New to NCL: questions concerning freestyle dining and Teen's Club

[stefanny28]

Hi everyone;

 

We are considering booking the Jewel Panama Canal ( Dec 2016). I know it is still a long way to go but I am new to NCL and I have a few questions that I hope you can help.

 

1/ Freestyle dining: what does it mean?

I don't have to make an reservation for the MDR each night? Or I have the possibility to make a reservation for specific time so we don't have to wait?

2/ Which venues have cover fee ? besides the 2 MDR on the Jewel, what are the other places we can eat without having to pay? We have a teenage daughter and she will probably be hanging out with her friends. I just want to make clear to her where she can eat snacks or pizza without having to check with me every minutes.

3/ Room services: I have read somewhere on CC that NCL now charges $7.95 for room service and $5 for pizza? Is the $5 for pizza only for pizza delivered to the cabin or also at the buffet or grill?

4/ Teen's Club: we will be traveling during the New Year Holidays, but we chose a Panama Canal itinerary, which is not a very popular destination with young families and teens. Have any of you done this itinerary around the same time? Will there be any kids on the ship so DD (16) can hang out with? Is there an organized teen's Club with activities like Carnival, RCL and Celebrity?

 

Thank you in advance for your advices. I am a little bit of an OCD so freestyle is kind of scaring me :-)))

[ColinIllinois]

Freestyle Dining:

 

http://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/cruise-dining

 

Click on the Freestyle Dining Guide to find out what venues are available on each ship and any charge as appropriate.

[fshagan]

I can help with the first three questions:

 

1. Freestyle: for the free venues, it works just like a restaurant on land. You show up any time during the hours they are open, and you get seated. Pros: you have the maximum flexibility in choosing when to eat and you can be seated with your family (you don't have to share a table with strangers). Cons: you don't have the same table or server every night, and you may have to wait a few minutes to be seated. Note that some of the things I list as "pros" and "cons" are exactly the opposite to the opinions of others.

 

2. The complementary dining options are listed at http://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/jewel/whats-on-board/Dining You have two main dining rooms, an Asian restaurant "Chin Chin", the buffet "Garden Cafe", a pub-style food place that your daughter will probably love named "O'Sheehans", and burgers and hot dogs at the "Sky High Bar & Grill". There's an outside portion of the buffet named "The Great Outdoors" that has an ice cream machine that is working most of the time.

 

For paid options, the list is at http://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/jewel/whats-on-board/specialty-dining You can make reservations for these restaurants either 90 days before you board using the NCL site, or while on the ship. We have a cruise we booked when NCL was filling up ships with free "Ultimate Dining Plan" (UDP) offers so we'll book them 90 days out. But, in the past we have waited until we were on board to make reservations (and often just looked at the numerous video monitors that show which restaurant is busy and went to one that wasn't.

 

For cost for the specialty restaurants, remember to add 18% to the cover charge price. This 18% forced gratuity is added to the package cost if you buy the UDP or included if you got the UDP for free (some people are reporting they are getting the UDP for free as part of a recent promotion, but a gratuity amount was added to their bill; the same concept applies though in that on board you don't have any extra charges to consider with the UDP).

 

A new promo is out that gives each passenger a $75 on board credit for dining.

 

3. Room service. Except for some limited items between 6 AM and 10 AM, which are continental breakfast items, any complementary food you order ... sandwiches, hot meals, etc. ... will incur the $7.95 room service fee. That's one fee per delivery, so it doesn't matter if one or three order something. There's a bit of a controversy over the next part: if you order something like a martini which has a cost, you don't pay the $7.95 fee. You pay for the drink PLUS the 18% gratuity.

 

So, some have reasoned you might be able to order a burger and fries, and add a $2.25 soda and avoid the $7.95 fee on the burger and fries. Lots of discussion on this, but no one who has actually been on board has tried it. My suspicion is that the burger and fries get the $7.95 fee, and the soda gets the charge.

 

The Jewel is one of the, er, "Jewel Class Ships" on NCL. We love them. We are on the Gem this September and then on the Jade again next year. They are a great size ship, with great crews and good entertainment. You will have a blast!

[stefanny28]

Thank you for the detailed infos.

 

One more question: what is the UDP (Ultimate Dining Plan)?