About to book a med cruise and had a few questions

[Mikiejag]

After our next cruise in a month we will be platinum.

 

Any benefit to booking as gold or just wait for platinum?

Any benefit to booking it on the ship? 

 

I have heard two different stories.  First one is you can book and pay lowest category and they move you to the highest level of that tier, and the other one is there is no benefit at all.  I plan to combine this with a BOA card benefit to go up one meta.  So I was looking to book Family Ocean view, then move to family balcony.

 

Good news is Europe is not until May 2024, so still some time, but I would like to book the cruise itself as soon as possible.  The excursions are not that big of a deal, I think I would get another 5% off being platinum over gold. So those can wait.

 

Thanks so much.

 

 

[tomk3212]

IMHO, the single biggest advantage of Platinum & higher is the free bag of laundry you get per cruise.  If you're on a 10 day or longer cruise this is a godsend!  You can pack less so that on Day#6 when you discover you're out of something to wear you pack the paper laundry bag, fill out the slip, mark the bag & slip 'Latitudes Platinum' & away it goes for free!  Gotta love it!  Allow 2 days for it be returned clean(my experienced average time is a day-and-a-half).

 

Hint: on LONGER cruises (12 days or more...) they'll usually allow you a second bag free.  That's been our experience, at least.

 

Good luck!

[complawyer]

ncl doesnt differentiate your latitude status when booking a cabin. you book what you want at the price you wish to pay. you dont get automatically upgraded to any other category cabin regardless. you can upgrade one category at no extra cost if you are diamond, but only up to a club balcony suite. if you want to sail in any higher category cabin, you have to pay the going rate, or see if you are offered a chance to bid on an upgrade

 

the actual perks, as tomk3212 mentioned is the free bag of laundry and 15% off the shore excursions if you are platinum.

 

if the price difference is not to outrageous, i would just book the family balcony outright. 

[genealogyfan]

Platinum also includes 2 free specialty dining options. It includes more than just free laundry. Here are the benefits you get with each reward level on NCL

 

https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program

[Mikiejag]

36 minutes ago, complawyer said:

ncl doesnt differentiate your latitude status when booking a cabin. you book what you want at the price you wish to pay. you dont get automatically upgraded to any other category cabin regardless. you can upgrade one category at no extra cost if you are diamond

Thank you so much, I thought I remembered hearing booking on the ship saves money or free extra perks, but maybe that was years ago.

[casofilia]

Booking on a ship MAY give extra benefits, it depends what offers are going at the time.

 

You could always book now and then talk on the ship to see if a cancellation/book again is of any benefit to you.

[KeithJenner]

5 minutes ago, Mikiejag said:

Thank you so much, I thought I remembered hearing booking on the ship saves money or free extra perks, but maybe that was years ago.

If you book onboard then they will often upgrade you to a higher category cabin (within the same type, so you don’t upgrade from balcony to club suite, for example). It also doesn’t apply for things like aft or large balcony rooms.

 

We’ve done it a couple of times, but I don’t know if it is an always available thing, or just an occasional offer.

 

It is available to anyone, regardless of latitudes status.

Edited May 13, 2023 by KeithJenner

[Mikiejag]

Booked it online.  Cashed in the voucher from the NCL card to go from Family window to Family balcony.  Now just need to wait 360 more days.

 

Will ask about it during our cruise next month and see if there is anything they could do, maybe bump to spa balcony or not.  Just didn't want to wait, and still have plenty of time to cancel or change.