| Posted By |
Message |
mishy626
LIF Infant
Member since 5/05 333 total posts
Name:
|
norwegian freestyle dining questions
We have taken two cruises on royal Caribbean cruise line and are considering taking the Norwegian gem this summer. I'm concerned about the freestyle dining since we will be traveling with between 10 and 15 family members. In the main dining room, is it for down or buffet style? Will we have to wait long got a table? Any info or advice is appreciated. Thx
|
Posted 1/8/11 11:41 AM  |
| |
|
Long Island Weddings
Long Island's Largest Bridal Resource |
PrincessVonTrockel
Trophy Wife in Training
Member since 11/09 2953 total posts
Name:
Natalie
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
There is a buffet style place thats always open and then there are 2 sit down ones....DH & I never had to wait and the most I saw ppl waiting was maybe 5 to 10 min for them to clear tables to put them together.
|
| Posted 1/8/11 5:54 PM |
| |
|
CatNYC123
Happy Thoughts
Member since 9/10 1531 total posts
Name:
Cathy
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
on NCL, the specialty restaurants accept reservations but the 2 main dining rooms do not. We went with a group of 6 people and there were 2 nights where we had about a 20-25 minute wait with a pager.
It wasn't that big of a deal but Im not sure how it would be for 10-15 people. You may want to call the cruise line and see what they suggest.
Good luck!! I love cruising. We just booked a 12 day cruise on Royal Carib. So excited, we've never cruised with them before.
|
| Posted 1/8/11 8:00 PM |
| |
|
jlk51496
Mom of 3 - YIKES! =)
Member since 10/09 6758 total posts
Name:
Katie
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
honestly IMHO if you went on RC cruises you might be pretty disappointed in NCL....I know I was..I hated the freestyle cruising...the main dining rooms were the same EXACT menu every single day...which basically forces you go to a specialty restaurant...which killed me to pay for a restaurant entry on a cruise...and the quality of the food was so much better on RC along with entertainment!! I will never go on a NCL cruise again...I was really disappointed in my experience overall!
|
| Posted 1/9/11 11:18 PM |
| |
|
Blazesyth
*yawn*
Member since 5/05 8129 total posts
Name:
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
Posted by jlk51496
the main dining rooms were the same EXACT menu every single day...
Whaaaaaaaaaa? Wow.
I guess I will stick to Celebrity/Royal. I was thinking of derivating to NCL if I could get a good price, but I dont want to eat the same meal 7x. As it is we go on so many cruises that we've seen the same exact menu on different cruises, but at least every day is still different.
|
| Posted 1/10/11 8:18 AM |
| |
|
charon54
My two boys!
Member since 5/05 7279 total posts
Name:
Rebecca
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
Posted by Blazesyth
Posted by jlk51496
the main dining rooms were the same EXACT menu every single day...
Whaaaaaaaaaa? Wow.
I guess I will stick to Celebrity/Royal. I was thinking of derivating to NCL if I could get a good price, but I dont want to eat the same meal 7x. As it is we go on so many cruises that we've seen the same exact menu on different cruises, but at least every day is still different.
I didn't feel that way at all and I have gone on NCL twice. To be honest, we only ate in the speciality restaurants and the buffet but I looked at the menus for the main dining rooms and they changed every day.
|
| Posted 1/10/11 9:53 AM |
| |
|
3girls1dog
LIF Adult
Member since 10/09 929 total posts
Name:
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
we did NCL over the summer, loved the cruise but we did end up eating at the specialty resturants most nights. The first night we ate in the main dining room and the food wasn't so good. we decided not to go back, but i did each night i did see a lot of people waiting to get into the resturants. the buffet was good though but not something we wanted to do every night for dinner. The specialty resturants were great, but costly.
|
| Posted 1/10/11 1:17 PM |
| |
|
jilliibabii
Mrs. O'Connor
Member since 6/10 12821 total posts
Name:
Jillian
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
Posted by charon54
Posted by Blazesyth
Posted by jlk51496
the main dining rooms were the same EXACT menu every single day...
Whaaaaaaaaaa? Wow.
I guess I will stick to Celebrity/Royal. I was thinking of derivating to NCL if I could get a good price, but I dont want to eat the same meal 7x. As it is we go on so many cruises that we've seen the same exact menu on different cruises, but at least every day is still different.
I didn't feel that way at all and I have gone on NCL twice. To be honest, we only ate in the speciality restaurants and the buffet but I looked at the menus for the main dining rooms and they changed every day.
The main restaurants- the free ones- half the menu is the same every day and half of it changes- like daily specials. They DO accept reservations in the main restaurants but only between certain times and it is a pain with a large group of people. We usually would eat early or late so they could accommodate our group of 18 between two large tables right next to each other.
|
| Posted 1/10/11 2:08 PM |
| |
|
Irishgrl1017
It happened :)
Member since 9/08 1872 total posts
Name:
Colleen
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
I went on norwegian about 5 yrs ago. They have many different restaurants to choose from....either buffet or sit down...The fancier ones require a reservation...we never had a problem gettting one
|
| Posted 1/10/11 7:07 PM |
| |
|
IVFGIRL
LIF Infant
Member since 1/09 139 total posts
Name:
Eva
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
We went on the behind the scenes tours and saw the menu's in the kitchen. There are actually 14 different menu days, so the menu only repeats every 14 days. There are some staples that are on the menu each night, maybe thats what you saw. I was actually very impressed with NCL's food this last cruise last month, it has been the best out of all the cruises we have gone on, no complaints. We went to the specialty 1 or 2 nights, but had a coupon for it.
|
| Posted 1/10/11 7:08 PM |
| |
|
|
|
Re: norwegian freestyle dining questions
Posted by jlk51496
honestly IMHO if you went on RC cruises you might be pretty disappointed in NCL....I know I was..I hated the freestyle cruising...the main dining rooms were the same EXACT menu every single day...which basically forces you go to a specialty restaurant...which killed me to pay for a restaurant entry on a cruise...and the quality of the food was so much better on RC along with entertainment!! I will never go on a NCL cruise again...I was really disappointed in my experience overall!
I have heard the same from those who have done cruises on RC....they went to NCL thinking it was cheaper, but since they ended up doing specialty dinners, it ended up costing them almost the same.
|
| Posted 1/12/11 1:18 AM |
| |
|
