Jump to content

Restaurant Bookings, SDP and Platinum meals - A guide


KeithJenner
 Share

Recommended Posts

A regular topic which raises questions on this forum is the booking of speciality restaurants, and whether payment is required at the time of booking, especially if you have a dining package or vouchers for meals due to latitudes status.

 

Rather than keep answering the question, I thought I would try to summarise the position in one post that can be linked to. I hope it helps.

 

Obviously, this relates to the position as of December 2016, and things can change. This is particularly likely to be the case with the Platinum meal as changes to the latitudes reward scheme are due in early 2017. The current situation is that platinum latitudes members get a meal for two in Le Bistro (or La Cucina, but no longer in Moderno) with a bottle of wine. This is per person, not per cabin, as is sometimes mistakenly stated.

 

Bookings for restaurants open up 90 days out (100 if in a suite). Whilst you can prebook MDR’s, I have never seen the reason to do so and this guide is specifically for the speciality restaurantts.

 

If you have no dining package then you are required to pay for the meal when booking. However, for those restaurants which are a la carte, the prepayment required is zero (they don’t know how much you will spend). That’s really all there is to it.

 

This means that you can now book your platinum latitudes meal before boarding. When there was a cover charge for these restaurants, you had to pay the cover charge when booking and then try to get it back onboard. What most of us ended up doing was not prebooking and then doing so as soon as boarding. This is no longer necessary.

 

A question which is often asked is how you make bookings for meals if you intend to eat with friends who are staying in other cabins. Some people have gone to the effort of linking bookings in order to be able to do this, but it is not necessary. When you make a booking you just state the number of people, but don’t have to say who they are. You can book for more people than you have in your room. You can make a booking for yourselves and your friends in a different cabin easily, although if it is somewhere with a cover charge then you will be charged for everyone in the booking.

 

If you have the dining package then the system will be aware that you do. Therefore, someone with a three meal SDP will not get charged when booking for the first three meals they book, even if there is a cover charge. Again, this is fairly straightforward.

 

One thing to note here is that the system assumes that if the person who is making the booking has a SDP credit for the meal then so does everyone they are booking for. So, if we take the example where you are booking for yourself and friends in another room, no payment will be required when booking, regardless of whether your friends have the package or not. For this reason, make sure that the booking is done by someone with the SDP if possible. Anyone without the package will be charged after the meal.

 

Things get a little more complicated when you book more meals than you have the SDP for. This could be because you decide to have 4 meals but only got the 3 meal promo for example. Perhaps the most common cause of this would be when you have platinum meal vouchers as well as the SDP.

 

In these situations, it is important to remember a couple of things.

 

Firstly, the system knows you have the dining package. However, it doesn’t know about any platinum vouchers you may be entitled to.

 

Secondly, whilst the system assumes the first meals you book will be covered by the SDP, this isn’t the case onboard, so you can use your SDP, platinum voucher or charge to your account as you wish. You tell the staff at the restaurant at the time.

 

Why is this important? Well, you need to book restaurants in the correct order to make sure that you don’t end up paying in advance for a meal which you shouldn’t be charged for.

 

For example, you have a three meal SDP but want to book four meals. The meals (in the order that you want to have them) are Cagneys, Le Bistro, La Cucina and Teppenyaki.

 

This may be because you plan to use a platinum voucher for either Le Bistro or La Cucina or that you only have a three meal plan and intend to pay for one of them. Even if you will be paying for the extra meal it is often helpful to avoid prepaying (for example if you have OBC to use for it).

 

If you go online and book those meals in the order you intend to eat them then the system will assume that the first three are covered by the SDP and won’t charge you for them. The fourth one you book (Teppenyaki) will be charged for as you have no credits left. You will have to get your credit card out.

 

However, if you book Teppenyaki first then the system will assume that you will be using a SDP credit for it and the fourth one you book (for example La Cucina) will be the one that is chargeable. The payment required in advance for that restaurant is zero, so your credit card stays in your pocket.

 

When you get onboard, you can allocate the SDP credits how you wish, so the fact that the system assumed that you would use a SDP credit in Teppenyaki doesn’t mean that you have to do so.

 

There are two simple ways to remember the order you need to book things: For those who have Platinum vouchers, just remember to book your platinum meals last. Alternatively (and this works for everyone), just book any restaurants with a fixed cover charge first.

 

There is an added complication on some of the smaller ships (for example, this happened to us on the Star recently). On some cruises, bookings never open up in advance for Teppenyaki. You have to make the decision whether to go ahead and book the others (with the risk that Teppenyaki will open up later and you will have to prepay when booking), or whether to wait and see if Teppenyaki does appear nearer the cruise date (the risk here being that the time slots you would like in the other restaurants have gone by this time). I went for the first option and was able to book Teppenyaki easily after boarding as it never appeared for online booking. This does only seem to happen on a few ships (Star and Spirit are the two I am aware of), but is a complication if it does so. If Teppenyaki isn’t showing up on 90 days. it doesn’t mean that it is fully booked already.

 

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion regarding these bookings. For the majority of people it is quite simple, but if you are booking more meals than you have SDP cover for then just be careful you don’t end up having to pay. You can get that money back (as OBC I believe), but you really have got better things to be doing when onboard than making sure that your refund arrives.

thanks for posting. Hope it will help som understand. We are using our platinum dinner to treat 2 friends so when I booked on line for Le Bistro, there was no charge. It worked well. Last cruise we did have the UDP as did our daughter and sil. they booked some of the dinners for 4 of us and we did the rest. Everything worked out great. The computer knew what we were doing. It was fine. BTW, same with a tour we just booked on line. We get 15% off for being P Plus. The computer picked this up and took the discount off our cost of the cruise. I was pretty impressed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Has there been a change? I was unable to book a Platinum level dinner without incurring a fee for Moderno. My credit card would be charged when I made the reservation. There was no fee for Cagney's, so I made that reservation. I called Norwegian and asked about Moderno and was told that I could only book reservations for the Dining Plan pre-embarkation, not Platinum. I was told that I should make reservations from my stateroom once on board. In particular, the Norwegian representative emphasized that I could not make an advance reservation for Cagney's and show up with a voucher. I would be charged for the meal. I should reserve the Cagney's meal using the system in my room and be sure to cancel my original Cagney reservation. I could not find a way to do this online, so will cancel when I get on board.

 

I was concerned that the only remaining times available to book were 9:30, but he told me that they limit advance reservations to 35% of capacity, and the remainder of open slots are bookable only on board.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has there been a change? I was unable to book a Platinum level dinner without incurring a fee for Moderno. My credit card would be charged when I made the reservation. There was no fee for Cagney's, so I made that reservation. I called Norwegian and asked about Moderno and was told that I could only book reservations for the Dining Plan pre-embarkation, not Platinum. I was told that I should make reservations from my stateroom once on board. In particular, the Norwegian representative emphasized that I could not make an advance reservation for Cagney's and show up with a voucher. I would be charged for the meal. I should reserve the Cagney's meal using the system in my room and be sure to cancel my original Cagney reservation. I could not find a way to do this online, so will cancel when I get on board.

 

 

 

I was concerned that the only remaining times available to book were 9:30, but he told me that they limit advance reservations to 35% of capacity, and the remainder of open slots are bookable only on board.

 

 

 

There hasn’t been a change. You have never officially been able to make the platinum meal reservation without having to pay upfront for it (if the restaurant requires a payment). That’s why you have to do the trick described above of booking it when the system thinks you have a SDP credits available. If you don’t have the SDP then you have to either pay up or book onboard for the Moderno booking. That has been the case for some time.

 

As for what the NCL rep told you, I suppose there is a very slim chance that something has changed. However, that certainly wasn’t the case a couple of months ago.

 

What is far more likely is that you were given duff info by the NCL rep. That would certainly not be a change at all.

 

Don’t mess around with your Cagneys booking. Just go to your meal and give them the platinum voucher.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There hasn’t been a change. You have never officially been able to make the platinum meal reservation without having to pay upfront for it (if the restaurant requires a payment). That’s why you have to do the trick described above of booking it when the system thinks you have a SDP credits available. If you don’t have the SDP then you have to either pay up or book onboard for the Moderno booking. That has been the case for some time.

 

As for what the NCL rep told you, I suppose there is a very slim chance that something has changed. However, that certainly wasn’t the case a couple of months ago.

 

What is far more likely is that you were given duff info by the NCL rep. That would certainly not be a change at all.

 

Don’t mess around with your Cagneys booking. Just go to your meal and give them the platinum voucher.

Thanks. I thought I read earlier in this thread that one could book Platinum level meals without paying up front, but (if I read your last post correctly) I see that a Platinum member always had to pay to book Moderno.

 

Yes, I'm going to keep the Cagney's until I embark and can sort this all out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yesterday was my 90 day Mark. My PCC made my reservations for Carney’s and Moderno without any charges. I have done this ever since the change for Platinum and Plus.

 

 

 

That’s interesting to know. I’ve never tried, as we just book them via the SDP, but your experience seems to be rather different from that described above.

 

Typical NCL. Two different people calling up and getting completely opposite responses. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keith

We’ve never taken the option on the Dining pkg and don’t know if that made a difference. I’ve worked exclusively with my PCC for several years and the procedure I described is how I’ve handled our 2 dining perks. He’s been great for us.

Take care

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Hi, I am still a little confused.

 

If you use SDP, are you charged extra for an entree from the $10 Supplement part of the Le Bistro menu ?

 

If you use SDP, are you charged extra for House Specialties that are $10 extra on the Cagney's menu ?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

I assume you are looking at some old menus. Before the a la carte menus were introduced I seem to recall that there were some dishes which cost an additional $10 on top of the cover charge for the restaurant. I assume you are talking about those, but they are long gone.

 

There are copies of the recent menus available on this forum. They have prices by each dish, which is what you would pay if you didn’t have the SDP.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I assume you are looking at some old menus. Before the a la carte menus were introduced I seem to recall that there were some dishes which cost an additional $10 on top of the cover charge for the restaurant. I assume you are talking about those, but they are long gone.

 

There are copies of the recent menus available on this forum. They have prices by each dish, which is what you would pay if you didn’t have the SDP.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks - I found them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
  • 1 month later...

When booking the Platinum dinners on the Spirit, which restaurants are applicable? Is it Cagney's or Le Bistro and the Italian restaurant with no second option? Are these reservations able to be made prior to sailing without incurring a fee (we dont have the UDP) or should we wait to book these two dinners while onboard? Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When booking the Platinum dinners on the Spirit, which restaurants are applicable? Is it Cagney's or Le Bistro and the Italian restaurant with no second option? Are these reservations able to be made prior to sailing without incurring a fee (we dont have the UDP) or should we wait to book these two dinners while onboard? Thanks!

 

 

Yes, it’s Cagneys or Le Bistro and then La Trattoria with no option.

 

They are all bookable in advance with no charge as they are a la carte.

 

If you were to decide to go to Teppenyaki (outside of the platinum meals obviously) then this has to be booked onboard.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it’s Cagneys or Le Bistro and then La Trattoria with no option.

 

They are all bookable in advance with no charge as they are a la carte.

 

If you were to decide to go to Teppenyaki (outside of the platinum meals obviously) then this has to be booked onboard.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Thanks so much!!! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...