What dining style better for large family? RCI or NCL?

[mishy73]

We have cruised twice with Royal Caribbean and have always loved having a set time for dinner, having the same waiter, etc. This year we are planning on taking a cruise with family, probably between 10 and 15 people. We have narrowed it down to 2 cruises either with Royal Caribbean or Norwegian. We don't know much about Norwegian but have been reading up on the freestyle dining. We are concerned that with a large group, it might be tough to get a table quickly each night. Do you think we will have to wait each night for a table? (I have heard that they don't take reservations at the main dining room, which is probably where we will be most of the time). The last thing I want to do is have to wait for a table like we do when we go out when we are home. Any recommendations for a large group, would Royal be better?

Also, is the main dining room a sit down or is it buffet style?

 

Thank you so much for your help!

 

\

[cb at sea]

RCI has several dining options. In the Main dining room, there are 2 seatings for "traditional dining", where you have the same table, tablemates and waitstaff every night. Or, choose My Time dining, where you can go anytime during the open hours....you will be required to pre-pay your tips for that option. Both are sit-down table service...very nice.

Or, go to the buffet....casual, and you serve yourself.

 

You can go to the buffet anytime, even if you have one of the main dining room options.

 

If you have a large group, traditional seating will be best, assuming you will all be eating together each night. You'll have an assigned table, and it will be ready for you each evening.

[beachchick]

NCL does have reservations available in the MDR for parties of 8 or more. On RCI, you can do My Time Dining with a reservation. You can vary the time each evening by making your reservation that morning or the evening before. For a large group, you might have a wait on either RCI's My Time or NCL if you want to eat in the MDR without a reservation during the busiest times (usually between 6:00 and 7:30, IME).

 

I think it depends on your family's makeup (ages, eating time preferences, evening activity plans) as to whether you want to go with assigned dining or the MTD/Freestyle. If there is a chance that you will want to dine at different times each night because of port day activities, sea day relaxing, evening children's programs, or even just because you don't want to have to go eat dinner if you're not hungry or wait for MDR dinner if you are hungry, then I suggest you consider MTD if you choose RCI. We've cruised with both lines and like both. We give the overall edge to RCI so far, but will be cruising with NCL again.

 

In the overall scheme of things, I'd say the itinerary and ship amenities your family prefers are what you should concentrate on while planning.

 

beachchick

[New2Cruise10]

I have no experience with RCL but was happy with NCL with my family of 6. Never once did I have to wait for more than 5 min for my tables to be ready. We were on a 7 day Alaska NCL cruise on the Pearl. Very happy with freestyle dining b/c we don't have to think about what time we want to have dinner...there are monitors around the ship that shows how crowded each dining room is so we also made our decision on which one to go to on the spot also. I guess flexibility is high on my priority. :)

 

I did have the set time dinner experience with Carnival and we had to wait for more than 20 min in a line outside the dining room! We have 2 young kids with us so needless to say that wasn't very fun for us at all!

 

So my experience:

Carnival - set time - had to wait for 20 min

NCL - freestyle - no waiting (with the help of the monitors)

[B_Mc]

When we cruised with NCL in 2008 it was very tricky getting large tables at popular dinner times. We were usually able to get a table for 8 but often with a wait time and they often suggested we break up the group. They did not take reservations at all and even trying to book reservations in the other restaurants was a nightmare for a group of 6 or 8. The freestyle sounds good, but from my experience I'd take RCI and a set dining time over it anyday!