rewrite this title How I Used My Platinum Perks on an NCL Cruise – NerdWallet

I have gone on many cruises with several different cruise lines, but it wasn’t until several sailings on Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) that I finally saw some benefits from my membership in a cruise loyalty program. I moved up to the Platinum tier in NCL’s Latitudes program.

Here’s how NCL’s Latitudes program works and how I used my benefits.

Cruisers earn 1 point for every cruise night and additional points for booking a suite or The Haven. You can also earn extra points with particular offers.

NCL automatically enrolls passengers after their first cruise, so you don’t have to do anything to sign up.

My recent cruise on the Norwegian Getaway was my seventh on NCL, dating back to 2009. I have earned points on each one. Before this cruise began, I had spent 53 nights on board NCL ships and earned bonus points for two of my cruises, so I had 81 points before my sailing on the NCL Getaway. After the cruise, I had 88.

That made me a Platinum Latitudes member, which is the mid-level tier and the one where benefits really start to kick in.

Latitudes has seven tiers, mostly named after jewels or metals:

At the highest Ambassador level, one of the benefits is a free seven-day cruise.

The points you earn should show up in your account within 48 hours after you finish your cruise.

Perks kick in after one cruise, with the best onboard benefit for Bronze members being a 10% discount in shipboard duty-free shops for NCL logo merchandise. That discount increases to 15% at all other tiers.

At the Silver level, members get discounts on shore excursions, photos and at the spa for some treatments during port days. The amount of the discounts increases as the Latitudes level increases. For example, the shore excursion discount is 10% for Silver, Gold and Platinum; 15% for Sapphire and Diamond; and 20% for Ambassador.

It’s nice that you can use this discount when booking shore excursions online before sailing. The discount will show up in the shopping cart.

All levels except Bronze also get an invitation to a cocktail party on board.

There are also benefits such as discounted or free laundry, priority tender tickets and free water for Gold and higher.

Honestly, I never found these benefits to be worth much since I didn’t buy photos and prefer to go to the spa on sea days rather than port days, so I didn’t get too excited when finding the card in my cabin explaining the onboard benefits at the Gold tier.

One thing I didn’t realize on my four-night cruise on the Norwegian Jewel is the fact Latitudes benefits kick in only on cruises that are five nights or longer, so while I got the onboard discounts, I didn’t get any of the benefits of being a Gold tier member at the time, like the water.

I have moved up in the world of Latitudes and am now a Platinum member, so this time I was excited to get the benefits card in my cabin on the Getaway.

The upgrade in status really means expanded benefits that start to add up to real cost savings and an elevated experience.

Starting at Platinum status, members get:

These benefits have value to me.

Chocolate-covered strawberries cost about $25 for a plate of six, and dining in a specialty restaurant can be $60 per person, so two dinners for two people can be worth $240. That’s not including the value of the bottle of wine at one dinner.

Sadly, there were only two strawberries on the plate that was delivered to the room, but they were huge and delicious.

The behind-the-scenes tour is $139 per person, and a bag of laundry is $34.

Those benefits alone have a value of $438 (not including a wine tasting or the bottle of wine), which goes a long way toward saving on a cruise. These benefits also enabled me to try the specialty dining restaurants, which are really good on Norwegian, for free.

Another benefit of being a Platinum elite on Norwegian is the ability to book entertainment, dining and onboard activities early. This can come in handy since specialty dining reservations are usually only available to book once on board.

While benefits increase at higher levels, I don’t think the priority restaurant seating or the dinner with officers are really that much better than the benefits at the Platinum level. Diamond members get a one-time free cabin upgrade, and Ambassadors get a free seven-day cruise. Those can be worth a lot of money, but you’d have to spend about a year total on a ship to earn the cabin upgrade and almost two years of cruising to get the free cruise.

While some of the Latitudes benefits are automatic, others required some action on my part once on board.

It all started at check-in at the pier when I was able to use the priority area. I admit I was a bit excited for this benefit since the regular lines can be very long.

My friend and I were able to bypass the regular check-in line and were on board about 10 minutes after going through security. The other line was not too long when we arrived, but we didn’t have to wait at all.

The Platinum card that was in my room had some coupons attached to it. To use the laundry benefit, I had to include the coupon with the laundry bag. The coupons also had to go to my dinners in the specialty restaurants with me.

I wish there was a way to make these things automatic so I would not have had to keep track of the coupons and not accidentally throw them away. I also had to remember to take them to dinner with me.

As for the behind-the-scenes tour and wine tasting, I had to stop by the CruiseNext desk to find out the details about these events.

I stopped by the desk a few hours after getting on board only to find out the behind-the-scenes tour was already sold out, so I wasn’t going to be able to use that benefit. I was able to sign up for the wine tasting, but found out it was only for one person, not both of us in the cabin. It would have been the same for the tour.

While I understand the reasoning for this, it was a bit annoying to go to the wine tasting alone and I didn’t stay long since it was simply walking around to four stations and trying wines, not a tasting at a table with explanations like I thought it would be.

While the lower levels of the NCL Latitudes program don’t have many real benefits of value, the Platinum level is where they start to become noticeable. Free dinners and activities can make a cruise both more enjoyable and cost effective.

My friend took home the free bottle of wine (since we had a drink package on board) and unpacked clean clothes after using the free laundry benefit. We also both enjoyed the two additional dinners at the specialty restaurants.

Top photo by Tiffani Sherman.