Also excited to hear Pete's AK cruise review! I cruised on the Norwegian Star to AK in 2008 out of Seattle when the freestyle dining was a newer concept. We thought the food was NOT good! The "signature" restaurants were somewhat better but in some cases you were simply dining in a cordoned off area of the buffet cafeteria you ate at for breakfast but charged you $10 - $20 pp extra! I hadn't cruised before so had no base for comparison but others with cruise experience felt that the service wasn't as good as other cruiselines (Carnival, Royal Carribean). Since the servers weren't the same for the entire cruise, they felt that no server cared to give particularly good service since they weren't counting on that extra tip at the end like other cruise servers often get from their steady guests for the week, if you know what I mean?
Anyway, Pete, tell us:
1. If you felt the food was better or worse due to the freestyle dining; Were you peeved that you had to pay extra for "good" food or was the base food good; and
2. If your servers were as good as you find on other ships (not Disney).
Thanks!
(wow, I must be food obsessed because that is much of what I remember about the ship - sad!)
can't wait to listen.
