Specialty restaurants on NCL Pearl paying for meals

[Hpcomcom]

If one does not purchase the meal package for a cruise, the specialty restaurants are still available with a surcharge. Does the surcharge cover the cost of the meal, or is the meal in addition to the surcharge?

[kurukthemal]

Surcharge covers the meal, except for alcohol and soda. Teppanyaki and Cagney's are a must! Happy sailing!

[roger001]

Oh...I say Le Bistro. Or depending on the ship, the Italian restaurant. As already said, the surcharge covers the total cost...less drinks.....except usually really good pressed coffee which is included. The $15 and $20 surcharges I think are a good deal. Atmosphere and service (relaxed...don't plan to hurry), nice. And $30 for Cagneys, probably good too..except I make better steaks at home....at least my opinion.

[AKR2011]

I ALWAYS get Le Bistro when my husband and I cruise. However, note that sometimes there are meals that cost more than the cover charge. An example is Fruits de Mer, my absolute favorite dish on NCL. You get it at Le Bistro but have to pay an extra $10 surcharge. However, I personally find it well worth it. Yummy seafood (including lobster) in a cream sauce and puff pastry. To. Die. For. There may be food with an extra charge like this at some of the other specialties as well.

[Demonyte]

If one does not purchase the meal package for a cruise, the specialty restaurants are still available with a surcharge. Does the surcharge cover the cost of the meal, or is the meal in addition to the surcharge?

 

As others have said, the surcharge includes the meal.

 

However one thing to remember is that the waiters in all the restaurants are covered by DSC so no extra tipping is necessary - one can of course tip extra for great service (in our experience the service in speciality restaurants tends to be a bit better than in complimentary restaurants because there are less customers and the waiters have more time to focus on each table).

 

You can find all the speciality restaurant menus from NCL's website under each ship and if for some reason some ship doesn't list menu for some specific restaurant (it happens, just a human error with updating the website), the menus are fleetwide so you can look at the same menu under a different ship and get the same info. The menus also list above mentioned dishes with extra fees.

 

For example the menus for Getaway can be found here under each restaurant:

 

http://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/getaway/onboard/specialty-dining#tab_detail

 

NCL's Dining Guide (PDF file) can be found here:

 

http://www.ncl.com/diningguide

[Hpcomcom]

Thank you all for the info on specialty restaurants. We have booked our first cruise ever (Alaska, June) and am trying to learn as much as I can about cruising, and the Pearl.

[newmexicoNita]

If one does not purchase the meal package for a cruise, the specialty restaurants are still available with a surcharge. Does the surcharge cover the cost of the meal, or is the meal in addition to the surcharge?

 

The sur charge is the cost of the meal. You can have several appitizers and salads or dessert, but only one entree. I have yet to understand how anyone could eat more than one of each.

 

We all have favorite choices; for us: Modernos is number 1 and Le Bistro number 2. If you are not a huge meat eater you may not find Modernos that great even though the salad bar is almosst worth the cost of the entire meal. My next favorite has to be the Asian restaurant. We are not huge fans of Teppanaki's. We don't think it is any better than what we get on land for the same price.

 

We do add an additional tip if service is outstanding, which it usually is. The extra tip is not a must, that is for sure.

 

I will add, we do not get the UDP but we do eat in specialty dining rooms about 1/2 the cruise, depending how long the cruise is. We get complementary dinner at Le Bistro or Modernos because we are both platinum. We happen to be stock holders as well, so get another free dinner. We usually pay for one, which would be the Asian restaurant. Even without the perks, we would still eat at a couple specialty dining rooms.

Edited December 30, 2014 by newmexicoNita

[clarkfam]

We are cruising the 18 day Panama Canal in October and thinking of buying the dining package. We just don't know how many days we should pay for in advance. Is there dinner theater like on Getaway? If you were to go on this cruise (17 nights), how many nights would you pay for in advance for specialty dining?

[kararuth]

Just got off the Pearl yesterday. Modernos was not worth the $. Service was slow, the salad bar was nothing to write home about (the breads were delicious though), and the servers catered more to older patrons rather than everyone equally (they skipped ours and another young couple's table more than once.)

 

La Cucina was delicious. We went during the Victoria stop and the restaurant was just us and a family of 8. The restaurant is small enough that I'm sure even if it was packed it would be a delightful experience.

[NMLady]

We are cruising the 18 day Panama Canal in October and thinking of buying the dining package. We just don't know how many days we should pay for in advance. Is there dinner theater like on Getaway? If you were to go on this cruise (17 nights), how many nights would you pay for in advance for specialty dining?

 

Instead of asking your question on a thread that is almost a year old and has incorrect information because of the a la carte dining that will be starting in January, you might want to start a new thread with your question since you are asking about the new specialty dining plan.