Where should we eat?

[darstamp]

We are sailing on the Jewel at the end of October and have 4 free dinners included, two with the booking and 2 because I am platinum. I have booked Cagney's and Le Bistro, (even though they no longer have duck on the menu) and we aren't allowed to book our other two until we are on the ship.  Apparently we aren't allowed to repeat which doesn't leave us with many options for the other two, The Brazilian Moderno, Teppanyaki or La Cucina.  If you've sailed recently, which two would you choose?

[EngrJones]

6 minutes ago, darstamp said:

we aren't allowed to book our other two until we are on the ship.

Who told you this?

[zqvol]

Why can’t you book your other two? NCL doesn’t have any rule on how many nights you can book pre cruise. The only thing to be aware of is you should book Tap and Moderno 1st to avoid having to pay the cover charge. 

[Debifluff]

You can book your latitude dinners now.  However if you are going to book either Moderno or Teppanyaki they should have been booked first.    That way you would avoid having to pre-pay.   I suggest you call to book and maybe they can re-work the reservations.    You can repeat your included specialty dinners just not the latitude dinners.    So you could actually go to Cagneys and Le Bistro twice.  Just use a latitude coupon for one, and included speciality for the other night.

[DorothyB]

You have a lot of misinformation!! 

 

First, you are not supposed to go to the same restaurant twice with your platinum meals, but can go once with your FAS meal and once with a platinum meal.  (I've heard that people have not had an issue going twice w/ platinum.)

 

Second, you can absolutely book them all now.  I booked the "fixed price" restaurants first because the website knew I had FAS.  I was told that would keep them from charging me for the other two meals, but I think I ended up booking 3 fixed priced meals?  Then I booked the next two - I was not charged anything.  I have two meals at Cagneys, one at Teppanyaki and one at Ocean Blue (not on the Jewel!)

[Kp125]

My meal at La Cucina was the best I had on the Jewel last September

[julig22]

16 minutes ago, DorothyB said:

You have a lot of misinformation!! 

 

First, you are not supposed to go to the same restaurant twice with your platinum meals, but can go once with your FAS meal and once with a platinum meal.  (I've heard that people have not had an issue going twice w/ platinum.)

AFAIK, there are no longer any restrictions on latitudes meals. 

Edited Friday at 01:37 AM by julig22

[BirdTravels]

32 minutes ago, darstamp said:

We are sailing on the Jewel at the end of October and have 4 free dinners included, two with the booking and 2 because I am platinum. I have booked Cagney's and Le Bistro, (even though they no longer have duck on the menu) and we aren't allowed to book our other two until we are on the ship.  Apparently we aren't allowed to repeat which doesn't leave us with many options for the other two, The Brazilian Moderno, Teppanyaki or La Cucina.  If you've sailed recently, which two would you choose?

You can book the same restaurant as often as you want. We just did that for our next cruise. 

[DorothyB]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

AFAIK, there are no longer any restrictions on latitudes meals. 

Maybe it just isn't updated yet, but the notes under the Lattitudes Rewards says: 6 Benefit is available on sailings 5 days or longer, and entitles guests 1 & 2 to an appetizer, one entrée and dessert of choice. Upcharges apply to certain premium menu items; Raw Bar Seafood Platter is not included. Bottle of Wine offered in all venues offering Complimentary Wine list, Palomar not included. In à la carte restaurants, coupon can be redeemed for 4 menu items per person (Sushi, Wasabi, Nama, Teppanyaki, Hasuki, Food Republic, Pincho Tapas Bar or Raw Bar). Additional entrées will incur supplemental charges. Dinner coupons are non-transferrable. Solo guests cannot claim two dinners. Coupons can’t be used for the same venue twice. Benefit is for guests 1 & 2 on the reservation of a qualifying tier. If there are 2 Platinum, Sapphire, Diamond, Ambassador members in one stateroom, only 2 Dinner for Two vouchers will be delivered. Dining options vary by ship.

[KeithJenner]

Someone on these boards recently reported not being allowed to use their platinum vouchers twice in the same restaurant. It’s the only example I’ve heard of that rule actually being enforced (although I doubt many people have tried).

 

They just used free at sea instead, so no problem.

[KeithJenner]

3 hours ago, DorothyB said:

I booked the "fixed price" restaurants first because the website knew I had FAS.  I was told that would keep them from charging me for the other two meals, but I think I ended up booking 3 fixed priced meals?  Then I booked the next two - I was not charged anything.  I have two meals at Cagneys, one at Teppanyaki and one at Ocean Blue (not on the Jewel!)

You only booked one fixed price place (Teppanyaki). Cagney and Ocean Blue are a la carts.

[DorothyB]

9 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

You only booked one fixed price place (Teppanyaki). Cagney and Ocean Blue are a la carts.

thanks!  

[darstamp]

16 hours ago, EngrJones said:

Who told you this?

I was told by the NCL rep on the phone that the two dinners I received because of having platinum status had to be booked on the ship.  

[zqvol]

3 minutes ago, darstamp said:

I was told by the NCL rep on the phone that the two dinners I received because of having platinum status had to be booked on the ship.  

They were wrong. Simple as that. 

[DorothyB]

1 hour ago, darstamp said:

I was told by the NCL rep on the phone that the two dinners I received because of having platinum status had to be booked on the ship.  

Agree with prior response - the information you were given is NOT correct.  Book your meals and then when you check in for each of your reservations, you tell them whether you are paying with FAS or give them your platinum voucher.

[darstamp]

1 hour ago, DorothyB said:

Agree with prior response - the information you were given is NOT correct.  Book your meals and then when you check in for each of your reservations, you tell them whether you are paying with FAS or give them your platinum voucher.

I have been able to book La Cucina in addition to the other two and not charged but when I tried to book Teppanyaki it charged me so I cancelled. 

[KeithJenner]

50 minutes ago, darstamp said:

I have been able to book La Cucina in addition to the other two and not charged but when I tried to book Teppanyaki it charged me so I cancelled. 

This is because the booking system has no idea about your platinum meals.

 

When you booked your first two meals the system wouldn’t have charged you for them as it knows you have free at sea. After that it does charge. This is why people should always book fixed price places first.

 

None of this affects how you ultimately pay for the meals and if you had paid then you should have got the money back onboard but this is rarely tested because people avoid making the payment in the first place.

[darstamp]

Thanks for all your input.   It seems that I should have booked Teppanyaki as one of the the two free at sea selections first.  Should have asked the experts on Cruise Critic before I booked. I didn't so I phoned NCL and they said I could pay for it and get reimbursed when on the ship or wait to book it when we get on.  Judging from the times available, we'd be eating at 9 o'clock if I did that.  Wasn't that interested so was able to book all four meals by going twice to one of the restaurants and, yes, they let me do that on the website with no charge and no problems.  Someone mentioned that they got a great meal at La Cucina so I made it my third choice and we are going to LaBistro twice.They are free dinners and the menus look great (except they took off the duck) so we won't starve.

[KeithJenner]

Sounds like you are happy with your selections, but for future reference you would very likely have been able to get a selection of times for Teppanyaki once onboard. They keep a number of spaces available (the actual proportion is widely speculated on, but not known) for onboard booking.

 

We have often made a few bookings once onboard and have always been able to get the times we want, despite those times baking unavailable for

pre booking for some time.

[DorothyB]

1 hour ago, KeithJenner said:

Sounds like you are happy with your selections, but for future reference you would very likely have been able to get a selection of times for Teppanyaki once onboard. They keep a number of spaces available (the actual proportion is widely speculated on, but not known) for onboard booking.

Can they go to the restaurant reservation place once on-board and possibly be able to change to a "better for them" time?  At least they have a reservation, and it can only get better 🙂

[Buford T Justiice]

There's also nothing wrong with booking, paying and getting a refund once onboard.

[KeithJenner]

7 hours ago, DorothyB said:

Can they go to the restaurant reservation place once on-board and possibly be able to change to a "better for them" time?  At least they have a reservation, and it can only get better 🙂

Absolutely. I only didn’t mention that as they seemed happy with what they have, but if the reservations are available then they can change.

[sailingships]

I would have started with Moderna and Teppanyaki to avoid the $70 charge and then the rest which are all ala carte. If you can book one you can book them all. Both vouchers and the FAS meals are available to be booked the same day. Once the final payment day has been reached the meals can be booked. Just go online to your account in the NCL website and book the meals for that cruise in October. The only reason you might not be able to would be if the meals are all booked out. About 2/3 of the available meals are listed on the website. If they are gone then you would have to wait until you board the ship. Be warned there will probably be a long line of passengers also wanting to book meals. It pays to book early through the website.

[KeithJenner]

19 hours ago, sailingships said:

I would have started with Moderna and Teppanyaki to avoid the $70 charge and then the rest which are all ala carte. If you can book one you can book them all. Both vouchers and the FAS meals are available to be booked the same day. Once the final payment day has been reached the meals can be booked. Just go online to your account in the NCL website and book the meals for that cruise in October. The only reason you might not be able to would be if the meals are all booked out. About 2/3 of the available meals are listed on the website. If they are gone then you would have to wait until you board the ship. Be warned there will probably be a long line of passengers also wanting to book meals. It pays to book early through the website.

Meals aren’t available to be booked once final payment day arrives. The time they can be booked is a set number of days out dependant on your status and room type and is between 120 to 130 days out.

[DrUrsula]

On 6/28/2024 at 1:26 PM, darstamp said:

I was told by the NCL rep on the phone that the two dinners I received because of having platinum status had to be booked on the ship.  

That's simply an error on NCL's part-unless you already booked two fixed rate restaurants with FAS or 4 with FAS plus OR you are booking close to sailing Ana fall the pre-released reservations are taken. A certain percentage of ressies are held back for booking on board.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 05:16 AM by DrUrsula