New to NCL - Advice please on specialty dining nights

[LeesaB]

I am OFFICIALLY less than 100 days out from my cruise (suite on the Pearl for spring break!) so I'm looking to book my specialty dining nights.

 

Yes, I know I can rebook on the ship if something comes up or if I decide I want to do something differently, and I know that it's up to the ship (cruise director, maybe?) as to when certain things happen... BUT. Surely there's generalizations? I want to experience as much as possible on the ship, so I don't want to have reservations for Le Bistro when there's a seafood buffet in Garden Cafe or whatever.

 

That said... when do you all choose your specialty dining nights and why? Embarkation day, sea days, port days, last night...

 

Any advice, words of wisdom, helpful hints appreciated.

[billslowsky]

" I want to experience as much as possible on the ship, so I don't want to have reservations for Le Bistro when there's a seafood buffet in Garden Cafe or whatever."

 

 

I wouldn't worry about "can't miss" night in the Garden Cafe. Outside of the Specialty restaurants, NCL food isn't that memorable. My suggestion would be to schedule on evenings when you haven't had a long excursion off the ship. And waiting toward the end of the cruise is more difficult for reservations.

[casofilia]

We tend to do them on sea days as we know we will be on board!!! It means we don't have to rush after a late arrival back after a shorex and we are not tired out from the shorex. But we eat early 6pm or so.

[LeesaB]

Both good advice; thanks. Mike - that's another good point. What's the reasoning for eating early or eating late? I know there's usually early shows and late shows, but can't remember when they are. Any benefit to catching the early show vs the later one or vice versa?

 

Also we will have 2 12 yo boys with us - but they'll likely not join us at specialty dining. They'll be happy eating in the buffet and heading to the kids club or having pizza delivered to the room and watch a movie or play their kindles (mmmm, greasy electronics...).

[casofilia]

I was a teacher and my wife a pharmacist; we had 5 children so we used to sit round a table and ate dinner discussing the day before watching the 6pm News; we have not changed even though we are empty nesters.!!

 

My wife prefers to go to the early show.

[beerman2]

We try to eat same time as at home, so we keep it 6:00-6:30 at latest.

 

Cruise Ritual is always the last night eat at the Steakhouse (Cagney's).

 

As we're not big excursion people , port days are good with us for Specialty Restaurants, especially with the early time. Many others will book 7:00 or later because of excursions/port days.

[Linda the Book Lover]

We book according to what we think will be our evening. Dinner at 5:30 usually works for an early show. If you decide to let your kids join you they can always eat from the regular kids' menu. We book what we think we want at 90 days and then ask the concierge to change times if needed once on board.

[WashyWashyHappyHappy95]

"Seafood Night" in the Garden Cafe is vile. It's a bunch of shrimp and tilapia (SO MUCH TILAPIA) that NCL has to get rid of before it goes rancid.

 

The one thing to look out for is Jamaican night. On the Breakaway they do an oxtail in Guinness gravy, and it's delicious. Fall off the bone tender meat, cooked with lots of onions and carrots. It reminded me of my grandmother's pot roast. They ran out of it pretty early in the night, too.

[jdvmd]

"Seafood Night" in the Garden Cafe is vile. It's a bunch of shrimp and tilapia (SO MUCH TILAPIA) that NCL has to get rid of before it goes rancid.

 

The one thing to look out for is Jamaican night. On the Breakaway they do an oxtail in Guinness gravy, and it's delicious. Fall off the bone tender meat, cooked with lots of onions and carrots. It reminded me of my grandmother's pot roast. They ran out of it pretty early in the night, too.

That sounds delicious!

[Nebr.cruiser]

We were on the Getaway Nov. 26th. We didn't reserve anything ahead of time but did reserve the Cirque Dreams show once on board as we were celebrating a birthday and that was the birthday girl's choice. Since it's a smaller venue, wanted to be sure we could all celebrate together.

 

Otherwise we just walked up and were seated quickly or walked up the same night and reserved for a later time.

 

We do like to eat late; 8 to 9 or later, so maybe that's why it was easy to get in. Except for Le Bistro, the meals weren't all that fantastic.

[Nola26]

"Seafood Night" in the Garden Cafe is vile. It's a bunch of shrimp and tilapia (SO MUCH TILAPIA) that NCL has to get rid of before it goes rancid.

 

The one thing to look out for is Jamaican night. On the Breakaway they do an oxtail in Guinness gravy, and it's delicious. Fall off the bone tender meat, cooked with lots of onions and carrots. It reminded me of my grandmother's pot roast. They ran out of it pretty early in the night, too.

 

It's a cruise, having a Specialty meal night wouldn't preclude them from coming to the buffet as well and tasting some things there as well, lol.

[newmexicoNita]

" I want to experience as much as possible on the ship, so I don't want to have reservations for Le Bistro when there's a seafood buffet in Garden Cafe or whatever."

 

 

I wouldn't worry about "can't miss" night in the Garden Cafe. Outside of the Specialty restaurants, NCL food isn't that memorable. My suggestion would be to schedule on evenings when you haven't had a long excursion off the ship. And waiting toward the end of the cruise is more difficult for reservations.

good idea and for the OP spring break will be full of families so you will want to have your dining reservations booked early if you want any choice in times to eat. Though I disagree with the comment; NCL food isn't memorable, the sea food buffet would fit into that comment, the same as on most lines. We have had seafood buffets on 2 other cruise lines, never much different than going to Golden Corral for lunch.

[DarkJedi]

We plan our's for sea days, we know we won't be tired or rushed.

Other than that, we try and plan around how we expect to feel after being ashore.

 

I will say that NCL does dining right. No matter your opinion of the food we found that the staff was far better than any ship we have ever been on, and they bent over backwards to work around DW's allergy. While every line we have been on has accommodated her, NCL was the first to go anywhere near the standards that they did with her.