Specialty Restaurants Advice

[DCNadeau]

We are going on our Honeymoon Cruise in a few weeks and I have a question.

We will be on Allure Eastern Caribbean Jan 5th sailing and have booked Chops for the 2nd night (Monday), Chefs Table for 5th night (Thursday) and Samba Gill for the 6th Night (Friday)

From what I have ready the formal Nights are typically Monday and Friday for Eastern on Allure, can anyone confirm this? Do people think it would be better to just not do Samba Grill and eat in the MDR for Formal Night on the Friday since we miss formal night on the Monday?

What are people opinions of Samba?

Thanks!

Dan

[JohnSnowGOT]

Honestly....the formal nights can be missed with no loss in your experience at all.

 

Somba is good too

Edited December 9, 2013 by JohnSnowGOT

[bouhunter]

Honestly....the formal nights can be missed with no loss in your experience at all.

 

Somba is good too

 

I second that!:)

[tarajean1962]

I agree with that completely! You will find others that don't.:). We also love Samba Grill but I will tell you- it's a ton of food! So go hungry and you still may not be able to finish it all! Still, it's a fun experience! We LOVE the specialty restaurants on the Allure! Enjoy and congratulations on your marriage!:cool:

 

Tara

[DJZS]

We are going on our Honeymoon Cruise in a few weeks and I have a question.

 

We will be on Allure Eastern Caribbean Jan 5th sailing and have booked Chops for the 2nd night (Monday), Chefs Table for 5th night (Thursday) and Samba Gill for the 6th Night (Friday)

 

From what I have ready the formal Nights are typically Monday and Friday for Eastern on Allure, can anyone confirm this? Do people think it would be better to just not do Samba Grill and eat in the MDR for Formal Night on the Friday since we miss formal night on the Monday?

 

What are people opinions of Samba?

 

Thanks!

Dan

 

The second formal night is lobster night.

Also, if you've been to a good brazilian steakhouse before, you will be disapointed by Samba.

You should really try giovannis table.

[reedl]

I really liked Samba, and in fact thought it a bit better than some land based Brazilian restaurants.

 

The filet mignon was incredible. It was much better than chops.

 

The food was quite good there.

Edited December 11, 2013 by reedl

[bluemarlin1]

Havent had an opportunity to try Samba but I can tell you that Chops is FABULOUS.

[peteukmcr]

I'd drop Samba Grill and go 150 Central Park instead. If you do choose 150 Central Park, check the menus once on board (they have 2 set menus, 1 for the first few days and then it changes for the remainder of the cruise). We preferred the 2nd menu.

[Dclnut]

I like sambas way better than all the others. Keep samba. If you want to do formal night, see if you can change it once on board to a different night. Look into packages too. We are going in march and they have a 4 specialty restaurant package. Did this package before and loved it.

[GradySRQ]

I might get slammed here by IMHO the specialty restaurants on RC or any other line simply aren’t worth it.

Tour cruise price includes food so why pay more for restaurants that quite frankly are not much better than the food in the MDR or buffet?

[Daghis]

We always skip formal nights in the MDR and go to specialty restaurants on those nights.

 

We loved Samba Grill. We found the food to be very good and the service was fantastic. As an example, DH is a pescetarian (vegetarian plus seafood) but wanted to join us in Samba Grill. Since he wasn't going to partake of any of the meats offered on the skewer, they grilled him a nice piece of salmon. After he finished it (and he said it was quite good), they even offered to make him another piece!

[TxKroozer]

Samba = meeeaaaaaaattttttttt

 

As another poster commented. Go hungry.

[denamo]

Samba is a fun experience. Food is good. Don't fill up on the salad buffet. Easy to do if you go hungry.

 

Since Chops and Samba both feature more of beef heavy menu, another option would be to change your Chops reservation to Giovanni's or Izumi's.

 

Also, last May when we were on the Allure, the lobster was less than stellar. Super rubbery, not much flavor, just not worth it at all. Wouldn't worry about missing the MDR for formal night in the place of a specialty restaurant.

 

Have a fabulous honeymoon.

[OCruisers]

We'd pick any of the specialty restaurants over the MDR on formal nights in a heartbeat. :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

Edited December 12, 2013 by OCruisers

[George C]

We love specialty resturants and normaly will do them for 1/2 the cruise, but do like MDR on formal nights.

[amster65]

I might get slammed here by IMHO the specialty restaurants on RC or any other line simply aren’t worth it.

 

Tour cruise price includes food so why pay more for restaurants that quite frankly are not much better than the food in the MDR or buffet?

 

 

 

Well you didn't get slammed, but you sound just like my brother-in-law he would not go for specialty restaurants either, but now that we have cancelled our cruise it don't matter any more. PS it is worth it.:cool:

[Peacemkr59]

I'd drop Samba Grill and go 150 Central Park instead. If you do choose 150 Central Park, check the menus once on board (they have 2 set menus, 1 for the first few days and then it changes for the remainder of the cruise). We preferred the 2nd menu.

 

I totally agree with this post. Go to 150 Park. We bought the Chefs Table package which included Chefs Table, 150 Park and Chops! Loved them all and would book it again!!

[macruisefan]

I might get slammed here by IMHO the specialty restaurants on RC or any other line simply aren’t worth it.

Tour cruise price includes food so why pay more for restaurants that quite frankly are not much better than the food in the MDR or buffet?

 

Not going to get slammed at all. I do happen to disagree with you. I have been disappointed with the MDR for a variety of reasons. But if you enjoy it, then fantastic! After all, there are people out there who don't like to cruise at all, so they don't cruise. If you have found an experience you enjoy, then that's great.

 

I'd never slam you for that. I WILL slam the people who actually object to the fact that they even have specialty restaurants. To each his or her own. But I find the specialty restaurants to be an integral part of my cruising experience, so someone literally objecting to the fact they exist rubs me the wrong way. I think it's kind of like someone who doesn't drink objecting to the fact that you can pay more for alcoholic drinks on board, when there is already plenty of milk, water and juice included.

[chadbeck]

I might get slammed here by IMHO the specialty restaurants on RC or any other line simply aren’t worth it.

 

Tour cruise price includes food so why pay more for restaurants that quite frankly are not much better than the food in the MDR or buffet?

 

 

Have you been to them and didn't like them or just don't like the idea of paying more?

[GradySRQ]

Have you been to them and didn't like them or just don't like the idea of paying more?

 

 

On NCL I will sit the sushi bar a few times and on the Epic I enjoyed late night dumplings at the Chinese place.

I’m somewhat of a foodie and never one to skimp when it comes to eating out. I just think it’s kind of silly to pay extra for food that’s marginally better than what one can find for free on the ship.

To each his/her own and like everything else on a cruise ship….whatever makes you happy just do it.

[alfaeric]

We are going on our Honeymoon Cruise in a few weeks and I have a question.

 

We will be on Allure Eastern Caribbean Jan 5th sailing and have booked Chops for the 2nd night (Monday), Chefs Table for 5th night (Thursday) and Samba Gill for the 6th Night (Friday)

 

From what I have ready the formal Nights are typically Monday and Friday for Eastern on Allure, can anyone confirm this? Do people think it would be better to just not do Samba Grill and eat in the MDR for Formal Night on the Friday since we miss formal night on the Monday?

 

What are people opinions of Samba?

 

Thanks!

Dan

 

Outside of the food in the MDR, you can still dress formally and go to dinner at Chops. Heck, whenever we go to a specialty restaurant, we dress up, regardless of the night. It's just what we do.

 

The one thing that isn't food related for the first formal night is the Captain's reception- which will be on the Prommenade, and have free bubbly wine served. We have fun there- meet the Captain, get a picture, etc.

 

No reason not to dress formally on Formal night if you are going to a specialty restaurant.

[critterchick]

On NCL I will sit the sushi bar a few times and on the Epic I enjoyed late night dumplings at the Chinese place.

 

I’m somewhat of a foodie and never one to skimp when it comes to eating out. I just think it’s kind of silly to pay extra for food that’s marginally better than what one can find for free on the ship.

 

To each his/her own and like everything else on a cruise ship….whatever makes you happy just do it.

 

It sounds as if you haven't been to the specialty restaurants on RCI, then? To me, most of the specialty restaurant offerings are head and shoulders above any MDR offering. Cooked to order beats banquet style any day of the week, and is worth a modest premium to me. But as you say, to each his/her own.:)

Edited December 24, 2013 by critterchick

[sauvichick]

Do what you want to do! On our July 2012 Allure sailing we never ate in the main dining room and enjoyed the specialty restaurants and we will do the same on the June 2014 sailing. We did try everything except Samba due to its very intensive protein menu and Izumu (sp?) because I am leery of sushi at sea. We dressed up each night and even nicer on formal nights. Happy Honeymoon!