disneysteve
DIS meet junkie
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2002
- Messages
- 16,200
Forgive me if there was already a thread about this but I didn't see one.
I was just listening to last week's show and got to the part about the NCL cruise tour they took. Pete was raving about the concept of freestyle dining on the Norwegian ships. While we have not sailed on that particular ship, we did do a Bermuda cruise on NCL Dawn last year and I have to tell you that we were not at all impressed by freestyle dining. It isn't all it is advertised to be. As Pete said, the theory is that you can eat anywhere, anytime. The reality doesn't live up to that.
Yes, there are multiple restaurants on the ship but quite a few of them are "specialty" restaurants that require reservations and an additional charge. So it isn't like you can just decide at 6pm that you want Italian or French that night. You may not be able to get in or may have to wait a couple of hours and you need to fork over an extra $20 or so per person.
On our cruise, my wife and I booked dinner at the French restaurant one night because it happened to be our anniversary. We paid an extra $40 for the privilege. The space was pretty. The dishes were ornate. The food, however, wasn't really any better than what we found in the main dining room. We both agreed that it wasn't worth the upcharge.
As for the main dining room, on traditional cruises you have an assigned dining time and an assigned dining table. On NCL, you have neither. You don't need a reservation. In fact, you can't even make one unless there are at least 8 in your party. At busy times, it could take up to an hour to be seated, even if you have a reservation for a group. One night, we gave up and went to the burger bar because we were all hungry and weren't willing to wait that long to eat.
So if you do take that NCL cruise, Pete, manage your expectations about the dining experience. It isn't as "free" as they make it out to be.
I was just listening to last week's show and got to the part about the NCL cruise tour they took. Pete was raving about the concept of freestyle dining on the Norwegian ships. While we have not sailed on that particular ship, we did do a Bermuda cruise on NCL Dawn last year and I have to tell you that we were not at all impressed by freestyle dining. It isn't all it is advertised to be. As Pete said, the theory is that you can eat anywhere, anytime. The reality doesn't live up to that.
Yes, there are multiple restaurants on the ship but quite a few of them are "specialty" restaurants that require reservations and an additional charge. So it isn't like you can just decide at 6pm that you want Italian or French that night. You may not be able to get in or may have to wait a couple of hours and you need to fork over an extra $20 or so per person.
On our cruise, my wife and I booked dinner at the French restaurant one night because it happened to be our anniversary. We paid an extra $40 for the privilege. The space was pretty. The dishes were ornate. The food, however, wasn't really any better than what we found in the main dining room. We both agreed that it wasn't worth the upcharge.
As for the main dining room, on traditional cruises you have an assigned dining time and an assigned dining table. On NCL, you have neither. You don't need a reservation. In fact, you can't even make one unless there are at least 8 in your party. At busy times, it could take up to an hour to be seated, even if you have a reservation for a group. One night, we gave up and went to the burger bar because we were all hungry and weren't willing to wait that long to eat.
So if you do take that NCL cruise, Pete, manage your expectations about the dining experience. It isn't as "free" as they make it out to be.
