Freestyle dining with large family

[kkpcruiser]

A good friend is cruising NCL for the first time with extended family.

She asked how freestyle dining works with a large group of 10-12.

 

It seemed when DH and I were on EPIC, the larger groups were easily accommodated.

Would appreciate any tips or advice I can pass along to her.

 

Thanks in advance.

[islandhoppingfool]

Since there are so few "large" tables.....I would advise going very early or very late. If you go during rush hour, your chances are very slim (or a very long wait)

[limeyalchemist]

Since there are so few "large" tables.....I would advise going very early or very late. If you go during rush hour, your chances are very slim (or a very long wait)

 

If a large group was ok with splitting into multiple smaller tables, that might speed up things, although having a number of empty tables all near each other might take some time. We are traveling soon with 16: 7 kids and 9 adults, so we will see. I will try to talk to the maitre 'd ahead of our first dinner and see what they can do or suggest.

 

We won't eat as a large group every night, but arriving early would be good, especially since we have kids.

[tammy531]

We travelled with 10 our first cruise and 13 our second. (Gem and Dawn) We asked about making reservations and were told we could not, just show up. We went at all times and never had a problem getting a table. Once we waited about 10 minutes but the other times we walked right in.

 

sent from my Samsung galaxy s3

[GORDONCHICK]

Usually, you cannot make reservations in the MDR. However, you can for a group of 10 or more.

[rvsullivan]

NCL will make a reservation for a group that large, they must all arrive together or very close to it. You make arrangements the first day and it will almost certainly be very early (5:30) or late (8:30).

[DKJ]

Do you make the reservation directly with the dining room or somewhere else? We will have a party of 10 for Thanksgiving Day also 4 of us will be celebrating Birthdays :)

[aussiemandy]

I travelled with a group of 10 on the POA. In the buffet we had 2 tables, there didn't appear to be any larger ones, but that was OK, side by side, could still talk to each other. The first time we decided to go to a dining room, one of the couples went up to enquire for us, and we only had to wait about 10 minutes, at the Skyline, that was around 6:30pm. I then enquired at the Guest counter and was told we could only book for either 5:45pm or 8:30pm, neither time suited, so we just turned up, about the same time at the Liberty, but had to have 2 tables, side by side. Next night, again 2 tables at the Skyline. Fourth visit we got a table for 10 in the Skyline, had a few minutes wait again around the 6:30pm,and on speaking to the waiter, he booked us a table for 10 for the next night there and then. So if you get in one night see if you can book for future nights.

[rhinomike]

Do you make the reservation directly with the dining room or somewhere else? We will have a party of 10 for Thanksgiving Day also 4 of us will be celebrating Birthdays :)

 

We had a party of 10 a few years ago on the Star. When we booked our cruise we were able to make a reservation for the MDR. We ate at 6pm everyday. All of us at the same table.

[DKJ]

More than likely we will only have dinner all together as a group on Thanksgiving and with this sailing being almost full that was my concern. We will just have to plan on dining early and I will inquire at MDR first day aboard as to our options. Thanks for replies :)

 

DKJ

[BryceRun]

More of a general Freestyle question but fits in with large group issues.

Are you able to sit in the MDR (and eat) multiple times, or do they keep track (i.e one sitting a night like in traditional cruising)? This isn’t an “I’m being a pig and want to order three entrees at 5:30 then again at 9:30” question, but a legitimate question.

A reasonable scenario to prevent board members from flaming:

I’m hungry around 6ish but group won’t be ready until 8. I would like to go to MDR get an appetizer or maybe a lighter entrée at 6 solo but join my entire group at 8 and plan on ordering full meal.

I realize the buffet would work, but I prefer the MDR so that’s my question.

Thank you all for your response

[RJ2002]

More of a general Freestyle question but fits in with large group issues.

Are you able to sit in the MDR (and eat) multiple times, or do they keep track (i.e one sitting a night like in traditional cruising)? This isn’t an “I’m being a pig and want to order three entrees at 5:30 then again at 9:30” question, but a legitimate question.

A reasonable scenario to prevent board members from flaming:

I’m hungry around 6ish but group won’t be ready until 8. I would like to go to MDR get an appetizer or maybe a lighter entrée at 6 solo but join my entire group at 8 and plan on ordering full meal.

I realize the buffet would work, but I prefer the MDR so that’s my question.

Thank you all for your response

 

I do recall that they scan one card of dining group's party when being seated, but I have no idea if their system would "flag" someone if their card were to be scanned twice in one evening. In any case, I seriously doubt they would deny you access to the MDR on the second instance.

[rvsullivan]

For all of the "free" dining, you can eat as much and as many times as you wish. No limit. Feel free to eat in the MDR twice and then go to the buffet or whatever when you wish.

[BryceRun]

Thanks for the quick replies!!

[Sauer-kraut]

They scan the cards to note seating capacity in the dining room, not so that your card is flagged for eating once already.

 

You can go to one restaurant for an appetizer, the next for mains, and dessert in another!! (Make it a progressive dinner LOL)

[sdmike]

We have been sailing with large groups our last couple of trips. I think we've recently been at 13 and 16. Whether or not you can all sit together depends on the dining room. In Taste on the Epic, they pushed tables together for us. At Tsars on the Jewel, the tables are round, so we just split into two. We always ate early (seated by 6) and only ran into capacity issues once. We went to the mid-ship dining room on Jewel and were told there was a 15 minute wait for a group our size. However, the maitre'd walked us over to the larger Tzars and we were seated immediately.

[xo1]

I just got off the EPIC last week week. We had a group of 56.. but never went to the MDR all together. At times, we did a group of 14 (waited about 1 hour) took another hour for the food to come out). So we reduced it to a group of 10 the next night, still about 45 min wait, then 1 hour for food. Never made it to desert both times. Then decided it was faster to just do groups of 4, still had to wait about 30 mins to get a table, then an hour or so for food to come out.. Ended up doing group of 4's or just buffet the rest of the cruise. From my experience, they can't handle groups of more than 6. They will however, offer you complimentary champagne each time for your group if that helps LOL. They won't be happy about the group size either, we had pretty rude service. Hope that helps.

[puli]

If someone in a party of 12 was a suite passenger, would that help with making a standing MDR reservations for as table of 12 or 2 tables of 6?