is a far different experience than Seattle. I have done both, with Los Angeles being the most recent back in November 2014. Suite guests were standing in line for over an hour. Yes, they were a tad early, say 11 AM or so, but stood they did. Some were misdirected to the wrong area, wrong line, and some mini-suite folks (who knew they weren't entitled to the VIP check in) took advantage of the chaos and got themselves mixed up in the VIP check in (which causes problems).

 

In Seattle back in September 2013, there were terminal employees directing suite guess every step of the way. They give you yellow VIP signs to carry, and at each station you were whisked away to the next to and through security, to and up the escalators, across the main check in room, finally arriving at the suite guest check in area which is a lounge, several computers, snacks and refreshments....in a separate room... with dedicated staff. There are also exclusive restrooms in that area. I'm guessing the area can accommodate perhaps half of the suite guests (on the Jewel), perhaps a little less.

 

In Los Angeles, there is no such similar coordination. If you're not careful, no matter how insistent you are, you can be directed to the wrong line and have problems. Once the check is process is complete, suite guests are moved to a coral of sorts with some snacks and they may wait seated there. But if you don't get to the right area, you can be directed, re-directed and misdirected to one of several areas which is not the priority boarding area, which IS where you want to be.

 

Bottom line is having done NCL suites out of both LA and SEA, I can tell you that the two experiences do not compare.

 

At all. Read that part again... LA and SEA do not compare at all for suite guests.

 

 

Thanks - so it sounds like we might be alright with mama then.

 

If mom has mobility issues, see that the terminal assists with a wheelchair, and a place to sit. A (very) quick look at the port's website shows wheelchair service to be available.

 

Know that LA for suite guests can go horribly wrong. Plan accordingly.

 

I will add to this diatribe by saying that the disembarkation process can go equally bad, but I'm not clear on the reason for this except to guess that most ports have immigration done shore side, while in LA (at least when I was there on the Star), CBP boarded the ship, and set up shop on deck 7. In Seattle disembarkation took me 14 minutes. In LA, it took 1 hour and 10 minutes, although suite guests have plenty of seating available and do not stand in the line.

Edited February 18, 2015 by triptolemus

[Kingofwylietx]

Great info.....subscribed.

[travelmatron]

Going back several posts about the food available to suite passengers. Not only can you use your butler to get something from the specialty restaurants, but you can get food from other areas in the ship while using the suite breakfast and lunch areas. A couple of months ago, on the Jewel, I was commenting to my husband that I was missing vegetables and the waitress at lunch overheard me. She was very quick to suggest that she could get a stir fry for me if I'd like, or if there was something specific I'd like she would find it. While I didn't take her up on the offer I thought it was nice to know.

[amarvel]

Wow sounds like boarding in LA sucks lol I have never had to.stand around like that even not being in a suite.

[Kingofwylietx]

I'm curious about getting off the ship at the end of the trip. I'm wondering how quickly they get you off the ship. Since they are providing the limo for folks in the garden villa (and probably don't want to have it sitting with the meter running), are they wisked off at a preselected time...directly from their suite? Or, do they wait in the lounge like everyone else?

Edited February 19, 2015 by Kingofwylietx

[DMH15]

Going back several posts about the food available to suite passengers. Not only can you use your butler to get something from the specialty restaurants, but you can get food from other areas in the ship while using the suite breakfast and lunch areas. A couple of months ago, on the Jewel, I was commenting to my husband that I was missing vegetables and the waitress at lunch overheard me. She was very quick to suggest that she could get a stir fry for me if I'd like, or if there was something specific I'd like she would find it. While I didn't take her up on the offer I thought it was nice to know.

My mom asked about fresh avocado and they brought her a plate of sliced avocado every day at lunch.

 

One morning at breakfast I asked if they would set aside some bacon so I could have my favorite sandwich BLT -and avocado. And they said sure.

[Family From Down Under]

Very good - will do; thanks so much!

 

Sorry, can you clarify about the food from specialty restaurants? Are you saying that if you order an appetizer or dessert to your suite, from a specialty restaurant - that there is no charge?

[Carnac767]

Sorry, can you clarify about the food from specialty restaurants? Are you saying that if you order an appetizer or dessert to your suite, from a specialty restaurant - that there is no charge?

 

 

That is true. We had the UDP on our last cruise and had room service from Le Bistro in our suite one evening at no additional charge. Our butler, Putu, took care of everything.

[mearsfansinboise]

Suite check-in at Los Angeles is a far different experience than Seattle. I have done both, with Los Angeles being the most recent back in November 2014. Suite guests were standing in line for over an hour. Yes, they were a tad early, say 11 AM or so, but stood they did. Some were misdirected to the wrong area, wrong line, and some mini-suite folks (who knew they weren't entitled to the VIP check in) took advantage of the chaos and got themselves mixed up in the VIP check in (which causes problems).

 

In Seattle back in September 2013, there were terminal employees directing suite guess every step of the way. They give you yellow VIP signs to carry, and at each station you were whisked away to the next to and through security, to and up the escalators, across the main check in room, finally arriving at the suite guest check in area which is a lounge, several computers, snacks and refreshments....in a separate room... with dedicated staff. There are also exclusive restrooms in that area. I'm guessing the area can accommodate perhaps half of the suite guests (on the Jewel), perhaps a little less.

 

In Los Angeles, there is no such similar coordination. If you're not careful, no matter how insistent you are, you can be directed to the wrong line and have problems. Once the check is process is complete, suite guests are moved to a coral of sorts with some snacks and they may wait seated there. But if you don't get to the right area, you can be directed, re-directed and misdirected to one of several areas which is not the priority boarding area, which IS where you want to be.

 

Bottom line is having done NCL suites out of both LA and SEA, I can tell you that the two experiences do not compare.

 

At all. Read that part again... LA and SEA do not compare at all for suite guests.

 

 

 

 

If mom has mobility issues, see that the terminal assists with a wheelchair, and a place to sit. A (very) quick look at the port's website shows wheelchair service to be available.

 

Know that LA for suite guests can go horribly wrong. Plan accordingly.

 

I will add to this diatribe by saying that the disembarkation process can go equally bad, but I'm not clear on the reason for this except to guess that most ports have immigration done shore side, while in LA (at least when I was there on the Star), CBP boarded the ship, and set up shop on deck 7. In Seattle disembarkation took me 14 minutes. In LA, it took 1 hour and 10 minutes, although suite guests have plenty of seating available and do not stand in the line.

 

Yikes. I found this to be the case when we sailed out of Los Angeles last year. But we weren't suite guests so thought for suite guests it'd be better. Um. Guess not. Thanks for the info.

[tumblew467]

That is true. We had the UDP on our last cruise and had room service from Le Bistro in our suite one evening at no additional charge. Our butler, Putu, took care of everything.

 

Putu we had him on the gem aug 2013 loved him.

[mearsfansinboise]

We are sailing in a category SJ - family suite - and I am reading this...what we have is not this Haven Suite, is it?

 

Guests in The Haven Suites can enjoy exclusive access to The Haven Courtyard, Restaurant & Lounge, 24-hour butler service, priority restaurant reservations, Bliss Collection bedding and much more. Guests staying in Studios have access to the Studio Lounge.

[triptolemus]

We are sailing in a category SJ - family suite - and I am reading this...what we have is not this Haven Suite, is it?

 

Guests in The Haven Suites can enjoy exclusive access to The Haven Courtyard, Restaurant & Lounge, 24-hour butler service, priority restaurant reservations, Bliss Collection bedding and much more. Guests staying in Studios have access to the Studio Lounge.

 

I think you will be on Jewel, right? Your SJ is not a Haven suite. Jewel class ships have a separate Haven area for some suites, denoted by cabin categories which begin with "H" - H1, H2, etc.

 

On newer ships, all suites have access to the Haven, and NCL sort of markets Haven as its suite experience, so some confusion is out there to be had...

[mearsfansinboise]

I think you will be on Jewel, right? Your SJ is not a Haven suite. Jewel class ships have a separate Haven area for some suites, denoted by cabin categories which begin with "H" - H1, H2, etc.

 

On newer ships, all suites have access to the Haven, and NCL sort of markets Haven as its suite experience, so some confusion is out there to be had...

 

No - we are on the Star. But by the H thing, then no, we are not Haven. thank you

[triptolemus]

No - we are on the Star. But by the H thing, then no, we are not Haven. thank you

 

Star is a fine ship.

 

No Haven whatsoever on Star. But, if you're in those fwd SJ suites on deck 12, I understand those floor to ceiling windows are wonderful. You probably already know they removed a lounge and placed new suites in that area just a couple of years ago.

 

Enjoy your time!

Edited February 20, 2015 by triptolemus

[mearsfansinboise]

Star is a fine ship.

 

No Haven whatsoever on Star. But, if you're in those fwd SJ suites on deck 12, I understand those floor to ceiling windows are wonderful. You probably already know they removed a lounge and placed new suites in that area just a couple of years ago.

 

Enjoy your time!

That's exactly where we are. Passed by those suites last year, and now we'll be in them. Very excited; thank you!

[Kingofwylietx]

Isn't that a great feeling?!

We were always in a balcony, then peeked in a an open suite on our deck last time. We decided that we needed to try it too. I think it adds to the excitement.

[Kingofwylietx]

I'm curious about getting off the ship at the end of the trip. I'm wondering how quickly they get you off the ship. Since they are providing the limo for folks in the garden villa (and probably don't want to have it sitting with the meter running), are they wisked off at a preselected time...directly from their suite? Or, do they wait in the lounge like everyone else?

 

👆👆👆👆👆

I'm still curious about this if anyone knows the answer.

[Carnac767]

Don't know about the GV. For the rest of the pax in suites, the concierge has contacted us and told us where to meet him and when. This past cruise on Gem it was in the Stardust Theater. He'll escort you off after all the walk-off passengers have left. Those are the pax with only carry-on bags. Your luggage will be in a special section, making it easy to find.

[don't-use-real-name]

NCL STAR has two Garden Suites (Haven class) on Deck 14 just above Cagney's.

Accessible by Key card from stairway adjacent to the entrance for Cagney's

or elevator pass.

If you are on Deck 14 in the basketball court looking forward is the location

for these.

Another viewing point if on the Pool Deck 12 looking aft above the Star Bar

(soon to be the Specialty Restaurant Moderno) you will see floor to ceiling

windows across almost the full beam of the ship - that is where these are.

 

Your suite location on Deck 12 is perhaps the next best location to all the

activities - Pool Library Buffet - one deck up to jogging walking viewing

observation - elevators/stairs down to the Stardust Theatre/Gift and Duty

Free shops - one more deck to the Casino. A bit of a trek to the Main Dinning

Rooms but you will need that to work off the food calories !

 

Enjoy !

[Family From Down Under]

Putu we had him on the gem aug 2013 loved him.

 

That's funny. We had Putu on the Star about six years ago. He was great!

[Demonyte]

NCL STAR has two Garden Suites (Haven class) on Deck 14 just above Cagney's.

 

There is no Haven on Dawn class ships so there are no Haven class suites either. Garden Villas on Dawn class ships are category S1, not H-anything.

[teakea]

[emoji115][emoji115][emoji115][emoji115][emoji115]

 

I'm still curious about this if anyone knows the answer.

 

 

We did not take advantage of the NCL limo service so I can't speak to that. We were escorted by the concierge, Adrian, from the GV all the way off the ship before they started calling groups to disembark.

[mearsfansinboise]

NCL STAR has two Garden Suites (Haven class) on Deck 14 just above Cagney's.

Accessible by Key card from stairway adjacent to the entrance for Cagney's

or elevator pass.

If you are on Deck 14 in the basketball court looking forward is the location

for these.

Another viewing point if on the Pool Deck 12 looking aft above the Star Bar

(soon to be the Specialty Restaurant Moderno) you will see floor to ceiling

windows across almost the full beam of the ship - that is where these are.

 

Your suite location on Deck 12 is perhaps the next best location to all the

activities - Pool Library Buffet - one deck up to jogging walking viewing

observation - elevators/stairs down to the Stardust Theatre/Gift and Duty

Free shops - one more deck to the Casino. A bit of a trek to the Main Dinning

Rooms but you will need that to work off the food calories !

 

Enjoy !

I finally got wise and looked at the deck plan last night and see your meaning - and did think how far the food was and yes' date=' good to get some walking in because I love me some cruise food. ;)[/color']

[Demonyte]

I'm curious about getting off the ship at the end of the trip. I'm wondering how quickly they get you off the ship. Since they are providing the limo for folks in the garden villa (and probably don't want to have it sitting with the meter running), are they wisked off at a preselected time...directly from their suite? Or, do they wait in the lounge like everyone else?

 

In my experience it's not nearly as glamorous as it might sound. We had prearranged our disembarkation time with the concierge and were escorted out from the same place/lounge as all other suite passengers and VIPs (on Dawn this was the Spinnaker Lounge).

 

We had a member of port contractor's staff to escort us from the gangway (that's as far as ship staff can go and because of the scheduling issues the concierge had to excuse us before we even got off the ship), getting us porters and overall looking over the whole process. In my opinion we didn't get out any faster than other suite passengers and having a (messed up) schedule didn't help, quite contrary.

 

But it completely depends on the port (most ports are very congested) how swift the process is once you finally get through immigration and customs (in some ports even having a porter doesn't help you to bypass any lines), we had to wait for our limo for quite a while because the traffic around Boston's Black Falcon terminal was really bad and there were medical emergencies and ambulances blocking already narrow roads etc.

 

I think that after we had already waited 5-10 minutes outside on the ship (on the promenade) we waited about 15-20 minutes standing outside for our transportation (a limo and a minivan taking the rest of our luggage) to arrive.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Demonyte

[tlreze]

👆👆👆👆👆

I'm still curious about this if anyone knows the answer.

 

 

We were in the Garden Villa on Dawn from Tampa and as they assigned someone to walk us through customs and outside to where the limo was waiting for us. I don't think they walk you off until the limo is there.