New to NCL have a few questions.

[waynefamily]

Hello all, we have a few questions for all you NCL people out there. We typically cruise on RCCL or Carnival. We are looking to book a 2 family cruise for 2017. The reason we are looking at NCL is because of the Kids programs, we have kids between the ages of 7-12 at time of sailing between our 2 families. On Carnival the ages just don't work out much, so to have some adult time, we may find it hard splitting up the kids (personality's). So we have ventured over to NCL. I can say the Ships look Great, we are wanting all the water park and ropes things ect... The one major question we have is dining. We really enjoy having our set dining times. My wife and I took our son on Carnival a while back and did the my time dining, we did not enjoy it. We love getting to know our waitstaff, also not having to worry about making reservations. Does NCL offer any set times for dining? If not, do you need reservations for all meals? I know that NCL has quite a few special dining options for more $ and that does not interest us that much. Sorry for rambling on and on, we are looking to book by next week and I can not find what I need for answers! Thanks all, Bryan

 

Wow, I forgot to say there are 4 Adults and 5 children for the cruise.

Edited September 18, 2015 by waynefamily

[Demonyte]

We love getting to know our waitstaff, also not having to worry about making reservations. Does NCL offer any set times for dining? If not, do you need reservations for all meals?

 

 

No, NCL does not offer set times for dining. You do not need reservations either but if you want, you can make them - but even that does not guarantee that you'd be seated in the same table every night nor that your waitstaff would be the same even if you did.

 

You can try and ask the Maitre'd if they can try to accommodate your preferences as they probably know which of the servers are there every night as not all waiters necessarily are because of shift rotation (have experienced this firsthand when we have requested our waiter from previous night on couple of different cruises).

[Oldgoat61]

Freestyle dining is very much like "my time dining", only NCL has perfected it. It sounds like you won't like it if you prefer set dining, although you can set reservations in the MDR, but the chance of you getting the same waitstaff will be slim. NCL moves their staff around (even restaurant to restaurant), but you may see them in the same dining room.

Also, be aware that there are no "formal" nights, but you can dress up if you like.....some people do, most don't. They have what is called "Norwegians night out" where you can dress up or not.

Hope this helps. :)

[kirsty_r]

Agree with the above, i love the anytime dining with NCL but like the others said there are no guarantees of getting the same waiters at all so if that is a deal breaker it won't be the cruiseline for you. You can make reservations, but sometimes plans change, e.g. if theres a show you wanted to catch at the time you normally dine etc, so having freestyle dining lets you be fully relaxed on the ship.

[nelo_bsb]

No same table companions or waiters at the NCL. You simply walk to the main dining room whenever you want and that's it.

 

 

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[waynefamily]

Thanks all. I would not say it is a real deal breaker. As much as we do enjoy the consistent dining, the other options that the Cruise line offers will out weigh the lack of 1 waiter. We will have awesome table mates for the duration of the cruise, and that is more important to us than anything. We may end up on NCL, and if so, I have no doubts in my mind that the cruise will be just as fantastic as our others we have been on!

[Frick_&_Frack]

I do know people who, after the first evening, have decided they like their waiter team and have gone to request them for the duration and they have been accomodated. Therefore, it may be dependent upon sailing, etc.

[GeezerCouple]

I do know people who, after the first evening, have decided they like their waiter team and have gone to request them for the duration and they have been accomodated. Therefore, it may be dependent upon sailing, etc.

 

We've done this, in the MDR and also in Le Bistro.

 

And the wait staff in the MDR soon knew exactly what to bring quickly for the one year old in our group to keep everyone (him, the rest of us, the waitstaff, and other nearby diners) happy :)

 

For Le Bistro (just for the two of us), they planned our table in advance, given the reservations.

In the MDR, we rarely had any extra delay to get a table that was among those with our favorite waitstaff.

 

In many cases, all one needs to do is to ask.

We've found almost everyone very happy to help, as long as we let them know what our preferences were.

 

We were very pleasantly surprised.

 

GeezerCouple